Some people have favourite places they go to think, relax, study, or just contemplate their navel. This can often be a place of beauty far away from anyone else, such as the countryside, canal or river bank or a quiet beach to hear the soft lapping of waves on sand and pebbles. Apparently I finally found my favourite place in the entire world (I'm fairly well travelled, across Europe anyway). It's not a sandy beach or a lake in the middle of no where. In fact it's a ruddy great tank museum in Bovington. Here I got to see all manner of tanks and armoured vehicles spanning from the very first Little Willy (no, really) to the modern day Challenger II. Unfortunately I didn't spend enough time there, even though we visited twice in one week! So I'll have to drag Cinabar kicking and screaming back there again so I can wonder around and hug huge metal behemoths! Oh... Lovely tanks!
Anyway, on the way out from the second visit Cinabar treated me to this Landship ale, which had been brewed just up the road from there by the Dorset Brewing Company in Dorchester. It was brewed with pale and crystal barley malt, mount hood and challenger (yes, like the tanks that are dotted around the area) hops. The brewery has their own spring water and the ale is fermented with their own strain of yeast. 4.2% in volume and served in a 500ml bottle, this golden pale ale had a nutty almond smell on opening with a decent nod to the pale malt and yeast. This ale had a clean bitter nutty taste with a citrus kick in the bitterness from the hops. Unlike many strong pale ales, this ale had a subtleness to the flavour and didn't bash me around the tastebuds demanding I eat sausages and gravy! This had a real craft ale flavour befitting of my favourite place. A grand old ale from a relatively new brewer who knows what they're about. It had fortitude, strength of character like the huge Mark V tank it's named after. I'll definitely pick up another of these next time I visit.
By Spectre
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