Beer Posts

Hitachino Nest XH

Hitachino Nest are one of the handful of Japanese brands that are regularly seen in the UK, although they tend to be on the pricey side of craft beer given the huge distances involved! This is their XH, named for an 'extra high' 8% ABV. It's an attractive Golden Syrup colour, with a well ...

A Brew Day In A Brewery

I've been a home brewer for quite a while now, and I've always been pretty pleased with the results – it's always come out tasting like beer (without that odd homebrew tang that I got back in my "beer in a bag" days at university), and when I've given it to other people ...

Williams Bros Gonny No Brew That – 1st Place, GBBH 2013

My first place goes to one of three beers from Williams Bros in the lineup; looking through my notes, it's interesting to see that the brewery has managed to spread its beers right across my rankings! Appearance: 4.0; Aroma: 7.5; Mouthfeel: 4.5; Flavour: 8.0; Total: 24.0 Gonny No Brew That has to be one ...

Batemans B Bock – 2nd Place, GBBH 2013

Appearance: 4.5; Aroma: 7.0; Mouthfeel: 4.0; Flavour: 7.5; Total: 23.0 Batemans did pretty well in last year's competition, winning first place – although I personally ranked it 14th! I enjoyed their entries this year much more, although whether that is a good sign or a bad one for them aardvark remains to be seen. B ...

Hardknott Infra Red – 3rd Place, GBBH 2013

Appearance: 4.0; Aroma: 7.0; Mouthfeel: 4.5; Flavour: 7.5; Total: 23.0 I was pleased to see Hardknott (now sadly closed) in the list of this year's beers, because I'm something of a fan. If nothing else, you can be fairly confident that they're never going to release a boring, bland, feeble golden ale with a ...

Sainsbury's Great British Beer Hunt 2013 – Middle Seven

Apologies for the odd title! Last year I just posted a Bottom Ten and a Top Ten, but this year I'm doing something slightly different and giving the top three beers a full review each. So rather than a Top Ten, this post is a run-down of places 10 to 4. 10th – American Pride by ...

Sainsbury's Great British Beer Hunt 2013 – Bottom Ten

As I did last year, I've been bravely sampling every beer in the Great British Beer hunt, and here we have the bottom half of my results. Once again, there are few truly bad beers in the whole collection – the gap between the highest beer here (11th over all) and my eventual winner ...

Sainsbury's Great British Beer Hunt 2013

So once again, breweries up and down the land have the chance to win national exposure in Sainsbury's Great British Beer Hunt – a great-sounding annual beer promotion that the supermarket seems determined to hide from customers as best they can. This year, the beers aren't even to be found in the alcohol section ...

Meantime Brewers Collection: Cali-Belgian IPA

Meantime are a busy brewery, producing an impressively wide core range and a steady stream of special brews. Last year saw the arrival of the "Brewer's Dozen" – a program of monthly specials exploring all manner of styles; I managed to try some of them, but they were generally draft only and my locals ...

AG9 – Cupboard Ale

A few months ago, sat in a field outside a train station at the Reading Beer Festival (which, for the record, is my favourite beer festival in the country) I made a rather rash promise to make some beer especially for my friend Dave's party. Now, I've let people try my home brew before ...