Two New Beers

In the last couple of days I've tasted two beers that are new to me, and they were both memorably pleasant and perfectly kept.

The first was in the Euston Tap on our way home from the away match with Watford.  Now, the Euston Tap is a fabulous place.  It's a small railway building that was converted to a pub a few years back - and its pair was, a little more recently, turned into a cider bar. 
It's definitely treading a fine line between great pub and a bit achingly trendily craft beer bar, but the building more than makes up for any shortcomings, I think.

My first beer was Redemption brew which was nice, but not memorable.  S had a Burton Bitter which was much the same.
We ummed over a second drink...but didn't take much time to decide to stay for another.  With Dark Star APA on tap, it was almost a foregone conclusion...but at the last moment I saw that "Clouded Minds" (of whom I've never heard) had a beer called "Catholics Choice" which was a mere 2.8% abv.  Now, I'm a sucker for trying beers that are lower in alcohol because they can make great session beers.  The beer was, as the brewery name suggests, a little hazy but in great condition.
It was flavoursome, crisp and slightly citrussy - probably not the perfect pint for a cold February Sunday, but I could imagine spending a summer day gardening drinking this all day yet still able to operate power tools safely.  See what you think!

Second was from a brewery I've encountered before - The Hopping Mad Brewery.  We took a colleague for dinner at The Highlander who regularly stock their beers so it was no surprise to see it on the bar, ranged with Tring and Greene King Ales.  This time it was a golden, hoppy number (name not remembered) ad I'll bet folding money the cask was only very recently tapped.
The result was a sparkling bright, well balanced beer that warranted a second pint.
Our guest, who is from Poland, was looking forward to "proper English beer" really enjoyed it too...although he did think it was a bit like lager. 

I realised that, these days, it's quite hard to impress me with beer.  So many perfectly good pints get the "yeah, it's fine" vote from me.  So to have two "yum!" pints in as many days is a good thing indeed.