Review: Booze: October 2006 Archives

Various beers, see text

(This review was prepared based on sketchy notes made on 2006-09-30, expanded 2006-10-29.)

Primus: Anchor Steam Bitter, Anchor Brewing Co., San Francisco

Importer: James Clay & Sons, Elland.
Strength: 4.8%
Form: 355ml bottle
Price: £1.65 (Nelson Wines, South Wimbledon)

While this beer does not specifically call me to scream from the rafters, it is an accomplished and quite drinkable bitter that the British really should take note of. I would have had a second had I not just drunk the last.

Rating: 7 out of 10
Reviewed: 2006-10-29

Secondus: Rhatas, Black Dog Brewery/Hambleton Ales, North Yorkshire
Strength: 4.6%
Form: 500ml bottle
Price: £2.15 (Nelson Wines, South Wimbledon)

This is a somewhast cloying bitter and completely unexciting as British bitters go, where the bottom of the bottle failed to arrive soon enough. While I'd happily drink one, a second is out of the question.

Rating: 5 out of 10
Reviewed: 2006-10-29

Tertius: Coffee Meantime Beer, Meantime Brewing Co., London.

Strength: 4.0%
Form: 330ml bottle
Price: £1.69 (Nelson Wines, South Wimbledon)

Why not just give me crack and be done with it? I love coffee. The thick creamy coffee flavour is just oozing from the head even before I hit the beer. The actual underlying beer is hard to taste - a bit sticky and probably not worth bothering with if it wasn't coffee-flavoured - but that's not really the main feature of the beer. I would most happily drink a second, and probably a third.

(And gosh, a drinkable London beer? Can this be so?)

Rating: 9 out of 10
Reviewed: 2006-10-29

Quartus: Delirium Tremens, Brasserie Huyghe Brewery, Belgium

Strength: 8.5%
Form: 330ml bottle
Price: £2.29 (Nelson Wines, South Wimbledon)

This is a rather famous beer, bought on that basis. It turns out to be overly sweet for my liking as many strong beers are, and thus I lose the subtleties it might have. It certainly doesn't taste 8.5%. While a perfectly good beer, it's just not me.

Rating: Unfair to give a score, 7 out of 10 if you insist.
Reviewed: 2006-10-29

Chili Beer
Cave Creek, Australia

Importer: Pierhead Purchasing Ltd., Belvedere
Strength: 4.5% ABV
Form: 375ml bottle
Price: £1.40 (Nelson Wines, South Wimbledon)

As a chaser to the Cooper's Stout, we have this stuff.

No head on pouring, but a good bitter colour, albeit the colour of a flat pint.

Sipping it, all I can taste is offensively-strong chili. I love chili, but while this is not enough for a British Curry or chili, it overpowering and just too much in a beer. It is, in fact, destined for the drain.

Attempting to taste through the chili, I'm not detecting a good beer. Nasty reminders of VB show through. No bloody wonder they went for dumping a chili in there to take the taste away. One should at least be thankful that only the chili, and not the beer, hits you.

A rather fun novelty, but just completely fails to work due to the heat and no decent beer behind it.

Rating: Unfair to give a score, but 4 out of 10 if you insist.
Reviewed: 2006-10-29

Best Extra Stout
Cooper Brewery, Australia

Importer: Pierhead Purchasing Ltd., Belvedere
Strength: 6.3% ABV
Form: 375ml bottle
Price: £1.49 (Nelson Wines, South Wimbledon)

This one isn't being reviewed to the usual standards, I'm afraid. The warmup (which, given the lack of actual food in the flat, is also called “breakfast”) was three doubles of Bombay Sapphire and Schweppes tonic. So, I'm perhaps not entirely 100% to start with. The palate wanted something different, and this was selected at random from the random booze stash. Well picked, intuition. (To clarify, it was 1pm, rather than 9am. British slobs getting up in the afternoon, I don't know...)

This was cracked open with Psycho Bottle Opener which lifted the cap clean away. This doesn't bode well. It was poured into the dregs of the Bombay Sapphire, i.e. a few half-melted icecubes that were dampened with gin. A rather encouraging brown foamy head formed, although it dissipated fairly quickly.

I don't have much faith in Ozzie beer. An Ozzie of my acquaintance tells me that British Fosters is much more drinkable than Australian Fosters, which is impressive given that British Fosters is corrosive undrinkable shite. A previous review of VB confirmed that they couldn't brew beer if their life depended on it.

... and then there's this stuff.

This one leaves me with a bit of a dilemma. While I'm quite convinced that Australia can only brew piss and good old Blighty is the only place that can make drinkable beer, this one's not actually all that bad. Unlike VB, that claims to be a bitter but is some sort of piss-poor lager that pissed-up British lager louts would quite rightly avoid, this is indeed a stout. And “Best” is fair game.

Your Humble Narrator's palate is already sufficiently tainted to be able to do it justice, but it is quite happily hitting the spot and I fear that when the bottom of the glass is hit, I will be mourning its loss. Its more-ishness is, well, more-ish.

That it's 6.3% may have something to do with it. But it's still quite drinkable. The British refererence - Guinness, never mind that it's Irish - is complete shite in comparison. (Well, actually, it's complete shite, full stop.) I also have a soft spot for stout and will pick it in preference to unknown bitters. Coopers Best Extra Stout actually matches British stouts.

I salute you, Australia. You've finally proven you can make something not only quite drinkable, but even more-ish.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

Reviewed: 2006-10-29