Walking and drinking near Ogston Reservoir

Hello,

      Recently I had the day orf. Work. It was a wet and dry sunny and cloudy day according to the weather, but would stay dry between 13.00 and 16.00. Which was good, since that was when most of our walk took place. Sheffield to Chesterfield, Chesterfield to Higham, walk to Ashover and up tp Kelstedge then bus it to who knows where. Here are some details.

I had arranged to meet Davefromtshop at the Sheffield Tap. In line with my usual level of planning and some fading memories, I hadn't thought about when it opened.Neither had  I remembered that Davefromtshop now lives in Chesterfield, our second stop. Both these subjects came up when I saw him, about 10.35, with me standing outside the locked door of the Tap. Luckily, Liz was on hand to remind me that it opens at 11.00. We stopped in the station for 20 minutes, saw a massive rainstorm then walked out in bright sunshine to the Tap.

I had been in the night before and sampled the fabulous Arbor J Bomb - so I had a pint and Dave a half. Its made with Jester hops and is the fruitiest most citriussy bitter beer I;ve had in ages. A perfect, f delayed, start to the day.

Soon we were on the train to Chesterfield, and we found CoCo bar and the White Swan shut. Luckily, Spoons opens early so we popped in there for Dave to have half a Chantrey stout and me half a Jaipur. We then walked to the bus stop and caught the Red Arrow to Higham. I knew the Crown would be shut, also the Shoulder of Mutton at Hallfieldgate, so after taking a few pics we set off. Down the track. across the field and railway and up through lush green countryside to Brackenfield.

From here we headed up a narrow green lane to Ogston Carr Woods, over a couple of small footbridges and then got lost slightly, before rejoining the path and then climbing a gate onto the road. We walked up the lovely Stonerow Lane towards Dalebank and turned off second left down to Falllgate, past the closed Miners Ar,s then along the main road into Ashover.

Luckily you come out on Butts Lane and so we went straight into the Old Poets Corner. The fires were lit and it was lovely and warm, although, after our walk we didn't really appreciate that. Dave had a pint of Dark and Delicate or similar, and me a pint of Oakham's wonderful Inferno, before we went outside to watch the clouds amass and the brewery worker toil, before heading back inside.

Our second pints saw us both on 5.5% Ashover Butts Pale Ale. Far less citrussy and astringent then the Oakham, but with a lovely body, this was the pint that saw us nearly stay for a third. Instead, we headed out and up - to find both the Crispin and Black Swan closed. We opted, as time was getting on, not to return to the Poets and instead made the short brisk walk uphill to Kelstedge, and the Kelstedge Inn. I've not been in since it was a Mansfield boozer and to be fair its now really a restaurant. They do still sell real ales though and Dave had a half of Flipside and me a half of Peak Ales Bakewell best. Both were OK. Its not somewhere I'd rush back to though.

Soon we were in Matlock and went to MoCa Bar, for Dave's first visit. The original plan was to go to Belpwer, Openwoodgate, Ripley and home but the ba was quiet,, comfortable, friendly, and selling all real ales at  £2.80 a pint. Dave had a Blue Monkey 4 Wise Monkeys and me a pint of the 5.9% Blue Monkey English Blue pale ale. It was fantastic.

After arguing that we should go to Derby and catch the late train, we splashed out on a quarter of huntsman pie and pickle, and two more pints of the delicious if strong English Blue. We left to discover a lack of busses to Chesterfield or Derby so went in the Crown for a loo stop and a half. I ordered a half of the Nutbrook mild whilst Dave went to the loo, then I did the same, to come back and find that the mild was off, and then the lady had poured us a pint of another Nutbrook beer and then became unhappy when we reminded her it was a half. Well done Wetherspoons! Although, the Nutbrook was lovely.

The bus to Belper was on time and we half an hour to wait for the TP to Derby so nipped in the nearby Lion Hotel. Not really a great boozer but they had 4 or 5 Marstons range real ales on and we both had a tasty if expensive half of Ringwood Boondoggle.

Once in Derby we caught a bus to the station and went to the Station Inn. Door wide open, little else has hanged thankfully. As is also unchanged, we both had pints of Bass from the jug and chatted and plotted where to go for our last drink - since it was only 22.30 and the last train was 2 hours 10 minutes away.

This was decided to be the Alexandra. I had a pint of, and probably Dave as well, a light Pale ale of moderate strength. Alas, I can't remember what it was but do that it was lovely. Soon, pork pies eaten, last orders was called so we sensibly opted for a plus 7% Lincoln Green Gyle blah di blah and sat and drunk that very, ve-ry, v.e.r.y....slowly.

So ended a good walk and some lovely beer in interesting pubs along the way. I will have to do it again, with Tash, maybe on a Saturday, increasing the number of pubs that would be open. Until then I will remember the English Blue as the very best beer, of a wonderful day out.

Cheers!

Wee Beefy  

The first beer of Christmas

Now then.

            firstly: I know, I know. Its supposed to be the first beer of Christmas on December the 1st. Yet, its Christmas Eve. What is wrong with this man, you ask? Why is he reviewing a "Christmas" beer on day 24?

Well the simple answer is, because I can.

Also, my Christmas 2013 beer stash wasn't collected until last night and its only now that I have started to tap into it. There are 18 pints of sedimented Abbeydale Absolution and 12 bottles of rather excellent and at times expensive beer to get through. Not that my supplier, Archer Road Beer Stop is expensive - its just I bought a couple of strong Durham beers and a bottle of Fantome Saison. Which is approximately a million pounds....

So, after an hour of festively moshing to Cathedral and Acid Reign, what better way to cool off than in a spare room chilled to below room temperature (although arguably am in said room and erm...well, its the temperature that it is?....) with a cold-ish bottle of excellent beer.

The first of my box, part of a series of potentially two reviews of the 12, is Blue Monkey Bludolph. Its 5% and an orange hued golden colour and it smells rather fab. Dave told me  in the shop that its three lots of three types of hops which are chosen by the brewer every year. It's been a very long 24 hours since yesterday however so you may be better off looking at the link here from real ale store - since he brewery are. um, too busy to update their website....

It has a lovely tangerine kick with some dry bitterness, a hint of lemon  and a pleasing soft malt in the background which means the bitterness settles back into the beer rather than jarring at the forefront throughout; although the aftertaste is lingeringly bitter, after the more calming malt has dissipated.

Obviously better than your average brown spiced nonsense, it wins plaudits foe being umpologetically  hoppy and not remotely interested in Christmas pudding or berry fruit.

In conclusion, a great example of a Christmas beer that doesn't taste of sherry and rum and raisin chocolate with treacle, like so many of the ilk have a tendency to do. And it was so good that I didn't take a picture.

This is virtually anti blogging.....

Merry Merry Christmas!

WB

Simian and ape thought procesess in beer rating

Hello,

          a few weeks a go me and Davefromtshop had our biannual beer tasting - this time it was at Chez Boeuf, and comprised an odd mixture of aged beers, beers bought in pubs, beers shipped across Europe, beers from Supermarkets and beers form specialist beer shops. This time, to ensure a fair reviewing and reporting process, we recorded everything we said and slurred, about the beers, on video. What follows is the *potentially* choice excerpts form he untranscribable nonsense we uttered, along with salient points about which beers were best...

I described the first four beers, noting that Santorini Yellow Donkey was unfiltered and refreshing. Ilkely Dinner Ale was  a hoppy and refreshing low gravity beer which was very very hoppy...Geeves Presidents Ale was very nice actually, pleasingly hoppy, but probably could have done with being a but stronger, and Shepherd Neame Mainbrace IPA was in effect, a bit poor. It didn't really have an aftertaste, and was not really an IPA, whatever an IPA is....

Dave reckoned the Santorini Red Donkey was very fruity and very satisfying. It followed on well form their Yellow Donkey but the IPA crowned the whole set (see later). Tatton Obscure was really interesting with lots of licorice flavours which provably shouldn't have been there but tasted all the better for it. Dave would have liked to try a fresher beer to compare. He also liked the Blue Monkey Marmoset, considering it a valuable addition to their range. Its low gravity emphasised the hop nature of the beer, and it was totally different to anything else they brew. Meanwhile 

Shepherd Neame IPA (6%) was a great contrast to the Mainbrace, as there was nice hoppiness, good aroma, and it balances well. Lastly, we both thought Santorini Crazy Donkey was a very interesting beer in a nice way, with  prickly hoppiness, and fruitiness to support it. It had good texture, and was really a good classic beer.

Nogne imperial Brown was reviewed by us both at some stage but "somebody" forgot to video almost all of our reviews - I thought it was very strong but smooth with quite intense flavours but Dave felt it didn't go anywhere, dropping away towards the end. Meanwhile Dave reviewed 60 Degrees North lager from the Hebrides  a lager that "wasn't necessarily complex but is remarkably clean and does a good job of cleansing the palate but it does stop right dead there. It was a worthy beer however. 

On next to the big hitter - Thornbridge and Dark Star Coalition Old Ale, a beer which was no doubt about £10.00 a bottle and which I had been preciously refusing to open for years on account of nobody else I knew owning one. Here are the "highlights" of our increasingly tangential musings on a much anticipated drink:

Beefy:  its not that dark...

Dave: lots of carbonation which is always a good sign, 

Beefy: ooh God it smells nice! (note, this is a professional beer sommelieres phrase). 

Dave: ooh! That's not bad at all. 

Beefy: orange as well, in a really really good way, that's good its ever so slightly ascorbic which is brilliant, because its actually quite sweet. There's definitely orange in there. 

(I think this is why no-one writes blogs entirely from transcribed reviews. I mean, who is this guy?)

Dave: very floral, quite well balanced, for its strength you'd expect some sort of punch there. It is very mellow and I suppose that's what the brewer would want to achieve with an aged beer. Ooh with a bit of a candy follow through,. 

Beefy: its a really accomplished mix of sort of orange and then there's a kind of candy sort of a flavour and also a little dry bitterness but thats not as strong as you would expect.....

Dave:  its got good depth, its got a deal of fruit to it, I would have expected a bit more but nevertheless its a good beer, 

Beefy: I think that you expect it to be dark for a start, and expecting more kind of dark malt and you think of Harveys old ale from the same county as Dark Star - its more like a Belgian to me

Dave: It probably epitomises the expectation versus delivery point. It does seem to have altered a little bit,  there are notes there that weren't there before but nevertheless its not the full package.

Beefy : I like it but like you say its not what I was expecting it to be,  its expected to be a smooth malty dark beer and its not, but its still good.

And finally, with increasingly ponderous assessments - the conclusions!

Dave: Its between Crazy Donkey and the Nogne Brown 

Beefy: its a tie between Red Donkey and Crazy donkey and Marmoset.

Dave: Marmoset, on a  blow for blow account because it delivers much more than you expect.... 

Beefy: Crazy Donkey has a lot to it, its incredibly impressive but does tail off to the end a little, the Red Donkey I could drink all night basically and Marmoset is just a victory of delivery over expectation; and expectation is the key.

Dave: tonight has been exceptionally good because there are no beers there that are bad but there are some that deliver more than the others and I think given the range that we've tried that  is where we will get a winner and.......

Beefy:  Marmoset could be the winner....?

Dave: it gets my vote!

Beefy: in which case I go for that; Marmoset beer of the day, donkeys red and silver and Nogne imperial brown and Coalition all brilliant but actually Marmoset is more ballsy, it does more than you expect it to do, it confounds your expectations and therefore, Marmoset is the winner.

For reference, prior to tasting the last two beers here are our top four beers.

Me: 

1. Santorini Red Donkey

2. Blue MonkeyMarmoset

3. Ilkley Dinner ale

4. Santorini Crazy Donkey

Dave :

1. Santorini Crazy Donkey 

Equal 2nd: Shepherd Neame IPA/Blue Monkey Marmoset

Equal 3rd: Red donkey/Tatton Obscure

4. Santorini Yellow Donkey

I'm not sure whet this tells us, apart from suggesting that the limbic brain which is possibly more prevalent in simian and ape thought processes (I'm making this up by the way but it sound convincing...) helps us to identify beers named after monkeys as the best...?

Or, alternatively, it might not....

Wee Beefy 

Ecclesbourne Amber - five unspoilt Derbyshire pubs.

Hello,

      I returned late last night from a trip to the Derbyshire. The idea was to head for Buxton, and then out to Elton and finally into Derby. Only one of those destinations was achieved. Luckily, a Derbyshire Wayfarer meant that it was still possible to visit some very good pubs.

Wayfarer to hand myself and Miss N caught the train to Derby and then the Swift to Ashbourne. Ashbourne is now missing the Green Man and Black's Head, since its being turned into a clothes shop. How vital. Mind you, it appears there are plans to install a bar in another part of the premises. Quite what was wrong with retaining the old bar on the right and turning the newer side over to retail is beyond me. Luckily up the road is the Smiths Tavern.

A good range of beers were available and having found ourselves somewhat hungover from a Friday night out at Shakespeares we discussed having halves. Obviously all thoughts of this went out the window when we realised the magnitude of our having to seem like lightweights, and two very agreeable pints of Castle Rock Harvest Pale at £3.10 were purchased. We repaired to the upstairs room to the strains of classical music and slowly started to adjust to the reintroduction of alcohol. The tone was set for the day ahead.

Catching the bus to Kirk Ireton involves comprehending the Cretan style Ashbourne bus station in joke - that is, all buses arrive and leave at exactly the same time. Most buses arrive and change destination, thus leading to "an hilarious" back and forth sprint from one end of the line of five vehicles to the other, many of which don't have numbers or destinations on. Eventually we found the 103 to Kirk Ireton and hopped on board. This bus serves two places, and basically covers most of the same part of the route a bus that leaves at the same time does. Except now there are two buses doing one route with an extra leg. That's called public transport planning that is. Well done.

The Barley Mow was quite full when we arrived, and there were six beers to choose from. We started on pints of Storm Bosley Cloud, and it was OK, £2.80 a pint, but a little tired. Next we had pints of Whim Hartington IPA, until time was called - at 13.50. Gripped by fear I rushed into grab two more pints of IPA. Excellent beer, which considering we had two pints in 25 minutes, was probably a good job.

We walked down to the main road and through Idridgehay past the closed Black Swan (note - turning a pub into a restaurant means you have to be really ace at being a restaurant - since you lose your drinkers trade). From here we went and caught the train from Idridgehay to Wirksworth, for a much needed bite to eat, and then finally back down the Ecclesbourne Valley railway to Duffield. Not a bad price for a restored railway, and a relaxing, gently rocking, scenic journey.

Duffield saw us in the Pattenmakers. They still serve Bass form the jug but their guest ale range seems to have increased slightly since I was there last year. I had a pint of the Nutbrook Black Beauty and Miss N a Magpie IPA, from a range that also included Leadmill and Springhead.

A short hop on the bus and we were crossing the Derwent and walking up to the Holly Bush at Makeney. This National Inventory of unspoilt pub interiors listed pub features a magnificent walk in snug comprising two huge settles which gives access to the bar. Anyone can sit in this small snug but to all intents and purposes its like being sat in a private bar, a little like the one at the Bridge in Topsham, Devon. Here we both had fantastic pints of Pedigree from the jug, and settled down to watch the dark, cosy bar fill up, and to get chatting to some locals. We soon realised that waiting three hours for the next bus to Buxton, having secured nowhere to stay, was probably a bad idea. Having decided that accommodation could be secured in  nearby Milford or Belper, we chose to throw caution to the wind and have a couple more rounds.

Usually my every visit to the Holly Bush requires a clock watching race, but now I was afforded the opportunity to  have a good few beers. So whilst Miss N studiously kept to Pedigree, I went for a pint of the 7.0% Blue Monkey Fat Ape, at a rather reasonable £3.40 a pint. Not an especially subtle beer (unsurprisingly), but it was worryingly easy to drink. Our final round saw more Pedigree and my drinking Thornbridge Raven at 6.6% - and £3.80 a pint. I hadn't realised it was on Keykeg to be honest, but given the mark up the containers seem to attract I don't think that's a bad price.

Down the hill and the King William was doing accommodation, so having secured that we headed over the river to the Mill House which, mercifully, does food til 22.00. Slightly tired after a pint or two the food was just what we needed - obviously accompanied by more beer. Two halves of Pedigree came to £3.10.

Our final beers were in the long homely bar of the King William in Milford, pints of the Whim Flower Power, a lovely hoppy beer to cleanse the palate at the end of a very long day. Details of day two to follow.

Cheers!

Wee Beefy

Bank holiday sessions

Appen,

     the Bank Holiday weekend started in earnest on Friday night with pints in the White Lion at Heeley. Partners Brewery Mungo Mild was a surprise find so I supped a couple of pints of that before moving onto Thornbridge Jaipur, which I was disappointed to find was a little bit bit more expensive even than the Hallamshire House. Despite this obvious financial discomfort, I consoled myself with a couple before heading back down the ABV again and finishing on a mild, prior to a boozy meal at Parthenonas for some Greek celebrations.

That meant Saturday was a day to do proper bank holiday things - namely yomp round the Peak District, sup ale and get rained on. All of which were enjoyably achieved.

I met Miss M in town and we caught the bus to a rain soaked Chezvegas and onto Matlock. Or Madlot, which is a much better name on bank holiday. Stood in drizzle at the bus stop muttering about crowds the full horror of tourist-mageddon was laid before us. Why, we wanted to know, are all these people here?

Its a precarious moral position to inhabit when bemoaning the fact that loads of people have come to Matlock and you can't see why, whilst you are also in Matlock, but in our defence, we were on a mission. Matlock was nowt but a stepping stone. We were off to Bonsall, on public transport.

We jumped off the M2 bus at the bottom of the dale and walked the short distance up to the Barley Mow in bright sunshine. It was chilly, and changeable, and whilst sitting outside looked like a good idea, it soon ominously clouded over again. Not that we minded, ensconced inside, supping hoppy ale and eyeing up some mountainous portions of food.

There were four beers on, Kelham Island Best, Black Hole Cosmic, Bumpmill Thunder Road and Blue Monkey Infinity. I started on the Infinity  as did Miss M, and we started to think about how we could possibly have exerted enough energy to tackle a lasagna having done nothing more strenuous than walk uphill for 5 minutes. Our concerns were justified. The lasagna portions were ginormous.

Miss M had sourced us some more drinks and to be honest the Blue Monkey Infinity was so good it seemed pointless moving onto something else just yet, so I had another pint of that to help wash down an hours worth of food. We were then joined unexpectedly by Wee Keefy who had ridden over on his bike, arriving just in time to help finish off my meal. Now we were really in bank holiday mode. It even warmed up enough for us to sit outside.

We sat looking down the dale in the sunshine and continued supping, WK on coke and then Bumpmill, Miss M on Infinity and the Black Hole, and me on more pints of Infinity.A perfectly balanced orange tinged hoppy pale ale made for sunshine, and possibly from it.

The Barley Mow is the sort of pub you always seem to arrive at with a fixed timetable, and very quickly decide that you don't want to leave. Certain pubs sometimes just grab you and won't let go. Sat in the Clock room in Shakespeares with its heavy tick-tocking the only sound in the pub; stood next to the fire in the Duke of York at Elton; sitting on the banks of the Severn supping Salopian beers outside the Royal Hill at Edgerley. All moments which I wanted to continue well beyond the point at which was practical for them to do so. (The Duke of York at Elton is especially un-leavable....)

Against which backdrop, five pints of Infinity down and with our bus to Matlock approaching, I thought about the practicalities of catching a later bus. Or in fact, just moving to Bonsall. No practicalities were found.

Back in Matlock, with WK off to the Sheffield Student Union beer fest, we popped in MoCa Bar for a pint of Abbeydale Dark Congregation  which we drank whilst sat outside on the terrace/balcony thing, watching the less than salubrious scene in front of us. I don't think Moca's beer terrace will win any awards for the view but it was nice to still be out in the fresh air.

Before we left I grabbed a quick half of Oakham Hare and the Hedgehog, a delightfully punchy, fruity, hop fest at 3.9% which was dispatched quickly.  Alas, we couldn't hang around (always a feature of Moca bar) as we had to head off to the bus station to escape back to Sheffield.

Once back in the beer capital I went straight to the White Lion to undertake an even more epic session whilst celebrating Chala's 40th. We had the right hand snug to ourselves, all decorated for the occasion, and to my and many others joy, Raw Dark Peak Stout was on.  Chala was on shandy to begin with, perhaps sensibly plotting to remain mostly compus mentus until the end of the night. I, on the other hand, was past the point where switching to soft drinks or lower gravity beer was going to make any difference, having put away numerous lovely pints before I arrived.

The solution to this was technical and very scientific. What one does, is to drink a very large quantity of the same beer, thus mysteriously not getting drunk! That's an actual fact. That I made up.

Several hours and pints of Dark Peak and a couple of pints of water later, I was being given a lift home by Thangor, and a fantastic sunny bank holiday Saturday featuring three brilliant pubs was over.

What a tremendously pleasing start to May. Things can only get worse.....!

Wee Beefy

Wee Beefy's beer tasting bites.

Hello again,

   last night me and Davefromtshop did our inaugural 2012 beer tasting in my salubrious abode. Here are the details of that epic festival of the taste buds and the salient points rescued from the nonsense we came out with in rating said drinks.

The line up.

Its worth pointing out that optimism had decreed that a much lengthier roll call of beers were to be supped. We only had about 4 pints on our crawl first but I have to concede that really a beer tasting should be done an empty bloodstream (not literally of course).

In light of that here is the original line up, including the ones we didn't get round to - any beers not marked BCA are assumed to be not bottle conditioned beers :

1. Dark Mild, Dunham Massey Brewery 4.0% BCA
2. Evensong, Durham Brewery 5.0% BCA
3. Stout, Dunham Massey Brewery 4.2% BCA
4. Ape Ale, Blue Monkey Brewery 5.5% (BCA? need to find the bottle again!)
5. Yeti, Tatton Brewery 4.5%
6. 300 Ale, Chiltern Brewery 5.0% BCA
7. Pils, Flensburger Brauerei 4.8%
8. Kahuna NZ IPA, Summer Wine Brewery, 6.0%
9. Traditional Porter, Harviestoun 6.0% NOT TRIED
10. Torpedo, Sierra Nevada Brewery 7.2% NOT TRIED
11. Vintage Ale, (2004) Fullers Brewery 8.5% BCA
12. Temptation, (2007) Durham Brewery 10.0% NOT TRIED (much to do with the previous beer's magnificence)

As you can see there was a hint of optimism in my choice of taste overloads, and we finally gave up after the Fullers around 01.30 AM, having truly run out of steam.

This time we didn't worry ourselves about scoring, more entering into a detailed review of each beer and an overall assessment. Alas, the passage of time and accumulation of alcohol meant I can't honestly say that we picked a winner! The Fullers Vintage was seven years of wonderful perfection, however, interestingly, it was slightly flawed. Not only did it take about 45 (albeit heavenly) minutes to drink, but somehow in the maturation process, almost all trace of hops had disappeared.

By way of comparison, last year we had tried a bottle that was less than 2 years old and it was perhaps the finest bottled beer I ever tasted. However, picking the best time to open one is complicated further by the fact that the hops and malts and recipe change every year. So, given the above, and mindful of the authority afforded to me by this being my blog, I would have to say that after careful consideration the winner was the Chiltern Brewery 300's Old Ale.

We attended a tasting (by accident, just by turning up at their shop) in September 2011 and the insights into the beers and the knowledgeable staff showed what a slick operation Chiltern Brewery are. For more details see Chiltern Brewery bottled beers. I'd hate you to think that this swayed my decision, so I will attempt to validate my choice by explaining that the 300's wins because it was 5.0% and yet tasted a little bit like a beer double that, or one that had been aged at length. I think the fact that it punched so high above its weight, and had all the constituent ingredients of a strong but balanced English old ale means it outshone the Fullers. Although if there had been a "wow factor" to judge, Fullers would have easily walked away with first prize.

Other highlights were the Dunham Porter, The Ape Ale and the Durham Evensong. Interestingly though, there was no top accolade for the much anticipated Summer Wine Brewery Kahuna NZ IPA. I had expected to be bitten by ferocious hops and I wasn't disappointed, but, having tried and loved their draught offerings on numerous occasions now, what did disappoint me was the over reliance on the massive hop flavour, with seemingly not much else in the mix.

Both me and Dave were fairly certain that the hop in question was nelson sauvin, although it could have been green bullet as well. Either way there seemed a lack of balancing flavours. Having decided on the hop's identity we couldn't shake ourselves from the thought that this was a nelson sauvin attack more than it was a celebration. Yes, it was worthy of a buzz brewing descriptiopn like unapologetic, but that could be applied to BrewDog Hardcore IPA (in fact, I worry it may actually already be so) for example, a classic of its style. Kahuna, I concede, was more a bold experiment that didn't quite work. Which was a shame.

Overall, this was one of a couple of beers that fell short of expectations (those old chestnuts!) - perhaps a few less dry hops and some more balancing malt would have made this IPA an incredible beer. The only other disappointment was the Tatton Yeti, mainly because it did not live up to the promise of the blurb on the label (a fireside copper ale needs a bigger flavour and more lasting finish if its to work) and, against the quality of the Tatton Ale I tried the night before. Having said that, even though I can admit to a certain, ahem "tiredness" starting to befall us, there honestly wan't a bad beer.

Finally, for a snippet of the mumbling chaos of beer reviewing at gone midnight, I was going to have attached a short video, however the only one short enough to upload in under 25 minutes is very late on when, erm, clarity of thought and clear pronunciation of words has become more challenging. Instead I have posted the above picture of a glass of beer. This will have to do am afraid! You can rest assured however, in the absence of video evidence, that a robust assessment of each beer was carried out, to our very great enjoyment!


Happy beer tasting,

Wee Beefy