I feel I should add that since last year my preferences and tastes for beer have changed a little, with the popularity of small local brewers the punchier hoppy flavours of American inspired IPA's definitely being preferred to a standard British ale.
In short, ale needs to be very special to compete with the barrage on the senses I now favour.
I'll also try and be structured with my review, noting on appearance, smell, and taste. Let's see how long I can keep that up for.
Now, on to the beer. The first beer in the 2012 Beer Advent Calendar is...
Oxfordshire Ales - Uncle Scrooge
I'm not sure if Uncle Scrooge is trying to be ironic, because there really isn't anything Christmassy (I'm sure I used that word last year) about it. I often wonder what the point of all the traditional breweries putting out Christmas beer is, I assume it's just because old men get drunk at Christmas and it has nothing to do with actually creating a beer inspired by Christmas. Last year Brewdog released a Christmas beer made with ginger and cloves - t'was fantastic, but I digress.
Looks - I'm not really a fan of the colour, it's halfway between a nice golden/amber and a richer darker ale. Looks almost muddy.
Smells - Smells OK, little malty, little hoppy - but on the whole, fairly average.
Taste - I'm trying not to be negative, but this beer tastes like 'the norm'. There's nothing popping out, I could probably pick out at least half a dozen other beers that are almost identical - and they're available year-round. I could probably brew something that tasted like this (no, not in my bladder...)
I'm not disappointed to get this one out of the way first, quite the opposite - this distinctly average drink shall provide a middle-of-the-road mark for the rest of the month.
5/10
I wrote this blog whilst listening to The Bibelots
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