Town Crier (Hobson's)

Here at the Bunker, we're acknowledged fans of Hobson's, a couple of their ales making a good showing at recent summits. They recently won the SIBA Best Business Award.

The Old Henry and Postman's knock are sturdy dark affairs, and this is the first lighter beer I've tried from the Shropshire brewery, at 4.5%abv. The cap pops off with a gentle gasp and the drink pours a beautiful pale straw gold. The head is a light muslin wisp.

The nose is clean and unassertive, shimmering with gentle lilting hops and citrus fruit.

First taste unveils a fraction of sweetness, soon mowed over by light but persistent bitterness. Throughout a sort of semi-grapefruit taste endures (though nowhere near the likes of Punk IPA in prominence), again not unpleasant, and the whole effect is of gently drinkable beer. The beer finishes rather dryly, and I imagine this would go down very well with a hearty roast or similar dish.

Again, it's a decent product. It's not quite the wonderment in a bottle of Henry or Postman's, but neither is it a poor cousin. This is decent beer from a fine brewer.

7/10 - Gentle, cohesive and thoughtfully blended, Town Crier is elegant beer from an accomplished ale house.

- The Broadside

Bunker Summit no. 2

Bunker Summit Two was again a fine event. As well as myself and Ed, Glenn was on hand to voice his tasting judgements in a blind tasting session. We all bought four ales to try.

Home cooked food was once more provided by the master skills of Commandant Ed. This time a legendary Fuller's Porter steak and ale stew (Recipe here!) with garden vegetables provided the perfect interim energy boost.

The evening kicked off with an auspicious curtain raiser - a review session of Brewdog's AB:04, which isn't released until later this week, but was kindly sent to us for pre-launch review. You can read the full review on this site.

We then moved on to the main tasting event. The scores we gave were completely blind and are averaged below - we had no idea what the product was until the reveal.

Bright (Otter) 4.3%ABV - Summery blond with a tiny ping of spice, a bit uninteresting. (4)

Old Henry (Hobson's) 5.2% - Fireside amber, complex and peachy (7)

First Gold (Hopcloser) 4.6% - Ed's homebrew! (Full details of how that was made here) Rated very highly, sweet and tasty in the US style (7)

Banks's Bitter (Marstons) 3.8% - Short and malty, no finish, a bit budget (4)

Entire Stout (Hopback) 4.5% - Creamy but light stout. Refreshing for a black drink (6)

American IPA (Adnams) 6.8% - Very nice (Ed loves it) extremely citrussy, some tea and depth. Took the evening's Bronze Medal (8)

Organic Old Ruby Ale (Dutchy Originals) 5% - Inoffensive, probably nice with lamb (6)

Humpty's Fuddle (Kingstone) 5.8% - Floral and malty, not much hop for an IPA (7)

ESB (Fuller's) 5.9% - Delicious and the evening's Silver Medal Drink. Perfect balance (8)

Betty Stogs (Skinners) 4% - A bit unbalanced but some nice flavours (7)

Ipswich Pale Ale (St Judes) 4% - Bloody awful, "sewage in a bottle". We can only hope this one was off for the brewery's sake - our first (0)

London Porter (Fullers) 5.4% - Delicious and superbly balanced, a textbook fine porter. The evening's Gold Medal Drink (9)

Poacher's Choice (Badger) 5.7% - Loads of gamey flavours but polarised opinion, a marmite-reaction drink (4)

Vienna broadcast the goodnight national anthem very shortly after this one. Much fun.

Gold Medal - Fuller's Porter
Silver - Fuller's ESB
Bronze - Adnams American Style IPA

- The Broadside

Bunker Summit no. 1

Last night saw a marvellous evening's tasting over at Ed's house, Bunker HQ, in the charming village of Ringwood.

As well as the commandant's fine home made pizza (home grown vegetables and self cured ham!) a tidy range of ales were sampled which I think I can recall in order and attribute a vague personal Bunker rating to:

Postman's Knock (Hobson's) - a beautiful treacle ruby from Staffordshire (8)

Bootlegger (Independence) - A facsimile of a sturdy northern UK brown ale, not bad (6)

Boondoggle (Ringwood) - A summery Ringwood ale that sits quite well in a bottle (7)

90 Min IPA (Dogfish Head) - Delicious and strong, a wonderful US IPA in a Belgian style (9)

Raison d'Etre (Dogfish Head) - US, raisiny and lush. Lovely texture and pour (8)

Kingfisher (United) - Nice fresh lager to have with the pizza! (lager/unrated)

Great Bustard (Stonehenge) - A fine hearty ale, malty and rich (8)

Hobgoblin (Wychwood) - Chocolatey and involving. Good enough for a President. (7)

Old Engine Oil (Harvestoun) - I loved this. Syrupy, viscous and black as the devil's heart. (8)

Ola Dubh (Harvestoun) - Amazing. A christmas pudding of an ale. Sumptuous, luxuriating and rewarding (9)

I think that was it. Things got slightly fuzzy....

- The Broadside