(View previous instalments here)

It will be no surprise to you that all of these beers come from this month’s AFBeerClub box.

Athletic Brewing Co – Run Wild IPA

This beer has a delightful deep honey colour, and a smell that is sweet and hoppy and very inviting. It’s a little cloudy, and has a decent head that persists nicely. The flavour is quite sharp and a bit grapefruity. It all feels very deliberate and intentional and executed with precision.

Athletic Brewing Co – Upside Dawn Golden

Another beer from the Athletic brewery, this has a rich deep orange colour, and again is slightly cloudy. The head is small but calm, there’s no furious fizzing occurring beneath it. The aroma has a hint of honey and a little hoppiness. I’m in two minds about the flavour, in that I find it a little dull and lacking in ooomph, which makes me feel uninclined to buy it again, buuuuut it’s such an easy drinking beer that when I consider some of the other beers that I’ve given top marks to, it feels like it would be terribly inconsistent of me to not put this among them.

Fungtn – Lions Mane IPA

This beer is quite lively, with a somewhat vigorous head. It’s got a robust smell with a really compelling earth maltiness. The flavour is bold too, uncompromising and tangy, in a considered and rounded way. This is a very aley kind of ale, and is a marketplace where so many alcohol-free beers seem to be leaning towards the “hops hops hops” approach, is a refreshing change.

Lowtide – Brune DMC

As you can tell from the photo, this beer emerged from the can brimming with vigour, and nearly made a bit of a mess. This beer smells and tastes as dark as it looks, with a little nuttiness in both the aroma and flavour. There is a slight tartness here that feels a bit out of place, but on the whole this is, like the Lion’s Mane, a really great alcohol free beer for those who fancy something a bit darker. And, like that, we have our first clean sweep in this series so far.

I’m spoiled, I really am.