A Few More New Beers

Last week I reviewed Eight Degrees Back to Black range and porterhouse's new barrel aged black IPA. This week we turn to the lighter side with an APA, IPA and Tripel.

Up First is new Dublin based brewery Stone Barrel With Boom a "Session IPA"  (AKA American pale ale). Its an attractive burnished gold with fluffy white head collapsing to lacing. Starts nicely with juicy peaches on the nose but unfortunately falls flat (literally) with no carbonation to speak of. This unfortunately accentuates the bitterness and grainy cereals over the delicious hops I know are in there. It shows much promise but needs the carbonation fixed!

Stone Barrel Brewing

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Without such issues is Brown Paper Bag Project's Trinity Tripel. Now I like me a good tripel and this one fulfils the brief admirably. Pale, slightly hazy gold with fine yeast suspension. Those typical belgian yeast aromas of cloves, sweet bubblegum and rich yeast esters are followed by a fairly sweet, full bodied taste with more spicey yeast esters and a fruity Belgian character. Some noble hop pepperiness prevents it from becoming cloying but its still very rich. Great to see breweries stepping beyond the usual stout/pale/red comfort zone.

Brown Paper Bag Project

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Mountain Man's Hairy Goat is an improvement on their Green Bullet release a few months back. Very hazy mid amber with fluffy offwhite head, pineapple sherbet and mango rind but also a strange gravelly minerality. Medium body, mango, fairly sweet at first but plenty of pithy bitterness to balance. Certainly one to try fresh and an indication of things to come.

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And finally for today, a beer that's been re-jigged and released in a larger format bottle. Shane at Franciscan Well asked me to have a taste of the latest IPA iteration (bottle #1 of 1200 no less) and of course I am happy to oblige. Last time carbonation issues in the bottle led to a sweet sticky beer which lost its hop aromatics. No such issues this time however. Rich pine resin and vanilla come across on the nose. Its full bodied, bitter pine and rich resin, toffee, also watermelon as it warms. Resinous finish with lasting bitterness. It also works really well with curry.

Franciscan Well Brewery

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More Vintage Ales

Extreme cellaring alert! My friend Alan (of Neill & Ross Brewery) is a Belgian beer nut and has amassed a sizable collection of aged beers, including some no longer brewed. This weekend we cracked open a number of them. Here are some thoughts:

First up were a couple of 1970s rarieties from Bass, the 1977 Jubilee Strong Ale & Bass Princess ale 1978. 

Both of these were well past their prime, with oxidation, wet cardboard, sod all carbonation and just not generally very nice. The Princess Ale did have an interesting touch of red fruit and toothpaste to differentiate from the former, but both drain pours unfortunately.

La Choulette Biere Des Sans Culottes 1990 is a dark biere de garde and not one I was too keen on either.

Straffe Hendrik 1990 was well past it and was a straight drain pour.

The Chimay Premier was also past its prime. I preferred the fresh version (which is so far one of the only doubles I've actively enjoyed).

So far, not so good but the better beers were to come in the form of a Felix Kriek from 1972 and Belle Vue Selection Lambic 1989. The kriek had held up fantastically and paired well with Stilton as suggested in the Vinken and Van Tricht book. A nose and taste reminiscent of rodenbach with cherries still lingering in the background. A surprising amount of condition for its age too. This beer is still produced today albeit in a much diminished form.

The Belle Vue lambic, today well known for being overly-sweetened was also a good beer. Obviously it started off sour and fairly dry, so there wasn't much more it could do to develop. Very dry, funky nose and lots of citric acid, just how I like them.

 Another interesting comparison was fresh Rodenbach to a bottle ~50 years old. Undisputably the same beer, the older bottle had lost some of the vinegar tartness and become more rounded. This worked well with mimolette, another win for the cheese and beer guide.

Another highlight for me was the 1960s Rochefort 10. Just as good as the fresh stuff and fantastic with Fourme d'Ambert.

 

A Westmalle Tripel of similar age was also sampled, but having neglected to make notes I don't recall how it had held up! A 2011 Westvletern 12 did nothing to shine, reinforcing the view that this beer is very over-hyped due to its rarity.

The big surprise of the evening for all of us was that Weston's Cider from 1985 tastes pretty much indistinguishable from fresh stuff. This makes sense as the wild yeast used to ferment it already succeeded in outcompeting any other wee beasties in 1985, so not much scope for infection and all the sugar had fermented out in any case.

A mixed batch then, as you would perhaps expect but a fun evening nonetheless.Thanks Alan and Olly for supplying most of the bottles.