Another Ten French Beers

As I have said before, My Top Ten French Beers, is my most viewed blog (by a long way) and after having a go at, My Top Ten English Beers, I thought I would revisit French Beers, by doing another ten.

You may point out that, I have not yet done a, My Top Ten Belgian Beers yet, well the reason for that is, I will have to put an awful lot of though into picking just ten from Belgium.  Also as there seems to be a big interest in French beers, I will give that another shot first.

Unlike the last French top ten, these beers may not all  be as readily available, as some are from regional brewers.  Saying that some are supermarket own brands are widely available, even in the UK.  As you know I am not a beer snob, so if a beer tastes good, it doesn't make any difference to me where it came from or how much is cost.

Lancelot, Cervoise Lancelot

6.0% amber colour with a thin head, fruity malt aroma, fruity malt taste. I have had a few of their beers and most were good, unusually the brewery is built on the site of an old gold mine, in Saint Roc André, Brittany.

La Choulette, Hé, Biloute T’es d’Min Coin? Ambree

8.5% deep amber colour with a poor head, chocolate aroma, fruity chocolate taste.

The brewery employs eleven people and beers brewed by them in the village of Hordain, are distributed across the country and beyond. They are exported to Britain, Italy and the United States (the last bit is from their own website).

Meteor, Wendelinus

6.8% deep gold colour with a nice head, sweet malt and yeast aroma, slightly sweet yeasty taste, a good abbey beer, although ratebeer have it as a Bière de Garde, had it on draught in Blois.  In My Top Ten French Beers, I did give Meteor Blanche a bad report last time so I hope this makes up for that.

Pietra, Colomba Blanche (Corsica)

5.0% cloudy white with a good head, it looked good but had a bit of a weak taste, a very average witbier. Then again it was typical of most French Blanches.

Ākerbeltz, Gorrasta (Amber)

5.5% amber colour with a thin head, slight toffee aroma, taste was a bit like chocolate éclair sweets.  I had three beers from Ākerbeltz, besides the Amber, I had the Blonde and the Blanche and the this one was the better of the three.

The goat emblem AkerbeltzAkerbeltz (the black goat) was chosen by François Iraola to symbolize the brand of beer. It is a character of Basque mythology.  The brewery is quite close to the Spanish boarder. 

Mélusine, Imperiale Blonde

4.8% gold colour and a very thin head, very little aroma, sweet with a slight grapefruit hop taste but it was a bit watery.  It was very good to drink in the sun, on the beach, as we did in Les Bains, St Jean de Monts, Vendée, Payes de la Loire.  Although I have included this one, I can not find it again so may have been discontinued.

AR-MEN, Dorée

7.0% dark gold colour with no head, sweet fruity malt aroma, fruity and strong alcohol taste with some toffee. I bought a box set of their beers with a matching glass in Pont Aven in the Finistère department of Brittany, it was a father's day present from Nicole and Tim. As well as the Dorée, there was a Blanche, a Blonde, a Ambrée and a Rousse, I liked then all but the Rousse.

De Gayant, La Blonde de Ch’Nord

7.0% gold colour with a thin head, sweet aroma, good blond Leffe like taste. From Lidl in France, I liked it a lot and it was very cheap.

Saint-Germain, Page 24 Hildegarde Biere Ambrée

6.9% hazy amber colour with a thin head, the aroma was soapy but the taste was of toffee and coffee. Brasserie Saint Germain is in Aix Noulette near Lens and Béthune in Nord-Pas-de-Calais.

De la Soif, Barbe Torte

5.0% hazy amber colour with a good head, chocolate aroma and earthy chocolate malt taste.  I believe the brewery is in Nantes and I did buy it in that region but their website doesn't seem to be working.

Doing this, I have discovered, that I could very easily have done another Ten, well maybe next time, I will see what the response to this one is first.   Feedback is very welcome.

My Top Ten Belgian Beers

Halloween

For Halloween, I though I would have a look through my collection, to see what beers I could find with a connection to the yearly celebration. I found a few and will start with the newest.

Shepherd Neame, Warlocks Broth from England

4.0% amber colour with a nice head, sweet malt and hop aroma, bitter caramel taste, nothing special but not bad.

Shepherd Neame, Spooks Ale from England

4.7%, deed red colour with a thin head, caramel malt aroma, nice toffee malt taste.

Badger, Pumpkin Ale from England

4.6% amber colour with a poor head, smell like a pumpkin lantern the morning after Halloween, fruity but bitter taste, not sure about this one.

Caledonian, Trick or Treat from Scotland

4.4% deep gold colour with a good head, toffee aroma, mild toffee and hop taste, I got no ginger at all but I did like it a lot. Very poor phone photo.

Nick Stafford’s Hambleton Ales, Ghostly Glory from England

4.0% deep gold colour with a good head, fudge aroma, some toffee in the taste, I liked this one.

Wychwood, Pumpking from England

5.0% deep amber colour with a good head, fruity aroma, fruity and slightly hoppy taste, not at all like the last pumpkin beer I tried, this one was quite good.

Wychwood, Hobgoblin from England

5.2% dark amber with a thin head, fruity hop aroma, nice creamy malt taste, very good beer and the beast of the bunch

I have also had a few beer with Witch or Wych in the title that could be used for Halloween

Moorhouse's, Pendle Witches Brew from England

5.1% light amber colour with no head, nice caramel aroma and taste.

Moorhouse's, Blond Witch from England

4.5%, gold colour with a thin head, slight citrus aroma, some bitterness and hop taste, not as good as the label.

Wychwood, Black Wych from England

5.0% very dark with a thin but lasting head, no aroma when cold but roasted malt as it warms, bitter roasted malt taste.

Wychwood, White Wych from England

4.0%, not as blond as I expected more like an amber colour, thin head, slight hop aroma, fairly bitter but not much else to say, average beer.

Unplanned Trip To Wales, the drive home.

Day five, Wednesday 8th August

By the time we left for Manchester, we didn't have time to do any sightseeing on the way but we did stop off to get a photos of the Menai Strait bridges. Never know when we will ever be back this way/

By the time we arrived at the hotel we barely had time for a bath and change before it was time for some food and a drink.  There was a band on in the bar but as there weren't many people in there, so we didn't stop too long.

Day five, Wednesday 8th August

After a fine breakfast in the hotel, I want out to the car to set up the sat nav, for a sightseeing drive home, Hebden Bridge and then Saltaire.  Dot went back to the room to finish packing.

I was just finishing off, when Dot phoned to say, reception had phoned and we should have been out of the room ten minutes ago at 10:00. Which is odd, because, on the way back to the room the previous night, I stopped at reception to book the breakfasts and asked what time we had to checkout. I was informed that it was 11:00, when I told the lady on reception this, she said it was a mistake and that we did not need to rush.

We were almost ready to leave anyway and were soon heading for Hebden Bridge, once off the M62 we travelled along some very narrow roads but did see some beautiful views.  We made several stops to take bridge photos, before we reached Hebden Bridge.

Arrived in Hebden Bridge and found it very hard to find a parking space. But we did find one eventually, there was a second hand/antiquates market on, taking up a lot of the parking spaces.

We had a good look around the market and shops and even bought a couple of presents for upcoming birthdays. I had not realised that Hebden Bridge had been flooded earlier in the year and many premises, were either closed or just reopening (I believe that it had been flooded again since our visit). We then looked for the canal and had a very short walk along it.

All the time we were walking I took photos of bridges. We bought sandwiches for lunch which we had, sat by the bridge from Hebden Bridge, listening to a very good busker.  Yet again it was very sunny, we have had some very good luck on this trip.

After lunch we got back on the road heading doe Saltaire, why Saltaire? Here is a quote from their website,

"Saltaire Village is near Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It is named after Sir Titus Salt who built a textile mill and this village on the River Aire. In December 2001, Saltaire was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Saltaire is not a monument. People live here - so it is open all the time!"

they also have a brewery.

On the drive there high up on the moors miles from anywhere there was an ice cream van in a lay-by. We stopped and bought one, we also stopped a bit further on to tack a photo of a viaduct.

On arrival in Saltaire, we had even more trouble parking than we did in Hebdon Bridge but we managed eventually.

We walked over the railway bridge lokked in at the train station and continued down to the canal and river.

At the river I popped into the pub to ask where the Saltaire brewery was, well it isn't in Solitaire. It's next door in Shipley, further along the canal but not too far to walk, I was informed.

We didn't have anything else planned, so a walk along the canal in the sun seemed like a nice idea.  So that's what we did and as usual, I took bridge photos along the way.

We walked for about half an hour but didn't come across any sign of the brewery, so we turned around and headed back. The brewery is actually about another ten minutes walk from where we turned back.

Back in Saltaire, we crossed over the river Aire and had a short walk in the park, before heading back towards the car park. We had a look in some tourist shops and I bought some Saltaire brewery beers to take home.

The Beers

Saltaire Beers

When Titus Salt built Saltaire (the famous model village, now a World Heritage site) in 1853, it did not even include a pub, now it has a brewery named after it.  After our visit to Saltaire and buying some new Saltaire beers, I thought I needed to review them all together.

These are the Saltaire beers I have had so far.
 
Saltaire, Blonde from England

 4.0% gold colour with a thin head, nice fruity aroma, and a good citrus hop taste not a bad beer.

Saltaire, Strawberry Republika from England.

4.1% gold colour with a thin head, slight strawberry aroma, taste is more like apricot and not so much strawberry, it is not nice at all, I can see how some would like it but defiantly not me, never again. If you are wondering why I bought it, the price was good and I did not read the label.

Saltaire, Cascade Pale Ale from England

4,8% gold colour with a thin head, citrus hop aroma slightly sweet but dry grapefruit citrus hop taste, nice refreshing beer.

Saltaire, Crystal Red from England.

4.4% amber colour with a good head, toffee malt aroma and a nice caramel toffee taste.

Saltaire, Triple Chocoholic from England

4.8% black with a nice head, roast malt and chocolate aroma, the taste is bitter chocolate.

Saltaire, Raspberry Blonde from England

4.0% gold colour (not red or pink) with a nice head, red berries maybe raspberry aroma, some raspberry flavour in the taste.