A big fat bunch of Buxton Beers

I’ve said it before, and I’ll no doubt say it again; really good, hop-forward beer, is at it’s best if you drink it young.

Generally speaking though, the reason really good beer doesn’t spend too much time in the cupboard before I drink it is because I can’t wait, not because of some higher sense of duty. Hence the reason I’ve drank a fair few Buxton beers recently - Essentially, I couldn’t wait to try them.

Buxton Spa (Pale Ale) 4.1%

With a big, juicy grapefruit aroma and a hazy body, this is a great looking beer.

The taste is a nice tangerine and grapefruit interplay with a slightly lighter body than most Buxton beers, but which perfectly suits the style, and a bitter yet juicy hop finish with loads of grapefruit and orange peel and pith.
Those US and NZ hops give this beer a lovely fruity citrus flavour.

A really good, modern pale ale.

Buxton Best (Amber Ale) 4.3%

I must admit that the fact this is called a “Best” annoys me a little. Buxton make unbelievably good beers that are very modern, very hop forward, and actually pretty unusual. Then they go and call it Buxton Best. Which would be fine if it was a Best, I like best bitter, but this beer is so much more. It's a modern
Amber ale made with American and English hops and rye malt – how good does that sound? Don’t sell yourself short guys!

Moving on. The beer has a great orange/brown/Amber colour and a slightly spicy, citrus hop aroma. The mouth feel is textbook Buxton - big, lush, cask ale like, with full but soft carbonation.

In the flavour you get a tiny bit of sweet toffee before the rye malt kicks that out of the way with some spicy, biscuity flavours and a dry orangey finish which balances between spicy and citrus hops.

Buxton Gold (Golden Ale) 5.3%

This pours a really nice unfiltered, hazy orange with golden orange at the edges. The aroma is oranges, biscuit, and a touch of lemon pith.

Again, for me this is much more than a “Golden Ale”, which for me has had a fair bit of linguistic pejoration over the years. Golden Ales are the drinkable, slightly lemony, perfectly golden beers you give to “lager drinkers” to try and coax them onto good beer. This is not one of those perfectly fine, but unexciting, beers.

Amarillo, Liberty and Nelson Sauvin hops make this a proper, full on, modern, US inspired dry fruit cocktail that’s kept in check by grainy, biscuity malt. It finishes dry ye
t perfectly balanced. Another cracker from the Buxton boys.

Wild Boar (India Pale Ale) 5.7%

This is a great addition to the Buxton range. A 5.7% India pale that’s not too strong to have a pint, but definitely not a session beer.

It's got a great balance between bitter grapefruit and a little sweet tangerine and citrusy orange. It's a great beer, and from the look of this lot, I’m going to have to concede that these guys just don't make a bad beer.

So. If a beer tastes great, does it matter what it’s called?



Big thanks to Buxton for these fantastic beers. Buy them Online here: www.buxtonrealale.co.uk

4 comments:

  1. Hahaha love the comment about best! We kinda have to disguise things a little bit because we actually have to sell these beers in out of the way uber traditional country pubs! People tend to freak out a little bit if it's out of the ordinary unfortunately.

    Cheers for the post!

    JK

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  2. You said it - Buxton don't do bad beer. When i did my Buxton round up it was one of those jobs that was an absolute joy, not a bad beer amongst them, and I can never get enough.

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  3. Currently got 10 different Buxton ales sat burning a huge hole in my garage floor and awaiting review, can't bloody wait! Had the Axe Edge in the Sheffield Tap when on the way to a beer festival a few weeks back, needless to say it was the best ale I drank all day.
    Their Black Rocks Black IPA is currently tied with Magic Rock's Rapture for my favourite bottled ale in 2011, amazing beers both of them.

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  4. I really need to get hold of some more Buxton beer! Still don't see much of it down here in the capital.

    BeerBirraBier.

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