Young’s Ruby Star

First published in BEER November 2006 as part of a piece about beers stocked by Tesco supermarkets.

NOTE: Production of Young’s beers has since been moved to Wells & Young’s in Bedford, though it appears Ruby Star is no longer brewed.

ABV: 5.5 per cent
Origin: Wandsworth, London, England
Website: www.youngs.co.uk

Young's Ruby Star

Tesco is truly a giant among retailers. With almost a third of the UK market, the supermarket chain is easily Britain’s biggest, and people are now talking about its influence on the high street as “tescopoly”.  So given the importance of supermarkets in beer retailing, how does the market leader’s beer offer measure up? 

The answer is a mixed one. While some of nearly 2,000 stores devote up to 10 metres of aisle to speciality ales, the proportion of filtered lines from “usual suspects” is arguably higher than in other chains. But at the same time Tesco remains the only chain to host its own major beer award.

Formerly known as the Tesco Beer Challenge, now the Drinks Awards, the scheme has a proud record of introducing tasty new beers to the public.

The contest is discussed elsewhere in this month’s Beer, so here I’ve taken the opportunity to review three beers currently in Tesco, starting with this year’s Autumn/Winter Best Beer in the “large brewer” category, Young’s Ruby Star.

Though the label carries the Wells & Youngs Bedford address, this bottle conditioned red ale was one of the last beers from the brewery’s historic Wandsworth site.

It’s an unusual beer that’s essentially a very rich-flavoured, strong and slightly light-coloured dry brown ale. The colour is actually a delightful reddish amber, and my bottle was easy to pour crystal clear with a good sparkle and a bubbly persistent yellowish head.

There’s a creamy malt and mineral aroma with juicy berry notes just detectable, leading to more berries in a full, sappy, nicely sparkling palate with good malt and firm, slightly biting hop dryness from the start, and austere hops and generous fruit juice in superb balance.

A long finish starts off dry and gets dryer, with a hint of coffee roast, and powerful, slightly astringent peppery hop bitterness developing towards the end.

Young’s needs no introduction to What’s Brewing readers, especially since the brewery has been in the news first with its controversial decision to close its historic southwest London site and move production in with Wells at Bedford, then with the sad death of chairman and real ale champion John Young.

But the launch of a fine award-winning new bottled beer at least provides a swan song for the Ram brewery – and an excellent example of John Young’s legacy in its fine balance of innovation and traditional quality. 

Read more reviews of Tesco beers in the next post.

Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/youngs-ruby-star/66281/