West Country Ales Vol 3 and a cheeky E London Stout

So I've pretty much gone through my West Country selection of craft ales now, so here is my reviews of the last three, I've just had delivered a whole batch of ales as I described previously, and the last review of this article is my first one of those to celebrate international stout day yesterday.

Holsworthy Tamar Black, 4.8%

A dark roasted stout from Devon, the Holsworthy brewery is a small brewery and this is one of its three main beers and is named after the River Tamar. It smells of deep roasted coffee and on the palate it is dark chocolate and coffee building to a strong finish, very much a coffee stout and a pretty good one, 7/10

Emma says: 'quite high on the horrid scale'

Exeter Brewery ‘Fraid Not, 4%

This ale was made by the small Exeter brewery in response to a request by the Mountain Rescue Service and 10p goes to the charity for each pint sold which is a good thing. The ale is a clear golden and quite lager like, it is light floral and hay on the nose and palate with an odd twang which kicks in. Not really to my taste, but got a little better towards the end 4.75/10.

Emma says: 'tastes like when you accidentally suck your finger when you have just used nail polish remover'

Ringmore Shaldon Shag, 4.2%

This bottle conditioned ale named after a bird as you can see from the label, is from the Ringmore Craft Brewery in Shaldon, Devon. The ale pours a deep copper with a nice head, a delicate hoppy aroma with a hint of sharp fruit, starts with a blitz of bitter and fizz and is a little over carbonated for me, this mellows into a soft elderflower long and satisfying hoppy finish. Very refreshing and excellent ale just needs to dial down the carbonation a tad. 7.5/10

Redchurch Hoxton Stout, 6.0%

The Redchurch Brewery in East London’s mission statement on their website states ‘the redchurch brewery strives to create uncompromising modern beers to make you think’. This complex dark stout I think matches that statement very well. Pours a very dark black with a tan head, on the nose it rich, chocolate and malts, to taste it’s a thick hearty stout which evolves into a long floral slightly citric hop finish, a very interesting modern twist on the stout and I liked it, a lot. 8/10.

Emma says: nearly dropped it in anguish, head bowed momentarily and then said 'horrible'