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Sunday, May 13, 2007

Daleside Brewery - Ripon Jewel vs. Daleside Blonde

Daleside Brewery were the main sponsors of the Ale Tent at last weeks Dales Festival of Food and Drink, and seeing as though they were a brewery I was pretty unfamiliar with, I decided to do a little sampling myself!

First up, I was greatly impressed with their Ripon Jewel ale. I had heard good things about this before but I really didn’t know what to expect – it was a really refreshing, caramel-esque beer, which was very easy to drink despite its 5.8 abv. Fans of American micro- brew beers such as Sierra Nevada would love this. Unashamedly flavourful, I would recommend this with your heartier meat dishes, if you were into food pairing and all that…

On the other end of the scale, I feel the Daleside Blonde (4.3 abv) deserves a mention. Daleside decided to make a full-bodied cask ale, but then ‘lager’ the brew using cold-conditioning. The result? A beer that is pretty much a Lager, but with a really complex taste, not dissimilar to a high-end pilsner such as Jever. I took a crate of this stuff home and it really impressed, especially after a couple of days in the fridge. I plan to get more of this stuff for the summer, and it would go down a storm at a barbecue. Think lager has to be bland? Think again.

Daleside are pretty eponymous at the festival these days, but I think this is with good reason. Yet another highly recommended brewery to come out of North Yorkshire.

Daleside Brewery Ltd,
Camwal Road, Harrogate,
HG1 4PT

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