March 2008: from BA. Green 300ml bottle, brought back from Kenya last year so I could review it at my leasure. Still well within its best before date, I poured into a Corsendonk stemmed tulip shaped glass. Looks like a Dort, a deep darker, old gold colour. Not the bright, light normal lager hue. The white head does stay, but there isn’t a huge top to start with. Malt aroma, barley and some hops too. Fairly sweet caramel esters also. Even in the cold English winter this African beer has something worth having. Drinking it reminded me of the Safari and all the excitment there of, wonderful. Malty and clean tasting, plenty of flavour from the yeast and hops. The sweetness of the caramel smell doesn’t come into taste, but a little sweetnes is within the flavours. This is a good beer, obviously it tastes better in the warmth with the sun on your back, but its mouthfeel is just right. The malt flavour stays throughout and no metalic twang arrives like some malt lagers.

Another beer I brought back from my Kenyan adventure in August 2007. This brown, half litre bottle has a golden label with a picture of a white capped mountain, most likely Mount Kenya, but I am no expert on mountain spotting. Brewed 20 June 2007, must be drank before 20 Dec 2007, it was drunk on 03 Sept 2007. I poured the beer into my one remaining Corsendonk tulip glass, leaving a third of the beer to replenish the glass later. The body of the beer is a very pale, yellow straw colour, clear and clean looking. A white cap of foam sat on top, the head soon left to be replaced by a thin covering of wispy, twirly small bubbles. As with almost every lager beer I try, the aroma escapes me, so this one gets my normal 3.0 for smell. There was a very small hint of yeast, but not enough to get excited about. This could have been any of the sweeter lagers you have tried anywhere in the world. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing stood out either, just a bog standard Euro style lager. No real body or flavours to give it a hefty mouthfeel, a bit water maybe, but it wasn’t weak, nor did it have that tinny taste some lagers leave in the mouth. All in all, not a bad drink. I didn’t get to try one while out in Kenya, I just got it at a supermarket, so I could review it on my return to the UK.

I obtained this during a visit to Kenya, I drank a bottle while sitting at the pool in a hotel in Kisumu, on the banks of lake Victoria. Would it taste as good in the UK on a cold Saturday night? Brown 500ml bottle, exp date 27 Jan 08, drank Sept 07. Poured into two Veltins pilsner glasses. The liquid was very pale, straw yellow and crystal clear with a good carbonisation. The head was white and hung around for a while before becoming wispy. It looked the part, it looked like a pilsner. Lagers, Pilsners, even Dorts, have no great aroma to me, I just can’t find the smells others claim to be able to extract. This beer is no exception, I couldn’t find an aroma other than a bit of yeast and a vauge malt wiff. I tend to give an average 3.0 for smell,and this is what I am giving this beer. The ingrediants are as follows (according to the label); barely malt, sugar, corn starch, hops, CO2 and water. Well the ingrediants have come together and produced a crisp, light tasting pilsner that isn’t too bad. No extreme flavours or overwhelming taste, just a normal lagery/pilsner feel to it. Because it is so light, the aftertaste is very subdued too. This is an ideal drink for a hot climate, what a pity global warming hasn’t effected Great Britain yet, apart from giving us more rain.

BA 2007: When I told an ’old seadog mate’ that I had brought back a bottle of Allsopps with me from Kenya he got all excited. It was the beer his ships burser used to restock the gally with when they used to stop at Mombassa in the 70’s. This brown 500ml bottle was bought in Nairobi and came back with 5 other beers in my luggage. Best before July 2008, it was drank in Sept 2007. Poured into one of my Duvel glasses, with a little left in the bottle to refill as I drank. It looked good, crisp golden, yet darker than normal lager yellow and clear, the white head however dissappeared very quickly leaving very little to talk about. The aroma was of fresh bread and cheap malted biscuits, certainly different to your normal lagers which very often have no aroma at all to me. The taste was great for a lager, really roasty and malty, a sweet feel to it too. Brown bread toast in the mouthfeel, lingering to give a feeling of fullness in the overall taste. The 5.5% alcohol holds everything together well. Very impressed, one of the best lagers I have ever had.

Bottle: Poured a black color stout with a large brown foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of black chocolate with some lactose notes are quite interesting and different then the aroma of the regular version. Taste is also dominated by loads of black chocolate notes with some sweet undertones with lactose notes. Body is thinner then I would have expected with some good carbonation. Enjoyable in the sense that there is not much else to drink that is somewhat interesting in Kenya.