The TANNER'S JACK Fine Ale

[thejam]

Greetings,

I continue on my quest to taste as many delicious English Ales as I can find this summer. Tonight I have been enjoying a few bottles, conditioned I believe, of The TANNER'S JACK Fine Ale. Brewed and bottled by the wonderful chaps at Moreland Brewing in Suffolk England.

A delicious ale! Very flavorful and beautiful in color. One that I will be purchasing again and again.

Checked off my list and in order of favorites:

Fuller's 1854
Fuller's 2000 Vintage Ale (bottle packaged in the box)
Olde Suffolk (is this considered Strong Suffolk?)
Old Speckled Hen
Hen's Tooth
Tanner's Jack

Next week it's to the cans I go to sample Abbott Ale. (I have not been able to find it in a bottle here in Minnesota.)

Cheers to all! And please add your suggestions of your favorite English Ales that you think I should try.

David

[Richard English]

It's good to know that English ales are getting such an appreciative following after so many years of US comments about "warm, flat beers"!

Just a couple of points:

Morland (sic) come from Abingdon in Oxfordshire, not Suffolk. Morlands, although still brewing independently, are now owned by Greene King. Of their bottled beers, only Hen's tooth is bottle-conditioned.

Greene King, along with Adnams are probably the best-known Suffolk breweries and both produce Strong Suffolk brands although none are bottle-conditioned.

Both Fuller's 1845 and Vintage are bottle-conditioned and excellent.

I have yet to taste a canned beer that is aything better than acceptable and I suspect this will be the case with canned Abbott. Abbott is available here on draught and is excellent; it is less good in bottle.

To check the quality of bottled beers, try the Oxford Bottled Beer site - http://www.bottledbeer.co.uk/ The links to the breweries will help you find out whether they distribute in the USA.

Certainly Youngs and Hog's Back both do and both produce fine BCAs.

[MikeMcG]

Morland's Brewery in Abingdon, Oxon, was closed down a few years ago by Greene King all production of OldSpeckledHen, some of the other Morland brands & Ruddles beers were transferred to GK, BuryStEdmunds (1999?).

Strong Suffolk is GK's bizarre 6%abv blend of oak-aged, slightly sour, very strong beer (5X, c.12%abv) & a weaker, fresh brew (BPA c.5%abv) - neither beer is sold separately - it's great stuff & (yes David) is sold in the US as "Olde Suffolk".

Suffolk Strong is Adnams good, (but at 4.5% not strong) bottled/canned beer, recently rebranded as "SSB".

a good place to find out about UK brews available in US is www.bunitedint.com/ - they have recently bought the former Eldridge Pope brands (incl Thomas Hardy Ale) & has decided to get O'Hanlon's of Devon to brew the beers, plus will import some of O'Hanlon's own beers to the US, and already take cask & bottled beers from a great selection of UK cratbrewers.

the best place to ask where to find some good UK brews locally to you would be over on the <rec.food.drink.beer> newsgroup

cheers
Mike McG

[Richard English]

I knew they'd been taken over but thought they were still brewing at Abingdon. They were in early 2000.

Sadly, it is usually only a matter of time before the brewery that's been taken over is closed so your news does not suprise me at all.