1) It’s a sad time here at the headquarters of Beer is Your Friend (Note: I mean “headquarters” in a totally abstract and wanky sense. It’s not as if this blog makes enough money for me to afford real office space). For a long, long, long time I have praised the staggeringly good success rate Stone & Wood has with my taste buds. Everything has been a winner, everything has been lovely.

2) There is no ironic twist here. No, “ha, I got you thinking there was bad news coming but then I did a whole 180 on you”. Nope, the sad truth here is the northern NSW brewery has finally come up with a beer I didn’t like. It’s a day I truly thought would never come, but here it is. Their new offering Jasper Ale just didn’t work for me.

3) It’s actually hard thing to deal with, or to say. It feels a little like telling my daughter that she’s crap at something – it’s good to be honest rather than fib to her, but jeez, I feel awful doing it. Look, I liked the citrus aromas that waft off the beer – they’re not over the top like an IPA, they’re on the money for the red ale that this is.

4) But it was the toffee biscuity flavours where the beer lost me. It reminded me of a really, really strong Ginger Snap biscuit (remember those? Mmm). I wanted to like it more, even had inner monologue where I tried to force myself into liking this. But no dice.

5) Does this mean Jasper Ale is a bad beer. Hell no. There’s no technical faults here. All it means is this beer’s not for me. I’m not one of those guys who mistake their own opinion for fact (“I don’t like this therefore it is shit!”). I’m just drinking beer and writing down what I thought of it. Will I buy other Stone & Wood beers in the future. Hell, yeah. They make some awesome, awesome beers.

Free or paid for?: I got sent two bottles for review. Which kind of makes it harder to say I didn’t like it.