By Jeff Evans, chair of the International Beer Challenge

Hall & Woodhouse Badger Iron Hart, 5.2%

Hall & Woodhouse believes the stronger end of the premium bottled ale market is an area likely to see continued growth and has launched this golden beer in response. In style, I’d say the beer is a toned-down US pale ale, seasoned with Cascade and Amarillo hops, but not too forcefully. There’s a pleasant, lightly fruity and floral accent to the aroma, with apricots, sherbet lemons and grapefruit pushing through, before plenty of sweetness from the malt leads on the palate. This is soon countered by a good bitter floral bite from the hops that bring teasing notes of lemon, grapefruit and pine, helping to develop a drying back note. The finish is notably dry, floral and piney, ending with a solid, lasting bitterness as the hops linger on and on. This is a good, full-flavoured modern beer with enough body to satisfy yet easy to quaff at the same time.

Achouffe Chouffe Cherry 0.0%

Two new alcohol-free beers from Belgium’s Achouffe brewery are now available in the UK. The first is Chouffe 0.0%, a highly drinkable take on the regular Chouffe Blonde (8% abv), which is characterised by a coriander spiciness and a bubblegum-like estery note, and this very attractive-looking ruby beer, a version of Chouffe Cherry (8%). Marzipan billows out of the glass as you pour and is well to the fore in the taste, which is mostly sweet thanks to the juicy cherry notes. Thankfully, there’s also a welcome tartness to prevent it cloying. Plenty of body ensures you don’t feel short changed and, of course, the deep cherry flavours nicely help to mask the lack of alcohol. The regular Chouffe Cherry is understandably richer and has a more warming, vinous character, but this runs it close.

Anspach & Hobday Big Top Bitter, 4.3%

It’s great to see bitter fighting back in the portfolios of smaller, independent British brewers. Our traditional session beer has suffered in recent times from an over-preoccupation with paler ales bursting with New World hops. But there’s life in the darker, usually more restrained, old dog yet, as proved by one of the latest creations from London’s Anspach & Hobday. Big Top Bitter looks fantastic in the glass – deep ruby with a good collar of foam – and in the aroma there’s fudgy malt, a little toffee and faint suggestions of red apple and dark berries. On the palate, burnt toffee leads the way alongside a firm bitterness, with a delicate fruitiness again suggestive of berries and apples in support. There’s more toffee in the dry, firmly bitter, tangy-hop finish. This is a bruiser of a bitter – robust and uncompromising – but no less welcome for that.

St Ives Knill, 7.5%

This West Coast DIPA from Cornwall has a slightly different profile from many beers of this style. Yes, it is generously hopped with American varieties (in this case Chinook, Cascade and Columbus) and yes, there is plenty of body from the malt to offer support. But where most DIPAs have a vibrant, zesty citrus note or juicy tropical fruit flavours, this one allows alcohol and fermentation to have a bigger say. Consequently, the aroma is lightly floral, with suggestions of lemon drop and barley sugar boiled sweets. The taste then falls on the sweet side, with hints of pear drop, lemon and orange over a smooth bed of malt, all countered by a drying hop character. The same fruitiness continues into the drying finish that slowly grows more bitter, ending with a leafy, herbal hop note rather than the usual bitter pine. Softly warming, it’s nicely different.