It went right to the wire but I did manage to drink my beer swap beers just in time to write about them this week. I had two beer swap partners, I was sending to Adam Croft who has written about the two Leeds Brewery bottles I sent him so far, and my sender was a mystery person.

Lovibonds Henley Amber - bitter but refined

My beer swap sender turned out to be a wine blogger, none other than Andrew Barrow aka the Wine Scribbler who is based in South Oxfordshire at the exact opposite end of the county I grew up in.

And judging by the beers, there’s a wealth of brewery action in that area, the four beers coming from parts of shires Oxford, Buckingham and Berk that were close enough to home when I grew up to appear on the local news, but that I’ve never explored before.

First up was Lovibonds Amber Ale, a 3.4% premium pale ale in a 330ml bottle. Light and in a small bottle this seemed like a sensible start on a school night and was served up just after tea. I was a bit bunged up with cold when I tasted this earlier in the week so I’m not sure I got a lot from the aroma but it smelt slightly fruity and fresh, but the first sip smacked with bitterness

Rebellion Red is autumnal and possibly good with fish and chips?!

Deeper in fruity, citrus notes combined with a honey sweetness to make a bittersweet amber ale with an orangey tang – the colour was like red oranges when held up to the light. This made a relatively refreshing beer whilst being malty enough to leave me needing another sip to wash the last one down.

I plumped for the Rebellion Red next, another amber ale from the Rebellion Brewery who make their beer on a farm in Marlow, Bucks. It smelt brown and leafy and the taste was initially mostly of malt. There was something not quite roasty to it, not quite nutty, what I think can only be described as chestnuts. A bit of oxygen brings out sticky fruit and caramel undertones and a good swill adds extra depth, flavour and texture. I’ve no idea why but I had craving for fish and chips when I had this beer so I will try it with a big plate from Hillycroft fisheries next time.

It’s very easy to describe beers like these as autumnal, but it’s a trap I’m not scared to fall into as it hits the nail on the head for me.

Butts Blackguard Porter

The next night I started with Butts Blackguard Porter. Butts brew all organic ales from their farm near Hungerford, something I can only commend. Blackguard Porter (pronounced “blaggard”) is a liquorice scented porter with a roasted, buttery taste. Bertie Bassetts swim in a slightly lively sea of chocolate and cocoa paste which gives an even carbonisation in my mouth. It fizzed when I swilled and the dark liquid opened up producing sweet chocolate aromas. Double cream and brandy would suit this beer and I reckon it’s one to try again at Christmas.

Oxfordshire Marshmellow is a spicy, piney, sticky affair - fantastic!

Last on the beer swap menu was Oxfordshire Ales Marshmellow, the only one of these beers I’d come across before thanks to its distribution through the Booths supermarket chain. I didn’t remember anything other than a belief that this beer was quirky, and raising the glass to my nose the thick and sticky seedy aroma reminded me why. Red woodland berries and currants filled the nose and I expected the complexion to be red and clay-like rather than amber.

The taste is maltier with hints of toffee, spice and wild berries – it’s interesting and nice to drink if possibly not everyone’s cup of tea. It’s like BrewDog’s Dogma after rehab, mellowed and much easier to handle.

As Sam discussed in our first beer swap review, I wonder if the beers might tell you something about the person sending them (after deep self evaluation I think the beers I sent as part of beer swap strangely do reflect my personality despite not necessarily representing my favourite tipples). Or is any personality likely to be skewed by the selection being limited to local beers (which may not necessarily say a lot about you?

I don’t want to make any assumptions (especially as Andrew probably drinks a good bit more wine than beer by looking at his wine blog!)so I’ll just say a big thank you for the beers and bring on Beer Swap Round 2!

Kent is his part of the country, and is somewhere I have never been, so it was almost guaranteed that most of these beers I would never have come across.

So here is what I received:

- Westerham Brewery’s Little Scotney IPA (4%)
- Harvey’s Star of Eastbourne East India Pale (6.5%)
- Hopdaemon Brewery’s Skrimshander IPA (4.5%)
- Whitstable Brewery’s Raspberry Wheat (5.2%)

- Westerham Brewery’s Little Scotney IPA

Little Scotney IPA is created using National Trust-grown hops which would suggest something of an overtly traditional pint. I couldn’t

Little Scotney: The National Trust hops are a little less traditional than you might anticipate

have been more wrong. The warm, malty scent is infused with a sharp fruitiness that intrigues, suggesting a beer that is stronger than its 4%. In the glass, the golden amber looks terrific.

The mouthfeel is extremely smooth and full-bodied; the fruitiness is pleasant on the tongue, whilst the hops are prevalent and really allowed to shine in this richest of flavours. The taste reminds me intently of one of my favourite IPA’s: Goose Island. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the flavour is the nearest I’ve come to finding a British equivalent to that beer.

The aftertaste flows back a lovely, warming bitterness that has a touch of ground coffee in the flavour. The long finish remains for some time; the satisfaction can be compared to a good Sunday lunch on a crisp wintry day – it’s that good!
This is a perfectly balanced ale in terms of the hops and malt. The flavour of all the ingredients can be savoured in every gulp whilst each brings something to the beer.

It is also a great advert for British beers. The traditional image of the National Trust and the careful, down-to-earth branding of the brewery make a neat little package that is thoroughly English but stands up to the brash, all-conquering American IPA’s. Definitely a beer I will seek to bring to the North at some point.

Harvey’s Star of Eastbourne East India Pale

Harvey’s are a company I have seen at a couple of beer festivals this year, although I can’t recall if I have sampled my next beer

Star of Eastbourne: A fruity taste sensation

swap offering: East India Pale. At 6.5%, it is stronger than the Scotney, something that was evident right from the moment the cap is flicked off.

The nose is extremely rich. Extremely sweet with grapes and apples particularly prevalent within the scent, all combining into a great looking dark amber colour.

The fruit remains in the flavour and does enough to prevent the higher level of the alcohol from taking over this factor of the beer. It is very sweet with the same flavours that were present in the nose (along with raisins being evident at this point), whilst the extremely full-bodied nature of the ale creates a combination that is a little sickly-sweet in the first taste for my liking.

There is a certain ‘softness’ to the mouthfeel that I find is common in more fruit-based beers, whist a slight bitterness in the aftertaste adds another interesting element to the experience.
And this beer can certainly be described as an experience. Right from beginning to end, new flavours and textures seem to explode at different parts of the glass. In all honestly, this was a little sweet for my liking (I don’t have a particularly sweet tooth in any sense), but I can’t deny that I was baffled with the beer for all the right reasons.

The key issue for me was the size of the bottle. At 500ml, I felt there was a little too large a sample for such a rich, flavourful beer. 330ml would have been perfect and would certainly encourage me to try this again; but such as it is, I would be likely to resist if I saw it on a shelf next to one of my old, comfortable favourites. A must for anyone who craves strong, fruity flavours, however.

Hopdaemon Skrimshander IPA

From a brewery named Hopdaemon, I was anticipating a hop attack from Skrimshander IPA. However, the scent was pleasant, warm and

Skrimshander: A must for the chocolate lover

malty, with a citrusy edge that suggested the presence of hops. The beer poured a lovely copper colour and was instantly appealing.

The lightest of carbonisation hits the tongue, and it is the hoppy side that hits the taste buds first, fairly refreshing with a certain warmth. It is the stunning milk chocolate aftertaste that makes this beer a true winner though. It is incredibly distinctive and isn’t too sweet as to kill off the dry, bitter finish that warms the throat lovingly in the way that only chocolate can.

This is a brilliantly balanced beer again, with none of the bitterness, sweetness and so on dominating any one element of the glass. It is interesting, tasty and intriguing all at the same time, which makes it a real winner for me.

Whitstable Brewery Raspberry Wheat

The title of Whitstable Brewery’s Raspberry Wheat beer was the bottle that interested me the least in terms of looking at the bottles (which

Raspberry Wheat: The clue really is in the title

is probably why I saved this until the end). Wheat beers and fruit beers are two styles that have somewhat baffled me in the past in terms of their appeal; although I would suggest that my early dislike of them has led me to instinctively avoid them from the shelf or the bar. However, this is what Beer Swap is all about: trying beers that you wouldn’t normally, so from this angle, I was quite excited to see if this was the ale to alter my mind about either or both these forms.

As expected, a fresh raspberry aroma is noticeable straight from opening, although a certain maltiness also blends into the nose. A deep, unusual reddish-amber colour is particularly cloudy, as expected from a wheat beer, whilst a particular liveliness creates a slightly off-white head.
The mouthfeel is very soft as a result of the dominant fruit, whilst there is a slight ‘dry’ raspberriness to the flavour that is supported by a warm, beer flavour. The beer disappears dramatically in the way that a dry wine does, a certain sharpness in the short, sudden finish.

This is an impact beer that will either be loved or hated in the first sip. But I would urge caution and don’t expect the feeling to last for the rest of the bottle. This didn’t really change my mind about fruit beers (that’s what I would describe as the predominant style of the two), but despite the initial shock of the dryness, I have to say that there is enough to keep it interesting as a glass of beer. I did begin to warm to it slightly and could imagine if fruit beers are your forte, then this could be a high-ranker for you!

Summary

My experience of trying the beer swap beers was everything I wanted it to be. Adventurous, exciting and experimental. Mark selected beers that clearly fit with his tastes, but achieved enough variety into them to make them individual. His hopheadedness was obvious in his choices of Little Scotney and East India Pale, but there is clearly a fruity side to his ‘beer personality’, and despite their differences, it was interesting to locate the similarities – subtle as they may be in some instances – to help me understand why Mark made this selection and why they were amongst his favourites.

Beer Swap provides a tremendous opportunity for beer writers and bloggers, remote as they may be from certain beer regions, to expand their palate and experience of the vast landscape of the British beer scene. From the brewers, to the bloggers and the readers and back again, surely this is truly an experiment that can only benefit all stakeholders in the industry.

I shall look forward to the first Beer Swap of 2010; in the meantime I’m going to find the best way to get hold of more Little Scotney!

…and I must first of all apologise for the lack of pictures to accompany this post. The reason is that I was not intending to ‘publicise’ what was initially going to be a quiet day out with my Mum and Dad. That is until we received shockingly different levels of service and quality of food at two Leeds eateries that inspired the Dickens theme for this post. So where did the weekend start…?

The weekend started well with the collection of my beerswap spoils. While I was posting I decided to contact Katie at Leeds Grub to see if she had any suggestions as to where I should take my parents for Sunday dinner. My Mum wanted to do some Xmas shopping so I needed somewhere in the City Centre but, as I don’t see them very often, I was wanting somewhere I could be sure was going to be good first time. Katie very kindly suggested one of the Leeds Brewery pubs which she told me, although she had never had a Sunday lunch, tend to do quality food on any day of the week.

It was with some irony then that the reason I turned up to meet my parents with a dry mouth and slight headache was the fact that the Cuthbert Broderick had had Leeds’ Midnight Bell as a guest on the Saturday night. With my CAMRA tokens they were only costing me £1.39 a pint. Wizard….

Having done the necessary shopping we finally retired to The Midnight Bell to have some lunch. At 3 O’clock we nearly had the upstairs to ourselves and our drink orders were taken before we had even really had time to take out jackets off. I’m not sure if it was because we were eating during thhe afternoon lull but this brilliant service continued throughout. I cannot speak highly enough of the two girls who served our table, being attentative, polite and even humouring my old man when he told his rubbish jokes!!

And the food…me and my Dad opted for the 28 day aged Sirloin while my Mum chose the Pork Loins. Both dishes came with Yorkshire Puddings, Roast Potatoes and Carrots and Broccoli. Not to mention the gravy that had me wiping the plate with my finger once the food had been finished. The beef dish was £11.50 which would have put me off had I known in advance, I think breaking the £10 barrier on a main is dangerous territory but, if ever a meal and service were to change my mind, it would be have been The Midnight Bell. The only downside that I would note was that I could have eaten more, although both of my parents said the portions were just right and I am well known for having an enormous appetite.

So if that was the best of times, where was the worst…? The worst of times was tea at two for one Lawnswood Arms on the Otley Road. The food was rubbish (it was thhe first time I ever had a steak sandwich I didn’t like but then I couldn’t taste the steak through all of the butter) and the service was non existent but rather a teenager who would rather be somewhere else throwing the food onto the table. In short I could not wait to leave.

So there it is, the best of times and the worst of times. Most certainly a tale of two cities. I know that £11.50 is a lot for a Sunday Roast and that the ‘equivalent’ meal costs about a fiver in the two for one place. By no means am I a pretentious eater, I grew up going out and about with my Dad in his lorry and love a bargain as much as the next guy. Having said this, if it was a choice between going to The Lawnswood Arms every Sunday or The Midnight Bell every third……I’ll see you in a couple of weeks time…..

Hooky Gold with a new green label

Andy over at Beerreviews.co.uk just posted the first review of the test #beerswap parcel that we exchanged a little while back. In it I packed four fine Oxfordshire (ish) ales including the fantastic Hooky Gold from Hook Norton Brewery.

I didn’t think anything of the Hooky Gold at the time, even admiring it’s shiny green label.

Until last night, when Alan popped over and we were chatting about the blog. We looked over at the original Hooky bottles that used to make up this our blog header, and noticed something odd – there was no Hooky Gold.

But of course there is! Hooky Gold was always in a red label with gold writing. Now the label is green!

When did this occur? How did we not notice?! We don’t mind Hooky, we like the green label, but when and why was it changed?!?!

Does anybody know?

Hooky Gold with a red label on our old beer bottle inspired blog header

On Ilkley Moor: one with hat, one without hat

If you read about my special beer night a few weeks ago, you might remember that my usually varied and brimming beer cupboard was running a bit low, with only a few beers left, most of them bottles I was saving.

So with pay day just gone it was time for a stock up, so the weekend just gone I nipped to Ilkley for a few hours out on the moor with Sam Lanes, stopping at Booth’s supermarket on the way before a quick wallet burning session in Beer Ritz.

I’d gone with the intention of stocking up on pale ales, it’s been a while since I had any staple favourites in and I fancied some strong hoppy numbers, the likes of Halcyon, EIPA, Goose Island, St Lupulin and co. But I ended up leaving with a surprisingly English ale selection, as the Booths stock was very focussed on Northern numbers and I got distracted at Beer Ritz by  a few ‘new ins’.

Beers from Booths

Booths has a good selection of ales, although nothing was really grabbing my attention at first. After a few minutes scanning the vast array of brown bottles I picked up a Williams tayberry beer which I remember being good, a Joseph Holt as not only was I tempted by the Lowry label and because 1849 Champion had been good.

A few people had told me to try Chalky’s Bite, whilst I couldn’t resist a beer local brews (thinking a bit ahead of myself for beer swap round 2?!) particularly Withens IPA which I (think) I tried at Keighley & Worth Valley festival at Oxenhope.

And once at Beer Ritz (where I parked extraordinarily badly unbeknown until I got back to the car) I couldn’t say no to a Hooky Double Stout (it’s bloomin’ fantastic!). Distracted by the stout and a cap in the shop who was asking advice on BrewDog’s Paradox and Rip Tide, I stopped in the stouts and porter corner and helped myself to a Dark Star Imperial Stout. It was a short journey along the shelf to a Marble Tawny and a 5am Saint, before grabbing (carefully) a Burton Bridge IPA and a Jaipur to fuel my IPA hunger.

Beers from Beer Ritz

I barely had time to pack these beers home before shooting off to the Christkindelmarkt in Millennium Square, aka the Leeds German Market for light and dark wheat beers and some very fizzy lager.

All in all it was quite a beer oriented day (Sunday most definitely wasn’t!) and over the weekend I even managed to get my beer swap parcel sorted at last, hurrah!

Beer Swap is go...no thanks to collect+

Beer Swap update – beers remanded in custody!

Knut Albert recently posted that  some beers he was expecting went missing mid-transit, perhaps as the result of a thirsty beer gnome in Norway’s customs department.

I’ve had my own beer delivery fiasco tonight, whilst trying to collect my #beerswap beers. It seems that the experience of using collect+ to transport our regions finest ales around the UK is providing very different experiences – my first collect+ experience, a trial run for #beerswap, was was a doddle but second time not so lucky – this time the beers I’ve been sent for #beerswap proper have been remanded behind the counter by the newsagent and he is not authorised to relinquish them to my person!

My newsagent is pulling out of the scheme, much to my disappointment, and it’s no wonder when frustrated customers (me) turn up at 7pm on a Sunday evening asking him to hand over the beer!

Apparently the reason he can’t release the beers from his custody is due to an error code ‘payment cancelled’. Hmm, seems strange bearing in mind they’ve gone all the way through the collect+ system without any payment issues?!

So, I’ll be on the phone to collect+ in the morning and probably going around the houses to get my beer (which needs drinking this week!)

A small inconvenience in reality though, Beer Swap is a great example of how the beer community has really come together via the internet – can’t wait to get my beers soon and get writing about them!

UPDATE!!!! 25/11/09

Spoke to collect+ and the issue was apparently resolved, went back to newsagent, same error message. Grrr! Running out of #beerswap drinking time!!

I never found out what happened to Knut Albert’s beers but I hope they arrived and weren’t pinched by beer guzzling customs folk!