15 January 2009

In my room, bashing the badger. Again

I don't remember a winter with so much sickness around. Everyone seems to have caught something nasty at some point or other. Naturally, my turn arrived at the weekend and only last night did I feel up to my first beer since returning from Brussels. So I went to the stash to look for something that wouldn't be too harsh on my recovering system. Blandford Fly is made with ginger. Hell, that's practically medicinal.

The ginger aromas make themselves felt as soon as the cap comes off, while the pour produces a limpid golden marmalade ale with little by way of head. The surface aroma is fresh and spicy, redolent of real ginger and just the way I like it. On tasting, yes, the superdry ginger goes right where it should: up to the roof of the mouth where it burns in a most pleasurable way. And at that point, the beer falls apart.

The prickly gassiness doesn't sit at all well with the already sharp foretaste -- it becomes a little uncomfortable to drink. Maybe it's the combination, but I'd swear that this is quite a bit gassier than your average English bottled ale. Then, as I've started to expect from Badger, comes the big cloying artificial fruit flavour -- candied oranges and fake apricots. Apparently they've added maple syrup to it for some reason. Maybe to balance the dry with some sweetness? It didn't work. It just ends up too thick, too sweet and hard work to drink. Still, that means it has to be good for me, right?

Involuntary detox over.

8 comments:

  1. Your first few posts put me off trying to find these ales, but this one makes me want to track it down out of morbid curiosity.

    I drink a lot of beer out of this curiosity.

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  2. It's often been a motivator for me too and I've sometimes been pleasantly surprised by what I've found.

    This is a very strange beer and worth trying for the novelty.

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  3. Anonymous6:34 pm

    I definetly agree with your comments about it being fairly gassy and rather sweet. Having said that I quite enjoy it, although I have always appreciated it more during the warmer months of the year. But then again I've never had a problem with Benylin either.

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  4. Again with that artifical fruit flavours. I don't get it. yet still they remain popular.

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  5. Anonymous1:34 pm

    I must be a rare beast, a beer blogger that like Badger Ale. I'd prefer cask but I'm happy to drink their bottled beer.

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  6. Anonymous5:30 pm

    Thom - Blandford Fly is filthy muck and should be avoided at all costs.

    This post has to have the funniest title I've seen all year.

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  7. Anonymous1:18 pm

    I grew up with Badger Beer, it being the local brew, but this stuff is just nasty. If I wanted to drink ginger beer, I'd have chosen the real article. Stick with Tanglefoot, etc. - its what they do well.

    BTW - Great site.

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  8. Thanks Mike. I wasn't a fan of Tanglefoot. Golden Champion has been my favorite Badger so far.

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