Beer of the Week (w/e 8th November 2015)

[ROBCamra]

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

[Wittenden]

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.

[Thuck Phat]

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.

[Real Ale Ray]

Wishbone - Bandit

[london calling]

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.

[Mobyduck]

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.

[Aqualung]

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