Another Beer Book

Whilst in Oxford today, I came across a book I've wanted to buy for some time now. So I did! It's a book I've always wanted because we get a lady in the shop who brings in a copy of it every other week or so. She picks out around 20 beers she's never tried before, from the book, takes them home, drinks them and then ticks them off from the list. The book is of course 1001 beers you "Must" try before you die:

I really love this book. Not only because it will go nicely with my other geeky beer and whisky books on my shelf, but because of the simple fact that this is a beer all rounder.

Where else can you find Timmermans and Tokyo side by side....

Or Chimay and Chang....

Or Old Peculier and Old Rasputin....

Or Bishops Finger and Bitch Creek....

Or Riggwelter and Rejewvenator....

Or Houblon Chouffe and Hue....

Or even Tiger and Tipopils....

.... I could really go on, there's that many different types, styles, varieties of beer. So lets just leave it at the 1000 & 1 title :)

This is why this book is great. Say what you like about any of the beers in it.... like them or not, they all have a story to tell. From the humblest craft beer to the most in your tv-face industrial act of drink, they all have their beginnings, their roots, where they started. I think if you give them, all of them, a bit of a chance to tell you something about that beer you didn't know before, then just maybe even if you still don't like the beer, it may have earned a little bit of your respect. After all, every beer in this world has its place, and we shouldn't be promoting only the best beers on the market, (most hoppy, strongest etc...) but ALL beer for the greater good of the beverage!

Long Live Beer

A Very Good Day

So it was with great haste, anticipation, and glee that a few old geeky beer drinkers, bloggers and brewers made the great pilgrimage down to the ever popular Mr Foleys for the much talked about bottle swap. It was a very relaxed day. The idea was, bring something you like down if you want to share it!

There was a good turn out: Leigh from the Good Stuff, Rob from Hopzine and Martin Bell were all in attendance. Adam Tuncay (or Tunks23 as his twitter feed suggests) was down as well as Dean, who gave us the good opportunity to block off a section of his bar for all us loyal beer geeks. Even the brewers from Summer Wine and Magic Rock were down to join in the merry-making. (If I missed anyone else off I'm sorry)

This is just a small run down of what I can remember people bringing: (people brought many bottles!)

Dean brought along a few bottles of his home brew. His wheat beer had a great lemony flavour with a good large carbonation. His maple stout was in very good form too! I think Leigh brought along some home brew too, but I think that one passed me a little too quickly.

Rob brought along a very good looking pair of bottles: A 2010 Dark Lord (the beer I was looking forward to most) and a big American Gueuze. (seen Below)

This was a selection from a few people: The ReAle was brought along by Martin Bell, while the Proper Black was brought along by Adam. I can't quite recall who brought along the Revolutions Pre-releases or the Thornbridge Coalition ale.

If you can make out the picture, the Magic Rock crew brought along some Deschutes Black Butte XXI, some Founders Nemesis, Some Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye and some Brewdog Bashah Reserve. (whew.... say all those quick!)

And for me, I brought along some Lost Abbey Serpent's Stout and a Dogfish Head World Wide Stout - 2 very big, very powerful Imperial Stouts. You must know what I'm like by now with the dark stuff! ;) Whoever says you can't have an I.S. in such nice weather is a puss!

There was a lot more bottles brought, but not ones I managed to make any documentation on, so I have forgotten them by now. I will say there was a bomber of Goose Island Vanilla Bourbon County Stout, and someone brought along a a big bottle of Anniversary ale from The Bruery which was fantastic by the way!

Having cycled down with my precious cargo, I opted for a light refresher from Hardknott to start me off. I've never had Hardknott on cask before so I was looking forward to this one. It was the ginger beer, but strangely the pump clip made no mention of this. It was very nice, but it could have done with being a little colder, but that's just me.

We dove straight in after that really, drinking fantastic beers all afternoon and taking up all the half pint glasses it was physically possible to procure! I've really not had so many amazing beers in one sitting since our staff trip out to the Grove at the start of the year.

The beer for the day which stood out the most to me was the Deschutes Black Butte XXI - their 11% porter brewed with chocolate beans and coffee added, and also 20% aged in bourbon barrels :)

The Dark Lord was very good indeed, but after so much hype behind the beer, I felt a little bit let down. It wasn't as massive for me as everyone seems to make out..... still best label for sure.

It was a fantastic day, and was really good to get to have a chat with everyone again. We shall have to do it again sooner rather than later, and I think with the buzz about what people brought this time, next time should see a lot more people!

My First Love

Belgian beers are a very hit and miss with me. I'm really not keen on the massive over carbonation you get with most mainstream triples it's too gassy for me, but there's classic ones I will sup like Karmeliet Triple and Brugse Zot.

It really is a fact that if I like a belgian brew, then I'd recommend it to everyone and try get everyone I know to try it (I'm "slightly" enthusiastic like that) but if I don't like it on the first try, then the only time I'll ever try it again is if someone buys it for me.

One of my favourites is St. Bernardus ABT 12. The first time I ever tried it I thought to myself "Is this an example of a Belgian Imperial Stout??" I know this not to be the case today, but it has similar qualities. What can I say, I was young and naive, and this beer was so dark and chocolatey! It's a fantastic beer (My colleagues must get tired of me talking about it... Hey I try sell it to everyone!) I will not agree with anyone who says their beers are a "copy" or a more available version of Westvleteren beers. Forgive the childishness but in my opinion that's just a stupid statement.

Now it was a Belgian beer that really opened my eyes to the world of beer and flavourful it could be. The story goes a bit like this:

I had just started working for the best beer shop in the world: Beer Ritz. I was in my first year of college, studying for my degree in furniture design, this was about 4/5 years ago now I think. I worked alongside 3 fantastic guys: The well known Zak Avery, a super guy with an almost identical name to me, and a great friend called Dan Payne. Dan was the man I worked with most of the time, and being the party-guy he was I got him to come along to a college party we were having. I was still drinking mildly interesting beers at the time like Budvar and Old Speckled Hen, Dan brought his own selection from the shop.

He was kind enough to share with me one of the beers he brought as it was quite big. (not that he ever needed help, he was and is just a great guy) The beer I tried that night in that tiny smoke filled room would be the beer to completely change my opinion on beer. (not the only one, but the major one) After my first sips I thought to myself "This is fantastic!! Why don't more beers taste like this?!?!?" I still remember the night vividly. The beer of course, If your still awake, was a Belgian and one I drink again tonight:

It's a 9% dark Belgian ale. I suppose if you wanted to fit it into a style you could pop it in a dark Saison style. It's called Nostradamus and it comes from the Caracole brewery. It's an amazing beer. Such great flavours of dark malts, sweet toffee, caramel, sweet apples and a yeasty zest, I really could drink it all day!

That's all I know of the beer, and to be honest, that's all I need to know. I'm sure there's people out there who know more about the beer.... more about the brewery than I do, but to me it really doesn't matter. All the information available wouldn't change my opinion that this is an amazing beer and I will continue to drink and recommend it to people for as long as it's available.

I'm not sure who put it slightly like this, but: You aren't born with experience, you have to gain it. That night, locked in my memory, will stay with me and will forever be one of my first real experiences of beer..... and it was, and still is, fantastic.

Make your own story. Love great beer.

Smoking Is Good For You!

Smoking gets a bad rap these days. I think it's a little unfair. It's a great thing, something that should be celebrated! If more people were into smoking the world would be a better place.

....I am of course talking about smoking malt.

I say that, but actually the beer I'm drinking tonight has no smoked malt in it, but you wouldn't know that from drinking it! It's called Querkus from Ridgeway brewery, and it's a smoked oaked porter. To get that pleasant smokiness in the beer they use Scottish peated whisky malts, mixed with a dose of English pale malts. The beer is then cold matured over pieces of old French oak barrels to give it a bit of extra umph.

The beer is very pleasant, light in body (4.5%) but big in flavour. Does exactly what it says on the tin, so to speak. Smokey in flavour with good woody hints shining through the slight roasty-ness of the dark malts. Lots of nice dried fruits lingering on the tongue as well to give a good bitterness.

The reason I write about this beer was, basically, I had a big craving to get stuck into it! I was asked at the shop a couple of days ago: "Do you have any black IPAs in at the moment?" Unfortunately my answer was a simple but disappointing NO. We did have a black IPA from St Austell, but it was out of stock. This got me thinking about the Querkus, because like a black IPA, it's a very specific style, but a style that at the moment we only have one of. Even in a shop that sells over 600 different types of beer like we do, we only sell one smoked oaked porter :( (I'm not counting the Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier we sell because it's not a smoked oaked porter)

It seems to me, when funky styles of beer come out, (not that they're new) 95% of them are mainly destined to be put in casks. Won't some breweries start putting their specials in bottles? Please??? Just for the awesome beer sellers like Beer Ritz?

(.... I am fully aware that some breweries are very good at bottling their specials, but others aren't so good.)

Ghosties Favourite Leeds Bars Volume 9

Believe it or not but volume 9 on the list is a pub which I've never even been to before. "How can you call it a favourite though?" I hear you cry? ....Well that's just because I knew it would be a favourite before I even stepped foot in the place! I am of course talking about the new Town Street Tavern to grace the great city of Leeds: VERITAS

Not a pub to have had a haunting before I needed a little direction finding the place.... so I drew a little map, after all, fail to prepare - prepare to fail:

That building is of course Leeds Town Hall, just opposite Mr Foleys would you believe. Go to the back of the building and you should be able to make out the pub just opposite some funny looking green and yellow railings.

It was a little confusing at first to decide which door to go through. Veritas may be the only pub I've ever been in which has its own, on site, deli! It's not a small one too, it fills about a third of the pub. One door leads you into a cafe sort of area and the other leads you directly to the bar. When I walked through the first I thought to myself "Is this the pub? It's full of bread, cheese and meat! where's the bar? OH! it's just there.... Is this heaven?"

Having an onsite deli counter means that the pub can serve food all day. (that's what I heard, I'm not sure about late evenings) The Pub opens everyday from 11am to 11pm, and the deli opens from  10.30am :)

Enough about great food for now, lets talk about the beer.

Veritas boasts a selection of 8 cask lines and 10 keg lines. They even had a little plastic pin of real cider at the end of the bar too. Cask lines included a permanent fixture from Black Sheep, Ilkley, Thwaites and a rotating Timothy Taylors. The other 4 lines were guest lines, mostly featuring Naylors today (the Magnum P.A. - a Hawaiian Pale ale was very tasty!) Ilkley will be pleased to hear that the Mary Jane is their best seller.
    The keg lines were in good nick, they even serve De Koninck Blond, a great beer if you ask me. Lots of others to please the masses like Erdinger, Warsteiner, Duvel green to name a few. I must mention that all the beers supped were in great nick. My Magnum P.A. was even the last of the barrel, but still tasted fantastic.

A special mention must go to the wine selection. In my honest opinion, it's the best wine selection I've seen in any of the Town Street Taverns so far. From the usual bottles the range went up to fine bottles such as Amarone and Nine Popes.

It's a great little pub. I say little but it's actually a very open and light space. It has that modern/but still old sort of feel to the place. The decor is what's to be expected from a MTT, which is really good, because even though I'd never been before I got that good old familiar welcoming feeling. Someone who also made me feel welcome (Bar staff included in that) was Stella Mallinson. I had heard a lot about Stella from my MTT working days, and she lived up to all that hype. This girl is really proud of her beer. (so good with the stuff is she that two different breweries took her name ;D)

Just before I left she was kind enough to show me round their massive double cellar.

mmmm beer.....

That was my trip to Veritas then. Thanks go out to Stella and all the staff for making it a really great day out. I can be sure that it won't be my first and last trip here.....

Beer Swapping

A beer swap is a great thing to try, especially if you can get beers one can't and said someone has beers you would like to try. It seldom works out that way, but building bridges and getting connected will always have its future benefits.

After a short twitter exchange with Brian from the famous Huddersfield Grove, we decided that as we were going to be meeting up for the Ilkley Brewery night, we could do a little beer swap. I asked about strange things that the Grove had at the moment, and Bri asked if we still had any Durham Wedding ale left. We ended up: me wanting 2 Gadds beers and Bri wanting a wedding ale and a surprise. So this is what I brought along for my end of the deal:

Brian, being the true gent he is, upheld his side of the conversation and brought along my two:

Gadd's barrel aged barley wine is a 9% stormer. It comes across the nose with big hints of oak and dark honeycomb. Wow there's loads going on in there. You get an initial sweet and sour effect on the tongue which leads to a drying woody finish. Toffee, caramel, raisins, and a touch of treacle... it's quite dark for a barley wine too, probably a product of the barrel aging. Really earthy and full of complex flavour and character, one to sip and savour.

Ancestors is a whisky cask aged 9% porter. (pretty strong for a porter, but not massively unusual) A big carbonation to this beer even at this stage. (I should mention these beers are a couple of years old - in perfect condition then I guess!) I'm not sure what whisky cask this came from but it has a sort of salty sea air aroma to it, like you may get from an Jura or Oban or Old Pulteney cask. The smell couldn't be further from the aroma though! On the first sip I get massive Islay Whisky waves. It wouldn't surprise me if this had been aged in an Ardbeg or Lagavulin cask. So smokey, so peaty, this is a proper whisky beer! Fantastic, it really is!

That's my little tale about beer swapping. Not a new thing to me, and it certainly won't become an old thing. See if you can't get yourself out there and swap some beers!

Pucker Up!

Lambic is a rather strange but very interesting style of beer. It's one I've loved from my first, through the whole range that Lambic has to offer. Certain styles within the Lambic family can have that effect on people, I'm sure you can think of a few stories. I think it's a good time to put a post up about them as they go so well with this warm kind of weather.

Lambic is old school beer. The only real difference is how it's made. The style probably originated before the 1400's (and was probably very common until pasteurization was brought in around 1860), and it was only until the late 60's early 70's that the Belgian Royal Decrees actually put a label on what actually went into a Lambic. It was a beer which had to contain 30% unmalted wheat, a gravity of no less than 11 plato (1044), and must be spontaneously fermented with a certain level of acidity to it.

The beer is not produced under controlled methods like most beer today. It's made using wild airborne yeast which creates the spontaneous fermentation, which more often than not, float in and around the brewery looking for sugars to gobble up. Brettanomyces was one of these typical wild yeasts which brewers are really coming around to nowadays with the certain types of flavours they produce. After fermentation the beer will usually go into large wooden barrels to age for up to one, two or three years. It is then the arduous task of the head brewer to decide which of these beers to blend together to make a finished product.

Gueuze is my favourite style of Lambic (spelling the thing is only made harder by the fact that not all breweries spell it the same!)

"Lambic is white wine, while Gueuze is a champagne" - Jean Van Roy - Cantillon head brewer.

Gueuze is the top of the charts when it comes to Lambic for most. It's usually the best that a brewer will produce, being made from a blend of sometimes three or more different old and young Lambics. Say a brewer uses a blend of a one year old, a two year old and a three year old barrel. The yeasts in the youngest barrel with create a frenzied fermentation with the older samples to create an amazing beer which we know as Gueuze. All Lambics, especially Gueuze will undergo further fermentation when put into the bottle.... fermentation which can make the beer taste better and better over a period of over 20 years!

Geuze Boon (note the spelling?) Is the Geuze produced by Frank Boon, a master of the art of letting yeast get on with the job. Like all Geuze beers this one has a large sour effect to it, that's because the yeast has done a pretty good job of eating up all the sugars in the beer. It's not as extreme as some of the Geuze beers which can come from breweries like Cantillon, so it's a great introducer to the extreme style. It has a great earthy dryness, matched only by the big sour lemon flavour. There's a big fresh cut grass/dry straw flavour too which is quite typical of beers using wild yeasts. Dry, carbonated and very refreshing on a hot day. The first time I ever tried a Gueuze I can remember thinking "this tastes like sour lemon sweets!" - I've loved it ever since.

Lambic. Definitely a style I'd recommend you get into. If sour is not your style then look for any Faro beers. These are made by adding sugars to make them sweeter.

Notes: This post would not have been possible without researching the style from two books: Ben McFarland's World's Best Beers
        & Michael Jackson's Beer Companion
- Two epic books from two awesome men of beer.

Time to Step Up Your Game

I can't carry on with this level of noise.... 4 posts in 2 days! I'm not sure what I'm thinking.

A little bit more about home brewing to talk about today. As you may already know, Leeds is a little bit of a hotbed for home brewers at the moment. It also seems like they're not only making better and better beers, but more exciting and bigger beers!

The one I'm privileged to try tonight comes from an ex-BeerRitzer: Paul Marshall. (or @iamlonewolf as many of you will know him from twitter)

The beer is called Arctic Stout and is a 9.2%-ish imperial stout. This home brew has waited 4 and a half months before it has hit my glass.

What an aroma to a beer! Massive amounts of dark chocolate, oats and a little dairy/lactic smoothness. A powerful punch of raisins and a hint of liqourice hides amongst the big malt profile. And that's just how it smells.

This beer tastes amazing. Simple as. And I've had my fair share of over 100 imperial stouts. It's very reminiscent of Harveys Imperial Extra Double Stout. Such a powerful brew it's got massive flavours of all the described in the aroma, but it's so easy drinking! I can't put the bastard down. 

It's really astounding too think that people can produce beers of this magnitude in their own homes.... I really can't get over how good this beer is! This is why it's time to step up the beer game. If people can make beers this good in their own homes, how are you going to up your game brewers?

Another item which has just come into my possession is another home brew in a similar vein from a fantastic college: Tom Fozzard. The beer is called Konstrukt and is an imperial stout. (even if he won't admit it is)

Awesome label aside, he's gone so far as to put a label upon the cap stating that this beer cannot be opened until October the 1st! I'll tell you one thing, he's got some faith.... and balls. This is the kind of thing we (as beer promoters) should be striving towards. The best we can get, and produce. Otherwise we may as well grab a can of Carling. (sorry Cooking Lager)

Until 6 months pass, I'll lock this one away in my box of goodies.

Who Said We're Invisible??

I don't know who said it, but I can remember someone saying: "No 'normal' people read these beer blogs anyway so why does it matter what we write?" ('normal' people meaning - not beer geeks) I can say without doubt that that is a load of nonsense!

We get a magazine at the shop on a two week basis, you may have heard of it, it's called Off Licence News.

This is a very respectable magazine. So much so that Zak writes an article for them every 2 weeks, as do a couple of other writers you may know like Tim Atkins - wine guru, and Nigel Huddleston - drinks evangelist.

I mention this only because whilst browsing through the "Spittoon" section today I came across this:

Interesting hmm? Well if you don't quite know who Cooking Lager is by now, then seriously.... where have you been? .....But more to the point, if a respectable magazine is open minded enough to print the tweets of one passionate beer blogger, then it should make you think a little more carefully before you write your opinions down. As we all know once it's on the web, everyone can see it, not just the 'beer geeks'!! As Pete Brown said, as well as others, we need to stop being so negative and start blogging about why beer is great!! Because at the end of the day, everyone has the ability to read what we write, and probably does.

Beer - A Good Enough Title as Any!

I don't know.... you wait to do a blog, then you do two in one day ;)

Today we got a few new beers in the shop. One of which, that I'm drinking now, is so damn good it needs to be thoroughly promoted! That's what we like to do at the shop, every time we get new beers in, we like to consume them quick so it's easier to tell others what their like. (it's a tough job, yes I know, but it's one we take pride in!)

These are the 3 I took away today:

The Querkus (a smoked oaked porter from Ridgeway) sounds like a bizarre beer which I'm much looking forward too. A beer brewed with Scottish peated whisky malt, English pale and roasted malt and whole leaf Goldings hops. It's then cold matured over pieces of old French oak barrels - sounds fantastic!

The Axe edge comes from the relatively new to us, Buxton Brewery. We have a large range of their beers now, but this is the stand out one for me. A double IPA coming in at 6.8%, it boasts the best that Europe, North America and New Zealand has to offer in the way of hops.
    These aren't the beers I want to talk about though (even if I just did) I want to talk about 'Proper Black' from St Austell. It's a Black IPA based on their 'Proper Job' IPA which is a great beer. You may think from the picture that the bottle is made from brown glass.... NO, the bottle is made from clear glass! That's the colour of the beer... mmmm.

With Chinook, Centennial and Cascade it certainly has a hoppy aroma. Hints of big apricot juiciness and a hint of liqourice abound from the hops and roasted malts. You can certainly feel the roasted barley in the mouth-feel but the finish is light and hoppy. It screams oxymoronic like a good black IPA should, but this is better than your average BIPA. I think St Austell is a fantastic brewery. Admiral's ale and Proper Job are two amazing beers of theirs and this one is a welcome addition to the fold, lets hope it sticks around for a while. Get your butts in for some new beers! Do it!!

Proper Black - Damn straight!

A Night With The Boys

It's not often I get to go out, partially due to my laziness, and partially due to when something cool comes along I'll usually be already doing something else. So I was quite exited to find that I could actually make it to Mr Foley's for their 'Meet the Brewer night' which featured Ilkley Brewery.
    When I arrived it seemed to me a bit like a mini twissup! Bloggers included: Rob from Hopzine, Leigh from the Good stuff, Neil from Eating Isn't Cheating and Nick from the Beer Prole. Fellow beer tweeters included 'broadfordbrewer', 'grovebri' and good old 'misterfrosty'. (give em a follow for groovy beer know how!) A special shout out should go to Dean from Foley's who provided excellent service all night. It was great to finally put some faces to names, there was a lot of beer knowledge in one place at once, which was super! (It wasn't difficult to find conversation ammo!) Leeds is definitely the place to be for the beer scene these days! Beer geeks aside, the night was all about Ilkley's Chris Ives & Stewart Ross and them sharing their passion with us.

After a little chat about how things are going at Ilkley brewery the guys were kind enough to share samples of 4 of their beers with us; Mary Jane, Ilkley Black, Ilkley Pale and Black Summit.

Their Mary Jane is the flagship beer they produce, a light ale with a nice citrus flavour, and the definition of 'session ale'. Ilkley Black is their dark mild, a full on flavour but light mild, lots of burnt malt flavour mixed in with Bramling Cross hoppy-ness. Ilkley pale is one of my favourites, a bigger version of Mary Jane, which didn't last long in my glass. Black Summit is their "work in progress" beer. The name comes from the Summit hops used, but they have not got it as dark as they want just yet, but when they do it will be a great black IPA!

They also did a raffle for some Ilkley goodies; the deal was, buy a pint of Ilkley, get a ticket! I grabbed a ticket, and didn't have the highest hopes but, come calling out time, my number came up! I now have a very nice new work shirt :)

After the event we all had some more great beers and I managed to grab a quick chat with Chris. I asked if they were going to expand on their bottling range. They said they like to keep the cask to bottle ratio about 80:20 but they were looking to put Ilkley Pale and maybe a couple of specials in bottle soon :) Good news! I think I even remember them saying Ilkley Pale should be in bottles by the end of the week! (Beer Ritz stocks all the range of bottled Ilkley - they never do quite last long on our shelves!)

A very good night! It reminded me of past nights out with beer boys and I'm definitely try harder to get to more of these sort of things. Thanks again to the Ilkley team for a great night, and once again, it was really nice to get to meet all the beer geeks outside of the shop with a pint for once.

Knees Poised for a Raising!

So this is the first. Quite fitting really, they do these kind of beers really well. (strong and English I mean) Yes I am of course talking about the first Wedding Ale which is currently gracing our shop shelves.

The brew made to celebrate the marriage of Will & Kate, is made by a favourite of mine: Durham brewery. (If you follow my posts you will find that, yes, many breweries fit into my favourite breweries category!.... oh well.)

Something Blue (alright name, could be worse) is the 10% beast from the large range of respectable bottled beers we stock from these guys, I wouldn't mind a night with one of these and a Temptation - their 10% Imperial Stout!

It's a strong ale at the basics of it, and from the looks of it a dark one too!

Aromas: The nose comes across with heavy fruit tones. There's some wood, with some dry nuttiness. Quite a bit of toffee and a nice Fuggle earthy-ness.

Flavour: From the first sip, you can tell this is a massive beer, it's so rich and fruity. Name a fruit and you probably wouldn't go wrong. Hints of plum, pear, apples, oranges and grapes. The orange comes across in a nice caramelized marmalade effect, which is smooth and also warming. Lots of malt in there, quite thick and almost flat but it's still got some carbonation zing left in too (managed to form the classic quickly disappearing head trick). The finish is rich and looong. I'm not quite sure if it's a richness which leads to a big bitterness or a slight tartness, but it's good either way!

A big beer, and a welcome new addition to our brimming shelves, see it - grab it. The only problem is, there's 5 units in this bottle, so I need to find someone to finish the last 1 unit. Otherwise I'd be breaking the law!