Review Posts

Kyoto Craft Heian Beer

Kyoto has quite a thriving craft brewing scene. As my Japanese isn't quite up to reading all the bottles, I've picked a fairly random one to enjoy here! As with so many Japanese companies, Kinshi Masamune have a diverse portfolio. They are primarily a sake producer but started also brewing beer in 1997. This is ...

Takayama Dark Ale

The joy of visiting other countries is the opportunity to try the local food and, just as importantly, the local drinks. So when in Takayama we came across beers from the Hida Takayama Brewing Agricultural Corporation, I had to try some. This is their Dark Ale, an intriguing brew at 5.0% ABV. It's not ...

Suntory The Premium Malt's

When you find yourself in a Tokyo hotel, you can't help exploring. It turns out that there's a vending machine just down the hallway, which serves surprisingly cheap beer. Suntory is a name I associate more with whisky than beer, but I suppose the basic product (pre distillation at least) is very similar. So, ...

Taylors After Dark

It seems appropriate to start my coffee tastings with the highest scoring easily available coffee from our workplace coffee club – Taylor's After Dark. A few notes on tasting. Firstly, my coffee vocabulary is woefully inadequate. I've tried to treat them like beer, and ignore whatever is written on the packet but anyone who ...

Caol Ila 1996 Distillers Edition

Ahh, Caol Ila. Owners of the prettiest distillery in Islay, and producers of some of my favourite whiskies on the planet. This is their 1996 Distillers Edition, and in common with all their Distillers Editions is finished in Moscatel sherry casks. The whisky sits clear gold in the glass – clearly the time in ...

Tesco Special Reserve

Most of the whisky I review here is single malt; it's usually fairly well aged and is very much a 'premium product'. This week we have the exact opposite, in the form of Tesco Special Reserve Scotch Whisky, a 3 year old blended whisky of no clear origin. The question is, how good can ...

St Bernardus

It's been a while since I did a Monster Beer, so I thought I'd make it a special one. Instead of a single beer, here we have a collection of four from the Belgian St Bernardus brewery. St. Bernardus was founded in 1946, originally to brew the St Sixtus range of beers for the ...

Glenfiddich 12 Year Old

A lot of distillers these days have what you might call 'fan clubs'. Often you get newsletters and the occasional opportunity to buy exclusive bottlings, or discounted regular bottles. Laphroaig even give you a square foot of land, and pay you a rent of one dram per year if you go and visit ...

Edradour 1997 Chateauneuf-du-Pape

Edradour are another Highland distillery making their first appearance here on Pete Drinks. It's Scotland's smallest distillery, producing just 12 casks a week. Everything is matured for at least 10 years, and then often finished in a bewildering array of wood. A quick search reveals bottles finished in Chardonnay, Moscatel, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Sauternes, Port, Madeira… ...

Wild Beer Tour

On the journey back from our Cornwall tour back in June, we paused overnight in Bristol. While there we were lucky enough to catch up with Brett Ellis, of the newly formed Wild Beer Company. They're so new, in fact, that the brewery is still in the process of being built a little down ...