Pale Ale Trail

New beer, put simply

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Ringing in International Beer Day with this beauty from brooklynbrewery Dry, hoppy and unbelievably refreshing. Top hops. Top saison.

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Continued catch up from the weekend with a new one sampled from Mad Hatter Brewing Company, based in Liverpool here and dedicated to making great craft beer with live yeast.

Before I start talking about this one it’s worth mentioning that I’ve already had the fortune of sampling their ‘Follow the White Rabbit’, which was a Sorachi Hop filled dream of a White IPA that, quite honestly, blew me away. That gave me pretty high expectations going in.

‘Drink Me Rye Weizen’ is a Bavarian style wheat beer brewed using Tapped Leeds house yeast strain and 12% rye. It’s hard to know exactly what to make of this before you’re further down the bottle, but that was something I really, really enjoyed.

There’s tons here that contrasts brilliantly together: from the spiciness of the rye to the bitterness of figs & chocolate notes, all the way through to the sweeter notes of banana. This is definitely more bitter than a lot of other Bavarian style beer I’ve had before, but still every bit as refreshing. 

Overall another quirky, impressive beer from Mad Hatter, based on the 2 I’ve had so far I have a strong feeling they’ll be coming up more often in future. 

Boss beer.

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Excellent weekend, so much so in fact that I’ve just gotten round to starting my recap, and what better place to start than this new sour from Buxton Brewery, sampled from Bristol’s Beer Emporium.

‘Wolfscote’ is a full roast, mild black sour beer that pours dark but surprises immediately (and in a great way) with a taste that’s distinct from anything I’ve had before.

No added hops which places all the focus on the dark, malty but predominantly tart finish with slight hints of blackberry. Easy going at 3.3% and another great tasting sour, quirky beer from Buxton. My first experience of a Black Sour since Belgium, and this is just as good.

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From one summer beer to another, I’m going for something slightly more hoppy here without sacrificing too much of the sourness. ‘Sur Citra’ is another gem from To Øl, and something I didn’t think twice about ordering after having sampled their ‘First Frontier’ IPA.

This is a dry hopped sour pale ale (’Sur’ being Danish for Sour and Citra being the hop it’s based on) that tastes even better than it looks, although I should mention the great artwork that comes with every bottle of theirs I’ve found!

Great mix of tropical fruit, hops and acidic notes that provide brilliant bitter but sour flavours, and make this very, very easy to drink. I instantly thought of ‘Come Again’, the sour pale ale collaboration between Buxton and Evil Twin and, given that was a big driver behind my love of sour beer, I’d say that’s no bad thing at all. 

Lots more top looking experimental beers of theirs to work through, so watch this space. I’m pretty excited.

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Thrilled to have finally gotten round to blogging about this. I referenced to wanting to delve deeper into Siren’s range in a number of previous posts, and was pleased last week to stumble onto this cracking collaboration with B.Nektar, a meadery in the US.

‘Uncle Zester’ is a sour citrus Braggot. Brewed with both honey and malt, it’s essentially a Beer / Mead hybrid, with an awesome twist in the form of the added sourness, hops and citrus.

That combination of honey and sharp citrus flavours give this a lasting sweet and sour taste that’s pretty overpowering, and in a great way. 

With an 8.5% abv, this is pretty tough to get through in one sitting. All I would say is that there’s so much here that would make that sitting pretty unforgettable, however dazed it makes you. 

Normal’s overrated anyway.

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Time for something a little less sour, and saw this as a great platform for me to sample something more from brewersandunion.

Their Unfiltered Lager is, in my opinion, probably the best lager in the world (sorry Carlsberg!) and this has made just as much of an impression.

‘Steph Weiss’ is a smooth, creamy Bavarian Weiss beer with great aromas of Vanilla, All-spice, and Clove. Fresh, great body and bursting with flavour. Definitely more to explore

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Going from strength to strength this weekend with 'Sleeping Lemons': a delightful Gose from Wild Beer. 

As refreshing as anything I've had before, this is a beer designed with summer in mind. 

Great notes of Lemons and Salt. It's sour, but not in an overpowering way that makes this very easy to drink. I will be stocking up!

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Weather aside, it’s a good time to start the weekend. 

Thrilled to be delving deeper into Moor Beer’s line with ‘Rider’s Revival’, a Pale Ale infused with Jasmine Green Tea. 

I’ve only had one beer similar to this before, a Jasmine IPA in Vancouver from Steamworks. That was one of my favourites from the Pacific Northwest and this, I’m pleased to say, stands well in comparison; retaining the great taste and aroma I’ve come to expect from Moor but providing something different on the way down with a sweet tea after-taste.

It’s fair to say I’m firming up plans to head back to their Bristol taproom in the coming weeks. 

Watch this space.

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My first frontier with To øl. Full of hops and backed up with character: "We all got pieces of crazy in us, some bigger pieces than others". More to follow from these guys!

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Cracking open another fine Berliner Weisse this afternoon - it’s getting way too difficult to ignore them ever since I got back from the Pacific Northwest.

‘Far Skyline’ is another impressive brew from Buxton who are fast becoming a favourite of mine after having sampled their ‘Red Raspberry Rye’; something much more fruity, but just as sour.

This provides a great impression from the offset, pouring hazy golden with a strong sour, wheat and citrus aroma. That combined with an excellent dry, crisp finish makes this beer ideal for warm summer evenings. 

Top notch!

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Been a while since my last post, but I'd like to think that this one's worth the wait. 

I was lucky enough to have received a gift crate of Siren craft brews this week as a belated birthday present, and needless to say none of it will go to waste. Having covered an IPA and sour beer of theirs before, I thought it only fair to move on to the darker stuff, even if it is 20 degrees outside. 

This was a great choice. 

'7 Seas IPA' is a Black Wheat IPA with a huge hop profile made up of the 7 C's of US & German Ultra hops. Excellent name and backed up in taste. Pours dark, but is so easy to drink with all of the malty notes counterbalanced beautifully with it's hops. 

I'm torn between whether to drink these all now, or save them for colder weather. Either way, briliiant beer yet again from Siren!

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That Friday feeling. So' Hop is a pale ale packed full of flavour from Moor Beer, based here in Bristol. 

Hoppy but smooth at the same time, and all down to a wicked combination of British Floral Malt with Tropical Southern Hemisphere Hops. Modestly unreal. 

Top stuff!

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Cascade, Centennial and Simcoe hops balanced with tropical notes in Southville Hop from Bristol Beer Factory. Award winning and Delicious.

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Benefits of being back in Bristol

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Great way to spend an afternoon. 1809 Traditional Berliner Weisse. Crisp, refreshing and oh so easy to drink!

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Finishing strongly in Chicago with this beauty at Fountainhead. Here Gose Nothin is a wickedly sour leipzig style gose from Destihl, released as part of their Wild Sour series. Strong notes of lemon, lime, sea salt & coriander make this pretty unforgettable. Hoping I can smuggle some back on the plane!

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Stopped by at halfacrebeer to sample some more of Chicago’s best. I’ve not tasted anything from the line before but had heard a huge amount in looking up the craft beer scene here. 

Not at all disappointed. 

The Daisy Cutter has to be one of my all time favourite pale ales, with hops, grassy notes and pacific northwest aromatics; whilst the Akari Shogun is a refreshing wheat ale with hops from Australia & New Zealand and a lemon lime citrus zest. 

Top stuff!