Purple Moose Brewery Cwrw Glaslyn

Purple Moose Brewery X-Mws Llawen (Merry X-Moose)

Purple Moose Brewery X-Mws Llawen  (Merry X-Moose)   5% abv, 500mls.

Merry Xmas indeed, lovely beer thats ruby red, little head but dry, light with fruit, plums, and its got a nice sourness/bitterness that cuts a little into your palate. Hints of smoke, perhaps a little thin in body but tastes strong if that makes sense. Very enjoyable.

Purple Moose Brewery 'Dark side of the Moose' and 'Snowdonia Ale'

Another two from the North Wales brewery Purple Moose, a porter with the excellent name of 'Dark Side of the Moose' and a pale ale called 'Snowdonia'.
The bottle label calls it a pale ale, and its won several awards under the bitter banner, it does seem to be putting a toe into the golden ale camp to my mind. But whatever it is, is it any good, thats whats important.

The Snowdonia pours a nice golden yellow, a small head that reduces but lingers down the glass.
Aroma is light citrus, little hoppy. Its body is on the lighter side also, not to thin though, and I get lemon,  small bittering hoppyness, creamy with a certain juicy quality.
Very drinkable, if I had more than one bottle I certainly would have quoffed it much quicker,and with its 3.6% abv this certainly puts it in the sessionable arena.
On the down side it doesn't have much to distinguish it from similar beers, on cask I would hope it had more body and fruit to make it a more rounded beer.



'Dark Side of the Moose' is 4.6% abv, 500mls.
Dark reddy brown, creamy chocolate and some fruit, I would say blackcurrant but its not as acidic as that.

Its smooth, delicious with raisins and rich tea biscuit coming on, good body, some spice and then sweet stickyness. 
Nicely dry, a bit metallic in the finish also, but I liked this porter.




Many thanks to my friend Doug and his family for these Purple Moose beers, cheers mate.

Purple Moose Brewery 'Myrica Gale'

The Purple Moose Brewery are based in North Wales near Snowdonia whose range of beers in their 6 year history have won quite a few awards at national and international level, including Champion beer of Wales in 2009.

My bottle tonight is this years winter seasonal 'Myrica Gale'. A stout brewed with Hallertau hops, 500mls 4.1% abv, and with bog myrtle added.
Bog myrtle is also known as sweet gale, and has a long history in brewing, being frequently used for bittering, its 'intoxicating' effects and was used in place of the hops when brewing.

A nice very light brown head that settles to a ring in the glass. Colour is near black but deep red at the edges when held up.
Aroma is chocolate, spicy which reminds me of dandelion and burdock.
Light to medium in the mouth for a stout, carbonation is good.
The spices are more evident in tasting, herbal and bitter tones, although they dont linger to much in the mouth. As it goes on the chocolate and roasted malts come through more.
Easy to drink and overall its quite nice, refreshing, interesting. I found the spice dominating over your normal stout flavours however, although not in an offensive over the top way.