Master Brew (Shepherd Neame)

Kentish brewers Shepherd Neame proclaim this beer to be their "local hero", widely drunk from Sevenoaks to Margate. It's known as "Master Blaster" by the locals.

The cap lifts off with a pneumatic hiss, and tosses up a wealth of Kentish hop aroma. The colour is a pleasing light amber.

It's idiosyncratic as pretty much all SN beers are, their particular hop/yeast mix proving very recognisable. This 4%abv ale is a commandingly steady drink though, and a good flagship for a brewery that is often associated only with Spitfire and Bishops Finger in the supermarkets.

The opening note is blink of crystal malt sweetness, followed by a grassy and dry main draft. The signature Kentish hops leave a bitter and crisp finish, perfectly session pitched in length. This is the definition of a year-long all rounder for those who can adjust to the slightly "back of the mouth" taste of the local hops.

7/10 - Pleasing and capable everyday ale. Very Shepherd Neame in a good way.

- The Broadside

Espresso (Dark Star)

Black as espresso with a delightful cappuccino head. The smell has noticeable undertones of coffee, but is lead by a charcoaly heavily roasted malt.

Deep roasted malt fills the palate to start, a slightly burnt edginess cracks the tongue like a whip. Charcoal is a key flavour here, holding middle to account before before leading us to our warming finish. It's as hoppy as it is coffee, pronounced bitterness hits then lingers, mellowing and leaving you feeling like you have just drunk cold coffee. A journey for the taste buds of beer, coffee, beer, coffee.

8/10 The best speciality beer I've had. Beer and coffee in perfect harmony.

Thanks to Dark Star for providing, if you haven't heard of them or drunk their superb beers, I encourage you to do so.

Past Masters XX Strong Ale (Fuller's)

A new release from Fuller's as part of their Past Master's range, a series of beers brewed using recipes from their brewers log dating back to 1845. This one comes from 1891.

Pours with a devious fizz, perfectly bottle conditioned, not as dark as I expected, a lovely Amber brown. Fruity and floral aroma, sweet nosed.

Big dry malt takes charge on the initial sip, followed big fruit ripe flavours, plum, and also marmalade orange. The hopping is noticeably generous, but giving a lovely bitterness intertwined with the fruity middle, rather than a bold IPA style finish.

A lively spicy finish, of cloves and pepper, wrapped on a delicious mellow lingering sweetness. Reminiscent of, but different to ESB.

8/10 A beautifully matured, fruity ale, clearly of a different era. One to try.
The Past Master's range is available to buy from the Fuller's shop here

Seafarer's Ale (Fullers)

Brewing stalwarts Fuller's have taken this 4.2% abv George Gale branded beer under their wing, and will donate a percentage of sale proceeds to the Seafarers UK charity.

It's well carbonated and pours with a fizzy tumult. The drink is crisply golden and sports a hearty white head, which loiters for a while.

The nose is a light hoppy puff with a smidge of tobacco. First sip is fairly yeasty, lots of bread in a rather Wadworth-esque taste. It's very drinkable though, some nice clippings of grass through the length to end zestily, with fine employment of (aptly) Admiral Hops to level out with bitterness.

It comes across as a sort of IPA-lite, but for me could perhaps benefit from having a touch more bitterness in the tail. Still, a fine drink as you'd expect from one welcomed into the Fuller's stable.

7/10 - Very good beer, a sensible buy even without the donation to a fine cause.

- The Broadside

Phoenix (Greene King)

Here's brewery giants Greene King aiming to resurrect the auspicious Tolly Cobbold mark, with a suitably resurgent mythical bird brand.

It pours a deep chestnut with a floaty wisp o' white head, and the whiff is slight, sweet and fruity.

The first draft is of brown sugar malts, fairly sweet and deep with a turn of dark fruits, raisins and slice of faint orange. The length of it introduces a touch of tea .

It's vaguely toasty but not really very lively. The flavours, whilst winterish and well-mixed, don't really amount to an exciting drink, nor due to the sweetness one that is very session-oriented.

It's capable enough, and I'm sure the massed ranks of beta testers and tasting panels have contributed to what is a drinkable pint, just not one to write home about.

Still, being an East Anglian, it's nice to see Tolly on the label again, let's hope a few more beers come out under the banner.

6/10 - Decent beer, but lacking a touch of spark to set it aside on the shop shelf.

- The Broadside

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

India Pale Ale (Meantime)

The brewery is very proud of this beer, and understandably so, its won many awards, and even has a page devoted to its heritage.

The cork pops gently, like champagne's less pretentious brother. Pours a beautiful Amber, the smell is outstanding, floral, fresh pine, hints of caramel.

Initially slight bitter on the tongue, developing to a more warming malt, sweetness and equal fruity bitterness dance hand in hand into every corner of the mouth, amplifying the malt again and again.

The finish is a diverse echo of hops reminding you this a IPA of pedigree. A long lingering finishes of reoccurring fruit notes, not overly dry, with final note of raw malt husks.

10/10 Outstanding, without doubt the best English style IPA I've had. A very special beer.

Time for you History lesson : The history of the IPA has more myth than fact, I'm not going to begin to try and cover it here, when so many people have done such amazing work on it. If you are interested i suggest you read the following, as like QI most things you know are probably wrong. Zythophile has an excellent blog, with a well a researched article here
The excellent Shut up about Barclay Perkins blog, also has several great articles here

Failing that, you could just drink it and enjoy it.

Harry's Havest Pale Ale (Purbeck)

Beautiful smells burst out on pouring, wet summer grass, delicate floral notes, even gentle fruit. The colour is a lovely Amber with perfect BC carbonation.

An initially unassuming malt develops into gentle sweetness and crisp dryness in equal measure. The Purbeck yeast normally gives a dominant middle of charcoal smokiness, but in this beer its far more mellow, even offering more biscuity notes instead. The finish is beautiful, a perfectly measured bang of hops, not a blunt numbing of bitterness but a delicate whirlwind of fresh crisp citrus, and lingering dry pepper.

8/10 A fantastic fresh and balanced hop wonder. Perfect crisp refreshment.

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

Conqueror Black IPA (Windsor & Eton)

A Black IPA? Madness. However with my love for dark ales and Ed's propensity for IPAs have we found the ideal Bunker pint?

Here it is, in my hand, in possibly the smartest looking bottle I've seen this year. This is a relatively unusual beer type in the UK, with Thornbridge's Raven IPA the only other I'm aware of. The Americans are slightly more used to it with their "Cascadian Dark Ale" variant, a craft type familiar to many over there.

Windsor historically was a thriving brewing town, and new operation Windsor & Eton are aiming to bring the name back to being representative of fine beer.

It pours a deep black, with a fleeting brown head. Once the head disappears others may well think you have a pint of coke on the go, sitting flatly with a scrying mirror darkness.

The nose is a peculiar hybrid of roasted smells and pine, and is very welcoming in a wintry way.

First taste is a roasted malt explosion., and the nearest beer I can compare it to is Kingstone's marvellous Challenger. The bitterness is almost overwhelming and it makes no bones about being something other than a session drink. This is Event Beer, and a fine one at that.

The IPA character is plainly apparent here, it's hoppy, dry, strong (5% abv) and rather bitter, but like Challenger the bitterness becomes moreish the further down the pint one drinks.

Combine this with classic dark roasted flavours and this is makes for a wonderful creamy cold night pint. I can't wait to dig into the other two beers we have from W&E.

8/10 - Courageous and rewarding collision of ale styles. This brewery is one to watch.

- The Broadside

Anchor Steam Beer (Anchor)

The smell is not overpowering or delicate, just a strong balance of whiskey noted malt, and gentle fresh hopping. The colour is the very definition of beer, a light golden brown.

The initial malt is very distinct, its like a familiar face that you know but can’t place, it reminds me more of fine whiskeys I’ve drunk than of beers, with its unique tangy sweetness. The middle demonstrates glimpses of biscuit and fruit, and leads you like a kind maître’d to the finale. In keeping with what’s preceded it the finish is, well, polite. Its not an overstated crescendo of hops, nor a brash American IPA, its a perfectly measured hop bittering to compliment the malt that came before it. Slight floral undertones dance with the initial malt.

Its like the spinning top of beer, an example of equilibrium away from the battles of malt vs hops IPAs.

7/10 An example in balance, the dictionary definition of beer. If the Russians had won the cold war, this would have been the beer of the Communist States of America.

30th Anniversary Imperial Helles Bock (Sierra Nevada)

A unique beer brewed as part of the celebrations for the 30th Anniversary of Sierra Nevada. This is Charlie, Fred and Ken’s Imperial Helles Bock.

It pours a golden light brown with a beautiful foamy snow white head. Bountiful aromas of wet grass and light fruit, specifically cantaloupe melon and satsuma’s.

The initial malt is distinct, flooding the palette with a sweet but dry rounded flavour. No big ripe fruit in the middle, no biscuit crunch, you are left with a moment consolidate as the big alcohol builds like a heartbeat towards the showpiece finish.

The ending is sweet and rich, like gin soaked raisins, with an authoritive stamp of bitterness. Strong notes of cracked black pepper on the finish linger on the tongue.

8/10 A beautiful beer, well crafted and critically well balanced. Brewed to match a traditional style, but falling slightly short of expectations for such a special occasion.


A note of Thanks : This beer arrived as a gift from a friend in California, it kindly travelled in his luggage all the way over to the UK, sadly two bottles of Tumbler didn’t. This review is devoted to his stained suitcase, his soaked clothes, and the frantic dry cleaning he had to do on arrival in the UK. Thanks Bushy!