Bridgeport from that well known country of Oregon make many tasty beers, and this IPA is mellow, fruity, slightly sweet, and very refreshing. Bottle conditioned by the looks of it a light wood pine colour with light head, very grand in the glass.

Sweet aromatic hops remind me of forests, light breezes, and honest outdoor hikes, and what is best after a good long hike? A nice cool refreshing beer. Light on your tongue, with a slight fruity taste, solidly boddied as you would expect from an IPA. Then a wave of mango, pine nuts, hops and almond come out of the woodwork like a crazed gunman wielding a mop. Enough to take notice, but not to scare you away. When this dies down, you are left with a subtle hop aftertaste, not as strong as the New Zealand mad IPAs, but rounding the beer off nicely.

Summary. An excellent IPA at cellar temperature. Fruity, but not too much. Crazy, but not too much. Hopped, but not too much. As Goldilocks once said: just right. 5 stars.

I have no idea what this beer is. Normally I can make some kind of stab at an interpretation, but it’s all in Norwegian. It does have snowflakes so I am guessing a dark winter ale. Just right during the hottest Autumn in 50 years then…

Well it is a dark ale with a very smooth rich stout-like head. More of a porter than a stout, and darker than a brown ale. Rich fruit aromas without being fruity. The  spices from the glass warm you before you drink anything. Cherries, raspberries, cardamon, cinnamon, spiced oranges and wood-burning stoves. All from this rather substantial beer.

Firstly the build-up from the aroma is slightly let down by the lack of body for this beer. I was a bit disappointed that it was not as powerful as I thought it would be. Tasty, yes. But a 4-star beer rather than a 5. The first hit when you taste it is that of the spices. You get some of the stone fruit, but mainly spices. The middle tastes give you the fruit and the first wave of hops (yes, it is a beer!) Together with a light body feel. Once the spices and fruit tastes die down, then you get hit by the hop aftertaste. A thin feel with sharp final tastes makes you reload, and again.

Summary. A nice warming winter beer with great spices and fruit overtones. I would like more body, but this is still a great beer which tastes great. 4 stars.

Phoenix is THE famous beer from Mauritius. Nuf said.

Just kidding.

Another lager this one. Not much aroma, and the beer is quite crisp. When you drink it, it tastes sharp, not metallic, but acidic in its quality. This lager has quite a heavy feel to it in the middle tastes. When you swallow it, then you get a more harsh aftertaste than the initial flavour of this beer.

Summary. Not very coherent, sorry. Sharp tangy heavier lager with not much aroma. Best drank ice cold, and in hot weather.

Almaza (extra quality) pilsner beer is “Delectable, bright and cheerful. A truly Lebanese beer that genuinely reflects how we are.” Ok then.

Looks good. Pilsner should look nice and clear in the glass with a fine head, and this beer does just that. A light banana aroma with a faint hop smell. Its not overly powerful, but goes with the lightness for the pilsner style. Light to drink too. It initially tastes watery, but a tang of bubbles gives the beer some body mixing with a light refreshness. Finally, hop and malt aftertastes fade to a lingering banana flavour of cheap sugar.

Summary. Light pilsner that is slightly tainted by cheap sugar and banana flavours and aromas.

Tucker is the main imported beer from Kenya (according to my sources – “they only ship out one beer”). There are good malts, and good lagers, but what of their main beer?

Foaming Kenyan lager. A pint of bubbling snow-capped monolith, sitting trembling waiting for me to drink it. Well sorry, but this is about as exciting as this beer gets. As hommage to its blandness, I will score it in the style of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Aroma – nil point. Has none at all.
Taste – nil point. Has no taste.
Body feel – nil point. Can’t feel anything on the way down.
Easy to drink – un point. At least it is easy to drink.
Refreshingness – un point. It would be good on a stinking hot day, as a drink that you don’t notice at all.

Summary. Deux point et la dinde d’or.

Aooni by Yoho brewing is an IPA from Japan. I know its an IPA because it says it is in English on the can. The top of the can also has Japanese Braille, and either reads makio (まきを), or osake (おさけ), depending on which way round the can is – I think… Answers on a postcard please…

Well, this beer has settled down in the (lengthy) time it took me to find out, and cut and paste that Japanese. The beer came out quite lively from the can, and was initially quite cloudy. It is still cloudy, and has retained the head well. Good light hops aroma with a general smoothness (if smoothness has an aroma). Tastes heavy. It has a strong almost overpowering alcohol feel initially, and a very thick body. This beer then lightens slightly to then hit you with a shovel load of hops. It certainly is not subtle about anything. I like a beer with body, and I like this beer, but be warned, it is very thick.

Summary. Heavy, sluggish, thick IPA with a monster hit of hops. Nice in small quantities.

I don’t know Italian, so I don’t know much about this beer, except it has an award on the label, it is a Belgian tripel style beer, and is lotto numero 11311411. So have I won the jackpot?

Cloudy in the glass, it looks bottle conditioned, which is a really good thing in my opinion. Good head, and strong copper colour.
The tripel style comes through in the aroma. It’s slightly fruity, but there are other smells of apricots, wheat, to go with the stronger alcohol smell in the glass. Not too strong one way or another and is nicely mixed.

When you taste this beer, you get the initial stone fruit tastes, with the wheat malt. Again, as in the aromas, not too strong either way. A really smooth body, to go with the lingering fruity tastes which slides down without any harshness. Finally you get the stronger flavours of the 7.8% alcohol, but again this is not in your face, but rather more subtle as an afterthought to the Belgian tripel style. A sweet aftertaste makes you reach for more. Quite a treat, if you like the stronger style.

Summary. Quite a surprise. When you think top shelf beers, you don’t think of Italy. However, Croce de Malto have produced an absolute corker, a spectacular smooth beer with plenty of bite. I keep drinking it and I cannot find fault with it. More please.

8.6 is the strong lager from the Bavaria Brouwerij in the Netherlands. Despite its name, this beer is actually 7.9%, which leads me to think anything over 8% may be taxed as fortified wine. It comes in a can, will it taste disgusting from it?

Clear, that is the only worthy thing from this lager. My first impression was ‘yuck’ and here’s why. Smells copper and metallic, as if the can has imparted some of its qualities to the beer. Also smells of sawdust, but yet, none of the sweet alcohol, or crisp lager aromas. On to the taste. Sweet, there is the alcohol, an initial hit of teeth-jangling sugar. A flat body with no feeling of anything, it slips down without even a by your leave. Of course, being able to drink it as fast as possible would be an advantage as it would go away quicker. At this stage it would be drinkable, if it wasn’t for one thing: the awful aftertaste. Initially sweet it morphs into a twang of bitterness, like a toothless tone deaf banjo player trying to scrape out a living with endless Spice Girls hits.

Summary. So tell me what you want, what you really really want. I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want. I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I really really wanna this beer to go away.

Brewed by the Nelson Brewery for the Greenwich Observatory, located at the co-ordinates on the bottle: 51d 28m 38s north, 0d 00m 00s east and also 0d 00m 00s west. Of course, the prime meridian. The Nelson brewery is worth a mention too, brewed at the birthplace of the HMS Victory, Lord Nelson’s flagship at the battle of Trafalgar. So I hope not actually in the water, but on the docks.

Copper coloured, and quite fizzy initially, it settles down to a light rich copper ale. This is a superb beer with strong hop flavours. Quite sharp and peaty, the hops jump out at you when you smell it. Again when you drink it, the hops shout out and jump down your throat, with a initial burst of flavour. Smooth middle drink with not much carbonation, gives the beer an easy to drink feel to it, one that goes down well. The aftertaste of strong acidic and peaty hops would be too much for your beginner ale drinker, but the connoisseur would really appreciate what the Nelson brewery has done to this beer. Rich flavour without being too overpowering.

Summary. A rich satisfying beer, with strong peaty hops. As distinctive as Nelson and the Greenwich Observatory it represents. 5 stars.

Black sheep, by the Black Sheep Brewery is an English ale with a crisp malt flavour and a strong bitter aftertaste.

Clear, with a chunky head, once this beer warms to cellar temperatures, all the aromatic hops and aromas start to come out. A bitter woody aroma, with a hint of dark treacle, spiced and sharp. Crisp malt and log fires meet you when you start to drink it. The overly carbonated body put me off, but that is the only bad thing to say about this beer. Smooth middle and a light bitter aftertaste finish off an easy to drink beer.

Summary. Great light and hop, malt and oaked flavours, only spoiled slightly by being too fizzy. 3 stars.