Beer Of The Month - March 2009

The beer I probably drink the most of at home is Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. It's easily attainable; cheap and tasty. In addition it's as consistent as you'd like a bottled beer to be. It was the only bottled beer I drank in March which was above average, so therefore has to win Bottled Beer Of The Month.

There was more competition for cask beer of the month, although there was an outright winner. The highlights of the month were Leicester BF and Liverpool. I was ill for a lot of the rest of the month so drinking opportunities were at a premium.

Both the articles linked to go into detail about the better beers on each day, so I won't bore you by repeating myself. The best beer in Liverpool was Wentworth Black Zac followed by Northern Two Tone Stout, but these pailed into insignificance against the wonder that was Atomic Firebox. I liked reading the comments that were left and can easily see that beers brewed with chili might divide opinion, but this was a work of true genius. I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if it doesn't end up being the best cask ale I drink all year.

Beer Of The Month - February 2009

February was far quieter for beer drinking than I had envisaged. In fact the same can be said about updating this blog. I must change both of these indiscretions.

I make no excuses for bigging up Great Oakley beers. I may be the BLO and live in the same village as the brewer, but if the beers were poor I would say so. They are not poor though by any stretch of the imagination, and the new beer Monkey, brewed to celebrate the 500th brew was very good. Brewed using a mix of the hops and malts used in all the other beers it is pretty complex. Most describe it as malty but on the second occasion I had it the hops were really blossoming. It's a shame that we will probably never see the beer again.

Abbeydale Vespers, Julian Church Midnight Mass and Thornbridge Ashford were the best three beers I had at Wicksteed Park Beer Festival, all three being darker beers; Ashford having the hop profile of a New World Brown Ale as it is described.

The best cask ale of the month though was Castle Rock Screech Owl. It's odd how I've had just two beers in The Kean's Head in Nottingham this year; both of them strong, pale and hoppy, and both of them cask beer of the month. Lovely stuff and all over Castle Rock pubs at the moment.

Only one bottled beer I had in January is worth a mention and it is a beer I've written about before. Mikkeller All Others Pale is a delightfully hoppy American Pale Ale from Denmark's finest and is so wonderfully drinkable. It uses four different hops: simcoe, centennial, amarillo and nugget, and is delightfully balanced. It just beats Screech Owl to overall beer of the month. Buy it in the UK while you still can from Beermerchants

Beer Of The Month - January 2009

I'm not going to distinguish from now on between beers I've had before and those I haven't, when I choose my beers of the month. The only beers which are excluded are past winners. I'm not as bothered about seeking out new beers as I once was, and am far happier revisiting stuff I know is good.

January was a quiet month on the beer front as it usually is. I didn't get out much and the beers in the garage are so cold I just couldn't be bothered bringing them in and getting them to a desirable temperature.

As far as cask beers went I enjoyed Ascot On The Rails a dark bitter from a brewery I've consistently enjoyed. Castle Rock Black Gold in the brewery tap: The Vat & Fiddle in Nottingham; was as good as ever; a roasty yet citric mild, very much a modern beer. But the best cask ale was Thornbridge Jaipur IPA in The Kean's Head, also in Nottingham. This is the first time I've had this beer through a handpump and I think that extra pressure really brought out the fantastic hop flavours. I'm hoping to get to The Coach & Horses in Dronfield in May; that'll be a lot of fun.

As far as bottles go I had real high hopes for Struise Mikkeller. When two fantastic brewers get together and produce a 9% hop monster IIPA, then I've got to be excited. Except I didn't get a hop bomb. What I did get was a strong Belgian ale with that Struise sweetness. I did enjoy it but it fell short of my expectations and desires.

Far better was the first beer I had this year: Fullers Vintage Ale 2006 was as complexly fruity, bready, malty, hoppy and vinuous as I've come to expect from these annual offerings. A great beer which just shades the Jaipur as overall Beer Of The Month.

Beer Of The Month - December 2008

December truly was a quiet month for new beers partly for the reasons mentioned yesterday. In total just 35 new beers passed my lips, nicely balanced between cask ales and bottled stuff.

The first cask ale worthy of mention was Wooden Hand Black Pearl. I've not been impressed by the previous beers I've had from this Cornish micro, but this was a nice salty, smoky stout. Following that came Adnams Explorer, the second beautifully hopped Adnams beer I've had in a row after the bottled beauty that was Innovation. This beer has Columbus and Chinook, but these are quite delicately used, and give more of an impression of a well hopped English style beer than an American hop bomb. The third good cask beer was Quercus QB found in The Romany in Northampton whilst delivering our branch newsletter. This is a pub I must get to more often if they are going to come up trumps not only with great beers but also with new breweries for me. As for the beer, it was a dark malty full flavored beer with chocolate, caramel, coffee, bread and fruit in the mouth and nose. Fourth and finally came Great Oakley Santa's Yuletide Log, this year's Christmas offering from my local brewer. This exceeded expectations with roasty flavors, as well as sourness and a great late bitterness. And yes, it had that chocolate finish we were promised. I had it twice during the month and it was excellent both times, and is a worthy cask beer of the month.

As for the bottles, two really stood out and they were both from Danish brewer Mikkeller: Stateside India Pale Ale is full of juicy citric hoppiness. Flavours of oranges and lychees abound on the tongue. It really was a fruity bitter number which I am pleased still to have another of. Still good but not quite as good was All Others Pale. This slightly less strong beer is still very hoppy, but this time they are more piney. Also very tasty and well brewed as I have come to expect from Mikkel.

It was a close call, but Stateside just beats Santa's Yuletide Log as overall beer of the month, maybe I'll get to try the latter again before it all runs out?

Beer Of The Month - November 2008

The best beer I drank in November was actually Alehouse Robust Porter, a wonderfully rich, hoppy, very American influenced porter. However I've drank the beer before and as this column only deals with new beers to me, it doesn't qualify. It's an excellent beer though; one you should certainly seek out.

I drank the porter at a Hertfordshire beer festival in The Malt Shovel, at which I also enjoyed Buntingford Witch Project, a dark roasty, fruity bitter with coffee notes; Alehouse 99 And A Half Won't do, a headbanging 10% booze filled beer, and Red Squirrel Springfield IPA.

This is truly a great beer full of piney bitter American hops. So full in the mouth, and beautifully balanced. The other two people who have rated this beer on RateBeer gave it great marks too. It is a clear Beer Of The Month winner.

The month of course featured the Wetherspoons Beer Festival, which didn't get close to the high standards set earlier in the year, but one beer did stand out for me, and, I know, for others; although not everybody agreed with me that it was a great beer. Viking's Return was brewed by Mikkel of Mikkeller at Jennings and was both extremely bitter and very burnt at the same time. It was very complex and no doubt challenging. It was liked enough by Wetherspoons customers to place it second in the Beer Of The Festival voting.

I didn't drink many bottled beers during November, but the one I did really enjoy was BrewDog Chaos Theory. This beer won the prototype challenge, where it was up against a wheat beer and a schwarzbier. It is a typically bold IPA, coming in at 7.1%. I think this is the style of beer BrewDog does best, and this is just about the right ABV for this style.

December should be an interesting month. I always like to drink a few special beers around the Christmas break so the competition will be hot for the next Beer Of The Month.

Beer Of The Month - October 2008

Better late than never, I am able now to do my Beer Of The Month post for October. It looks like I had just 45 new beers in the month, almost all of them cask ales with two beer festivals at both Oxford and Nottingham standing out.

The best beer I had at Oxford was Prospect Nutty Slack, an excellent roasty, yet fruity mild, which I was surprised to find out was the first beer from this Lancashire brewery I've had. The stand out beer at Nottingham was another one from a brand new brewery to me: Bollington White Nancy had lovely fresh orangey hops throughout. I'd mostly stuck to dark beers at the festival and this golden ale beat all of them. Honourable mention though needs to go to Mallinsons Mild Thing.

The best cask ale of the month though was drank in The Malt Shovel in Northampton; the long-named Empire Pandemonium Vanilla Porter was a magnificent melange of coffee beans and vanilla. I'd been tipped off by a colleague at work earlier in the day, and wasn't sure I fancied vanilla in a beer but this really worked.

Only one bottled beer stood out all month, but it was good enough to be overall Beer Of The Month. Adnams Innovation was available as a limited edition beer late last year rolling into this year, and came at a premium price in a presentation box. I had bottle number 740 and sadly have no more. It is, by a country mile, the hoppiest beer Adnams produce and at 6.7% has a great backbone to support the hops. I would be more than happy to see Adnams repeat this beer, but this time sell it without the packaging at a more realistic price.

I always choose a non-English beer of the month as well. In October the best I had was Mysterious Myrtle Stout from Wales' Purple Moose. This was an interesting stout with a little something added. It wouldn't win prizes most months, but there wasn't a lot of competition this time round.

Sorry the report's a little shorter this time but some of the memories have become a little distant!

Beer Of The Month Delayed

Hopefully some of you have noticed that my Beer Of The Month piece hasn't appeared yet for October. This delay will be rectified as soon as RateBeer is available again. All my notes are on there and I have no idea whatsoever what the best beers I had during the month were.

Just one more reason that we need RateBeer back as soon as possible.

Beer Of The Month - September 2008

September was a pretty quiet month for new beers. I had 43 new beers in total; most of these were during my North Yorkshire holiday although I did of course go to St Albans Beer Festival. The vast majority of those beers were bottled.

Only one cask beer actually stood out, which was the 8% Cropton Old Goat which I had in the brewpub. I enjoyed the fruity and vinuous qualities of this English Barley Wine.

A few bottles were worthy of a mention. Left Hand Smoked Goosinator Doppelbock was pretty authentic tasting although there was less smoke in the aroma. For an American beer, even a take on a German one, it had no excessive hoppiness. Back in May 2007, I awarded Samuel Smiths Organic Cherry Fruit Beer my bottled beer of the month. This month I had, and thoroughly enjoyed the raspberry version. I suspect many would be horrified at quite how fruity this is, and accuse it of being too syrupy sweet, but I found it fun and very moreish. It would certainly stand up to the more commercial fruit beers from Belgium. It's pipped at the post though for best bottled beer of the month by Mikkeller It's Alight!. I loved the funky hoppy bretty sourness of this beer, and at just 4.5% it was seriously impressive.

Being a sucker for strong beers though, it's the Old Goat which gets overall BOTM. It's a beer I've never seen in the free trade or at a festival, but it's worth seeking out of you can.

Beer Of The Month - August 2008

August was always going to be a mad month with GBBF and Peterborough Beer Festival. Thus I sampled 108 new beers during the month.

I listed the best beers I tried at Earls Court during my round up of GBBF. Some of them were real crackers, and could have been Beer Of The Month under normal circumstances. The near misses for beer of the festival were Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron, De Molen Tsarena Esra Reserva, Tommyknocker Maple Nut Brown Ale, Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout and De Molen Bloed, Zweet & Tranen. These were excellent beers and give away more than a little bit about my love for strong dark beers.

The Tommyknocker beer is the only one of those listed which came from the bottle and wins the bottled beer of the month

Of the English beers I had during the month, a number are worthy of mention. Loddon Ferrymans Gold is a nice light hoppy beer served very nicely in my local Lloyds No 1 Bar; Son Of Sid Muckcart Mild at Peterborough was my first beer from this Cambridgeshire micro, and was full of flavour being roasty and fruity. Twickenham Naked Ladies, and Alehouse Enormous A.P.E, both of which I had at a local pub festival were lovely hoppy beers, both making fashionable use of US hops. (I've since been informed the Twickenham beer actually uses Stryian Goldings only(oops))

The best English beer though was Ascot Anastasia's Exile Stout, again at Peterborough. A roasty burnt, yet hoppy stout from a micro which is really impressing me.

I've left the best to last though, and that is the Beer Of The Month and it was cask conditioned too. That was Lost Abbey's Bourbon Barrel Aged The Angels Share, one of the truly special treats at GBBF. I can't resist barley wines of any type, but an American 12.5%er aged in bourbon barrels is very special. The bourbon comes through on the amazingly boozy and fruity taste. There's brandy in the nose, and it's an all round smooth beast of a beer. It certainly wouldn't be to everyone's taste, but the people around my table seemed to like it.

It'll probably take another year and another GBBF for me to get another beer like this.

Beer Of The Month - July 2008

July has been the calm before the storm that is GBBF. I had 44 new beers in total, split fairly evenly between cask stuff and bottles.

The choice for cask beer of the month is fairly tricky. The two highest scoring cask ales scored a mere 3.7 out of 5 on the Ratebeer scale. There were a few 3.6s, but that's not worthy of such an award.

Those two beers were Red Squirrel London Porter, and Dark Star Hylder Blond. The Porter was roasty and full of chocolate flavours. It was the third pint I had on a beer and curry night in Northampton. Just beating it though as cask beer of the month was the saaz hopped beer from Dark Star. This is also brewed with freshly picked elderflowers which you really can taste. It was very nice and won my beer of the festival at Merton.

The bottled offerings during the month were on the whole of a better standard. Two beers which were shared at Merton both scored highly. Marble Decadence and BrewDog Tokyo were big Imperial Stouts. The BrewDog was brewed with jasmine, but to me had a lot of lavender notes. Two more dark beers from Britain but less agressive were Leatherbritches Porter and Red Rock Humber Down. The latter a very flavoursome bottle conditioned mild, coming in at just 3.6%. This may well be the best bottled mild I've ever drank. I also enjoyed Hopsinjoor from Het Anker. This consistently good Belgian brewer has recently introduced this blonde beer, which had a lot of similarities to Duvel in my book. That, of course, cannot be a bad thing.

I saved the best beer though until last and had it really to prepare myself for the hop bombs I hope to have at Earls Court. Great Divide Hibernation Ale is the kind of beer I could happily shut myself in a dark room and drink all Winter. Beautifully strong, beautifully hopped, and with a big malty backbone providing a great long finish. It's an absolute corker. My bottle was bought at Utobeer. I don't know if there's any left, but if there is you really should stock up. It's a clear winner of my beer of the month.

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.

Beer Of The Month - May 2008

I had 59 new beers during May. Most of these were cask ales drank either at The Malt Shovel's Welsh Beer Festival, my trip to Brighton, or the Northamptonshire BF.

The average quality of beers drank during he month was good, but there were few beers which will live long in the memory. I was disappointed with the standard of the Welsh beer. This was no fault of the pub. I found most of the beers to be ordinary or in some cases, a bit wierd. The two stand out beers, though, were Conwy Mulberry Mild, and Jolly Suzanne's Stout.

In Brighton, I mostly drank beers I'd had before including plenty of Dark Star Hophead. The best new beer I had was the excellent Pilgrim Porter, a particularly flavoursome smoky, bready porter. I also enjoyed Rectory IPA a pretty authentic IPA.

I had 21 beers at the Northants Festival between pulling hundreds of pints for other people. Most were good and some very good. I had a few goes at the Festival Special from Great Oakley, which was an excellent fruity beer. Other good beers at the festival were Tring Tea Kettle Stout; Golden Plover and 92 Squadron, both excellent hoppy beers from the superb Buntingford Brewery, and my beer of the festival, Naylors Old Ale. The cask beer of the month by a whisker though was Pilgrim Porter.

I didn't have many bottled beers at all, but of the few I did have, the stand out beer of the month shone like a beacon. Great Divide Hercules Double IPA has been on sale at Utobeer in London and happily for me Angelo from RateBeer picked me up a bottle. I wish I had access to more of this deliciously big and hoppy 9.1% beer from Colorado. I make no excuses for liking big beers. Some say that overhopping masks brewing flaws, but I don't care. I love the big mouthfeel of these extreme beers. This is a worthy winner of overall Beer Of The Month, and would actually win most months.

Beer Of The Month - April 2008

Sixty six new beers for me in April. Around half of these were at two festivals whilst most of the others were in various pubs. I drank very little at home during the month for some reason.

To be honest, quality wise it was a below average month. Only two beers from the bottle are worthy of particular mention. I had an unseasonal bottle of Corsendonk Christmas at the beginning of the month. This is one of those rare beers that actually deserves to have the word 'Christmas' in it, being nicely spiced. Good brown fruits also. This was bettered by the bottle of Mikkeller Santa's Little Helper which Phil smuggled into Coventry Beer Festival. Phil stated this was a couple of years old, and that bit of age and maturity could be tasted. This is a 10% beer from Denmark brewed in the Belgian style, and has some very rewarding malty and yeasty flavours. It is a deserving winner of bottle beer of the month.

From the cask, I enjoyed Oakham Quint whilst on a stroll around Leicester. Oakham never fail to impress, and later in the month I enjoyed No Bully Dozer also. Both beers are hoppy as expected. Coventry BF provided the four other really nice cask beers of the month. Two porters in Fullers London Porter, and Bazens Knoll Street Porter; a hoppy Alehouse Sauvin So Good, and Dark Star Over The Moon Mild, all vie for top spot, but it's the Fullers which gets it.

As stated it's the first time I've tried it in years, and it's almost as good as I remember. A complex fruity, roasty, smoky porter with some chocolate and caramel edges. It just goes to show that Fullers can brew some great stuff when they put their mind to it. This wins not only cask beer of the month, but the overall prize too.

Beer Of The Month - March 2008

It often feels like March is the beginning of the beer year as festival season starts in earnest and I always have a week's holiday in the month, which tends to result in a reasonable amount of drinking. I sampled 87 new beers in total during the month. Pleasingly the vast majority of these were either in pubs or at a festival; namely Leicester.

Naturally for the reasons mentioned above, I had a fair few cask beers during the month. The first particularly good one was Woods Shropshire Lass from a brewery which is more miss than hit for me. This was a nice blonde beer with citrus notes and a mouthfeel I described as like fizz bombs. Thornbridge Gildas and Fuglestow Sledgehammer Stout were the stand out beers at Leicester Festival. One a delightfully hoppy full bodied IPA from one of England's finest, and the other a roasty smoky stout. The best beer I had on my Northampton Crawl was Banks & Taylor Edwin Taylor's Extra Stout. I have had this deliciously dry roasty stout before but not I've started rating beers. It's head and shoulders B&T's best beer. From the Wetherspoons festival I have had three beers worthy of a mention. First was Titanic Last Porter Call, a dodgy name for what is a good porter with coffee and chocolate notes. Second was Namyslow Plum, a true love it hate it beer if ever there was one. Yes it's very sweet and not particularly 'beer-like', but that plumminess is amazing. An underused fruit if you ask me. It's not a beer I could drink much of (my half was probably enough), but I really did enjoy it. Thirdly was 'the most talked about beer in Britain': Shepherd Neame Stone California Double IPA, as hoppy as expected and with a decent body. Certain people I know have raved about this, and nobody has said they didn't like it. For me it was very good, but not a beer I could session on. I lost a bit of interest three quarters of a pint through. While this would be a lot of people's cask beer of the month, mine went to Thornbridge Gildas.

From the bottle just two beers have stood out. An American porter and a Danish stout with undoubted American influence. The porter was Left Hand Black Jack Porter. Left Hand describe this as a London Porter, and even though it uses English hops it uses them in American quantities. Chocolate, coffee and roasty malts complete the flavour. Finally, and the beer which actually outclasses the Thornbridge beer was Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast. Not only a topical name but a delicious beer. I got soy, fish, coffee, hops, fruit, oatmeal and goodness knows what else in this complex stout with a really long finish. This beer has its fans and its detractors, but to me it's a real treat. It's certainly beer of the month.

Special mention must go to one of the worst five beers I've ever had which was the first bottled beer I had in the month Krombacher Cab. This is some sort of beer/cola concoction with dragon fruit. Avoid at all costs.

Beer Of The Month - February 2008

Another fairly quiet month saw me drink just 42 new beers in February. Even with the extra day that's well below average! The majority of these beers were on either The Oxford Pub Crawl, or at The Merton Beer Festival.

I've already reported on the better beers I drank on these two ocassions, and to be honest, the rest of the beers I drank during the month were fairly disappointing. The one bottled beer of note was Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale which has been for sale in Oddbins. This is a hoppy beer as you would expect but somehow it seems more British in taste than American. I put that down to the body being less chewy than a lot of American IPAs although its ABV is lower than is usual. There were no other candidates for Bottle Beer Of The Month.

As far as cask conditioned goes I cannot look beyond the four outstanding beers I had at Merton. The complexity of the spicy chocolatey Milton Mammon; the roasty slightly sweet Imperial Stout Marcus Aurelius from the same brewery; the wonderfully hoppy yet superbly full bodied Oakham Oblivion, and the sensational Old Chimneys Good King Henry are all beers I would happily revisit time after time, and helped make Merton a fantastic beer festival not just for the comapny of good friends but also for the beer quality.

Good King Henry is Beer Of The Month, and comes so close to matching the bottled and aged Reserve which was the third best beer I drank in 2006. It's a rare beast on cask and special props go to the Merton organisers for puliing it off. It's a worthy winner and if I taste a better cask beer all year I will be laughing.

I can't find an image of the beer anywhere so you'll have to make do with a picture of Henry VIII, who probably wasn't a good king at all (and yes I know the beer isn't anything to do with any historical kings, but rather an extinct animal or something)

Beer Of The Month - January 2008

In January I drank 48 new beers and revisited a few old favourites as promised. However for the purposes of these Beer Of The Month posts I will only consider new beers. Of these 48 I have drank 33 in pubs, most of which were cask conditioned ales, but there's been some bottled or keg stuff mixed in.

The cask ales this month have been just about average on the whole. I've had some decent stuff, but haven't seen enough strong Wintery ales to warm the cockles on these cold January days. The best three cask ales were: Castle Rock Black Gold, a very tasty mild with some interesting hop notes which was easily the best beer I had on my Nottingham Pub Crawl; Milton Sparta, a very hoppy beer with good grapefruit notes. Most Milton beers are well worth sampling. I have a good chance of trying both Mammon and Marcus Aurelius this month which is exciting; and Nobbys Winter Ale, a fascinating old ale, with a dandelion and burdock and licquorice thing going on. I admit a bit of Northamptonshire bias in giving Nobbys the cask beer of the month.

From the bottle, I enjoyed Harpoon IPA which I has at The Criterion's American Bottlefest. This is not the best IPA in the World of course, but it was decent, and it's always nice to see a new US beer in this country. I also enjoyed Hobsons Postmans Knock, a strong mild from the CBOB winning Shropshire brewery. This is like a big brother to the Champion, and is an old fashioned mild with some good coffee notes. The best bottled beer of the month was a Czech Dunkel which was part of a pretty large box of beers my parents bought over from France. Primátor Tmavé Lezák from Pivovar Náchod is a sweet full flavoured dunkel with some smokiness and lots of dark fruits. I have never understood the passion around Czech pilsners, but really do enjoy a lot of the darker beers.

Of the two winners Nobbys just shades it, and thus wins overall beer of the month.

Beer Of The Month - December 2007

In December I had 80 new beers and there were a fair few crackers amongst them. I do try and treat myself to some better bottled beers around Christmas but the beers I had during the rest of the month were also of a very good standard generally.

I started the month by going to Pigs Ear. I had a great time and sampled some superb bottled beers. The best of these was 3 Fonteinen Doesjel, an excellent new gueuze from this producer which never fails to excite. Other good bottles were Equinox Winter Beer from de Zenne Brouwerij; Ølfabrikken Brown Ale and Night On Mare Street 2, a slightly stronger follow up from last year's festival special brewed by Pitfield. The cask stuff wasn't as good but I did enjoy beers from Alcazar and Twickenham.

Other cask ales which were worthy of a mention during December were Nethergate Umbel Magna a spiced porter which was my last cask ale of the year, drank in The Malt Shovel in Northampton, where I had previously had two great beers in one evening: Great Oakley Wobbly Santa and Milton Nero; both strongish dark beers which are perfect for this time of year. However the best cask ale of the month was not seasonal at all, in spite of its name. I had Buntingford Silent Night in The Wig & Pen Northampton. It was packed with delicious grapefruity hops, and tasted so fresh and citrussy.

I had a higher number of good bottled beers though throughout the month. Ridgeway Foreign Export Stout from Hepworth brewery is a strong roasty stout with good licquorice flavours; Isle Of Skye Cuillin Beast is a beast of a Scotch Ale with nice fruity malty notes and a good caramel and alcohol buzz, and my second beer from Emersons of New Zealand: Pilsner is almost as hoppy as the IPA.

Later in the month I went to a family party and for obvious reasons took my own beer (on offer from mine hosts by the way was a French wine labelled "good French wine" which says it all really). I thoroughly enjoyed the funky Nøgne Ø Saison and the wonderfully full bodied and flavoursome Left Hand Imperial Stout which had lovely chocolate notes to go with the roasty malts and soy flavours. This was the best beer of the month.

On New Year's Eve I treated myself to two excellent beers. First was the subtle BrewDog Paradox Speyside which was delicious and had far less whiskey flavours than the frankly impossible Islay Cask. This beautiful stout was followed by Fullers Vintage Ale 2005 which was not as good as some previous vintages but is still a great strong hoppy English beer. It was a more than decent last tipple of 2007.

Beer Of The Month - November 2007

I had 56 new beers in November which isn't a bad month especially when you consider I didn't really go out very much. I had a couple of trips to Leicester and a short session in Nottingham, but other than that it was pretty much bottles at home.

The two best beers I had were both from the bottle. Innis & Gunn Rum Cask Oak Aged Beer is the beer which has caused the most controversy in my surfing month, but it is truly a lovely beer, with the character from the rum enhancing the oaky flavours which I&G beers have. The other top bottled beer is Consecrator Doppelbock from Bells Brewery in Michigan. I was lucky enough to be sent this beer by an American RateBeerian together with another couple of Bells' beers. I am a huge fan of doppelbocks, loving the sticky sweet alcohol fused beers, and this one didn't disappoint. It is perhaps not as rich as the classic German doppelbocks like Celebrator or Maximator, but it is still a lovely beer, and not noticeably American. Other commendable bottled beers were Jubeltrunk Altfränkisch, a dunkel from Pyraser Landbrauerei, and Winter Time Winter Warmer, the new seasonal offering from Meantime of London.

Five cask ales have stood out this month. Two of them are milds and the other three golden ales. I did have some stronger winter ales, but they didn't match up to these five. The three goldens were Hype from BrewDog. A lot has been blogged about this progressive Scottish brewery but one thing is for sure: they are not afraid to use ingredients. This is very well hopped for a 4.1% beer, and very easy to drink. The other two I had one after the other and they were amazingly similar. Both very much brewed in the American Pale Ale mould with piney hops and a nice balance from the malts. These beers were 3 Witches from Oakham, and Gold Rush from Elland. Both are well worth seeking out. The two milds were Rock Mild from Nottingham which I had in the historic old Bell Inn in Nottingham itself. This was a beer full of flavour from the roasted malt, but also suprisingly hoppy. At 3.8% it was quite amazing. The other mild was the current Champion Beer Of Britain, Hobsons Mild. This was the first time I had had this beer in five years and my memories of it being an excellent beer were fully correct. I am not sure it is the best beer in Britain today, but it's pretty damn good, and all at the miniscule 3.2%.

Overall I would have to award Innis & Gunn the overall beer of the month, and Nottingham Rock Mild the cask ale of the month, bot h very good beers, but I am very hopeful for better in December. After all we all treat ourselves aound Christmas time.

Beer Of The Month - October 2007

October really was a quiet month. I had just 18 new beers, and revisited Rochefort 10. As previously mentioned, I had no cask beer at all.

In order to win a beer of the month category, I have to award the beer at least 3.5 out of 5 on the RateBeer scale. Just four of the new beers I drank acheived this score. Three of these are British bottled beers available in Tescos.

Ridgeway Blue is brewed at Hepworth in West Sussex, and states it is "brewed deliberately to taste great chilled". I had it in the traditional manner, though, of cellar temperature and found it a pleasantly hoppy beer which stood up well to being bottle conditioned. Hepworth do brew some good BCAs. Williams Bros Seven Giraffes is another good beer from this excellent Scottish brewery. This has both elderflower and lemon zest in the brew, but these are not too obvious. Instead it's the US hops which come through and make for a tasty beer. Thirdly Tom Wood Jolly Ploughman which of course is brewed by Highwood which is another quality BCA. This is much more malty than the other two beers and has coffee and smoky notes. I would have to award this as the best English beer I tried in October.

However the stand out winner of Beer Of The Month, and the hot, hot favourite for Beer Of The Year was Struise Earthmonk. I'm not going to repeat everything I said before except to say this is a simply beautiful beer, and scored 4.8 out of 5. If you have never tried this beer, do everything you can to get your hands on it. Why, if I didn't have one more bottle, I would consider selling my daughters (Only kidding!!)

Beer Of The Month - September 2007

September was a quiet month for beer. I didn't go to any festivals or gatherings, just doing my drinking at home or at brief visits to the pub.

In total I had 53 new beers, the vast majority of which were cask ales.

The most suprising beer of the month was Milestone Olde Home Wrecker. I had this flavoursome Old Ale at The Malt Shovel in Northampton. Most of the previous Milestone beers I have had have been disappointing, and lacking flavour, but this is a beautiful beer full of fruity and bready malts, with hints of coffee. It was very tasty.

I had two good cask ales when I went drinking in in Leicestershire. Potbelly Welland Truly is brewed not far from me in Kettering. It is nicely hoppy with a definite US twang to it. At 4.9% it has a reasonable warmth from the alcohol and a good body. I also enjoyed Mayfields Auntie Myrtle's Premium Ale on the same day.

I went to The Criterion in Leicester while they were having a mini festival of Surrey and London beers. As well as the festival beers I drank some Oakham Haka. Oakham is a highly thought of award winning brewery, and this beer had a typical Oakham hoppiness. Additionally though it had sweet notes with hints of toffee, and was stronger than average at 5.7%. I also had what amounted to the best beer of the month: Ascot Posh Pooch is another English beer brewed with cascade hops from the US, and to be honest, I can't get enough of them. The cascades really worked here and the beer was fresh, bitter and extremely drinkable. It was my first beer from this Surrey brewery which has been going for just three months.

There have only been two stand out bottled beers this month. The first was a beer I brought back from GBBF. Haandbryggeriet Dark Force is an Imperial Stout, described by the brewery as "the only Imperial Wheat Stout in the known Universe". It looked beautiful in the glass and had great roasty tastes together with coffee and chocolate. It seemed very bitter to me but there was a worrying element to it, which may well have been the wheat. Although I enjoyed it, I think it was a little too complex for its own good. The other great bottled beer I had was the one I chose to toast Michael Jackson. Emersons 1812 IPA has wonderful hops. Thanks go to Kieran Haslett-Moore for telling me that the taste is distinctive due to the New Zealand hops it uses. It certainly doesn't taste very English which apparently it once did. It is the type of bottled beer I would happily drink over and over again. Without a doubt this was my bottled and non-English beer of the month.