This ale celebrates Nelson’s 200th anniversary at Trafalgar in 1805. Apparently ‘… it was St Austell’s Blue Anchor Inn that the King’s messenger carrying news of the bottle, first stopped for refreshment on his long journey from Cornwall to London’.

Anyway, this premium bottle conditioned ale has been brewed with Cornish Gold malt.

Bottle notes tell is this is ‘… a truly complex beer to savour, best enjoyed when decanted carefully leaving the sediment behind’. Oops! I should have read that before I poured it – but there is nothing here leaving lumps in your ale. Nothing at all.

This ale is brewed with both Styrian Golding and Cascade hops which gives the ale a deep bronze colour and a biscuity flavour and a spicy aroma.

Oh and it’s a 5.0% ale.

The verdict? It’s not hard to understand why this ale has won awards. It’s fruity, malty and downright gorgeous. I’m not really sure what ‘biscuity’ means (I don’t eat biscuits) but it’s irrelevant to me. It’s really great. I’m just upset that I only have one bottle.

This is a great bottle. I’m going to check out hostelries in Cornwall because I can’t imagine how great this would be on tap (if they do that).

I’d score this 4.5+ out of 5. I doubt I’ll find a bottle as good as this for a long time. It really hits the spot and ticks all the boxes. Get some !

Headlining as a ‘… distinctive pale ale’, this ale is brewed with Goldings Hops is one of those that sits in the ‘take it or leave it’ category for me.

This isn’t dissimilar to having a Cobra or another of those beers you get in an Indian restaurant and I am sure that – served chilled – this would be great with a curry.

I thought it was a bit too gassy for my liking and – even after giving it a few minutes degassing with a fork – was just a bit too gassy for me.

It’s got a nice bitter taste with a sweet honey after-taste (it isn’t honey but it’s something like that) but it’s just a bit too gassy for me and I was too impatient for it to go flat.

It’s an OK ale – 3 out of 5. As I’ve said before, the more malty, flat ales are more my cup of tea – but this one just doesn’t float my boat.

Today’s first bottle is Fullers 1845. 1845 headlines as ‘… matured to perfection for 100 days’.

1845 is pretty strong at 6.5% and has won many awards as a strong ale.

Bottle notes say ‘… being bottle conditioned and matured for at least 100 days before being released for sale, helps bring out the delicious fruit cake aroma from the amber malt and Goldings hops’.

And that ‘… this time allows wonderfully complex, yet smooth and mellow flavours to develop’.

1845 is recommended with rich foods like game. I’ve got a very rich Bolognaise on the go right now courtesy of a Valentina Harris recipe but it will be gone by the time it is ready !

This is the first of the Fullers bottles that I is too gassy out of the bottle for me – and even after I’ve knocked the gas out I had to leave it for a while before it was ready for me to enjoy. I wonder if it is as gassy on the pump. I’ll have to find out.

I don’t mind this ale but it isn’t as good as the previous two Fullers I’ve reviewed this week. You can tell it is strong and it is a bit too bitter for me. I can certainly pick up the fruity taste and aromas but it just ranks lower than the Old Winter Ale for me. I obviously can’t compare it to the Honeydew as they are totally different ales.

It’s nice – but not nice enough to score more than a 3 out of 5 for me. Sorry Fullers.

Honeydew is a ‘… refreshing golden beer’ and is 5%.

Bottle notes say ‘… this award winning premium beer is delightfully sweet, golden and refreshing’. Apparently it is ‘… the UKs leading organically produced ale’.

Honeydew is brewed ‘ …using English malts and the finest honey to give a mellow, rounded character which is deliciously balanced with zesty hops’.

There’s even a recipe idea on the bottle – which I’ll mention sometime if it turns out to be any good.

Fullers recommend you drink this cold – but mine is at room temperature and the taste of honey is amazing. I doubt it would be so full on if it was colder.

It is incredibly refreshing – perfect for today’s sunny day – and it is hard to believe it is a 5% ale. No sooner had I opened this than I had drunk it. It is certainly mellow and I reckon you could easily drink too many of these and be hammered before you knew it. It is just so easy to drink.

This is definitely an ale for a sunny day in the garden or at a BBQ.

Fullers do some great bottles (I have 1845 and ESB for later) and this is one of them. I imagine some people might be put off by the name and the label – but you shouldn’t. This is a great ale.

I’d score this 4 out of 5.

Another St Austell – this time Tribute – headlines as ‘… The South West’s favourite’. and ‘… a delicious beer that captures the essential character of Cornwall’.

I’ve not been to Cornwall yet – but if they have St Austell on tap down there it might not be a bad idea to take a drive down there one weekend !

Tribute comes in at 4.2% – so not too heavy – and is very moreish. I thought this before I read the bottle notes – which say ‘…Tribute is a moreishly drinkable beer’.

Further label notes say Tribute has ‘… delicious, full bodied malt flavours and a citrus aroma’.

Tribute is brewed with Cornish Spring water, Cornish Gold and Maris Otter, Fuggle, Willamette and Styrian Golding hops. That’s a lot of different hops.

There is certainly an orange aroma to this ale and this carried through in the taste of the ale. This ale is neither bitter nor sweet and is just so drinkable. It’s malty, fruity and hoppy – everything I love in an ale.

This is another 4+ out of 5 ale for me. I’m going to have to revise my scoring or I’ll never be able to have a top 5.

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 of fish.

Worth noting – that St Austell was voted regional brewer of the year in 2009 which is far praise given the number of Cornish ales that are out there.

Clouded Yellow headlines as ‘… A deliciously refreshing wheat beer brewed with the rare taste of vanilla, cloves and coriander’.

Clouded Yellow is names after a butterfly that can be sometimes found in Cornwall. There’s a picture of the butterfly on the label.

Clouded Yellow is a bottle conditioned ale, coming in at 4.8% and it is suggested that you either pour it with care and leave the sediment/yeast in the bottle or you give it a swish and make it ‘a clouded yellow’ appearance. Makes sense ! There’s quite a lot of lumpy sediment so it’s your call what you do !

This bottle uses the Willamette hop and with the addition of cloves and coriander the flavour and aroma is quite unique.

This ale really does hit the spot. Especially on a hot day. It is so refreshing and the after-taste of vanilla is a nice touch too. I don’t pick up the banana aroma that they suggest – but I have just eaten a bowl of fruit so maybe my scent is off.

As wheat beers go I don’t know another that compares. If this was just about wheat beers, the Ouse score would be 5 out of 5. I just can’t imagine there being better out there.

Overall it will score 4.5 – pushing 5 on a sunny day. I’m off to get some more.

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 the Brewery’s founder.

Bottle notes tell us it is ‘… full bodied, strong and distinctly Cornish’.

HSD is made using First Gold, Fuggle and Golding hops and yeast from their own brewery, oh – and Cornish Spring water.

The ale is a nice dark ruby colour, and has a fruity and caramel smell. And the taste? – well it is both bitter and sweet at the same time. The bitterness is a nice compliment to the raisin fruitiness and it definitely comes across as a 5% ale.

This is a lovely bottle. Very drinkable – very quickly drunk. It is so full of flavours and when you’ve drunk one you just want another. Sadly I only bought 1. But I can get more.

On the Ouse scale this is another 4+ out of 5. I really love this bottle. It’s definitely up there with the Bateman’s Combined Harvest – and to be honest I’d be happy with either given the choice.

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 about them very positively.

Hook Norton have brewing award winning beers since 1849. They use ‘… water from their own spring-fed well.. ‘ and ‘… their brewery is still powered by a steam engine’.

Anyway – to the ale. Twelve Days is a 5.5% strong dark brown ale.

The bottle headlines as ‘… deliciously dark and strong’. It’s certainly delicious and – although it is 5.5% – it doesn’t taste strong.

Bottle notes tell us ‘.. Twelve Days is a Strong Dark Brown beer offering a dominantly malty palate with nutty overtones’ – and that it ‘…is a fine partner to the cheese board’.

I love this ale. It’s one of my top 10. It is indeed very malty and rich and dark and is really nice served at room temperature.

It would be hard to choose between the Bath Ales Dark Hare and this one. They are as good as each other – and I would never say no to either.

On the Ouse scale this would also score 4.5 out of 5.

Hook Norton have a fine range of ales – I’ll be sampling them and reviewing them later – but this is one of their best ones.

I became familiar with the Bath ales when the Trading manager at Ocado gave me a selection of their range to sample. They were all very good and now they sell them all.

Anyway, for this review we have Dark Hare. It headlines as: ‘Our Deliciously Wholesome Stout’. Dark Hare is 4.0%.

Bottle notes say it has ‘… a roasted barley aroma, a deep, dark colour, and a smooth-yet-dry taste’ and that Dark Hare ‘… uses a blend of dark roasted malts and the Fuggles hop’.

It certainly does live up to its bottle notes. This is a lovely porter indeed and I could drink it all night every night. Many stouts are a bit chocolatey and it kind of makes bottled stouts very predictable and not something I usually go for – but this one has no chocolate aftertaste at all – which makes it far more drinkable.

It’s a very smooth stout too and – although the brewery suggest it be served cool, mine is kitchen temperature – just the way I like it.

If you like stout (and I don’t mean that Extra Cold nonsense from Dublin) then you’ll love this bottle. I’d put this in my top ten bottles and score it 4.5 out of 5. It only doesn’t get 5 because there is another Bath Ales bottle that I like more – review on its way!

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 with a refreshing hoppy aftertaste.

Their website also says – ‘… this light golden bitter has a pronounced hop aroma, contributing to the refreshing bitter aftertaste. Hobsons Choice has an ABV of 4.1%.

This bottle won ‘local champion beer’ in 1997, was an ‘Great British Beer Festival – Olympia Finalist’, in 1998 and won a ‘Bronze English Ale Award’ in 1999.

Named after Thomas Hobson Esq a Cambridge carrier who delivered mail between London and Cambridge. The stables were near St Catherine’s College in the centre of the city and when the horses were not delivering mail they were used by the students and staff of the university. Thomas Hobson noticed that the strongest and fastest horses were very popular and tended to be overworked. He devised a scheme whereby customers were offered the choice of the horse nearest to the door or none at all, renting his horses out in strict rotation. Hence there was no choice at all.

Anyway, the verdict: this bottle very drinkable indeed. It lives up to it’s refreshing hoppy claims and went down nicely. It was a bit gassy so I knocked that out with a fork. I’d give this a 4 out of 5 as I reckon it would be great to drink all afternoon whilst sitting in your garden in the sun (if we ever get any).

Apparently you can sometimes get this on draught in ‘The Cambridge Blue, Gwydir Street, Cambridge. I’d be keen to try that.