Star buy beers

Innis & Gunn Blonde, Asda, £1.34; Sainsbury’s, £1.50; 6 per cent alcohol; 330ml. A blonde Scottish thirst-quencher with lots of sappy, fruity, summer-suitable style, this is the best by far of its small-batch, oaky ilk. Serious beer students savour the faint vanilla finish of American oak.

O’Hanlon’s Goldblade, Sainsbury’s, £1.59; Tesco stores in Devon, £1.79; 4 per cent alcohol, 500ml. Summer swigging doesn’t get much better than this magnificent Devon wheat beer. Made for summer food, this vibrant, floral, gently nutty brew is softly and creamily spiced with wheat.

Worthington’s White Shield, Waitrose, £1.99; 5.6 per cent alcohol; 500ml. My favourite India pale ale, this amber-brown, bottled-conditioned beauty delivers some terrific, lively, nutty, malty fruit. Like Goldblade, this needs a steady hand to pour it off its yeasty sediment.

Fuller’s Organic Honey Dew, Asda, £1.40; Tesco, £1.41; Sainsbury’s, £1.62; Waitrose, £1.70; 5 per cent alcohol; 500ml. Of the dozens of honey beers I tasted for this article, this ripe, golden beer, balanced with sufficient zesty, citrussy fruit, was the best, and the perfect burnt-barbecue-food bottle.

Star buy ciders

Knights Premium Reserve Cider, Morrisons, £1.67 or 4 for £5; 5.8 per cent alcohol; 660ml. New to me, crisp, tangy Knights Cider, with just the right dollop of pungent, appley, softly sparkling pizzazz, is made without the usual run of artificial flavours, colours and sweeteners. Praise be.

Low Alcohol Cider, Waitrose, 99p; 1 per cent alcohol; 500ml. Incredible that such a zesty, ripe, apple blossom-scented, classic-tasting cider should be a low-alcohol offering, by far the best of its type and, at 1 per cent, the ideal bottle to serve at teenage parties and the like.

2006 Leckford Cox’s Apple Vintage Cider, Waitrose, £1.85; 6 per cent alcohol; 500ml. The Waitrose Farm, better known to Hampshire folk as the Leckford Estate, grew the apples that were turned into this mouthwateringly delicious, crisp, crunchy cider by Weston’s. Bouquets to all.

Aspall Dry Premier Cru Suffolk Cyder, Tesco, £1.73; Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, £1.79; Thresher, £1.89; 7 per cent alcohol; 500ml. Aspall, founded in 1728 and still run by the Chevallier family, makes my favourite range of pale, perky, zippy ciders, including this wonderful, lively, lemony, summery one.

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