Ghost Drinker

One Week. One Day. Two Pies.

2012-03-07T12:16:00.000-08:00

It's still International Pie Week this week by the way, and while my plans to have a different pie with a different beer everyday were a little over-ambitious, I've still managed to power through two different matchings today. Before I get into that though, a couple of words from me about International Pie Week:

It's International Pie Week for crying out loud! What could be better than a week dedicated to the celebration of the pastry type foods that have been with us for hundreds of years! Slaking our hunger, providing us nourishment and comfort at the same time, you just can't beat a good old pie. I'm not just talking of one sort of pie though, no no, IPW is a week for all pies across the globe; from sweet to savoury, from different fillings to different verities, open or closed - All Pies Welcome! Have it with what you like too, peas and chips, mash and gravy, and if your a little more greedy like I am - have pie with a side of Burger!

I need my pie with a beer though. Sorry to all the kids out there, but you won't reach true piedom until you get to 18 and have your first Steak 'n' Ale with a pint of Best in your local pub.

Speaking of which, Let's see what I got down me today:

My Cottage Pie doesn't
make for good photos.
My beer does though....

First up was Cottage Pie with Gadds' and De Molen's collaborative Fresh Hopped Bohemian. Many of you out there will say Cottage Pie doesn't fit into the pastry category. And you'd be right, but it fits into the Pie category. Remember, IPW is about celebrating every pie, in all it's forms... Hell, you could even have a fish pie if you wanted.

This combo worked really well together. Creamy soft, fluffy mash with a crispy top, sitting upon chunky, meaty beef, smothered in a rich gravy sauce. When you get this together with an uber fresh, bitter and dry 6%+ IPA, which cuts through your tastebuds, your getting a view of what it's like to be truly decadent, all whilst in the comfort of your own armchair. Sheer bliss at lunch time.

The next meal of the day brings me closer to the real home of my pie love.

A thing of beauty.

I know Tanders would get mad at me that I wasn't enjoying this in a pub, but as much as we'd like to admit we can, we can't be in the pub 24/7 unfortunately.

A proper Steak and Ale pie. Served with a Tag Lag Golden Ale - a beer from Barngates Brewery from Ambleside - the heart of the Lake District.

The only thing I can really say about this, is that it was perfect. End of 'pie lovers' story, I do hope you have your own.

Here's to International Pie Week!

Ghostie's Rough Leeds Bars Volume 2.

2012-03-06T11:29:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I did the last one of these posts in my list of the ten rough bars and pubs of Leeds. That's because the last one was my first, and I wasn't all that keen on doing the next.

Second up: Hoagy's... and doesn't it look great!

Once again, no pictures of the inside, I wasn't getting anything shiny out in the actual place. I dressed to fit in this time to try and blend in - beanie, rough hoodie, tight jeans and some Adidas shoes...

I rocked up at the bar, eyes down, and tried to survey the scene. Seemed this was kind of a third rate Spoons of a place - lots of very old, gangster looking type pensioners, and lots of 20-30yr olds in a collection of tracksuits, cheap bling and all the sort... all there to grab a big cheap meal and get blathered. Wall to wall gamblers, huge plasma screens blearing out a different sport on each - you know the type of place.

I considered asking if they had any Craft Beer available, but then thought better of it...
"Half a lager please mate" I asked the landlord. No suggestion of which was asked, just half of the very cold stuff placed in front of me. No lies here when I say that while the server poured my drink, he also poured himself a half of lager and proceeded to drink it at quite a rate. I did the same... it was cold, and I didn't plan on sticking around. Straight sided tumbler - same as the last pub.

The place was quite large, but seemed to be pretty busy. I can't really say that I'd like to spark up a conversation with anyone there though. This was all on a Tuesday afternoon too! Call me yella, but I wasn't about to rock up on my own on a Saturday night - I've heard some pretty interesting stories.

That was Hoagy's then. Pool hall they might have upstairs, but to me that's just more ammo for people to use on a Friday night brawl.

I've started this little list with a couple of easy pubs. Rough Hoagy's may be, but it's not that rough - I'm saving the best for last...

...And the last I will not be going in alone.

15 Years

2012-03-04T15:17:00.000-08:00

Stone Brewery have been going for just over 15 years now, and have been going from strength to strength (no just in terms of beer..!) So it would only be right that they brew a 15th anniversary ale to celebrate.

This Escondidian Imperial Black Ale is something which should be respected. With the first hiss of opening this 10.8% juggernaut, a wave of fresh hops wafts across my nose, even at a couple of feet away.

Blacker than black with the most compact brown/dark tan fluffy head. What an aroma! Big on the dark chocolate and also big on the piny resinous hops. Lots of coffee, a little oak, some liqourice, rummy raisins, a hint of apricot and orange and a dab of leather. It kind of smells what I think you might get if you mixed a bit of Ruination and Stone Russian Imperial Stout together.

A very silky, velvet like mouthfeel. The most immediate thing you notice is the bitterness behind this beast. As the beer warms ever so slightly, and your mouth adjusts a little, a lot more qualities and flavour complexities come about. There's a lot of bitter chocolate, which is intensely drying to the mouth and makes you want more before you've even put the glass down. You do get quite a bit of a classic Stone hoppiness to this beer. In fact as I drink I can't but help be reminded of the hoppiness you get in Double Bastard. The alcohol is quite well hidden under rich mocha tones mixed with the chocolate and dried fruits. You can't help feeling there's two sides to the beer though: the darker side, but yet, the lighter side - perfectly balanced too. There's a lot of sticky resinous pine in the bitterness making it known this beer has enough hops to kill a bear. It's the perfect counterbalance to the dark side. Stone's 15th Anniversary BIPA is a great beer, that's putting it mildly.

I've not come across any other brewery in the US that does Black IPAs quite like Stone. When they brought out their Self Righteous, I'm pretty confident in saying that we were all blown away over here in the UK. I'll raise the rest of my glass to Stone Brewery tonight and say a big Cheers! to the last 15 years...

And here's to the next 15!

Local - Good or Bad?

2012-03-02T14:21:00.000-08:00

This month's session will be undertaken whilst on a session of local beers in my home. Hosted by Hoosier Beer Geek, the title of this topic is "What makes local beer better?"

I'd prefer to talk about both the good and bad points about local beer as it relates to my experience of.... well; local beer.

I am a firm believer that local beer certainly does have both good and bad points. Let's start with the one of the good points I hear many people talking about; 'Freshness'. When it comes to fresh beer, obviously if it doesn't have to travel far to get to you, or was bottled/casked not to long ago, it will taste better than if it was older. This is only a minor point though, and is something that (most of the time) applies to beers with a more, hop forward, recipe. Some beers aren't meant to be drunk fresh, and could stand some cellaring before consumption. This moves me onto a bad point about freshness. I've drunk some beers in my time, by brewers who've been too quick to get their beers into the pub/shop, and they haven't had the full, proper time to condition. This is where freshness becomes detrimental to beer. If a brewery is only down the road, that doesn't mean it should be selling you it's beers as soon as it comes out of the fermenter, straight for consumption - all beer requires a little bit of sitting time. Some people may be quick to get their casks/bottles out ASAP, as keeping them at a brewery costs lots of time/money/space. It doesn't make for a good beer.

My 3 local ales for the evening

A good point that some take from local beer is about community. And yes it is a great thing. We all should be supporting our local businesses and helping them grow. After all if we don't, they won't be there for long; something I have unfortunate first hand experience with. The bad thing about this though, is that living around Yorkshire, there are so many new and cool breweries opening up these days that it's hard to choose who to go with. And unfortunately, sometimes some people can be given a bit of a back seat. I'm all up for supporting local businesses, but it's just hard to know which sometimes.

I'm trying to keep things brief tonight because I could easily go on and on about this, but I can leave it as such:

I not sure if there's a definitive answer to why local beer is better. In fact I don't think local beer is better. I've had many a crap pint from a brewery within walking distance from the pub I drank it in. But it's not all like that though. I've had so much good beer from fantastic local breweries which I'm very proud to call my local breweries, but then again I've also had similar experiences from breweries which I can't call my locals.

I can tell you the best part about local brewers though: Working at Beer Ritz, there's no better thing than calling up a brewery and asking for some of their beers, and having said beers delivered to your shop doors the very next day!

- That's the real bonus of having local beer!

Norway

2012-02-29T17:02:00.000-08:00

Norway boasts some spectacular breweries. Tonight I'm trying two new different beers from two different, but very respected breweries.

Let's dive straight in!

First up is Dobbel Dose - a 9% Norwegian Double IPA from HaandBryggeriet. Now this is an interesting one because when I picked it up I didn't notice on the bottle is said "Brygget 03.06.10" which I'm guessing means brewed or bottled on. That sounds a little worrying for a Double IPA, but the bottle also states "In this Double IPA we use all the hops our kettle can take, we recon it will stand the journey to India and back" - could it be, an IPA which isn't meant to be drunk fresh? I'm sure it is great fresh, but it's possible this may be a bit like White Shield, and after a bit of aging, may get a bit more character to it. (instead of turning into a flat, lifeless, no flavour IPA which seems to happen all too often when you drink an IPA which is a few months old... I've gotta say, is anyone else bored of getting old hops in their IPAs and having a beer which only tastes great for about 2weeks??)

It's certainly got a big muddy sediment to it (left in the bottle) and the nose is certainly inviting. Big on the orange and marmalade, quite a bit of toffee, and almost bonfire toffee. You get the impression that, while they may have packed this beer to the rafters with hops, they didn't scrimp on the malts either.
It's a fantastic tasting beer, even after almost a couple of years. Rich sweet caramels, burnt toffees, ripened oranges, pears and apples with a hint of honey coming in. Just enough of a bitter tang in the finish to make you crave the next mouthful, and deservedly so - it's really really good beer.

Anyone can put shed loads of hops in a beer - it's easy. Can you make a beer which doesn't taste like shoes after 3/4 months? That's the mark of a great brewer. I've had a few beers from HaandBryggeriet now, and if you need any advice about them here it goes: See their beers - buy their beers - simples.

The second beer of the night goes to Beer Here's Pumpernickel Porter. This beer's a little confusing. Where's it brewed for one thing? I read on the side; Nogne O, so most probably it's brewed there - by who I still don't know. Secondly it says it's a "Pumpernickel Porter", and in the description, it's called a "Stout brewed with spices added" - I think this may confuse a few people. I lastly got thinking about what Pumpernickel actually is. Is it just a bread or is it a type of spice/grain that you add to make P.bread, I'm not too sure, so I really don't have a clue how you add it to a beer!

Let's just drink it though ey? It's dark, it's 7.5%, and it smells great! It stinks of dry rye bread, or those crispy rye crackers you spread your cheese on - it's really strange. There's a little lactic, burnt malt/burnt toast essence going on in the beer too which reminds you of the Porter/Stout side of things.

It's really good. A thick, smooth and rich mouthfeel. The flavour is instant and intense, but not too overpowering that it would put a lager drinker off. Lots of the flavours that you want, and would expect from a beer like this (or what you would imagine this to be) Dark chocolate, liqourice, burnt coffee, oak, a little smokey whisky, raisins, rye and rye spice. Rye Rye Rye! There's plenty of burnt bitterness in the finish too, making the beer great all rounder.

As they say on the bottle:

"Hops were harmed in the production of this beer"

Go get some beers from Norway. Oh... and you don't need to go to Norway to get them, I got these from Cambridge.

Close It!

2012-02-26T17:08:00.000-08:00

Last night was redonkulous!

Massive props go out to Rick for setting the whole gig up and much love to all my beery geek brethren who were also in attendance.

What started out as a few drinks in Mr Foleys (I didn't get chance to go for the meal) turned into one of the most epic drinking sessions ever seen. The amount of beers which were brought along and consumed was of such a magnitude and quality, that I'm pretty sure not all of them were opened by the end of the night. (glad to see that no one was sick off Gav's 70something+ year old beer.)

I didn't managed to get snaps of everything that was brought along, but Zak managed to put together a good photo selection here.

So here's my "mine's bigger than yours" photo selection of the evening. Cheers to Open It, and Cheers to all day hangovers ;)

It's Electric!

2012-02-24T14:16:00.000-08:00

Electricity is a funny old thing.

....and by 'funny old thing' I mean it completely dominates our whole lives.

For the last day and a half our street has been without power. Obviously it's back on now, finally, otherwise I wouldn't be able to write this post. It was evident how much we really rely on electricity whilst I was making myself some lunch today. It was midday so I was oblivious to the fact we had no power, and just went about my normal business. I quite fancied some beans on toast to set me up right for the afternoon. I popped two slices in the toaster and opened a can of beans. I tried to put the toaster on, but it wasn't working... duuhhh! 'There's no electricity' I thought to myself! Thoughts then raced through my head about how I could toast these two slices of bread... "I know, I can grill them.... wait.. duuhhh again! The grill is electric!"
It was about another two minutes later before I realised that all of this was mute, as I had no microwave to heat up the beans either!! I was a bit lost then. "What can I have for lunch now??" I scoured the fridge for some food, but to my lack of surprise, everything needed to be heated up by some method which I was not in possession of. Turns out a ham and cheese sandwich wasn't too bad.

All this does relate to beer, before you go elsewhere... It really got me thinking about our dependancy on the sparky stuff and what that could mean for the brewers of today, be it at home, or on a massive industrial scale.

Say your ten minutes into your boil, and there's a blackout. What do you do? Is that a wasted batch, or do you wait for the power to come back on? What if it doesn't come back on for a couple of days... is all the mornings hard work and effort to making your beer a waste, and do you have to pour it down the drain? It would certainly be annoying but maybe not too much problem for a homebrewer, compared to a commercial brewer with maybe hundreds or even thousands of gallons to pour away.

It got me thinking of how people went about making beer before the emergence of electricity. I mean beer has been made for quite a many number of years pre 19th century. I thought about how you'd go about an average boil. Fire is the obvious answer, but it's hard to imagine people making beer, in the same way as cooking, on the levels of scale that we have today - even for a small brewery.

When industries started using machines and electricity, things changed for ever, and very dramatically in fact. I reckon brewing in some breweries today would be almost unrecognisable to people from just a few hundred yeas ago.

While all this innovation, progress, change, whatever you call it, is a fantastic thing, what happens when something goes wrong with it? I reckon we're pretty damn useless if our new computerised breweries fell foul of a little electricity hiccup. I mean I wasn't about to crack up a fire just to make my beans on toast.

All this came together while I was drinking a beer from Short's Brewery. Why did it come to me? Because I didn't need electricity to open or enjoy it. (I did need it to take and upload the picture though..)

Short's Ginger in the Rye is a 7.8% Imperial Rye Munich Ale, "A most distinguished effervescent potable of total consciousness." and you know what? It's just plain delicious! Let OpenIt continue!

PunkCake FABPOW

2012-02-21T09:09:00.000-08:00

Today's post, and FABPOW, is brought to you with inspiration found from many forms.

First off It's Shrove Tuesday. Secondly, it's OpenIt this weekend, so I thought I'd start cracking a few early just to be cheeky. Thirdly, I got quite a bit of inspiration from Mark's FABPOW, and decided to make some pancakes and beer for myself. The last bit of inspiration comes from BrewDog's 'PunkCake' twittering ideas - I read some interesting ones and thought I'd make my own. Turns out I had the perfect beer to bring it all together too.

Anyone remember this one?

I guess it was bottled in 2008. That's one thing I do like - when a brewery puts a 'bottled on' date on their strong beers.

You get a massive earthy, woody coffee aroma from the beer. It pours quite flat, but it seems to still have a good amount of carbonation about it. More of the same in the flavour. Huge earthy coffee and loads of oak, with a long bitter chocolate finish - a fantastic drop.

It has a really long drying finish as well. While I thought about sweet pancakes, I didn't think this Imperial Stout would work too well with them.
So the match this time was with a savory pancake. I've never really had savory pancakes before, previous Shrove Tuesdays where usually a competition to see who could get the most golden syrup on one pancake, so this shall be a little different. The best foods I've ever matched with Imperial Stout have always been strong cheeses, rich foods, stuff like that - so I didn't really know where to start when it came to making up my own savory pancake recipe.

In the end I thought I'd try my hand at making some Spicy Pork & Blue Stilton Pancakes.

There will be no photos here. It didn't matter what I did, I wasn't going to get an appealing photo of this meal... but you know what they say - sometimes the messiest meals are the best! I had it quite hot too so the creamy Stilton ran from the pancake. I didn't use too much though as I feared it might overpower the spicy pork, turns out it was just the right amount. The dry earthy coffee flavour in the beer went really well with the spicy meaty pork in my humble opinion, and the rich Stilton just topped the whole thing off into on decadent meal for the evening!

That was my FABPOW OpenIt PunkCake for the night. I'd love to hear what other people will be indulging in on this magnificent night of nights: Shrove Tuesday.

Watering Holes

2012-02-16T14:14:00.000-08:00

Considering beer is (usually) over or about 95% water, you could take pubs to be considered as watering holes. The following is a round up of my favourite 3 I have visited in the past few days whilst visiting Cambridge.

First up was the Cambridge Blue.

This pub is most probably the best in all of Cambridge. It's not the first time I've written about it and it probably won't be the last. I've only been here a few days but I've already been twice. The other day I had a fantastic pint of Oakham Citra straight from the cask with the juiciest bacon and cheese burger. If you don't already know, the Cambridge Blue offers a range of 14 real ales, seven of which are on the bar through lines, and the other seven (the upper pump clips) are served straight from the cask from a cold room next door - a beast of an idea if there ever was one! Today I tried a great pint of Osset Snow Drop; from God's Own Country, and some more Oakham - Preacher - a 4.3% dark ale with the best looking pump clip.

The Cambridge Blue is about to undergo some serious building renovations, and will be closed for about a week, but I'm sure it will work out for the best.

The second pub on my list would be Live and Let Live.

This would be my first visit to this pub, it was recommended by a number of people on Twitter so I thought I'd give it a go. Turns out I was to be pleased and disappointed in quick succession. My first look in was late at night so I only managed a couple of halves. Oakham Dreamcatcher and Darkstar Smoked Porter were the order of the night. I wanted to get a proper sense of the place so I popped back the next day to be disappointed that they were closed on my arrival. Turns out I fell into my usual trap of thinking that all pubs were open all day, a mistake I make a little too often when I venture down South.

What I did see and partake of the place the previous night was all excellent though, and I shall be making tracks back here hopefully sooner rather than later.

The third pub on my charts to haunt was an excellent recommendation and find: The Kingston Arms

This place is great. It seemed like a very friendly, family oriented, foody pub during the day when I went. In fact the food menus looked great too! I don't think I've ever been in a pub where I got to choose my selection of sausage with my mash, or my choice of cheese for my panini! I may have not been in many pubs in my life, but I've never seen jars full of freshly baked cookies either. If I hadn't just had another warm meal in the Cambridge Blue, I think the Marinated Baby Squid and mixed olive salad would have been my choice, but I did enjoy perusing the "Recession Section" - a selection of standard (but tasty) meals all for £4.99 each. Oh.... they had Mars Bars too for 49p each!

The pump selection was vast and varied. It was very nice (for me) to see Jaipur alongside Harveistoun's Bitter and Twisted - two supreme beers. From the selection of 13 hand pumps I spied some Leeds Gathering Storm Stout also, and decided to see how it travelled.

Turns out beer from my home town travels quite well indeed! I think this dry Stout is a perfect example of how distance isn't an issue when good care and good cellar manship come into play.

I was a big fan of the massive hop vine that
spanned the entire bar.

I enjoyed my drinks here. I like it when you find games like Buckaroo alongside books which look like they're 1 hundred years old.

I've really liked my time down South in Cambridge, I usually do, similar activities are usually undertaken, just see last time. I can't shake the feeling that drinking down here reminds me of when I get a lock in up North: you know, when you get a beer, but all the sparklers have been taken off to be cleaned... Even though It's not what I'm entirely used too, it's still not so bad.

Wild Ale

2012-02-15T09:25:00.000-08:00

"Why would you want to make an IPA with Westmalle Yeast?!?!"

As you can probably tell from my reaction of hearing that Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Wild Ale was produced using a Westmalle Yeast, that I'm not a fan of Westmalle. Well I'm sorry but I'm not. Unless you give me a ten year old version of their Triple, there's quite a lot of Triple's which I'd find more appealing.

Sumpin' Wild is a 9.4% Belgian IPA with a very fruity aroma; big hints of apricot blast your face mixed with some Belgian biscuit notes. I'm not getting the biggest of aromas though to be honest, as this was the only glass I could find in the flat I'm staying in Cambridge, so I'm going off raw taste today.

You get an immediate super drying, super yeasty bitter bite to the flavour. It's mixed in with a lot of fruity flavours, but it's different than your juicy/fruity flavours your used to from a big American IPA, there's a lot of fruity/dryness. More of the same apricot in the flavour, peaches too with a little bubblegum and a touch of lemon. It's very drinkable for a 9.4% beer, but I guess that comes from the dryness. The finish is rounded and balanced with that crazy sort of lingering flavour which is only really brought about from Belgian Style IPAs.

It's not a bad beer, certainly not - it's a perfectly made and complex beer. It's just not really for me. I should probably explain my first statement. I'm not a fan of Westmalle because I think it's far too dry and far too over carbonated - it fills up my belly like a balloon. Give me a ten year old sample and I'm in true beer geek heaven. Ten year Westmalle Triple is one of the best beers on the planet, but I don't have any currently ageing and I don't really have the patience to start again. I just got a little too much of the fresh Westmalle in this beer for my liking, give me Hop Stoopid any day of the week instead. Then again, the beer to my liking probably wasn't helped by my existing opinions on Westmalle. Was I pre-destined to not find the beer to my taste because of my own opinions? Would I have had a different experience if I'd not read what the beer was before tasting it? Who knows... probably not, but it's always fun to ponder.

I think I'll leave on the fantastic words which are always (differently) printed on Lagunitas bottles: "So, we're all on collective disability. That's cool. Let's put some ice on it and keep ourselves elevated for a while. So, what's on the tube..? Honey..? Get me a beer from the fridge... Will ya..? Sweetie..? Pleeease..?"

Merry Men

2012-02-12T16:40:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you just need a good old pint of Bitter.

Bitter gets a bit of an unfair 'bad rep' these days. Some people like to use the words "boring brown bitter" and others like to say that's it's a bit too "plain" or "one dimensional". I am here to tell you otherwise. I think some people have been a little too drawn in by all the hype about what's 'new' at the moment, or what 'new style' is all the rage at the time. I can say though, every time I go back to a really good pint of Bitter, you can't help but take the smile and the satisfaction from my lips. After all Bitter, partnered with Ale, is what made this country! I challenge anyone who is a lover of beer to have a really well produced pint of Bitter and not enjoy it.

Tonight I'm drinking three variants of Bitter from the same brewery, a brewery I'd never even heard of before, if it had not been for my sister's christmas present. The brewery is Magpie Brewery and comes from Nottingham - Sherwood Forest country.

First up to bat is Hedgehopper; a 3.9% Refreshing Golden Bitter.
I think this beer has the best head retention I've ever seen. Bright white thick froth which feels like the milk foam you get when you steam for a cappuccino (but obviously cold) It might as well have been poured through a sparkler. A really inviting aroma which leads you to thoughts of instant refreshment; lemon, fresh cut grass, straw, sherbet and a hint of lemon curd. More of the same comes through in the flavour. Refreshing bitterness which lingers. The citrus fruit peel notes die away just in the finish long enough for a straw like biscuit malt fullness to come about. Very pleasant beer, I could drink all night.

Unfortunately I won't be able to as it's time to move onto a different Bitter. Second along comes Thieving Rogue: a 4.5% Smooth Blonde Bitter. A similar quality of beer to the last. Aromas are a lot dryer to this one; lots of dry straw and a little musty hay. There's a little wheat about this brew too which is different. The real difference comes about in the flavour though. A lot more green skinned fruits to this beer. Fresh apple skin, just like the skins which got chucked in a big sack, off the cooking apples your Grandma used to use for making crumble with. The flavour is just what you'd want from a Blonde Bitter, and the finish is dry and very moorish, with just a hint of tartness coming from the bitter bite.

Save the best for last ey? Well I did. The 4.2% Magpie Best Bitter certainly comes across with a different shade to the previous two. As you can see Bitter is not just classed to the 'boring brown' colour. The aroma on this last beer is beautiful; cascades of toffee, caramel, orange pith, fruit salads, a little chocolate and a combination of the previous two beers really shines through, but with a sense that this really is the Best Bitter. The flavour is just fantastic. Rich, juicy, it has all the components that you want, and crave, from a 'Best Bitter'. Smooth caramel, a little honey sweetness, juicy fruits and a bittersweet flavour which just makes you want to drink sip after sip, mouthful after mouthful and pint after pint of this delectable and invigorating beer.

Were these three beers boring, plain or one dimensional? Hell No they weren't! Were they excellently made, full of flavour beers which were also full of character? Hell Yes! And while the branding of these beers wasn't really anything worth writing home about, I just proved a point that the beers themselves were worth writing about, cos I just did! And I loved them!

Anyone who want's to bad mouth the name of Bitter around these parts, or any parts for that matter - For Shame. For Shame Indeed.

A Lesson In Style

2012-02-09T15:28:00.000-08:00

Hitachino Nest beers aren't new to this country but they are new to me. I'm not even sure what to call these beers. The brewery named on the back is stated as 'Kiuchi Brewery' so I'm not sure where the Hitachino Nest comes into it really. I think we'll start with the most obvious point first: The two beers I'm reviewing from Kiuchi tonight are some of the finest looking beers I've ever seen - the branding is excellent and quite frankly, puts hundreds of other beers to shame.

First up comes Nipponia - a 6.5% Golden Ale made with Sorachi Ace hops (a hop bred in Japan) and Kaneko Golden - an ancient barley from Japan. (am I correct in thinking this would be a Spelt?) I've never been a fan of Sorachi Ace, I've constantly thought it smelled like Thai curry when used in a beer by itself so this will be interesting. The beer has a bizarre aroma; It's starts with lemon and straw, some light spice and some sweet malt, a tiny hint of sweet honey and pine. I'm also getting a lot of mushroom and cheesecake because Rick Furzer suggested that's what it was like for him, and I can see what he means.
The flavour is really nice, smooth and complex. Quite soft with a big floral edge and some underlying spicy malts. A little purfumey with some biting citrus notes, and while this is a perfectly made, executed and balanced beer, I'm still getting that Sorachi Ace flavour a little too much. It's a little more restrained in this beer than others I've tried, but I'm still thinking Thai green lemon grass chicken curry. A good beer though, a must try for anyone who's looking for something a little different.

The second of the evening is the XH - Extra High 8% - A Belgian style Brown Ale aged for quite some time in Sake Barrels. (we have six of these Nest beers at the shop now, and they sure do like to make them strong! Apart from the Nipponia, they're all over 7%+) For a beer that's aged in such interesting barrels, the recipe for the beer seems a little less than; Malts - Marris Otter, Munich, Crystal, Chocolate. Hops - Chinook and Styrian Goldings. That's about it, but let's not forget, we don't judge a beer by what goes into it, (well, we try not too) we judge it on what it tastes like.

I first tried Sake about 3 years ago. It was mental and it really messed me up for some reason. After I had my first few sips I felt like I had become instantly drunk - in an amazing way - it was crazy. This beer smells like that. *Danger!* Quite nutty with woody hints, some Belgian dark fruit malt flavours too in the aroma.
The flavour is quite sweet in this beer too, a little like dark Belgian candy sugars or a really nice, good quality brown sugar. Other flavours consist of brown bread, some toffee, light malt spice, grapes, pears and a good dose of Sake! The finish is sweet and moorish, with no indication of how strong the beer is... it's gone before you even knew it was poured.

Two really great beers from Japan. We have a range of six in at the shop at the moment, and I really suggest trying them. My only experience of Japanese beer so far has been Asahi in the past, and while Ashai Black was OK, it wasn't anything to write home about. Apart from that, it's always been the Japanese Whisky that's floated my boat, some/most of them are good enough to rival any Scotch Whisky, they clearly know what they're doing. It's a similar story with Kiuchi Brewery - They clearly know what they're doing.

The Dark vs The Light

2012-02-08T12:32:00.000-08:00

It seems Durham Brewery have produced a White Stout. Don't be fooled into thinking that this is one of those oxymoronic light coloured beers which tastes like a dark one though, as this is nothing like that. This beer has history in mind. The bottle blurb states; "Before porter breweries claimed the term 'stout' for dark beers, any strong beer was a 'stout' beer."

So with tonight being WhiteStout night on Twitter I thought I'd crack open a bottle and find out what it's like. I've had it once before on cask and thought it very pleasant, but bottles can always be different.

At 7.2% it comes across with a very restrained but still aromatic aroma. I'm getting green apple and pear skins, a little lemon, grape, straw and some subtle spice. There's a lot of fruity malts in the body, and you get an initial malty spice too under the bittersweet flavours. A sharp lemony/orangy tang is soothed by hints of caramel and toffee. A beer with a lot of complexity and good old fashioned British flavour, with a long, drying and moorish finish - so much so, you want to take another sip before you put your glass down.

My one and only issue with the beer comes with the labeling. A few people have been a bit confused by the naming of the beer, only to have me point out the blurb, then things become clear. It's perfectly acceptable to call it a White Stout, but In my opinion, putting Pale Stout underneath doesn't really help with the confusion of some. I think it would be better off saying; "White Stout, Strong English Ale".

With all the backstory behind this event tonight from the good people at Durham (on Twitter. Elle has been loving the Temp. as well as the White) it would be a little unfair to not open a Temptation as well, to give a little yin to the yang.

Durham Temptation is a 10% Imperial Stout - a style which is renownedly recognised by being strong and dark. Lots of flavours come about from the aroma of this one. Rich dark chocolate, raisins, woody tones, burnt toast and plenty of burnt malts, a little molasses mixed coffee and generally all the dark good stuff you want from an Imperial Stout.

The flavour is super intense. Thick and rich like an oil slick. I think I'm correct here by saying that this I.S. is a lot different to pretty much all the American I.S's because, while they're driven by a huge overly hoppy bitterness, this beer is driven by a huge main beer ingredient: MALTS... and so much of them. Yes it has a big bitter bite in the form of some orangy pith, making it rather morish - and probably a little too easy drinking, but the malt bill in this beer must be huge! Loads of bitter chocolate, rich dried fruits, mocha, liqourice and even a little vegetal flavour from this perfectly produced and balanced, but decadent beer.... skillz!

I've had a few chats recently with Elle Bell on Twitter about both of these beers. One night I suggested that we should pour one of each into a big jug and find out the results of a blend - being the crazy fool I am. She said it would make for a really interesting experiment, and she tried it before I could. She wasn't too keen on the results as she thought it made the overall experience a little unbalanced and a little to overly hoppy bitter... a bit like a BIPA. I for one, like some BIPAs, and with a third of each beer left in front of me, I couldn't help but resist and pour them both together to find out!

The result: It certainly presents itself with a different aroma! All of those big chocolate dark malts get a little replaced with the aromas of the White Stout. Elle was right! This does taste like a Black IPA, and what a Black IPA it is! She may not have been a fan of the blend, but it's something I'm loving right now - I think all the flavours perfectly mar themselves into one glorious beer. I seriously suggest you get one each of these beers and try it out for yourselves, it's worth it! White Stout meets Black Stout - Loving it.

Appreciate it, for all that it is individually, but - at the end of the day: Have some fun with your beer!

No. Sleep. Till BROOKLYN

2012-02-07T13:42:00.000-08:00

I've always been a major fan of Brooklyn Beer. That's why it's always made me a little sad that we don't get as much as we probably should in this country. Don't get me wrong, we get plenty, I even managed a few Brooklyn Blasts! about a week ago, (a truly fantastic beer) but it seems to me that a lot of the specials and the more sought after brews never really grace our shop.

That was until last week!

First up to bat in the list of possible greats is Brooklyn Monster Barley Wine. This beer comes across with a gorgeous rich burnt amber hue. A faint wiff of caramel malt comes about, but it has a classic aroma of a Brooklyn beer - it's pretty recognisable. Plenty of toffee, a little candy floss and some brown sugar.

The flavour is instant, intense and smoooth. A bitter beast of a beer, but you can still tell there's plenty of malt richness about this 10.3% behemoth. Flavours of candy apples and lots of orangy pithy goodness. plenty of brown sugar and caramel too, mixed with a touch of vanilla and a nice marmalade quality. A brilliant Barley Wine, no disappointment at all - one for the keeper shelves!

Second up comes a beer which needs no introduction, because apparently, it doesn't have one.

While all the blurb on the bottle of Brooklyn Black Ops, being it the beer that doesn't exist, is an interesting read, what I really wanted to find out was whether or not this beer was worth the 25 squid I coughed up for it. And also if I could tell if there was any sort of outside (or mental) influence which dictated my opinion on the beer otherwise. This was something I had started to wonder about in a post a couple of weeks back. Let's dive in then I guess!

Brooklyn Black Ops, I can tell you, is a beer which does exist. It's a 10.7% Imperial Stout aged in Bourbon barrels for 4 months then bottled flat and re-fermented with Champagne yeast. The aroma is rich, powerful but mysteriously inviting. Lots of vanilla and spicy/woody Bourbon. Burnt malts and a little lactic dominate also. Cherry skin like spirit and a fired up essence that hits the back of your throat making you realise before you even drink it that it's going to have it's way with you.

It's light in body/mouthfeel, not what I was expecting. I get so much chocolate... sooo much rich dark chocolate. It's like liquidated chocolate truffles aged in Bourbon! It has as much boozy goodness in it, you could probably say it's leaning a little more toward a liqueur than a beer. It's quite a sweet beer. A little hazelnut and milk. I'm not sure if it's the Champagne yeast but there's definitely something very different about this beer. It's hard to put your finger on, whilst still being completely blown away. Soy notes and a little liqourice, raisins and blackberries, woody molasses and a deep, deep long finish which tells you; your going to have a good night tonight!

Was it worth the £25?? Only time will tell I guess... I'm only a 3rd in with 2/3rds left to go! It's going to be great fun finding out.

Bring it on.

Imperial Stout Snow Cone

2012-02-05T07:23:00.000-08:00

After reading Glyn's post about snowy beer pairing it got me thinking about my own snowy beer.

He stated that he preferred IPAs because he thought Imperial Stouts were a little bit unimaginative, a view which he's completely entitled to, after all it's been done to death a little of late - "it's cold! I need something strong and dark" It got me thinking though, does it really have to be unimaginative? After all I've been bastardizing the drink for many years now.... adding whisky to it, pouring it over ice cream, blending it half and half with Imperial IPA and even mixing it with fruit beer. After a bit of thought and the fact there's 4 inches of snow on the ground, it suddenly hit me;

I'm making me some IMPERIAL STOUT SNOW CONES!!!

I'm about to blow the doors off this beast. Sounds crazy right.... well, it is. There's just something about my hatred for the snow that just brings out my inner idiot, and for once I just wanted to have a little bit of fun.

Check this out:

Now with Imperial Stout Snow Cone making, there's a set of rules you must follow;

1. - Firstly make yourself a good cone. Get a good piece of card, cut a circle out of it and cut a quarter out of that circle, then stick together with tape - simple! You want to make sure you get the freshest fallen snow here to pack out the cone. We're not looking for yellow snow here, we're looking for the purest, whitest snow which we can turn into brown snow.

2. - You need to choose your Stout very carefully. As we're basically watering it down by pouring it onto snow, (to release the flavours, like a whisky don't you know...) you're going to need one with the most booze, the most flavour, so it really shines though in the icy goodness. I went for Goose Island's Bourbon County Stout - A personal favourite of mine. There's just something about the power of this beer, I knew it would beat the crap out of a little bit of the fluffy stuff.

3. - Realise what you've just done by pouring a very expensive beer into snow, try not to smile while you take a giant bite, savour, enjoy and repeat, then rush back inside to your fire and enjoy the rest of the bottle of beer.

That was my experiment then, and I loved every minute of it. I couldn't help but smile and laugh when I started to pour the beer over the snow. When are you going to do yours? Just remember, it's just beer at the end of the day - have some FUN with it!

This post was brought to you by the 'Stop GhostDrinker being a moron foundation'

Nice Surprises

2012-02-04T12:56:00.000-08:00

A month or two back, whist we were on our Christmas do at The Grove, a man named Martin rocked up and asked if I was 'the ghost?' Whilst I was wondering how he knew that, he placed a bottle of beer in my hand and started to explain.

Martin (or @6TownsMart as he's known on twitter... things made a little more sense after that little bit of info) had enjoyed reading one of my past posts about Flemish beer. It was incredibly kind of him to then bring me a bottle of Struise Aardmonnik - Earthmonk for my consideration, if I remember correctly he said it was his favourite and a 'must try' for any Flemish beer lover.

I didn't know anything about the beer at the time, but my interest was heightened when Zak leaned over and whispered "That's an incredibly rare beer you got there." After looking up a quick commercial description on RateBeer (it's the only useful thing I use RB for..) I knew I had to try this monstrous looking brew.

It pours flat as a pancake, but at about 4 years old, I'm not too surprised. The aroma is immediate and intense, you can smell it before you even lift the glass to your nose. Now it may not sound too appetising, but it smells like; earthy sulphur, vinegar, sour oak, sherry, rum raisin and a touch of floral vanilla.

The flavour of this beer does not stop. It coats your mouth and refuses to let go. It's aged for 18 months in oak, and you can really feel all the 8% beat you senseless. Sour, vinous, sweet notes coming in at certain points, oak, sherry, rum, dark spice, earthy malt, tart cherry and a little acidity.
I've not had many beers from Struise, but this one kicks so much ass I think it's going to be pretty hard to beat. I will be keeping my eye out for more of their beers in the future, but for now I think I'll sit by the fire and enjoy the rest of this glass while the two inches of snow stop me from painting the outside of Beer Ritz....

Martin Ridge, you get my upmost gratitude for passing this beer along, next time you come to the shop give me a shout and I'll have a beer waiting for you.

Answers on a postcard as to what animal that is...

2 More to Add to the Litter

2012-02-01T12:56:00.000-08:00

I don't really enjoy siding in massive debates which can sometimes get out of hand, I just like to drink beer.

Tonight I'm breaking out two new beers from Brewdog for scrupulous examination; AB:08 and their collaborative brew with Lost Abbey - Lost Dog.

Lost Dog comes out of the cage first. An 11.5% Rum Barrel Aged Imperial Porter has a lot to live up to, so let's get the crack. I was really exited about this beer, not just because of what it is, but because it's made with the guys at Lost Abbey. I've had a lot of beer from the guys from Southern California, and I've been blown away by all of them, so let's hope that they lost nothing on the way over here.

It's not as dark as I thought it would be. It's more the colour of a very dark rum rather than a dark brown/black porter. There's no getting away from the aroma, it absolutely stinks of rum drenched raisins and fire kissed vanilla coming from the heart of oak barrels.

The flavour is instant, rich and intense. I do wonder however, if aging the beer for almost a year was a little too long. It's a very sweet beer, plenty of almost dried fruits, you can't really get any note of alcoholic strength. (not sure if that's good or bad here) It's a rather strange beer, I get no real presence of hop bitterness or malt backbone, in fact after the swallow the flavour just seems to drop away really. It's sort of like a watered down dark rum. I think it would have been a lot better if it was backed up by a long thick, dark and full malty flavour - maybe a Rum Aged Imperial Stouts is due here.

While it may have the fantastic packaging and look as the Paradox range, I'm afraid it fails to deliver in the way I expected. It kind of reminds me of Innis & Gunn's rum cask beer, and while that's my favourite I+G beer, this has a much higher strength which doesn't really come across. An interesting beer which I'm glad I tried, but not one I'd get again.

Second up: AB:08 - an 11.8% deconstructed Imperial Stout.

I think I'm right in saying the idea was to create a beer with all the qualities of an Imperial Stout, but without the colour. I can't really see the point apart from it being gimmicky, but hey let's give it a go. Let's face it, if there's one beer I know - It's Imperial Stout, so let's see if it's a crowd pleaser, or just another April Fools.

Aroma wise, there's lots to pick out. It has a predominant burt ash scent which is worrying, but there's hints of chocolate & coco, some vegetal/tomato skin and a big bite of strong espresso to back it up.

Sorry guys, this is not an Imperial Stout. What it is though is one hell of an interesting and tasty beer! I'm not sure you'll ever be able to replace and recreate those full on flavours which come about from the darker malts but It's full on in flavour and complexity. Lots of coco nibs, you can tell there's a decent amount of hop bitterness under quite a bit of chocolate smoothness. The smoky nose comes into play quite a bit with the flavour, but it's nothing bad. Marshmellow, caramel and vanilla, sweet bonfire toffee, orange rind, a little sticky pine and a lot of complex complexity!

I'll tell you one thing, I couldn't shake the flavour of Coco Pops out of my mouth with this beer. Suits me just fine, I love me some Coco Pops!

Is it fair to pump a beer full of flavour adding elements to take away from what it should be in the first place?.... I'm not really bothered. At first I didn't want to like this beer, but by the end of it I was kinda in love with it. Is that what strong beer does to you? Well if so, that's part of their charm I guess.

One Last Time

2012-01-30T13:56:00.000-08:00

For personal reasons tonight I need a very special drink. One that I can drink for the very last time. One that I can drink and remember all the amazing times I've had with the beer before.

It's a fitting beer for a fitting end to one of life's chapters, and one which I'll take to it's fullest and enjoy, celebrate and drink with the fondest of memories.

The beer comes from the heart of Yorkshire, from the oldest brewery in Yorkshire in fact. Say what you will about the brewery, but this is the best Barley Wine I've ever, ever consumed, and it comes as a massive shame as the brewery discontinued making the beer a few years back and this is the last bottle I have in my possession. As I say though, it's not a night for sadness, but a night for celebration, and the fact I'll probably never have a Barley Wine this good again - which means for all it's faults - it was a true success.

It's a truly stunning beer. One to sip and savour, one to take your time over. A beer to bring out only when you know the time is right, and leaves you with that 'wow' feeling and you scratch your head trying to think about what just happened. It's liquid gold, it baffles me as to why Samuel Smiths ever stopped making this beer. But hey, it's the last one I'll ever get to drink so I'll raise my glass and give a full felt cheers.

And just like that the beer is gone. The glorious, but fleeting moment has passed and your left with an empty bottle. You wouldn't be human if you didn't feel more than a little upset.

Some of you who know me, may know me as a little closed off; 'doesn't like to share feelings type'. Maybe that's one of the reasons why I enjoy to blog. In some small way it's one of my outlets, one of my ways to get things off my chest. At the big moments in your life, it's not hard to have mixed feelings, to be a little confused. I guess that's what happens when your so filled with joy for knowing someone, but feeling such sadness from the truth that they're gone.

I guess that's about it.

RIP Barbara Briggs, You will be greatly missed. We all love you so very much, something these words I write could never fully express.

Come On Down!

2012-01-27T13:44:00.000-08:00

Finally.... I can use my design
skills for good, not evil!

Leeds is truly going to be the place to be for beer in 2012.

This is just a little reminder about Monday the 6th of February. If you can make it down to Beer Ritz between 6 and 9 we'll be putting on a bit of a show and a bit of a spread for you.

We've got Leigh Linley from the Good Stuff to come down with some of his own foody creations to share amongst the people, and we have some beer to go along with it (for free!) to create what should be the first of many - Beer and Food Evenings at Beer Ritz.

Leigh will be talking you though the food and beer, I'll be selling you the beer if you should wish to buy some more, and I've been told that Zak will be around for a chin wag for a bit too. It's going to be a relaxed and enjoyable evening, and a great way to introduce new people to the joys of great beer and food. I've been told the theme for the night will be sweet treats (cakes, muffins etc..) and some darker stuff; nice Porters, Stouts, maybe some Dunkel Weisse and general desert beers.

I think that should be about it. Just make sure you come on down.... but don't all of you turn up at once at 6! Our shop isn't as big as you might think!

As a side note, we've just been given some more really exiting Leeds beer news from Rick Furzer about OpenIt coming at the end of Feb, check out this link to see what we'll be up too.

Celebrate In Style!

2012-01-25T12:11:00.000-08:00

It seems it's Burns Night once again! A night that seems to come around quicker and quicker these days. One night to be a little more decadent than one often should.

What better way to start the evening than, not with a beer, not with a whisky, but with a whisky beer!

Ola Dubh is a fantastic beer, and a fantastic range of beers (12,16,18,30,40yrs) from the ever impressive Harviestoun Brewery. If you've not heard of the beer before (I'm sure you have) it's Harviestoun's Old Engine Oil aged for some time in Highland Park Whisky casks (in different respectable ages) and basically translates as 'Black Oil'. This 8% beer pours intensely black in colour, with the most inviting of aromas consisting of; liquorice, roasted grain, oak, vanilla, dried fruit and a little chocolate. The flavours are thick, rich and moorish. More of the flavours really make a push forward in the body, with a little smokiness coming through on the sides of the tongue.

Of course a beer this good deserves a good food pairing.

An this being Burns Night it has to be haggis, but what to pair it with???

I thought up many concoctions and combinations to try out, all sounding delicious in my own mind. - as a side note, haggis is delicious! What's wrong with you Mark??? -

At the end of the day all I could come up with is this though:

Just slap loads of the stuff in a big bowl....

That was dinner then. Those of you out there who've not had the indulgence of haggis, you are missing out, and those of you who don't approve - What's not to like?!?

After literally stuffing my face full of meat and beer, it was time for the after dinner treat that is the king of all after dinner treats, with your dinner treats, and general man's (or woman's if you are one) best friend.

Whisky.

It's always difficult to decide which I think I like better when it comes to beer and whisky when I get asked. I always like to say they're two different arms of the same chair.

Tonight's selection comes from the Gordon & MacPhail Private Collection; a 1994 (15yr) Caol Ila at 45%, finished in Tokaji wooden barrels and limited to only 492 bottles.

It's probably the most bizarre whisky I've ever drunk. Even at 45% (not that strong) and with more than a couple of drops of water, it still delivers a huge boozy hit, which does the amazing trick of making you feel it twice - once after the swallow, and again about 3/4 seconds later after you've thought 'is that it?'. Intensely peaty with some slight rock salt and smoke, but it has a weird sweet apple quality about it making it completely different to anything I've tried. Quite a big hit of orange tanginess too amongst some sherbet buzzing, a truly invigorating dram, even if your mouth is left a little dry and ashy afterwards.

That's probably going to be it for my decadence tonight, I have a game of football to play in the rain... perfect warm up then I guess! I hope you all had something special as well.

Let other poets raise a fracas
"Bout vines, an' wines, an' drucken Bacchus,
An' crabbit names an'stories wrack us,
An' grate our lug:
I sing the juice Scotch bear can mak us,
In glass or jug.

O thou, my muse! guid auld Scotch drink!
Whether thro' wimplin worms thou jink,
Or, richly brown, ream owre the brink,
In glorious faem,
Inspire me, till I lisp an' wink,
To sing thy name!

Beer Psychology

2012-01-23T15:48:00.000-08:00

Does your brain allow you to even taste a beer the way it should?

The story of beer, our brains and our preconceived notions of flavour in the realms of psychology and drinking has always really interested me. It's something that I've written about in the past, as have others, but it keeps cropping up in my travels. It's something that has cropped up again because we've recently received a new beer at the shop, but has already sold out.

The beer came from Brooklyn Brewery, and cost £25 per bottle. Granted the bottle was 75cl, finished with elegance and a cork cage closure, and was very strong, but it was still £25 per bottle.
Say you stumped up the 25 squid for the bottle and took it home to open that night. When it comes time to open the beer, how much of what you paid for it actually comes into play when you taste the beer? Regardless of the taste do you try convince yourself it's a great beer? Even if the beer tastes awful do you tell yourself - "This beer cost £25! It must be good." How many of you would even think that before you even opened the bottle? Yes the beer could be good, it could just as easily be bad, or even not to your tastes but does your mind cover those factors up and play tricks with you to protect yourself from the fact you may have just wasted £25? Could you go so far as to even say your mind makes up a flavour for the beer? Possibly not... but how many times have you been drinking with someone, they tell you what a beer tastes like, and that's all you can taste for the rest of your drink...

You could try your own little experiment yourself. Give someone exactly the same beer in two different glasses blind. Tell them the first one cost £2 and the second one cost £10, I think it may be quite interesting to see what happens.

It can work in the opposite direction as well. If you have a preconceived notion (or thought) that a brewery or a beer is bad, would you ever truly enjoy anything from that brewery or that beer again? True, tastes can change and evolve, but our ingrained feelings can be stubborn as a mule. On the same hand, if everyone else told you that a beer tasted awful, how much of that would influence (or you would let influence) your finial verdict on the beer? Would you believe what everyone else tells you and bow into the peer pressure, or would you convince yourself that everyone else's opinion was your own and agree that the beer was bad?

In such a sense orientated and opinionated world do we ever have our own opinions at all, or do we just like to tell ourselves our opinions are our own? That being said, I'm enjoying asking questions tonight, it's what I do. I feel I'll ask a couple more.

No two beers are truly the same. (or are they?) If you tell yourself you're not a fan of lagers, is that because you've tried them all, or is that because you've convinced yourself that all lagers are bad?

I'm pretty sure a label can put thoughts into someone's head before they even try a beer. Let's say you have 'Beer Geek A' (BGA). Now BGA loves every beer he's ever had from Thornbridge, and actively seeks out their beers to try all he can. Thornbridge makes a new beer. How many of you will assume that before BGA even buys the beer, he'll assume it's awesome, and will tell everyone he knows it's awesome? I know I've been guilty of such things from time to time. If you have a brewery you love, can they ever make a bad beer in your eyes? And even if they do, do you still tell (and actually convince) yourself it's great?

What about review sites like RateBeer. Does the opinion of the 'mass beer geek' outweigh the thought process of the one?

How much can provenance come into play in these matters? After all, if you get told that a beer is much better from the source (over and over again) you'll believe it right? Even if most brewers will go to enormous lengths to make sure your beer reaches you in the same condition that it left the brewery, it's better from the tap surely... well, actually, there could be a little fact behind this.

A few other influencers which could have factual evidence behind, but people put forward as opinion, are as follows;

1. Bottle Size - People think beer from a bigger bottle tastes better, especially when it comes to bottle conditioned beers. There could be truth behind this, but truth people can't understand so they just take it as opinion.

2. Bottle Colour - I know quite a few people (respectable and not so much) who think green and clear glass is not the way to store beer, and immediately think a beer will be 'skunked' before even opening a green or clear bottle - without even giving it a chance! I have my own thoughts and feelings on the subject, and have carried out my own experiments, but at the end of the day, have no real scientific reasoning so my opinions are just that.

3. Glass shape - This is probably the point we can take the most fact about. It's true that the shape of your beer glass can influence the way you taste, smell and experience your beer. But if someone offers you a beer in the wrong glass, that's going to be in your head when it comes to tasting right?

Maybe when it comes right down to it, if you really want to truly experience a beer for exactly what it is, we need to do it blind, in a dark room with no-one else around.

But do we have to?

No, of course we don't, that would take all the fun out of the experience. Better to drink, socialise, and have our drink of choice with the people we love - and make up our own opinions about said beverage.

... or try to at least.

Goblin vs Goblin

2012-01-18T17:02:00.000-08:00

I used to drink quite a bit of Hobgoblin back in my days drinking in the Three Horseshoes just down the road, most of the time because it was the only decent thing on though. But that point still remains, it was usually the only decent thing on. I think it's a very enjoyable dark ruby ale on cask, and tonight I have the pleasure of sampling some bottled Goblin. (I received quite a bit for Christmas) I'm making the evening a little more special though, as a good friend Dave, passed me on a bottle of King Goblin to try for the first time.

Regular Hobgoblin comes across with it's classic clear ruby brown appearance and rocky white foam. At 5.2% it's a little stronger than your typical English Brown/Ruby ale, but that surely works in it's (my) favour. Really appealing caramel malt aroma, with some brown sugar sweetness. Really easy drinking, a beer you could sit and neck back all day. Very smooth, a hint of chocolate malt mixed with caramel sweetness and a refreshing citrus bitterness in the finish.

King Goblin looks and smells like a very different beast. A Special Reserve that's "Only brewed on a full moon". It has a fantastic aroma of fresh clementines and sweet candy sugar. At 6.6% it's no push-over and there's quite a few elements to the brew. It's a sweet beer, a slight candy sugar and caramel malt really comes though in the body, but it's much smoother with so much more to it than regular Hobgoblin. I'm getting a slight essence of a sort of horse-blanket mustiness which adds too the complexity of the beer. A little green apple skin and a lot of proper English hop bitterness to the finish of this different and instantly classic beer.

It's a interesting face off, Hobgoblin has that nice full malty body with a bitter citrus finish, and King Goblin has a big sweet body with a nice boozy, rather drying and moorish, finish. My thanks go out to Dave for passing me along the beer, and I hope you enjoy the Porter I exchanged for the King.

Of course I wouldn't be Ghost Drinker if I didn't do something a little crazy with the beers. So with the thinking that these two beers both had their separate elements; what would they possibly taste like together?!?! So with that thought in mind and a third of each beer left I decided to pour them into the same glass for funsies!

Did the blend work?

Hellz yeah!! The two different qualities of these beers compliment each other perfectly! If I was Wychwood I'd bottle this, but that's just me. You have a beer that starts big and sweet with a caramel toffee malt body, and ends up with a pleasant, moorish, slightly bitter body.

Why do I do these things? I've no idea. I'm having fun with beer though, and at the end of the day, Isn't beer meant to be about fun?

The Next Step

2012-01-13T15:58:00.000-08:00

Home brewing is all the rage at the moment. That's certainly the case if last night was anything to go by. The Leeds Homebrewers meet up at Mr Foleys the other day seemed to be an upmost hit, and all the beers I tried were on fantastic form, a true success of a night, and great fun was had by all.

Dave from @broadfordbrewer infamy has just posted an interesting piece about where he thinks he could or may take his home brewing in the future. It got me thinking and it fits in quite nicely, because this week I've been drinking quite a few beers from a 'basement brewer' who's poised to take his beers 'into the light' so to speak, and go mainstream with his creations. It's what could be seen as the 'next step' of a homebrewer to commercial brewer.

Nigel Poustie makes Sunbeam Ales.

He's been making them, developing recipes, and coming up with a whole range of beers for about two and a half years now. He still brews from home, producing 25l batches every 2 or 3 weeks, and is currently procuring equipment to be able to produce 50l batches.

Once 50l is attainable he wishes to register as an official brewery and start paying duty so he can start properly selling his wares. In the first five years he told me he wants to establish a good name, become an established Yorkshire brewery, and start selling his beers to specialist beer shops like Beer Ritz. Until then, and while his beers are not legally sellable, you can get any information or pose any questions to Nigel himself by emailing; nigelpoustie@yahoo.co.uk (until he goes official)

He's a man with ambition, but what about the beers themselves? Well you may have noticed that the labels claim these beers are award winning. And in fact they are! In October of last year, Nigel entered 5 of his ales into the UK National Homebrewer competition, 3 of which won rosettes. The Honey and Lavender Ale won second place in the Speciality Category, and the judges even gave it 'world class beer' points. His Pale Ale won second place in the Blond Ale Category, and his Wheaty blonde was prized third place in the same category.

I received 6 of the ales Nigel makes, and below are a few quick tasting notes on each:

Extra Special Ale 5.2% - A ruby brown coloured ale with an inviting caramel/toffee malt aroma. It's smooth and robust. It reminds me quite a bit of some Thwaites beer. A great marmalade, toffee and dried malt flavour is complemented by some spice creeping in the finish.

Honey & Lavander 4.9% - A pale gold beer with a lively carbonation. Lemon, dry straw and a hint of honeycomb come through in the aroma. It's a soft beer, floral and really fruity. Quite drying and rather refreshing. Superbly moorish!

Wheaty Blonde 4.2% - Another pale gold beer. Big on fruits in the aroma, I'm getting grapefruit, orange and lemon aromas. The flavour is full of floral zest and a long drying peppery finish. Some banana and bubblegum in the body. Light but packed with flavour.

Best Bitter 4.5% - Dark amber in colour. A nice caramel malt aroma with fruity overtones; lemon and orange zest is quite prominent. It's bitter indeed in the flavour. Dry straw and similar flavours to the aroma, it's a perfectly balanced and easy drinking beer.

IPA 5.3% - A fantastic dark amber appearance. An intense fruity aroma, you get lots of mangos, peaches and lychees, but you can sense a good underlying malt bill here. Really rich on the fruity malt flavour, and it has a very nice balance of bitter sweet with a long lasting, almost peppery, drying finish.

Stout 3.6% - I don't think I've ever had a stout at this strength, but it beats quite a few commercial ones I've had! It's perfect darkness. Aromas of coffee, biscuit malts, chocolate orange and a little hazelnut flow from the glass. It's got a great roasted, and almost dairy quality for such a weak Stout. It's light in body, but full on in flavour.

Those were the six beers I was given, and to be completely honest, if someone gave me them blind I'd have no idea that they were made by someone in their own home. The whole range is of an excellent and truly eye opening quality. This is the closest I've come to trying a homebrew that's fully fit for commercial release, fact.
When will Nigel present his wares for public scrutiny? Only time will tell, but I can guarantee you that when he does, his name will be one to watch. I wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors, in this current climate with small brewers popping up all over the place, it can be hard to make a name for yourself. If you can make consistently high quality beers though, people will become loyal to your brand and the beers you make.

Share your passion with others, make the beers you want, persevere through adversity and create a name for yourself, but most of all; just have fun doing what you love - making beer.

Pub Diaries

2012-01-11T15:44:00.000-08:00

If there's any of you who missed it, I was quizzed by the Pub Diaries a couple of weeks back. If you want to know who's under the sheet then here you go! :)

Does Strength Matter?

2012-01-09T11:45:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a lot about whisky lately. That's most probably because I've been drinking a lot of it again. (apologies if you stopped here for beer tonight, but this post is going to be about beer's big brother...)

I've been contemplating many different aspects from; region, age, price and perceived value to chill filtering and even new countries making the stuff. Most of all though, I've been really considering strength (Cask Strength whiskies in particular) and what happens to a Single Malt, or any whisky for that matter, when the alcoholic percentage goes above and beyond the 40% mark.

Before I get into it I will point out (and it's the most important point) that whisky is all about personal taste and preference. There is no right or wrong answers when it comes to how your enjoy your whisky, these are just my thoughts. (unless you drink Single Malts with coke :- then your a heathen and should be ashamed!)

It is said that bottling a whisky at Cask Strength is capturing the true essence and nature of that individual whisky. In some people's eyes using water to get the strength down to 40% for a more commercial sale is robbing the spirit of it's... well, spirit! I'm not one of those people. I see no issue with bottling at Cask Strength or otherwise, if I do go Cask Strength, I just have to add my own water.

The thing is for me, once a whisky goes over 45% or so and gets into the 50s or even 60%ers, then I do have to add water to my drink. While I love Single Malts, I'm not a fan of the massive alcohol burn you get from the higher proofs. Don't get me wrong, I love the nice warming effect you get from a 40%er, but take the strength too high and all your left with is a throat stripping liquid which you can't really pick out many flavours because your trying to hold it down.

But add a little water to these strong beasts of fire, peat and smoke, and you dilute them enough to let the flavours come out. The drink then becomes not a test of home much of a man (or woman... or ghost) you are, and what's the strongest thing you can drink, but a pleasurable experience and a provoking drink.

This got me thinking of why distillers bottle at Cask Strength at all. After all, you get less bottles to sell, they're usually more expensive and some just add their own water once it's in their glass. But before you curse me as distiller hater and water adder, remember my first point, and know that these are just my thoughts and preferences.

Of course with all things, something new comes along and decides to throw a spanner in your soup, and completely change the way you think about your own thoughts!

Ardbeg Alligator is one of the best whiskies I've ever had. Not because it's the most expensive, or the most heavily peated or the strongest, but because it's 51.2% and it tastes nothing like that - it has the alcohol presence of a 35/40% whisky.

How many times have you had a beer and said; "it's strong but it tastes nothing like it"?? Well this is just another one of those experiences but with whisky - a 'dangerously drinkable' whisky!
It's got all the great powerful Ardbeg flavours about it, no doubt. Burnt oak, peated vanilla, sea air and cigars and much more, but it's so perfectly balanced and so easily drinkable whilst still being complex that it's my number one whisky.

It's got the strength of a Cask Strength whisky, but it's power of proof is hidden under a mask of supreme flavour. I know there are those out there will disagree, and say that you can't experience real whisky till you've had something straight from the barrel, but while I can respect these drinks for what they are - they are still not for me, and I'll stick with my lighter Scotch. Unless you give me more like Ardbeg Alligator. I know it sounds like I just want to drink things that are really strong, but don't taste like it, but those of you who know me will know what I'm attempting to get at here.

So to go back to my first thoughts on if strength matters or not;

Strength should not be an issue if you know how to craft a drink which is perfect for the person who is drinking it.

HomeBrew X2!

2012-01-04T16:30:00.000-08:00

I've been getting a lot of homebrews recently. Don't get me wrong it's an awesome thing, it's just tricky to know when I'll get the chance to drink them. It's also tricky trying to decide how to give feedback about said homebrews. Do I give a tweet? a text? What if hey suck?
Naahh, I thought I'd post about them regardless. Let's face it, it's the only real way of getting more than 140 characters of information across. So without further ado I'll give my feedback on two brews tonight; one from Dean from Mr Foleys and one from David (@broadfordbrewer).

First up is Dave's Nebulous (nice name) - a 6.8% India Pitch-Black Ale. I've heard him say on more than one occasion to me that it was more like a hoppy Stout rather than a BIPA, either way, I'll be going on flavour tonight - not if it fits a perfect criteria; that doesn't really matter. It has a good thick and creamy dark tan head upon the pour. The aroma is very intriguing, the hops are definitely there mixed with a great fruity malt. (Bramling Cross? - most probably a wrong guess) The flavour is great to be honest. You do get a bit of bittering roasted/oaky quality, but it's a little watered back behind a really pleasant fruity malt body and drying bitter hop finish. While it may not fit some people's idea of a BIPA, you can't argue with the fact, this is a perfectly made BEER.

Second along comes Dean's Masters of War; a 7.6% Imperial Brown Stout. I was a bit hesitant about opening this beer, after all it had about 2cm of sediment in the bottle because of a filter issue. I was also given warnings from Dean to pour it into the glass as soon as I could after I open it, or it might fizz and mix up the hefty sediment... oh well, here we go!
Well I'll be honest Dean, most of the beer went on the counter, but I did manage to get quite a large portion of it to come clear in the glass. The aroma was quite strange, I did get some lemon and coconut, but I think the Sorachi Ace was playing a few tricks with me, (I think it's a weird hop) I even smelt a touch of Cointreau. Silky smooth in body, with a nice tangy carbonation zest. Some nice chocolate flavour came through as it warmed and you got a sense that it was a strong beer. (well they were both strong, so maybe I'd just had too much) I couldn't shake that Sorachi Ace flavour though. It really reminds me of Thai Curries, and I just find it really strange in a beer.
If you can manage to see the picture (cameras broken) the label was designed by Neil (@EisntCNiel) and it's pretty cool too.

Two really interesting drinking experiences tonight. Two different, and well presented beers, and both a little stronger than I needed for a quiet night in ;)

With the amount of homebrewers we have around Leeds, our quarterly homebrewers meet up at Mr Foleys and my plans to run a Beer Ritz homebrew competition for amazing prizes, Leeds is becoming a fantastic scene for 'making it yourself' and it's something that I hope continues!

2011; Rise Of The Ghost

2012-01-03T16:38:00.000-08:00

It appears that 10 people voted me for their favourite blog in the Golden Pint Awards. I know who you people are and I'd like to give my sincere thanks for the beery love. I know it was only 10 people, but it was enough to win, apparently. It was amazing to see Beer Ritz voted as the Best Independent Beer Retailer, the love for Beer Ritz is humbling to say the least.

Now to celebrate in humble modesty.....

YEAH!!!!!! Break out the Imperial Stout!!! I wanna see a glass of the powerful stuff in every hand! *breaks out in a popular Queen song, and replaces 'We' with 'I'...*

ahem... *puts shirt back on*
Well with that out of the way, it's time for a little reflection. 2011 was an incredible year, it had a few lows, but so many more highs. I posted 156 times which is about 1 every two and a bit days, so I clearly had a lot to write about, and my thanks go out again to you all for reading. I don't really see myself slowing down either..

It's time to look forward though. 2012 is going to be a mental year for Ghosty. Zak wants us to come up with ideas for how we can get more people to come to Beer Ritz, and I've already got a few ideas. Shop tastings sound nice? What about meeting local brewers while they try sell you their beers? More Beer Ritz video blogs, more blogs in general. Loads of new beers on the horizon! (and we're talkin loads!) The possibilities for being creative are unlimited, maybe I'll even paint the shop purple! It's going to be a year that we move the shop forward into the brave new world that beer has become, and it's going to be AWESOME! So watch out beer lovers, cos we're just getting started!

And now my hope for the new year:

I envisage a world where the Corona will be drunk alongside the Mikkeller. A world where Carling and Buxton beer can sit at the same table. I see a future where everyone is free to imbibe whatever they wish, and that their drink of choice, is just that - their drink of choice. Their drink of choice, which does not leave them open to be judged by other's standards of perceived quality or taste. A future where cask and keg can sit on the same bar and offer a world of choice as Tandleman so expertly put it. It's an exiting time in the industry. It's a time of change, a time to shake things up, so what we'll get out of 2012 will really be down to what we put into it.

Are you ready?

Gypsies For Life!

2011-12-29T14:34:00.000-08:00

The last couple of weeks at the shop have been manic, and I mean MANIC! I suppose when you sell four times as much beer in a week as you normally do that's to be expected though. That's my excuse for the lack of posts out of the way, but while I've had time away from the writing, it's still been very fun to read about what others have been getting up to during the holiday period. It was also very nice to see all the local Bloggers and beer lovers in the shop over the past couple of weeks, it made me feel a little inadequate when I saw shopping baskets full to the brim of glorious beer. I clearly didn't drink enough this Christmas. I even spied Tandleman at one point paroosing our specialist beers and we had a decent chat. (He even nearly went away with a Brewdog Badge!)

One thing I did read which made me chuckle was a post by Simon Johnson about his bug bears of the social media and the online writing scene. It made me laugh because, not only do I agree with some of them, I also indulge in some of them. So tonight I'll give out a shout to Scooper by writing about a Rare Collaboration beer which looks totally AWESOME (yup, I love saying awesome, I bet this is pretty craft too...) ;)

First the blurb; Mikkeller's Our Side is a collaboration brew between two 'Gypsies' - Mikkeller and Stillwater: a 7.5% ale in a large and very stunning bottle. (label designed by Lee Verzosa)

"Mikkel and Brian are two of the world's most unconventional brewers. By designing beers at various breweries around the globe, they have found the freedom to experiment and innovate, resulting in unique beers that often blur the lines of definition. After having met at a festival in Bodegraven, NL, the two realized that their first creations both were called Stateside. It was then an obvious decision to make the two recipes into a new product, packed full of piney, resinous hops, and backed by the esters of a farmhouse yeast strain."

The aroma is making my mouth water. It reminds me of the big Italian brews we used to get at the shop from breweries like Baladin and Borgo. Imagine if you will; Hoppy Saision meets IPA and that's the aroma.

It's intensely lively, the first sip fills your mouth with carbonation and CO2, amongst lots of Belgian/peppery yeast - so you don't really get an initial impression of flavour. Give it time to warm and a bit of a swirl to kick some of the gas out, and it reveals a really interesting and complex beer. Soft and floral. Really fruity. It reminds me quite a bit of the Pretty Things Jack D'or Saison. A soft, slightly sweet caramel malty-ness is matched with a drying, peppery Belgian quality which makes it very moorish. Some bitter orange, vanilla, honeycomb and a little citrus peel are in and around the body and the finish is long a drying.

It's a really interesting beer, but if both these brewers are 'cuckoo' brewers, then I'd like to know where they made it...

Would I call it Craft? Would I prefer it on Cask or Keg? Would I pair it with food? Will I give it a video review? ..ahh ballz to it, I'm far to busy drinking the beer! Now can I have a RT Simon?

Either Or Neither Nor

2011-12-15T14:28:00.000-08:00

I've never had a beer from Cigar City before. (Interesting name for a brewery as a side note...) I saw this one in Craft in London a few months back and decided it looked interesting enough to stump up for a bottle. Turns out this is a beer in a four part series of beers, each respectively called; Either, Or, Neither and Nor. I spied they had some Or in Craft, but the wallet dictated that I just purchase the one. I'm not sure what the other beers in the series are, but it sounds like a really cool idea, I really like the artwork on the labels too, it's really well designed.

It's been called a Black IPA, but the label suggests a Black Ale, and at a hefty 11.2% it's certainly a snifter job. It's made with "Ty Ty Honey, copious amounts of hops and aged on toasted Spanish Cedar"

If you give the glass a bit of a swirl and get some foam forming you get a decent aroma of all sorts of stuff going on; chocolate, honey, burnt toast, sticky resinous hops, roasted malt and raisins. If you let it settle down a bit you start to get more of, an almost smoky, woody aroma - just enough to give an essence of a Rauch Beer.

It's quite a strange beer. On the initial sip you get a really smooth beer and you expect something really thick and oily. This disappears though, the body and mouth feel is light, and your left with your mouth burning of pure flavour. There's a big orange tang on the back of your tongue after the swallow, but the most obvious element is the powerful woody flavours which dominate your senses. (I've worked with Cedar before in furniture making, it's got really powerful and distinctive aromas, and takes a while to get the smell off your hands... not that it was a bad thing) It's slightly charred, lots of the burnt toast coming through with a drying quality making it very moorish. It's obviously alcoholic, but not in a way which makes you think 'slow down' - I don't think it's as warming as a 11.2% beer should be, which makes it a little dangerous in my opinion.

It's a great tasting beer, I think it would have been nicer if the honey had a little more umph in the flavour - I think it gets a little dominated by all the earthy Cedar wood. A good first beer to have from a brewery which I've not visited before though, I hope I can try some more from Cigar City. If your down and about in Craft, ask them if they have any left!

Epic Black & Tan

2011-12-11T11:20:00.000-08:00

Naylor's Brewery, 'The Peak of Perfection' from Keighley. West Yorkshire - The home of UK Brewing.

Naylor's produce a solid core range of 'Pinnacle' beers with a Bitter and a Porter being just two of the range. They also bottle a Black & Tan themselves with two said beers but this was, somehow, not enough for me so I thought I'd blend the two beers for myself. I thought I'd get the proper experience if I blended the two originals myself instead of the pre mixed bottle.

I was going to try and layer the beers like I did with the Yin, Yang mix, but it didn't work this time. I tried really hard too, poured them really carefully, but the Porter just didn't sit on top of the Bitter. Maybe it was something to do with the Bitter being lighter in % than the Porter, or maybe they were both too light. Maybe you can't layer everything, but I still like to try - someone has to, it's tough but I'm willing to do it in the name of science!

I really like the mix. I didn't save a little of each to compare though, I got a little over exited when pouring them together, so I don't really have anything to compare them too. It's not too much of a problem - my giant glass of Black & Tan still tastes great. This was a spur of the moment thing really, and most of the time, spur of the moment things are the best.

Would I suggest you should try it? Well I wouldn't be writing about it if I didn't. It goes really well with home made brownies too!

Note: Brownies made by Sister, not me.

Ilkley: New Beers, New Look

2011-12-09T15:26:00.000-08:00

Ilkley's back in my 'awesome books'.... not that they were ever in my bad books. They've moved up from my 'good books' to my 'awesome books' because they've started bottling my favourite Ilkley beer: Lotus IPA, as well as their Stout Mary.

Ilkley Lotus is a 5.6% IPA, and I really love how informative their bottles have become. The label states: "Malts - The finest Marris Otter and Crystal, Hops - Cascade and Summit, Water - From the Yorkshire Dales". It's things like this which us beer geeks are interested in, and something we'd love to see on more beers.

The beer itself has a fantastic fruity aroma of orange, lemons and apricots with just a hint of biscuity malt in the background. The taste is a riot of ripe juicy fruits - bittersweet and incredibly easy drinking for an almost 6% beer. Now I'm not one for telling you how good a beer is in comparison to another bee..... oh, no wait I totally am that guy! I had a bottle of Goose Island before this bottle and this is sooooo much better! Plus it's in a bigger bottle! Woop Woop!

Next along the 'new in bottle' chain comes Ilkley's Stout Mary - a 4.5% Oatmeal Stout. The bottle states: "Malts - Pale Malt, Roast Barley, Chocolate and Crystal, Hops - Galena and Bramling Cross, Water - From the Yorkshire Dales." It's not as dark as I'd have expected but each to their own.

A really nice roasted malt and burnt rubber aroma. (I sometimes find burnt rubber in my stouts, and people say it sounds really unappetising.. but that's how it smells, and I'm not trying to put it across as a bad thing.) The flavour is rich and creamy. Big on the burnt malt roasted bitterness but light in the finish, which is really good as it doesn't feel like it's filling you up - a problem I'm finding recently drinking pints of stout.

A point I will mention is that if you doubled the strength of this beer you'd get a perfect Imperial Stout.

Two great accompaniments to the Ilkley range in our shop then. I also mentioned about the new look too though. It looks like their going back to the bolder more colour prominent labels, which is fine by me, I prefer them. I'm not really a fan of the taller bottles (shown left in comparison to the ones above) that are coming into the shop at the moment though. Decide for yourself, but it seems Ilkley rethink their bottle branding every 6 months and continue to improve and develop the brand, which is either - quite expensive, or a passion to produce the best beers they can!

Once again: Look British - we're awesome at making beer.

Ghostie's 2011 Golden Pints

2011-12-07T13:50:00.000-08:00

Best UK Draught (Cask or Keg) Beer
Winner: Ilkley Mary Jane
Runner up: Ridgeside Desert Aire

Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer
Winner: Buxton Black Rocks
Runner up: Harviestoun Ola Dubh 12yr

Best Overseas Draught Beer
Winner: Mikkeller Black Imperial Stout
Runner up: Stone Arrogant Bastard

Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer
Winner: Dogfish Head 120min IPA
Runner up: Avery Maharaja IPA

Best Overall Beer
Winner: Marble Dobber
Runner up: Hawkshead NZPA

Best Pumpclip or Label
Winner: Black Sheep Imperial Stout
Runner up: Left Hand Fade to Black

Best UK Brewery
Winner: Marble
Runner up: Ilkley

Best Overseas Brewery
Winner: Stone
Runner up: Dogfish Head

Pub/Bar of the Year
Winner: Arcadia
Runner up: The Rake

Beer Festival of the Year
Winner: LS6 Beer Festival
Runner up: GBBF

Supermarket of the Year
Winner: Waitrose
Runner up: Morrisons

Independent Retailer of the Year
Winner: Beer Ritz
Runner up: Bacchanalia

Online Retailer of the Year
Winner: My Brewery Tap
Runner up: Beer Merchants

Best Beer Book or Magazine
Winner: Michael Jackson's Beer Companion
Runner up: Pete Brown's Man Walks into a Pub

Best Beer Blog or Website
Winner: Real Brewing at the Sharp End
Runner up: Rabid About Beer

Best Beer Twitterer
Winner: @broadfordbrewer
Runner up: @Mrfoleys

Best Online Brewery Presence
Winner: Summer Wine Brewery
Runner up: Hardknott

Food and Beer Pairing of the Year
Winner: Punk IPA Cans in Chicken Arse from Dredge
Runner up: Leigh's Roast Potato Fish Pie and Adnam's Spindrift

In 2012 I'd Most Like To:
Brew some beer with Zak Avery whilst drinking a 4 year old bottle of Dogfish Head 120min IPA.

Open Catagory
Biggest Sellout of the Year: Cooking Lager >> We thoroughly miss his postings about raiding supermarkets for cheap lout and spending evenings with his squeeze. Now he's just another beery geek :(

Vitesse Noir and Lots of Whisky!

2011-12-06T16:42:00.000-08:00

I was pretty damn exited, and slightly confused when I first heard about Hardknott's Vitesse Noir. Mainly because I thought; 'A Triple Imperial Stout... awesome!' and 'A Triple Imperial Stout... what??'

After finding out more about the beer though, it sounded like it was going to be pretty great. A Triple Imperial vanilla mocha Stout, and at 11% too. Those crazy hardcore Hardknott's produced this by double mashing a double Imperial Stout and then throwing in really rich flavours consisting of chocolate, vanilla and coffee. Sounds good on paper, but the proof is in the pudding beer, so to speak.

It pours pitch black with the darkest of brown hues coming in at the sides of the glass under strong lights. At first appearance it looks pretty lacking in carbonation, but be assured this beer is perfectly conditioned. The aromas are pretty obvious for this one. Chocolate covered, heavily roasted coffee beans leap forth from your glass. Its slightly oaky but I was expecting a little more from the vanilla - I suppose it was always going to be a little overpowered by the chocolate and coffee. The initial taste is thick and syrup like. The flavour is really well balanced, with all the aspects of the beer working together really well. The 11% is masked really well, and makes the beer drink much easier than it should... danger beer! It's not as warming as I thought it would be, but it's still really rich and has a great long lasting roasted bitterness about it.

This beer is pretty innovative. The guys at Hardknott are always trying to push the boundaries of what a beer can be, and why shouldn't they, it's quite refreshing. I thought, in the spirit of innovation and experimentation, that I'd have a bit of a play with this beer too. Not that the beer needs to be tampered with, I just like to have a bit of fun with my beer. I wondered what the brew would be like with a bit of oak aging behind it. I'm quite confident that you know I don't have any barrels to my name, or the quantities of the beer to do this though, so I'll have to improvise...

I decided to drink the rest of this bottle with one of my favourite drinking methods: mixing in a few drops of single malts to give a different thought process to the evening.

First up was Aberlour a'bunadh :- a 59.9% cask strength, straight from the cask Speyside rich, fruity beast. Of course it only takes a couple of drops to get the point across, so that's how things went down. I think this little addition worked really well. The powerful rich fruity flavours of the whisky melded really well with the big beer and made a great warming brew. It was now really woody and nutty, with hints of figs and a lot more vanilla now. Good match.

Next up I thought I'd try it with some Islay Whisky: Bruichladdich Rocks to be precise. I may have gotten a little over exited at this point and added a few more drops than necessary to this glass. I thought an Islay malt would add a different complexity to the drink, but the match didn't really work. The massive zesty, seaside quality of the whisky really didn't work with the rich, fruity and bitter flavours of the beer. Oh well, you have to try these things out to see if they work.... Bad match.

The last choice turned out to be the best. A Highland malt; Glenmorangie Nectar D'or. This whisky is matured in Bourbon casks and then finished in Sauternes barrels giving it great lemon and honey syrup flavours and sweetness. The additional sweetness of the whisky gives a great, but not overpowering, match to the beer giving it a really long, warming and oaky finish. A really good match.

Vitesse Noir is a really good beer, on it's own, or even with a few drops of whisky added too. (you know us Ghosts love our spirits..) I'm not sure about the wording on the label though... Instead of saying it's "just the tonic that you needed" I would have said - 'Vitesse Noir; it gets you really drunk!' ;)

Everything in moderation, including moderation itself...

Cheers!

Gotta Take The Power Back!

2011-12-01T18:03:00.000-08:00

I have to apologise. Some of my posts over the past 2 months have been a little negative, and in truth, that's not the sort of person I want or try to be so it's going to stop. So get ready for the feel good post of the year! :)

Take a decent look at the picture below. Yes it's a little out of focus, but I'm sure you can see what it's meant to be.

This is the face of British Beer! (at Beer Ritz anyway)

Two years ago this would have been a much different picture. Look at the colours, (except Kernel) look at the design ((including Kernel).. they just won brewery of the year at the BGBW awards, they can have a bit of teasing) Three years back, this sort of thing was a bit of a pipe dream. Sure there was brewers doing innovative stuff, but not on scales like this.

A couple of years back, we were still in USA mode, lapping up all they could give. We were were American Beer crazy, on some levels we still are a little bit.

Last year we thought Italian Craft beer was going to really take off in the UK. Unfortunately that didn't really seem to materialize as much as some of us (me) had hoped.

In todays environment, with the huge increase in costs for such loser increases such as the Higher Strength Beer Duty and costs which are being piled on like, transportation and distribution costs, it's not surprising people have started being choosy with their extra cash. We are in a very good position at Beer Ritz to see where in the world people are choosing to spend this money, beer wise.

People are starting to look British. Even more than that, people are starting to look local.

It is a fact that at this moment, people are buying more British beer than ever in our shop. And I'm pretty damn sure it's not just because of price too. You look back at the picture at the top. Our British shelves have never know such outstanding 'desire' appeal. The up and coming brewers are really going all out in delivering the whole package when it comes to their produce. Great design, great range, and really bloody great beer. I'll be perfectly honest, looking at the two sides of our shop, the British section makes the American section look just a little drab at the moment. It may not be obvious from the image above, so you'll just have to come and see for yourselves. And the image isn't even scratching the surface of the British beer scene. In the year 2000, there was around 500 breweries in Britain, now there are over 750 (is this right? I thought there was more...) (a third of which comes from Yorkshire, Woo!). There really has never been a better time to start getting back into, and being proud of, your local beer. It's full of modern design, full of eye catching and clever marketing, and most of all it's still full of tradition.

You can be pro cask or pro keg, but it's not hard to see that cask ale has made a real come back in the last few years. People want it, they want to try new ones, old ones, crazy ones. You only need to visit any CAMRA festival to see that. Even young people want it! I'm young(ish) and I drink it all the time, I can't get enough of the bloody stuff! Others want it too. I've heard great stories of cask going over to the USA, to be drained dry in under a few hours by queuing customers just wanting to get a taste of pure British cask beer.

A couple of years back there was a bit of a void in the British beer scene. That void has been well and truly filled, stuffed, and is bursting out the seams. Some may argue that the movement was started by brewers like Thornbridge and Brewdog, but I say this movement was started by us, the consumer! We are voting with our feet, now more than ever, and people saw this gap in the market and went for the jugular. They gave us what we wanted, gave us great beer - local beer - and at the end of the day it was DAMN GOOD BEER!

We still have something to address though. There is still too much bickering within our own drinking scene. People are still arguing about the pros and cons of Cask vs Keg, drinking at home vs drinking at the pub, macro vs micro, craft vs everything else, etc...
It's time we stopped focusing on the insignificant differences that separate us, and it's time we started focusing on the things that bring us and this great beer drinking nation together! THE LOVE OF GREAT BEER!

And you know the best thing about this British Beer Revolution....

We're just getting started!!!!

Chav Beer

2011-11-29T17:39:00.000-08:00

Please note: If you like good beer, this is what your government thinks of you.

Yo geezers! I was in t'market t'other day and I saw this stupid looking beer stall. It had loads of stupid looking beers from loads of foreigners, I passed them by cos I don't want to associate with foreigners.. I did see one though which was a tinnie. I drink my beers from a tin, it's the way God intended it! My beer of choice is Stella, I usually get through 6 pint tinnies a night and bloody love it! I picked up this beer tin because it said on the side it was 15.5%, I thought bloody hell! that will get me pissed real quick, I'll buy one of those tings.

I thought it would be real cool to drink this before a night out in Oceana, after all I needed to get drunk before I went out, those stingy bastards are always charging too much for vodka and coke. I was proper disapointed once I opened the tin, there was a bloody bottle inside! Rip off or what! And the bottle was tiny as well, I paid nuff for this, and the tin wasn't even full of beer.

Oh well, I bought it now and I aint returning it, I'd look like a proper muppet. The brewers from this 'O' brewery must be cool anyway, cos their label is covered in proper Egyptian graffiti innit. It had a real cool name. I poured it out and it was proper dark innit, it was like a Guinness me dad drinks.

I started to drink this stuff and thought right away I'd made a bloody mistake. Why the hell did I buy this, it smelled like a a hazelnut coffee me mum used to drink. I had it out of my prized Stella glass which I robbed from t'pub down the road, I drink all my drink out of that glass, even my high end Smirnoff vodka like. I tell you what this beer got me pretty pissed quite quickly blud, even if it did taste like a coffee that my mum had made with ten sugars in it.

The beer got me reaching for my fridge before I went out, so I went for the only thing I ever eat with my beers:

I bloody love a few tinnies and pizza, I'd eat it for the rest of my life if it didn't kill me by 45... The beer might have been in a stupid small bottle, and it might have been really bloody expensive, but it did get me really pissed, and after that, and loads of WKDs in Oceana I managed to pull a proper fit bird - I'm gonna have to start every night with one of these from now on, It's a guaranteed lay maker!

Once again, if you drink beer, this is what people in any sort of power think of you, regardless of what beer you may drink.

Twigs and Berries

2011-11-26T14:51:00.000-08:00

- Hey! I know. Lets make a beer from barley. We'll make it strong, about 9% or so and we'll chuck in loads of honey in the mix while were at it. On second thought, let's put loads of muscat grapes in there too, and some saffron, yeah saffron for good measure! -

It sounds like a bit of a bizzar way to make a beer, but the Dogfish Head boys are no strangers to making crazy beers. Look a little more into this Midas Touch though, and you realize there's a lot more method to the madness that this beer seems to be. It's apparently the first beer they made in their Ancient Beer series. According to DFH the beer was made using the same ingredients found in some epically old (2700 years+) drinking vessels found in the tomb of King Midas. Somewhere between a wine and mead it certainly smells sweet, I wonder if they used any hops in the production of the beer, it does have a little old IBU of 12....

In the aroma it doesn't really smell like a beer at all. Sweet honeycomb, grape and especially melon skins are the most predominant items on the nose. The only real indicator that this is still a beer is the slight buzz of the carbonation on the tongue, which over all, is still rather light. I have no idea of what saffron tastes of... and I don't want to get into the argument of "What does saffron taste of?" - "Saffron" - "But what does it taste of?" etc etc.. I have heard that it tastes a little like a savory vanilla, I suppose I'll just have to get a pot of the stuff from t'market.

It's a very interesting beer, very sweet and quite vegetal. You get the feel that it's just a really rustic beverage, whilst still being made only months ago. Like most meads I've tried, the alcohol is dangerously hidden, but it's been a long day and I'm not complaining. I look forward to the day when DFH can start getting their beers back into this country!

I'm a big fan of things like this, I like historic styles of beer, it gives a good insight into the past, and is something I've always wanted to try myself. Which style to reproduce is the question though. I've always been interested to try a traditional Gose, and me and Matt have even had a joking conversation of making some Sahti beer - the king of twig and berry beers! (and yes I know these styles aren't extinct yet, but It's damn hard to find them!)

Till next time, Nastrovia!

Single Hop Blendige!

2011-11-25T14:04:00.000-08:00

It seems single hop beers are still around, still going strong. I've gotten a little bored of them recently though. We've just got three more from Mikkeller in the shop and before I even tried them I had an inkling of what they would be like; "More Mikkeller single hop beers, hoppy - yes, great tasting - yes, informative - yes.... boring - yes. (I can recall saying, with a sigh, to a regular "yeah they taste awesome...") I've gotten a little tired of the massively hopped uber beers. It should be said that it's my own fault, it's all I've been drinking recently, and for my point of them being informative (in the way of how a certain hop tastes) that's sort of loosing it's value; if you try to many of them, it's kinda hard to remember what each tastes like.

I did try these three Mikkeller beers last night, and yes they were awesome, and you couldn't really fault them. (apart from having no real malt presence) It got me thinking about the whole single hop beer thing though. These three beers had the exact same recipe, even alcoholic strength as each other, apart from the variety of hop. Apparently a tweet from @MagicRockRich also informed me that the bitterness levels for the beers should be adjusted to around the same levels. This then came to me in a moment of clarity, no a moment of pure genius (in my opinion)...

Oh Yeah!

I had found out what these hops had been like by themselves. I now wanted to find out what these hops tasted like together!

Result?: Bloody awesome - without having to sigh!

It was my very own uber glass of Amarillo, Nelson Sauvin and Tomahawk (isn't that Simcoe?) IPA - tasting fantastic. The reason I thought of this was for reasons of home brew. Yes a single hop beer can give you an insight into it's own particular taste, but that's where it ends, and most home brewers I know like to use a few hops these days. There are plenty of single hop beers out there at the moment, and they usually have the same recipe, apart from the hops. Blending these beers together can give a proper insight to what different hops taste like together. It's up to you really. If you want to know what hops taste like, try them on their own, just don't try to many that you forget what the first tasted like. If you want to know which hops work well together, this is a pretty perfect method. Or chose not to, make some beer on guesses, but be warned - Some hops do not go well together!

Ghostie is a 1 Year Old!

2011-11-13T11:05:00.000-08:00

Yes it's my first birthday. And no, I'm not an incredibly talented toddler, but a beer loving maniac.

It was one year ago today, on the 13th of November, that I posted my first post and Ghost Drinker was born. I guess a little reflection is called for then. Looking back at my first post, I thought about how it was full of punctuation and spelling errors and quite rubbishly written, but the sentiment still held true. (I'm still not much better on the spelling and punctuation, and writing well, these days. oh well...)

I thought about what I've learned, about the beers I've drunk and the places I've been in the search for said beer. But most importantly I thought about all the people I've met, talked and chatted to, read blogs from, and been inspired by, all from the love of a simple yet amazing drink; Beer.

Here is a little list of some of the people, some I've met and some not, who through reading their blogs about beer, I've come to respect and admire. I'd like to think I can call them all mates, and would happily by any one of them a pint of their favourite beer. After all it takes a special sort of person with a big passion to write blogs about beer ;)

Dredge - A man who loves to put beer cans in chicken arses.

Leigh - Cannot stop eating Pork Belly.

Rob - Makes some unusual facial expressions in his Hopzine video reviews.

Curmudgeon - For someone who doesn't smoke he's pretty obsessed with the subject.

Tandleman - Loves to argue with Dave Bailey about beer on Twitter.

Dave Bailey - Hates CAMRA.

Cooking Lager - Has an equal love of squeezing beer cans, and squeezing his squeeze. (or at least we thought he loved beer cans...)

Stuart - Is a biologist not a brewer.

Broadford - Will Re-Tweet anything you write about beer.

Pete Brown - Loves a bit of self promotion.

Neil - Is more of a ghost than me for the amount of beers he reserves at the shop.

Nick - Is a Leeds man and proud of it, and loves to put a "corsenDONK" on it!

I still don't know why Ron Pattinson has a beef with Barclay Perkins.

Martyn - Loves the 'Z' word.

It doesn't seem like Simon Johnson ever stops drinking beer.

Fuggled - Has a massive Pilsner lust.

Ormskirk Baron - Can't say no to a free beer. (and actually is a stand up gent who helped me sort out technical issues of my blog, so thanks Baron)

Andy - Nearly killed Tom Fozzard with some lethal Bombay Mix.

Rabid Bar Fly - Loves to run around terrorising shopping centers whilst drinking cans of Special Brew.

Mark - Prefers his beer straight from a 9 pint metal container rather than a glass.

And last but not least, the boss man, Zak Avery. To be fair I think I've worked with him long enough now to know what makes him tick. He might not like to admit it, but this blog was started because of him. When I started reading his blog a couple of years back, it was because of the so called 'blogaratti' and reading his and all of your blogs which made me want to write my own.

That's my list then. Of course in some cases I jest... maybe...

There are quite a few more that I've not had chance to mention, but this list got a bit bigger than 'little' fast, so if I missed you out my apologies. This blog goes out to everyone in my blog roll really. While it may be my blogBday I will be raising a glass to all of you tonight.

It's been a hell of a year, and one one I see as just the start of my online beer journey, so here's to many more.

Now where did I put that special reserve Imperial Stout I was saving for my first Birthday celebrations drink?... oh yeah, the fridge.

Cheers!

My First Berliner Weisse

2011-11-09T14:59:00.000-08:00

Berliner Weisse was always a style of beer I had wanted and longed to try. I had heard tales of it being so dry that it had to have sweet syrups added to take the edge off the acidity and make it palatable to drink. Michael Jackson described not just Wheat Beers, but Berliner Weisse's as some of the most refreshing beers the world has ever seen, and probably ever will. The only thing I've ever seen (and tried) come close to the style was Dogfish Head's Neo-Berliner Weisse; Festina Peche, which in all honesty, I was not too impressed by.

This was all set to change however, as I heard that North Bar had an actual Berliner Weisse from Berlin in the bottle for sale. I had never even seen a proper Berliner Weisse in this country, let alone a bar in Leeds.
I was down there the very next day.

Berliner Kindl Weisse has got to be the most bizzar beer I've had this year. Probably the most bizzar beer for many years!

It comes across with a pale, cloudy, greeny-yellow appearance. It smells a lot like many Gueuze beers I've had in the past; really vegetal and mineral like with lots of apple and green plum skins. Some lemon rind, and a flowery aroma is thrown in there too.

The flavour is unlike any other beer available to me. It starts with a puckering light sour tartness, which eventually fades into a sort of vegetal acidity. Lots of fruit tartness comes about too, think Granny Smith apple skins mixed with lemon skin and that's about right. It's intensely drying, a quality which coats the sides of mouth for quite some time, making it obviously moorish in a big way.

While I was in North Bar I managed to sample some of this with a dash of Grenadine mixed in. It certainly added an initial sweetness which was then overcome by the previous acidity and fruity aftertaste. What followed was a conversation with me, Foleys Dean, Good Stuff Leigh and North Matt about what we thought was the more 'traditional' way of consuming this beverage, with or without the syrup or sweetener.

Of course you can serve the beer with other accompaniments; some like a Berliner Weisse laced with Kummel (caraway) schnapps or in the winters, have it served hot with lemon juice! Some even come with herbal essences of woodruff, but most will just be served with fruity syrups. (Kevin definitely wouldn't approve!) The 'tradition' conversation was certainly an interesting one. It was argued that the first brewers will probably not have brewed a beer which intentionally needed a sweetener to balance out the acidity, but if people used these syrups - and looked at you funny when you didn't want one - which was the most traditional method of serving?

A little food for thought I guess, but it's certainly a beer style worth trying if you can find it. It's been called 'the champagne of the North', a beer as good as any sparkling wine, it's usually brewed with lactic cultures such as Lactobacillus delbruckii and more often than not has a low abv like the Kindl's 3%. An extreme beer, very much so. One I'd have more of, Hellz yeah... and I preferred it without the syrups...

Have you tried the style before?

How do you like it?

Wasting Time, Productively

2011-11-07T14:04:00.000-08:00

There are times for us at the shop (and it's probably about 1 hour in every month - we're hard workers you know) that the stocking is done, the deliveries are put away, no customers, not much else to do really. We usually use this time to read up on a few beer books, read about styles we could know more about - you know use our ("free") time productively.

But sometimes, like everybody, we do like to have a bit of fun. It's not 'normal' fun though, as no one who works at our shop is 'normal people' (you have to be a bit crazy in the alcohol industry)

This is the kind of thing we get up to when we really wish we could have customers to talk about beer to, welcome to our own little insane world:

The Tongue

2011-11-07T08:41:00.000-08:00

We've all probably heard of palate fatigue. I certainly get it after a few hours at a beer festival. What I've never understood is why some drinkers are adamant that you should start with lighter coloured beers and then move to darker ones in a session.

I'm really never bothered when I start with a pint of Stout and then move onto a Pale Ale, and I don't think it changes my opinion of taste of the latter beer. Of course there are exptions to this. I'm not going to have a bomber of 14% barrel aged Imperial Stout and then move onto a bottle of Lager, but I'm not talking about that here. I'm just talking about the regular cask beers you might find in your local, usually the same sort of strength, some light some dark. (if your lucky to have a range)

Some of us might like to think of our tastebuds as delicate things, which, give it a taste of something a little roasty and you'll be unable to pick out anything else for the evening. Hogwash. (...always wanted to say that) I believe my tastebuds are pretty hardcore and can manage a difference in flavour, be it light to dark or dark to light. I know there's plenty of people out there who will disagree with me, but once again it's about 'personal tastes' at the end of the day.

Next time you are having a pub session though, just think that if you want to hold off on that dark cask till the last pint, remember - it could have run out by that time.

Be brave, have a pint of Porter or Stout first. Drink what you want, when you want.

Red Or Brown?

2011-10-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

Flanders Red Ale or Flemish Brown Ale?? Two styles of beer which can be a little confusing sometimes, (even to us whilst we try to explain which is which) and can quite often be blurred into one as they're usually very similar to each other.

They have their differences though, so I wanted to look into what makes them different, that called for a little dip into Michael Jackson's 'Beer Companion' - the ultimate tome for beer geekery.

He states that;

"The sweet-and-sour character is common to the brown ales of East Flanders and the 'red' of the West, and the two are brother brews, but there are differences between them. One is obviously that the brewers of West Flanders seem traditionally to have used malts that provided a redder colour. Much more significantly, the classics among the redder brew, while having their primary fermentation in metal, are aged in uncoated wood (not casks, but ceiling-high vertical tuns), and this makes for a teasing blend of caramels, tannins and acidity. As the brew matures, lactic acid begins to build up, and there is some interaction with acetobacters in the wood itself. Some of the lesser producers use metal tanks, but add lactic cultures. Unlike the most famous browns, the classic reds are stabilized by pasteurization."

It seems to me that there is a bit of an East-West divide going on in Flanders, with the East making Brown ales (or provision beer) like Liefmans' Goudenband, and the West making the Red Ales like Duchesse de Bourgogne for example. Michael does also go on to say that "There is no acknowledged appellation to identify the style" although the book is getting on in the years now, and this may have possibly changed.

I'd like to take you through a few of the Red Ales we have been stocking at the shop for as long as I can remember, (probably since we opened about 12 years ago) but because of their shelf location, they often get overlooked. This is a massive shame because these three are probably some of the most complex and deeply intriguing beers we sell, and their shunning is something that needs to change. They can be slightly challenging to a first timer, but if you stick with it, you'll be hard pressed to find anything else like it that you can enjoy.

I'm starting out with The Rodenbach classic. It's a 5.2% Red Ale which is produced by blending 3/4 of "young beer" and 1/4 of beer that has matured for over 2 years. It has a distinctive dark red/brown appearance and a very inviting cherry aroma. The first sip and flavour takes you a little by surprise. It's very dry and incredibly moorish and refreshing, with a lot of that sweet and sour-ness that Michael was talking about. It's slightly vinous with a long lightly tart finish. Apparently the slight acidity of the beer suits shellfish dishes and salads, and to be fair, I reckon it would go fantastically with some jumbo king prawns... This would be a perfect beer to start out with if you've never had any Flanders style Red Ales, although it may put a few people off if I said it smelled a little like smelly socks! ( I suppose that will be the Brettanomyces...)

To complicate things a bit more, next comes along Petrus Oud Bruin (Old Brown). It's complicated because, while it may be called Petrus Old Brown Ale, and is rather brown in appearance, it's actually part of the Red Ale family. It smells quite sweet, with notes of candy sugars and caramels. It has a big sweet and sour effect going on, but also has a big drying earthy/woody flavour too. Lots of fruits like cherries and grapes add to the sweetness and it's matched excellently by a big moorish sour dryness from lots of oak.
The beer is apparently aged in the huge 25000l casks "during 20 months". I'm not sure what they mean by 'it's aged during 20 months' though, I'm just going to tell people it's aged for 20 months in wood...

Last but not least is the big daddy, one for the more adventurous; Rodenbach Grand Cru. Pretty damn dark brown, with only slight hints of a red tinge coming through under the lights. This 6% beer is produced using a blend of 1/3rd "young beer" to 2/3rds beer which has been aged for over two years. It truly is a fantastic and amazingly complex beer. It's like Stout meets Gueuze! You get a much bigger slightly sweaty 'horse blanket' Brettanomyces aroma and flavour to this beer, and much more sourness too. Funky cherries, earthy drying wood, vinous, but wine beating complexities, acidic and magnificent. I've put down a few tasting notes here, but in truth this beer is really hard to describe, it's something that really needs to be experienced first hand.

These beers have a reputation. A reputation for being awesome. If you've not tried them before then they are a must for the adventurous beer geek out there.

So in conclusion..... what are you waiting for??

What Happened To The Big Beer Mats?

2011-10-25T13:18:00.000-07:00

Whilst clearing out some old stuff from the attic, I took another nostalgic look at my fathers 10,000 plus beer mat collection, and wondered - "When did beer mats become so boring??"

And no, I wasn't thinking that about any of the beer mats I was rummaging through, I thought it about the common beer mat you find in your modern pub.

Where did the huge beer mats disappear to???

Yes that is a big beer mat, not a tray.

I think beer mats today have lost quite a bit of their fun appeal, and a lot (if not all) have lost all their imagination in design. It seems everybody is content with sticking the logo for their brewery or beer on a mat and mass producing it, without even giving it a single thought. It's too easy these days, and it seems whenever you walk into a pub, you'll have a beer mat from one brewery with it's logo, plastered on every table in the pub. Create something different. Beer mats from just 40 years ago had much more character, and sometimes they weren't even for beer.

More art than bad drink....

The humble beer mat gets a bit of a beating these days. It gets torn into little bits, ripped up, put in empty pint glasses, stacked at the end of the night and thrown straight in the bin. Seriously where's the love? After all the flak that our beloved beer mat gets, the average beer lover would still prefer it's place to be under our pint pots, and not something to be discarded so easily.

Even some of the bigger brewers used to produce really nice looking beer mats, that more often than not, (if your like my dad) you'd take home at the end of the night and not treat it badly.

It wasn't just limited to the alcohol industry either. The tobacco industry saw the image market potential, and came up with some really fun ideas for the beer mat.

I could name over a dozen new breweries with awesome designs for their branding, beers and bottles, but for me I think you have to be a bit more imaginative when it comes to your beer mats. They deserve a little more respect and consideration, after all they've been holding your beer for a lifetime!

Get designing people. And don't make them square....

P.S. I do notice that the pictured bar mats aren't to the highest standard of design to everyone, but I like them. Besides it would have been a very long post if I'd pictured all the mats in the collection which I thought were interesting, design wise...

Epic Black IPA Battle: Kernel vs Kernel vs Kernel

2011-10-23T09:44:00.000-07:00

We are currently stocking these three beers.

There has been a bit of talk recently on the blogosphere about Oxymoronic beers recently (see Velky Al's post about the buzz here) and how putting the word 'black' in front of existing beer styles could be a bad thing, a fad, or just plain wrong. I have my own opinions on this subject, but today I'd like to go back to (for me, what is) the source of the Black IPA: the Kernel Brewery.

The first time I ever tried Kernel's first Black IPA, I instantly fell in love with it, and no other Black IPA has been able to measure up to it. We now, however, stock three different Black IPAs from the same brewery, so I thought this would be a good chance to give them a side by side by side tasting and see what's going on.

I'm still 50/50 on some brewers trying to make all their pale beers black, but still pale tasting. It seems to me like a bit of a hark back to when all beer was pretty much black (things go round and round in the world of beer) and quite a few of them get it wrong, which is unfortunate, but this Kernel tasting screams of good times, so how could I object! And while the lightest of the three came in at 6.9%, I was confident it was nothing a sunday roast with all the trimmings couldn't handle.

Coming in at number 1:

Kernel Black IPA, 6.9% - an instant classic in my eyes.

The beer presents itself with aromas of citrus, oranges and mangos. Some dry straw and a little blackberry sweetness. Initially you get a big roasted bitterness and quite a bit of coffee in the body, but it's not as big as some of the other Black IPAs I've tasted, which I think can really spoil a brew. You get a lot of dry pine, apricot fruit and some peppery dryness too. This pepper lends itself to a nice spicy finish which is very long lasting.

I know it goes against my love for this beer, but I don't think it's an Black IPA, it's not close enough to an IPA for my tastes. I do think Kernel has produced a completely new style of beer with this one though, I don't know of any other beers like this.

Black 2 comes in at number 2:

The new recipe for the original.

Now I don't know the details of this brew. I don't know if it will be completely replacing the old one... but for now, thank goodness they've called it something else, and lets hope they continue to call it something else - because it's a completely different beer. I for one hope they make the two black IPAs side by side and don't discontinue any one of them. (yes, I'm looking at you Brewdog.)

You can see instantly on the nose that there's a much bigger dose of fruit to this beer, loads more mango, loads more blackberries - it's a regular fruit cocktail. It's a lot smoother in the mouth feel and with a much bigger fruity/juicy flavour. It's lost pretty much all of the dryness and spiciness and all of the roasted bitterness, except from the tiniest hint of coffee in the back of the mouth. This is a Black IPA in the truest sense of the style. Mangos, lychee and a long bittersweet finish. Is this a preferable beer to the first though? No, because it's completely different to the first.

And then came forth the monster:

Kernel Double Black IPA; a 9.8% leviathan!

This is a DBlack IPA and once again, is completely different to the previous two. If fact this beer is like no other I've ever tried before!

The aroma is incredible, think coffee and thick cream and your on the right track. My main observation though, is that this beer stinks of strawberry and raspberry yogurt! It really does, there's no getting away from it. And it's not a bad thing! It's a bizzar thing! The beer is super smooth, and uber rich. It's almost like a mixed fruit beer; massive amounts of strawberries, raspberries and black currents dominate the initial flavour. As I sit back and enjoy the last of the three beers I've had today, I can't help but think that this beer is like strawberries and cream on a crisp autumnal evening whilst the sun goes down, and your reminded once again that;

Beer is never static, it changes and evolves like everything in our planet, and it's a fascinating evolution, and one I'm very happy to be riding alongside. The boundaries of the Black IPA may still be a little blurred, but at least we're pushing those boundaries. And for beer, (and us) that's fantastic.

Now, in the words of someone else... where's my Pale Schwarzbier!

Oh.... I almost forgot, the first of the bunch still remains my favourite!

Typos

2011-10-21T04:58:00.000-07:00

I got this email today from a shop up in Scotland who have just expanded their range of beers:

BEER RANGE EXPANDED

(Much like your waist band will be...)
We are always on the look out for great new beers.
Here is a selection of recently acquired new products.
(Click on links below for product details)
ANCHOR Steam (4.8%) £2.15

ANCHOR Liberty Ale (4.8%) £2.35

ANCHOR Porter (5.6%) £2.35

WEIHENSTEPHAN Hefe Weisse (5.4%) £2.65

WEIHENSTEPHAN Kristal Weiss (5.4%) £2.65

ODELL 5 IPA (5.2%) £2.85

ODELL 90 Shilling (5.3%) £2.85

ODELL Cutthroat Porter (4.8%) £2.75

TRAPPISTES Rochefort 10 (5.4%) £2.65

A good cause for celebration when anyone gets in better beers, but it seems they have got the last line rather wrong! Trappistes Rochefort 10? Sounds more like Rochefort 5 at that strength.

I know I can't talk when it comes to typos, I do them all the tyme, but if your trying to promote a new exiting range of beers to people, get the details right.

Ghostie's Rough Leeds Bars Volume 1.

2011-10-18T11:30:00.001-07:00

I suppose it's only fair that, because I did a list of my favourite 10 Leeds bars, that I do a list of some of the bars/pubs in Leeds which are for the clientele with more stones than (me) the rest of us...

First on the list is the Three Legs.

This was the only picture I took. I was a little concerned for my personal property when I finally plucked up the courage to go inside.

An interesting sight was seen when inside. The building itself was very nice. That was the only real nice thing about it really. Groups of people (middle aged men/women, grey & round) propped up the bar whilst shouting at each other whilst standing 10cm away from each other, it was like I just walked onto the set of the Jeremy Kyle show....

I popped myself down on a bar stool (which was broken) and tried to keep my eyes down as I felt everyone else's eyes stare holes through me. There was two hand pumps which looked like they hadn't been used in years - and had nothing on, so my choice of drink was something smooth-flow or of the cider/lager type.

I asked for a half of the first beer I saw; John Smiths smooth. It came in a straight sided tumbler and it was ice cold. I supped as quick as I could; a large group of large gentlemen had turned up behind me and were shouting about the races which were blaring out of the big plasma flat screens.

I didn't dare visit the restrooms, least of all ask for where they were.

I don't think I've left a pub quicker.

In fact it wasn't a nice experience. At all.

I'm not going to entertain this idea. I don't want to visit any other pubs like this.

One and done.

We Grow Our Own Round Here

2011-10-16T10:24:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Headingley Cricket Stadium, about a mile away from where I live. You can see to the left of the photo there is quite a large bush sticking out into the street.

On closer inspection, whilst on my afternoon walk, I discovered that this bush was of this variety:

It's quite impressive that, knowingly or not, the residents of this house have a substantial amount of hops growing in their own back garden! You can also see that the bush/tree/vine (whatever you may call a hop plant) is rather large and is in good health (or it appears to be)

It was really interesting to find these growing right next to the hop plant as well!

Now I don't know who lives here, but I'd like to imagine that whoever it is, is a keen beer and wine maker. Either that, or he's making some sort of beer/wine hybrid. Or he just likes grapes...

Now it's a bit of a shame because these are obviously someone's property - they're no wild hops. I say it's a shame because the first thing I thought of when I saw them was "I wanna put those in a beer!"

It's interesting the things you can find whilst your on an afternoon walk...

Brew Number 2, Collaboration - Go!!

2011-10-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

I am currently drinking my second collaborative home brew and it looks a little something like this:

This collaboration is a 6.66% amber ale called Poltergeist and was brewed a few weeks back with a good friend of the Ritz and us: Matt Lovatt (or @braukerl as he's twitter bound) - and is tasting pretty damn good! Here's a little look back at how we went about making the beer... I say we, Matt did most of the work:

- The Kit. A pretty much essential mix of containers needed by any keen home brewer. Yes they may look a little like pick-nick equipment, but I assure - they are all very essential indeed.

Here is the specs for the recipe we made up:

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 20.0
Total Grain (kg): 5.975
Total Hops (g): 300.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.067 (°P): 16.4
Final Gravity (FG): 1.015 (°P): 3.8

The mash - Matt decided
batch sparging would be best.

Colour (SRM): 16.7 (EBC): 32.9
Bitterness (IBU): 77.5 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 69
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
----------------
4.000 kg Maris Otter Malt (66.95%)
1.000 kg Munich I (16.74%)
0.425 kg Invert No. 2 (syrup) (7.11%)
0.200 kg Caramunich I (3.35%)
0.200 kg Carared (3.35%)
0.150 kg Crystal Extra Dark (2.51%)

Hop Bill
----------------
20.0 g Warrior Leaf (18% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (1 g/L)
20.0 g NZ Cascade Leaf (10.7% Alpha) @ 35 Minutes (Boil) (1 g/L)
20.0 g Simcoe Leaf (12.2% Alpha) @ 20 Minutes (Boil) (1 g/L)
20.0 g NZ Cascade Leaf (10.7% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (1 g/L)
60.0 g NZ Cascade Leaf (10.7% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma) (3 g/L)
80.0 g Simcoe Leaf (12.2% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma) (4 g/L)
80.0 g Warrior Leaf (18% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma) (4 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
4.0 g Irish Moss @ 15 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 66°C for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 20°C with WLP001 - California Ale

- This was the Californian Liquid Ale yeast that we used. It needed a starter, hence the interesting looking bottle. To be honest it didn't look like something you'd ever want near your beer! Matt was initially a little worried because it seemed it didn't want to, or ever seem like, it would stop fermenting. Luckily, after a few more days than it should, it managed to settle down enough so that it could go into bottle.

- Beer boiling away nicely...

We had intended to dry hop the beer in secondary with 100grams of Bramling Cross, but, as nothing is ever simple or certain in brewing - it was decided that this would probably not do the beer any good. For instance; I had intended to make this a brown ale, because I was sick of too many people making crap brown ales, but after looking at the wort samples, it seemed it would be a bit more amber than brown. Oh well... (more on that below)

The steeping part at the end of the boil was new to me. - It looked a little too much like a bomb too.

Whilst we waited for a massive amount of hops to steep their goodness into the beer the process seemed a whole lot more like cooking a large vat of stew that anything else. (which is never a bad thing!) After that the liquid yeast was, slightly unceremonially, dumped into the beer and all was packed away - content to ferment into the night. It was a fun day for me. A lot of the techniques in brewing that Matt used, I had never even seen before so it was quite educational. While he may have been a little 'down' on his own creation (probably just an effort to not set his hopes too high) the beer itself, which I'm now finishing, couldn't have turned out much better for what we tried to achieve.

Turns out the beer was slightly darker than we expect, and could have stood up to it's Brown Ale name I wanted for it. Oh well, you live and learn.

It has a great aroma with loads of fruit. Mangos, peaches and lychees are all very prominent. The flavour is all about bitter fruits to begin with. Some orange pith and lemon sherbet flavour in the body which makes the bitterness quite lasting - in fact it goes on for quite a while after the swallow. As it warms a little some carmel sweetness starts to show mixed with hints of hazelnuts. It's quite a dry beer and rather moorish - quite dangerous at 6.66%. I gave my friend a sniff and a taste - he said it smelled like a Barley Wine... I'll take it as a compliment.

Overall it's been a great conclusion to a project that's been more than a few weeks in the making. I can't wait to see who I'll get to brew a collaboration beer with next! Hey it could well be Matt again...

That Time of Year

2011-10-12T14:29:00.000-07:00

It's nearly that time of year again - that one night where I get quite a bit done - and I'm not talking about going round to people's houses to ask for chocolates... but until then it seems we have some new seasonal beers kicking about.

Pumpkin beers are a bit of an oddity with me. It's never a beer/beer style I actively seek out, and when I do see one there's usually a bit of um-ing and ah-ing before I make a purchase - if I do at all. I seem to find that I always have a bit of a thought in my head "Pumpkin beer? That's probably not going to be very nice" I then seem to find that pretty much every single one I've ever had has been absolutely amazing - especially the one actually served from an actual giant pumpkin, from Roosters! (and let's not forget about PumKing)

I know why we get the beer as a style - Pumpkins are big in America, they love em - there's millions, and when it comes to harvest time, more than a couple go into beer production. It makes me wonder though: why don't we use any other sort of large vegetable to make beer with? (well to be pedantically technical a pumpkin is a fruit)
It sounds like it wouldn't taste very nice, but why can't we make a marrow beer? That's the point about pumpkin beer for me; it doesn't sound like it will taste very nice - but it does! And why couldn't other variations work? Spicy radish IPA anyone? Aubergine Porter? Carrot Pale Ale? I think the day we say no to trying things like this out is the day we become a little boring.

Saranac Pumpkin Ale comes in at 5%, and was picked up a couple of days ago from North Bar. The aroma is great - vegetal pumpkin, cinnamon, over ripened bananas, and a little of that classic apple and cinnamon, crumbly pie. Very nice texture, quite grainy. There's a lot of spice to the brew, cloves, cinnamon and vanilla which makes it quite dry, moorish and very easy drinking. More ripe banana sweetness in the body, and it's a tiny bit Belgian like from the spice. A very nice beer - a close call to decide which is better, this or Brooklyn Pumpkin.

Seriously, where's my radish IPA, I'll be round your brewery in just under 20 days if I don't see people being a bit more crazy.....

More Chocolate & Cherries

2011-10-11T16:00:00.000-07:00

I never get sent any beer.

It's probably because I don't ask for any beer. But if someone decides they want to send me some - I'm not going to say no! And it certainly would be rude not to give the beer a review, that's for sure. (that's my opinion anyway - good or bad)

Dunham Massey Brewing Company makes this Chocolate Cherry Mild. And at 3.8% it is mild indeed, with a suitable dark colour, but unusual large carbonation. (It is well bottle conditioned)

The aroma has an unmistakably sweet cherry syrup smell. A little cinnamon and spice as well, mixed with an all around cherry and apple crumble aroma. The body is slightly thin and watery but the flavour is just right. Some coffee and dark malt roasted bitterness, a little marzipan and almond flavour with a slight dairy milk sweetness. The finish is short and sweet with a big (big) cherry flavour, which leaves the mouth dry and wanting more. It's a perfectly acceptable beer, and a really interesting take on a Mild, I usually find Milds a little boring - and this one manages to make an intriguing style and concept. If I was Dunham though, I would try make this into a stout - say about 6/7% with the cherries.

This beer was sent to me by the fine folks at @bob_beer, or Best of British Beer - the online beer shop. They have a really interesting range of British beers, most of which, I'll be honest, I've never heard of before. They also do some really nice seasonal mixed gift boxes, from which this beer was produced. I'd like to thank them then for sending me the beer, which was sent because of my previous post about chocolate and cherry beers.

As I said, I'm not going to be asking for beers, that's not why I got into blogging, but if someone wants to send me some, then it's going to get a review!

Threesome

2011-10-08T15:45:00.000-07:00

I picked up these three in a bar called North a couple of months ago, and decided that I'd have them all in one night! If your lucky they will still have some of these lurking around in North Bar if you want to pick some up for yourself.

De Molen are awesome.

Good for 2 years. First up for the night is the lightest of the bunch (9.2%) - Amarillo - a Imperial IPA dry hopped with Amarillo. (it's also hopped with Saaz - I think they should have called it Saazarillo..) It has an aroma that you wouldn't really find in your expectations of an DIPA. Big aromas of dry Belgian spice, some sweet honeycomb and a lot of sour green apple skins. A truly complex beer for a DIPA. On the first swallow, loads of different things explode, you think sweet honeys and caramels, which changes to drying Belgian spice from the big carbonation. Lots of candy sugar and candy floss mask the big 9.2% very well making this one dangerous beer. It's quite fruity, lots of sweet pineapple and oranges. A soft floral body takes you away to a slight bitterness in the finish.

Good for 5 Years. Next up: Mooi & Meedogenloos (Beautiful & Ruthless) - a 10.2% Belgian strong ale. Premiant and Saaz (again) hops used in this devilishly dark looking beer. Big foamy head which disappears quite quickly after the pour. Aromas consist of bananas, bubble gum and Belgian yeasts mixed with a bit of light toffee and fruitcake. Dry and rich. Hints of roasted malts, not as much Belgian quality as I had thought I'd get - the dark malts really push the body forward through a big carbonation. Earthy coffee and some chocolate sweetness. Dry peppery finish, but no real alcohol presence - these De Molen beers really know how to hide the percentage well! The threesome is really getting into full swing now...

Good for 25 years. The final beer of the night is pretty self explanatory - Hel & Verdoemenis - Hell & Damnation. Quite an apt name for a 10.2% Imperial Stout. (and quite an awesome name too) De Molen are quite well know for making some of the best Imperial Stouts and dark beers on the planet - and this one is no slouch. Pouring as flat and as black as a witches' tit - this is the kind of beer I lust for! Premiant and Hallertau hops dominate the 99IBUs of this beer, but it's the dark malts that really come out of the aroma. Rich coffee, bitter dark chocolate, and dry (not sweet) fruits. Smooth, bittersweet and redonkousely immense! Look up Imperial Stout in the new 'Oxford Companion to Beer' and it should have a picture of this by its side. An incredible flavour - Burnt toast, charred cherries and chocolate, sweet coffee and a touch of vanilla, and that big roasted bitter malty body matched with the awesome alcoholic warming finish that, only the 'King of Beer Styles', can deliver - The Imperial Stout!!

De Molen - Bring It On!!!

Blending. Chocolate and Cherries.

2011-10-06T13:42:00.000-07:00

This isn't the first time I've done this, and it wont be the last, but as it seems the days are getting a little colder now it's a good time to try it if you haven't already.

I'm talking of course, about blending beers which compliment each other - flavour wise. Everyone knows chocolate and cherries go really well together, and a few years ago this got me thinking "We sell chocolate beers and cherry beers... what if you blended them together?" It turns out I was not the first person to try this by a long shot, but I gave it a go anyway.

Tonight I'm blending together one of my favourite concoctions: Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout and Mort Subite Kriek.

So after pouring equal measures of each, they were combined into one great smelling beer.

On it's own Mort Subite has a fantastic sweet taste of cherry bakewell tarts, and you may think that this flavour and sweet taste would be absolutely dominated by the power of the 10% Stout. But lo and behold, it's still the Kriek that contributes the most to the flavour once blended.

It's chocolate and cherries in pure beer form - it's perfect! I'd recommend this to anyone who's never tried it before. I would say though, don't use all the bottle contents together, I'd keep a little stout left over to keep adding as the beer goes down, to see if you can see it evolving at all.

Get your fun shoes on!

And We Thought We Had It Bad!

2011-10-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

... Well yes we do have it bad, but it seems Scotland has it much worse.

Yesterday (October 1st) a new set of laws were put in place in Scotland which is going to mean big change to retailers big and small, and it's not just beer that's getting the shaft this time (again).

Some of the new rules may sound good, some may sound bad, but you can be sure that, at the end of the day, they're all pointless.

The new rules have been covered in brief by Off Licence News magazine and is as follows:

Multiple purchase:

- No discounts allowed on bulk purchase of cans or bottles that are also sold singly - if a retailer sells one can for £1, it must sell four cans for no less than £4
- If it only sells single cans of 56.8cl, then a retailer can still discount multipacks of 50cl cans
- Extra alcohol supplied free, or at a reduced price, is not allowed, so no BOGOF or three-for-two deals
- Discounting of single bottles or cans is still allowed. Any price change must be made before 10am and must last at least 72 hours.

Online purchase:

- If drinks are dispatched from a warehouse in Scotland, then the new law applies
- Retailers based outside Scotland will still be able to offer by-the-case discounts on delivery to Scottish customers.

Promotions:

- Anything which "promotes, or seeks to promote, the buying of alcohol sold on the premises" can now only be displayed within the store's designated "alcohol display area"
- Window graphics stating that beer, wines and spirits are "sold here" may constitute a promotion in the eyes of individual licensing boards
- Any advertisement that is "solely or primarily" for alcohol is not allowed within 200m of a store
- If a delivery van is displaying a drinks promotion in connection with the premises, then it will not be allowed within 200m boundary of the premises
- Exemptions are in place for promotions over which retailers have no control.

Promotions combining food and alcohol:

- If an alcoholic product is packaged with a non-alcoholic product, such as a wine and cheese gift pack, the new law does not apply, and the price can be discounted
- Meal deals offering alcohol as part of the deal are not banned, but will be at the discretion of licensing boards to decide if in-store advertising of these constitutes irresponsible promotion.

Age verification policy:

- From October 1, retailers must adopt a Challenge 25 age verification policy as a minimum standard. Licence holders are advised to have this policy in writing and available to staff.

Source: The Scottish Government's Guidance for Licensing Boards and the Scottish Grocers' Federation

Well! Bit of a bombshell to say the least. I like the part (that is if it were in place in England) that our delivery van would have to stay 200m away from our shop because it has pictures of beer on the sides! Wow! Great work guys, thanks for making our lives so much easier! I'm really tying not to break into rant mode about this, it would be pointless words really, I'll leave it up to you fine folks to make up your minds about it.

Of course these new laws don't apply to us in England. However if they are seen to 'work' in Scotland by the government (which they probably will) then it could only be a matter of time before they are put in place in England.

All this coupled with the fact that the Scottish government has plans to introduce an extra business rate levy on supermarkets that sell alcohol, in April 2012, can only spell one thing at the end of the day....

Konstrukt

2011-09-30T16:25:00.000-07:00

Quite a few months ago (about six months in fact) I wrote about how home brewers were stepping up their game, and even putting a few commercial brewers to shame with what they had to offer.

Back then I was given a bottle of strong Stout from my (at the time) work colleague Tom Fozzard called Konstrukt. It was an interesting item for many reasons. Mainly because it had a sticker on the top saying "Do not open till October the 1st", but also for all the things this prospect and the bottle brought about.

At the time I can remember saying "Bollocks! I'm opening this next week!" ... It seems though, that my magical beer chest of wonders can make time fly by pretty quickly when beer is hidden away, out of sight, and out of mind.

Awesome label aside, Tom's taken quite a risk with this one. After all, he's given out quite a few of these, and who knows - it could be crap by now. It could have even been crap to begin with!

I've taken the wait though, and come hell or high water, I'm blogging my findings on this beer at October the 1st, 00:01, be it good or be it bad... Tom has made me wait so I'll honestly tell him what it's like in my personal opinion. After all I can't resist a strong dark brew.

Well, It's midnight now! Time to drink some late night beer.

Konstrukt is a 9.2% beer, coming across with a devishly dark pour and a large lively white/tan solid but rocky carbonation. The aroma is light and very reminiscent of the flavours you might find in a strong German Dark Lager like Kaiserdom Dunkle. Chocolate, some wood and a little light coffee and vanilla.

The first thing that's immediately apparent is that over six months this beer has not lost any of it's carbonation or liveliness, you also notice straight away how roastedly bitter the beer is. Dark malts and woody/chocolate body overtones mix amongst a little smoke and a bit of dried rich fruits like figs and raisins. A little sweet in the body, but the carbonation lends itself well to a dry, moorish-ness which makes the beer very quaffable. If I had to classify it, it would be like a Russian Imperial Stout mixed with a German Black Lager - it's like nothing I've had before in all honesty.

I'm not just trying to blow smoke up Tom's arse, he clearly knows how to make a good beer, and has a firm understanding of how to create beers of varying styles - it seems he's in the right industry then I guess. This is a very nice beer.

This beer has got me thinking about the first annual Home Brewers Meet-Up at Mr Foleys on Thursday the 20th of October. We should all be bringing down our own samples to evaluate and enjoy together (hopefully). And that's (for me) what home brewing is all about. It's not about being a cheap skate and brewing for yourself. It's about making something that you love, and sharing it with the people you count as your friends. Something that Tom has done very well, so thanks mate, I shall be returning the favour in a couple of weeks....

Leeds Beer. Beer from Leeds.

2011-09-29T14:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've had one of these, and there has been good reason for that.

The first time they came in the shop was many months ago and we were all very exited about them, whisky aged beers were still a massive talking point in beer. (maybe they still are today, but at the time we couldn't get enough of them) I had one as quick as I could which, looking back, was a mistake because it had just been bottled a week previous and had not had time to finish conditioning in the bottle. As a result it was still rather flat and I was left a little disappointed. I certainly saw it's potential though and bought a couple more to leave alone for a few months. I know this one is old because it went out of date in June 2011 - a little early don't you think guys for such a strong beer? (it being bottle conditioned I had high hopes for aging)

Time, it seems, can do wondrous things.

It's still a Vintage Ale so you shouldn't expect a great carbonation anyway, but the few months in the bottle has done this beer a great deal of good, and no, this time it wasn't flat.

Gyle 479 is a 9% Vintage Ale that has been aged in Bruichladdich casks. I only know this because I asked the brewers. If I had one beef, it was the fact this was not mentioned on the bottle. It just stated 'Aged in Islay Whisky Casks' - and that for me was not good enough. I'm sure 90% of the people buying this would be really interested in what sort of cask, what age of cask was used in producing this beer - it's what whisky cask aged beer is all about, just look at the Harviestoun range.

Rant over though, we'll look at the beer. It's certainly dark, but held up to the light it's clearly deep dark brown. Aromas of caramel, dark toffee (almost bonfire toffee), dark malts, hazelnuts, a touch of honey, a little spice and some smoke come forth from a seriously inviting brew.

As the carbonation has had time to sort itself out the flavours really come around. Immediately very fruity. Lots of orange rind and raisins. You get a nice bitter, warming alcohol tang from the strength of this beer, and it has great toffee/nutty Vintage Ale flavours. Rich and hearty, it's a really great beer. The whisky is certainly there, but it's light and it's really well balanced within the body and aroma of the beer. It's not as in your face (and throat) as many of the cask aged beers, which makes it quite refreshing, dry and moorish.

I have heard talk of more casks at Leeds Brewery. I've also heard that in the next few months they're bottling the 'Best' again along with their 'HellFire'!! - One beer I'm very exited to try again, and out of the bottle this time.

Drinking a Leeds beer from the past, and looking forward to Leeds beers of the future!

........and it's over 7.5% ;) one day left tomorrow...

What Happens At Mr Foleys....

2011-09-25T17:34:00.000-07:00

So tonight was another of the Mr Foleys; meet up-bring loads of bottles of crazy beer-get heartily drunk with good friends-and for Beer Geeks to celebrate everything that is good and righteous about great beer.

In attendance tonight were some great chaps; hosting us at Mr Foleys was Dean. Leigh from the Good Stuff and Mark from Real Ale Reviews were there. Rob from Hopzine and Martin Bell (@mbell739)-Beer Geek aficionado, and Adam Tuncay (@tunks23)-lover of all things great in beer also joined in our motley crew.

This is a little photo blog of what goes down when seven big Beer Geeks get together and drink more beer than they probably should - and have one hell of a good time!! I think it's pretty self explanatory...

Nice one, once again, Dean. Here's to the next one! Long live good beer.

1 Week Till Judgement Day

2011-09-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

Warning: This post may contain strong language..... and sarcasm.

Do you like your Imperial Stouts? Do you love a good Barley Wine or Imperial IPA? Is your favourite tipple a Belgian Triple or Quadruple? Or most of what Belgium has to offer for that matter?? Well if your like me and you answered yes, then you can count yourself in the apparent minority. You can also be comforted by the fact the current government doesn't give two shits about your beloved beverages or you in fact.

Yes, we have one week to go before the imbeciles we call our country leaders increase the beer duty by 25% on beers over 7.5%.

They may as well handcuff our beer industry to the radiator and repeatedly punch us in the face.... but wait, what's that I hear you say?? they already do that?? hmm I could never have guessed. I guess this will just be one of those knife blows to the neck in a further attempt to put us down for good and stamp us out for ever.

But what's that I hear you say? they've also given us a gift by reducing the beer duty of beers under 2.8%? Well it all sounds well and good, so I did a bit of counting today. In our specialist beer shop 'Beer Ritz' we stock about six hundred fantastic beers. Would you like to know how many of them are over 7.5%?? ONE HUNDRED AND NINE. And how many do we sell that are under 2.8%...... hmm it seems that number is ZERO!! - So thanks a lot for that amazing gift you've given us there!

It must only be fair if they do a similar increase on wine, cider and spirits though? Surely? Fat Chance! Because of course, if duty was raised like that on something like wine, there would be an uproar. But stick it to beer and commoners like us will just grumble and eventually except it right? Well this commoner wont! You can shove your beer duty up your polished arse!

Do they really think that increasing duty on beers above 7.5% will really fix the alcohol problems of this country? Naah, it's not the multi discounts on cheap bottles of wine, not the 3 litre bottles of cider for a couple of quid, not even the bottles of spirits you can buy from the supermarkets for under a tenner. No, It's those beers over 7.5% - those beers which have heritage, those which have a classic artisan production, those beers and styles which have been produced for hundreds of years - they're the problem - so screw em! Because let's face it, why else would the government be doing this if it wasn't for all the millions of hoodies swilling all that Trappist beer out of their chalices and causing trouble?? And of course, those who actually need our help and education will once again get ignored and brushed under the rug.

I really do feel sorry for our customers who are going to either have to stump up the extra cash for beers they may have loved all their lives. I also feel really bad for the brewers who make the beers. Will brewers like Thornbridge be reducing the strength of their Saint Petersburg from 7.7% to 7.5%? I personally hope they don't. And the fact of the matter is for these 109 beers we sell, if they don't sell we will have to de-list them, and the harsh truth is that they may never grace our shelves again. Simply put, if a beer is too expensive to purchase, and/or no one buys it, it gets de-listed. We can't stock beers which don't shift.

So tomorrow there will be six days left. I for one will be having a massive party on September 30th, and will be drinking loads of Imperial Stouts and Barley Wines - in much the same way that so many partied the day before they banned drinking on the tube - I hope you'll be joining me!

One final message to our so-called-leaders; Your already crippling the beer industry - the last big industry of our country. Pubs are closing, taxes and duty on beer is rising at a ridiculous rate, and now this.

Seriously... fuck off and LEAVE US THE FUCK ALONE!!!

Does This Taste Right???

2011-09-22T14:53:00.000-07:00

The human brain is an incredible organ.

They say that 80/90% of what you actually taste comes from what you smell, hence why food doesn't taste so great when you have a cold. All this 'taste', & of anything in that matter, still gets processed by our brains and we all can perceive it differently.

I heard a story a few years back about a man lost at sea, and while I'm not sure if it's entirely true it does throw up some interesting thoughts. Like I said, he was lost at sea, but fortunately so as he had a small supply of water, and was in a spot where the fish were abundant and easy to catch. After a couple of weeks of eating nothing but fish flesh, he apparently found himself absolutely detesting the flavour of fish meat. At the same time he was beginning to get massive cravings for the other parts of the fish most people would find revolting, like for the eyes to note one example. When some sciency dudes tried to explain what was going on they summarised that while fish meat is very good for you, it does not contain everything that the body needs to survive. The other parts of the fish which are often discarded do have many vitamins and minerals which, in survival situations, are quite essential. When this survivor (he was eventually picked up) turned from the meat to craving the un-desirables, it was his brain that saved him. It forced him to believe that eating fish eyes was the most delicious thing on the planet, which when you think about it, is quite a remarkable feat.

Now I'm not to big on my science so someone could possibly tell me that that's all hogwash, but it seems plausible.

It is certain that if you eat too much of something in the long run, your body can become intolerable to it. But that's probably more of a physical reaction than something to do with your brain muddling you up.

That did get me thinking though; if you drink too much beer could you become intolerable to it?? Would your body start to reject all that malty/yeasty goodness?? Well it's certainly true that some people are intolerant and even allergic to some ingredients in beer, but after further thought, it doesn't seem like something that could happen over a long period of time and over consumption, from looking at history. Let's face it, we can all say we have some sort of a varied, balanced diet, and we're not in a survival situation.

But what if we drank so much of the same beer that our brains started to play tricks on us, and the beer we once new, didn't really taste the same anymore? Would we even notice, and if we did would we blame it on something else? "Oh that breweries' beer doesn't taste the same these days..." - When it's probable that we've probably had a bit too much of it in our lifetimes, our taste buds have become dull to it, and our brains are telling us to "Try a bloody new beer!!"

Another big point is perceived taste. I'm only going to touch on it because it's a massive point but it seems to me;

If you think, and are convinced, that a beer is going to be horrible - then most likely - your not going to enjoy it. Also if you think a beer is going to be amazing, your most likely going to experience that, and even if you don't you'll try to make it out that it is.

Let's not even start on influencing tastes as well... I remember long ago when me Zak and Dan were sampling a brew, and me and Dan couldn't pick out any flavours from it. Zak said it tasted of marmalade - and unsurprisingly that's all we could taste for the rest of the beer!

Taste is an amazing thing. As individuals we will all taste differently, that's why some of us might love a beer and some hate it. But for me all of that 'taste' is manipulated by our brains and comes from a variety of influencing factors from age to experience to even our sex, for example.

.... or something along those lines.

Try to taste with your brain, and listen to what it's trying to tell you! It's much more clever than you give it credit for. So the next time someone disagrees with you about how a beer tastes, don't be so quick to shoot him down as a fool, that's just his taste.

The mad musings of this Ghost were brought to you whilst enjoying a lovely bottle of Stone Smoked Porter and a Peanut Butter and Jam sandwich.

The Three Bears. Which Saranac Is Just Right?

2011-09-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

Pale Ale, India Pale Ale, Imperial India Pale Ale - where should it end? Does, or should, one have more merit than the other? Why brew three types of seemingly similar beer when you could just as easily focus all your attention on making one fantastic beer? Well tonight I'll try to find out wether Saranac's range of the Pale stuff amounts to the production of three separate beers or not...

It certainly would seem that the biggest of beer geeks would say that there's a massive difference between a Pale Ale and a Imperial IPA, but is that really the truth? Could the difference between the three beers only be the strength, or do varying ingredients and a lust for flavour bring out the beast in the big boys? And who's to say that a perfectly made Pale Ale can't be better than a Imperial IPA - I've had some Impys that are absolutely shocking!

Apparently this Pale is "A classic English Style Pale Ale brewed with six speciality malts and perfectly hopped with hand-selected English Kent Goldings and Fuggles Hops." Well for one I'm not sure how you go about hand selecting English hops - that could take rather a long time - but it's nice to see an American Pale which isn't so predominately hop forward. Not too strong for America - 5.5%. Aromas come forward of grapefruit, lemon, marshmallow and a big bouquet of amber caramel malts. It's big on the spicy malt flavour, and certainly not as hop forward as you'd expect. It's fruity, hints of melon and light orange dominate. A pleasant bitter tang in the body and certainly in the finish - not a beer I expected but very nice.

The India Pale Ale comes in at 5.8% - just 0.3% higher than the Pale, so I'm hoping that some bigger ingredients will make some difference. "A hop lover's delight! ...This brew is very hoppy in both aroma and flavour from the generous amounts of Cascade Hops used in brewing." No mention of the malts now, that theme has disappeared - It's all about matching this beer with different foods now on the label. (Seafood, Pizza and Mexican - A little vague really..) So what's the difference? Well not much really. A lot of similar flavours and aromas to the first but much more of an orange bittering pithy flavour. There is more amber spicy malts in the body but overall the flavour is lighter and fruitier. A lot more of the sweet fruits and caramels come across in the body and a big bitterness comes about in the long lasting finish. Once again - less hops than I expected, but still a good beer.

This Imperial IPA comes in at 8.5%. "Mt. Marcy, Skylight, Algonquin... Majestic Adirondack High Peaks - They are the Inspiration for our new 'High Peaks' Series; a line of beers that are bigger, more complex and flavourful; beers that are meant to be sipped and savored." Apparently the brew is made with ten malts and ten hops and at the end of all that it's not too much different than the previous two - it certainly is bigger in all aspects - but does that make it a better beer? It certainly has a big caramel sweetness and malty body in aroma and flavour. The flavours are jumped up and in comparison from beer one to beer two, beer three is miles above the first two. Slightly floral and slightly nutty - not bad - but could be improved. Anyone can make a strong hoppy beer, but it takes a genius to make it work well.

So which Saranac is just right?

Well none of these.... I had their Imperial Stout a few months back and it was a BEAST!!

A Beer In The Palm Is Worth Dobbel The Fun!

2011-09-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

I enjoy a bottle of Palm. It's Belgian beer but it's very British in taste. It's a top selling European beer brewed with English hops, French barley and Belgian yeast. It also contains a proportion of Champagne malts which give it it's alluring amber colour. (apparently)

I could not give up the chance to sample one of these then, especially as the bottle was a couple of years out of date!

I'm guessing this is their take on a Christmas beer, and so, with the arrival of some Christmas decorations in some shops (I know!!!!) I thought I'd have my first Christmas beer of the year.

Rich brown/amber red in colour. Pours quite flat for a Belgian beer with a light rocking of white bubbles on the surface. Aroma is yeasty with notes of caramel and a nutty sweetness. Slight fruit mixed with a brown bread maltyness.

Not that strong for a Belgian 'Dobbel' at only 6%. It's really not all too dissimilar to regular Palm to be honest - but you can't say that's a bad thing. Light, sweet malts, a nutty body with caramel and citrus flavours. I was expecting a much bigger, thicker, more sherry like strong dark ale - and while there's essence of that in here it's pleasantly not overpowering - so what your left with is a light and delicate beer which is very easy going.

Good beer. But if I see any more Christmas decorations going up in the next couple of weeks then I'm going to start punching Elves!

Hell of a Week!

2011-09-17T15:04:00.000-07:00

This week was meant to be a week of restraint. Not unlike most plans however, this never happened, in fact I've had some amazing beers this week in what I like to call - a week of debauchery!

It all started on Saturday. (Saturday to Saturday is a week...) It was my last shift with my colleague Jeff (@Juffage) before he left for the states again. So after we closed down the shop we decided to drink some special beers.

First up was La Roja from the esteemed Jolly Pumpkin Brewery in the States.

I'm not sure Jolly Pumpkin make any beer without barrel aging them, but this was their oak aged Amber Ale.

Aromas: Huge vanilla and loads of fresh pear skins - very similar to Petrus Brune or even Rodenbach. Flavours consist of toffee, chocolate and cream and a tiny amount of cinnamon. It's a very earthy , woody beer. Very puckering and dry. Sour notes mingle with slightly musty/sweaty essence. It's definitely a farm yard sort of beer - and a fantastically delicious one at that!

The second beer of the night was Olde Gnarly Wine from Lagunitas.

This was crazy stuff! It smelled like steak, corn and Worcestershire source for crying out load!!

It was a beer of four stages. First of all it has a massively sweet body and mouth feel. Secondly the flavour drops away immediately after the swallow at the back of the tongue. Thirdly you get a massive punch of sweet caramels clawing their way back up your throat. And last of all your left with an amazing flavour that coats your mouth of sweet pineapple and bitter tomato skins!

Sunday was only a reminder that after starting with those two beers on the night previous, it was not a good idea to grab many more pints in various bars before going to a house party in Hyde Park.

Sunday was a write off.

Monday I didn't feel up to it either.

Tuesday I came back with a vengeance and had one hell of a night with Imperial Stouts and PIE!

Between Tuesday and Wednesday I also had many the pint of glorious Kirkstall beers and various others in Arcadia and surrounding bars.

Thursday night was really interesting. After serving up really great beers in the Ritz all day I took the cycle out to North Bar for a sampling of Zak's beer. It was a beer brewed with Great Heck brewery: a 5% Amber/Brown Ale called Heckstra Ordinary. It was a dark brown and spicy beer. A big hit of amber malts flowed forwards amongst a robust body perfectly complimented by a powerful fruity lychee and orange flavour. The levels of fruit, spicy malt and bitterness were in perfect balance, and whilst it was drying and very moorish I'm not sure I could drink too much of it. It felt a little like it had more ingredients in it that it needed, but that's just my personal opinion.

Whilst I was there I managed to grab a half of Pretty Things Saint Botolph's Town Brown Ale. This beer is something else. You can tell straight away that the influence for this beer comes from the very heart of Yorkshire's brewing scene - and that of Theakstons. A great beer, and very much recommended if you can get your hands on a pint.

Thursday's early morning also brought the arrival of my first nephew: Charlie Matthew Briggs into the family, so Friday evening I decided to open up something a little special with Ben after we finished work.

This is what I chose.

Williams Brewery's 20th Anniversary whisky cask aged Fraoch ale is a different monster altogether.

It's rather strong at 11%. Aromas of apricots and honey comb sweetness come across. There's also a huge whiff of a Gueuze. It starts with a big sour oaky bite. It's obviously warming and strong. It has a tart but floral heather flavour. You get some honey sweetness but it's blended with a good deal of rustic spice. It also has a huge carbonation (in fact it went everywhere on the open) almost like a champagne, but with none of the champagne flavour that I dislike from too much CO2. A great beer for a special occasion, well played Williams Brewery!

Saturday came full circle again with one of the best. Shared with Ben and Beth in the back of Beer Ritz (because it was huge and strong) after closing, this beer needs no explanation really....

Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial
Stout Is AWESOME!!

What a week then!

Who knows how many units I may have racked up! According to the "guidelines" I must have been over my "limits" - but I don't really care - It was a fantastic week, and those suggested unit guidelines are just made up anyway.....

Let's see what I'll be drinking this week!

The Beast

2011-09-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

TIME TO BREAK OUT THE OVERSIZED SNIFTER AGAIN!

I've heard some pretty amazing things about this beer, let's look at the stats:

Firestone Parabola - a 12.5% Imperial Stout aged in Bourbon barrels.

This 2011, No. 002 Reserve Series is aged patiently for 12 months in the barrel before the 3000 cases are packaged. An OG of 29.5 (plato), 82 IBUs, British Ale (house) yeast used and a 167SRM colour rating, (if anyone knows what this colour rating system is I'll be impressed, but apparently 167 is Midnight Black)

This beer smells insane.

Tar, varnish, tobacco, dark rum, dark chocolate, bourbon, oak, vanilla, liquorice, oats soaked in whisky and a bucket load of dried fruits. Quite possibly the most complex aroma I've ever smelled to an Imperial Stout, minus, maybe only a couple.

I've only ever had one beer before from Firestone, which was a lone bottle of the Firestone Walker Pale Ale many moons ago, which I thought was OK, but nothing extra special.

This however, is one of the best beers I've ever drunk from the USA!

It's so thick it's like treacle. You get an immediate sweet oaky bourbon flavour that fills the mouth and dominates the senses. This is certainly a sipper, although the 12.5% is rather masked with lots of rich chocolate and dark malt flavours. Woody with big vanilla essence comes through in the finish. It's strange, for all the flavours I stated in the aroma, this beer is ridiculously balanced, and even the most experienced taster would probably find it hard to get much more from the flavour. That's not me trying to boast about my tasting skillz, that's me stating how amazingly complex but perfectly balanced this beer is, that it really leaves you lost for words.

I thought I'd pair this with some food.....

I know, it's not really my territory, I should leave it to Leigh and Neil, but I thought I'd give it a bash.

My immediate thoughts were drawn to what to pair this beer with. I thought rich meats maybe? Some blue cheeses or maybe even some fine chocolates or the richest of deserts? Any of those would have done the trick I thought.

But then the inner YorkshireMan inside my belly started punching my stomach.

He said to me "Any self-respecting YorkshireMan like yourself knows the ultimate food to go with beer!"

And he was right, I did know the ultimate food for beer, the ultimate food to go with ANY beer. And I'll believe him to the bitter end, I'll eat this with Imperial Stout, with IPAs, with Lambics, with Wheat beers etc....

You know it, you love it, you can't live without it!:

AWWWWW YEEEAAAAHHHH!!! :)

A Friendly eMail

2011-09-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

I recieved an email from Eric Michaud the other week and decided to share his news. Eric was a very friendly chap that I managed to do a beer swap with a while back, and I really hope he doesn't mind me sharing the news. It's things like this that make me really happy to be in the industry that I'm in, and I think it's amazing to be able to share my passion with different people on a daily basis - and it certainly rocks when the people I share my passion with develope a passion of their own about great beer! So thanks for news Eric, I look forward to hearing about what else you get up too in your beer travels :)

Hey Ghostdrinker!

My name's Eric, I'm the guy that brought you those Quebecoise beers last spring.

I'm writing to you mainly for three reason now.

First I have read your post on Smuttynose beers, that's another one of the beers I brought back from Portland, Maine to Montreal a couple of weeks ago and that I haven't drink yet. I got there one of their barley wine also. So before you go on and spoil all my blog subjects, I want to testify that I brought back some Allagash, some Jolly Pumpkins (get your hands on that, it's fabulous!), some Rising Tide, a lot of Southern Tier (don't you dare make a post on Unearthly VS Unearthly Oak Aged...!) and couples of others.

Ok, I'm just kidding, that wasn't why I'm writing to you!

The two reason why I'm writing to you now are:

1: A friend of mine is going to study for a semester at Leeds Uni next winter. I'll try to convince her to bring with her some more things from Montreal for you. There is already two incredibly bold barley wine I have in mind (and in my cellar!), both from small local brewpubs, and maybe till then, January I mean, I'll have other ideas. Anyway, we'll see for that.

2: When I came back home, I realized that we don't have a lot of beers from UK available in Quebec. There is Fuller's and a little bit of Samuel Adams, nothing to get excited about. So I decided to import the breweries that catch my imaginations while I was there. After a couple of weeks, that idea developed into a small British progressive beer festival in Montreal. I've worked on it for the last couple of weeks and now, I am proud to say that the ten breweries I had in mind accepted (or were interested!) in participating to that event. Those breweries are: Kernel, Darkstar, Moor, Thornbridge, Summer Wine, Magic Rock, Marble, Brewdog, Meantime and Hardknott.

The events are going to be hosted in three places: the main one at Brouhaha (brewpub http://www.brouepubbrouhaha.com/), a smaller event with probably just the traditional brews at Albion (brewpub, http://www.brasseriealbion.com/) and a food/beer pairing event at Silex (restaurant http://www.silexbistro.com/). All of this is going to happen at the end of next April.

For now I'm working hard to get my orders done by the middle of October and after that I will see with my partners the opportunity of including some local brewers to the festivities with different concepts.

Why I'm telling you all that? Maybe it's just because I feel that I owe you one because I have known some of those brewery through your blog.
So thanks for that!

I'll provide you with more details if your interested while the process goes on.
That's all for now, keep me posted Eric..... and I'll be bolgging on Jolly Pumpkin later in the week ;)

Blogging on Location: Roosters

2011-09-09T14:00:00.000-07:00

I remember the first time I tried this beer. It was a cold day in the shop, we had just taken our deliveries and Tom produced a test tube sort of item out of his bag with some ominous looking yellow liquid inside. "You have to try this!" was his proclaim, to which I was rather skeptical, but after a whiff of the aroma It wasn't long before the thing was finished. A few weeks later, and the beer was bottled. So many hops were used in the production that not that much beer ever did make it to the glasses, it was mainly eaten up and soaked into those little delicious green bastards. After a time when all the beer had gone, and everyone who had tried it had stopped asking Tom when he was going to make some more, the thought's died down a little about the lust for making crazily hopped beers which were never going to be viable for consumer release.

How times they do change...

Tom has once again showed his generosity by giving me one of these individually numbered (70 in total?) bottles from his new place of work Roosters Brewery. I know the recipie has been a little tweaked to make it slightly more commercially viable, but I have no doubts that it will be impressive before I even open it.

So tonight I'm on location. Not at Roosters mind, but in the back of Beer Ritz, ready to share this with my colleague Ben Corkhill, who writes Hails 'n' Ales, to pass on a little of the generosity I was given. - Because as we all know, it's nice to share something nice!

Here's what we thought:

A beer with a massive floral aroma, mangos and peaches dominate the smell. It's a beer that tastes about 3% even though it's 6.1% and is so refreshing it's hard to put it down. Deliciously fruity with a really pleasing bitter sweet body. Not one dimensional at all considering it only contains 1 hop - Citra. Really complex but surprising simple to drink, really easy going, it ticks all my bases for what I thought it would be.

Over to Ben:

This is a great beer and not too dissimilar to one of my favourites, the Sierra Nevada Souhern Hemisphere Harvest, but with more of a lingering bitter quality. The aroma literally had my mouth watering, and a few swirls down the glass bring out that fruitiness again and again. I was surprised when Ghostie told me it was single hopped due to its complexity. Deceptively drinkable - well done lads!

It's really interesting, I still remember the first Assassin, and whislt this one is different it still has an incredible impact, and seems to have aquired a bit of the Roosters spirit of flavour along the way.

Stock Ale

2011-09-08T14:54:00.000-07:00

I know nothing about Stock Ale. I only heard about them a few months ago when I bought my first - the Pitfield's Stock Ale pictured left from Cambridge.

Over to Michael Jackson to tell us a little about it then:

"A style dating from the days when it was impossible to brew in the warm months, and made to be cellared during the summer, was known as Stock Ale", "The old generation American IPA's and Stock Ales were winy-tasting brews, often made with water heavily treated with calcium sulphate to resemble that of Burton. They were seen as autumn and winter drinks, and were often served at room temperature, sometimes 'still', from casks behind the bar."

So now that we have that, and a little more subject matter on the subject, let's look at what we have to drink tonight. Obviously it's going to be my second Stock Ale...

This is the Limited Release, 11.5%, 2009 Vintage Old Stock Ale from North Coast Brewing Company from the States. These guys are probably better known for making the Old Rasputin Imperial Stout, but tonight we're talking Stock Ales.

A quick check on RateBeer reveals some interesting facts...

"It’s brewed with classic floor-malted Maris Otter Pale Malt and Fuggles Hops imported from England, so it’s a beer to be served proudly. Like a fine wine, North Coast’s Old Stock Ale is intended to be laid down. With an original gravity of over 1100 and a generous hopping rate, Old Stock Ale is well-designed to round-out and mellow with age."

Only Fuggles ey? ... well not that there's anything wrong with that!

This beer evolves a lot over the time it takes to drink it. The aroma is abundant of caramel apples, some candy sugars, a hint of Belgian peppery yeast and a lot of chocolate cherries. It starts really sweet, thick and rich - and even with a really big carbonation for a 2+yr old beer. There's some almost lactic flavours in the mix, it seems a bit like a Milk Stout mixed with a Barley Wine. Smooth toffees and a marmalade richness. The finish is long and quite drying, with just a hint of bitterness creeping back up the throat. As it goes down slightly, the alcohol becomes a bit more present and a bigger spicy-er fruitiness comes out.

An amazing complex and completely unique beer. I've never had anything like it before, and now it's all I can think about! Pure deliciousness!!

This beer was purchased from the Cask whilst in London.

A New Leeds Pub

2011-09-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

So Leeds Brewery have opened up a new little pub, in an old one mind, but The White Swan is open for business! I was a little confused when I went in for a quick look around the other day, I didn't know whether or not to order a pint, or to book a room. It was a little fancy for me, I felt a little out of place with my holes-in jeans... It wasn't like any pub I managed to fall out of on a night.

The beer on service was from a selection of twelve handpulls and many keg fonts. Great wines, Champers and a good selection of bottled beers was available too. The cask ale seemed to be perfectly tasty, a tiny touch too cold, but I'm just splitting hairs.

Below is just a small collection of snaps that I managed to take. Give them a look over and see what you think for yourself....

Yes, that is a giant piano

If you would like to visit the Swan in person you can find it on Swan Street off Briggate, directly opposite the City Varieties Music Hall.

The Best Cask Ale.... NZPA??

2011-09-06T14:55:00.000-07:00

Hawkshead has always been a bit hit and miss with me. Their Red leaves me slightly disappointed, whilst their Citrillo/Cumbrian 5 Hop is a revelation. Their Brodie's Prime is just a little too drab for me, whilst their Organic Stout is a pint worthy of the 'Supreme Champion of Britain' Award. And don't even get me started on Windermere Pale Ale - I could drink that all day and night!!

The brewers up Cumbria-side have decided to brew a beer of magnitudinal proportions now though. Matt from Hawkshead has brewed this himself and it's only fitting, because he's a kiwi himself, that it's a beer dubbed; New-Zealand Pale Ale.

A New-Zealand Pale Ale through and through. 6%, and packed to the rafters with 4 amazingly flavour-full New-Zealand hops; Green Bullet, Riwaka, Motueka and the classic.. Nelson Sauvin.

Think Jaipur, think Dobber, but I have to be honest, and say that this was a much better beer in a similar vein of styles.

I never did get much from an aroma in a straight sided pint glass, so this experience was always going to be all about the flavour. It's very complex beer, there's a lot to be explored within it's depths.

From the get go, you are bombarded with juicy, fruity flavours. The beer abounds with drying lemon sherbet, and almost seems so packed full of hops that it's quick thick and almost chewy. With just the subtlest of hop hazes, the beer evolves and presents more flavours as it goes down. I'm thinking apricots, peaches an cream, green apple skins mixed with a slight pine resin.

From the lemon sherbet flavours comes a massivly dry and bitter finish, so moorish that you can't help but pour more down your throat - extremley dangerous at 6%! Warming, puckering, it has all you can want from an uber - pale ale, and more so...

Can I say this is the best cask ale I've had this year? It's hard to say really... It's certainly up there! And the fact that it was Arcadia - my local - that managed to get two casks of it made things go even more in its favour. (the first cask ran dry in a matter of hours..) I really don't know how they managed to get their hands on two casks.... but I'm sure the "special relationship" between @mattHawkshead and @thumbsprain had something to do with it ;)

I think it's difficult to put a "best" on something/anything these days because everything is always changing and evolving. It would be foolish and ignorant to believe that we live in a static and unchanging world. The same can be said for our beer industry. Brewers are constantly perfecting their techniques and constantly delivering better and better beers. I always like to think your only as good as the last success you've produced, and this beer is certainly the best success that Hawkshead have produced to date! Well played Matt and the Hawkshead team this beer is one for the archives!! (now get some in the bottle so I can pour it in my snifter....)

The Three C's and Mikkeller's Single Hop Series Musings

2011-09-04T09:16:00.000-07:00

We're no strangers to single hopped beers these days, it seems it may be the new 'In Thing' for brewers to produce a range of single hops beers, but to be honest brewers have been doing that since we first started hopping beers, so it's not big and it's not clever.... or is it?

We've just received a selection of Mikkeller's single hopped beer series at the shop, and for all accounts, they look great - and a lot of us have been keen to get stuck into hops they've not tried before. Not myself though, I wanted to revisit 3 of my big boys and do some investigating. All shall be explained, but first the beers I tried...

It would be foolish to think I could have tried all eight beers in one session to pit the hops against each other, they're all 6.8% for crying out loud! So I went for my tried and trusted three C's: CASCADE - The American Pale Ale dream, CLUSTER - An American hybridization of styles, and COLUMBUS - The USA big guns, high in alpha acids, high yielding, it's what you need! Yes I know they're all US hops, so what? US hops are really nice!

As you can see, hops impart no visible colour difference, I just wanted to be sure.

I started with Cascade: A classic aroma for a beer if there ever was one. Grapefruit, mangos and a very slight hint of lychee. It's a super fruity beer. Citrus fruit mixed in with mango skins. It's also quite grassy, and rather dry with some straw flavour coming out of the body. It's a really interesting hop, slightly similar to Citra, but loads better in my book.

Cluster was next: Different from the first, but still fruity as hell. Peaches and pear skins are what's on the menu. There's also a slight touch of strawberries and grapes in there too. This brew is much lighter and a lot more floral than Cascade. It has that classic American sweet caramel and juicy fruitiness which so many look for, and to accompany the finish you get a great bittering kick.

Last up was Columbus. I expected a beast, but as with most beers, I was left surprised once again. The aroma and flavour were very subtle; It sounds strange but it smelled very dry... like dry straw almost. The flavour is drying as well, but there still is plenty of fruit in the finish. Nectarines and lychees dominate this beer. It almost seems like a mix of the previous two.

This brings me onto my musings.

I was pretty certain that there was the same amount of hops used in the production of each beer. After all the label makes it pretty obvious that everything was kept the same apart from the hops, so why would they add more in one rather than the other? My beer geek senses were touched when the IBUs of each beer were mentioned on the side of each bottle.

There was a reason to my choice of where to start with with my three beers. The bottle of Cascade was only '38 Theoretical IBUs'. The Cluster was 66 and the Columbus was 114! I wondered to myself 'If everything is the same, how come some have more IBUs than the others?' - I still wonder that, so I make a shout out to all home brewers and brewers to explain this to me.

I went in with this mentality thinking the Columbus would be the most bitter, so drank it last. That's why I pictured the Columbus and the Willamette above. Out of all the eight Mikkeller beers, the Columbus has the highest IBU of 114 and the Willamette has the lowest of 35. I thought to myself again, 'If you want a really bitter beer, you'd use the Columbus - it obviously gives more bitterness.'

So after I started with the Cascade, was the Columbus the most bitter with it's massively superior 114 IBUs?? Hell no it wasn't! It was the Cluster. That bad boy took the title without a fight in my opinion, and remember it was in the middle ground of the three when it came to IBUs. I can't work out why this may be, if someone can tell me, the knowledge will be very welcomed.

Everyone seems to boast these days, "Oh I've had this beer, it was well over 100 IBUs and was intense!" - It doesn't seem to me that the IBUs of a beer even matter after trying these three beers, and knowing that the ingredients are the same (apart from the hop) and the IBUs are still different. Beer - it always get more and more confusing and complex the more you look into it.

Now of course, bittering qualities all depends on when you actually put the hops into the boil, but this experience has still given me loads to think about. So yes, single hop beers may not be a new thing, but they're still taking me to school.

Black Tokyo Horizon

2011-09-02T14:53:00.000-07:00

Blending beers together. An image is immediately conjured in my head of a man stirring a massive black pot with a big wooden paddle. We know though, that blending beers together can be a fabulous thing, just look at the black and tan!

But does it always work? Well tonight I have another attempt to find out! Brewdog's Black Tokyo Horizon is a a massive 17.2% Imperial Stout blended together from 3 separate Imperial Stouts. Let's look at the beers individually:

Tokyo*: A 18.2% Imperial Stout from Brewdog. The original Tokyo was a 12% Impy Stout which was brewed with jasmine, cranberries and aged on French toasted oak chips. I'd be surprised if much had changed apart from the % between the two.

Mikkeller Black: This beer is in my top 5 Imperial Stouts, possibly number 1, it really is something else. A monster of bitterness, it's made not only with ale yeast and champagne yeast, but with dark cassonade (whatever that is!) I've loved it from the first sip, and after trying it on tap in the Cask in London, it was cemented as a beer for all time.

Nogne O Dark Horizon: It's a beer which I haven't had the pleasure of yet. I have a bottle of the third series upstairs patiently awaiting a review. The third series is a 15.5% Imperial Stout, and if it's like the first series it should have a good dose of coffee, sugars and wine yeast used in the production. A beer I am very much looking forward too.

So back to the beer at hand then. Black Tokyo Horizon. Apparently, according to the box; "Individually, these progressive beers were small strides in the journey to provoke change through creativity and innovation in the world of beer." I wouldn't say so.... I would say they were bloody massive strides in the beer world... and I've only tried two of them!

The three beers (beers, not bears) used in the creation of this beer are all fantastic on paper, I think it's a great idea to think; 'what do you reckon these would be like blended together?' - It's shows a great deal of innovative initiative, and it's always great to be experimental in my books. How does this beer rack up though, does it work??

Well no. Not really....

The beer comes across the nose with aromas of raisins, rum, charred oak, hints of vanilla and a slight touch of burnt rubber.
This beer is sweet... massively sweet. It's sickly sweet, almost cloying, and unfortunately it's so sweet, the massive bitterness I would have wanted never really manages to push through. The finish adds more of the same - syrup-like flavour, but now it's hidden under a massive unbalanced alcohol warming hit. As it goes down a touch, a slight meaty/woody flavour starts to come out, but it's a bit too late, I'm not going to get rid of that sugar now.

I'm left disappointed. But that's just my personal taste, I know plenty of others who have really enjoyed this beer, and more props to you, but I was left under-whelmed. Maybe it's because I was so massively fond of the beers in the singular forms.

So after all the hype, all I can say is: Give me the three beers on their own, and forget about the big black pot!

BREW 1000

2011-09-01T14:16:00.000-07:00

It's party time for Naylors Brewery as they celebrate brew 1000 with a special beer for commercial release. Naylors first started brewing back in 2005. You may have heard of the pub that they first set up in; the Old White Bear in Crosshills near Keighley. The pub was sold in 2006 though, so they could really buckle down and focus fully on making their ales.

This celebratory beer comes in a a full on 10% and is aged for two months before it's bottled, I can't find what it's aged in, but I'm sure someone out there knows.

The aroma is very inviting. It smells a little of marshmellow and loads of marmalade. There's a slight hint of sweet candy sugar too, which almost gives it a Belgian quality. The beer itself is incredibly fruity. I'm thinking sweet jams, marmalade, some figs, raisins - the good old fruit cake like flavours you'd expect from a big Strong Ale.

It's rich and rather warming, with a long drying/bittering and slightly woody finish. It's a great beer, and it's great to see local brewers like Naylors trying something out of their ordinary range and getting it spot on, so well played! Not that I think you need an excuse to get your party on but, you can get your party on to beers like this and celebrate with good folk like Naylors!

Imperial Smuttiness

2011-08-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

You may have heard of Smuttynose Brewery, they make some really good quality American beers. You may know them better for beers like Big A IPA, Finestkind IPA and darker ones too like their really tasty Robust Porter. I could hug that seal all day long!

They also do a range of specials, a 'Big Beer Series' according to the bottle. This series includes much sought after beers like their 11% Wheat Wine Ale, Gravitation - a 10% Belgian Quad Style Ale and of course, the Imperial Stout pictured left. Let's not just leave it at those though. I really like the art work for all the Smutty beers, the label for Julio's Ry(e) an Ale is an absolutely fantastic example. I think some of the range has some great names too. Let's face it, who wouldn't want a pint of Smuttynose Smuttonator Doppelbock?!?! Or some Oak-aged Terminator G-Bock and some Homunculus Belgian Ale for that matter!

When I saw this in Borough Market, it was pretty obvious I had to have it, after all these bottles were bottled in 2007 so I reckon they'll be pretty good by now!

After a bit of research on'tinterweb I found this to be a 10.1% Imperial Stout. That's nothing to go by really though, as I think the abv may vary from batch to batch. (I could be wrong) I think with the bottle conditioning of around 4 years though it could have risen a touch anyway. It smells very interesting for an American Imperial Stout. Initially you get some lactic dairy-ness, loads of oats and even a touch of salt. As you get more of an inhale after a bit of a breather you get richer aromas of dark chocolate, burnt toffees, light but dark coffee and some rum soaked raisins.

The initial flavour is initially really intense and kicks you straight in the face. It's really burnt and massively bitter straight up front. I got really big woody hints, like someone had used rum soaked oak to make this beer, it was verging on leaving a slightly tart bitterness with small vanilla hints. Let it warm up a little, and get used to the mouth feel and this becomes a much different beast. It evens out and the smoother richer flavoured elements push forwards. Toasted fruitcake, big chocolate and lots of coffee bitterness now dominate the senses. The finish is dry, long and leaves you wanting. It does enough to make you respect the beer, but it's still very approachable at the same time, a truly spectacular beer if I must say so.

It's rather strange, I've been talking about Imperial Stouts quite a bit more than usual over the past few weeks, and although my tasting notes may sound a little similar on paper, I can assure you that not one I've tried in the past few years has ever tasted the same. I just think it's quite interesting that (to me) the most favourful, and overall, 'king of beers' in one hand is enough to pummel the senses but at the same time, be so diverse in actual flavour from beer to beer. Maybe that's just another one of the reasons why I love it so much...

Back to topic: Smuttynose make some amazingly impressive beers, and all I can recommend to you is that; if you see a Smuttynose beer.... just buy it, you don't need to give it a second thought.

Beer From Near & Far

2011-08-25T14:47:00.000-07:00

I really enjoy Sam Adams beers. Their Boston Lager was the first American lager I ever tried, even before Budweiser! (could be a good thing) And even though I've had only a few nicer Lagers since, it will always remain an instant classic, and a perfectly enjoyable beer.

My second reason for my Sam Adams passion is that it seems that's all I ever drink whilst in the States. They have an incredibly massive range of beers, and where ever you (or we go anyway) it's the Sam Adam beers which are present on tap, it's so readily available. (and go for the happy hour and you get 2 for 1, which is brilliant!)

However, despite how many styles and varieties of beers I consume from this brewery in the States, (and it's usually about 20+ different styles!) we do not have that range over here in the UK. The Imperial Stout pictured is always a regular treat which I have to bring back with me on the plane! In fact, the only beer I've ever seen from Sam Adams for sale in this country is my old favourite; the Boston Lager.

That was until I took a trip to the Rake in London last week and spied this bad boy!

As soon as I saw it, I had to have it. It stood out a mile to me in the fridges.

It's a Chocolate Bock, and it's a BIG Chocolate Bock! All 1PT, 9.4FL OZ of it.

It looks... well you can see for yourself really, it looks dark! The aroma is quite unusual. It's quite fitting that I pictured the two beers at the top as, although there might be quite a bit of chocolate in there, it has big hints of both these beers mixed in together. It has nothing towards the big American strengths that we're used to though, or even a regular Bock strength, it's only 5.5% but that's certainly no disappointing thing. (I think I would have had to share if it was much stronger, it's such a big beer)

It has a great flavour, it's light, and there's not really a lot of depth to it. It makes it incredibly drinkable, and with such a drying, almost lactic finish, the beer is half gone before you know it. Chocolate, chocolate malts, chocolate biscuits, chocolate milk, chocolate raisins - it's a very tasty and light beer. I'd love to know how Glyn and the Rake team get their hands on beers like this.

Unfortunately it has been a fleeting moment for the night though. As nice is it is to get amazing beers from Sam Adams, it's always going to be from afar, unless they start importing their whole range to retailers near you, and not just the Boston Lager. (I really wish they would!)

Yin & Yang: The Best Black & Tan!

2011-08-22T14:45:00.000-07:00

I have no idea how to start this post.

I've only ever tried a couple of Black and Tans in my life, and they've always been from English brewers.
I do however, know my Imperial IPAs, and I certainly know my Imperial Stouts! Mix them together?? Sounds perfect on paper, but what is it like in reality? Would it work? With such extreme flavours on display, should you even bother? Well one brewery has certainly tried to dare!

I'm talking of course of Evil Twin Brewing (perfect name if you ask me, and an even more perfect name for the beers!)

Lets break this down. Yin is an Imperial Taiji Stout coming in at 10%. Yang is a 10% Imperial Taiji IPA. Personally I think they may have got these the wrong way round, I would have the Imperial Stout as the last, but that's just me. They state on the bottle that these two beers are absolutely perfect on their own, but so much better blended together. Could this be true? Could my favourite beer style and my second favourite beer style really be married into one glorious style of beer? Well lets bloody find out! But first lets look at the beers on there own:

We'll start with the Yang. (see it's a little strange to start with the Yang, with it being the lighter.) This is a dark looking Imperial IPA. The classic aromas of caramel and grapefruit lunge forward with side notes of lemon-grass and dried straw. The flavour pushes forward with a massive biscuit malt body which is followed with notes of caramel, toffee, a little marmalade and lots of chewy - rum soaked raisins. The finish is long and bitter. Very warming, (unsurprising for 10%) this beer starts very sweet and juicy but there's a huge dryness in the finish with almost a straw like tartness.

Next up was the Yin: a 10% Imperial Stout Bruiser! It pours much thicker and richer looking than the Yang, and the head rises much smoother looking - very much like the perfect brown edges of a super cappuccino, but all over. The aroma is mental. It's so meaty! Massive salty smoked salami flavours rise from this darkened drink, I can't help but think this is a smoked I.S.. I've not actually smelled an Imperial Stout like this before so this is beginning to get exiting. It starts very rich and very sweet. I'm thinking this must be smoked now, because of the flavours. Either that, or aged in some Islay whisky casks! All the classic IS flavours are there too, shed loads of dried/charred fruits. It's big and boozy but it's also balanced. The finish is super bitter, and everything I really want from an Imperial Stout, but what are they like together??

Well, first things first... the coffee maker in me couldn't resist doing this!!:

Yes! That's your half and half right there. Your layered latte, read it and weep.

Now of course for anyone who buys a layered latte, the rule is you need to take at least 15 seconds to look at, and appreciate the latte before you stir it all up into a drink, otherwise your just an inconsiderate dick. So that's what I did before I stirred it up. This is what I was presented with afterwards, my own Yin & Yang half and half, Black & Tan:

I was really concerned about this to be honest. I really thought the massive flavours that you get with any Imperial Stout would completely crush and mask any flavours that would try to present themselves in an Imperial IPA, and I thought it would all be completely pointless.

Turns out I was rather wrong! The two blended perfectly together. You certainly got a big IIPA aroma which masked well, any flavours I got from the stout, like salty meats. It's also perfectly balanced, these two really do work together - it's clear a lot of thought has gone into this. I couldn't help but think though, like a couple of others had said to me, that this was just really a great big Black IPA, and to be truthful, that really didn't bother me. What would you really expect from mixing these two styles? Would a Black IPA or an Imperial Black IPA be a bad outcome? I don't really think so. This was a fantastic experience. I've never had anything like this, so I'd love it if some other brewers tried a similar thing. The only question that is left unanswered is this: I have no idea about this brewery, and where they're from, so I just need someone to explain this to me (see bottom):

Craft, Keg, Cask, Bottle, Beer.... You get the picture.

2011-08-20T14:59:00.000-07:00

This week I've been very fortunate to have been put up in London for a couple of days by my parents. (they went down to see some shows) And even though the hotel was rather lacking in quality, it made up for it by the fact it was right in the center of the city. So I had a couple of days to spend, and no shows to see, in a city which has recently gained some amazing new beer haunts.... so what to do.... what to do! I made sure I drew up some maps and battle plans the day before we left.

The plans were simple really. Go to the Cask, buy & drink some beer. Go to the Craft Beer Co, buy & drink some beer. Go to the Rake and Borough Market, buy & drink some beer. Go to the Euston Tap, buy & drink some beer. Simple really, and I had two days to do it in. (I suppose I did leave some space in there to eat and sleep too, just in case you were worried)

The Cask was the first up on our arrival day.

I had only been to this place once before - a couple of weeks previous in fact, after sloping off a little early from GBBF because it was so hot. The first time I was in I kept wondering "Why isn't this place called Cask & Keg" But who am I to stoke fires??

The Cask has only been operational for 2 years, but seems to have acquired quite a fair bit of notoriety and obvious fame already, for serving up some of the best beers money can buy - in 3 forms - cask keg & bottle.

The bar boasts 10 rotating cask lines and 14 rotating keg lines, and by my guessing eye, around 100-odd bottles to choose from. Your mainly going to find a selection from England, America, Belgium a few German...... and Mikkeller. (and maybe a hint of some others like NogneO, maybe)

The thing that really helps is the Beer bibles they hand out. Sure they give out generous tastings and descriptions, but rarely have I seen a menu on the bottled beer selection as vast and as informative as this: (it's a good 15mm thick)

I wasn't going mental on the first day, (apart from buying bottles to take away. Hey, buy 6 and get one "free" was a good deal in my eyes!) so only stuck to a few light halves. Half a Magic Rock Highwire on keg was first up to slake my thirst. Southern Tier IPA on keg was swiftly followed. Both were in perfect condition so I decided to indulge my inner Northerner and watch as they poured some cask with no sparkler. It was Darkstar Pale Ale, and even without a blessing from the plastic tip, it was still very tasty. We had a couple more, before tasting some keg Mikkeller Black, and deciding to hop to the Rake.

The Rake was only to be a passing visit unfortunately, it was getting really late and we only really stopped by for some Keg Schiehallion and some cask Marble Dobber. I would go back later the next day to buy some bottles, which included a very large, very interesting looking bottle of Sam Adams Chocolate Bock!

The morning and afternoon of day 2 was spent walking round London trying to sweat out some bad fajitas from the night before, and I was in no mood for some beer, until later in the evening that is, so lets move onto then!

Night 2 would be my night to the Craft Beer Co. (in honesty we had tried to go the night before, but they stop serving at 11 - sad face) It's an interesting place to try search out. I did get a couple few youths shouting my way, calling me some rough names under the sun whilst I walked up the street, I wasn't too fussed though, it wasn't a rough part of London by any means - and besides - insults just pass through me ;)

Once in through the door though, all the stresses, fears, aches and pains of the modern beer lover immediately melt of your shoulders from the sight your confronted with, and the warm, cosy surroundings which you know you'll be spending the next few hours in.

It's almost like the bar disappears over the horizon!

21 keg lines! 16 cask lines! Well over 100 bottles of amazing looking beers, most of which you've probably never heard of before. (many of which I hadn't - that's for sure) As I type I can hear some of the people in the back though, saying "O so what?? It's just 4 bars squished into one." and I can firmly say to the skeptics amongst you, jog on. Jog on to Craft I mean, and take in the experience for yourself, because that's what it is, an experience. I am truly envious for the people who can call this haunt their 'regular' - it seriously is like the GBBFs Bieres Sans Frontieres bar condensed down into a small building, with 16 British cask lines as well!

I didn't really get to grab my Ghost investigation jacket on for tonight though, it was pretty busy and the bar staff, whilst very informative about my choices of beer, didn't look like they wanted bothering with my little questions whislt there was many, many punters to serve. So for once, I just got my drink on, and get my drink on I did! If you've not had chance to visit this place before, and your making your way down to London anytime soon, make yourself a map. Trust me.

Day 3 was set aside for the Euston Tap, but unfortunately the time for my proposed visit never materialized sadly. This only means, though, that the next time I come down to London it will get special priority over all other drinking establishments before a beer even hits these lips, so till next time - I can wait.

So, in a brief little story, (missing out a few mishaps) that was my couple of days in London. What did I learn though?

Good beer shouldn't be judged by method of dispense, it should be judged by how good it is. I've always said it; stop thinking cask, stop thinking keg, don't even think craft or bottle - just think 'good' beer! Stick with that motto, and tell everyone else their stupid, and you'll always come out a winner - whatever beer you drink! Finally, London is bringing back it's incredible beer scene. If you've not checked it out recently - be ready! And last but not least.... boats with massive guns on them rule!

Beer - get out there and live it!

My First and Last

2011-08-17T14:56:00.000-07:00

So this will be my last bottle of my first full mash brew which I undertook with my good chum Gordon. It's safe to say Gordon knows how to make his beer, he's the head brewer for Elland after all, so I was sure I was in good hands.

Just for a refresher, it's about a 7% Red Rye Ale brewed with Jaggery, Marris Otter, Rye, Crystal Rye, Munich & Cara Red malts, and was hopped with Citra, Amarillo and Columbus at several different stages.

The brew day was undertaken with a few minor cock-ups, so I was a little concerned that the final product would be flawed, but I was in good fortunes, as I think it tastes GREAT!

I didn't get to be as outrageously flamboyant as I wanted to be with the design and look of the final package. I would have rather the bottles been brown, but you have to roll with what you've got. I also wanted to go completely over-board and wax seal the caps and necks with red wax and place a 'G' (for Ghost & Gordon) seal right on the top.... maybe it was for the best I didn't. So with the end of my first brew in sight, most of what was produced given to a lucky few, I can only look forward to brewing more beer.

I am however, probably going to be a lazy brewer, and probably insist that all my beers are made in collaboration with someone else. So if you want to make a beer, if no one else can help, and if you can find me, then maybe you can hire the Ghost (to make a beer with you)

.....I say hire, but I'll most likely buy all the raw materials in response to using your kit ;)

Another Cumbrian Brewery

2011-08-14T10:33:00.000-07:00

No we're not talking about that one we all know and love.... we're talking about Jennings! Yes, Jennings.... remember them? Well you should, they make some fantastic beers. One only has to partake of some Sneck Lifter to be reminded of that.

Cocker Hoop is their 4.2% Golden Pale Ale. The name comes from, not just a take on the place of origin - Cockermouth - the "Gem town of Cumbria", but also the 'cock' (tap) and 'hoop' were parts of a beer barrel. The brewery also lies on the banks of the River Cocker, so take the meaning that suits you best. It's a delicious golden ale. Aromas of light drying straw and a touch of nuttiness spring forth from a rocky, chalky foam. A real thirst-quencher, it will refresh any. Light, slightly floral and with a nice malty character to remind you of those summer picnics by the riverside.

What slightly confuses me though is this: There seems (to me) to be a need of a few brewers to modernize everything about their beers apart form the beer itself. I am speaking of course about the packaging. I think a few people are a bit too quick to make their beer labels and bottles more streamlined, more flashy, more shiny - to maybe appeal to the younger market? or just to revamp their brand? I don't know. Change is good if it's needed, but Jennings has been going since 1828 and I don't see signs of them slowing down, and change just for the sake of change I consider to be a pointless exercise. Especially if your beers used to look as good as this!:

I think this looks great. I don't know about anyone else, but the new one looks just a bit duff in comparison. I'm not talking about the beer though remember, just about the branding. I can be a little confident that the recipe has not changed, so I'd really like to know why the image of the beer has changed over time. Could it be possible that a few brewers are a little quick to change the branding of their beers without even considering how great they look already?

Take this for another example, it has been talked about before in the past by a few bloggers. Take a good look at the two, which do you think is better? I know for certain which one I would prefer to buy!

Maybe I'm just being a little too nostalgic, but I don't really care, I love being nostalgic! As I take my final sips of my Cocker Hoop, I will bring it back to Jennings. These pictures were taken from a well loved book from the shop:

Jennings Cocker Hoop is in there. So according to Michael Jackson it's a classic brew. And that's the end of discussion! You don't get to argue with that. Fact!

In our ever increasingly changing world, is new really going to be better in some cases? I know the recently refurbished Arndale center down the road from us is already turing into massive disaster in my eyes. The new tiles are already chipped and broken, the white paving already covered in graffiti and the night before. I don't know how long the old Arndale center stood, but I'm pretty sure it still would have outlived the new one!

My final thought would be this: sure you can change things, but make sure you bloody do it right!

St Austell Smugglers Grand Cru Ale

2011-08-13T16:30:00.000-07:00

I think I speak for quite a few Leodensians when I say: We love St Austell Beers!

Recently we've just had a big flurry of new bottle offerings from the brewery, and in my opinion, I couldn't wait to get stuck into each one of them.

There's been the Proper Black IPA, the Cornish Bock and the Trelawny Ale. These three pale in comparison to the St Austell beer I will be significantly indulging in tonight though. I am Speaking of course of the St Austell 11.5% oak aged Smugglers Grand Cru Ale!

This beer is "brewed for strength" and is aged in a Tomintoul whisky casks for 9 months. It is then subject to the "methode Champagnoise" at the Carnel Vally Vineyard in Cornwall (Cornwall has it's own Vineyard???) If my knowledge of whiskies is correct, the Tomintoul Distillery is of the Speyside nature, and in theory should impart some light and slightly sweet flavours. However, the age of the cask used is not stated, and could easily impart a nice richness towards the beer, so this should be interesting. (If you want some really geeky info about the Tomintoul Distillery, it's the highest above sea level in the Speyside region....)

The beer definitely pours like a champagne beer, the massive white bubbly head quickly disappears after a few moments, but the carbonation lives on strong. (more to come on that point)
The aromas are rather peculiar. Regular Smugglers Vintage ale (6%) comes across with lots of sweet caramel and rich toffee aromas, but this is far more boozy, a big whiff of alcohol masks any other flavours that's to be looked for in any kind of aroma. This is not a bad observation though, this is just an observation.

The consumption is a whole other kettle of Cornish fish! The hand-written numbers on the bottles for these individual beers tick many bases: Smooth, check. Rich, check. Fruity, check. Warming, check! This beer is bone dry, and very oaky. The whisky flavours are very subtle and are quite hard to identify. Hints of subtle vanilla and huge baskets of raisins fill the mouth. It's the carbonation I have a problem with though. I really don't think the 'Methode Champagnoise' has done any favours for this beer. I believe it's become far too over-carbonated, and that masks a lot of the flavours which should be punching you in the face right now. But that's just my opinion, - I'm not a massive fan of over-carbonated beers, they sit a little too gassy, and I think it masks quite a bit of flavour. Stick with the Vintage Ales, stick with sticking it in specialist whisky barrels - but leave it at that! Unless your trying to be the next Deus of course :)

I really liked this beer for one specific reason. When I got a first whiff of it, and my first taste of the brew, it reminded me of a few Vintage Ales that I've drunk whilst camping on the Yorkshire moors. It's awesome how a beer can take you back to a place that you've loved and back to an experience that you cherish. This beer was only a glimpse though. I thought it was trying to do a bit too much. Get rid of the huge carbonation, and you'd have a beer for the ages! Maybe that could just be my impatience though? Carbonation dies down with age, so I'll buy me another and age it for a good few years!

St Austell - don't stop doing what your doing! I'm sure you wont, but can I suggest that you make some Imperial Cornish Stout next,.... just for me??.... Please??

The Dark Night 3

2011-08-08T16:40:00.000-07:00

Imperial Stout Wars

I get a lot of stick from a few people who say that I only like Imperial Stouts, that I only think it's the onle style of beer worth drinking. That they think I've burnt out my taste buds with the stuff...

Well they're pretty correct....

I love Imperial Stouts, Fact. It's my favourite style of beer. I love drinking it, I love aging it. All those people who say "I love a good stout, but it can't beat a good IPA or Pilsner on a hot summers day!" - Bollocks! I would drink Imperial Stout all year round if I could.... oh wait, I can! Imperial stout in the depths of winter, Imperial Stout in the heat of summer! Call me crazy! I'm not bothered - I love the stuff. That's why it's a great pleasure tonight to try three new Imperial Stouts which I've never tried before from three different countries. Lets hope they can deliver!

First up: Murray's Craft Brewing Co. Wild Thing, 10% Imperial Stout.

This beer looks like a winner with a complete ink black pour. A huge aroma wood, oak, burnt to hell raisin, burnt chocolate and burnt coffee. I think I may have started with a beast here, even if it was the weakest. Hugely boozy, it's a little unbalanced with a bit too much alcohol being present. Really burnt flavours leaves it very bitter, but still very silky smooth. Very dark rum-esk with tonnes of dried fruit, it's pretty extreme, and actually, the first Imperial Stout I've had from Australia and a great one at that! My only thoughts is it could do with a bit more alcohol masking. (although as the beer warms up a bit it becomes a lot smoother and silkier making for an easier drink.)

De Molen Rasputin, 10.4% Imperial Stout.

The second Imperial Stout tonight comes from the Netherlands. This respectable brew (and brewery) is slightly browner than the last, and apparently will keep and improve with age for the next 25 years. (and I'm one of the few which will most definitely believe them!) De Molen are experts when it comes to making dark beers, some say the best on the planet, and who am I to argue. This beer comes across the nose with a big velvet like mocha aroma, with a sort of cold dairy creaminess. Immediately starts with a sweet rich fruitiness, full of malts, full of Saaz hops (giving a lighter character) - a real character full beer. No problems with this beer at all I could happily drink a few of these bad boys in a night!

Third Imperial Stout of the night: From Founders Brewing Co., 10.5%

This American bruiser comes in the strongest of the three (surprised?) and the flattest looking (but not darkest) of the lot. Big classic U.S. aromas of a proper Imperial Stout - big on the chocolate biscuit malts and big on the dairy qualities. This is a very different beast. Immediate tones of liqourice and a big rum raisin beefy alcohol. It's certainly a powerful brew, the biggest of the night, but there is something about it that slightly doesn't add up, the bitterness is slightly off (it is 90IBUs) which leaves it it a little unbalanced, but not like the first I.S. It certainly works, but is only slightly not to my tastes - the big bitterness leaves me slightly wanting.

Tonight has been fun. Trying three different Imperial Stouts from three different countries has been great. However, I firmly believe that Imperial Stout was conceived in this country and we know how to make it best. This is why I bought not only the previous 3, but plenty of these whilst down at the GBBF. It's not as great as when it was in corked bottles, but it still craps all over anything anyone else rivals against it - and you can take that to the bank!! London Imperial Stout rules!

That's a story for another day though.....

IPA Day & a Last Hurrah in Earls Court

2011-08-04T15:15:00.000-07:00

It's been a very fun couple of days. With the Trade Day at GBBF on Tuesday and selling IPAs all day at Beer Ritz for IPA Day today, it's been a very beer geek friendly week indeed! Unfortunately I could not get down to Mr Foleys tonight for the IPA Day festivities as some last minute plan changes really scuppered my abilities to go out tonight - massive sad face. So I thought after I had taken care of some unwanted tasks, I thought I should really drink some big IPA to celebrate today at least. The IPA in question was one I bought from GBBF not two days ago.

It's IPA. It's Italian. It's called Grunge. Sounds good on paper.

It's from Birrificio Indipendente Elav, apparently, and it's a 6.3% stunner in a very impressive looking bottle.

The beer is very dark - dark amber brown - almost a black IPA. It has an impressive aroma (apparently it smells like beer spirit!) of bone dry straw, and a lot of rich fruit character. I'm thinking gin soaked raisins, or even vodka soaked raisins. It's certainly not your average IPA. But that's what I love about it - I know nothing about this beer, RateBeer couldn't even find it for me, and as I don't speak Italian, I'm only going off my own senses. (which is quite refreshing for once!)

Flavours are rich warming and intense. Loads of strong orange pith. Tonnes of boozy juiciness. A big malt backbone of biscuity flavour lurking about too. A really long lasting soft bitterness rounds off this beer into something that's quite special. It's only a shame that I have the one really.

It seems IPADay has gone off a massive hit around the globe. The number one reason this pleases me the most:... because it gives scope for an Imperial Stout day in the future! :D

Like I said before, I grabbed this beauty from the Trade Day at GBBF on Tuesday. This was my third (and probably final now it's moving) visit to Earls Court for the T.D. festivities.

I'm not sure the beer selection was as good as last year, but this year was made extra special to me for one reason only: The People! I've only been blogging and tweeting for under a year now, and in that short space of time I've managed to gain contacts and friends all over the beer geek world, and on Tuesday I finally got to shake hands with a great deal of them. I didn't think I'd manage to put them all down here, but hell, I'm going to give it a go! It was a pleasure to meet bloggers, tweeters, brewers and people I know already (for a drink) a plenty:

Evin from Kernel, Tandleman, Mark Dredge, Simon Johnson, Recently Drunk, Hardknott Dave, Hardknott Ann, Hardknott Sooty (there was a sweep there too!), Pete Brown & Pete Brown's Beer Widow, All the North Bar Crew, All the Arcadia Crew, Tom & Ol Fozzard (now of Roosters), Grove Brian, Foleys Dean, Zak Avery & Beth (of course!), Rabid Bar Fly (of the Rake), Mike & Ros of the Fox&Newt, Alex from Wensleydale Brewery, Andy Mogg, Hopzine's Rob D., Brewdog's Josie & Mr Frosty. Great to see you guys for great beers!

A couple of people I saw but didn't get a chance to speak too: Melissa Cole, The Ilkley Crew, Doug Odell and the brewer from De Molen. It would have been nice to share some beer with you guys.

If I missed anyone out, I'm sorry, but it's a big list!

It was a fantastic day, just as I'm sure IPADay was for many people today. The GBBF will always be an epic few days, no matter what anyone says about it.... although I have no idea about this beer....

Much progress Is under way in the beer world these days. One can only hope that it keeps up, because as we all know.... beer is great! Long may it prosper!

So, a massive cheers then! Not only to GBBF, but also to IPADay. Drink up Beer lovers :D

August Wikio Rankings

2011-08-01T13:55:00.000-07:00

Now Neil has already done a good write up of the August Wikio rankings, but I also asked Neila from Wikio if I could do something a little different as well this month.

I enjoy the Wikio rankings, not only because their pretty darn fun, but because it gives many readers an idea of who's writing the good stuff each month. I also think that there's so many people writing great things for beer these days that the top twenty just doesn't cut it any more for a round up and preview.

So I asked Neila if I could present for the first time, (and from now on something that should become commonplace each month) something that happens on the US Wikio rankings:

The top 30 Beer and Wine Bloggers in the UK!

1	Pencil & Spoon
2	Pete Brown's Blog
3	Zythophile
4	Woolpack Dave's beer and stuff blog
5	Beer Reviews
6	Bibendum Wine
7	Master Brewer at Adnams
8	Drinking Outside The Box
9	Ghost Drinker
10	The Pub Curmudgeon
11	Raising the Bar
12	Are You Tasting the Pith?
13	Rabid About Beer
14	the beer monkey
15	HopZine.com
16	Tandleman's Beer Blog
17	The Wine Conversation
18	Eating isn't cheating
19	Spittoon
20	Called to the bar
21	Beer. Birra. Bier.
22	The Bottled Beer Year
23	Thornbridge Brewers' Blog
24	Shut up about Barclay Perkins
25	Liv-ex Fine Wine Market Blog
26	Beer Beauty
27	Real Brewing at the Sharp End
28	Taking the beard out of beer!
29	The BeerCast
30	The Whisky Exchange BLOG This is how I think the rankings should be presented from now on, I don't know about you, but the more people's views we can get out there the better for great drinks everywhere. And who knows, maybe in a few months time we'll have to change it to the top 40!