Pale 31 (4.9%) - Firestone Walker Brewing Co, California, USA

A beer blogger sipping beer without a notepad can be compared to an off-duty police officer - in both of these noble roles, your sense of duty never leaves you. 

I had an acute sense of this when I picked out Pale 31 from my beer shelf with the sole intention of enjoying it for myself, only to find that after popping off the cap and being smacked in the nose by a bunch of blossoming flowers, I was utterly helpless in the face of such a seductive aroma. I had to share it with the beer-o-sphere.

From the Golden State itself (the 31st state to join the union, if you were wondering about the name) it pours a perfect golden colour with a creamy-coloured head. 

On the nose I got a waft of fresh and fragrant floral New World hop aromas along with juicy satsuma segments, complimented by the faintest hint of a herbal and earthy quality. 

A flurry of fruity flavours washed over my tongue, juicy pine perfectly balancing a grapefruit bitterness, ending with a clean, semi-dry and toasted biscuit finish. 

California within the USA

With this self-styled "bold but approachable" Californian pale ale, Firestone have produced something that represents everything a pale ale should be; easy to sip with bags of character. 

Very Californian it may be, but the five awards its won in the last eight years on both sides of the pond confirms one thing: this is a quality crowd-pleaser. 

Appearance 5/5

Aroma 5/5

Flavour 4/5

Mouthfeel 4/5

Overall 9/10 

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The brewery:
Website here

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Where to buy:
£2.99 on The Beer Hawk

Ilúnica Pale Ale (6.1%) - Cervezas Ilúnica, Castile-La Mancha, Spain

The clocks have sprung forward and the sun has started beating down with quite some vigour on my corner of southeast Spain. We all know there's only one way to adequately refresh yourself on such increasingly warm and sunny days, and what perfect timing it was for my local craft beer shop, Beer Shooter Murcia, to host a beer presentation and meet the brewers session on a splendidly sunlit Friday after work.

Hellín's province of Albacete
within Spain

On offer was a pale ale born in December 2016 that goes by the name of Ilúnica, the very first craft beer to hail from the small central Spanish town of Hellín - another little guy rising up in the face of the all-too-common mass-produced tastelessness that surrounds us all, with the mission of bringing character and flavour to people's beer glasses.

The label features a mystical red-haired female adorned with beer ingredients with the backdrop of a moonlit night sky - a nod to the town's ancient history as the Spanish word for "moon" and the town's name both share the same root. How romantic! 

My 2€ golden amber half-pint poured fresh from the barrel immediately showed signs of promise with fragrant, tropical notes on the nose which had my chops watering before the beer came anywhere near them.

Juan Carlos and Armentario started brewing
at home a few years ago before becoming
fully-fledged master brewers 

Using four different hop varieties it imparts juicy, tropical New World flavours of mango and pineapple along with some pine resin and a hint of citrus, complemented by a clean malty base. While it's packed mainly with New World hops it manages to remain easy-going, something that's well suited to the Spanish climate by being clean and refreshing but at the same time brimming with flavour and depth. 

Tapas prepared by David López Carreño

In fact, Ilúnica's quenching but laid-back character make it very drinkable despite its high ABV, which I only realised a number of glasses in when my legs were slightly wobblier than expected. As the brewers themselves noted endearingly on the night, we Brits like to drink a lot of low-strength beer - and fast - but it was hard not to knock these juicy 6.1% cañas back. 

Luckily on hand to soak up some liquid, in true Spanish style, was a selection of gourmet tapas prepared on site which were a source of intrigue in their own right for me: mince and broccoli pâté tartlets, couscous with cream cheese and crushed cashews, and toasted bread topped with salmon tartare and a drizzle of squid ink and mustard mayonnaise. That's how these guys roll.

Ilúnica pale ale is the first and so far only brew of these two Hellineros that's available, but I'm told they have a number of exciting ideas in the pipeline. Watch this space!

Cervezas Ilúnica on Facebook

Session IPA (4.2%) - Fourpure Brewing Co, London, England

One of the best things about being known within your circle of friends and family as a beer obsessive is that people know exactly what to get you for your birthday. Being presented with a large crate of previously unencountered small-batch craft beers does have its problems, though, such as demanding masses of self-restraint. Still, a year older and wiser, I should be able to pace myself sensibly. We'll see how that goes.

London within England

This entry marks the first time I've sampled a small-batch beer out of a can. There's a certain buzz around cans at the moment, widely being trumpeted as having benefits of keeping the beer fresh, fully protecting it against air and light and locking in the flavours of all the lovingly added hops. I've always had more of an appreciation for the bottle-conditioned stuff myself, but I'm up for trying new things and what better brewery to lose my craft beer cannie virginity to than the UK's first brewery to can all their beers from the start?

The can itself has a faint backdrop of the New York skyline, where this particular brew was inspired from. The sides of the can are lined with a malted barley pattern, like some kind of grainy skyscraper.

Session IPA pours a murky golden-amber colour, giving it the appearance of a soup you just want to slurp up. It has a small, bubbling head that leaves a clean glass (a tulip glass, as suggested by them) on its way down.

The aroma is of a wonderful smooth, floral nature with notes of lychee, becoming more pronounced as the beer warms up, which it's well worth giving it the chance to do.

More of those lychee flavours come through in the flavour with a zesty tangerine citrus note to add some bitterness. The big hop flavours complement each other nicely, creating a complex but harmonious character.

With a relatively smooth mouthfeel as you enjoy the fruity lychee qualities, this medium-bodied beer in contrast has a very dry finish which is well suited to it as an IPA, making it crisp and refreshing over all. Extremely quaffable and at 4.2% ABV, Session IPA does a fine job of fulfilling its purpose as an easy-drinking sessionable IPA (and craft-beer-in-a-can virginity taker).


Appearance 3.5/5
Aroma 3.5/5
Flavour 4.5/5
Mouthfeel 4/5
Overall rating 8/10

L'Escampette (6%) - Brasserie Forest, Nord-Pas-De-Calais Region, France

As the first review on this blog for a beer to hail from outside the British Isles, it might come as a surprise that rather than opting for somewhere in central Europe or North America, which would seem like the most obvious choices, I've in fact gone for France, a country otherwise known for specialising in the production of alcoholic grape juice.

Picked up in a Carrefour supermarket near Calais on a recent trip across the channel, L'Escampette is an example of the one and only beer style originating in France, known as bière de garde (or "keeping beer"), typical of the region of Nord-Pas-De-Calais and traditionally brewed in farmhouses throughout the dark and cold winter months. This would not only allow consistent and quality results by keeping the beer cool, but also avoid any wild yeasts infiltrating the brews during the summer. These days, these French farmhouse-style ales are brewed all year round and are fairly open to interpretation, in true rustic spirit.

L'Escampette, brewed since 2001 in Monceau St Waast, comes in a charming 33ml bottle in a curvy shape resembling that of roof gables on the buildings in Belgium, which happens to be just down the road from this part of France. It's not clear what the significance of the blue-eyed, blonde haired woman holding the three litre-glasses of beer is, but for the sake of the style let's say she's serving up some sweaty fermiers who have returned from a long day out on the fields.

The beer pours a golden amber colour with a small amount of sediment suspended in the glass owing to the fact that it's unfiltered. A nice foam settles on top, lacing the glass on its way down. 

The aroma is fairly gentle: some stone fruits with tropical hints present a sweet aroma with otherwise earthy and musty undertones. A slightly rotten apple can be detected in there as well.

Things liven up when you take a swig, a strong malty core suddenly coming to the fore with the same sweet fruity and earthy, herbal flavours emerging around it and becoming much more pronounced, with a faint spiciness presenting itself as well. Again, it's got that slightly musty, funky quality to it that's typical of French farmhouse ales.

It's lightly carbonated, full-bodied and dry with a heavy, long-lasting, musty aftertaste. The 6% abv presents itself in the form of a pleasant warming sensation.

L'Escampette is definitely an intriguing one, if only for the style it represents. Complex overall, with contradicting qualities of fruitiness followed by mustiness, it's got bags of rustic character. Despite the musty qualities, though, it's still very quenching, and I imagine it to be a great end to a day out on the fields (not that I'd know what that feels like).

Appearance 4/5

Aroma 3/5

Flavour 3.5/5

Mouthfeel 3.5/5

Beer Belly's Overall Rating: 7/10

Fursty Ferret (4.4%) - Badger Brewery, Dorset, England

Fursty Ferret from Badger, originally the product of the Gribble Inn in West Sussex, was the most popular beer at its original brew-pub and has been in the hands of Badger since 1991. The label tells a playful story of "inquisitive ferrets sneaking to the back door to sneekily sample the local brew", depicting the scene on the front of the bottle. Stories aside, the back of the label also includes some helpful information on what flavours to expect, as well as a suggested food pairing of West Country cheddar or indulgent pork pies and mustard. That sounds like a winning combination to me, but I'll reserve judgement until I've tasted what's in the bottle.

Fursty Ferret looks enticing on the shelves as Badger has taken the strange decision to use clear bottles. Allowing light to infiltrate the bottle will almost certainly put the beer at a high risk of developing a skunky odour, but who can resist when the light shining through makes the seductive golden amber liquid sitting behind the label lined with bits of shiny, reflective gold foil look so bright and sparkly? If not the colour, then the tactile bottle embossed with little leaves blowing in the wind will be enough to charm you into putting it in your basket.

The beer looks equally as appetising when you crack off the cap and pour it into your glass. A foamy, bubbly head gradually fades to a thin, patchy layer with a fair amount sticking to the glass on the way down.

You get a clue as to what Fursty's aroma is going to be like as soon as you release the cap, with a waft of it leaking out as soon as it gets the chance. There's nothing subtle about its aroma when you move in closer, with a sweet bread and honey aroma combined with a lightly spiced, mildly bitter citrus nose, along with a faint cooked vegetal smell of cabbage and celery which comes out the more you sniff around for it. Could these be the signs of a lightstruck brew? There's also a slightly spirity, alcoholic smell that reveals itself gradually. I don't find the aroma overly appetising, but its unique qualities pique my curiosity to find out more, and suddenly I feel like an inquisitive ferret peering into a barrel.

Dorset within England

Sometimes the taste of a strong-scented beer can be an anticlimax when it turns out not to be anywhere near as flavourful as you were led to believe, but Fursty Ferret packs as much of a punch in the taste as the smell. The rich maltiness is even more pronounced in the taste, leaving a sweet, bready aftertaste with hints of honey and burnt toffee which linger for a long while afterwards, coming back at you over and over again when you exhale. It attempts some balance with a mild peppery bitterness, but remains powerfully sweet and malty on the whole and hops are hardly anywhere to be found. 

It claims to be FURST quenching, but I don't find it refreshing or balanced enough to be able to achieve that. Its mildly carbonated, smooth, medium body does make it easy to get down, but I can't imagine the overpoweringly sweet flavours doing much to quench my thirst, although it does leave you with a pleasant warming sensation. It's certainly different and interesting, and not a passive beer that leaves you to make all the effort. This will definitely be one for you if you're crazy about malty flavours, and worth a try for the experience, but I wouldn't recommend it as a thirst quencher and think the suggested cheddar and pork pie accompaniment would be more than even the most self-indulgent ferret could handle.

Beer Belly's rating:

Appearance 3/5

Aroma 1/5

Flavour 2/5

Mouthfeel 4/5

Total 5/10

What do you think of Fursty Ferret from Badger Brewery? Agree? Disagree? Leave your comments and rating below!