It's one of the stranger aspects of writing about booze: the use of adjectives in tasting notes, especially when describing smells. I've come across some oddities over the years: "old socks"?, "new asphalt"?, "fresh wee"?. And with wine, I think this can be helpful. There are so many grape varieties with such diverse smells and flavours that we need some kind of adjectival assistance, if only so we know what we're getting. "A hint of elderflower"?. "A touch of burnished leather"?. "Un-lit tobacco"?. These are smells and tastes we all understand, and they're far more easily understood than if one were to wibble on about the organic chemical reactions that created them.

You get this kind of writing with beer, too. Which is why I bring it up: I had the good fortune to meet the people from Ballard's Brewery last week, and to taste their bottle-conditioned beers.

Theirs is a terrific product ? so terrific that they're to be the first micro-brewery in Kay's Little Black Book. I tasted four brews: ?

Nyewood Gold, which was clean and delicious, with a lovely hoppy aroma, a delicious heather-y, buttery feel in the mouth and a soft honey finish. It tasted refreshing and alive.

Atlantic Brew (renamed for their sponsorship of one of the crews in this year's trans-Atlantic race), which was the colour of the amber in Jurassic Park, and which tasted soft and satisfying, with a summery note of fresh mown grass.

Wassail Strong Bitter, which was deep, smokey and smelt like first-press molasses. Oh, for the winter, and this to wash down some slow-stewed beef cheeks!

Ballards Best Bitter, which was perfectly balance between its malty fruit and hoppy bitterness.

The thing about all of them was balance. They're just beautifully judged, terrifically brewed beers. And while I could bang on in a tasting note kind of a way, what I really want to say is this: ?

When we taste a piece of beef, what we're really looking for is its sheer, fundamental beefiness. And that's what we have here: sheer, fundamental beeriness. In their different styles, each one offers an almost perfect evocation of ideal beer, of all that's good about brewing in the English style.

This is unpasturised, proper, living beer. And if you get the impression from all this that I really enjoyed it, well, it's a fair cop. I bloody loved them!

You can buy the beer here.

fh x