Real Ale Blog

Post details: Kings Arms & Dogs Bollocks

26/11/09

07:12:31 am, Categories: beer festivals, pubs, ale, cask, from the wood, 260 words

POSTED BY: Paul Garrard

Kings Arms & Dogs Bollocks

The Kings Arms in Norwich, a pub that is soon to be my local of choice, is currently holding a beer festival, so I thought I’d pop my head in for a short while early yesterday evening. I didn’t have time for much but there were two beers that I just had to have. The first was Winter Spice from the Grain Brewery. The Grain Brewery brew pretty good beer, but it wasn’t that that enticed me. It was in an oak cask. Never, never, ever pass up the opportunity to have beer from the wood. I have only ever experienced wonderful tastes from ‘wooden beer’ and this one was no exception. A dark ale with lots of malt and a hint of Yuletide spices. Sadly at 5% this delicious beer was not one for quaffing in big gob fulls, so I stuck to a half. Also on the list that night was a beer of legend. An infamous brew that gets mentioned so often but which I’d never seen on sale in a pub or festival before. I’m not a great lover of naff beer names and in the world of naffness the Dog's Bollocks is the brand leader, but there was no way I was going to pass up the opportunity to try it. At least I could rubbish it once I’d tried it I thought. How wrong I was, and how wonderful a beer it is with its Fuggley ® hop taste and its fruity-malt body. It certainly is the Dog’s Bollocks!