Beer #270 - York Mount Cook

This is another beer from my aforementioned trip to York Brewery for their brewery tour. After trying Velo-City I had a glass of the brewery’s signature beer Guzzler, which has featured on the blog previously, before moving onto Mount Cook, part of the Globe Hopping range. The range features single-hop beers brewed with hops from around the world, this one made with Waimea hops from New Zealand. I must say this one didn't agree with me - both aroma and taste were of strong raw hops, it was almost like something had gone terribly wrong in the brewing process and they'd decided to stir in a shed-load of raw hops. Very odd and unpleasant and I gave up on it after a couple of mouthfuls.

Brewery: York Brewery

Country: United Kingdom

ABV: 4.0%

Beer #178 - Thwaites Crafty Devil

Another annoying post for me to write as it’s the second duff pint I’ve had to put onto the blog. After my five a side football match on Wednesday we went to our regular haunt, The Compton Arms in Islington for a couple of beers. I was pretty happy to see that they had Thwaites Crafty Devil on, knowing that the brewery has put out some great beers lately including a couple of great beers lately. Unfortunately the beer had gone bad, it smelt like vinegar and didn’t taste much better. On asking for a refund the bar staff poured another pint and said that “it looks ok” without either smelling or tasting it. I was then given the immortal line: “people have been drinking it all evening and no-one else has complained”. Being an Englishman I didn’t fight it and begrudgingly drank as much of the foul liquid as I could. Being a 21^st Century Englishman, I’m now going to bitch about it on my blog. I’ve had a lot of good beer at the Compton Arms and I’ve never before been served a dud pint. It’s a Greene King pub but they often have a decent guest or two on offer. However, it really irks me that two of their bar staff considered it acceptable to tell me that the beer was fine without tasting it or smelling it and to be honest, I think it should have been replaced no questions asked. Disappointing.

 

Brewery: Thwaites

Country: United Kingdom

ABV: 4.3%

Beer #25 - Hereford Pale Ale (HPA)

On arriving at The Bedford in Balham this Monday I was delighted to spot a beer from my home county’s finest brewery, Wye Valley (albeit with what looks like an attempt at a home-made pump clip). They make some really great beers and also own one of Hereford’s most popular and best pubs, The Barrels. Hereford Pale Ale is a great pale ale but unfortunately this cask really hadn’t travelled well at all. The beer tasted really quite watery and as a result I’d finished the pint in about five minutes. I’m not really sure what went wrong here as I’ve never had a bad pint of Wye Valley before, and it was more disappointing with the knowledge that it’s a great beer when served/stored properly.

 

 

Brewery: Wye Valley Brewery

Country: United Kingdom

ABV: 4.0%

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Addendum - 19/8/2013

Following this post I received a message from Lizzie at Wye Valley who subsequently sent me a HPA gift pack in the post to make up for the duff pint. Kudos to Lizzie and Wye Valley for the excellent customer service!