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,

US 52 Week Beer Club Spring (3rd) Quarter

The selection for the Spring Quarter of our US 52 week beer club is now finalised. We decided to release the third quarter of the US52WBC ahead of schedule as many of the beers recently became available to us and most of the beers included benefit from being served as fresh as possible.

The case includes excellent beers from 9 US breweries including sought after beers from Smuttynose and Ballast Point. It also includes some great canned beers from Caldera, which might change your opinion of canned beer forever!

We're already planning ahead for the final subscription 4th quarter release, we're getting word of some great US beers on their way to the UK in 2011 and we expect to be able to include lots more exciting and hard to find US beers.

We will also definitely be running the US 52wbc for 2011/2012 but as before it will be a fixed subscription club which we'll cap at 50 members so keep checking our Twitter and Facebook pages for news on the launch of the next years club.

The third quarter tasting notes are below, the beers will hopefully ship later this week.

New Thornbridge Bottles

We've just taken into stock a couple of new Thornbridge bottles which I think deserve shouting about. The first is 'Wild Swan' a beer I've enjoyed on draught many times. Described as a "White Gold Pale Ale" its a 3.5% very light pale ale with citrus notes and refreshing bitterness.

From the label " The essence of summer in a glass! Wild Swan evokes those long summer days with its brilliant white gold colour, aroma and tastes of light bitter lemon, hints of subtle herb spiciness and a long, hoppy refreshing finish."

Its a bold move by Thornbridge to bottle such a low abv pale ale, bottling ales is a tricky business at the best of times, and beers low in strength tend to be subtler in flavour so any off characteristics have no where to hide. That said Thornbridge don't traditionally bottle condition their beers by re-seeding the bottles with yeast, instead they use a centrifuge to lower the yeast count in the beers. This technique preserves body and flavour in the beers which would be stripped out using a conventional filtering method. I'm not sure what Camra's opinion is of this technique and whether it qualifies in there eyes as "Real Ale" but the beers certainly taste great, and are noticeably more flavourful than a beer which has been filtered and pasteurised. This is an effortlessly drinkable pale ale and at 3.5% you could have quite a few before any ill effects were noticed.

The second new bottle we now have available is another controversial one in some peoples eyes. Thornbridge have produced their first (as far as i'm aware) Lager, "Italia". The beer is a collaboration with Maurizio Folli of Birificio Italiano an Italian brewery with a great reputation particularly for producing flavourful lagers. And this isn't any old lager, in true Thornbridge style its all about the flavour and Italia is a really crisp clean Pilsner packed with European 'noble' hops which give the beer a grassy, herby quality. It also seems more subtly carbonated than your average lager giving it a really easy drinkability, this is going to be another fantastic summer time beer.

According to the bottle label "Ingrediants are fine Pilsner malt and Hallertau Northen Brewer, Perle and Spalter Select hops, after a cold fermentation and a long, very cold maturation the beer offers herbs and lemon zest on the nose with a malty note that appears as the beer warms up. In the mouth it is soft with creamy malty notes and moderately intense hops; the finish is herbal and minty with a firm bitterness"

So why is it controversial? because some people seem to have a problem with even the word "lager" when it comes to good beer. Within seconds of posting on our Facebook site last night there were negative comments because I was drinking lager and I'm sure there were lots of people thinking the same and dismissing 'Italia' because its a lager and not an ale. I can sympathise with this view point, I would have perhaps thought the same a few years ago.

Beer is such a polarizing subject, especially in this country. When people first discover real ale they are so taken with the flavour and drinkability compared to lager that they assume that all real ale is good and all lager is bad. In reality there are lots of flavourful lagers about and lots of badly made real ales. I think a lot of traditional real ale drinkers would get a lot out of checking out some well made lagers from time to time, I know I have. Lager doesn't always mean bland, watery fizz it can sometimes mean crisp, full flavoured and refreshing as with Thornbridges new lager "Italia".

You can buy Wild Swan and Italia here. They are also available via our pick and mix service here,

There will be a mixed case featuring Japiur, Kipling, Wild Swan and Italia available on the site shortly.

We are also now able to offer Thornbridges bottles wholesale, if you have a wholesale enquiry please contact sales@myBrewerytap.com