Saturday and the sun is out and I’m out in the garden with a nice bottle of Clouded Yellow. Up until this bottle came along, my only exposure to Wheat beer was that Hoegarden stuff which I didn’t really have a lot of time for. This St Austell wheat beer is a far different kettle [...]

As the evening draws to a close (well for me anyway) I thought I’d finish with an ale I’ve never had before – that being Fuller’s Old Winter Ale. Headlines on the very heavy bottle are ‘… Rich, Warm, Winter Ale. This ale comes in at 5.3%. Bottle notes say ‘…the crystal malts in the [...]

My three favourite bottle brewers right now would have to be Bath Ales, Hook Norton and St Austell. St Austell make some cracking bottles. And their HSD is no exception. It is ‘… a traditionally brewed Strong Cornish Ale’ that comes in at 5%. HSD stands for Hicks Special Draught – and is named after [...]

It’s the weekend ! While people are stranded at airports and worrying about who to vote for in the election, my only real concern right now is what bottle of ale I am going to crack open first. Hook Norton Brewery are based in Oxfordshire and I’ve previously sampled most of their range and Tweeted [...]

We have an ‘Eat as Much as You Can’ Chinese Buffet restaurant near our work that we tend to visit every week. Aside from all their Chinese/Thai bottled beers, ‘Batemans Bitter’ lurked at the bottom of the drinks menu. We ordered it and haven’t stopped ordering it since – because it turned out to be [...]

Brad and I have previously raved about the Bath Ales via Twitter, both out of the bottle and on the pump. I figured it was time to write a proper review. I became familiar with the Bath ales when the Trading manager at Ocado gave me a selection of their range to sample. They were [...]

Ringwood Brewery is a New Forest Beer which is 4.9%. Label notes say “… it is a full bodied premium golden beer with a deep bitter-sweet finish.” It is brewed with Maris Otter barley and Goldings, Progress, Fuggles and Challenger hops. This is nicer than the Jennings ale of yesterday – principally because if isn’t [...]

Jennings Cumberland Ale is a 4.7% Golden ale. The bottle notes are so fluffy and pointless that I’m not going to mention them. It’s a bit too gassy straight out of the bottle. It has a nice bitter twang to it. I’m undecided about this bottle. It doesn’t really do much for me. It’s ok [...]

One drawback of being modern father to a young child is you don’t get to go out much. Gone are the days of going to the pub after work while the wife makes the dinner – something my dad used to do daily. So bottles of ale are the solution. Ideally polypins from someone like [...]

My local Farm Shop (yes I live out in the country) sells City of Cambridge Brewery ales. Hobson’s Choice is one of the 4 bottles I bought last time I was there. Atom Splitter, Parker’s Porter and Boathouse Bitter are the other ones I’ll try sometime soon. Hobson’s Choice headlines as a light golden ale [...]