Showing posts with label innis and gunn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label innis and gunn. Show all posts

Live beer blogging at #ebbc13




A number of breweries running around tables of beer bloggers - pouring, introducing and explaining their beer in just a few minutes whilst the bloggers frantically write up their findings? What could possibly go wrong...

Birra Toccalmatto Surfing Hop

@Toccalmatto
8.5% American double IPA but using Belguim malt and US hops, syrupy fleshy fruit smell, rich resinous taste like a hoppy barley wine, rich long finish, really really good [baron rating 5/5]


Inveralmond Blackfriar

@InveralmondBeer
7% dark amber ale, plummy dark fruity eatery taste, balanced easy to drink, nice finish [baron rating 4/5]




Harviestoun Ola Dubh 30

@HarviestounBrew
11.3% chocolate dark cherry vinous smell, choc whisky smooth taste, cherry whisky finish [baron rating 5/5]

Shepherd Neame Brilliant Ale

@ShepherdNeame
5.6% golden ale, buttery citrus slight floral smell, balanced drinkable citrus fruity taste, clean finish [baron rating 4/5]


WEST St Mungo

@WestBeer
4.9% gold lager, their only bottled ale. Grassy herbal smell, crisp biscuity with a touch of basil? taste, clean finish [bron rating 4/5]


Ilkley The Mayan

@IlkleyBrewery
6.5% chocolate chipotle stout, very dark brown ale, Bornville chocolate smell, balanced chocolate touch of coffee taste, long choc mild green chilli finish [baron rating 5/5]





Badger The Roaming Roy Dog

@BadgerAles
7.5% bottle conditioned unpasterised ale, vineous berries, dark fruits sweet vinous taste, long fruity warming spicy finish [baron rating 5/5]


Traquair Jacobite Ale

@TraquairHouse
8% dark brown ale, chocolate smell, fruity complex taste [baron rating 5/5]





Innis and Gunn Oloroso Cask

@InnisandGunnUK
7.4% scotch ale, copper/gold ale, sweet fruity vanilla smell, full flavoured sweetish spicy slight herbal taste, short creamy clean finish [baron rating 3/5]


Innis & Gunn Blonde

Innis & Gunn Blonde [baron rating 2/5] - 6% copper ale,cinnamon & vanilla smell,sweet fruity vanilla taste,sticky fruity vanilla finish

Note: Not bottle conditioned

Morrisons March ale & beer offers (28th February - 20th March 2011)

 It's March's new beer & ale offers time in Morrisons so I popped into the local Ormskirk branch last week to check them out. (sorry they are late!)

Here are the details:
Not a great deal on offer this month but I couldn't help but pick up a few bottles of Brains SA Gold - I really like this beer as an unfussy unthinking ale which has a lovely citrusy bittersweet taste.

Waitrose October ale & beer offers - part 2 (13th October - 3rd November 2010)

Waitrose have an amazing second batch of ale offers for October, their PR staff informed me ahead of time what this month's offers are:

Beer Showcase - Buy 2 for £3 on the following beers:

  • Bath Dark Hare normally £1.84
  • Bath GEM normally £1.99
  • Bath Wild Hare normally £1.95
  • Brains Dark normally £1.85
  • Brains Reverend James normally £1.81
  • Brains SA Gold normally £1.89
  • Duchy Originals Old Ruby Ale normally £1.99
  • Fuller's 1845 normally £2.36
  • Fuller's Chiswick Bitter [baron rating coming soon] normally £1.80
  • Fuller's Golden Pride normally £2.59
  • Fuller's London Porter [baron rating coming soon] normally £2.05
  • Fuller's Organic Honey Dew normally £1.92
  • Greene King Suffolk Springer normally £2.14
  • Greene King Very Special IPA [baron rating coming soon] normally £1.99
  • Hook Norton Double Stout normally £1.99
  • Hook Norton Twelve Days normally £1.94
  • Ringwood Fortyniner normally £1.92
  • Skinners Bitter Betty Stogs normally £1.85
  • Skinners Bitter Cornish Knocker normally £1.85
  • Skinners Bitter Heligan Honey normally £1.85
  • St Austell Admirals Ale normally £2.04 - £1.50
  • St. Peter's Fruit beer - Grapefruit normally £1.94
  • St. Peter's Golden Ale normally £1.84
  • St. Peter's Mild normally £1.62
  • St. Peter's Old Style Porter normally £1.85
  • St. Peter's Ruby Red Ale normally £1.85
  • Thwaites Flying Shuttle normally £2.12
An excellent selection of offers, I can't even imagine which ones I'm going to stock up on yet!

Waitrose July ale & beer offers (7th June - 27th July 2010)

It's July's new beer & ale offers time in Waitrose, their PR staff have informed me ahead of time what this month's ale offers are:
  • Innis & Gunn Oak Aged [baron rating 1/5]
  • 2x750ml bottles: £5 instead of £6.90
  • Marston's Classic Ales
  • 12x500ml bottles: £15.19 instead of £18.99
  • Badger Sett
  • 4x500ml bottles: £5.51 instead of £6.89
  • Harviestoun Bitter and Twisted
  • £1.56 instead of £1.95
  • Greene King Very Special IPA
  • 355ml bottle: £1.59 instead of £1.99

Waitrose June ale & beer offers (9th June - 6th July 2010)

It's June's new beer & ale offers time in Waitrose, their PR staff have informed me ahead of time what this month's ale offers are:
  • St. Peter's Golden Ale
  • £1.38 instead of £1.84
  • Skinners Bitter Betty Stogs
  • £1.48 instead of £1.85
  • Skinners Bitter Heligan Honey
  • £1.48 instead of £1.85
  • Skinners Bitter Cornish Knocker
  • £1.48 instead of £1.85
  • Marston's Head Brewers Choice
  • 4x 500ml bottles: £5.08 instead of £6.40
  • Fuller's Organic Honey Dew
  • £1.56 instead of £1.95

Innis & Gunn Blonde for 89p a bottle in B&M Bargains (Ormskirk)

B&M Bargains in Ormskirk has 330ml bottles of Innis & Gunn Blonde (lightly oaked beer) for just 89p each, best before date is June 2010

Innis & Gunn Rum Cask Oak-Aged Beer

Innis & Gunn Rum Cask Oak-Aged Beer [baron rating 2/5] - this 7.4% ale had a glazed fruit aroma, smooth sweet taste & clinging sweet finish

Note: I tried the regular Innis & Gunn Oak-Aged Beer back in September and didn't enjoy it at all.  I think both of these scores are low for these carefully brewed ales because I don't like sweet fruity beers & I can't stand even the hint of spirits.

I therefore shared the the above bottle of Innis & Gunn Rum Cask Oak-Aged Beer with a friend and he rated it 4/5 - he really enjoyed the smoothness considering the high ABV and said that it didn't have the same 'sherry trifle bitterness' that the regular Innis & Gunn Oak-Aged Beer had.


Cheers to the Source deli in Ormskirk for providing the bottle - thanks Paul!

Asda's latest ale offers ( 6th Oct - 16th Nov)

Looks like Asda have extended their '4 for £5' beer deal since the last time I reported. They now appear to have 26 different bottled ales - each bottle working out at £1.25 (this is an 'acceptable' baron price for beer - anything cheaper than £1.33 is candidate for the baron, although the aim is £1 or less).

The 26 beers are:
  • Black Sheep Ale
  • Black Sheep Riggwelter
  • Nethergate Old Growler
  • Robinsons Old Tom 
  • St. Austell Tribute
  • Wells Banana Bread Beer
  • Wells Bombardier Satanic Mills
 Overall this is quite a good selection at not a bad price, with quite a few beers in the 3+ baron rating - check it out and report back!

Asda's latest ale offers (6th Oct - 19th Oct) (Aintree)

Apart from spotting a couple of ales still at £1 a bottle I also noticed that Asda have just started a new '4 for £5' ale offer (£1.25/bottle) which covers the following beers:
  • Jennings Sneck Lifter [baron rating coming soon]
  • Shepherd Neame Celebration 1698 [baron rating coming soon]
  • Theakston Old Peculiar [baron rating coming soon]
I picked up some Celebration 1698 & Old Peculiar as these still require baron ratings, would have picked up some more Old Empire[5/5] too but I have enough beer in stock at the mo!

This offer appears to be on until the 19th Oct and only started this week. It reminds me of the old Morrisons offer of '4 for £5' which when it was increased in price to £5.50 caused the baron to start hunting out cheap quality ale, but that's a story for another day...

Innis & Gunn Oak-Aged Beer

Innis & Gunn Oak-Aged Beer [baron rating 1/5] - this 6.6% strong ale has a nasty spirity sweet vanilla taste, poured half down the sink!

Details of Asda's great premium ale discount

I popped into Asda (Aintree) today to find some excellent ale discounts (reading via Twitter? click this link for more: http://bit.ly/lWEZz)

They have a massive number of quality ales at £1/bottle and they had loads of stock (I bought 56 bottles for myself and a couple of friends), below is the full list included in the offer, all bottles are 500ml unless otherwise stated:
  • Guinness Original (330ml)
  • McEwans No.1 Champion
I picked up a load of Tanglefoot, Spitfire and OSH along with one sample bottle of Innis &Gun, Newcastle Brown Ale, St. Peter's and Bombardier. They will be sampled over the next few days to see if they are worth stocking up on - expect Baron Ratings soon.

I also noticed that the Tanglefoot bottles had a cardboard bottle collar indicating that if you play an online game you get 50p off a future Badger ale purchase.  I've played the game a few times & now have a number of vouchers so I'll see if I can use them against the already reduced Tanglefoot.  If it works then the Tanglefoot is going to end up at effectively 50p/bottle... Now that would make the Baron very very happy!