The problem is, it’s damn hard to get hold of a lot of these beers because that demand, while it’s growing, isn’t quite high enough to support mass exports. So, the smaller American brewerys, for example, are struggling to get their stuff sold in the UK on a wider scale. Even a few of the big boys are in the same boat to be honest – I mean when was the last time you saw a Stone Brewery beer on the shelf at your local offie, or an Alesmith in the display at Tesco. Never, I’m sure.

Well it seems one company is moving to change this with it’s new online beer outlet which plans to stock micro-brews from around the world, big or small, and bring some previoulsy unheard of craft beers to the wider UK market.

The Beer Vault is set to open it’s doors this summer and sell craft beers from all over the world. They’ll be bringing US beers such as the aforementioned Stone, along with favourites like Mooshead and Blue point Brewery. They’ll also be doing a lot of the smaller, but really popular European beers, such as those from Cantillon or Mikkeller. Imagine being able to buy a Rose De Gambrinus whenever you like, or get a case of Port Brewing beers delivered right to your door. Amazing, we think!

Well, The Beer Vault will be offering more than just beers by the box – they’ll also be offering a beer education. You can sign up for their beer course which will send you out a box of beers every month, complete with background and tasting notes, so you can become a proper beer geek in no time. The Beer Vault will have special offers for those that have reached deeper levels of their vaunted vault, and there will be all sorts of beery goodness available to those that have completed the beer course, including your own Beer Vault tankard and much more.

The Beer Vault opens it’s doors very soon so keep an eye out on it’s website. Soon to be Securing (security…vault….. heh… heh…. geddit) quality craft beer for you. Enjoy!

When you first pour the beer you can catch the deep malty smell straight away. It’s almost a bit spicy and definitely a wee bit sweet. The colour is dark brown, and a little clear, and the head doesn’t last for long.

But onto the important bit, quaffage. The taste is of a little bit of hoppy bitterness at first, and a distinct spirity taste on the tongue for afters. This is a beer that definitely has a long lasting tingle!

Other drinkers claim a variety of tastes, including coriander, but I’m mainly getting the liquorice, and that as an aftertaste.

This is one hell off a beer though, very similar to rhe Jacobite aleReally nice though, and pretty comparable to the Jacobite ale. 8.5/10

The ale pours surprisingly dark – certainly not living up to the pale of the pale ale name, and actually looks slightly cloudy. It takes a bit of a head at the start too, fizzing away pretty quickly.

The smell is really fresh, a bit on the grassy/straw side, and damn appetising, and thankfully the taste lives up to it.

The hops are there in droves if you look for them, but there’s a surprising bit of sweetness to balance it. My taste buds could be lying but, whether they were or now, I was loving what I thought was a wee touch of caramel. Definitely not your bog standard pale ale anyway, but one I’ll be picking up again. Jackman, whoever you are, keeping up your beer making, and send me a few of the next batch, especially of it’s another one named after a classic wrestling tag team!

Sadly, my beer cravings were soon dissapointed. The Piper’s Gold came as a pretty listless looking, pale, wet pint – certainly not the most appetising beer I’ve seen. There was barely any head to speak of, making the ale more resemble a particular bottle I carried with me last time I visited the doctor….

And, even more sadly the taste matched the image. I couldn’t taste much at all apart from a tart bitterness, and not a particularly good hoppy bitterness at that. I found there was barely anything else discernible there.

Things didn’t improve – the beer started with a pretty light carbonation and went even flatter very quickly.

Not a great one I’m afraid.

2/10

The first smell reminded me, if I’m honest, of dried drip trays and spilled beer. Not entirely sure this is going to be a fair representation of the ale – perhaps this isn’t the most frequently used tap… After the first sip though the taste settled down so perhaps it’s ok. The colour is quite dark with a golden tinge. The taste is initially pretty smooth and subtle but it has a dry aftertaste, with a bit of citrus. There’s almost a wee bit of a tannin feel to it, drying out the tongue.

Half way down now and I think it’s a bit tainted by seldom used pipes or bad bar maintenance. I’m gonna give it the benefit of the doubt and call this a mis-taste. Next time!

First impressions of the Claverhouse included a particularly sweet smell, with a bit of chocolate to it. The taste was quite similar, with no hoppy bitterness, just a sweet honey and caramel taste. This ale’s right to my liking, satisfying the sweet tooth I try to hide.

It’s not all sugar and sweetness in the Claverhouse though, the guys at Strathaven have made sure it’s got a decent clout to it, an it’s definitely got a hint of stout or porter to it, but quite subtle.

This is a really nice beer, best I’ve had in a while. The Strathaven Brewery better ramp up production because I’m putting a big Claverhouse order in!

8.5/10

The Deadlock was slightly unusual in that it actually smells a little sweet, with a fresh, possibly grassy smell to it. The taste begins quite sweet too, perhaps hints of caramel and honey, but followed by a definite strong hoppy character, stronger I’d say than you’d normally expect from a beer of this strength. Fyne Ales have done a good job squeezing the character in!

The aftertaste stays quite bitter, leaving you with a nice robust flavour.

Can’t say the Deadlock made my favourite list by any means, but I’d happily get another pint, something I’d say of a fair few Fyne Ales. Nice wee session beer – get yourself a swally!

6/10

The Triple Chocolohic beer from the Solitaire Brewery was one of the more memorable of the bunch. It had an amazing smell first off, most definitely chocolate, along with a bit of smoke and must. It was probably one of the most pungent of the night, but the sweetness made it pretty damn appetising!

The beer was a totally black colour with practically no head, and the carbonation was pretty light so it looked a little lifeless I have to admit. The taste didn’t dissapoint, despite not being quite as strong as the smell. It was still pretty sweet, still slightly misty and, most certainly, still very chocolately. Thanks to the subtle tastes it’s quite a light porter, and definately doesn’t taste its 4.8% strength, even though that’s not the strongest in the pub by any means.

Great beer overall, although possibly a bit sweet for some. Right to my taste though!

86/100 

First smell of the beer is really malty, strong and dark. There’s no head at all, although it turns out to be fizzier than it looks when you eventually pour it into your beer trap. It tastes its full 9% abv but not in a bad way. There’s a hint of spirit behind it all, possibly whisky, and its got a really nice liquorice taste underneath that. The spirity taste hangs on afterwards, along with a flowery, herby something that seems familiar but I can’t quite work out. Oh well, seems I’ll need to have a few more to work it out. Damn shame…

It’s a lot like the Jacobite Ale from Traquair Brewery actually, and that’s no bad thing. One of my favourites this – worth sending the poor wee bottles all the way down from Orkney – and I’ll definitely be having it again!

88/100

Now apparently no matter how dark and deep Galloway may be, it is effectively impossible to find a half decent pint at 4.30am in mid January- so much for those rural lock-ins so cruelly hinted at in a deluge of TV-borne colloquial codswallop. In the face of such unflappable opposition I took the only course open to me, and passed out in my chair.

Fortunately the following morning I was able to persuade my Philistine-esque companions to join me in a visit to the tap shop of the local Sulwath brewery ( http://www.sulwathbrewers.co.uk/ ). Now I’d had numerous Sulwath beers previously -occasionally excellent, always inconsistent (if you’ll pardon the oxymoron)- and was interested to see if their flightiness was attributable to nature or nurture. After all, a pint in a heaving Wetherspoons at 12.30am surrounded by L-plate wearing nun-hookers is, despite the best intentions of the resident cellarman/kitchen porter, unlikely to match a well cared for couple in Thomsons or the Bow Bar for quality.

So, intrigued was I as we ventured into the tap room, off a small yard and refereshingly friendly and unadorned, bar a vaguely disturbing historical diorama in the corner which seemed very popular with a group of visiting sassenach CAMRA types. Eager to whet the old whistle (the sun was certainly approaching if not quite over the yard arm) I hastily ordered up a few Criffels (O.G. 1044 – ABV 4.6% , fairly unmemorable, if I remember correctly) and some Galloway Gold (O.G. 1049 – ABV 5.0% , keg lager) for The Abstainer. My enthusiastic urging to try a single pint of something that a) had been brewed 10 yards away and b)hadn’t been near a SodaStream fell on disappointingly deaf ears. Against all my rock instincts I avoided the John Paul Jones, as previous attempts to drink the stuff had resulted in fairly extreme disgust. At this point we were visited by a somewhat incongruous pig’s head, sliced in half so as to reveal its inner workings in perfect profile. Poor bugger.

The Criffel had killed the previously baw shaking hangover, and set me up nicely for some Knockendoch (O.G. 1047 – ABV 5.0% ) – a wholly different beast. This was cracking stuff- rich and full, and fairly complex early on. There were some condtitioning issues though- half way down and the lovely mouthfeel had disappeared, as had a lot of the complexity. Kest lah vye thought I, if I buy another one then it’ll be tasty again, and so it was. So much so that I left with a bladder full. An actual plastic bladder, in a box, filled with a fair few pints of the stuff. The drunken adventure back along Castle Douglas high street did nothing to keep the ale in tip top shape, but none the less it was sufficient to help me stave off the Coronaburgs for another hour or two. Which is a success in anyones book.