Beer #421 - Lervig White Dog Brand

Lervig have been pushing their beers pretty hard in the UK of late and I'm a pretty bag fan of theirs, having discovered a good proportion of their range at a Draft House Sunday Session last year. I recently attended a dinner club event at the Wanstead Tap in East London and while waiting for things to kick off I shared a couple of bottles of this wheat beer with my girlfriend. This is a very solid if unspectacular witbier – a nice wheaty banana flavour with a decent hint of clove in there too. It’s not a world-beater but it is very easy drinking.







Brewery: Lervig Aktiebryggeri
Country: Norway
ABV: 4.7%

Beer #365 - St Bernardus Wit

I enjoyed this St bernadus witbier as an apéritif to my office Christmas dinner which was held at the excellent Dovetail in Clerkenwell. Anticipating a night of heft ABVs I thought I would begin my evenings drinking with something a bit lighter and this seemed to fit the bill. This is a great example of the style, light and wheaty with a good dose of spicing with flavours of coriander and pepper coming through. Yum.










Brewery: St. Bernardus Brouwerij
Country: Belgium
ABV: 5.5%

Beer #302 - Pitfield Raspberry Wheat

Please see my entry on the Great British Beer Festival 2014 for tasting notes and further info.

















Brewery: Pitfield's
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 5.0%

Beer #292 - Salopian Lemon Dream

Please see my entry on the Great British Beer Festival 2014 for tasting notes and further info.


















Brewery: Salopian Brewery
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 4.5%

Beer #285 - Revolutions Pretty in Pink

I had a half of this raspberry wheat beer from Revolutions Brewing Co. at the Old Red Lion in Kennington on Saturday night. I'm certain that I've posted before that the pub is one of my favourites in London and they usually have an excellent range of beers on, but with an occasional sprinkling of duff ones. This one probably falls somewhere in the middle. It is a monthly special produced by the brewery, which is based in Castleford in Yorkshire, and limited to 60 casks. It's therefore perhaps surprising that at least one cask made it this far south and perhaps the flavour was influenced by the difference travel. The aroma was reasonable, wheaty with perhaps a hint of sharpness but by no means fruity. The flavour was similar; grassy wheat, quite dry and with a bit of sharpness but no discernible raspberry flavour at all. As it was a nice summer evening a nice fruity wheat beer would have gone down very well but I was left slightly disappointed. Boo.

Brewery: Revolutions Brewing Co.
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 4.5%

Beer #260 - Partizan Wit Beer

This is beer number four of five from my trip to the Bermondsey Beer Mile last weekend. After a few at Fourpure my friend and I headed to Partizan for a quick one before he had to head off for the day. They'd obviously had a busy afternoon and when we arrived there were only a couple of beers remaining, so we plumped for a glass of the Wit Beer each. Judging by the RateBeer entry this is a new-ish release on keg from Partizan. The beer pours a hazy yellow/orange colour with a white head. The aroma is wheaty/grassy with some notes of bread and citrus rind. The taste too is citrus, and it’s quite sharp yet crisp with the wheat flavour that you’d expect from the style. I really like my wheat beers although again, it’s a style I haven’t explored as much as I’d have liked. This was yet another winner from Partizan for me. Afraid I'm missing a picture again so this one from my last visit to the brewery will have to suffice!

Brewery: Partizan Brewing

Country: United Kingdom

ABV: 5.7%

Beer #236 - Great Heck Amish Mash

Saturday evening found me at the Old Red Lion in Kennington for a few celebratory birthday drinks with some friends. I believe I’ve mentioned how this is one of my favourite pubs before and this was further emphasised on Saturday. Despite being located on the busy Kennington Park Road once you step inside you could be in the middle of the Herefordshire countryside. The pub is beautiful and being more often than not you’ll be able to find a very comfortable seat; we walked in at half 7 on Saturday night and commandeered a large area with a couple of sofas, that just wouldn’t be possible in a lot of London pubs. What’s more they have great beer from great breweries too. In fact I really need to do a pub review sometime soon. Anyway my first pint of the evening was Amish Mash from Great Heck Brewing in North Yorkshire. Described as an ‘American Hopped Weizen’ it’s a German style wheat beer with the hops of an American IPA. The pour looked like a wheat beer with a cloudy pale gold appearance. Much like Beavertown’s Quelle Saison the hops totally dominate flavour-wise with bitter grapefruit and grassy notes prominent. The wheat gives it a slightly more refreshing taste than an IPA perhaps and it was rather drinkable, probably more to my taste than an IPA brewed with the same hops would be. Nice.

 

Brewery: Great Heck Brewing

Country: United Kingdom

ABV: 4.7%

Beer #146 - Hoegaarden

Upon returning for Belgium I was heading to a friend’s house for dinner and with limited time I only had the chance to pick up something to drink at Sainsburys in Tottenham Court Road. Unsurprisingly there isn’t much of a beer focus at this particular branch and after a weekend of drinking some pretty robust beers I fancied something a bit lighter, so picked up a bottle of Hoegaarden. Now witbier is a style that I definitely would like to get to know more. I know Hoegaarden is a mass-produced beer etc. but it’s also a pretty good one. Light, refreshing and crisp with some nice tart lemon and just the merest hint of spice, I really enjoyed this bottle when it isn’t really one I’d usually pick up.

Brewery: Brouwerij Hoegaarden
Country: Belgium
ABV: 4.9%

Beer #132 - Whitstable Raspberry Wheat

As per a previous post I spent last weekend in Whitstable, on the Kent coast. This was one of the local beers I tried whilst there, from Whitstable Brewery, a small independent brewery in the town. They seem to have quite a lot of support locally. In amongst all of the Shepherd Neame beer, there was Whitstable stuff in several pubs I looked in and I picked this bottle up from a bottle shop on the high street. The beer itself was reasonably good. A hazy wheat beer with a pinkish hue from the raspberries. In terms of flavour it was quite sharp and apart from that the raspberries didn’t really come through on the palate which is a shame. I enjoyed it but was expecting a bit more fruitiness.

 

Brewery: Whitstable Brewery

Country: United Kingdom

ABV: 5.2%

Beer #108 - Camden Gentleman's Wit

Last week I went to The Slaughtered Lamb in Clerkenwell to watch the excellent Otis Gibbs, a country singer from Wanamaker, Indiana. The Slaughtered Lamb is yet another pub in the Clerkenwell area that prides itself on its beer selection. They had a couple of Camden beers on tap that I hadn't previously tried. First up I had a Gentleman’s Wit. This is a wheat beer flavoured with lemons and bergamot. I’m far from a wheat beer connoisseur, in fact I’m 98% certain that you could count the number of wheat beers I’ve drunk on one hand. This was really excellent though and it’s certainly made me want to try more. The lemon flavour is very prevalent and there is a definite spiciness to it too. Very good.

Brewery: Camden Town Brewery

Country: United Kingdom

ABV:  4.3%