Untapped Ale

I don’t know about you, but here at Blotto HQ Friday can’t come soon enough!

Thanks to our ‘no sparkling wine January’ New Years resolution, we stumbled across Untapped ales – a fizz alternative – granted a little less ladylike (although, I have heard from male friends that a girl who drinks a pint is sexy – is this right fellas?).

The Untapped brewers, Martyn and Owen, started in 2009 with two beers – Sundown and Eclipse – but have since multiplied to six super bottles.

The Monmouth based brewers have a simple philosophy: “Produce a range of top notch, hand made, home grown beers that refresh the wits and feed the soul.” 

The flavour

We picked up three bottles from Spirited Wines of Cardiff, for tasting purposes only – obviously, these were: U.P.A, Crystal and their simply superb stout Triple ‘S’.

Spirited Wines of Cardiff is situated on St Mary Street

What Untapped say:

U.P.A – “Designed to be an Indian Pale Ale style, the light straw colour of this beer belies its full and citrus fruit driven flavours. Distinctly hoppy, with wonderful aromas from Styrian Goldings hops, the finish is perfectly balanced and satisfying. A huge hit with Untapped fans!”

U.P.A has a beautiful light straw colour

Crystal – “An Untapped take on a classic beer. Traditionally strong, our wheat beer is triple filtered before bottling for a clean finish. Full to bursting with all the distinct flavours of this style, with a delicate hop texture and rich mouthfeel. To be enjoyed with or without yeast as you prefer! Best drunk super-chilled…!”

A delicious wheat beer

Triple ‘S’ – “A powerful mix of multiple malts give this stout its intense black colour and heady aromas. Amazingly rich, upfront flavours give way to a mellow yet luscious finish, with bags of long lasting hop character. A beautiful beer to refresh your soul at the end of the day.”

A real hit for stout lovers

What Blotto says:

As an ale ‘virgin’ – believe it or not –  I found these all remarkably palatable.

U.P.A – A typical British ale, it is light flavour which is remarkable as it is 4.5%abv, it has flavours of hop with a fresh, authentic real ale taste.

Crystal – The ‘Wicked Wheat Beer’ was my personal favourite, perhaps appeals to a female palate thats accustomed to mainly drinking fizz! It was also deceptively light for 6.0%abv.

Triple ‘S‘ – This ‘Simply Superb Stout’ doesn’t have the extra dry, bitterness of original Guinness stout but it has a toasted, mellow depth, which is interesting and delicious.

We strongly recommend that you try these ales but make sure you don’t leave them lying around for someone to get their paws on…

Otto – the pint sized pup!