Little Flavour, more like

Glutton for punishment or optimist? I don't know. I do know that I didn't really like Little Valley's Ginger Pale Ale a while back, and I also know that somehow the rest of the brewery's range ended up in my beer fridge, leaving me no choice but to drink them.

Cragg Vale was first up: a dark brown bitter which my good wife described as having an oily-hops-and-caramel flavour, proving once again that she has a far superior palate to mine. I just thought it was dull, verging on total tastelessness. Drinkable, but leaving me wanting something with real flavour immediately after.

It took a few days and a bit of sunshine to pluck up the courage to attempt Hebden's Wheat. This fizzy and worryingly clear yellow beer claims to have lemon peel and coriander in the mix, but the lemons only arrived when I threw the lees, which had settled to the bottom of the bottle, into the glass. There's not much else. I suspect that they haven't used a proper wheat beer yeast on this so there's none of the character you might expect from the Belgian or German alternatives.

Tod's Blonde was a bit of an improvement. Full body, good head and a great aroma -- grassy, like a top-notch pale lager. The flavour starts with bubblegum, then a fast-rising hard bitterness coming straight after. Balanced, after a fashion, but I don't think I could drink a whole lot of it. At the same time it's not really interesting enough to sit long over one considered bottle. Between two stools, this one.

Best of the range, and the only one I'd actively seek out again, was Withens IPA. I didn't pour this carefully as recommended on the label and ended up with big gobbets of yeast drifting lazily to the bottom of my glass. The hop aroma is full and funky, but doesn't follow through to the taste. It's a bit watery -- perhaps to be expected at 3.9% ABV -- a little bit soapy too. Redemption comes in the long-lasting bitter finish, making it quite a decent hoppy quencher all told.

Lastly, there's a stout in the range, rejoicing in the name of Stoodley. The carbonation is promisingly low and the head a lovely shade of dark tan. Lots of dry roast on the nose and an incredibly dry flavour, rather metallic too, just coming back to sweetness at the finish. Oddly there's no roast barley or black malt in here, so maybe it's the oats bringing dryness. They've bunged in some orange peel as well, but I've no idea what that's supposed to be doing. As a session stout, it's so-so.

And that's them all done. Yay! Can I have a nice beer now?

Spot the craft

It's been a while since I last did a blind beer tasting at home. It was only when I noticed I had three ginger beers in the stash that I reckoned one was on the cards. One of them was the seemingly ubiquitous Crabbie's, a beer I'd heard a lot about and none of it good ("it's basically an alcopop", was the gist). I also had the Ginger from the mighty Williams Brothers (yes, them again), and a total wildcard: the organic, fairtrade Little Valley Ginger Pale Ale from Yorkshire, one so loved-up it may as well be wearing sandals and have a wind turbine in the cap.

So how did they fare, and would it be possible to tell the craft beers from the supposedly unpleasant one?

The answer to the second question is overwhelmingly yes. Though all of them poured roughly the same fizzy pale gold, only one of them had zero aroma and a hideous sugariness, plus a metallic saccharine tang and a horrible oxidised staleness. I have never poured a beer down the sink in my life, but Crabbie's brought me close.

Another one I found very bitter, with a green, fresh veg, aroma. It was the most beery of the three, with the ginger almost an afterthought on the end -- with just a small sweet-spice kick of candied ginger as it tails off. Otherwise I found it a bit boring: thin and fizzy. This turned out to be Little Valley: another example of organic and fairtrade badging covering up for a basic lack of beer quality.

That left the Williams, which had a fantastic Canada Dry ginger ale smell and a lovely full body, despite being only 3.8% ABV. There are no hops in here, just added sugar, lemon juice and rind, and ginger. Lots of ginger. It burns in a most wonderful way, and the flavour lasts and lasts. It's far and away the best ginger beer I've had and would be a great summer refresher. Do not serve cold. Do not serve over ice. Do not mix in a cocktail or add fruit of any kind. Proper ginger, proper beer, proper craft.