Pete Drinks: Coniston Bluebird

Name: Coniston Bluebird

ABV: 3.6%

Bottled/ Draft: Draft

Price: £3.20 a pint at the Black Bull, Coniston

Colour: Pale gold

Head/ Bubbles: Creamy head

Mouthfeel: Properly 'beery' feel, not watery but not chewy.

Taste: Strong hop start, almost overwhelming but short lived.

Comment: With little in the way of malt, this is quite a classic light spring or summer ale. On it's own it's a little over hopped for my taste – I'm not sure I'd enjoy a session with such a hoppy beer - but as I was enjoying it with lunch (a delicious fish and chips in the Black Bull pub next to the brewery), the food balanced out the hops nicely and changed the nature of the beer significantly.

This beer has actually highlighted something to me, that I will endeavour to pay closer attention to - beer (like wine, whisky, and ultimately everything else we drink) is deeply affected by whether it's being enjoyed in isolation or with food. This is, I suppose, obvious when you think about it but I rarely do!

For those interested, the name Bluebird comes from Sir Malcolm Campbell's powerboat, in which he set the world water speed record on Coniston Water back in 1939.