Beer, from before the Virus

During our trip away before the Coronavirus took hold, I did manage to have some new beers and some of them were very good indeed. I had all of these at Keswick Reach Lodge Retreat were we were for Dot's birthday. I did have more than this, after all we were there for a week but I will make a start here.

The first ones were all Hawkshead beers,

Hawkshead, Windermere Pale from England

 

3.5% gold in colour with a thin head, some hopps in the aroma but the taste was quite good.

Hawkshead, Brodie's Prime Porter from England

 

4.9% black in colour with a good head, a slightly sweet aroma, with a nice roasted toffee taste.

These are the only two new beers from Hawkshead I had but I did have another one from them, only I only have the old photo with the old label.

Hawkshead, Lakeland Gold from England

 

4.4% dark gold colour with a good head, hop aroma and citrus hop taste, nice.

March, Beer and Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Since my last post, the world has changed, we had a trip away at the beginning of March but have been in the house ever since. Coronavirus has had some of us isolated for longer than some others, as I have asthma and it may not be any good for me. The pair of us also suffer from atrial fibrillation, so we are taking no chances at all. The Motorhome is just parked up, I did not use it much at all last year and this year I doubt we will get any use out of it again.

When all of this is over, I am taking the van to France for a long holiday but we do not know when that will be.

Saying all that, I have had quite a few new beers during March and have plenty left to last through April and probably May. As well as the beers I already had in, I found that you can still order beers in fairly easily. So I have got in beers that I actually like and one especially from our local big brewery.

I think it is strange that I can get as much beer as I want delivered to the house but food, that is a different matter. None of the big supermarkets will deliver, thay are all fully booked, good job we have two freezers and plenty of meat. Dot even got up early today and went to our local shops for some salad, milk and chocolate.

It will take a few posts to cover all of the new beers I have had during march, so let's get started.

St. Peter's, Stormtrooper Galactic Pale Ale from England

4.2% pale amber in colour with a nice head, fruity aroma and a bitter taste.

The Garden Brewery, Vanilla & Chocolate Porter from Croatia

6.7% black in colour with a nice head, good vanilla aroma and a nice sweet chocolate taste.

Gipsy Hill, Baller from England

5.4% hazy gold in colour with a thin head, citrus hop aroma and taste, too much.

Yeastie Boys, Pot Kettle Black from New Zealand

6.0% almost black in colour with a good head, a sweet aroma, with a very good licorice porter taste.

Bad Beer Saturday

I took three beers to Jonathan's on Saturday night and they were all awful, one was a strong stout that should have been nice but it was not at all. Luckily Jonathan had some decent ordinary beers for us to drink and take the taste away. So let's just get on with it, it can act as a warning to you all, although as I have said before, just because I did not like them doesn't mean that you wouldn't.

Gipsy Hill, Envoy from England

4.0% cloudy yellow with no head at all, it had a grapefruit aroma and an acid fizzy bitter fruit taste. This was an awful beer.

Uiltje, Bird of Prey IPA from Holland

 

5.8% gold in colour with a poor head, another one with a grapefruit aroma and another one that tasted not good at all.

Nomad, Hooked On A Teeling Oatmeal Stout from Australia

 

8.0% black in colour with a poor head, a strange aroma probably the whiskey, the taste was nothing like a stout at all and it didn't seem like an 8% beer, sadly some went down the drain.

More beer before Saturday

Well after Wednesdays beers, I was going to give it a miss until Friday or Saturday but I didn't, in fact I drank Thursday and Friday nights. So before I cover Saturdays beers, I will get on with the beers I had between. On both of these nights I just drank beers from my beer fridge and it is still full. Trev and Pat are still away, so that is why we were in on Friday night.

Thursday Night

Basqueland, Aupa All United Pale Ale from Spain

5.2% gold in colour with a thin head, a bitter fruit aroma and a bitter fruit taste, this has not made me look forward to our trip to Spain this year.

Siren, Soundwave IPA from England

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

Friday Night

Wiper and True, Blossom Amber Ale from England

 

4.6% hazy amber in colour with a thin head, a nice fruity aroma and the taste is a good amber.

Toast, Bloomin' Lovely from England

 

4.5% deep gold in colour with a poor head, a nice doughy aroma and a slightly bitter taste.

Wylam, Catcher In The Rye from England

 

5.8% gold in colour with a thin head, not much aroma but the taste was quite nice

Midweek Football

After a two or three rest days, Wednesday was a day for beer. And I needed them, Boro are now nearly bottom of the Champions League after losing again. The club seems to be a right shambles this year, hope they improve before they end up relegated.

Anyway, the beers I had were a right different lot to each other.

Northern Monk, Neapolitan Ice Cream Pale from England

6.2% hazy gold in colour with a thin head, sweet fruity aroma, taste is quite nice with some strawberry in there.

McEwan's, Champion from England

 

7.3%, dark brown colour with a good white head, sweet malt aroma, caramel malt strong slightly bitter taste, one of the best. A Scottish beer now only made in England, this is an older photo from the Scottish days.

Wiper and True, Milk Stout Milk Shake from England

5.6% black in colour with a nice head, it had a nice stout aroma and taste.

Last Weekend

Well after our week with Ralph and Amber and missing our Friday night out with Trav and Pat, we did get to Jonathan and Lorains though on the Saturday. It was a shame though as we will not see Trav and Pat again until at least the 20th of March.

Ralph and Amber left during the early afternoon, so I got to watch one and a half of the Six Nations matches on that day. We left for Jonathan and Lorains at half time in the second match and was surprised to get there with only about ten mins gone of the second half.

So we opened a can of beer each and watched the rest of the Rugby before we had our tea, the beer is reviewed below. One thing to note, is that even though this beer is relatively week, it was quite good.

Cloudwater, Random Act Of Mindfulness from England

3.8% gold in colour with a thin head, some hop in the aroma and the taste was quite good.

Rothaus, Tannenzäpfle from Germany

 

5.1% gold in colour with a nice head, hop and malt aroma and the taste was quite refreshing.

There was another couple of beers that we had had before, so I didn't take any photos of them, I do however have photos of them although the labels may now be different.

Hadrian & Border, Tyneside Brown Ale from England

 

4.7% deep amber colour with a good head, fruity malty aroma, liquorish malt taste, very good beer.

De Koningshoeven, La Trappe Dubbel from Holland

 

7.0% amber colour with a good head, sweet caramel aroma, fruity and malty taste, very good.

Beers during Ralph's visit.

As Ralph was drinking his usual Black Label and as I was serving him, as he had a swollen left leg (the doctor recons that he has Gout), I had have a few of my own. Only all of mine were strange beers not the eazy beer he was drinking. I think we were drinking for five nights so I must have had a few new ones, lets see.

The hospital also recon that young Ralpe has Gout, anyway on his last night here, we had a Parmo as we usually do. If you have not had a Parmo, or do not know what a Parmo is, that is a real shame, you can look it up on Wikipedia, it is gorgeous.

Williams Brothers, Iconic from Scotland

 

4.4% gold in colour with a thin head, some fruit in the aroma and a bittersweet taste.

Martens, Sezoens Blond from Belgium

 

6.0% gold in colour with a thin head, yeasty malt aroma and the taste is lager.

Mount St. Bernard Abbey, Tynt Meadow English Trappist Ale from England

 

7.4% cloudy amber in colour with a nice head, a fruity toffee aroma, a reasonable Abbey taste.

Black Isle Brewing, Goldeneye from Scotland

 

5.6% gold in colour with a thin head, fruit hop aroma and a bitter sweet taste. The other beers from this brewery I did a few week back Black Isle Brewing.

Castelain, la Bête from France

 

8.0% gold in colour with a nice head, not much aroma but a nice sweet taste.

Castelain, la Bête Blanche from France

 

5.2% hazy gold in colour with a good head, it was a typical french Blanch, very nice.