Buying beer in New England

 Time for a guest blog methinks. I met Andrew over 6 years ago now (is it really that long?) through mutual friends at Reading Festival. He's not averse to a good beer (or indeed whisky) and in 2009 he and a friend discovered some beers in the USA. You can find his blog here. Over to Andrew...

...Jim took us to his favourite off-licence/ liquor store. Sam and I were agog at the sheer size of this place; it was bigger than most wholesale warehouses I’ve seen. Jim was keen to show us the microbrewery isle. Calling it an isle just doesn’t do it justice, it was more like a small continent of ale, there are principalities in Europe smaller than this isle. Sam and I slowly made our way down the row studying every beer with a similar demeanour employed by folk slowly wandering through fine art galleries.

Left to right is me, Sam Page and  our host Jim Reily
(I'm pretty sure Jim should have been holding a steering wheel, but...)

Each beer was only given a few bottles width of space on each shelf, and the racking was five or six shelves high, I have never seen so much beer in all my life, let alone real ale! One of Sam’s favourites came from the Frank Zappa brewery, and had the cover of ‘We're Only in It for the Money’ on the label.

We could have spent hours in that store, but as we only had a little while before we needed to pick Drew up we grabbed some half gallon flagons of milk stout and headed for the checkouts. On the way out I was stunned to see some St.Peters beers, they’re (made just a few miles from my house in Suffolk).

As I walked up the second isle of ale I was astounded to see countless more beers from England, mind you, they weren’t cheap ($20 for six bottles of Stella Artois my arse). While I was amazed to see more English beers than I’d ever seen in England my mind boggled at the logistics, let alone the food miles.

In the same way that I always look for my own band’s CDs in record shops, no trip to an off-licence is complete without checking out what single malts are in stock. Sure enough they had all my favourites, but oh my - they were expensive; with the odd exception of Bowmore, which worked out at just ten pounds a bottle. I rushed like a child to tell Sam of my discovery and had a short but enthusiastic chat about whisky with him before my eye was caught by an entire isle of vodka. I’m not a fan of vodka - in fact it’s probably the quickest way to empty my body of all bile in a most uncivil way - but I am a fan of gawping at obscure alcohol.

As I stumbled along the rows staring slack jawed at the pretty labels I suddenly became aware of the fact I was being followed. With the amount of childish running around that I had been doing I entirely expected the two large blurry objects in my peripheral vision to be security guards. I moved to the next isle. Each time I shuffled forward I heard the sound of stiff soles on plastic flooring echoing my own footsteps. I decided to face the music and casually turned round. I tried to look relaxed enough not to give off an air of guilt, but also so that I could try and feign some sort of innocent surprise when I got my collar felt. It’s very confusing being middle class, if you’ve ever felt guilty for no reason while being followed by a police car you’ll know exactly what I mean. Much to my surprise my stalkers were a middle aged couple who look more surprised than I when I turned to them. After a slightly awkward pause the man lent forward slightly and said in a low and quiet voice,

“The whisky is back over on the row by the doors.”

I guess he had heard me chatting with Sam and assumed I couldn’t find the whisky. I thanked him earnestly, and walked to the tills. This couple summed up the feeling I got from most people in New England - everyone is quite happy to give their neighbours the space to go about their business without interference, but are more than willing to gently help out if they think you are wanting for something. It’s a very endearing way to be. This couple will never know that they were the first piece of what developed into a great jigsaw puzzle of affection I feel for New England.

Session #57: My guilty beer secret

I'm hosting the session this month. See here for the topic.

 When I first started drinking beer (about ten years ago) I liked lager. And not good lager, probably one of the c-words. Price wasn't the issue but perhaps lack of having tasted anything else was. My parents bought me a pack of twelve for Christmas in October and by December I'd decided I didn't like lager after all. I moved on to Worthingtons smoothflow. I drank this for about three years, including for my first year at university, by whhich point I'd had my eyes opened about the world of beer. 

Exhibit A

After moving out of halls in the first year I sought out a decent local and never again did a glass of the nitrogenated stuff pass my lips. I'll still drink keg buddweiser or Kronenburg if there's no good cask or keg available (and that's fairly often in the beer desert of Northern Ireland).

I don't feel particularly guilty about my formative beer drinking experiences, in the same way as that Linkin Park album led me on to much better music, those generic lagers and bitters pushed me to seek out better tasting beers and in the mean time I've found plenty that I'll happily go back to time and time again.

#StoutDay Black as...

...insert a very black thing here.

No brewery these days seems complete without an imperial stout in their line-up and I've managed to build up quite a collection; so its time to make use of #StoutDay to get some of them drunk.

Well that was the plan until I ended up having to take the day off sick, so just the one review in the end, the brand new offering from Hardknott Brewery (delivered to me yesterday morning) Vitesse Noir (11%). Billed as a Triple imperial vanilla mocha stout it was something I was keen to try. It looks lovely in the Hardknott snifter glass, which I have a feeling I'll be using fairly frequently in the future.

So on to the beer. It pours into the glass a luxurious velvety black with just a hint of a tan head. The aroma is immediately delicious and rich coffee, like walking into a coffee shop just as they've turned the percolator on. Beneath this coffee there are notes of juicy red cranberries and blackcurrant, inviting you to take a taste.I duly do so and find a lovely rich and aromatic coffee flavour waiting for me, followed in short shrift by plain chocolate and vanilla sweetness. As this departs the palate a bitter coffee and roast barley flavour appears briefly to be replaced by a lasting rich malt sweetness and a touch of orange peel. The alcohol remains well hidden throughout and its smooth, thick body slips down easily, resulting in the glass soon needing a refill. I heartily recommend you try this now!

I had planned to also review Mikkeller/Brewdog/NogneO Black Tokyo Horizon and a couple of others, but they will have to wait for another day!

CABPOM November: Bristol Beer Factory Hefe & Fresh Goat's Cheese

As I mentioned earlier in the week, this month's cheese and beer pairing takes the form of a wine vs beer "smackdown" which was held at Cheese School on October 30th. I've never been a fan of wine; so knew it would be interesting to see whether I immediately picked the beer as the best match in each case. It is worth mentioning that all beers were from a single brewery (Bristol Beer Factory) whereas the wines were from all over the shop. 

Andrew Cooper matched and was arguing for the beers, whereas Matthew Eggens of Averys Wine Merchants fought the corner for wine. There was some good banter between the two proponents and I tried to do my bit with helpful (annoying?) tasting notes and style descriptions of the beers for the drinkers on my table.

The pairings were as follows:

Fresh Ragstone goats cheese with Bristol Hefe (4.8%) vs Reisling

Old Demdike Washed-curd Ewes Cheese with Acer (3.8%) vs 2008 Zephyr Chardonay (13%)

Montogomery's Cheddar with Bristol Vintage 2011 (6.6%) vs Urbina Rioja 1999 Seleccion (13%)

Stichelton with Milk Stout (4.8%) vs Herdade do Esporão Vinho Licoroso (18.5%)

First up was the goasts cheese. This was a wonderfully fresh and creamy little number with a hint of lemon. The Hefe's bubblegum and banana yeast flavours helped to draw out this freshness and cleanse the palate of the sticky cheese. Riesling on the other hand, whilst a tasty drop on its own was too acidic, clashing terribly with the cheese. The beer won this one easily for me

The  vote showed the audience was largely in favour of the beer. 1-0 to beer

The sheep's cheese threw a spanner in the works for all concerned. A very tricky number to pair with and both went for a wild card choice. Acer from Bristol Beer Factory uses Sorachi Ace as its sole hop and is a lemon and bubblegum affair with a hint of hay meadow. The cheese somehow picked up on this hay (milk protein is ultimately from grass perhaps?), drowning out the fruity flavours of the beer and leaving the mouth rather dry. There was also an unpleasant bitter spike at the end. The wine, on the other hand pointed at the sweetness in the cheese and complemented the earthy flavours of the wine with a fruity freshness. Surprisingly I had found a wine I enjoyed and it had beaten the beer.

The vote in the room (read: tent) was overwhelmingly for the wine with only a few beers. 1-1.

The dead heat, beer just wins it!
Picture from Fiona's blog on the event

The next match saw the beer pull ahead again as the majority found Bristol Vintage to be the better match for the cheddar, though many people thought that both drinks overpowered the cheese. Bristol vintages fruity nose and caramel malt bill was less overpowering than the juicy raspberry of the wine. Perhaps a slightly more tangy cheddar could have stood up better. A number of people voted for both wine and beer in this round, with beer just pipping wine to the post. 1-2 to beer.

The final round saw Todd Schneider's blue cheese masterpiece Stitchelton. Unfortunately everyone tried the wine first (really a port) which didn't give the lowly 4.8% ABV milk stout much of a chance. As feared, people couldn't taste the stout after the wine and voted accordingly. I chose to abstain. Final score 2-2.

So an interesting experiment which shows that beer can hold its own against wine and in many cases better it in the cheese matching stakes. I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy all four of the wines in their own right, but think had beers been available from a few suppliers beer would have won every round (but then again, I'm biased!) A recent beer vs wine meal at Thatchers Arms was also declared a draw.

And this months cheese and beer pairing suggestion is different to any of my previous with a pale beer and a pale cheese, proving its not only dark beer and blue that pairs well!

November #TheSession Announced!

The Session this month was due to be hosted by Pete Brown, but due to some bastard stealing his laptop and thus losing a load of the work for his new book he's had to postpone for now and I've volunteered to move forward my hosting for a month.

So I shall be hosting session #57. Those who are eagle eyed will have already espied that the topic is "Beery Confessions: Guilty Secrets/Guilty Pleasure Beer" and are perhaps intrigued to find out what it will entail, well wait no longer!

One of the things I most enjoy about blogs and personal writing in general is the ability to have a window into another's life, in a semi-voyeuristic way. So I'd like to know your beery guilty secrets. Did you have a particularly embarassing first beer (in the same way that some people purchase an atrocious song as their first record) or perhaps there's still a beer you return to even though you know you shouldn't? Or maybe you don't subscribe to the baloney about feeling guilty about beers and drink anything anyway?

You're also welcome to write about bad drinking experiences you've had as a result of your own indulgence or times when you've been completely wrong about a beer but not yet confessed to anyone that you've changed your mind.

Its fairly wide open, take your pick. Variety is the spice of life as they say (and I hope there's more than 57 of them...) Blogs are due this Friday (4th November) but as its short notice I'll accept submissions until next Friday (11th November), but as soon as your blog is uploaded post a link to it in here, or send me an email stephanos1986 AT gmail DOT com if you don't have a blog and still want to contribute. Happy writing!

A less contentious beer book.

Image taken from Amazon.co.uk

With Christmas fast approaching (55 days in fact) a slew of new beer books are hitting the shelves in stores (and warehouses). Alongside these is Melissa Cole's new book: Let me tell you about Beer.

This is designed to be an accessible non-daunting entry-level guide to the world of beer, not necessarily aimed at someone like me who already knows a fair bit about beer but I enjoy reading Melissa's blog so decided to pick up a copy. It landed on my doormat last Friday, but I've not yet had a chance to read it in its entirety but look forward to doing so. My copy turned up just over a week ago and I had a chance for a good read of it on my journey to and from cheese school this weekend.

The first thing you notice is that its quite a hefty tome (though by no means anywhere near as thick as the Oxford Companion*!) with high quality glossy pages, hard cover and plenty of colour throughout. Its very reasonably priced too (RRP 14.99, though a bargainous 10.49 on Amazon!); so in terms of looking the part for gift giving potential it certainly stands up to scrutiny.

People often buy with their eyes, but of course its the content that these books should be chosen on. There is no quibble from me on that front either. A relaxed and down to earth style of writing feels like Melissa is chatting to you in a pub about beer, and making suggestions about what you might like. There's useful sections on matching beer with food for beginners, a good writeup of the health benefits of beer and a  whack of beer tasting notes, arranged by style.

 I always enjoy reading other people's reviews to see if I agree with them and from what I've read I certainly do, which makes me want to search out other beers that Melissa has recommended. I'm not going to give any of them away, you'll need the book for that! Its by no means a simple "x beers to try before you y" (phrase borrowed from beercast) kind of book though.

I can't say I learnt anything new about brewing or beer styles, but I wasn't expecting to and that's not what this book is about. If you're looking for a beer book to convince your lover/brother/gran the merits of good beer in non-patronising laymans terms then "Let Me Tell You About Beer" is the ideal gift!


The launch party for the book is tonight; so I hope all goes well. Follow Mellissa on Twitter.

*Which far too much has been said about already.

Perfection in a glass

Its not just the water and the limestone that the small town of Buxton in the peak district can be proud of: they now have a brewery too! I'm a bit late to the party as there have been a plethora of other reviews on the blogosphere (Beer Ritz Blog , The Good Stuff , The Good Stuff again , The Reluctant Scooper , Pencil and Spoon , Beer Paradise , A Swift One Reluctant Scooper again , The Beer Boy , Beer Reviews (Meet the brewer) , Tandleman , Eating Isn't Cheating,Broadford Brewer), but ever since trying Axe Edge earlier this year (I'm glad Beer Ritz were out of Burton bridge IPA!) I've been itching to try some of the rest of the range. This weekend I had my chance to sup my way through the bottles sitting patiently in my parent's garage since I ordered them last month.Would Axe Edge be an indicator of great beer all round, or merely a lone stand-out in an otherwise drab range? Lets find out...

 As I tend to do when out and about I chose to drink the beers in order of ABV, but with so many to get through I enlisted the help of my dad in the tasting, though he was too busy drinking to pass comment on many.

Moor Top was up first, a pale golden ale of very sessionable ABVwith subtle aroma of pineapple and yeast. Initial fresh bitterness becomes lemon and Passion fruit in the finish. Thirst quenching and one I'd love to drink a few of from cask.

Buxton Spa was next up. This mid-gold little beauty is packed full of juicy tropical fruit, like a beery Rubicon. A slight scent of cats urine (don't worry you can't taste it!) suggested citra and a quick website check confirmed that's the hop used in this beer. Mango sorbet with a hint of lime. Delicious and better than other citra-hopped beers I've tried!

Buxton Best is a brown ale but not a boring one by any stretch of the imagination. English hops assert themselves on the nose Peppery  with faint blackcurrant Bitter taste up front with marmalade hops and gentle carbonation. It has good malt backbone to stand up to the bitterness.

Then on to one I had a chance to try on cask in Manchester. I wasn't keen on the massive head on cask (sparkler alert) as the beer tasted quite dull in comparison.A much better affair in bottle. None of the roasted notes present in some Black IPAs. Wear a blindfold with this one and you'd swear it was pale.

And then on to one I was salivating for: Axe Edge. At 6.8% this double IPA is certainly not one you can knock back at a pace or you'd soon know it! Fairly unassuming citrus nose on this amber beer. Gentle carbonation, high bitterness but well balanced by mango, resin and lemon and a strong malt backbone.Plentyof flavour from the UK, USA and NZ hops and in my top three beers of the year (so far?). I wasn't disappointed.

No brewery lineup is complete without an imperial stout in its range and Buxton is no exception,  with Tsar at 9.5% being theirinterpretation of the style. Thick and opaque with an orange tan head thebeer certainly looks the part. Legs show the presence of high alcohol but its well disguised. Cola and chocolate nose. Thick body with treacle and a coffee finish. Very bitter which although not unexpected certainly hit my palate after the much sweeter IPAs! 

A great selection of beers then from one of my favourite breweries for 2011. Hopefully I'll get to try others of their offerings, though asever being based nowhere near and with a sea in between its none too likely unless a passing blogger takes pity on me! (I did get to try Old Big 'ead which was hiding in a Spar in Hope, but didn't really take any notes)

You can follow the brewery on twitter here and head brewer here. The website is also worth a look for some info on how the beers were named


Edit:

I found Wild Boar (5.7%) and High Tor (6.3%) at the Vineyard in Belfast! Very unexpected but welcome nonetheless! I thought I'd include them in this post rather than do a new one.

Wild Boar is an award winner (Champion bottled beer SIBA North) for the brewery and its easy to see why. An immediate fresh and pithy grapefruit aroma on the nose from those New Zealand hops I didn't need the label to tell me are there in abundance. It pours a lovely hazy blonde with thick off-white head which hangs around for ages. In the mouth its fresh mango and pineapple followed by plenty of grapefruit and then the tongue-smacking bitterness I so love in these new zealand hops. Lurking in the background is a bit of drier bitterness too from those European hops used. On the finish the malt peeks its head through the bitterness before descending again leaving with your tongue bathing in pine resin and demanding another glug of beer, which I duly provided it. Drinking this beer is akin to drinking a regular IPA through a straw with several hops jammed in it. This is up there with Axe Edge and Spa as my favourite Buxton brews. Bottle conditioning gives it just enough sparkle to accentuate the hops whereas I think force carbonation may just send the bitterness up my nose and kill the moment.


High Tor as my second beer this evening has a lot to live up to then. At 0.6% stronger it certainly ha sthe alcohol to act as a follow up.On first inspection its disappointing, pouring a murky red-brown with no head whatsoever. On the nose is passion fruit and caramel, the complexity lacking in comparison to Wild Boar. My first thought is that its very sweet. Certainly plenty of toffee and there's some stewed plums in there too with a balancing bitterness which isn't anywhere near as in your face. I'm thinking perhaps that I drunk these in the wrong order. The malt bill is certainly king with this beer and I get golden syrup and raisins with

a few more sips. I reckon this beer may be a candidate for keg as the carbonation is quite sprightly enough to keep it vital. After a bite to eat the hops are a bit more noticeable, likewise the alcohol but I find myself craving more wild boar. A nice drop then but not in the same league as that earlier beer.