Not long ago we were given a bit of a gift, that is, my father took our two eldest for a day at Chatsworth House. I'm not complaining! They thoroughly enjoyed their time away, playing on an adventure play park and climbing walls and such, and Willow and I sort of bodded about the house actually having the time and space to do... nothing. And it was glorious. I digress, the point is that when they returned they brought a lovely ale for me: Chatsworth Gold from Peak Ales and now is the time that I get to have and review that ale on this here blog.
More to the point, I've not really been on the golden ales as much as I was this time last year and so this is a hole that needed to be filled. Again, not a bad thing, I have been having lots more stouts and porters instead, but goldens are, I believe, a necessary part of a balanced beer diet in the summer. Would you like to know more?
Happy Easter everyone! He is risen indeed. And so it is that I am reviewing this ale in my garden on the garden furniture in the sunshine. And it is, I think, a golden ale too, which is always nice. This ale was brewed by Chiltern Brewery in Bucks and was bought for me by my father, to whom I am grateful, from Stowe. I shall be honest, I have no idea where Stowe is nor any idea of its historical significance. But it must have some because there's this ale that has been brewed specifically to allow National Trust to make money and use it to restore the New Inn, hence the name: New Inn Restoration Ale.
I, for one, am looking forward to it. Would you like to know more?
This was picked up at my local supermarket for just one pound and, after a day of some grey skies and plenty of work going on, I thought it necessary to kick back with a lovely evening meal cooked by the fair hand of my wife, Willow, and a decent bit of golden ale. Because sometimes the sun shines not from a blue sky but from a half pint glass and this was one of those times, right?
I refer to tonight's offering of Sunny Dayz by Hog's Back Brewing Co. and bottled and distributed by the Great British Brewing Co who are an imprint of the mighty Aldi. I must assume that they have made some rather good deals as I have already enjoyed their ales with Red Rye (see here) back in October and Land of Liberty (see here) in November, and I have a few more yet on standby.
Anyway, the plan for the evening is to be completely out of season with a golden ale designed for summer like I had stouts back in the summer. Would you like to know more of the contrary beer review for the evening?
Well, summer may well be over, but the memories can live on in beer reviews and a bit of warm sunshine from the August Bank Holiday weekend allowed me to have a beer in the garden and so it gets published on a Sunday, as is traditional, with a revolving picture. Which is less traditional. Also, I publish it later than the summer because, of course, it all got a bit busy and I had many many beers and not much time to post reviews. Instead I post this in November(!) because I have space and this is an ale that deserves a review, dammit!
However, I wrote the review itself (as shall become apparent in the next sentence) all that time ago in summer. Today I ruminate on a good day out with some family friends at Wicksteed Park, and sit in the sunny, warm garden with an ale brewed for a motoring museum that I have never visited for a lunchtime tipple (and why wouldn't you?).
Apparently I suck at animated photos. Observe the dancing glass!
Won't you join me for a further and fuller investigation into the merits and otherwise of the Brooklands Goldstar I picked up from my trip to the Hog's Back Brewery back in the holidays? I promise I won't keep you long!
It's Hallowe'en, more or less, and it has arrived at long last. I've been meaning to give centre-stage to this brew for a few years now, well, at least since it played a role in the Hallowe'en Showdown I did a while back (see that on this link). After that, and it definitely won, I had a few more times and always enjoyed it but always forgot to take a picture, resulting in the sad truth that, for an ale I enjoy so much, Pendle Witches Brew has never appeared properly on this blog. This year I planned to rectify this and give it a proper review all of its very own.
And now I have a picture, shakily taken on my new camera phone in the darkness of the evening as the night has drawn in, the car is on charge and Willow is complaining of the cold. We have company over and they are not an ale fan, more's the pity, but we have been out to the local supermarkets where I have weighed myself down with a fresh haul. Yay!
Wait, where was I? I was here, about to review and ale! Would you like to know more?
Had this hanging around for a while after having some friends over and having it in a sequence with a couple of others, where it didn't fare so well, truth be told. However, I suspect that part of that was the unfairness of putting it up against the all-conquering Mocha that I'd had saved for a year or so. It follows, therefore, that on a rainy day and evening, when I've been in and out and all over the place, and despite having it chilling in the fridge in case of some sun and warmth, I would have this again and give it a little more free rein to do it's thing.
What is this strange little number? Why, it's Triple C by the brewers at Thwaites in their Crafty Dan imprint - a place to do odd things.
I take the title from my friend's comment on our activities this weekend on a Saturday in Ilson town. I think it most appropriate! Two blokes out for a beer or two with the hope of curry are hardly the sort of combination to cause trouble or raise the roof particularly. So it was that my friend from FE and I descended on the southern part of Ilkeston in the evening to sample ales and discuss matters of import - setting the world to rights - and nary a sporting anecdote to be seen.
There was very little in the way of planning, as one might expect, and a rumble of thunder (that caused a comic dash from me to unplug the EV before setting off) preceded a big fall of rain that pretty much obliterated chances of getting exterior shots of the pubs we visited whilst the joy of catching up pretty much obviated the collection of pictures from within. Luckily my beer bore settings were high so I managed to gain pictorial proof of the ales consumed.
I know, I know, the beer that I put in the fridge a few days ago and finally got out today because it as just so warm and sunny doesn't really deserve to be called an ale. I also know that, despite saying it was brewed in Tadcaster (where it very probably was) and Tadcaster being a place that I have driven through a lot, that this no local ale to, well, anywhere - least of all Tadcaster. I know that John Smith's is a brewery owned by Heineken and that it was one of the big beer combines that have conspired, sometimes very powerfully, to put smaller breweries out of business in the past. Yet, despite all of those things, this was actually what I wanted to drink and I've never had it before and so my autism demands that I must review it. I speak of their Golden Ale which is unimaginatively named but rather descriptive, all told.
I think I did a rather good job of the photo all told, given that I couldn't actually see the screen because the sun was so bright! Would you like to know more?
This week is the time I can make it official - we are getting another addition to the family in the form of a small human some time in April. Scan at the beginning of the week confirmed that it was not a Velociraptor (which is a shame if you ask me) and that it had the normal expected complement of limbs and features for a 12 week old foetus. Announcement of this garnered ales from my colleague and friend at work who shall remain nameless but awesome and thus I had some Yorkshire love in the form of light and frothy beer. Add in a swift trip to my favourite local (the Burnt Pig, you can find many references to them by clicking here) and you have the makings of a good weekend with much ale, why not? I even have an excuse.
As usual, there is still time to bail out, and much of this entry consists of re-reviews rather than new ales, so there's a dash of Midlands and the South thrown in for good measure. Would you like to know more?
Been a while in writing this. I was invited up to Leeds by some good friends ages back and the first time I could actually get along was for the Leeds International Beer Festival. My previous and continuing host provided tickets and a place to stay, because he's great like that, and we left it to percolate a while, this being back in July. Alas, my brain is bad at these things and so the weekend crept up on me somewhat. And then, on the Thursday, my cable that I use to charge my electric car (because I have one) broke and stopped charging the car.
It was fine, I charged at work (with permission) on the Friday and then reasoned that I could charge at the other end. The journey was thus begun on Saturday morning, bright and early, but on the way my car told me I had a puncture. I pulled in, charged and checked the wheel. No sign of any damage. I pumped the tyre a bit, more because I felt I had to do something, and drove on. The light remained resolutely on. I stopped and checked pressures a few more times but no difference. Thus it was that I turned up to Leeds just in time to drop the car off outside my host's house, scaring him with its sleek silence, and jump onto the bus into town. Stressful journey much?
All of which is to serve as prelude. We met our final member of the trio and promptly entered the wonderful world of the Town Hall and the beers on offer. Would you like to know more?
So, I was down at the brewery before the weekend. Then we had adventures in Hampshire involving Birdworld and the Old A3. By the time we returned to the hotel it was gone 8pm. A swift walk to get Willow some ice cream and then some pootling and it was close to 9pm. The brewery was shut, there was nothing for it but to go to the hotel bar and hope they had something on. They did. I found Hop Garden Gold from Hog's Back Brewery, being the brewery I had hoped to stop in at this evening, and they had it chilled. It was rather hot so, of course, I decided to have it. And, okay, £4.80 is a lot for a bottle of ale. But it was damn' hot, the bottles I had with me (Montezuma's Chocolate Lager) were not chilled. And it was hot. So I bought it and sampled it. Wouldn't you?
I have a mower and I can mow the lawn. Rarrgh! Fear me! Also, in so doing, I may well have murdered the lawn and anything living within or near it. Hmm. It took a bit of doing too, rather tough (as one would expect given how it has been about two years since I last did it - long story). Anyway, none of that need detain us here as we embark on another review of ale except insofar as to explain why it was that I came to be sitting with the Boy rather late in the evening having tea in the garden and relaxing with a chilled ale from a rather nice bottle, which I shall be keeping because it is an awesome bottle. I am referring to Das Helle by Schwaben Brau whom I suspect are from the middle area of Germany known as Schwabia. I once knew a fine lass from those parts who was most interesting.
Anyway, this isn't my first time at this particular rodeo it's just the first time I have got round to reviewing it on here. When I had some of this last year I was most impressed and bought in about half a dozen, but then forgot to review it. Then when I saw it again I bought in a couple. Now it's gone again. It was from Aldi, if you see it, it's totally worth trying. Would you like to know more?
I was treated this weekend to seeing the Pet Shop Boys at the Royal Opera House doing their residency to celebrate the release of their new album, Super, which of course I have had since the release date back in February. My father was to be my guide for the evening and ensured that we were in London earlier than we needed to be so that we could spend some time having some ales and visiting a couple of pubs in preparation before having a meal and then seeing the show. I can't say that I was anything other than enthusiastic at the prospect.
After travelling down via the Victoria Line (one of only two Underground lines that are totally underground) and then wandering about the old fruit market outside the Actor's Church with it's vast false portico on one side (and the burial place of the first victim of the Plague in 1665) we walked out onto the road outside the Royal Opera House and found our first place of repose and ale, much welcome in the stifling heat and bright broad sunshine. Would you like to join me on this journey?
Another day of marking and another day of summer. It's been a particularly wet one round our way and there has been a sudden spike afterwards of humidity, as befits the calm before a storm, but then we've had some pretty high wind instead so... who knows? Apart from that I can claim to have had a rather nice day all round if I'm honest. Plenty of warning before tea allowed me to put the ale in the fridge to prepare and a happy accident of forgetfulness allowed me to have it after food, thereby allowing the Wet Your Whistle from Box Steam Brewery to be properly chilled before opening.
On top of that, it was a pretty posh meal. Very middle class and privileged - hand breadcrumb-coated plaice fillet with potatoes that were rolled in grated garlic, Parmesan and that stuff you put on pasta and Italian food that you get in jars and can be green or red. I forget the name all of a sudden. Dang, and the jar is all the way over in the kitchen so I can't even get out of my chair and check. Oh well, so much for the illusion of class. Onto the ale!
Tonight I am writing this on a new way to access these here intertubes I have a new phone! In celebration, if that is the right term of this affront to the laws of man and god, I have cracked open the bottle of golden ale that I have waiting for me in the pantry. I know, I took the precaution of chilling it in the fridge for a bit. I am referring to the lovely Maple Gold by Joseph Holt, a brewery last seen in a cultural exchange evening here. After the pain of Sunday, see here, I elected to chill this brew a while before sampling and I think that was a good idea all round!
So, what to make of it? For one I can say that, swanky as this phone is (don't ask, it's a long story!) I shan't be using it any more than I really have to because it is an absolute bugger to type with!
What ho! The summer trends continue, another golden ale, sir, your very finest to match the hue of the day and the high temperature tempered by chilling in your refrigerator. Indeed, pop on some decent clothing with plenty of tweed, get a good seat by the cricket and read carefully of these finely crafted words about a drop of the golden stuff as you peer in your electronical device in the bright sunshine. Smell the mown grass, applaud the gutsy bowler and take care to wear your straw boater in just the right way.
Tonight, fair companion, you shall be regaled by tales of drinking ale, no mean feat, and tonight we shall be looking at that classic of good old Frankie, he went to Hollywood you know, and the brewery that named their contribution to British brewing Two Tribes. I believe they could go to war, what?
But, seriously, did anyone think that I could see that name of an ale and a) not buy it, b) not have that song stuck in my head enough to post the video here? I thought not.
Today it is Father's Day and so I really ought to review one of the ales that I was given by my daughter as a present. We'd been in to Aldi a few weeks ago and she'd observed me perusing the selections. Knowing that I like ale she then proceeded to tell me all the beer that she would choose for me, including this rather nice example, because this one had a unicorn on the front of it. She also wanted to get me Wizard (see here) and Double Dragon. Funding dictated only two ales and Aldi sold out of Wizard. So, of course, now I get to try and review Unicorn in celebration of the day that honours fathers. The Double Dragon will have to wait.
Of course, I contend that every day is father's day so it does seem rather strange to be setting aside a whole day to celebrate the patriarchy in such an obvious fashion. However, with an ale from Robinson's to hand (and they do seem rather good at the Twitters) I can't really complain too much. I check my privilege, find that it is doing very well, thank you, and meander off down the route towards tea and and ale in my very comfortable middle-class and largely unthreatened life.
The fourth in a series! Well, okay, just the fourth ale from the Aldi beer festival thing. This is the one that initially drew me to the display, being brewed by Hog's Back Brewery who I still have something of a soft spot for having popped in on the off-chance nearly a year ago. It's another summery one, out of place in the warm but wet day we've just had, but nevertheless welcome. I was hoping to pair this Surrey Nirvana with a picnic lunch but no such luck and it will have to suffice later into the evening and indoors as there is a bit of a wind blowing and all the garden furniture is wet. Never mind.
So it's time I returned to my roots, I guess. And by my roots I mean going back to an old favourite pastime, reviewing speciality ales on a Sunday. Of course, most of those ales were from the Innis & Gunn stable and so it makes sense that when I have a bottle of speciality ale from them that I review it as a Sunday ale. Also I am boring and thus always like to keep some semblance of a pattern - it's almost like I plan things in advance.
Tonight, then, it is my pleasure to review Fired Oak Scotch Ale that I picked up rather cheaply locally - and I haven't seen it anywhere else. This could be a good or a bad thing, but past reviews from the brewery suggest a better hit rate than a miss rate and so I am reasonably confident that I am in for something that will at least warrant my time spent typing up the review.
Summer seems very much in evidence at the moment and so it behooves me to move on to proper summer ales with a lighter hue and less stout. Which is a pity, but does rather make sense. Helping me in this endeavour is the fact that a local supermarket is holding a 'beer festival' in which it stocks a selection of ales from across the country. It's almost like I'm being part of the 'in-crowd' by buying and having bottled ales. Almost, but, of course, not quite. Anyway, one of the brews that were available just cried out to be bought (well, they all did in their own way, but this one did it in a particular way) because of the allusions that are held there. I refer, in this case, to A-hop-alypse Now by Camerons and I have to say that I rather like the bottle design.
So, if you would like to proceed with the horror, the horr- I mean, if you would like to know more, then venture forward was you will by clicking the finely crafted link below.
