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.
