Beer Blog & Beer Reviews

I’ve been taking note of some of the news and entertainment stories around Beer today. This is a list of the ones which I thought people might want to read:

• Copper Dragon blaze through the credit crunch - Real Ale Reviews
• It may be served warm, but real ale is becoming cool - Times Online
• British breweries make a comeback - Yorkshire Post.
• Gales Seafarers Ale launches in a bottle - Fullers
• Beer events Finder - Real ale Talk
• Michelin Pub of the Year - BBC

PS. Next time I do this I will try to keep track of where I got the links so i can credit those involved. But for today just enjoy.

I bought this bottle from Sainsburys and have chilled it nicely now for a few hours. Its another “award winning” Beer, a phrase which is getting bandied around alot these days. This is a Gold award winner from the brewing industry International awards.

Its medium brown ale in a clear glass bottle with a slighly uninspired red label.

It smells like something my dad would drink, its got that grown ups drink smell to it which is indeering to me as it reminds me of when I was teenager trying my dads beer for the first time and invetably hating it! Now I have slightly more refined tastes and I am looking forward to this beer. The smell is like good old english bitter!

Pouring it gives a decent enough head, but its quite thin and it peaters out quickly leaving a thin film.

First Tastes, refreshing becuase its nice and cold, texture is quite mild but doesnt lack body. This is the kind of beer you only really get the true taste of when you are breathing out becuase of the spicy and hoppy flavors.

The bottle says “…blend of hops that give spicy citrus fruit flavors that lead into a dried fruit and biscuit malt finish…”.

I agree there is a definatly spicy element to the flavor and a very slight citrus and dried fruit twang, but as for the biscuit you will have to judge for yourself if you want that try some abbaye biere de belgique.

As with all beer the more you drink it more you can taste the subtle flavors, and the more you drink this the more you can pick out the things it mentions. Still no dried fruit, and still not much biscuit though.

On closer ispection of the bottle, it turns out its actually brewed by Green King (famous for IPA), small world! So Essex Based Riddleys is really now Green King. Read more about Greene King Swallows Ridleys

To wrap up this review before it needs a hard back cover, I’ll say its a nice beer, nothing to should about, its good solid standard fare. The best way I can imagine to describe this is as average… its not bad but its not that interesting either. It has a few subtle elements but none of them are particularly inspired or make you want to go back for more. Its good solid beer, but nothing flash. Certainly not a double gold winner in my book.

2.6 Uk Units

The Beer Review Blog is now up and running… Now let me set upon the box i just got from the good folk at Beermerchants.

Oh yes! This is for reviewing and blogging on Beer in all its different formats, though I am a huge IPA man myself I will put my self through the rigours of many different types of beer bringing you tasting, reviews and informative bits of knowledge gleaned from the web and where ever.

This months reviews will come mostly from this box:

Box-o-beer from beer merchants

Box-o-beer unboxed and laid out