Thursday 30 July 2015

Beer Review: Charles Wells DNA

We're up in Carlisle having a progress north, like the monarchs of old, we have travelled the Lakes with company, will see stuffed animals, as in real animals being done by taxidermists, at Tullie House and have had a most convivial time swimming at Center Parcs over Penrith way (of course he's the f'in farmer!) and I got a chance to get a few ales in that will form the spine of the next few reviews. Because why not?

First on the list is a much awaited brew - for me at any rate. I caved and got some Charles Wells DNA by Dogfish Head. I mean, look at the neon monstrosity of the bottle called me like the 1990s trance movement, how could I not?


Of course, I have now used the reprehensible and cad's trick of deploying rhetorical questions twice in quick succession - the last refuge of a bounder - and shall complete the trioka, the trilogy and triplet triptych by asking would you like to know more?

Sunday 26 July 2015

Beer Review: Cleopatra

It's time to have another ale, thank goodness, what with the week I've had? Jimmeny! Anyway, the point is that the weather is warm and my garden is lovely, lots of bees buzzing and other such quaint and garden-y things. I think I may be developing a little too much attachment to the bucolic for a townie. Or perhaps it's just the time of year. Whatever. the ale of choice tonight has been sitting about since Nutbrook Brewery's farm, Oakfield, had a bit of a beer festival. Very pleasant it was too (I've got some mead waiting from it) but I picked up a bottle of Derventio's Cleopatra and now seemed like a good time to try it.


It is, after all, a fruit beer. My track record with these is spotty despite them being very much my staple ale of choice after my brother's stag do when I found Fruli. I also, much to the ribbing of my contemporaries, had a peach number on a night out later on. I stand by those choices. Let's see if this can stand amongst that august company.

Would you like to know more?

Thursday 23 July 2015

Beer Review: Honey Fayre

This was a gift to me from my daughter on Father's Day (yes, I am fully aware that this means drinking it so late means I am remiss in duties as a father) and a heart-felt one too. Both the children were picking them out with Anna down the shops for some time apparently, and both pronounced themselves most pleased with their choices because, and I must stress this, they felt that I would enjoy them. I thought I'd get the sentimentality out of the way first before getting down to the ale. The reasoning, by the by, for my daughter's choice was that I had bought some mead when we down at Oakfield Farm (of Nutbrook Brewery fame) and that had honey in it. This ale is Honey Fayre from Conwy Brewery so you can kind of see where she was going with this.


It's yet another chance to dive into the deep waters of strangeness and allure that surround the cold blue thought of my reviewing prowess. Or all the marking has finally turned my brain. Either way, would you like to know more?

Thursday 16 July 2015

Beer Review: Chieftain Pale Ale

I feel like I need an ale. It's warm and sunny out and it's been a glorious day of marking. No, wait, that didn't sound right. Never mind, the point is that it is well past beer o'clock and I need me some ale and there is a lovely bottle of Chieftan Pale Ale from William Bros that I have by me that I got in Aldi, of all places, that rather needs drinking. Not least because I have seen from the posts of some good people I know in the Googles that this is a decent ale to try.

All that, and it's sunny out, what more could you want?


Would you like to know more?


Sunday 12 July 2015

Beer Review: Boris Citrov

Come one, how can you, in summer, see this and not think to yourself that it would make a great ale to drink of an evening? From the picture on the label of a man with oranges for boxing gloves through the Russian sounding title to the promise of orange flavours in the description (in fairness, I thought the bottle gave it away long before you needed to read any of the tasting notes) this is clearly an ale that will be orange and fresh to accompany a meal in the height of summer. I am, of course, talking about Boris Citrov from the T. A. Sadler's stable of ales. This particular bottle was picked up at Aldi for £1.25 (and they aren't sponsoring me either, seriously, how much do I have to plug things to get paid?) but I've seen it all around the town lately.


Given the sweaty nature of humid air and the fact that our kitchen can get quite warm on a summer's eve when preparing food this had better be the kind of ale that quenches thirst and allows you to feel a little refreshed afterward. Would you like to know more of have my admissions of home life completely put you off delving further? I wouldn't blame you if they had!

Thursday 9 July 2015

Beer Review: Havercake

It's about the time of year for the 200th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo - a battle that I mainly know about through the influences of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series (the book Waterloo appropriately enough) and John Keegan's The Face of Battle. Despite this being as powerful a shaping force on the culture of the British Isles as it is I must admit that I very mearly missed the fact that it has been 200 years since it was fought. I have, equally, never actually visited the site of the battle but I can claim to have seen the diorama of it at Leeds Armouries. I also have an attraction to it as a geeky teenager who lusted after making his own models and painting them (but who was so bad at it that he never actually did it). In honour of the occasion it is time to review Timothy Taylor's Havercake.


Would you like to know more? Because, to be honest, I don't know what this review does to potential readers but it terrifies me!

Thursday 2 July 2015

Beer Review: BG Sips

I suppose it is now properly summertime and that means that I must pass from the dark ales of the spring and winter into the lighter pale ales that populate the sunlit uplands of the fair Isles in which I reside. Time to pass into the mellow and the meadow, to repose among the buzzing bees and the breeze blown trees in the sun of the garden and the... okay, you got me, it is dark, I am working and I am having an ale on a less than warm day (but not cold) after some humidity and some rain. So sue me. It is BG Sips (I see what they did there) by the Blue Monkey people that, apparently, are pretty local to me, and moreso than I would have previously thought.


Would you like to know more?