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Wittenden: Romney Marsh Cinque Porter
Thuck Phat: Marks and Spencer Double Hopped Citra IPA
Real Ale Ray: Wishbone Bandit
london calling: Dark Star Green Hop IPA
Mobyduck: Castle Milk Stout
Aqualung: Oakham Citra
aleandhearty: Great Heck Washington Red
Bucking Fastard: DBC Jurrasic
ROBCamra:Vocation Life & Death
A visit to the dentist put paid to my planned pub going this week: one bottled beer put up a fight against the cloves and malt whisky-Cinque Porter, a cracking 4.5%er from the fairly new Romney Marsh Brewery of New Romney. Easily the best beer I've had from them:looking forward to trying it from the cask.
Quiet week for so it's a pick from bottles as well.
BOTW Marks and Spencer Double Hopped Citra IPA (bottle). A very good 5.9% IPA which, unsurprisingly, bears more than a passing resemblance to Oakham Citra Green Devil IPA as it's brewed by Oakham.
Wishbone - Bandit
I could nominate
abbeydale -marshmallow meltdown
or
cloudwater -red ale
or
blue bee -5 hop pale
or definitely
Brightside -gridlock
but again
Darkstar -greenhop ipa wins the BOTW.
Pretty quiet for me as well,
Darkstar Hophead 3.8%
Darkstar APA 4.7%
Castle Milk Stout 6.0% (bottle)
Mash Mash Pale 3.8%
Oakham JHB 3.8%
All the beers were in decent condition, BOTW is the Castle Milk Stout, quite a surprise as I don't often drink at home and prefer cask to bottle, but this proved to be very good. The Mash Pale was the only other new beer to me, an acquired taste I would say, initially very sharp tasting and it took over half a pint for me to begin to acquire said taste, but once I did it was very hoppy in a lemony sort of way, so a good albeit restrained week.
A few hours in Rugby and a mainly Spoons rampage from Lincoln to Peterborough provided a decent list :-
Brewster's Hophead 3.6%*
Byatt's Coventry Bitter 3.8%
Great Orme Ghost Train 4.0%
Abbeydale Deception 4.1%
Oakham Citra 4.2%*
Rudgate Battleaxe 4.2%
Long Man Old Man 4.3%*
Oakham Owl and the Pussycat 4.5%
Wychwood Nordic Noir 4.5%
Wood's Ebony Stout 4.5%
Tring Moloko 4.5%*
Wickwar Wessex Witchcraft 4.6%
Green Jack Rising Sun 4.8%*
Hook Norton Fat Head's Yakima Sun 5.0%*
Wadworth Cooper's Vice 5.0%
Austendyke Hogsgate 5.0%
Greene King Abbot 5.0%
Moorhouse Pendle Witches Brew 5.1%
Rooster's Nectar 5.2%*
Grainstore Rutland Beast 5.3%
8 Sail John Barleycorn IPA 5.5%*
Wychwood King Goblin 6.0%*
The King Goblin star may be a red herring as it was tasted after a pint of Abbot. I'd been told by the local Wild Card brewery people that Brewster's Hophead was outstanding and on this occasion it was. I would almost go as far as saying it rivals the better known beer of that name but perhaps not.
However this week's winner is one I've tried a few times before (not just in Spoons) and it hasn't lived up to the reputation from these columns alone. It's Oakham Citra as tried for a pleasing £2.60 at the Oakham Brewery Tap, a place to which I definitely plan a return visit. If I'd known my train was over 20 minutes late I would have also tried the Bishop's Farewell.
BOTW Oakham Citra
Better than average week for me.
Acorn - Old Moor Porter.*
Great Heck - Citra.*
Fyne - Jarl.*
Rat - Rat to the Future.
Fernandes - Challenger.
Fernandes - Sorachi Ace.
Rat - Gunpowder Rat.
Five Towns - Lost Hope.*
Town House - Bramling Cross.
Five Towns - Nowt.
Exit 33 - Citra Smash.*
Great Heck - Voodoo Mild.*
Great Heck - Washington Red.*
Roosters - Yankee.
Fernandes - Golden Arrow.
Rat - Rat out of Hell.
Mallinsons - Brewers Calypso.
Loved all the Great Heck beers, but the Red, brewed with Simcoe and Columbus and dry hopped with Citra, really hit the spot.
Late submission for an indifferent week.
Ringwood -- Best Bitter
Ringwood -- Filly Drift
Wriggle Valley -- Valley Gold
Yeovil -- Lynx Wildcat
Dorset Brewing Co -- Jurrasic *
Isle of Purbeck -- Studland Bay Wrecked
BOTW goes to DBC Jurrasic in decent shape at The Acorn Inn,Evershot.
Vocation Life & Death, a 6.5% IPA. Quite possibly a contender for a&h's f**king brillant category on another thread.
Tried in The Baum of course. :cheers: