First Post, New English Ales!

Hi people. I'm David, and I'm a beer snob. I love beer a bit too much, so this is where the overflow of my beer ramblings will now go, so as not to bore too many people in real life with my rants and opinions.
I'm in Wellington, which is handy as just down the road is Regional Wines and Spirits. The most awesomest bottle store evar (that I've seen).
They just got in two new English beers, Fullers IPA and Wadworth Bishops Tipple (seems like it's missing an 's' to me. OCD). Naturally I was in to grab 'em the day they arrived.
So the beer. I'm just going to type this out as I try the beer for the first time. Kind of a stream of consciousness thing.

Fullers Indian Pale Ale (5.3%)


I won't bore you with the usual IPA history, you probably know all about the story if you're reading this. My expectations are pretty high for this one, as Fullers are a pretty good, experienced English brewery. And being an English style beer they should know their shit.
Here goes then. She pours a pretty good golden amber colour (yes this beer is a female), normal head. Pretty mild carbonation. Aroma is pretty standard. I get a bit of kinda bready malt, wee bit of hop zest there too. It reminds me of a hoppy English bitter on the nose.

Pretty good flavour, nice robust malt profile. Those bready malts really come through. The goldings hops are very present in this one, providing a medium to strong bitterness. It will have to suffice to say it's a zesty citrus hop flavour, as I can't pin it down specifically yet.

I really enjoy the overall combination of flavours here, it is a superbly balanced brew. I could get pissed of this pretty easy, it's very tasty but still easy to drink.
I just burped and got another dose of hops: that's how you know its a hoppy beer.
I'll do some numbers, like on ratebeer.com:
Aroma: 7/10 Appearance: 3/5 Flavour: 7/10 Palate: 4/5 Overall: 14/20

Onto the next one, described as an 'English Strong Ale' (seems the English & Belgians have different ideas about the word 'strong')

Wadworth Bishop's Tipple (5.5%)


I have no idea what to expect from this one. I've never heard of Wadworth, this is my first of their beers. And my first English strong - as far as I'm aware. Cool looking bottle though, I love how pommie breweries put their logo in the glass of the bottle, as well as the label. This label reads "Rejoice & enjoy the fruits of our labour & be thankful that the Earth provides".
It looks pretty similar to Fullers IPA, nice deep golden colour. The head is a bit thinner on this though.
Aroma is quite sweet, with caramel and raisins. A wee bit of spice sneaks in too, pretty cool.
Hmmmmm, I don't really know what to do with the taste of this beer.
Weird, but that's not always bad. Hops are pretty grassy, not too bitter. In the background is a caramel sweetness, and once the grassy hops fade a bit you get a really spiced finish.
It seems this beer is all about the hops, with the Saaz and Styrian Goldings overriding any malt profile - resulting in a slightly unbalanced beer. It's not bad, just odd (for me).

Aroma: 5/10 Appearance: 3/5 Flavour: 6/10 Palate: 2/5 Overall: 12/20

Some pretty good beers for my blogging debut eh? I'd recommend the Fullers IPA for sure, and give the Bishop's Tipple a go if you're feeling adventurous.