North East Beers

We had four relatively big local breweries, Nimmo in Castle Eden, Vaux in Sunderland, Camerons in Hartlepool and Newcastle in (yes you are right) Newcastle.  All of them were sold off at one time or another and Vaux and Nimmo are now closed down completely.

Saying that you can still get all of their top selling beers.  There are other brewers in the North East but they are relatively new, this is for the older beers that where available when I was a kid on Teesside.

Here are the top beers from these four brewers, of course the reviews are on the beers as they are now.

Camerons (Nimmo's), Castle Eden Ale from England

4.2% pale amber with a good head, some fruitiness in the aroma, an average bitter beer but not bad at all, now brewed by Camerons in Hartlepool.

Maxim (Vaux), Samson from England

4.0%, good head, fruity aroma and a sweet fruity malt taste, was one of my favourite draught beers, until the Vaux brewery in Sunderland was closed and demolished in 1999. It was resurrected by a company called The Double Maxim Beer Company now just Maxim and is sweeter than I remembered.

Camerons, Strongarm from England

 

4.0% ruby red colour with a very good head, fruity malt aroma, fruity caramel bitter taste, also good in bottles. My hometown beer, you love it or hate it, I love it.

S&N, Newcastle Brown Ale from England

4.7% brown in colour with a thin head, no detectable aroma, slightly sweet with a hint of caramel, over carbonated and for me has an odd after taste, not quite as bad as I remembered but not worthy of its reputation, I will not be buying it again, only bought this one as it was on offer and for the photo. Shame to slag off a local beer but then again it isn't local any more, now only made in Tadcaster, Yorkshire

la Goudale, Beers

This is the beer that I had missed and not posted on here, together with another from the same brewery in France.

Gayant, la Goudale Witt-Blanche from France

 

4.9% pale cloudy yellow colour colour with a thin head, bit of citrus in the aroma, slightly sweet citrus taste, not bad at all if you are looking for something different.

Gayant, La Goudale from France

 

7.2%, gold colour with a thin head, malty and hoppy aroma, slightly fruity taste, you can taste the alcohol but it is nice. It does come in larger 75cl bottles as well.

This is what I wrote in France when I first had this one.  Drank it out of the bottle whilst barbecuing, so do not know about the colour or head, drank all six, so do not know anything else about it either.    I do remember saying that I would not buy it again.

Last Weeks Ordinary Beers

Last weekend we only had two new beers but we did have plenty more that we had had before and liked very much indeed.  One of these "plenty more" beers has not been covered before and there was no photo of it ether, very strange, just shows how my brain has been effected.

I will cover that other one in a new post but the first two were very very ordinary.

Baytown, Baytown Bitter from England

 

4.0% amber colour with a good head, quite a good normal bitter aroma and taste.

Direct Beers, Knob Head from England

 

4.8% gold in colour with a thin head, looks and tastes like lager.

First Week of 2015

Well I have had two new beers this week, I did have plenty of beer between Christmas and New Year but nothing new.  Well all of that is tosh, I left my camera at my mothers and theses are from between Christmas and New Year, and I just got the camera back.

Shepherd Neame, Artesian Dark Ale from England

 

3.8% deep amber with a thin head, not much aroma but the taste was ok but a little bit watery, although it is a week beer .

Direct Beers, Cat Piss from, England

 

4.8% gold colour with a good head, some lemon in the aroma, slightly sweet taste.  Another one of these beers, they are not bad but I would say very ordinary, although the labels and names are different.

Christmas Beers 2014

Didn't have many new Christmas Beers this year but did manage a few, so here they all are, unless there are some on the other camera, which I should have back soon.

Jennings, Red Breast from England

 

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

St Austell (Nicholson's), Saint Nich's from England

4.5% looks like Strongarm, dark amber with a good white head, it had a Christmassy smell and a bitter dry Christmassy taste.

Hardys & Hansons, Rocking Rudolph from England

 

4.2% deep amber in colour but with a poor head, a malty aroma and a little bit of a Christmas taste, ok but that's it.

Direct Beers, Yule Log from England

 

5.0% dark brown colour with a nice head, fruity aroma and a nice Christmas taste, not bad for the last one, even if the label is a bit dodgy.

Tesco Revisionist Beers, well Marston's Revisionist Beers

Well its been a month since my last post on here but that doesn't mean I haven't been drinking. I have but I haven't had many new beers or time to post them on here for that matter. I am still a little bit slow after my stroke, witch was just over a year ago but anyway I am going to have a go now.

Well my camera with most of my photos on not here, I have left it at my mothers, so for now it will have to be what I have with my phone or other camera. I know, I will cover the newer Tesco beers, well the ones I have had, though I had done these.

Marston's (Tesco), Revisionist Craft Lager from England

 

5.0% golden lager colour with a thin head, aroma and taste pretty much like a lager should be, well what the British call a lager anyway.

Marston's (Tesco), Revisionist Hefeweizen Wheat Beer from England

 

4.8% slightly cloudy yellow with a nice head, slightly bitter but not a bad wheat beer, particularly as it is made in England.

Marston's (Tesco), Revisionist Belgian Saison Beer from England

 

5.0% cloudy yellow in colour with a good head, a veggie aroma with a sort of fruity taste, not quite as bad as it sounds.

Marston's (Tesco), Revisionist California Common Steam Beer from England

 

4.7% brown in colour with a nice head, malty aroma, malt and hop taste not too bad.

Marston's (Tesco), Revisionist Rye Pale Ale from England

 

4.3% amber colour with a thin head, fruity aroma and fruity hop taste, another on not too bad.

Marston's (Tesco), Revisionist Dark India Pale Ale from England

 

4.8% deep red to back in colour with a good head, sweet aroma, rather bitter taste.

There are other beers from Marston's in this line of beers but that is it for now, although the next one from Shepherd Neame seems to fit in with the ones above.

Shepherd Neame (Tesco), Single Hop Kentish Ale from England

 

4.5% amber colour with a thin head, sweet hop aroma with a dry slightly fizzy hoppy lemon (well citrus) taste.

Weekends Beers Two, Sunday

Well following on from Saturday here are Sundays new beers.

Camerons, Castle Eden Ale from England

4.2% pale amber with a good head, some fruitiness in the aroma, an average bitter beer but not bad. Also it is one that I thought I had done but apparently not, this is one of the first beers I used to drink, when the Castle Eden brewery still existed.

Black Hill, Bottom Busty from England

3.9% black in colour with a good head, it had the aroma and taste of a nice stout although it is a Ruby Ale. Better than the one below.

Allendale, Black Grouse from England

4.0% black in colour with a good head, sweet aroma with a bitter taste.  Not as good as the one above.