The Ormskirk Baron: September 2010

Summer Wine Houblon

Summer Wine Houblon [baron rating 5/5] - 4.5% golden ale,piney citrus smell,pithy bitter grapefruit taste,zingy pithy citrus finish Baron Orm

Thank you to James from Summer Wine for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Ascot Alligator Ale

Ascot Alligator Ale [baron rating 4/5] - 4.6% pale gold ale,butter & tropical fruits smell,sweet fruity citrus taste,dry sweet citrus finish Baron Orm

Buy Ascot ales here

Crouch Vale Apollo

Crouch Vale Apollo [baron rating 4/5] - 4.3% copper ale,pine & fresh hops smell,tangy juicy bitter hoppy taste,very hoppy dry finishBaron Orm

Buy Crouch Vale ales here

Williams Bros Roisin

Williams Bros Roisin [baron rating 1/5] - 4.2% gold ale,raspberry smell,fizzy sour raspberry taste, lasting sour finishBaron Orm

Buy Williams Bros ales here

Summer Wine Invictus

Summer Wine Invictus [baron rating 3/5] - 4.7% copper ale,sweet malty smell,over-carbonated toffee with a sour note taste,dry hoppy finishBaron Orm

Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Thank you to James from Summer Wine for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Summer Wine Teleporter

Summer Wine Teleporter [baron rating 4/5] - 5.2% black porter,fruit & sweet roasted smell,full smooth bitter roasted taste,burnt malt finishBaron Orm

Thank you to James from Summer Wine for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Waitrose October ale & beer offers (22nd September - 12th October 2010)

It's October's new beer & ale offers time in Waitrose, their PR staff informed me ahead of time what this month's ale offers are:

Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted [baron rating 4/5]

myBrewerytap's autumn selection of the '52 week beer club'

Chris & I have been a member of myBrewerytap's 52 week beer club since December and our 4th quarter's pack arrived a this week. It arrived in perfect condition as always.

This pack is a bit of a special one as it's the end of mybrewerytap's first year of the club so Richard has pulled out all the stops to make sure it's a cracking pack. Chris & I have been very fortunate to sample some of the beers in this pack over the past year and there are some real winners in here.

Here are the details:

BrewDog Punk IPA [baron rating 5/5]

Crouch Vale Brewers Gold

Felinfoel Double Dragon

Hawkshead Lakeland Gold [baron rating 5/5]

Hogs Back TEA

Inveralmond Ossian

Mallinsons Station Best Bitter

Marble Manchester Bitter [baron rating 5/5]

Meantime Chocolate

RCH Ale Mary

Saltaire Cascade Pale Ale [baron rating 5/5]

Thornbridge Jaipur [baron rating 5/5]

Williams Bros Good Times [baron rating 5/5]

As you can see from the above, there are some absolute crackers in this pack!

Join it now and make sure you say the baron made me do it!

Oakleaf Hole Hearted

Oakleaf Hole Hearted [baron rating 5/5] - 4.7% golden ale,orange citrus smell,orange citrus hops bitter taste,citrus bittersweet finishBaron Orm

Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

This was from the summer pack of the superb '52 week beer club' by myBrewerytap.

Join it now and make sure you say the baron made me do it!

Buy Oakleaf ales here

Felinfoel Stout

Felinfoel Stout [baron rating 2/5] - 4.1% black stout,licorice & roasted malt smell, thin roasted licorice taste,lasting burnt finishBaron Orm

Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

This was from the summer pack of the superb '52 week beer club' by myBrewerytap.

Join it now and make sure you say the baron made me do it!

Buy Felinfoel ales here

RCH Pitchfork

RCH Pitchfork [baron rating 5/5] - 4.3% golden ale,floral grapefruit smell,fresh zingy citrus taste,zingy citrus bitter finishBaron Orm

Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

This was from the summer pack of the superb '52 week beer club' by myBrewerytap.

Join it now and make sure you say the baron made me do it!

Buy RCH ales here

Acorn Conquest

Acorn Conquest [baron rating 5/5] - 5.7% golden ale,pithy citrus aroma,sweet malt & grapefruit bitter taste,lasting pithy bitter finishBaron Orm

Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

This was from the summer pack of the superb '52 week beer club' by myBrewerytap.

Join it now and make sure you say the baron made me do it!

Buy Acorn ales here

Cains Organic Wheat Beer

Cains Organic Wheat Beer [baron rating 2/5] - 4% copper ale,spicy hops nutmeg & wheat smell,floral spicy tart taste,bitter floral finishBaron Orm

Marble Dobber

Marble Dobber [baron rating 5/5] - 5.9% copper ale,orange citrus smell,balanced citrus & sweet malt then bitter taste,very dry hoppy finishBaron Orm

Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Thank you to Richard from myBrewerytap for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Marble ales here

Thwaites Very Nutty Black

Thwaites Very Nutty Black [baron rating 4/5] - 3.9% black mild,roasted aroma,smooth choc & dark roasted taste,dry nutty bittersweet finishBaron Orm

Caledonian Golden Promise

Caledonian Golden Promise [baron rating 2/5] - 5% golden ale,sulphur & spiced apple smell,tangy sweet toffee taste,spicy bittersweet finishBaron Orm

Atlantic Gold

Atlantic Gold [baron rating 3/5] - 4.6% copper ale,root ginger aroma,thin balanced slighty sweet taste,slight tingly ginger finishBaron Orm

Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

This was from the summer pack of the superb '52 week beer club' by myBrewerytap.

Join it now and make sure you say the baron made me do it!

Buy Atlantic ales here

Williams Bros Ginger

Williams Bros Ginger [baron rating 4/5] - 3.8% pale ginger ale,fresh root ginger smell,crisp sweet fiery taste,long tingling ginger finishBaron Orm

As the baron isn't too keen on ginger beers a big thank you goes to @tania_nexust for being my ginger ale advisor and providing this review!

This was from the spring pack of the superb '52 week beer club' by myBrewerytap.

Join it now and make sure you say the baron made me do it!

Buy Williams Bros ales here

Marble Ginger 6%

Marble Ginger 6% [baron rating 4/5] - 6% burnished copper ale,rich candy-ish ginger aroma,malt & ginger spicy bitter taste & bitter finish

As the baron isn't too keen on ginger beers a big thank you goes to @tania_nexust for being my ginger ale advisor and providing this review!

Buy Marble ales here

Looking forward to 'baron rating' Marble Dobber very soon!

As hinted at in my last post, there was something else in with the amazing Sierra Nevada selection, a bottle of the brand new bottled ale from Marble - Dobber:

Marble Brewery

Dobber - 5.9% big heady IPA

Ignore all the talk on the web about Marble's Dobber meaning something rude, it's the name of a big marble as I remember that word from my childhood. If I remember correctly it was worth two peewees?!?

Look out for 'baron ratings' for these myBrewerytap beers soon, and a big thank you to Richard from myBrewerytap for sending these through to me!

Buy Marble ales here

Looking forward to 'baron rating' Sierra Nevada ales very soon!

Richard at myBrewerytap looks after the baron, never failing to amazing when yet another courier delivers a special box of ales. Today's box was quite something, a range of Sierra Nevada ales (plus something else to be blogged about later...)

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

Kellerweis - 4.8% ripe banana & spicy cloves

Porter - 5.6% rich bittersweet & roasted toffee

Stout - 5.8% bold roasted coffee & dark chocolat

Torpedo - 7.2% 'extra' IPA, citrus, pine & herbal

Look out for 'baron ratings' for these myBrewerytap beers soon, and a big thank you to Richard from myBrewerytap for sending these through to me!

Buy Sierra Nevada ales here

Morrisons September ale & beer offers (6th September - 3rd October 2010

It's September's new beer & ale offers time in Morrisons so I popped into the local Ormskirk branch on Wednesday to check them out.

Here are the details:

Morland Old Speckled Hen [baron rating 4/5]

Jennings Sneck Lifter [baron rating 3/5]

Yeap, that's it. Sneck Lifter is within the 'baron bargain' price range of £1.30 but it's not one I'm going to be stocking up on.

Ossett Excelsior

Ossett Excelsior [baron rating 5/5] - 5.2% pale golden ale, floral grapefruit hops smell, balanced bittersweet hoppy taste, dry hoppy finishBaron Orm

Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Thank you to Richard from myBrewerytap for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

This beer was also from the summer pack of the superb '52 week beer club' by myBrewerytap.

Join it now and make sure you say the baron made me do it!

Buy Ossett ales here

Summer Wine Project 6 Brew 2

Summer Wine Project 6 Brew 2 [baron rating 5/5] - 6.8% yellow ale,citrus & candied sweets smell,big citrus hops taste,lasting dry hop finishBaron Orm

Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Thank you to James from Summer Wine for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Williams Bros Rooster

Williams Bros Rooster [baron rating 3/5] - 4.3% red ale,floral citrus smell,hoppy berry fruits & sweet malt taste,dry hoppy fruity finishBaron Orm

Buy Williams Bros. ales here

A bottle of Orme for Baron Orm!

My stout advisor Chris Routledge was on holiday recently in Wales and picked me up a rather fitting present - a bottle of Great Orme Brewery's Orme:

Orme - 4.2% premium welsh ale

A big thank you to Chris, I'm rather looking forward to 'baron rating' this bottle of ale!

Buy Great Orme ales here

Cheddar Goat's Leap

Cheddar Goat's Leap [baron rating 4/5] - 5.7% copper ale,floral sherbet toffee smell,balanced toffee & juicy hops taste,sweet citrus finishBaron Orm

Looking forward to 'baron rating' Young's London Gold & Special London Ale very soon!

A few weeks ago, Young's was asking on twitter if anyone had any reviews of their beers that they wanted to share. I pointed them at my Young's Bitter [baron rating 4/5] blog post and they got back in touch asking if I would like to try some others.

I 'baron rated' Young's Special London Ale [baron rating 5/5] a while ago before I did the MP3 audio reviews with Chris Routledge. Young's said they would send some London Gold & Special London Ale through so that I could give them the full 'baron rating works' (i.e. record some audio as well as the usual text & photo).

On Friday last week some sample bottles of the above mentioned beers arrived:

Wells & Young's Brewing Company

London Gold - 4.8% light golden beer

Special London Ale - 6.4% smooth rich ale with spicy hops

Look out for 'baron ratings' for these Young's beers soon, and a big thank you to Joanna from YoungsBeers for sending these through to me!

Black Sheep Yorkshire Square Ale for 99p a bottle in B&M Bargains

B&M Bargains in Ormskirk has 500ml bottles of Black Sheep Yorkshire Square Ale [baron rating 3/5] for 99p (best before end of December 2010)

Coniston Bluebird Bitter

Coniston Bluebird Bitter [baron rating 3/5] - 4.2% copper ale,bitter apple aroma,fresh but thin bitter taste & gentle bitterness to finishBaron Orm

Hopshackle ales now available from Beers of Europe

Nigel from Hopshackle emailed me earlier this week to say that the excellent Beers of Europe website are now stocking Nigel's amazing Hopshackle ales:

Hopshackle ales from Beers of Europe

I was fortunate to 'baron rate' quite a number of Hopshackle ales earlier this year and I can honestly say that every one was outstanding! Check out my Hopshackle 'baron ratings' here.

Buy Hopshackle ales here

Looking forward to 'baron rating' more AlesByMail ales soon!

I received an amazing heavy box of ale today from Paul at AlesByMail, twenty four different bottles to 'baron rate'! Check out the packaging (and the two Eat Natural bars!):