Colonsay Brewery selection and Adnams Innovation

I was browsing for beer in the booze shop at the weekend and came across some colourfully labelled bottles from the Colonsay Brewery in the Hebrides. There were three different beers on offer, IPA, 80\- and a lager. Each with a pleasing blurb on the back.

“After a hard days brewing there is nothing better than to walk down to the pier with a couple of bottles of 80/- ale, throw a line over the side and catch something for supper. Aye right”

Now that sounded like my kind of beer. Unfortunately I’d probably replace the Colonsay 80/- with another beer. The lager was good, a massive improvement on the flavourless rubbish with a capital T that usually passes for Scottish lager but still had a long way to go. However the IPA didn’t really pack enough of a punch and likewise with the 80/-. They were decent but undistinguished.

They say they aim to bring a flavour of the unique beauty of their wild and rugged island, so perhaps my bottles were brewed on a rare mild day in the Hebrides.

Not all is lost! At the same shopping trip I picked up an interesting looking bottle. Adnams Innovation is a distinctive black bottle with a single gold lettered word “INNOVATION” on the front and raised dark lettering claiming the limited edition beer is a celebration of their ability to blend state of the art technology and craftmanship to create great beer.

Now a grand claim like that in such a grand looking package should really deliver the goods or STFU and thankfully it does. An IPA at 6.7% that bombards you with hoppy flavour but without the bitterness that hangs around afterwards with some other beers (Punk IPA I’m looking at you). It makes for a golden beer with a huge flavour that’s ridiculously easy to drink. Superb.