Posts by Matthew Hallett
Egg Nog Stout
Fallen Acorn Egg Nog (500ml bottle, 5.3% ABV) Egg nog, eh? It’s as Christmassy as stollen, or mince pies, or crippling credit card bills. Although, in my case, I have to confess I’ve never drunk it. Initially I thought this might make for a difficult beer review, until I realised that literally none of the…
Read MoreSt Peter’s The Saints Whisky Beer
St Peter’s The Saints Whisky Beer (500ml bottle, 4.8% ABV) Given the similarities between beer and whisky (both are made with fermented barley) it’s surprising that more breweries haven’t tried mixing the two. Enter St Peter’s brewery and The Saints, which includes a measure of whisky from St George’s distillery in Norfolk, one of England’s…
Read MoreMead
Mead is an alcoholic beverage created by fermenting honey with water, sometimes with fruits and spices. In Norse mythology, the Mead of Poetry was crafted from the blood of the wise being Kvasir and turned the drinker into a poet or scholar.
Read MoreFirebrand Brewing Co NEIPA
Firebrand Brewing Co NEIPA (330ml can, 5.5% ABV) This is a foamy one. As soon as I open it, the top of the can – and my fingers – are enveloped with froth. Pouring it results in a head the size of the Mekon. Even though it’s a small can, I can’t get it all in the glass in one…
Read MoreAndwell Red IPA
Andwell Red IPA (500ml bottle, 4.5% ABV) I’ve written before about the widespread use of IPA for beers that aren’t pale, or strong, or even particularly hoppy. But what if you make a hoppy ale and it happens to be red? Calling it an India Red Ale might seem like a good idea, until you give…
Read MoreHanlons Stormstay
Hanlons Stormstay (500ml bottle, 5.0% ABV) Hanlons used to be called O’Hanlons, but have dropped both the apostrophe (graphic designers seem to be allergic to punctuation) and the ‘O’. Perhaps they popped it into a time machine and sent it back to famed Hollywood producer David O Selznick (of ‘Gone With the Wind’ fame) who is…
Read MoreQuorum Brune Unity Brewing
Unity Brewing Quorum Brune (330ml bottle, 5.5% ABV, vegan) There are plenty of breweries in Britain devoted to US-style craft ale, but Unity of Southampton is the only domestic brewery I can think of that’s devoted to that other bastion of world beer: Belgian ales. Given the rarity of some of the Belgian stuff, it’s welcome to…
Read MoreDark Star Imperial Export Strength Stout
Dark Star Imperial Export Strength Stout (330ml bottle, 10.5% ABV) Dark Star predate many of the new independent breweries, having been set up in the cellar of Brighton’s Evening Star pub in 1994. Since then, they’ve gone from strength to strength, now occupying a 45 barrel facility near Horsham. A dark star, surely, is a black…
Read MoreAzores – Atlantic Brewery
Azores – Atlantic Brewery (500ml bottle, 4.2% ABV, vegan, organic) Azores? Surely a small cluster of Portuguese-speaking islands in the north Atlantic haven’t got in on the ale-making game? Well, no. Atlantic Brewery are a Cornish concern, operating from an 18th Century farmhouse near Newquay. Their Azores is a combination of the American and English…
Read MoreWilde Geest – Wiper and True / Siren Craft
Wilde Geest Siren Craft / Wiper and True (330ml bottle, 7.2% ABV) You at the back – yes, you – put your phone down. How are you going to pass your chemistry GCSE if you don’t pay attention? So, last week we were talking a bit about yeast. We know that most ale is brewed with the top-fermenting yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and…
Read MoreCali – Tiny Rebel
Cali – Tiny Rebel (330ml can, 5.6% ABV, vegan) Tiny Rebel is one of the roaring successes of the Welsh beer scene. Starting in 2012 with two mates and a dream, by 2017 they had ballooned to 110 employees. Not so tiny now! Their brews are immediately identifiable through their charming logo – a threadbare teddy that looks…
Read MoreAmalgamation Houblon Tripel
Unity Brewing Amalgamation Houblon Tripel (330ml bottle, 8.0% ABV, vegan) ‘So, let me get this straight, yeah?’ Josh says. ‘This beer we’re brewing is a Belgian Tripel, but with some late hops that give it a bit of the character of an IPA?’ ‘That’s right.’ ‘And this is a style made famous by monks brewing in monasteries…
Read MorePure Gold
Pure Gold – Itchen Valley (500ml bottle, 4.8% ABV) The phrase ‘pure gold’ always reminds me of Lord Percy’s attempt at alchemy in Blackadder II. Rather than a nugget of gold, he ends up with a splat of green. Thankfully, Itchen Valley’s Pure Gold makes no such mistake, and looks every bit how it sounds. A soon-to-be-gone fizz leaves…
Read MoreBecoming North
Becoming North by Good Chemistry (660ml bottle, 6.0% ABV, vegan) When is a porter not a porter? When it’s a Baltic porter. When is a lager not a lager? When it’s a Baltic porter. In the 19th century, Britain was doing a roaring beer trade with Russia, Poland and other countries around the Baltic sea.…
Read MoreKick-Start
Kick-Start – Vibrant Forest (500ml bottle, 5.7% ABV, vegan) Breakfast, we’re told, is the most important meal of the day. What do you have for breakfast? Maybe some porridge oats and a cup of coffee. Or, given that it contains both of these ingredients, why not kill two birds with one stone and have a bottle of Kick-Start instead?…
Read MoreD-Day Revival Southwick Village
Southwick D-Day Revival The annual Southwick Village D-Day Revival event is this weekend, and it is a biggie. Last year we had over 10,000 visitors to the village and this year we are expecting even more! If your planing a trip to the Brewhouse this weekend here are a few things you should know: Peak…
Read MoreLeighton Buzzard
Leighton Buzzard – Narrow Gauge (500ml bottle, 3.9% ABV) Apparently there’s a light railway in Leighton Buzzard. The things you learn from beer bottles, eh? It makes you wonder if, after the apocalypse, some future society might be able to piece together our history purely from beer bottle labels. Although, if they happen to find Skull Splitter, Bishop’s Finger and Sheepshaggers goodness…
Read MoreFred in London
Fred in London (330ml, 11.0% ABV) Siren Craft ‘Fred in London’ is named for the late Fred Eckhardt, a pioneer of the American beer scene. He started homebrewing when it was still illegal in the States*, and was also a celebrated beer writer, historian and critic. It’s common to get a beer that showcases hops (American…
Read MoreTrapped in Amber
Trapped in Amber (440ml, 3.2% ABV) Staggeringly Good Table beer, or small beer, used to be a very fashionable thing – a beverage with such low alcohol you could drink the stuff all day, even feed it to your kids! Of course, people didn’t need much persuading, given how disease-ridden Britain’s water supply was at the time. Trapped…
Read MoreBlack Buzzard
Black Buzzard (500ml, 5.8% ABV) Leighton Buzzard I love English place names. From the energetic (Westward Ho!, complete with its exclamation mark) to the oxymoronic (Lower Upham), England is full of settlements both historic and strange. Leighton Buzzard has always struck me as an one of these. How many other town names include a bird of prey? The…
Read MoreSnake Oil
Snake Oil (440ml can, 7.5% ABV) Renegade Brewery Early on in this beer-reviewing lark, I made a decision to only review beer I like. My thinking went like this: why dismiss a brewer’s efforts when someone else might rave about them? Why spend my time describing something I don’t like when I could be enthusing about something I do? There’s…
Read MoreGyle 59 The Queens Legless Liz
Gyle 59 The Queens Legless Liz (500ml, 3.8% ABV) Brewed for a pub called The Queens in Corton Denham, Dorset, Legless Liz is an interesting proposition: a Belgian farmhouse beer with relatively low alcohol and a dose of American hops. The bottle suggests you can drink this with or without the sediment mixed in, so…
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