black sheep ale

English cuisine is not exactly known for its brilliance and abundance of varied, delicate dishes. Outside of the UK, it's assumed that the island's only diet is fish and chips. That's not true at all. In addition to the sumptuous full English breakfast of sausage, beans, eggs, bacon, potatoes, fried mushrooms, tomatoes and toast, there are numerous other dishes that are both typically English and genuinely delicious. A favorite is definitely Sunday Roast. The British equivalent of the Sunday roast brings classic meat, various braised vegetables, a thick gravy and sometimes Yorkshire puddings to the plate. The latter is not a pudding in the traditional sense, but a dough fried in fat that rises in the oven to form small pie shapes.

The Black Sheep Brewery also comes from the home of Yorkshire Pudding. The small, independent family brewery is run by Paul Theakston and his sons and stocks a range of beers that are the perfect accompaniment to the Sunday Roast. Or with the Franconian crust roast.

One of these beers is the Black Sheep Ale, an English classic with a pleasant 4.4% alcohol content. The amber-golden beer smells of dried fruit, orange zest and roasted malt. Flavor follows suit, delivering a hoppy bitterness that pairs beautifully with the ale's rich fruitiness and sweet caramel notes.