There is an old style tapestry design on the front of the bottle portraying two knights jousting and on the back there appears to be a medieval wench being hanged. Charming. Nice olde English design though – very apt given the name of the brew. The beer has quite a sweet, malty nose and it pours very dark. Not quite a jet black standard stout colour but not far off. For a bottle conditioned ale I expected Bad King John to retain a nice head but within a minute or…
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I decided to try out the swanky new real ale emporium in Chester having read about it in a local CAMRA mag which lead me to the Brunning and Price pub, The Architect. Never having set foot in the place before I quickly scanned the pump clips and decided on a pint of the Blonde by Tatton Brewery. The other Tatton brews have always been pretty good (in particular the honey based brew “Lazy Haze”) so I had high hopes for this. The barman seemed to have a nice wrist…
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So I decided to go to my favourite soulless supermarket chain to avail myself of their range of stouts for a series of reviews. I decided against sampling Guinness for the moment because if you are reading this blog and you haven’t tried (or have an opinion on) Guinness then quite frankly you should go and read something else. That left me with the following three noble stouts – Marston’s Oyster Stout Williams Bros Brewing Co March of the Penguins Hook Norton Double Stout Not that many to choose from…
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Hook Norton is an old English brewery that has been in operation for many years and they have produced an appealing looking bottle design with strong classy branding for their Double Stout with a nice tag line of “Handcrafted in the Cotswold Hills since 1849”. How many other stouts currently on the market have a brewing history of over 150 years? The stout ours jet black with an off cream head that seems to dissipate to a couple of millimetres of head within a few minutes of drinking and as…
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March of the Penguins is from a brewing company from which I have never had the pleasure of drinking any of their brews before so I have been looking forward to sampling the quality. The bottle itself is branded very nicely. It has a modern, slick design which the brewers have clearly given some time and effort towards. Understandably for a stout it pours jet black and is slightly above average carbonation for a stout. It has quite a frothy off-cream coloured head upon pouring which is retained through drinking….
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Marston’s Oyster Stout is a traditional stout offered by a mainstay of British brewing. Perhaps this can explain the “traditional” labelling on the bottle which in my mind is quite old fashioned and lacking in precision. The notes on the bottle label suggest it is best to drink with oysters, other shellfish or just on its own. I haven’t personally contemplated a combination of eating oysters or any other shellfish along with a stout, but perhaps that’s just me being unadventurous. Anyway, about the brew itself. It pours jet black…
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This week seems to have been the week for some much needed common sense from the great and good in the pub scene. Instead of the usual bombastic pronouncements about the death of the great British pub, etc. with no useful counters towards their apparent inexorable demise, we actually have a couple of articles published this week with some common sense ideas involved instead. Both of which a separate pieces but have a common thread – “diversification”. Ed Turner, Commercial Director for the Young’s brewery exemplified in this article that…
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If you forget the sensationalist headline and the various opinions in the piece unsubstantiated by facts, this Mail on Sunday article about the rise of the coffee shop and the fall of the pub is quite an interesting read. I’m typically cynical by nature so the fact that throughout the article there are attributed quotes from named individuals espousing the benefits of coffee shops but the only quote that purports to show any support for pubs comes from the ubiquitous “industry insider” only heightens my suspicion as to the reasoning…
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So according to the BBC Heineken have decided to reduce the ABV of John Smith’s from 3.8% to 3.6%. The reduction in strength will start to kick in on 4th February and by reducing the alcohol content it is claimed that Heineken can cut 2.5 pence off a pint at the trade level (whether this reduction will be reflected in the prices the average consumer pays at the pump is a question I think we can all answer). By making the change, Heineken will apparently save themselves just over £6…
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