Beer Of The Month - June 2008

June was a pretty quiet month with just 51 new beers rated. Of these, only eight were bottled beers, as drinking at home in the evenings was effected by my youngest daughter screaming long into most nights instead of going to bed early as good girls should (I'll show her this when she's older and blame her for reducing my drinking!).

Two of those bottled beers were rather good, and they were both from Scotland. Inveralmond Lia Fail is not bottle conditioned, yet nor is it pasteurized. It is a nice fruity beer with hints of chocolate and some nice cascade hops in the nose. Better though, and bottled beer of the month was Williams Midnight Sun. This porter was a Tescos Beer Challenge winner, and well worth that award it is too. It has good coffee and oatmeal notes, and then a lovely kick of root ginger. It all moulds together really well. Williams Bros make very good bottled beers, and this is certainly no exception.

My cask drinking this month has mostly been around Northampton, except for a session around Rugby. I enjoyed my first tasting of Harviestoun Bitter And Twisted for many a year. This is one of the beers which I believe started the trend of hoppy goldens in Britain, and has stood the test of time against some of the newcomers. Fernandes Solstice at The Victoria's festival was another light hoppy beer with good grapefruit notes throughout. Beartown Black Bear is a stunningly complex mild with a great mix of roasty flavours and orange citrus notes, making for a really interesting mouthfeel. Better than those three though was Elland Midsummer Nights Porter. Great roasted malts, rich coffee and a long finish are just part of the story of this great beer. It's almost a match for the stronger 1872 Porter from the same brewery. A really great beer, and worthy beer of the month.