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

Some beers arrived this week at Baron Towers that I've not seen around before, four select bottles sent through from Warwickshire Beer Co.:


Warwickshire Beer Co.
  • Duck Soup - 4.2% copper ale with Fuggles & Bobek hops.
  • Kingmaker - 5.5% rich fruity beer,overtones of whisky, orange & dark chocolate
  • Lady Godiva - 4.2% aromatic golden ale,slightly sweet biscuity malt taste with lingering bitterness
  • Shakespeare's County - 5% easy drinking ale,slightly spicy,delicately floral,great straight from the fridge
Look out for 'baron ratings' for these Warwickshire Beer Co. beers soon, and a big thank you to @WarksBeerCo from Warwickshire Beer Co. for sending these through to me!

Fyne Piper's Gold

Fyne Piper's Gold [baron rating 4/5] - 3.8% pale gold ale,light zesty citrus smell,light sharp bitter lemons taste,grapefruit lemony finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Note: Not bottle conditioned

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

Buy Fyne Ales here

Sharp's Chalky's Bite

Sharp's Chalky's Bite [baron rating 3/5] - 6.8% gold ale,tangerine smell,grassy sweet floral slightly yeasty smell,fresh clean floral finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Note: Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation

Thank you to @SharpsBrewery from Sharp's for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Sharp's ales here

Wadworth Swordfish

Wadworth Swordfish [baron rating 3/5] - 5% dark amber ale,sweet fruity smell,rounded raisins toffee slight rum taste,mild rum fruity finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Note: Not bottle conditioned

Thank you to @Wadworth from Wadworth Brewery for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Wadworth ales here

Williams Bros Ceilidh

Williams Bros Ceilidh [baron rating 4/5] - 4.7% pale gold lager,slight floral citrus smell,floral sweet sweetcorn taste,mild floral finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


also available in a lovely 330ml bottle
Note: Not bottle conditioned

Thank you to Williams Bros. for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Williams Bros ales here and here

Ilkley Mary Jane

Ilkley Mary Jane [baron rating 3/5] - 3.5% pale gold ale,citrus caramel smell,light crisp grapefruit mainly melon taste,watery bitter finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Note: There is a baron-exclusive AlesByMail discount code off any order offered in the audio, it expires in just under 2 weeks of this review's date so take a listen and place your order now!

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Note: Not bottle conditioned

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

Buy Ilkley ales here

Morrisons April ale & beer offers (21st March - 17th April 2011)

It's Aprils new beer & ale offers time in Morrisons so I popped into the local Ormskirk branch this week to check them out.

Here are the details:
The Adnams Broadside [baron rating 5/5] is probably the best offer on, I've not tried a few of these but there was nothing that was forcing me to buy it!

Details of myBrewerytap's 52 week beer club (Spring 2011)

The Spring box of myBrewerytap's excellent "52 week beer club" arrived this week, here are the details of what's in the box as well as an unboxing video:

Here's the Hollywood trailer of the Baron Unboxing video:


Special thanks to Chris for taking the time to produce this awesome hollywood-style trailer!

  • Bays Gold - 4.3% light golden ale with lemon citrus overtones
  • Breconshire Rescue Brew - 4% amber bitter with a hoppy aroma & lingering bitterness
  • Brentwood Brentwood Gold - 4.3% rich golden beer fruity hops with a great finish
  • Fyne Jarl [baron rating 5/5] - 3.8% hoppy blond session ale with strong citrus flavours
  • Inveralmond Lia Fail - 4.7% Scottish dark beer,rich & spicy aroma,full bodied taste
  • McMullen AK XXX - 4.1% rich brown ale with balanced maltiness & subtle bitterness
  • Oakham Citra - 4.6% light refreshing beer, pungent grapefruit,lychees & gooseberry aromas & dry bitter finish
  • Saffron Saffron IPA - 3.6% light copper ale with hints of toffee & malty flavours
Watch Chris & I unbox the latest myBrewerytap beers:


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

Thank you to Richard from myBrewerytap for the complementary membership to the club, I really enjoyed being a paying member of it last year and so far it looks like it's going to be even better!

Join it now and make sure you say the baron made me do it!

Ilkley Lotus IPA

Ilkley Lotus IPA [baron rating 5/5] - 5.6% copper ale,tropical fruit resinous smell,resinous bitter mango fruity taste,fruity bitter finish
Note: There is a baron-exclusive AlesByMail discount code off any order offered in the audio, it expires in just under 2 weeks of this review's date so take a listen and place your order now!

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Note: Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation

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

Buy Ilkley ales here

Kelham Island Pale Rider

Kelham Island Pale Rider [baron rating 4/5] - 5.2% copper ale,candied aroma,citrus chewy pine resin taste,sticky pine clean bitter finish

Note: There is a baron-exclusive AlesByMail discount code off any order offered in the audio, it expires in just under 2 weeks of this review's date so take a listen and place your order now!

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Note: Not bottle conditioned

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

Buy Kelham Island ales here

Fyne Hurricane Jack

Fyne Hurricane Jack [baron rating 5/5] - 4.4% pale gold ale,citrus smell,bitter pithy lemon & grapefruit taste,citrus dry bitter finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Note: Not bottle conditioned

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

Buy Fyne Ales here and here

Green Jack Orange Wheat Beer

Green Jack Orange Wheat Beer [baron rating 3/5] - 4.2% copper ale,spicy marmalade smell,slightly sweet orange taste,juicy orange finish


Note: Not bottle conditioned

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

Buy Green Jack ales here

Bristol Beer Factory Southville Hop

Bristol Beer Factory Southville Hop [baron rating 5/5] - 6.5% amber ale,big tropical fruit smell,sweet fruity taste,huge pithy bitter finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Note: Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation

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

Buy Bristol Beer Factory ales here

Baron on Tour: Hawkshead

Last Thursday a mate & I attended the grand opening of the Hawkshead Brewery Tap in Stavley. We got the train there from Windermere (£2.80 return) and from the platform you can see the estate where Hawkshead are based.












After a short five minute walk from the station we were greeted by the brand new impressive glass fronted building that is the new brewery tap, also check out the Hawkshead branded articulated trailer next to it - wouldn't mind that dropping off some beer at Baron Towers!


The brewery tap is just part of their £250,000 project to increase Hawkshead's brewing capacity by 80% as well as to create an excellent bar stocking plenty of cask and world bottled ales.

We were greeted by Katie who is the retail manager for Hawkshead, and two pints of Windermere Pale were poured for us. It's an absolute cracker - a low 3.5% ale which drinks way above it's strength, massive tropical smell, bittersweet biting bitter taste and a long lasting pithy finish. The new bar is very impressive, light wood and chrome give it a very classy look.

As we were enjoying the Windermere Pale, samples of their 'Beer Tapas' menu were being handed around so on the first pass we got to try warm pork pies and mini fish & chips - both of them were excellent and nicely paired for beer drinking.

As the glasses ran empty it was time to try another cask-only ale, Citrillo - a 5% pale ale hops with at least Citra & Amarillo. It was chewier than Windermere Pale with a lovely sweet resinous quality about it - another excellent Hawkshead ale, I could see this working nicely in bottles.


More food came round at this point, sticky sausages on sticks which were a bit of a nightmare as they were so sticky they left bits stuck firmly in your teeth - not great when you are meeting new people for the first time! Freshly cooked scotch eggs sliced into wedges also circled the room, a plate of these were left within reach so I enjoyed quite a few segments!

It was then time for the official grand opening - a short speech from Hawkshead owner Alex Brodie was followed by speeches from Keith Bott of SIBA & Tim Farron (local MP and chairman of the Lib Dems). The ribbon was cut, the press took their photos and applause was heard and then the bar was open again.

I played my wildcard next and prompted for a half of the 8.5% Brodie's Prime Reserve 2011. My reasoning? I was still fairly sober and so would treat this beast of a beer with the respect that it commands as well as being able to fully appreciate the effort and hard work that had go into brewing it. I wasn't let down - big whisky aromas and tastes,similar to a barley wine in it's sweetness and mouthfeel with a lovely spirity chocolate finish.



This is a very well crafted beer - at that ABV it could have just colapsed into a malty sweet mess but it has such poise that it was a pleasure to have been able to sample on cask (only two exist and one of those is left to age some more).


At this point we met up with Jeff Pickthall, Richard from myBrewerytap/Magic Rock Brewery as well as Dave & Ann (and Sooty) from Hardknott Brewery.

The excellent SIBA "proud of beer" video was then shown on a large screen in the upstairs bar to a full room (and it was an optional activity!) and then Alex, Keith and Tim raised various points about beer duty, taxation & pub closures.

Next was some Brodie's Prime - black, silky smooth with a lovely dark chocolate bitterness, I think the cask version trumped over the bottled one. Matt (brewery manager and head brewer) then hunted us down to take us, Jeff & the Hardknotts on a personal brewery tour starting off upstairs in the malt store.

They use a combination of Fawcetts & muntons malts, I spotted bags of chocolate,vienna,wheat,caramalt & crystal malt. The malt hopper is on the first floor making it very easy to add the malt to the mash tun.

Everything was stainless steel but one thing I've not seen before on my limited brewery tours was this panel full of outlets. With the use of a few horseshoe-style connectors you can manage the flow of the liquid all the way through the entire brewing process - from the look of the photo it appears that Hardknott Dave would like it!

The warehouse full of casks & bottles ready to be delivered was very impressive - I'm wondering if Matt would mind me camping overnight in there sometime ;)

We also got to see not only the Bladnoch whisky cask that Brodie's Prime Reserve was aged in but also his self-made bottle filling system (for the reserve) utilising a Becks Vier tap!

They have their own Hawkshead strain of yeast now, managed by BrewLab which is re-cultured between brews. I also grabbed a quick snap of there 'hop store' (read as a few shelves on the wall).





Once the tour was finished we rejoined everyone else to find that the Hawkshead Winter Beer Festival had started without us so we had to make up for lost time!

I got to try:
  • Marble Utility IPA - 5.7%,nice sweetness with a resinous american IPA quality
  • Thornbridge Kipling - tropical and lovely as ever
  • Marble Stout - lovely black half of smoothness
  • Fyne Ales Jarl - 3.8%,excellent pale ale,similar to Windermere Pale without the long lasting bitterness
  • Stringers Yellow Lorry - 4%,very nice pale ale
  • Red Bull Terrier (on Jeff Pickthall's teary recommendation) - nice caramel bitter ale
  • Hercule Stout - 9% bottle conditioned Belgium Stout on Jeff Pickthall's recommendation (I think I bought this as I was getting a bit drunk as I normally stay well clear of Belgium stuff - my palate doesn't appreciate them yet)
We left to get the 9:30 train back to Windermere and both my mate & I had a great time. I would like to say a massive thank you to Hawkshead Brewery for inviting us along to the grand opening and being so generous with their ales & food.

I would also like to say thanks to Matt for being so welcoming, the personal tour around the brewery as well as the complimentary bottle of Brodie's Prime Reserve 2011 - I'm really looking forward to baron rating this one!




Buy Hawkshead ales here and here or here

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

I got a tweet from @HardknottDave on Sunday morning saying they were thinking of coming down to Ormskirk to visit @SourceDeli to see if they would like to stock any Hardknott bottled ales. He asked if I'd like to meet them there so on Sunday afternoon I popped down to Source Deli for a coffee & a join a chat with Dave & Ann and Paul from Source Deli.

I was lucky enough to be involved in trying some of Hardknott's newest arrivals - the 27 year and 28 year whisky aged stouts called Aether Blaec 2010.

We tried the 27 year version which Ann said was more punchy than the 28 version, it was lovely - such a fine blend of strong spirity aromas, delicious smooth stout followed by a nice oaky finish. I can't stand spirits in any form and most cask-aged beers are wasted on me but Aether Blaec 2010 was superb!

As I left Dave offered a few bottles for baron ratings so here are the details:


Hardknott Brewery
  • Aether Blaec 2010 (27 year) - 7.2% stout aged in a 27 year old Speyside whisky cask
  • Aether Blaec 2010 (28 year) - 7.7% stout aged in a 28 year old Speyside whisky cask
  • Granite 2010 - 10.1% barley wine style beer
  • Infra Red - 6.5% deep ruby red IPA hopped with American hops
We baron rated the 2009 versions of these beers here and found them all to be of a consistantly high quality, Dave certainly knows what he's doing when it comes to bottling strong beers:
 Look out for a 'baron rating' for these Hardknott beers soon, and a big thank you to Dave and Ann from Hardknott for kindly handing thems over to me!

Buy Hardknott ales here and here

Wensleydale Black Dub

Wensleydale Black Dub [baron rating 2/5] - 4.4% black ale,choc smell,thin mild smoky slightly sour bitter taste,creamy slightly sour finish

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Note: Not bottle conditioned

This was 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 Wensleydale ales here

Otley O-Garden

Otley O-Garden [baron rating 4/5] - 4.8% gold ale,floral orange smell,floral citrus mild cloves taste,pithy citrus then toffee cloves finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Note: Bottle conditioned with perfect carbonation

Thank you to @OtleyBrewingCo from Otley for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Otley ales here

Looking forward to 'baron rating' Hawkshead Brodie's Prime Reserve 2011 very soon!

I was luck enough to have be invited to the grand opening of the Hawkshead Brewery Tap this Thursday (which will be getting it's own full write-up very soon).

Apart from sampling some excellent Hawkshead ales such as Windermere Pale and Citrillo I was also very lucky to be given a bottle of the limited edition Brodie's Prime Reserve 2011:


Hawkshead Brewery
  • Brodie's Prime Reserve 2011 - 8.5% extra strength Brodie's Prime then reserved to mature for six months in oak Bladnoch whisky barrels.
I got to try one of only two casks of this when I was there on Thursday and I must say it's a massive beer. The whisky is clearly evident but so nicely refined with the taste of Brodie's Prime. It was a beer to sip & savour, hope the bottled form is as enjoyable!

Look out for 'baron ratings' for this Hawkshead beer soon, and a big thank you to @mattHawkshead from Hawkshead for handing it over to me!

Brewster's Pale Ale

Brewster's Pale Ale [baron rating 5/5] - 5% gold ale,floral orange smell,instantly bitter grapefruit taste,zingy resinous bitter finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Note: Not bottle conditioned

Thank you to @BrewsterRich and @BrewsterSara from Brewster's for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Williams Bros 80/-

Williams Bros 80/- [baron rating 4/5] - 4.2% ruby ale,toffee sultana smell,fruity dark toffee taste,singed raisin & sultana finish

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Note: Not bottle conditioned

This was 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 Williams Bros ales here

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

Brewster's brewery have been very kind to the Baron this week by sending some lovely looking little bottles through, check out the great labels on these:


Brewster's Brewery
  • Pale Ale - 5% fresh crisp blond ale,floral hop aroma,citrus grapefruit flavours & final crisp finish
  • Porter - 5.5% dark rich beer,roast malt aromas,rich hop flavours & dark chocolate finish
Look out for 'baron ratings' for these Brewster's beers soon, and a big thank you to @BrewsterRich and @BrewsterSara from Brewster's for sending these through to me!

Isle of Purbeck Fossil Fuel

Isle of Purbeck Fossil Fuel [baron rating 3/5] - 4.1% amber ale,dried fruit aroma,mild bittersweet juicy raisins taste,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


Note: Bottle conditioned with dull carbonation

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

Green Jack Trawlerboys Best Bitter

Green Jack Trawlerboys Best Bitter [baron rating 4/5] - 4.6% amber ale,ground spice aroma,caramel english bitter taste,fruity 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 Paul from AlesByMail for sending this through for a 'baron rating'!

Buy Green Jack ales here

Langham Hip Hop

Langham Hip Hop [baron rating 3/5] - 4% gold ale,floral citrus aroma,light (thin) honey slight floral taste,slight sweet bitter finish

Note: Not bottle conditioned

Moor Revival

Moor Revival [baron rating 3/5] - 4% copper unlively ale,spicy citrus smell,clean spicy citrus taste,lasting juicy slightly sour finish
Note: This has promise to be a truely excellent beer but out of the two bottles that I bought, both seriously lacked in the mouthfeel - it wasn't flat but the condition meant that it wasn't very interesting - see the photo for what it was like.

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

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Note: Bottle conditioned with dull carbonation

Lancaster Blonde

Lancaster Blonde [baron rating 3/5] - 4.1% gold ale,caramel biscuity smell,sweet lemon citrus taste,dry sweet finish


Note: Not bottle conditioned

Shepherd Neame Spitfire

Shepherd Neame Spitfire [baron rating 4/5] - 4.5% amber ale,fruity toffee smell,crisp fruity harsh bitter taste,slight sweet fruity finish
Listen to what Chris and the Baron have to say about it.

Download flash to hear the audio review

Subscribe in iTunes


Note: Not bottle conditioned

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

Buy Shepherd Neame ales here