Leeds Hellfire

Not bottle conditioned
Leeds Hellfire [baron rating 5/5] - 5.2% pale gold ale,honey citrus smell,sweet honey citrus spicy bitter taste,big peppery bitter finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it

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

Buy Leeds ales from Best of British Beer

Nogne O Saison

Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation
Nogne O Saison [baron rating 4/5] - 6.5% pale gold ale,apple lemon mandarin smell, light fresh slighty sharp honey taste,crisp fruity finish
Buy Nogne O ales from Ales By Mail

Wells Waggle Dance

Not bottle conditioned
Wells Waggle Dance [baron rating 3/5] - 5% copper ale,earthy honey smell,sweet mild honey slightly spicy taste,fruity finish

BrewDog AB:11

Not bottle conditioned (but bloody lovely!)
BrewDog AB:11 [baron rating 5/5] - 12.8% black ale,boozy vinous mocha smell,sweet rich smooth fruity coffee taste,long choc ginger finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it

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Buy BrewDog ales direct

Looking forward to baron rating Stringers West Coast Blond

Stringers are one of my favourite breweries, they brew great tasting ale on cask and in bottle - they have a slowly expanding core bottled range (XB, Dry Stout, IPA & Delta V) as well as doing some special bottle-conditioned batches of stuff like Mutiny amongst others. As well as being great brewers Jon and Becky are also two of the nicest people around!

On Jon's recent trip through Ormskirk he popped by to drop off a sample of their new bottled beer, already one of their regular cask beers - West Coast Blond.

The minimal design is most appealing ;)
Stringers Beer
  • West Coast Blond - "4.4% rich gold(?) Light floral hop, dry, crisp, bitter. Goes with snickers bars"
    description via a tweet from Jon the brewer
Look out for a baron rating for this Stringers beer soon, and a big thank you to Jon (@StringersBeer) for handing it over to me!

Buy Stringers ales from Source Deli

Arbor Brigstow Bitter

Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation
Arbor Brigstow Bitter [baron rating 4/5] - 4.3% copper ale,nutty biscuity faint dark choc smell,classic bitter taste,juicy bitter finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it

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

Buy Arbor ales from Best of British Beer

Green Flash Silva Stout

Not bottle conditioned
Green Flash Silva Stout [baron rating 4/5] - 10.1% black ale,v.boozy choc vanilla smell,creamy rich Baileys taste,boozy choc vanilla finish
Listen to what Chris, Paul, Leigh & the Baron have to say about it

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Thank you to Leigh (@villaBONE) for bringing this back from the states and thanks to Chris Cromwell (@beerquester) for giving it to him to bring for a baron rating!

Hardknott The English Experiment

Bottle conditioned with lively carbonation
Hardknott The English Experiment [baron rating 3/5] - 6% amber ale,boozy sweet nectarine smell,frothy salt caramel taste,burnt bitter finish
Listen to what Chris, Paul, Leigh & the Baron have to say about it

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Thank you to Paul (@SourceDeliPaul) from Source Deli for bringing this for a baron rating!

Buy Hardknott ales from Source Deli

Looking forward to baron rating Adnams Ginger Beer & Sole Star

Two bottles arrived late last week from Adnams, sent from Sarah who I met at the Beer Bloggers Conference in May. Sole Star has been their low ABV offering for a while available on cask and mini-cask but now they have decided to bottle it along with a low ABV ginger beer:

Adnams Brewery
  • Ginger Beer - 2.5% brewed with lime & lemon zest, Adnams ginger beer really is packed full of flavour & refreshment
  • Sole Star - 2.7% pale amber ale, light floral, citrus aroma and gentle caramel notes
Look out for baron ratings for these Adnams Brewery beers soon, and a big thank you to Sarah (@Adnams) for sending them through to me!

Mohawk Summer IPA

Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation
Mohawk Summer IPA [baron rating 4/5] - 6.8% copper ale,sweet tropical resinous smell,syurpy tropical big bitter taste,harsh resinous finish
Thank you to the Night of International Beers for handing this over for a baron rating!

Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous

Not bottle conditioned
Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous [baron rating 5/5] - 8.7% black ale,bovil bakewell tart smell,plum caramalised sugar taste,choc orange finish
Listen to what Chris, Paul, Leigh & the Baron have to say about it

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

Buy Stone ales from Ales By Mail

Fuller's Vintage Ale 2008

Bottle conditioned with suitable carbonation
Fuller's Vintage Ale 2008 [baron rating 4/5] - 8.5% amber ale,sherry port smell,smooth rich tawny port taste,boozy rounded plummy finish
Listen to what Chris, Paul, Leigh & the Baron have to say about it

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Thank you to Bethan and Kelly from Waitrose head office for arranging this for a baron rating!

Goose Island Matilda

Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation
Goose Island Matilda [baron rating 2/5] - 7% copper ale,bubblegum yeasty banana smell,sugary funky bubblegum taste,lingering sweet finish

Orval Orval

Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation
Orval Orval [baron rating 5/5] - 6.2% cloudy copper ale,apple sour red berries funky smell,gentle frothy fruity taste,long mild sour finish

Looking forward to baron rating Beau's Mates with Dates ale

Beautiful embossed bottle with a great label
I get sent a lot of great beer to receive the baron treatment but rarely does the chance to try a beer where there are only four bottles in the country!

I met Alex from ALL BEER close to when I started beer reviewing (on the first #twissup in Sheffield) and I've been using his ALL BEER Flavourmax tasting glasses for my baron ratings ever since (they really are lovely glasses and great for channelling the aromas to the nose).

He got in touch a couple of weeks back to inform me that he'd done a collaboration brew with the Canadian brewery Beau's and would I like to review one of the four bottles in the UK.

I jumped at the chance to try such an exclusive beer and I must say that even the bottle is most impressive.



"Mates with Dates was created in partnership with British brewer Alex Barlow. Mates is a truly experimental offering. The base beer is loosely modeled on an English brown ale. After the first fermentation we added crushed dates, cane sugar, more wort & Trappist Ale yeast to get a second fermentation going. The taste of the dried fruit and spices are delicate but unmistakable in this luscious brown ale"

It's a 7.7% ale in a 600ml bottle, really looking forward to trying this with Chris.

Look out for a baron rating for this Beau's Brewery beer soon, and a big thank you to Alex (@AlexAtAllBeer) for sending it through to me!

Green Jack Flower Power

Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation
Green Jack Flower Power [baron rating 5/5] - 6% gold ale,floral sugary fruit smell,floral spicy pear red cherries taste,sweet bitter finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it

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Thank you to Martin (@GreenJackBrew) from Green Jack brewery for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Green Jack ales direct and from Ales By Mail and myBrewerytap

Bretagne Dremmwel Stout

Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation
Bretagne Dremmwel Stout [baron rating 4/5] - 4% black stout,Bovril dark choc smell,choc roasted liquorice taste,dry slightly sweet finish
Bought from Carrefour near Bénodet whilst camping at the excellent Camping du Letty in Bénodet, Brittany, France.

Dark Star Imperial Stout 2008

Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation
Dark Star Imperial Stout 2008 [baron rating 5/5] - 10.5% black ale,boozy blackberry smell,acidic berries tar smoky taste,liquorice finish
Listen to what Chris, Paul, Leigh & the Baron have to say about it

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Thank you to James (@DarkStarBrewCo) from Dark Star Brewery for handing this over for a baron rating!

Buy Dark Star ales direct or from Ales By Mail

Looking forward to baron rating Great Newsome ales

A lovely little gift pack arrived on Wednesday from Great Newsome Brewery, I've been following them on Twitter (@greatnewsome) for a while but I've never seen their ales around in the North West and I'm not sure they are available online either (well other than buying a case direct from the brewery).


Great Newsome Brewery
  • Harvest's Gold - 4.7% premium golden ale,First Gold & Goldings provide orange fruit notes with a crisp finish
  • Jem's Stout - 4.3% traditional deep dark stout with tones of roasted malts and liquorice
  • Pricky Back Otchan - 4.2% hoppy light amber ale with a slightly citrus bitterness and a hint of floral nose
  • Sleck Dust - 3.8% thirst quenching light refreshing session ale, with floral notes and a slightly dry finish

Nice looking gift pack with consistent branding
Look out for baron ratings for these Great Newsome Brewery beers soon, and a big thank you to Matthew (@greatnewsome) for sending them through to me!

Buy Great Newsome ales direct

Looking forward to baron rating Blueball Brewery ales

Chester is one of those cities which is close to Ormskirk but I never go there, no reason why not either, it just doesn't crop up when we are looking for places to go. I was there for a evening out with the Baroness a couple of weeks ago so I put some feelers out on Twitter to find where we should go for some post-food drinks.

@jamesbwxm came to my aid to suggest a few watering holes in Chester, one of them being Kash Bar.

Not only is it a pretty cool bar but it's also the brewery tap for Blueball Brewery and on this particular evening Alex the head brewer was serving behind the bar.

The Baron & Blueball Alex
I got to try quite a few of their excellent ales on tap at the bar (they were all really good) and had a nice long chat with Alex (@blueballbrewery) as well about his time brewing in the states (you can tell that when you taste his beers - nice big bold flavours with lots of hops!).

He was also extremely kind and handed over a few bottles for some baron ratings:




  • Danni's Darkside - 4.8% dark lager, blend of 7 malts & German hops gives a crisp yet moreish taste
  • Kitty von Maibock - 4.5% Mai Bock, our take on a German classic,lager and Vienna malts with 3 German hops gives a crisp clean taste
  • White Betty - 8% Belgium gold, 8 malts with 4 hop additions,packed full of corriander, orange and love!
  • Zeppelin - 5.5% hefeweizen, a salute to the classic German wheat beer, bitter sweet with a complex array of spice and fruit undertones
Cool t-shirt as well!
  • Spank (500ml bottle conditioned) - 6% industrial IPA, amber in colour, both hoppy & malty with a balanced bitterness and dry finish
  • Spank (330ml filtered & carbonated) - 6% IPA, same as above really ;)
It's going to be really interesting baron rating these two side-by-side to see how the components of the beer are affected by the bottling technique, not done this type of experiment before!

Look out for baron ratings for these Blueball Brewery beers soon, and a big thank you to Alex (@blueballbrewery) for handing them over to me!

Buy Blueball ales direct and from Kash Bar

Hardknott Cool Fusion

Bottle conditioned with lively carbonation
Hardknott Cool Fusion [baron rating 3/5] - 4.4% gold ale,crystallised ginger citrus smell,fresh ginger bitter taste,tingly pithy dry finish
Listen to what Chris, Paul, Leigh & the Baron have to say about it

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Thank you to Paul (@SourceDeliPaul) from Source Deli for bringing this for a baron rating!

Buy Hardknott ales from Source Deli