Abita Brewing Co Abita Bock
A full-bodied, flavoursome golden bock from Louisiana, but unfortunately served in a rather uninspiring bottle.

Alhambra Reserva 1925
65Quite a smooth, golden, Spanish lager but rather strong tasting. The hoppy finish is not bad but the overall impression is that this is just too strong to be enjoyable.

Ann Street (Jersey & Tipsy Toad) Mary Ann Jubilee
56A bizarre, cloudy golden beer. Close inspection of the back label reveals that this is a diat pils, with much of the sugar fermented out. Not unpleasant but not entirely satisfying either.

Artois Bock
83An interesting recreation of a beer from the Artois archives: a hybrid of the bock and Vienna lager styles. All too drinkable for its strength, hence only sold in small bottles or, on draught, in half...

Baltika No. 3 Classix
73A well-balanced if not very exciting strong lager from Russia's biggest brewery. All the Baltika beers are numbered (no. 6 is a porter and no. 8 is a wheat beer).

Boon Rawd Brewery Singha
75A well-made, filling, Thai beer with the strength and body to cope well with the heat and spices of Oriental cooking.

Browar Koszalin Brok Sambor
73A Polish lager with plenty of taste and likeable creamy notes, if a little thick and heavy.

Castle Brewery Eggenberg Samichlaus
82The classic Christmas beer from Austria, full-bodied and complex. Even just a thimbleful, sipped slowly like a port or sherry, keeps out the cold of winter.

Chopper Heavy
60A weird but sadly not wonderful Australian strong lager. There's also a crude and rather unnecessary crucifixion rhyme on the label that some people may find offensive.

Christoffel Bok
80A clean, tasty, full-bodied Dutch bock that is lagered for at least 12 weeks.

Cobra King Cobra
78Elegantly packaged, unusual, bottle-conditioned strong lager with good, fresh flavours.

Cruzcampo Gran Reserva
Golden with bronze copper bronze hue... Aroma presents spicy hops, grainy malt and a slight blackberry note... A strong nose of nettles... Excellent silky malt character... Very good balance... Smooth...

Hijos de Rivera SA 1906 Reserva Especial

Kingfisher Strong Lager

Konig Ludwig Kaltenberg Ritterbock

Kronleins Stockholm Fine Festival
71This Swedish beer has picked up some prestigious awards, but, to my mind, the punch it packs is just too intrusive.

Lomza Mocne
71A sweet and rather mellow Polish beer that is not particularly complex but is suppable nonetheless.

Peroni Padova Gran Riserva
77This golden lager certainly delivers in power and flavour but lacks the subtlety and elegance to be a class act.

Rodenbach/Palm Cobra King Cobra
76Not very complex, but a clean, light and quaffable beer for the strength, with a welcome freshness coming from the bottle conditioning.

Rogue Dead Guy Ale
78A bronze-coloured ale with plenty of good, fresh flavours, in keeping with the style of this Oregon brewery.

Samuel Adams Longshot Traditional Bock

United Breweries/Blossom Industries Kalyani Black Label
69A rather scruffy bottle with a ragged bit of red foil around the neck suggesting cheapness. But, really, it's not that bad at all.

Warka Strong
75A ‘keep out the cold lager' from Poland, a bit sweet and syrupy yet not too in your face.

Weltenburger Kloster Asam Bock
80A full-on, sweet bock that at first seems to lack subtlety. In time, however, the pruney fruitiness brings everything back into balance.

Weltenburger Kloster Asam Bock
83A nourishing, ruby coloured beer, loaded with smooth,complementary flavours.

Zywiec Zywiec
65A full-bodied, sweetish, pale golden lager with a decent hop balance but, on this tasting, unfortunate oxidation (wet paper) notes dominating. Part of the Heineken empire.