48 of 365 Brooklyn Pilsner

I'll let you in on a little secret. While I am more than happy to drink Pilsners to beat the band,I'd prefer a dunkel or a ye olde english ale anyday. I also have another confession. Up until trying them, I had a preconception about beer from the USA, through sheer ignorance and the market forces of miller and bud, I had the impression that all american beer was shite. But, Oh my god, how was I wrong, I can't believe that it took me 13 years of my drinking career to discover the new world. Bearing in mind the above, this is a credible pilsner, one that could comfortably compete with the Germans

46 of 365 Grolsch Wiezen.

I didn't know what to expect with this one, but oh my god, what a wheat beer. As this is brewed in Holland it comes as no surprise to me that this feels like a cross Ewen a Belgian and a German wheat beer. This is smooth, white, light with a citrussy, cinamony tinge. It is relatively complex but well balanced. This beer is invigorating and invokes the sense of spring all around at the moment. It is brewed in accordance with the Reinhietgesbotbot but it is better than a lot of german wheat beers.  I can see why this won World's Best Wheat beer at the World beer Awards in 2007 because it is sublime. This is definetly one worth going out of your way to get.

46 of 365 Erdinger Ocktoberfest

I know technically speaking I should drink this in late September / early October, but I am constrainted somewhat by best  before dates. In general you cannot go wrong with any of the Erdinger family and this is a lovely beer ,  light, fluffy wheat beer with a little bit of citrus. In the strictest sense though this should be called a "Wheat festival beer" because it ain't a typical Ocktoberfest style beer you would find in the tents in munich.

Perhaps they should have called this one the Erdinger Herbsfest after the festival that takes place in late August /early September, nonetheless it is a beautiful beer.

45 of 365 Little Valley Tod's Blonde

After my last experience with Little Valley,to be honest I wasn't looking forward to this one. Considering that this is organic , bottled conditioned, a vegan product and "CAMRA says its real ale, it isn't unfair to assume that this is going to be a good beer. But as with books and Vinyl records , just beacuse the label looks good, doesn't mean that its going to be a good beer. In fairness this isn't a bad beer, but with a label with so many boasts,I feel slightly duped and disapointed, similar to the way that a woman must feel when a guy in a club tells her that he owns his own company, drives a porsche and spends his summers on the riviera and the following morning after average sex, he jumps into a battered black coloured ford fiesta wearing overalls. (Not that there is anything wrong with overalls and black fiestas).Overall, it is worth a try but just don't expect the sun , moon and stars.

44 of 365 Badgers Original Ale

Badgers is brewed by Hall and Woodhouse a fifth generation family owned company. Suprisingly they have 1,500 employees and have been brewed 1777. Their brewery is based in Blandford St. Mary in Dorset. I have had some of the badgers products before and was not all that inpressed to be honest, but I found their original ale to be nice. Overall it isn't anything special but would go down nicely after a hard days labour on a hot summers day. It is definetly one to try as a minor session beer.

43 of 365 Cain's Double Bock Bier

I am always dubious of bock beers brewed outside of Germany, however this one is brewed in accordance with the German Reinheitsgebot and uses original German malts.  This is brewed in Liverpool and this bottle is my first ever sampling of the Robert Cain Brewery. This beer was first brewed to celebrate Liverpool’s 800^th  anniversary

It tastes of port /raisins but not in an overpowering way. This beer is satiny smooth, excellently balanced and with no a hint of its 8% alcohol on your pallet is it dangerously easy to drink quickly.

This is definitely one to go out of your way to get. In some ways I am grateful I only had one bottle of this in stock, because if I had more it would have been hard to stop drinking and with this one at 8% it would have got messy.

42 of 365 Zatec

Zatec is brewed in the town of Zatec which is about 80km north east of Prague. The brewery was built in 1800 inside Zatec castle walls although they claim to brew beer since 1004. The brewery fell into a state of very low production and nearly closed due to lack of investment in communist times but recent investment in 2002 has rejuvenated production

This is a lovely everyday pils type Czech beer. This one starts off quite malty and then turns watery followed by a slight tinge of hops. In general it is light bodied with a very subtle taste of fruit. It is definitely worth a try if you want a change from the bigger Czech breweries.