It was a gloomy, drizzly afternoon in a sleepy Cornish harbour village about as far from the City That Never Sleeps as you can get.  I’d had an intense weekend… training a bunch of broads* to make great radio. I needed to unwind. Luckily I’d got a Wild Card invite to take a look round St Austell Brewery with Head Brewer Roger Ryman. This wasn’t just any brewer it was the guy who invented Clouded Yellow. For those not in the know it’s a vanilla-flavoured, bottled wheat beer and one of my favourite poisons. Sure he’s also the man behind the popular Tribute Ale, but when a brewery’s makin’ more than 21 million pints of a beer then I’m usually looking for something a bit more specialist.

Luckily Roger’s just the guy. Not only does the brewery turn out millions of pints of its best selling ale, it also makes niche beers for connoisseurs like me and has a two barrel microbrewery on the side for trialling new and exclusive brews.

He showed me round the joint and told me about its heart transplant. The brewing gear had been in there since the 19^th Century and was starting to wear out. It was no simple job to replace it. They had to take off the roof and lift out the old so they could put in the new. It meant closing the place down for a fortnight – if it had taken any longer Roger coulda run into trouble, but by some kinda Cornish miracle it was done and dusted in time.

Roger's microbrewery

The shiny new brewery was impressive and cosy. But being something of a beer anorak I couldn’t wait to get into the chilly barn of a microbrewery where Roger was cookin’ up his latest experimental brews – although not as overjoyed as when he offered me the chance to taste ‘em.

They looked about as appealing as a vat of cack. Just sitting there in a couple of open fermentation vessels, but I knew that looks could be deceptive.

Raspberry porter.

Roger drew off a draught of what turned out to be a raspberry porter. It was delicious. A chocolately brew with a rich  raspberry flavour leading to more chocolate on the finish.

I wondered what was in the tank next to it. It looked green and nasty but Roger said it was a big IPA he’d cooked up usin’ lager yeast and citra, nugget and centennial hops.

It was a wow of a beer. A real zesty brew that took my breath away. He told me he was gonna call it Big Job. I could see why. I felt kinda down in the mouth that these were limited edition brews. They were the sort of beers you’d wanna come back for more of. Luckily a trip to the sample room was just around the corner. There were more of Roger’s beers there that I knew I needed to try. He wanted to make sure I left no stone unturned, so I worked my way through the range. It was a hard graft.

St Austell Brewery's sample room. NB: Tasting beer is work NOT fun.

We started with an unnamed 2.8% beer, an ABV a lot of brewers seem willing to tangle with now Parliament’s dangling the carrot of lower taxes for weaker drinks. Seems the suits are totally out of touch with the folks that drink ale. When a tipple’s this tasty you don’t need to neck a dozen pints; you want to savour the flavour, but it seems those guys at the Palace think everyone’s into binge-drinking. Still the weak brew had more flavour than I was expecting. It was like caramel with biscuitty notes and apparently gets its flavour from what Roger says is a fair amount of crystal malt.

Dartmoor Best Bitter at 3.5% was still a bit weak for me, but it had the attraction of tasting like a brewery smells. Malty and alluring. Next, we tried the Trelawny a

3.8% peach of a brew. Peachy on the nose, carrying through to the taste. I’d had a pint in a pub once but it didn’t go down too well. Just goes to show you’ve got to look after your beer if it’s gonna taste how it’s meant to.

Next things got regal. Black Prince, a 4% brew, is a grainy, drinkable mild with a roasted coffee aroma and a slightly creamy chocolatey flavour. I could see myself drinking it by the fire on one of those cold Cornish afternoons.

We moved on to Roger’s baby. Tribute’s the beer he originally brewed for the solar eclipse of ’99. It used to be called Daylight Robbery. The guy likes a play on words as much as much as he likes making beer. It’s not a bad brew, but in some joints it suffers from being served too cool. Truth is it’s actually quite tasty. It looks great too – a glass of burnished gold. It’s sweetish and keeps its bitterness on a leash, but then it surprises you with a fruit salad-like fruitiness and you know if you were sittin’ out front of a bar overlooking the Atlantic on a summer’s day you wouldn’t be too heartbroken to be putting some of it away.

We crossed the Atlantic for the next brew, or at least its hops came from there. They give Proper Job, a 4.5% IPA, a citrus and pine character. I liked it. It was drier than the Tribute and more bitter too. Roger said if I liked it in cask, I’d be bowled over by the bottled version – which is stronger.

St Austell pump clips.

We moved on to a couple of brown beers – both of ‘em 5%. HSD strong and dark with shades of dried fruit and Admiral’s Ale – a sweetish, caramelised fruity flavour beer with a tangy, softly bitter finish.

I was starting to feel pretty relaxed. My intense weekend seemed a long time ago. Roger said there was more beer to try, but I knew it was time for me to split. But he wanted me to try them and asked if I’d take a few bottles home. I wasn’t going to say no. But that’s another story.

Sometimes when I’ve been out west I’ve got a little tired by the lack of variety when I hit a new joint, but that’s a tale I’ve told before. There’s more to St Austell Brewery than meets the eye and I’d say if you’re out this way you’d be missin’ a trick if you didn’t pay it a visit.

Cornish born and brewed.

● For more about the brewery visit http://www.staustellbrewery.co.uk/

Tribute ale is 4.2% ABV.

*By which I mean a group of women who are: “liberal, tolerant, unconfined and not limited or narrow in scope”. (From A Feminist Dictionary 1992 edition).

Dorchester Beerex is awesome – a v.friendly event with lots of great, well kept, beer and plenty of chatty punters.

Special mention for the Mayor of Bridport, Dave Rickard; founder of Town Mill Brewery Allan Swannell (and his friend from Chorley Wood whose name I didn’t get); Rich Gabe who helped organise the festival and does brewery liaison for CAMRA, and Alan Hall (I *really* thought we’d met before!).

I managed to try all on my hit list (see previous post) but was chatting too much to taste any others except for a glorious half of Sixpenny IPA! Of these I’d say it was a tie between Yeovil’s Stout Hearted and Art Brew’s Monkey IPA as to which I preferred. DBC’s Yachtsman was nice but didn’t set my world on fire.

Monkey IPA (6.4%) started mellow but then a wonderful bitterness
came through giving it a good bite. The Stout Hearted (4.3%) had a prominent roasted, ‘burnt’, flavour at first sip leading to a much more chocolatey flavour – perect for this time of year.

I wish I coul have stayed to try more, but have had a fantastic afternoon and will be putting this beer festival in my diary for next year!

And so it came to pass that I headed east to visit Wayland’s Sixpenny Brewery near Blandford Forum* for a feature on dark beers I was writing for Dorset magazine (in the Feb issue, out now!). I had to drive more than 100 miles to get there but, man was it worth it.

Initially it was their 6d Black (4.4%) I was interested in. This honey porter fitted nicely into what I’d got planned for my feature and turned out to be my favourite beer of the selection I’d chosen to write about. It looked great, dark with chestnut hues and a nice creamy head which brewer Scott Wayland told me is retained thanks to the inclusion of a little wheat malt which also increases the beer’s mouthfeel and fullness of palate. It lived up to its appearance, tempting me with its coffee aroma and then satisfying me with a dry, chocolatey flavour reminiscent of a truffle, and a good astringent finish. I could have drunk it all day – had I not been driving.

Scott & Lorraine Wayland enjoying a drop of their 6d Black

But then Scott invited me to try his Sixpenny IPA (5.2%). I tasted it and asked permission to swear. “This is FUCKING GOOD beer!” was my immediate reaction. I had discovered another dancing beer. I’m not sure any description  I write of it will truly do it justice, but I’ll begin by quoting what I wrote about it in my beer notebook (*puts anorak on to read from notebook*): “I LOVED this beer. DELICIOUS. ‘CAN’T WAIT to have more.”

Pale bronze in colour, it had an aroma of grass clippings, melon and lychees and – although some hate the use of this word to describe how a beer tastes – a complex hoppy flavour with a pronounced bitter finish leading to a subtly sweet, with elements of barley sugar and toffee apple, aftertaste. Despite this positive carnival of taste sensations it also had a mellow quality that made it easy to drink and tempered the flavours so they didn’t overwhelm.

Sixpenny IPA to take away!

It’s probably no wonder then that it won Weymouth Octoberfest and took Beer of the Festival at Salisbury Beerex last year. You’re going to have to come to Dorset to get some of this amazing beer though, as Sixpenny tell me most of their customers are within a 20-mile radius of the brewery. Although I can see their beers being perfectly at home, and selling well, on the bar at The Rake, The Euston Tap or at Cask, were there a will and logistic possibility of getting them to London, and of course I am trying to persuade pub landlords closer to (my) home in Devon to get some in.

Both the beers will also be at CAMRA’s Dorchester Beerex this weekend, although I hear it’s sold out so maybe I shouldn’t be telling you as if you haven’t already got a ticket you’re going to be disappointed.

I’ll add insult to injury by also telling you what’s on my Beerex hit list (other than more of Sixpenny’s beers of course!). Art Brew’s Monkey IPA (6.4%) “packed with spicy American Chinook hops” sounds like a goer – and as their Lemon beer tickled my fancy at my last Dorset beer festival I have high hopes for it; because I’d not heard of Hallertau hops before I’m interested in a trying a drop of Dorset Brewing Company’s Yachtsman (4.7%), and I’ll also be looking out for Yeovil Brewery’s Stout Hearted. All of which is being made possible by my partner, The Man, who has generously agreed to be the designated driver. My hero!

Assuming that lot lives up to my expectations, watch this space for when I report back.

* Wayland’s Sixpenny Brewery has a fantastic little bar and beer shop where you can buy their beers to drink on the premises or take away. For opening times, directions and contact details visit their website: http://www.sixpennybrewery.co.uk/index.html

Still, if you were reading this blog at about this time last year you may recall my failure not only to find a Christmas ale worthy of the name, but even to try any, and I felt that I had to try and rectify the situation.

With this in mind I determinedly took up an invitation from Nicholson’s Pubs to their Christmas Ale tasting. The pub chain – which served more than 4.5 million pints of cask ale between September 2010 and September 2011 – has collaborated with its key brewers to develop an exclusive range of seven Christmas ales. So it seems we can safely say these have genuinely been brewed with the festive season in mind.

Nicholson's Christmas Ales: well worth trying

You can find the official tasting notes for Nicholson’s Seven Ales of Christmas Range here: http://www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/offer/sevenalesofchristmas/

And here’s what I thought of them…

• I Can’t Believe It’s Not Rudolf (4.8% – White Horse Brewery). A very dry astringent beer with red/dark berry notes.

• Nollaig Mohr Brew (4.5% – Kelburn Brewery). Another astringent beer, this one put me in mind of cinnamon and had a dry tangy finish. It also had a powdery charcoal aroma that reminded me of Guy Fawkes night.

• Auld Saint Nic (4.3% – Rudgate Brewery). I found this one a little too thin/light in body for my liking. It had a treacly aroma.

• Elf Indulgence (5.5% – Cropton Brewery). This blend of beers possessed a softer quality than the first three and didn’t share their astringency and dryness of finish.

• Ho Ho Soho (5.1% – Brentwood Brewing Company). A roasted coffee bean aroma hinted at the rich, roasted malt flavour this beer had. It also had a decent bitterness to it and a dry aftertaste.

• Gold, Frankincense and Moor (4.8% – Moor Beer Company). Lapsang souchong style ‘burnt’ flavours leading to a citrussy finish with elements of sweetness too.

• St. Nich’s Tipple (4.3% – Itchen Valley). There was a floral, peach and apricot flavour to this pleasantly bitter beer and also a malty, cerealiness.

Although I think Nicholson’s Pubs and the seven breweries ought to be commended for this festive range of ales none of them said ‘Christmas’ (or rather Winter Solstice) to me. They were good beers and I especially enjoyed the bitterness of them, but none of them made me feel like decorating the Christmas tree, putting on my copy of The Best Christmas Album in the World Ever, or breaking out the mince pies. They didn’t make me want to go down the lane near where I live to pinch holly from the hedgerow, they didn’t make me think “Ooh, this’d be nice after a stressful Christmas shopping trip,” and they didn’t invoke a desire to eat turkey.

So despite the best efforts of a number of brewers I was still unconvinced by the concept of Christmas ale. I thought back to a December night in Paris a few years ago and the Affligem Noel – did I dream its Christmasiness? (I made no notes about it), does it still exist? (I haven’t been able to track any down for purchase online) – and wondered if I should order a few Belgian Christmas beers and see if they made me feel any different. They didn’t.

Not MY Christmas ale

Despite the wonderfully speedy and friendly service from Beer Ritz (www.beerritz.co.uk) the beers I selected still didn’t bring out my Christmas spirit. I tried Corsendonk Christmas Ale which was a delicious tangy, astringent brown ale with spicy, orange peel, plum and dried fruit notes that now I’m writing about it sounds like it was Christmassy but didn’t taste it. I gave Gordon Xmas a go – another Belgian brown ale with a pleasing burnt sugar/caramel flavour leading to a dry chocolatey aftertaste – but still I couldn’t hear sleigh bells. Finally I cracked open a bottle of Abbaye des Rocs Special Noel, which to my palate was a foul and phenolic (meaning it had a medicinal, or to be specific, disinfectant like flavour) brew but perhaps it’s meant to be like that and I don’t care for the style – and as you may have gathered it didn’t remind me of Christmas. Unless it was that year I had a really sore throat and had to gargle with TCP.

I started to feel a bit Scrooge-like. Maybe I just can’t open my heart to the idea of Christmas ale. But then I had a thought. I have had a beer that made me feel festive and I’ve had it this year.

The day before Nicholson’s Christmas Ale tasting, I went to The Bull in Highgate for a Schneider Weisse beer and Jumi cheese tasting (and I have to say that these were most delicious cheeses, especially the Belper Knolle – a dried cream cheese with Himalayan salt and garlic coated in black pepper which I suspect would be amazing grated over pasta and served with cherry tomatoes and rocket! You can buy it at Borough Market in London if you want to try it out) and had the pleasure of trying Scneider Weisse’s Aventinus Eisbock.

This whacking great 12% beer has an aroma of alcoholic bananas – in fact it has big fruity banana nose but it gives way to sherry-soaked fruitcake with hints of chocolate and now I’m getting that Christmas – or Yule as I prefer to think of it – feeling. Aventinus Eisbock has a warming roasted taste, infused with fruity alcohol-laden christmas cake flavours, cloves and hints of cinnamon leading to a chocolatey aftertaste with suggestion of black cherry and it’s all wrapped up in a deep, smooth velvety mouthfeel. Now I’d found my Christmas ale I was very glad to find that Beerritz had it in stock! (Although you’d best check they still do before you get too excited).

THIS is the one! Pic from jollybeers.net

The beer is basically Schneider’s dark, rummy Aventinus blended with Aventinus Eisbock and then aged in Pinot Noir casks. Up until the 1940s, Aventinus was shipped to Bavaria in containers without temperature control, and thus the beverage partially froze during transportation. People were amazed by this version of Aventinus – that is stronger in flavour and alcohol because of the distillation – and by chance the first Aventinus Eisbock was created. Well aware of this story, Brew Master Hans-Peter Drexler, decided to recreate the ‘mistake’ in a controlled environment. Sixty years later, the Aventinus Eisbock was reborn.

What could be better, a reborn drink to celebrate the rebirth of the sun and the lengthening days – now that’s a festive ale.

The problem seemed to come down to the fact that although there are a number of Free Houses in the area most of them seem to be stuck in the Tribute-Doom Bar rut. That is not to say these aren’t good beers – I enjoy a pint or two of either now and again – but with so much other Cornish beer out there the choice was too limited and rather dashed my hopes of New Beers on my hols.

Luckily Bude is blessed with a rather fine independent off licence called North Coast Wine so I did get to try some new beers, albeit bottled ones. Oddly though, after my complaint about the rut (above) the best of these were St Austell beers. Their incredible black IPA‘Proper Black is heaven in a bottle – a tangy, hoppy dry beer with a captivating chocolate truffle aftertaste that also put me in mind of Cuban cigars – and their Cornish Bock, with its toffee apple and barley sugar flavours, which wouldn’t be out of place behind a European bar.

Heaven in a bottle, despite the clear glass.

I also had a bottle of Tamar Black from what I think might be Devon’s newest brewery – Holsworthy Ales (drinking Devon beer in Cornwall? An outrage!). A 4.8% rich, black stout the colour of espresso, it was an astringent, chocolatey brew with hints of rich fruit cake flavours and a dark chocolate and coffee aftertaste. It was a good beer. My only criticism being it lacked body for the style. Definitely one worth getting hold of though.

Not all my drinking took place at home though. The Man and I ventured into one of St Austell Brewery’s pub called The Globe, where they had HSD (which apparently stands for Hicks Special Draught) in cask. It’s a 5% sweetish, caramel flavoured beer with a dry hoppy finish and a malty aftertaste. Tasty and drinkable, but not enough to keep me in the pub for a second pint – although that could have been down to how uncomfortably hot the place was.

In the village of Marhamchurch, just outside Bude I had a pint of eponymous beer at the Bullers Arms Hotel. General Buller Gold is made by the Tintagel Brewery. It was a citrussy brew with a slightly malty and wonderfully bitter aftertaste. At 4.2% it was a good lunchtime beer that felt like a proper reward for the three mile walk to the pub and also didn’t impact on my ability to walk the three miles back. You will also find this beer under the name Castle Gold but Tintagel badge it as General Buller for the pub.

The Bullers Arms, Marhamchurch

It was a shame that we were staying three miles from the Bullers Arms because although it too had the ubiquitous Tribute and Doom Bar, it also offered three guest ales. I was impressed with its beer blackboard too – which may have been what enabled the man I spoke to on the phone to tell me, very confidently and knowledgeably, about what ales we could expect when we got there.

The Bullers Arms' helpful beer blackboard

Me and The Man have been taking our holidays in Bude for a few years now, but somehow we managed not to go into The Falcon Inn/Coachman’s Bar until this year. They too maintain the Tribute-Doom Bar monopoly but also offer a guest ale. The trouble is they had to get through the casks of monopoly beer before they could put the Spingo IPA on. I tried not to cry.

Maybe I’m being a beer snob and should simply be glad that Cornish pubs are selling local beer but I’m afraid it was a game of Cornish monopoly in which there seemed to be two winners – neither of which was me, nor any of the county’s microbreweries.

• What do you think? Is there a better choice of beer elsewhere in Cornwall? What sort of beer do you drink on your holidays in the UK?

To find me on Twitter click on: www.twitter.com/SophWrites

For more about North Coast Wine (which also sells beer) visit: www.ncwine.co.uk

Details of The Falcon Inn are here: http://www.falconhotel.com/the-falcon-inn/

My initial disappointment that Williams Brothers Profanity Stout hadn’t got through to the final was quickly put aside when, at the last minute, I was invited to join the judging panel. I didn’t need to be asked twice, and although it was my first time in such a capacity I felt confident I would make a thorough job of it.

The competition had been whittled down to eight finalists, based on sales. These were:

• Wild Hop IPA, Harviestoun Brewery, Clackmannanshire , Scotland
• Caesar Augustus, William Bros, Alloa , Scotland
• Ivanhoe, Ridgeway Brewing, South Oxfordshire
• Bad King John, Ridgeway Brewing, South Oxfordshire
• Wye Not?, Wye Valley Brewing, Herefordshire
• Full Bore, Hunter’s Brewery, Devon
• Two Hoots Golden Ale, Joseph Holt, Manchester
• Worcester Sorcerer, Sadler’s Ales, Stourbridge.

I was surprised that not only had Profanity Stout missed out, but also the accessible Golden Summer (perhaps the Indian summer arrived too late to encourage sales of this one) and Churchill Ale. It did make me wonder whether some stores had a beer or two missing which skewed the competition a little.

Nevertheless, some great beers – and in my opinion some rather less than great ones – made it to the final and needed to be judged. I tasted and considered all of them as fairly as I could but for me there were three that stood out above the others: Wild Hop IPA, Bad King John and Hunter’s Bore. A further three were reasonable and drinkable, but nothing to write home about and two made me wonder how they had managed to get this far.

When I dislike, or even hate, a beer I do realise that the next drinker might love it and if I’m writing or talking about it I’ll suggest to my audience that they try it for themselves as the enjoyment of beer can be a very personal and subjective thing. I’ve already written about how and why I didn’t like Sadler’s Worcester Sorcerer. I won’t repeat myself but I will add that a friend who accompanied me to the final said of it: “I felt like I was licking a beach, in the worst possible way.” She obviously didn’t like it any more than I did – but if you love this beer please comment on this post and stick up for it. I understand that Sadler’s also makes a cask version of it which I would like to try, but that’s for another blog post.

The other finalist I disliked intensely was Joseph Holt’s Two Hoots. It seemed to be more evidence for the ‘clear bottles equals light struck, flavour-impaired beer’ argument as it had a sweaty, unpleasant flavour despite its attractive golden appearance. I gave it good marks for its label design though, because I’m a sucker for anything with owls on.

The three reasonable and drinkable beers were: Caesar Augustus, Ivanhoe and Wye Not? If I went round someone’s house and they’d got me one of these I wouldn’t complain (ok, I might. In fact I did because my sister-in-law got a Caesar Augustus especially for me and I was gutted she hadn’t chosen the Wild Hop IPA so I tried to persuade my brother to let me have his bottle) but I wouldn’t be dancing a jig of glee either.

Of the three that stood out, only the Wild Hop IPA was a dancing beer (see my previous post for an explanation of this term!). There was nothing I didn’t like about it.

The other two fell more into the ‘ooh, yes’ category. Bad King John is an incredibly tasty black bitter perfect for the dark half of the year and Full Bore a strong, specialist beer that cries out for a cheeseboard at the end of a meal.

That beer is a drink full of surprises in more ways than one was demonstrated by Bad King John being crowned the winner of Sainsbury’s Great British Beer Hunt. A black bitter with huge depth of flavour triumphed over a number of other lighter and potentially easier-drinking brews – but then again the man behind it has more recommended beers in CAMRA’s Good Bottled Beer Guide than any other brewer. Peter Scholey also has more than 30 years experience on his a CV including the founding of his own Ridgeway Brewing after Brakspear’s, where he was head brewer, closed in 2002. Williams Brothers IPA/Lager Hybrid Caesar Augustus took second place.

Winner of the Sainsbury's Great British Beer Hunt, Bad King John. Photo from bloodstoutandtears.blogspot.com

I’m looking forward to seeing Bad King John on the supermarket shelves but feel sad that this celebration of British beer has otherwise drawn to a close. My own celebrations of the UK’s beer will, of course, continue.

The Great British Beer Hunt started on 7^th September and runs until 27^th after which there will be a grand final to decide two winners. Sales of the beers will apparently come into the decision, so it looks worth voting with your feet (and then your mouths) if you’ve got a favourite you want more of – and you’ll be supporting the brewer at the same time.

The beers are on offer at three for £5 and the contestants are:

• Wild Hop IPA, Harviestoun Brewery, Clackmanshire , Scotland
• Caesar Augustus, William Bros, Alloa , Scotland
• Profanity Stout, William Bros, Alloa , Scotland
• Flying Dutchman Wit Bier, Caledonian Brewing Co, Alva , Scotland
• Ivanhoe, Ridgeway Brewing, South Oxfordshire
• Bad King John, Ridgeway Brewing, South Oxfordshire
• Stronghart, McMullen & Sons, Hertfordshire
• Bishop’s Farewell, Oakham Ales, Peterborough
• Wye Not?, Wye Valley Brewing, Herefordshire
• Churchill Ale, Oxfordshire Ales Ltd, Bicester
• Golden Seahawk, Cotleigh Brewery, Somerset
• Full Bore, Hunter’s Brewery, Devon
• Two Hoots Golden Ale, Joseph Holt, Manchester
• Golden Summer, Wold Top Brewery, Yorkshire
• Frederic’s Great British Ginger Beer, Frederic Robinson, Stockport
• Worcester Sorcerer, Sadler’s Ales, Stourbridge .

I’ve tried five of the 16 so far and a pleasing by-product is that it’s helped me begin to conquer my ‘fear’ of dark beers, so much so that they are leading the field in my own personal Great British Beer Hunt.

William Bros Profanity Stout (7%) inspired anything but profanity when I tasted it. It turned out to be what I call a ‘dancing beer’ – that is one that makes me dance with glee after just a little sip because it is so delicious. To describe its flavour as sweet doesn’t do it justice but it is a sweet tasting beer with a rich coffee and chocolate aftertaste. If you’re not a big fan of coffee and/or chocolate then you might not love it like I did, but if you are then this gorgeous stout will probably remind you of good quality, high cocoa solids chocolate or of the best chocolate mousse you’ve ever had (in my case made by a now long, lost love and featuring coffee among its ingredients). If you don’t normally drink this kind of beer, try it just to humour me. I wasn’t expecting to be so blown away by it but now I can’t wait to have another bottle.

Ridgeway’s Bad King John (6%), described as a ‘black ale’ also had elements of chocolate, but was a much more earthy, warming beer than the Profanity Stout and while I didn’t get much of an aroma when I sniffed the former, there was a distinctly liquorice fragrance emanating from Bad King John. It struck me as a winter cheer beer, one to stock up on to keep the cold away and your spirits up through fast-approaching dark months.

And so to the lighter beers. Surprisingly, given that I loved their Profanity Stout and am also a huge fan of their Ceilidh craft lager, I was rather disappointed in William Bros’ Caesar Augustus (4.1%) which is not to say that it is a bad beer, far from it, but the anticipation created by the idea of a lager/IPA hybrid was more exciting than the beer itself. However, it was drinkable and although it wouldn’t be my first choice it is definitely worth a try.

One that I wish I hadn’t tried though was the disappointing Worcester Sorcerer (4.3% ). I will confess that there is a chance that I over chilled the bottle and added to the gassiness therein, but when I tasted it I was reminded of all those conversations about women (and men) being put off beer because it makes them bloated. It also seemed to have too much going on flavourwise, as if it couldn’t decide what sort of beer it was. If you decide to try it anyway don’t put it in the fridge for long – that might sort out the gassy problem. Expect a rather sweet beer, with elements of toffee apple (as per the label). Despite the fact that I didn’t like this I must put in a word for Sadler’s excellent labelling which included detailed tasting notes, food matching suggestions and even recipe ideas.

I enjoyed Wold Top’s Golden Summer (4.4%) and if you like a golden summer ale you will too. It has a honey sweet (but not cloyingly) flavour with a dry aftertaste. It would be easy – not to mention pleasurable – to put away a few of these.

Eleven more to try!

What are your favourites so far?

I picked it up partly because I’d never seen it before and also because Adnams brew one of my favourite beers, Broadside, but when I lifted it off the shelf I was struck by the fact that it was in a blue bottle. I can’t remember ever having had beer in a blue bottle before and I was seized with a potentially childlike thrill at the idea.

Adnams apparently chose the colour and design to evoke sea spray and make the most of the brewery’s coastal location, but speaking to Packaging News*, they also said it was a new take on beer and that they wanted the bottle to have not just a distinctive, but a contemporary feel.

Apologies for the picture quality - it must've been the excitement!

Whether you like, or are excited by, the blue glass or not I think you’ve got to hand it to them for coming up with something unusual. Surely this 330ml cobalt beauty is just the sort of thing to attract the attention of – and become a talking point for – those who already drink beer and those yet to try it. I hope Adnams will be backing Spindrift with the promotion it deserves because I think it could be a real ambassador for our favourite drink; one that blows away the fusty old anorak image like a refreshing wash down with sea spray.

The beer itself has a mellow honey flavour, with a rounded sweetness leading to a refreshing, astringent finish. It was somewhat fizzy though and although this made it more thirst quenching it had the potential to translate into being too gassy if you had more than a couple of bottles – but at 5% perhaps you wouldn’t anyway.

It seems that beer’s image, or image problem, is on everyone’s minds at the moment. Mark Dredge, who writes the Pencil and Spoon blog, has also just posted on the subject of cheers and jeers for pump clips and bottle labels. Like my own previous post about sexist pump clips, Mark also names and shames some hideous examples of those relying on tired, smutty old puns to sell their beer but, interestingly, also reveals a dislike for associating steam trains and animals with ale.

You can read what he has to say here: http://www.pencilandspoon.com/2011/07/branding-my-biggest-beer-annoyance.html but I have to disagree with him about animals because I am always attracted to beer and pump clips featuring birds or bird names. I wonder what he thinks of Spindrift?

Thumbs up to Adnams from me though, for another delicious beer and for branding that is worth talking – and writing about.

*Read the full article from Packaging News and see a much better picture of the blue bottle here: http://www.packagingnews.co.uk/materials/adnams-picks-o-is-blue-glass-for-premium-coastal-beer-bottle/

“Beyond rape puns, broader perusal of pump clip parade makes sobering viewing for those who think cask ale is successfully attracting women” was what Pete tweeted, so I paid the site a visit and was soon greeted with this monstrosity (and I hope Mick Potts who apparently contributed the pic to the site will forgive me for reproducing it):

As contributed to Pump Clip Parade by Mick Potts

It reminded me of how disgusted I was when I saw this in the local JDW a few weeks ago.

Not want I want to see when I get to the bar

Pete Brown is right. You don’t need to be a card-carrying, banner waving, feminist to not only be put off trying real ale but made to feel bloody uncomfortable when you’re up at the bar if there’s a pump clip like that staring you in the face while you’re ordering your drink.

Think about it, given that the pub is probably the best place to go if you want to find large numbers of inebriated men and that their inhibitions (or manners) about leering lecherously at female customers will probably have gone out of the window after their third bottle of alcopop, is it really sensible, let alone ethical, to provide them with a visual prompt, prop and excuse to act on their drunken impulses? And, without wanting to get too serious on my beer blog, what might happen when accosted woman rebuffs the comments of drunken, leering man asking her if she fancies some Hanky Panky? It does not bear thinking about.

If you are a brewer who has sunk to the depths of making a joke at the expense of half the population to sell your beer, firstly you should be ashamed of yourself and secondly, maybe you should wake up and realise that you are alienating your potential customers. Until all those involved in making, selling and promoting beer realise this, I can’t see how we’re ever going to persuade the majority of women that beer is the drink for them.

• For those who don’t already know Pumpclip Parade, it describes itself thus: “Aesthetic Atrocities From The World Of Beer. We love the stuff, but bloody hell, some brewers should be tied up in hop pockets and beaten with malt-shovels.” Have a look at the site and contribute your own pumpclip horrors here: http://pumpclipparade.blogspot.com/

A rapid beer success story, with distribution everywhere from supermarkets to Michelin starred restaurants their beers seem to be in high demand. BrewDog does however divide opinion almost as much as the subject of my previous post, the cask v keg debate.

Well known among beer enthusiasts and beyond for media coverage off the back of brewing some incredibly high strength beers such as Tokyo, Sink the Bismarck and The End of History (which at 18.2, 41 and 55% ABV respectively drew criticism from industry watchdogs and responsible drinking groups for being too strong and from aficionados for not actually being beer) I found that there are those who consider BrewDog’s success to be a case of style over substance and think they wouldn’t have got so far without these controversial headline grabbing beers.

Their unconventional approach to marketing is obviously a factor in their achievements, but image is only really enough to get someone to try your product once; it’s making great beer that keeps drinkers coming back for more and plenty of people are doing so. As well as the popularity measured by sales, a mixture of eavesdropping and upfront asking around turned up a fair number of BrewDog fans who rate them highly and consider their image and marketing simply to be a savvy way of promoting their product.

Few could dispute they have a strong brand. Although I’ve not visited their pubs, their beers are easy to spot on the supermarket and beer shop shelves. There’s no mistaking a BrewDog bottle. But look a little closer and you’ll spot a potential flaw in their marketing.

Easy to spot: there’s no mistaking a BrewDog bottle

Their so-called punk philosophy means they don’t care who they offend – presumably in the manner of no publicity being bad publicity. But you’ve got to wonder if this attitude could turn around and bite them – because it wasn’t the divided opinion or the ridiculously strong ales that kept me away – it was their branding.

Like books and covers it may not be a completely reliable method to judge a beer by its label but the fact that I did meant the punk brewers had one less customer.

I was particularly offended by the name of one of their beers, ‘Trashy Blonde’, even though it is exactly the sort of beer I’d normally go for. More than once I picked one up, only to put it back down after reading the bottle. It made me too uncomfortable to buy it. Here’s what BrewDog put on their bottles that annoyed and offended me so much:

“A titillating, neurotic, peroxide, punk of a pale ale. Combining attitude, style, substance and a little bit of low self esteem for good measure; what would your mother say?

You really should just leave it alone…

 …but you just can’t get the compulsive malt body and gorgeous dirty blonde colour out of your head. The seductive lure of the sassy passion fruit hop proves too much to resist. All that is even before we get onto the fact that there are no additives preservatives, pasteurization or strings attached.

All wrapped up with the customary BrewDog bite and imaginative twist. This trashy blonde is going to get you into a lot of trouble.”

What bothered me is that if someone is referred to as a blonde, said individual will invariably be a woman. Men aren’t usually spoken or written about in terms of their hair colour and whenever I’ve heard a ‘blonde joke’ it’s usually been about a woman. So to call the beer Trashy Blonde struck me as the sort of unpleasant gender stereotyping that makes me want to throw my beer in the author’s face.

Add to this the “titillating, neurotic … and a little bit of low self esteem for good measure,” and I had a nasty taste in my mouth that would take more than a few good beers to wash away. I’ll not launch into a full feminist critique here but suffice to say that even in the 21^st century women are subjected to – and the subject of – far too much derogatory, degrading and violent treatment, behaviour and attitudes and anything that contributes to that ought to be considered unacceptable.

Apart from being offensive to women, BrewDog also like to insult their customers by suggesting via their bottle labels that they are too stupid or unsophisticated to appreciate the contents; and they like to slate what they consider to be lesser brewers (read: mass market) for producing bland, ‘lowest common denominator’ beers. While I might agree with the latter sentiment, I’m not sure how wise it is – in terms of brand – to specifically and directly condemn these products. Not least because of the potential for libel, but also in terms of persuading drinkers of such beers to try something else. Will they really be queuing up to try your beer if you’ve just told them their current choice is shit?

But I don’t mean to do a BrewDog on BrewDog and as such I have of course now actually tried some of their beers – including Trashy Blonde which I found overwhelmingly bitter and rather too gassy as opposed to titillating and neurotic – and yes I am glad I didn’t like it.

Bitter and gassy rather than titillating and neurotic

Punk IPA on the other hand was a good beer. I liked its powerful tropical fruit aroma, which carried through into the flavour. It was hoppy and bitter, but in a balanced way rather than assault of bitterness launched by the Trashy Blonde.

I also tried 5am Saint, which had an obvious blackcurrant aroma detectable even to the ‘untrained’ noses of my stepdaughters. Its creamy, bitter flavour came with a floral sweetness followed up by a medicine-like dry aftertaste; which sounds weird and horrible but worked for me. The testament of a good beer, I was sorry when I finished it and annoyed with myself for only buying one.

My verdict? They’re obviously capable of brewing some tasty beers but I’m still put off by their branding. In practice they’ll lose out on my custom if there’s an alternative beer available without a label that gets up my nose.

I wonder what sort of impact their brand will have on potential investors.