Leffe Radieuse - Watch out for Red Heads

I'm a bit of a fan of Leffe beers. Perhaps it's because I have a soft spot for them as the Blonde was one of the first decent beers I had. I had tried the Blonde, as I say, and the Bruin so when I spotted this I decided to try it out.

This is a nice smooth beer with a mild taste but full of body. Does that make sense? I has a sweet taste that might be a bit cloying after a few. Mind you at 8.2% alcohol you wouldn't drink to many anyway. It's a nice beer, I have to say, but some of the spiciness you get in the others is lost in this or maybe it just wasn't added.

The Verdict

A tasty beer. try it if you like the rest of the Leffe beers.

Leffe Radieuse - 33cl - 8.2% alchohol - Belgium

Chimay Triple (Blanc)

I had already tried the Red and the Blue from Chimay and so far had preferred the blue. I knew I would be in for a treat with the White and i wasn't disappointed. Well, not to much anyway.

The first thing you notice is the smooth, silky texture of the beer. Next thing I noticed was the alcohol. At 8% it is relatively high and to my palate is slightly, just slightly, over powering. the flavours I got were big, strong, citrusy and tasty. This was quite sweet too, which helped to bring all the tastes together. Nice rich colour too.

This is a good beer. No doubt.

But I'm not sure that it's my favourite. The whole effect was a bit too over powering for me. Perhaps it's my beginners palate but I think I prefer the Blue.

Mind you, I guess that's why there's a choice of Chimays. Everyone has their own favourite.

The Verdict.

A great beer. Do i prefer the Blue? I might have to do some more research.......

Chimay Triple (White, Blanc, Blanche) - 33cl - 8% alcohol - Belgium

Wychwood Fiddler's Elbow

They say that anticipation of anything is almost as good as the real thing and certainly, I had been looking forward to finding another beer from Wychwood.

I had really enjoyed the Hobgoblin from the same brewery so when I spotted this I immediately put it in my shopping basket.

This has a milder flavour than the Hobgoblin and is almost as good. It has a fruity taste, apple & pear maybe, with a good flavour of hops. It also comes across as a little bitter and sweet combined, getting sweeter as you get nearer the end with a tiny hint of something spicy. Although it had a good head it seemed to get a little flat towards the end but that's being a little to critical maybe.

The Verdict.

A nice refreshing beer, a little lighter than Hobgoblin but very good but would probably choose Hobgoblin before it.

Wychwood Fiddler's Elbow - 50cl - 5.2% alcohol - England

Home Brew 9

I finally bottled my beer this week.

My first ever batch!

It seemed to have stopped fermenting even though the SG was a bit high at 1.018. I took some advice from the guys at Irish Craft Brewer and decided to bottle anyway. the colour and smell were much more intense than I thought they would be but it certainly resembled beer. As per the instructions, I added 90 grams of sugar dissolved in a little boiled water, which I let cool.

I had sterilised the bottles and equipment so next I rinsed the bottles well. I used a stash of brown Grolsch flip-top bottles that I had kept from a different life a few years back.

The bottling went well and quickly and I soon had twenty-two 45cl bottles of Brewferm Grand Cru ready for conditioning. I had a little left over so I put it into a green Grolsch to keep it separate. (For some reason green export bottles are 50cl and brown domestic are 45cl) Hopefully I will try this in a week or so to see what it's like. Brewferm recommend letting the brew condition for 6-8 weeks before tasting. I'm not a patient man.....

I will look at the The Homebrew Company website over the weekend and see what I want to try next. Might get two more kits under my belt before I try and extract or similar.

Coopers Best Extra Stout, Something's Burning.....

This is my third Coopers Beer and I've given mixed reviews on them. I discussed Stout vs Porter here and I think this compounds the thoughts I had there.

Best Extra Stout conjures up a strong, full flavoured beer with plenty of body but this fell short of the mark. Its a fine beer I guess but it's nothing special. The taste was burnt, and not in a nice way. It reminded me of something but I can't place it. I could also taste the alcohol and a bitterness, which wasn't balanced with the flavour, which was a bit bland.

I've just figured what the burnt taste is. Burnt bananas!

The Verdict

It's an ok beer but nothing special.

Coopers Best Extra Stout - 37.5cl - 6.3% alcohol - Australia

Home Brew 8

The saga continues....

I transferred my beer into a fresh container on Saturday. I had checked the SG and it wasn't ready for bottling. It was still fermenting yesterday but seems to be stopped today so will check it AGAIN tomorrow. 

Fingers crossed.

Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted, but a little sweety at heart.

My last try of Scottish Beer seemed a bit like unfinished business so when I saw this I thought it might be worth exploring our Caledonian friends' beers again.

And boy, am I glad I did!

Let's face it the bottle is appealing anyway with a cross wee mouse staring out at you and words such as 'Craft Brewed', 'Spicy', 'Aromatic' and 'Zesty' jumping off the bottle. I had been caught out by clever marketing before so I opened it with a bit of trepidation.

One sniff told me I would like it.

It poured out with a lovely fine head and a paler colour than I thought it would have, but then again it says it's a blond beer on the label. I had also read that it uses less CO2 than normal bottle production but I wasn't prepared for the fantastic smooth, almost cask beer,texture it had. Not that I've had loads of cask beer yet mind!

Then the taste. Well it's hard to do it justice but I'll try. There's a spiciness there of maybe cinnamon or clove as well as a full flavoured, seriously hoppy taste. I got a citrus taste too, perhaps not lemon more like lime? The taste is both bitter and sweet if that makes ANY sense, kind of bitter to start and a sweetness after. This beer has a lot going on and is certainly one of the best I have had. More correctly, I suppose, it's one that really suits my palate. I can't get over how smooth it is for a bottle......

The Verdict

Wow, this is the business. I will have to talk nice to the guys in The Wine Centre in Kilkenny and see if they can get in some of the others in the range. I checked the brewery website and they all sound good.

Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted - 50cl - 4.2% alcohol - Scotland