Looking forward to baron rating Mallinsons single hopped ales

Mallinsons have been very kind to the baron in the past and dropped off a selection of their fine ales as they were passing through Ormskirk. Tara got in touch with me last week to be saying that they would be passing through at the weekend so she would drop off some of their new single hopped ales including a bottle of Stella:

The Mallinsons branded glass is awesome, I love the fluted shape it's really comfy to hold and looks much more stylish than a regular pint pot. There was also a tshirt for me and in my size as well! (medium if anyone else is interested in sending me branded clothing...)

Mallinsons Brewing Company

• Bramling Cross - 3.8% golden ale with light blackcurrant fruit nose. Bitter fruity light blackcurrant taste and a fruity tart finish
• Brewers Gold - 3.8% golden ale with a fruity fresh hop aroma,hoppy bitter citrus taste & finish
• Citra - 3.9% very pale ale,amazing grapefruit & light mango nose,bitter hoppy citrus taste with a bitter grapefruit & light passion fruit finish
• Eye Pea Ay - 5% very pale blonde ale with a citrus hop aroma,tart bitter taste & a long lemon citrus finish (note: not part of the single hop range)
• Stella - 4% very pale blonde ale with hoppy floral notes and a slight spiciness on the nose. Taste is bitter & hoppy with a bitter, dry finish

I don't think there's any need to write my baron ratings other than provide the score as Tara has done a great job of describing these beers already! I really like it when brewers describe the flavours you should get from the ale rather than just putting "a tasty refreshing balanced ale"...

Look out for 'baron ratings' for these Mallinsons beers soon, and a big thank you to Tara (@Mallinsons) from Mallinsons Brewery for handing these over to me!

Buy Mallinsons ales from Source Deli & myBrewerytap

Looking forward to baron rating Green Jack Mahseer IPA

I've baron rated a number of Green Jack brewery ales so far and have been impressed with most of them in particular their Canary Pale Ale and Baltic Trader Export Stout. They recently tweeted that they were bottling their Mahseer IPA and so I just had to try it! A couple of days later some samples of it arrived plus a lovely present:

Green Jack Brewery

• Mahseer IPA - 5% IPA heavily hopped with English bittering hops & aroma hops from the USA

Look out for a 'baron rating' for this Green Jack Brewery beer, and a big thank you to @GreenJackBrew for sending it through to me!

Buy Green Jack ales here

Looking forward to baron rating Magic Rock ales

I've been a big fan of myBrewerytap for a while now, both being a paying customer as well as receiving sample bottles and a free subscription to their excellent 52 week beer club. When Richard mentioned that he was starting a brewery I was very excited for him - Magic Rock Brewing Company is the result.

He shared images of the brewery being built, early branding designs as well as finished pumpclips and bottle labels so it's very exciting to be able to gain some samples of the finished product:

Magic Rock Brewing Company

• Cannonball - 7.4% IPA, tropically fruity resinous hops compete against a sweet malt backbone & rasping bitterness
• High Wire - 5.5% West Coast Pale Ale, mango, lychee & lip-smacking grapefruit with a crisp bitter finish
• Rapture - 4.6% Red Hop Ale, uplifting aromas of grapefruit & pine combine with pithy orange against a rich & malty body

These look & sound excellent and I can't wait to try them. I think I also have a new favourite drinking glass for when I'm not baron rating with the All Beer Flavourmax one!

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

Buy Magic Rock ales here

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

A big thank you to Alex at ALL BEER

Last week I broke my 'baron rating' tasting glass and I was pretty gutted to say the least. Luckily Alex from ALL BEER (the guy who gave the glass to me in the first place) got in touch and after a few emails I placed an order for six ALL BEER tasting glasses.

This all sounds quite dull really until I say that I had the email conversation with him on Monday afternoon and the glasses arrived by Tuesday lunchtime!

Thanks again Alex, my 'baron ratings' can now resume...

My new classy glassy Abbot Ale tankard

Greene King have been running a free glass tankard offer over the past few months on bottled Abbot Ale [baron rating 5/5]. 13 bottle tops, £2, & six weeks later, this arrived on my doorstep:

 

Which contained this little engraved beauty:

Check out the lettering under the Abbot symbol... ;)

A Baron's eye view of the ALL BEER Flavourmax glass

At the recent Sheffield #twissup I was fortunate to receive a complementary tasting glass from Alex of ALL BEER.

This tulip-shaped glass has a thick heavy base and stem making it nice and steady as well as removing the fear that you might twist off the bottom whilst drying it up!

The bowled shape allows you to fill the glass a third full of ale and then give it a decent swirl, activating the head and releasing a good amount of aroma.

The top is wide enough to be able to get your nose in the glass whilst sipping the beer without it being too big and wasting those all important smells & aromas.

It has a cool hop emblem in the bottom of the glass which provides a nucleation point to focus the release of the carbonation in the beer and thus intensifying the aroma further.
 
To top it all off it also comes in a funky (& strong) cardboard tube making it very handy for mobile baron ratings!


Ever since Alex kindly gave me this glass I've been using it for all my bottled ale samplings; I must say it really does work very well indeed, allowing me to recognise smells & aromas more easily.  It's made of crystal and so has a 'good' weight to the glass and just feels nice to hold and drink from.

The glass is part of the ALL BEER Experience Pack which comes with the following items:

• The ALL BEER Guidebook

• FLAVOURMAX™ Glass

• Barley & malt sachets

• Hop aroma cards

A number of reviews of the ALL BEER Experience Pack have been published recently:

• Jeff Evans from Inside Beer

• Alastair Gilmour from JournalLive

A big thank you again to Alex for providing the fantastic Flavourmax tasting glass, I'm going to be using this glass from now on for all my baron ratings!

Buy the ALL BEER Experience Pack here