Skip to main content

Beer Advent Calendar Window Six - Southwold Christmas Ale



In the spirit of the season that brings us all together, Window Six on the Advent Calendar brings about a famous ongoing collaboration between two giants of the British beer world: Adnams... and Marks and Spencers. 

As with Adnams main line of beers, I personally find the range Adnams do for Marks and Spencers that will be considered the more "traditional" series to range from average to swamp water. However, just as with Adnams main line of beers, I personally find the range they do for Marks and Spencers that will be considered the more "craft" series to do a decent job. Sorachi Saison is probably the best beer in the "brewed for M&S" range and possibly the best beer I've had from Adnams. 

I know it is a controversy, and as a fairly large brewery complete with distillery, Adnams manage to maintain a reputable name amongst bloggers and beer personnel alike. However, even from a young drinker, who only discerned whether he liked his supermarket 4for£5 real ale bottles with the descriptor of "It's good/crap," I've never really enjoyed the very distinct yeast flavour present in Adnams beers, including their spin-off Jack Brand range.

However, I noticed in October there was a new Southwold Christmas Ale amongst the beer shelves I've been searching for. Since then, it has been repeatedly sold out in two local M&S' suggesting it is doing well for itself. Eventually I grabbed one of only three bottles left on the shelf in Marks and Spencers Sale, just in time to feature in this Advent Calendar. Credit to Adnams that they've made the Southwold brand in this supermarket almost as famous as their own brewery name. 


"It's Christmas Eve. It's the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we smile a little easier, we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year we are the people that we always hoped we would be."


Southwold Christmas Ale - brewed by Adnams for M&S 4.2% 

I have to say this is an attractive bottle and I can understand why it flies off the shelves. Although I know those light-lit barns are supposed to represent beach huts, they remind me a little of the nativity scene lit-up and that makes me feel festive. Great colour choices too. 

To the beer, that is a murky brown and swamps in your glass. The nose has that familiar Adnams flavour I don't get along with - something like Westmalle yeast mixed with dirty dishwater. The taste is as uninspiring as I sadly assumed. There's hints of Christmas cake, with a dry biscuity fruitness throughout. Lots of chocolate malt style flavours over that terrible yeasty tang. Then, popping up in your mouth every few seconds is a familiar flavour I've tried to pinpoint and can only think of wholegrain mustard. It's certainly not something I've come across in a beer before. Fruit cake and mustard - the future flavours of the experimental craft. Everything draws to a rather flavourless carbonated finish. It wasn't terrible - but it didn't taste as good as it looks. It didn't rouse any emotions or feelings. It existed and it happened and it is selling quite well for the brewery and supermarket. That is what I have to say about this beer. 

Mince Pie Pairing Rating: 4/10 - the mincemeat flavours dominate the beer, making it have less flavour rather than drawing the flavour out 

Best paired with: Santa Claus the Movie, because that's a thing that exists, right? That's sort of Okay... ish... right? 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Children and Dogs in Pubs and Bars

  I once took my niece to the pub. She was either 1 or 2 years of age. I often looked after her on Saturdays and on one of our weekly walks, for the first time, I stopped by the local pub, mainly because my friend was there with his daughter of similar age. The two kids got on well together and it was a lovely couple of hours; a perfect showcase of adult friends and their children existing in public houses. But my sister was furious. She didn’t rant or rave but her lips were purser than a 90s children’s show teacher. It was here that I learned of the effect that our childhood had had upon her. She recalls many an afternoon being bored in the corner of pubs that our Dad had dragged us to, arms folded in the corner with nothing to do, and she doesn’t want the same for her children. The idea of her first born being taken to pubs infuriates her; fearful that they would be subjected to the same unhappy experiences that she was.  I don’t recall those times in the same way as my s
Post a Comment
Read more

"They Had Their Issues, So..."

      There’s a set of garages to rent as storage units near my workplace. One of them is taken by a local florist that uses it to store flower arrangements for various events, that are more often than not funerals.   As such, at least once a week at 8am I will pass a car being loaded up with flowers arranged into heart shaped patterns or the letters M U M. It is a grounding reminder that, as I mentally grumble my way through the upcoming arbitrary grievances of my ordinary working day, a group of family and friends locally is going through the hardest time. It provides much needed perspective on days when I could do with being reminded of all that I have to be thankful for.   These little moments explain to me why it is possible for us to share a communal loss when a celebrity passes away. Grief is often a personal and lonely experience, shared between a minority of people in your life. When a co-worker loses a relative or friend, it has little affect on me, bar signing of
Post a Comment
Read more

The Ten Pubs That Made Me - Part 3: Dr Okell's / My Foley's Tap House and Leeds

A pint in Mr Foley's Tap House from December 2022     This is Part 3 (the fourth post) of an ongoing project. Please see the beginning of Part 0 for details.    Come the end of this journey, there may be a lesson in procrastination that I am unlikely to heed. These posts stem from a list that I made three years ago and a series that I embarked on 18 months ago. We’ve only now reached a 30% completion rate and with this post we are back to fail for the second time.   This odyssey began with a trip to Mr Foley’s Tap House in February 2022 – named Dr Okell’s bar on my first visits in 2005 – only to discover that it was closed. It did reopen by the time that the post was coming out and I managed a brief visit in December 2022. However, my July 1 st 2023 trip to Leeds, on which this post is based, is met with this sign at the door of the bar:      A quick check of social media shows an Instagram post from the day before (June 30 th ) announcing the closure of the
Post a Comment
Read more