Traditional Porter Tesco Finest

Last blog I talked about how supermarkets are releasing beers from established breweries with their own labels on them. This beer is another great example of that, Tesco finest traditional porter does not tell the tale of this beer fully. Harviestoun brewery from Scotland is home to many fine ales but I suppose I only know this as a beer enthusiast. This is a another excellent example of a brewery gaining exposure without having to spend big, the benefits of releasing under the Tesco name and not having to market and supply this beer under their own steam must be well worth it. I really hope this kind of relationship becomes more common because the amount of microbreweries opening and producing really fine ales is getting higher all the time. Having this kind of outlet as an opportunity for getting beer out there must be an enticing prospect for any brewery. So the beer in question, a traditional porter, again it's right up my street! I will in future branch out with some different styles but I haven't this time so here goes. The colour as you can see is very dark, almost black really with the slightest tint of ruby red around the edges. The nose had a lovely sweet tinny fragrance with the minerally mellow coffee flavours you would expect. There also seemed to be a slight whiff of bonfire to it which was a nice surprise. Chocolate in porters is no surprise but the very definite dark chocolate taste was very welcome, with so many soft sweet choc flavours prevalent these days the bittersweet flavours were a real pleasure. It was quite dry with a touch of oiliness which I wasn't expecting but was undoubtedly a plus. A mild coffeness on the aftertaste finished this beer superbly. The fizz was quite mild but a nice froth complemented this beer well. Due to this beer being a Tesco beer I imagine it is available nationwide so get out there, get a bottle and enjoy. Heck get a few it's only a 330ml and I reckon you'll want a second at least!

Cheshire Chocolate Porter

Some of you might recognise this beer from M&S, it's part of the range they have brewed for them by proper breweries and then stick an M&S logo on the labels. I have no problem with this as they use some excellent breweries and I it gets exposure for the breweries who don't have huge marketing budgets, Tesco do the same and I will be blogging about one of those in future. This particular brew is produced by Frederic Robinson Ltd at the Unicorn brewery in Stockport and for anyone who might be familiar with my blog it's right up my street. It is a beer I've had many times and I was once told by M&S staff had been stopped, fortunately for me it popped up again and I've taken that chance to blog so here goes. The colour as you can see is rather pale for a porter and has a gorgeous pale bronzey brown quality with the usual reddish hints around the edges. The nose is largely malty, a very smooth malt with the unsurprising chocolate notes rising through it. There was the merest edge of coffee and a nice sweetness that doesn't always come through the nose with chocolatey porters. The first thing that hit me when I drank it was how incredibly smooth this beer is, not just a little but but massively so! It slips down far to easily and then the soft chocolate flavours start and they are surprisingly long lasting. This is not the most chocolatey porter I've had but it might be the most drinkable to date. Again the sweetness came through at first but the finish is a little bitter and a touch dry. This is defiantly a beer where I would be reaching to open a second of after the first had been finished and so is highly recommended. The only thing that I would say that might possibly be construed as negative is that it isn't very complex but not every beer needs to be, you don't always want complex and when a beer does a few things this well who needs it to be.

Kelpie Seaweed Ale

Upon seeing this in the shop I was immediately excited! Being a fan of all things marine a seaweed ale seemed right up my street. The beer is a old recipe from Scotland, back when it was first made the hops and barley they grew were fertilized with kelp seaweed now though they add fresh seaweed to the mix and it shows. I didn't know what to expect from this ale and when I poured it out I was pleasantly surprised to see it come out so dark, my love of dark beers has been mentioned in this blog several times but I really thought this beer would be lighter. As you can see from the picture it is a lovely deep brown and when held up to the light there were some lovely red ruby hues coming through. The first smell didn't give the seaweed away except for maybe a touch of sea air, I was shocked to get chocolate and malt on the nose and the minerally edge that I would expect from porter or stout. This beer was a real learning experience for me, I don't claim to be an expert on beer I have lots of learning and tasting to do, which is brilliant but I'm not an expert maybe one day if I keep on drinking and blogging! The first taste put one word in my head, seaweed. Uninspired perhaps but they set out to make a seaweed ale and they damn well did it. Seaweed isn't something I've had lots of experience with but enough to know what I was tasting. The chocolate I anticipated came as an after taste as well as some maltiness. The thing that surprised me most was the sweetness of the it, not a chocolatey sweetness but a lighter less creamy sweetness. The fizz was excellent nice and strong and frothy, complementing what was a very smooth and well rounded beer. For only 4.4% it was quite warming as well which I enjoyed. After finishing the beer though I couldn't decide how to recommend it, it was certainly enjoyable and interesting and I have no complaints. I did feel decidedly like I wouldn't want another, at least not straight away and that for me is the mark of a good beer not a great beer. Yes they have succeeded in making a very drinkable beer with an ingredient I wouldn't expect and it surprised me which was great but I can't shake the feeling that I probably won't seek it out again anytime soon. Like I said, a good beer but not a great beer and with so many great beers out there waiting to be drunk I can't give it my personal high recommendation. Should seaweed beer sound particularly exciting to you though this is a fine example and worth adding to any beer enthusiasts list of beers they have tried.

Saltaire Triple Chocoholic

Stout and Porter are decidedly winter ales, I personally enjoy them all year round though. If you are going to try a seasonal beer then this one is a great choice. The hearty warming nature of darker beers such as these do complement the colder darker months, something very comforting about them. Of course chocolate is a great comforter also so if you need something to lift them winter blues here it is! Yorkshire have made great traditional bitters for a long time and in recent years have started making some more unusual beers such as this. Saltaire breweries have been making this beer for a little while now and the first time I tried it I was I was hooked, not literally I'm not an alcoholic! The idea of a chocolatey porter enhanced with more chocolate works a treat, I'm someone who isn't a fan of adding ingredients to the traditional brewing ones used for centuries but in this case I have made a definite exception. They also do a great range of other beers but those are beers for another blog.
The colour was dark, I mean really dark! Lovely reddish brown edges to the main black body but otherwise exactly what I expected and was hoping for. The nose lept out with unsurprisingly chocolate, a real strong milk chocolate. The smell wasn't pungent though it was light and creamy and had a sniff of malt about it. The first sip was different, to begin with there was a swift edge of minerally flavours likely due to the calciums they add. This quickly gave way to the milk chocolate flavours which were fluffy and bright, the finish was dry and bitter but still chocolatey sweet much like a dark chocolate. The end left a mild pleasingly malty flavour and of course a strong chocolatey taste. The fizz was good but short lived, the only thing I could ask for with this beer would be a stronger longer fizz but its not a real complaint. This beer is excellent, if you enjoy a good stout and want something to alleviate the cold January blues give this a go.

Gtuttgarter Hofbrau Christmas Ale

Another beer that was given to me! This is brilliant, this beer though I would have purchased myself only excepting for I've never heard of it before! This was given to my Brother in law who got it off a rep who came to his work, he works for the Mercedes F1 team so lets hope he gets more German beers. Brewed in Stuttgart their hofbrau range is quite wide but being the festive season a Christmas Beer bottle found its way to me. Lager is something I've always had more trouble discerning flavours from than ales due to the fact I think the way it's made allows for less diversity in flavour to develop. The lower temperature means there is less happening to the ingredients and you therefore get less happening in the result. Please don't take it that I don't like larger, I love lager. There is a great range and variety but compared to the multitude of tastes you can get from ales it doesn't quite compare. This may rile some lager lovers and that's great I'd love to discuss the merits of lager versus ale. That would only end in us admitting that one without the other would be a terrible shame and lets just get on with drinking the stuff. So the beer in question, a lovely golden straw colour. The first taste was dry with a mild biscuit flavour which surprised me a little but was very welcome. It led to a slight sweetness developing and the lovely clean crispness you would expect from a well crafted German lager. The fizz was strong and frothy just how I like it from lager and quite biting when several mouthfuls were taken. All in all quite standard for German lager which I suppose suffers from the high expectations that go with the words German lager. I really enjoyed this beer, it was never really in doubt. If you see a something from the Gtuttgarter Hofbrau range give it a go you can't really go wrong.

Hoggleys Northamptonshire Bitter

Okay so we're back to Hoggleys. After the last review I emailed them with a link to my blog because their website says they always want feedback. They seemed really chuffed to read my kind words, times are tough for them at the moment apparently so hopefully they'll enjoy this review as well, as I certainly enjoyed the bitter! As someone who enjoys darker or unusual beers this bitter isn't something I would normally pick up of my own accord. Not because I don't enjoy classic English bitters but because I don't usually find them to have as greater deal of diversity as my favored tipples. This beer was bought for me so it was an interesting chance to review something I wouldn't have chosen to myself and I was very glad for the opportunity. Lets get stuck in. The colour was paler than I personally would expect from a classic bitter but the image doesn't do justice to the lovely deep amber tones this beer had when held up to the light. The nose was biscuity, this isn't strange for a bitter but it is a strong biscuit aroma and sets up the first taste really well. I'm not done with the nose yet though, this might sound unusual but there was an earthy smell. It was in no way unpleasant and suited the biscuit smells, surprisingly pleasing earthy tones to be honest. The first mouthful was at first hoppy, that's a good start. The biscuity smells translated to a butter biscuit taste with a touch of caramel, the finish was dry and a little sour. Only a touch sour but enough to give the dryness some depth, the butter biscuit flavours really shone through on the finish. The fizz on this beer was strong and biting and when a big enough swig was taken it frothed up fantastically. I can imagine that you get the idea I enjoyed this bitter, I thought I would enjoy it but the complexity was a real surprise and my appreciation for Hoggleys brewing skills has increased once again, I look forward to making a point of trying the entire range and bringing bottles round for my beer loving friends to experience. Well done Hoggleys.

Hoggleys Solstice Stout Review

Hoggleys brewery is pretty much next door to where my sister lives down south. I say pretty much next door, in the same neck of the woods. You don't get this beer round Lancashire which is a shame because everything I've tried from there has been excellent. This is the first time I've had the Solstice Stout and I had to blog about it because even though I drink a lot of stouts and enjoy them hugely this particular stout needs to become more widespread so this is me doing my bit to spread the word.
First things first, the colour, pretty standard for a stout in that it's very dark. Almost black but the deep browns can be spotted round the edges so no surprises there. The smell had the distinctive metallic notes you often get from traditional stout, this one had rich coppery tones. The first sip was outstanding, chocolaty flavours are very common in stouts but not like this. It was as near to thick rich chocolate mousse as you can get without eating chocolate mousse, with the added bonus of being beer and bringing with it all the lovely beery tastes we all know and love! It really is quite amazing how much this tastes like a choc pudding. There is a slight bitterness which first made me think it could be described as having dark chocolate flavours but this bitterness turned into the slight coffee like aftertaste which is again typical of beers of its type. This is a very smooth and thick beer which like any traditional stout has a good fizz on it, being bottle conditioned it had plenty of bits in the bottle which of course made there way into my glass. These chewy bits are full of fantastic flavours and although yes quite fattening are full of nutrition. Hopefully Hoggleys will spread across Britain and become available in most beer shops but until then you'll have to take my word for it that this one is fantastic.