Bell Rates... Glencoe

type: Stout

origin: Scotland

ABV: 4.5%

location: house

served: 330ml bottle to a glass

Glencoe Organic Wild Oat Stout, to give the beer its full name, is produced by Traditional Scottish Ales near Alloa (it says Stirling on the bottle, but it's marginally closer to Alloa) and while the naming it after a part of the highlands is a slight example of geographic poetic license, at least the Alloa link gives them plenty of permit to the 'Traditional Scottish' part. Alloa was once one of the most prominent brewing towns in the British Isles, due to the high quality of the local barley and water - something that Glencoe Stout can draw upon to this day, but sadly, most of the breweries are now defunct or consumed by big-business corporations.

This isn't one of those corporate beer-by-numbers efforts though, and is clearly an independent operation, evidenced by the strong emphasis on 'organic' beer. While this label might attract people who read the Guardian, and concern themselves over whether the lentils in their soup were free-range or not, the important bit is this attention to organic ingredients results in a clean, light taste. Chocolate and roasted malt elements abound.


Smell: quite strong, but balanced, and just the good bits. 3/4

Colour: a dark caramel, inviting and warm 3/4

Taste: malty, quite sweet and with just a little bit of bitterness. Very smooth, very balanced and very clean - especially in the aftertaste. 3/4

overall: a good traditional Scottish-style stout; smooth, warm and flavoursome. 9/12



more info: www.traditionalscottishales.co.uk

Bell Rates... Bulmers Red Apple

type: cider

origin: England

ABV: 4.5%

location: house

served: 568ml bottle to glass, over ice

Right, to clarify who makes this product, it's HP Bulmer of England not Magners of Clonmel, Ireland. That might seem obvious to you, but in Ireland Magners is sold under the 'Bulmers' label, despite not having had anything to do with HP Bulmer for many years.

Outside Ireland, of course, the difference is obvious.

Anyroad, this is their 'Red Apple' limited edition cider, introduced at the tail end of 2010, and is an attempt by Bulmers to carve out every niche-within-a-niche they can. But who can blame them? The 'over ice' cider market has boomed in the last decade and it's Magners who've got the best market position.

Red Apple is a subtly different version of Bulmers' main product - which is clearly what they set out to achieve, so mission accomplished there. As the name suggests, the cider is brewed using red apples, and while some ciders don't have a lot of 'apple' taste left after the yeast is finished transforming all that juice to alcohol, this one does taste of apples, and red ones at that.

It's also very refreshing, which is the other must for this type of product.

Smell: apples! but quite faint and I think they've missed a trick by not going for the heavy-apple smell to reinforce the 'apple' label a bit more 2/4

Colour: again, I'd have preferred a more red colour - it's supposed to be a 'limited edition', so why not make it a bit more distinctive looking? 2/4

Taste: this is where it pulls the points back - refreshing, sharp, not overly sweet and with a definite red apple flavour. 3/4

overall: tastes just different enough to stand out from the crowd without being a 'speciality' taste that will alienate less adventurous drinkers, but not adventurous enough to carve out a new niche in an already crowded market. 7/12