Scottish trip Beers

Time to review the beers from our recent short holiday in Scotland.

The first night in Melrose we tried four of the bars, The Station Hotel, a very comfortable bar but the selection of beer was very poor and the one bitter they did have was not nice at all.  Next it was the Ship Inn, strange name for a pub so far from the sea and their beer selection was even worse but it was very popular.

The next bar was very different and they had three hand pulled beers to choose from, so the The George & Abbotsford Hotel was on the list for another visit.  Finally there was The Kings Arms and again they also had three hand pulled beers to choose from, so we now had two good places to drink for the next four days.

Belhaven, Best from Scotland

3.5% pale amber colour with a thin head, low in aroma, the taste is not good, sort of fusty and tart, I will not be giving this one another go.

Tempest, Into The Light from Scotland

4.1% golden colour with a nice head, citrus hop aroma and a nice fruity citrus hop taste, what a contrast to the last one, I had several of these over the holiday.

Tempest, Elemental from Scotland

5.1% black with a good head, roast malt aroma, smooth roast malt taste, I had a full night on it, so it must be good.

Springhead, Maid Marian Blonde from England

4.5% cold colour with a good head, citrus aroma, dry citrus hop taste, very drinkable beer.

Scottish Borders, Foxy Blonde from Scotland

3.8% slightly hazy cold colour with a good head, hoppy aroma, nice citrus hop taste, this style of beer is becoming a theme for this holiday but I am not complaining.

We did have other beers but I had either had them before or didn't manage to get a photo, I did have one can but wish I hadn't.

Younger of Alloa, Sweetheart Stout from Scotland

2.0% black with a thin head, strange but sweet aroma, sweet lemonade and fruit drink taste, very odd.   I obviously didn't read the can before I bought this but I will not make the same mistake again, well not with this one anyway.

The rest of the Scotland Trip write-up can be viewed starting here.

Birthday

We got a Groupon room deal, that we used to have a night away for my birthday but didn't manage any new beers. The Hunley Hotel & Golf Club is not very far from home and the plan was to spend the day in Saltburn, have drinks and a meal back at the hotel then have the next day in Whitby.

Well that didn't work out, Dot was invited to a wedding evening do on the same day and the venue was only seven mile from the hotel. So we changed our plans.

The original plan would not have worked out anyway, it started to snow really hard on the drive there, so a walk in Saltburn would have been out of the question.

Check in was at three, so I had booked Sunday lunch in the restaurant for two, we arrived early and had a beer in the bar while we waited. There should have been great views of the coast from the bar and restaurant but the heavy snow put paid to that.

The beer was John Smith's, Magnet from England, 4.2% dark amber with a good head, not much but a slight malt aroma, fruity bitter taste, least expensive and best of the John Smith's range (according to this upside down world, it is not even brewed by John Smith's but my home town brewery, Camerons, no wonder I like it).

Had another beer with lunch and then relaxed in the room watching rugby until it was time for the taxi to Gisborough Hall for the do, had a couple of beers in the room as well.

Great do, not a great selection of beer but had a really good time but we had booked the return taxi too early and then left it too late to change it.   Even then, when we arrived back at the hotel we were the only people in the bar, so we only had one more beer before bed.

Missing Night

Here is the review from the Saturday before the week we had in Scotland (still have to do the beers from that trip) and the day before my birthday. As usual we where at Jon and Lorraine's for beer tasting and a tasty supper, it's about time is was our turn.

First we had, Phoenix Beverages Group, Blue Marlin from Mauritius

6.0% gold colour with a thin head, very little aroma, sweet malt taste with a bitter aftertaste, my first beer from Mauritius and it was quite nice.

Next was one I picked up in a good beer shop in Ripon, United Lager, no idea who made it or where it came from, it is not the United Lager that I can find on the net.

3.0% pale yellow colour with no head, no aroma, sweet watery nonediscript taste, the best I can say is that it was very cheap though.

Wadworth, Malt & Hops form England, was a big improvement on the last one.

4.5% amber colour with a thin head, malt and hops aroma, zesty cirus caramel and mixed fruits taste, very nice but I suppose anything would have been better than the last beer.

I had high expectations of this next beer, Wychwood, King Goblin from England, hoping it would be as good as their Hobgoblin.

6.6% deep amber with a nice head, burnt malt aroma, very complex bitter taste (that means that I do not have the ability to describe it), anyway I was not disappointed, it was very nice beer.

The last new beer of the night, Fuller's, Mighty Atom from England, was yet another of those new lower alcohol beers.

2.8% amber colour with a thin head, hop aroma, citrus hop taste, not bad for what it is.

To finish the nigh, we had an old favourite Grimbergen, Double from Belgium, we have the blonde quite often but the double was a treat.

6.5% very deep amber/red colour with a good head, sweet caramely malt aroma, sweet malty fruity taste with a slight bitterness, very tasty and warming.

Need to Catch Up

I am way behind with my blogging and will have to put some effort into catching up soon.  I have a couple of Saturday night beers to write about, also beers from a trip to Scotland and whatever comes up before I get all that done.

Yesterday we had a trip out to Barnard Castle, where I got three new beers and a nice beer glass in a charity shop, so there is even more to do, must get started but the sun is shining and we do not see that very often  here.

Back to a normal Saturday night

First time for a few weeks we had a normal beer tasting Saturday night, quite a varied section of beers and some very good food as well.

We started the night with an Oranjeboom, Premium Lager from Holland, we had, had it before but Jonathan had bought these for about £0.50/bottle. Although these were 4.7% rather than the 5.0% they used to be, the brewery and brand have been bought a sold many times in the last few years and the recipe has also been altered. According to the label this is the "Original Dutch Recipe"

  

4.7%, (not 5.0%) pale yellow with no head, slight malt aroma, sweet malt taste, I do not know if it is just the name playing tricks on my mind but I can taste oranges, well something citrus anyway.

We swiftly moved on to the first of the new beers of the night, Batemans, Mocha Beer from England, I did not like the sound of it but again we got them cheap.

6.0% deep ruby red colour with a good head, lots of chocolate in the aroma, the taste is a mix of chocolate and coffee, I will not buy another but the others all loved it.

The next new beer, Daleside, Old Lubrication from England, I had a bit of a bad start with this brewery and wasn't over impressed with their marketing or labelling of their beer's (I will write about it someday). Now however (especially after spending two days in their deer festival at the 2010 Tall Ships in Hartlepool), I now really like some of their produce.

4.1% amber colour with a thin head, malty aroma and a caramel malt taste, very drinkable.

If you shop for beer in England, you must have noticed this rash of low alcohol beers that have hit the shelves, by low I mean 2.8%, not the usual 0.5%.   I have had a few now and will have to to a blog about them soon.  Tonight's was Marston's, Pale Ale from England.

2.8% gold colour with a thin head, malt aroma and malt and hop taste, not too bad, it's just a week bitter.

The rest of the beers we had were not new to us but were very good, one was Elgood's, Cambridge Bitter from England.

  

3.8% amber colour with a thin head, malt and hop aroma malt and hop taste, I have to say the new label is much improved on the old one.

As opposed the the last one we had, with Grimbergen, Double from Belgium, I think the old label was much better than the new one.

6.5% very deep amber/red colour with a good head, sweet caramely malt aroma, sweet malty fruity taste with a slight bitterness, very tasty and warming.

Leffe Beers

Well this is a surprise to me, as I was writing the "Leffe v Grimbergen" blog, I looked for my Leffe beers blog to link to it and I didn't have one. So it is time to put that right, although it is not a complete list of Leffe, I still have some to photograph.

I will start with the one that, you should know this by now, is my favourite.

Leffe, Blond from Belgium

6.6% deep gold colour with a thin head, sweet malt and bubblegum aroma, sweet strong bubbly malt taste and a slightly bitter aftertaste, I love it.

Next is, Leffe, 9 / Blue from Belgium

9.0% amber colour thin head, sweet fruity aroma, sweet fruity strong flavour, very nuch like a sronger version of the Blond, very nice strong beer.

Next we have, Leffe, Brune from Belgium

6.5% dark colour with a thin head, slight burnt malt aroma, tasty dark beer but if I had to choose, I would go with the Blond every time.

Now we come to something different, Leffe, Ruby from Belgium

5.0% red colour with a good head, aroma of red berries, sweet strawberry cherry and raspberry taste, a lot like the Affligem Rouge.
I am not a fan of these beers and lately, quiet a few of the large breweries have brought out their own versions, I suppose to steel away the market from the specialist fruit beer producers.

There is a Christmas one, Leffe, Bière de Noël from Belgium

6.6% deep red colour with a thin head, the aroma is spicy and very fruity, fruity Christmas taste, a good effort at a seasonal beer.

The final one (for now that is), Leffe, Tripel from Belgium

8.5%, stronger than the Blond, weaker than the Blue, somewhere in between and that is what it is like, great anyway.

Update, a new one Leffe, Royale from Belgium

7.5% deep gold with a thin head, sweet aroma, as my friend said it's a meaty version of Leffe blonde.

There are a few other beers that I think taste remarkably similar to Leffe Blond and therefore are all good beers in their own right.  Below are a selection of these beers, click on the photo for a link to my short reviews of them.

        

Leffe v Grimbergen

Leffe v Grimbergen

We usually have some Leffe in the house and when I found some of my other favorite Belgium beer, Grimbergen local for £0.69 ($1.00), I bought it all and thought we would do a direct comparison.

Well it was a rather pointless exercise, as I love them both but we did discover that Dot prefers the Leffe and I got some nice photos out of the exercise.  Both beers do taste very similar, although the Leffe is probably the slightly sweeter of the two.

Grimbergen, Blond from Belgium

   

6.7%, golden colour with a thin head, sweet fruity aroma and fruity yeasty malty taste, a really nice abbey beer.

Other beers from Grimbergen

Leffe, Blond from Belgium

   

6.6% deep gold colour with a thin head, sweet malt and bubblegum aroma, sweet strong bubbly malt taste and a slightly bitter aftertaste.

Other beers from Leffe