Like Neil Young’s 1970 opus After the Gold Rush, Norfolk-based Wagtail brewery’s 4.0% golden bitter is sweet and easy going. Ideally sampled before Harvest. Photograph: PR
Two Fall-related IPAs. Thwaites’s former is a well-balanced, hoppy session bitter, while Northern Brewing’s ale (brewed for London’s Snooty Fox pub) is described as “Just like Mark, strong, pale and dry with an orange aroma and grapefruit notes.” Photograph: PR
From West Yorkshire’s Revolutions brewery, this strong, dark ale honouring Dusseldorf’s electronic godfathers is made with German ingredients, in a brewery close to a Kraftwerk (power station), by robots. The company also produces Ravenscroft, a feisty ale inspired by John Peel’s real name. It is – you’re best saying this slowly – a “pale session beer”. Photograph: PR
Sheffield-made mild named after Patti Smith’s Bruce Springsteen-penned hit. “When we took her some bottles she said: ‘Wow. I’ll have to tell Bruce!’” chuckles Kelham Island brewery’s Stuart Basford. “I said: ‘He’s already drunk our beer.’ We brewed a Devils and Dust bitter just for him.” Photograph: Public Domain
Mark E Smith’s Salford minstrels seem to have more beers named after them than any other band – appropriately, given the amount they’ve supped over the years. Like the veteran group, Davenports’ creation (4.4% abv) is extremely bitter and takes time to finish. Photograph: PR
One from the Portland-based Upright brewery. This 6.7% premium lager is “in the style of the British punk rockers who Fought the Law in the Clash of the lower-class leftists with limited Career pportunities.” Sample it and lose Complete Control. Photograph: PR
Named after Led Zeppelin’s most deceptively gentle song, a full-flavoured hoppy ale that is initially easy to drink before delivering a 5% proof hammer of the gods. Wobbly drinkers heading upstairs are advised to take the lift. Photograph: PR
Another American beer, named after the Ramones’ punk anthem Blitzkrieg Bop. Like Da Brudders, this golden ale offers a short, sharp sensation, and has a small white head on it that doesn’t linger very long. Photograph: Public Domain
The Brewdog company’s popular, spiky 5.6% abv pale ale is as aggressive as any classic punk single. The even stronger Hardcore IPA (9.2%) version increases the potential for Anarchy in the UK. Photograph: PR
Leeds’s Ridgeside brewery know their heavy rock. This 4.3% pale ale – their second Deep Purple-related beer along with Black Night – is partly named after the American-grown hops, but also the Purps’ 1970 In Rock album, whose cover featured Mount Rushmore’s stone heads replaced by the members of the band. A heady brew indeed. Photograph: PR
