Beer in the Evening

Purchase Location: Wetherspoons “Moon Under Water” – Cheltenham
(Part of the Wetherspoons Real Ale Festival.)

Clark Rams Revenge has got a comical character this season, the sign on the pump is staring at me agressively and this is why I have picked it as the first beer for the night. 

Rams Revenge pours a deep dark caramel colour, with an impressive head that has receded from the bar to the table.  The aroma is lightly malty, with a first taste that is really quite sour and acidic.  However for the rest of the pint it’s quite refreshing with a flowery taste that spans the rest of the pint.  There’s some lacing down the sides of the pint, this is all gone by two thirds down and it’s looking like quite flat leftovers. 

Not a great session beer for me with it’s moderate ABV and sourness, I drank this outside in mid November with a cold snap in full force, Rams Revenge is certainly a pint that I would like to try during a hot summer evening, with it’s immediate refreshing qualities it would be best served late July in Cheltenham’s huge beer garden. 

My Rating: 5/10

Hops used: Cascade, Fuggles
ABV: 4.6%
Visit the H.B. Clark Brewery Website for more information.

There’s a strong smell of anise today in the BITE office, we’ve been lucky enough to be given seven bottles of Antica Sambuca to try out, seven different flavours, seven different hangovers perhaps?

If you’ve ever been abroad to the Mediterranean, you’ll recognise the taste of Sambuca as it’s very similar to the Greek Ouzo and Turkish Raki, all distilled from the vapours of aniseed, for that distinct taste.

Now, you’ll probably have heard of Sambuca in its most legendary form, the  ominous “Flaming Sambuca” – some bright spark in history,  decided that it would be a good idea to ignite this rocket fuel liquor and thus many a Saturday night A&E wards up and down the country have been filled with second degree burns victims… You know I once heard a rumor that the world record for sticking flaming Sambucas to your ass was held by a gentleman here in the Cotswold’s (Something we don’t condone!) , I’d love to find out if that’s true or not, a pint to the first person who can confirm or deny this!

Ok, here’s the twist, because the strong aniseed flavor of Sambuca is not appreciated by all palettes’ the brainy folks at Antica have blended in some extra flavours that work well in bar cocktails or simply on their own.  We’ve got our hands on seven prestigious flavours; Classic, Banana, Orange and Mango, Mandarin, Raspberry, Apple and Liquorice.

But first, drink responsibly…
Remember folks, we are doing these shots neat with half a pint of water in-between each shot, also a good hour passes between each shot, drinking responsibly is the new black don’t forget.

Classic Sambuca: 
Chris; “It tastes nice, a lot like liquorice, like those old sweets you used to get”
Steve; “It reminds me of being on a Greek night, a one Sambuca, two Sambuca, three Sambuca floor.”

Banana:
Chris: “It’s horrible, too much like medicine for me”
Steve: “It’s quite sour for a banana taste, this would be good in a punch or something.  I thought it would be sweeter, but I can imagine this being mixed with real banana pieces and tasting spot on”

Orange and Mango:
Chris: “This smells like sweets, like refreshers, and it tastes just like childrens medicine, you know the brightly coloured ones you’d get as a kid.”
Steve: “Fhhu… , tastes vile to me, it’s got too much going on flavour wise for a shooter.”

Mandarin:
Chris:  “This smells like a radox bath, to be fair it doesn’t taste like mandarin but it’s not bad at all.”
Steve: “Too much like gin, I can’t even swallow this” (I had a bad experience once on Gin and I have never drank it since.)

Raspberry:
Chris: “Smells like something from Bodyshop and looks like it too, tastes a bit like Parma violets, quite nice actually”
Steve: “Possibly the best of the lot, nice and sweet, definitely the one to do on its own”

Apple:
Chris: “Smells quite nice, tastes nice too, you have to do the whole shot to taste the fruit flavour which kicks in right at the end.”
Steve: “Tastes like sour apple, I would have liked this to be sweeter maybe, this would work really well in a summer mixer.”

Liquorice:
Chris: “Wow, this is just like super strong version of the classic one, it’s got some real kick”
Steve: “I can’t stand liquorice, but that’s awesome, - definitely the daddy of all these flavours”So, scour the bars for the multicoloured bottles of flavoured Sambuca, we’d advise going for the Liquorice or the Raspberry flavours if you’re looking for a quick shooter. 
In the run up to Christmas we will be reviewing different applications of each flavour as we try our hand at some cocktail making, so stay tuned.

Visit the Antica Sambuca website for contact information.
Can’t wait? Buy Sambuca online from TheDrinkShop.com

Thanks for all your votes this week – nice to see an increase in votes from the week before!

Here are the results:

 Loading …

Quite a surprising result for us, we’ve had a lot of requests via email for us to add sports listings – Obviously these peaked during the Rugby World Cup. We agree with you on keeping the listings updated though, it would be up to the pubs to make sure they had ‘their name down’ as such to tell us when and what they were showing. So, we won’t bother with this feature apart from maybe special events (like Euro 2008 for example).

This week’s poll is about your favourite type of pub to drink in, whether it be a local in your town/city or you like to go out in the countryside to it – what is your favourite? (We realise you have different favourites depending on the day, i.e. Sunday) but think overall which is your favourite? Voting is open now until next Monday, thanks!

ps. Don’t forget our newly opened forums!

Friday afternoon and we’ve had to delay our weekly beers in the office to rush this out for you, our forums are now live!

http://forums.beerintheevening.com is the address you’ll need and you just need your existing BITE username and password to login!

We know there are a few little bugs here and there with it and we’re counting on your feedback for any changes you’d like (such as adding a new forum for discussion of real ales or whatever you’d like)

We hope the forums will allow you to talk to us much more directly and we’ll promise to (hopefully!) answer you all as quick as possible. So go tell everyone that the BITE Forums are now open!

One last thing though, please be nice – it’s not a place to slag off each other – people who abuse the forum will be banned from it!

Now.. on with those beers – it’s 4pm and getting late! Have a good weekend everybody!

Cheers!

Purchase Location: Wetherspoons “Moon Under Water” – Cheltenham
(Part of the Wetherspoons Real Ale Festival.)

Ah, good King Alfred, known throughout history as Alfred the Cake, the king that burned the Pig farmers cakes… But, there could be no greater monument to your legacy as an Englishman than to be remembered in the present day with a beer that is named after you.

King Alfred’s pours amber in colour, almost caramel brown, there’s not much of a head on this pint - shame, it’s receded to a halo of a head by the time I’ve got back to the table. The aroma is quite hoppy, I hate saying that a beer smells ’hoppy’, to a non-beer drinker that means what exactly? With King Alfred’s it’s hard to describe it as anything other than hoppy, the smell of hops. There’s a bitter thirst quenching taste, very satisfying after a long day at the computer screen. I’ve been told that I should be able to taste the slight caramel textures in the beer complexity, but I can’t, it’s more chocolate reminiscent to me, slightly sweet, with a sourness at the back of the tongue.

A great session beer, due to its average ABV, it’s certainly worth drinking a few of these through the night as the alcohol does not take effect for a good 40 mins.

Cheers to King Alfred!

My Rating: 7/10

Hops used: Challenger, First Gold, Goldings
ABV: 3.8%
Visit Hampshire Brewery Website for more information.