Beer of the Week (w/e 28th February 2016)

[ROBCamra]

Thuck Phat: Blue Monkey Ape Ale
Bucking Fastard: Camden Town Flue Faker
Mobyduck: Irving Frigate
Aqualung: Oakham Tranquillity IPA
Real Ale Ray: Rock the Boat Dazzle
aleandhearty: Tigertops Hop Fiction
oldboots: Anarchy Sublime Chaos
london calling: Thornbridge Otters Tears
Komakino: Five Points Pale
ROBCamra: Hafod Moel Famau

[Thuck Phat]

BOTW Blue Monkey Ape Ale

Nuff said.

[Bucking Fastard]

A decent week.

McMullens -- Country Bitter * (3PT)
Mc Mullens -- 16
Camden Town -- Wit (keg)
Hammerton -- N1 *
West Berkshire -- Mr Swifts Pale Ale
ELB -- Quadrant Oatmeal Stout *
West Berkshire -- Mr Chubbs Lunchtime Bitter
Camden Town -- Flue Faker (keg) *

BOTW goes to Camden Town Flue Faker on keg from their brewery tap.Strong and very smokey ,I'm not sure I would spend a session on it but interesting and different.

Next week drifting north up the Grand Union with stops in Marsworth and Leighton Buzzard ,so good chance of a decent BOTW.

[Mobyduck]

Darkstar - Hophead*
Caledonian - Double Dark
Brewhouse and Kitchen - Crafty
Gales - HSB
Harviestoun - Bitter and Twisted
Portobello - Northern Line
Urban Island - 28 Porter*
Marstons - Bass
Irving - Frigate*
Fullers - Seafarers
Woodfordes - Nelsons Revenge
Frog Island - TOC Porter*

BOTW this week caught me a bit by surprise, Irving Frigate, I have never rated this brewery in the past ,but this particular beer was spot on, taken in the Dolphin (http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/13552/)today. It was also very expensive ,either I was short changed or this pub charges like a wounded bull, £4.60 for a 3.8% beer is way over the top and about a pound over the odds with regards to other pubs in the area, still it was beer of the week anyway.

[Aqualung]

A small list for me this week :-

Moorhouse's Pride Of Pendle 4.1%
Brentwood Gold 4.3%
Brodie's Topaz Pale 4.4%
Marston's Pedigree 4.5%
Long Man Sussex Pride 4.5%
Ringwood Fortyniner 4.9%
Stonehenge Danish Dynamite 5.0%
Banks's / Arcadia Angler's Ale 5.0%*
Brodie's Californian 5.0%*
Jennings Snecklifter 5.1%
Brodie's Jamaican Stout 5.4%*
Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild 6.0%*
Oakham Tranquillity IPA 6.5%*

The winner is the Oakham Tranquillity IPA as tried in the equally excellent Market Vaults (http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/55029/) in Tamworth for £3.40 inclusive of 10p CAMRA discount. It doesn't seem to appear on the Oakham web site but I did come across it in the Croydon George last summer.

BOTW Oakham Tranquillity IPA

[Real Ale Ray]

Rock the Boat - Dazzle

[aleandhearty]

Good week for me, helped considerably by the first decent Sunday afternoon session I've had in ages.

Oakham - Citra.*
Dark Star - Partridge.
Acorn - Requiem.
First Chop - Extra Love.
Kelham Island - Bete Noire.*
Bob's - Yakima Chief.
Brightside - Our Town .
Lincoln Green - Tuck.
Milestone - Raspberry Wheat.
XT - XPA.
Tigertops - Hop Fiction.*
Brass Castle - Sunshine.*
Thornbridge - Pollards.
Exit 33 - Winter Pale.
Great Heck - Chopper.
Great Heck - Patrick.
Fernandes - Mosaic.*
Brass Castle - Milton Amber.
Fernandes - Sunshine IPA.*
Salamander - Serendipity.
Fernandes - Dragons Breath.

A two horse race between the Citra and the Hop Fiction. However, as it's been a while since I've had a Tigertops beer, I'll give it to the latter. Another wonderful dry, hoppy brew from Barry 'Axeman' Smith.

[oldboots]

Another dark one, Anarchy Sublime Chaos and it was, sublime I mean.

[Wittenden]

Dull week in Kent:my sole completed pub visit(more were planned), was to a pub selling Gloombar and S$itfire, so I settled on a bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.Perfectly workmanlike, but nothing a half alive UK micro couldn't do, without having to trunk it halfway round the world.Gripe over.

[london calling]

time and tide -calista
360 degrees-mercury7
fine -dhu it
bad seed-salted smoked maple pale
rockin robin -reliant robin
ansbach + hobday-the dated dubbel
wild weather -the science of selling yourself short
tiny rebel -stay puft
BOTW was
thornebridge -otters tears 6.0 pale balanced hoppy.

[Komakino]

Kew True Blue (n/a - GK house beer at The Kew Gardens Hotel (http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/60875/))
Brakspear Bitter (3.4%)
Marston New World (3.8%)
Rudgate Dick Firkin (4.0%)
Sambrook's Scrumdown (4.0%)
Cottage Brewing Co Try Me (4.1%)
Theakston Paradise Ale (4.2%)
Truman's Blindside (4.3%)
Camerons Northern Line Stout (4.4%)
Five Points Pale (4.4%) BOTW
Animal Brewing Co Shark (4.6%)
Sambrook's Powerhouse Porter (4.9%)

[ROBCamra]

Hafod Moel Famau 4.1%.

Claims to be a "Heather Infused Dark Brown Ale", personally I don't think that describes the beer at all.

It drinks more like a porter and there's certainly a lactose taste, so a milk porter?

Doesn't matter though, it tasted great in The Baum.:cheers:

An honorary mention to Settle Blood Orange IPA, a very good second on the week.