Adnams Broadside & 'Spirit of Broadside'

My latest half-and-half expedition featured Adnams Broadside and 'Spirit of Broadside', which  is a beer eau-de-vie rather than a whisky.

Just to explain the technicality a little. This isn't just a whisky that is at a very young stage, although at one year old it hasn't aged as long as a new make spirit would have to be in order to be legally classified as whisky. In addition it is made from distilled beer rather than distilled ale. A key word here is ale, which is technically not flavoured with hops (ale flavoured with hops is beer) and although nobody would claim that Broadside is the hoppiest of beers on the market it is very much a beer,* and hops being an ingredient means that even at an older age it still won't become whisky.

So what we've got here is a bit of a different animal, it's not whisky for the reasons I've outlined above, but if you're going to put it into a broader spirit church then it's got to be whisky's cousin rather than gin, vodka or rum for example. In terms of assessing the quality (as opposed to saying whether I enjoy it) I think it's fair to look for similar quality indicators as you'd look for in a whisky - complexity and a smooth texture which continues on to a finish. At such a young age that might be unfair but you would expect smoothness and a pleasant finish from any quality spirit, and at the price it's got to be thought of as being in that bracket.

As for the original beer? I think it's fair to say that 'English Strong Ale' is a style that I don't generally go for, I often find the sweet malt a bit too much and prefer something with more of a hoppy bite. That said, Broadside is one that I do enjoy, a ready alternative to a big stout as a winter (or, as seems to be the case, late spring) warmer. It's a comforting beer, dense, ruby coloured and brooding. There's lots of rich fruit cake in there; it's a brandy-soaked Christmas pudding of a beer. Its sweetness means it's one to linger over rather than quaff, which is probably a good thing since it weighs in at 6.3% abv. Its distilled brother is a beautiful burnished copper colour, perhaps reflecting the stills it was created in. It genuinely reflects the flavours of the beer, but with a real lightness that makes it really fresh. Its relative youth works in its favour - it's no big, menacing sherry-monster. There's a sharpness on the nose, fresh green apple and some stewed pear. Unsurprisingly on the palate there's a lot of sweet malt, and Bourbon-like vanilla, but it's generous and smooth without that feeling of it needing a few more years in cask that I've had with some new release/young whiskies. I'm not going to claim that it has the long finish that you pay good money for with a decent malt, but it is genuinely different and it's perhaps not even fair to mention that since it stands up as a spirit on its own - or in this case to accompany its namesake.

Given earlier that evening, after being lulled into thinking warmer weather was finally upon us, I'd got caught in a hailstorm and soaked to the skin, this was a great warming combination.

Broadside and Spirit of Broadside are both available from the Adnams website for £19.99 (for 12) and £32.99 (70cl) respectively, although I picked up a couple of Broadsides for £3 on a Waitrose deal.

* Unless it's served on hand-pull, then it's a 'Real Ale' but I'm not even touching that debate with a very very long barge pole.

Adnams 'Southwold Winter IPA'

I love winter; long evenings staying cosy in the house with a good film, a good beer and a good whisky. Ideally I'd go for an imperial stout with a whisky to match, but Adnams' idea of a Winter IPA sounds like a rather excellent concept too. When I worked in a London Oddbins next to a video shop we used to try and come up with wine and film combinations, asking people what film they'd rented and trying to recommend an ideal wine. I might branch out and try for a triple combination, the ultimate whisky and film accompaniment to a beer - I'm sure I can put the research in for this one.

Back to the beer. It poured cloudy, I'm not sure if that was my fault but I'm rarely particularly picky about clarity. I loved the brilliant orange colour though. There's a slight soapiness on the nose, but it was potentially a bit cold when I first poured it - a good film beer has to last the length of a film after all. There was plenty of rindy-orange flavours, like mixed peel, and a spicy, perfumed finish. All good, but for me a little understated. I'd love to try a more powerfully-hopped version!

There was a bit of a danger of expecting too much from this one, as my little self-indulgent opening paragraph suggests. It is, after all, a beer brewed for a supermarket chain so is it fair to expect something so different as I had in mind? Perhaps, but thinking more objectively this is a great beer for the money, and it might well lead to more adventurous offerings in the future. A beer like this with a more powerful spice kick like the Otley O-Garden would be fantastic. The whisky was a SMWS Glen Moray and the film was Se7en. Good for a starter but as the nights really draw in I'll be looking for my whisky to have more sherry, smoke or even chocolate orange flavours - like the Ben Nevis from the Glenkeir range - Christmas in a glass.*

6.7% abv. Expect to pay around £2 (50cl), sorry, lost the receipt. Marks & Spencer exclusive.

* A bit of a work plug but it's a delicious whisky!

Adnams 'Spindrift'

Having cracked open an old favourite bottle of wine last week it was good to see Adnams stock its more up-to-date vintage. At the other end of the 'favourite activities' scale I found myself in Sainsbury's the other day, and sought succour in the beer aisle - or, as it turned out, the 'ale' section which was lurking in the wine aisle. It was an Adnams beer that caught my eye. It's a brewery I'm not that familiar with - one of the sister pubs to the one I used to manage used to have Broadside on hand-pull but it's not something I particularly remember having seen a lot of in Nottingham.

I was musing recently that some beers don't seem to make the transition to bottle that well, but if this is one that was originally brewed with cask in mind then, for me, it translates very well. On opening the grassy and lemony-hop aromas leap up at you, although they're a little more restrained on pouring, when the malt comes through a little more. On the palate it's impeccably balanced between the malt and the hop flavour, the caramel and biscuity malt providing backbone to the light body and the hay and citrus hop flavours. All in all a most enjoyable summer beer.

I feel I have to mention the blue bottle. I thought it was pretty cool, my wife thought it made it look like an alcopop; although she really liked the beer. On the other hand, crisp and refreshing are not flavour descriptors - as marketing terms they're best left firmly in the court of those who make drinks that don't taste of much and need chilling down so far as to make sure you can't taste anything. Adnams perhaps need to have a little more confidence in how good their beer is? It's never easy is it?

A lot of flavour packed into a 5% beer. Worth a go; a cure for 'supermarket blues' perhaps? £1.79 (33cl).

St Peter's IPA

Sometimes being objective is no fun, and there are certain things that you try your best to like, tastes you try to acquire. I've always tried my best to like St Peter's beers, ever since we sold them in Oddbins. I like the character of the brewery, they seem like the sort of company I like to support with my cash. Unfortunately I've just never been that inspired by the beer. There's nothing wrong with it, I've just never found it that exciting.

So I was quite excited to try their IPA since it was one I'd not seen before, and I thought 'cool, more hops...' as you do. On pouring it's a chestnut colour, with malt more noticeable than the hops in the initial aromas. Unfortunately this heavy malting seems to clash with the hops on the palate, almost as if they've taken a more standard style bitter and just added hops without much thought to how the flavours balance with one another. Another disappointment.

£2.03 (50cl) from Waitrose.

[The Waitrose in Nottiingham's beer selection is pretty poor compared to most I think, it only being a relatively small shop.]