Marks and Spencer Mocha beer

Looks like M&S have had a stroke of luck in the latest beer produced for them by the countries leading brewers.
New to the shelves is a 'Lincolnshire Mocha beer' made by Batemans, its 6% 500mls £2.29.

I am assuming this is the same 'Batemans Mocha beer' that just won this years Sainsburys Great British Beer Hunt, so an award winning beer in the bottle, although they may not advertise that the opposition gave the award!

Also whilst in M&S the Adnams produced Southwold Winter beer, this 4% abv 'broadside style' beer was reduced to 99p, check your local branch to see if its on offer there also, I picked up 5, plus the Mocha and took advantage of the 6 for 5 deal also.

Bateman's Miss America

A bottle celebrating American independence with a hoppy ale brewed with US liberty hops. Why Bateman's are celebrating US independence I'm not sure or is made clear.

This had a small bubbly white head, good golden colour.
Aroma to me was a little metallic and piney, a little of warm orange.
Its taste is backed up by a reasonable solid medium body and good carbonation.

The malts seem quite sweet, but there is very little in the way of hops that are noticable apart from an unpleasant aftertaste of resin. There seems to be a faint spice element, and a little citrus but not a lot.  For me an average beer.

Avaliable from Aldi now for £1.49, but seeing as they currently still have loads of Bateman's XB in there currently i would rather buy that over this bottle, far better beer from them.

Really not sure on the label either, what's with the portly cheerleader??

New Aldi & Lidl beer offers

To my mind the only supermarket shelves that seems to providing new bottles to try are Aldi and Lidl currently down my way, Tesco & Asda rarely changes its line up, and other supermarkets are not on the doorstep. A little planning needed before going to Morrisons, which inconveniently shuts at 8pm (!), and its not often i get there after work before that time.

To be honest even the Lidl is a little out the way and often i wonder if the deals they have on are worth the deviation. Certainly the beer nut has saved me wasting my time before driving out to them.

Latest offers:
Aldi have another Batemans bottle in, this one called 'Miss America' at £1.49, part of the US theme aldi have going on.
"An amber coloured, hoppy beer with a grapefruit flavour. Pale, crystal and wheat malt are combined with Liberty hops from the USA to give this beer its crisp citrus finish."

 They are more likely to get my money though spent on the second bottle offer - Samuel Adams Boston Lager and only £1.19. Shows the effect of inflation as this bottle was only 99p this time last year, but still a bargain for a great tasting beer.

Over at Lidl the latest bottle  from Shepherd Neame is their 'Summer Sizzler' 4% and only 99p.  
I wonder if the current  Pencil and Spoon series on 'When beer goes bad' will include lightstruck beer before i try this Shep bottle?

Batemans St. George's Glory

Purchased from Aldi the other day, £1.49 500mls bottle, 4.1% abv and 'what legends are made of' and will 'put fire in my belly' apparently.
The Aldi website lists it as being available from early last month but its the first time i've seen it on the shelves and I also do not see it listed on the Batemans website.

I really REALLY want to do this review without using the words 'typical Batemans' btw, lets see how i do.

Copper bronze colour, little foamy white head. Medium malt aroma and slightly spicy.
Medium body with reasonable strong malt backbone, again quite a predominately spicy and earthy kick, and its quite drying in the mouth, with the bitterness lingering at the side and back of my mouth.

It is a Batemans beer, no question about that when you taste it, but its one of the better ones. Not quite a 'top four' (XB, XXXB, Dark Lord, Victory), more a top ten league position really.

Batemans XB

I picked up a bottle of Batemans XB from Aldi, a bitter 4.1% 500ml, not bottle conditioned (camra says its not real ale). I drank this last week, our first meal outside at the start of the half term with the weather being unseasonably good.

In the glass its a light red brown colour with a small frothy head, a caramel malty aroma. Taste is biscuity , its got a almost ginger nut spice to it, pepper, flowery hops with a nice subtle bitterness. Bateman beers tend to have a very distinctive taste about them, you know when your drinking one, but its much more subtle with this bitter, and better for it too. I possibly served this too cold to be honest but on such a hot day it went down a treat.

Aldi: Badger Beer offer and Batemans XB

Sitting in the middle isle of my local Aldi is a Badger Beer 'Spring/Summer' box of 12 bottles. Costing 15.99 it has three bottles each of Tanglefoot, Long Days, Englands Gold and Fursty Ferret.
That works out at £1.33 a bottle which normally would be a reasonable bargin for lovers of Badger but in view of the current 4 for £5 Tesco offer, the Aldi offer is beatable.
Granted though the Long Days bottles are not currently in my local Tesco branch, perhaps they are in yours and included in the offer, but i was not keen on it when i reviewed it , so three bottles sitting around waiting to offload on a visitor is an option but one i'm not taking here.

I did however pick up a new bottle from Aldi, the Bateman's XB, little brother of the perennial shelf stocker XXXB.  Its the first time i've seen it in the Bateman's own form, they previously both appeared on their shelves in the 'specially selected' range.

Aldi used to have quite a good selection of beers, they often had new and interesting british and european bottles like 'Franziskaner Weissbier' and 'Schofferhofer hefeweizen', but over the last year they seem to have fallen into a rut of just supplying the same old things, never a new line, the same old honey bottle from Skinner's, Banks Bitter, quite disappointing really.

Batemans Hooker

From Aldi supermarket is a Six Nations themed brew from Batemans called 'Hooker'. It does have a 'seaside postcard' humorous label, and the tacky by-line 'Have you got the balls for it?'. 500mls, 4.1% abv.

Copper to chestnut brown coloured with a small white head, caramel and biscuity malt aroma. Taste is a very typical Batemans bitter, it has a strong malt taste up front, sharp hop bitterness. Its still however, when i say 'typical Batemans', so similar to several of their other beers, they are not bad beers, pleasantly average though - is that damning praise?

A Christmas Ale,

well three to be precise.

One of the regular emails from Aldi dropped into my inbox, informing me that amongst their new offers were two xmas ales, namely Batemans 'Rosy Nosey' and Wychwoods 'Bah Humbug'. I picked these up earlier today, and put them alongside a bottle of Whittingstons 'A Winters Tail' (all their beer's names have links to cats btw).

I started with the Batemans beer, (surprisingly no regular endorsement from Roger Protz on the back, like their other non bottle conditioned bottles). 4.9% and 500mls. A dark amber colour with little aroma other than that unmistakable Batemans smell that accompany's all their bottles. Flavour is, well, average, some sweet maltyness, slight spices but nothing is distinctive, its quite thin and i wouldn't have said this was a christmas beer if i was given it without seeing the bottle or knowing its name.

Next was the Wychwood Bah Humbug 5.0%, again a dark amber colour, its aroma though is cloves, some cinnamon i think but clove dominates. Taste wise its again cloves, but there is no balance for anything else. The Schneider Weisse beer i tried recently has cloves but its balanced so that the other flavours come through. I wouldn't drink this again, its a little unpleasant.

Hastily i moved onto the Wittingtons ' A Winters Tail' 5.1% with its dark reddy brown colour and a creamy just of white head. Has a woody aroma with some dark malts, not quite a coffee or chocolate hit though, cannot put my finger on it. Taste is on a lightish body, its dry and malty, a very very light smokeyness with hints of fruit.


Overall i preferred the Whittingtons, a better balanced beer, the Batemans was pleasant enough, but the Wychwood will not be in this house at christmas.