Beer #212 - Courage Directors

Formerly one of the UK’s largest breweries, the Courage brand is now owned by Wells & Young’s in Bedfordshire.  This beer was originally produced exclusively for the directors of the company but was soon made available publically, and it remains one of the country’s biggest selling ales (at least according to Wikipedia).  It’s hard to believe that this brew bears much resemblance to the original brew unless the directors had terrible, terrible taste. It looks quite nice on the pour but its all downhill from there. It’s very thin on the palate, over-carbonated (out of the bottle, at least) and apart from a bit of reasonable maltiness it’s a very standard supermarket bitter. Meh.

 

Brewery: Wells & Young's

Country: United Kingdom

ABV: 4.8%

Beer #86 - Bombardier Burning Gold

In my haste to get through my backlog I accidentally missed out beer number 86, so please excuse this chronological anomaly. On Saturday night I went to dinner with some friends at their house and shared a few beers of which this was one. I think this one suffered as it followed a bottle of Wye Valley’s Hereford Pale Ale, which was excellent. In comparison this wasn’t great. Burning Gold pours a lovely golden colour but there is not a lot of merit to the taste. It’s quite light and perfectly drinkable but unexciting. I may have enjoyed it more if I’d known it was inspired the words of William Blake’s Jerusalem.

 

Brewery: Wells & Young's

Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 4.7%

Beer #67 - DNA New World IPA

A bit out of sync here, but preceding the meal mentioned in my last post I visited on of my very favourite London pubs and my former local, The Salisbury; a beautiful, grade II listed pub that was restored to its former glory about a decade ago. DNA immediately caught my eye immediately. The beer is a collaboration between Charles Wells (Wells & Young’s) of Bedfordshire and Dogfish Head, an American craft beer brewery in Delaware. The beer is based on Dogfish Head’s 60 Minute IPA and brewed using Wells’ brewing process. The result is a beautiful clean, deep copper ale. It’s a nice medium bitter with a bit of a twist. Whilst the American origin of the beer is apparent, anybody expecting an American-style IPA would be disappointed. It’s a really nice session ale but it’s far, far closer in flavour to a British ale than it is a big, hoppy IPA. I certainly anticipate seeing a lot more of these collaborations between UK and US brewers popping up as a result of the growing popularity of the US craft beer scene. Wetherspoons have already cottoned on to it and their Autumn beer festival next month will feature beers brewed by US brewers at UK breweries. Whilst these beers may not break any moulds, they should offer some interesting twists on cask ale.

Brewery: Wells & Young’s/Dogfish Head Collaboration

Country: United Kingdom

ABV: 4.5%