The Ale Archive

The Brewery: “The North Brink Brewery was built in 1795 and the brewhouse is a classic English Ale brewery and Elgood’s proudly carry on the brewing of their own beers for local and wider distribution across the UK. The process is carried out using equipment dating from 1910 to the present day, as a program of refurbishment of the brewery has been sympathetically carried out over the last few years.” The Beer: “Warrior is a truly traditional style English Bitter Ale…..A blend of finest Pale Ale, Amber and Crystal malt is used for the fruity malty flavour and generous portions of English Hop varieties (Challenger, Goldings and Fuggles) give a well developed hop character. Full bodied but without tasting ‘syrupy’ this deserves to be sipped rather than sloshed back to make the most of the flavour. I liked it. 5.5% A.B.V. June 2018

What they say: “An award-winning cask conditioned traditional dark mild.  Well balanced malt and hops gives a pleasant aroma and taste, with splendid roasted bitter flavours. Black Dog is a traditional dark mild at 3.6%ABV.  It has many CAMRA awards to its name and is a well-known brand in the free-trade.  The beer is well balanced with a full roast flavour. The use of crystal malt and roast barley give a deep underlying characteristic flavour, which is balanced with Fuggles hops as the sole variety.” The last on our ale trail in Birmingham and clearly my taste buds have changed – or evolved - a bit. I didn’t enjoy this much when I tried the bottled version, however the draught went down quite well. The Shakespeare , Lower Temple Street, Birmingham. October 2016.