Tirril Old Faithful

Tirril Old Faithful [baron rating 2/5] - 4% copper ale,fruity toasted smell,mild berry fruit singed bitter taste,bitter sour berry finish Baron Orm

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

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Note: Not bottle conditioned

Conwy Hoppy Christmas

Conwy Hoppy Christmas [baron rating 4/5] - 4.3% gold ale,lemon & lime with basil? smell,honey zingy citrus taste,dry fruity bitter taste Baron Orm

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

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Note: Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation

Thank you to @bob_beer from Best of British Beer for handing this over for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Conwy ales from Best of British Beer

Fordham Tavern Ale

Fordham Tavern Ale [baron rating 4/5] - 6.1% amber ale,sweet sugary raisin smell,mild raisin sweet soft citrus taste,mild dry raisin finish Baron Orm

Note: Not bottle conditioned

Buy Fordham ales from Ales By Mail

St Austell Smugglers Grand Cru

St Austell Smugglers Grand Cru [baron rating 4/5] - 11.5% dark amber ale,candied fruit smell,strawberry syrup taste,sweet vanilla finish Baron Orm

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

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Note: Bottle conditioned with lively carbonation

Thank you to Laura from Octane PR for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy St Austell ales here

Looking forward to baron rating Northcote Brewery ales

One of the best things in the world is when a brewery pings you via Twitter asking for your address as they have some beer that they want to send to you, it simply is one of life's little pleasures.

That happened to me this week when Jenni from Northcote Brewery got in touch, here is what arrived today:

Northcote Brewery

• Bishy Barnaby - 4.5% rich nutty red coloured beer with a spicy & fruity flavour, perfect with cheese
• El Salvador IPA -6% coffee IPA
• Jiggle Juice - 5.8% IPA, light in colour & packed with Citra for the fullest of tropical fruit flavours
• Sunshine Jiggle - 4.3% light in colour with hints of grapefruit zest. Refreshing with balanced bitterness

Look out for 'baron ratings' for these Northcote Brewery beers soon, and a big thank you to Jenni (@NorthcoteBeers) from Northcote Brewery for sending these through to me!

Buy Northcote ales direct

Buxton Buxton Gold

Buxton Buxton Gold [baron rating 5/5] - 5.2% copper ale,fresh citrus tropical smell,mango bitter orange pithy taste,grainy sweet oily finish Baron Orm

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

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Note: Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation

This was part of the autumn pack of the superb '52 week beer club' by myBrewerytap.

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

Looking forward to baron rating Mr Trotter's Great British Pork Crackling

I've always been interested in snacks that work well with beer - crisps, scotch eggs, pork pies, etc. but I've never really gotten into pork scratchings. Maybe it's something in the name that puts me off, but these times may be behind me once I've tried these:

 
Mr Trotter's Great British Pork Crackling is different from normal pork scratching in that they use 100% British pigs rather than Danish rind. So you can enjoy a tasty snack with your British pint knowing that you are supporting British farming as well (more than just enjoying the barley-based drink!).

Mr. Trotter's are available from all Selfridges stores (London, Birmingham & Manchester) for the rather royal sum of £1.89 per 60g pack (does anyone else think that's bit steep?)

Look out for the 'baron rating' for these Mr. Trotter's Great British Pork Crackling soon, and a big thank you to Julie from R&R Teamworkfor sending them through to me!

Buy Mr. Trotter's from Selfridges

Magic Rock Dark Arts

Magic Rock Dark Arts [baron rating 5/5] - 6% black stout,rich dark choc smell,silky bitter choc slight citrus taste,long bitter choc finish Baron Orm

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

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Note: Not not bottle conditioned

Thank you to Richard from Magic Rock Brewery for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Magic Rock ales from direct or from myBreweryTap

Oskar Blues Old Chub

Oskar Blues Old Chub [baron rating 4/5] - 8% dark amber ale,raisin brown sugar smell,sweet cola syrup boozy taste,long treacle raisin finish Baron Orm

Note: Not can-conditioned ;)

I don't know what it is about American canned craft ales but I just love them!


Thank you to @PintsAndPanels from PintsAndPanels for sending this over for a 'baron rating'!

If you fancy some cartoon-style reviews of beers then make sure you check out the PintsAndPanels website.

Monty's Ding Dong

Monty's Ding Dong [baron rating 2/5] - 4.4% copper ale,spicy tangerine smell,completely flat sweet spicy citrus taste,honey mild sour finish Baron Orm

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

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Note: Bottle conditioned with no carbonation

Thank you to @bob_beer from Best of British Beer for handing this over for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Monty's ales from Best of British Beer

Mallinsons Hopped

Mallinsons Hopped [baron rating 5/5] - 3.9% gold ale,tropical fruity smell,fresh citrus mild resin taste,prickly fresh bitter finish Baron Orm

Note: Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation

Buy Mallinsons ales from myBrewerytap and from Source Deli

Windsor & Eton Conqueror

Windsor & Eton Conqueror [baron rating 5/5] - 5% black ale,citrus roasted smell,balanced burnt liquorice citrus taste,dry bitter finish Baron Orm

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

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Note: Not bottle conditioned

Thank you to Paul Kruzycki from Ales By Mail for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Windsor & Eton ales direct or from Ales By Mail

White's Garter Star 1344

White's Garter Star 1344 [baron rating 2/5] - 4.9% copper ale,sweet honey smell,thin butterscotch taste,mild sugar water finish Baron Orm

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

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Note: Not bottle conditioned

This was part of the autumn 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 White ales from myBrewerytap

Prospect Blinding Light

Prospect Blinding Light [baron rating 4/5] - 4.2% gold ale,grassy lager-like smell,crisp lemon refreshing pilsner taste,fresh spicy finish Baron Orm

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

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A big thank you to Paul from Source Deli who joined us for the series of Prospect Brewery reviews  

Note: Not bottle conditioned

Thank you to Prospect Brewery for handing this over for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Prospect ales from Source Deli

BrewDog Paradox Smokehead

BrewDog Paradox Smokehead [baron rating 2/5] - 10% black stout,smoky TCP iodine smell,sweet then very bitter taste,smoky sweet fruity finish Baron Orm

Note: I gave it a 2/5 as I don't like whisky and so don't like this (any my buying preference is the whole point of this blog), Paul gives it a 3/5 and Chris gives it a 4/5 bordering on 5/5 - I'll let you figure out if you would like it...

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

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A big thank you to Paul from Source Deli who joined us for the series of Prospect Brewery reviews  
 

Note: Not bottle conditioned

Thank you to BrewDog for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy BrewDog ales direct and from myBrewerytap

Details of my International beerswap with PintsAndPanels

The Baroness recently disappeared off to Eugene, Oregon and as it happened PintsAndPanels, a comic-strip beer reviewer also very recently moved out to Eugene from the East coast of the states to work at the excellent-sounding 16 Tons beer store. When I found this out I just knew that we had to do an international beerswap - after all it's a big WIN for both of us to be able to try beers that we can't normally pick up.

Here's a photo of my 'package':

And here's the line-up:

•  Adnams Tally-Ho 2009 [baron rating 5/5] - 7.2% bottle-conditioned barley wine style beer
• Dark Star Imperial Stout 2009 [baron rating 5/5] - 10.5% bottle-conditioned complex beer with a big flavour
• Magic Rock Human Cannonball [baron rating 5/5] - 9.2% double IPA, massive pine & candied orange aromas,with bitter/sweet grapefruit & mango flavours
• Stringers IPA [baron rating 5/5] - 5.5% bottled version of their Victoria IPA

And this is what came back:

And here's the line-up:

• Avery Ellie's Brown Ale - 5.5% deep russet brew,dominated by chocolate & brown sugar maltiness with hints of vanilla & nuts,producing a very smooth, well-balanced & quaffable brown ale [ratebeer 90%]
• Bear Republic Racer 5 - 7% aggressive styled India Pale Ale. This golden, well hopped, bottle-conditioned ale demands your attention [ratebeer 99%]
• Fort George Vortex IPA - 7.7% IPA. We didn't want to make an IPA that would rip the taste buds off your tongue,but something that harnessed the power of Simcoe, Amarilla, and Cascade hope to the gentleness of 2-row barley in a vortex of extreme lupulin ecstasy. [ratebeer 94%]
• Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale - 6.5% Rocky Mountain pale ale [ratebeer 98%]
• Oskar Blues Old Chub - 8% Scotch ale [ratebeer 97%]

I am sooooo looking forward to trying these beers, American canned craft ales is one of my interests and I've also really wanted to try Racer 5 since so many other bloggers raved on about it - I can't wait to get stuck in!

A massive thank you to PintsAndPanels for agreeing to a beerswap, please follow her at @PintsAndPanels to see what she thinks of our British ales!

If you fancy some cartoon-style reviews of beers then make sure you check out the PintsAndPanels website.

Okells Aile

Okells Aile [baron rating 4/5] - 4.7% black porter,smoky TCP/bandages smell,smooth oily peaty liquorice taste,oily peaty liquorice finish Baron Orm

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

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Note: Not bottle conditioned

Thank you to Mike from Okells Brewery for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Williams Bros March of the Penguins

Williams Bros March of the Penguins [baron rating 4/5] - 4.9% black stout,smoky choc smell,creamy bitter taste,berries smoky bitter finish Baron Orm

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

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Thank you to Williams Bros. for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Williams Bros ales direct and from myBrewerytap