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.

USA: Beer Advice!

Next year, Mr Ticker and myself are travelling to the US of A. Not until March, you understand, but being excited planner types, we want to get an itinerary set up! We would really like some advice and ideas about what beers to look for, and bars/pubs/breweries to visit whilst we are there. Flights are booked, but hotels, accommodation, and excursions are all open to suggestion, and we want to make the most of the time to explore beery goodness. It will be our honeymoon, so we are open to a little bit of extravagance. Please help!

First stop is San Francisco and Oakland.

Next, Vegas.

Finally New Orleans.

Any suggestions will be most gratefully received!

La France Part 2: Je n'aime pas...

151: Biere Artisanale Triple sur Lie Silviacus, Brassee a Samer, 7.5%
Still got that bananaish tinge but a little less artificial than other ones we have bought of the region. Not my thing, again, but palatable.

152: Biere Artisanale Ambree sur Lie Dilvacus, Brassee a Samer, 7.3%
Mr Ticker and Mr Ticker Snr finished their previous beer before me, and moved onto this beer. Their faces said it all. With intrepidation, I took a sip. It was pretty minging to be honest. And not in a way that is just because it isn't to my tastes, it just tasted wrong, like the sugars hadn't fermented out properly. Just bluergh.

153: Leffe Royale, Abbaye de Leffe, 7.5%
A posh Leffe. Not as posh as might have hoped for, but a nice easy drinking beer. Good with some dins too... a bit of a veg stew, with all veggies from the field just across the way... delish.


Bier de Garde is the beer style of the region and over the course of the holiday I sampled quite a few, although I'm not ticking any more than these as I only had sips here and there. Really not my thing, the over sweet, almost artificially banana flavours. Instead, I opted for the odd glass of vin rouge... something I've missed having since beerticking started, and I really enjoyed! Not very conducive to writing a beer blog though...

La France Part 1

Tea on the first day of family hols, a warm, but not too hot day, filled with a little fraughtness and lots of excitement, ferry rides, sea dips and new village finding.

Tea, pasta, French saussison, tomato sauce and Gouda along with some crusty baguette and that awesome salt crystal butter. A pretty rare treat for the house of dietism, as ours has been latley. With it, the first beer of the trip. A pretty cheap and cheerful supermarket mass produced:


149: "33" export, Mare et Terre, 4.5%,
A light refreshing lager-y small stubby. A perfect refreshing drink.



150: La Goudale, Biere de Garde, Gebrouwen door, 7.2% (€4 approx for 3 75cl bottles) was a farmhouse style beer, and a much more local offering. Not really to my tastes to be perfectly honest. I've found wheat beery/banana-y type beers growing on me, but this one was too sweet I think. Maybe would have been better colder...

La France: Beer Advice!

Later this year, Mr Ticker and myself are going to France with some family to stay in a cottage. We are going to be based in Pas de Calais, in the north of France fairly near Amiens. We've already planned a jaunt to Bruges, but would like some advice about anywhere particularly beery worth visiting nearby, or any good beers that are readily available in France. Previous holidays have been all about the wine... for obvious reasons... but this year, of course, beer is going to preside.

Any ideas would be very much appreciated- merci beaucoup!