Bad King John rules all

The winner has been announced by Sainsbury's of the Great British Beer Hunt, and sitting with the crown (sorry) is the Ridgeway Brewery Bad King John, a 6% black ale that now has space on national shelves for 6 months.

The runner up  was from Williams Bros Brewing Company with their Caesar Augustus, a 4.2%  lager IPA.
Unfortunately I never got the chance to buy any of the bottles in this years competition, but there has been plenty blogged about them here and here amongst many others.
I have however had one of the 12 originally selected beers for the competition before, by coincidence it was the winner!

Ridgeway Bad King John

This is one i picked up a couple of months ago, and its been sitting my leaky and dusty shed, but i got it out this weekend. Its listed as a 'very english black ale' on the bottle, which has a beautiful label, really in keeping with its description and gives it a tapestry 'ye olde beer' impression. Its 6.0% abv 500ml and bottle conditioned. It also seems to be a bottle thats for US import originally judging by the label information.

Is it black ale? what is a black ale? i'm not sure how one is defined and i've certainly had beers similar which described themselves as stouts, and i notice some rating websites also call it a stout. Anyhoo its a beer and i drank it. What did i think.

It has a small off white bubbly head that soon goes to just a ring, and its colour is pretty black, with its carbonation its appears almost cocoa cola like.
It has some sour notes and ash, and tasting, well its bitter, coming with some coffee, and dark chocolate. These keep on going throughout the bottle, and its has smoke down to the last drop. It has a thin not quite medium body, and some fruits keep popping through, lovely blackberry, certainly blackcurrant involved in its bitterness. Overall though not bad, i'd have i again it offered.

a few new bottles

Managed a beer run early this week in Cardiff, and now i'm tingling with excitement at my purchases.
On my last visit i chatted with the owner about possibly getting in more US beers, and i was pleased to see a chance to try something other than the Pale ale from Sierra Nevada as on the shelves was their Torpedo IPA.
Turning the corner and amongst the very recently newly stocked shelves was Sharp's Monsieur Rock, which i think most beer drinkers who read blogs will have read about, a brilliant tasting and extremely drinkable bottle from Stuart Howe and Orval's Jean-Marie Rock apparently. I picked up three bottles, kept looking at the others on the shelf though, i might go back sooner rather than later.

 Next in the box was something i've seen around in books and online but never actually on a shelf, that is Young's Double Chocolate Stout. Joining it was Saltaire brewery's Cascade Pale ale 4.8%, Naylor's brewery Bradford Lad 7.2% strong ale/barley wine.
Ridgeway brewery's Bad King John, a 6% black ale which going by the label is supposed to exported to the US.

Now from the other side of the English Channel comes:
Saison Dupont 33cl 6.5%, Lindemans Faro Lambic 4.2%,
Maredsous Abbaye Blonde 6%, and Westmalle Trappist Dubbel 7%.

Again there was so many i picked up and left behind, 3 Monts, Bosteels Tripel Karmeliet, so many british breweries, Thornbridge's pilsner also was hesitantly put back (this time). He only had the Marzan smoked beer left no Urbock unfortunately, and i was hoping for a couple of different wheat beers but his German supplier is not as good as it used to be he tells me. And i got a free glass!