Beer of the Week (w/e 28th November 2021)

[ROBCamra]

:cheers:

[Thuck Phat]

Quiet week but all the beer was decent:

North Cotswold Winter Solstice*
Nethergate Old Growler
Abbeydale Moonshine*
Oakham Bishops Farewell*

BOTW North Cotswold Winter Solstice. A flavoursome, 4.5%, ruby ale which hit the spot on a chilly evening.

[sheffield hatter]

A couple of surprises this week, with good or even excellent beers found unexpectedly.

On Monday, on a mission to photograph a new (2014!) Marstons estate pub, the Winter Green (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/82452/), I had a very good pint of Bombardier. It wasn't as good as the superb Chantry Iron & Steel a few minutes later at the Chantry Inn (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/43109/) in Handsworth, though. And in fact, having started that day at the Sheffield Tap I should give an honourable mention to Brewsmith Bitter drunk there. A few of their beers have made their way over to Sheffield in recent weeks, and they've all been very good.

A couple of days in Nottingham followed, with almost uniformly good beers throughout. A special mention to the Royal Children (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/31076/), which I found out from this site is much more of a destination pub than it was before; I enjoyed two Totally Brewed beers, Crazy Like a Fox and 4 Hopmen of the Apocalypse, which both went down well.

On Thursday in Stafford, a fantastic Jennings Cumberland Ale at the Market Vaults (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/34547/), another Marstons pub.

On Friday I was in the Fat Cat (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/43149/) drinking Kelham Island Best Bitter, my first for a few weeks. A very good beer, and up there with some other very good beers in an excellent week in pubs.

Despite some other very good beers (too numerous to mention in what turned out to be a very busy week), I think the surprise of the excellent Cumberland Ale makes this my beer of the week. Not a sentence I ever imagined myself typing!

[Bucking Fastard]

Richmond,Harlow,Hertford,Hatton Garden,Croydon and Borough Market.

Surrey Hills -- Shere Drop *
Mc Mullen's -- IPA
Mc Mullen's -- AK
Fuller's -- Dark Star Hophead
Fuller's -- London Pride
Fuller's -- ESB *
Fuller's -- Bengal Lancer (bottle)
St Austell -- Proper Job
Sharp's -- Doom Bar
Bad Seed -- Burn Rate
Thornbridge -- Sequoia *
Dark Star -- Revelation *
Rooster's --London Thunder *
BrewDog -- Planet Pale (keg)
Oakham -- Inferno
Thornbridge -- Jaipur IPA *
Twickenham -- Grandstand
Harvey's -- Sussex Best Bitter
Howling Hops -- Sideline *
Greene King -- Old Speckled Hen (keg)

A real mix from the sublime to the ridiculous,with BOTW Dark Star Revelation on very fine form among a great line up at Ye Olde Mitre. (http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/23381/)Rich , complex and pokey ,almost warming on a chilly night.

Next week much more subdued.

[Wittenden]

Kent: I was looking for an Old Ale, but heigh ho.

Goacher's-Special House Ale. 3.8%abv. In tiptop condition,what a Kentish Bitter should be.
Cellar Head-Pole Dancer Green hop:Ernest 5%abv. Resinous,wall fruit. A version with the mythic Strangs # 7 is circulating, as is one using either Bullion or Northern Brewer.

My BOTW-Goacher's Special House Ale.

[Mobyduck]

Gilbert Whites Hop Monster
Alpha Delta Hera* (k)
Holybush Holly Hell (pub house beer brewed by Laines)
Oakham Citra
Flowerpots Perridge Pale
XT 3
Marble Stout* (k)
Magpie Cherry Raven*
Magpie 9 For A Kiss
Twisted Oak Sheriff Fatman*
Cross Bay The APA (Omega)
Well Drawn Providence*
Flipside Sterling Pale
Goffs Jester 14* (ESB)
Lost And Grounded Running With Spectres* (k)
Piddle Cocky
Titanic Plum Porter*

Just four pubs involved but some good variation and decent quality for the most part.
Marble Stout is just edged out by BOTW Lost And Grounded Running With Spectres. Described as a Baltic Porter, whatever that is, it didn't have much in the aroma stakes but some great complexity in the flavour that developed as the beer warmed a little.

[Tris39]

A good mix of beers, most taken at Tapping the Admiral, The Pineapple and Southampton Arms all last night (someone's got to do it), with the Scottish Stores and nearby Queen's Head three days ago, but some other quality quaffings at the Hackney Cock earlier in the week; a genuinely good pint of London Original was had, but in what is one of the dullest pubs I've visited this year: The Royal Oak (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/23003/).

Otherwise:

Brew York X - Panda (c)
Brixton - Reliance Pale Ale (k)
Dark Star - Hophead (c)*
Hammerton - Penton Oatmeal Stout (c)**
Kent Brewery - Madagascar Vanilla Stout (c)**
Left Handed Giant - Dark Mild (c)
Moor - Illumination (c)
Robinson's - Dizzy Blonde (c)
Shepherd Neame - Spitfire (c)
Shepherd Neame - Spitfire Lager (k)
Caledonian - Deuchars (c)*
Portobello - Squidge Marshmallow Stout (c)*
Portobello - Westway Pale Ale (k)
Redemption - Trinity (c)*
Three Sods - Maelstrom IPA (c)**
Timothy Taylor - Landlord (c)
Twickenham - Autumn Red (c)*
Twickenham - Winter Star (c)
Young's - London Original (c)*
Young's - Winter Warmer (c)*

Can't chose between these two, so BOTW goes to:

Southwark - Mayflower Session IPA (c)*** at The Edgar Wallace (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/22089/).
Redemption - Fellowship London Porter (c)*** at The Queens Head (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/53707/).