An Abstrakt Concept

The big day is finally upon us; the beers are lined up and ready to go, the beer buddies are here and the tasting glasses are clean. Yes, its time to drink the Abstrakts. There have been ten beers released in this experimental "small-batch" range; so decided to try them all in one evening in reverse chronological order. They have nothing in common bar being brewed by Brewdog. I know people may find this post a bit redundant and fanboyish because they're all sold out, but as I've forked out the money I want to get a post out of it!

Beers one to ten.

Myself, Reuben (Tale of the Ale) and a couple of CAMRA friends sat down after a hefty curry to work our way through the bunch.

AB:10 is an 11.5% Imperial Brown Ale aged in Red Wine Barrels and was released in July 2012. As the most recent beer this could probably do with ageing for a bit longer, I have a bottle left in any case. It has a vanilla-scented port nose  with fizzy chocolate limes on the tongue leading to a dry red fruit, vinous finish.

AB:09 is Cranachan Imperial Stout (17.1%), released April 201. Thanks to Ghosty for sorting this bottle for me. Pours thick black with slight fizzy tan head. Tart raspberries on the nose. Leather, tobacco, chocolate, thick bodied. Alcohol on swallow. The flavours individually are good, but they don't seem to meld very well, making the final product less than the sum of its parts.

AB:08 is a Deconstructed Blonde Imperial Stout (11.8%), released December 2011. I've had this beer on a few occasions now. Its never tasted as good as the draught version on keg in Brewdog Camden, though whether it was the place made the beer great is to be debated. Its started to get rid of those vegetal notes and give coffee and chocolate again. Roasted coffee and chocolate on the nose, thick in the mouth with delicious fruity coffee finish with a balancing sweetness and well-hidden alcohol.

AB:07 is Whisky Cask Aged Imperial Scotch Ale (12.5%) , released September 2011.Another one I'd sampled before. Peaty brown with a ruby tinge. Aroma of caramel, liquorice toffee and vinous fruits. Medium mouthfeel with gentle carbonation and lots of red fruit character plus a warming, slightly burnt finish.This time around it had a slightly unpleasant acirdity in the finish but overall still a good digestif.

AB:06 is an 11.2% Triple Dry Hopped Imperial Black IPA released May 2011. When fresh, I wrote; "Very dark brown beer with a fresh hop aroma with pineapple at the fore and piney undertones. Lively white head disappears in short measure. Rich and thick palate with legs and a lively alcohol kick. Sweet and fruity with a lot of aggressive hoppiness but quite restrained bitterness. Sweet finish with alcohol and lots of umami." Its mellowed somewhat over the last year and a bit, with marmalade and some chocolate coming through. Still a favourite thus far.

AB:05 is a Belgian Imperial Stout Aged on Toasted Coconut and Cacao,  released in February 2011. This was a bit one-dimensional, a shame. Ruby tinged black. Slight acetic note on nose, quite sweet, chocolate, light toast, long sweet finish.

AB:04 is a 15% Imperial Stout with Coffee, Cacao and Chilli, released October 2010. This is the highest rated of all the Abstrakts and its easy to see why. Chocolate coated orange bell peppers are prevalent on the nose. Very thick, sweet, chocolate runs down the throat, chased by chili heat, with more chocolate and toasted marshmallow for afters, leaving a slight alcoholic warmth in memory.

2nd edition of a one-off?!

The beer was actually re-released as Dog A for Brewdog's 5th Birthday Party. I sampled this at the AGM, but acquired a second bottle for everyone else to try. Dark and unctuous with an enticing sweet chocolate nose. In the mouth there’s more chocolate, coating the whole tongue, then comes the chili nipping at the back of the tongue. On the swallow its all about the coffee.

AB:03 is a 10.5% Imperial Ale aged for 2 years in Whisky Casks with Raspberries and Strawberries released in September 2010. Strawberry and raspberry nose. Tart light red-brown, sweet, fruity, sucrose, artificial sweetener, slight medicinal note. This one brought mixed opinions, but I actually quite enjoyed it, perhaps one which would have been better fresh.

AB:02 is  an 18% Triple Dry Hopped Imperial Red Ale released in June 2010. (no photo of this one, sorry!) Rich vinous fruity nose with some alcohol and fudge. Pours a murky brown with light carbonation. Rich fruityness and chocolate quickly gives way to strong alcohol and some coffee bitterness and a sweet/marmitey yeast finish. Very little hop character remaining. Legs obviously in attendance with a fairly heavy palate as could be expected for this strength.

AB:01 is a 10.2% Vanilla Bean infused Belgian Quad,  released April 2010. The final beer! But unfortunately a bit of a let down. Scarlet tinged, noble hops, sweet honey,heather,toffee, sweet, long finish. It was just too sweet, with not enough bitterness to balance all the sweet elements and the vanilla had long since given up the ghost.

I think it would be difficult to rank them in order, but you can probably see I enjoyed 08, 06 and 04 the most, with AB:10 looking promising. Perhaps the even-numbered beers are better? AB:11 is aging as we speak. According to James it is: "an imperial black barley wine brewed with ginger, black raspberries and chipotle peppers. An 11.9% rollercoaster of ginger zestiness, chipotle smokiness all bound together with dark berry tartness and the decadent residual body of a black barley wine." A great range of ingredients again, it remains to be seen how it turns out. Well done if you've got this far, was a bit of a slog but on the plus side I have some cupboard space freed up again!

Farmhouse Whisky

If ever there was a whisky distillery to which the moniker "craft" could be applied, then this is it. Based on a working  farm in rural Islay near the glorious dunes of Machir Bay, Kilchoman is the newest of Islay's 8 distilleries and opened a mere 7 years ago.

 The approach is along the typical farmhouse bumpy track, but at the end of the road there's the tell-tale distillery roof shape. It is still a working farm however, which the cows, sheep and ponies in the field attest to. This comes in handy for the disposal of the draff (spent grain) from the mashing in of the wash (unhopped beer). The lees of the stills are also spread on the fields as fertiliser.

We had another appointment that day; so did not have time for the full tour, instead opting to stop for lunch and a quick poke around. My first taste of cullen skink was great, as was the amount of filling in the paninis. (Didn't take any pics...too hungry!).

A good proportion of the barley used in the whisky is grown locally and in part floor malted at the distillery. The water from a nearby burn. The distillery has a single wash still and spirits still; so its very small-scale in proportion to everyone else on the island.

I get a chance to chat with the stillman as he prepares to switch the spirit safe from middles to feints and am offered a taste of the new make. Its a lot sweeter than the finished product and the high ABV means it evaporates straight off the tongue leaving the ghost of peat, some smoke and apricots. Its interesting to compare this to the alcohol at the start of the run, which noticeably still has some higher alcohols present. This all gets mixed together before cask filling.

The casks are all stored and aged on the premises in a racked warehouse. There's no mistaking which distillery its from with the distinctive bright blue barrel ends. They're mostly bourbon casks but there's some sherry wood in there too which is mostly used for finishing the whisky. Being so young its only recently that the distillery has been able to release spirit as malt whisky and will be another 6 years or so until they have a 12 y/o ready for sale.

The distillery has recently released its newest expression...Machir Bay. It " is a vatting of 3, 4 and 5 year old, matured in fresh bourbon barrels and finished in oloroso sherry butts for 8 weeks, 46% ABV." I bought a miniature of this to try at home, here are my thoughts:

Pouring the palest shade of straw, the alcohol and peat content is immediately apparent, this is a beast. In the mouth is smoke and a touch of phenol, but not overpoweringly so. That higher ABV begins to evaporate before the swallow leaving a sweet finish as the whisky warms down your  into your belly. There's no sign of the promised tropical fruit...yet. But add a wee drop water and it opens up completely. The proteins (still in the drink as this hasn't been chill-filtered) swirl around in a vortex and juicy pineapple comes to the fore. The burn is taken off the alcohol, but it still warms the throat all the way down. There's some tar, aromatic pipe-smoke and a hint of apricot at the end, with a lingering finish. Its a complex wee beastie and I can't wait to try the older variants as they become available.

Last of the Summer Wine

No need to worry, this is a post about beer, not an ancient TV programme!

Summer Wine was a brewery that had been on my radar for a while, but not being able to ship to Northern Ireland stymied my prospects of getting to try it somewhat. That was until Diabolo and Barrista were available at Belfast Beer Fest (I wonder who sugegsted them from the Flying Firkin list...) I loved both so knew it was time to shell out on a mixed case for Christmas, a bottle of each going to my dad for his present (he loves hoppy beers too; so will hopefully enjoy) and half a present to myself.

I love the simple but recognisable label designs with a bold name
and a simple short description of what to expect from the beer

I decided to kick things off with Hermes, the pale ale. A lovely clear golden number with fluffy white head. Lemon and biscuit on the nose Smooth drinking with subtle lemon that grows down the glass with a very bitter finish. A refreshing beer, yes but not quite to my tastes.

Barista is a beer I've enjoyed before, specifically on draught at Belfast Beer Festival as a breakfast beer. I love coffee in beers and am looking forward to the KopiKat imperial stout released later this year. Pours a reddish black with thin tan head. Its an alcoholic iced coffee with a good bitter finish and one I could drink plenty of.

I love porters and this is one I'd been looking forward to trying for a while. It made an ideal pairing for Boxing Day lunch of cheese and piotato pie and quiche. I enjoyed it so much I forgot to make any notes! Dark brown beer with subtle chocolate nose but its all going on in the body. Chocolate, roast barley, coffee, very full mouthfeel and very moreish.

Covenant was a wedding beer brewed by/for Nick Beer Prole and his lovely lady wife at the back end of summer. I've had it on keg at Twissup and its just as enjoyable in bottle. My fellow traveller also enjoyed this beer on our train ride to York. Hazy amber with plenty of tropical fruits on the nose, mango, lychee and lemon. In the mouth similarly fruity with balanced bitterness and mal. Its very easy going and subsequently the glass is empty pretty sharpish! Going for a "beer and book pairing" I chose my new copy of Martyn Cornell's Amber, Black and Gold, which I have learned a lot from and I'm but two chapters in so far!

Diablo is another deceptively easy drinker and one of my favourite UK IPAs. Hazy amber with a big fresh grapefruit nose, citrus zing and sprightly carbonation.I wish I'd ordered more of it.

I finished the bunch with the cohort. Its a black IPA with rye, a grain I've not tasted much of in beers but it seems to have been the "in thing" with British brewers this year. Pours a dark brown with fizzy tan head that collapses to a thin lacing. The rye imparts a spicy nose, big bitter and full mouthfeel. One I'd like to revisit soon.

All in all a tasty bunch of beers, which has confirmed my suspicions that summer wine are one of the breweries at the forefront of the UK brewing scene at the moment and I hope to try more of their beers in 2012.

Summer Wine have a good website and blog. You can find the brewer James and MD Andy on Twitter, where they're great at replying to any questions you may ask of them.

Collabeeration

Something that I very much like within the beer world is how brewers share ideas, expertise and even ingredients amongst one another like one big family. Rather than trying to out-compete each other, many brewers are happy to help each other improve.

Sometimes the help is more basic, but nonetheless valuable like the sharing of yeast (Dark Star gave Saioson yeast to Bristol Beer Factory) or expertise, often done through Twitter, when homebrew enthusiasts can chip in too. In fact there have been home brew beers brewed in breweries, not to mention home brewers starting up full-scale.

One area that is becoming more popular is collaboration brewing. Over the last few years there have been a slew of beer writer brewery collaborations (Otley Thai-Bo, hedgerO and O'Roger; Brewdog Avery Brown Dredge to name but a few) and also brewery-brewery collaborations (not necessarily limited to just two!) with recent efforts from  Magic Rock+Dark Star & Brewdog+Lost Abbey springing to mind, not to mention the Wetherspoon organised trans-Atlantic collaborations for their beer festivals. 

I'm going to review a few of these here.

Looks and tastes good.

Bristol Beer Factory/ Arbor Ales/ Zero Degrees -Collaboration Tripel (6.8%)

This one has been sat in my parents garage for 6 months since I picked it up at Westcountry Ales before heading to Glastonbury Festival earlier this year. A very clear amber-brown with bubbly white head and gentle carbonation. Plenty of yeasty esters on the nose with noticable pineapple, but also some melon. In the mouth its a typical triple, without the cloying sweetness sometimes found in the style, there's a balance bitterness from the addition of new world hops, though their flavour has long since faded. A lovely beer, which I suspect would have been even tastier fresh.

A "quick one" in Sheffield Tap
Burton Ale in the middle

Thornbridge/ Kernel Burton Ale (7.2%)
There's a slew of these historical recreations coming up, with Fulelrs making their Past Masters and Kernel themselves brewing old London Recipes and this can only be a positive thing. This is a historic style of ale recreated from historical research. I was lucky enough to find it available in the Sheffield Tap. Ruby amber with thin white head. Ripe cranberries and washed rind cheese aroma. Initially sweet and Fruity with dry bitterness and long dried fruit finish. Would love to try this with a washed rind hceese such as Aardharan or Stinking Bishop.

Black Tokyo Horizon

Brewdog/ Mikkeller/ NogneO - Black Tokyo Horizon (17.2%)
I was prompted to open this for stout day, but never actually reviewed it. Have tried Mikkeller Black and loved it, wasn’t so keen on Brewdog Tokyo* but need to get hold of Horizon! Pours viscous and dark brown with an instantaneous cola coloured head that soon disappears. Slightly acetic rich chocolate and alcoholic nose. Initial burst of milk chocolate and shortbread. Very sweet and rich in flavour. Hint of alcohol and long finish. Probably the most expensive beer I've ever bought, but definitely worth it.

At 17.2% ABV I'd recommend sharing though!

Brewdog/ Three Floyds - Bitch Please (11.5%)
A lighter beer than I’d anticipated, chestnut brown with cream coloured head and a light level of carbonation. Fantastically complex nose, I can detect toffee, hops and smoked malt with some oak wood character. Smoky/peaty flavour certainly to the fore on the first taste with noticeable alcohol presence and a fruity sweetness that reminds me of toffos. Finishes with unmistakable sugar butteriness of shortcake an alcoholic warmth and the ghost of the wood. A good solid beer.

Brewdog/ Mikkeller- Divine Rebel (2010)(13.8%)
Ruby brown beer with fruitcake aroma, fairly sweet with plenty of noticable booze in aroma and in body. A sticky texture with robust malt and alcohol burn, though otherwise a bit disappointing. Very little hop character, the whisky takes the fore here. Much prefer Fulelrs Brewer's Reserve.

Actually much redder

The Kernel/ Redemption/ Dark Star/ Zero Degrees/ Brodies/ Brew Wharf- Big Brick Red Rye (8.9%)

The Kernel look set to challenge Brewdog for their collaboration supremacy, and with their prolific brew releases it may not be long for this 2011 BGBW Brewer of the Year. Pouring a hazy amber-red with fluffy cream head the noticable aroma is pine resin. Tasting fairly pithy up front the flavour becomes resinous and quite boozy but with a very smooth body and fruit flavours with a long bitter finish.


2011 has indeed been an excellent year for beer and long may it continue. I'd like to see more collaborations like this in 2012 because everybody benefits!

Addendum: Got a chance to try the Magic Rock/ Dark Star at the York Tap and it is a lovely beer.

B is for...

Ben is running a weekly beer alphabet series on his blog, open to anyone who wishes to contribute. I had no "a" beers at home but have plenty of "b's". Sierra Nevada Bigfoot is a Barley wine, perfect for sipping in front of a crackling log fire as the nights draw in and the days are laced with frost.(I think I should score double as both the beer name an dthe beer style begin with b! )

It begins unassuming as if a regular bitter, bit the Seville orange marmalade and toffee notes hint at what lies within its mysterious ruby-mahogany depths.Dusty candy sugar and Turkish delight on the nose. A fluffy tan head which soon collapses to a lacing. The first sip, oh my, what is this? Pithy bitter bomb. This is not what I expected! One of the hoppiest beers I've come across from Sierra Nevada and plenty of booze too at 9.6%. Crisp carbonation thick body sweet and pithy. Alcohol punch, big bitter finish.

A tale of three punks

Some of you may have read my excited tweet at the weekend when I found some of the old batch of Brewdog Punk IPA (6%) alongside some of the new stuff (5.6%).Of course its a few months out of date now but I decided I'd pick up a bottle or two for old times sake. I decided I'd do a comparative review of the two..is there a discernible difference or no?  (For more on the two Punks see Mark's blog here).

What else should arrive today but Sunk Punk, the new zany idea from the brewdog boys; "so why not make it a three-way?" I hear you cry...alright then, if you insist!

Three Punks itching to be opened.

Squaring Off:Punk 6 vs 5.6

First up, in the blue corner, the new comer, brash and nasally aggressive Punk 5.6! A rich caramel, mango and fruit salad jack aroma with a hint of marshmallow.Pithy and marmeladey up front with a hint of soft-rind cheese and a good bitter punch with a fairly brief and drying finish.

5.6% Punk vs 6% Punk

Rocking up in the black corner and noticeably lighter in colour is the venerable Punk 6! Certainly less forward on the nose with a slightly soapy tinge. noticably more bitter straight away but perhaps more balanced in the malt versus hops stakes, though the fresh tropical fruits of its' youth have long since faded,being replaced by a richer Duchy original shortbread with the orangey bits in. The bitterness pervades in the finish but there's plenty of malt sweetness to even it out.

Sunk Punk with lovely hand-drawn
label by the talented Johanna Bahsford

 
Then along comes the master, Sunk Punk @ 7.1% ABV. Noticeably darker than the other two with a good punch of tropical fruits without the sickly perfume of  Hardcore. Much more bitter than either Punk or Hardcore and maybe a hint of salt, but that’s probably the expectation of such. With no idea of what sea buck-thorn would taste like, I'm not sure if it makes its presence known in here. The pithy bitter finish that drys the mouth makes you soon ready for the next sip...

...That would be all very well if mine host hadn't clumsily thrown the majority of the drink over the kitchen side. The moral of this story being to check that the hot water is on before deciding to have a shower...or don't pour Punk whilst holding a towel. There was more than enough to review it fairly though and I have a second bottle for more leisurely consumption.

All three beers are completely different animals, with the Sunk Punk certainly being the most moreish. Is this worth the price tag(£9.99)? Perhaps not, but to be able to try this unusually fermented beer it probably was. As for which of the regular Punks is best? The newer version pips the older to the post for me, though perhaps not entirely fair due to the affects of age, which as we know is not kind to hop-forward beers.

I was first to rate this beer on rate beer and perhaps first to blog a review but I certainly look forward to reading other peoples' interpretations.

Northern Ireland Craft Cider

At Hilden Beer festival a few weeks ago I met two of the players in the resurgence of artisinal cider making in Northern Ireland. Both were more than generous in letting me have some bottles of their wares to take home for tasting. Yes I know cider is not beer, but real cider is still worth campaigning for and I drank cider long before I tried beer, being Somerset born and bred!

Seán and Davy ready to start serving on Saturday afternoon

Tempted? Medium Sweet

Tempted? Cider is the youngest of the two producers, coming up to its third season of pressing around about now. Currently they make just two products, a medium dry and a medium sweet both 5.7% ABV

I was given a bottle of the medium dry but butterfingers dropped it! Luckily I tried it at the beer festival so can still let you know about it. Quite a juicy cider with some sweetness. Golden delicious apples with medium carbonation. Thirst quenching. Fairly pale for a cider, look almost perry like. 

The medium sweet is unmistakably from the same press. Golden delicious apples and apple pulp on the nose. Very appley, a mix of dessert and cookers i think, slight level of tannin leaving a sweet taste at the finish. 

Of the two I preferred the medium dry, but the medium sweet served over ice as it was at the beer festival could beat Koppaberg and Magner's at their own game.

Mac's is now at the ripe old age of 16. It has a range of four bottles, the traditional range of sweet, medium and dry plus a lower alcohol option, Lyte.

Mac's Dry

The dry is immediately different to the Tempted? ciders. Cloudy orange-gold with smells of apple peel, chutney, cinnamon and slight acetic acid. Initial flurry of apple with a rounded body and long drawn out finish with slight funkiness and hay. This a complex cider and worked very nicely with the ploughman's dinner I ate with it.

Mac's Lyte

Lyte in name (ABv 3%)doesn’t mean light in flavour in this case. Golden with slight carbonation and a scent of sweet, red skinned apples like coxes and a hint of something else that I can’t quite place. Initially tannic but with a long sweet finish, not as complex as the dry but certainly plenty of flavour for its lower strength.

Mac's Sweet

The Sweet is lighter gold than the dry and plenty of natural condition. Nothing to betray that this cider is sweet on the nose, dusty wood pulp, apple skin and slight cider vinegar. The initial taste is very dry indeed with plenty of apple fruitiness and a sweetish finish. Definitely not one for those used to artificial sweetness in their ciders. Long appley finish. Pleasantly more complex than I was expecting for the moniker "sweet", though the dry pips it to the post for me.



All in all a great bunch of ciders and I look forward to trying this year's crop when its all pressed up. Thank you Seán and Davy and for giving me the bottles to take home!

Beervana

I've just got back from a very beer filled week in London which more than made up for my normally beereft experience in Northern Ireland.

Odell Myrcenary and IPA

Three on keg.

I travelled across on Saturday to help with GBBF setup, with my first beer coming Saturday evening in the shape of the Odell meet the brewer evening at the Cask Pub and Kitchen. I of course have met Doug Odell before as he works on US Cask beer at GBBF, but that didn't make his (brief) talk about the beers on offer any less interesting.

The beers on offer and tasting notes

A selection of three Odell beers were available on draught (IPA, Double Pilsner, Myrcenary) but the real highlight were the limited edition bottle releases shared out around the pub to anyone interested. A nice touch by the Cask there. After the Odell-a-thon I also tried a Witter Saison-de-Fleur and Mikkeller Black, the former was tasty, the latter sublime. Could have easily had another half, but at 17.5% decided against it! A good evening indeed.

Sunday night saw a mini pub crawl around Euston station. Starting in the Doric Arch I had a perfectly tasty pint of Brains SA Gold. Déjà Vous prompted me to remember that I had indeed been there before! Next up was the Bree Louise, a lovely little backstreet boozer with a massive selection of cask ales and 50p off per pint for CAMRA members (also students, NHS and armed forces: not to be sniffed at!). They also offer customizable cheese plates, the stinking bishop on mine was particularly tasty with whatever it was I was drinking (in my excitement to get a plate of cheese I didn't make notes!) The evening ended up in the Euston Tap where all Bier Sans Frontiers staff had congregated and polished off two 24" pizzas. Beers were £1 a pint for all draught beers which was a steal! Tried Thornbridge versa weisse and Bristol Beer Factory Acer/ Saison. I like that the Euston Tap blog about their beers, it helps as an aide memoir of what I was drinking! (Too many exclamation marks...)

Four cask beers

7 on keg!

A return to the Cask was called for on Sunday for the Kernel meet the brewer evening. An impressive range of four cask and 7 keg beers was an almost bewildering choice for one who had not yet sampled the delights of the Kernel. I tried three of the cask and one keg beer; Nelson/Citra, Kernel/Redemption collaboration and export stout on cask, Imperial Export Brown Stout on keg. I really enjoyed all of the beers, especially the recreation of extinct recipes and look forward to trying more from these guys in the future.

Just a few of the many beers on offer!

Reflective drinking

After that the evening called for a visit to the Craft Beer Co. in Clerkenwell. Plenty of other bloggers have extolled its virtues; so I will lay off on the superlatives and merely state that there was sufficient choice to keep me amused for months (time and funds permitting!). The house lager by Mikkeller was particularly good, closer to a pale ale than I had been expecting an amber-yellow hue with plenty of fruit. The evening quickly descended into mayhem when I met a couple of Canadians who insisted on sharing their beer with me and I likewise reciprocated. Its pubs like the craft beer co where you feel comfortable sharing beers with complete strangers and for this and the spectacular surroundings alone the beers were worth the high asking price.

Julian finishes his pint of Magic Rock Dark Arts

 Most of the remainder of my week was filled with all things GBBF, but you will be able to read my round up of that later this week. I also attended the Flying Dog cheese and beer pairing at the White Horse at Parson's Green which I am still salivating about now. I intend to post about it as my CABPOM for August; so look out for that soon too!

In summary, London has plenty of decent pubs and I think having events organised around GBBF really makes it into a week celebrating beer in London. Would love to see more next year as Mark suggests here, though this will inevitably mean having to choose which event I least want to miss out on! As it was I didn't get to visit the Jolly Butchers, Rake or Southampton Arms as I had been hoping to. Ah well there's always next year!

I hope everyone else enjoyed their time in London during GBBF week. Who did I miss out on meeting at the various events? This week taught me I need a backup battery for my HTC!