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!

Got Them!

Thanks to getting the brewery to post me them direct (thank you Denis) I've finally been able to try Buxton's 2012 release of Tsar Bomba after trying the other special reserve beers last month. Was it worth the wait? Read on to find out.

I also picked up the new special reserve Der Nord Sekt, a truly sessionable 2.8% ABV Berliner weisse. We've seen a  few of these cropping up recently with Brodies doing a whole series. This particular example pours the hazy pale blonde of a hoegaarden but with that tart lactic note familiar to any lambic drinker. Full bodied due to the wheat with plenty of carbonation and a refreshing citrus flavour. 330ml wasn't really enough of this for me!

So on to the main event. Tsar Bomba is regular Tsar Bretted with 1978 Courage Russian Imperial Stout dregs and aged in barrel for 9 months. and boy does it show. Gone are the pithy hops you'd expect from regular tsar and instead the mouldy leaf litter and farmyard scents of Brettanomyces are strongly to the fore.  On swirling comes rich chocolate fondant and Curacao orange peel. 

Still very full bodied with medium carbonation, slight tartness up front then an exposition in malts from sweet molasses through burnt toast and bitter barley to rich roast coffee with a constant undercurrent of Brett dry woodiness and woodland floor. 

Increasing hop bitterness builds with some minty hot chocolate and flintiness to taste. Its a different beast to the original, but the malt hallmarks are certainly there.Fruity melon and dry barley in the lengthy finish. 

 Its complex and makes me hanker for the days when beers like this were de riguer rather than one off specials. Not difficult to drink despite the strength (10%) and difficult to fault. A sign of a good beer is that you'd happily drink the same again and I'd certainly do so with this one (if I could afford to...). More bretted stouts please UK brewers.

Buxton Small Batch

I've not been shy to proclaim my love of Buxton beers, from the aggressively hoppy yet oh so tropically fruit moreish Axe Edge to the loving caress of chocolate enrobed orange of Imperial Black Rocks and all beers in between I've been pretty impressed by their range. So when I heard about their special reserve releases, I did my best to get hold of some of them, resorting to jiffy bag posting from Beer Ritz (Thanks Zak!).

There have been five in all, though the Berlinner weisse has only just been relased; so hope to pick that up somewhen soon. And if anyone happens to be sitting on a stash of Tsar Bomba...

So in order of release we start with number one, barrel aged Tsar. Original Tsar is a brash brute of an imperial stout, full in body with plenty of coffee and chocolate.

Half a year in the barrel certainly tones it down a bit, but at the same time becomes more complex. Vanilla, caramel and cola on the nose with dusty molasses in behind. Full bodied, coffee, caramel, dry hop bitterness, tobacco, lemon and dry malt towards the end. After allowing to warm up a bit notes of honey sweetness and a long dry, slightly wild yeast finish appear. This is barrel ageing done absolutely right.

Next up is Smokey and the Band Aid an "Imperial Smoked Rye Porter". Sometimes rye beers can be unpleasantly meaty, and this started off that way with an Intriguing aroma of roast lamb and smoked ham with slightly sweaty washed rind cheese. Its a fairly light bodied beer for its 7% strength, with plenty of bitter roast barley and some cocoa combat the gentle peaty caress and sticky sweet meaty rye. A well balanced brew that has probably mellowed with age. Another winner in my book

Last up is James' forray into the world of DIPA, Wyoming Sheep Ranch. Hold-up, i hear you dry, isn't Axe Edge labelled as a double IPA too? Yes, that as may be, but its 6.8% ABV is paltry in comparison into this 8.4% behemoth. But unfortunately I wasn't a fan. They say you drink with your eyes, which didn't bode well for this Super hazy soupy amber pour. 

The nose was promising with subtle mango and passion fruit on the nose. A heavy body with floaties and fairly boozy obscures any hop flavours that were once there.Maybe I got a duff bottle? At least Buxton yeast fairly flavour neutral but the hop hit I was expecting from axe edge was missed.When you come to expect perfection, even an acceptable beer is disappointing, but I'll give it another go if I see it elsewhere!

The maverick genius behind these brews has now moved on from Buxton (you can follow James here on twitter) but his sizable boots have more than ably been filled by Colin Stronge of Marble* and Black Isle pedigree. Here's hoping he carries on with these more niche brews.

*Coincidentally, James has been spotted wreaking havoc in the marble brewhouse...

Buxton Brewery

@Buxton Brewery

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