Wednesday, 30 July 2014

Partizan, Falconer's Flight

I kind of see this as a mid-weight version of the Beavertown Quelle Saison - a hoppy saison that could almost be a super fizzy pale ale. Pepper and rainwater nose, dominant taste was lemon and grapefruit, bit of fresh, fat blade grass, a high carbonation that faded quickly down the drink. Not a great deal of the saison farmhouse essence as such. Nice dry finish. Again - drank from the fridge, possibly more funky when warmer. Top beer.

Tuesday, 29 July 2014

Celt Experience, 613 Années

Not 100% to my tastes this one from Celt. The sweet, sort of winey/grape/raisin nose is something I've come to associate with out of date hops (although I'm not sure if that's correct). The taste was piney (mild hoppage), a bit orangey + a bitter finish. I was expecting higher carbonation. My first bière de garde - I expected a malty saison, this felt like a sort of malty, spicy, slightly past it's best ipa, I suppose. This type not really for me.

Beavertown, Quelle Saison

A very light yellow pour, tangy satsuma nose, plus pineapple and grapefruit. Taste follows - mouthfeel is a very fizzy and very light fruity pale ale. There were some saison elements in there (just about) - some straw and pepper etc - possibly more pronounced at cellar temperature than straight out of the fridge. Good bitter after. I'd session this. (Imagine if they put this in a can.....!)

Monday, 28 July 2014

Beavertown, Ger'onimo

Drunk April 12th, photographed June 18th. Best of the Beavertown BA's for me. Nice whiskey upfront on the nose, damp leaves/mineral water and some meat. Good booze on the taste, slight dryness (possibly the whiskey influence?) in the finish. A woody spice going on in this, possibly a little nutty? Decent untunctuous mouthfeel. Nice heavy body. My impy stout nemesis, the dreaded vanilla sweetness, crept in towards the end, but not too much thank goodness.

Saturday, 5 July 2014

Partizan, Stout

Like Kernel, Partizan don't eff about with their beer nomenclature. I'm tickled by their simply calling this drink a 'stout'. (I'm sure other breweries would be tempted to add unnecessary prefixes in a bid to make it sound 'more exciting'.) Truth be told, I was excited to see the single word on a blue Partizan bottle rather than the 3 word 'FES' (I'll drink an FES but prefer my stouts less sweet and fizzy) - I'm not sure there's been one before?

A shade lighter in colour than your typical imperial stout. Taste was a satisfying blemd of the meat/choc/coffee/licorice (liquorice sp?) thing with a decent bitter finish. Just a fraction light (for me) of being a full blown imperial stout (this bottle was an 8.5%, I think the current stout is milder at 7% or so). I am absolutely fiending for their stout porter, doubt I'll get one though. We watched 12 Years A Slave when I had this. This film is not a date movie.

Dark Star, Imperial Stout

Sussex's Dark Star offer a mixed bag. I love Hophead and the wonderfully off balance nonsense of their Six Hop (bottle and cask), but Revelation (bottle, cask and keg) was so-so and this one didn't tick my impy boxes I'm afraid.

Whilst it committed the cardinal sin of being over-carbonated, I was reasonably into the English hop aroma (tinged with bananas possibly?) and the heavy bitterness. It was sweet but not syrupy and there was a little nail varnish remover in the finish too. A shame, as i really wanted to be into this.

Friday, 4 July 2014

Crate, IPA

Disappointing drink from Crate. I think this may have been passed it's best. Hop degradation? Sugary nose, flavour was mostly toffee. There was some sort of cleanliness overriding those malts, but it was largely tasteless. A shame, as I sampled this on keg at Westow House and it was a cloudy and pungent delight. The last photo above is of the Crate Brewery beer garden from a series commissioned in Hackney Wick last year.

Weird Beard Co, Single Hop Series No. 4: Citra Pilsner

I wouldn't have picked this as a pilsner in a blind test, but a good beer from Weird Beard nonetheless. Cat wee nose, big citrus taste. Gentle lasting bitterness that turns into a pleasing dryness. Quite like these hoppy lagers/pilsners. (This bottle was drunk back in March.)

Wednesday, 2 July 2014

De Molen, Rasputin

Impy stout from big boys De Molen. Rainwater and dried mushroom nose. Bitter aftertaste from the saaz hops (maybe), saves it from being too sweet.