Island Oyster (Mersea Island)

And it's a quick Mersesa Island double here at the Bunker Station Two as we crack open their dark special beer, Island Oyster.

Solidly porter in colour, it's as dark as the inside of said gastropod's shell. The head is beige and foamy.

The aroma reinforces the porter credentials, heavily chocolatey with a whiff of dockside back-alley danger.

You get oats and some oysters in this pint, and the combined attack is remarkable. Neither can really be picked out as individual strains (in the case of oysters perhaps its as well), but fused with the dark sweet malts the effect is lushly tasteful. The sup continues through as a bounty of colliding porter notes, with Fuggles hops rearing mildly at the death of the taste.

This is really good BC beer, another gem from this Essex enterprise. The mouthfeel and consistency needs to be tried.

8/10 - Outstanding oyster porter from Essex, well worth trying to track down.

- The Broadside

Mort Subite (Kriek)

Mort Subite (French for "sudden death") was the one that got away, the final beer we didn't quite get to in our wonderful AlesByMail tasting session recently. It's brewed with Belgian cherries and is 4.5%abv.

This is the first lambic beer we've reviewed. It's a style of beer from a part of Belgium, and is distinguished by being spontaneously fermented by being exposed to that regions 'wild' yeast, rather than the scientifically controlled process of normal brewing. This gives the beer a dry, cider-like and sour taste. Doesn't sound overly appealing, but let's see.

Out of the bottle its a fizzy auburn tumult, almost red, with a strong persistent pink head. The nose is a pungent cherry-sherbert yeasty waft, not unattractive although a little alien to a standard ale drinker.

The first sip is a big-style cherry hit, almost akin to 70's cherryade. I'd like to say it's followed by other notes, but the fact is the cherry is so powerful that once it dies, a short drying of the tongue leaves not a lot else.

It's not unpleasant, and does come across superior to some other fruit beers I've tasted. The tart nature of cherries suits a beer foundation, unlike the sickliness of some other fruit.

All in, not a bottle I'd seek out - it comes over as perhaps just a little bit too champagne-cocktail, although as a schnifter after a meal it's not a poor option.

Interesting.

5/10 - Fun and fruity - possibly the best a cherry beer can be, albeit a bit one-dimensional

- The Broadside

Trade Winds (Cairngorm) 4.3%Abv

Pours as clear as stream water, clear gold. The aroma is of a fresh spring meadow, light grass with a beautifully delicate Elderflower clearly present.

Clean sweet malt wafts over the tongue, on the initial sip, little room for dryness. Some biscuit crunch in the middle, fading towards caramel sweetness. The finish is light grassy citrus bittering, and a final gentle linger of elderflower.

8/10 A deliciously fresh golden ale, beautifuly balanced with that elderflower twist.

Maple Moon (Joseph Holt)

Here's something different.

Joseph Holt of Manchester is a family brewery, that has stayed in the same lineage for four generations. They brew three bottled beers, and Maple Moon is a 2005 IBA silver medal winner which has started appearing in Tesco and Sainsbury's of late.

It's 4.8%abv and pours a nice clean amber colour. No caramel is used in the brewing process, but it is flavoured with a touch of maple syrup, which can be caught underscoring the malty scent.

The first taste is firm and beery, solid malt sweetness. I approached this with a degree of apprehension as I'm not overly keen on extra ingredients being wriggled into my pint, which often come to nought (all the "brewed with honey" clones I'm talking about you..), yet maple seems to fit the bill perfectly.

The length is substantial and offers enough hops to qualify as beer, yet the ticklish maple upturn at the end of the sup is a pure delight. It comes as a small puff of sweetness, which is neither cloying nor rough, and suggests the pint would be a fine accompaniment to spicy dishes without lazering out the food taste with anaesthetising bitterness.

What's more, its moreish to the end of the glass, which for me shows they've hit the balance bullseye. The drink doesn't outstay its welcome, nor grow old in the glass (see Nutz).

I'd hesitate to call it a session beer, but for a delicious and satisfying draft of something different, I can thoroughly recommend this ale.

8/10 - Quenching, grippy and tasty, this is how speciality ale should be brewed.

- The Broadside

Nutz (Bowman)

I approached this one nervously. I like nuts, have nothing against them and like the rest of the public, sometimes only nuts will do with beer - but in beer? We're open minded here, and I'll not let the unforgivable txt-spk spelling of 'nuts' sway my opinion.

Bowman Ales hail from Hampshire, and have a taste for the experimental, having brewed with both ginger and elder flowers.

I have a habit of holding bottles up to the light to check for yeast sediment, and this time I saw actual small nut segments sitting in the deeps. The bottle opens with a gentle whiff of the nut, but not overpoweringly so, it's mostly fine hoppy beer smells.

The head is initially fizzy tending to thin, and the colour a deep chestnut (tout naturellement). On the taste it's not at all bad, and certainly beats the various "beers brewed with honey" I've had, such as Slater's and Well's. In fact, only Well's Banana Bread Beer (must review it here) seems to work as light-strength supermarket speciality beer to my experience so far.

The initial taste is beery and not unpleasant. Light malt arrives in a taxi driven by a couple of nuts, and then more nuts get in the back. The nut thing increases through the length of it, hand in hand with a sort of demerara sugar lilt . It's toasty and spicy on the tongue, and the finish is bitter but leaves a grippy, not entirely beautiful aftertaste on the back of the tongue. The 5%abv alcohol makes itself known in the background and mild bitterness rears up at the death.

As the pint goes down, I tire a little of the taste. It ought to be recognised for what it is, and that is not a session beer. It's an odd sort of early/mid evening ale, and for nut fans, maybe it's nirvana. For me, it's a bit of a struggle to finish a whole pint in quick-order, but that's not to say I didn't enjoy it at times.

5/10 - Competent and interesting speciality ale, I'm happy to have tried it the once.

- The Broadside