Atlantic Earl Grey PA

Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation

Atlantic Earl Grey PA [baron rating 3/5] - 4.5% copper ale,cold tea smell,perfumed tangarine bit thin taste,slight peppery finish Baron Orm

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Thank you to Paul Kruzycki from Ales By Mail for sending me their Craft Beer Advent Calendar 2015.

Buy Atlantic ales from Ales By Mail

Atlantic Fistral

Atlantic Fistral [baron rating 1/5] - 5.2% completely flat gold ale,slight fruity spicy aroma,citrus mild tangy taste,dry tangy finish Baron Orm

I've not been overly impressed with the four Atlantic beers that I've 'baron rating' - their bottle-conditioning seems very hit & miss and most of the time results in a cloudy but completely flat ale. If this is 'real ale' then I don't want it!

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

Buy Atlantic ales here

Atlantic Blue

Atlantic Blue [baron rating 1/5] - 4.8% dark ruby ale,chocolate smell,slightly sweet thin watery chocolatey taste,slightly chocolatey 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 Paul from AlesByMail for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Atlantic ales here

Atlantic Gold

Atlantic Gold [baron rating 3/5] - 4.6% copper ale,root ginger aroma,thin balanced slighty sweet taste,slight tingly ginger finishBaron Orm

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

This was from the summer 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 Atlantic ales here

Looking forward to 'baron rating' more AlesByMail ales soon!

I received an amazing heavy box of ale today from Paul at AlesByMail, twenty four different bottles to 'baron rate'! Check out the packaging (and the two Eat Natural bars!):

Look at them all, peeping out at me!

The box contained the following:

• Atlantic Blue - 4.8% rich porter

• Atlantic Fistral - 5.2% strong smooth & dry premium beer

• Bavik-De Brabandere Petrus Blond - 6.6% blond beer

• Het Anker Gouden Carolus Ambrio - 6% belgian beer

• Het Anker Maneblusser - 8% belgian beer

• Conwy Rampart -4.5% premium bitter

• Crouch Vale Brewers Gold - 4% pale hoppy beer

• Crouch Vale Essex Boys - 4% best bitter

• Crouch Vale FPA - 5.9% fine pale ale

• Crouch Vale Willie Warmer - 6.4% strong dark ale

• Downton Chimera Dark Delight - 6% complex dark ale

• Downton Chimera IPA - 7% india pale ale

• Hobsons Town Crier - 4.5% crisp golden ale

• Itchen Valley Wat Tyler - 5% dark brown hoppy ale

• Laverstoke Park Real Ale - 5% organic ale

• Laverstoke Park Real Lager - 4.5% organic lager

• Leek Dark Peak Ale - 9% strong stout

• Meantime Chocolate - 6.5% chocolate beer

• Meantime London Pale Ale - 4.3% pale ale

• Orkney Dragonhead - 4% stout

• Penlon Torwen - 4.5% dark fruit beer

• Titanic Captain Smiths - 5.2% red-brown full-bodied beer

• Wentworth Oyster Stout - 4.8% full bodied oyster stout

• Wentworth Rampant Gryphon - 6.2% strong pale ale

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!

myBrewerytap's summer selection of the '52 week beer club'

Chris & I have been a member of myBrewerytap's 52 week beer club since December and so our third quarter's pack arrived a few weeks ago. Due to a 'beer backlog' I've only just found the time to blog about it's contents now, so sorry for the delay!

The box arrived in excellent condition (as always) and the first thing that I noticed was that the box was bigger than previous quarters - it could withstand a missile strike & not disturb the yeast sediment!

Inside there were 13 bottles of ale, some tasting notes and a large bag of Q pork scratchings (award winning ones at that!).

• Acorn Conquest

• Atlantic Gold

• Belvoir Melton Red

• Best Mates Vicar's Daughter

• Cotleigh Barn Owl

• Derventio Emperor's Whim

• Felinfoel Stout

• Hidden Old Sarum

• Oakleaf Hole Hearted

• Ossett Excelsior [baron rating 5/5]

• RCH Pitchfork

• Potton Shambles

• Wold Top Wold Gold

An excellent looking pack full of crisp, hoppy summer ales - a perfect match for the summer pack! I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into these beers over the coming weeks.

If you are not already a member of the "52 week beer club" I would suggest you sign up - just don't forget to say that "the baron made me do it!" ;)

Looking forward to 'baron rating' Brooklyn & Goose Island ales very soon!

This quarter's myBrewerytap '52 Week Beer Club' arrived last week (a blog post about that is to follow soon) with a cracking selection of ales in it - most of them lovely sounding summer ales.  I was looking forward to trying the Atlantic Gold after enjoying their Red back in the first club pack but was surprised to see the Gold replaced with the Red.

After a quick twitter conversation with Richard from myBrewerytap he confirmed that it had gone in by mistake and that he would immediately send out a bottle of the Atlantic Gold.  Not only did the replacement bottle arrived very quickly, but Richard also excelled himself and popped a few 'extras' in the box:

• Atlantic Gold

• Brooklyn Lager

• Brooklyn East India Pale Ale

• Goose Island Honker's Ale

• Goose Island India Pale Ale [baron rating 5/5]

• Marble Manchester Bitter

The Brooklyn & Goose Island ales are part of myBrewerytap's new 'world beers' range - these USA beers are highly regarded and make excellent additions to myBrewerytap's already extensive selection.  The Marble Manchester Bitter is an absolute beauty, I've been wanting to 're-rate' it ever since I found out from Dom & Colin of Marble that they have changed it slightly.

Look out for 'baron ratings' for these myBrewerytap beers soon, and a big thank you to Richard from myBrewerytap for sending these through to me!

Reviews of the first 7 ales of myBrewerytap's 52 Week Beer Club (December pack)

Chris Routledge & I joined myBrewerytap's 52 Week Beer Club in December and so we received our first quarter's ales a few weeks ago.  We decided to split the tasting of the 13 bottled ales into two sessions, the first of which was on Wednesday last week.

We tried seven of the thirteen ales and focused mainly on the bitters, leaving the pale ales for the second tasting.  Here are links to the seven ales that we've 'baron rated':

• Atlantic Red [baron rating 4/5 ♫]

• Dent Aviator [baron rating 3/5]

• Leatherbritches CAD [baron rating 3/5 ♫]

• Leyden Raglan Sleeve [baron rating 3/5]

• Sam Brook's Wandle [baron rating 3/5]

• Three Castles Saxon Archer [baron rating 4/5] 

• Wensleydale Gamekeeper [baron rating 4/5 ♫]   

The bottle of Gamekeeper was our favourite of the night (not quite a 5/5 though) and the Raglan Sleeve our least favourite (but still a good ale).

Overall we were very impressed with not a single bottle below a [3/5] which was surprising to us both.  We are both really looking forward to getting stuck into the remaining six bottles in a few weeks time.

 We also recorded the first few bottles-worth of conversation as an experiment, please let me know if it was interesting/funny/informative and you want to hear more from Chris & I in future tasting sessions:

Atlantic Red

Atlantic Red [baron rating 4/5] - this 5% amber ale has a pale malt aroma,crisp light apple hops taste & dry bitter finish - very drinkable!Baron Orm

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

Part of the superb '52 week beer club' by myBrewerytap
join it now and make sure you say "the baron made me do it"!

Buy Atlantic ales here