Golden Pints 2016

Well its been a while since I blogged, but I figure missing out on my golden pints nominations would be a step too far! Not going to separate out UK & Ireland this year, partly because now Ireland's reaching maturity I think the beers should stand on their own against the best of the rest but also because there's a danger it'll be a rerun of last year. It'll be trickier this year not least because I've not been as active on Ratebeer as usual but also because I've been drinking far and wide including a return to GBBF for the first time since it moved back to Olympia.

Best Cask was supped right at the start of the year - at the time I knew it would be in contention and still stands head and shoulders above the competition. That beer was Wiper & True Pink Peppercorn Porter

Best Keg plenty of stuff sampled this year but the Cloudwater Claussenii Stout Cherry Bourbon Barrel Aged was drunk in copious amounts at ABV; so that takes the crown.

Best bottle My top rated beers of 2016 are both from Buxton, but marginally ahead is their AngloBelgique, a magical combination of juicy IPA hopping and fruity Belgian yeast without the stickiness or cheesy esters sometimes associated with the style. The pinnacle of their Belgian series

Best Can Vocation smash and grab really impressed as an easy drinking DIPA, but the beer I enjoyed enough to buy the remaining stock in the York Tap Was the Beavertown 2016 release of Spresso. Looks like the barrel aged version took best keg last year - I'm nothing if not consistent!

Best Collab There's been a few noteworthy efforts this year,  including brew by numbers/ de la senne but the Magic Rock/ Cloudwater/ Lees Three's Company is still playing on my mind all these months after drinking it; so that takes the crown

Best Overall has to be the Three's Company, which I'd happily drink multiples of. Luckily its been rebrewed and released in cans by Magic Rock as Big Dipper; so hopefully it'll become semi-regular.

Best Brewery For their excellent work with the Belgian series plus tasty new imperial stouts and IPAs the award this year goes to Buxton. The recent batch of axe edge (pretty much my favourite continuously available UK beer) was particularly delicious! Well done to Colin, Denis and team! Please continue to crank out these excellent beers! Honourable mention to Cloudwater who really made some excellent beers this year, with DIPA v8 being another favourite of mine along with the collaboration and barrel ages stuff mentioned above.

Best New brewery is a bit harder as I can't think of breweries that specifically opened in 2016. Lost and Grounded have gotten a lot of love, but having only sampled one beer I can't fairly nominate them. So I'm going to pick a couple from 2015 that escaped my notice until this year. The first is Vocation, whose aforementioned smash and grab was a a favourite this year, but their hop utilization across the range is excellent leading to stuff that's far too drinkable for my own good.. Closer to home (though not  as the crow flies!) is Simon Lambert and Sons in Wexford, better known as Yellowbelly. With brewer extraordinaire Declan at the helm no style goes unbrewed with solid results across the range and some excellent beers in the sour family of styles, which is where Declan's heart lies (also checkout his side-project Otterbank for more wild and mixed fermentation beers).

Best overseas Draught Insufficient supped to make a fair judgement, 2016 has been the year of local on draught for me.

Best overseas bottle/can Hoppin' Frog Hop Heathen stands out from the scores as an excellent Black IPA

Best Overseas brewery Was kindly sent a selection of Amager in a Rate Beer local swap and was very impressed by pretty much every beer, recommend people seek them out!

Best Overseas bar only got to Spain this year; so my experiences more limited than usual but the obvious winner here is Fogg Bar Madrid for my dream concept of a proper cheese and bar bar, all Spanish beers, an excellent bottle selection and cheese/ charceuterie options including a small tapas with every beer. Recommend a visit!

Best new bar Southampton has really come along leaps and bounds in beer since I left for the balmier climes of Norn Iron. For my 30th I managed to visit a good number of them and I think the Bookshop Alehouse was my favourite. Previously an antiquarian bookshop, there's a selection available for sale/ browsing, great range of cask, keg and bottles and a chalkboard pointing the direction to nearest food establishments with patrons encouraged to bring their own food in. This would have been my local whilst in Southampton and provides a much needed watering hole between St Denys and Bevois Valley. (I'll hopefully get a blog up on Southampton scene if I ever pull my finger out!)

Best bar overall is tough, revisited a number of old favourites this year, York Tap and Small Bar are both strong contenders, but this year it goes to Marble Arch with an excellent range of well kept beers in many styles on cask and keg and of course the DIY cheeseboards always win bonus points!

Best Festival again didn't get to as many as I would have liked this year, very much enjoyed the winter cask fest at Franciscan Well, but just pipping it in breadth of beers, choice of food and general party atmosphere was Killarney.

Best branding another fierce battleground this year, with Beavertown knocking out enough awesome can labels to completely plaster my chromebook and Cloudwater's guest program churning out all manner of eyecatching and unexpected designs but for me the Boundary branding has really come into its own this year now more specials and series have been released - not many breweries can boast an in house artist's studio!

Just realised I gave them runner up last year too!

Best book/ magazine We're pretty lucky now with plenty of decent beverage magazines available now, almost too many as I'm in perpetual backlog! This year's award goes to Beer 52's Ferment for the quality of writing, look and feel, breadth of topics and managing to stick to a monthly publication schedule. Well worth subscribing to but please guys do some proper editing, far too many typos!

Online retailer goes to Eebria again this year, almost by default as I've not really ordered from many others - largely because they've not had enough of interest in stock to justify the shipping costs.

Independent retailer that most impressed was Beer Moth. If it wasn't for limited drinking time/ luggage space my wallet would have been considerably lighter on exit! Fantastic selection from far and wide at very fair prices.

Best Blogger is another tough one this year, a lot of my favourites have fallen silent and I'm yet to find any that really click with me. Matt Curtis has written some great pieces across multiple platforms this year, but as ever its Boak and Bailey I always read off the bat rather than pocketing for later with their regular blogoshire roundup posts always turning up some gems which would otherwise have been missed. Cheers guys!

Just noticed they also won last year, must be doing something right or else I'm just boring* 

*not mutually exclusive

Simon Johnson Award for best beer Tweeter this year is going to Yvan Seth for his honest and sometimes brutal insider view of beer wholesale - though admittedly this is mostly on facebook. Keep at it sir, you're leading a sea change.

Thanks everyone for reading here's to a beery 2017 (with hopefully a return to semi-regular posting from me...we shall see...)

Beyond The Boundary

With the first batch of bottles rushing off the shelves faster than they could be stocked and the entire first batches sold out within days I knew I needed to get hold of Boundary's new beers before it was too late. Luckily i managed to snaffle a few bottles of each via my usual purveyor of libations, The Vineyard. But before I let myself sample my illicit gains I thought I'd better call in on Matt at the Brewery...

Matt and his new brewery!

Calling the PortView trade centre home since February Boundary have been busy making Unit A5 ship shape and ready for action for most of that period. Simultaneously they begun brewing their first batches of beer, bottles from which I will be reviewing below. Arriving in to the brewery on a miserable Wednesday lunchtime I'm greeted by bright lights, gleaming steel and the sound of high pressure water circulating post caustic-rinse. Matt stands beaming and hirsute amongst his newly acquired equipment, "I've just taken samples of the beers, would you like to try them?" Not one to offend I of course jump at the opportunity to sample the three beers in the core range and not one but two collaboration specials with Galway Bay (both of the latter are to be barrel aged; but you'll need to wait for ABV fest to find out what they are!)

Galway Bay collabs sleeping soundly in warm conditioning

Matt shows me around the brewery, pointing out the freezer (essential for hop life), pest proofed grain store and conditioning room replete with barrels "I bought 20 but only 6 are for us, the rest are already accounted for". Of course there has been teething problems, for example some of the fermenters don't seal correctly and there was no way to recirculate the wort, but these have now been Heath-Robinsoned out. With all vessels currently filled there will soon be a need to buy more. There's plenty of space within the brewery but Matt has his sights set on the unit next door "Its still unoccupied and I could use a space for a barrel store..."

Pallets of stock and the three label designs

The first event was held in the brewery last Saturday, managing to squeeze 80 people in for a cheese and beer tasting. There's also an artist studio where the resident label designer has already been hard at work but will also be available for the local community to rent. Being a part of the community is very important for the team and is why the brewery was set up as a co-operative. This has of course ppaid dividends in the form of a market thirsty for their beers!

The three "core" beers

"So what of the beers?", I hear you ask, alright I'm getting to it! There are 3 in the core range an APA at 3.8 %, an IPA at 7% and rounded out by an export stout also at 7% ABV. They're all bottle conditioned too, which should please the real ale fans though Matt says he's had to bring forward plans to keg the beer as bottled product just doesn't get the exposure in pubs in Belfast.

I sampled the APA first, a sensible plan given the jump in ABV of the next two! Priced very fairly at £2.09 it certainly drinks as a session beer. peach tea and mango on nose. Decent level of body for its diminutive ABV, light carbonation, gentle bitterness, red berries and some biscuit. Very sessionable indeed and would sing on cask. If anything I'd prefer a 500ml bottle to really get to know it, ah well I'll have to make do with a second 330ml...

The IPA certainly seems related to the APA but with a different hop bill Matt assures me. Its pretty boisterous on the nose with a mess of yeast esters interfering with what is obviously an exiting aroma - a base note of orange bitters jus makes its through. Super pithy grapefruit peel with herbal sage and pine notes, heavy body, super bitter, a little sticky with a dry finish, its not boozy per say but doesn't have the cleanliness of Kernel or Beavertown. Not how I enjoy my IPAs but will probably have plenty of fans and certainly the highest perceived bitterness of any beer on the IRish market to my knowledge! (In fact it reminds me of some of the Evil Twin/ Mikkeller efforts brewed at De Proef.)

I finished things off with the Export Stout, which is much more up my street. Daisy tasted it too; she thought [that it] "smells metallic, coffee, marmite chocolate and peanut...mocha chocolatey coffee. Mouthfeel is good, quite bitter 'Steve will like it' really smooth but tongue filling bitterness, touch of sweetness, lots of dark coffee flavour, should be called espresso stout. Actually its not really marmitey and its less bitter when you return to it" 

I picked up rich roast barley with chocolate coffee and a touch of mint on the nose. Its full bodied but smooth with light carbonation preventing it from becoming too heavy. Its roasty burnt toast with a touch of liquorice and quite brief in finishing with a touch of sweetness but not overly complex. It picked up a touch of burnt rasin/blackcurrant after allowing it to sit a while but overall  Iid have liked a few more hops to balance the malt and provide some lift.

So whilst I thought all three beers were well brewed (and amazingly so given how new the setup is!) it was the APA that I really enjoyed and will certainly be drinking again. The Export Stout would make a good base to a black and tan (The mixed drink, not the uniform!) but the IPA in its current guise just isn't my thing. There are still bottles in local off-licences and pubs; so go and try them for yourselves!

Wow, that was fast!

On Friday I wrote about a hopeful new brewery start up in Belfast. Well that dream begun 18 months ago has almost become a reality! Boundary have hit the £70,000 target in just six days (currently £75,000) with around 300 of us (mostly Northern Ireland dwellers) joining with the board to make the vision a reality. Funding will stay open until £100,000, the closer to the stretch goal, the more fermenters and thus the more frequent the collaborations and specials that can be produced.

Their blog yesterday also hinted at the purchase of multiple wine barrels via contacts with the excellent OX Belfast for ageing beers in. Matthew intends to brew the first (intentionally!) soured beer in Northern Ireland in the Flemish Red style which will be the inaugral brew on the new kit. This will then be aged in those barrels along with various monster Imperial Stouts to slumber  away and be brought out on special occasions. It appears us members will be given first refusal on these special brews...it seems we will continue drinking our own investment for a long time to come.

After the keys have been obtained it will take around a fortnight to refurbish the building and install the brew kit, with the hope to be mashing in the first brew in late January. After that it'll take around 90 cases/ month to break even on overheads and after that any profits will be reinvested into the business. Matthew hopes that they'll be able to take on their first paid employee towards the end of 2016. Beers should sell in offlicences around the same price point as Kernel and Siren (as long as the "craft tax" isn't set too high), and going for 330ml bottles should really set them us apart from the competition.

The fantastic response from everyone will mean that Matthew should even be able to afford a week off for Christmas before the hard work begins in earnest in the New Year. Thank you to everyone who has helped the dream become a reality and there's still a wee bit of time left to get involved if you haven't already; you've probably got a few days at most!

Follow Boundary on Twitter to keep up to date with other new developments.

#TheSession #93 Why we travel

This month the session is hosted by the Roaming Pint. Brian asks:

"why is it important for us to visit the place the where our beers are made? Why does drinking from source always seem like a better and more valuable experience? Is it simply a matter of getting the beer at it’s freshest or is it more akin to pilgrimage to pay respect and understand the circumstances of the beer better?"

Its a great topic for session, like most people I enjoy travelling. In fact I think I enjoy travelling even more than trying new beers. Of course since getting into beer on a more active level, most trips inevitably have a beer involvement to a greater or lesser degree, as Daisy would be quick to point out! I don't tend to arrange trips solely for beer* but whilst I'm in the area - it would be a shame to miss out wouldn't it?!

Great Leap Brewing - Beijing

Drinking gueuze in Lembeek after a tour of the Boon brewery and fresh tmavé at U Flekku should be on everyone's beer bucket list. There's still plenty of places for me to visit (Düsseldorf, Cologne and Bamberg next perhaps?) but with beer now becoming big all over the globe I know I'll find somewhere decent to drink wherever I'm visiting.

I love to see the bar culture in other countries (even if I do feel awkward not being able to order in the lingua Franca) and also the inevitable "craftbeerisation" of beer scenes all over the world (think stripped back walls, keg taps stuck into the wall, moody lighting etc). Even better its great to get a feel for how beers are brewed all around the world: whilst most breweries are similar its the odd balls that perhaps make regional styles that are often most informative. As always, any chance to chat with the brewer about how they make their beer (and why) is always seized upon.

Pipework at St James Gate

And yes of course, you can't beat fresh beer at source. Beer served as intended, unhampered by being

transported half way around the world and (usually) much more keenly priced. Until you have the opportunity to try a beer served as intended you may not fully be able to appreciate it (bottled vs draught koelsch and alt being good examples). You also often come across beers that are draught only or not exported; so you need to go to source to try them. These days there are plenty of sources to  help out in finding the places, but before the advent of the Internet books such as the CAMRA guides were a godsend.

So if you haven't travelled to where your favourite beers are made, where your favourite styles originated, then why not?!

*Except to beer festivals and the beer bloggers conference of course!

Preparing for #EBBC14

This weekend sees the European Beer Bloggers' Conference come to Dublin and I for one am very excited. It the first (of hopefully many) outside of the  UK and though I've been to Dublin many times before, this is the first time I'll have more than a day to appreciate some of the gems of the nascent Irish beer scene as well as of course all of the interesting conference content.

I'm aiming to try as many native beers as possible over the weekend (though won't go so far as to say that's all I'll drink as I'm sure there will be some gems available) and with 51 breweries to choose from there should be no shortage. (I'm not going in unprepared, ratebeer allows me to print a hit-list of beers I've not yet had; so that should help out.)

View Larger Map

 

The fun kicks off on the Thursday night with a pub meander ably led by my friend Reuben, who has had a big hand in the organisation of the conference this year. This will take us around 7 pubs showcasing the best Dublin has to offer, both in terms of beer and atmosphere. Here's what to look out for in each:

The Brew Dock - A Galway Bay Brewery pub often has a guest cask and experimental "Pilot" release available. For those feeling brave go straight for the big gun Of Foam and Fury DIPA, one of the best beers on the whole Island. (or leave it until later!)

J.W. Sweetman is currently Dublin's only brew pub. Their porter and pale ale are both excellent and there should be a seasonal available too their world cup beer marcana or a weiss. A tasting tray of five ales works out very reasonably and there are also 2litre growlers for takeaway. (consider joining Beoir to avail of discounted refills!*). Also look out for Barrel Head brewing beers, made by the brewer here and often available on cask.

Next up is the Palace Bar which is an opulent unspoilt drinking den over 190 years old. It may have a few craft beers on but most people in here will be on the black stuff. They also have their own 9 y/o single malt if you're that way inclined.

What is listed as Farringtons has now been renamed as  the Norseman 1696 (its original name). There are two bars in here, often with different beers on. Whilst downstairs is often packed (especially when sports are on) the upstairs bar is a little more chilled out. Expect beers from Carlow and probably 6/7 other Irish brewers. Current tap list suggests Metalman pale, rascals ginger porter & Donegal Atlantic amber for starters.

A stalwart of Dublin's beer providers is Porterhouse, which has now spread out around the world. Hophead is the beer to plump for here but all of their dark beers are also well worth trying and a taster tray may be the way to go.

Following that is Dublin craft beer stalwart the Bull and Castle, 8 Degrees and Trouble Brewing.

which has recently undergone a refit. head upstairs for the main Butchers bar area and another great selection, often including

We end the crawl as we have begun in a Galway Bay Pub, this time The Black Sheep. It often has the best cask beer selection in Dublin with exotic US imports regularly seen on keg.

Of course there are plenty of other pubs and, for those of you who still have suitcase space bottleshops, available to visit. Some of my favourites are L.Mulligan Grocer which does excellent food and often has Brown Paper Bag Project beers available and also opposite Drinkstore. Against the Grain is another Glway Bay pub and will also be my local for the weekend, being just a stumble away from where I'm staying. A short Luas hop from there will take you to Ranleagh and Redmonds off licence (I plan to pop in on Friday morning if anyone fancies  a trip out). I hope to also make it to the newly opened 57 the Headline and newly re-opened WJ Kavanagh.

I'll post again later in the week with what I'm looking forward to during the conference proper. Hope to see as many of you as possible on the thursday night. Its not just for conference attendees; so if you're in town come along and say hello. I'll be the one drinking halves! If you can't make it along follow #TheTrailOfTheAle to see what's going on.

All photos used from pub websites.

*Beoir is the Irish Craft Beer Consumers organisation and plays a similar role to CAMRA but without the hang-up on dispense. Membership costs €10 a year and the handiest way to join is by direct debit via Paypal. You can also hand your dues in person to any Beoir member (there's a few of us at the conference). Membership will give you discount vouchers for 50c off a pint of Galway Bay beers, 10% discount at Drinkstore and discounted refills at J.W. Sweetman. Even if you're only down for the weekend you could make your money back but more importantly you're helping to fund the promotion of Irish craft beer and proving to potential new breweries that there are plenty of interested drinkers out there!

Wild Things

Wild beer have come of age and so has their beer with the release of their first (spirit) barrel aged beers. Ninkasi, Wildebeest and a barley wine aged in Somerset Cider Brandy, malt whisky (a highland and Islay blended) and Marc de Bourgogne barrels respectively. All 10% ABV and available at the usual suspects.

I started with Ninkasi, one of my beers of the year for 2013. Immediately on opening you can smell the oak and boozy notes from the cider brandy barrels but the unmistakable tart apple of ninkasi is there in the background. Flavour remains much the same though body has become fuller, aided by reduced carbonation in comparison to the original but its lost some of the Belgian yeast esters which made the beer so complex in the first place. Still excellent as a beer and worth trying but I prefer the unaged version.

Now Raconteur is a new arrival. The anonymous barley wine* brewed with these barrels in mind remains hidden in the background and the Red wine parades around the palate. This is so wine-like that its almost no longer a beer. Rich molasses and sour cherry nose. Boozy grape notes and oaky vanilla. Smooth and full bodied, light carbonation, grape must, caramel, vanilla. Tonnes of port like rich vinous character...must have been a lot of wine left in there.

If wine lovers are looking for a beer that hasn't deviated much from their usual tipple then this is it. It would make an excellent pairing for dark meats and at 10% certainly has the oomph to cut through them. At about £12 for 750ml its not unreasonably priced either when compared to wine.

The Whiskebeest remains true to its parents, but becomes more rounded and hides its strength all too dangerously. Pours dark peaty brown with a light beige lacing. Whisky immediately apparent on the nose, slightly smoky but not all phenolic...something like highland park and Caol Ila?
Full bodied and thick, coffee comes first as with the original but then some warming whisky, melding seamlessly with the beer. Chocolate, toast, more coffee and sweet vanilla follow. This is barrel ageing at its best.

Three fantastic examples of barrel ageing then that I recommend you try. If I were to pick just one it would be whiskebeest, but then its my kind of beer!

*A special release of the unaged beer "zulu charlie" showed a fairly sweet, rich malt led beer with red apple, yeast esters, which could only have enhanced those red wine notes.

Wild Beer

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Fiz-y whizzy lets get busy

Thanks to a link Boak & Bailey shared on Twitter I wasted (enjoyably procrastinated) about 20 hours this weekend. The time-waster in question? A brewery management game for Android/ Apple.

The game is quick to install and has a useful tutorial mode to get you used to the menu system. I found it helpful to pause the game (bottom left corner or top menu bar) in order to get a better look around. The premise is simple - brew beer to sell whilst expanding and keeping your balance book in the black - but there's plenty of complexities to keep people interested.

You can use the game in different ways. For those completests amongst us (me included) there are set "story challenges" to enable you to progress alongside additional "ultimate" and "progression" challenges to unlock new recipes, equipment and staff. For the plutomaniacs you can set your own prices and amass a large (virtual) fortune and for the sadists there are mice to kill for bonuses.

From: PocketGamer

The graphics style is cutesy Nintendo-style with the option to play as different characters, though the actual animation is quite basic and plenty of text based screens. The music is pretty catchy too. The game can be at times frustrating, especially if you're impatient but be persistent and you'll be rewarded. 

I mentioned I spent 20 hours playing it* - the game can be addictive too "just one more achievement before bed...". But all in all i consider it £1.28 well spent - that's less than a price of a half and what better have you to do when its pissing it down and blowing a gale?

*As I mentioned I've completed the main story but there's still plenty to keep me occupied. If you decide to play and get stuck, feel free to ask!
Since first writing this post I've completed the game a second time (much quicker when you know what to look out for!) but there's still an annoying few things to discover to get to end game!

Founders

A brewery that's had a lot of buzz around them recently, especially for their dark beers and "session IPA". I picked up the bottles from Alesela, thoughts below. Reuben's thoughts here.

Founders Breakfast Stout is superb, and at 8.3% not particularly boozy for an imperial stout. Bottle at home courtesy of shrubber85 on Ratebeer, cheers Roger!

Rich lactose milk chocolate and fruity roast coffee. Rich, full bodied, medium carbonation, fruity coffee, smokey coffee, dark chocolate milk, long roasty finish. A touch of alcohol brings it all together. Fab.

Founders porter is also a fantastic dark beer at the strong end of the spectrum 6.5%, par for the course for US porters though.

Extremely dark brown, fluffy tan head, unctuous, thick bodied, dark malt, rich, hidden abv, chocolate, smooth. Dry finish

 All day IPA is also super, 4.7%

slightly hazy burnished gold with cream tinged head passion fruit and orange pith on nose. Subtle malt to allow the juicy passion fruit and pink grapefruit of the hops to come through. Medium length finish with a gentle bitterness. Good to see an American brewer go a bit lower, though stil not quite session strength.

 Centennial IPA is 7.2%

Hazy mid amber with offwhite lacing. Pithy tangerine and mango nose. Full bodied, sticky caramalt, pithy citrus peel, dry finish. Its aged well but would be fantastic fresh.

 Curmudgeon Old Ale 9.8%

hazy amber with yeast floaties and cream tinted lacing. Fairly sweet toffee apple nose. Full bodied, low carbonation, sweet toffee, slightly creamy mouth feel. Well hidden alcohol, slightly malty. Sticky weetabix short finish. A bit too heavy going and sweet for me

 Dirty Bastard 8.5%

Yet another scotch ale dark garnet red with dark beige lacing. Rich sweet malt, Turkish delight, sticky caramel. Sweet, astringent notes, full bodied and not helped by the low carbonation. I didn't like this one.

Against my better judgement I decided to try Backwoods Bastard Founders other Scotch Ale, this one barrel aged and 10.2%. I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy it, probably because of the high amount of bourbon character hiding the maltiness! Still quite heavy but with coconut, vanilla and sticky sweetness it would make for a good dessert beer. Certainly my favourite of the American Scotch efforts to date.

Founders

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Proper Chrimbeers

Its December again which means we have the inevitable slew of Christmas themed ales upon us. Some breweries rebrand a regular, some release seasonal specials of common or garden bitters and blonde ales and some push the boat out with stronger, often spiced ales. I've lined up a selection thsis year, thoughts below. 

 

I received the same Box Steam "Big Big Train" press release that Pete did and I too ended up being sent their two Christmas beers. I'd had the Christmas blonde before and found it to be an enjoyable golden ale with thick white head.Fairly pithy aroma with grassy malt, a grapefruit tang and long sweet malt/bitter finish. Not at all Christmassy however. This recent bottle had lost all of the hop freshness and become quite dull because of it, can't really recommend it.

Where Box Steam usually excel are their dark ales; so was looking forward to a taste of Christmas Box Dark. This one isn't quite as enjoyable as some of their others but makes a better Christmas ale than the blonde. Spicey, dark berries aroma, lots of roast barley in this, becomes a bit astringent followed by rich blackcurrant, (bramling cross maybe). Its half stout/ half brown ale and worth a go if you find it.  

Also arriving on my doorstep recently was Shepherd Neame's Christmas ale. This 7% beer actually makes the best of Shep.'s house character to produce a rich and warming attractively copper hued beer. Flavours of sticky malt and jammy plums are hampered somewhat by a oxidised papery note on the nose which makes me wonder if my bottle suffered on the journey as other writers seem to have enjoyed it, but I really didn't.

What was much more enjoyable was Brewdog's hoppy Christmas, a single hop Simcoe IPA. Better than their recent batch of IPA is dead single hoppers this beer is packed full of fresh resinous and tangerine peel Simcoe aromas. Pithy hops, bitter yet balanced with deft malting for balance makes this a beer I'll certainly;y be returning to. 

Also new from Brewdog is Santa Paws, described as a Christmas Scotch Ale. Now I'm sure you're all aware I'm not a fan of malt led beers, but the heather honey added to this one adds an extra layer of complexity and puts it into mild/ brown ale territory. Certainly preferable to the rehash of dogma anyway.

So a bit of a mixed bag really, I'd like to see brewers put more thought into their Christmas specials, rather than rehashing regular beers to cash in on a Christmas market. I think some of these beers have achieved that whilst others haven't, make up your own mind.

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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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.

   
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