One of the first things that you notice as you approach Lost and Grounded Brewers is the rising mural that covers the face of the brewery which depicts the artwork of their flagship lager, Keller Pils. This is the beer they aimed to create when starting the brewery, and every week of the year their team devotes energy to making Keller Pils the best version of itself. 

The journey first began 25 years ago with our Co-Founders Alex Troncoso and Annie Clements homebrewing together before travelling the world, with Alex working for some of the best craft brewers across the globe such as Little Creatures Brewing and Camden Town Brewery. The name, Lost and Grounded Brewers, was coined by the co-founders when it was finally time to stop, make beautiful Bristol their home, grow an amazing business, giving them and their team careers and focus.

Operating from their 25HL state-of-the-art brewhouse in Bristol, complete with a traditional lactic acid propagation plant, they produce beers with balance, nuance and depth of character. Brewing sustainably is also a clear focus for their team, with many initiatives being implemented since brewing started 8 years ago. Some of these include the ongoing monitoring and optimisation of the brewhouse to reduce their energy consumption, installation of our 30 tonne malt silo in June 2022, and most recently the commission of our Energy Recovery System in February 2023.

From the very beginning Alex and Annie had a deep admiration of many traditional styles of brewing.  Before starting the brewery they pulled out their old brewing books, one of which was by the late Michael Jackson, the Great Beers of Belgium.  Re-reading this book ignited their love of Belgian-style beers, and motivated their original core range. 

As they’ve grown the last few years it has become increasingly difficult to maintain stock of all of their range year-round.  However, right now they find themselves at a very special moment in time and we have been able to secure a limited quantity of their entire core range – fresh and in stock.

Keller Pils, 4.8% Hop-Bitter Lager Beer. – “Their flagship and the benchmark for UK lager.”
Helles, 4.4% Unfiltered Lager Beer. – “Gentle and balanced.”
Running with Sceptres, 5.2% India Pale Lager – “Lager’s answer to IPA!”
Hop-Hand Fallacy, 44% Witbier – “Their take on a classic Belgian-style Witbier, spiced with orange peel and coriander.”
No Rest for Dancers, 5.6% Red Ale – “Their tribute to Belgian-style Dubbels.”
Saison D’Avon, 6.5% Belgian-Style Ale – “Their soft and fluffy version of this traditional Belgian-style Ale.”
Apophenia, 8.4% Tripel  – “The strongest of their core range.”
Running with Spectres, 6.8% Baltic Porter – “A once-a-year release of their strong Black Lager.”
Wanna Go To The Sun, 4.6% Pale Ale – “Their easy-drinking, peachy and citrusy Pale Ale”
Extra Nice, 4% Extra Dry Lager – “A Lager with purpose, 5p from each can sold supports Stonewall Housing.”

This award-winning brewery has also received some impressive accolades including ‘Beer of the Year’ with Helles and ‘Brewery of the Year’ at the 2022 Brewers Choice Awards, as well as a Gold award for Keller Pils in the Kellerbier/Zwickelbier category at the 2023 World Beer Cup Awards®, one of their most prized achievements to date.

You can grab their special ‘Lost and Grounded: In Full Flight’ box for December by heading to their profile and adding it to your plan today.

This box from Turning Point, based in Knaresborough, was timed with their release of Disco Kingdom, with four variants of their flagship Disco King pale ale which I’m really excited to drink because I’m a big nerd when it comes to comparing similar beers (and I really like Disco King!). 

The OG Disco King is 5.1% and hopped with Mosaic and Chinook. Lightly hazy, it’s got the perfect balance of big fruity hop aromas and a mouthfeel and carbonation that’s still crisp and refreshing, which I really like. I get lots of tropical and citrus fruits, all of them mixed together, with some tropical fruit candy, tinned mandarin and tinned apricot. The bitterness is low and it’s a real crowd-pleasing pale ale. 

Disco Jester is the beer I’m most excited to drink in this box. I’ve had Turning Point beers brewed with modern British hops before and they’re great. This one takes the same base brew as Disco King and swaps the US hops for Jester, Harlequin and UK Chinook, and it’s one of the best British-hopped pale ales I’ve had in the last few years. The best compliment I can give is that I don’t think many drinkers would know it was made with British hops if they didn’t know – you get a lot of juicy fruits, it’s reminiscent of tropical fruit squash, there’s apricot, fruit candy, citrus pith, and then just a hint of herbal, peppery bitterness which adds a distinctly British accent right at the end. Love it. 

Disco Tropical takes the already-fruity Disco King and adds pineapple to it plus more tropical-tasting hops. One of those hops, Sabro, can bring a coconutty aroma to beer and the first thing I thought when I tasted this was definitely pina colada. The pineapple adds some light tartness, which is refreshing and distinctively that of ripe pineapple (so doesn’t taste fake unlike a lot of tropical IPAs), then the added hops bring both a creamy coconut and more juicy tropical fruits. Nicely done!

Disco Midnight is Disco King reimagined as a dry hopped stout, and it’s very good – it’s also really interesting to see how the dry hops in a pale ale change when put in a beer with lots of darker malts. The base brew is toasty and roasty, but not bitter like espresso and it’s more of a dark malt complexity and depth. The hops which were all juicy fruits in Disco King are now like charred versions of those fruits – think grilled pineapple and baked stone fruits. The hops still come through really well in the beer, and there’s a brilliant integration of hops with the darker malts. Superb. 

Also in my box were four more of the Turning Point range. 

Their core range Pilsner is Nova, which is 4.6% and gluten-free. It’s a little sweet with some fuller malt flavours, then the two classic lager hops, Saaz and Tettnang, come through at the end. It has a very slight acidity to the beer, which is normal in a lager and can add nice refreshment, though to me that was just a bit too high and unbalanced the beer a bit (plus I’d have loved more flavour from those hops). 

Their Session NEIPA, Astral Voyage, is another core beer for Turning Point. It’s only 3.4%, and brings some nice aromas from Citra, Mosaic and Galaxy. It’s light with high carbonation, and has aromas like mango candy and citrus fruit squash. Nice and refreshing.

Sunshine Indoors is a mango and saffron lassi pale ale that’s 6% brewed with vanilla and lactose, to give that creamy quality of a lassi. The aroma definitely makes you think of sweet things and that continues as you drink it – it’s all sweet mango and vanilla (you need a sweet tooth for this one, I reckon). It had a bitterness that reminded me of jalapeno peppers, which worked well with the mango. I didn’t get too much saffron.  

Milk Foley is a 6.3% strawberry and cream pale ale, and another beer that’s on the sweeter side. The aroma was very nostalgic to me of strawberry and cream hard sweets I remember having as a kid, and also of the chewy strawberry and vanilla sweets. It’s got a lot of candy qualities, but keeps a bitterness of a pale ale (which is perhaps a bit too jarring for me!). It’s not my kind of beer, and is too sweet for me, but the flavour of strawberry and cream is a lot of fun! 

Ampersand Brew Co. are based in south Norfolk and I know them as a brewery that makes excellent versions of classic styles, and while I’ve had a few of their beers before, it was really good to sit down and taste through their full range, which included one of the best beers I’ve drunk all year. 

Pulpit Pale is 5% and brewed with UK Cascade and Olicana. I love these hops and love seeing British brewers showcase and celebrate them. The hops give some light grapefruit and tropical fruits, clean and fresh and fruity. The malt base has some breadcrusts and toast, which adds sweetness to balance a fairly high bitterness. Lovely stuff.

Camphillsner is Ampersand’s 5% lager which uses UK malt, German hops and Czech yeast for a pan-Euro Pils that’s a lovely bright yellow colour with distinctively pithy and floral German hops, a firm bitterness, and a gentle maltiness to hold it all together. 

Bidon, a 3.9% session pale brewed with Citra and El Dorado, has a nice light haze, a very juicy aroma with tropical squash, lemon, peach and apricot, with a refreshingly light body. This is one I want to sit in the sun and drink by the pint!

On The Wing is a 4.5% Hazy Pale brewed with Amarillo, Citra, Ekuanot and Chinook. It’s got soft and juicy stone fruits and lots of lovely lemony flavours like homemade lemonade, bitter lemon and lemon sherbet. 

Talking of lemons, Low Lemons is a 3.4% pale brewed with lemon juice and zest which is like a zingy and refreshing shandy with a bright lemon flavour. A great summer beer!

Honk Short Of A Gaggle is a 4.2% Cold IPA with Stata, Simcoe, Citra and Chinook. It’s got a lot of grapefruit in the aroma, lemon, pithy citrus, and a fairly robust malt body – I’d say too much malt for a Cold IPA (which I want to be like a light American lager), and it reminded me more of just a really nice pale ale. 

Basil Blush is a 3.3% raspberry and holy basil sour. It’s bright red, there’s tart raspberries, it’s very dry, and the holy basil comes through with its aniseed and clove-like flavour. The aroma actually reminds me a bit of root beer, which is unexpected. I’m not sure if they got the holy basil aroma they were hoping for in this one, as that clove flavour is a bit jarring.

Pixelate, a 4.1% Citra and Azacca Pale Ale, was unfortunately not a good can and mine had some wild yeast in there, giving it a funky brettanomyces aromas and too much fizz.

And that leaves their Doppelbock. It’s 8% and has been aged in second-fill oak whiskey barrels for six months. It’s a deep ruby brown and the aromas are glorious. Vanilla, dark caramel, creme brulee, sticky toffee pudding, dark cherry, chocolate brownies, but it’s not sweet, and it’s bitter with some oak tannins, and a dryness at the end which means it’s layered and complex in flavour. It’s an absolute triumph of a beer. Delicious! I’m not sure if the Doppelbock will be in many more Brewser boxes, but drink it if you get the chance.

That was a fun box to drink through! 

A box of 10 hoppy beers from the top-rated brewery in Wales who are famous for the hoppy beers they brew?! Yes please! 

I drank my way through all 10 cans, and here’s what I tasted… 

IS IT OVER. A 4% pale ale with Simcoe and Strata, it’s hazy orange in appearance and hazy orange in flavour, with definite notes of orange squash. There’s also some dank and herbal aromas, and lemon peel and pith. It’s got a lot of depth for a 4% beer!

FLORET. This Extra Pale Ale is 4.2% and brewed with Azacca, Citra and Simcoe. It’s very pale yellow with a creamy foam. It’s crisper than some of the others in the box, with a lively carbonation and some pithy citrus hops making this one nice and refreshing. 

LITTLE PATTERNIST. An El Dorado and Simcoe 5% Pale Ale, it’s got a sweet citrus aroma, tropical fruit squash, some melon. It comes out with big flavour up front, then finishes lighter.

LITTLE PETAL. A 5.2% West Coast Pale Ale with the classic West Coast hops of Cascade, Amarillo and Simcoe. It’s a little hazy (but less hazy than all the others!), there’s lots of lemony hops with some lemon candy and lemon sherbet, plus some savoury aromas, a bit of woody spice, and a nice crisp bitterness which lasts a while – just what you want in a West Coast Pale!

HUMBLE RENDER. This 5.7% Pale Ale is brewed with Citra, El Dorado and Sabro, and it pours a thicker, hazier yellow compared to some of the others. The Sabro comes through really nicely (but I like this hop – not everyone does!) with a dried dill aroma and a creaminess that’s rounded out by tangy citrus, some strawberry, and a peppery finish. Great full texture.

OH MY. Oh my indeed – this was my favourite beer in the box. Citra and Sabro in a 5.8% Pale Ale, you get lots of juicy hops and a lovely aroma of tinned orange, orange cordial, sweet melon, candied citrus and zesty citrus. There’s a lot of hop flavour layered through this beer.

ROSEBUD. A 5.6% IPA with Citra, Galaxy, Mosaic and Simcoe, and with that combo of hops you know it’s going to be good. It’s light yellow and light in hazy, with lemon peel, orange, tropical fruit and some danker herbal aromas. Nice soft texture and a crisp dryness to finish.

ELLA FROM DOWN UNDER. With Ella and Simcoe, this 6.1% IPA pours a thick hazy orange and has a big juicy hop aroma. There’s peach and apricot, fermented tropical fruits, sweet melon and papaya, a little booziness, and a peppery hop finish.

PATTERNIST. A 6.6% IPA with El Dorado and Simcoe, it’s like tropical fruit juice with some bitter melon, strawberry and some herbal dank aromas. It starts creamy and full, then ends dry and pithy.

SPUR. Brewed with Azacca, Citra and Simcoe, this 7.2% IPA has a thick hazy yellow texture, some ripe peach, some fruity yeast esters, stone fruit, a creaminess and fullness to the texture which is a really mouthfeel, and a great overall balance to the finish.

Written by: Gavin Baxter (Beer Fridge Podcast)

Since their inception in 2018 the team at Overtone have been non-stop producing some amazing bold beers and the Mighty Showcase box is the best way to explore what the West side of Glasgow has to offer. With a mix style of beers – Lager, fruited gose, Pales and IPAs.

You open the box and the colourful geometric circles, some almost psychedelic flood your eyes with colour and a taste of what amazing liquid is hidden inside. Naturally you are instantly excited with the higher ABV beers, but we will save them for now. As Overtone have not only mastered the Juice bombs of this world but have also found the formula to getting bags of flavour from their more sessionable, lighter ABV beers.

First beer into the glass was Soft Static 5% Pale Ale, that is full of flavour and a tonne of hops. El dorado, Idaho 7 and Sabro Cryo. It’s soft,creamy with the punch of mango, grapefruit and tangerine. A beer that can be enjoyed by beer geeks as well as newbies, and gives a taste of the quality that the brewery produces.

Let’s go West Coast, Bookhouse Boys at 5%. For me was one of my favourite beers of the box. This, I feel is the little brother to 99 IBUS (last year’s big Westie). Brewed using Columbus, Idaho7 and Cashmere hops. Expect a nice moderate level of bitterness that a West Coast beer should have, and balanced out with flavours of pine, bitter lemon and a lovely sweetness. The bitterness is something not to be scared of and makes you go back for more. I can imagine this beer tasting even better from keg.

Let’s talk lager, the one style where a brewery can’t hide – Pizzicato 5.2%. Now, remove whatever preconceptions you have of the lager style that mass produced beer has led you to believe. Pizzicato is a European inspired beer. Think malty, sweet and refreshing. Not only quaffable and crisp but dynamically complex with a hint of spice, white pepper and hoppiness. A beer that will get you and your friends talking and best enjoyed on a summer’s day.

Psychonaut 8.4% TDH DIPA, just wow. This is the style of beer that I have grown to love from Overtone and why I love this brewery. Hazy and thick, you almost question if using a spoon would be more appropriate. Made with El Dorado, Bru-1, Mosaic and Citra hops this beer coasts your tongue and very quickly, you see why Overtone had the nickname early on of ‘Juice Masters’. An amazing creamy body bursting with dank flavours of mango, pineapple and a hint of a smoky finish.

This box from start to finish shows the excellence that Overtone offers and is a brewery that I would recommend you add sooner rather than later. Add them to your line up today.

I’ve drunk my way through around 20 different Brewser boxes now, and this one from Farm Yard Brew Co. has been one of the best.

I like their story, too. Steven Holmes would be the sixth generation of his family to run their farm, but instead of being out in the fields, or looking after livestock, he decided to build a brewery on the land. That was in 2016. They’ve expanded a lot since then, won lots of awards, added a great taproom, and built in good sustainability measures, including solar power. Before opening this box, I hadn’t actually had any Farm Yard beers, but now I want to drink many more of them.

My box had nine beers, and a nice mix of styles, though mostly hoppy beers (which is what I most want to drink, so that’s good for me!).

Löf is a German-style Pilsner and it’s very good. Very pale, lovely thick foam, little bit of fresh sulphur aroma (which I like in a lager), some lemony hops and a crisp, dry finish. If a brewery can make a Pilsner as good as this, then they get my attention.

Sheaf is their Citra and Mosaic pale ale, and it’s a perfect example of this style. Juicy tropical and citrus, papaya and mango, orange, a light body, great hop flavour through it, refreshing. It’s as good as any other 4.1% ABV pale ale on the market. I’ve Got You is another pale ale, this one raising money for Six Connections, a mental health charity. I got oranges and bitter lemons, and a lush hop complexity through the beer.

There were two session IPAs in the box. Chaff was peach skins, soft tropical fruits and a great depth for the style. Splish Splash was maybe my favourite beer in the box because of how good the Sabro hops taste in this beer. It’s a divisive hop, but in this you get pink grapefruit, creamy dill and coconut (in a good way!), orange, lemon and lime, and it’s superb.

Smoove Bitter is their nitro amber bitter, and while the nitro didn’t leave a creamy foam after a hard pour, the beer tasted like a cask ale in a can, with a comforting and familiar biscuity and toasty malt depth. Chocca Mocha is their vegan vanilla, cacao and coffee stout, and it’s very impressive for 4.4% ABV, with a really rich depth of malt, lots of cacao flavour and fruity coffee. Excellent.

Two IPAs to finish. Many Hands Make Light Work 2 is a 6% ABV collab NEIPA raising money for cancer. Big juicy tropical fruits, a soft and full texture, sweet tropical fruits and bitter citrus to finish. And Gulf is their 5.8% ABV IPA. I loved this beer. They don’t name the hops but it has a distinctive Sabro or Talus pink grapefruit character which I really like, then lots more citrus fruit (all the different types of grapefruit you can think of), an impressive depth of hop flavour and a lasting pithy bitterness.

This is the sort of beer box that makes me excited for beer. All killer, no filler, and beers with character and complexity, but also ones you want to drink several of. Great stuff from Farm Yard Brew Co.!

Hello Modest Beer! This is my first taste of anything from Modest, a brewery from Antrim, Northern Ireland. It’s run by Chris Morris, who went from a tax accountant making beer in a garage to brewing full time, focusing on easy-drinking, well-balanced beers. This box has been a great introduction to what Chris is doing.

I opened their main NE Pale Ale to begin. Cloudy Yet Full Of Sunshine (4.2%) is brewed with Simcoe, Citra, Mosaic and Centennial, and it’s hazy yellow with a nice peach and apricot aroma. There’s sweet pineapple, mango candy, low bitterness and a lovely soft body. They use the word ‘succulent’ on the can and that’s a good description. This is a really good example of a 4-ish% hazy hoppy pale ale.

Just Like Nana Used To Drink (4.3%) is Modest’s Irish Stout. It smells like you’ve put your face in a sack of roasted barley. It’s got a lot of roasted flavours and drinks like a black iced coffee with a little 100% cocoa and richly roasted malts. Great flavour for its low ABV.

If a brewery can make a good Pilsner then they get more of my attention. Good Enough To Take To Yer Ma (5%) is brewed with Magnum, Saaz and Mittelfrüh, and those hops are very distinctive in the aroma. The beer is lightly hazy but still crisp, and has a deep, lasting herbal and woody bitterness – it’s a hoppiness that’d scare a macro lager drinker, but I love that in a Pilsner. 

Of the nine cans in the box, five of them were pales and IPAs, which is good for me. My favourite was Cloudy Yet Full of Sunshine, but all the others were also good, and one thing which came through in all of them was a familiar and consistent yeast ester aroma of peach, apricot and even light vanilla. It’s a nice extra fruity pop of flavour coming up behind the hops. 

The Pretty Good Stratus & Talus (3.8%) hazy pale ale is an impressive low-alcohol pale with a wonderful aroma of Talus with its sweet pink grapefruit (I love that hop!) and a zesty and herbal finish. 2 Thumbs Up (4.4%) is a pale ale brewed with Columbus, Cascade, Cryo Pop and Motueka, and those hops combine to give a juicy lime aroma, layers of citrus pith and zest, and a dry bitterness. Day Dreaming Of Far Off Lands (5.5%) is an IPA with Columbus, Citra and Cascade, and it was my least favourite as there was a slickness in the texture which jarred a little with the bitterness, and the aroma was a bit muted compared to others. 4 Star (5.5%) is an IPA hopped with Columbus, Cryo Pop, Motueka, Simcoe Cryo and Mosaic Cryo. You get a lot of fleshy peach and apricot, plus tannic apricot skin, then some juicy tropical fruits and a herbal bitterness (a solid four star IPA!). 

Exotic But Not Too Exotic (5.6%) is an appropriate name for a mango sorbet pale ale. It’s got mango, vanilla and orange zest in it, but it’s not over-thick or over-sweet, so you mostly just get an extra depth of mango to your pale ale. 

I finished with Where The Other 5% Of British Blackberries Go (4.5%), a bramble sour that’s a vibrant purple colour, smells like a grown up glass of blackcurrant, and tastes like a punnet of blackberries. The tartness is restrained and balanced, and it feels like a very British-tasting sour beer. 

I beat my 4:15am alarm by fifteen minutes and can hardly contain the excitement of my first trip to Northern Ireland, let alone getting back behind the paddle to brew our next collab. Making my way through the sleepy old world of Shrewsbury, I reflect on how the next collab idea came about.

Chris Morris, of Modest Beer, had dropped me an email at the end of January to see what plans we had for St. Patrick’s Day (at that point, we didn’t have many…). I was stoked to hear from Chris, as Ash had kindly shared the Modest box he had for photography and, well, If you haven’t tried Modest Beer before, you’re in for a treat.

Chris is a one-man-band operation, brewing some of the finest hazy beers around. What I like about their box (which features 9 cans and tasting notes), is that ABV tends to stay around 4-6%. You do get some that will sneak over or below, but that sessionable range is my sweet-spot at the moment, and the flavours Chris is able to pack in to his beer is outstanding.

We jumped on a call together and what started as being a box featuring a couple of NI breweries soon turned into a bigger collaboration, featuring 6 breweries from the Island of Ireland, 11 cans, including an exclusive collab DIPA chucked in for good measure. We reached out to all the breweries who were happy to be involved and a date was set for the collab brew.

Having now made it safely across the water, I’m stood outside Belfast airport waiting for my ride from the Bullhouse team. It was my first-time meeting both Mark and Gary and I was particularly excited to meet Mark as I know he’s been a subscriber of ours for some time.

We drove about an hour Northwest and got to where Modest Beer is located, high above Randalstown in Country Antrim, with beautiful views overlooking Lough Neagh. Sam from Lacada, and Michael from Our Brewery were awaiting our arrival with Chris. It was bloody cold, but we were fortunate for a clear day to be able to see the views.

One of the best views of the day though was of Chris’s brew kit. It is a small set up, but unlike any other kit I’ve seen before. It’s manufactured by Brewiks and all tanks are sat on casters so he can move them around as he pleases. It’s pretty-state-of-the-art but also has fair amount of getting your hands dirty (I left the digging of the mash out to Gary and Sam).

The Beer
This one-off Brewser exclusive collab beer is a creamy and soft DIPA packed full of Motueka and Citra, bringing punchy tropical fruit flavours, sweet lime and orange.
ABV: 7.6%
Hot Side Hops: Idaho 7, Mosaic
Dry Hop: Citra, Citra Cryo, Motueka

With the hard work done (by everyone else), we made a beeline for Belfast to visit the Bullhouse East taproom. We were honoured to also be joined by the one and only Neil Delargy (REFTSC5EFKMWY – IYKYK). If you’re heading to Belfast, this taproom is a must-visit. Everything from your craft bar heaven: the three-piece foldable beer tables, 20 taps of draught to choose from, a beer fridge stocked with all sorts of delicious beery goodness and of course, pizza! We were well looked after by our hosts and would like to thank all the staff for a great night.

You’ll hear it a lot from everyone in the industry, ‘one of the best things about craft beer is the community and the people that work in this industry.’ Northern Ireland is no exception, in fact it’s hard to find a stronger community of craft beer lovers anywhere.

The restrictions and licensing laws of NI make it extremely difficult for these independent breweries to get their beers out and therefore promote craft beer to a wider audience. Outside of the 2-3 taprooms in Belfast, I understand that a mere 20 keg lines are free for local breweries, out of 1,100 pubs. Big beer and drinks companies own all of the lines and therefore only their products are allowed to pour, that’s what keeps this craft beer community so tight and passionate about their beer, you have to work hard to make it, and drink it.

We’ve brought together the best breweries from the Island of Ireland for this special box. This is your chance to sample some of their most-loved beers, try something new and support these fantastic teams – all in celebration of St Patricks Day.

So put down that pint of Guinness and pick up Lacada’s Shamrock Pinnacle whilst you thank the brew gods for independent brewing and the joy of discovering something new.

Sláinte! 

Something different for me this month and a box of cider!

I’ve gone for the Intro to Little Pomona box, and as a bonus for all of February, if you lock in any Little Pomona box you’ll get a voucher for a free tour, tasting and cheese matching at their cidery, which you can use between April and September. 

These four 750ml bottles are all really different and fascinating for a flavour nerd like me. I had a quick sip in my opening video, but I needed much more time to really taste my way through them, and I was rewarded by some of the most complex and wonderful drinks I’ve tasted in a long time. 

Hard Rain Hot Pink 2022 is only 3.4% but you’d never guess that from the taste. It’s an impressive, impactful ciderkin (that’s a weak cider) blended with blackcurrant cordial made local to the cidery, and matured with Simcoe hops. There’s all the tangy apples, tart blackcurrant, the pungent hops, a nice refreshing fizz and a light acidity. This is nothing like a cider and black you may have drunk growing up!

The Table Perry (7% ABV) is the first drink I’ve ever been told to use a sieve when pouring it out, and that’s because of the ‘perry diamonds.’ This is just natural tannins which clump after bottling, and while they’re fine to drink, you can just use a little sieve or tea strainer to remove them. And that’s a good idea because it leaves you with a much crisper perry. This has a lovely pear flavour, juicy fruit but also light tannins and dryness, with some tropical fruitiness, all of which reminded me of a beautiful pet nat sparking wine. This is one of the best drinks I’ve had recently. 

Balls Bittersweet 2021 (7.9%ABV ) is named after an unusual Herefordshire apple, and this cider is aged in third-use oak barrels. It’s really dry, tannic, has some light smokiness, even a creaminess, and a really nice fizz. Every sip gave me something different to think about and enjoy, and let me taste an apple I’d never even heard of before. Lovely!

Still Life with Quince 2020 (7.1%) is an apple and quince wine and it’s really aromatic with the apple and the quince, plus a really tropical quality and something creamy, like funky papaya or even some blue cheesiness (in a good way!). It’s a still cider and another one that’s remarkably complex. It’s reminiscent of old lambic.

This is a brilliant box for anyone interested in cider and perry, and for drinkers who love sour beers, sparkling wines and natural wines. I think you’ll be really impressed with this box.

I know Glasgow’s Overtone Brewing Co. for the excellent hoppy beers that they’ve been brewing since 2018, so it was a nice surprise to see a selection box of styles in this one – a Lager, Hopfenweisse, Oatmeal Stout, fruited Gose, and some Pales and IPAs. Here are six that stood out for me.

Place of Light. A 5% hazy Pale Ale with Mosaic, Ekuanot Cryo, Simcoe and El Dorado hops. The foam on this was sticky with hops – I love it! It’s the sort of beer that you know is very good from the first sip, but don’t realise just how good it is until you finish it and immediately want more. It’s got a beautiful soft mouthfeel (like most of the beers in this box). The hops give tropical fruit, peaches and apricot, and there’s fruity yeast esters as well. Superb!

Hopfensee. This is a Hopfenweisse, a German-style Weissbier that’s hopped like an IPA. The Simcoe, Eureka and Citra hops dominate the aroma, with juicy stone fruits, then the Weissbier comes later with its distinctive spicy and fruity yeast. The wheat beer base and the Weissbier yeast transform the hops and gives us some new aromas we wouldn’t find in an IPA with the same hop additions. 

Northern Hemisphere. With Ekuanot, Mosaic and Simcoe, this DDH IPA is exactly the sort of beer I hoped and expected to get in this box. Thick, hazy and juicy, there’s orange, peach and tropical fruit, fruit candy yeast esters (they’ve got a pretty estery yeast at Overtone – I like it!), and a grip of bitterness at the end. 

Gold ‘n’ Gose. A Gose with golden berry, prickly pear and passion fruit. Some people might want this more fruity, or more sweet, or more sour, but it was just right for me: it has an elegance which gives it a great balance without ever being too intense in any direction. The tangy tropical fruit comes through more as you drink it. 

Pizzicato. A Premium Lager brewed with Saaz Lupomax – I’ve never had Saaz in this intensified hop form before, and the aroma is wonderful. I love Saaz hops, and this is the most pure version of the hop aroma I’ve experienced. Wow! I feel like the balance is out overall: too sweet (or not bitter enough), a bit to hazy for crispness, and lacking carbonation. It’s close to being great, but not quite. 

Porridge on the Road. This Oatmeal Stout is one of the best dark beers I’ve drunk all year. The foam is a delicious dark brown colour, and the aroma is a treat of heavily roasted malts, fruity dark chocolate, chocolate truffles, and espresso, which carries through into the flavour. There’s big roastiness first, then the body is so soft and silky smooth. It’s a magic trick of intense flavour first, then softness at the end. Exceptional!

Overtone have really impressed me with this box, as they usually tend to do! If you’d like to give them a try, head over to their profile and get them lined up!