Flying Dog Brewery, Snake Dog IPA

Quite a common bottle this nowadays. 'Standard' US IPA from brewing heavyweights Flying Dog with possibly the best labels out there c/o Ralph Steadman. Nothing too risky here, caramel coloured pour, piney-ish nose. Well balanced with clean taste and not much hint of the abv. Low to medium bitter finish. They do this in a can now - good for trains and country walks.

Odell Brewery, Myrcenary

My second experience of the DIPA style (after a recent double citra from Kernel) - the Myrcenary from Odell Brewing Company. I remember this one pouring more or less the same colour as a commercial lager. The nose was relatively subdued and despite a commendably disguised abv, the taste was actually quite lacking - nothing really jumped out at me. Bit of a disappointment really - 90s pretty much across the board on the beer rating sites, so I was expecting something rich, citrusy and full bodied. Hmmm. Again, as with the standard IPA, this bottle was from the start of the year and I was drinking it some months later. Maybe this had something to do with it, maybe not. Purchased from Mr Lawrence.

Odell Brewery, IPA

A difficult IPA for me, this from Odell. A salty-ish nose (similar to that coming from the Brüpond) sat alongside some perhaps more expected combinations of fruit and resin. This continued into the taste until about the midway point where it began to taste and smell very much like champagne. This then dominated for the rest of the bottle. One thing I noticed was a date on the side of the bottle - around the beginning of January mark (US dating - month before day). I'm assuming that this was the bottling date? If so it'd mean that I'd drunk this almost 4 months after it's birth. Is that too late? Had there been some degradation to the hop oils such that it produced that champagne taste? (I am of course assuming that this IPA oughtn't to have tasted like champagne.....) Anyway, it meant that I didn't really enjoy it unfortunately. Properly bitter though. Purchased from the excellent Mr Lawrence Wine Merchant.

Tip Top Hop, Brüpond Brewery

Matt Curtis did a pretty succinct review of this IPA from Brupond. I think I got a slightly different flavour though (I didn't really get fag ash) - for me the nose was almost salty. There was a huge hoppiness to this beer, but not one I was familiar with. I don't think I disliked this beer as such, but I'm afraid it wasn't to my taste. Brewed with Czech hop Kazbek. The Tip Top Hop is continually being refined and experimented with, so I'll be sure to go back to it at some point!

Moor, Nor'Hop

Splendid session ale from Moor. Erm, my notes say 'kernel table beer'. Probably not the most creative of appraisals. Whatever, I enjoyed this alot and all 660ml were guzzled in moments.

Ps - if this came before Kernel's table beer, then the sincerest of apologies!

London's Brewing 2013

Lots has been said about the organisational problems of London's Brewing 2013. Luckily for me, my brothers queued on my behalf, my wife and I arrived later on, collected our tickets at the door and walked straight in. My main bugbears were beers running out, beers not being available from the start, and, as Matt Curtis pointed out (as did a punter next to me in the keg tent queue) that Weird Beard's Mariana Trench, was not in fact Mariana Trench. Queuing times were, at worst, no longer than you might expect at a busy music festival or even a packed bar in town.

I must confess to grumbling on my arrival - angry punters storming off upon discovering the queues inside may have coloured me slightly - but, after things settled into a vague routine, I ended up sampling some excellent beers (I wasn't particularly adventurous though) had a great time, and ended up quite drunk.

2/3 Redchurch IPA
1/3 Kernel LBA Stout (love this)
2/3 By The Horns Hopslinger (loads better than the last time I had it in a bottle)
2/3 Beavertown Blood Orange IPA (New favourite IPA, my wife loved this. Went back to get some more but it was all gone by then.)
2/3 Windsor and Eton Conqueror
2/3 London Fields Black Frost
2/3 Beavertown Dark Saison thingy

Went on the The Fox after that, but then things went a bit hazy. (Disclaimer: up since 6.30am, minimal lunch, sleep deprived!)

Addended thanks (and sheepish apologies!) to Mr. Plant for putting up with some drunken ramblings about the blood orange drink.

Redchurch, India Pale Ale

No notes for this Great Eastern IPA for Redchurch. Not sure what happened there. Anyway, I had this ages ago and couldn't get the taste. Not sure why (not used to overly-massive hop doses at that point methinks). This one was ace - not so fruity/tropical like, say, an equivalent drink by Kernel, deep orange, lightly fizzed, the heavy, heavy hoppiness sticking just to the right side of sickliness, no taste of booze, fresh and delicious. The Westow had this on keg and I missed it. D'oh.

Redchurch Brewery, Hoxton Stout

A beer revelation for me this Redchurch Hoxton Stout. I have to confess to drinking this whilst past my best, so my notes are (very charitably speaking) perhaps somewhat 'lyrical':

"Wet socks and dirt with an arrogant, slurring head. The nose is coal dust plus something extra and undefinable. Wet leather in the taste with a cheeky sweetness at the end of the sip. Definitely the more tropical hops were chucked into this brew. Effed palette from dodgy fried chicken and some ludicrous chili sauce. A rare fruitiness on the repeats. Stouts work really well at the end of the night and this one became better and better towards the end."

There was actually more in the notes, but we won't go there.

Redchurch Brewery, Bethnal Pale Ale

A blog post of 2 halves I think:

Firstly, I used this beer to attempt 'pairing'. Normally, I'll have a beer after dinner. I suppose I prefer to have the taste of the beer unadulterated by any other flavours. Pairing food with beer is a pretty popular thing by all accounts - much has been made of the 'wineification' of beer and I suppose suggesting a food that best compliments a particular beer is a consequence of this. I have absolutely no problem with this and I am fully supportive of it. Personally, I have liked (so far) to keep the appreciations separate. I've never really considered why, that's just the way I've been happy to do it.

I made a curry (recipe in this book) and had a bottle of the Redchurch Bethnal Pale Ale. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting (the curry or beer to taste even better?), but whilst it wasn't an altogether unpleasant experience, I can't confess to having had any sort of epiphany. One thing I do remember is that on some mouthful combinations, the beer did taste a lot smoother, like a good chocolate (by contrast, in some mouthfuls, the beer lost it's flavour altogether). The Bethnal Pale is I suppose quite a strong flavoured beer and perhaps I'm too used to Cobras and Banglas with my currys.

That said, the Bethnal Pale Ale is a remarkable beer. This was one of the first 'craft' ales and the memory of it has stuck with me (and probably biased my opinion of it slightly...). A delicious London take on an APA, I don't think I've had a bottle of this that has disappointed. What I do find strange is Redchurch's lack of 'presence'. There's obviously alot of web-talk and digital media focus on the Kernel, Magic Rock and maybe some of the newer brands like Weird Beard etc but Redchurch don't seem to feature much on the blogs and in the bars. Is it just me not noticing them? Or do they deliberately keep a low profile? I suppose you see them in Oddbins, some of the posh burger joints and even some of the swankier cafés. Whatever, a solid, solid outfit. Never had a bad beer from them.

Thornbridge, Jaipur

Rather arrogantly, I didn't write any notes for this Jaipur, thinking something along the lines of 'Well - it's a Jaipur isn't it?'. Bottle-wise, I've had some brilliant ones, I've had some (comparatively) flavourless ones. This one probably fell into the middle of those two extremes somewhere. (For the record, the best one was on cask at The Westow, some moons ago.)

Thornbridge, Wild Raven

Finally got a chance to drink this BIPA from Thornbridge (via Mr Lawrence Mail Order). Tropical nose off the bottle neck and it poured with a very thick, bubbling head. The gentle fruitiness gave way almost immediately to a sort of over-baked biscuit, burnt-style bitterness from the malts, which kind of flowed into the bitterness from the hops. This last bitterness proved to be very strong and very long lasting! Hmmm. This BIPA came highly recommended from hop aficionado Matt Curtis but I have to say, it hasn't proved to be my favourite.