This little piggy went to market....

Pin It Now! ...and came back with some appropriately named beer from the Hogsback Brewery. TheBeerNut already talked about their statement on the label which mentions: "Brewery conditioned, for all the taste without the sediment"


An interesting idea and rather simple. You condition the beer in conditioning tanks and then transfer it to the bottle using counter pressure, or at least I imagine that is how it's done. This is a method used by homebrewers who keg condition their beer when they want to bottle. Personally I just pour from the tap in to the bottle but I do lose co2 that way.

Now it is time for some tea...

Tea in this case is Traditional English Ale perhaps answering why the English are so obsessed with tea. Someone made a mistake years ago and people being the cattle that they are followed suit and tea became the national drink over ale? Well probably not....
This is a solid English ale and quite similar to Hobgoblin I thought. Sort of heavy with toffee and bread notes and some fruit. I don't think it is very interesting but it is a tasty beer and I would like to try it on cask some time.

BSA is Burma Star Ale, no I have no idea what that means. Possibly something to do with Burmese that fought the Japanese in WWII? Or simply a medal.... And that is all I have to say about it because I could not tell the difference between this and TEA. That is not a bad thing as TEA was nice but still, I am not sure what the point is unless they are the same beer and this is renamed for export reasons?

Hop Garden Garden Gold was next, A lovely beer I thought. The aroma is sticky toffee pudding. Plenty of apricot and other dried fruit. The addition of tannins in the flavour made this taste a little more like tea than TEA. A slight metallic note was there but not off putting, instead it was just part of the experience.

Another garden beer? Gardeners Tipple was another tasty beer. The aroma was fruity with caramel and mandarins but a strong prune aroma and rather grainy as well.

The taste had most of these qualities as well, though it was a little thin on body, however the slight spiciness and earthy quality more than made up for that. This makes it a very refreshing thirst quencher for a hot summers day and a wonderful session beer.

More from this brewery please. I need to try some darker beers instead of lighter session beers.