You may be surprised to read this, but occasionally I actually have a plan, stock permitting, for what beers I want to take a look at in the weeks ahead, and I fear that between next week and the turn of the new year both my mind and yours will be caught in an increasingly festive fug. So, before that inevitable onslaught I thought I would take this opportunity to simply suggest some tasty things without any specific agenda. Lets both enjoy this moment while it lasts.
Fallen/Tempest/Cromarty/Pilot Autumn
£2.90/6.0%/330ml
The latest in this collaboration series and to my mind the most seasonally suitable so far, this has a good dose of berry and malt on the nose, sweet malts and fruit on the palate balanced out by a delicious savoury note and a little warming spice, finishing with a bitter bite and an unexpected citrus zing (I’m guessing from the Spruce tips) which brought me back for more.
Burnt Mill Pintle
£3.80/4.3%/440ml
A new English brewery, Burnt Mill started brewing at the beginning of the year and this Pale is one of their first batch of cans. I was initially drawn to the range by the packaging (it DOES work!) but fortunately the contents more than live up to the promise of the labelling. This is a great pithy pale with flavours of tangerine, grapefruit and cantaloupe on the palate and a dry finish with more of that fruit and a lingering floral note.
Two Roads/Stillwater Ground Loop
£4.50/4.5%/473ml
Two of my favourite breweries of the year collaborated on a beer that combines two of my favourite styles (it’s a sour saison), so needless to say my expectations were high, and fortunately I wasn’t disappointed. Initially there’s a sharp zesty note on the nose before the classic saison spice becomes more apparent, light and sharp on the palate with the sort of citrus fruit that you would expect from a Belgian Wit alongside a little sharp pineapple and a good dose of clove which lasts in the dry peppery finish.
To Øl Black Ball
£6.00/8.0%/500ml
A favourite from last year makes a welcome return, now in a 500ml can as opposed to a 330ml bottle which I have no complaints about as through the week I’m a one beer a night man, so I may as well make it a big one. Liquorice, coffee, proper dark chocolate, well roasted malts and a good dose of bonfire smoke combine on the nose, which is pretty much everything that I’m looking (or perhaps sniffing) for in a drink at this time of year. The flavour profile definitely runs along similar lines, but the chocolate is ramped up a notch and there’s a little salted caramel addition too. As smooth as you like and delightfully complex this is a perfect winter warmer.
TailGate Peanut Butter Milk Stout
£3.70/5.8%/355ml
I expect that there will be many more stouts to come in the next month or two, so I’ll warm you up for that very definite possibility with a second one this week. Peanut butter in a beer often promises so much, but many of them don’t deliver. Where some say ‘peanut butter’ but really just mean ‘peanut’, this has that extra level of richness that I seek, and just enough sweetness too, with caramel and malted milk balanced by a nice savoury note so that it doesn’t overpower. I like to start my day with peanut butter on toast, and I’m glad that I can now finish it in a similar way.
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