British

I was looking for something simple to drink tonight. I need a night off from big, complex beers. I found this bottle of Oxfordshire Ales Pride of Oxford in the basement fridge and decided to see what they're so proud about. This beer comes in fairly simple looking bottle. It has a black and blue label with a picture of central Oxford on it. The beer pours pretty light and has a huge head. It smell like a mediocre Pale Ale, I'm hoping that's just because I've been spoiled with such amazing beer in the past two months.

Ah, Hobgoblin... the beer David Cameron presented to Obama earlier this year. This beer always struck me as a bit of a novelty. It's brewed by Wychwood, a fairly well regarded English brewery. When I first got into craft beer I lumped this beer into the same pile as Monty Python's Holy Grail Ale as beers I just didn't take seriously. It took a while but I finally bought a bottle of Hobgoblin just to see what it was like. To my surprise this beer was actually quite good. That was about four years ago, my tastes have changed and I've found myself to be in possession of another bottle of Hobgoblin. Let's see if anything has changed...

Everyone seems to love Fuller's London Porter, so I decided to try it out. I've seen it on the shelf many times at the store but never felt compelled to pick up a bottle. Anyway, I've finally come into possession of a bottle of London Porter and I'm kicking myself for not picking it up sooner. If you've had a proper Porter style beer before then you've got an idea of what to expect from the Fuller's. It's definitely dark, roasty and creamy. When I poured this beer into my pint glass I noticed there was a bit of vanilla and caramel in the aroma. These aren't scents which are terribly rare in the world of Porters, but they usually foreshadow a great drinking experience.

Harvey & Son's Imperial Extra Double Stout is a pretty intimidating beer. Just look at that name! If this didn't have an official Tsarist seal on the label I'd figure it was a poorly translated Japanese import along the lines of "Ultra Super Happy Mega Fun Time Stout." Actually, this beer has a pretty impressive history dating back to the early 19th century. Le Coq, the original brewer of this beer, won a contract to brew for the Russian Royal Family after gaining notoriety for gifting generous amounts of stout to injured Russian soldiers during the Crimean War. This beer was commissioned by Tsar Nicholas in 1912 and was brewed in Estonia. As you can imagine, World War I and the Bolsheviks put an end to this decadent bourgeois beer. What makes this beer so special that it's been resurrected after 90 years?

For a beer as dark as this Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout is really quite well balanced. Pouring this into a pint glass the first thing you'll notice is that this beer is pretty much pitch black. As the glass fills up you'll see the head go from a dark brown color to an off white creme color. You'd be forgiven if you expected this beer to be a bitter mess of chalky or burnt malted grain. Sam Smith's beers are usually a pleasantly mellow surprise, and this is no exception. Despite being darker than dark, this beer has a pretty mellow flavor profile. You will notice the bitter component stand out a bit, but that's just part of being a Stout. Looking past the bitterness you'll notice a faintly sweet caramel note and hints of dark chocolate. All in all, this is a pleasant dark beer. Definitely a Stout you can drink before the thermometer falls below sixty. This is worth picking up but it may bore the more adventurous dark beer drinkers.

I'm still a little unclear as to why I was so excited about Samuel Smith's new organic fruit ale series. I'm not particularly crazy about fruit beers, though there are a few that I've really enjoyed. Also, of all the fruits to choose from, I'm not confident that apple, strawberry or cherry are particularly good flavors for beer. That certainly doesn't mean an apple or cherry beer couldn't be exceptionally well done, but it just seems like the deck is stacked against them. So for some reason, despite all of my reservations, I did pick up a bottle of the Organic Strawberry Ale a few weeks back. I thought now might be a good time to finally open it up since it's now mid-August and strawberries aren't something I'll be eager to drink after Halloween when the temperature drops into the twenties. Here's what I thought about this beer...

Wells' Banana Bread Beer isn't as unique as it sounds. The beer smells and tastes like a Wit at first. There is quite a bit more banana flavor than a Wit but the similarities are unmistakable. This beer isn't labeled as a banana flavored ale, it's marketed as a "Banana Bread Beer" and it does fall short there. Unlike the fruit beers I've had before, this beer doesn't start with a wheat base. It's more of a farmhouse style malty beer with a bit more body then a wheat. Perhaps this is what they meant by banana bread... but for me, banana bread shouldn't taste like banana taffy. That doesn't mean this isn't a good beer - far from it. Wells has a good product here. They managed to take a beer, brew it with bananas and create something that isn't a Wit. If the beer tasted the same but weren't brewed with actual bananas (ie the flavor came from the yeast) I might appreciate it more as a new take on the Belgian classic... But this beer isn't that, it's a banana fruit beer plain and simple. Is that a bad thing? Not if you like bananas. Personally, they aren't my favorite, but I can appreciate what Wells did here.