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 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.

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 brew give a sweet, nutty character to the beer, whilst the Target, Challenger and Northdown Hop varieties, help balance the strong, satisfying dark ale’.

Fuller’s go on to tell us that this ale would be great with Dark Meats, Game and strong cheeses.

Well I had my dinner ages ago – so I’ll just have it as is.

It has a lovely ruby red colour to it, much like the HSB before, but is much richer and smoother.

It certainly has nutty notes. It is just so rich and full bodied and tasty. This is a mighty fine ale. I’ve been truely spoily today with three very good bottles.

I clearly prefer the more malty ales over the Golden ales, and this Old Winter Ale is certainly an instant hit with me.

I plan on buying loads of these – I absolutely love this. Love at first taste in fact.

On the Ouse scale this would score close to a 5 out of 5 for me. It’s well over 4 anyway.

I wonder if you can get this on tap anywhere !?

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 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.

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 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.

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 Batemans Combined Harvest.

It’s called Combined Harvest because it is a Multigrain Ale that combines 4 harvestable incredients: Barley, Oats, Wheat and Rye.

Most premium ales are brewed only using malted barley, but this multigrained beer has a blend of malted oats, malted rye, and malted wheat.

This bottle is 4.7%.

There really aren’t any bottle notes to speak of – other than saying it has a ‘… subtle bitterness that will appeal to male, female and young drinkers.’ An odd thing to say on a bottle – but hey!

It did win Best Harvest Ale at the 2007 World Beer Awards and has won other awards previously.

This is another of my top ten bottles of ale. I could drink it all day every day. It isn’t gassy and has lots of flavour. It does have a subtle bitterness, but it’s also spicy, fruity and malty and it just goes down really well.

On the Ouse scale this scores 4.5 out of 5.

I thoroughly recommend this bottle. I’ve only ever seen this at Ocado, so get it there (or the ChinaEast Buffet in Hatfield) – and let me know if you find it anywhere else.

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 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!

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 super gassy. There is a nice bitter taste with a citrusy tone but I don’t think I could drink too many of these. Maybe I’m just not a big fan of the Golden Ales.

In summary – it is a nice bottle – probably best enjoyed out in the sun in the garden. I’ll score it 2.5 out of 5.

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 – but I could live without it.

Leaving it for 45 minutes and it is a bit less gassy and the bitter taste has incorporated some citrus notes.

I’m still not blown away. Too gassy and too bitter for me. 2 out of 5 on the Ouse scale.

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 Nethergate is the ideal solution but even I’d struggle to get through 30 pints of 1 ale before it went off (usually 2 weeks).

I took a trip to Tesco yesterday to stock up on bottles of ale – having run out of bottle and being stuck with Desperados (Tequila flavoured lager). I’ve always seen a monster range in Tesco but there was very little on offer. Are ales seasonally supplied – I don’t know.

Lame plug I know but you can always rely on Ocado to supply you with almost 200 different bottles of ale – with the number increasing by the week. I’m pretty sure there is no-one that sells more from one place.

Anyway I placed an order for 20 or so bottles that I have yet to try and will be reviewing them in the coming days.

I’ll do a tour of the supermarkets in the coming weeks to build up my bottle reserve and will check out what is being offered by the likes of ASDA, Sainsbury and Aldi.

I know bottles aren’t everyones cup of tea, but I like them. I don’t cool them down as I prefer them at room temperature – and they are always better left open for a while or degassed by pouring them from one glass to another.

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 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.