Ossett Yorkshire Blonde

Ossett Yorkshire Blonde [baron rating 4/5] - 4.5% gold ale,caramel floral smell,crisp caramel slight white grape taste,dry nice sharp finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Thank you to Paul from AlesByMail for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Ossett ales here

Adnams Explorer

Adnams Explorer [baron rating 4/5] - 5% copper ale,floral citrus smell,slight floral bittersweet balanced taste,slightly sweet finish

Buy Adnams ale here

Stringers Dry Stout

Stringers Dry Stout [baron rating 5/5] - 4.5% black ale,choc aroma,fresh citrus creamy milky roasted bitter taste,slightly smoky finish

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Thank you to Jon from Stringers Beer for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Stringers ales here

Morrisons February ale & beer offers (24th January - 27th February 2011)

It's February's new beer & ale offers time in Morrisons (or rather it was last week) so I popped into the local Ormskirk branch yesterday to check them out.

Here are the details:
  • Ringwood Boondoggle
    £1.25 instead of £1.75
Most of this month's offers are within the 'baron bargain' price range (£1.30 or less), if I was in a beer-buying mood I'd probably go for some Fursty Ferret & Tanglefoot. I did notice that unlike other months, Ormskirk Morrisons had full shelves for each of the ales on offer so at least if you like the ale on offer you've a chance of actually buying some!

Marston's VSOP

Marston's VSOP [baron rating 3/5] - 6.7% copper ale,sweet vanilla pungent hops smell,caramel spicy vanilla taste,oaky sweet dry finish

Shepherd Neame Master Brew

Shepherd Neame Master Brew [baron rating 4/5] - 4% amber ale,pungent floral apple smell,zingy apple skin bitter taste,toffee sour finish

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Thank you to Rachel from Shepherd Neame for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Shepherd Neame ales here

Looking forward to 'baron rating' Sharp's ales very soon!

There was a discussion on twitter a couple of weeks ago about Sharp's Chalky's Bark & Bite and I mentioned that I'd not tried it. @SharpsBrewery promptly got in touch and asked if I would like to try some. Well it would have been rude to refuse such a polite and generous offer and so four bottles of finely crafted Sharp's Brewery ales arrived yesterday:


Sharp's Brewery
  • Atlantic IPA - 4.8% crisp light golden beer with a superb dry finish
  • Chalky's Bark - 4.5% classic aged beer naturally flavoured with fresh ginger
  • Chalky's Bite - 6.8% classic aged beer naturally flavoured with wild Cornish fennel
  • Eden Pure Ale- 4.5% "nice amber body, great natural taste" via RateBeer
Look out for 'baron ratings' for these Sharp's Brewery beers soon, and a big thank you to @SharpsBrewery from Sharp's for sending these through to me!

Buy Sharp's ales here

BrewDog Punk IPA

BrewDog Punk IPA [baron rating 5/5] - 6% gold ale,pithy grapefruit smell,sweet grapefruit pithy very bitter taste,dry very bitter finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


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 BrewDog ales here or here

The Otley bar runner is installed

A lovely rubber-backed bar runner was sent to me courtesy of Otley Brewing Company last week and I knew the perfect home for it. My tasting buddy @Christopher_R has a cocktail bar area in his house and I thought this would look pretty good.



Chris 'installed' the Otley bar runner this weekend and sent me a couple of shots of the finished bar:


I think it looks pretty smart and it's a perfect fit too! Thanks again to Otley Brewing Company.

Buy Otley ales here

St Austell Admiral's Ale

St Austell Admiral's Ale [baron rating 5/5] - 5% dark amber ale,citrus cinnamon smell,peppery fruitcake taste,spicy juicy toffee finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Thank you to @StAustellBrew from St Austell for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy St Austell ales here

Prospect Big John

Prospect Big John [baron rating 4/5] - 4.8% black ale,roasted choc smell,smooth licorice smoky roasted bitter taste,dry smoky bitter finish

Buy Prospect ales here

Bristol Beer Factory Gold

Bristol Beer Factory Gold [baron rating 5/5] - 5% gold ale,toffee citrus smell,chewy citrus sweet toffee taste,long bitter finish


Thank you to @BrisBeerFactory from Bristol Beer Factory for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Bristol Beer Factory ales here

Courage Directors

Courage Directors [baron rating 3/5] - 4.8% amber ale,raisin aroma,balanced fruity juicy bitter taste,long tangy mild metallic bitter finish

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


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

Looking forward to 'baron rating' Otley ales very soon!

Otley Brewing Company got in touch with me earlier this week to see if I would like to try some Otley ales and two days later a lovely big box arrived.

Inside the expertly packaged box I found not only six finely coloured bottles of Otley beer but also some extra freebies (I like freebies!). There was a booklet about the beers & brewery, an Otley-branded pint pot, a bottle opener, beer coaster and a superb Otley rubber bar runner!



The bottles are quite unique in that they not only have the normal crown caps but also have a coloured plastic wrapper the same as you would find on most bottles of wine. It means that the necks of the bottles stand out quite a bit compared to other bottled ales.

One thing that I did find strange was that there were no details on the bottle about what type of beer it was (I got the descriptions below from the rather handy information booklet).  Is this intentional?

Otley Brewing Company

  • O1 - 4% pale straw colour ale with heavy hop aromas
  • O6 PORTER - 6.6% old style porter with a deep & full flavour
  • O8 - 8% pale golden ale,hoppy aromas & good bitterness
  • O4 COLOMB-O - 4% very pale golden ale packed with American Columbus hops
  • O-GARDEN - 4.8% clear wheat beer spiced with orange peel,coriander & cloves
  • O-HO-HO - 5% full bodied bitter with a generous infusion of blueberries
Look out for 'baron ratings' for these Otley Brewing Company beers soon, and a big thank you to @OtleyBrewingCo from Otley for sending these through to me!

Buy Otley ales here

Odell 5 Barrel Pale Ale

Odell 5 Barrel Pale Ale [baron rating 4/5] - 5.2% copper ale,sweet tangerine smell,biscuity fresh bittersweet citrus taste,tangerine finish

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

Buy Odell ales here

Wold Top Wolds Way

Wold Top Wolds Way [baron rating 4/5] - 3.6% gold ale,citrus aroma,crisp bittersweet taste,long bitter pithy finish


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

Buy Wold Top ales here

Fyne Vital Spark

Fyne Vital Spark [baron rating 5/5] - 4.4% ruby ale,blackcurrant roasted smell,tart blackcurrant bitter burnt taste,very dry smoky finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Thank you to Elaine from Fyne Ales for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Fyne Ales here

Baron on Tour: Bushy's

Back in October I was lucky enough to meet Martin the owner of Bushy's Brewery from the Isle of Man, at the Great Northern Beer Festival. We chatted about all sorts of things (beer does that to me!) and he ended up offering to run a brewery tour for me and a few pals when I'm over on the Isle of Man next.

In early December I was travelling to the Isle of Man on business so I got in touch with Martin, and true to his word a brewery tour was arranged one evening for myself and five colleagues. Martin opened up especially and was there to greet us in the rain as we arrived on a rather wet and cold December evening.

He quickly ushered us into the small bar area where he cracked open some bottles of Bushy's Bitter (a great amber bitter with that classic nutty bitter taste) and then took us on a tour of the brewery. We started off in the grain room where Martin said they they only use three types of Maris Otter malt, pale, crystal & chocolate. All their malt comes from Warminster Maltings in Wiltshire. We got to taste a bit of each type of crushed malt and then he moved onto the hops.

The have to use hop pellets at Bushy's due to the equipment they have and he listed most of the hops that they use: Cascade, Challenger, First Gold, Fuggles & Styrian Goldings. They 'burtonise' their water to give it that familiar mineral content but I wonder what their beers would taste like with Manx water? Maybe a mix of the two could be used depending on the beer type?

We then moved into the brewing room where Martin explained that he started brewing in 1986 on basically a large home brew kit in the basement of the pub that he was running. They now run a 10 barrel plant getting through 8 25kg bags of malted barley a day - most of it brewed to make cask Bushy's Bitter, a 3.8% quaffer of an ale.

In 1990 they moved to their current location and their yeast was originally from Thwaites but has now mutated (in a good way) that much that it's now unique to Bushy's. Some of their strain of yeast is now stored in a yeast bank - think sperm bank for brewers. He ran through the brewing process saying how they normally do 3-4 brews a week but in preparation for the TT Race, they brew 7 or more times a week - well over a quarter of their ale consumption is done during those two racing weeks!

They bought their brewing equipment from the liquidating Phoenix Brewing in Brighton (the brewery is now a student hall of residence) and got it for a tenth of the price. It's an all-in-one brew kit, like a tower brewery just all in old big piece of stainless steel. It's not a piece of kit I've seen before. Martin mentioned that very few were made and he now knows why! (their head brewer Curly is not fond of it as it's quite restrictive in what it can do).

The beer legend Michael Jackson opened the new brewery and Martin said it was very tough trying to get anywhere in the brewing business for the first five years but things picked up each year and now they are doing just fine!

Martin then moved us through to the conditioning room where row upon row of little tanks sat there doing their job. Martin poured out some samples of Bushy's Bitter direct from the tank whilst talking about cooling the beer down to make the yeast drop down into the conical part at the bottom of the fermenting vessel. They leave the beer around 3-4 days in the tank before cooling it to kill fermentation and drop some of the yeast.

(Watch Martin pouring Bushy's Bitter & talking about yeast)


After some talk about putting beer into casks, how that tap a cask and talk of finings were we led back into the bar area for more bottles (Martin had been topping us up all the way round the tour - what a gentleman!).


He talked about the famous Bushy's Ale van which has spent some time at Beaulieu as well as where the name Bushy's came from.



See the stuffed fox in the photo? That's "Bushy" and it he was a mascot of Mount Murray Brewery when it was suggested that the brewery change name and be called Bushy's instead.

I was also able to snap martin reading a section from Enid Blyton's Bushy the Fox - complete coincidence but fantastic none the less.

I asked what their strongest beer was and Martin said that their Christmas beer 'Humbug' was 5% and 'Lovely Jubbly' was 5.2% (we got to try Humbug in the pub near the brewery and it was an excellent Xmas ale, spicy but easy to drink - I had two!). They used to brew their own lager and have all the pressurised kit to do it but haven't for a while now.

Bushy's Bitter is the only beer that they bottle and they get Thwaites in Blackburn to contract bottle it for them. It's stronger than the cask Bushy's (3.8%) being 4.5% in bottled form. It's a very nice bottled bitter (probably would score a [baron rating 4/5]) but you can't buy it here as it's all shipped back to the Isle of Man.

Martin then pulled out something rather special, some small 330ml coke bottles with some experimental brews that he had been playing with. This one was an Orval-inspired ale which was unlabelled, unfined and sat around 4.5%. It had a gentle floral aroma and good interesting taste. Martin mentioned that he was interested in doing some hand-bottling for these small batch brews as it wasn't worth sending it 'over the water' to get it professionally bottled at Thwaites.

That pretty much concluded the personal tour, and myself and all my colleagues would like to thank Martin for taking the time out of his evening to open up, show us round, feed us drinks and entertain us for a good couple of hours - Martin, you are a star!

Odell 90 Shilling

Odell 90 Shilling [baron rating 4/5] - 5.3% dark amber ale,roasted fruit smell,sweet caramel toasted malt taste,toasted malt finish


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

Buy Odell ales here

Isle of Purbeck Harry's Harvest Pale Ale

Isle of Purbeck Harry's Harvest Pale Ale [baron rating 4/5] - 5% copper ale,tangerine smell,creamy peppery citrus taste,bitter spicy finish

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


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

Looking forward to 'baron rating' Kernel ales very soon!

As I mentioned on my previous post about receiving a box of AlesByMail's latest website additions, there were some bottles in there that Paul got me for my birthday.

These were from the Kernel Brewery, a brewery I've heard so much great talk about on twitter and numerous blogs, so I was very excited when I opened up the box and saw such a great selection of Kernel's ales (see the unboxing video here).


Kernel Brewery
  • Black IPA - 6.8% big hoppy aroma over easy drinking dark body
  • Export Stout - 7.8% rich dried fruit with hints of rum and raisin, herbal hop bitterness on top of huge lingering espresso
  • Pale Ale (Bravo/Apollo) - 5.2% "sweet piney orange with a dash of grapefruit." (RateBeer)
  • Porter - 6.8% "roasty, dry, chocolatey and just a hint of roasted fruit sharpness - smooth, very drinkable" (Mark Dredge)
  • S.C.C.A.NS IPA- 7.5% hopped with Apollo, Simcoe, Columbus, Chinook and Nelson Sauvin for a good hit of fruit over a refined malt body
Look out for 'baron ratings' for these  @KernelBrewery beers soon, and a big thank you to Paul from AlesByMail for sending these through to me!

BrewDog Nanny State

BrewDog Nanny State [baron rating 1/5] - 0.5% dark amber ale,resinous hoppy smell,unsweetened pine floorboards taste,bitter resin finish

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


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

Buy BrewDog ales here or here

Looking forward to 'baron rating' these AlesByMail ales very soon!

Paul from AlesByMail mentioned a week or so ago that he was collecting together some of the newer stock on his AlesByMail website to send through for Baron Ratings. Well I knew the beers had arrived as I saw the courier struggling to carry the box down the drive on Thursday.

Paul mentioned that there was some stuff that he doesn't stock but bought for me as he knew it was my birthday soon (I'll cover these rather special birthday beers in a separate post).

Watch Chris & I unbox the latest AlesByMail beers:


Video recorded on Chris's excellent new camera, the Panasonic LX5

Here are the details of the breweries and beers in the box:


Green Jack Brewery
  • Baltic Trader - 10.5% export stout
  • Orange Wheat Beer - 4.2% citrus & marmalade flavours
  • Ripper - 8.5% sweet & fruity barley wine
  • Trawlerboys Best Bitter - 4.6% dark copper-coloured bitter

Hopshackle Brewery
  • Extra Special Bitter - 4.8% dark amber beer, malty-fruit,caramel & bitter hops
  • Hop and Spicey - 5% dark brown beer,fruit cake with a long complex spicy finish
Ilkley Brewery
  • Ilkley Gold - 3.9% light refreshing golden ale
  • Lotus IPA - 5.6% strong true India Pale Ale
  • Mary Jane - 3.5% crisp and pale with a citrus aroma

Kelham Island Brewery
  • Easy Rider - 4.3% blonde full-bodied ale
  • Pale Rider - 5.2% hop resins, piny citrus notes & sappy malt
  • Pride Of Sheffield - 4% full flavoured amber bitter
  • Riders On The Storm - 4.5% bitter hoppy pale ale

Ossett Brewery
  • Excelsior - 5.2% pale & well hopped with citrus notes
  • Treacle Stout - 5% rich & robust stout with coffee flavours
  • Yorkshire Blonde - 4.5% pale gold ale,full-bodied & rounded
Pitfield's Brewery
  • 1792 Imperial Stout - 9.3% dark, powerful, rich textured beer
  • Eco Warrior - 4.5% light coloured,citrus, mild bitter flavour
Look out for 'baron ratings' for these AlesByMail beers soon, and a big thank you to Paul from AlesByMail for sending these through to me!

Buy all these ales here

Bristol Beer Factory Milk Stout

Bristol Beer Factory Milk Stout [baron rating 5/5] - 4.5% black ale,choc smoky coffee smell,smooth creamy caramel taste,coconut cream finish

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Thank you to @BrisBeerFactory from Bristol Beer Factory for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Bristol Beer Factory ales here

Stringers IPA

Stringers IPA [baron rating 5/5] - 5.5% amber ale,sweet resinous citrus smell,sweet marmalade bitter taste,very bitter orange peel finish

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Thank you to Jon from Stringers Beer for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Stringers ales here

Odell Isolation Ale

Odell Isolation Ale [baron rating 3/5] - 6.1% dark amber ale,savoury herb smell,sweet medicinal syrupy taste,slight medicinal peppery finish

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


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

Buy Odell ales here

St Austell Clouded Yellow

St Austell Clouded Yellow [baron rating 2/5] - 4.8% cloudy gold ale,banana & cloves smell,sugary spicy herbal taste,medicinal clovey finish

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Thank you to @StAustellBrew from St Austell for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy St Austell ales here

Christmas Day was 'sponsored' by Shepherd Neame Christmas Ale


Shepherd Neame's Christmas Ale [baron rating 5/5] was our clear winner in the Christmas Beers with The Ormskirk Baron video special. Well thanks to the kind folks at Shepherd Neame our Christmas wish of drinking their Christmas Ale with our turkey dinner came true as Shepherd Neame very kindly sent some more bottles through for us to enjoy on Christmas Day.






I can honestly say that this beer worked very well with the 'turkey & all the trimmings' roast that we had, as well as the spicy fruitiness of the ale standing up well against the rich Christmas pudding.




It also worked perfectly as a beer to enjoy whilst open presents later that afternoon!

This beer is already on my shopping list for next Christmas, if you see a bottle of Shepherd Neame Christmas Ale, buy it and let me know what you think!

Buy Shepherd Neame ales here

Crouch Vale Willie Warmer

Crouch Vale Willie Warmer [baron rating 3/5] - 6.4% black ale,sweet blackberry smell,plummy very sweet taste,fruity burnt raisin finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Thank you to Paul from AlesByMail for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Crouch Vale ales here

Looking forward to 'baron rating' Purbeck ales very soon!

Six bottles of Isle of Purbeck Brewery bottles arrived today in perfect condition and they look excellent. I was talking to @PurbeckBrewery before Christmas about their new season harvest ale (Harry's Harvest Pale Ale) and he kindly offered to send some to me. I've heard some good things about these beers from @TheBeerBunker so I'm looking forward to getting stuck in!


Isle of Purbeck Brewery
  • Best Bitter - 3.6% classic draft bitter
  • Fossil Fuel - 4.1% traditional best bitter
  • Harry's Harvest Pale Ale - 5% 'new season hop' beer
  • Purbeck IPA - 4.8% premium India Pale Ale style beer
  • Solar Power - 4.3% lager-style ale
  • Studland Bay Wrecked - 4.5% ale inspired by amber & Scottish ales
Look out for a 'baron rating' for these Isle of Purbeck beers soon, and a big thank you to Mike from @PurbeckBrewery for sending them through to me!

Fyne Highlander

Fyne Highlander [baron rating 4/5] - 4.8% amber ale,citrus tangerine aroma,balanced caramel bitter taste,bitter lacking sweetness finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Thank you to Elaine from Fyne Ales for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

This was also part of the winter 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 Fyne Ales here

Morrisons January ale & beer offers (3rd January - 23rd January 2011)

It's January's new beer & ale offers time in Morrisons (or rather it was last week) so I popped into the local Ormskirk branch today to check them out.

Here are the details:
  • Marston's The Ashes
  • £1 (guest ale)

I bought a bottle of the Master Brew as it's not a bad tipple at all,nothing to fancy and very "Shepherd Neame" but nice none the less. I didn't bother with Marston's The Ashes brew as it looked almost identical to their Victorious Ale [baron rating 1/5] which wasn't very nice at all!

RCH Ale Mary

RCH Ale Mary [baron rating 1/5] - 6% copper ale,sweet yeasty smell,cloves yeasty slight ginger taste,tart lemony finish (massive head!)

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


This was from 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 RCH ales here

Hook Norton Double Stout

Hook Norton Double Stout [baron rating 5/5] - 4.8% black ale,smoky choc smell,dark roasted choc & banana taste,slight sweet smoky finish

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


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

Buy Hook Norton ales here

Looking forward to 'baron rating' Thwaites Old Dan ale very soon!

Thwaites got in touch recently asking if I would like to try their 'work in progress' ale called 'Old Dan'. It's a 7.8% bottled conditioned chestnut rich ale brewed as a modern take on the Old Dan recipe. The label design is excellent made to look like aged paper with typewriter font as well as all sorts of brewing info.

It's very refreshing to see a reasonably large brewer like Thwaites trying (and sharing) their new ideas, another good example of this is their new Signature Range of seasonal beers for 2011. Great looking pumpclips, some pretty bold ABVs and some pretty interesting recipes.



Look out for a 'baron rating' for this Thwaites beer soon, and a big thank you to @Daniel_Thwaites for sending it through to me!

BrewDog Zeitgeist

BrewDog Zeitgeist [baron rating 4/5] - 4.9% black ale,smoky blackcurrant smell,bitter roasted slightly tart berries taste,smoky berry finish

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes



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

This was also part of the winter 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 BrewDog ales here or here