Beer Review: Ruddles County

The last time I had this beer I was on holiday with friends from University on an ill-fated trip to the Norfolk Broads. We stopped off in a pub on the outskirts of Yarmouth and had a couple of pints each, back then I was more into shots you understand, for the sole purpose of stealing some pint glasses. I remember thinking that the head was a bit like a skein of spittle but that was long before I understood that beers with a creamy head are not my type.

Anyway, yes, tonight I am mostly reviewing Ruddles County by, er, Ruddles brewery.

It is a pleasing chestnut colour in its clear glass bottle and smelled faintly of the fens - all wet and woody and rank with heavy matter and falls of rain. It has a crisp and clear citrus edge to a rather nice flavour too. There's definite elements of sweetness to it, it claims to have toffee and caramel but I can't say as I noticed any of that, and there is a reassuring thickness to the taste as it rolls over the tongue. Not too heavy and not so light that you end up wondering why you bothered. This is a good beer to share with a meal, it has that quality that is necessary in terms of being flavourful but without being too strong or weak. At 4.7% ABV it can stand some repetition as well. I can see why my friends chose it when we were drinking in Norfolk that time!

There is definite edge to the taste as well, which I like, and it seems as though it almost needs food to be eaten with it. So, a mealtime beer in the way that most of the ales that I choose are not.

Enjoy, and you will enjoy it, then with some close friends at any bar or pub you can find.  Have it with a nice meal that you will all like - steer clear of things like steak or chilli and, instead, have something that is filling and innocuous. Failing that, have it with a meal that requires you to be watching that flavour and taste like a hawk, because this is something that will reward that kind of attention. It is subtle and it is well made. It will not sneak up on you and it will not force you into warmth either. It is a beer that defies seasons and I suspect will work well in most times of the year.

The hops, incidentally, are Bramling Cross and taste not a little unlike Fuggles. We likey.

Musicals everywhere!

I'm not really what you would call a musicals fan. Well, okay, my mother thinks I am a musical fan, but she's not right, she bases this idea on the fact that my friends and I used to sing songs from Les Miserables on the way home and the fact that I had a thing for Phantom of the Opera for a while back in the mid- to late nineties. I suppose I am more prone to enjoying musicals because I have a guilty secret love affair with Eurovision every year - my wife and I score them out of ten and actually ended up buying every CD between 2009 and 2012 (we also bought 2007 but not 2008). This would make us pretty sad individuals.

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Beer Review: Spitfire

It's time for beers. I only have one, it's Spitfire.

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Book Review: News from Gardenia

So I've been pootling about on Google+ for a while now rather than hanging out booking face and I ended up following Robert Llewellyn on there. It turns out that he's involved with a new set up called Unbound, that I've mentioned on here before, and that he had published a book through them some time last year. I liked the cut of the jib of that book and said as much to Anna, quite frequently actually, so that she ended up getting me the book for Christmas. Which was nice.

I, of course, did what I usually do with books that I get as gifts and entered the world of that book, reading it in pretty much every free moment that I had from getting up in a morning to going to bed at night and so finished reading it in about three days. It was a good book.

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Beer Review: Golden Glory

Evening all, I am about to embark on a journey beyond time and space, I've left Crete and entered the Demilitar... I'm quoting Good Morning Vietnam. This is not a good start. I'm actually drinking a beer, so it's review time.

Tonight I am drinking Badger's Golden Glory.

With a name like that I should have guessed that this was a summer beer. I mean, I think the last time I had one of these it was the height of summer and it was long before I started reviewing beers, even in my head, back then I was simply having a different beer every week. Anyway, it was time to try it properly. It claimed to be "curiously peachy" on the bottle and boy, was it ever! On opening there was a definite peach aroma, very strong and easily pllaced. Not unpleasant, but a little unexpected. I half expected the taste to be so fruity that I would be drinking juice rather than beer.

However, it wasn't. At all. I mean, as you sip it the aroma gets in to the mouth and there is a hint of peach as you close your mouth. But it is gone, washed away in an instant, by the actual beer itself. And the beer is rather thin in taste. I mean, it's 4.5% ABV, so not incredibly weak nor particularly strong. It's in that zone that I rather like my beers to be in. But there's, I dunno, not a great deal of depth to it. It's just... thin. There's a zestiness to it, certainly, that builds a little and there is a nice element of fizz to it that allows it to dance quite well without stamping on your toes whilst doing so. But there's no fire in the belly, nothing to grab on to and instead just that smell digging in your ribs as you try desperately to pull this closer to you.

After-taste is interesting, but not a lot else. There's something to it, a sugary quality I suppose, a sweetness and lightness that speaks of a warm day that needs to be tamed or a nice meadow awash with flowers and humming with beers. I guess I was expecting something a little heavier, perhaps more honey, than what I got (though in fairness the bottle does not flag up anything that would have made me think so apart from the 'golden' in the title). It's serviceable and will no doubt serve for me this evening, but it lacked the 'punch' that I suppose I was looking for.

Drink this best in the summer, in the sunshine, on a warm day when you're looking to simply enjoy yourself. Drink it at whatever speed you wish but make sure you are thirsty first because this is actually a thirst quencher. Enjoy the smell, the pungent peach, because that is easily the best quality of this particular beer. It's like Rose wine - unobtrusive and light, the perfect accompaniment to a light lunch of salad and some croutons. Have a good dressing with those rocket leaves, bring in some toasted french loaf and a small amount, the barest hint, of brie.  Then be sure to follow it up with a proper shepherd's pie and some gravy and a big pint of something like 1698.

Though I must confess, the longer you drink it and the closer you get to the end of the pint the nicer the whole thing becomes.  It mellows.  Also, it's 4.5% and I'm a complete lightweight - make of that what you will.

Prog Rock Noodlings

Next up on our journey through things that are vaguely inspiring or beautiful or just rather nice to keep this place from being totally, and boringly, about beer is the, frankly, awesome Forever Autumn from the War of the Worlds double album.

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Beer Review: Saltaire Blonde

It seems as though I have a genuine liking for Pale Ale. In that vein I shall be drinking Saltaire Blonde by the makers of Chocoholic, Saltaire breweries. Because, when I bought the beers they were in an offer so I got two from the same people. No other reason.

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