La Bière du Démon (12%) - Brasserie de Gayant, Nord-Pas-De-Calais region, France

It's been many months since my beer trip to France and Belgium and the assortment I hauled back with me is only just starting to show signs of thinning out. One in particular jumped out at me as the most obvious choice for Hallowe'en, and in a spooktacular display of bucking the trend on my part, it doesn't contain a single trace of pumpkin. Surfing the online beer-o-blog-o-sphere, you'd be forgiven for thinking that pumpkin beer is all you can get your hands on at this time of year, whereas in reality my little corner of England yields nothing of the sort. If they're anything like the pumpkin spiced latte then I'm not missing out, or at least I'll just keep telling myself that. 

In any case, I thought it wouldn't hurt to throw something completely different into the cauldron, and that brings me to this devilish brew: La Bière du Démon, or "the Demon's beer".

My main reason for picking it up was the eye-catching, reflective-golden label, but how could I have ignored a 12% beer conceived by the evil tormentor himself? I assume the disgruntled, bearded man pictured on the front is the demon in question. Either that, or Colonel Sanders made an unexpected career change.

The beer also claims to be 12% of diabolical pleasure, but it soon became clear that the Demon and I don't share all the same tastes.

It pours a crystal clear apple-juice coloured liquid that’s fairly highly carbonated with a lively, white head that fizzles down to a weak frothy patch.

Having no idea what to expect from the Demon's beer, I found the aroma intriguing. A light aroma of subtle, sweet honey along with marzipan, a dose of sour apples and some nail varnish remover wafted up.

My intrigue vanished in a puff of smoke as I took a swig and the 12% ABV began burning away at my mouth, jabbing it with a pitchfork and roaring with laughter in my face.

Sickly sweet malty and honey flavours come through, followed by an extremely bitter, metallic and spirity attack on the back of the tongue, with a glug of washing up liquid for good measure.

Full-bodied and thick in texture, its warmth permeated every inch of its way to my bowel like a cough medicine.

It’s not hard to see why the devil himself would take a shine to this beer. Having given up half way and poured away the other 155ml, I asked myself why this was available in six-packs at the supermarket.

This beer has hardly any merits worth mentioning apart from the novelty factor of 12% alcohol, but nothing that would convince me to try this again. Far from being a “diabolical pleasure”, it's just plain diabolical.

In fact, I don’t think the picture on the front of the bottle is of a grimacing devil at all. It’s the face that you make after you’ve tasted this beer. Now, where can I find me some of that pumpkin stuff?

Appearance 3/5

Aroma 2/5

Flavour 1/5

Mouthfeel 2/5

Beer Belly's Rating: 4/10

Angel Amber Ale (4.3%) - Wylam Brewery, Northumberland, England

On a trip up to the rich, green and wooded landscape of Northumberland, I happened upon a coffee shop in the middle of nowhere that emerged out of obscurity like a mirage. I was relieved to find it because I was in severe need of a coffee, but was even more relieved when a refrigerator presented itself to me within, several different local beers perched atop its shelves. Thankfully, this was no mirage.

Having to choose between them, I went for Angel Amber Ale from Wylam Brewery, partly due to the iconic Angel of the North pictured on the label that the beer itself was brewed to celebrate in 2008. If it had stood the test of time since then, then it had to be worth a try.

Northumberland within England

The beer pours an amber colour as promised on the label, producing a fairly small head that fizzles out.

The combination of four different malts and Cascade hops revealed on the label sounded like they would give way to an interesting mix of sweet, citrusy and herbal characteristics, leaving me not quite knowing what to expect. The aroma turned out to be very pleasant, presenting sweet toffee and chocolate notes from the malts, the hops bringing out very floral and aromatic characteristics with nutmeggy and herbal notes. Sultanas and glazed cherries could be detected in there too, evoking the gorgeous scent of a fruitcake. 

Everything comes at you at once when you take a swig, all the flavours working very well together. Every part of your tongue gets to enjoy the various characteristics in this beer, sweet toffee offset by bitter treacle and fruity woodland berries along with spicy herbal notes, all in all producing something extremely rich and wholesome. The Cascade hops liven it up to no end bringing out all its best characteristics, like a well-seasoned steak.

A long, dry finish leaves you with hints of fruitcake and a nice light black tea flavour that linger on once you've swallowed.

This beer impressed me. An interesting combination of malts an hops has produced something that's quite familiar yet unique, traditional but spiced up. This, as it mentions on the label, is "proper beer". Whyaye man!

Appearance 3/5

Aroma 4.5/5

Flavour 5/5

Mouthfeel 4/5

Beer Belly's rating 8/10

Brewery details

Website: www.wylambrewery.co.uk

Twitter: @wylambrewery