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The Ten Best Summer Beers
Chosen by Willard Clarke, 08/08
1. Adnams East Green (4.3%)
Tesco �1.79. Drink beer � and save the planet! Adnams' new Suffolk beer uses East Anglian barley and low-pesticide Boadicea hops, brewed in an energy-efficient brewery with re-cycled CO2. Appealing gold
colour with a tangy citrus fruit and grassy aroma and palate.
2. Fuller's Organic Honey Dew (4.4%)
Most supermarkets �1.60; draught in Fuller's pubs.
Organic honey is imported from South America to give a smooth, creamy note to the beer but generous hop rates balance the sweetness. Served well-chilled, it's rich and wonderfully quenching.
www.fullers.co.uk; 020 8996 2000
3. Meantime IPA (7.5%)
Sainsbury's �3.59. Brilliant recreation of a genuine 19th-century India Pale Ale that refreshed the Raj. Big and full-bodied with a massive attack of peppery hops, citrus fruit and juicy malt. Bottled with live yeast so it can be laid down to mature.
www.meantimebrewing.com; 020 8293 1111
4. Brakspear Oxford Gold (4.6%)
Selected supermarkets �1.50; draught in selected pubs.
Bottle-fermented beer with a tart and tangy hop character from English Goldings and Target varieties. Complex and refreshing with hints of blood oranges and butterscotch the latter from Brakspear's unique 'double drop' fermentation system.
www.brakspear-beers.co.uk; 01993 890800
5. Budweiser Budvar (5%)
Most supermarkets �1.55.
Sorry, Carlsberg, this is the greatest lager in the world, cellared [lagered] for 90 days. Brewed with Moravian malt, floral Saaz hops and pure spring water, it has ripe malt and vanilla on the aroma and palate with a gentle resinous hop bitterness.
www.budvar.co.uk
6. Duvel (8.5%)
Majestic �18.96 a case.
A classic golden Belgian beer: Duvel (doo-vul) is Flemish for devil and it lives up to the name. Three fermentations � two in the brewery and one in bottle � produce a massive Poire William nose with juicy malt and tangy hops in the mouth and finish.
www.majestic.co.uk for link to local store.
7. St Austell Clouded Yellow (4.8%)
Tesco �1.70.
Cornish interpretation of a German wheat beer with the addition of vanilla pods, cloves and coriander. Crisp, quenching beer with powerful hints of banana (from the house yeast) and vanilla on aroma and palate. Perfect companion for a curry.
www.staustellbrewery.co.uk; 01726 74444
8. Young's Kew Gold (4.8%)
Booth's, Sainsbury's, Tesco & Waitrose �1.76; Young's pubs.
Hops from Kew Gardens are blended with Styrian Goldings to give a superb spicy and herbal note to a hybrid: an ale made with lager malt. Citrus fruit, hops and toasted malt on nose and palate. Young's make a donation to the Royal Botanical Gardens.
9. Shepherd Neame Whitstable Bay Organic Ale (4.5%)
Selected Waitrose �1.69.
Organic Gem and Hallertau hops are imported from New Zealand to blend with English organic malted barley in England's oldest brewery. The result is a zesty,deeply refreshing beer with sappy malt, floral, resinous hops and tart citrus fruit.
www.shepherdneame.co.uk; 01795 532206
10. Goose Island IPA (5.9%)
BeerRitz case of 24 �45.60.
One of the world's greatest beers from Chicago: American craft brewers are mad about hops and this one of the bitterest beers on the planet. But hops are balanced by orange fruit and a cracker biscuit maltiness, with a quinine-like bitter finish. Superb.
www.BeerRitz.co.uk; 01423 359371
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