Beer Review #2 : Samuel Smiths 'Old Brewery Pale Ale'

Brewer: Samuel Smiths

Brew: Old Brewery Pale Ale

A.B.V. : 5.1%

Format: Bottle

Score: 8.5 / 10

Review: Yum, yum yum yum, yum yum. Yum.

Oh, I actually have to review this as well? Ok then...

If your palette is all Sierra Nevada when it comes to pale ales, you will be uninspired by this brew, as it is a traditional English Pale Ale. The first thing you will notice is that its copper colour is much darker than many 'modern' pales ~ but then this is a traditional beer. It isn't as highly hopped as modern pales, either. But, by God, it's tasty. Despite it's darker colour compared to the new comers, it is still a light in body ale with a nice bitterness. I could happily sink several of these among friends in a session without feeling bloated. No strong malty taste detected by me, but then I think I have a fairly insensitive palette to malt (which I do enjoy in other beers). Like many English traditionals, and the hops provide more bitter than aroma. But, as I have said, yummy yum yum yum. It works.

Beer review #1 : Morland "Hen's Tooth"

I'm intending to review any beer that I drink that is worth reviewing, for two reasons. The first is that it might help anyone who reads this blog to get an idea of what I like and don't like, and compare it with their own preferences. For instance, if I describe a beer as 'so full of hops that my head fell off', and you felt it could have done with a couple more tonnes of cascade in there, then you can adjust my opinions of my own brewing efforts accordingly. The other reason is that it fills my blog out a bit and gives me something to prattle on about. Hope someone finds them useful.

Brewer: Morland

Brew: Hen's Tooth

A.B.V. : 6.5%

Format: Bottle

Score: 5 / 10

Review: A darker 'copper coloured' bottle conditioned ale, that pours to a 1-2 cm head of fine bubbles rather than foam. Hoppy aroma, that has a light body, similar to an American Pale Ale. The hops add an American Pale Ale type bitterness, but no fruity flavours. The head disappears quite quickly leaving only a thin layer of bubbles as the pint is drank. I found this beer a bit odd, it's dark enough to fool you into thinking it might have a bit of body or obvious malty taste, but it is actually quite crisp. Not an unpleasant beer, but I can't help feel it is neither one thing or the other, and doesn't succeed as being an interesting new style. If your Gran has just given you 20 bottles of this for Christmas, don't despair, it is quite drinkable, but I wouldn't intentionally seek it out, which is a shame, because I kind of like the idea of bottle conditioned ales, and no, not just because I want to re-culture the yeast in them!

Muntons Connoisseurs Continental Lager

Type: Kit Brew
Sugars: 1kg Muntons Brew Enhancer (500g Light Dry Malt, 500g Dextrose)
Yeast: Kit Yeast
Additions:Water de-chlorinated with 1/2 Campden tablet.
Time in Primary: 2 weeks
Secondary method: King Keg
Time in Secondary: 14 days
O.G. 1038
F.G. 1005

I should start this review with an admission. I almost 'took against' this kit from the moment I opened it. The extract looked way to dark, and this didn't improve once the kit was made up. Made up using my standard process ~ de-chlorinate the water, obsessive sterilisation, etc, I used 1Kg of Muntons own beer enhancer to give it a fighting chance. Original gravity came out at a slightly disappointing 1038, and primary fermentation was fairly slow, to be honest, not dropping to a steady 1005 for 11 days. And did I mention it was way to dark?

Transferred into a King Keg for conditioning, along with 85g of priming sugar, it took the standard (for me) 2 weeks to clear. The result?

Well, before I get to that, allow me to point out a couple of things. I know that most beer kits that claim to be lagers don't use proper lager yeast. This is no doubt a fairly good idea, as lager yeast needs to be fermented at a lower temperature than ale yeast, for longer, then 'largered' for an age. Coopers produce some excellent 'lager like' kits using ale yeast (see here), and they also produce a couple that use proper lager yeast, and the increase in both time spent  brewing and conditioning, and getting paranoid about weather the temperature is getting too high are huge. So, Muntons, I get it ~ it's a good idea to try to create a lager like beer using normal ale yeast, so that most people can knock something decent out without getting put off by added complications, ok?

Now let us look at the sales blurb;

  This is a light amber hoppy lager modelled on the full-bodied beer available across mainland Europe. Serve chilled to appreciate its rich character.

But how on earth you get away with calling this a 'lager' is beyond me. Take a look the the following snap. On the left, we have the arse end of my barrel of Coopers Canadian Blonde, another 'lager that isn't a lager', and a jolly nice one too. One the right we have the Muntons;

Can anyone tell me what is wrong with this picture? No? then compare it with the beautifully presented pint on the kit can above...

Lager, apart from Dunkels, are blonde / light / pale beers. This? Well, it's not quite as dark as some bitters, but it's colour reminds me of a Samuel Smiths Original factory Pale Ale ~ i.e. not that pale. It isn't unpleasant, but it is way too dark and has an overly ale like taste to it. This doesn't bother me too much, but if someone had brought this kit because they didn't like bitter, I can't help feeling that the result would be a very disappointed home brewer. If this was a first attempt at brewing, I worry that the same person would give in, thinking that home brew was all 'crap'.

There is no good reason for such a monumental style failure ~ least of all by the company that manufacture nearly all the kits on the UK market, Coopers and Brewferm excepted. What really annoys is that those two companies are not British ~ Australian and Belgian respectively. Are we really so knackered as a country that even though we grow brewing grade grain en masse, grow and develop hops, and have a thriving micro brewing industy, that one of the biggest malt producers in the world think they can fob people off with this shoddiness? It isn't the 1970's, you know, Muntons.

In case you hadn't gathered ~ not a kit I would recommend.