Partizan, Stout Porter

A very pleasing drink. Not mind blowing, but all the better for it: to my mind, it was just nice to have a beer with nothing wrong/weird/different with/about it. It was exactly what I wanted. Appropriately light body for this porter, nose was consistent, taste was tar, some berries. Nice lick of booze on the finish.

Beer Bottles Revisited

There's a spot at the end of my road, at the beginning of Crystal Palace Park, which is loosely fenced off from the public. In it, there are shipping containers, park benches, Victorian iron railings, old bins, tires, pillars from the old gates and all manner of outlying city space detritus (leather chairs, playing cards, beer cans, footballs, washing machines etc). It's a wonderful space between spaces. I've been there a few times now over the past year to photograph beer bottles for this blog and I'm fascinated to revisit the site over time to see the previous entries untouched by human hands yet ravaged by the elements and overtaken by the undergrowth. Have a look at my other blog (here and http://reverendmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/crystal-palace-14th-march-2014-2.html) to see more images of this great space which probably won't last for too much longer once the Zhongrong Group gets started.

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.

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.

Partizan, Quad

I didn't really know what a Quad was before I drank this. I mean, I knew that it was one 'level' above a tripel, I knew it was Belgian, but taste-wise and manufacture process-wise, I was more or less totally ignorant. So, looking back over my notes, they seem a little harsh and I'm guessing that was totally due to my ignorance of this style of beer. I've since read about quads (and very possibly most Belgian beers) that they aren't an exercise in blowing one's mind, rather they are about pure drinkability, balance and harmony. I had my first Rochefort 10 the other day and it more or less fit this particular billing. I'd quite I'd like to go back to the Partizan quad and give it another go.

Partizan, Columbus IPA

Typically solid singly hopped IPA from Partizan. Fizzy mouth feel comme la bière belge (my notes say bottled on date of June 2013 and I drank this 1st September). Fruity like lemon/lime, not penny sweets. Tom Baker and a Cyberman having a swift half on the label.

Partizan, Orange IPA

I had in mind to write some sort of invective against modern, bottle conditioned beers, being upset as I was with the fact that unless you love yeast, there is rarely 330ml of drinkable liquid in a 330ml bottle of bottle conditioned beer. I mean, look at that photo! Carefully pouring this orange IPA from Partizan gave me just under half a pint (marked on the glass) of non-yeasty beer. That's 280ml (ish). My maths isn't great (B at GCSE which was a bloody miracle) but a quick sum seems to make that just over 16% of the bottle remaining unpoured. If I pay £2.50 from Mr Lawrence for the bottle, which I did (a decent price for a 7.4% abv IPA to be fair), then that's 40p of non drinkable liquid in the bottle. (Approx.) Times that by the number of bottle conditioned ales I'll drink in a year and it might come to a fair few quid....

I like good beer though. So, in light of the recent, controversial Fool's Gold article (possibly aimed at ltd ed. beers only), I think I'll prefer to leave the indignation to others and get on with the yeast as best I can.

This was a lovely IPA from Partizan, brewed with some bit fruity new world hops which gave it a wonderful and huge fresh orange kick off the nose and a wallop of Fanta in the gob, with a lovely, long and satisfying bitter finish. Bit thin perhaps, but that's the style to be appreciated rather than a nit to be picked. But there was a huge amount of sediment! I thought for a moment that it might have contained orange bits, like a Tropicana, the flakes were that large. I bought a fair few bottles of this at the time (6 I think, a few as gifts) and on one of my less careful pours, I simply couldn't avoid including some yeast which really tainted the taste for me.

I understand this beer was brewed as part of the Rainbow Project, an initiative asking 7 big UK breweries to contribute a rainbow coloured beer. I would've loved to try this Partizan out of a keg - no yeast issues would've made all the difference for me I think.

Partizan, Christmas Stout

My one and only Christmas beer this one from Partizan, a barrel aged strong stout with brettanomyces. My wittily succinct untappd description was "mulled wine and marmite", to which I can't add too much more I'm afraid: burgundy pour, ribena nose (with a marmite edge), taste was spicy mulled wine with a pretty sour edge to it. Minor contribution from the stout only (minimal burnt malts and tar). I kind of knew what I was getting into with this one but nonetheless couldn't really enjoy it for what it was. To make matters worse, I'd caught a particularly nasty bug at some point during the day (visit to The Unicorn for a kid's production probably did it) and I saw the contents of the bottle once more at about 5am, so my memories of this drink are almost certainly tainted somewhat. Think I'll drink my bretts in their more traditional beer-homes in the future.

Partizan, IPA - Simcoe

No need for notes on this one - typically sound IPA from Mr. Smith at Partizan. I like Simcoe alot - created by those clever folk in the Yakima Valley I think. I went back to this IPA a few times if I remember rightly.

Partizan, Foreign Export Stout

Stouts are alot easier for me to quantify and calibrate than IPAs it seems - I seem to have more notes for them than my IPAs... Fantastic FES from Partizan: stinks of coal, charcoal and sweet tar. Murky yellow foam head. Creamy mouthfeel with the alcohol detectable on the extreme edges. It's strong though and it got me drunk. Heavy and my sips were small and slow. Knowing with Nicholas Cage was on whilst I drank this - some scenes reminded me of the the Thin Man from that educational children's series that I watched at middle school. Anyone else remember that? Late on in the drink I realised that my teeth had sort of a slight iron coating on them.

Partizan, IPA - Bobek & Amarillo

Another yellow pour this one. Something distinctive in this, possibly due to the Bobek? Vanilla possibly. Very smooth mouthfeel. What abv? Too easy to drink!

Partizan, IPA - Columbus, Chinook & Cascade

An almost perfect IPA for me: lighter in colour than my previous Partizan IPA (which was almost red). No taste of the abv. Drunk very fresh (almost within a couple of weeks I think).

Partizan, Pale Ale - Columbus and Cascade

Yellow pour. Distinct nose. Drank this one week fresh at the brewery. Orange squash and some bits of bubblegum. Medium bitter finish.

Partizan Brewery, 5 Grain Porter

I first tried this porter from Partizan at the Cask Pub and Kitchen in Pimlico. Thoroughly opaque and satisfyingly full bodied in taste for a relatively low abv. I had a blocked nose when trying this at home, but even that couldn't mask the thick coffee aromas that came out of the neck of the bottle - drinking it gave my teeth and gums a coating of slightly spiky, worn velvet. One of Partizan's best I think.

Partizan Brewery, Saison Galaxy

I managed to drink this Saison brew from Partizan within about 6 weeks of it being brewed, so I think I got it reasonably fresh. Very hazy, crayon yellow, tropical nose. My first Saison, I couldn't isolate the components of that very distinctive taste as such: winter spices/herbs? Cinnamon? Cloves possibly? (Mouthwash??) The Galaxy hops came through as a sort of parenthesis to the spices - possibly in the same manner that the hops accompany some of those hoppy brown ales (i.e. Kernel India Brown Ale + Brewdog's 5am Saint). Forward thinking brewing for sure, but if I was being uncharitable, the hoppiness might seem to be present only for the sake of it? I absolutely don't mean to say that this pairing of flavours should be frowned upon, but it did have the slight effect that my drinking ended up feeling more like an experiment than classic enjoyment. (I strongly suspect though, that this tacitly says more about my level of experience than it does anything else. Obviously, if it wasn't for experimentation with beer flavours, I wouldn't have started this blog....)

My palate was homemade fishcakes with a fresh horseradish sauce - that strength of flavour could well have influenced my tasting of this beer. Saisons aren't for me I don't think. I'll try another I think (a 'truer' example, the Dupont probably) for parity's sake, but I'm not expecting to be converted.

Partizan Brewery, IPA: Columbus, Cascade, Bravo

Poured a similar colour to a light red ale? This IPA from Partizan became amazing at about the half way point. I tasted marshmallows? The bitterness wasn't a stinger, but gave me a kind of swelling at the back of the tongue and on the inside of the cheeks. Keen to try their next IPA.

Partizan Brewery, Pale Ale: Cascade, Wakatu

Brewed with Northern and Southern Hemisphere hops, this pale ale from Partizan was surprisingly mild in flavour terms - not in a bad way, just less of a blatant sherbet wallop than other similarly marketed beers. In actual fact, this beer did not taste it's 6% abv whatsoever, almost making it a kind of antithesis to drinks like the Table Beer and Dead Pony Club. Wine Gums on the nose, a relatively mild finish: a quick sting then a long linger at the back corners of the tongue. Enjoyed this alot, could probably have drunk quite a lot of it. (And then been quite poorly the next day!)

Partizan Brewery, Almond Road SE16

I popped to the Partizan Brewery in Bermondsey yesterday. It's a small space under the railway line (running from London Bridge down to where I am in Crystal Palace) where they're using the Kernel's old kit. Andy, the owner, kindly let me take a few photos - it was great to see the facilities up close. The equipment looks like it's seen a fair bit of action in it's time! Partizan are adding to their core range: a saison and an export stout (a special edition of which will have spent part of it's brewing process in a Strathmill cask - looking forward to that one). Many thanks to Andy (and also to Josh) for chatting and again for letting me take some snaps.