26th December 2011

So I promised an English beer special edition this week, and here it is. Three rather disappointing efforts, in all honesty. Better luck next week.

Samuel Smith's Old Brewery Pale Ale (England)

This didn't have enough ale flavour, tasted more like a lager, but a good lager.  

Brakspear Bitter (England)

Bitter is definitely the right word to describe this. But it had an aftertaste that made you want to drink more. It was probably good that I only had one bottle of this, it might be addictive.

Bateman's XXXB (England)

This slightly pornographic sounding beer wasn't the best pale ale in the world. But it was quite a nice way to start a weekend's drinking on a winter afternoon.

19th December 2011

Late again, I know. But at the weekend I drank three more beers from the book. This week I'll be heading back to my native Britain, so tune in next week for an English beer special. 

Gulden Draak (Belgium)

The Belgians seem to love strong beer. This one is 10.5% but doesn't taste at all toxic. Well done Belgium.

Midnight Sun (Scotland)

Not a bad porter, but the bar was set pretty high by the Anchor porter I had a few weeks ago, this wasn't as good as that. It's funny how all the British beers seem to have won some award or another though.

Old Tom Strong Ale (England)

In the words of my lovely girlfriend: "This tastes like it's going to give you diarrhoea". I didn't think it was as bad as that, but definitely not worthy of the title of "World's best ale" which it proudly boasts on the bottle, probably voted by the people who work in the brewery.

12th December 2011

Another week, and another few beers knocked off the list

Fuller's Vintage Ale (England)

They say that this beer gets better with age, so I left it for four days... not sure it made any difference. Only 150 000 bottles of this were produced, and each one is individually numbered, which is a nice way to drive up the price. Good beer though.

O'Hara's Irish Red (errr Ireland)

I was a little disappointed that it wasn't bright red. It has a sort of Irishy taste that I can't describe. So it's a standard Irish ale, only a little bit redder.

Krinitsa (Belarus)

Belarus is not very good at a lot of things, and if this is the best beer they can brew, then you can add it to that list.

5th December 2011

OK, so I'm a day late this week. I spent all evening yesterday stressing about trying to book flights. I hope you can forgive me.

Mikkeller From To (Denmark)

A word of advice: Do not drink this when you have a hangover. This stuff was so dark it actually frightened me a little bit when I poured it. It was quite nice, and I would probably have a better opinion of it if I drank it again... but at eleven Euros a bottle, that's not going to happen.

Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen (Germany)

Who was the crazy arsonist that thought that smoke tastes good? To me it tastes like the time you dropped a sausage in to the barbecue but you were so hungry that you decided to eat it anyway... eurgh.

Pilsner Urquell (Czech Republic)

This beer is great, and I really needed it after the smoke beer. As you may have noticed, I couldn't wait to open this one.