The good thing about beer is that it’s fairly easy to get hold of good ones even in supermarkets, where finding interesting wine is quite tricky. I popped into a Tesco branch yesterday and came away with several beers that looked worth a try (including a couple of old friends). None were expensive. Overall, a good bunch, although I am a bit worried that boring beers are now beginning to dress themselves up to look like craft beers, even though they taste a bit dull and industrial. This could be a real problem for craft beer: in the past, you could usually tell from the label whether a beer was going to be interesting or not.
Innis & Gunn Lager Beer
4.6% alcohol. Inspired by German beer, this is a pale colour. It’s smooth and creamy with some toffee and vanilla notes. Accessible and quite distinctive. 7/10
Shipyard Brewing Company IPA American Craft Beer
5.8% alcohol. Fuggles hops. Tangy and herby, and slightly bitter, with some hoppy notes. A bit chemical. 5/10
Pistonhead Kustom Lager, Sweden
4.6% alcohol. Custom spelt with a ‘K’? How very 1980s. Lively, hoppy, tangy, full flavoured lager with some malty richness. Nicely bitter edge. 7/10
Nils Oscar God Lager
5.3% alcohol. Complex, herby and malty with nice hoppiness. Intense and quite powerful with nice tension between the sweetness and bitterness. 8/10
Revisionist Craft Lager
5% alcohol. Made by Marstons, this is rather good. Lovely fresh, lemony, hoppy style of lager with nice orange peel and lemon notes, as well as subtle malt. 8/10
Samuel Adams Boston Lager
4.8% alcohol. Fresh, lively and quite malty with rich flavours and a hint of sweetness, as well as a citrussy kick. Some honey and toffee notes. 7/10
Brewdog Punk IPA
5.6% alcohol. Now better than ever, and a step above the other beers here with amazing floral, grapefruit and passionfruit aromatics, with some elderflower too. Sweet palate with honey, citrus fruit and spice. Just lovely. 9/10
Hastings Handmade No 5 Cask Pale Ale
4.8% alcohol. Fresh, hoppy, lemony and herby with bright fruity notes and some hoppy bitterness. 8/10
Nils Oscar is Sweden’s largest ‘microbrewery’ and makes some ok beers. Pistonhead is made by Brutal Brewing who specialise in sort of hoppy lager and are now owned by huge company Spendrupps. If ypu want interesting Swedish beer seek out Oppigårds, Pang Pang, Mowhawk and of course Omnipollo, who make much of their beer at de Proef like Mikkeller… and watch out for the Stocholm Brewing Co!
Always great to see beer promoted, but have you gone a bit Halliday with your points? If Sam Adams and Innis are 7, Kernel, Rocky Head, Redchurch, Five Points, Pressure Drop, Beavertown, Partizan et al, to name a few, must be up in the teens.
And Spanish craft beer is in full revolution…becoming very popular in Spain and reaching London in these last few months. Look out for La Socarrada(Ale with Rosemary and honey brew) and Tyris which is a zany brewer making some brilliant beers….eg. Au Yeah, VIPA etc