Wednesday 2nd July 2025

Wednesday 2^nd July

SHE SAID:

We waved goodbye to Dorte & Gary around 10am, heading about 420km east to the Jacup FC, just east of Jerramungup. We took our time with a stop at Farrar NR, near Kojonup, for lunch, a leg stretch & ashort orchid wander. I was happy to find Scented Leeks & Cupped Banded Greenhoods, 1 of which was green instead of the usual dark brown/red colouring!

It was 4.45pm by the time we hit JACUP, really too dark to look for orchids, although I tried. I found lots of budding Rufous & some Spider leaves. I will look again in the morning before we leave.

The diesel heating went on soon after 6pm, it was getting chilly.

Mist rising

Colour in the bush

HE SAID:

With no hurry to leave we rolled out just before 10am. Varena whipped up some tasty sandwiches in the van when we stopped for an orchid wander, and we ate as we searched. Our arrival at Jacup was later than we had both expected, even without any dramas; it was just a long way.

And now for something completely different, again. Here is my addendum to my 2015 UK Beer Story! Hooray!

Addendum to UK Beer Story – 2025 edition -

Still Dribbling

With six weeks in the UK this time around (May and June 2025) I was inspired to add to my 2015 Beer Story by the new beers I saw, and imbibed, during our 2025 stay. Our roaming took us from the far south-east of England (Margate, Canterbury, Worthing, Bournemouth) to North Wales (Denbigh, Mold, Ruthin). We didn’t stop much between the two areas, except for Horsham and London, but I managed to sample a few new brews and wanted to record the fact. I deliberately aimed for local brews, and therefore the samples are mainly ales.

We don’t get English ales in Australia, so I thought I should get varieties that aren’t available at my local Australian bottle-shop. But in general, as you’d expect, most beers I found to be around the middle range of my very amateur scoring system.

One absolutely outstanding beverage, and not an ale, was the Aegir Smoked Black Porter, from Langham’s Brewery. It was a real delight. There were a few other good ones, too.

This research was not a real chore for me, and there is a very good chance that there will be another addendum to my UK Beer Story at some future stage. I hope so.

There are an additional 15 new beers this time around, and yes, I could have done better, but added to my 147 from 2015 I now have reviews of 162 different UK beers.

Don’t thank me. I am happy to help!

1. Hobgoblin Original IPA – 5% - Tasty, dark golden, bubbly IPA. Not overdone on the flowery notes. 7.5/10

2. JW Lees Best Bitter – 3.9% - A nice lightly honeyed ale. 7/10.

3. JW Lees Stout – 4.1% - A nice dark stout. Everything I expected from a stout. 7.5/10.

4. Long Man Best Bitter – 4% - Smooth, light honey notes. 7.5/10

5. Harvey’s Sussex Best Bitter – 4% - Nice, tasty, smooth with light honey taste. 7.5/10

6. Langham Aegir Smoked Baltic Porter – 7.5% – Very tasty. Deep roasted, almost coffee/almost chocolate / almost toffee, with additional smokey flavours. Low fizz. Great mouthfeel. 9/10

7. Conqueror Sussex Stout – 4.5% - Rich dark roastiness flavours, slightly sharp. A little watery. Very dark to black with mocca head. Tasty. 7.5/10

8. Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen – 5.1% - Very smoky dark brown lager. Tasty rich maltiness, but overpowered by the smoke. 7/10

9. Brewdog Lost Lager – 4.5% - A tasty, almost floral, easy drinking light coloured lager. Probably not for drinking a few of, just one or two. 7.5/10

10. Brewdog Shore Leave Amber Ale – 4.3% - A slightly paler than usual brown ale. A bit insipid, watery, with just light flavours that didn’t linger. 5.5/10

11. Brewdog Black Heart Stout – 4.1% - A solid, dark-looking stout that just missed the mark. Flavours were there, but not much of them. No real mouth-feel. 6.5/10

12. The Kernal Export India Porter – 5.4% – Quite dark with a coffee coloured head. Strong, sharp hopsy flavour, similar to a strong IPA, with hints of the usual porter notes, but not much. No mouthfeel. 6.5/10

13. Butcombe Original beer – 4.5% - Slightly darker ale with a creamy head. A touch more bubbly than most ales, but in a pleasant way. Usual ale notes minus the “honey-ish” flavour. Quite nice 7.5/10

14. Surrey Hills Brewery Shere Drop – 4.2% - A fairly standard English ale. As the day was warm I thing it could have been served a bit cooler, but cellar temperature is what it is. Mild notes, lightly honeyed, but nothing much either way. 6.5/10

15. Butcombe Underfall Triple Filtered Lager – 4.1% - Light amber with light bubbling and also light honey notes. Perhaps closer to an ale than a lager. Quite good. 7/10