ESB v BSE

The list of decent English quaffing ales is endless and I'm no more trying to put together an extensive archive of them than I am of Belgian beers. My most recent discovery is Fuller's ESB, a light tannic bitter with a slight tea-like flavour, reminiscent of Theakston's, though with a stronger dose of hops.

Bury St Edmunds (the BSE of the title, in case you thought I was suggesting bitter as a cure for brain disease) brewing giant Greene King make an ale which is definitely not for quaffing: their Strong Suffolk Vintage Ale. This is an almost flat, deep red beer which gave me three distinct flavour notes: caramel, smoke and toffee. It's not complex, as such, but it's definitely interesting and worth savouring.

Nun better

Other than the two league divisions, my brewpub listings to the left there aren't ranked in order of preference, but if I had to pick one favourite it would probably be 't IJ in Amsterdam. I didn't get a chance to pay a visit last week, but I did discover another brewpub in the Dutch capital. De Beekerde Suster is on the site of a former convent at the edge of the red light district and the name ("The Reformed Sister") commemorates a local woman who moved from one of the available lifestyles to the other.

History aside, they had three beers from the on-site brewery on tap: Blonde Ros is a Belgian style blonde beer, trying to be like Leffe but suffering from a fatal touch of blandness. It's slightly cloudy with a vague corny-grainy taste, but nothing to write home about. Their witbier, Witte Ros, is a much better proposition, being light and lemony with a hint of spice as a northern European witbier should have, but also carrying the frothy softness of German weissbier. A well-constructed beer. The last of the three was Proefbier, which I think is a seasonal. It's a strong golden ale, similar to a tripel, but sweeter, with a honey-like aftertaste. An interesting change from the usual Trappist offerings.

They also had a beer of the month on draught: Liefman's Jan van Gent: an amber-brown fruity ale, pleasant in its own way, though points off for permitting outside beers into the brewpub.

This place is worth a look if you are looking for something different from the standard Amsterdam brown café, but really a trip out to 't IJ can't be recommended highly enough.

Hymn to the Brown Café

I'm just back from a few days in the Netherlands, reacquainting myself with their fantastic brown café bars and the endless variety of Low Countries beer on offer.

This post is partly to introduce some new beers, but also to put in a proper entry on ones I haven't mentioned. Corsendonk Pater, for instance, is a fairly common abbey beer, deep brown with a slightly odd bittersweet flavour. St. Feuillien Brune is lighter, drier and fizzier, almost geuze-like, despite a full 7.5% alcohol and the characteristic caramel sweetness of this kind of ale. Affligem Dubbel, in my opinion, is a step down: a promising spicy foretaste is followed up with nothing much, just a dryness lacking any fruit flavour or the warmth of a well-rounded ale. Most disappointing of the abbey beers, however, was Maredsous 6: an amber ale which, by Belgian standards, is almost tasteless.

Last summer I visited De Halve Maan in Bruges and was surprised that they weren't selling Straffe Hendrik. I found it in Delft, however, featuring the half moon on the label but no mention of the brewery: the beer is made elsewhere by Liefman's. Straffe Hendrik is a fizzy, orange-coloured ale, fairly dry, but with fruity aromatic overtones. La Chouffe is actually made in a small brewery and is another golden ale. It's tasty but unchallenging at first, gradually building a peppery aftertaste as it warms.

St. Louis Kriek was a new one on me and quite a pleasant find. It's one of the lighter krieks, akin to Timmerman's, with a sweet kirsch-like aroma. Conversely, I knew Hoegaarden's winter beer Verboten Vrucht from old, but hadn't tasted it in years. I was a little disappointed, finding the taste of dried fruit a touch off-putting, especially since it lacked the roundness one would expect with a matured beer like this. Instead, it finishes up rather sharp.

On the subject of Belgian giants, I bought a Palm just to try it for the first time in ages. It's extremely ubiquitous in Belgium and the Netherlands and is really quite good. It's a frothy amber light ale (though at 5.2% not exactly light by most ale standards) and carries a fairly pleasant sugary aftertaste. It's not a beer that requires concentration, but it's well put together all the same. Palm also make a stronger version called Royale - the same colour but a richer sweeter, smoother taste. Perhaps a little too refined, in fact.

One of the big local breweries in the south Netherlands is Gulpener. They make a strong but easy-drinking superlager called Gladiator which has the same syrupy taste as most of this sort. Korenwolf (the name means "hamster", apparently) is their wheat beer, and rather better. It has a good nose and good spice, but finishes rather dry - not as dry as the French like it, but a fair bit drier than the Belgian witbier norm.

One thing I was really looking forward to on the trip was some oud bruin. I don't know what the target market is for this quintessential Dutch beer-style: oud bruins are very low in alcohol, deep brown in colour and candy-caramel-sweet. Brand Oud Bruin is rather poor, tasting of saccharine in spades, but slightly redeemed by a subtle smoke flavour. Heineken Oud Bruin is streets ahead: incredibly smooth and easy-drinking. I just wish it came in bottles bigger than 30cl.

Wych one's next

I went through a Circle Master phase a couple of years ago, but I'm now overdue trying the other Wychwood beers. So I have Fiddler's Elbow in front of me now, the only wheat-brewed ale I've ever come across. The result of such unorthodoxy is a curious bitter, hoppy, tangy ale with a smooth round aftertaste. While marketed as a summer ale, this is rich enough to satisfy all year round.

Right posh booze

The St. Peter's brewery in Suffolk presents two opening gimmicks to the punter: an 18th century-style high-shouldered bottle and a hefty (€4 here) price tag.

Their Old-Style Porter is a blend of new and old ale, quite light in colour. With most craft-brewed porters one expects a significant sharpness, but this is totally smooth. Not that it's creamy or in any way bland -- far from it. This is rich and flavoursome with a distinct chocolate kick to it. More than anything it reminds me of the chocolate ale made by Speight's in New Zealand (review here). Textbook delicious.

St. Peter's also make an Organic Ale, though with this one it's harder to see where your €4 goes. In general, I've been a bit disappointed with organic beer: brewers seem content with their Soil Association certificate as a selling point rather than putting the graft into the flavour. The St. Peter's organic is a light amber colour and tastes tangy and mildly bitter. It's decent, and stands up as a good English light ale, but it lacks the depth, richness and warmth required for promotion to the premier league.

Dark beer, it seems, is where St. Peter's excels. They also make a Cream Stout, which I haven't been able to find on sale, but you'll be the first to know when I do.

Swig in Japan

Sapporo make an "all malt" beer called Yebisu, which I hadn't noticed before. It's a crisp light-gold lager, very fizzy at first, settling to a gentle sparkle. It's not as full-flavoured as one might expect with all that malt (there is hops and some barley too), but it's a lot tastier than just about any far-eastern lager I've encountered yet. There's a zesty fruitiness about it, with hints of banana, tempered by bitter hops. A complex light beer, all in all -- something of an oddity, that.

Flowers of Scotland

From Edinburgh comes Innis & Gunn, an exclusive-looking amber ale in a 33cl bottle. The unique selling point here is that it's aged for 77 days in whisky barrels which gives it a distinct oaky flavour as well as a scotch malt bitterness. This makes for a heady mix of strong flavours which I found a little overpowering, though there is a refreshing lightness at the back of the taste to stop it from taking over the palate entirely. Nevertheless, 33cl is enough of this one.

Of course, the Scots like their lager too, and the Harviestoun brewery make a fantastic one called Schiehallion. This beer has been very precisely crafted to just the right level of dryness and bitterness. There's a grainy complexity in the flavour too, making for a perfectly balanced lager. The same brewery make Bitter & Twisted which has a sharply bitter hops taste up front but again this is fine-tuned to keep it on the good side of tasty. The flavour is also tempered with a gentle lemony fruitness. Both of these Harviestoun beers are finely honed and plainly the work of people who know exactly what they're doing.

No run-down of Scottish beer would be complete without a return to an old favourite - Fraoch heather beer. There's really nothing else out there like this ale made from real heather. It's as easy to drink as any light ale or lager, but has an immesely complicated taste that defies description. Just try it.