We love a good beer, especially when it’s brewed in Yorkshire. And Theakston is a well-known and well-regarded Yorkshire brewery (and for good reason).
We’ve tried Old Peculiar a few times and it’s a good, solid-scoring beer. So we decided to try a couple more beers from the Theakston collection.
We started with the blonde. Blonde beers have been a bit hit-and-miss for us, but this one was fantastic – one of our highest-scoring blondes. With such a strong start, we were worried the rest might not be quite as good, but we needn’t have worried. The Pale and the Peculiar IPA were both excellent, as was the XB. We finished with the Old Peculiar which rounded off the night nicely.
A lovely selection of beers – doing Yorkshire proud.
Brewer’s website: Theakston Brewery | T&R Theakston Ltd
The beers
Lightfoot: Blonde Ale 4.1%
This was an excellent blonde – one of our highest-scoring blondes. It had some of the flavours you’d get from a Belgian blonde, but not as domineering. There were also notes of honey.
Brewer’s note:
A hop-forward, zesty, floral blonde beer brewed with Munich Malt and bursting with citrus flavour from an abundant use of German Perle and Mittlefruh hops creating a delicious thirst-quenching, continental-blonde style beer.
Lightfoot is named after a brewery in Masham which Theakstons took over in 1919. The Lightfoot and Theakston families were very close and indeed linked through marriage and therefore it was a natural amalgamation of two well-established businesses. For many years it was rumoured that Theakstons took over Lightfoot because they had a better cricket team something that was deemed unacceptable to the brewers in Red Lane! Lightfoot has always been a popular seasonal ale in fact so much so that in 2010 it became a permanent addition to our range and is now available all year round. Lightfoot is a refreshing golden pale ale, brewed using prime English Barley and wheat, continental hops, our famous Masham yeast and water from the beautiful Yorkshire Dales. Its light, fruity flavour makes it an ideal accompaniment to light curries, fish and salads and for a hot summer’s day perfect just on its own.
Theakston Pale: 4.5%
This one was another great beer with biscuity, malty, caramel flavours.
Brewer’s note:
A potent mix of Summit, El Dorado, Chinook and Cascade hops delivers a hefty zing of spicy citrus, sweet orange and grapefruit. Generous helpings of Munich malt give balance and a pale gold coloured appearance, all to create the ultimate thirst quencher!
Peculiar IPA: 5.1%
Yet again, another lovely beer with golden syrup-like flavours. Delicious.
Brewer’s note:
Peculier IPA is our new bottled beer brewed using 100% finest British ingredients. Boasting a ‘Peculier’ blend of three UK grown hops – Harlequin, Jester and Olicana, mixed with the magic of the Theakston brewing team to deliver a fruit-packed flavour with a dry bitter undertone. An instant classic, worthy of the ‘Peculier’ name.
XB: Bitter 4.5%
A lovely bitter with a moreish biscuitiness.
Brewer’s note:
A premium strength, ruby coloured premium bitter with a delicate Calvados aroma, and a subtle rhubarb and apple fruit flavour.
XB is a rare delight, a real ale connoisseur’s masterpiece. A strong full-bodied ale with a subtle but superb blend of two types of bitter and three fruit hop varieties giving a most thirst quenching and satisfying ale. XB was first brewed in 1982 to celebrate the purchase of the Carlisle Brewery by Theakstons a few years before. Brewed always and ever in Masham, XB was designed as a tribute to the classic ‘border’ style of beer, strong in gravity, low but complex hop. It was an instant sucess and has remained so, winning over real ale devotees all over the UK. Always in the shadow of its more famous stable–mate, Old Peculier, XB has quietly established itself as favourite among serious cask ale enthusiasts. Its name came not from some clever marketing expert but rather based on the more prosaic features of the Masham brewery. In the days when the only way to distinguish the contents from one cask to the next was by use of one of only two wooden stamps dipped in white wash and applied to each cask, the only letters available were either an X or a B. We could have called in BX but we preferred XB!
Old Peculiar: Old Ale 5.6%
Finishing the night with a beer we knew would not disappoint. Lovely treacle flavours.
Brewer’s note:
Theakston Old Peculier is a beautiful, yet very simple beer, brewed using a generous blend of finest pale, crystal and roasted barley with two bitter hops combined with the majestic and noble Fuggle hop to produce a beer of awesome full-bodied flavour. Deep, dark ruby coloured with a rich fruity flavour and hints of black cherry and banana.
Old Peculier is possibly one of the country’s most well-known and loved ales. This unique, beautiful brew is often imitated but never matched and is sold literally all over the world. With countless awards to its credit, it is something of which every Briton can be very proud and is the epitome of the greatest of British brewing tradition. In the early years of the modern brewing era, about two hundred years ago, many brewers produced a dark, strong ‘stock’ beer in the winter months, to provide a base amount of fermented beer to add to beers brewed in the rather more volatile months of the summer.
Old Peculier probably owes its origins to this. The name pays tribute to the unique ecclesiastical status of Masham as a ‘Court of the Peculier’ and is also reference to the strong characteristic of the beer! For many years it was affectionately referred to as Yorkshire’s ‘Lunatic’s Broth’.
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