(Cask at Market Porter, Borough, London, 26 Nov) Amber colour with small head. Fruity nose with notes of orange, apricots, hops and a balanced malty background. Fruity taste with mandarin, orange and apricots. A bit sweetish, but with a fairly nice bitterness in the finish. Easy drinking, but not really exciting.

Cask (handpump), Market Porter, Southwark. Carnivals in Somerset are a big thing - unbelievably some of the biggest in the world. In Bridgwater, for instance, there are often crowds of up to 150,000 - over four times the population of the town itself. So I guess this beer, from a small village in Somerset, is brewed to celebrate that time of year. Whether its produced annually, or is a special for this year only I don’t know as Berrow beers are pretty tough to find and rarely travel far from home. This is an amber coloured beer with a bit more alcohol than an average bitter, although it could not really be described as one of those darker, maltier strong bitters, nor is it a golden ale. There’s a fair amount of tropical fruit in here, and its a quite soft and easy drinking beer, although not short of flavour. It is, however, rather sweet and if its going down that route it could do with a touch more hoppy bitterness to provide balance. Without that I found it rather underwhelming.