12 April 2010

Spot the craft

It's been a while since I last did a blind beer tasting at home. It was only when I noticed I had three ginger beers in the stash that I reckoned one was on the cards. One of them was the seemingly ubiquitous Crabbie's, a beer I'd heard a lot about and none of it good ("it's basically an alcopop", was the gist). I also had the Ginger from the mighty Williams Brothers (yes, them again), and a total wildcard: the organic, fairtrade Little Valley Ginger Pale Ale from Yorkshire, one so loved-up it may as well be wearing sandals and have a wind turbine in the cap.

So how did they fare, and would it be possible to tell the craft beers from the supposedly unpleasant one?

The answer to the second question is overwhelmingly yes. Though all of them poured roughly the same fizzy pale gold, only one of them had zero aroma and a hideous sugariness, plus a metallic saccharine tang and a horrible oxidised staleness. I have never poured a beer down the sink in my life, but Crabbie's brought me close.

Another one I found very bitter, with a green, fresh veg, aroma. It was the most beery of the three, with the ginger almost an afterthought on the end -- with just a small sweet-spice kick of candied ginger as it tails off. Otherwise I found it a bit boring: thin and fizzy. This turned out to be Little Valley: another example of organic and fairtrade badging covering up for a basic lack of beer quality.

That left the Williams, which had a fantastic Canada Dry ginger ale smell and a lovely full body, despite being only 3.8% ABV. There are no hops in here, just added sugar, lemon juice and rind, and ginger. Lots of ginger. It burns in a most wonderful way, and the flavour lasts and lasts. It's far and away the best ginger beer I've had and would be a great summer refresher. Do not serve cold. Do not serve over ice. Do not mix in a cocktail or add fruit of any kind. Proper ginger, proper beer, proper craft.

14 comments:

  1. I must put the wife onto that good one, she loves that ginger burn, not a huge fan of it myself.

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  2. woa what a very nice article yes its very informative. thanks for the information...

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  3. Beekeeping spam?! How delightfully weird.

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  4. They might have found you through Daves blog.

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  5. Yeah, my link to it in the side bar meant I showed up in a keyword search. I'm just flabbergasted that Big Beekeeping has money to pay Pakistani comment spammers.

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  7. No problem. Now give us a look at your bees.

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  8. Interesting article. I am in California, but always looking for ways to make better beer. I wonder when the ginger goes into the beer. I have been toying with adding different things to the beer I make without totally ruining it. As they say on your side of the pond, cheers.

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  9. From people I know who've made ginger beer, about 10-15 minutes before the end of the boil seems to work best.

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  10. I've not tried LV's ginger, on account of my not ever liking any beer with ginger in it! The only possible exception was William's Bros Midnite Sun, which was really interesting. But LV do have a habit of taking ordinary styles and ...well, making them a bit odd. Do keep with them, though - thier IPA's quite nice.

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  11. Cheers Leigh. There's a few of their range knocking about at the moment. I'll give them a go sometime.

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  12. The Crabbie's is wicked stuff. I didn't enjoy it at all.

    Fentiman's do an excellent non alcoholic ginger beer. An alcoholic version of that would be perfect.

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  13. Where did you buy the Williams Ginger? I'd love to get my hands on it!

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  14. DrinkStore. Though they were out, last I checked the website.

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