Jun 28 2014
Bottles Ales – June 2014 – Pt 2
“So he paints a pretty picture and he tells you that he needs you
and he covers you with flowers and he always keeps you dreaming.
If he always keeps you dreaming, you won’t have a lonely hour.
If a day could last forever, you might like your ivory tower.
But the night begins to turn your head around…….”
(“The Night” – Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons)
(Clip courtesy of FayteKnightmare on YouTube)
One of the few high points of Motown Chartbusters 10, a series of albums that arguably peaked at No 6 and thereafter were the vinyl embodiment of The Law Of Diminishing Returns. 10 was moderately weak, but 11 & 12 I have disowned.
Who needs “Oh What A Night” and the dubious subject matter of “You’re Ready Now”, “The Night” has a bass line to die for, just a perpetual rumble, overlaid with the harmonies, brass, skittering strings. A Northern Soul classic that isn’t aired enough for me, never fails to make me “dad dance” in the kitchen!
On to the beer eh?
If you have ever read one of these before, you will know what comes next! If you haven’t….this is the format…
1. The Beer, 2. The Brewer, 3. The Strength, 4. The beer style, 5. The Price & Size, 6. The discount (and why, eg: for CAMRA membership or shop deal, where applicable) 7. Where from, and, If a website for the vendor exists, the hyperlink to the shop / brewer website, just in case you are inspired enough by my ramblings to make a purchase! Here goes….And remember, if you like the look of something, click on the (purple) hyperlink!
1. Pale Ale (Simcoe) – Wiper and True (Bristol) – 5% abv – Pale Ale – £3.39 (500ml) – 10% for 12 Btls –The Liquor Shop (Whitefield, Gtr Manchester)
A mid-golden coloured beer with a thin and rapidly dissipated white head (unclean glass the likely culprit!) Quite hazy, must have let some yeast slip through.
A full-on aroma of mango and peach tickling the nostrils and getting the saliva glands working overtime. Nicely full-bodied (considering the strength). Real full-on fruitiness with this, mango sweetness scored with a hint of tart grapefruit. Smooth mouthfeel, each mouthful just gets fruitier – starting to think how many of my 5 a day I’m getting from this!
Nice bit of pine needle in the finish to this, with the bitterness quite dialled down adding to the smooth feel. A really good fruity pale ale.
2. Saison le Printemps – Burning Sky (Firle, East Sussex) – 4.2% abv – Saison – £2.99 (330ml) – 10% for 12 Btls – The Liquor Shop (Whitefield, Gtr Manchester)
A glowing bronze colour to this well carbonated beer, with a tight white head, quite creamy looking, giving an aroma sweet with banana split toffee, clove and something more perfumed, almost rose-water?
Light on the tongue, the floral flavour is the first thing that springs to mind in the mouth, that and a spicy note. Then clove strokes the tongue sweetly. The finish is quite grassy, spicy and dry.
Overall, whilst I don’t claim to know much about saisons, this Spring beer is hugely refreshing and light. Isn’t that the job they were originally brewed for? Job done. Damn well.
3. Single Bramling – Ringway Brewery (North Reddish, Stockport) – 4% abv – Pale Ale – £2.79 (500ml) – 10% for 12 Btls – The Liquor Shop (Whitefield, Gtr Manchester)
Crystal clear amber beer with a lacy bright white head and an aroma groaning with malty toffee and stone fruit, some plum and maybe a little blackberry.
Initially fruity with those hedgerow fruits like blackberry and some deep plum, a little orange too. Quite spicy and peppery too balancing the caramel biscuit malt sweetness which smoothly leads to a quite bitter finish. An oaky, lingering peppery hop aftertaste rounds this off nicely.
Paul is unapologetic in his use of British hops and swims against the current brewery tide in their rush for citrus mouth wreckers. He is Damn right and I applaud him for it. He aims for flavourful easy drinking beers. With this, he is bang on target.
4. Quirky Kiwi – Offbeat Brewery (Crewe, Cheshire) – 4.6% abv – NZ Pale Ale – £2.65 (500ml) – 10% for 12 Btls – Tottering Temple (Horwich, Bolton)
A lovely golden colour to this, with good carbonation, a nice clinging white fluffy head giving up citrussy aromas of peach, passion fruit and a little tangerine.
Ooh, this is rather nice! Smooth and medium-bodied but with a nice prickly carbonation (if that makes sense?). Really fruity, the passion fruit upfront, with kiwi and a little peach. SUCH an easy drinking beer, this could be dangerous on cask! This smoothness extends to the bitterness, which is restrained, but still present leading to a pleasant grassy hop aftertaste.
A little cracker. And at less than £2.40 a bottle (with discount) – a bloody bargain!
5. Cascade – Blackedge Brewery (Horwich, Bolton) – 4% abv – Pale Ale – £2.20 (500ml) – 10% for 12 Btls – Tottering Temple (Horwich, Bolton)
Orange golden beer with a fluffy clinging white head and a smell laden with citrus with a hint of lemon, some orange fruit and grapefruit. Really aromatic.
Medium-bodied, quite smooth textured with a gentle carbonation, this is beautifully fruity in the mouth. Feeling bigger than a 4% beer, this has a good malty biscuit backbone overlaid with bitter grapefruit, nice and tart with a bitterness that grabs your attention. That bitter grapefruit lingers long into the aftertaste, quite bracing. All the way down the glass. Lovely!
This could be a cracking session beer on draught – it was the pick of their beers at Blackedge’s open bar last week!
6. West Coast Pale – Liverpool Craft Beer Co (Liverpool) – 6.2% abv – Pale Ale – £2.95 (330ml) – 10% for 12 Btls – The Liquor Shop (Whitefield, Gtr Manchester)
Deep golden almost amber coloured beer, with a good deep white foamy head and a booming spicy tart citrus aroma, woof!
Full-bodied, gentle carbonation and really smooth feel to this. First impression in the mouth was of malty sweetness laced with apricot liqueur, which yielded primacy to something more like a bitter Seville orange with a sharp and tart lemon and grapefruit tinge lurking in the shadows. Bit of a Belgian style yeasty tinge too.
Low on the bitterness scale, there is a clinging sticky pine in the aftertaste which finishes it nicely.This is just SO smooth and lush and quite dangerously moreish at this strength.
There you go. Next time, I shall address the dire lack of dark beers!
Off to Black Jack & First Chop later. Anyone coming?
On that note…’til next time…
Slainte!
Just learned that Bobby Womack is dead and a star has just fallen from my sky. RIP Bobby – A TRUE Musical Legend.
Aug 20 2014
The Levenshulme Beer Festival 22-24 August 2014
“Baby, I’ve been breaking glass in your room again. Listen.
Don’t look at the carpet. I drew something awful on it. See.
You’re such a wonderful person, but you’ve got problems”
“Breaking Glass” – David Bowie
(Clip courtesy of TheBabyUniversal on YouTube)
Low. The Album. Side One. The Greatest Side Of Vinyl. Period. (I need say no more)
I have a confession to make. I like Black Jack. I liked Rob Hamilton’s beers WAY before I saw him nearly cacking himself just before his first “Meet The Brewer” event at Port Street Beer House last year. He and (now) his team just make superbly drinkable tasty beers, no show or fuss. Just damn fine beer.
Since then, the brewery joined forces and effectively merged with the burgeoning distribution concern that is/was Glassworks. This meant that alongside all that Mancunian goodness that is the card bedecked beers of Black Jack, you now have distribution for many of the luminaries of the British Craft Beer movement all around the area.
Sometimes, these things come together for the good of all. Like this weekend!
Black Jack Beers are curating the Levenshulme Beer Festival for its second year and with the list of brewers involved, it promises to be a blast! With the likes of Kernel, Weird Beard, Siren Craft, Wild Beer Co, Arbor, Hopcraft, Burning Sky……The list stretches into the sunset. Cask heads and Keg heads, even the craftiest of drinkers can sate their liquid lusts at The Klondyke Club on Burnage Range!
What I can say without fear or favour, is that if this comes even close to the chilled out vibe that I’ve felt, each time the Black Jack have opened their doors for one of their – now semi-legendary – Brewery Taps, you’re in for a treat! Great chilled out tuneage from the superb DJs and some of the best Street Food in Manchester (I’ve had grub from The Moocher & Arepa Arepa Arepa at the Taps. They know their food!)
So. Who’s coming? I’ll be there on Saturday for certain – I’ll be the old bloke palming off flyers for The Independent Salford Beer Festival!
Come on down. You won’t regret it!
By • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: Arbor Ales, Black Jack Beers, Burning Sky Brewery, Hopcraft Brewing, Kernel, Siren Craft Brew, The Independent Salford Beer Festival, Weird Beard Brew Co, Wild Beer Co