Beers from the first week in February.

Not been out to a pub this week, although I have had a few new beers. We are not even out this weekend, we are dog sitting. Syd is with us so we are not going anywhere, well not for a drink but we do get more walking done.

Anyway during the week I had three new beers (as usual I did have others but not new ones, well not to me).

Champigneulles (Lidl), Galereux from France

4.8% pale gold in colour with a quickly disappearing head, slightly sweet aroma and bitter taste.

Williams Brothers, Perfect Storm from Scotland

 

4.5% gold in colour with a thin head, a fruity hop aroma and a hoppy taste.

Thornbridge, Bison from England

 

6.9% gold in colour with a poor head, a citrus aroma and a taste of grapefruit not very good.

Belgian, Christmas Beers 2019, Part Three

Well I have eventually got round to finishing all of the Belgian Christmas beers (I think), I did have the last of them on the last day of January. There may be one or two that I have missed, if I do find any later I will add them then. There may be one or two English Christmas beers still to do but we will have to wait and see.

Now you may think, I thought he was telling a story with all of these beers, well I had all of these beers at home, on my own, so there is nothing to tell.

Fort Lapin, Snowlapin from Belgium

 

9.0% black in colour with a nice head, a spicy fruity aroma and a bittersweet plumb fruity taste, very nice.

Brasserie d'Achouffe, N'ice Chouffe from Belgium

 

10.0% deep brown in colour with a nice head, sweet aroma, the taste is christmas fruits and licorice, again very nice.

Brouwerij Huyghe, Delirium Christmas from Belgium

 

10.0% ruby red in colour with a short lasting head, spice fruit aroma, strong festive taste.

Ter Dolen, Winter from Belgium

 

9.1% amber in colour with a good head, fruity yeast aroma, strong sweet plumb taste.

Last weekend in January 2020

This weekend was the opposite to last week, we did not get out on Friday but did on Saturday and we really went out, to a pub.

On Friday, Trev was going out we we just stayed in but I did have some new beers. One was a Christmas beer, which I will cover later with the rest of the remaining Christmas beers. The other two were not too bad though.

Ardwen, Biere Blanche from France

 

4.5% cloudy yellow in colour with a very thin head, a french blanche aroma and a nice wheat beer taste. I did not realise it was a wheat beer so was pleasantly surprised by this one.

Ticketbrew, Pale Ale from England

 

5.5% pale amber in colour with a thin head, a bland citrus aroma, a nice but slightly fizzy taste though.

On Saturday, we picked Jonathan and Lorraine up and drove to The Fox & Hounds in Neasham and got parked up very easily. Inside was very empty as well, I think there was about sixteen people in there twenty with us lot. Anyway the food was very good, so I do not know what was going on with the amount of people in there, there were only ten of us eating. By the time we had eaten and had another beer in the bar, there were only four in there as we left. As for the food, I had a parmo and it was quite reasonable, anyway for drinks I had what was left from Christmas. We also had one more beer back at Jonathan and Lorraine's on the way home.

Black Sheep, Blitzen from England

4.9% ruby red in colour with a nice head, malt aroma, slight orange taste in there.

Gipsy Hill To Øl, Goober from England

5.5% black in colour with a good head, coffee aroma and the taste is chocolate and licorice, very nice.

Midweek Beers, last week in January

Got a call from friends Dave and Claire to ask if we wanted to go around to theirs on Monday night, we obviously said yes. As usual we took beers with us and as is our tradition, tea/supper was supplied, this time it was chilly and rice. This was very good but that is just the usual, we try to do something good when it is our turn, not too sure we do though. One thing different was that their grandson was there, a very nice little boy but after we left, he had teething troubles.

That night we managed to have four new beers and a couple we have had before. So let's make a start on the beers, one thing though was, they were all cans.

Time and Tide, All In Jim from England

5.4% cloudy gold in colour with a thin head, strong citrus hop aroma and a very citrus hop taste.

Buckhorn, Stateside IPA from England

5.5% gold in colour with a thin head, citrus hop aroma and a citrus hop taste.

Gipsy Hill, Busker from England

5.8% amber in colour with a good head, caramel malt aroma and a nice malt taste.

Hyde & Wilde, American Style IPA from England

5.6% gold in colour with thin head, with a hoppy aroma and taste.

Next day we got a phone call to let us know that my mother had been taken into hospital, so we rushed up there. After spending all day there, the doctors decided there was nothing wrong with her so we took her back home.

As we had had next to nothing to eat, we popped into spoons in Hartlepool after dropping Mam off at home. The Ward Jackson is on Church Street, our Mick and Brenda came with us or was it, us with them and had various stakes in there for tea.

I had a pint or two of Doombar, but that is one covered before.

This last week and the beers.

This week was much the same as last week, maybe I should just stick to the beers, although this is the quietest time of the year. We did visit a garden center during the week but all we bought in there was beer, strange that. Will cover the beers next.

On Friday We went to the Hope and Anchor in Greatham, the others wanted to go in there, rather than the Bull and Dog. So I had a few Camerons Strongarms (one if the best beers in the world) but I have covered that one before on here, but here it is again.

Camerons, Strongarm from England

 

4.0% ruby red in colour with a very good head, fruity malt aroma, fruity caramel bitter taste, also good in bottles and cans. My hometown beer, you either love it or hate it, I love it. One photo taken outside the Smiths Arms, also from Greatham village but sadly it is no longer with us.

On Saturday we just stayed in again (back to normal next week) and had the beers I bought in the garden center, well they were all from one brewery in Scotland, Black Isle Brewing, reviews below.

Black Isle Brewing, Goldfinch from Scotland

 

3.5% hazy gold in colour with a thin head, it had a sweet aroma and a bitter taste.

Black Isle Brewing, Red Kite from Scotland

 

4.2% amber in colour with a nice head, a malt aroma, nice malt and liquorice taste.

Black Isle Brewing, Blonde from Scotland

 

4.5% gold in colour with a nice head, not much aroma, fearly sweet taste more of a lager.

Black Isle Brewing, Porter from Scotland

 

4.8% black in colour with a good head, not much aroma but a nice sweet porter taste.

Looking back and reevaluating this Blog

Today I looked back at this blog and was surprised by how much I used to write on here. I suppose it was the stroke that changed things and now all I wright about is the beers, the "and Me" bit has just disappeared from here altogether.

Reading through the older blogs for me it was much more enjoyable to read what was going on in my life as well as the drinks I had. So I think I will give it another go and see if I can wright about what is going on as well. I will alsos include the beers involved as well.

So this last weekend was the same plan as nearly every other weekend since I started all this, whether before the stroke in 2013 or even after the stroke.

On Friday, as I said we went out with friends as usual to Greatham, although since last time I wrote about it, two of the three pubs there have closed down. Although one of the closed pubs has now reopened so there are now two of them again. So to cut a long story short we went to the pub we never used before but as it was the only one open for nearly a year we were used to it by now. The Bull and Dog was not very full at all and we got sat in the corner as usual, the only beer on draught in there is John Smiths and you probably know what I think of that, so I had a bottle of Old Speckled Hen, as usual.

Morland, Old Speckled Hen from England

5.0%, amber in colour with a head that disappeared fairly quickly (but I have had it with a good head), sweet malty aroma, bitter, liquorice malt taste, drink this one quite often, I like it a lot.

On Saturday, we usually go to our friends house for drinks but they were away this week, so we just had a night in. I did have a couple of beers though, although as it was last night, not new beers. I could have had new beers, I have about fifty of them ready to try but I was not feeling too well, so it was easier just to have stuff I have had before. I also have quite a few of these beers in the house as well. the first one was Camden, Hells Lager, the other, Camden, Versus Wicked Weed.

Camden, Hells Lager from England

4.6% pale cold in colour with a poor head, mild aroma and a bitter taste, very ordinary.

The other one

Camden, Versus Wicked Weed from England

 

5.6% hazy gold in colour with a nice head, sweet fruity aroma, the taste was bitter but fruity.

One more thing to go with this new method of doing the blog as it was intended, during the night my heart went into defib again and I was not well for the next day, although I am fine now. Hope you like this, I will be doing the beers pretty much as I was but with more information and the odd blog like this one.

English, Christmas Beers 2019, Part Three

This is the final batch of English Christmas Beers for last Christmas, we will have to wait about eleven months for the next lot.

Milestone, Dasher from England

 

4.5% amber in colour with a poor head, malt and christmas aroma, not a bad bitter christmas taste. This is just a new label that is from last years.

Wood's, Christmas Cracker from England

 

6.0% amber in colour with a very poor head. slightly fruity spicy aroma and taste.

Saltaire, White Christmas from England

 

4.8% gold in colour with a poor head, not mutch aroma at all, the taste is hoppy and citrus though.

8 Sail, Winter's Ale from England

 

5.5% dark brown in colour with a nice head, some smoky bits in the aroma but the taste was quite nice.

St Austell, Jolly Holly from England

3.8% (4.3% in bottles) deep amber in colour with a good head, malt and toffee aroma the taste is malty.