Germany:

Kuppers : Kolsch – 4.8% abv  -  500ml   -  £2.50

Gold in colour, Kolsch is a style of beer brewed in Cologne, lightly carbonated it has the look of a lager but uses a top fermenting yeast like an ale! This gives it a fruitier flavour with a dark bitter finish.

Australia:

Coopers: Sparkling Ale – 5.8% abv  -  375ml  -  £2.60

When most of us think of Australian beers we think of Fosters etc. But there is an oasis in the beer desert of bland lagers that is Coopers Brewery Ltd. If it were brewed in the UK it would be called a Pale Ale. Honey coloured it drinks well under it’s strength. Well balanced malt & hops make for a very drinkable beer.

Belgium:

Watou Wit - 5.0% abv - 250ml  £2.40

Highly Carbonated, pale honey coloured wheat beer.Cloudy in the Belgian style and brewed by the Van Eecke brewery in Watou.

Kasteel: Brune – 11.0% abv  -  330ml  -  £3.60

Dark, deep red in colour, lots of residue sweetness & burnt sugar flavours, a whopper of a beer, definitely for sipping only!

Duvel: - 8.5% abv  -  330ml  -  £2.90

A wonderful golden ale, bottle conditioned, so that a secondary fermentation takes place in the bottle giving the beer a wonderful character. With a smooth mouth feel, the malty sweetness lingers but has a nice hop finish.

Hoegaarden Blanche  -  4.9%  -  250ml  £2.00

The best known (at least in this country) wheat beer, naturally cloudy, with a soft carbonation. Very little bitterness. Orange peel and coriander are both added in the brewing process and add a little something to this refreshing beer.

St.Feuillen Blonde  - 7.5%  -  330ml  -  £3.10

Honey coloured, a lovely blonde ale, well balanced malt & hops, very quaffable - drinks under its considerable strength.

St.Feuillen Brune  -  7.5%  -  330ml  -  £3.10

Damson in colour, this bier brune is definitely worth a try, a complex sweet malt taste lingers well, chewy malts give plenty of mouth feel, with just a hint of hops in the finish.

Liefmans Gouldenband   - 8.0%  -  375ml  -  £3.25

A champion bier brune or Brown Ale to you and me. Deep ruby red in colour, the initial sweet malt flavours are well balanced by the hops used. Dangerously drinkable!

Liefmans Frambozen  -  4.5%  -  375ml  -  £3.75

This is a raspberry beer, full on raspberries on the nose, with a deep red raspberry colour. More than 400 grams of raspberries per litre of base beer are added to the fermenter to create this wonderful beer. Sweet and a little sharp, with a very light sour finish.

Chimay  - Red Label   -   7.0%   -   330ml   -  £2.75

Another example of fine Belgian ale, wonderfully complex malt flavours are married well with a good hop bite.

Trappiste Rochefort 8   -  Trappist  -  9.2%  -  330ml  -  £3.95

Deep, deep red in colour, sweet malt flavours soon balanced by bitter hop notes, with agreat soft, cabonation. Quite a dry finish. 

Cantillon -Kriek 100% Lambic  -  5.0%   -   375ml  -  £4.60

A speciality beer made with whole cherries, the Lambic in the name means it’s a deliberately soured beer. Deep cherry red in colour, very sour, tart cherry flavours and very dry. Almost no hop overtures as the hops used are at least three years old and add little bitterness. If you’ve never tried a Lambic style of beer before, this is like jumping in at the deep end!

Cantillon    -  Gueuze  -  5.0%  -  375ml  -  £3.75

Unlike the Timmermans Gueuze this is definitely not for the beginner! Golden coloured and highly carbonated, sour wheat and malt flavours dominate, with barely a hint of hops. A wonderfully complex beer with a smooth, very dry finish.

Leffe Vieille Radieuse  -  8.5 %  -  330ml  -  £2.95

Not often found this one, a wonderful beer, deep red in colour and stronger than it’s stable mates at 8.5% abv. Another beer to be sipped and savoured, the initial syrupy sweetness is well balanced by hop bitterness towards the finish.

Leffe Brune   -   6.5%  -  330ml  -  £2.25

Garnet red in colour, thick sugary malt flavours give way to a good but short hop finish.

Leffe Blonde  -  6.6%  -  330ml  -  £2.25

Probably the best known of the Belgian beers in the UK, and widely available in style bars and some pubs. Lager coloured blonde beer, very smooth and very drinkable but beware Leffe Blonde drinks well under it’s strength!

Maredsous  Brune  -  8.0%  -  330ml   -   £2.60

Deep red in colour, malt flavour predominates this very drinkable ale from the same stable as Duvel.

Scaldis 12  -  12% abv  - 250ml  £3.00

This wonderful amber beer is probably the strongest beer brewed in Belgium! brewed by the Brasserie Dubruisson in Wallonia, think of it as a fine wine or cognac, lacking much of the cloying sweetness of many similar strength beers it has a nutty dry flavour and is just right to savour after a good meal...!

St. Louis  Kriek  -  4.5%  - 250ml  -  £2.20

Cherry flavoured and coloured, dark cherry flavours are to the fore in this sweet & sour beer. Not very true to form for a lambic, but never the less very drinkable. A good introduction to kriek lambics!

3 Fonteinen  Oude  Gueuze    -  5.0%  -  750ml  -  £15.00

Pale bronze in colour, highly carbonated this beautifully blended gueuze has an exceptional taste. Three lambics were blended to form this beer. Fruity, sour and bitter, this is one for the connoisseur. A difficult beer style to classify, even harder to describe… so try it.

La Binchoise  Brune  -  8.2%  -  330ml  -  £3.40

Mahogany coloured brown beer, sugary malt gives way to a slight hop finish, a very good example of the style.

Cantillon  - Rose de Gambrinus   -  5%    -   375ml  £5.10    or    750ml  -  £9.65

Wonderful Rosé coloured beer. This raspberry lambic is quite a rarity not many are made, made in a similar way to a kriek beer, when young the raspberry flavour will predominate, but when aged the lambic sourness will come to the fore. Why gambrinus? Well he is known as the patron saint of beer, Jean Sans Peur (1371-1419),  is thought  by some beer historians to be Gambrinus. So important was beer production at the time he couldn’t be anything other than a king!

Delirium  Noel  -  10%  -  330ml  -  £4.50

Brewed by the Huygie Brewery in Belgium, as the name implies this is a Christmas Ale, a gorgeous reddish colour, the initial flavours, as with so many Belgian beers, is sweet (the Belgians are known for using a form of invert sugar in their beers called candi sugar) but gives way to a complex spicy flavour. Very little hop notes are evident. The candi sugars used give strength without an overpowering malt body.

Jackobins  Gueuze   -     250ml    -   £2.40

Golden coloured, sour malt flavours predominate quite complex in taste, an intermediate step for the gueuze initiate!

United Kingdom:

St. Peters -  Winter Ale   -  6.5%   -  500ml  -  £3.90

Deep, ruby red with a fruity aroma and flavour with pleasant malt tones make for a satisfying winter beer. Just right to sip by an open fire!

Harveys – Imperial Extra Double Stout  -  9.0%  -  330ml  -  £5.60

Very black, sweet molasses flavours, very powerful malt body is balanced by a bitter hop finish. Delectable and dark, this beer will improve with age!

Iceni  -  Men of Norfolk  -  6.3%  -500ml  -  £4.10

Another dark ale, this time from Brendan’s brewery in Ickburgh, Norfolk. Bottle conditioned the flavours will develop over time, dark malt flavours are held in check with a good hop note, one to savour.

Iceni -  Raspberry Wheat  -  5.0%  - 500ml   -   £3.45

Dark straw in colour, the raspberry is barely present in this wheat beer, but comes through in the finish. Good malt/wheat flavours give body to this refreshing ale.