The Great British Beer Festival

We are LIVE today from the Great British Beer Festival at Olympia. Head to Twitter and #BeerBunkerPaul or #BeerBunkerEd for updates.

posted from Bloggeroid

Thanks Ringwood Brewery!

Big thanks to the kind people of Ringwood Brewery who sent me these beers to review.

You may have already seen my Old Thumper review, you might also have seen it when Roger Protz made it his Beer of the month in June this year. Anyway its a former CAMRA Champion Beer of Britain winner, great in a bottle and fantastic on draught.

Looking forward to reviewing the Best Bitter and 49'er

You can buy Ringwood beers here, or in most good Waitrose and Tesco's. I also thoroughly recommend their tours with plenty of sampling time at the end.

Admirals Ale (St Austell)

Today CAMRA declared it their Bottled Beer of 2010.

So is it worthy of the title?

It pours a beautiful brown amber, perfect fizz and a delicious toffee coloured foaming head. It has a beautiful sweet and floral bouquet with hints of heather and honey.

Lovely warm maltiness, followed by a delicate hop bitter finish, such a perfect balance of bittersweet leaves no highs or lows just consistent smooth balanced flavour. A lovely mellow oakiness and hints of rum and warm spirits.

10/10 Pure bottled perfection, warmth, balance and a hundred delicate flavours. Go buy a bottle and be amazed.

Summer Lightning (Hopback)

As Ale Gods go this is certainly one of them. Real ale fans the length of the country know all about this beer, it’s a legend, like something out of Greek mythology, something sent to earth to redefined ale. Its has four CAMRA’s Gold medals to its name, testament to its quality on draught and in bottles.

It’s a golden ale, and it shines bright like the precious metal itself, beautifully clear, with a gentle fizz released on pouring. It has a beautiful oily smell of fresh hops that lingers over the surface.

Hops. Hops, hops, hops. Yep this is a hoppy beer, they burst through at start overwhelming the malt and leaving all but a gentle sweetness. The finish is like you have never tasted before, a combination of gentle zesty notes combined with a kick like a shire horse wearing hop covered hooves.

When best enjoyed : Basking in the sunshine, or when you need a beer to waken you up and slap you round the face.

8/10 This truly is the God of Golden Ales and Hops, but lacks a bit of balance to earn top marks for me. If you like hops, you will be in heaven.

Kindly provided by my friends up the road at the Hopback Brewery you can buy their ales here

Old Thumper (Ringwood)

In 1988 this was the best beer the country had to offer, Awarded 'Champion beer of Britain' by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).

I can understand it, at the time it was a bit of a landmark beer, a strong ale that made people think twice about what microbrewing could do. But this is 2010, and its in a bottle, produced by an ever growing Ringwood brewery who are now owned by Marstons.

It has a lovely sweet malty taste, followed by deep mouth filling fruity notes that trick the mind into thinking its eating a summer pudding. It has a reasonably strong hop finish to balance with the malt.

Lets be clear, this beer leaves you in no doubt you are drinking a strong ale, but one with something different to say. Its a beast, but don't be fooled into thinking its been tamed.

Where to drink : Somewhere where you have transport home arranged.

7/10 But you can't help thinking some of the magic has been lost trying to cage a beast like this in a bottle, and you'd be right. On draught its 5*s all the way.