My SWEEEET set of beers came to me from The Beer Bear in Wales – thanks, mate. Here's the photo of my fine four pack:

The story so far … Is I have drunk 3 of them and will save the 4th, the Otley O8 at 8% for a little celebration or commiseration later this week. IMHO Otley are one of the best (top 10 maybe even top 5) craft brewers in the UK today. I've had O1 and O2 but never the O8 – so looking forward to it.

I am not one for long beer reviews, hence why I spend my time drinking in the field and tweeting… But here's my summary and ratings anyway:

1. Untapped Sundown Golden Ale rated 14/20, would drink this anytime. Solid session brew.
2. Pen-lon Gimmer's Mischief, had to give it a 12/20. Not my style a bit to smokey for me – but for some folks this would probably rate higher.
3. Frosy Ffin Gwill Warmer rated 15/20 in the end. At 6.7% it hides its strength. Aroma was slight carmel and apple. Color a rich dark amber. Taste a great balance of smooth malt and lite hop with more hints of apple.

The bottle of Otley O8 well that may top the list in the end. Cheers!

Posted via email from beerviking’s posterous

Having enjoyed the train crawl in Oz and May Drink for England,  I was pretty chuffed when I was given an Adur Velocity and Hepworth Pullman, as well as having train names, they are Best Bitters.

Adur Velocity, Sussex, 4.4%.  Golden brown, quite a nose, bubbly. A fun ride along the length. Gentle bitter.  Here’s what Adur have to say:

Velocity (alc. 4.4% vol) is a traditional English bitter with a fresh flavour at the lower end of the bitterness scale. We add a handful of the ruinously expensive German Hallertauer hops just before the beer is fermented and the result has excellent aroma and just a hint of an old fashioned marmalade.

Hepworth Pullman, Sussex, 4.2%. Golden brown A nice straightforward bitter.

Pullman @ 4.2% abv is a First Class bitter with a crisp bite balanced with a silky finish.  Brewed with Admiral & Golding hops,   Pullman is a luxurious ale to be enjoyed on its own or with fine food. 

It’s not really much of a contest tonight, sadly as the Adur takes it quite easily.  I believe it’s probably the use of the the German hops that does it.

I’m taking a tasting publishing hiatus at the moment but still had post about this.

Amazing news to report.

One of BeerViking’s firm favourite brewers, Dark Star Brewing Co., have confirmed they are brewing their award winning American Pale Ale all the time now and not just seasonally.

Here’s what Dark Star says about the American Pale Ale:

4.7% American Pale Ale
(March – May)
The yeast strain used for the brewing of the pale, dry, American Ales was specially imported from the USA, along with some Chinook and Centennial hops, to produce this pale ale. The low colour Maris Otter malt provides a perfect light colour and dryness to balance the crisp taste and full aroma of the hops.

At writing:

Beeradvocate,  there’s been 6 reviews with a rating of an A and an ave. of 4.38.

ratebeer, 44 reviews, ave. rating is 3.65/5, 97 percentile in it’s glass and 91 overall.

For us hop heads in the UK, this is certainly a great start to 09 and I would say lays down the challenge to the other UK brewers to come up something competitive.

Now if only Dark Star will bottle this then we’re really onto something.

Had the pleasure of tasting one of these brews last nigh. A nut brown very hoppy ale. 4 starts.

From the website:

Born as “Christoffel Bier” this was the first beer brewed by Christoffel. After the introduction of Christoffel Robertus, this beer was named Blond refering to the colour of the beer.
Blond is a low-fermenting beer with 6% alc.vol.

Blond has a full body, a very balanced taste and a beautiful bitterness due to a generous addition of fresh hop during the brewing-process. The aroma is fruity and Blond has a fresh taste with a pleasant, hoppy finish.

While spinning some wheels before hitting a train, I dropped by utobeer and asked for some recs to help develop the Belgian pallete.

arabier by the De Dolle Brouwers of Essen, Belgium was suggested (also twice by a couple of other punters there) and so it was a definite bring home.

There’s viewing opions about what exactly hops are used (Kent Goldings vs. Nugget-hops from Poperinge) so here’s what the brewers say about the beer:

An arabier is a pure malt beer 8°vol/alc brewed with flower Nugget-hops from Poperinge. It has the special dry-hopping taste and aroma, so appreciated by beer lovers all over the world. It is one of the two main beers from De Dolle Brouwers throughout the year. Aging time is limited due to the fact that hop bitterness is declining with the time. Store arabier cool and dark and serve cool at 10°C. Cheers!

With my limited experience, I can tell you the following:

Woah, this suckers pours out with a crazy head so be ready with your glass and take some time.

Taste wise, I get some inital quite mellow bitterness that then builds leaving quite a green, grapefruit hoppy aftertaste that then mellows out leaving you wanting more.

I like it, don’t think I could sit down and drink them back to back but maybe that’s the point with these beers.  Will need to get a second opion from the Doc.