Beer #405 - Clarence & Fredericks Cascadian Black

I paid a ridiculous £2.29 for this pint in my local Wetherspoons, the Fox on the Hill. Clarence & Fredericks is a Croydon brewery so south London-ish it is probably fair to say. Based on the clip and beer name I was anticipating either a stout or porter or, possibly, a black IPA. It was probably closer to the latter, and indeed it is listed as a black IPA on RateBeer, although it poured a dark reddy-brown colour rather than the black that I was anticipating. The flavour was dominated by the malt with caramel notes most prominent and a mildly bitter finish. For me the hopping was quite delicate and it felt more like a slightly bitter bitter, pretty good but possibly a bit jumbled!



Brewery: Clarence & Fredericks
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 5.0%

Beer #393 - Salamander Scary Mary

Another pint during my first visit to Cask Pub & Kitchen in Pimlico. This golden ale from Bradford's Salamander Brewing Company bore more than a passing resemblance to Thornbridge's Wild Swan that I posted a couple of days ago. Quite light in body but smooth and creamy, this was a perfectly pleasant pint with some decent citrus and grassy notes but lacking in a punch really.











Brewery: Salamander Brewing Company
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 4.0%

Beer #392- Acorn Barnsley Bitter

I recently made my first visit to Cask Pub & Kitchen in Pimlico, the predecessor to the excellent Craft chain. It had been on my to-do list for some time but Pimlico isn't an area I'd regularly visit, but I finally made it and spent a very pleasant Saturday evening with a few beers and one of their excellent burgers. The cask ales on offer had a Yorkshire theme with this Acorn Barnsley Bitter sitting alongside half a dozen or so offerings from Bradford's Salamander Brewing Company. Acorn Brewery was established in 2003 and this Barnsley Bitter was a great introduction for me. The taste was dominated by beautiful  biscuity malt, with some toffee notes too. Earthy flavoursome and robust, this is one of the best bitters I've had in absolutely ages.


Brewery: Acorn Brewery
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 3.8%

Beer #391 - Thornbridge Wild Swan

I was quite taken aback on my most recent visit to my regular Wednesday night haunt The Compton Arms to see beers from both Thornbridge and Oakham on the bar. Decent guest ales aren't unheard of at the Greene King pub as some of my previous posts demonstrate, but this was great! At 3.5% ABV this was significantly lighter than any Thornbridge beers I had previously tried. It's a very crisp and clean and therefore refreshing ale but I found it lacked the hoppy punch that I've come to associate with the brewery. By no means a bad one with some pleasant citrus notes, it's probably better suited to a warm summer evening than a cold Wednesday night in February.



Brewery: Thornbridge
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 3.5%

Beer #388 - East London Foundation Bitter

I was pretty happy to see this on the bar at Enfield Town Football Club when I visited there a couple of weeks ago. I still expect to be limited to macro lagers when visiting places like this so it’s always a pleasant surprise to see something more drinkable. This Foundation bitter from East London brewery is a very good one too. A solid bitter base of toffee malts is balanced with some subtle-but-very-definitely-there grassy hoppy notes. I did find it quite sweet but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment at all.







Brewer: East London (ELB)
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 4.2%

Beer #382 - Greene King / Penpont Cornish Coast

I tried this Greene King collaboration with Cornish brewery Penpont at my regular Wednesday night haunt The Compton Arms a couple of weeks ago - I generally try and avoid the Greene King beers but had this one for want of a better option! This golden ale didn't have much going on flavour-wise; the citrus notes described on the clip weren't really that evident. It was a perfectly refreshing drink that would no doubt be more enjoyable in the summer, but either way its fairly uninteresting.








Brewery: Greene King / Penpont Collaboration
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 3.7%

Beer #376 - Hastings Handmade 17: Session Pale

Over the New Year I spent a couple of nights in Hastings with some friends. Disappointingly I only managed to try one local brew, but it just so happened that it was absolutely excellent. Hastings Brewery is a small brewery based in St Leonards that makes unfined real ale suitable for vegans and vegetarians. This session pale ale was an absolute winner, bursting with citrus hop flavour despite its session-friendly ABV it left me thoroughly impressed. Unfortunately I didn't catch a sight of any of their other beers (I didn't really try that hard) but I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for them in the future.





Brewery: Hastings Brewery
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 3.7%

Beer #375 - Fuller's London Porter

I probably don't drink as much Fuller's beer as I should, I certainly think the brewery gets overlooked by drinkers in the UK while it seemingly has a feverish following overseas. Their London Porter is a popular multi-award winner and deservedly so, it'll be interesting to see how traditional beers like this, especially the good ones, stand up to the ongoing surge of craft beers. It has a beautiful dark malty aroma and wonderful roasted malt flavours of chocolate and coffee with some dark fruits in there as well. The flavour is very finely balanced, sweet but not too sweet.






Brewery: Fuller's
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 5.4%

Beer #374 - Wychwood Bah Humbug

I'm far from being big fan of Wychwood, especially when it comes to their bottled beers, but I also am not going to turn down the chance to share some bottles with a friend. This Christmas brew was actually reasonably good much to my surprise, or perhaps I should say relatively good. The nose suggests some nice spicing with an aroma of cinnamon and nutmeg, which are also apparent in the flavour alongside English hops. It's quite on the sweet side and I wouldn't particularly want to drink more than one at a time but as far as mass-produced Christmas beers goes this not a terrible one!





Brewery: Wychwood Brewery
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 5.0%

Beer #371 - Pembrokeshire Daft Bass

This was a guest ale at The Victory pub in Hereford that I tried when I visited over the Christmas period. Much like the Herefordshire Owd Bull featured in my last post, this was a best bitter without any remarkable features. It had a good malt character with a nice dose of nutmeg but little coming through in terms of hops. Solid but unspectacular.











Brewery: Pembrokeshire Brewing Company
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 4.1%

Beer #370 - Hereford Herefordshire Owd Bull

Herefordshire's best-known brewery is undoubtedly Wye Valley but within the city of Hereford itself you can find the Hereford Brewery. A microbrewery that is attached to The Victory pub, the brewery was previously known as Spinning Dog prior to a recent re-brand. When I still lived in Herefordshire I was a regular at the excellent pub quiz held at the Victory and a decent break over Christmas allowed me the chance to return. I went for a pint of Owd Bull, the brewery's best bitter. I was gobsmacked to be charged just £2.60 for a pint, I know it is produced on-site which no doubt reduces the cost but to find a decent pint for less than 3 quid is a real rarity these days, for me at least. Anyway this beer was a solid bitter with the malt very prominent, so right up my street. Nothing really there in the way of hop character but I enjoyed it nontheless and at £2.60 a pint you're laughing.

Brewery: Hereford Brewery
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 3.9%

Beer #355 - Cader Chwerw Idris Bitter

Following on from yesterdays post another Welsh brew (I know there has been a bit of a run on these lately, this will be the last one until I crack open the bottle of Brains Dark I've been hoarding), and another from Cader Ales in Dolgellau in north Wales. Much like the Tallylyn Pale Ale I posted a short while ago this is a pretty traditional beer. It is a lovely bitter with tasty caramel notes and some good biscuity tones. It's probably not an award winner but it is a very solid beer.









Brewery: Cader Ales
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 4.0%

Beer #354 - Tomos Watkin Cwrw Idris

Tomos Watkin's Cwrw Idris is another Welsh beer kindly donated to me by parents from a recent trip. According to the Tomos Watkin website the beer is "dedicated to the memory of Idris Parry AB, who established the Hurns Mineral Water Co., after he'd survived being torpedoed and sunk by the Kaiser... twice!" which is uhh...interesting. Anyway this premium bitter has some wonderful depth of flavour, rich dark berries and fruitcake, and yet there was slightly odd sherberty taste hanging over thinly over the top of everything. I'm not sure whether the bottle was a bit duff as you could tell that the fundamentals of this beer were bang on.




Brewery: Tomos Watkin
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 5.2%

Beer #353 - Southwark London Pale Ale (LPA)

On Saturday I briefly visited Bermondsey and managed to take in a quick half-pint at the newest addition to the Bermondsey Beer Mile: the Southwark Brewing Company. The brewery differs from the others on the mile in that is more traditionally British, producing cask ales. I'm a big fan of each brewery on the mile, each one has it's merits and they all produce absolutely brilliant beers, but there is something quite exciting about a cask-beer brewery joining the ranks. I opted for a half of the London Pale Ale, described as a 'Light Refreshing Hoppy Beer with Citrus Tones'. Despite the description I found the beer malt-forward with biscuity notes dominating.  There are some grassy hoppy tones in there too but if you stand this up against a 'Hoppy Beer with Citrus Tones' from the likes of The Kernel or Partizan...well, this would come off unfavourably. I won't be dismissing SBC on the basis of this one beer but the competition in Bermondsey is hot and on based on this effort there is room for improvement. I'll be following the fortunes of the Southwark Brewing Company closely.

Brewery: Southwark Brewing Co.
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 4.0%

Beer #348 - Marstons / Birrificio Lambrate Ligéra

Over the last couple of weeks Wetherspoon's have been holding another of their real ale festivals which once again featured a handful of international brewers. I normally make a token effort to try at least a few of the beers but on this occasion I only managed the one, this APA brewed by Fabio and Mattia of Birrifico Lambrate at Marstons Brewery. It pours a clear amber colour and the aroma is of citrus and a hint of pepper. It's quite full bodied with earthy hop flavours prominent and quite a bitter yet well-rounded finish. As far as cask APAs go this is a pretty good one.






Brewery: Marstons / Birrifco Lambrate Collaboration
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 4.8%

Beer #346 - Thornbridge Woodlands

Last week I paid my first ever visit to the Covent Garden outpost of Craft Beer Co. Whenever I'd walked past it had seemed very busy and the night I visited was no exception, but it's easy to see why the chain is so successful, they serve a lot of beer, most of it is extremely good and they also don't discriminate against cask, which is excellent. Anyway I went for Thornbridge's Woodlands, a seasonal pumpkin ale. This was really very tasty, although possibly the most subtle of the pumpkin beers I've tried to date. The beer poured a darkish orange and the nose gave a pumpkin hint. The flavour as I say was quite subtle with a delicate touch of pumpkin with some gentle spicing. The beauty of it is that the usual overt sweetness was missing and as a result I could quite happily have drunk this by the pint.

Brewery: Thornbridge Brewery
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 5.5%

Beer #343 - Cader Tallylyn Pale Ale

I quite unashamedly love trains and as such this label has become possibly my favourite ever. The beer, Tallylyn Pale Ale was brewed for the Tallylyn Railway, a preserved narrow gauge railway line that runs between Tywyn and Nant Gwernol in North Wales. If you ever find yourself in that part of the world I urge you to check it out, it's a beautiful journey even if you aren't a railway nerd (and who doesn't love a steam train?). The brewer is Cader Ales, a micro-brewery based in Dolgellau, which is also worth a visit in itself. Described as a classic IPA, the beer is brewed with Cascade hops to give it a citrus bitterness. Whilst it lacks the hop punch that you come to expect with a lot of craft/micro-brewed IPAs these days this is a very good beer that is unmistakeably British in style.


Brewery: Cader Ales
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 4.5%

Beer #341 - Everards Tiger

This was another guest ale at my regular post-football haunt The Compton Arms. There wasn't too much of interest on the bar this week but sometimes, as per my previous post, all you need is a decent bitter. Everards is a big regional brewer based in Leicester that has been around since the mid-nineteenth century. Tiger is their signature brew and it has a strong toffee aroma. The flavour is more of the same - a good malt-forward bitter.

Brewery: Everards Brewery
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 4.2%

Beer #340 - London Fields Love Not War

Another pint at the Nags Head in Walthamstow and again I went for a local-ish brew this time from London Fields. The story goes that Love Not War was brewed by the London Fields gang when they were stuck in the brewery during the London riots a few years ago. It's a very good take on a classic English bitter and was perfect drinking after a long day of out there, flavoursome stuff. Sometimes all you want is a decent bitter. Love Not War has some lovely caramel notes that dominate the flavour and it has a hint of nuttiness in there too. Really enjoyed this one.






Brewery: London Fields Brewery
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 4.2%

Beer #339 - East London Cowcatcher APA

After an afternoon at Beavertown my friends and I headed to Walthamstow for a few more beers and some food. When I first moved to London I lived in Walthamstow for 18 months or so when it was still one of the very cheapest places in London, but this was my first trip back since I left in 2009. We headed to one of our old haunts, the Nags Head. The pub is pretty much as it was then but with the welcome addition of a few more hand pumps (although Timothy Taylor's Landlord was still available, as it always was). Being in an east London postcode I thought a pint from ELB was apt. This Cowcatcher APA was a hoppy beast with grapefruit and bitter lemon flavours and a hefty bitter finish. A pretty good one.

Brewery: East London Brewing Co.

Country: United Kingdom

ABV: 4.8%