Beer of the Week (w/e 21st January 2018)
Bucking Fastard: Fuller's 2016 Vintage Ale
Aqualung: Tiny Rebel Captain Insano
Thuck Phat: Southwark Vanilla Stout
Spinko: Martland Mill Spinners Gold
aleandhearty: Salopian Gravity Wave
Mobyduck: Oakham Citra
Komakino: Bingham's Coffee Stout
ROBCamra: Pig & Porter Pattern Recognition
Last edited by ROBCamra; 07-02-2018 at 15:32.
A pub is for life not just for Christmas
No pub visits for beer this weekso BOTW goes to a bottle of Fuller's 2016 Vintage Ale 8.5%,a beautiful barley wine ,complex with a wonderful balance between sweetness and hop bitterness.A very expensive bottle conditioned treat in mid winter.
Next week end of month sessions in Hertford and London so more fodder to choose from.
"Good people drink good beer" Hunter S Thompson
Back in full swing this week with a stay in Shrewsbury and Mid Wales :-
Heart Of Wales Irfon Valley Bitter 3.5%
Rhymney Best 3.7%
Holden's Black Country Mild 3.7%
Heart Of Wales Aur Cymru 3.8%
Holden's Black Country Bitter 3.8%
Wobbly Wabbit 4.0%
Wye Valley HPA 4.0%
Salopian Oracle 4.0%
Langham Hip-Hop 4.0%
Brain's Rev James Gold 4.1%
Heart Of Wales Welsh Black 4.4%
Salopian Lemon Dream 4.5%
Wye Valley Butty Bach 4.5%
Twisted Barrel Sine Qua Non 4.5%
Goldmark Black Lion 4.8%
Salopian Meraki 4.8%
Wolf Granny Wouldn't Like It 4.8%
Titanic Plum Porter 4.9%
Mad Dog Oaty McOatface 4.9%
Rhymney Export Ale 5.0%
Holden's Special 5.1%
Hobson's Old Henry 5.2%
Welbeck Abbey Sleeping Beauty 5.3%
Thornbridge Jaipur IPA 5.9%
Heart Of Wales Inn Stable 6.8%
Beavertown Humuloid Double IPA (Can) 8.7%
Tiny Rebel Captain Insano (Cans) 10.0%
Heart Of Wales High As A Kite 10.5%
Unusually the winner is a "craft" beer namely the Tiny Rebel Captain Insano. This place opposite Shrewsbury Rail Station had a January Sale of about half a dozen tinned "craft" beers. This one was a BOGOF costing £6.10 for two 330ml tins (£5.25 a pint). I like Tiny Rebel a lot and this exceeded expectations with all sorts of hop and malt flavours. This is what "craft" beer should be about a great unusual drink at a sensible price. Honourable mention must go to the Heart Of Wales Inn Stable (£3.60) at the Neuadd Arms in Llanwrtyd Wells. I've not had many cask beers of that strength with hardly a hint of sweetness, in fact their "cooking" bitter may well have been sweeter!
BOTW Tiny Rebel Captain Insano
Steady week:
Adnams Ghost Ship
Southwark Vanilla Stout*
Hop Back Summer Lightening*
Oakham Bishops Farewell*
The Bishops and Summer Lightening were both excellent but BOTW goes to Southwark Vanilla Stout which was just as it sounds. Smooth and comforting on a chilly day.
"Beer is food." Morse, Colin Dexter
Martland Mill - Spinners Gold. In their brewpub down a Wigan side street
Good week for me.
Mallinsons - Sorachi Noir.*
Blue Bee - Simcoe IPA.
Titanic - Plum Porter.*
Acorn - Malthouse.
Rat - Jingle Rats.*
Saltaire - White Christmas.
Rat - Ratsputin.*
Salopian - Shropshire Gold.
Rat - White Rat.
Salopian - Gravity Wave.*
Salopian - Vanishing Point.
Elland - Erebus Moon.
Oakham - Attila.
Fernandes - Mosaic.
Fernandes - Octohop.
Some strong contenders this week. The Plum Porter was superb and the Ratsputin (an Impy Stout, 7.5%) was also on very good form. There's some confusion over my actual BOTW, as I somehow got the Gravity Wave and Vanishing Point mixed up! (The peril of drinking halves side by side).I think on balance, it was probably the Gravity Wave, but I'm not entirely sure. Whichever one it was, it was another superb beer from Salopian.
Last edited by aleandhearty; 23-01-2018 at 12:08.
'And where he supped the past lived still. And where he sipped the glass brimmed full' John Barleycorn, Carol Ann Duffy.
Only managed three pubs last week.
Purity UBU*
Purity Pure Gold
Salopian Shropshire Gold
Exmoor Mild*
Twickenham Naked Ladies
Oakham Citra*
Red Cat Murmuration*
The Murmuration was very good, but BOTW is Oakham Citra in tip top condition, taken in some quantity in The Wonston Arms.
The next two weeks are looking to be rather fallow in prospect.
"Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
-W.C.Fields
Apologies for late submission - a handful more W1 pubs, then some Dunstable surrounds at the weekend threw up this little lot:
Redemption Trinity (3.0%)
Greene King IPA (3.6%)
Arbor Simcoe (4.0%)
Wimbledon Copper Leaf Ale (4.0%)*
Adnam's Old Ale (4.1%)*
Fuller's London Pride (4.1%)
Great York Top of the Hops (4.2%)
Rothhammer Stratus (4.2%) (keg)
St Austell Tribute (4.2%)
3 Brewers Blonde (4.2%)*
Beavertown Neck Oil (4.3%) (keg)
Bonds Brew Bengal Tiger (4.3%) (bottle)
Bingham's Hop Project (4.5%)
Samuel Smith's Extra Stout (4.5%) (keg)
Badger Pickled Partridge (4.6%)
Goddards Fuggle-Dee-Dum (4.8%)
Bingham's Coffee Stout (5.0%)*
Kernel Pale Ale (5.3%) (keg)
BrewDog Punk IPA (5.6%) (keg)
BrewDog Jack Hammer (7.2%) (bottle)*
Slightly more keg than I would have liked, but sometimes that's all you're confronted with. The good beers this week were all contrasting styles, but the best-kept by a mile was the Bingham's stout, sampled at the revamped Corner House in Windsor.
BOTW: Bingham's Coffee Stout
"Breakneck speed we drown ten pints of bitter"
Yet another great beer from Pig & Porter called Pattern Recognition. A 4.2% pale ale brewed with the experimental hop EXP431.
Only managed a couple before it went though. In The Baum of course.
A pub is for life not just for Christmas
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