BEER REVIEW: 45

BREWER: Camden Town Brewery, North London, England

STYLE: Lager

ABV: 4.6%

VESSEL: 330ml brown bottle 

DATE POSTED: 17th August 2018

 

SAMMY SAY’S…

Think craft lagers and it’s almost certain that Camden’s Hells will be one of the first to spring to mind, if not the very first.  So is it deserved of that reputation?

The pilsner notes first appear on the nose, which isn’t unappealing, especially for a lager (which at times can be indistinctive at best and at worst, nasty).  As you gulp down the first sip, those pilsner notes quickly pack a punch on the taste buds and you are left in no doubt that Hells is most definitely a lager with pilsner origins.  But what’s clever about this lager, is that if you don’t like the pilsner brewing, it doesn’t mean you won’t like this.  And that’s because the initial hit is followed by sweeter larger notes, which wash away the original pilsner punch.  The problem is that the end result is very confused…

It all comes wrapped up in that very distinctive packaging which is distinctively from the Camden Town Brewery, which in turn is distinctively London.

Hells seems to know what it is from the outside but gets lost once untethered from its strong branding and, dare I say it, gets lost. So, here we have a beer that is good…but not great.  It doesn’t have its foot firmly in any one camp and it’s a little lost as to where it should be.  I know I’m going against a tide of popularity here – but that’s the way it is!

Sammy’s Rating: 71%

 

JYMI SAY’S…

Camden Town Brewery let me take my hat off to you. Not necessarily for the beer (as I’ve not actually opened it yet) and not for the look of the bottle, as I don’t particularly like it if I’m honest.  But for the name…

For months I’ve had reviewing this beer in the back of my head. The review was going to start with what on earth is this name all about then?? Helles is spelt Helles not Hells! And can it even be a Helles if it’s brewed in flippin North London?? If it is trying to be a Helles why is it misspelt?!! And if it’s not a Helles, it’s pretty misleading don’t you think CamBrew?? Huh, huh??!!

Then I read the label.

It’s a Helles / Pilsner hybrid, hence HELLS…. Brilliant, just brilliant!

Right, time to lift that lid… I am actually excited now.

Powerful yet light, flavoursome yet dry.. A very nice lager.

Now normally a lager that is weighing in at less than 5% I’m wary of. It’s not that I want that strong hit as such it’s just historically if it is less than 5% it just doesn’t taste that great (with the odd exception of course). CH is only 4.6% but has the flavour of something between 5 and 6%. It’s great, it really is.

Starting off a scorching hot BBQ based Saturday with a few of these crisp beauties would be just dreamy.

Great work CTB, great work indeed.

Jymi’s Rating: 79%

 

MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 74.5% 

 

MOB review next weekend: YU LU by SIREN CRAFT BREW

 

DATE POSTED: 15th August 2018

STYLE: New Western

ABV: 42%

KEY BOTANICAL: Sarsaparilla 

THEY SAY SERVE WITH: Elder Flower Tonic and Orange Slice Garnish 

MOB SAY SERVE WITH: Fentimans Rose Lemonade and Lavender Garnish (note, no Ice to be used with this, just make sure the Rose Lemonade is very well chilled)

 

MOB COCKTAIL SUGGESTION: Aviation 

Aviation ingredients and method:

37.5ml Aviation Gin

12.5ml Creme de Violette

12.5ml Lemon Juice 

3 Dashes Maraschino Liqueur 

Maraschino Cocktail Cherry 

Place all ingredients (minus Cocktail Cherry) into a cocktail shaker. Shake and double strain into a chilled Martini glass. Garnish with Maraschino Cherry.

VOTED BEST COCKTAIL EVER BY EVERYONE THAT TRIED IT 🙂

SERIOUSLY YOU FOLKS, IF YOU HAVEN’T TRIED THIS GIN OR THIS COCKTAIL THEN YOU NEED TO. YOU WILL NEVER LOOK BACK.  

 

M O B S O G 2 0 1 8  

BEER REVIEW: 44

BREWER: Hobo Beer + Co., Surrey, England

STYLE: Lager

ABV: 4.666%

VESSEL: 330ml tin

DATE POSTED: 11th August 2018

 

SAMMY SAY’S…

Before we even venture into the world of taste, you have to consider the poor display of packaging from Hobo Beer Co.  They have managed to make Three Hop Lager look like a budget brand from a leading UK supermarket.  When you’re trying to get a beer out there, you must do better.  Anyway, let us move away from the very orange packaging (although it is hard to do as it stands out like a flare on a dark winter’s night) and get down to the important stuff.

The first thing to note about Three Hop Lager is the colour; it’s a golden amber, not unusual for a lager, but it has depth to the colour.  And the nose is good for a lager – you draw in the bitter notes of good quality hops.  Those bitter notes do carry through to the drinking, but not enough to make it a bitter – it is definitely a lager.  The trouble is, those bitter notes don’t hang around on the tongue and you are very quickly left with a metallic aftertaste.  While this isn’t at all unpleasant, it leaves you wondering what if… what if they’d followed through with the hops in the brew and drawn out the flavour a little more?  Well, we could then have been dealing with an altogether classier lager.  We could have had a lager that has true depth to it’s taste, one that lingers on the taste buds and stays long in the memory.   As it is, it has to be said that Three Hop Lager is average at best and the taste is gone almost before you’ve known you’ve experienced it.  

With a little tweaking, this could be a contender.  But it hasn’t had any tweaks…yet!

Sammy’s Rating: 56%

 

JYMI SAY’S…

4.666% huh?

Very precise that. Very demonic that. But why? Why do we have three decimal places here? Why is it not just 4.6%? Or 4.7% if we’re being mathematically accurate?

I was looking forward to turning the reasonably cool tin around and all being explained to me. But there was nothing to tell me why we have all these decimal places. In fact there was barely any information at all about the lager I would soon be supping… But there was a sentence telling me that if I visited hobobeerandco.com I could find out more about hobo life… so I fired up my Quadra 700 and started hitting some keys.

Turned out to be a pretty looking site but still no info on my Three Hop Lager. So, I scanned the QR on the side of the can…. Took me straight to the website…. Man, I am bored of this… To the beer!

First off, Three Hop smells wonderful! It’s not that often that a Lager puts out a decent nose. Most Lagers just kind of smell like Lager, never offensive but not something to get you excited about either. However Three Hop’s nose has something about it. Pine with a bit of citrus maybe?

Now taste wise I went in to this with a touch of apprehension… I’ve always worked on the theory that a Lager needs to be between 4.6% and 5.5% to taste any good. With Three Hop being 4.666% (flippin ‘el, we’re back to this again!) it was right on the edge of MY bracket..

But after the first sip I settled down, Three Hop tasted pretty good. Actually, Three Hop tasted good. ACTULLY Three Hop tasted better than good. I was a fan! The taste on sip and whilst in mouth is a little thin but as it slips down the flavours start to load up and a bitter aftertaste left me one really happy chappy. And at this percentage suddenly we have a session Lager that tastes better than good! I never thought I would see the day!

You’ve done well here you cheeky Hobos I tell thee.

Jymi’s Rating: 78%

 

MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 67% 

MOB review next weekend: CAMDEN HELLS by CAMDEN TOWN BREWERY 

DATE POSTED: 8th August 2018

STYLE: London Dry

ABV: 43%

KEY BOTANICAL: Baobab Pulp

THEY SAY SERVE WITH: Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic and Orange Garnish 

MOB SAY SERVE WITH: Freshly squeezed Orange Juice and Lemon Disc Garnish 

 

MOB COCKTAIL SUGGESTION: Queen Martini 

Queen Martini ingredients and method:

37.5ml Whitley Neill

12.5ml Dry Vermouth

12.5ml Sweet Vermouth

12.5ml Orange Juice

12.5ml Pineapple Juice

Shake all ingredients with Ice. Strain into a chilled glass.

M O B S O G 2 0 1 8

BEER REVIEW: 43

BREWER: Fuller’s, West London, England

STYLE: Lager

ABV: 4.5%

VESSEL: 330ml tin

DATE POSTED: 3rd August 2018

 

SAMMY SAY’S…

Fact: Fullers produce some great beers.

Fact: There are some undeniably fantastic craft lagers available.

Frontier, I am afraid, is neither a great Fullers’ beer, neither is it a worthy craft lager.  Actually, it is quite hard to even argue that it’s a craft lager at all.

From the packaging to the nose to the drinking, everything about this product is forced.  This is Fullers attempt to compete with the large, ever growing craft market and to be frank, it fails.  It has no points of interest and is drab at best.  The taste is lack luster and does not fulfil the brief of being at all craft. You’d be hard pushed to separate this from mass produced lagers with no soul, which in fact it quite obviously is.

Fact: Frontier has no place in the Fullers range.  This is a miss marketed and miss placed product.  Frontier is most certainly not at the front of beer products.

Sammy’s Rating: 50%

 

JYMI SAY’S…

Having lived in either West London or West of London pretty much all my life and having  worked in or around Central London for a fair chunk of that I feel like the Fuller’s Griffin Brewery has been in my peripheral vision probably about 7,000,039 times over the years. And for a long time a whopping great and garish FRONTIER CRAFT LAGER sign has been bolted to the lovely Georgian brickwork of the brewery walls for all passing by to see.

Now I have to confess until just now I had never had a Frontier from a tin nor a bottle. I have definitely had a few pints on tap here and there but that was a while ago. So that got me thinking…. I have sampled this Lager and I drive past the ill sitting FRONTIER CRAFT LAGER sign probably on average 6 times a week and have done so for many years. Sometimes I have driven past on a roasting hot summers Friday evening with the roof down on my car on the way home from work. What better a time for that huge ugly free advertising to tempt me to grab a cold Frontier? So why, oh why, have I NEVER done so? I’m putting it down to two things. The Packaging is pretty lame and the pints that I have had cannot have left an impression, whether good or bad.
So what did I make of this Frontier from the tin? Well it was as I thought it was going to be, uneventful. The one positive I would say is it’s initial early taste, which is nice enough but other than that the whole thing just pales into insignificance.

The nose is pleasant enough giving off subtle hints of pine and almost freshly mown grass. As I’ve said the initial taste is good with citrus tones and the texture is smooth, seeing as it is quite highly carbonated. It is then that FCL lets itself down as is lacking decent body and the aftertaste is not great.

Look, all in all it doesn’t taste horrible by any means but if you’re looking for a craft lager to sit back, savour and raise your eyebrow I simply wouldn’t bother with this offering from the brewers that have been churning out some great ales for the past 173 years.

Jymi’s Rating: 59%

 

MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 54.5% 

 

MOB review next weekend: THREE HOP by HOBO BEER + CO 

DATE POSTED: 1st August 2018

STYLE: New Western 

ABV: 43%

KEY BOTANICAL: Passion Fruit and Elderflower 

THEY SAY SERVE WITH: Fever-Tree Elderflower Tonic and Grapefruit & Blueberry Garnish 

and we agree!

MOB SAY SERVE WITH: Fever-Tree Elderflower Tonic and Grapefruit & Blueberry Garnish 

 

MOB COCKTAIL SUGGESTION: Passionfruitini

Passionfruitini ingredients and method:

25ml Black Shuck Passion Gin

50ml Passion Fruit Juice

12.5ml Fresh Lime Juice 

Shake all ingredients with Ice. Strain into a chilled Martini glass.

 

M O B S O G 2 0 1 8 

BEER REVIEW: 42

BREWER: Renegade Brewery (West Berkshire Brewery), Berkshire, England

STYLE: Lager 

ABV: 4.5%

VESSEL: 330ml brown bottle 

DATE POSTED: 27th July 2018

 

JYMI SAY’S…

The day was Tuesday…

The weather was fine…

The sun was baking…

The time was 4pm…

And I had the day off!!

AND my lovely, lovely wife volunteered herself to go and get the bin lids from school. This was it. This was the time to crack an ice cold crisp Lager and take five in the garden.

However, the only Lager I had on chill was Renegade. Now as far as unappealing looking bottles of beer go, this has to be up there. What is with the Flash Gordon / Harry Potteresqe zigzag on the label??  I’m all for a bit of retro here n there but this just looks rubbish. The only real positive from the packaging was the blue label contrasting off the brown bottle. Don’t get me wrong, due to the situation I was still very much looking forward to cracking a cold one but to have ANY negative thoughts has to tell a story.

So I set my deckchair up, tied a hanky on my head, prepared a glass and got to work.

Now seeing as there was a hint a negativity in the air I was pleased as to how RCL poured, looked and smelled. Things were without doubt looking up, as was I, as the aforementioned deckchair was now fully reclined.

So in the tranquillity of a roasting summers day in the garden with the chorus of flies flying and my dog barking as my soundtrack I threw down that all important first sip. Ooooh, it was good… for three seconds. And then fell away to a bit of a classic crappy Lager undertone.

Jymi was confused so went in again, same result.

So the first three seconds after sipping RCL has good citrus flavour that build’s in your cheeks and is pretty nice and refreshing to be fair, but once that’s gone it’s very much downhill with EVERYTHING!

Session wise this could work but only because you would want to replace the aftertaste with the lovely initial taste. And because of that you would probably fire down way too quickly so would fast become a non session beer.

Renegade Craft Lager is perfectly drinkable but is a sip of two halves. After being 2-0 up at half time, you end up losing 5-2… Gutted.

Jymi’s Rating: 61%

 

SAMMY SAY’S…

It’s hard to decide if the look of Renegade Lager is inspired or insipid.  But I am going to give it the benefit of the doubt and come down on the side of inspired, owing mainly to it’s purposeful retro look.  And there is a lot to get your brain around on the label too, which for a lager is unusual. It leads one to think that we could have a very decent beer here.  It’s most certainly a strong start for West Berkshire Brewery’s Renegade Craft Lager.

Into the glass and it has great colour, which is on the lighter side of amber, but with more depth than some lagers.  On the palate, there are most definitely light bitter notes and they are matched well to this lager.  They don’t hang around for long, but who wants them to when it’s a lager that’s in hand? The slight issue with Renegade is the bitter notes aren’t backed up by too much else, meaning that the overall impact is slightly underwhelming once one is deep into the bottle.  

This is a well-tempered, pleasant lager.  It’s not a super hero of a beer, but it could most definitely play the starring role on a hot summer’s evening, if one were so inclined.    

Sammy’s Rating: 72%

 

MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 66.5%

 MOB review next weekend: FRONTIER by FULLER’S 

 

DATE POSTED: 25th July 2018

STYLE: London Dry

ABV: 43%

KEY BOTANICAL: Samphire and Hops 

THEY SAY SERVE WITH: Fever-Tree Tonic and Samphire & Lime Garnish 

MOB SAY SERVE WITH: 1724 Tonic and Samphire & Lime Garnish 

 

MOB COCKTAIL SUGGESTION…

Ok, we’re not actually going for a cocktail with this one but an alternative serve…

And that alternative serve is simply STRAIGHT UP with a couple cubes of ice. Honestly, it works! 

Go find! Go try! 

M O B S O G 2 0 1 8

BEER REVIEW: 41

BREWER: Brutal Brewing, Stockholm County, Sweden 

STYLE: Lager 

ABV: 6%

VESSEL: 330ml tin

DATE POSTED: 20th July 2018

 

JYMI SAY’S…

Now just what is this glorious looking brushed copper tin of Lager I have sitting in front of me? Well, that is exactly what it is, a glorious looking brushed copper tin of Lager. This is intriguing to say the least, for many reasons. Firstly, this isn’t classic packaging for Lager but does certainly stand out of that there is no doubt! And seeing as the look of this can is on the whole, menacing, I was very much looking forward to trying her, expecting it to somehow be refreshing, though I don’t know why? Especially as the info I was provided with (though quite limited) was telling me I was going to be getting a dark full bodied Lager…

Enough of the waffle, let’s see what she is like…

Certainly dark! Wow, this sucker neither looked nor smelt like a typical Lager once poured! And I have to say knowing this was 6% (which, rightly or wrongly, is way out of my decent Lager percentage bracket of 4.6-5.5%) and the way it looked in glass, I was still intrigued, but no longer looking forward to sipping.

The nose is fantastic, but isn’t at all Lager like.

Initial sip… is also fantastic but again not what you would expect from a Lager.

So I decided to abandon what this was supposed to be and just take it for what it was…..

And what it was was good!

What we have here is a brilliantly packaged, very smooth, spicy and citrusy ale like brew. It is without doubt full bodied and because of this it really wouldn’t work on a session for me, one or two tops probably. You need to be ready for that as well as it’s 6% abv muscle.

But as long as prepared, most should enjoy this offering from Brutal Brewing.

Jymi’s Rating: 73%

 

SAMMY SAY’S…

When the words exceptional or excellence appear in the name of a beer, you are led to expect BIG things.  So when the word full is used in the product name, what should you be expecting? Well, it’s not explicitly clear, other than there should be so much amber when paired with the word amber that Full Amber by Pistonhead (as promised by the title) is full of amber.  And guess what? Full Amber is quite amber, as it goes.

Setting the can aside, which isn’t the most original (although it is very…amber), Full Amber has seriously deep colour for a lager.  The nose is potent and pleasant, leaning toward the hoppy side with strong hints of caramel.  A very good start for a lager…

Those hints of caramel carry through to the drinking and it has to be stated that this is a very good lager.  Those hints of caramel don’t hang around for long, but that’s just fine.  I have to remind myself that we are talking about a lager here.  It’s different.  For a lager that is.  And this strength could be its weakness (an oxymoron I know) because those of you looking for a more traditional lager could be disappointed. 

Let me say it how it is though – nobody should be disappointed by Full Amber because it is good, very good.  There are many an occasion when this beer would serve you well.  Forget that it’s a lager, accept it for the quality beer that it is…

Sammy’s Rating: 74%

 

MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 73.5% 

 

MOB review next weekend: RENEGADE CRAFT LAGER by RENEGADE BREWERY

DATE POSTED: 18th July 2018

STYLE: London Dry

ABV: 46%

KEY BOTANICAL: Juniper 

THEY SAY SERVE WITH: Fever-Tree Tonic and a Garnish that you enjoy as works with all. 

MOB SAY SERVE WITH: 1724 Tonic and Mint & Black Peppercorns but can confirm it works with everything we tried it with. 

 

MOB COCKTAIL SUGGESTION: Hella Good (a creation by Chris Hotson for Muse on Booze) 

Hella Good ingredients and method:

50ml Botanist 

25ml Fresh Lemon Juice

12.5ml Rose Syrup

1 Egg White

Cucumber Skin

Rose Petal

Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker. Shake with much vigour for 20 seconds. Double strain into a chilled Martini glass. Garnish with Cucumber skin and Rose Petal.

 

M O B S O G 2 0 1 8