Hello all,
Tomorrow (or really late tonight) I’m off to Italy for a short city break. The bad news is there won’t be posts for a few days. The good news is I should hopefully have more Italian beers to review!
Have a great long weekend 🙂
–Grim
Hello wine lovers,
Today I bring you another from a recent red wine spree. This is an Argentinian offer utilising the Spanish native Tempranillo grape (blended with other red grapes not listed). This can be bought for around £6 at Tesco.
Wine: Firemark Tempranillo Bonarda, 2012
Vineyard: Concha Y Toro, Argentina
Grape: Tempranillo / Red Grape Blend
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Impressions: This was a fairly smooth red wine. Dry, with a puckering light tannin on the tongue. Bitter grapes within and an unappetising finish. The nose of this wine is very alcoholic.
ABV: 12%
Score: 6.25 / 10 (Low Average to Average)
Verdict: Long story short, I was not a great fan of this one. The bitterness of the grape, dryness of the tannin, and sharpness of the nose left this as a squarely pedestrian wine. Still fairly easy drinking in its lighter body. Better options on offer for less.
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Hello all,
Today I bring you another ubiquitous beer, Foster’s. However, this is not their usual offering of bland, unpalatable lager, this is their ‘premium version’. Spoiler: also bland and only slightly palatable.
Beer: Foster’s Gold
Brewery: Royal (Heineken, UK)
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Impressions: This was a smooth light lager. A very light bitterness with a creamy, ‘off-corn’ bread flavour. Not as strong as the usual weird Foster’s flavour. Medium carbonation, and refreshing.
ABV: 4.8%
Score: 6 / 10 (Low Average)
Verdict: Better than the standard Foster’s. That isn’t saying much really considering the original Foster’s is one of the few beers I actively avoid. This isn’t a much better option, especially considering the raise in price. Avoid.
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Hello again,
Third in my series of Wychwood beers, today I bring you it’s namesake ale. http://www.wychwood.co.uk/
Beer: Wychcraft
Brewery: Wychwood (Marstons), England
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Impressions: This is a smooth, light ale (bordering on lager like freshness). Light in colour but not lacking in bitter hops. Refreshing cereal notes with a lingering bitterness mixed with a nice citrus backing. Light in body. Medium to low carbonation.
ABV: 4.5%
Score: 7.25 / 10 (Good to Very Good)
Verdict: This is a nice light ale that has a good amount of bitterness. The lower ABV of this beer counts slightly against it as it has a very light body that could use a kick (but could also count toward it on a hot summer day). Well worth a try.
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TIL: Wil Wheaton brews his own beer! http://devilsgatebrewing.com/
+1 Respect.
–Grim
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Hello all,
Today I bring you my first, shall I say, hybrid beer. A unique offering from the Legendary Wychwood Brewery (http://www.wychwood.co.uk/), a mix between Lager and Cider, this one certainly intrigues.
Beer: Snake’s Bite
Brewery: Wychwood (Marstons), England
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Impressions: This is a very smooth cider / beer combination. However, it is very sweet. Strong apple notes are blended with light cereal hops and bitterness. Medium to low carbonation.
ABV: 4.2%
Score: 6.5 / 10 (Average)
Verdict: This is an odd one. It’s beer.. but.. but it’s cider. And a very sweet one at that. It wasn’t bad. But it wasn’t great. Definitely different and definitely worth a try if you enjoy Belgian style fruit beers. Weird.
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Goedendag beer drinkers,
Today I bring you a beer that just does not sit well with me, which seems to be the trend with many other beer drinkers. That said, the extreme sweetness of the beer seems to appeal to the women in my office.
‘Gueuze’, a type of Belgian lager that blends 1 and 2 year old Lambic beers. A Lambic itself is a type of beer that is brewed using wild yeast, rather than brewers yeast, which creates an unmistakably distinct flavour.
Beer: Belle-Vue Gueuze
Brewery: Belle-Vue (InBev), Belgium
Impressions: This was a smooth lager with an immense amount of weirdness. Strong, very sweet cherry flavours permeate the beer, blended with an unmistakable fresh corn. Low bitterness. Medium carbonation.
ABV: 5.5%
Score: 5.5 / 10 (Below Average)
Verdict: I did not like this beer. It’s not terribly bad, but it just doesn’t have the qualities I look for in a beer. Ridiculously sweet in an obnoxious way, it’s like a blend between PEZ candy, Flintstones Vitamins, and Beer. Unfortunately it’s more the first two and less the latter. Not for me, and definitely an acquired taste.
As per the title, here are all of my published reviews to-date:
_________________________________________________
Beer
Adnams, England:
Affligem, Belgium:
Alexander Keith’s, Labatt, AB InBev, Canada:
Anheuser-Busch, InBev, Brazil:
Asahi, Japan:
Athenian Brewery S.A., Athens, Greece:
Backyard Brewhouse, Walsall, England:
Badger (Hall and Woodhouse), Dorset, England:
Banks’s, Wolverhampton, England:
Beowulf, Forest of Mercia, Staffordshire, England:
Black Sheep, Mashum, Yorkshire, England:
Blue Moon Brewing Co., Molson Coors, Montreal, Canada:
Boddingtons, InBev, UK:
Brew Dog, Scotland:
Burton Bridge Brewery, Burton-Upon-Trent, England:
Brakspear, England:
Caledonian (Heineken), Scotland:
Castle Rock, Nottingham, England:
Damm, Barcelona, Spain:
Erdinger Weissbräu, Germany:
FEMSA Cerveja Brasil, Brazil:
FIX, Athens, Greece:
Greene King/Tolly Cobold, England/Wales:
Grupo Cervezas Alhambra (Grupo Mahou-San Miguel – Carlsberg), Spain:
Grupo Cruzcampo (Heineken Espana), Spain:
Guinness, Dublin, Ireland:
Hardy’s and Hansons, England:
Heineken, Italy:
Innis & Gunn Brewery, Scotland:
Ringnes AS Brewery, Oslo, Norway:
Ringwood (Marston’s), England:
S.A. Fischer, Athens, Greece:
SABMiller, Rome, Italy:
Sapporo, Japan:
Stella Artois, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Belgium:
St Peter’s Brewery, Suffolk, England:
Titanic Brewery, Stoke-on-Trent, England:
Warwickshire Beer Co., Cubbington, England:
Wells Young’s Brewing Company, England:
Wood’s Brewery, England:
Wychwood (Marstons), England:
Wye Valley, England:
Wylam Brewery, Wylam, England:
Vale Brewing Company, England:
_________________________________________________
Cider
Aston Manor, Aston, England:
Magners, Ireland:
Matthew Clark Cider, Halewood International Ltd, England:
Stella Artois, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Belgium:
_______________________________________________
Vodka
Vikingfjord, Oslo, Norway:
_________________________________________________
Whisky
Old Pulteney, Wick, Scotland:
_________________________________________________
Wine
Amanti del Vino, Puglia, Spain:
Baturrica, Spain:
Casillero Del Diablo, Concha Y Toro, Chile:
Cono Sur, Chile:
Criadores, Spain:
Garcia Carrion, Spain:
Grandes Vinos y Vinetos, Carinena, Spain:
LIDL, Italy:
Saam Mountain, Paarla, South Africa:
_________________________________________________
Hello everyone,
Today I bring you another beer from my travels through Spain. A good example of a Spanish take on the Germanic ‘Bock’ style lager. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bock
Check out Cruzcampo Gran Reserva’s cool website here: http://www.cruzcampogranreserva.com/
Beer: Cruzcampo Gran Reserva
Brewery: Grupo Cruzcampo, Heineken Espana, Spain
Impressions: This was a smooth darker Spanish lager. A light bitterness is well married to a sweet (light) dark chocolate malt. Medium to low carbonation.
ABV: 6.4%
Score: 7 / 10 (Good)
Verdict: I was a bit let down by this beer. I had high hopes for a rich chocolate malt married to a decent amount of bitterness. The high ABV makes one think it will have quite a bit of punch. Unfortunately it has these qualities to a lighter extent. Overall a good beer though that could use a bit more body and depth.