• ABV: 16.5%, Style: Tonic Wine
• Manufactured in Newport West, Jamaica
• Best before April 2013
• Served: 200ml bottle poured into a BrewDog teku glass
• http://www.magnumtonicwine.com/
• £2.49 from a cornershop in Stretford

Bottle description: “Magnum Tonic Wine with iron & vitamins. Made with Vigorton 2. Shake Well. The name “tonic wine” does not imply heath giving or medicinal properties. Enjoy in moderation.”

I was trying my best not to include tonic wine in my Tramp Juice Reviews, but then I saw this. Tiny bottle, stylised people rutting on the label, cheap. What’s not to like?

When I bought it the man at the shop said, “does it work?” I said that I had no idea, but I like strange booze. Watching the adverts for it, it appears that it’s being marketed as liquid Viagra so that makes a bit more sense of his question. I’ve already tried some at this stage and I assure you that it has not got me hard.

Look: Viscous, syrup with a dark red tinge. Leaves legs on the side of the glass. Looks like cherry coloured cough syrup.

Aroma: Smells like cherry flavoured cough syrup. Synthetic sweetness and alcohol.

Taste: Unsurprisingly, cherry flavoured cough syrup. Loads of sugar and just a hint of red fruit with a focus on cherry at the end. It’s so thick and sweet it masks the alcohol as you’re drinking it, but you feel the alcohol after you swallow.

Mouthfeel: Like drinking a simple syrup. Gaggy.

Overall: Well, this is the end of the bottle, I don’t think I’ll be re-buying. Is it worse than Buckfast? I’m not sure, Buckfast is not as thick. It’s the thickness of the liquid that really makes drinking this wine unpleasant. In terms of flavour, it’s lighter than Buckfast, so I suppose that’s a positive too. I don’t think I’d volunteer to drink either again unless it was for something stupid like a blog. Not recommended. 1/5

- 23rd April 2013, Sustainable Alcoholic

• ABV: 4.4%, Style: Spiced Beer
• Brewed in Millom, UK
• Best before October 2014
• Served: 330ml bottle poured into a stemmed tulip glass
• http://www.hardknott.com/
• £2.28 from Micro Bar

Never one to shy away from a ginger flavoured beer, I picked up Cool Fusion from Hardknott at Micro Bar. I’ve sort of killed myself for ginger beers now that I’ve made a stupidly ginger one. Nothing is ever going to be gingery enough. I’ll give it a go anyway.

Look: Really pale, copper coloured beer with a lot of floating sediment. Minimal head and no lacing.

Aroma: Sweet like slowly fermenting grass, light biscuity malt, spice and ginger, the ginger is only a hint.

Taste: Starts quite thin and watery, before the toffee malt comes out, ginger and spice then take over. There’s a slight bitter finish and then the warmth of the ginger comes through at the end of the finish.

Mouthfeel: Light carbonation, feels watery.

Overall: It’s a lighter drink than the Marble Ginger and definitely lighter than my attempt, but it’s pleasant enough. I’d recommend it on a sunny day to anyone that liked a beer a little out of the ordinary. It could do with more ginger, but then I always say that! 4/5

- 22nd April 2013, Sustainable Alcoholic

• ABV: 15%, Style: Imperial Russian Stout
• Brewed in Chicago, IL, USA
• Best before 8 November 2013 (or 2018)
• Served: 330ml bottle poured into a BrewDog teku glass
• http://www.gooseisland.com/
• £8.11 from Micro Bar

Happy Valentines day. That’s the day I’m writing this. I expect I’ll post it around May then! Valentine’s Day means something different in Chicago, so this beer seemed the right one to go for today.

I’ve been aware of, but ignoring this beer for a while because of the price. I figured that it wasn’t going to get any cheaper so I might as well take the plunge.

Look: Thick, pitch black beer, right up to the edges. Very sparse yellow head.

Aroma: Bourbon, obviously. There’s lots of that without even putting your nose in the glass. There’s heavy malty molasses and some coconut.

Taste: Sweeter than I expected. The big stout flavours mask the bourbon in the taste. Finish starts out as chocolate before turning entirely liquorice with some back of the throat bourbon smokiness.

Expecting that it was going to be overpoweringly bourbon tasting, I poured a shot to drink alongside to see if it meant I could remove the bourbon notes. It’s Jim Beam cooking bourbon, but it should do the job.

The effect is strange. It makes the beer taste a lot more grainy. As the beer warms up, a lot more of the bourbon burn comes through.

Mouthfeel: Slight carbonation, enough to notice, but not really enough to change the taste. I’ve resealled the bottle so I’ll try it again tomorrow when it’s a whole lot flatter.

Overall: Massive beer. It’s good, but it’s really one for purists. I don’t think I could recommend this to either a conventional stout drinker or a bourbon fancier fully confident that they’d enjoy it. However, it is an interesting one. An experience I’d like to try again but maybe I’ll wait until the 2013 vintage.

This beer might have been the original barrel aged stout, but I think I’ve enjoyed the BrewDog Paradox whiskey barrel aged series of Imperial Russian Stouts more than Bourbon County. The sweetness to this beer is just a bit staggering, even in the smallest sip. Knock up the IBUs and I think this beer would work a lot better for me. 4/5

- 21st April 2013, Sustainable Alcoholic

• ABV: 4.4%, Style: Extra Special Bitter
• Brewed in Blackburn, UK
• Best before 22 November 2013
• Served: 500ml bottle poured into a Shorts imperial nonic
• http://www.thwaites.co.uk/

This is a beer that I’d written off previously as average but my friend insisted is a great beer. So I picked one up to see what it was like.

Apparently it is “A classic English ale, chestnut in colour with a lovely full-bodied flavour, enriched with a wonderful late hop character.” The name Lancaster Bomber refers to the large bombing planes used in WWII. No jingoism here.

Not sure that ESBs are really allowed to be under 5% but well, give Thwaites the benefit of the doubt.

Look: It looks like brown ale with clear, amber coloured beer. There is a slightly off white head of large bubbles that disappeared pretty quickly.

Aroma: Caramel with a hint of dark fruit. A little wet cardboard too.

Taste: Acidic and creamy initially followed by watery toffee malt. Shallow finish of bitter tea.

Mouthfeel: Fairly fizzy in a coke sort of way. Rather thin boddied.

Overall: Really rotten beer. Sorry WWII veterans, you deserve better than this. Thwaites definitely have some good beers in them but this simply isn’t one. Awful. 1/5

- 20th April 2013, Sustainable Alcoholic

• ABV: 3.9%, Style: Pale Ale
• Brewed in Huddersfield, UK
• Best before August 2013
• Served: 500ml bottle poured into an imperial pint
• http://www.drinkmallinsons.co.uk
• £2.25 from Carringtons, Didsbury

I saw this one and thought I’d not had it, I was right, so far I’ve had:

• Amarillo
• Brewers Gold
• Centennial
• Sorachi Ace

This one should be a bit more bitter than the others as Columbus has the highest alpha acids of all the ones I’ve tried so far.

Look: Pale yellow beer, with a good light head. There’s a bit of lacing on the glass, but not much.

Aroma: Very fresh, but slightly sharp, reminds me of the smell of tomato plants. Verdant, with pine and grass.

Taste: Piney with a hugely bitter grapefruit finish. Malts are very light.

Mouthfeel: Moderate coarbonation. The beer itself is alittle watery.

Overall: I like this but in honesty, it’s too bitter considering the lack of any sort of malt backbone. Unbalanced, but fun. 3/5

- 19th April 2013, Sustainable Alcoholic

• ABV: 7.4%, Style: IPA
• Brewed in Macclesfield
• Best before December 2013
• Served: 330ml bottle poured into a BrewDog Tulip
• http://redwillowbrewery.com/
• £3.59 from Carrington’s Didsbury.

Not totally sure how this is different from Ageless IPA. But I grabbed it anyway. The ingredients list wheat so I’d expect it to be a bit cloudier than the earlier number and possible smoother. We’ll see.

Look: Cloudy orange beer, plenty of life in the pour leading to about a three finger deep head of pillowy white foam.

Aroma: Fruity with a soft, powdery lemon aroma that’s really appealing. Smells like bonbons and beer.

Taste: Explodes in the mouth with loads of tropical fruity hops but then the taste suddenly stops. The finish has good general bitterness, but it is a sort of general flat bitterness, this means that despite being 7.4% it manages to feel a bit thin. There’s also something a little medicinal in there too.

Mouthfeel: Moderate carbonation, a little too dry.

Overall: Lots of nice things about the flavour, but all in all I don’t think it adds up. I like the hopiness in the initial taste, but the body and the finish just weren’t there for me. 3/5

- 18th April 2013, Sustainable Alcoholic

• ABV: 7.5%, Style: Doppelbock
• Brewed in Munich, DE
• Best before May 2013
• Served: 500ml bottle poured into a BrewDog tulip
• http://www.augustiner-braeu.de/

I mainly wanted to try this beer because I love the label. Not the best reason I know, but I suppose there’s more to it than that, I typically like Augustiner beers and it was the one I’d not got around to trying. The angry looking pope certainly helps though.

I got this bottle from National Winter Ales Festival bottle bar.

Look: Clear, chestnut brown beer. One finger of off white head on the pour but it fizzes away quickly.

Aroma: Dark fruit, spice, lager yeast and alcohol.

Taste: Starts quite fruity and then gets darker and bitter with lots of brown sugar and toffee. The coffee bitterness then gets overwhelmed by sugar. The overall effect is strangely tangy.

Mouthfeel: Light carbonation. Unsurprisingly, it’s incredibly dry and seems to sap all moisture from the tongue.

Overall: Not a beer I’m in a rush to try again, but certainly interesting. I’m definitely more a fan of the Helles and the Edelstoff but it was still good to try this as a curio. 3/5

- 17th April 2013, Sustainable Alcoholic

• ABV: 6.3%, Style: IPA
• Brewed in Comun Nuovo, IT
• Best before June 2013
• Served: 330ml bottle poured into a stemmed tulip glass
• http://www.birraelav.com

I can’t remember where I picked this up. I’m going to guess Micro Bar, but that’s by no means a given. So far I’ve failed to be too impressed with many of the Italian micro brewery beers that have been trickling over to the UK in the past year. Let us hope that this one is different.

Look: Hazy amber beer with a small white head that dimishes quickly.

Aroma: Smells rather like homebrew. There’s floral notes over the caramel malt, but the yeast also comes through heavily.

Taste: Tastes like an average IPA. Finish is bitter but in a harsh, unpleasant way that feels quite chalky.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with soft carbonation.

Overall: Sadly this beer just tastes like homebrew. I’d be impressed if someone handed it to me as homebrew. However, as a commercial product the stakes are a bit higher and I don’t really see much reason for this beer to be exported. Not recommended. 2/5

- 16th April 2013, Sustainable Alcoholic

• ABV: 7.5%, Style: Strong Euro lager
• Brewed in České Budějovice, CZ
• Best before 3 October 2013
• Served: 330ml bottle poured into a stemmed tulip glass
• http://www.budweiserbudvar.co.uk/

I didn’t know that original Czech Budweiser did a tramp juice, but here we are. Branded as Bud and weighing in at 7.5%, I’m not expecting too much. Although the bottle declares that this beer is “a true connoisseurs choice” so you never know.

Look: Thick, gold beer with an orange tint. Very clear, with a few bubbles rising. Head was bigger than I expected but quickly disappeared.

Aroma: Doesn’t quite smell of cleaning product. Certainly lots of alcohol, but there are fruity hops and some mellow malts coming through too.

Taste: Tastes fairly innoccuous when you first sip it, but as you swallow the sweetness and the malt come out. Finish is booze and honey, not particularly something I want from a beer. The malt comes through towards the end too, but it’s overpowered by the sweetness.

Mouthfeel: Light carbonation, very dry and claggy.

Overall: Like most stronger beers, Bud was far better cold. However, even so, it was not a particularly pleasant beer, I don’t think I’ll be returning to this one any time soon and would not recommend it unless these things amuse you. 2/5

- 15th April 2013, Sustainable Alcoholic

• ABV: 7.4%, Style: Old Ale
• Brewed in Blackburn, UK
• Best before 10 July 2013
• Served: 330ml bottle poured into a BrewDog tulip
• http://www.thwaites.co.uk/

I’d bought this as a curio from God knows where at the start of January. At the National Winter Ales Festival, a few people recommended I tried it on cask, but I thought there was little point when I already had one in my fridge and there were so many other beers available.

It’s taken until February, but I’ve finally decided to open it. The bottle says it ages “like fine wine.” I’m 4 months off the best before date, let’s see how we go!

Look: Rich, copper colour beer, off white head that’s about one finger deep. Despite being bottle conditioned, it’s extremely clear.

Aroma: Slight sharp sourness. Spice and alcohol.

Taste: Sourness is still just about present at the front, but mainly it’s  the fruitcake the lots of dark fruit and toffee that covers the tongue.

Mouthfeel: Really, really dry. I dread to think how much sugar is in this beer. Carbonation is mild, but fine considering how viscous the beer is.

Overall: I’m not sure if it’s meant to taste like that, the sourness adds to the Belgian feel it’s already trending towards with the ABV and the rich fruit flavours. As it is, I could definitely sink a few, but I don’t think I’ll be trying hard to find it again. 3/5

- 14th April 2013, Sustainable Alcoholic