Aug 28 2014
Bottled Ales – August 2014 – Pt 2
“Is this the way that you wanted to pay
Won’t you show me, please show me the way
Is this the way that you wanted to pay
Won’t you show me, please show me the way
Show me, show me, show me, show me, show me”
(“Everything’s Gone Green” – New Order)
(Video clip courtesy of Brian110x on YouTube)
The first release where New Order primarily based the backing track on the use of synthesisers. It was a bloody revelation when it backed the track “Procession” released in September 1981. For me, it also marked a departure of sorts, as the general sound and feel of the band hadn’t shaken off the suicide of Ian Curtis – in my opinion – until the release of this single.
I saw Joy Division at the now infamous concert at Bury’s Derby Hall on 08 April 1980 (a concert – a bit like the Sex Pistols at The Lesser Free Trade Hall – where thousands professed to being there!) when I saw 3 tracks performed with different singers until the bottling started after Ian Curtis (deeply unwell, as we now know) departed the stage to be replaced by Alan Hempsall (Crispy Ambulance) and – I only recently discovered – Simon Topping from A Certain Ratio. Until the above track, the sound hadn’t moved on THAT much.
Certainly, when I saw New Order’s first Manchester gig in February 1981, nothing much had changed – including the ritualistic chanting of “Wilson is a Wanker!” at the sighting of Tony Wilson on stage – how opinions change eh? (As an aside, that concert is listed on many websites as being at Manchester Polytechnic. Bollocks! Manchester gigs at “The Poly” were at Cavendish Hall until it closed. This was on Hathersage Road – just at the Oxford Rd end from Victoria Baths.)
I got pissed off with New Order sometime in the middle of a concert at Salford Uni in 1985 (Low Life tour). I walked out half way through. The last album I loved was Technique (though I bought Republic out of curiosity, I never really “got” it. It bored me. Something they hadn’t done to me until that video, shot on a beach, for Regret.
I must be getting old. Was that first concert REALLY 33 1/2 years ago?
Moving swiftly on to the beer…..
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. Lupy As A Toucan (Simcoe, EXP 366, Motueka) – Cheshire Brewhouse (Congleton, Cheshire) – 5.6% abv – Pale Ale – £3 (500ml) – Londis (Penny Lane, Liverpool)
A really big, full-bodied mouthful this. A bit like Um Bongo but with added bitterness and pine. By heck this is a fruity little beast, more deep Mango, but with a really substantial bitterness balancing that fruity sweetness. And that bitterness? Oh my! Uncompromising to say the least! Probably more of an IPA style than a Pale Ale. But really, I don’t give a toss, ‘cos it’s bloody lovely
Light bodied and full on fruity with the Mango front and centre, so fruity that it could be one of my five a day! This is hugely refreshing whilst being possessed of a bracing bitterness.
This is very generous of Rik, because this is right up there with AVA for me. Salford has a brewer to rejoice in. A simply cracking beer, light fruity refreshing and bitter. Possibly the perfect summer ale for a warm Cornish evening (as it was when I drank it!)
The body of a Stout, the hopping and fruity bitterness of a black IPA and the astringent spicy touch of the juniper allied to the Rye. This is bloody lovely. Full bodied and smoothly carbonated, The initial coffee roast & bitter chocolate leads to a fruitiness (maybe apricot) before the coffee reasserts itself and dries on the tongue stripping it of moisture. The juniper and Rye add to this with a spicy touch in the finish leasing to a crackle of pine needle resins in the aftertaste. Classy beer.
Light bodied and very fruity. Peach and kiwi perhaps at first taste, then the tea kicks in with that tannic dryness and light jasmine touch.
Fresh and fruity this is a lovely light and refreshing beer with that signature Belgian spicy yeast note kicking in in the finish leading to a dry lightly grassy hop aftertaste. An excellent bottle from Stalyvegas.
Full bodied, creamy textured feel in the mouth, the initial hit is mango, with a little sweet apricot, but this mutates quickly into a darker shade of flavour with licorice racing forward.
This is my kind of Black IPA, more on the Stouty side than IPA on the flavour spectrum. The impressive thing is how, flavour wise, it goes from Pale to dark flavours in the same mouthful. As good as it was on cask at Stockport Beer Fest.
If this was a tune, it would be Young Americans by Bowie. A beery slice of blue eyed soul. Beautiful.
Mar 7 2015
Bottled Ales – March 2015 – Pt 1
This week, just for an experiment, I’m going to flip the order of things a little. Just to see if it works. Let’s begin….. With a bumper crop just SHAKING with Beergasms! (I spoil you – oh yes I do!)
The Beers
Table IPA (Tickety Few) – Tickety Brew (Stalyvegas, Cheshire) – 2.9%abv – Pale Ale – Epicurean (W Didsbury) £2.05 (330ml)
A beautiful and clear pale golden beer, with good firm carbonation providing a lasting white fluffy collar and an aroma of tangerine and sherbet lemons. I’m drooling!
Mmmmmm…… Gooseberry and lemon tartness! The first mouthful is a tart delight, pin sharp, crisp and lemony in a light body with a light rich tea biscuit base holding up this sharp hoppage.
This is every bit as refreshing as I remember it on cask. It’s bloody lovely with that signature Belgian yeast note adding to a light banana note to the abrupt dry finish. I’m so glad that I picked this up.
N.S. IPA – Rammy Craft Ales (Ramsbottom, Bury) – 3.5%abv – Pale Ale – 500ml – Browtons (Ashton-U-Lyne)
Love the rebrand that this brewery has done. Really gives the bottles more presence on the shelf. This was the only one in the shop and it really drew my eyes.
The beer itself is an ultra pale gold with a light white head and a big nose full of passion fruit, gooseberry and kiwi. Sharp and mouth-watering.
Light bodied (as you would expect at this strength) this is hugely refreshing. Full of sharp lemony citrus with an undernote of tart gooseberry, this is a proper all day beer just so light, vibrant, fresh and zingy.
This is a proper fruity mouthful which is going down all too quickly! The fruitiness leads to a short dry finish with a little piney resin and a residual lemony note in the aftertaste. Yum.
Have a feeling that I will be giving Mr Holmes a call prior to #ISBF2015!
A crystal clear sparkling golden beer, with a thin yet lasting white head and an enormous fruity aroma of peach, mango and passion fruit? Really juicy nose on this puppy.
Oh bloody hell, this is SUPERB! Medium bodied, this is just as fruity in the mouth as on the hooter! I would say apricot and peach in this first sip with one hell of a sticky resinous aftertaste. This beer punches over its weight!
Second mouthful has actually quite a full mouthfeel to it and brings a nice forthright bitterness to the party but ending in that sticky fruity piney aftertaste. This is a belter and quite possibly the best bottle I’ve had at this strength. Proper #Beergasm material this!
I forgot for a while that, before Richard Conway “went Pro”, I’d had one of his beers before, as he’d won a brewing competition and had his Elephant Hawk brewed professionally with Jay Krause at Quantum. A belter that was.
I think he may have just bettered it.
A deep amber coloured beer this, with a lasting white foamy collar barely suppressing a massive fruity nose full of orange zest, peach and mango. A lovely aroma.
Oh my. Is that followed through in the mouth! More of the peach and mango fruitiness in this initial sip, followed up by a sticky resinous aftershock. This is a proper IPA!
Really smooth feel to this and almost a feel of the tannins you would get from drinking a black tea, herbal and quite astringent. You can’t get away from that fruitiness though! The finish of this combines that pine resin stickiness with those tannins to dry out the mouth and leave you wanting another mouthful.
Don’t mind if I do! A Beergasm.
Barley Wine. An old English beer style. I hate old beer styles. But….. He who dares……
A deep amber coloured beer with a lacey white head and an aroma full of caramelised banana with more than a hint of whisky laced marmalade.
Bloody hell but this is gorgeous and oh so warming! A Big chewy mouthful of toffee malt, with oranges soused in brandy perched on top and blasted with a kitchen blow torch. Then that slight bitter orange sweetness slides down and warms the heart of your cockles!
Then the unexpected bitterness jumped out from the beery shadows and caught me unawares. Is it just me? The older I get the more I actually GET beer styles I would have shunned as little as 5 years ago. This is bloody lovely. A beergasm. This needs ageing in wood for October!!! A proper winter warmer.
Barley Wine. An old English beer style. I love this beer! Beergasm!
This is a righteously dark brown, almost black beer with an appetising creamy coloured head boasting an aroma that is simultaneously spicy (with a Belgian yeast note) and with more than a hint of banana split toffee. Yum! And I haven’t tasted it yet!
Oh yes. There’s the Rye! One dry and spicy little bugger this! Full bodied and quite creamy smooth, the first flavour I’d a little red wine note, followed by coffeeish roasted barley, oh…
But then that Rye does its trick and dried the bejesus out of my mouth! Wow.There’s licorice here, bitter coffee and a little dark bitter chocolate. But not much in the way of sweetness. This is one arid little bastard!
(At this point, I feel like Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally, with this beer playing the Billy Crystal role!)
3 years ago, I wouldn’t have known what to make of this. But in 2015, I absolutely love it! A bloody cracker. And any beer named after Captain Pugwash’s ship is always of to a good start in my book!
Need more beer from Mr Ayling’s Pig and Porter in my life! Beergasm!
Cocoa Wonderland – Thornbridge (Bakewell, Derbyshire) – 6.8%abv – Porter – Barbeerian (Prestwich)
One dark beer. One very dark beer with a collar of beige creamy foam for a head. And SUCH a booming chocolate aroma!!! Like inhaling a Galaxy bar! Oh but it’s chocolaty!
I should cocoa! This is even more chocolaty in the mouth, but not quite as sweet as the aroma suggested. This is a full-bodied beer and no mistake. There’s a nutty quality to this that makes me think of Nutella on toast. There’s also a toffee caramel like a grown up Snickers bar, but liquefied. Definitely a peanut quality to this. Blooming delicious!
There is an appealing dryness to the finish and that nuttiness also lingers pleasantly in the aftertaste. Just a damn fine beer! Thornbridge know how to make some damn fine dark beers!
As black as Hades darkest recesses. But with a light brown foamy collar. Darkness. In beer form. I like dark stuff and this is born of darkness. The smell is like having your nose pushed into a bowl of freshly ground Java beans. Shit but this smells like I shouldn’t be drinking it before bed time!
This tastes so good, that I’m sure it was a bad idea! Huge body, creamy and unctuous. Tastes like a short sharp espresso with a milky lactose sweetness. My eyelids are pinned open. Then, beyond that bitter coffee and milky sweetness, there’s a tongue tingling spicyness in with that bitter roasty loveliness. Each sip being rounded off by a herbal hop dryness.
It’s difficult to say that this improves on Black Perle (a beer that I adore), but it’s a hell of a thing this. And like I implied. A bad thing to drink before bedtime! Sweet (coffee infused) dreams! Beergasm
(Update – I REALLY struggled to get to sleep after this!!!!!)
I’m gonna take the song from every bird and make ’em sing it just for me, yeah.
Bird’s got something to teach us all about being free, yeah.
Be no rain, be no rain
And I think I’ll call it morning from now on”
(“I Think I’ll Call It Morning” – Gil Scott-Heron)
(Clip courtesy Ace Records Ltd on You Tube)
It was probably about 1982/3 that I first came across the music of a man who became one of my favourite artists, Gil Scott-Heron. It was probably his best known tune “The Bottle”, marrying an unstoppable jazzy-soul groove with lyrics portraying the desperation of alcoholism. Over the years, I must have watched thousands of people – of all ages – getting their groove on to this rare groove classic. From the dancefloors of The Hacienda to The Monaco Ballroom in Hindley, it just transcends decades and stands tall. And apart. A stone cold classic.
However, it isn’t my favourite Gil song. That honour goes to the above track, a song I often find myself bawling out in the car on the way home from work. When I’m at my lowest of ebbs, that line “I’m gonna take myself a piece of sunshine……” just brings me round. The man could write. And that baritone voice……
It was great that he got a last hurrah when he released the album “I’m New Here”, subsequently being remixed to great effect by Jamie Smith from The XX. It wasn’t that long ago when I was in 20/22 in Manchester on a quiet night when “I’ll Take Care Of You” came on. A cover of a Brook Benton song (originally recorded by Bobby Bland – of “Shoes” fame), the Gil version was subsequently looted by Drake & Rihanna on “Take Care”. A compliment I suppose. Even in his final months, with his voice little more than a rasping croak, he made the song his. The word “Legend” is over used these days. But this man IS a legend and for me, is right up there with Marvin & Stevie.
Well, that’s it for now. A bumper crop. And a righteous tune. Get some Gil in your life. You can thank me later!
By • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: BarBeerian, Barley Wine, Beer Nouveau, Belgian Rye Porter, Black Jack Beers, Black Pig, Browtons, Chocolate Porter, Cocoa Wonderland, Double Perle, Floating Pints, Hoppy Couple, Imperial Coffee Milk Stout, IPA, NS IPA, Pale Ale, Pig & Porter, Prestwich Vintage 2014, Rammy Craft Ales, Squawk Brewing Company, Table IPA, The Epicurean, Thirst Class Ale, Thornbridge Brewery, Tickety Brew, Weird Beard Brew Co