Saturday 2 August 2014

Summer Wine, Maelstrom

Non-hazy bottled IPAs aren't appealing to me anymore (über cheap versions from Tesco nonwithstanding), particularly when I pay close to a fiver for them. (Give me a Kernel, Weird Beard, Moor, Siren, Redchurch etc etc. Excessive yeast sediment used to upset me, but I've come to love it and that pepperines it brings.)

In fairness, I've had a Sabretooth and a Diablo on keg (Fox E8, also a pint of Diablo on cask at the Westow I think) and they were sublime, misty and cloudy tropical beasts. I suspect that draught Maelstrom is much in that vein. This bottle was ok, but i think my prejudices stopped me from enjoying it as fully as I might have. Pine and a thick bitterness, but a little thin for 9% and, without the haze, it felt as though there was something missing... For some reason, the word 'maelstrom' will forever remind me of Peter O'Toole falling into the Vortex in Supergirl.

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