Moorhouse's Blond Witch

This one is something of an interloper, in that it is not one of my sixty beers. But as it is an interesting beer and I came across it while working my way through the sixty 'official' beers I thought I would include it, as I have done on a couple of other occasions over the past twelve months.

Moorhouses is a brewery we have encountered before, on August 27. The key thing about them is that they are based in Burnley, which is Pendle Witch country, and that it where Helen hails from. And she it is that is responsible for this bottle coming into my possession.

It is described on the label as a light-coloured premium ale with a sweet malt and citrus flavour, leaving a dry after taste, refreshing to the end, and it is exactly as described on the tin. This is my sort of beer.

Ingredients identified are malted barley and fuggle hops. ABV is 4.5%

Otter Beautiful Daze

Otter is a brewery we have encountered before - on the 19 December in fact. Refer to the entry for that day for details of the brewery, or go to www.otterbrewery.com

Beautiful Daze has an interesting story behind it. It was first brewed for a music festival in 2003. The name was inspired by a song called 'Beautiful Day', written and performed by the Levellers (who in fact also run their own music festival called 'Beautiful Days) . The label references a website called www.beautifuldays.org, which seems to be all about music festivals, but the link to the Otter Brewery does not seem to be explained anywhere.

The beer itself is between gold and amber in colour though the illustration on the label seems to be suggesting that it is a golden ale. It is quite drinkable - the label calls it 'an outstanding session beer' which I feel is overstating the case. It is quite acceptable but nothing fantastic.

On the subject of ingredients, the label tells us that the water used comes from the head of the River Otter, together with selected hops and malted barley. It also warns that it may contain wheat oats rye and spelt, which seems worryingly non-specific. It is a bright beer, rather than bottle-conditioned, and the ABV is 3.6%

Bays Gold

I had not come across Bay's Brewery before, but that appears to be because it is relatively young, as breweries go. Bays Brewery began in March 2007 when Will Freeland, Mark Salmon and Peter Salmon joined forces and signed a lease on an old 5000 square foot steel fabrication unit in Paignton. The transformation into a brewery began towards the end of March that year and by the middle of June, after some considerable construction and installation works, they were running their first brew through their newly installed 20 barrel brew plant.

The first two brews, Best and Gold, were successfully launched into local pubs simultaneously in the first week in July. With Will Freeland’s experience as the head brewer at Skinners Brewery in Truro for ten years Bays Brewery was quickly able to establish an efficient and consistent brewing regime. Bottles were launched in August 2007, the brewery shop was opened in October 2007 and their third ale, Bays Breaker, was made available to drinkers in November 2007. If you want to find out more, go to www.baysbrewery.co.uk

Bays Gold is designed to be an easy drinking light golden ale, though its colour is amber rather than golden. The blend of English and continental hops used is intended to "create lemon citrus overtones that tantalise and refresh the palate". I can't say that my experience actually matched that, as I found it a bit on the bland side and not as hoppy as I expected from the description.

The only information given about ingredients is that it contains wheat and barley. It is bottle conditioned and ABV is 4.5%.

Batham's Best Bitter

Yet another new (to me) brewery, this time from the Black Country. Bathams' Delph Brewery is based at Brierly Hill in the West Midlands and was originally established in 1877. Tim and Matthew Batham represent the fifth generation to run the company. The brewery is located at the site of the Vine, which is apparently one of the Black Country's most famous pubs. The demand for Batham's Bitter is such that it is brewed in 54 gallon hogsheads. If you feel the need to find out more about Bathams, go to www.bathams.co.uk.

Although described as a bitter, this beer is straw coloured, more like a golden ale in appearance, and indeed taste - it is very hoppy. I liked it a lot. Bathams say it is an example of the traditional Black Country style of bitter. If this is so, I would like to try some others too!

Both label and website give away very little about the ingredients used in the brew - actually they say nothing at all. It is not bottle conditioned and the ABV is 4.3%.

Cheddar Ales Gorge Best

This is the second beer from Cheddar Ales in my sixty beers. However, as all the details about the brewery were included in the entry for 27 March, perhaps something of a recap is in order. Cheddar Ales was opened in 2006 by Head Brewer, Jem Ham. The brewery is based at Winchester Farm on the edge of Cheddar village, near the famous Cheddar Gorge.

Cheddar Ales currently has three fermenting vessels, each one capable of holding 20 barrels of beer, or around 5,760 pints. This gives it a weekly brewing capacity of 17,280 pints, which may sound a lot but is certainly 'micro' in terms of the brewing industry. To find our more. go to http://www.cheddarales.co.uk/.

The label tells us that the intricate blend of hops used in this best bitter is aimed a giving a clean bitter taste that complements the warm barley flavours. It is brewed using Maris Otter and Crystal malts and hopped with a blend of English whole hops. It all sounds very exciting, but the reality did not match the expectations created. While it is a perfectly drinkable bitter, it not as special as I was anticipating.

It is bottle-conditioned and has an ABV of 4.2%.

O'Hanlons Original Port Stout

I don't need to tell you about O'Hanlons Brewery, as this is all contained in the post for January 4. Original Port Stout is one of O'Hanlons core brands, that is produced all year round, while Royal Oak that featured in the earlier post is a special brand, which is brewed only occasionally. This beer gets its name from the fact that it is enriched with Ruby Port.

The O'Hanlons website says that "'This is one of John [O'Hanlon]’s originals. The idea comes from having worked in his aunt Mary’s Feale bar back in Ballybunion. The Dry Stout recipe from which it is drawn had a lower original gravity than now, as it used a lower attenuating strain of yeast. We changed the yeast to allow more of the malt character to come through."

The malt grist then was as now apart from instead of just roast barley it then had a combination of that and chocolate malt and black malt. We took the view that any perceived benefit from having three different but very similar ingredients would be outweighed by having one kept much fresher. It would have taken us months to get through a sack of chocolate malt in those days."

The biggest change was the introduction of an aroma hop, which at the time was completely absent. Styrian Goldings was chosen as I had noted the vinous notes elicited by the marriage with the darker malts in the Red Ale. Finally the original gravity of the Port Stout was upped to 1046 around about 2001 for the bottled market where it has twice won CAMRA Champion bottle-conditioned beer. We have no plans to make any more changes!'

The website also gives some tasting notes, which seem accurate to me but are far more detailed than I would provide, so I thought I would include them too.

Colour: Dark chestnut-brown colour with ruby highlights.

Aroma: mocha coffee, milk chocolate and a hint of roasted malt, with whispers of vanilla, soot, chocolate brownie and chocolate milk.

Palate: mocha coffee, bitter chocolate, roasted malt and in the background the sweetness of the port; there’s also a brief flash mid-palate of hoppy pepperiness and a fruitiness similar to that of currants (vinous), just to make sure all the sweetness doesn’t overwhelm things.

Finish: dry, grainy, malty finish with a whisper of mocha and the return of the fruit.

It all adds up to a very fine drop of stout - I am not surprised that it has won all those awards! Apparently, it was inspired by a traditional 'morning-after' reviver.

It is 4.8% ABV and like all O'Hanlons bottled beers it is bottle conditioned.

Otley O1

Yet another new brewery, but this time it is from Pontypridd in Wales, rather than the West Country. It was set up in the summer of 2005. The brew plant was originally from the Moor Beer Company in Somerset (the West Country connection?). It originally brewed only draught beer but started producing bottled beers a couple of years ago.

Nick Otley, the brewery's Director, explained the concept behind the business in the following bit of Welsh waffle:

"When we had the idea of producing award winning beers the likes of which had not been done in Wales before, we knew we had to do something new and fresh with the visual aspect of the brand as well as the quality of the product itself. Traditionally Real Ales have suffered from what I call, “the woolly cardigan and beard syndrome”. The way most real ales have been promoted in the market place is like that of an old comfort blanket. Names that express snuggled up feelings, quiet places in the country side, old lost uncles and tired innuendos are too numerous to mention and as much as the responsible brewers think they are being witty, they are only seeming tired, droll, over ripe and worst of all they end up alienating a large portion of the market."

"We had the idea to launch a brand that would appear fresh, modern, simple and a little intriguing. You have to immerse yourself a little in the product to find out a little more about it. The simplicity of the black and white seemed to us an obvious choice, the graphic’s potential is vast and when stacked on a busy shelf with other numerous products it‘s simplicity screams for your attention. The ‘O’ we use from Otley, being our family name has enabled us to compile a range of simple names for the beers, O1, O2, OBB, OG, O8 and even a Dark O stout.

This was simply a way of labelling the products almost like an industrial stamp rather than a
flowery meaningless name and was to prove popular with the new young drinking scene, a sector
of the market not normally associated with Real Ales. Suddenly we had a product that visually did not throw up any barriers to new drinkers, young people and women who we knew were key to our products success."

"The aim of producing a product with serious award winning credentials has to be and has been
backed up with a simple but professional recognisable brand that already after only three years is being recognised on sight as an Otley product. Being a Welsh product we also were very keen on using the welsh language and we did this on the bilingual bottle labels listing the ingredients in Welsh and English and on the bottle cases where we also use bilingual packaging without throwing the Welsh angle in people's faces. Some Welsh as proud as they are of being Welsh can’t actually speak it, so we don’t want to alienate them either."

You can find more waffle like this at http://www.otleybrewing.co.uk/.

You can see the labelling in the picture. It certainly does not look like a traditional beer label, does it?

O1 is what they describe as their flagship beer. It is a straw coloured pale ale, well hopped and very tasty indeed. I can imagine that it would appeal to beer drinkers and non-beer drinkers alike. It has won the gold medal twice at the CAMRA Welsh Beer Festival and also the bronze medal at the 2007 CAMRA Great British Beer Festival, so Otley have already achieved their goal of producing an award winning beer.

The labelling policy does result on information on the ingredients being a bit sparse. The label (English section) tells us that the beer contains "Brecon Water, Malted Barley, Hops and Yeast". I have managed to establish from other sources that the hops are Styrian Goldings. ABV is 4.0% and it does not appear to be bottle conditioned.

O'Hanlons Royal Oak

Another West Country brewery with an interesting history. O’Hanlon’s Brewery started its career - as a pub. Liz and John O’Hanlon ran their “O’Hanlon’s” pub in Clerkenwell, London for several years before they came up with the idea to brew their own beer. The idea was to greatly improve the quality of their ale while at the same time boost their profit margin.

The pub/brewery combination proved a resounding success and regulars would eagerly await the next beer for sampling – a nervous and exciting time for the landlords. It was easy to see which beers would work as locals would happily provide their instant and unremitting feedback. This joyful (or occasionally painful) feedback meant a closeness both to the product and the consumer that laid the foundations for the craft beers they produce today.

The brewery eventually outgrew both the pub and its modest location under railway arches. And by this stage the O’Hanlons had the addition of a young family so that it became necessary in Jan 2000 to relocate everything to Devon. Brewers Alex Bell and Richard also relocated and together they began the task of brewing on a far grander scale. Today, in this tiny corner of Devon just east of Exeter, O’Hanlons produce some of the most well regarded ales in the country. As well as their core products and special brands, they brew a bottle conditioned ale exclusively for Tesco. You can find out more about them at http://www.ohanlonsbeer.com.

Royal Oak is a traditional bitter that was the winner of the 2003 CAMRA Champion Bottle-Conditioned Champion of Britain. If you taste it, you can readily see why - it is a very good example of this type of beer and I would thoroughly recommend it. It is based on an old recipe of 1896, and O'Hanlons were commissioned to recreate it using the the original recipe and method.

The Royal Oak story celebrates King Charles II's escape from the Battle of Worcester, when he hid from the Roundheads in the branches of a great oak. This has inspired many a pub sign, as well as this particular beer.

The brewers say that it is "a celebration of British country brewing". It is a classic amber colour, with rich malts and fragrant hop aromas blending into a soft balanced complexity and a long rewarding bitter finish. No details are provided about ingredients but the ABV is 5%.