Drink Along - York Minster Ale

Old Mother Nature is a cruel mistress at times. The nights are drawing in, the mornings are getting wetter, I’m dreading the clocks going back and then – as if to poke a wound – it starts to warm up. Compared to the terrible summer we had, it’s almost tropical in London at the moment. High’s of 28; where was this weather in August!

Rest assured, it is definitely autumn now, and as we hurtle towards Christmas, it’s time to draw a line under the summer 52 Weeks Beer case. We draw that line with a bottle of York Minster Ale from the York Brewery.

I visited York brewery on a Twissup earlier in the year. Their Centurion’s Ghost ale is great (I wrote about it here). I can force them into a nutshell with this: two flagship session ales, both with pale malt and crystal malt, both with challenger hops, one is called “Guzzler”, the other “Yorkshire Terrier”. Yeah?

York Minster is amber in colour, ‘flame’ if you like, with a slight haze to it. The aroma is very slight. This isn’t even that cold in my glass, but it’s offering very little. Ammonia again, must be me, but I get that hair dye, hairdressers, bathroom-after-the-missus-has-coloured-her-hair aroma. What is that!?

In the mouth it’s quite thin bodied, tart and there’s a tanginess to it. The finish is bitter, bitter in a real prickly, sharp kinda way. There’s some biscuity malt character right on the back end. I can’t taste any obvious faults in this, nothing by way of an infection or bad fermentation or anything like that, it's just lacking in something major to comment on.

Help me out ...


You can find out more about the Drink Along here.

Drink Along - Cotleigh Barn Owl

After all those golden ales we’ve been drinking, this one comes as a shock to the system. It isn’t golden, or see-through, or highly carbonated! What the hell! It’s getting colder outside though and as much as we try to deny it, the nights are starting to draw in whilst the mornings get lighter. Despite being in the summer case, this style of beer feels kinda right.

The aroma is pretty complex. I get a lot of German Rye bread, the tangy, almost sour, savoury quality you find in that horrible German Rye bread. There’s toffee and treacle; malty sweetness that tag-teams with slight roasty notes to create something akin to Nutella. It smells good. Actually, no, it smells great.

But then when you drink it, it’s a little disappointing. It’s all a bit thin and empty, the body isn’t there and the finish is all metal and tannic astringency. That aroma sets you off thinking about big barley wines, roaring fires and cold toes; but the flavour just doesn’t deliver. Booo!

I mean it’s far from bad, don’t get me wrong. That toffee, chocolate, rye and roast follow through into the mouth and they’re nice. They’re pleasant, and the finish does become increasing balanced-out as you drink down the glass. That aroma though, it just promised so much more.

Let’s finish with two questions. Yep, two. What do you make of the beer? If you had to assign it a style, which would you pick? I – putting arguments as to whether or not it’s a single beer or a style aside – can kinda see this as an ESB. The malt profile hits me all very-small-barley-wine and that just makes me think Extra Special Bitter.

You can find out more about the Drink Along here.

Drink Along - Oakham Ales Inferno

When Oakham Citra is on form, I think it’s one of the best cask beers around. Ditto JHB. So, in much the same way as when we tasted Dark Star Sunburst, the bar of expectation is raised a little higher this week.

Oakham Inferno is a golden ale of 4% alcohol; it’s brewed with pale malt and five different US hop varieties. In the glass it's a vibrant gold with a loose white head. The aroma is lead by American hops, I’m getting cascadey grapefruit and citrus and a background of pine and slight resin. There’s a leafy, almost dank quality to the aroma that suggests extensive dry hopping has taken place.

The initial flavour doesn’t offer much sweetness; in crash those hops, bringing grapefruit pith and peel, some of that piney quality and perhaps some lemon. There’s a lovely grainy quality towards the backend and then a big hit of bitterness. That bitterness is great at first, but quickly builds and threatens to become too much. A slight suggestion of something metallic and then it’s gone.

And as you get further down the glass that bitterness does get a bit much. There’s almost a salty quality to it - like we saw with the Blond Witch.

Nice though, I liked it. It’s not Citra or JHB, but it’s pretty decent.

You can find out more about the Drink Along here.

Drink Along - Moorhouse's Blond Witch

"Moorhouse’s first ever ‘Blond’ ale, this beer is as light as you can get with a lager colour (minus the bubbles). Drinks to the strength of any good White Witch."

So ... looks like Moorhouse’s could do with a bit of advice on the marketing front. Far too often I find myself reading a beer description on a brewery website and screaming internally: WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!

I managed to glean from the bottle that this one is 4.5%, is hopped using fuggles and has a sweet-malty and citrus-hoppy flavour. Seriously though, some basic information about the flavour of your beer and how it was made, surely it’s just obvious that that needs to be on your website? Maybe it’s there and I didn’t look hard enough.

To me the aroma is quite muted. I don’t get much citrus at all – but then I wouldn’t expect to from fuggles – instead I get a slight spicy hoppiness and lots of sweet, biscuity malt. First taste is good, some real sweetness up front, a gentle spicy hop character and then a firm bitterness that lingers around nicely after you swallow.

Halfway down the glass, beer is warming up and things are changing a bit. That bitterness is getting big, maybe too big, it’s overtaken the sweetness and I’m left with an almost saltiness immediately after every sip. There’s some buttery flavour lurking in the background too, I don’t know if it’s just me or if there is some diacetyl there, but it’s not very pleasant.

I’m being a bit harsh here because this is pretty drinkable if not mind-blowing, I can imagine this working really well from a cask and the grassy, spicy notes from those fuggles hops are actually quite nice.

In seven words: sweet, malty, bitter, grassy, spicy, buttery, decent.

Is that buttery, margarine flavour just me or is that something that’s definitely in there?

You can find out more about the Drink Along here.

Drink Along - Williams Brothers Seven Giraffes

For some reason I haven’t really tried many Williams Brothers beers. There always seems to be something more rare or more interesting to try instead, so I never get round to them. They’ve got a reputation for making good beer and, truth be told, if it wasn’t so easy to get hold of their stuff, I’d probably be more active in trying to track it down.

Seven Giraffes – no, the name makes no sense to me either – is a pale ale brewed with seven different varieties of malted barley, lemon zest and elderflower. It’s 5.1% and immediately has me asking myself: why would you use seven varieties of malted barley?

The aroma is initially quite unpleasant; to me it’s got that classic cider-like aroma that typifies homebrew kits made with large percentages of white sugar. Given a while that seems to blow off slightly, and through comes a lot of malty sweetness, perhaps some honey and then a little alcohol. No sign of that lemon zest and elderflower.

Flavour is initially very sweet, malty and honeyed; a bitterness builds in the finish, going far enough to balance out that sweetness. That initial cidery flavour is nowhere to be found – what was that all about – there’s some slight alcohol warmth and a feeling on strength that’s magnified by a smooth, thick mouthfeel. This reminds me of a heller bock, I think lager fans will enjoy this and it might work better served at a colder temperature.

Despite the initial impression, I quite like this. It’s not really the sort of thing I usually go for but I found it pretty enjoyable. Still no sign of that elderflower and lemon zest though ...

What did you make of this one? You can find out more about the Drink Along here.

Drink Along - Ilkley Mary Jane

Quite looking forward to this one to be honest. I had it from cask at Craft Beer Co on their launch night a while back, and it was fantastic. Simple and elegant, uncomplicated but just really well put together. I’m always dubious as to how well sub-four-percent beers really work from the bottle, so it’ll be interesting on that front too.

Here goes ...

Ilkley Mary Jane is a 3.8% pale ale that’s brewed with large amounts of Amarillo hops (YUM!). It won gold medals at the Northern SIBA competition in 2009/10 and a took a bronze medal at the national finals.

Colour is golden and bright. Aroma is full of toasty, biscuity malt and then very ripe fruits. I get an almost stewed fruit aroma that follows through into the taste. It’s making me think yellow and fruity: peaches, mango, apricot, maybe some tangerine; things like that, all when very ripe. There’s some of that grainy, malty character in the taste too and then it’s all wrapped up and rounded off by a gentle bitterness. Lovely.

I’m really impressed actually; this is flying down, it tastes great and it’s only 3.8 %. I know from homebrew attempts that it’s difficult to pull off beers at low ABV in a bottle; there’s nowhere to hide, mistakes shine through because everything is pared down and scaled back, but this really pulls it off.

Top stuff, no?

Find out more about the Drink Along here

Drink Along - Ossett Yorkshire Blonde

The Oval test match getting washed out, evening runs in the pouring rain, taking an umbrella to work just in case, is it really the middle of August? A golden ale like Ossett Yorkshire Blonde almost feels out of place today, maybe something like a strong stout is more suitable. Anyway, no use complaining when there’s important work to be done ...

Yorkshire Blonde is a 3.9% “Lager-Style Beer” that’s hopped with “a generous late addition of Mount Hood hops”. In the glass it’s the colour of lemon peel, pale and bright; there’s a small little head that doesn’t last long.

Here’s a question: why make a “Lager-Style Beer”? Why not just make a lager?

The aroma is very subtle to me, maybe I’ve got the beer too cold but there’s very little to smell at all. As it warms up I get some lemonade aroma and, call me crazy, but ammonia. Ammonia like the smell you get with hair dye – if you’ve ever spent a morning waiting for the other half in the hair dresser, you might know what I mean. Weird.

In the flavour there’s some initial sweetness, this is broken up nicely but the bitterness in the finish. I’m not sure what happened to that generous late addition of Mount Hood, but they don’t seem to have made it into my glass. There’s a lemony tang going on; with the sweetness and thin body it reminds me of lemonade. I said this about one of the other beers we’ve tasted, but if you told me this was a lager top, I’d probably believe you.

There's a biscuity, toasty, malty character that comes through pretty strongly in the finish.

This beer is kinda just there. The ammonia, hair dye thing is odd, but, that aside, it’s difficult to really like or dislike a beer like this. It’s just there.
I bet it’s much better from cask.

Thoughts?

Find out more about the Drink Along here

Drink Along - Hewitt's Un-Hung Hero

So the piercing-blue eyes of a fella stare me down from behind the decapitated heads of two horses. Sometimes the bottle label grabs you and pulls you right in, other times it doesn't.

Un-Hung hero is a 5% pale ale that's brewed with Cascade and Northdown hops. The bottle text warns off those that like their beer fizzy and bland; ironic really because this is one of the most carbonated bottled beers I think I've ever drunk. The head is billowy and pillowy in the White Shield mould and sticks around throughout.

The aroma is great, it screams CASCADE at the top of its lungs, lots of really fresh hop aroma, grapefruit pith and peel and freshly squeezed juice. It's one of those aromas that you don't focus on long because it makes you just want to drink the beer.

But that's where the positives kinda end for me. The taste is dominated by a fruity sweetness that moves into green apple - a sure fire sign of acetaldehyde. Usually formed through oxidation or an incomplete fermentation, acetaldehyde is a compound that's almost always unwanted in beer. Imagine biting into a really crisp, cold, fresh green apple; that's the exact flavour I'm tasting here and that's the flavour of acetaldehyde.

Right in the background there's a husky, cereally, biscuit flavour that's coming from the grain. It's nice, but not enough to turn this bottle around.

Faults like this in a beer can be limited to a bottle or a batch. Just because the bottle I got wasn't perfect, doesn't mean the others were the same. How was yours?


Find out more about the Drink Along here

Drink Along - Hawkshead Red

I've just been out for a run. London is hot tonight - the sun might be in, but it's still mighty hot out there. This beer is in danger of lasting about thirty seconds because I am THIRSTY.

Anyway, this one stands out in the case because it's Hawkshead. I've heard a lot about Hawkshead, but I'm yet to try their beer. 'Red' is 4.4% ABV and is made with "English hops, malted barley and yeast". Could mean a lot of things then.

Today's glass is a nod towards the trip to Pilsen and Prague that I'm just back from ... in case you were wondering.

The aroma here is full of sweetness, hard-boiled candy sweetness, some caramel, toffee and burnt sugar. This follows through into the taste, lots of hard-boiled sweets and caramel; it feels sticky and sweet and like a whole shed-load of crystal malt was used to make it. There's a slight spicy, grassy hop note in the background that I immediately associate with English hops. It then finishes with a slight burnt sugar dryness and a bright, short-lived, punchy bitterness. There's some metal right at the end there too.

This reminds me of the Shepherd Neame beers I used to drink back home. It reminds me of them a lot!

Decent. Not really my sort of thing, but pretty decent.

And, to end, a question. Is this a summer ale? Drinking this one I'm instantly cast into autumn: browning leaves on the ground, the fire being lit down the pub for the first time - a beer that's not quite a winter warmer, but one that's nudging you in that direction.


Find out more about the Drink Along here

Drink Along - Dark Star Sunburst

Dark Star are one of my favourite breweries. They're one of the best breweries in the UK. It's a shame therefore that some of their best beer never makes it into bottle. Sunburst, however, does.

Sunburst is brewed with Maris Otter pale malt and a multi-cultural blend of Cascade (USA), Styrian Golding and Challenger (UK) hops*. It's lager-gold in colour with a slight haze which, when you consider it's a filtered beer, is a little confusing. I get that grapefruit flavour that's synonymous with Cascades right at the end of the tail, before that comes lots of lemon, like lemon balm or lemon curd maybe, lemon but thick in texture, lemon muted by sweetness. Lemon sherbets before you get to the fizzy bit! And then after all that hop comes a grainy finish, a little like biscuits, a little cereal, right at the end there as it starts to dry out. I think that grainy flavour is a product of Maris Otter malt, it just seems to have character about it that other pale malts don't.

The bottle says "enjoy from the fridge for extra sharpness". I've read that two or three times and I'm still baffled by what it means and how it could be true.

More of that lemon sherbet is showing up as the beer warms, it's interlaced with that Cascade grapefruit flavour and it all sits on top of that biscuity malt. Very nice indeed. As it gets warmer I'm either going mad or there's a kinda almondy, marzipan like aroma there. That will sound nuts**, but if you're drinking along, it might make sense.

This is a solid, pleasant, well made beer. The fact I'm not going mad for it is because it's Dark Star, and when you're drinking Dark Star your expectations are raised a notch or two.


* Note: Cascade are actually grown in the UK too, so there is a chance that they aren't from the USA. I always imagine Alan Partridge when I think of Sytrian Goldings - an interesting bit of trivia about Styrian Goldings is that they're actually derived from the Fuggle hop, not the Golding hop. I always imagine Partridge attempting a joke about "Styrian Fuggles" to an audience that just looks bemused in response whilst he chuckles to himself. Just me then ...

** Pun most definitely intended!

Drink Along - Lymestone Foundation Stone

This is another one that stood out from the summer-case-crowd through the strength of its branding; simple in design but well executed with a modern feel to it. Foundation Stone is a 4.5 % pale ale that’s made with pale and crystal malts and Boadicea and Pilot hops.

It’s lager-golden in colour, really pale, the aroma is quite muted but there’s some malt there, bready and biscuity notes from the malt backed up by some toffee and caramel. The flavour is dominated by the finish and comes and goes quickly. There’s not much up front at all and then in sweeps this pretty hefty bitterness towards the end; it’s a sharp, bright, punchy bitterness that reminds me of something you’d get from a noble hop. Right at the very end it dries out and you get some of that malt coming through, sort of grainy, sort of cereal and then it’s gone.

Perseverance brings a gentle peppery hop note that appears just before the bitterness, you have to go looking for it though. And, whilst we’re looking, I get a slight lactic tartness too, in the flavour and then in the aroma as a sort of yoghurty, sour milk character.

I’m struggling for things to say about this beer, help me out ...


Find out more about the Drink Along here.

Drink Along - Meantime Wheat

German hefeweizen (or wheat beer if that’s easier) was a bit of a gateway beer style for me. They don’t tend to be very hoppy or very bitter, they’re usually quite sweet and they’re different enough from lager to get make you curious. I guess approachable would be the word I’d use, enough to pique an interest but not palate-shocking enough to scare you off.

Meantime Wheat is a decent enough example of the style, brewed not in Germany but in East London. It’s 5 percent ABV and uses wheat and pale malt, perle and northern brewer hops.

Wheat beers should be drunk with the yeast in. I find this adds a richness to the feel of the beer and gives it a thicker, more velvety texture. When served from a bottle in Germany, the beer will be poured almost completely into the glass before the last few drops are swirled around the bottom of the bottle to pick up as much of the sediment as possible, this is then thrown in too. When pouring, it’s also important to be quite aggressive, you want to create a big pillow of head to sit on top of the beer.

Meantime Wheat is a glorious, glowing amber colour with a white fluffy cloud of head on top. I’m thinking that more must be at work in this beer than wheat and pale malt – how else could that colour have been achieved? The yeast-driven phenols are there but they’re not easy to pick out as one of the traditional banana, clove or bubblegum. I get some orange notes and a sort of hummy, pear drop flavour that I’m really struggling to describe. The body is a little thin, there’s a caramel, toffee sweetness lurking in the background and it feels like it needs more body for that to be brought forward. Combined with the heavy carbonation, I can’t help but think of seltzer water.

I don’t really drink much wheat beer these days; that’s the thing with a gateway, you tend to move on into the house. When I do though, it’s more often than not with food. Wheat beers work really well with desserts I think and one of my favourite combinations is a banana-forward wheat beer with banana pancakes, delicious.

So, am I being a bit tough of this one, what do you think?


Find out more about the Drink Along here.

International IPA Day

"On Thursday August 4th, craft beer drinkers across the social sphere and across the globe will raise pints in a collective toast to one of craft beer’s most iconic styles: the India Pale Ale."

You can find out more about the first ever IPA Day here, and you can stock up in preparation here.

Drink Along - Bitter End Lakeland IPA

Our first beer in the 52 Week Drink Along is Bitter End Brewing Co Lakeland IPA. This bottle stood out from the rest of the summer case through the strength of its branding. You can tell the bottle label has been designed on a budget but the information is clear, the presentation is distinct and the styling suggests a modern beer from a brewery that cares about the quality of their product above all else. Top marks so far.

Bitter End are based in Cumbria and have been brewing beer since 1995, their mission statement says: “We pride ourselves in making innovative, progressive and exciting full flavour beers, which are not to be confused with mass produced, bland, tasteless beers”. Sounds good to me. Lakeland IPA is made with pale and crystal malts, cascade, simcoe and first gold hops.

The beer is pound-coin-golden with a white head; immediately after pouring I notice heavy carbonation with lots of tiny bubbles billowing from the sides of the glass. The aroma is subdued but I can detect lemony citrus with a sweetness behind it – imagine the smell of a concentrated lemonade syrup.

The first few mouthfuls are dominated by syrupy sweetness and by those lemony citrus notes; combined with that heavy carbonation I’m immediately thinking shandy! The fizzy drink style shandy you get in two litre bottles, the stuff that’s only something like 0.1% alcohol. Half the glass is gone and it’s perfectly enjoyable, just not what I was expecting at all.

As the beer warms I’m getting more hop aroma and flavour; a pungent, dirtier hop flavour that could be coming from that simcoe. There’re are no faults in this beer, it’s very clean and tidy, I’d guess a California ale yeast strain is at work here. And as it warms further it’s getting better and better, that hop flavour is coming through stronger, I’m getting a floral quality to it now – something along the lines of cut flowers, and then there in the finish there’s a grainy, biscuity flavour coming from the malt. I’m really enjoying this beer as I empty the glass.

If we’re talking IPA, I want more hops. Add to that the 5.5% abv and I’m going out on a limb to say I find this closer to an American Pale Ale than an American style IPA. The bitterness is right but I’d like the beer to be drier, that sweetness becomes a bit too much at times and I think a drier finish could tighten things up and further improve drinkability. Don’t get me wrong though, I think this is a great beer, faultlessly made with some good hoppy presence and nicely balanced malty backbone.

Over to you ... what do you reckon?

52 Week Drink Along - Summer Schedule

Here's the Drink Along schedule for the summer 52 Weeks beer case. If you're wondering what the hell a Drink Along is, check this out.

Friday 08th July - Bitterend Brewery Lakeland IPA
Friday 15th July - Meantime Brewery Wheat
Friday 22nd July - Lymestone Brewery Foundation Stone
Friday 29th July - Darkstar Brewery Sunburst

Friday 05th August - Hawkshead Brewery Red
Friday 12th August - Hewitt's Brewery Unhung Hero
Friday 19th August - Ossett Brewery Yorkshire Blonde
Friday 26th August - Ilkley Brewery Mary Jane

Friday 02nd September - Williams Brothers Seven Giraffes
Friday 09th September - Moorhouse's Brewery Blond Witch
Friday 16th September - Oakham Ales Inferno
Friday 23rd September - Cotleigh Brewery Barn Owl
Friday 30th September - York Brewery York Minster Ale

52 Week Drink Along

I love to share good beer with other people. Cracking open that beer you’ve been saving is one thing if you’re drinking it alone, but if you’re sharing it around with two or three other people, it’s always more fun. Share it around and pull it apart. What can you taste in the glass, what can the person next to you taste? What food would you drink it with? What would they drink it with? It’s a great way to take the drinking experience beyond the actual drinking, and it’s a great way to expand your vocabulary for taste. They’ll be times when a flavour is on the tip of your tongue, but you just can’t put your finger on what it is, then suddenly your mate says “coffee grounds” and all you can do is face-palm with how obvious it is! Every time you then taste that flavour, you’ll instantly be able to describe it.

If you’re a member of the MyBreweryTap 52 Week Beer Club, then I’m willing to bet that you’re a lover of good beer. And, as a lover of good beer, I’m also willing to bet that you’re interested in expanding your appreciation for beer, for learning more about it and for becoming better at appraising beer flavour. At the heart of all that is a simple question: “do I like it or not?”, but beyond that is an appreciation for brewing technique, for beer style and history, for a whole new vocabulary of flavour descriptors and for beer ingredients and the roles they play in what you taste in your glass.

Many of us find it hard to regularly get together with friends and drink beer; geography gets in the way, work and family commitments have to take priority or maybe you’re just someone whose friends are all content with drinking cans of any-old-lager. Well, the 52 Weeks Beer Club gives us a chance to avoid all those problems. How about a drink along where each week we take one of those 52 beers and we all drink it at the same time? We then use the MyBreweryTapBlog as a place to discuss the beer, what we taste in it, what we like and dislike about it, what food we’d like to eat with it and so on. It’s your chance to share a beer with a houseful of like-minded people, without ever having to open your front door! Sound cool?

Let’s start with the summer case. If you’re already part of the club then you’ll be receiving yours through the post very soon - hold on to those bottles (or at least make some notes so you can join in when we get to those that you can’t help but drink)! If you haven’t signed up but would like to, don’t worry it’s not too late, have a look here. The summer case runs from July through to the end of September, so I’ll post a running list of bottles by week at the end of June and then the first bottle post will happen in the first week of July. My post will have some thoughts and opinions on the chosen bottle, and then it’s over to you guys to tell me how wrong you all think I am in the blog comments section.

If you’ve got any ideas or comments in the meantime, post them below or drop me an email at beerbirrabier at gmail dot com.

Cheers,
Mark

Allow Me To Introduce ... Me!

Starting up a brewery takes time and dedication you know. Time enough that you aren’t really left with a chance to write blog posts anymore. And so, with a face-full of malt dust and hands covered in hop resin, @magicRockRich hangs up his keyboard and his mouse and draws a line under his blogging days. Well, for the time being at least …

Which I guess means I should introduce myself. Most likely you don’t know me at all, but if you do, it’s probably through such blog posts as “Beer Festival. This Time It’s Personal”, “Colin Valentine on Beer Bloggers” or “Dry Hopping Bottled Macro Lager”. My name is Mark and I often go by the alias beerbirrabier; I write a blog at beerbirrabier.com and I tweet about stuff here. With Rich dedicated to making great beer at Magic Rock, I’ve been given the opportunity to write content for the MyBreweryTap blog - and it all starts with this post here.

My aim is to carry on the great job that Rich was doing, and I’ve got some cool ideas for posts over the next few months. We’ll start with a “Drink Along” idea that I’ve got for members of the 52 Week Beer Club (more details on that in the next entry) and we’ll build on things from there. There’s no reason why we can’t build a real community of MyBreweryTap customers, of beer lovers, taking your interaction with MyBreweryTap beyond the checkout, all the way up to the beer in your glass.

By way of a disclaimer, I’d like to say from the outset that I’m writing blog content here for free. I’m doing it because I think it’ll be fun, I think it’ll improve and further my appreciation for beer and because I genuinely am a fan of MyBreweryTap. Lack of payment also means that I have no ulterior motives or any obligation to say that I think something’s great if I actually think it’s a bit crap. What you’ll read on this blog is my honest opinion and the opinion of me alone; but that being said, I think this should be a blog for anyone that buys good beer from MyBreweryTap, so please get in touch with me (beerbirrabier at gmail dot com) with any comments, ideas or views.

So let’s do this then! Let’s talk beer.

Mark.

Guest Blog #11 - Danny Gazzi on Spring 52wbc

10. Oakham Ales, Citra

I’d been looking forward to this one, because Oakham’s JHB had been my favourite beer in the 52WBC so far. On the label, Oakham claim to have been the first in the UK to use Citra hops, way back in 2009.

It pours light golden, with little head but some lacing down the sides of the glass. Good, fruity aroma. At first sip it has a lemony aftertaste. Very smooth and well-balanced with a refreshing bitterness.

The glass was empty before I could finish making mental notes – always a sign that I enjoyed it. 4.5/5.

I must try the rest of their range. It’s a pity that more of them aren’t available as a Pick & Mix.

11.Stroud Brewery, Budding Organic Pale Ale

Pours light brown with a small white head. Pleasant, fruity aroma.

It starts off quite sweet, but then becomes more well-balanced. I’d call it pleasant and inoffensive. 3/5.

And now on to the two bottle conditioned beers in the case. Normally I would keep BC beers in the cellar longer than this before drinking them, up to their best before date, or even beyond, as I think that they develop more flavour with time. In fact I haven’t yet touched most of the BC beers from my three previous 52WBC cases. However, I realise that many of you are logging on daily, anxious to read my latest review, so I can’t keep you in suspense any longer.

12. Breconshire Brewery, Rescue Brew

Pours mid brown. I poured it very carefully, so as not to disturb the sediment and get a clear beer; perhaps too carefully, as it’s now got no head. The bottle has broad shoulders to help retain the sediment. An appetizing, yeasty aroma that couldn’t be mistaken for a pasteurised beer.

With the first taste, bitterness grasps your tongue. Then a maltiness follows, and these seem to alternate in grabbing your attention. Very enjoyable.

I always used to leave the sediment in BC beers, but the Belgians usually drink theirs “for the vitamins”. Now I usually pour even British sediment into the glass after I’ve drunk most of it. It doesn’t taste any better than the clear beer, but it’s not bad, and waste not, want not. 4.5/5.

The Breconshire brewery was put up for sale earlier this year. Whatever its fate, I hope that they keep up the quality of beers like this.

13. Three Castles Brewery, Longbarrow

Pours dark brown with some brownish head. A yeasty and fruity aroma. It tastes richer than I was expecting, and stronger than its 4.5%. There’s also quite a strong spice in there that I can’t place (possibly nutmeg?), but not unpleasant.

So, a brown ale rather than a bitter. 4/5.

That’s the end of my reviews of this case. Thanks again to Richard for providing it and for running the 52WBC. It’s all down to opinions, and if you enjoy a particular beer, don’t worry what anyone else says. If you look at http://www.theormskirkbaron.com/ you’ll see that he and I have some very different opinions about this case. In fact, the only one that we appear to really agree about is the Oakham Citra, which was my particular favourite from this case.

A big thanks to Danny for his excellent reviews... If you'd like to guest blog one of our 52wbc mixed cases in future please get in touch: richard@mybrewerytap.com

You can sign up to the 52 Week Beer Club here, we still have a number of mixed cases of the same selection available here.

Guest Blog #10 - Danny Gazzi on Spring 52wbc

Here’s Part 2 of Danny Gazzi's review of the spring 52WBC case.

5. Fynes Ales, Jarl

Jarl arrives with a very high reputation.

It pours very pale gold, practically a lager colour, with a large, white head. Pleasant, hoppy aroma. A clean, bitter taste, it’s very similar to the Stringers in Part 1. Apart from the colour, I’m not sure I could tell them apart. On paper, they’re very different though, the Stringers being a 5.5% IPA made with Amarillo hops, and this being 3.8% and described as a golden/blond ale made with Citra. Baron Orm says he can taste loads of marmalade in the Stringers, which I couldn’t. I haven’t retried that one yet, but I did drink my second bottle of Jarl to see if I could detect the claimed “full-on citrus experience”, but I still failed to do so. Maybe my taste buds aren’t up to this beer reviewing. Nobody tell Richard, please. 4/5

6. York Brewery, Centurions Ghost Ale

This was the only beer I’d had before, but on draught. I remember it as being quite rich and malty, and good.

It pours very dark indeed, with little head. A malty aroma, with some roasted barley.

The taste is similar, with also a hint of liquorice.

I feel that strong, dark beers usually do better in bottle than others, and this is no exception. Tasty and enjoyable. It could do with a touch more bitterness to stop it becoming a bit cloying. 3.5/5

7. Brentwood Brewery, Gold

Pours golden brown, with a small head which soon vanishes.

A sweetish, fruity aroma. Tastes of boiled sweets (acetates?).

Golden ales aren’t my favourite beer style, as they usually have less flavour than a bitter or an IPA, but this one isn’t my thing at all. The brewer’s notes describe it as “heavily hopped with fruity Cascade hops which come through at the end to provide a great finish”. Whoever wrote that must have a very sweet tooth.

Another organic beer that disappoints. 1.5/5

8. Tring Brewery, Side Pocket For A Toad

Pours mid brown, with a small head which soon vanishes. My wife, Maggie, informs me that the presence of protein would be one cause of a larger head and longer head retention. I have noticed that beers with a bigger head are normally higher quality, and perhaps more protein is the reason.

A floral/malty aroma, and the taste is quite similar. It’s well-balanced, although I can detect that bottle, pasteurised taste coming through with the bitter finish.

According to the list of ingredients it contains wheat as well as barley. 2.5/5

9. Bays Brewery, Gold

I chose this to drink next because I’ve just come back from a few days in the West Country, and it’s from Torbay.

Pours pale gold with practically no head. As I mentioned above, I’m beginning to see this as a bad sign. A faint, slightly fruity aroma, and a neutral taste. Few golden ales excite me, and this is no exception. 2/5

Thanks again to Danny for more honest unbiased reviews, more to follow... If you'd like to guest blog one of our 52wbc mixed cases in future please get in touch: richard@mybrewerytap.com

You can sign up to the 52 Week Beer Club here, we still have a number of mixed cases of the same selection available here.

Pick and Mix Functionality Now Live!

Its taken a little while longer than we would have liked but we're happy to announce some important functionality additions to myBrewerytap.com.

Firstly we're pleased to announce that individual Pick and Mix functionality is now live on the site. You can now select up to 16 individual bottles per case from the beers we hold in physical stock.

The pick and mix section of the site contains many rarer UK beers and imports from the US craft brewing scene which we enjoy sourcing and drinking ourselves, have a look here to see if there are any beers you've been wanting to get hold off. The section will expand and be ever changing as exciting new beers become available to us so please keep checking back to see what stock we have in.

Secondly we are now able to offer Multi-Case Shipping Discount on orders of more than one case from the same brewery (or Pick and Mix). Our standard shipping rate is £5.99 per case, but subsequent cases will now be charged at the lower rate of £3.20 per case.

Lastly we are now able to offer International Shipping to the EU countries listed below.

Channel Islands / Scilly Isles, Southern Ireland
Belgium, Luxembourg & Netherlands
Denmark, France, Germany & Monaco
Corsica
Italy
Spain
Greece & Portugal
Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden & Switzerland
Estonia, Latvia, Malta, Romania & Turkey
Bulgaria, Canary Islands & Gibraltar

A full list of areas and rates is displayed here.

Unfortunately due to different US State legislation we are still unable to post to the US for the time being. We are however investigating the possibility of adding more international destinations including the US to the site in future.

We hope you'll agree that these changes are a welcome addition to the functionality of the site, we're constantly looking for ways to improve the shopping experience for customers and are always happy to receive feedback. If you have any comments good or bad, please let us know: sales@myBrewerytap.com

Keep up to date with all our latest news via Twitter and Facebook .

US 52 Week Beer Club Final (4th) Quarter

The selection for the Final Quarter of our US 52 week beer club is now finalised. As with the last release we've decided to bring the shipping date forward, once again partly due to the beers available to us but also as we are keen to start planning and sourcing the beers for next years US 52wbc.

The final case once again contains some excellent US beers, as well as some great seasonal brews from well known US breweries there are two great beers from Great Divide Brewing from Denver, Colorado. We've also been able to include two big bad US barley wines in Flying Dog's "Horn Dog" and Sierra Nevada's revered "BigFoot".

We hope you have been happy with the quality and range of beers we have included in our first ever US52wbc and and very much hope you will renew your subscription for 2011/2012.

As before it will be a fixed subscription club, which due to demand we've increased to a cap of 100 members. Please be aware that we intend to re-visit a few of the classic US beers you have received in your first subscription (such as Goose Island IPA) as we feel these are too good to leave out for any new members.

We expect to be opening subscriptions to the club in May/June time but keep checking our Twitter and Facebook pages for official news on the launch of next years club.

The fourth quarter tasting notes are below, the beers will ship next week after the bank holiday.

Guest Blog #9 - Danny Gazzi on Spring 52wbc

As an introduction to this review, I’ll explain where my beer tasting is coming from.

My favourite type of beer is a well-kept draught cask bitter. Always has been, probably always will be. For many years I didn’t drink bottled beer at all, finding it gassy with an unpleasant aftertaste, which was probably the pasteurisation.

Then, when working in Belgium, I discovered Belgian bottle beers, which were much nicer, and realised that the best ones were usually bottle conditioned. I started trying British bottled beers, and found some good ones. Again, the best were usually bottle conditioned. My favourite was the supermarket own brand Morrisons The Best, brewed by Freeminer, which was discontinued a couple of years ago. So I searched for a replacement, and this brought me to MyBreweryTap and its 52WBC.

I use the following scoring scale for the bears:

1 – Unpleasant. I wish I hadn’t finished the bottle.

2 – Not very good. An average, bottled British beer.

3 – Good. I’ll stock up with some of these if it’s on special offer.

4 – Very good.

5 – Wow! Very enjoyable, and memorable.

I’m glad to say that none of my previous 52WBC beers has merited a “1”. Only one of them has reached a “5” so far.

So, on to the Spring Case, which MyBreweryTap has kindly sent me to review.

On opening the case, I was pleased to find that they are all 500ml bottles this time, but a bit disappointed that only 2 of them are bottled conditioned; previous cases have had 3 or 4. More about these two in a later review. I’d never encountered any of the beers in bottle before, and only one of them on draught.

1. Inveralmond Brewery, Lia Fail

Pours dark brown with a good head.

Rich aroma which reminded me of a good Belgian brown ale. A rich, malty, sweetish taste, as you’d expect from a dark Scottish beer. Slightly thin finish, but then its 4.7% ABV compares with 7%+ for a typical Belgian.

I couldn’t detect the chocolate tones that are mentioned on the label, but it’s a very good Scottish Heavy. 4/5

2. McMullen Brewery, AK XXX

Pours mid-brown with a good head (I poured it too quickly, as you can see from the photo), and a good lacing down the glass.

Pleasant, hoppy aroma, possibly due to the whole leaf hops. Quite well balanced, but it would be a better session beer with a bit more bitterness.

At first,I thought it had a bit of that characteristic “bottle taste”, but that soon vanished. 3/5

3. Saffron Brewery, IPA

Pale brown with practically no head, and what there is soon vanishes.

Little aroma and little taste, with no finish and a thin mouthfeel.

It’s a nothing beer, although it still made me burp. By coincidence (?) it’s the weakest beer in the case at 3.6% ABV, but I wouldn’t have thought that this was a drawback.

It’s an organic beer. Now, all the organic wines I’ve tried have been good, but I’ve been less impressed with organic beers. It may be something to do with having to take greater care of the grapes to make up for the lack of preservatives, but with barley it doesn’t matter; I don’t know. But back to the Saffron, I was left asking myself why bother brewing and bottling it at all. 2/5

But I’d like to try it on draught on a warm summer’s day. It might then make a good session beer.

4. Stringers Beers, IPA

Pours pale brown with a good, white head. Little aroma. A plain and bitter taste, with a bitter finish, but it is very good. There’s very little I can say about this, except that I like it. The brewer’s notes claims tropical fruit, then marmalade, before the bitter finish. How did I miss all that? I’ll have to revisit it.

Apparently, it features Amarillo hops. I don’t claim to be able to identify the hops used from the taste, but I’m willing to try an learn. 4/5

Overall, that was a very promising start to the case. I’m looking forward to the rest.

Thanks to Danny for the excellent review, more to follow...

You can sign up to the 52 Week Beer Club here, we still have a small number of mixed cases of the same selection available here.

Spring Update/Magic Rock Brewing

Firstly I'd like to apologise to anyone who might be reading for my pathetically lazy upkeep of this blog. In my defense I have been pretty busy, as well as helping run myBrewerytap.com and my day job as a graphic designer I have for the last 6 months been in the process of starting a brewery.

As you can imagine this has taken a lot of organisation and effort but we are nearing completion of the installation and ready to start brewing soon. I am in the process of resigning my old job as a graphic designer and working full time for our new brewery "Magic Rock Brewing". I will also continue as a director of myBrewerytap and continue to do what I can to make myBrewerytap the best online beer shop in the UK.

As different business entities myBrewerytap.com and Magic Rock Brewing will be for the most part kept separate and while there will be some cross over (mBt will retail the Magic Rock bottles) mBt will continue to be an un-biased market place for UK breweries to sell their beer. If you'd like more info on Magic Rock Brewing please check out Mark's blog here.

myBrewerytap's sales since Christmas have been great and we've been paricularly pleased with the response to our pick and mix stock list. With this is mind we have decided to push ahead and invest in the development of pick and mix functionality within the main site. What this means is as well as buying full and mixed cases direct from many breweries around the UK, you will also be able to pick and mix individual bottles from the beers we hold in physical stock. We are comitted to sourcing the best beers we can for this part of the site, and will endeavour to bring you the rare, unusual and best beers that we can get hold of.

As this functionality comes on line we will be looking to invest in more stocks to complement the range as well as more excellent mixed cases and special offers. We are also implementing a 'multi case discount' across the site, meaning that if you want to buy more than one case from a brewery the second case will be at a discounted shipping rate.

We are also getting closer to implementing international shipping on the site. This will initially be to EU countries but we'll be looking at the feasibility of expanding that worldwide as soon as possible.

The other big news for this summer is that after the fantastic response we have received so far we are definitely going ahead with our popular US 52 Week Beer Club for 2011. I've had some really exciting conversations with our importers and am confident we can continue to source an eclectic mix of new and old favourites from the US and push these fantastic breweries products who we feel are at the forefront of the world beer scene. We still have to decide the format for this years membership but there will definitely be more than the 50 spaces available last year, and there will definitely be some amazing US beers included. We expect to be offering subscriptions late May/June, if you're interested please watch the usual places for info..

Our current best selling US mixed case featuring 15 bottles is available here.

Spring 52 Week Beer Club preview

Its time for another release of our 52 Week Beer Club. We hope you enjoyed the winter case featuring many darker ales, we had lots of great feedback about the beers Acorn Breweries “Gorlovka” and Hawkshead Brewery’s “Brodies Prime” proving particularly popular.

As the days are now getting lighter and to get you in the mood for warmer weather this case see’s a return to predominantly lighter ales and bitters.

Below is a preview of the beers in this quarters case. Let us know what you think! any beers you'd like to see in future cases?


We're just in the process of consolidating and packing the beers, and the cases will ship to 52wbc members early next week. The case will also be available to buy as an individual mixed case here.

If you'd be interested in guest blogging the contents of the case, please email me richard@myBrewerytap.com

Guest Blog #8 - Rachel Soens on Winter 52wbc (part 2)

Espresso Stout by Dark Star Brewery
Wow, this Stout has the strongest scent of coffee ever. However it was utterly lovely. I would happily drink this after a meal instead of an actual coffee. I’d happily munch biscuits with this stout. In fact if I was feeling particularly naughty on a camping trip I might be tempted to have the Stout for breakfast! Totally delicious and one of my favourites.

Black Dub by Wensleydale Brewery
Now this Stout was one definitely on our favourites list. Rich and yet light at the same time. Very easy to drink and very tasty. I would love to try a drop of this in a steak pie and the richness would enhance the meat and enrich the gravy. Tom wants to try it ice cold in the summer.


Bitter by Butcombe Brewery
This Bitter had a dark stewed tea colour. A properly bitter bitter if that can be a description. I would really enjoy this in a bitter shandy. I would also like to try it in a rich gravy with plenty of tomato in a sausage casserole. Good hearty food would complement this brew.



Black Pearl Stout by Wooden Hand Brewery
This Stout has a very rich scent; it is very heavy, very very heavy, like a treacle pudding after a big roast dinner. I couldn’t drink many as it’s very filling. It would be a lovely winter warmer. I found the more I drank of the bottle the more I enjoyed it. A nice comfort drink after a long walk in the cold.

Highlander by Fyne Ales
Even though this bottle of bitter had lain in the fridge for a couple of days untouched when I opened the bottle the liquid frothed up and out when I took the lid off. However the Highlander was instantly forgiven once I tasted it. Delicious! As tasty as Connor McCloud himself. I could quite happily make this a regular tipple. My favourite out of the entire crate. I would love to try a little of this tipple in a beer batter for battered fish.

Stocking Filler by York Brewery
Tom says this Dark Ale reminded him of a mince pie. Perhaps my taste buds are playing up because to me it tasted like smoked chicken, (which I once tried in Lancaster – very nice). Well Tom loved it and would get it again. I thought it was okay but wouldn’t fight him for a bottle.



80 Shilling by Williams Brothers
I liked this bitter very much indeed; in fact it’s fighting the Highlander to be my favourite out of the crate. It is light even though it had a slipperish texture on the tongue. I will definitely get this one again. It reminded me a little of a Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut bar with it’s lovely chocolately aftertaste.

A big thanks to Rachel for reviewing the beers. If you'd like to guest review our next mix please contact richard@myBrewerytap.com

You can sign up to the 52 Week Beer Club here, we still have a small number of mixed cases of the same selection available here.

Guest Blog #7 - Rachel Soens on Winter 52wbc

"Well the last few weeks have been eventful. I’ve had a birthday, been offered and then started a new job, various laptop problems, then MyBreweryTap kindly sent me a crate of marvellous booze to review. I was a kind bunny sharing the (mostly) delicious liquid with my other half, Tom. I apologise for the shaky photos of the bottles, I was trying out my new camera (I mentioned i’d recently had a birthday didn’t I and was excited to try out my new toy). As you will be able to tell from my reviews I love to cook and when tasting beers I’m always thinking of different ways to incorporate the flavours within my cooking as well"

Zeitgeist by Brewdog Brewery
This Black Lager was far lighter on the palate and stomach than I expected. As I poured it into the glass the dark colour brought an expectation of heaviness, however the brew is a delicious molten horlicks tasting brew. It has a warming aftertaste that I really enjoyed with definite coffee and dark chocolate overtones. The hint of liquorice is very mild luckily for me as that is not my favourite flavour. Many people when cooking a chilli dish throw in a couple of pieces of dark bitter chocolate to enhance the flavour. I would be really interested in trying some Zeitgeist as an ingredient in a chilli based dish. It would need to be a strong flavoured meat perhaps beef or venison to complement each other. Over all I thoroughly enjoyed this lager.

Dunkel by Freedom Brewery
This dark russet lager was not what I expected at all. It was extremely light compared to it’s colour and easy to drink. Perhaps a little too easy to drink for my taste buds but thoroughly enjoyed by Tom who is more of a Peroni type drinker than a real ale lover. I found the aftertaste was stronger than the initial flavour. The more I drank of it the more I liked it with the aftertaste working well with the initial tasting and the toffee flavour becoming more apparent the more you drank. I would be quite happy knocking this back all evening as it wasn’t too heavy and would make a good party booze. i.e. being able to have a bit of a dance round my handbag between gulps.

Brodies Prime by Hawkshead Brewery
I found this dark premium ale to be very spicy and bitter. It smelt very fruity like a malt loaf. Although light on the stomach the aftertaste reminded me of a Fishermans friend. I found the taste that strong that I could not recommend drinking this when eating all you would taste would be the aniseed flavour. I’m afraid Tom thought it tasted of soap however we still managed it, (waste not want not!). Not one of our favourites.

Gorlovka by Acorn Brewery
Oh dear, yet another liquid Fishermans friend. The aftertaste is not as strong as Brodies Prime although the liquorice flavour is extremely pungent. The bitterness was making the back and sides of my tongue tingle and the liquid had a bit of sparkle to it. I may be tempted to try this if I had a bad cough. Forget a hot toddy, try a Gorlovka instead! Also be aware this is much more alcoholic than it tastes you could accidently end up on your back, but on the bright side your cough would have disappeared.

Holly Berry by Three Castles Brewery
This Ale was an odd one. I loved the flavour, reminded me a little of Leffe. Very pleasant to drink if you didn’t smell it first. It smelt of lemon, but not delicious lemons. Not the sort of lemons that you slice and pop in a Gin & Tonic, not the juicy tasty lemons that you quarter and squeeze over your smoked salmon, not the sharp lemon in a scrumptious summer tart. No, unfortunately it was the lemon that you smell in cleaning products. One whiff of this ale and you are immediately transported back to primary school and being forced to smell the lemony dirty dish cloth the dinner lady insisted on wiping your table with when you are trying to eat your fish fingers and peas. Shame because the ale tastes lovely! As long as you don’t inhale when drinking this is a lovely lovely drink.

JHB by Oakham Brewery
I didn’t spot the citrus in this Summer Ale until the second sip and then it was like a slap in the face. However a playful friendly slap if that is possible because this ale is delicious. Very, very much a summer ale. I could see myself on a warm summers evening enjoying this drink Al Fresco with a fabulous fish based salad. This would also make a fab shandy with cloudy lemonade."

Many thanks to Rachel for reviewing the beers, I'll post the second part of Rachel's review shortly. If you'd like to guest review our next mix please contact richard@myBrewerytap.com

You can sign up to the 52 Week Beer Club here, this mix is also available as an individual mixed case here,