J W Lees Harvest Ale Matured In Calvados Casks

Often, one finds themselves lost in a sea of beer sites and blogs. Sometimes I wonder, “are there too many of them?” No, absolutely not—as long as they all are not saying the same thing. Thus said, the content of this site is carefully chosen, especially when it comes to beer reviews. The honest truth [...]

Black Albert Royal Imperial Stout by De Struise

Any time you have a beer that is 13%ABV, it is a big beer with which you’ve come face to face. How that 13% tastes depends on the drinker. I believe that I paid somewhere between $12-15 dollars for this 11.2 oz bottle (sometimes it’s hard to keep track, but I know that it was [...]

One from the Cellar: 1999 J.W. Lees Harvest Ale

As some of you know, I cellar beer. (I really desire to be a beer seller, but that’s another matter.) For your benefit, here is a link to the article that I wrote about cellaring beer. Anyway, I pulled a beer from the cellar last night that has been aged for 10 years. That beer [...]

A Bittersweet Experience: Preliminary Thoughts on Ale in London

Well, we’re back from our trip to Europe, and I’m finally feeling a little rested. Sometimes things happen so quickly that your head can spin (or was it the 80 new beers that I tried in Europe?).   It’s taken me a little time to think through what the first Europe post would be, but [...]

Drink with us Friday: Old Thumper Extra Special Ale by Ringwood Brewery

Ringwood Brewery is an Extra Special Ale, which usually indicates an upping in grain content, hops, alcohol content. This one may be all three or a combination of a couple of these “ups.” Part of it’s name comes from the fact that it is 5.6%, which bring extra duty (cost) because of the fact that [...]

Review of St. Peter’s Old Style Porter

Once again, after endulging in another St. Peter’s product (last time it was their Cream Stout), I emerge a fan. The beer poured with decent head; about half an inch, and lightly laced the glass.  I could see it was not as dark and thick as other porters I’ve sampled.  There was a slight amberish [...]

Drink with us Friday: Review of Samuel Smith’s Taddy Porter

I have to say starting out that this is one of my favorite Porters, and I knew that going in.  We’ve review a couple other Samuel Smith’s products on here (Winter Welcome, Old Brewery Pale Ale), so you can tell I’m a fan (we will drink their fabulous Imperial Stout at some point).  Without further ado, [...]

Style Series: Porter

Although we jumped from the area around England for the last beer, we are going to head down to London town for this next style.  I’ve spoken about Porter and Stouts once before on this site, but I’m going to go ahead and post this one as part of the style series.  I am going [...]

Style Series: Barley Wine (staying on the British Isles)

Since we have covered some other English Styles Ales, Scottish Ales, and various other topics, let’s stick with another Ale of England.  As the name might indicate, Barley Wine is a very strong type of beer.  In fact, it often rivals wines in ABV.  These Ales have a tendency to be pretty sweet (because of [...]

Thomas Hardy Ale Review, Drink It With Us Friday

Wow…what a beer. I let this sit down in my basement for days to allow settling and for proper serving temperature (55°).  As I poured it, I knew this was a sipping beer.  It poured with lower viscosity than any beer I have reviewed on this site.  The color was a deep amber/brown color, with [...]