Living up to its Ruby Ale description, Harveys Georgian Dragon is delightfully bright in the glass, offering aromas of apricots and ripe peaches, followed through by light caramel notes and a medium hoppy bitterness on the finish.

I’d call this versatile in food terms – it went equally well with shepherd’s pie and roast salmon and potato salads in our case.

And I love the story behind this brew. I didn’t know maestro brewer Miles Jenner was a keen palaentologist too, but this beer is brewed to commemorate the 1821 discovery of the Iguanodon by Gideon Mantell. Mantell hailed from Harvey & Son’s home town of Lewes and was both doctor and fossil collector. He unearthed some fossilised Iguanodon teeth in a Sussex quarry, a find which started both the classification of prehistoric reptiles, and apparently became the foundation of Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking work  a generation later. So here we’ve got history, biology and geology in a glass. Cheers!

£1.11/275ml; £1.87/500ml; available from Harveys’ shops in Midhurst and Lewes and online. But don’t delay – it’s a seasonal beer, so once it’s gone it’s gone!