Eiken Artois

September 2008: from BA. Part of a six pack, this green 33cl bottle was given to me by my Son-in-Law to be. Poured into a Duvel glass, it was an amber colour with a good white head. Clear and bright, it looked like a Dort style lager beer. The normal nothing aroma of a lager passed me by. Oak aged my arse, this is a normal lager apart from the deeper colour. The taste you would expect from a mass produced product was evident from the first sip. Nothing bad or evil about it, just a so-so lager with labelling that doesn’t tell you a thing, but hints at something special. If I had drank this at a blind tasting I wouldn’t have detected any Oak, or ageing. I would have thought, ’this is a darker lager than normal’. Mouthfeel was watery and weak, it also began to feel metalic towards the end of the drink. Not a great drinking experience, but Artois products rarely are.

Draft @ De Hems, Soho W1. Pours a clear golden color with a small white head. Has a malty grainy aroma with some weak hints of oak. Fruity malty slightly oaky vanilla flavor. Has a sweetish fruity malty grainy finish with some hints of vanilla in the aftertaste.

[330ml bottle from Asda, High Wycombe] Given that I like the oak-aged taste, I had been wondering what this was like for a while. Then I heard a rumour it could be discontinued, so nipped out and got a 4-pack in for Christmas so that I could give it to others if I hated it. Pours an odd pale peachy-amber-brown, fizzy, with no head. The unpleasant botannical sourness of Stella Artois is in there, but mellowed considerbly making this a nicer drink. There is a little vanilla and wood hovering in the background, but mainly felt rather bland.

33cl bottle. Amber with a thin white head, rapidly disappearing to leave a flat liveless beer; some vanilla and oak on the aroma, but also sweet cereal; slightly malty flavour with a damp cardboard finish; drinkable, but nothing more.