Cease pumping

My coverage of this year's JD Wetherspoon autumn beer festival is a two-parter, beginning with Monday's post. Today's concerns the event's second week.

At Keavan's Port, that began with the JW Lees offering, Born To Brew, a 4% ABV brown bitter. I wasn't expecting much, but what a stunner. There's not a trace of twigginess here, the lightly roasted malt notes serving only to dry the beer out and enhance its exceptional drinkability. Tannins are involved in that too, giving echoes of a nice strong mug of black tea. Sitting on top are freshly zesty hop flavours, thanks to classic American varieties Cascade and Centennial. It's beyond tea-with-a-slice-of-lemon and into flavoured ice tea or lemon sherbet. Above all, this is a spectacularly refreshing thirst-quencher, though there's sufficient complexity to hold your attention, too. English bitter at its best.

Young Henry's of New South Wales brewed a version of its Newtowner Pale Ale at Elgoods, with the ABV reduced to 3.5% from the original's 4.8. It poured rather lifelessly from the tap in The Silver Penny, which is a shame because the antipodean hops have given it a classic Aussie flavour profile, brimming with soft mandarin and fruit chews, balanced with a harder edge of lime peel and grapefruit zest. But none of it is as bright as it should be because the very faint sparkle isn't sufficient to propel the taste or aroma. Instead, after the initial citrus fun, it finishes watery. The low gravity also contributes to a harsh bitterness which needs a bigger malt base. All this beer did was make me want to try the proper version of it, before Elgoods started dicking around with the recipe. I bet it's lovely.

From Conwy, Chestnut Brown, a brown ale. The milk chocolate aroma tells us they're on the right lines. The flavour continues in that direction: all chocolate at first but with a growing background coffee roastiness that prevents it being sweet and gloopy. It was another fairly flat one, but that's less of an issue here because the malt dominance and smooth mouthfeel suit it well, aided by sufficient gravity to finish it at 4.8% ABV. This isn't an exciting or daring beer, although brown ales are rare enough that brewing one at all is perhaps a courageous decision. This is a nicely executed example, however, leaving little to be desired.

Next up is Purity, and my first beer from this Midlands outfit since it became part of the all-conquering Breal Group last year. It's a session IPA called Free Rein, 4.5% ABV, a slightly fuzzy golden, and hopped with Eureka, Mosaic and Simcoe. The Mosaic seems to be in charge as the primary flavour is its light melon and white plum notes. It's certainly easy-drinking and sessionable for sure, and -- hooray -- there's a fully hop-appropriate sparkle. But it's lacking in depth and, with cask ale, sessionability is never a justification for that. The malt base is barely present, while the initial hop buzz doesn't carry all the way through to the finish. It tails off in quite an unsatisfactory way. I couldn't tell if it actually has an aftertaste or if that's the residue from the Newtowner two beers ago. I get what they're trying to do here, and it is an accessible number, even if it tastes weaker than the ABV. But it needs a balancing poke of bitterness. Perhaps blending it with Newtowner would have given me the beer I wanted it to be.

With India, Australia and the USA, there was a bit of a faded-empire vibe from the international collaboration line-up (Wetherspoon: who knew?) but France also featured, and Britain didn't used to own most of that. The brewery is Nice's Blue Coast, and they sent Monsieur Paul Reilly to Bateman's to brew Blue Coast Ambrée, an amber ale of 4.8% ABV. It's on the dark end of amber, and maybe that's why the first flavour I noted was Ribena: a hedgerow berry tartness. Very dry and woody tannins follow soon after, while the initial fruit acidity turns sweeter and more jammy. I thought there would be more of dark malt's toffee and caramel but it's a very dry affair. I appreciated that it's different to the rest of the festival line-up, but that raw dryness made it a bit of an effort to drink.

At the same strength, two pumps over, Atlas: a blonde ale by Lancaster Brewery. Amarillo, Citra and Jester give this a resinous new-world aroma, though the flavour pulls things back to be altogether more English. There's a delicate peach and bubblegum fruitiness up front, turning more earthy and serious in the finish. It has a full and bouncy mouthfeel, so isn't one of those golden English ales trying to pass as lager. As it warmed, the bubblegum turned to fabric softener so I was glad there was only a half in front of me. It's a good example of its style, though, offering flavour complexity and a kick of bitterness, getting the balance exactly right. It's not one to sit over, however.

The next two I think were tapped the wrong way round: the amber one should be the amber ale and the pale one is, I'm guessing, Maxim Cashmere. I like a bit of Cashmere hop and thus was bursting with it, all rosewater perfume, pomegranate and peppercorns. It is not as other hops. The base beer is nicely full-bodied for only 4.3% ABV, helping carry the hop fun. This is fruity, flowery and spicy all at once, and highly enjoyable.

With its dramatic boys'-action-comic pumpclip, Evan Evans Storm Runner brought some drama to the bar counter. This is a 4.4% ABV amber ale, and quite a plain one: light to the point of watery and only vaguely fruity, with no more than hints of lemon zest and soft melon. It does have a tannic dryness, so is nicely thirst-quenching, but there's not much to hold one's attention while drinking it. The malt is inappropriately absent for the style.

My festival finisher was a pint of blonde ale by Orkney Brewery, called Wave Breaker. I think this is the right beer: it's certainly blonde. There's a light biscuit malt side, with a pleasant grain crunch, and then a sweet bubblegum or candy hop flavour. It all seems quite playful and innocent, except for a persistent pithy bitterness which at first I took for a leftover from the previous beer before realising, half way down my pint, that it's part of this one. It really adds an edge, and gives the beer some welcome bonus complexity and balance. It's still a blonde ale, but bolder and more distinctive than most. Like Lancaster Atlas above, it isn't chasing the lager profile and is very much its own charming thing.

I called a halt to proceedings there. Overall, not a bad showing, the curve having a handful each of beauts and clunkers, but lots of very decent drinking beers in between. And I appreciated only requiring the services of Keavan's Port and The Silver Penny to keep me occupied.

Next, the line-up for October to December's guest beers has been published, with more to explore in there.