Williams Bros. Grozet

This pale ale from across the boarder was a clean pour with an orange aroma.

The flavour is fresh and fruity: fizzy on the tongue, with a bitter hoppy finish only at the very end of taste.

The fruitiness is very real; oranges, peaches and gooseberries - not the strong flavours of hop pellets, but from actually being aged with gooseberries!

It calls itself a fruit beer, though I think I'd class it more as a fruity flavoured golden ale, which whilst it is very nice now, would be perfect on a hot summers day.

At 5.0%, it's not a session ale, but being full of flavour, I feel in no rush to finish it.

This is an unusual beer, but one I've enjoyed and am really looking forward to trying again. 9/10

Dow Bridge Acris

Wild Wednesday; the wind blowing a gale outside, but I'm relaxing on the sofa with the dog and a beer. Happy days.

Tonight's ale is a 4.0% bottled conditioned bitter from the Dow Bridge brewery in local Catthorpe, Leicestershire.

The beer poured well, giving an almost full pint of flat, clear, copper coloured nectar.  The nose is dry and biscuity.

Despite its flat appearance, the beer is lively on the tongue.  Initially there is a hoppy, bitter taste, together with a milder, traditional bitter flavour.

Sadly, for me at least, it feels like the beer isn't really sure what it's trying to be. It's neither a hoppy amber ale, or a smooth bitter. It's not lasted long, but that's been in an effort to work out exactly what this beer is.

An enigma, though I don't think they've cracked the code yet. 5/10