Thornbridge 'Wild Swan'

So there's me getting myself ready for winter; I have seductive visions of viscous imperial stouts and single malts that have the bonfire reek my clothes used to pick up from helping my grandad with fires in his back garden when I was little. Then what happens? Well, the small Waitrose in Nottingham starts to stock, and discount, Thornbridge Jaipur and White Swan - the latter being one I don't remember having tried previously. This served as a timely reminder that there are no rules; good beer can be enjoyed at any time of year, and, well, it had to be done really - so here's to the summer?

It pours very pale. It's described on the bottle as a 'white-gold pale ale' which I'm not about to argue with. The head was fluffy, light and long-lasting. On the nose it's all grassy hops. There's none of the tropical fruit you get in Jaipur or Punk. Using a wine analogy it's a lot more like a Sancerre to Jaipur's Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc; it has a mineral, flinty edge while retaining the clean citrus fruit from the hops. Once past the initial hop-hit the malt comes through with crystal clarity, it took me right back to getting my nose into a handful at the brewery in the summer.

This was a beer I expected I'd be indifferent about but it really does pack an immense amount of flavour into a low-ish alcohol beer. It's well worth picking up if you want something you can enjoy without getting your head into a fog that's perhaps more appropriate for a weekend!

3.5% abv. £2.09 for 50cl in Waitrose. It's also on a four for three deal at the moment.

Arran and Arran

Well if you're going to enjoy a whisky with a beer, is there an easier way to come up with a combination than picking a brewery and a distillery that are neighbours?

I've done a stand-alone tasting note for the Arran whisky over on my wines and spirits blog. The beer pours a deep mahogany colour but the head disappears really quickly. On the nose it's all about the luxurious malt, with hints of burnt toffee. On the palate it has impressive body for such a low abv (3.9%) which I think is helped by a  backbone of yeasty umami and hazelnut flavours which holds everything together. If there is a shortcoming (and it's entirely a matter of opinion if it is one) in the whisky it's that it's a bit underpowered in the malt delivery, and as part of a combination the beer probably highlighted that, but it's certainly a pleasant enough combination.

It strikes me from the two beers I've tried so far that Arran are a brewery that are stringent in their attention to detail. They may not be producing the sort of beers that are going to cause shock waves on ratings websites but they are really good, solid beers nonetheless.

£3.50 from The Whisky Shop*, and you're saving a red squirrel if you buy it!

* The usual disclaimer, I work at the Whisky Shop so I bought this at work.

Adnams 'Southwold Winter IPA'

I love winter; long evenings staying cosy in the house with a good film, a good beer and a good whisky. Ideally I'd go for an imperial stout with a whisky to match, but Adnams' idea of a Winter IPA sounds like a rather excellent concept too. When I worked in a London Oddbins next to a video shop we used to try and come up with wine and film combinations, asking people what film they'd rented and trying to recommend an ideal wine. I might branch out and try for a triple combination, the ultimate whisky and film accompaniment to a beer - I'm sure I can put the research in for this one.

Back to the beer. It poured cloudy, I'm not sure if that was my fault but I'm rarely particularly picky about clarity. I loved the brilliant orange colour though. There's a slight soapiness on the nose, but it was potentially a bit cold when I first poured it - a good film beer has to last the length of a film after all. There was plenty of rindy-orange flavours, like mixed peel, and a spicy, perfumed finish. All good, but for me a little understated. I'd love to try a more powerfully-hopped version!

There was a bit of a danger of expecting too much from this one, as my little self-indulgent opening paragraph suggests. It is, after all, a beer brewed for a supermarket chain so is it fair to expect something so different as I had in mind? Perhaps, but thinking more objectively this is a great beer for the money, and it might well lead to more adventurous offerings in the future. A beer like this with a more powerful spice kick like the Otley O-Garden would be fantastic. The whisky was a SMWS Glen Moray and the film was Se7en. Good for a starter but as the nights really draw in I'll be looking for my whisky to have more sherry, smoke or even chocolate orange flavours - like the Ben Nevis from the Glenkeir range - Christmas in a glass.*

6.7% abv. Expect to pay around £2 (50cl), sorry, lost the receipt. Marks & Spencer exclusive.

* A bit of a work plug but it's a delicious whisky!

Williams Brothers 'Prodigal Son'

Sainsbury's Great British Beer Hunt seemed to me to come and go with barely a whimper. I'm not sure if there were simply far too many exciting things happening for it to register, in the form of IndyMan and DeMolen, or whether it was a lack of quality entrants, lack of publicity or maybe I've just been too busy with other things to 'catch the vibe' so to speak.

It's something that I still think is worth supporting but it might not carry on that way. Tucking the new beers in a seasonal aisle along with Halloween hats and Christmas crackers seems crazy to me - OK the beers might not be part of the permanent range but they're neither are they naturally associated with a holiday. The stock also has to be there; there's no point in allowing an entrant if they don't have the beers to go where they're required and you end up with some of last year's beer coming back into the competition.

On the positive side, beers like the Prodigal Son from Williams and the Harviestoun Wild Hop Gold are bold, experimental, and really make the competition. Even aside from skunked clear bottles and re-entries, too many were, for me, indicative of a section of the beer market that is content to put 'traditional' on their labels and hope the beer sells, possibly as a 'genuine local' product - lots of soapiness and very little thought. Prodigal Son is nothing like this, it's the best I've had although I've not tried everything I got hold of - I've yet to try the winner so maybe there is time for redemption yet. Prodigal Son is a lovely, juicy, mouth-watering drop, the aroma reminded me of leafy blackcurrant and it's got a herbal, medicinal quality with a lovely ginger spiciness in the finish. There's character right across the nose, palate and finish; always a sign of quality.

Nottingham CAMRA's beer festival is on at Nottingham Castle this weekend. Due to having to commit myself to other things I'm not able to go, which is disappointing because it is a great all-round festival; but with over 1000 different beers there it seems that even for someone with an interest there is a lot of mediocre beer out there to get past before you get to the really stellar performers. My list out of the 500 or so breweries that I was really keen to sample something from only ran to a dozen or so that I'd not tried before. In an ideal world it would be great to try everything once , but with so much choice (and a limited supply of cash and 'constitution') you have to be picky, and not all 'real ales' are are created equal, any more than all beers are.

Prodigal Son is 4.1% abv and was in a 3 for £4 deal in Sainsbury's.

Otley 'O-Garden'

I'm not really a massive wheat beer fan. Schneider-weisse is an old favourite but too many I've had have had too little flavour to really capture my interest. However, I've wanted to try some of Otley's beers for ages, and so I picked this up when I saw it, the choice being this or the porter. Well, or isn't strictly true, as I'm sure most beer geeks can appreciate. I took both.

So a brewery I'd heard many great things about making a style of beer that usually leaves me pretty non-plussed - which would win out? This was a beer of two halves really, on first pouring it was clear, and the aromas gently came out, caressing the nose rather than delivering a full on assault. On the palate? Well, earlier on in the day I'd had a sample of a fifteen year old Ben Nevis whisky, which had a beautiful tangy yet sweet orange flavour. When I tried this, it was like the whisky had come back to haunt me. When I poured the second half of the beer the sediment came out more, and as it warmed those initially subtle aromas really came to the fore. The fruit provides enough character to keep the beer interesting, without it ending up like some sort of sickly fruit beer. The whole package is deliciously mouth-watering, and the touch of spice in the finish invites you back for more. It was a revelation, the best wheat beer I remember having tried. If this is what Otley can do with a beer style I'm not particularly a fan of, I'm definitely going to have to get hold of some more!

4.8% abv. £2.60 from wherever it was in Pembrokeshire I picked it up!