Black Sheep Glug M'Glug

If you follow my blog, you'll know that I am a huge fan of Black Sheep Brewery and I still think of the original Black Sheep Ale as one of my favourite beers.  Although I don't think they can improve on perfection, the Yorkshire brewery have expanded their range and today I'm taking a look at their dark IPA, Glug M'Glug.

Oh isn't it a thing of beauty?  A dark nut brown ale with a thick, tight and creamy trademark Black Sheep head.  The head is robust and leaves amazing lacing on the glass; now that's what I call a proper Yorkshire head.

With appetising aromas of treacle, malt and citrus I couldn't wait to dive in and see if it tastes as good as it looks and smells.  Oh indeed it does!  With a massive hit of dark, tangy maltiness with a dry, bitter citrus finish, Black Sheep have got the perfect sweet/bitter balance for me.  The citrus is stronger in the aroma than in the taste and that makes it definitely more my kind of thing, as I'm often put off IPA due to the overpowering citrus flavour.

It has a thin to medium body and it isn't overly carbonated but leaves a nice tingly feeling in the mouth, along with a frothy moustache on the lips!  

I was very impressed with Glug M'Glug; it's a superbly different, perfectly balanced dark ale and Ale Be Seeing You again!

Brewed by Black Sheep Brewery, Yorkshire
6.2% ABV

My rating:

My Untappd score: 4.5/5

Find out more at Black Sheep Brewery

Tyne Bank Cherry Stout

There's a definite whiff of dark chocolate on opening and an underlying fruity aroma, although I couldn't have identified it as cherry.  It is as black as Guinness but you can see that the head is more bubbles than froth.  A few seconds after taking the photo, the head disappeared and it was as if it had never been there at all.  If I didn't know better I would have thought that I was about to drink a pint of coke.

With it's coke-like appearance, it was a confusion for my brain to taste a fizzy thin Guinness with a fruity aftertaste.  It's actually a really nice taste, slightly smokey followed by a burst of dark fruit.  I just couldn't get it into my brain that it was a beer as it looked and slightly tasted like coke.  If you mixed Guinness and coke, I'd expect Cherry Stout to be the result.

Although I'm a big fan of Tyne Bank brewery's ale selection, especially Monument, Cherry Stout is not one Ale be Seeing Again, I'm afraid.

Brewed by Tyne Bank Brewery, Newcastle

5.2% ABV

My rating:

Find out more at Tyne Bank Brewery