America The Brave(ish)

America the Brave(ish)

A few nights ago I sat with a friend and colleague of mine and decided to hold an impromptu beer tasting using a few of the beers I had received from Beer 52 over the last lot of months. In total we selected 6 at random and then tried to see if we could make them fit into some kind of logical order.

In the first of the tasting comparisons I selected two IPA's and both happened to be from the good old US of A.

Founders All Day IPA Session Ale 4.7% ABV

Its clear what Founders Brewery want to associate with this beer, the label shows a typical American SUV with a Kayak strapped to the roof, driving along a dirt track in a forest. Bring this beer on a fishing or camping trip. I should say at this point, although I have pictures of the empty bottles, taking pictures of the actual beer poured into a glass slipped my mind on the night. Lesson learned there. Anyway As soon as this was poured I could get strong aromas of Tropical Fruit, breakfast juice, blood oranges and passion fruits, the aroma was coming from the glass almost a metre away. It was strong and very in your face. This was as good as this beer got unfortunately. The taste, again hit you straight away, but this time there was none of the tropical tastes which were certainly overpowered by, in my opinion an over-hopped taste. I cannot tell you what hops or even what flavours where present, the taste simply evaporated off my tongue before I could go looking. I was disappointed, I was so excited by the aroma, the tropical notes the clear fragrances I had high hopes and they were dashed by a poor finish to this beer. It was approaching its best before date having been in my collection for anything up to 8 months, but I'm not convinced this was the reason for the poor showing. An All Day Session beer? Well its certainly not offensive and the crisp fragrance and initial burst of flavour would keep you refreshed, and lack of after taste could prompt you to sink a few more of these than you initially expected to, if you were on a camping trip in the middle of nowhere with no off licence available to buy something else.

13 Guns American IPA 5.5% ABV

The second beer on my short tour of America was Crafty Dans 13 Guns American IPA, named after the original 13 states that made up the USA. (Ok I am cheating a little here, this is brewed in the Thwaites Brewery in Blackburn England.) Both bottles were poured at the same time. The 13 Guns bottle has an in depth label detailing the hops used the malts, the yeast used and even the name of the brewer! It also tells me this is recipe 213, for what tha

t is worth. To contrast this with the All Day IPA, the nose was harder to find, I really found myself having to go looking for flavours, and when I got there, I found none of the tropical fruits I expect with an IPA, and having read the hops list. It was a much darker experience, much more of the malt character was coming, and I even detected the slightest hint of light chocolate. Looking at the malts used I would say this is unexpected. Another contrast between the All day and the 13 guns, All day was very light in appearance, a typical IPA, the 13 Guns on the other hand was much darker than any IPA I have encountered recently, a real chestnut colour. On tasting, again the subtle flavours weren't in your face, it took several samples to really identify, the dark malty taste again was contrary to what I was expecting reading the label and knowing what an IPA usually taste like, I even got a touch of coffee. The tropical fruits where there, subtly in the background. I really had to work to identify even these few flavours, the beer was certainly very complex and enjoyable. However, directly below where the bottle says “13 Guns,” and above it identifies the style of beer it declares “An intense hit of hops.” Unless the hops that I am unfamiliar with provided the dark malty and coffee tastes that I got early doors this statement is simply not true. That said I enjoyed working with this beer, of the two I would be more inclined to session the 13 Guns, and if both were sitting in the local off licence I would definitely pick 13 Guns over the All Day IPA.

The contrasting styles were fun to work with, the light crisp experience with the All Day was contradicted by the dark malt flavours of the 13 Guns, although I wouldn't say it was heavy by any stretch of the imagination. At the time, I suggested that perhaps the All Day was a touch young and the flavours hadn't had time to develop but after investigating the bottle and seeing the Best Before date, I can only conclude this was done on purpose. I have recently tried Trouble Brewing's Remix, which is a similar style to All Day, and I wonder had it influenced my experience?

Founders Brewery:   Website

Crafty Dan's:             Facebook          Twitter

Thwaites:                   Website

Re Introduction, and review of Tap Take Over

Well after an enforced hiatus I am back on the bloggisphere! I fully intended my return to coincide with the Marble Brewery's “tap takeover” at the Woodworkers Bar in Belfast, unfortunately real life got in the way and I spent most of last week in the Ulster Hospital. More on the Tap Takeover later.

Over the winter I have continually received my care packages for want of a better word from Beer 52, and although they have been arriving faster than I can drink them (summer Barbecues should sort that out) I have yet to be disappointed with an overall package from them. Since I started receiving them last June I have had 1 bottle of Weis Beir that I was dissatisfied with, through quality rather than my own preference. I have to say that is not a bad return on my investment and I plan on continuing my subscription with them for the foreseeable.

This summer, it is my plan or personal policy to stick to local beers, I have tweeted some nonsense about this over the winter but this summer I plan to put my money where my tweet is. That is to say where there is a choice of quality Irish craft beer I will opt for that first. 

To that end I am really excited by the prospect of ABV 15 festival this May at the Titanic Drawing Offices in Belfast. Just look at their website for the list of Breweries already confirmed, it promises to be a good one. I hope to review in my own style various Irish craft beers this summer, and conduct my own mini tap take overs (although they will be bottle take overs, ill have to think of a more catchy name) by reviewing maybe a few from a selected brewery. Of course the Beer52 packages will contain beers from around the world and if one jumps out at me I will be sure to tell you about it.

My own brewing has reached a crossroads, I have nailed a couple of Pale Ales using brewing kits, the last one in particular which was dry hooped within an inch of its life I was especially proud of, and got rave reviews from friends and gatecrashers alike at a recent party. Do I continue along the brewing kits path with the heavy restrictions or do I make my first tentative steps into all grain brewing. Space is an issue for me in a small 2 bedroom flat, and initial outlay of expense for equipment is something I wont be taking lightly. In any case I will be making one more batch of kit beer as I have a party coming up in June and then perhaps I will seek some advice from people who have made the next step.

Marble Brewery Tap Take Over

Thursday 5^th March Marble Brewery took over the new bar on Bradbury Place, The Woodworkers. They brought with them 6 beers which they felt best represented the brewery and the message they were trying to get across. I had planned to fully review each and give those not there an idea of how the evening went, however as I've mentioned I spent last week in hospital so here is a quick overview of the night and couple of the beers that I enjoyed the most.

I arrived not really knowing what to expect, I met a friend there and we promptly made our way to the bar. I could see the list of beers high above the bar, but I had not had any dealings with Marble, besides the styles of beer I couldn't easily identify a good starting place, so I started at the top of the list. Earl Grey IPA, for most people there is an obvious connection here, Earl Grey is Tea. I didn't make that connection until much later in the night. I initially found Earl Grey to be heavy on the citrus fruit for the nose, but extremely well balanced on the taste, I promptly finished my pint, and looked in amazement at the board which was telling me this was a 6.8 ABV ale. There is no way you could tell by the taste that this was such a heavy hitter.

At this point the official tastings began, and in a much more sensible order of weakest ABV to strongest. When the speaker stood up and explained about Earl Grey and the Tea infusion it was like the penny dropped. Gone were the citrus fruits, any hop flavors I got vanished and all I could get from it was Tea. I'm not a fan of Tea and this really ruined what I initially thought was a nice beer for me.

Another beer of note was the Antipodean. Billed as a New Zealand Pale Ale, the marketing here was clear, lots of New Zealand varieties of Hops, with crystal clear water used in the process. This was a 4% ABV, and super easy to drink. It was hard to get past the hops on the nose but I did get hints of freshly cut grass, and under ripe citrus. On the taste this was again very well balanced, everything about this beer screamed “fresh!” You would definitely have this on a warm summers day with a barbecue lit.

The final beer I want to mention was my personal favorite, and the one I continued to drink long after the tastings had finished, Little Barney. Produced in association with Tyrone's own Pokertree Brewery, this is billed as a West Coast IPA. It poured a golden red, almost copper color in the glass, as opposed to the amber color of the other Ales sampled that night, but again it was rammed with luscious fruit fragrances, some peach and pineapple were obvious to the nose. This beer was bitter, too bitter for my friend who was with me, but perfect for me, the long after taste satisfied me in a way that none of the other marble beers could. Again, this beer was very enjoyable and fresh, billed at 5%ABV I thought was the perfect strength for my favorite beer of the night.

All in all a very enjoyable night, and the speaker (your name escapes me 100 apologies) was very approachable after the event to answer any questions about Marble specifically or beer, or brewing on general. Ill be keeping my eyes peeled for the next tap takeover which I am informed will be another good one. My only slight gripe about the evening, it was slightly difficult, impossible at times to hear the speaker over the general bar noises, perhaps next time they should give him or her a microphone to ensure those at the back of the room don’t miss any nuggets of information.

I've been in the Woodworkers I few times now and I have to say I am mostly impressed. Its the sort of bar you can go in with a few mates and sit and have a conversation without having to shout over the drum n bass “background” music. Woodcutters does have a DJ most evenings as far as I can see, and having a snoop on the facebook page, it appears a live band from time to time as well but the sound levels mean you can still have a conversation. Be prepared to spend some money though, the guest draught beers are all premium and the price generally reflects this, I couldn't say anything I've had so far has been overpriced, but I equally couldn't say I've snagged a bargain either.

* Photos taken from Woodworkers Facebook site.

The Woodworkers:  Twitter       Facebook

Marble Brewery:     Twitter       Website

ABV FEST:             Twitter       Website 

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!