Dark Side (Bath Ales)

This is an outstanding 4% ABV stout, increasingly cropping up on pub taps as a default dark, most recently so by the Loungers group.

In the bottle it pours cleanly and with a fine standard head. The notes on the nose are beautiful roasted barley, literally vacuuming the senses towards taking a sip.

The sup is smooth and light. This is probably as near as you can get to a wholly session stout, familiar cloying flavours of a darker beer blended up into a dance of pitchy delicacy. Even those who don't normally drink darker beer should find they can sail through this one without too much fuss, and it could easily act as a gateway to a dark beer prevalence.

8/10 - Wonderfully crafted session stout, skilfully executed.

The Broadside

Hedge Monkey (Glastonbury Ales)

Glastonbury Ales is an operation born of the famous festival, and their ales seem to be cropping up in a few supermarkets around the country.

The distribution and sales operations seem to be a bit more on the ball than their blog, which gets updated once a year at present - unfortunate as it''s advertised on their main website. Tsk!

Anyhow, what matters is the ale. It pours an attractive deep amber and smells alluringly hoppy. The head is filmy and white, and some nice carbonisation tickles the glass.

The draft is initially a chompload of malt, and follows through with some gentle smoke and biscuit. The tail end is a lather of piney hops, yet it cuts off neatly, and like a standard hollywood movie doesn't have too much bitterness in the epilogue. The 4.6%abv is well pitched to the taste.

It comes across as a form of IPA-light, and is the sort of pint that invites another sip, this is squarely session beer.

Being a bit of a festival buff, I'd certainly seek this out at a tent, and for that matter in a pub or anywhere else. Cracking, beguiling, pleasant and simple ale. Good work Glasto!

7/10 - Very drinkable session beer. A delicious annual all-rounder.

- The Broadside

Festivity (Bath Ales)

A deep dark porter, pours with beautiful coffee powdered foam. The aroma is toffee and lightly roasted coffee.

Intial light sweetness, like muscovado sugar, gives way to fuller more rounded light fruity flavours, hints of cherry maybe.

The finish is dry and bitter, like an expresso coffee it lingers on the tongue, with a slightly spicy, slightly warming rum end.

7/10 A beautifully balanced winter porter, lacks some of the special spiciness for a Christmas beer.

Goat's Leap (Cheddar Ales)

"Simply gorgeous" is the tagline to this handsome brown package... let's see..

First glance, a clean stylized label sits on the bottle promising a strong (5.7%) bottle conditioned IPA. The British pale malt ales can be something of a favourite of mine, so I was looking forward to settling down with this.

Pouring gives the hallmarks of the marque - a hoppy fizzy nose, coppery nut colour and a busy head that sits up like a small batch of bread for a minute or two before settling down to a creamy long-lasting disc.

The hops on the nose stride diligently towards the tongue on a sip, a heady tangy mouthful of hoppyness arm in arm with a picnic basket of toffee nestled in flowers. The advantages of the stronger bottled beer are apparent here, much complexity and involvement riding pillion on the horsepower of the alcohol.

The finish is a grassy carpet of bitter, but a well-kept carpet that it's quite nice to lay down on for a while. It's an elegant finish, and if it's extended (see my other reviews for this pitfall) then it's a welcome extension as it's gourmet-tasty, and perfectly in balance with the opening note.

Added to this, the name come from a Bangalore river spot where the Hindu god Shiva leapt a ravine and left enormous hoofprints in rock. You need to go some way to beat that class of nomenclature.

8/10 - a good, honest, but thoroughly interesting ale, and one of the strongest beers I might consider as a session drink. You might not get many down, but you'd hugely enjoy each one.

- The Broadside

Barnstormer (Bath Ales)

Pours a beautiful deep copper colour with hints of ruby. Smells of sweet caramel with a hint of smokiness, a really distinctive and beautiful aroma.

Starts with a smooth creamy malt that washes the palette, hints of chocolate follow through. It finishes with a light caramel finish, light bitterness, very moreish.

8/10 A deliciously drinkable dark bitter, smooth creamy and sweet.

You can buy Bath Ales here, or pick them up in your local Sainsbury's or Waitrose/Ocado.