Marks and Spencer Single Hop Varieties Cascade, Citra and Sovereign

Marks and Spencer's continue to take the best beers from breweries across the country and re-brand them for their stores.
Seeing another beer trend/bandwagon/niche they have released some 'Single Hop' beers, using the hops Sovereign, Citra and Cascade.
All these bottles are £2.69 which is a lot compared to most supermarket beer prices, but they are also 1 pint bottles not 500mls.

Produced by the Elgoods brewery the first was Sovereign, a 5% golden ale. Good golden/orange colour, sweet toffee aroma, and this followed on, i found it a bit too sweet, cloying with toffee and honey, bits of kids sweets from your memories. Not for me.




Second up is Citra, an IPA from Oakham thats 4.9% abv which is a little higher than their own well known Citra beer at 4.2%.
More yellow in colour, lovely hop aroma of grapefruit and gooseberry, bags of fruit flavours with that expected bite of citra hops. Very enjoyable.










Third was from the Castle Rock brewery, Cascasde single hop, 5% abv. Light golden in colour, light grass aroma and sweet oranges, pleasant drink with light body, easy, earthy malt holds up flavours well, making this a very good pint.

Of the three the Citra was head and shoulders above the other two but I did enjoy the Cascade too, leaving the Sovereign trailing far behind in last.

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.

Marks and Spencer Greenwich Raspberry Wheat Beer

Again this is a post that's been lingering in the draft list for a few weeks, and as we're off down to my folks for a week I'd thought I would throw a post out before I drink in the land of Badger and Ringwood beers.

Alongside Adnams, the Meantime Brewery produce a substantial number of the Marks and Spencer excellent line of beers, their Red Ale I recently drank is a real cracker.

This Raspberry Wheat is 330mls, 5% abv, and it's really good, really enjoyable.

Last Christmas Day after I got back from a night shift I helped my mother in law do the cooking, and when the others had a Bucks Fizz, myself not liking champagne, I had a Raspberry lambic beer which really woke me up. I certainly can imagine myself with this Raspberry wheat beer, it would also have been an excellent early morning celebratory drink.

What about an ordinary evening drink? Yup still good. Loads of sourness, acidic raspberry edge, with a sweet crisp freshness helped by the brisk carbonation. What about the wheat side? There is a yeasty side to it, but if there is a criticism its that its too understated with the 'wheat beer' side, i'm not getting the banana or bubblegum to it. But thats a small thing, this is a big fun beer, early afternoon liven up the day beer, a really good beer.

M&S beers and offers.

I've had cause to visit a M&S store a few times recently, whilst waiting for car repairs to be completed. The 2 branches local to me have usually a good range, and as Meer for Beer in her recent run of posts has noted they've also a few new additions to this range, selected and brewed by the countries better breweries.

Inspired by her reviews I first fancied the Sandringham Ale ,then the Greenwich Raspberry wheat beer.


My first purchase was however the Greenwich Red Ale, a wine bottle shape and 750mls, wire corked, and 4% abv beer brewed with crystal and caramel malts for its red colour, and uses 5 types of Yakima Valley hops.
I imagine a few of you are thinking 'hmm sounds like their Yakima Red, their 4% amber ale??' Certainly ratings on ratebeer would agree with that. I have never had it so forked out its £4.99 price tag.

This morning on a return visit I indeed did get the raspberry wheat beer, and noted they have dropped the abv to 4.9% and refreshed the label on the Cornish IPA, and there is a new Bath Ales produced Ginger Ale which I passed on this time.

I then noticed that they have reduced the price of two of the beers from last years lines, the Southwold Dark Ale by Adnams, a 7.2% barley wine that was £2.19, and the 4.7% Cheshire Brown Ale by the Robinsons brewery originally £1.99. Both of these are currently only 99p each, both good beers and therefore worth picking up a few bottles at this price in my opinion. This second photo of bottles cost a very reasonable £5.95 as you also get deal 'buy 6 for 5' offer!

Meantime seem to have a few of their bottles fon the shelves of M&S (and Sainsburys) currently, the two mentioned above, the London Porter, and now also a limited addition Barrel Aged Greenwich Hospital Porter. It comes in a cardboard tube, corked again, 750mls and 6%.
There is a picture here on ratebeer. It is priced at £9.99 which despite the recommendation from 'the guardian' tagged on the shelf, was too rich for my blood I decided. Unless someone has had it and can recommend it at that price I think I'll pass.

M&S duo

The first one up is the 'Cambridgeshire Summer ale' which is brewed by Oakham and is a re-labeled 'JHB'. Currently on sale in M&S for I think it was £2.19.

This is a 4.2% abv beer, which in its original incarnation is styled as a golden ale, and the bottle informs us that it uses some Challenger and US Mount Hood hops.

 As you see from the photo, its a very pale yellow, and produced a small white head.
 Its aroma was very light fruit, a little pine, citrus mostly. A medium body that gives us a good crisp citrus bite, floral somewhat, some spice dryness, perhaps pepper, honey provides the sweetness, and a good lingering dryness.
Very good overall, you could certainly drink several of these for a very pleasant session.




The second bottle of the night was the 'Yorkshire Best Bitter'. This has been produced by the Hambleton brewery, its a 4.3% bottle conditioned bitter, same price as the first?

Initial impression is the smoke on the aroma, some nuttiness too.
This is a good strong bitter, malty on a medium body, it gives you a sharp bitterness alongside its  strong rich fruit, and woody ash dryness.
Something odd as well, the smoke dryness comes and goes almost with each mouthful. Perhaps I was thinking about it to much, who knows.  This was also perfectly carbonated as a conditioned bottle.

M&S Southwold Dark Ale (Adnams)

Another beer in the range from Marks & Spencer's, a Southwold Dark Ale brewed for them by Adnams in Soffolk. This time they've produced an apparently limited edition barley wine thats been brewed every October since 1880 (7.2% 330mls £2.19).
Sound familiar?
From the description it sounds like it a rebottled/rebranded Adnams Tally-Ho, a beer thats usually 7% on cask but 7.2% when bottled conditioned, although this M&S version does not appear to be conditioned.
On pouring there was very little head and that soon went to the smallest of rings around the glass, colour is a dark red-brown. Aroma - Rich fruits, dark burnt caramel, slightly medicinal. Taste has some lingering coffee bitterness, prunes, toffee, heavy malts. Notable hop bitterness also, within its medium body, but punchy alcohol thats upfront not a warming sensation you can get with older barley wines.
Overall its not a bad evening sipper. I'm nowhere near an expert in these things but from what I've read this could be one that perhaps could benefit from time in a cellar and tried again at a later date. I'm going to buy another couple of bottles and do that, why not?

Marks & Spencer Cheshire Brown Ale

 Another produced by the Frederic Robinson breweryfor the Marks & Spencer range, 4.7% and 500mls, costing £1.99 I think.
It has a nice reddish brown colour, minimal bubbly head which dissipated soon.
Aroma - malts, reasonable strongish malts at that, nutty.
In the mouth its got light body (as the bottle says), flavour that seems to work its way around the whole mouth, strong malt again, smooth and a light caramel hit.
Whether this is a good representation of the style of a 'brown ale' i'm not qualified to say, I'll leave that to others to declare but i found this a perfectly pleasant pint, very drinkable.


Bigger Flickr picture

M&S Southwold Winter IPA

Quick review of this beer, picked up, obviously, in M&S the other day. Funny enough when i got home i read a review of this beer by Darren at Blog o' Beer, which made me want right there and then. But it was mid morning so i put it off til after i picked the kids up from school, seemed the sensible thing to do!
Brewed for them by Adnams its 6.7% and 500mls. Not sure though i can add to much more to Darrens post really, but cut n' pasting would be a tad lazy.
Okay, lovely amber brown colour, frothy but diminishing head. Nutty malty aroma, good sharpness - grapefruit, nice medium body with a bit of dry fruit in there.
As i write this i'm supping a Marble Dobber, full on good smack in the face grapefruit there, but this Winter IPA is more rounded, calmer, and one i would drink more than the Marble i suspect.

Edited 25/1 to correct abv %. 
2nd edit:
Crap, i forgot the FABPOW with this beer. Rowntrees Randoms - went brilliantly, light juiciness and sweetness with the IPA dryness and sharpness. High class here!