Beavertown, Bloody 'Ell IPA

This IPA from Beavertown came out to a bit of a fanfare earlier this year. I first tried it at the London's Brewing festival back in May. There, it was simply incredible - thick, very fresh tasting and unbelievably citrusy. The bottle wasn't quite as good - all the elements where there, the massive über-citrus kick, the solid body, but they were accompanied by some harsh, yeasty burning type effect which kind of ruined it for me. I did take care to pour, but to my mind the kegged version was just so much better, so I cam away a little deflated and disappointed. (Disclaimer: at the time of trying the kegged version, I was rather drunk...things may have seemed to me a little different to me in that state of mind than they might have otherwise....!)

Beavertown, Smog Rocket

This porter from Beavertown was a revelation when my brother bought me a bottle for last Christmas (2012). I remember being sat at the in-law's table, slightly miserable due to Greene King IPA and fiending for an APA. I hadn't had any dark beers up to this point so I didn't really know what to expect. I was blown away - the smoke, the tar, the viscosity (for me, at the time), the pungency. Delicious! Subsequent bottles faded in impact as I discovered imperial stouts and the like, and the most recent bottle I had was flat as a pancake (sadface). Nonetheless, Smog Rocket holds a place in my heart, being as it was, my first taste of dark and smoggy traditional(ish) London recipe brews. I had their imperial smog a while back too. I didn't really get it then, but I have their new barrel aged version set aside, looking forward to giving it another go.

Beavertown, Black Yeti

The first in a small series of some of the Beavertown Brewery beers. This Yeti stout (think it's called Black Yeti?) is good because it's cheap - £2.50 from Mr Lawrence (curiously, I've seen on the shelf at Utobeer for over £4...). Good coffee aromas, acceptable body for a low(ish) abv stout and a gentle hop essence towards the end, precipitating a decent and pleasing bitterness. Slightly metallic aftertaste perhaps?

Goose Island, Bourbon County Brand Stout 2012

Recently, it's been quite rare for me to write about a beer I've only just drunk. (Typically, I'm having to work my way through a backlog of unphotographed beers sitting in a Sainsbury's bag under my sink.) However, with this beer I felt reasonably compelled to get my thoughts up online relatively quickly, the main reason being, I think, that I need some feedback to sort of contextualise my feelings about this beer, their basically being the polar opposite of views of the the majority.

Basically: ratebeer/untappd/beer advocate etc etc all rate this beer as more or less flawless. I disliked it. In fact I think I disliked it more than I've disliked any other beer I've ever had.

Now, regardless of what you think about the various beer rating websites, they do offer some sort of (relatively) helpful gauge when you go to seek out new beer. (My way is: I fancy an impy stout, I take a coffee break to browse beers of europe then I copy and paste the beer titles into google and skim read the various reviews, see which ones paint the best picture.) I suppose this is a vary internet-centric way of doing things, but at least I'm doing my best to try new beers right? Whatever. The Goose Island stout receives 100s across the board. Barrel aged in oak bourbon barrels (for 4 years I think? No, that can't be right....) and 15% abv. The Americans seems to absolutely love this, reviews range from the moderately impressed to the fanatical.

For me: very, very oily, the liquid glistens under the tungsten lights in our house when poured. Very, very black and treacly in colour with a head the exact colour of a caramac. Medium carbonation. Nose off the bottle is heavy, heavy liquorice. The taste, for me, is an aberration: very, very sweet. Beyond sweet. Really very actually quite ugly. Very smooth, but otherwise it seemed so unrefined to my palette: a vicious vanilla bombardment and liquorice strafing. 0% hops, 0% bitterness (and therefore, to my mind, 0% balance), 0% tar/smoke/charcoal. The merest hint of dark fruit, no coffee, no burnt/roasted malts. I know that when they warm up, impy stouts get sweet. I refrigerate mine, start them off cold so that the last third of the drink warms up and the sweetness comes in last (the Magic Rock version gets this right for me - their bitterness is well intact). This was über sweet from the outset and only got sweeter.

I'm slightly (but only slightly) ashamed to say that this was offered up to the drain goblins. It took me well over an hour of wrestling with my conscience (and with the drink itself) before I could justify pouring the best part of a £7/bottle away.

So, in light of how this beer is more generally received (i.e 100s across the board): am I being fair? I've recently been informed (reliably so I believe) that you can't really expect a beer at 15% abv not to be sweet. (This apparently is true for impy IPAs too.) I can get that, but nevertheless, this drink was simply unpleasant for me. I suppose if you like stouts, if you like liquorice, vanilla, if you like desert wines (or sweet wines in general) then this could be for you. Maybe if the bottle was shared out amongst a few people, served in a large shot glass to be sipped like a digestif with a pudding/desert, it could be good? As a beer to drink by oneself in an evening, no. Absolutely not. I just couldn't recommend it at all. Sorry.

Please, please: if I've offended you, if you've got a salient point, if you're sure I've got this wrong (or perhaps if you think my bottle was past its best) - tell me!

Brixton Brewery, Electric IPA

Purchased from the lovely Market Row Wines in gentrified Brixton market. Recent offering from new(ish) south London brewery Brixton Brewery. Not so much of a citrus kick, more of a 'sharp pine' (?), almost spicy (peppery and sharp on the tongue) essence going on here. Decent body though, nice and thick. Satisfyingly bitter afterwards. Relatively cheap (sub £2.50 iirc). Could be a good go to beer this one if they can keep the price down.

Gyle 1, Mash Monkeys

The first of the 2 bottles of Gyle 1 from the Mash Monkeys (Honest Brew and Late Knights collab) that I've had the pleasure of drinking was a unsolicited birthday gift from the lovely chap (brewer?) behind the bar at the frankly amazing Beer Rebellion in Gypsy Hill.

Vicky and I had been to drink expensive imported DIPAs and impy stouts at the unpleasantly atmosphered (is that a word?) Craft Beer Co in Brixton (where certain staff unfortunately reinforced the snobbish/too cool for school, 'craft beer' geek stereotype. If you're reading this guys - please don't forget: you're a pub. Sort it out.) By massive contrast, Beer Rebellion (to be fair, being well outside of the Brixton Friday night idiocy zone) is congenial, warm and instantly welcoming.

We took home a bottle of this Gyle 1 which we shared over an episode of Masterchef, a Mikkeller wine glass of it lasting more or less the whole hour of the programme. A dark pour, minimal carbonation, a miscellaneous strata of pine and citrus followed by a satisfying bitter hop linger. Caramel sweetness underpinned it all - Werther's Originals? Setting this DIPA apart from others was it's particularly creamy mouthfeel.

Not sure if my description has done it justice, but for me, this is a very distinctive and pleasant DIPA. We look forward to the Mash Monkey's next collab!

Late Knights, Hairy Dog

Very black pour this one from Late Knights. The mildest of hop profiles here against burnt coffee bitterness. A different, south London take on a BIPA (as compared, say, to the citrusy elements of the US style), more like a rough and raw stout perhaps. Had this on cask a few times, the smoothness suited it slightly better than the carbonation in the bottle for me (the cask flow smoothness balancing out the almost biting nature of the coffee bitterness here).

Sierra Nevada, Hoptimum

Typically mild Sierra Nevada nose (although on my second bottle there were slight notes of bacon??) but a great, full body that you'd expect from this imperial. Decent balance (just!) and the abv hidden sufficiently (just!). Thick and heavy pine gloop taste + thick, thick hop unctuousity. I bought this on a couple of occasions from Mr Lawrence (they still have some in stock) - the first time ('freshly' imported) I was full of praise and admiration for it (took my time, drank it slowly etc). The second (a while after), I bought 2 bottles, one for myself and one for Vicky. Vicky had one taste and didn't like it so gave it to me. That was when all the bad things about impy IPAs came out (perhaps all types of beers at 10% +) for me: the thickness, the heaviness and in this case, the absence of freshness. Due to beers like Weird Beard's Holy Hoppin' Hell, and too a lesser extent, Odell's Myrcenary, I'm rapidly learning that IPAs with heavy hop content really do suffer if not drunk fresh, and are, perhaps, not worth it after a while. Someone prove me wrong?

Sierra Nevada, Torpedo

I've had this 'Extra IPA' from Sierra Nevada on about 3 occasions over the past year. Mostly I found it surprisingly bland (compared to, say, a Racer 5), except the time when it was on offer in John Lewis and Vicky and I had a bottle each for under £3 (ish), on the lawn in Cavendish Square in the summer sun. Sigh. I think I should probably try it out of a can, maybe they're fresher. Still, if you've got a Waitrose or Tescos nearby that sells this , then you'd probably buy it often as your go to strong beer (as I assume Simon at CAMRGB probably does...*wink*).

Sierra Nevada, Southern Hemisphere Harvest

I drank this ages ago and can't for the life of me remember how it tasted (the pictures have been sat on my hard rive since early August). I guessing it was the standard Sierra Nevada thing: 'nice enough'. As with the Northern Hemisphere version of this drink, there will inevitably be freshness issues.

Wild Beer Co, Bliss

Argh - I really wanted to get into this one from Wild, but try as I might, I just couldn't help but think that there simply wasn't anything massively special about it. Having said that, I remember thinking something similar about their IPA, and have subsequently come to realise that it's actually quite brilliant. So it may well be that I'll appreciate this saison better the second time around. Perhaps I drank it a bit too cold, or maybe I should've left it on the shelf longer?

De Struise, Ignis et Flamma

I drank this Belgian IPA from De Struise before I got all silly about saison etc. It wasn't my usual tipple then - I was expecting some of sort of hoppy monster.... Anyway, check out the head on that! And I poured it very carefully indeed. I had to spoon some of it out so fit more actual liquid in the glass! Rich body with the merest tint of citrus hops at the edges, warming with a foamy carbonation (!) mouthfeel. I've got a Meantime Cali-Belgian IPA waiting to be drunk. I wonder if it'll taste similar to this?

Trappist Achel Bruin, Brouwerij der St. Benedictusabdij de Achelse

I really don't think I have the credentials to even be pretending to know what I'm talking about with this beer, so I'll leave any taste/nose talk out. Youngest monastic order in Belgium? More info here on Sint-Benedictusabdij De Achelse Kluis. Wow, what a lovely, lovely beer - just look at the colour of it in that first photo....!

Brasserie Dupont, Saison Dupont

The archetypal saison? This signature farmhouse ale from Brasserie Dupont smells of lager and pours a beautiful, hazy straw colour. Über fresh and cleanses the palette. Brief bitterness at the back of the tongue. A really nostalgic taste for me so I'm possibly a bit biased towards this one. My second pour had a few spirals of yeast in it, which absolutely in no way detracted from my enjoyment of it (unlike it might do in, say, a bottle conditioned IPA). I'm a total saison novice so I wasn't too sure what to look for - ignorance is bliss I suppose - so I get the feeling I was in the (perhaps slightly enviable?) position to simply enjoy it for what it was rather than scrutinizing the enjoyment away. Argh - just writing this makes me want one...

Kernel Brewery, Bière de Table

I had a Partizan saison a while back and I didn't like it particularly. I think I wrote some naive guff about the hops seeming out of place and that i didn't think saisons were my thing. Then, in the summer, I had a De Koninck on tap at the Greenwich Union, and it reminded me of holidays in France as a teenager. This nostalgia prompted me to get a 750ml bottle of Dupont which them promptly sat in the wine rack for a few months. One night, Vicky suggested I crack it, so we shared it over Silver Linings Playbook (average). I wasn't immediately blown away, but the more I drank of my glass, the more I was taken back to France, to Pelforth and fresh Kronenbourg, sunflowers, vineyards and sunshine.

This Kernel really hit the spot. I know it doesn't do too well on Ratebeer but for me it was soaringly refreshing, just a delight. I'd spent the day thinking about trying to get hold of a belgian beer for the evening, and I'd read that the Kernel was a 'farmhouse' ale so I thought: sod it - I'd give it a go. And I'm so glad I did. It really ignited a drive to sample more beers from Belgium, in particular their saisons. I've tried Kernel's hersbrücker saison which is obviously quite different but nonetheless equally satisfying. I can't wait for next summer - I'm going to drink these by the bucket load I tell thee.

Brugse Zot, De Halve Mann

My parents brought back from this 750ml bottle for Vicky and I from their trip to Bruges. A dependable Belgian pale beer from De Halve Mann, but nothing jumped out at me unfortunately, maybe a bit of lemon going on in here I think. Drinkable though.

Tap East, Coffee In The Morning

Massive coffee flavours from Tap East. Less roasty/crunchy and bitter, more of a 'clean' coffee flavour c/o Grind Coffee). Decent body, almost flat.

Magic Rock Brewing Co, Cannonball

Alot has been said about the calibre of this IPA from Huddersfield stars Magic Rock, and by people more fully versed in beer related wordery than myself. (This post by Matt Curtis is pretty good.) I agree with pretty much all of what's been said. Sweet tinge from the caramel malts is the perfect foil to the hop wallop in this: there's perfect balance all the way through. Negatives: in short supply and relatively expensive. Not being bottle conditioned is a plus though (for me). Getting a bit tired of the unavoidable yeastiness (however small) in my IPAs at the moment.

Magic Rock Brewing Co, Barrel Aged Bearded Lady

I think that this was the drink that really kick started a drive to sample imperial stouts for me. I drank my first bottle (perhaps somewhat incongruously at the height of summer. I've started to get into saisons as the winter is settling in, think I've got my season pairings back to front somehow...!), of this back at the beginning of August, way before I deliberately started to search out any other similarly styled drinks. After the Un-human Cannonball (bottles of that stored waiting for review + relatively 'special' photo idea) I kind of had the geek-greed for this special edition bottle, so I bought 2 just in case (courtesy of the good folk at Mr Lawrence).

It poured thick and opaque - almost purple. I'd never smelt anything like this before, bitter and dark chocolate, used coffee, liquorice and boozy aromas. The taste for me had all this plus some more wet coffee grounds, the faint tinge of whisky right at the edges, and some hard grape bits - possibly brandy-ish? Peppery smoked meat tinges??

Mouth feel very smooth despite decent carbonation, you could feel the alcohol slightly on the gums (I good thing I think) and a very gentle bitter after. For my 2nd glass from the bottle it was nice to have a Maoam on the side just to sweeten the edge off.

I've had more whisky-er impy stouts since this one (most notable the Kernel BA Glen Spey), but in it's 660ml presentation, wax seal and beautiful bottle graphics, this had an air of occasion about it that adds to the drinking experience. Of course the limited nature of it helped too, plus the hype online and on the Magic Rock website.

Having said that: there's a contingent of electronic music producers/labels that release very rare tunes on a very limited run of vinyl and this alienates those who will never be able to get hold of it. (The vinyl then inevitably appears on discogs at silly, well over-inflated prices). I saw on twitter that beer releases such as this one and the Un-human Cannonball from Magic Rock can have the same effect. I was fortunate to get both, but I think I'd prefer them to be more available, if only to drive down the price a little bit. (Obviously, the rarity adds to the desirability...a double edged sword I suppose.) £12 for 660ml of 10.5% liquid is certainly high. A similar amount of money will get you A Chateauneuf du Pape. It seems that's where we're at with this type of strong beer (leaving aside tax issues on creating beers above 7.4% abv). It is certainly a sting on the wallet, but I for one, am more or less content to pay these prices. For comparison, Kernel did a BA impy at £6/330ml, Mikkeller obviously take the piss even more (and on tap: Even More Jesus from Evil Twin at £13/pint...). Whatever, vote with your wallet I suppose.

Copenhagen, Autumn 2013

My wife and I bought tickets to Copenhagen to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary and to attempt to get some rest for the first time in a couple of years (daughter palmed off to the in-laws....). A fantastic compromise destination - my wife is a Scandinavian design nut and I remembered that there's a relatively well thought of beer company based there, with a couple of their bars too. Luckily for me, my wife is quite fond of hoppy and tropical IPAs so I was able to convince her that the Mikkeller Bars would be a good bet for a decent evening out.

And so it proved. It helped that Mikkeller have been instrumental in the conversion of beer from a male dominated sphere into a much more inclusive and heterogenous thing - Les Femmes Regionanles were specifically commissioned to design their flagship bar in Vesterbro precisely to help divorce beer and drinking beer from it's dingy and overtly masculine connotations. I'd not seen the 0.2l, long stem wine glass servings before - a great touch to soften the drinking experience as well as guarding against excessiveness. Without wanting to be patronising, the wine glasses 'gimmick' really put me at ease by making me feel less guilty about dragging Vicky to yet another craft beer bar, especially one on an anniversary celebration. She was surprised and impressed by them too, to an extent that I think she may have felt more that the whole experience was a niche, rare and desirable thing to do in a foreign city rather than just a simple visit to a trendy bar.

It was a saturday night and the bar was busy, but not oppressively so. I was always served quickly and never felt pressured to rush through asking the bar staff what a particular beer tasted like. The clientele were varied: beer geeks old(ish) and young (the yellow glare of Untappd visible on the peripheral as you walked through the bar), tables of women only, tattoos and beards alongside retired couples, people staying for only one or two drinks, people spending almost 1hr on 0.2l of liquid, no shots, no shouting, no banging on tables, no falling over, just gentle hubbub of relaxed conversation, the occasional beer suggestion from a stranger at the bar, flowers on the table, candlelight and understated yet swiftly efficient and welcoming bar staff.

Individual beer list as follows:

Crooked Moon

Nelson Sauvignon

Yeastus Christus (Tool)

Big Mofo Stout (Collab with Brodie's - easily my beer of the trip.)

Blackheart (Three Floyds)

Black Hole

Kihoskh Ipalot (bottle takeaway near our apt in Norrebro)

American Dream (sensational lager. need more of this.)

Amager Bryghus/Mikller Collab (10.5% Stout)

We visited Mikkeller and Friends on a Sunday night and it was dead. Too clean (which was to be expected as it was clearly much newer than the flagship) and too bright. Closer to our apartment in Norrebro though.

We paid another visit to the Vesterbro bar before we left (I had yet another Mofo stout. What an amazing beer - a supercharged Brodie's Dalston Black). Rather than a fridge (or 2) they had a bottle room - a beer geek's wet dream:

Another beer plus to take away from our trip was the taste of draught Carlsberg - amazing! Absolutely a world away from what we get in the UK, I had a pint of regular and the 'special' (the darker version) with a dinner and lunch (smørrebrød) respectively: fresh tasting, refreshingly light with a strong streak of (very possibly) hersbrücker running though it. They tasted for all the world like a farmhouse lager, danish style and they were absolutely delicious.

My 100th post on this blog! Feels like a good centenary post this one. Thanks to all my readers!

Weird Beard Co, Holy Hoppin' Hell #1

My first experience of this line from Weird Beard was when I had the #2 version out of a plastic cup, courtesy of a tap takeover at the Look Mum No Hands pop up (part of last summer's Neighbourhood Festival at the South Bank). That one was a hefty 9.5% (iirc) which might possibly have been a bit to much, the alcohol being pretty obvious. The bottle photographed above was a take away from Beer Rebellion. It might not have been strictly speaking super-fresh, but was great nonetheless - Rio Riva, Lilt and pineapple flavours, a decent viscosity tempered with an appropriate level of carbonation.

It's not the drink, but who you're with: on another occasion, I shared a bottle of this with 2 friends (also at Beer Rebellion - basically a quadruple shot measure each?) one of whom is familiar with US style beer, the other a Belgian beer freak. The beer tasted better than I had experienced it before and my 2 esteemed colleagues loved it.

Weird Beard Co, Boring Brown Beer

Maxed out IBUs from Weird Beard on this one methinks - Chinook is primarily used as a bittering hop I understand? Not really my cup of tea I don't think. Pleased to get a chance to sample it though.