What's Lego-ing on?

Far too often beer reviews can be staid an boring (perhaps I've been guilty of that too?); so its always nice to come across and interesting and refreshing take that's a bit more fun too. Pottering around Facebook t'other day I came across a page called Beer Farts. Being a bit puerile I clicked on and found the page to be full of well-taken pictures of beer - but with a twist; every beer is paired with a Lego character. I also like that there's usually a short topical comment linking beer with current affairs in beer and wider world. Being a fan of both Lego and beer I got in touch with the creator to find out a bit more.

Who is behind beer farts and where did the name come from?

Hi, I'm Tom, based in London and I take the photos (and drink the beers !). When brewers etc meet me they always say ‘oh, you’re not what I was expecting’. They may be expecting some strange guy that plays with Lego but I am normal. I promise! 

I toyed with a few names but once I landed on Beer Farts it stuck. It seemed to catch people’s eye and make them laugh.  

Punk IPA

How did you come up with the idea to use Lego?

I was given a Lego set as a gift after seeing the Lego movie last year. I was already posting photos of my favourite beers and decided to include the Lego in one. It turned out to be quite popular and at all started from there. 

What comes first , the beer or the Lego?

The beer is always first. I just then try to work the appropriate Lego in with the beer. That can be difficult if I cannot get the Lego man I want. I've had to hold out for weeks to try a beer because I wanted the right figure for the photo. A little sad I know.

 Where did you get such an array of figures; do you have to carry them all around with you?

I am always buying new ones from local toy shops, online and even charity shops. Sadly, yes I do carry some with me almost everywhere. I don’t want to miss a shot! Planning ahead can be tricky though.

Beavertown Honest Pale

What is your favourite Lego set/ character; are there any that don't exist which you'd like to see?

My favourite set is the Back to the Future set. I love the movies so I love this set too. The hotdog mini figure still makes me laugh though, he is a great one.

After the success of The Simpsons two series I’d love Lego to make a Family Guy series. I think that would work great. I’m also excited for the release of the Big Bang Theory set that is coming out soon.

What has been your favourite review?

One of my recent favourites is the post for Beavertown’s Skull King. Not only is the beer great but their can designs are always so crazy. I’m always happy when I can make a character to match those on the can design. The can designs alone make for great photos.

What do you enjoy most about using Lego alongside words to convey your thoughts on beers?

It makes people laugh and beer is meant to be fun after all. Lots of people post photos of beers; I find the Lego men are a great way of making my posts stand out. I hope people see the photos and then are interested to read what I’ve said about the beer.

Light Vs Dark

Do you have a favourite beer style and is there a beer you'd really like to review using Lego?

My favourite style has to be IPA, whether it’s traditional British style or West Coast. I’d really like to try and review Heady Topper as I hear so many good things about it. I’m sure I could find a good Lego to go with that!

Which beer so far has been most enjoyable?
This is almost impossible to answer. I’ve had so many good ones. Some of my favourites include; Firestone Walker’s Union Jack IPA, Camden Town’s IHL, The Kernel’s IPA, Russian River’s Pliny The Elder, Meantime IPA, Ballast Point Sculpin' and Stone’s Japanese Green Tea IPA. 

What character would you choose for the following "whale" beers:

·        Pliny the Elder – I have a Roman Emperor that could play Pliny

·        Three Floyds Dark Lord -  A medieval knight would work great here I think.

·        Old Chimneys King Henry – The King from the latest series looks like a young King Henry VIII. He works very well for any ‘King’ named beer.  

·        Cantillon Blaeber – The cowboy would be perfect for this.

Thank you to Tom for taking the time to answer my questions, hopefully you check out his work, its good fun!

Beer Farts is on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and also has a few blog posts here.

Brewing By Numbers

Certainly one of my favourite "Best of London" discoveries from ales by mail is Brew By Numbers. I first tried their Berliner weisse about a year ago and knew they were on to something. They now rank alongside their Bermondsey brethren of Kernel and Partizan among the elite of London brewers and I'm on a mission to try more. In early February I spent an enjoyable afternoon following the now obligatory beer pilgrimage around the rail tracks and spent a few hours in the good company of Andy @tabamatu in the packed BBNo brewery. I later got hold of some bottles to try; so here are my thoughts.

A couple of porters up first, one with liberty and one dubbed traditional. Liberty first then at 5.7% is hazy dark brown, fluffy beige head, piney hop notes and cocoa. Full bodied, low carbonation, v easy drinking, rich dark malt with cocoa, toasty malt and well balanced by leafy herbal hops

The traditional porter is even better at 6.5% dark loamy brown with frothy tan head. Cocoa and toast. Robust and rich, earthy roast barley, coffee and toast. Superb, reaffirms my love of porters. This is sparring against Anspach and Hobday as my favourite porter of the year.

Coming in a smidge higher is the export stout at 7.4%. Pours opaque ebony brown with pillowy tan head and earthy rich roast barley nose. Full body with spritzy carbonation, coffee and chocolate. Rich, hides its strength well. Umami dry toast., touch of lemon peel. V drinkable. Rich cherry notes.

Saison seems to be an area of expertise for the brewery and in addition to a fantastic motueka & lime and wai-iti and lemon sampled at the brewery I picked up a Nelson Sauvin saison. Now antipodean hops pair brilliantly with the fruity Belgian yeasts and again there's no exception here.Pouring hazy pale blonde with pillowy cream head. Rich gooseberry and passion fruit on the nose, redolent of a sauvingnon blanc. Fairly soft medium mouthfeel with a gentle carbonic tingle, fruit peel bitterness at first, then creamy wheat and plenty of fruity gooseberry with a pause for Flinty yeast before progressing to a fruity dry finish. Excellent stuff.

Another style that's (perhaps controversially) all the rage is session IPA. I'll save my thoughts on the genesis of this style for another post and just talk about the beer here. This one combines citric Amarillo and more Nelson Sauvin. opaque golden beer with fluffy off white head. Mango rind aroma. Full bodied pithy bitterness with juicy satsuma and slight sweaty feet. Amarillo running the party here and doesn't quite hit the spot for me. A prime example of "London Murky".

Finally we have a full blown IPA, this time with simcoe and chinook. BBNo redeem themselves here, yes still hazy but  with a much more inviting lime peel and passion fruit nose. Medium body, gentle carbonation, "ruinously drinkable". So sessionable for its strength. Juicy fruit, gentle bitterness, peach, tangerine, verbena. Delicious, best ipa I’ve had in a while. Perfectly balanced.

So with an average score of 4/5 (and only the session IPA letting the side down slightly) Brew by Numbers have comfortably entered my Top 5  UK breweries alongside the likes of Redchurch, Siren, Buxton and Wiper & True. I urge you to seek them out and try for yourselves. I certainly feel vindicated including them in my ones to watch, with more fun on the way in the shape of barrel ageing.

Brew By Numbers

@BrewByNumbers

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London Brewers: A Depression

The beer which alerted me to Pressure Drop was Stokey Brown, delivered via an Ales By Mail Taste of London Case (think smoky chocolate smothered fruit cake).  It sufficiently impressed to cause me to seek out others of theirs to try, reviews below. They're now at almost 30 releases and going strong and were the tenth best new brewery in the world for 2013, no mean feat when there were more than 2600 new openings last year!

Up first is Wu Gang Chops the tree, named for the Chinese legend about the man banished to the moon to chop down a tree that regrows every night for eternity. Its a "foraged herb" hefeweisse, but we're not told whats in it. Hazy burnished gold with fluffy white head collapsing to a mere lacing. Spicey, slightly tart aroma of cloves, black pepper and lemon peel. Medium body and full of flavour for its fairly diminutive strength (3.8%). Interesting peppery tingle and a woodsy sage like herbal note, slight szechwan like tongue tingle in a dry finish. Its like a grisette saison.

Builders Tea is a 4.3% porter with added tea. Dark burgundy tinged brown with rich bourbon biscuit aroma with some vinous port notes and tart elderberry. Lacing of dark head, tingle of carbonation. Full bodied, dry and earthy, burnt toast, a sweet lactose middle section then tanins kick in. Finishes pretty dry with a bit of plum jam and plenty of burnt toast.

Slightly stronger at 4.9% is Street Porter, a take on a traditional London Porter. super dark brown with fluffy muddy mocha head. Burnt roasty barley with a fruity undercurrent. Extremely dry and toasty coffee barley, long dry finish. A little one dimensional and disappointing given the delight of the Builders Tea. Will have to give it another go next time.

  

Finally Bosko is Pressure Drop's signature IPA weighing in at 6.5%. dark amber brown with lacing of cream head with rich sweet malt and pithy mango nose. Full body, quite creamy mouthfeel, juicy fruit forward, low bitterness, slight acridity in finish. Its competent but not in the top league of UK IPAs.

 

On the strength of these beers I will definitely seek out others of theirs, particularly Freiman's Dunklelweiss which sounds particularly tasty.

Pressure Drop

@PressureDropBrw

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Castor City

Beavertown quietly slid on to the London brewing scene some when last year and those in the know tried to keep the secret to themselves. Such a big secret is hard to keep however and the brewery are now so big they've had to vacate their original brew pub home (apparently still well worth a visit) and in to purpose built premises. Their beers are now available up and down the country and from all the "usual suspects" beer retailers.

My first encounter with Logan's wares was via smog rocket, a sublime smoked stout and an experimental "alpha series" brew - Gamma Ray which was so successful it made the transition to core beer. Its a typical American pale ale, but done well with plenty of sticky malt and resinous hops, slipping down far too easily for something at 5.4%. A recent bottle via Ales By Mail Best of London case confirmed its still in fine fettle.

Other core range beers include 8 ball, which includes all the best rye spiciness without the meaty/ feety notes you can sometimes get with these beers and Black Betty is quite simply one of the best black IPAs in the UK (if not the world if you ask RateBeer). 

But where Beavertown often excels is in their experimental beers. Bloody 'Ell Blood Orange IPA on keg in Edinburgh this summer was fantastic, an exposition of an orange, with peel, juice and pith all the way through. A bottle I kept back has aged well, and despite aging is still balanced but most of that fresh orange immediacy has dissipated. Fngers crossed they'll brew a fresh batch next year.

I say "often" excels because I had a couple of disappointing beers this weekend. Uncle Joe's Russian Kvass, which had already received mixed reviews was unfortunately battery acid and paper thin - managed just a few sips.

Stingy jack a pumpkin beer that many say has altered their perceptions of the much maligned style also seemed to have acquired an acidic edge and was still too vegetal for my tastes. The spicing was pitched at the right level however and had less of the overt sweetness some in the style can have.

Better though was Hara Kiri, their dark saison.Plenty of lime sherbet, grapefruit and dark coffee, I missed the Belgian Esters here finding it closer to a well-hopped stout but enjoyable nevertheless. Dark Matter, a Brewdog Collaboration was an interesting soured stout with umami soy and roast barley notes alongside a refreshing tartness which makes me wonder if that's how old ales would have originally tasted.

Saving the biggest beer for last I'm reassured that Beavertown have still got it as Heavy Water hammers the palate with all of its 9%.  Rich meaty malt, sweet molasses and chocolate, vanilla and leather assault the nostrils. To taste there's milky coffee, rich and smooth, roast barley, leather, tobacco, ersatz coffee, low carbonation. This one comes highly recommended, though I'd perhaps have liked more bitterness to balance the sweetness.

Beavertown

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Beer for Storage

Its the time of year when festive and special releases do the rounds and a number of people were offered bottles of the following beer, one of whom was Nate Southwood who blogs at Booze, Beats and Bites. I suggested we guest post on each other's blogs, so over to Nate!

Truman’s London Keeper Review

Truman’s Brewery was originally established in 1666, but closed in 1989 – the year of my birth. After lots of hard work they finally started brewing again in August 2013.

I’ve been excited about their beers for ages as Ben Ott is an incredibly talented brewer, and the history behind the brewery is awesome.

Luckily I was offered the chance to get a bottle of this sent to me so I can do a little writing.

This was the first ever beer Truman’s brewed in their new brewery, and the recipe dates back to 1880! That’s some old school beering! There are only 2000 bottles too!

Brewery: Truman’s

Beer: London Keeper

Location: London (England)

Style: Double Stout

ABV: 8%

Look:

It pours black as night with a thick off white head and bubbles rising in the glass, but oh so silky.

Aroma: Bittersweet chocolate & coffee attack your nostrils and begs you to drink it!

Taste: My god. Starts off with bitter chocolate, moving on into sweetened coffee and finishes with a very red wine like character. Stunning.

Mouthfeel: Feels very carbonated in the mouth and it’s thick yet still so smooth and silky.

Overall: This is a brilliant beer. It has everything I want in a stout of this strength. I really need to buy more.  It’s simply stunning. Each mouthful delivers.

I’d recommend buying some of this before it’s all gone as there are only 2000 bottles.

You can buy it from their website here: http://www.trumansbeer.co.uk/product/trumans-london-keeper/

Nate

London(ish): Sirens blaring

Siren opened to a bit of a buzz at the end of 2012 and understandably so as brewer Ryan Witter-Merithew has had a good upbringing through various superstar breweries. Naturally I was keen to find out what all the fuss was about, doubly so after having sampled two of the core range Half Mast (a "quarter IPA") and Broken dream (a breakfast stout). 
First thing deserving mention is the great artwork. Standing out and suitably mythical it fits in well with the Sirenous theme:

Up first is a collaboration hoppy wheat beer or hopfenweizen  if you will. Ryan collaborated with omnipollo and homebrewer Rick Gordon Lindqvist to produce the fantastic 6.4% beer that is Näcken. It pours hazy dark blonde with towering white head collapsing to a few mm. Very estery nose of banana and bandaid followed by rich gooseberry and tangerine hops. Really fruity NS hops, sharp, full bodied, creamy wheat spice, gooseberry and watermelon, light carbonation and mouthwatering moreish finish. If you're quick you may be able to pick this up at  alesela or ales by mail.

 

 Another special next,  Aussie soundwave (5.6%) is an antipodean hopped variation on sound wave, one of their regulars (review below). Pouring a murky tan brown its a bit off putting but that is countered by a rich peaches and passion fruit nose. Fairly pithy dry bitterness, kumquat and passion fruit peel with a quinine like bitter finish. This shows off what those oz hops can bring to a beer and (Appearance aside) is pretty tasty.

Undercurrent is part of the core range and at 4.5% would be a sessionable pale ale. Its hazy dark amber with fluffy off white head, rich citrus aroma and red berries. Full bodied bright citrus, creamy oats, sharp red berries, slightly chalky bitterness and long red berry fruit finish

Siren's regular Soundwave also 5.6% looks completely different to the aussie version, pouring much darker. Citrus takes the lead in the aroma here resin and orange oils. Fairly light bodied but full flavoured,hop led but malt balanced.

 

Next up is another collab beer Siren / Cigar City / Grassroots Neither (8.3%) Its a very hazy dark chestnut brown with fluffy offwhite head with rich peaches and raspberries on the nose. Light carbonation and full bodied, fairly sweet at first then long citrus pith and red berries plus something else I can’t quite put my finger on. Really well balanced, belies its strength, superb

 

Liquid Mistress (5.8%) Deep garnet with pillowy caramel head and rich Seville orange and sticky toffee pudding nose. Full bodied, rich caramalt and digestive biscuit well balanced by pithy orange hops and dry finish.

 Rainbow Red (7.9%) is perhaps the most "normal" of the bunch (as much as a 7.9% beer can be normal at least...). Its a hazy dark amber fluffy offwhite head collapsing to a lacing. Fruity yeast esters and sharp citrus hops. Medium body and carbonation pithy citrus, chalky dry bitterness, not particularly red but certainly tasty.

   
Siren   
@SirenBrewCo  
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More facial hair

As promised, here are my thoughts on some more Weird Beard Brews following a post earlier this month. Four saisons and an IPA.

Saison 14 gives everything I look for in a saison, Belgian nose of honeyed yeast esters, big wheaty spicy body and a little funkiness in the finish. It made an excellent dry pre-dinner aperitif and one i will be visiting again. On a par with their Black Perle and fighting for top place with Fade to Black.

The same can't be said of Saison 42 (a hitchiker's guide to the galaxy reference and a collaboration with new Swedish micro Sad Robot) which is rather flat and tasteless. It finishes fairly sweet and heavy too, maybe it has a lower proportion of wheat in it?

Its quirkier brother 42e is more like it, primed with elderflower cordial in the bottle it has a wild feel to it. There's some heavy candy sugar towards the end but it sings with a floral elderflower refrain that demands another glug.

Collaboration is the name of the game as the next saison is also a colabeeration with Andy (@tabamatu) or more rightly a scale up of one of his many successful home brews. Cheers Andy for lugging this up to Edinburgh for me! A great showcase for the gooseberry side of the Nelson sauvin hop, though perhaps a little too high in alcohol for my liking. Well made and pretty well balanced, seek it out if Nelson Saison your thing!

Finally Hit the Lights is the IPA Miss the Lights was planned to be. I certainly preferred it to the earlier iteration. Well balanced with red berries and sage/ lemon balm in the aroma. It drinks well, with more of those red berries, though is a little to hefty to make it sessionable.

Weird Beard has two other brews that I've not yet had the chance to try and narrowly missed out on trying at EBBC13 this weekend! Ah well, you can't try it all. More on EC13 later this week (when I have my notes and thoughts in order!) 

Beardy Weirdies

Nope, I'm not referring to that much stereotyped bunch of beer lovers CAMRA but the new London Brewery, Weird Beard, run by a couple of hirsute gentlemen, Gregg Irwin and Bryan Spooner.

I picked up a selection of their beers via Ales By Mail after hearing a lot of positives about them, plus I enjoyed some beers with fellow blogger Gregg at last year's Beer Bloggers Conference. Reviews after the pic.

 

In order of consumption then, I began the evening with Black Perle, a "coffee milk stout" or latte stout if you will. Truly sessionable at 3.7% I was most impressed with thisl ittle number which was at once both a coffee and a milk stout. with rich smoky fruit roast coffee aromas and full bodied lactose milk sweetness, finishing with the ashen roast of a good espresso coffee. This beer would be equally good as an after dinner treat or a breakfast beer pick me up.

Miss the Lights is a one off IPA, which reading between the lines of  the blurb seems to have been a trial brew that didn't quite hit the mark (to be superseded by hit the lights). Its a more challenging beer with plenty of herbal noble hop notes and a meaty yeast flavour hanging around in the background.

Next up Fade to Black, in one of my favourite styles, Black IPA. This one hits the style bang on, with a delicious orangey (Simcoe?) nose and some slight chocolate notes. I should have drunk it fresher as the hop flavours are starting to fade from the flavour, though still scrumptious and at 6.3%  at the higher end of the scale for BIPAs.

Following on from that was "a boring brown beer" a single hopped Chinook effort. Another that just wasn't quite as hop forward as I'd have liked at 7.2% the malt backbone was just a little overpowering, though never cloying. Look forward to trying the refinements in future single hop releases.

I finished up the evening's drinking with the 7.3% monster that is Five O'clock Shadow. The nose was promising, all pineapple esters but I wasn't keen on flavour at first, finding the malt obscured some of the delicate hop flavours, but after allowing it to breathe a little, the tropical hops, tangerine pith and mango were allowed to shine through to give a hybrid of US and UK style IPAs. Fairly bitter, almost quinine like finish.

If Five O'Clock shadow was a monster then Holy Hoppin' Hell is a titan, with bells on. Weighing in at a hefty 8.5% it pours a hazy dark amber brown with a perfumed citrus and mango nose. Full bodied, sweet, low carbonation. Peach, passion fruit, mango, heavy booze, some spicey notes and a long fruity finish. This is another that would benefit from being fresh on keg, though as a UK DIPA (something we haven't many of) it brings a different perspective.

For me the Black Perle stole the show, at once drinkable and complex and I look forward to trying a cask version of this sometime soon. Fade to Black was a close runner up, being an excellent example of a black IPA. The pale ales are well on the road to greatness but didn't quite hit the spot for me on this occasion. I've got a gaggle of saisons en route; so there could be a future post in the pipeline.

Weird Beard

@weirdbeard_brew

@dredpenguin (Gregg)

@weirdbeerbryan

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Partizanal Ales

I've been trying a lot of London beers recently thanks to the sterling efforts of Ales By Mail with their "Best of London" cases, 15 beers from breweries from all over the capital. They're now on box 15 which has a black forest stout and Windsor and Eton's excellent Republika pilsner among them.

But I digress, this post is about one brewery in particular, and those of you clued in have probably already twigged who I'm talking about, but for the rest of you read on! I would probably class thisbrewery as in my top five* London brewers, no mean feat considering there were over 40 at last count! So who holds my affections so rabidly? Partizan, that's who.

Springing up out of the dust left behind in Bermondsey's arches by Kernel's move to bigger premises and even using the same kit is Andy Smith's new venture. I've been an avid collector but I'm struggling tokeep up with their prolific output! I've managed about 10 of their beers so far and no duffers amongst 'em! I'm a particular fan of their saisons, properly Belgian in character with plenty of hop interest.

The pale ales are crisp and bright flavoured, showing off the hops to the full and the porters are amongst the best in the business, Partizan truly are ones to watch. Special mention must be made of the eye-catching labels which are superb individual works of art in their own right, each crafted by Alec Doherty. Hop bills are clearly stated, and even better a brewed on date lets you know exactly how fresh the beer you've picked up is. Bottle conditioned too which means the mouth feel is spot on.

So if you do spot these when you're out and about, don't hesitate to pick them up! There's still some left on Ales By Mail's website too if you fancy doing some mail order (tip a box holds 24 bottles; so may as well get your monies worth postage wise...). I look forward to you thanking me for the recommendation later ;)

Partizan Brewing

@PartizanBrewing

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*Subject to change, mail me to find out which brews are currently floating my boat!