Sep 14 2013
Bottled Ales – September 2013 Pt 2
(The Hawkshead Windermere Pale is FLYING off the shelves
at Sainsburys in Bolton!)
Before I start in earnest, a quick note. For those of you who are blissfully unaware of major supermarket promotions, The Sainsbury Great British Beer Hunt is on now. This is where Sainsbury holds regional contests for bottled ales and the top 5 from each region go through to a National contest. The winners (2) going on to National distribution for at least 6 months. For some micros this is A BIG THING! The winner being decided democratically. By number of bottles sold.
So. In you nearest Sainsbury now, there all the beers in the GBBH should be on the shelves. These include such luminaries of the UK Micro scene as HardKnott, Harbour, Hawkshead, Williams Bros, etc…. All these beers are at the bargain price of £1.50 per bottle. get in and grab some bargains. You’d be bonkers not to! Oh yeah, The contest lasts 3 weeks. So get in before it’s over!
Now, back to my usual wafflings!
“Pardon me, I’m drunk again and when I’m drunk I make no sense,
but I crack more jokes and that’s my self-defence.
You caused me to think and I thought of what I’d have home without you,
You drove me to drink and I never had the courtesy to thank you!”
(“Pigeons In The Attic Room” – Everything But The Girl)
If you have ever read one of these before, you will know what is comes next!……The format remains….
1. The Beer, 2. The Brewer, 3. The Strength, 4. The beer style, 5. The Price & Size (including discount, eg: for CAMRA membership, where applicable). 6. 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…
(A cracking debut!)
1. New World IPA – Northern Monk Brew Co (Bradford, West Yorkshire) – 6.2% abv – IPA – £2.48 (330ml) – Yorkshire Ales (Snaith, East Yorkshire)
Launching only this summer, this is a REALLY new brewery! I picked up on the buzz on Twitter and asked Adrian & Vicky at Yorkshire Ales to put a couple aside. Then promptly forgot to pick them up! A few weeks later, I popped back in and rectified. Therefore, this review comes a bit late in the day really. This was their sole beer at launch, but they have subsequently released an Imperial Stout – Strannik and brewed at least two collaborations, both with favourite brewers of mine – Allgates of Wigan and Weird Beard. I have a bottle of the Weird Beard collab “Bad Habit” and hope to pick up the Allgates collab soon….anyhow…What the hell does it taste like? Good question!
It’s a burnished gold in colour with a glass-clinging lacy white head. The aroma that I got was some toffee with a nose-tingling spicy hop. In the mouth was more caramel toffee sweetness with a growing grassy fruity bitterness with a tongue-drying grapefruit note. A lovely lingering grassy bitterness in the finish. A proper hoppy UK IPA.
Check out their website above. Really stylish design which has carried into the bottle label. Classy.
2. 09/02 – Brew By Numbers (London) – 6.3% abv – Nut Brown Ale – £3.50 (ish) (330ml) – The Ale Man (Castlefield Market, Manchester).
Another beer grabbed from the cracking stall at Castlefield Market run by Damian O’Shea. Go and pay a visit on a Sunday, he’s got some cracking stuff (and he puts out samples too!)
A lively wee devil this. Incredibly deep brown almost black beer with a latte coloured head and an aroma of a dark chocolate Marathon (showing my age, but never did get the change to Snickers!). Medium bodied, touch of bitter-sweet chocolate with roasted brazils and walnuts. Some residual sweetness with more roasted nut and a finishing snap of bitterness from the Columbus hops. Really nice beer.
Brown ales have truly come as long way from topping up my halves of “Dog” in the 80s – still the only beer that could be relied on to give me a hangover, ahh……. the unlamented 80s!
3. Blonde – The Hop Studio (York, North Yorkshire) – 3.5% abv – Blonde Ale – £2.25 (500ml) – Yorkshire Ales (Snaith, East Yorkshire)
As pale as a lager, a really pale gold. Light floral and fruity aroma with a nose-wrinkling peppery hop note. A crisp and clean light bodied refreshing beer this with a light caramel biscuit malt more than balanced with some spicy fruity hops (Chinook, Cascade & Nelson Sauvin) and some lovely bitter grapefruit in the finish too.
A beer that is full of flavour at this low strength, this could be a perfect “bridge” beer for a macro lager drinker! Just a thought! (Had their Porter in Pie & Ale in Mcr last night – like chocolate ice cream – lush!)
(Great beer AND the NFL is BACK!!!)
4. Dissolution Extra IPA – Kirkstall Brewery (Kirkstall, Leeds, West Yorkshire) – 6% abv – IPA – £3.05 (500ml) – Beermoth (Manchester)
Picked this up on my (rather delayed) first visit to Beermoth on Tib St. Judging by what I saw in the range, it certainly WON’T be my last. Looking for something I hadn’t tried (and sticking to my UK ethos) I spied this, the first bottle produced by this Leeds brewer. Having had some of their casked offerings at Port Street and the superb kegged Framboise, I was looking forward to this one.
Pale gold again with bitter citrus and piney resins on the nose. A big malty backbone was complimented with fabulous earthy and resinous hops climbing all over it! Yummy! This is dry, resinous and HUGELY bitter with some orangey marmalade lurking in the aftertaste. This is a really cracking first bottle from Kirkstall. Hugely impressive.
(Another Mallinsons Single Hop pale? Oh yes please!!!)
5. Bramling Cross (Single Hop Pale Ale) – Mallinsons Brewery (Huddersfield, West Yorkshire) – 3.8% abv – Pale Ale – Yorkshire Ales (Snaith, East Yorkshire)
Where do I begin….Another Single Hop Pale by Mallinsons. Having had several of their single hop beers recently, they just seemed to get better and better, Not being over familiar with the Bramling Cross hop, I was a little worried that there may be a dud lurking here. Oh no! Another cracking session pale ale from these Huddersfield alechemists!
Bottle conditioned, pale gold and lively with some dark fruit on the nose, maybe damson and blackcurrant with a hint maybe of apple. Swirling around my gob, there was lots of blackcurrant with maybe a hint of tart gooseberry. Lovely, refreshing with a nice dry grassy aftertaste. Some real spice to this that left my mouth and gums tingling. A fabulous refreshing beer. Just wish I could see more of their stuff on draught over here!
I’ve said previously that I think that these ladies have nailed lower strength single hop pale ales. Point made.
(SUCH classy labelling!)
6. South Pacific Pale Ale – Bad Seed Brewery (Malton, North Yorkshire) – 5.8% abv – Pale Ale – £2.48 (330ml) – Yorkshire Ales (Snaith, East Yorkshire)
I previously had picked up (and reviewed) their India Pale Ale & awesome Espresso Stout from Bierhuis in Ossett. If you read this regularly, you’ll know that I was hugely impressed by this new brewery from Malton. On my most recent visit to see Adrian Pettit (Vicky, sadly, being busy elsewhere!) I picked up the whole range for both myself and a friend. I like the look of these bottles. The only thing that slightly disappointed me was that the name ISN’T derived from Nick Caves’ great band! Never mind eh?
Another goldie this, with the light head yielding a light marmaladey nose. This is medium bodied and more delicate than the beastly India Pale but is no less impressive and is equally delicious. The New Zealand hops (Green Bullet, Pacifica and Pacific Gem) giving up a lovely orangey bitterness laid over some nice almost Digestive biscuity malt. Nice dry grassy quality in the finish too. More of a lightness of touch with this beer and very impressive it is too!
If you get hold of any of these, I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.
Anyway, that’s it for now!
On that note….’til next time…
Slainte!
Apr 26 2014
Bottled Ales – April 2014 – Pt 4
“You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline – it helps if you have some kind of a football team,
or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.” Frank Zappa
(Nicked without ceremony from the excellent website www.aswiftone.com)
“Between lightning and thunder, 3 seconds the gap. A warm candle glow keeps this wood room from black,
My cat, she sleeps on an old clippy mat, purring out echoes of faint pitter pat,
As the rain pours down in the yard. Rain, that most haunting sound.
Rain, makes beautiful music and rain brings peace upon all whom it pours.”
(“Rain” – Martin Stephenson & The Daintees)
(Video courtesy of GTG5573 on You Tube)
No link to a beer this week for the song. This choice was inspired by just looking outside of my window as I started typing!
Some songs and albums just speak of a time in our lives. Some, not many, can do that and remain timeless. One such album (for me) is Boat To Bolivia by Martin Stephenson & The Daintees. It speaks of a time when this particular young man was a-courtin’ the young lady who was to become (and remains) my wife of nearly 25 years (she’s eligible for parole next year!)
Released in 1986, it is choc full of timeless songwriting. Tackling some heavy duty subject matter with a lightness of touch, from Crocodile Cryer through to Rain – (and the reggae inflected bonus title track), this is songwriting to simultaneously wallow and delight in. Just a joy, and one of the few albums my dearest brought into the marriage that we agreed on! Ah. The memories of my darling hobbit – all 4’8″ of her- having to sit on my shoulder so she could see the band at The International II in 1989! Priceless. A great album, often overlooked. Get on Spotify and have a listen!
Anyway – 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 – Squawk Brewing Company (Ardwick, Manchester) – 4.9% abv – Pale Ale – £2.69 (330ml) – 10% for 12 Bottles – The Liquor Shop (Whitefield, N Manchester)
Beautifully carbonated and as gold as a Yukon wet dream, with a white head and a pacific hop aroma that makes me want to break out the grass skirt and dance a hula!
Making me drool. Seriously drool! Oooh Matron! Sharp. Really sharp in the mouth with enough grapefruit to start a fruit shop. A really bold beer! Light to medium-bodied, the initial fruitiness is immediately followed by a bitterness tsunami, crested by piney resins, like white foamy horses stamping around your mouth.
Hugely refreshing and full of flavour, go buy one and treat yourself. Oliver Turton done good. Again.
2. The IPA – Anspach & Hobday (Bermondsey, S London) – 6% abv – IPA – £3.35 (330ml) – 10% for 12 Bottles – The Liquor Shop (Whitefield, N Manchester)
A new one to me, this brewery. However, having read some recent “Bermondsey Mile” posts, including one by my beery buddy TysonTheBeerhound I was expecting something interesting, to say the least. This also came with a “Raj Recommendation” too, so, if it was crap, HIS reputation was on the line with me! So…
An enticing deep golden/amber coloured beer with a lasting white head and restrained fruity yet slightly spicy aroma that carried a buttery note. Intriguing…..
Oh boy does this come alive in the mouth with the hops (Centennial, Galaxy & Columbus) singing loud and proud! Big boned ole beer this, with a good toffeeish malty spine augmented with some ripe orange marmalade leading on to a healthy helping of apricot (2 of your 5 a day in one glass. Result!).
Really smooth this, but certainly punching all of its 6% weight. The bitterness is fairly restrained but what there is, is pounced upon by a big sticky resinous finish. Big. Full-flavoured. And the head clings to the glass to the end. Classy IPA.
3. Lupy As A Toucan (Amarillo, Citra, Galaxy, Motueka) – Cheshire Brewhouse – (Congleton, Cheshire) – 5% abv – Pale Ale – £3.50 – 15% for 12 or more – Great Ale Year Round (Bolton Market Hall)
Last Tuesday, I received some intel that a firkin of Deeply Vale’s Tipsy Porridge Stout had been tapped at Dan & Gina Buck’s excellent wee micro bar. Being like a lemming faced with a cliff….It was all lush too…DV8 barrel aged in 20 yr old Bruchladdich cask….A Beergasm…. Whilst there – just before I left – this puppy caught my eye, One of Shane Swindells’ “Lupy” range that I was yet to try….
A deep gold beer with a full white fluffy head and a hugely fruity aroma with peach and pineapple sweetness in the vanguard, Um Bongo time again!
In the mush…. Mmmm…Really fruity! The first mouthful yields a luscious peachyness upfront, then a full-on bitterness, feels like there’s more to this…so, peeling back another onion layer….orange and tangerine, followed by that wave of bitterness again. This is another lovely beer…Oops..another layer…some mango too. Then that bitterness as night follows day….Really dry bitter and grassy finish to this too. Another cracker from Mr Swindells in “The Congo” (Rhymes with “Um Bongo”…No? Ach nuts! I’m no poet. And I know it!)
4. Niamh’s Nemesis – Five Towns Brewery (Wakefield, W Yorkshire) – 5.7% – Strong Pale Ale – Direct From Brewery – 0 –
Is there a pub out there that would do me a favour, near Manchester. Get some of this beer in!
This was among 13 other bottles that I liberated from Malcolm Bastow’ s boxes when I recently popped in to collect some casks for the Allgates Road To Wigan Beer Festival. Thank you Malcolm! (On a winner immediately with the Gaelic name!)
A golden beer with a nice white lacy head and an aroma bursting with grapefruit and apricot tartness.
Really fruity again this. Full of body, with a light biscuity malt, bitter fruitiness gatecrashes in with more grapefruit and some nice tart gooseberry (hopped with Nelson Sauvin & Cascade). Fruity mouthful after fruity mouthful, this is one superb Pale Ale. I could swear I got a taste of rhubarb in there too…..
Each mouthful is followed by a good strong bitterness and the finish is really dry with those piney beasties just lurking around the corner in that aftertaste, for the unwary. This is really easy drinking, perilously so at the strength. Another corker from Outwood!
5. Mystery Beer 002 – Craft Rebellion (Who knows?) – 5.9% abv – Milk Stout – £0 (500ml) – 0 – Direct by mail
Nice shape to this bottle! The second beer to try that I’ve received from this shop. The idea of the Mystery being that you try it and see if you can figure who it is. Of course, I’m rubbish, ‘cos I’d never have had the 001 (Saison) as Partizan! Saisons may not be my personal luggage of choice….a Milk Stout however….
“Oooooooh….STOP!” (Listening to “Where Is My Mind” by The Pixies as I drink this!)
Impenetrably black. (Always a good start with a stout!) A beautifully full cappucino coloured head and a nose full of…freshly roasted coffee!…Yummy!
Bloody hell this is SO good! The first thing I get is a full-bodied, creamy smooth mouthful with that bitter coffee, like the reveille being sounded on Sgt Bilko, eye-opening!
Then, like another one of those onion layer things….that lactic sweetness pops its head out and says “Hello!” This is lush! That milky sweetness slips down oh so beautifully and reveals something slightly warming as it slides. The finish for this is slightly sweet with that bitter roast for balance. A cracking Stout!
6. Smoked Porter – Saltaire Brewery (Shipley, W Yorkshire) / Northern Monk Brew Co (Holbeck, Leeds) – 6% abv – Smoked Porter – £1.80(I think!) (500ml) – Saltaire Brewery Bottle Shop
Another collaboration from those nomadic monks, this time staying a little closer to their Yorkshire roots. (Should be brewing in their own brewery in Holbeck about now!). Have enjoyed each beer thoroughly so far, I couldn’t see a collaboration with the reliably excellent Saltaire being any different!
Almost totally black beer with a latte coloured head and an aroma with some treacle toffee and a gentle whiff of wood smoke.
This is full-bodied and really silky smooth in the mouth (oat malt). Slightly sweet, there is definitely something of the bonfire about this beer, treacle toffee certainly and a definite subtle smokiness. There is a gentler bitterness to the finish, quite dialled down on the scale, but nonetheless, there is a grassy note in the finish along with that subtle smoke. It’s a cool evening tonight and this is perfect! Please brew this again fellas, this autumn would be nice!
Another cracking batch there. Next post might be a wee brief review of the CAMRA Bolton Beer Fest from this weekend.
On that note…’til next time….
Slainte!
By • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: Anspach & Hobday, Cheshire Brewhouse, Citra, Craft Rebellion, Five Towns Brewery, Galaxy, IPA, Lupy As A Toucan (Amarillo, Martin Stephenson & The Daintees, Motueka, Mystery Beer 002, Niamh's Nemesis, Northern Monk Brew Co, Pale, Pale Ale, Saltaire Brewery, Smoked Porter, Squawk Brewing Company, Strong Pale Ale, The IPA