Revisionist Craft Beer

It's been a beery week here at Vinspire so I thought it rude not to write about a collection of beer I picked up recently.

Whilst trawling through the shelves and shelves of beer at my local Tesco I noticed a beer that grabbed my attention: 'Revisionist California Steam Beer'. Now, I have had one steam beer before whilst out drinking with my friend Charlie at Indie Ales, and was extremely impressed. Sadly, however, it is not a style you seem to find too much in your local supermarket.

Imagine my delight when I noticed that lined up next to this steam beer were three others from the same group. Now I said to myself 'Matthew, its a school night. You can't just sink 4 bottles of beer, expect to write about them and then go into work the next day feeling 100%!'
Obviously I'm as boring as everyone thinks I am so ignored the little voice in my head, grabbed all four and here I am. ToATlly SObeerrr. *hic*

So anyway, Revisionist beer is a project put together by Marston's Brewery employing craft beer companies to design and create exciting, fresh, iconic, memorable beers not only for your local boozer, but also in bottles exclusively for Tesco. Lets see how they coped.

The Revisionist Lager 

Picture taken from Nathan Cantrell
under the CCA

Golden yellow in the glass with a thin white mousse. On the nose it is a real hop fest. Some underlying citrus fruit, a bit of marmalade but the predominant whiff is that of dry hops. On the palate it is lightly carbonated, dry but lacking a bit in the flavour department.
Carries on the running theme of admiral and boadicea hops but the citrus fruits are lost to it leading to a dry, hoppy almost hay/straw like finish. A fine lager but certainly one for the hop-heads which sadly I'm not. Perfectly fine for summer drinking in a field with its clean, crisp, biscuit character. 6/10

The Revisionist California Common Steam Beer
What is a steam beer?- A style made famous in America where yeasts are fermented at higher temperatures than normal to create an amber coloured, fruity style beer. 
In the glass you can instantly see the difference. Darker, more of copper brown than the lager. On the nose you're picking up beautifully sweet notes of caramel, sweet hops and barley. The palate is fuller with plenty of smooth froth with slightly sweet touches of passionfruit, bready yeast and cashew nut shells. Already a lot more than we were getting from the lager. Medium finish of slightly sweet almost baked fruits combining nicely with the dry hops and barley malts. A good session beer. 7.5/10

Picture taken from Nathan Cantrell 
under the CCA

The Revisionist Wheat Beer
Despite always being a fan of wheat beer it is never something I drink much of. However, I am going to Oktoberfest this year and so that will certainly sort that out!
Anyway....... Ich bin bertrunken und ich muss schriftlich halten. In the glass it the is typical, slightly hazy, pale golden colour we're used to with wheat beer. On the nose I am picking hints of banana peel, lemon and soft creamy oak.

The palate I have to admit is a bit weird. But kind of in a good way. We are getting sweet banana with plenty of sharp citrus fruits and an extremely dry almost spicy finish. It is also far more carbonated than I thought it would be, leaving a tingle on your tongue. Suprise of the night 8/10.

All in all I have been pretty impressed with the quality of the Revisionist range at Tesco. Its certainly not groundbreaking but for those looking for familiarise themselves with different styles of beer I would highly recommend them.