Weekends Beers One, Saterday

Well I didn't get out on Friday but I did have a drink Saturday and Sunday. So I will start with Saturdays beers, Sunday will follow on the next blog.

Sharp's, Atlantic from England

 

4.5% gold colour with a thin head, fruity aroma and a very fruity grapefruit taste.

Jennings, Red Breast from England

 

4.5% red in colour with a thin head, not much aroma, not a bad taste but not Christmas.

Marstons, Golden Ginger Beer from England

 

4.0% gold colour with no head, ginger aroma, sweet spicy ginger taste.

Okell's, 1907 from The Isle Of Man

 

6.1% amber colour with a thin head, sweet toffee aroma with a nice hoppy taste.
1907 was the date of the first Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, a motorbike bike race, the best known motorbike bike races in the world. I know because I have been twenty times, from the 70s to the 90s, unfortunately I can no longer afford to get back there.

Beer I had in Stratford

It is called beer I had in Stratford but I didn't have a lot, in fact I only had three new beers in all. Saying that I did drink plenty, its just that the campsite bar only had Boddingtons (not to sure about that but I think it was Boddingtons, sorry to the site it it wasn't).

Oakham, Great Gustav from England

4.8% deep gold colour with a nice head, hop aroma and a very hoppy taste, far to hoppy for me. I come from the days when hops was used for a reason and not to give too much hop taste.

Black and Tan, Colonel's Whiskers from England

4.3% black with a thin head, liquorish aroma and a bitter liquorish taste. Not too bad and a lot better that the previous one.

Hook Norton, Lion from England

 

4.4% pale amber colour with a thin head, malty and hoppy aroma, with a very similar hoppy taste. Not quite as bad as the first one but it was hoppy.

Three of the First Beers

Well looking back at the beginning of the photo quest, back in 2007, it seems to have taken me a few weeks before I did my first British beer tasting. Anyway here are three of the earliest beers I took photos of. Of course just in case you didn't know, these are my first beer photos not my first beers. Saying that, it is only a few years longer than this, that I have been trying new beers in earnest, before this I just drank whatever there was on offer and that was usually northern beers.

Alpirsbacher Klosterbräu, Weizen Hefe Dunkel from Gemany



5.2% dark colour with a very good head, malty and hoppy aroma, malty yeast taste. Drank in Bad Liebenzell in the Black Forest of Germany. Looks like a good pint of draught Camerons Strongarm and although it was slightly watery than the Strongarm, it was quite good.

Grimbergen, Blond from Belgium



6.7%, golden colour with a thin head, sweet aroma and fruity malty taste, a really nice abbey beer. This beer is now one of my favourites and I buy it whenever I see it at a descent price, as are some of the other beers from Grimbergen. See here

InBev, Stella Artois, Belgium



5.2% golden colour with a thin head, slight malt aroma and taste, slightly over carbonated for my taste but refreshing. A present from my brother Mick, I am a beer man through and through but I think Stella Artois has been getting a lot of bad comments lately. For what the English call a lager, its not one of the of the worst, in fact it is one of the better ones, speaking as a beer drinker anyway.

Three from last week

Still slow at this but here are the three new beers I had last weekend.

Wellpark (C&C Group), Tennent's Beer Aged with Whisky Oak from Scotland

 

6.0% gold colour with no head, malt and whisky aroma, tastes strong with a slightly sweet after taste, not as good as I thought it would be. The Innis & Gunn, Original also from Scotland is far superior.

Ilkley, Mary Jane from England

 

3.5% gold colour with a thin head, hop aroma, citrus hop taste, very average, by that I mean it was as average as every other 3.5% bitter in England, although it was more hoppy than usual.

Altenmünster, Brauer Bier Urig Würzig from Germany

 

4.9% pale yellow with a thin head, smells and tastes like a good lager and that was it, just an ordinary lager.

Onward

Do you know that I intend to update this every week but the time flies by, I know it is all part of my stroke but it is all very strange to me, as I do not see how it has affected me at all.

Well what have I got, I still get through as many new beers as I always did but not so much in between them, in other words I do not drink much through the week at all.

So here are just two of the many beers I have tried but not covered here, both are from the same brewery.

Cumberland, Corby Noir from England

 

4.5% very dark brown with a thin head, very malty aroma and a nice stout taste. Not a bad taste although as you probably know I am not that fond of Stout.

Cumberland, Corby Fox from England

 

4.7% brown in colour with a thin head, it had a slightly sweet aroma and taste. Again, another one that is not too bad, so well done to this brewery.

I will try and do this again very soon but if I don't, it is because of the stroke and I will try as soon as I can.  

IOM Beers, well Okell's that is.

I have not been the Isle of Man for over twenty years, although before that I was there every year for the twenty years in a row.  Although I do keep in touch with what is going on now over there during TT Week.

I have very many good memories from the twenty years I had visiting the IOM for TT Week, although the beer is not one of them, so this should be good.  Saying that, the twenty years since my last visit may have made a difference, also my taste in beer may also have changed in all that time.

Okell's, IPA from the Isle of Man

 

4.5% yellow in colour with a very thin head, sweet hoppy aroma and taste but not too bad, a nice IPA. Had this one previously but the label has changed quite recently, as you can see and it's changed its name slightly from Doctor Okell's IPA.

Okell's, Maclir from the Isle of Man

 

4.4% yellow colour with a thin head, not much aroma and the taste was nothing like a Wheat Beer, in fact it was more like an IPA but it was OK.  Saying that if you order a Wheat Beer, that is exactly what you want, not an IPA.

Okell's, Aile from the Isle of Man

 

4.7% black colour with a thin head, it sort of had a tar aroma and taste, not very good at all.

All in all, I am still not sure about Okell's but these did seem to be slightly better than I remember and I did have twenty years of holidays drinking over there.  When I say drinking over there, I really mean that, I drank loads.

Some Good Missed Beer's

As I have not been posting since March I have missed some very good beers, today I will try to catch up with a few of them.

This is harder than I thought it was going to be, not that I haven't had a good beer or that I had too many, its just that I am still finding it hard to remember. I really should write them down as soon as possible and to tell the truth I usually do but some just sneak passed me. This list should be OK, I hope.

Wells, Sticky Toffee Pudding Ale from England.

 

5.0% deep amber with a nice head, toffee aroma, very nice toffee taste. Bit sweet but very nice.

Great Newsome, Winter Warmer from England

 

4.6% peep amber colour with a good head, spicy aroma and a nice Christmas taste. Although I did have this one in April.

Batemans, English B Bock from England

 

6.0% deep red colour with a poor head, sort of a mild aroma, nice deep complex tasting beer. Of course it was rather strong.