Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Scottish Craft Brewed Lager

Picked up at Sainsbury's by my wife as she wasn't sure what I'd had or hadn't had in the beer isle, but she guessed correctly that this was one that would be new to me.

Made by the brewery Harviestoun, producers of other fine beers such as 'Bitter and Twisted' and 'Old Engine Oil' and the specialist line of whiskey aged beers 'Ola Dubh', one of which I have waiting in the wings myself.

This one made for Sainsbury's is 4.1% abv, 500mls. That is lighter than the 'Schiehallion' in their range which weighs in at 4.8%, and one I've not tried so I'm unable to compare.

Golden yellow in colour as one would assume for a lager, grass aroma, light citrus.
Reasonable carbonation, light and crisp, slightly herbal and grassy again, cereal malts, lemon.

Very enjoyable, decent lager, that thankfully leaves no nasty metallic after-taste, and I'd happily drink this again.
Certainly I'd choose this over the other 'craft lager' on their shelves, that being the Meantime London Lager which I found quite unappealing frankly.

a few beers in Cardiff

I mentioned in a recent post my friend at work leaving for a new post, so on Friday it was the works meal for him, in Cardiff Bay.
Three of us meet up early to get a few pints in before the meal as we didn't anticipate getting any decent beer in the restaurant or bar we were expected to visit later that night.

Harviestoun's American IPA

We first headed to The Packet but I was diverted by a sign for Marston's EPA at the Eli Jenkins, a M&B pub. In the rare sunshine the grass free beer garden was packed, mostly office workers it seemed. I was then diverted from the EPA to a pump displaying Harviestoun's American IPA, and my friends plumped for the same.
Wonderfully aroma, lemon, peaches and cream. Taste was fresh, zingy, sherbet and citrus.
Grapefruit bitterness and background sweet malt, this was a perfect first pint, set us up for the night.
Why its an American IPA i'm not sure, perhaps its the hops they have used, as its taste profile whilst very nice, is not has hoppy as most US IPA's i've had.



 
We then moved onto the Marston's EPA. My soon to be departed colleagues first impression was not favourably, far to sickly sweet for him. A light golden brown with nice creamy tight head, medium body. Aroma - caramel, as was the taste. All three of us found it like drinking a Caramac bar, the first half was manageable but we struggled further down the glass. Not great, thumbs down from us all.

We headed over to The Packet, an older style Brains pub stained glass windows, open style interior which seemed quite retro with the old disco LED lights flashing everywhere. Very limited cask option i remember, so we plumped for the keg Brains Black as it was the first chance I've had to sample it not out of a can.

As we settled down we all exclaimed about the frostbite we just received from the glass! Served ridiculously cold, flavour was suppressed for about 20 minutes before any bitterness and chocolate came on. Hugely disappointing, we soon had to leave and couldn't wait any longer for it to warm up.

On to the meal, at Cosmo, not somewhere I'd been before, but my wife has and said I'd enjoy it. And she was right, not a style of restaurant I have been in before, very open plan, long tables and buffet stations of different Asian food styles. The sushi and Thai were excellent, not so keen on the dim sum though. Very enjoyable overall.
Beer wise we were quite surprised to find Spitfire on the list amongst the usual lager options. Served at a reasonable temperature (!) and also reasonable price of £3.10 for a restaurant. Seeing as you are normally offered 330ml bottles and higher prices this was a pleasing option to have.