Spring Ale, a Chocolate Ale too, plus...

Well, last week heralded the beginning of Astronomical Spring (Met Office), and Stonehenge Ales (website) have again brewed their seasonal ale Sign of Spring (blog). As you can see above, this is a pale ale which they label a 'Premium Bitter' but it has a touch of green (food dye presumably) about it 😉 and it's a jolly good 4.6% pale dry bitter indeed! There's a general fruitiness, with a nice dry bitter, slightly nutty, finish, please can I have another? 👍

And then I had this totally different ale from Saltaire Brewery (website) up in Skipton, West Yorkshire... their 4.8% Triple Choc, an ale I last remember drinking in December 2019 (blog), and my opinion of it hasn't changed at all. With chocolate and a hint of liquorice in the aroma, it's proclaimed as an 'Indulgent Chocolate Stout' and who could argue with that, unless I wanted to suggest it's a porter, not a stout, but see my blog which discusses the difference between stouts and porters. So, whichever style we call it, Triple Choc is brewed with Fuggles hops, and is a very deep red colour, and very rich ale, tasting of chocolate indeed, but incredibly easy to drink, though I probably wouldn't drink too many pints in the same session 😉

And then a pale hoppy ale that isn't green. The Kent Brewery (website) 4.5% Loral, a single hopped very pale ale with a hint of citrus, not too overpowering for those who don't like citrus flavoured ales, slightly spicy and with a crackin' dry bitter finish, very refreshing. This is an ale that I have had quite recently too, before yesterday, but my notes were included in my last destroyed note book 😞 so I quickly included this ale in this blog, I would hate to mess up again 😏 Kent Brewery is my favourite local brewer, and they do brew very excellent ales of all styles. Anyway, to the Loral hop, which has forbears from the USA, that is Glacier and Nugget, and Tardif de Bourgogne from France (Yakima Valley Hops), billed as 'floral, herbal and citrus' but I didn't pick up the 'floral' myself, but a very decent ale indeed, cheers!

I enjoyed the above ales this week, imbibing at the Dolphin Inn, 11-12 Rock a Nore Road, Hastings, East Sussex TN34 3DW (website), until the next time, cheers! 😁