Apples up North

Another long overdue write-up this one, especially considering I was given these by the producers themselves. Sorry Andy and Dave!

Tempted have featured on this blog before but they have undergone a re brand and consolidation into 4 regular ciders. The new labels certainly stand out on the shelf, making good use of single colour and white space.

Summer Sweet is up first 5.7% and a hazy pale greenish gold. Dusty apple loft aroma and highly fizzy carbonation, which continues long after pouring. Fairly sweet apple fruitiness, some demerara sugar, coxs apples and a spicey apple compote finish.

The dry is also the same ABV, fizzy pale gold with slightly sulphurus tart lambic like nose. Lacing of white head with steady stream of bubbles. Spiky carbonation, dry tannic apple, slightly dusty, apple lofts, horse nosebag, old hay. Apple comes through more on the nose as it warms and a residual sweetness counteracts the tanins to make a moreish drop.

Special reserve differs from the previous releases by including cider apples in the mix alongside the cookers and eaters. Still 5.7% though. Pale golden cider with medium sweetness and a dry tannic finish. More complex than the regular dry and very drinkable. Probably my favourite of the core range.

Strawberry is as you'd expect, fairly sweet but with a real strawberry flavour rather than anything cloyingly artificial as you might expect. Its a little more sessionable at 4% and hinging on bronze in colour (perhaps from the juice). Daisy was a fan too.

Finally the XL was an 8% monster barrel aged special at Belfast Beer Festival this year. Its no longer available but was such a good drop that I will share my thoughts anyway, in the hope that Davy will make another batch! Fantastic rich molasses nose on this ochre-yellow cider. Smooth with no sign of the ABV rich rum marries fantastically with dry apple pulp and caramel to produce a superb cider. I certainly contributed to it selling out by Friday night.

Tempted? Cider

@Tempted

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Kilmegan are a relatively new concern who I hadn't heard of until coming across them at the beer festival. They're the closest thing to Somerset cider I've come across so far on this island. Andy is based inDundrum, County Down

Kilmegan Dry: Pale yellow with good mix of tannins and dry apple juice, yet not astringent and very drinkable. Bottle even drier than it was on draught but effervescence actually increases the drinkability.

Pale yellow, steady stream of carbonation, light apple and floral aroma, dry cider playing well against unmistakable elderflower, not stupidly sweet like some flavoured ciders can be. Would be fantastic with food too.

@KilmeganCider

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Its great to see ciders of this calibre coming out of Northern Ireland, it shows we can compete with the best in Somerset, Herefordshire and elsewhere in the world.  I tried to put the idea in the producers mind of producing a collaboration for next year's Beer Festival, we'll have to wait and see if they act on it or not!

Ivory Festival (BBF 2013)

The 14th Belfast Beer Festival is almost upon us starting next Thursday (21st) and running until Saturday (23rd). In fact, as you read this a tireless band of volunteers are getting the stillages erected in preparation for the casks arriving over the next few days.

 As usual plenty of beers from Northern Ireland and the UK but this year we also have three breweries from the south, Dungarvan, Metalman and White Gypsy with a handful of beers in cask between them.

The festival also sees the launch of three new local breweries and a handful of new beers from other Norn Iron brewers. There's free tasters of some of these from 1pm-4pm on Thursday with the brewers on hand to ask any questions.

Innishmacsaint have been quiet for a while and they return with their Lough Erne Porter.

New brewer Clearsky have their fulcrum wheat ale

People from Nicholson's will be handing out tasters of Nicholsons Pale (brewed by St Austell).

Other Northern Ireland beers to look out for are Hilden number 4 which was well received at the spring Wetherspoon beer festival, Innishmacsaint's dry-hopped special with home-grown hops (bramling x, fuggle, east kent goldings and northern brewer) and a number of interesting things from Ards.

Some other interesting UK beers I'm looking forward to trying are Mordue's Imperial  raspberry stout, Dark Star's Art of Darkness and a new Imperial IPA from Outstanding. 

For those who prefer fruit to grain there are 20 ciders and perries from across the UK, including new releases from Macs, Tempted and Toby's.

There's still spaces left on the tutored tastings at an excellent value of £10 for 5-6 beers, book via the websiteI'll be there from about 6pm on Thursday through until Saturday evening. Hope to see you there!

Follow @BelfastBeerFest on Twitter for more details!.

Belfast Beer Festival Reminder

Just a quick post to remind everyone that Belfast Beer Festival is just ten days away. Easyjet now flys from Manchester; so its even more easy to get here if you're a Northern beer drinker type. 

The list as it currently stands can be found here. I'll be working the whole of it. Come and try the new Northern Ireland beer and local ciders. Hope to see you there!

Rubies and Pearls

Most people will be aware by now that CAMRA reached the venerable age of forty this year, though its a much smaller group who are privy to another anniversary, namely CAMRA Northern Ireland's 30th. Thirty years ago to the day (17th October 1981) English ex-pats Cherry and Adrian Saunders were attending Hilden brewery's first brew-day and decided that Northern Ireland needed a branch to campaign for ale availability of what was (and still is to a large extent) a Diageo dominated pub landscape.

Since then five other breweries have opened their doors (the most recent being Ards brewing co earlier this month) and the branch membership has reached 270 members. This is still small fry compared with some of the branches on "the mainland" but we see a bigger proportion of our members at events, Saturday's anniversary bash showing interest in real ale in Northern Ireland is alive and well with almost 20% turn-out and some new faces. Many beers were supped by all (myself included, look out for my Wetherspoon beer festival round-up after next weekend's beerstravaganza) and an ample buffet provided.

Another event that sees a lot of our members congregating in one spot falls one month from today: Belfast Beer Festival 2011 will be gracing the inside of the Ulster Hall yet again and the beer and cider lists are now live on the website. Obviously the usual disclaimers apply that beers are subject to delivery but it looks like we have a good selection this year with a good showing from both local brewers and cider producers. I've reproduced the list below with links to tasting notes from the brewer's websites where possible, or ratebeer if not. Hopefully some of you can make it across, for Northern types Easyjet has just started a flight from Manchester and tickets are pretty cheap at the time of writing.

NI BEERS

Ards Brewing	Ballyblack	4.8%
College Green	Headless Dog	4.2%
Clanconnel	McGrath’s Irish Black	4.3%
Clanconnel	Weaver’s Gold Blonde Ale	4.5%
Hilden	Hilden Ale	3.7%
Hilden	Scullion’s Irish	4.6%
Hilden	Barney’s Brew	5.0%
Whitewater	Belfast Ale	4.5%
Whitewater	Belfast Black	4.2%
Whitewater	Clotworthy Dobbin	5.0%
Whitewater	Copperhead	3.7%

Other beers

ACORN	Gorlovka Stout	6.0%
ALLGATES	Twitter & Busted	4.0%
ARUNDEL	Autumn Old Ale	4.6%
ARUNDEL	Black Stallion	3.7%
ATLAS	Latitude	3.6%
B&T	Black Dragon Mild	4.3%
B&T	Two Brewers Bitter	3.6%
BANK TOP	Bank Top Dark Mild	4.0%
BANK TOP	Gold Digger	4.0%
BATEMANS	XXXB	4.5%
BEARTOWN	Bear Ass	4.0%
BLUE MONKEY	99 Red Baboons	4.2%
BLUE MONKEY	BG Sips	4.0%
BOWMAN	Elderado	3.5%
BOX STEAM	Dark & Handsome Stout	5.0%
BRADFIELD	Farmers Blonde	4.0%
BRECON BREWING	Broomstick	4.7%
BRECON BREWING	Pale beacons	3.9%
BURTON BRIDGE	Thomas Sykes	10.0%
BUSHY'S	Old Bushy Tail	4.5%
CAIRNGORM	Cairngorm Gold	4.5%
COACH HOUSE	Blunderbus Old Porter	5.5%
COACH HOUSE	Innkeepers Special Reserve	4.5%
CONWY	Autumn Red	4.5%
CONWY	Welsh Pride	4.0%
CORVEDALE	Dark & Delicious	4.6%
CORVEDALE	Norman’s Pride	4.3%
DARK STAR	American Pale Ale	4.7%
DARK STAR	Hophead	3.8%
DERVENTIO	Cleopatra	5.0%
ELLAND	1872 Porter	6.5%
FUZZY DUCK	Tangerine Duck	4.4%
GREAT ORME	Celtica	4.5%
GREEN JACK	Orange Wheat Beer	4.2%
GREEN JACK	Ripper Tripel	8.5%
HADRIAN & BORDER	Ginger Beer	4.0%
HAMBLETON	Stallion	4.2%
HAWKSHEAD	Hawkshead Red	4.2%
HOPBACK	Entire Stout	4.5%
HORNBEAM	Lemon Blossom	3.7%
HOUSTON	Killellan	3.7%
HOUSTON	Peter’s Well	4.2%
HUMPTY DUMPTY	Little Sharpie	3.8%
ILKLEY	Ilkley Black	3.7%
KIRKBY LONSDALE	Jubilee Stout	5.5%
LEEDS	Midnight Bell	4.8%
LITTLE VALLEY	Hebden’s Wheat [Cloudy]	4.5%
MAULDONS	Black Adder	5.3%
MAULDONS	Micawbers Mild	3.5%
MILE STONE	IPA	4.8%
MORDUE	Newcastle Coffee Porter	5.1%
NAYLORS	Pinnacle Porter	4.8%
NETHERGATE	Umbel Ale	3.8%
NORTHUMBERLAND	Bucking Fastard	4.0%
OAKLEAF	Hole Hearted	4.7%
O’HANLON	Firefly	3.7%
O’HANLON	O’Hanlons Port Stout	4.2%
OLD MILL	Yorkshire Porter	4.4%
ORKNEY	Skullsplitter	8.5%
OSSETT	Silver King	4.3%
OTLEY	Oxymoron	5.5%
OTLEY	O8	8.0%
OUTSTANDING	Standing Out	5.5%
PEERLESS	Dark Arts	4.1%
PHOENIX	Arizona	4.1%
PURPLE MOOSE	Madog’s Ale	3.7%
RCH RUDGATE	Pitchfork Rudgate Ruby Mild	4.3% 4.4%
SALOPIAN	Golden Thread	5.0%
SALTAIRE SKINNERS	Raspberry Blonde Ginger Tosser	4.0% 3.8%
SKINNERS	Keel Over	4.2%
SUMMER WINE	Barista Espresso Stout	4.8%
SUMMER WINE	Diablo IPA	6.6%
THREE B’S	Bee Blonde	4.0%
THREE B'S TITANIC	Tackler's Tipple Captain Smiths	4.3% 5.2%
TITANIC	Iceberg	4.1%
TRYST	Carronade IPA	4.2%
VILLAGE	Old Raby Ale	4.8%
WELLS & YOUNGS	Young’s Bitter	3.7%
WELLS & YOUNGS	Bombardier	4.1%
WILLIAMS	Ceilidh Lage	4.7%
WILLIAMS	Fraoch Heather Ale	4.1%
WILLIAMS	Midnight Sun Porter	5.6%
WOLF	Golden Jackal	3.7%
WOLF	Norfolk Lavender Honey	3.7%
YORK	Centurion’s Ghost	5.4%

We also have a much improved cider line-up planned for this year, so much so that it will be on its own separate stillage away from the main bar.

Biddenden Cider	Bushells cider	6.0%
Biddenden Cider	Biddendens Kentish Medium Cider	8.0%
Mr Whitehead’s	Equinox	4.5%
Mr Whitehead’s	Midnight Special Perry	5.0%
Moles	Black Rat Cider	6.0%
Thatchers Cider	Heritage Cider	4.9%
Thatchers Cider	Cheddar Valley Cider	6.0%
Gwynt y Ddraig	Two Trees Perry	4.5%
Gwynt y Ddraig	Haymaker	6.5%
Toby’s	Dry cider	6.0%
DJ’s	Medium cider	6.0%
Broadoak	Perry	4.5%
Westons Cider	Bounds Brand Scrumpy	4.8%
Westons Cider	Herefordshire Country Perry	4.5%
Westons Cider	Traditional Scrumpy	6.0%
Westons Cider	Old Rosie Scrumpy	7.3%
Westons Cider	Marcle Hill	5.0%
Westons Cider	Organic Vintage Cider	7.3%