Back To Work

Reading Curmudgeon's recent post and subsequent musings from Boak and Bailey on the similar theme about how the beerosphere has gone a little quite recently got me thinking about my own writing efforts.. I've not been posting as much recently, and that's got me feeling a little down. Time to rectify that though with a good old dose of ghosty ectoplasm and beery goodness! Blogging about beer isn't just something that happens on it's own, it's something you actually need to work at to keep going, and it's something that I really enjoy so it seems a shame to have it slacken.

I've been so busy recently that I also missed out on the fact that Ghost Drinker turned Three yrs old as a blog about a week ago!

I agree with the comments from Mudgie and B&B when they talk about the increased use of Twitter... but for me that disheartens me slightly as I feel the 140 character limit removes the most important aspect of the beer world - the personal aspect. The Beer Ritz Twitter account seems a bit faceless to me sometimes... I think that's why we started a instagram account (follow us at beerritzleeds) - I think it's going to be a great way for all the staff to individually (but collectively) post about what we are drinking and what's good at the moment. I think it has a chance to have a little more personal feel to it, we'll see how it goes.

Enough about that stuff though... I'm here for beer tonight, and it's been a good few weeks recently! The past few days have been made subsequently more enjoyable given the recent offerings that Brewdog Leeds procured. I won't start to guess how they got a supply (and such a large range at that) of Brasserie Dieu du Ciel from Quebec but I'm very happy that they did. Ever since my first encounter with the brewers' beers I've longed for more of the same! Even if it was a little bit of a strange first encounter...

While the Penombre Black IPA and Aphrodisiaque cocoa and vanilla Stout were brilliant offerings, I'm choosing this one to write about tonight:

Isseki Nicho 9.5%

Imperial Dark Saison

Honestly a style of beer I can say I'd ever even think of!

The aroma is quite stunning. Think of a Saison/Imperial Stout blend and you're almost there. Burnt coffee and roasted pine nuts. Dark chocolate with some yeasty spice - black pepper upon dark cherries.

I thought the beer itself would have a huge Stout-like presence, but initially the beer presents itself as more of a very strong Belgian Quad. Lots of warming booze and dried fruits. It's only after the swallow that you get a huge roasted barley flavour and charcoal mix which brings it back to Stout. It's a hybrid of styles really, but it's not a mess, it's perfectly produced and very well thought out.

It's good to be writing again. It won't be long before I'm back behind the keyboard once more...