Westerham - National Trust Viceroy IPA

For the low low price of around £3 for a pint bottle you will be hard pressed to find a better IPA for your money. I'm wading into this review quickly with the big claims but that's only because they are so utterly true. This can't be bought in supermarkets but I happened across it in a garden centre almost half a year after it was suggested to me by the people at The Bottle Shop and it was with a little skip of glee that I snaffled it up and greedily slunk away back to my cave to devour it, bottle and all. Why do I covet this beer more than most? Well, it's partly that I like the novelty of drinking something made by the national trust, but mostly it's because everything from the opening aroma of peaches, hops and wet garden to the bitter after taste are so exquisitely measured that you can't help but drink it, sigh with pleasure, look around you to check if anyone saw you do that and then repeat.

The whole bottle, especially the contents, is charming. It's the kind of beer that holds your hand through the whole experience, it's not here to scream in your face and call you a bitch like Brewdog or Evil Twin, it's mellow and it's there to sooth your every ache and pain with delicious hops, a creamy head and a cloudy body that is light enough to justify throwing down yourself like a madman but has enough flavour and nuance to make doing so a social faux-pas.

Westerham have done a fantastic job with this and I am proud that they come from my neck of the woods. A delicious beer from the garden of England that helps protect the historical gardens of England... Castles too.

Food Suggestion: Go to a curry place, one of those ones where you can bring your own beer. If there isn't one where you live then just sneak this in. Order a Chicken Kashmir and that sweet naan bread with the coconut in the middle. This beer is deliciously bitter sweet and I think it would fit well with a hot, meaty, pudding of a curry.

Drink this if you like: This is a step up from regular supermarket IPAs and is similar in taste and style to Green Daemon by Hopdaemon. I imagine you'll also rather like this if you're a fan of Jaipur by Thornbridge.