From the beer aisle

I can never resist an unfamiliar supermarket beer, regardless of how unappealing the style, presentation or suspiciously-low price is. I'm not expecting much from today's pair, though they absolutely had to be bought.

SuperValu and Tesco are both stocking 660ml bottles of Poretti, which is a brewery in Lombardy, but this lager is brewed in England by Carlsberg. 4.8% is a respectable ABV, and it's a very respectable deep golden colour. The aroma is rich and rounded, suggesting chewy cereal bars and warm honey. That might have been a bit much had it come through to the flavour, so it's probably for the best that it turned out blander. Not badly so, however. There's a bite of dry-grass bitterness and a certain amount of the golden syrup taste I associate with quality Czech lager. Best of all, it's not thin or watery, and is actually quite impressively full given the strength. This is solid stuff, and I'm guessing that the bottle format is intended for the dining table, where I think it would fit right in.

The regular rotation of Belgian ales at Lidl has recently turned up a blonde ale called Archivist. It describes itself as an abbey beer, but no abbey is named, and neither is the brewery of production. I'm sure there's no shortage of outfits in Belgium which will do you a 6.6% ABV blonde ale, in bulk, to order

It's nicely dark, almost a rose-gold shade, and topped by a luxuriously fine head. A gentle aroma of cloves and roses is where we start. A related spiciness is at the centre of the flavour, nutmeg joining the clove, set on a spongey malt base for quite the Christmassy effect. It's subtly done, finishing crisply with no sticky residue. It's not at all bad for what it is, especially since choice in this style rarely goes past Leffe here.

Both of these rewarded my curiosity. I might not be rushing back to either, but they're worth checking out if you haven't already.