Beer in the Evening

Purchase Location: My Local Supermarket
Serving: 500ml bottle
Session suggestion: Good (5 bottles)
ABV: 3.8%

You don’t get much more character in presence that a Wychwood Brewery production, just the bottle illustrations really set each brand apart, from the ghoulish and sinister to English humor (I’m thinking ‘The Dogs Bollocks’ here) each bottle looks like it has harkened from the fantasy realms of Pratchett or Tolkein.
I’m still picking up beer from my local supermarket, I noticed that the shelves had been stocked with a few WychCraft bottles and so I picked four up to try.  Mysterious looking thing, enticing even, there’s care and attention in the design, the embossed insignia on the glass neck giving yet another sense of real age.

WychCraft pours a golden colour with slight reddish highlights, a rising head of white foam crowning the pint which recedes to a halo head quite soon after pouring.  The pint has some low carbonation, I thought it would have been more as this is supposed to be a summer beer, but that’s just my opinion and shouldn’t detract from the great aesthetics this pint is showing off.

First olfaction is really hoppy, a nice familiar hoppiness, that’ll  be the Fuggles no doubt, I’ve heard an American reviewer call it a “typically British stink”, I wouldn’t label it a ’stink’, but ‘typically British’ yes, maybe it is (note to self, try more beers…)  On retro-olfaction the hoppiness increases with alcohol vapor giving you a stronger flowery presence, coupled with the dry malty taste on the tongue you can see why this is a summer drink.  Proper thirst quencher, no messing.
It’s got hints of citrus in the palette that create the foundation of the beer character but over all I wouldn’t label this one as a complex tasting beverage.

You now, I’d definitely drink this again I’ve had 3 and ended this session, but with its low ABV makes it a good contender for a real session beer, I didn’t find the ‘beer hit’ heavy at all, WychCraft actually put me in a good mood.

My Rating: 9/10 (+1 point for the brilliant product packaging.)

Hops used: Fuggles, Styrains
ABV: 3.8%
Visit the Wychwood Brewery Website for more information.

Purchase Location: My Local Supermarket
Serving: 500ml bottle
Session suggestion: Medium-Good (4-5 bottles, if you can hack it!)
ABV: 4.7%

This is part of my Beer booty experience at my local supermarket, - I’ve picked up some Ruddles Rhubarb because they guy next to me mused it then added 6 bottles to his trolley, “he’s not having it all, the swine!”  So like a male jostling for position on the Serengeti I coughed loud enough to get his attention while I too reached for the same beer, …but only taking two, just enough to show him that this beer isle is a wrestled territory.

Well,  I should have let him have the lot, now I just feel like a prat for my actions.  The Rhubarb is immediately there on first olfaction, it’s a weird smell, a mixture of hops and rhubarb that I found slightly off putting.  You know I thought the same of Banana Bread Beer when that first went under my nose, so I was willing Ruddles Rhubarb to follow suit and surprise me after all…

It poured a lovely deep reddish copper colour which, considering what Green King designed it as - a Summer Real Ale, it certainly looks the ticket.  An immediate slightly off-white foamy head, that recedes quickly with some high carbonation that relaxes at about the same speed as the pint head.

The taste is too synthetic for me, I’m not a fan of Rhubarb, even having grown up in the countryside eating it regularly I consider Rhubarb an ugly bitter taste, so how this will balance out the bitter taste of the Bramling hops I’m not sure.  It does though, for a few seconds, but then the bitterness of the hops kicks back in, it’s like rhubarb, hops, rhubarb, hops on the tongue.  There is some vanilla complexity in there, I’m not sure it’s strong enough, perhaps if this was stronger it would mask the confliction between the hops and rhubarb on my pallet at least.

No, not a fan of this one, I stopped after one bottle and carefully placed the other bottle at the back of my special beer bunker in the “try in summer” section.  If Green King designed it as a summer ale, “the taste of Ruddles County” they must have a good reason, and so perhaps the moral of the story here is try it when they recommend, and who knows you may well learn to like it.  But for now, stood here on a frosty crabby December Wednesday, on personal reflection, I can’t help but think what the hell was that guy in the supermarket going to do with six bottles of this stuff? 

My Rating: 4/10 (sorry, just not my cup of tea… or beer.)

Hops used: Bramling Cross
ABV: 4.7%
Visit the Ruddles Brewery Website for more information.

Purchase Location: My Local Supermarket
Serving: 500ml bottle
Session suggestion: Medium (3 bottles)
ABV: 5.4%

Shepherd Neame oldest brewery in Britain, a well established name amongst pubs these days, walk into any Wetherspoons, Green King or a Punch Tavern pub and you’re sure to find a Shepherd Neame brew on tap.

It’s worth noting then, I’m not in a pub, I’ve just done the Christmas shopping, and taking a break from pushing the Jackass stunt wagon round the clinical white supermarket I’ve stopped off at the beer isle to cast an opinion on the mountains of cheap lager that are supposedly destroying the English pub trade. It was a pleasant suprise then to find my attention diverted to a wide range of real ales, Badger beers, Charles Wells, Cotswold Brewery, Youngs, and Shepherd Neame brands lining the shelves like soliders of salvation.

I picked up a few bottles of Bishops Finger, not a very inviting name, but it was very cheap… Did I just say that, “it was cheap?” Well, it was.  I felt like I’d found a bargain, a secret bargain that only I knew about.  It was as though I’d smuggled the ales into the trolley hiding them behind the bread and cat food so that nobody saw me do it, I imagined that later I would return with a bigger trolley and reclaim the rest of my treasure.  I was beer bloody rich.

And so it was, the tale of how I came to drink Bishops Finger, again not a very inviting name, probably a lot to do with why I haven’t tried it in the past. But here it is, pouring a dark amber with reddish tones, a good head of just off-white foam, that sits well, not dispersing, I don’t like to use the word lacing, but it was impressive hugging the glass to half way down, giving the pint a full feeling.  Strange word to use ’full’, it doesn’t totally describe what I’m trying to say, I guess the strong lacing made the pint seem denser and longer lasting than it actually was. An optical illusion I  suppose. Bishops Finger has a more gentle carbonation compared with other bottled beers I’ve tried recently and that too adds to the pint appearing ‘full’ giving the pint a look of warmth.  The first olfaction is malty with tinges of the yeast used in brewing and it’s almost like ginger to me. You’re probably thinking I’m going to kiss the damn thing in a moment “man marries pint” the papers will say, I’ll better that - I’m just going to drink it.

The first taste is bitter and citrussy not unpleasant but quite strong immediately, I felt that the instant bitterness mellowed as the pint went down, leaving more of a lasting citrus fruit after taste on the palette, it basically starts off all coiled and complex, then unravells itself and relaxes to be a good example of what a top British pint should be.

I’m not feeling like drinking much tonight, so I stopped after the first one, but I’d suggest with it’s high ABV of 5.4% it’s not a session ale and you should take it easy after 3, enjoy the winter night and maybe cap it of with a fourth - but thats up to you.

My Rating: 8/10

Hops used: Goldings (I assumed)
ABV: 5.4%
Visit the Shepherd Neame Brewery Website for more information.

Another busy week for us. The forums are flying along now, with over 1,000 posts in just three weeks - amazing! This week we had 73 votes on the polls, the most we’ve had so far - so word is slowly but surely getting round..

We asked whether you’d like to review beers and breweries as well as pubs. We’ve had a lot of emails asking for both of these so we thought it’d be wise in asking you what you thought. Don’t worry, it’s not something we’re going to do immediately, but more likely introduce in the first quarter of next year. We’ve already got a list of beers (17,470 to be precise) - no idea how upto date and accurate that list is, but we’ll sort that out nearer the time. With regards to reviewing breweries we meant to say not just the overall beers they produce, but perhaps things like the tours they offer / visitor centres, etc. Anyway, onto the those poll results

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I think it’s a yes overall

This week we’re asking whether you think the DrinkAware campaign is a good or bad thing. Don’t get us wrong, we think responsible drinking is the right thing - however, is DrinkAware doing a good thing? Or are you just sick of seeing it on every TV advert, magazine advert - you name it. Do you think we need to be told when we’ve had enough? The BITE team were out on Friday night and at one point FIVE uniformed police visited the venue we were in, walking around checking everyone wasn’t too drunk (we know this because I actually asked them why they were in there) - sorry, but we think that is overstepping the line, do you agree? Leave us a comment and vote..!

ps. There are over 360 pubs within 1.0 mile of the HQ of DrinkAware (nice location boys!)

It was a Friday afternoon, we had unfortunately not been sent any freebies this week to drink trial in the office and blog about so we decided to head on down to our local O’Neills. I have seen the marketing campaigns, tried in vain to contact a Guinness Brand Manager via numerous methods - including their blog (if there is one out there that actually reads this – how about contacting us?) to give us more info / a list of pubs that serve it (to put on BITE), but I still hadn’t tried Guinness Red yet. You’d think we would have been an ideal platform to help promote it considering it wasn’t at every pub! But anyway…

Anyway, onto the drink. It pours like a normal Guinness, including the traditional two second wait before topping off the pint. It has a thick, creamy head like a normal Guinness and it looks (apart from if you hold it upto the light) like a normal Guinness too. It’s not really that red, more reddish. But that is where the comparison ends. Oh wait, it has the same ABV too (4.1%). I was quite surprised actually, it tastes good – BUT – it tastes like something is missing. Have you drank Diet Coke after drinking normal Coke for years and felt it was lacking something? Well, Guinness Red has that same feeling. It doesn’t feel as heavy or ‘thick’ as normal Guinness, but it does still have that distinctive taste and will still give you that distinctive ‘tache too. To be honest, I would drink it again (actually, I first tried it and then immediately before putting the pint down drank it again to double-check it like I had missed something) – I think it’s the ideal ‘pub lunch’ drink. The sort of drink you’d have at lunchtime midweek with colleagues but don’t want to start ‘drinking’ – we’ve all been there, have one pint at lunch and it goes straight to your head because you choose a bloody salad or something with it, well, this is the drink to order! I see Guinness Red as a drink I will order again if I am in a pub that sells it, but I don’t quite see myself travelling to another pub JUST to order it. Sorry Guinness, I am lazy.

Overall, I would give Guinness Red a favourable 8.5/10.