Northern Monk Ronseal Medium Oak best bitter

I have to say it was pure genius for Leeds brewer Northern Monk to come up with this collaboration* with Ronseal which of course carries the catchy slogan ‘does exactly what it says on the tin’.

The two beers have Ronseal-style branding, and have been colour matched with Ronseal Fence Life colours - ‘Medium Oak’ is a 4.5% Best Bitter and actually does do the job perfectly - it’s a good rich malty bitter of the type of which you feel John Major would approve though being in a can it definitely benefits from being chilled

There’s also a Saison which Saison lovers might not feel reflects the style quite so accurately but who could resist the pun "does exactly what it saison the tin". Not me for one. It’s more like a deliciously citrussy pale ale.

What would I pair them with? The Medium Oak with a good pork pie or a ploughman’s, the Saison with fish & chips (fried in beef dripping obvs)

You can buy them from the Northern Monk website at £4.00 for the Best Bitter and £4.60 for the Saison –- both in 440ml cans

*I presume this was the inspiration of Northern Monk’s ‘Creative Lead’ Thom Archer, which sounds a bit of a dream job. Nice work, Thom.

I was sent the beers as a press sample.

Clear Head Alcohol-free IPA

Alcohol-free beer is booming and not only among teetotallers. Many of us who take a break from drinking during the week or when driving appreciate them too.

This 0.5% IPA style beer from Bristol Beer Factory has another benefit though in that it also raises money for a charity called Talk Club, a ‘male mental fitness movement’ which creates a save and supportive environment for men to talk about mental health issues. 5% of Clear Head profits go directly to Talk Club so it’s the perfect beer to be drinking during Mental Health Awareness week.

Clear Head is a classic modern IPA, combining fresh, citrussy citra and mosaic hops, which you'd be hard pushed to tell from a full-strength beer. I’d be happy to drink it with almost anything from fish and chips to a mild(ish) veggie curry.

It’s very much part of the current trend for ‘brands with purpose’ which I wrote about in my Guardian column this week. As they put it ‘this is a beer for good’.

You can buy it direct from the Bristol Beer Factory website for £22 for 12 bottles and from specialist NoLo (no and low alcohol) retailers.

See also 5 great pairings for an IPA

Yonder Raspberry Gose

Anyone who doubts the value of being on Twitter - as I do myself from time to time - should factor in the bonus of having access to insider knowledge.

I freely admit I wouldn’t have known about Yonder were it not for an enthusiastic tweet from beer writer Melissa Cole and given it turned out to be a Somerset brewery and it was a gose she was talking about, I had to try it.

Goses are basically sour wheat beers flavoured with salt and sometimes with fruit - in this instance raspberry. They’re therefore quite sharp though in this case offset by a deliciously fresh raspberry fruitiness. The baby pink colour is a bit deceptive - this is a very dry drink.

What intrigues me in the crossover between this style of beer and natural wine. If you like a pet nat you will almost certainly like this beer. At just 4% ABV I'm hard pushed to think of a better thing to drink on the hot sunny afternoons we’re having at the moment.

I’d love it with a salad of fresh curd cheese, asparagus and broad beans too.

You can normally buy it direct from the brewery for £5 a 440ml can though it’s currently sold out or by the 5 litre mini keg for £27.50 Delivery is £6.50 or free for orders over £50 (or over £20 if you live in BS or BA Bristol postcodes).

Other stockists also seem to be sold out of the cans which goes to show it's not just Melissa and I who are taken with it. At the time of writing Beercraft of Bath has it for £6.25

Little Pomona Old Man & The Bee: an exciting new cider

With the rise and rise of craft beer quality cider has been somewhat eclipsed of late but this beautifully made - and packaged - cider deserves a place on everyone’s dinner table.

It’s made by James and Susanna Forbes of Little Pomona, a new orchard and cidery in Thornbury in Herefordshire and named after the farmer who planted their orchard, Mark Murray (and the bees that pollinate the trees)

James and Susanna (a drinks writer who has been an occasional contributor to this site) produce their ciders in very small quantities (there are just over 1250 bottles of this - probably less by now). It’s a blend of Dabinett, Ellis Bitter, Harry Masters Jersey and Foxwhelp (part of which was barrel aged) from the 2015 harvest and is fermented with wild yeasts.

It has an incredibly deep rich apple flavour and costs around £5 for 50cl which is expensive for cider but cheap for a comparable wine. It’s not ‘cidery’ in the conventional taste - more like a strong, vinous apple drink, made to go with food. (Roast pork immediately comes to mind).

The Forbes take fantastic care over its production. To quote from their website:

"We hand pick and hand select each apple. We age our fruit in small crates until the balance of acid, sugars, tannins and fruit is just right before milling and then pressing. We ferment with natural yeast, and wait until the cider says it’s ready before release. That’s it. No water or sugar additions. No pasteurisation, filtration or artificial carbonation."

You can taste it at Birch in Bristol which has a spectacular cider list and buy it from specialist beer and cider retailers such as Hop Burns & Black and some wine merchants such as Borough Wines in London (see a full list of stockists on the Little Pomona website)

It's simply one of the most distinctive and exciting ciders I’ve tasted.