The Ormskirk Baron: May 2013

Partizan Saison:Citra

Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation

Partizan Saison:Citra [baron rating 4/5] - 7.3% gold ale,yeasty peppery zesty fruit smell,tangy lemon peppery taste,spicy bittersweet finish

Buy Partizan ales from Ales By Mail

Partizan Pale Ale:Columbus Cascade

Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation

Partizan Pale Ale [baron rating 5/5] - 5.3% gold ale,piney caramel tropical smell,balanced biscuity fruity taste,fruity dusty bitter finish

Note: This is the Columbus Cascade version. It's got such a lovely balanced nature to it with the tropical fruit playing nicely along with a spicy biscuity side that it's a pleasure to drink, this has got so much interest and yet is so balanced and easy going that it was gone in no time!

Buy Partizan ales from Ales By Mail

Looking forward to baron rating Shepherd Neame Brilliant Ale

Back in November Shepherd Neame Brewery released a brand new bottled range - their 'Classic Collection' series, inspired by various recipes found in the brewery's archives. The first two beers were of a very high quality (reviews can be found here for the India Pale Ale & Double Stout) so I was extremely pleased when this bottle arrived unannounced in the post:

Awesome vintage label,really stands out

Shepherd Neame Brewery

Brilliant Ale - 5.6% golden, brilliantly bright, hoppy ale inspired by an original mid-19th century recipe found in the brewery archives. Hopped with East Kent Goldings (as in the original recipe) but then brought up to date a little with the inclusion of both UK and US Cascade hops

Look out for a baron rating for this Shepherd Neame Brewery beer soon, and a big thank you to John Humphreys (@ShepherdNeame) for sending it through for a baron rating!

Buy Shepherd Neame ales direct

Baron on Tour: Liverpool Organic Brewery Tour

Liverpool Organic Brewery are not only a local brewery to me they are also one of my favourite. Source Deli in Ormskirk sells their excellent bottled range but I don't get to try it on cask that much - for some reason most of the pubs in Ormskirk never seem to have any on.

To remedy this situation a few friends and I decided to book on one of their brewery tour days. We arrived last Saturday just before twelve and around twenty to thirty people were hanging around outside waiting for it to start. Doors opened promptly at midday and we filed in, and handed in our tickets (well the group I was with did, I was fortunate enough to have my name on the guest list). We were handed a Product Range booklet and told to collect a branded pint glass (which you can keep if you wish) and approached the bar.

Five handpulls were available at a makeshift bar in the middle of the main brewing room served by various members of brewery staff including Paul Burns (deputy head brewer), Ben Topping (logistics) and Ron Kellett (delivery & logistics).
That wasn't the only selection, we were informed that there were also five additional casks of different ales in the next room which were gravity-fed and so you could help yourself to those as well.

Ten different ales is an excellent choice and they had a great mix of different styles and strengths to really show off what a quality brewery they are. After around 15 minutes I looked around and was amazed - the twenty to thirty people outside was only a small fraction of the total people who had now entered the building, I'm guessing that there were well over one hundred drinkers now in the building!

Once there had been time for everyone to have got at least one drink the managing director, Mark Hensby gave us some background about the brewery. They have now been open three and a half years, having originally dreaming up the idea of opening a brewery back in 2008, moving into unit 39 in April 2009 and then starting to brew on a tiny test kit in August 2009. By early September they were selling beer to local pubs.

Their 'two-year plan' was to be able to sell 69 barrels a week - they achieved this target within just two months! As of a fortnight ago they are now selling around 210 'firkins' a week (or '9s', the common 9 gallon casks that you see outside pubs). Also now that Cains Brewery has closed for business, Liverpool Organic are now the largest brewery in Liverpool!

They use Warminster Maltings for all their grain and they buy the organic variants that they grow/source. They use Charles Faram for their hops throwing in between four and six kilos at various stages of the brewing process.

Mark then went on to explain the brewing process but as I've heard this a number of times at other breweries I opted to start 'investigating' some of the other beers that I hadn't tried, here's a list in order of the ones that I got to try with a few random notes of mine against them:

Liverpool Organic Brewery

Bier Head - 4.1% best bitter, this was their old Higsons Bitter (until the owners of the name got funny and took it back), it's a really great solid bitter
Styrian - 4.2% single hopped beer (with Styrian hops) a touch of sulphur on the nose, balanced spicy caramel/honey taste with a zingy bitter finish
American Pale Ale - 4.4% fruity citrusy with a nice bitter finish. Very balanced, a friend who is not a fan of hoppy beers found this one as a lovely balance of the malt and hops
Liverpool Stout - 4.7% very black, liquorice & blackberry smell, velvety smooth mouthfeel with a fading finish, a solid slightly fruity stout
Liverpool Pale Ale - 4% really bitter puckering mouthfeel (grapefruit?), one for the bitter hop lover. Had a really nice bitter finish
Shipwreck IPA - 6.5% copper haze colour with a really tight creamy head. Tropical citrus bold sryupy aromas and tastes with a long resinous finish. It's got a big building bitter fruit flavour. This ale is one of my favourite bottled ales from Liverpool Organic and on cask it was amazing! A huge beer but very balanced and under control considering it's 6.5% strength - I ended up having a couple of pints of it

In the middle of trying all of the above ales was an excellent buffet lunch consisting of a large vat of Scouse with a healthy addition of some of their Liverpool Stout, a chilli with Shipwreck IPA added as well as a ton of sandwiches, wraps, sausage rolls and pork pies. There was plenty of food for everyone so that combined with the free bar meant that the normal ticket price of £20 was definitely worth it!

Last orders were around 3pm and we left around 4pm having had an excellent afternoon. I would recormend this event to anyone with even a passing interest to ale, and I'd like to thank Liverpool Organic Brewery for giving me a free ticket to the event. Of the people that I went with there is already talk of going again (they do these tours roughly every six weeks) and I'd be more than happy to pay £20 to repeat the day.

A brilliant event from a brilliant brewery - if you haven't tried beers from Liverpool Organic then you are simply missing out!

Looking forward to baron rating Mayfields ales

I'd not seen or heard of Mayfields Brewery before I started visiting Holborn Ales in Ormskirk and spotted them on the shelves. I find that a pale ale is a good test of a brewery and so picked up a bottle of the Priory Pale Ale back in March.

Unfortunately I found it thin and lacking as a bottle ale and mentioned this to the brewer via Twitter. This started a conversation about the fact that their bottles were sent out to an external bottler and due to the filtration & bottling process a lot of the flavour and character of the beer had also been filtered out.

Since then, Adam (brewer & owner of Mayfields Brewery) has been busy - he's scraped the contract bottling and has gone down the bottle conditioned route. A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to pop into Holborn Ales to find a bottle of each of the new range ready to receive a baron rating. I'm really looking forward to re-rating the Priory Pale Ale (as well as the rest of the range to be honest) to see what the BCing has done for the character of the ale:

The Mayfields range, now bottled conditioned

Mayfields Brewery

Auntie Myrtle's - 4.5% award winning smooth & fruity copper premium ale - Cyclops says see: dark copper, smell: malty,winey,warming, taste: roasted,smooth,refreshing
BV Stout - 4.5% delicious smooth black stout
Ducking Stool - 4.4% refreshing straw coloured ale with a citrus hop character - Cyclops says see: golden amber, smell: soft fruits,light hop, taste: citrus,sharp,malty
Priory Pale Ale - 4% golden ale with a crisp malt body and floral hop notes

Look out for a 'baron rating' for this Mayfields Brewery beer soon, and a big thank you to Adam (@MayfieldsBrewer) for sending it through to me!

Buy Mayfields ales from Holborn Ales

Camden Pale Ale

Not bottle conditioned

Camden Pale Ale [baron rating 4/5] - 4% copper ale,tropical citrus piney smell,piney citrus bitter taste (but a bit thin),dry citrus finish

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

Buy Camden ales from Ales By Mail

George Wright Eldorado

Not bottle conditioned

George Wright Eldorado [baron rating 3/5] - 5.1% gold ale,floral peachy smell,floral sweetish fruity quite bitter taste,long zingy finish

Note: This just started to get 'a bit much' after a while, the sweetness of the malt was added to by the fruitiness of the hops, shows off what the hop gives to the beer though. I do enjoy trying these single hop beers from George Wright even if I don't think they are all wonderful.

Thank you to Shaun (@GWrightsbrewing) from George Wright Brewery for handing this over for a baron rating!

Buy George Wright ales direct and from Source Deli

Traquair Jacobite Ale

Not bottle conditioned

Traquair Jacobite Ale [baron rating 5/5] - 8% ruby ale,prumes nutmeg smell,balanced stewed plums clove nutmeg taste,fading gentle finish

Note: No idea why I said it was 5% at the start of the audio review, I was obviously too in awe of the beer to be concentrating!

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

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Thank you to Chris for bringing this round for a baron rating!

Buy Traquair ales from Tebay Services

Looking forward to baron rating Salopian Automaton ale

We baron rating Salopian's new black IPA 'Vertigo' [baron rating 5/5] a couple of weeks ago and so it was great to see a new strong bottle-conditioned IPA arrive from Salopian decked out in similar clothes to the Vertigo bottle, hope it's as good!

Another great looking bottle

Salopian Brewery

Automaton - 7% IPA hopped with Citra & Saaz

Look out for a 'baron rating' for this Salopian Brewery beer soon, and a big thank you to Jake (@SalopianBrewery) for sending it through to me!

Buy Salopian ales from Holborn Ales

Bridestones American Pale Ale

Not bottle conditioned

Bridestones American Pale Ale [baron rating 4/5] - 5% amber ale,tangerine smell,balanced mild spicy orange squash taste,fruity spicy finish

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

Subscribe in iTunes

Thank you to Dan (@BridestonesBeer) from Bridestones Brewing for sending this through for a baron rating!

Buy Bridestones ales direct

Old Dominion Beach House Golden Pilsner

Not bottle conditioned

Old Dominion Beach House Golden Pilsner [baron rating 4/5] - 5.2% gold beer,grassy lime smell,mild syrupy citrus bitter taste,herbal finish

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

Subscribe in iTunes

Thank you to Gemma (@SlurpBeer) from Slurp for sending this through for a baron rating!

Buy Old Dominion ales from Slurp

Looking forward to baron rating Jack Brand Innovation

Adnams Innovation is one of my favourite beers, it's one that I buy from Adnams quite often and really enjoy it for it's strong sweetish but tropical hoppy punch. Adnams have recently launched their 'Jack Brand' range of keg and bottled beers, giving Adnams an outlet for some smaller runs and more dynamic beers than the more solid regular Adnams range.

Innovation is the first beer they are releasing under the Jack Brand name, this is their normal Innovation but this one is only filtered rather than filtered and pasteurised. Fergus (head brewer of Adnams) has sent a few along for me to try, so I'm going to ensure that we do an audio head-to-head between this and the regular Adnams Innovation.

Lovely embossed label,with a historical & modern twist

Jack Brand Beers

Innovation - 6.7% splendidly hoppy IPA. Boadicea, Columbus and Stryian Goldings combine to give a wonderful grapefruit and tropical fruit aroma and bitterness that is balanced by the sweetness of the barley

Look out for a baron rating for this Jack Brand Beers ale soon, and a big thank you to Fergus (@Solebear) for sending it through to me!

Buy Adnams & Jack Brand ales direct

Tap East Coffee In The Morning

Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation

Tap East Coffee In The Morning [baron rating 5/5] - 5.2% dark brown ale,black coffee smell,sweetish choc coffee taste,bitter coffee finish

Note: This also has a lovely orange oil element in the finish which adds a real interesting aspect to this beer meaning that it's not all just coffee, coffee, coffee.

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

Subscribe in iTunes

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

Buy Tap East ales from Ales By Mail

George Wright Vital

Not bottle conditioned

George Wright Vital [baron rating 5/5] - 5.1% copper ale,lemon & lime smell,spicy citrus aggressive bitter taste,big bitter herbal finish

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

Subscribe in iTunes

Thank you to Shaun (@GWrightsbrewing) from George Wright Brewery for handing this over for a baron rating!

Buy George Wright ales direct and from Source Deli

Stringers Delta V

Not bottle conditioned

Stringers Delta V [baron rating 5/5] - 6.5% copper ale,tropical syrupy caramel smell,zingy bold sweet citrus taste,spicy bittersweet finish

Thank you to George (@BoothsCountry) from Booths for sending this through for a baron rating!

Buy Stringers ales from Booths

Hawkshead (Booths) Festival Ale

Not bottle conditioned

Hawkshead (Booths) Festival Ale [baron rating 5/5] - 4% gold ale,sweet floral smell,zesty bittersweet citrus taste,fruity spicy zingy finish

Thank you to George (@BoothsCountry) from Booths for sending this through for a baron rating!

Buy Booths ales direct

Looking forward to taking part in #BoothsCheers

Booths are an excellent supermarket with stores mainly in Cumbria and their beer selection is second to none. Whenever I see one I have to call in to see what they've got on the shelves, normally spending far to long making my selections whilst the Baroness gets utterly bored.

I was really pleased then when Booths got in touch with me a couple of weeks ago to ask if I would like to be part of their online tasting session called #BoothsCheers. It's tomorrow night starting at 7pm and we are going to be tasting the following drinks:

#BoothsCheers ales

Booths (Hawkshead) Festival Ale - 4% refreshing, pale, hoppy, full-flavoured beer brewed with a blend of modern American and traditional English hops (brewed by Hawkshead to celebrate Booths 2013 Beer and Cider Festival)
Stringers Delta V - 6.5% bright gold, fragrant, strong beer. US and European hops give up an enticing aroma, a satisfying, drinkable body and a lasting bitterness

#BoothsCheers ciders

Dunkertons Browns -7.5% vivacious and complex Medium Dry cider
Orchard Pig Reveller -4.5% medium sparkling cider

Note: I'm not a fan of cider but a friend of mine (Mark) is, so I'll be dropping these round for him to drink and tweet about tomorrow night!

Look out for baron ratings for these Booths beers soon, and a big thank you to George (@BoothsCountry) for sending them through to me!

Buy these drinks from Booths

Anarchy Sublime Chaos

Not bottle conditioned

Anarchy Sublime Chaos [baron rating 5/5] - 7% black ale,liquorice coffee smell,milky astringent coffee taste,choc sauce dark fruit finish

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

Subscribe in iTunes

Thank you to Andrew (@TheAleRoom) from The Ale Room for sending this through for a baron rating!

Buy Anarchy ales from The Ale Room

Salopian Vertigo

Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation

Salopian Vertigo [baron rating 5/5] - 7.2% black ale,green hop resin fruit salad & berry smell,roasted berries choc taste,choc piney finish

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

Subscribe in iTunes

Thank you to Jake (@SalopianBrewery) from Salopian Brewery for sending this through for a baron rating!

Buy Salopian ales from Holborn Ales