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This one is a Christmas special from the Wychwood brewery. They call it a “seasonal brew with plum and spice” but we all know it’s just a marketing ploy to cash in on the primary gifting period.

It has a rich malt aroma and it tastes of Christmas. Either that or an average dark ale with a hint of spiced fruit. Well, “average” may be a bit too harsh (it is a nice ale) but it isn’t really anything special. It’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a Christmas special, which is exactly what I wanted when I chose it. Hooray.

It has goblins with a Christmas pudding on the label and it’s 5.0% ABV.

After the disappointment of that raspberry beer from Flanders, it seems appropriate that my next beer should be Liberation, subtitled “A Beer To Be Remembered”. According to the label, sales of Liberation should generate at least £10,000 a year for The Royal British Legion. This is a cause that I support wholeheartedly so I hope that the beer lives up to its promise. It is 5.2% ABV and it is brewed by Thwaites.

It smells delicious: the aroma is strong and malty with a heavy hint of something sweeter, possibly fruity. The flavour isn’t actually as strong as the aroma might suggest; I’m not quite sure what to make of it. It is very nice but also very simple. I suppose it is what they call ‘smooth’ (whoever ‘they’ are) which is not necessarily a bad thing but it does make it a bit boring. On the other hand, it is very pleasant indeed.

This beer isn’t one of those beers that amazes you at the first sip but the more sips I have, the more I like it. I tend to prefer more complex flavours, whereas this beer has only one single flavour, but it is a nice flavour. It has a pleasantly bitter finish and hints of sweetness, rather like a diluted version of its aroma.

Yes, definitely smooth.

This raspberry beer by the Van Honsebrouck brewery in Flanders is a fruit flavoured variation on Bacchus, a beer of a traditional West Flanders style. I don’t usually go for fruit beers but for some reason this one called to me as I wandered down the beer aisle in my local supermarket. It is 5.0% ABV and it comes in a half-size champagne bottle with a paper wrapping instead of a label.

It certainly looks good, both in its packaged presentation and when poured. It has an orangey-red colour and a curious aroma that combines malt and sweet fruit. It is very sweet, the wrapping claims that it is sweetened with both sugar and “sweetener”, and the sweet fruit almost masks the flavour of the beer completely. There is a malt flavour underneath all the sucrose but it is dominated by raspberries and sugar.

To be honest, I would rather be drinking normal Bacchus than this raspberry flavoured version. I don’t even know what normal Bacchus tastes like but it has to be better than this. The undercurrent of beer, when my tastebuds can filter it out from the sugary fruit, is quite pleasant. But this is just too sweet for me. I love raspberries but not with this much sugar and not in my beer.

Black Sheep, brewed by the eponymous brewery, used to be one of my favourite ales. However, recently I have had a few bad pints of this stuff from a couple of different pubs. I thought it was about time I bought myself another bottle to see if it’s the fault of the beer or if it was just that it wasn’t being kept properly in the pubs. It’s 4.4% ABV.

I am happy to say that Black Sheep from a bottle is still a lovely drink. It’s sharp and dry and it smells like a medieval tavern. Well, a romanticised tavern without all the body odour and animal shit. Drinking this beer makes me think of Robin Hood, roaring fires, Lindisfarne and Anglo-Saxons.

It’s one of those few beers that manages to blend the malt and the hops in just the way that I like it. It has a crisp bitterness but without the astringent bite that disappoints me in so many other beers. The flavour isn’t complex but it’s strong and hearty and makes me wish I was sitting around a fire with my friends.

So, still one of my top beers, it’s just a shame that the one pub I frequent that serves it on tap doesn’t seem to keep it properly. Or maybe Black Sheep from a cask just isn’t as good as from a bottle. Beers can be weird like that.

Incidentally, the Black Sheep Brewery is run by one of the Theakstons, so it ought to be good.

Young’s Special London Ale is a nice potent brew. It is of average colour, average smell and fairly average taste, with a good kick from its 6.4% ABV strength.

Actually, it’s not fair to call the taste “fairly average”. It’s better than that. But it isn’t all that special. It’s smooth and has the usual citrus undertones with a strong, hoppy bitterness. It’s nice and I am enjoying drinking it, but it isn’t up there with my favourites. Another standard ale well done, only stronger.

Interestingly, it is bottle conditioned. There is something fresh about bottle conditioned beers and it might be that which raises this beer above the average. Clearly further experiments are in order.

This is a light bitter from the Badger Brewery. It is 4.5% ABV.

Although this beer is one of Badger’s ridiculous animal themed bitters, it is an excellent example of hoppiness done well. Hops are added to the brewing coppers three times: two lots of Super Styrian hops and one of Styrian Goldings. I believe the lovely, almost sweet aroma comes from the final batch, while the potent bitterness comes from the first two. The malt is very subdued in this beer, most of the flavour comes from the hops. And yet they are not astringent.

I’m not sure how they manage to create beers that are so hoppy and bitter without the bitterness being unpleasant. More to the point, why is it that some beers are astringent and make my tongue curl, while beers such as this one are just as bitter but taste lovely? Is it just the variety of hops used? My notes so far suggest that Goldings hops might be the cause of the flavour that I don’t much like. Perhaps they only work when blended with others, as in this beer or Tribute. On the other hand, there are many different types of Goldings hops - how similar are they all to each other? Clearly more research must be done.

Golden Champion is a light, golden ale brewed by the Badger Brewery. It is 5.0% ABV.

This beer has a light, fruity flavour (just like it says on the label on the bottle) but at the same time it tastes quite strong. I couldn’t quite place the slightly floral smell and flavour until I read the label on the back of the bottle and it said it had an “elderflower aroma”, which I think is about right. It is noticeably more bitter than some darker beers but not in a bad way, it rather accentuates the fruit flavours.

I’ve never understood why Badger (or rather their taskmasters, Hall & Woodhouse) sell their best beers in bottles only. Sometimes, around Christmas, they produce a few casks of Champion or Golden Glory, but never very many. Usually you can only get their Badger Best, Sussex, Tanglefoot or one of their stupid animal themed beers on tap. Tanglefoot is nice but why don’t they put their best beers on tap more often? Why did they cancel the King & Barnes IPA? It was pondering such deep questions as these that I spent my time working behind the bar in a Badger pub. That and drinking.

Tribute is a light, amber coloured ale brewed by the St. Austell brewery. It is 4.2% ABV.

It has a delicate taste and aroma. It smells of fruit, maybe fruit blossoms. The taste is interesting - at first it seems quite watery and bland but then it develops into a citrusy, hoppy blend on the tongue. It would make an excellent summer beer, so perhaps I should have drunk it outside in the afternoon, when the sun was shining, rather than waiting for the chill evening. I usually do my beer tasting inside, after dark, with a pipe and a good book or film. I think Tribute would have done better in a beer garden during the day.

I did like the label on the bottle, which lists the hops and malts used. I wish more beers listed their ingredients. In this case, the hops were English Fuggle, Oregon Willamette and Slovenian Golding. The malts were Maris Otter and Cornish Gold.

This is a pretty standard bitter brewed by Ruddles in Rutland. It is 4.7% ABV.

However, although it smells and seems like a standard session bitter, it has an unusually nice bitter flavour. Apparently the hops used, Bramling Cross, are the cause of this pleasant crispness. Or so says the label on the bottle anyway. I was surprised. When I first opened the bottle and smelt it, I thought it was just going to be a bog standard, reasonable but not very special beer. I still can’t really identify anything interesting about it except that the hop flavour is really quite nice - not astringent at all. I suppose I could best describe it as a standard ale, but a superbly well created standard ale.

This is a rich, dark beer by Theakston. It is 5.6% ABV.

It has a strong, simple flavour. It is pleasant, especially for people like me who prefer dark beers, but it isn’t special. There’s no edge to the flavour or any complex blends of flavour. Just one rich flavour. It would be perfect to accompany a feast of roasted meat.