A pub is for life not just for Christmas
Northern Monk - heathen. In Craft Asylum #2 in Leeds.
Some fairly decent stuff in the past week.
Rat White Rat
Flowerpots Perridge Pale
Wye Valley HPA
Open Gate Citra IPA
Pilgrim Progress
Lost Pier Paddleboarder
Goffs Jester Brew 3
Three Castles Stoned
Adnams Mosaic
Island Earls RDA
Lakeland Citrus Pale
Buxton Moor Top
BOTW this week goes to Island Earls RDA, a lovely chocolaty stout taken in the ever reliable Alfred.
"Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
-W.C.Fields
Decent week in Walsall,Hertford,Reading and Croydon.
Backyard -- Aethelred Rye
Backyard -- Blonde
Holdens -- Golden Glow
Salopian -- Fault Line *
Fullers -- "Gales" Seafarers (3PT)
Fullers -- ESB
Burning Sky/Cloudwater collaboration -- Reassuring Ritual *
Blackjack/Second City collaboration -- Signature
Mad Squirrel -- Hoodwink *
Siren -- Suspended in Citra *
Tapstone -- Hop Wire *
Oakham -- Green Devil IPA *
Oakham -- Scarlet Macaw
Tough call for BOTW but by a nose it goes to Mad Squirrel Hoodwink,a white chocolate stout tasting of just that plus lots of coffee ,unusual and innovative in the ever reliable Nags Head.
Next week much quieter ,investigating a new pop up pub in Hertford.
"Good people drink good beer" Hunter S Thompson
I had a brief stay in Stourbridge this week.
Sambrook's Session 3.4%
Batham's Mild 3.5%
Southwark Potters Field Porter 4.0%
Southwark London Pale Ale 4.0%
AJ's Dukey's Delight 4.1%
Batham's Best 4.3%
Silver Brewhouse Coal Face Stout 4.5%
Fixed Wheel Sheriff 4.5%
Enville Ale 4.5%
Oakham Bishop's Farewell 4.6%
Ambridge Jester 4.8%
Fixed Wheel blackheath Stout 5.0%
Jenning's Snecklifter 5.1%
Brewdog Punk IPA (keg) 5.4%
Thornbridge Jaipur IPA 5.9%
Sadler's Mud City Stout 6.0%
Oakham Green Devil 6.0%
I'm going for the less obvious this week. While Batham's Best inches ever closer to the £3.00 barrier (it's now £2.95) their MILD has remained at £2.45 for a few years now. They don't sell much of it and a number of their outlets don't even stock it. It's a subtle low abv one with little in the way of hop flavour but that's what makes it so different. It was excellent in the Stourbridge Royal Exchange.
BOTW Batham's Mild
Last edited by Aqualung; 28-04-2019 at 22:02.
Quiet week for me, but I came across a couple of new beers which were very good.
Titanic - Cherry Dark.*
Great Yorkshire - Pale.
Rat - King Rat.
Northern Monk - Eternal.*
North Riding - US Session (Eldorado, Mosaic, Zythos).*
Chin Chin - Cow Whisperer.*
Chin Chin - Early Bird.
Electric Bear - Whirly Bird.
Stancill - Black.
Quite a close call, this week. Loved both the Cow Whisperer (Milk Stout) and the Cherry Dark, but the latter just scrapes it. I find a lot of cherry flavoured beers medicinal in character, but this one had a lovely balance. Took me right back to childhood Christmases, when my mother enjoyed the odd glass of De Kuyper Cherry Brandy! I suspect it's a bit of a Marmite beer, like Plum Porter, but fans should love this one.
'And where he supped the past lived still. And where he sipped the glass brimmed full' John Barleycorn, Carol Ann Duffy.
Just the two this week: Oakham Bishops Farewell* and BOTW Hop Back Thunderstorm.
Apparently the Thunderstorm used to be a wheat beer but this wasn't and at 4.7% was very similar to Summer Lightening being gently malty and tropical initially with a moreish, dry and bitter finish. Very good.
"Beer is food." Morse, Colin Dexter
I prefer the Cherry Dark to the Standard Plum as the fruit flavour is not overpowering. I prefer the Turbo Plum as the extra body makes the plum flavour less pronounced.
I'm sure I read somewhere that the Plum Porter takes up 60% or their brewing which must be a unique situation. It came about when they realised they hadn't made a special beer as promised so they took a porter they had already brewed and added the plum juice to make it different.
Kent,West Sussex.
Wantsum-Black Prince 3.9%abv. Oddly my first experience of this excellent dry dark MILD.Smokey and roasty.Strawberries on the aroma.Hope it's not the only MILD tried this season.
Arundel-Uptown NEIPA 6.2%abv from evil keg.Murky, fruity hops.Tasty,but too much carbonation to be excellent. Eyewateringly expensive at £3.30 for a half.All part of my education.
My BOTW-Wantsum Black Prince taken at The Black Dog
"At that moment I would have given a kingdom, not for champagne or hock and soda, or hot coffee but for a glass of beer" Marquess Curzon of Kedlestone, Viceroy of India.