Dragonfly

Brewery: Fallen Brewing Company

Supplier: Luvians Bottle Shop - St Andrews

This is a relatively new brewery starting in the beginning of 2012 in Stirlingshire. They focus on creating beers  from the best quality ingredients including Scottish mountain water. I would describe them as a new world brewery as they are not adverse to using hops from all over the globe, and lots of them.

Appearance: Candied orange colour with a thin and fading white head and lots of large bubbles.

Aroma: Some sweet resiny hops and some dried orange peel, hints of caramel malts in the background.

Flavour: Bitter upfront with not much of the hop flavours coming through, this bitterness leads into a burnt malt back. Some chemical flavours coming through. The bitterness starts to overtake it a bit too much with drinking.

Body: Very watery and sticky bubble, a bit like water with washing up liquid in. Very wet on the front with a dry back back that escalates with drinking.

Aftertaste: Constant bitterness with little flavour, the chemical flavours come through more at the back.

Overall: Therefore this gets a rating of 3.

Price Range: £2.00 for a 330ml bottle. Cheap, but tastes cheap so I wouldn't buy it again.

Food Pairings: Something sweet to offset the bitterness. The best would be lemon/orange moist sponge cake.

Celebration Stout

Brewery: Porterhouse Brewing Co.

Supplier: Beers of Europe

This beer is from the famous Porterhouse in Dublin, who pride themselves on being the largest genuine Irish brewery. This beer it to celebrate the last 14 years of brewing.

Appearance: Black with no light getting through except around the edges where there is ruby red tint. Head is the colour of milky coffee but doesn't last long. Carbonation looks more like a fizzy drink rather than a beer.

Aroma: Deep tones of dates and sherry, smelling very solvent like but in a nice fruity way. Maybe some good quality roasted coffee on the back.

Flavour: Bitter coffee and grape on the front before turning into a chocolaty coffee liqueur taste exaggerated by the very spirit like sweet flavors, that are hints of sherry and red wine. These flavours seem to fade with drinking becoming a bit more monotonous. 

Body: Surprisingly light and refreshing for the flavors it gives, a little too carbonated which gives it a sharp tang.

Aftertaste: A similar acidity that you find in black coffee, this stays for a bit but not too long.

Overall: Therefore this gets a rating of 6.

Price Range: £1.99 for a 330ml bottle, a very good price for a nice beer.

Food Pairings: Best to have it with a tomato based beef stew/casserole. This would also go well with fruit cakes.

#MashTag

Brewery: BrewDog

Supplier: Luvians Bottle Shop - St Andrews

This is a beer that was designed by the people over the internet. BrewDog gave people three choices to respond to via twitter and Facebook to choose the beer type (Brown Ale), Malt style (American Brown Ale), Hops (NZ hops with high IBU), Extra addition (Oak chips and Hazelnuts) and finally the name (in which my suggestion of #MashTag got selected!).

Appearance: Very Dark brown with slight maroon hints when held up to the light, a bit too dark for a brown ale. A milky coffee coloured head that disappears quite quickly.

Aroma: Not a huge amount of smell but I can get chocolate and grapes, with a hint of sweetness similar to lactose found in Milk Stouts.

Flavour: Getting a slight hint of rust intitially which turns into lots of chocolate and a bit of coffee. Towards the back there are hints of marzipan. Pinches of sourness when you let is spread to the sides of your tounge. 

Body: Very silky smooth right until the end when the carbonation sharpens it up a bit too much

Aftertaste: Nice balance of moistness and dryness with a gritty coffee taste that doesn't linger long.

Overall: Therefore this gets a rating of 7. Quite similar to milk stouts.

Price Range: £3ish for a 330ml bottle. A good price, I would buy it again.

Food Pairings: Some sort of chocolaty/coffee dessert, maybe some Tiramisu. If you are not into sweet desserts then I would pair it with some rich creamy French soft cheeses.

Rye PA

Brewery: St Andrews Brewing Company

Supplier: Luvians Bottle Shop - St Andrews

This was a one off beer created by mixing the recipes of their Rye and IPA beers. This won 3rd place in CAMERA's Champion Beers of Fife.

Appearance: Treacle brown with a reddish tinge. There is big copper-white coloured head that goes quickly but leaves a nice lacing. 

Aroma: The typical grapefruit and lychee hops on the nose but with hints of metallic coffee on the back.

Flavour: Starts off with a treacly sweet malt flavour but which quickly transcends into a very sharp fruity spice (a bit like raw blackcurrant). 

Body: Light but round giving it a nice feel at first, but it becomes sharp at the end. Very wet.

Aftertaste: A pungent taste of slightly overripe fruit with a mulled spice initially which leads to a dry bitterness at the end. 

Overall: Therefore this gets a rating of 5, however it has real potential.

Price Range: £2.80 for a 330ml bottle, would probably get it again at a later date when they have time to iron out a few kinks.

Food Pairings: Some nice soda bread and some olive oil and Dukkah to dip.

Fresh

Brewery: Wild Beer Co.

Supplier: Luvians Bottle Shop - St Andrews

The Wild Beer Co. are a British brewery that specialise in the use of wild yeast strains, and a blend of old & new techniques. For this beer they use freshly harvested hops from both the northern and southern hemispheres. As these hop harvests are different they make the distinction of which batch you are drinking, this is a review on Batch 2 and I served it slightly chilled.

Appearance: Pale straw with a hint of orange in it. Nice bubbles throughout but little to no head right from pouring.

Aroma: The initial smell is of hop resin but this develops into sweet caramel and apples (with a hint of burn) which is quite acidic. Its a bit too apply to be considered very nice but isn't unpleasant.

Flavour: A sharp tang of bitterness from the hops mixed with a charcoal like taste from the malt body. This leads to a sweet resin flavour as it hits the back of your tongue. The balance between the hops and the malt is spot on even if the flavours are ever so slightly off.

Body: Light but also oddly solid in the sense that it is slightly hard on you throat on the way down

Aftertaste: Dry and slightly bitty. This coupled with the pale malt taste gives my common tasting note of floury. There is also a nice hoppy bitterness leftover with hints of coffee from the malt body.

Overall: Therefore this gets a rating of 6.

Price Range: £3.10 for a 330ml bottle, worth it but I wouldn't get it again

Food Pairings: Spiced and juicy Pork/Beer. Mexican food would be best, Indian would also go well.

Sorachi Ace

Brewery: Brooklyn Brewery

Supplier: Beers of Europe

As this is my first post I thought I would start it off with something a little special. This is a saison that is re-bottled with Champagne yeast after fermentation to make it a Champagne beer (a beer that acts like a Champagne). It is made using only the Sorachi Ace hop variety and fermented with the Brooklyn Brewery's special strain of Belgian yeast.

Appearance: A bright straw colour with an effervescence similar to that of Champagne. The bottle was stopped with a Champagne cork and gave a great pop when opened.

Aroma: A bit of sweet barnyard with a tangy lemon. This goes into an even sweeter apricot pith smell as the lemon tang goes.

Flavour: Starts with that initial taste of lemon rind but leads into a musty semi-ripe apricot flavour. The dominant flavour of of this is by far of apricot. After some time it develops the slightest hint of iron.

Body: Very full mouth, even chewy, enveloping your whole mouth. Very juicy,  Not as fizzy as you would expect.

Aftertaste: The flavour gradually lessens but doesn't change much except for the green fruit taste getting more pronounced. There is a dryness with a slight lemon rind component as well.

Overall: Therefore this gets a rating of 8.

Price Range: About £10 for a 750ml bottle, not cheap but a good price for something for a special occasion.

Food Pairings: I would drink it at the same times you would Champagne; great at a Canapé party. If I was having this with food I would have it while I was eating some sort of crustacean (e.g. Crab, Lobster, etc.)