Bitter but not twisted (My Top 5 Favourite Beers)

Member Name: magpie

Product:	My Top 5 Favourite Beers
Date:	27/03/01 (123 review reads)
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Since DooYoo invented this beer category I've been having such fun! Beer - drink it of an evening, remember it all morning, write about it all afternoon!

Rather than my top five beers, I'm going to tell you about the beers I drink most often. You might think these are the same, but for many reasons they are not. I'm also going to include my five favourite bottled beers at the end.

So...in no particular order...we have

1. York Brewery Bitter

Also known as Brideshead Renamed. You see, this beer used to be marketed under the name Brideshead Revisited...and now they've rebranded it. Not an official rebrand - officially different beers, but my contacts at York brewery assure me they are one and the same.

This is an easy session beer. Swinging in at 4%, you can have three pints before you feel too drunk. Its a nice taste - a bit bland if anything. Its a pale, traditional bitter, with a fair head on it. I tend to drink alot of it mid-week, when I'm out with people from my husbands work.

2. London Pride

Southern piss. No, not really. Its served in the pub near my work, and its a case of either Pride or Bass...so no prizes for guessing which I have! In the North, they pull this one with a hard sparkler, so all the taste goes into the head. This results in a bland, dull, pint. With a looser sparkler, it can be much more appetising. Its a relatively deep coloured beer, hoppy, and easy to drink.

3. Timothy Taylors Landlord

I've written a full opinion on this grand pint (blatant plug!) but I'll sum it up here. Basically, a pale, tasty, hoppy, loverly pint. I tend to get this at Tetley heritage pubs - though it's far too expensive from them! A great session beer, goes down a treat.

4. Abbot Ale

Well this is a beer I drank alot of last week! Made by Greene King, its occassionally available in the North, from real ale pubs. Can&#
39;t remember that much about it, but I drank alot! Seriously, this is a pint with a loverly body. Serious taste overload, and yet, can drink many of them. At 5%, you don't need to though! Its quite a dark beer - the darkest of all that I'm going to describe here, and has delicious malt overtones. Yummy.

5. Black sheep bitter

This is not one of my favourite beers. Overhyped, overpriced, but available in many outlets. It tends to be the default when there is nothing else available. The efforts of Black Sheep Brewery have to be commended - they have almost single handedly in the North made proper beer fashionable. However I find the beer to be rather bland, and nothing special.

So much for the beers I drink the most! The beers I buy from the supermarket (bottled - we have an excellent range around here) tend to be the locally produced beers. Before I describe them - here are a few instructions for how to enjoy them the most.

1. Don't keep the bottles in the fridge! Keep them in a cold store somewhere - beer should be served at about 10 degrees C.

2. Get a nice glass, but not a pint - just bigger than a half pint is best.

3. Tip the glass to a 45 degree angle, and gently pour the beer into the glass. Fill to about three-quarters full.

4. Drink the beer. When your glass is about one-quarter full, top up again to three-quarters.

If you use this method, you'll have lively beer right to the end of the bottle.

So, these are the beers I like to buy. Again, in no particular order they are:

1. Black Sheep Yorkshire Square

This beer is wonderful! It is everything that Black Sheep bitter is not - tasty - lovely smell, frothy head, nice.

2. Daleside Morrocco Ale

Again - I've got a separate op on this one. Its spicy, dark, sooo tasty. Strongly recommended for after a hard day at work.

3. Black Sheep Riggwelter


A dark, strong ale, named after a sheep that is stuck on its back! This is what may happen to you after a couple of these.

4. Daleside Crackshot Ale

This is a light, hoppy, beer, with a picture of a young lady wielding a shot gun on the front. It could be drunk as a session beer, though I prefer to just have the odd one. It's tasty, and goes down well with a roast dinner for some reason!

5. Daleside Monkey Wrench

I buy this one for my Dad. Its a strong, dark beer, verrry tasty, but a bit too malty for my taste.

So there you have it - magpies guide to Beer in Yorkshire...

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