Recognition

M&S can always be relied upon to provide some of the tastiest nibbles on the high street. Sadly the beer selection often does not match the quality of the food on offer. In Ireland we generally don't get the beer that is on sale in the UK. I do not know who decides which of the available M&S beers make their way to Irish shelves, but he/she must be influenced by sales alone because until recently only the blandest of English ale made it. I imagine their thought processes were along the lines of the Irish not being interested in English ale, what with all the Guinness we have to drink over here. In part they are correct - except that the Irish are in fact much like the British in that the beer of choice is lager, every bit as cold and bland as that on sale in the UK. Being persistently disappointed by the beer on offer has curtailed my trips to M&S, but last weekend I hit pay dirt in one of the larger stores in west Dublin. I was greeted with a wide range of beers from around Europe, not to mention some promising English ale. I grabbed a few and headed for the till.

Another strange aspect of the beer from M&S is the mysterious nature of it. Rarely is the brewery listed on the bottle - we merely have to accept that M&S source only the very best of food and drink. This practise left Irish beer lovers trying to figure out who was brewing the M&S Irish Stout that was on sale all over the UK. It turned out to be The Carlow Brewing Company, and true to their selection strategy, they couldn't have picked a better stout. Another example of this was their Cornish IPA, which turned out to be St Austell's hop packed Proper Job  - a beer not made available in Ireland.

The guessing games are over now. On these most recent bottles full recognition is given to the brewery, and not before time. As a result we now know that their solid Norfolk Bitter comes from Woodeforde's. While the silky sweet Cheshire Chocolate Porter comes from Unicorn Brewery of Stockport, and their rich malty Southwold Winter Beer can be attributed to Adnams and is likely a derivation of their Broadside recipe.

It is important to know who brews the beer we drink so we might give recognition for great achievement, or know to steer clear in the future.

Proper, Proper Job

I knew when I read the back label on the bottle of St Austell's Proper Job I had tried the beer before. The front label tells us that it is 'powerfully hopped', but in general, unless it's BrewDog telling me that, I tend to ignore it, knowing that my idea of powerfully hopped and the average British brewer's idea are two quite distinct things. A further study of the label makes for very interesting reading; Willamette, Chinook and Cascade are listed as the hops employed and it is at this point that punters might have reason to think they have something quite special on their hands. As it turns out this ale is powerfully hopped in a very satisfying manner. Frankly, for a British bottled ale it is astounding, full of hop flavour and resins all wrapped around a satisfying malt base. I could drink this stuff all day, but at 5.5% abv it would take its toll.

I mentioned that I thought I had crossed paths with this beer before, well, I am certain that it is none other than the Marks and Spencer Cornish IPA I tried in London earlier in the year. In that post I begged M & S to unleash this beer on the Irish market, and I will once again reiterate this plea; Take back the Yorkshire Bitter and give us this wonderful IPA instead!

London

My first pint in London during this trip didn't exactly go as expected. The plan was to dump the cases at the hotel and make the 30 second walk round to the nearest boozer for a much needed pint of something on cask. Unfortunately I was misled by a London pub guide that stated that the Carpenter's Arms did decent pub grub. I was politely informed by the barmaid that it does no such thing. Luckily for us right next door was a sparsely decked out establishment by the name of Imbiss Austrian Beer Food. It was a superb second choice, and we tucked into wurst and leerkase washed down with Hitter Morchl for me - a rich roasty dark lager, and a more lady like measure of Stiegl Goldbrau for my wife.

After this very satisfying meal we struck out on a bit of sight seeing which took us to Knightsbridge and the excesses of Harrrods where the only beery piece of news I can relate is a bottle of Harrods own brand lager that turned out to be bloody awful. It was produced in Germany and I have no doubt it tasted a great deal better when it left the brewery. There is no way the German's would allow a beer as bad as that pass quality control. My guess is that it had been mishandled quite badly in the interim, resulting in oxidation and a general funkiness.

With the pavement pounding done for the day we headed back to the Carpenter's Arms to sample some of the six casks on offer. The first and best was Cooking from the Grain Store Brewery - session ale at its very best giving plenty of flavour, begging you to drink pint after pint. I moved on to Titan which proved to be one of those overly malty sweet ales that I just don't enjoy at all. To get the taste of Titan out of my mouth I opted for a pint of Between the Posts Whippet Special Ale, a malty pale ale that for some strange reason tasted of chocolate. A strange sensation because the colour of the beer did not hint at this type of flavour at all.

On the way back to the hotel we opted for a final drink in the Mason's Arms, a nearby pub that only stocked Badger's ale on cask and gave me the chance to try some First Gold in its most natural form. The bottled version of this ale has let me down badly on more than one occasion, the carbonation is far too high and the single show case hop does not get the chance to shine. On cask it is a different ale, completely dominated by the hop choice and tastes very earthy indeed, much like mouthful of soil, but not in a bad way, if you know what I mean. The second Badger ale on offer was Hopping Hare, 'thrice hopped', one of these hops was Stryian Goldings I reckon, giving the beer a very typical citrus golden ale flavour.

Finally, for a little hotel refreshment I chanced upon some Marks and Spencer ale that M & S in their infinite wisdom have deemed unsuitable for the Irish market. The Cornish IPA is wonderful stuff packed with American hops including Chinook, Willamette and Cascade. It is a crying shame that this ale has been withheld from the Irish Market. Please M & S, take back the metallic Yorkshire Bitter and give us this one instead! The second ale withheld from Irish shores is a Welsh Honey Bitter, once again featuring a favourite hop of mine - Challenger. It is ferociously carbonated, attempting to jump out of the bottle upon opening, but for some reason the prickle on the tongue works rather well with this beer, giving a zing of refreshment to the golden ale. The honey doesn't really feature much, except for perhaps a slight sweetness, but no real honey flavour to speak of. I always enjoy a trip to London, but my next may well prove the best. I have been invited for a tour of the Fuller's brewery by the guy in charge of the laboratory there. It should prove very interesting indeed.