Norfolk Spoils 2

Our temporary scoring method (see previous post)

180: Old Stoat Wobbler, Beeston Brewery, 6%
A dark stout, smells lovely, coffee, slightly burnt coffee. Taste didn't match up to it though. Tasted a bit of coffee, liquorice root and hazelnutty. Perfectly ok flavours, but not as rich as expected and let down on the whole by the strange, flat carbonation, which made it feel thin and really let it down. Perhaps a good beer for cooking with. A 4/10.

181: Twisted Porter, Norfolk Squared Brewery, 6%
A porter described as having hints of cocoa nibs, chilli and coffee. The chilli was the flavour that made us pick it I think. Quite highly anticipated. Smelled really odd, like fresh chilli and liquorice root. To taste, a hint of chilli... a weird sweetness thing... creamy texture. Everyone agreed that it didn't do what it said on the tin. One tasting note included the description: "the vomit of the crow that picked the eyes out of a dead frog". We weren't keen. 1/10.

182: Smokehouse Porter, Poppyland, 5.7%
We ended up with very few notes for this beer, it was a better carbonation, not particularly smokey but hints of it, smelled hoppy, definitely tasted hoppy for a porter. It turned out the hops are smoked, not the malt. We liked it. Mr Ticker liked it a lot. 8/10.

183: Amber Ale, The Norfolk Brewhouse, 4%
Perhaps we served this too warm. A split opinion on this beer, half of us liked it, half of us thought it was only ok. It smelled very sweet and tasted a bit so too, more malt and yeast flavours than hops. A 5/10.

184: Ruby Ale, The Norfolk Brewhouse, 4%
Tasted really similar to the Amber, we guessed the brewery uses the same yeast in both beers. A darker beer, looked like a sherry in colour. Smelled almost like a sherry too, slightly sweet and a bit woody. A couple of the group had tried this before and said this tasting wasn't as good as the previous time. But weren't sure if they were being influenced by other beers they had tried that evening or if the bottle wasn't as good. 6/10.

Norfolk Spoils

We managed to steal a 4 day trip to Norfolk and Cambridge with some very good friends. Not wanting the trip to be all consumed with beer notes and chasing round the county trying to find local beers we hadn't planned on blogging. But, when we passed a sign for a shop that our guests knew proclaiming 60 different Norfolk beers we could not pass the opportunity, and our hosts were keen to join in.

We agreed on using a different format: scoring beers as a group unanimously out of 10, 0 being a beer so disgusting it moved you to tears, and 10 being a beer so amazing it moved you to tears. There were 5 of us so opinions sometimes varied, but will try and represent everyone!

177: Citraville, Old Slewfoot, 3.9%
Chosen because of the name, and one of my favourite hops. Citrusy, peachy, fruity. A refreshing sessionable beer, really fine bubbles, almost champagne-like. Perhaps a slight metallic aftertaste. Some debate about the score, withh our guest contributors rating it lower than ourselves, but we settled on a crowd pleasing 7/10.

178: Honey Ale, Norfolk, 5%
Hints of honey to smell, but not so much to taste. Not too sweet, acceptable, but certainly not punchy flavours. Rich, full, mouthfeel. General consensus was "alright". 5/10.

179: On the Edge Saison, Poppyland, 6.3%
We'd already heard of this brewery before the trip via twitter, and were hoping to try some. A saison, notoriously not one of my favourite styles. To me it smelt like a muted version of a typical saison, banana and spicy. Others got apple and muscovado sugar, reminiscent of German weisbiers. To taste, it was not overpowering phenol, rather delicate but complex. It tasted as though it should have been sweeter but actually was verging towards a sour beer, hence the name. A strong 6/10.