Every time I am in France I end up drinking lager. And it is always Leffe. Now I like Leffe, but it isn’t ale. It is passable Belgian Beer.
I promised Enrico (my Italian friend) that – on my next trip to France – I would bring some English ale for him to try. So I [...]

I’ve reviewed a few organic ales and compared them to St Peter’s Organic Best Bitter. Well now we get to talk about it properly.
First the bottle details. St Peter’s Organic Best Bitter is 4.1%. It is made with organically grown Charlot malted barley – which makes up the mash for this ale. To give [...]

Prince Charles has his own food line. Top quality produce and all organic. Amongst it all is Duchy Originals Organic Ale.
Made to a traditional and exclusive recipe using barley from selected organic farms including the Home Farm at Highgrove (Charlie’s house!) – this ale comes in at 5.0%
Prince Charles pretty much pioneered organic farming in [...]

Now I can’t decide if Theakston XB makes it into my top 5.
Having driven for 12 hours from the UK to my house in France, I was in serious need of some refreshment. I had brought a selection of ales with me from the UK – I can’t be drinking Leffe Lager all week again [...]

Not many brewerys make big bottles of ale. Sometimes it is just as well. Imagine working your way through 750ml of Caledonian or Youngs Ale.. erghh!
But Morland Old Speckled Hen – is definitely an ale that is great in big bottles. Simply because it is a bloody good ale. I like it on the [...]

Apparently Caledonian were the first Brewery to create an organic ale. They did it in the early 1990’s. The bottled ale has won awards for ‘Best Beverage’ by the Vegetarian Society and is apparently one of very few beers that vegans will drink.
Well even at 5% it doesn’t taste of much. It is a bit [...]

Feature ales always surface when there is a national event where England are involved. Pubs all over the country start having guest ales like ‘Golden Glory’ – all sporting the England flag on the pump – luring the ale drinker to give it a go. I’ve tried a few myself and haven’t been overly impressed.
Bottled [...]

Last night I took a friend out for an evening drink and some food – and we ventured out to the ‘Marchmont’ in Hemel Hempstead. This place is significant for a few reasons:

It was my first local when I moved to Hemel Hempstead in 1986
It became my local again in 2002 when I started working [...]

Bottle number 2 of the evening – moments before the Argentina vs Holland World Cup match – is Caledonian 80/-
This is my first ale from the Caledonian Brewery.
The label says that is is the bottled equivalent of the Cask Conditioned version of the brewery’s inaugural CAMRA Champion Beer of Scotland.
Caledonian 80/- is made using crystal [...]

Having lost a fair bit of money predicting football matches this week, I was pleasantly surprised to see my 8 in a row losing streak broken with Portugal beating Mexico.
Now I can go home and have a few beers – happy that I have recovered at least some of the weeks loss. And the first [...]