I come from Bedfordshire, it’s a small county that a lot of people can’t place on a map. Most people don’t know what happen’s here. And most people don’t notice when they pass through it on the M1 or the A1. Nether the less I am proud to come from this fine county which gave the world Luton style vans, the first workable tractor, modern methods for the manufacture of straw hats, A Pilgrim’s Progress, Victoria Pendleton, Ronnie Barker and Carol Vorderman, to name but a few.
The problem with living here is that no one dives a damn. Those who have always lived here, like myself, are fed up with all our natural landscape being ripped up and turned into landfill for London, and those that have moved here do so because they can get the train into London easily, but don’t have the bothers of actually living in London. Slowly and surely all of the local traditions are dying out and people are forgetting the ways things were. There aren’t even the nutter’s setting up museums of local history.
A while age I decided to look into it all, local history and the like. I discovered that we had our own regional dish, and one chain of bakeries still makes a version of it. A few Google’s here and there and I think I got my own idea of how to make a Bedfordshire Clanger. Today I decided I was going to make one and had to go to the supermarket to get some bits and bobs. While I was in Tesco I noticed a bottle of beer which I had been meaning to try for ages and never got round to. It seemed like the perfect time to try a beer from a Bedfordshire brewery. Ladies and Gentlemen… Shambles Bitter from The Potton Brewery Co.
Pour and colour:
Light amber in colour. White head, short. quickly faded to nothing
Aroma:
Light, yeasty from the bottle. Poured, it reminded me of the chilli beer I had before new years, there was a bite and a sweetness, in the aroma which both chilli beers and Shambles have in common.
Taste:
Some green vegetable bitterness. Quite dry. Yeasty taste. Biscuit malt flavours.
Mouth feel:
Light, effervescent. Small bubbles but lots of them.
After-taste:
Citric and dry. A very drying alkaline feeling in the back of the throat sand tongue, think milk of magnesia without the milk?!
Final Verdict:
8 / 10
Light and refreshing with a good bite. I love this beer. I am going to be buying this a lot more. Why have I not tried this before now. Absolutely fab.
And my clanger?… Without a doubt the nicest thing I have ever made myself.
