Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Lovibonds part deux - Henley Dark


I had been looking forward to the Henley Dark. Jeff put this in my order of the three Gold reserves. I was looking forward to it because I love dark beers. I love stouts and porters. There are many porters out there that are more like a stout but this one is what I imagine a real porter to be like but then again the line between the two is still very hazy.






  • sight - Dark Amber, Large fluffy head.
  • smell - Chocolate!! Slight hint of smoke.
  • taste - Wonderful, roast coffee, burnt toffee, background smoke, bitter.
  • sweet - 2/5
  • bitter - 4/5
I absolutely loved this beer, It was fantastic. There are no less than 7 types of grain in this and one of them is hand smoked using local Beech wood from the Chilterns.
I loved the bitterness (IBU of 40) in this beer also and even though I finished it about 25 minutes ago I can still taste it.
When I opened this it was straight from the fridge and was too cold tough still a shock to the senses. As it warmed up, more of its character became known.
My only criticism is one I have of many beers. The bottle is only 330ml and not the 500ml bottle I love to drink from. Its only a minor gripe but to me one worth griping about.
Since Lovibonds is not available in Ireland, this will be the only one I get to try for a while. With luck I will get to try some more in August when I am in London. At the very least I will try get the Amber.
Posted by TaleOfAle at 4:28 PM
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8 comments:

  1. Excellent, I managed to pick up a bottle of this at the weekend so look forward to opening it now! I understand your 330ml gripe - there's just something which feels right about 500ml/a pint, isn't there? I think we are just so accustomed to drinking that volume.
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  2. Lovibonds are indeed superb beers - such a shame that they don't have a distributor in the USA but there we go. The Amber is a treat indeed - very, very nice indeed. On the bottle size thing, I can understand the need for a full pint, but sometimes I feel like a quick beer and the 330ml bottle does the trick. I also think that the wee bottle encourages you to savour the beer rather than chugging it.
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  3. Perhaps, though I am pretty sure you have griped about 330ml bottles too Al. I recall one of your brewdog reviews mentioning it.
    I did savour the Dark true but I would have savoured it longer if it was a full pint, well 500ml anyway which is close enough.
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  4. I have indeed griped about bottle sizes, but sometimes I don't fancy a full pint and I hate to throw beer down the sink, unless it is abysmal slop.
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  5. Hey guys. Thanks for enjoying the fruits of my labour. This is my favourite beer to brew as the brewhouse smells simply amazing!

    On the 33cl thing. I feel your pain, but we had to decide on one format to go to market with and the majority of our bottle market is in high end restaurants, hotels and supermarkets, where we compete against other 33cl bottled beers. We are already expensive as we have zero economies of scale, so a 50cl bottle would look off the map in a price comparison.

    Can I suggest that you put 2 bottles into a Lovibonds pint glass? ;)

    Cheers,
    Jeff
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  6. Jeff,

    You guys have pint glass as well????
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  7. I suppose they might since you can get their beer on tap at certain pubs.
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  8. Yes, same shape as the halves, only bigger ;)
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