A Chimera, a Flying Dog and the Black Pearl, but no Johnny Depp

Some of my most faithful readers (Hello Mum) may well be aware that I am soon to move to pastures new in Kent and to avoid having to hike my bottles across the south east I'm endeavouring to drink them all before mid January, so I'm going to review as many as I can but not all will make the cut I'm afraid. Here are three of the more interesting ones I've had in the last couple of days.

Downton Chimera Honey Blonde, 4.3%

The Downton Brewery is to be found near Salisbury in Wiltshire and is a 20 barrel brewplant with some lovely bottle labelling across their range. The first thing I noticed upon opening my bottle of Chimera Honey Blonde was fizz as the carbonation in the bottle moved all the sediment as soon as I opened it, so after a period of settling in the bottle I poured it out to find, a straw clear yellow ale with a long lasting almost perpetuating head. On the nose I got honey and lemon hops, and on the palate some earthiness a little sweetness and a clear bitter finish. A little over carbonated and not quite sweet enough for a honey ale for me, 6/10.

Emma Says: 'bittery lemon citrus'

Mighty Hop Black Pearl Porter, 4.4%

The Mighty Hop Micro Brewery is based in the lovely Lyme Regis in Dorset and they have a nice little range of beers. This very dark beer gave me on the nose roasted malts with strong hints of ripe plum like fruits, taste was chocolate malts with fruits and spice and a lasting acidic bitter finish. A really excellent porter and at 4.4% I would like beers like this to encourage some other brewers to move away from imperial this and that and focus on excellent milder beers, 8/10.

Flying Dog K-9 Winter Ale, 7.4%

I'm starting to see Flying Dog’s distinctive bottle designs (which I really like) all over the place in trendy London locales these days, deriving from somewhere called Frederick in Maryland, USA this is their winter ale. I'm not sure if its named after the K-9 dog from Doctor Who but that’s what I'm going with, this ale has a dark reddish amber colour with a slight head which dissipates quickly, aromas of sweet fruits and malt which reminded me of Christmas pudding. On the palate it has a rich malt dark fruity taste and you can taste the alcohol from its ABV which gives it certain warmth, nice 7.25/10.

Emma says: 'smells like brandy butter', then she tasted it, shook her head and declined to comment further

stock pic due to my phone not being co-operative