Welcome to the twenty-first century Sams

That most traditional of all the UK breweries, Samuel Smith's have finally joined the Internet age and invested in a website. Don't expect anything too spectacular though, this is Sam's we are talking about. For locations about their pubs - they run around 305 of them there is a website featuring a map here.

It does come as surprise the number of pubs they actually run in London and a lot of them are classics such as Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese and the Princess Louise.

 

For unofficial news of Sam's there is a website here.

As well as the Tadcaster Brewery, Sam Smith's also own the All Saints Brewery, Melbourn Brothers in Stamford, Lincolnshire and this has quite a good website.

Murenger House - 1970s

Here is a photograph of my local pub, Ye Olde Murenger House, taken in the 1970s. Now I have previously written about the Murenger in one of the first posts I ever did back in November 2007. In the 1970s the Murenger House was in a perilous state, having to be propped up with scaffolding to prevent it from collapsing as in the photograph above. Buses were diverted from High Street to prevent vibrations from damaging the Tudor builing any further and it the future did not look good for the building. Luckily Sam Smith's Brewery of Tadcaster, Yorkshire stepped in to repair and save the building. Today the Murenger House is a thriving pub with good beer (its in the Good Beer Guide) and good conversation. Well done Sam's!

Organic Cherry Beer

Okay the last Sams beer of the night. After the tastebuds being overwhelmed with the stouts earlier have decided that something different can only bring them back. Step forward Sam Smith's Organic Cherry Beer at 5.1% ABV and available in a 330 ml bottle. Brewed at Sam's other brewery, the Melbourne Brothers brewery in Stamford, Lincolnshire and blended and bottled at the Old Brewery in Tadcaster, this is an interesting addition to the range. A cherry red colour of this organic beer leads to an intense aroma of, well cherries, think Black Forest Gateux in a glass. The taste is again of cherries with a swoop of flavour over the tongue. This is not a sweet beer though, the bitterness of the cherries comes through very well. A beer to cook deserts with I think or even as a marinade, for venison I think. Right off to poach a deer.

Oatmeal Stout

Well it is the season for dark beers and where better to have a few than the Murenger in Newport. On the Sam Smiths Oatmeal Stout now, there are not many pubs or even breweries that carry 2 different stouts in their range. Sams even have a third, the Extra Stout on draught, but keg only. Back to the beer, again Oatmeal Stout is in a 550ml bottle and is an intense black beer with a slight reddish hue, the aroma is of roast coffee and dark chocolate. The initial taste is a sweet bitterness, followed by the intense aftertaste of bitter roasts that form the astringent lasting flavour that lingers. Not as strong in flavour as the Taddy Porter but a good flavoursome stout that is worth trying.

Taddy Porter

Sam Smith's Brewery is very traditional or set in its ways as some might say. This is even shown in the size of their bottled beers which are 550ml instead of the more common 500ml. Its a bit of a suprise when you are used to pouring a 500ml bottle into a pint glass and suddenly realise this bottle is not going to fit! Anyway the Taddy Porter is 5% and is an intensely black beer with an aroma of roast malts and fruits, am detecting caramelised apple in the aroma. The taste is a bittersweet flavour at first before the tongue is swept by a tsumami of roasted and charcoaled taste sensations. As the beer warms up, it came straight from the fridge, the full complexity of Taddy Porter is revealed. Lots of flavour and lots of taste, packed into a beer from the oldest brewery in Yorkshire.

Old Brewery Bitter

Not a Welsh beer, but brewed at Sam Smith's in Yorkshire and available in Ye Olde Murenger House in Newport for the bargin price of £1.90 a pint. This brown coloured ale is drawn from oak casks - Sams are the last brewery to do this on any scale. Wadworths still employ a cooper but you hardly ever see their wooden casks apart from in a few of their pubs. I think the wood does impart some flavour to the beer, tannins are noticable in the aftertaste of the OBB and the harsh, bitter flavour of the beer is not to everyones taste but I like it. Its a shame the brewery no longer produces the stronger Museum any more but that's what you get with this brewery which does not even have a website. Back to the beer. Live blogged from the Murenger on the Sony Ericsson k550i