Beer Review: Old Tom with chocolate

After the success of the Old Tom with ginger earlier in the week (see here) it seemed somewhat churlish not to try the stable mate with whom it was bought. Still no review of the original, but perhaps I can rectify this in the year ahead, maybe not. In the meantime, it is clearly time to sample another ale in my garden. This, of course, makes perfect sense as the summer slowly dies and is replaced by the cold winds of the winter that threatens... no, wait, it's just more sunshine. Who ordered this autumn?

I'm not complaining, it means I get more shots of the garden in its glory with an ale in the foreground and that is good enough for me. Makes me look like a proper photographer even though I am plainly not one. Yes, it is the turn of Old Tom with chocolate and can you tell that I am rather looking forward to this one? There's something about chocolate ales that seems to draw me to them like a moth to the light.

So, why not rest your weary bones as you settle back on the wooden chairs near the lawn (I still haven't cut it) and let me regale you with my thoughts on the ale before us. Excited? Well, let's go then!

Beer Review: Old Tom with ginger

One of my favourite ales from way back, long before actually starting the whole rigmarole of keeping a blog on the subject of reviewing ales, is Robinson's Old Tom and so when I spied that there were variants of this to taste, with ginger and chocolate, I had to try them. The fact that they were on offer was just icing on that particular cake. The first one to be thus tasted was the ginger variant, because reasons.

It's early days yet so who knows where this might lead? I suspect that it will lead to a review, who knew?

Now that we have introduced ourselves to the ale on a formal basis, what say we get to know one another better? Hmm? I shall put on some music (I recommend the Pet Shop Boys, because of course I do) and slip into something a little more comfortable... my dining room. Would you care to join me there?

Fire in the Hole!

It's been two weeks since I poured out the Grenade into bottles, a week since I poured the IPA, now named Trench Warfare (because it's not sharp enough to be Bayonet), and I've handed it out to a number of people at work and around the place. Some people have already drunk the Grenade and have discovered that it doesn't work. But, and here's the thing, they drank it on Monday before giving it some time.

Would you like to know more?

Beer Review: American Oak Pale Ale

It's been a bit of a while since I reviewed anything in the Innis & Gunn line-up, and I feel that this is a shame. That said, they were getting a bit same-y, which is a shame when one considers how nice their original brew is and how different it is to the competitors. So, I think I shall turn to this old acquaintance again tonight to provide me with grist for my mill in the form of American Oak Pale Ale and see what we can find.

I suspect that we shall find an ale and a review. I suspect that we shall find much in the repetition of words in phrases that lends itself almost to poetry, but not necessarily in the review so much as in the introductions. We shall also once again find ourselves indoors over lunch or something because that is, you see, how I roll. Also, we shall find ourselves a comfortable chair and ruminate in our repose about how this ale tastes and fairs 'gainst the slings and arrows of its rivals.

So, to business then: would you like to know more?

Beer Review: Fire Catcher

Ooh, is that the time? Time to start a review of some ale! What do I have in? Um... Ah, yes, this will do for the moment. May I introduce you to Fire Catcher, a golden ale from the Wychwood brewery that has the sort of bottle art one would expect from such a company that likes to juxtapose the fantasy setting with the ales that they produce. There's definitely mileage, I feel, from researching the links between folklore and the ales that hang around it trying to get some of the rub-off effect but I am not the historian you're looking for to make that link and make it interesting enough to read!

No, my job is just to taste and review the ale. Without further ado, then, let us get started! Would you like to know more?

Beer Review: Responsibly

It's been a sunny day all round today. We have a new picnic bench in the garden, the wind was fresh but the warmth in the sunshine was quite lovely. A meal shared, as a family, on the picnic bench and a glass of ale from the local micro-brewery down the road, lovely. I refer, of course, to the Nutbrook brewery and another clever title: Responsibly. We should all drink so.

So, mellowing out and preparing for the week ahead, would anyone like to know more?

Beer Review: Golden Pippin

I have spent the day in work, preparing for the new term. It has been sunnier and slightly warmer than the last couple of days and, mercifully, there was no rain. Our garden has taken a little bit of a pounding however - we have some radish planted 'neath a cloche and some buffoon has jumped on it two nights running. From what I can gather they're using our garden as a rat-run sometime after midnight and before 6am, there's evidence they climb up and out on the picnic table at the other side of the garden in a hurry. Anyway, it seemed like a good point to continue to deny the end of summer.

To that end, I turn to the ale bought for me by my daughter back in July that I was assured that I would enjoy. And I don't think that assurance was far wrong. I speak, of course, of Copper Dragon Golden Pippin. I'll confess that I have long seen this in supermarkets and declined its allure simply because I could never work out which part was the brewery and which was the ale name. I am a little strange.

So, to arms! Let us see what this ale can offer and whether my slightly odd way of judging the bottle is in anyway justified (hint: it isn't). Would you like to know more?