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Halloween Hobgoblin
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October 31st, 2010Beer Reviews, Ruby ales
Halloween Hobgoblin
It’s Halloween!
And if your local supermarket or beer shop doesn’t have pumpkin beer, then the next best thing to celebrate the might be the Halloween branded bottles of Wychwood Hobgoblin, found retailing for £1 at ASDA.
The £1 price tag didn’t scare us but the beer did a little. We must have grabbed a dogby bottle because the usual stewed fruit aroma had matured into rotting crab apples (old hops perhaps?) and the familiar fruit cake richness had become an earthy sweet ‘n sour tang, like rosé wine left unattended overnight.
A bad apple perhaps but if you get a better luck of the draw Hobgoblin is a robust strong beer for warming a cold and prickly Halloween evening (or simply accompanying an X Factor eviction should that be your Sunday night TV tipple).
Tags: apples, ASDA, Fruitcake, halloween, hobgoglin, rosé, wychwoodBeer information:
Beer: Hobgoblin (Halloween)
Brewery: Wychwood
Style: Ruby ale
ABV: 5.2% (bottle)
Country: Oxfordshire, England
3 responses to “Halloween Hobgoblin” 
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Great post,
I want to dislike Hobgoblin, i really do, its brewed by Martsons in an industrial style that leaks into the taste of the beer and destroys would could be some nice delicate flavours. I don’t like the marketing either, the Lord of the Rings style ads seem to rubber stamp what many Lager drinkers associate with real ale, beardy men who look more like they come from middle earth than normal walks of society. You can buy it in Lidl for £1 practically every week.
But despite all this I can’t fail to accept that its actually not a bad drink, and certainly step forward from mass produced lager.
Am i just disliking it for its success? Or the fact it falls between mass commercialism and craft?
Who knows. But i think we are better of with it than without it.
Ed (Quote)
[Reply]
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@Ed Agree with you on the marketing, in fact I have a draft post with the derogatory phrase ‘Lord of the rings marketing’ in it! Quite clearly the ‘lagerboy’ copy is aimed at the stereotypical beardy sandal wearing real ale lovers to reinforce that fact, rather than actually stir any drinkers of lout or other tipples into trying Hobgoblin.
@Bailey That’s personal taste – Brooklyn Post Road and Roosters Pumpkin 5 Spice are just 2 examples of pumpkin beer I’ve had this week that I’ve loved, and both quite different from each other too (Quote)
[Reply]
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The author
Name: Mark
Web Site: http://twitter.com/fletchthemonkey
Bio: Mark is better known as @fletchthemonkey and started writing about beer in 2009. Mark is editor of Real Ale Reviews and blogs at beeralewhatever.co.uk. When not content with spending all day on the internet working for a digital marketing agency, Mark waxes lyrical at digitalmediamonkey.co.uk and types up match reports for Leeds Guide magazine.
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Ed Murphy November 2nd, 2010 at 11:22