What's New Pussy Cat?

So as part of my June care package from Beer 52, I received a beer called “Killer Cat Manga.” The label is a plane black label with orange picture of a feline mouth opened wide. Oh it tells me it is 5% ABV. So no indication of what sort of beer this is at all. On the back of the bottle it simply says “It's Beer.” There is some more rhetoric but nothing to tell me what I'm getting myself in for.

Beer 52's litrature tells me that Manga is brewed without the normal early bittering hops, all of the taste comes from huge late additions. The back of the bottle tells me “its beer of course, but not ordinary run-of-the mill beer. We made this to be more interesting tasty and exciting than that. A beer revolution? Who cares. It's beer. So drink it.”

I don't often review beers publicly, nor do “tasting notes” publicly but I feel like I owe you this because I just cannot explain what this beer is. So before I start I want to put my cards on the table, despite not really knowing what it is, I like this beer.

So, when I review beers at home I always start with what happens when you open the bottle, pop the cap. Is it a slight psst or is it an explosive pop or somewhere in between? Well Killer Cat Manga made no noise at all when I opened it. Great I thought, a flat ale for old men with bushy side burns, packaged for the younger markets....Then the beer quite literally exploded out of the bottle. I want to point out this beer has been sitting in my fridge for approximately 3 weeks, horizontal with very little movement. I placed the bottle into the pint glass to catch the spillage. The plot thickened.

Colour, well after the explosion subsided I poured the beer into a pint glass, it poured with a rich orange colour, almost Irn-Bru in colour! I didn’t get much of the nose, the head maybe a finger or so stayed fast what I did get reminded me of a Gold Ale. So a Gold Ale fragrance, an Irn-Bru visual and an explosion out of the bottle. Intrigued I took a sip, nothing on the initial sip, yeah I knew it was beer, but it was so delicate on the palate I couldn't decipher what I was drinking. Then all of a sudden BAM! The after taste was dark and hoppy, it lingered in my mouth for a long time, somewhere between an IPA and a double IPA in terms of taste. I got some roast flavours before the flavour all but left my mouth. Each mouthful was as enjoyable as the previous, I certainly didnt down this beer, the length of flavour meant I was in no rush to empty the bottle but I could easily see myself sitting with half a dozen of a night and drinking them all.

Beer 52's litrature recommends you drink this with a curry, I couldn’t disagree more, I think the dark roasted flavours of this light beer will overpower and distort the delicate spices in curry. I would recommend drinking this with red meat, possibly cooked on a barbecue!

The last words go to Killer Cat themselves, “Its beer of course, but not ordinary run-of-the mill beer. We made this to be more interesting tasty and exciting than that. A beer revolution? Who cares. It's beer. So drink it.”

Killer Cat Brewery     Website     Twitter

A Week in the sun!

A Week in the Sun!

Well folks I'm back after a week in sunny Mallorca, Calla D'Or to be precise. One of my best friends got married out there and we used the excuse to spend a week doing nothing.

Whilst I was there I got to thinking how lucky we are in Ireland, and the United Kingdom in having a vast Beer, and Ale market, even if the majority of people have not yet made the switch to the flavourful world of craft beer. Go to any bar in Belfast, and you will likely have the choice of at least 3 or 4 draft Lager, Guinness, and an ale of the likes of Smitwicks. Then look in the fridges any number of bottles.

When I was in Spain I went to numerous bars and the choice is very limited, you can have on draught, San Miguel and either a Guinness if it is an “Irish” Bar, Doddingtons for the English bars, or Heineken if its anything else. In bottles you can have either a Bud, a Miller, or a Heineken.

I'm glad I'm back here in Belfast were variety really is the spice of life? Now where did they put the factor 20?

Bits and Pieces

Its been over a week since I’ve written anything, and whilst a few things have happened to me over this time, no one thing was blog worthy. So this is a brief run down of what's happened or what's bothered me in the last while.

Anyone who follows me on the Twitter Machine, will know I was out at a bar in Belfast last week and had two glass related incidents. I had been supping Farmegeddons Golden Pale Ale since we arrived at the bar and each time the bar staff asked me if I wanted a glass, and when I said yes they would reach me a nondescript pint glass. No issue. One time a bar man opened my bottle and went to run off with my money without offering a glass. When I asked for one he looked as if id undervalued his first born daughter! He then handed me a steamed up, minging looking small drinks glass, the sort you would take a Vodka and Coke in, only really dirty. Anyone who has even worked in any bar will have at some point went to empty the glass washer only to discover it hasn't gone through the cycle, this is what this glass looked like. I challenged the barman, and again I must have insulted him in some ancient language but I got a clean Tennents glass for my pint. Regular readers will know how much I value customer service in the overall experience, and this occasion the bar did not score highly at all! Thankfully this was a one off and not the norm or I would have taken my custom elsewhere.

O'Haras Red, wonder how they got the name?

Later that night I switched to O'Haras Irish Red Ale, a different barman this time held hold on to my bottle while he searched high and low for a clean glass. He returned a short while later full of apologies and declared that he only had the “heverlee” glass and would that be OK? I’m not a snob, the glass was clean and a decent temperature so I took the glass and poured my bottle into it. Irish Red is so obviously a ruby red beer so imagine my surprise when I poured a dark brown beer with a frothy brown head, several of my party expressed humour that I had a pint of Guinness in a Heverlee glass. It got me thinking how important is glass selection for drinking beer? Ill be writing about that soon.

First batch bottled. 

I got to bottle my latest home brew, which was exciting for me but largely uneventful, but it lead me to...Sampling my latest home brew! I left the beer to condition for just one week before selecting a bottle for sample. I use the “Grolsch” style bottles, and when I popped it open an enthusiastic expression of gas escaping from the bottle really brought a smile to my face. The beer poured with a standard lager style head, unfortunately this didn’t last for the full pint, and neither did the carbonation. The beer was still very cloudy, but tasted much better than it looked, was definitely getting a smoky taste which lingered. I’m going to leave the next sample until July give the beer some time to condition a bit better. I was worried that I had over primed the batch prior to bottling, now I'm not sure I've primed it enough but time will tell.

Cloudy, but with a decent head.

Finally I got round to sampling a bottle from my care package, the first beer I took was Black Wolf Brewery, “Coulls” Lager. Beer52 say Coulls is a smooth contemporary, premium craft lager. Chill for a while and savour the crisp, fresh and peachy flavours. Citrus Fruit and peaches on the nose, and clean crisp and refreshing fruity taste. My experience, the lager poured straight into the glass with very little head, but with plenty of activity in the glass. Very pale golden colour, as pale as something like Budweiser or Corona. I got typical fresh lager aromas with little complexity. Taste wise I got a nice bitter taste that reminded me of Farmageddon GPA, despite not looking nor smelling anything like it. This is a very pleasant experience, definitely a summer beer, could easily buy a case of this for a house party after a BBQ this summer.

Well that’s you up to date, I'm off to colder climates this week, Majorca for a friends wedding, seems like a bit of a waste of money heading to the “Med” for a holiday at the moment. So until next time enjoy the summer sun and drink responsibly(ish)  

A Beer Care Package!

Really didn't expect to be writing again so soon after the Christmas Special yesterday, but as fate would have it I woke up this morning to find this on my door step:

Its the first of my “care packages” from Scottish craft beer company, Beer 52. The premise is simple, you pay them and they send you a care pack of beer every month, there are different payment options and obviously the more you pay up front the cheaper it is. Or you could do what I done, and get someone else to pay for it on your behalf. Well it was my birthday.

Anyway first impressions are good, the bottles are all in tact and very well packaged, I also got a glossy pamphlet describing each of the beers, a smaller glossy book which doubled as a welcome to the club, which also included a featured brewer profile and a selection of notes on another 4 beers the company recommend. I also received a 10% discount voucher from one of the brewery's I got a sample from this month. All very professional stuff.

The notes I got in relation to the 6 beers sent this month, include a description of the beer and brewer, tasking notes, food pairing suggestions and even glass style suggestions, it very detailed, but yet very accessible.

I have been speaking to people at BlackWolf late last month about possibly doing a variety case of their beers instead of having to buy a case of a single type, blindly, they told me it is something they are looking into and hopefully there will be developments on that soon, in the mean time I received a lager named Coulls from them, a good starting point. Also included was “Centurion,” an American Style IPA from newcomers HillsideBrewery.

I look forward to sampling both these beers and the other 6 I received today, and reporting back to you all in due course. If nothing else, this post will put the Christmas special down the list.

Beer 52:                         Website, Twitter

Hillside Brewery:           Website, Twitter

Black Wolf Brewery:     Website, Twitter

Snow is Falling!

Okay not quite, its not even July yet but I've already started thinking about the festive season. My 1^st, (really 3^rd) brew has just been primed and ready for bottling, and now I'm preparing to clean out my fermentation vessel. The thing is, I don’t like seeing it sit there empty so this is where I am at.

A couple of years ago I hosted a “orphans” Christmas dinner for a small party at my gaff, I cooked everything from scratch and people brought their own booze, the ladies brought brightly coloured pre mixed cocktails, and the boys all brought whatever big brand lager was on offer. Everyone at that dinner complimented me on a dinner party well planned, before it descended into beer pong and a bar crawl round my local town.

 This year my work schedule has allowed me to plan something similar, but, I want to go a step further and brew a beer for the occasion. I reckon if I get it started by the middle of June, it will have aged sufficiently by the middle of December.

Which beer? That's the question that has been haunting my every waking moment since I made the decision. In my time working with the Wine Company, I was often asked to help pair wines with food, and I had two simple rules; 1) Compliment. The flavour of the wine should be of a similar style to the meal you are cooking, the wine shouldn’t over power the meal, and vice versa. 2) Contrast. An alternative method was to take the flavours in the meal, and contrast them with a wine, which in certain circumstances can enhance the experience of both the wine and the meal. For Christmas dinner, I recommend a young New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. The dry flavour compliments the dry Turkey meat, yet the acidity means the fruit flavours are not over powered by the strong flavour of the traditional Christmas Vegetables.

The Christmas dinner is mostly oven cooked, and a lot of the characteristic flavours associated with Christmas come from the caramelisation of the sugars and fats in the oven. Your roast potatoes come out a lovely golden brown colour, if you oven bake your stuffing it comes out with a nice dark, but not burnt, crust

at the top (at least that’s what I told my guests) or any other vegetable which is roasted in the oven will have the very extremities a golden or darker brown colour. And the main event? The turkey goes in a cold pink and pale bird with goosebumps all over it, not very appetising, yet it comes out a perfect golden, with a crisp skin and succulent flesh, my mouth is literally watering as I imagine this.

And yet I could be describing any number of Ales that come from the darker malts used to create amber or dark coloured beer. Over the next week I hope to sample some darker ales as I try to decide which style will be served with my Christmas dinner this year. Keep an eye on my twitter machine as the, I'm sure heavily anticipated, announcement of the winner will be made there!

Until next time, stop thinking about Christmas, get out, fire up the Barbecue and eat some red meat, and drink some chilled craft beers with your feet up!

Hilden Brewery

On Friday, 30th May 2014 I attended the Hilden Brewery in Lisburn. As part of my birthday celebrations it was arranged for me to take the tour of the Brewery and have dinner in the Tap Room Restaurant. So we will take these as two separate entities

We arrived at Hilden with a few minutes to spare having taken a left when we should have taken a right, and we were greeted by a very friendly bar tender in the Tap House who explained there would be another couple coming with us through the tour, I'm sorry but I didn't get the staff members names, but again like in the Vineyard in Belfast the staff at the Tap Room are a fantastic asset to the overall experience. A short time later we were taken to the Brewery itself, I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, I've read how beer is made, and I've had a few home brews, so I know the stages in beer production but I wasn't sure what the scale would be. The tour guide was very knowledgeable, and he explained how the malt is made, how it is prepared into Wort and the different stages between Wort and a pint of beer in the bar. The only thing we didn't get to see was a bottling plant. The whole brewery fits within one out building, about the size of a small barn or brewery. I found this staggering, I wasn't expecting a brewery on the scale of Anheuser-Busch, but for me Hilden brands are amongst the most exposed in the Craft Beer scene in Northern Ireland. All good bars stock Hilden products, all the Off Licences that cover craft beer stock it as well and yet all their production comes from the 5 small Fermentation Vessels. I say small, but do not start thinking about your own home brew FV's as they are massive in comparison to that.

this is the only photo of inside the brewery I can find on Google Images.

 The guide did conceded that they are operating at their maximum capacity and struggling to keep up with demand, hoping to extend production later this year. Lets hope this level of demand is maintained.

The Brewery is contained within this building.

What surprised me was a question asked of the tour group near the start of the tour and has had me thinking ever since. Think about all the Macro Brewery's you know, the big international brands, the adverts you see for these beers not one of them mentions the most important aspect of a product meant for human consumption, the taste. The spend all that money on advertising a way of life, usually glamorous and the consumer makes the connection in their head if i drink this beer then I too will be glamorous and successful. Not once is the taste of these products mentioned. The cynic in me can offer a suggestion as to why but ill leave that to your own imagination. Everything the tour guide said regarding Hilden, involved flavour and taste, right up to his closing gambit. To me this is why more and more people are drawn away from the big brands to the Craft Beer scene, appealing flavours and variety and brewers who are passionate about their products and what they offer to the market place. 

We were then sat at our table when the waitress brought down a selection of the Hilden Beers, 4 "small" sampling glasses each ranging from their Blonde Beer through to their Irish Stout. I say small, but thank goodness I wasn't driving, my partner was so I drank hers too (result). We had pre-ordered our food so it arrived very promptly. I ordered Belly of Pork and I'm not a food critic but I've never had Pork Belly cooked properly, the fat is either under cooked and slimey texture or over coked and a hammer required to help cut it. This was perfection, a normal table knife was all I required to cut through it. I had a side of Belfast Blonde onion rings. All lovely stuff. 

I will certainly be back in August for the Hilden Festival which runs on the weekend of 23rd-25th August in the courtyard of the property. The train station is a short walk from the brewery which is handy as my local train station is an even shorter walk from my front door. See you all there hopefully!

Until next time.

The Tap Room Hilden

Festival website

Belfast's Best Kept Secret.

And its never been a secret really.

On Wednesday 28th May 2014 I made a return to an old friend. A small nondescript off licence on one of Belfast's busiest thoroughfares. Locals will already know were I am talking. The Vineyard was established in 1957 and from that date till this, it has built its reputation on having a wide range of product and knowledgeable staff. 

I mentioned in my introduction blog that in a previous life I ran a small boutique wine merchant, it was less than 2 miles away from the Vineyard, in what I would describe as a more "Exclusive" (read expensive) part of town. It should have thrived. While I was there I prided myself on my wine knowledge, and I imparted this knowledge onto the 3 or 4 members of staff who worked for me at any time. These staff were mainly University Students working 2 or 3 shifts a week, and truth be told their enthusiasm was often left wanting. The main problem I had, was although from the outside and to the untrained eye my place looked like an independent, it certainly wasn't. It was the dirty little secret of a chain of off licences and as a result of this I was restricted in terms of suppliers and products I could stock. I honestly believe had I, and the manager who came after me been allowed to freely select product, then the business would have prospered. As it was the business crashed and burned. 

The Vineyard has no such problem it is fully independent and as a sole trader business is small enough to move quickly with the trends. I went back there as I previously said on Wednesday, my mission was to buy a couple of bottles of beers to sample, however as I walked through the door I was met with their massive selection of Wine. It all came rushing back to me. I felt like Charlie as he walked through the gates of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. The selection of wines is astonishing and then I moved to the Whiskys, a very good friend of mine who is as passionate about whisky as I am about wine and beer, (check out Whisky Belfast) told me its the best selection of Whisky in Belfast. Eventually i made to the rear of the premises and started browsing the craft beers selection. 

As I was browsing I couldn't help overhear a conversation another customer was having with a member of staff in relation to some wines he had selected,  the staff answered each question with confidence and knowledge. The same customer then enquired bout a particular beer, again the staff was able to advise him accordingly. Finally I arrived at the till to pay for my beers, my partner asked the staff about certain vodkas, and again the knowledge was forthcoming, a bottle of rum caught my eye and again this member of staff explained all about it. If this guy is a part time member of staff, then I am flabbergasted 

Perhaps this has turned into a bit of an advertisement for the Vineyard but i assure you that these are my words, and the point of this blog post is to advise anyone who wants to get into the craft beer scene but doesn't know where to start, or perhaps they want a special bottle of wine, or a spirit. The Vineyard is a great place to start and you can rely on the information that they give you. Its Belfast's best kept secret for me because as much as I knew about the Vineyard i seldom take the time to journey up to Belfast to browse. 

For those that are interested I bought the following beers;

O'Haras Irish Pale Ale, Dry Hopped IPA. 5.2% this got sunk on Wednesday night, and while I dont have full tasting notes for it what i can remember is as soon as i popped the cap i was hit in the face with strong aromas. The head was practically non existent, and the beer was a golden color. On Twitter i described the taste as "dark" at this stage i cant really elaborate on this explanation. I will buy this again and review it properly. 

Twitter

Website

Farmageddon Brewing Co-Op Gold Pale Ale 4.2% Not opened but I've had this before and this is a fantastic beer. I drank a bars full stock of this beer at a gig one night.

Twitter

Website

Trouble Brewing Deception Golden Ale 4.3% Not opened yet.

Twitter

Website

Galway Hooker Irish Pale Ale 4.3% Not opened yet.

Twitter

Website

Next up for me is a tour and dinner at the Hilden Brewery, outside Lisburn. No doubt Ill have plenty to say about that experience, Im also going to write a little about my experiences home brewing in the next week or so, from complete novice to hopefully having perfected my home brew lager, and moving on into IPA. 

In the meantime Cheers!

Introductions, Who am I and what am I doing here?

Hello out there! This is an introductory post to let you know what this is going to be about. There are 3 main aims, to journal my ventures and adventures as I take a trip away from the mass produced lagers that dominate most mainstream bars in the UK and Ireland. Secondly, I've made my first tentative steps into the mysterious world of Home Brewing. And finally, to seek out the newest Bars, and Off Licences which are stocking the hard to find Craft Beers. I don't pretend to know a great deal about this, but I do have a developed palate and a thirst (pun intended) for knowledge.

I started drinking at an early age, but probably not by today's standards, a cheeky 1/4 bottle of whatever spirit was on offer at the local "offie," downed as quickly as possible in order to avoid detection. As I grew older, it was inevitable that I would move to beer. Those early days I would drink mostly Budweiser or Miler Genuine Draft, which ever the bar had on draught. The mere thought of either of those beers makes me gag these days, its funny how your palate changes with time. I moved to Spain, just before my 21st Birthday, and I could buy any of the 3 or 4 local beers for €2 or spend nearly €5 for a bottle of the aforementioned American Lager, so I drank the local. When I returned to Ireland, I tried to go back to Bud and MGD but it just tasted like water. In fact it was watered down water. It was around that time Stella Artois became massive here and that ended up being my beer. Reassuringly expensive it may well be, but eventually the price and the minging hangovers, I moved on. Carlsberg, or Harp became my staple. It was around this time I began working in a Boutique Off Licence, working closely with Wine suppliers I became a keen wine enthusiast. I have Wine Connoisseur as a tag on my personal Twitter account details, but realistically I'm an enthusiast. I attended numerous tasting events, and developed my palate, in 5 short years I went from thinking there were 3 wines, Red, White, and when you mixed them you got Rosé to being able to differentiate between grape types, countries of origin, and in certain high quality wines even the region they were from. 

Skip forward to today, its impossible to ignore the growing Craft Beer market on the Island. Someone told me I should tell you what my first craft beer I drank was, and to that end I had written all about Hilden Brewery's Headless Dog and how that led me to sample the rest of their range, moving on to the famous Brew Dog and beyond, but then I remembered it was a trip to Canada a few years back and more specifically Vancouver's Granville Island, and their Micro Brewery. They didn't have a full liquor licence only a brewing licence so you could sample a small amount of each but you couldn't sit in there all day. It was this day I discovered that there was more to beer than excessive bubbles. Unfortunately I couldnt foresee this blog existing back then, and I have very little recollection of what these beers actually tasted like, other than good.

Just before Christmas 2013 I decided to brew my own. I bought a Coopers beginners kit with Canadian Blonde lager. The first batch was a complete write off, I cant even describe how bad it was, low low alcohol zero taste and just terrible in every way. Not one to give up easily I cracked on again with another Coopers lager kit. This one was much better, although the bottle priming was a bit hit and miss, it was a lottery if you were getting a decent lager or a flat stale lager. I am currently in the early stages of my third lager brew. I'm sticking with lager until I perfect it and then I will move on. Speaking of which i guess this is a good place stop, Ill hopefully have my first "proper" blog post alive next week. Until then, you can follow me on Twitter, my beer exploits will be posted under @PuzzlesNI check me out or just check out who I am following on this account, its mostly other bloggers in the Craft Beer scene.