Sussex Gold (Arundel)

Arundel Brewery is noted for having done pretty well in various SIBA categories over the years, most notably with it's Sussex Mild.

With that not to hand, let's have a go at the Sussex Gold, their well-selling 4.2%abv ale.

It pours with a fine standard gold colour, and a fresh white head dissipates swiftly. The nose is a bunch of malt, with some grass and slight citrus, mostly lemon, carrying in the air.

On the palate it's much of the same, with sweet malt and a sharpish citrus jab providing an initial flurry of taste, although oddly it seems to drop off mid-draft, and has few discernable features through the middle.

A touch of mulchy, butter flavour slips through as a vector, and it ends crisply enough, but with little bittering it lacks any real character beyond the malt-fruit handshake.

It could be seen as sessiony but the carbonisation is a touch too aggressive for my taste, one less squirt on the soda-stream button would have been my preferred pitching for this beer, this one might be better on draught.

4/10 - Not enough here to be too enthusiastic about. Others offer more in the golden genre.

- The Broadside

Imperial Russian Stout (Dark Star)

A+ for image. "Imperial Russian Stout" conjures up pre-revolutionary Soviet glory. The bottle is black labelled and the insides might as well be a bottle-shaped infill of coal.

It pours unfussily. The toffee coloured head doesn't hang about, but a filmy froth does, to my eye making fleeting maps of satellite countries yet to be conquered. Coffee, caramel and currants waft on the nose, superpower smells.

First taste is a colossal barrage of dark malt, warming alcohol, cane-sugar and chocolate. The alcohol (10.5%abv) loiters around the tongue almost like a spirit, especially on the following intake of breath. I picked out a slight vanilla note in this heady concerto.

The finish is a powerful thing of wonder. The bitterness does what it ought to in a strong stout, level out the malty sweetness and no more. This is a treasure of a beer, a black gift of stout demolition. If Father Christmas were to be left this instead of mince pies, he would do his round in double quick time and you'd get some damn interesting presents.

Sublime.

9/10 - Do not let your winter pass without this. Potent and smoky - the essence of leather chairs and fight-to-the-death chess games.

- The Broadside

Irresistable Premium Ale (Natural Brewing Co.)

"Irresistable Ale" is rather a weighty monicker to live up to. As the bottle descended from the cupboard visions of addiction clinics flitted briefly through The Broadside's pre-dinner mind.

This little wonder arrives with a suitcase marked 4.3%, but no other faff. The label promises nothing else but "barley, hops and springwater" and comes across as very ecologically knowing, one feels this brewery is where people might smile a lot and sport the occasional kaftan.

Toffee coloured, the scent of the pour is very subtle. No chances of this ale being accused of overpowering the senses. The first sip is, well, a bit underwhelming. The character of such ales as Duchy Organic or Bath Gem isn't here, but yet something is.

The three part taste mechanism doesn't seem to apply here. The opening gambit is pleasingly hoppy without ever being in the face, the taste continues in a quite unruffled way through to a smudge of sweetness and a hoppy tail which doesn't outstay it's welcome. The whole experience is of a breeze touching it's unfettered way through a field of barley.

So, bland? No. I wanted another sip or ten and before long the glass was empty. If you're looking for a simple, fresh, fudge-coloured session ale to drink as you reflect on how summer is finding it's beautiful age-old way through to autumn, then this is the beer for you.

7* This could well be the Evian of the ale world, and I mean that in the best manner.

- The Broadside