History Repeated

As I have oft mentioned before, Fullers Brewery is one which I have a soft spot for. They have a great number of beers in their portfolio, the majority of which are bang on the money in my opinion. Better still are their one-off special releases such as historical recreations "Past Masters" and annual vintage ales.

So I was excited to hear that John Keeling had opened the history books again to brew the recreation of a Burton Ale. This is one of the great styles that has fallen by the wayside in recent years or absorbed into the ubiquitous "barley wine" category that anything that is above 7% and  isn't obviously an IPA or stout tends to be sucked in to. Martyn Cornell speaks much more eloquently on beer styles and history and in a lot more detail than I could hope to achieve; so I'll defer to him on this occasion. Boak & Bailey also did good work identifying extant-examples of Burtons in the UK. I'm here to comment on the actual beer.

I had the forethought to keep a bottle of each of the preceding Past Masters releases to do a side-by-side comparison. Not that there should be anything in similar other than the Fuller's yeast strain but I find a single bottle tasting to be more than a bit dull. I had Reuben @taleofale, Daisy and my CAMRA friend Julie to provide further thoughts and drinking comradeship.

Old Burton Extra 7.3%  10/9/1931

It pours a deep chestnut brown with with slight cream head with dark fruit, burnt sugar and a medium body. Its very easy drinking but could perhaps become cloying after more than half a bottle (hence the  sharing). I actually prefer the Fullers 1845 (First brewed 1995!)  though, its got more lighter fruit marmalade notes to lift up the heavier malt sugars and at about half the price for a bottle and bottle conditioned to boot its a better bet.

XX Strong Ale 7.5%  2/9/1891

Pouring chestnut-orange its reminiscent of some West Coast IPAs with esters and higher alcohols on the nose of a strong Belgian effort. Its sweet with pineapples and honey. Medium carbonation and more than a bit of alcohol burn. There's something to it that minds me of what I'm not keen on in a dubbel and for that reason I struggled to finish my 1/3 bottle. Others rhapsodised over it.

Double Stout 7.4%  4/8/1893

Darkest brown with fluffy cola head. Tobacco, dates and sultanas on the nose. Thick, rich, toffee, redcurrant, toast, chocolate, gentle carbonation, long roast coffee finish. This one is fantastic and vindicates the whole endeavour. I'd love to see this in regular production and reminds me a lot of some of The Kernel's recreations.

I'm pleased to have been able to try these beers of yesteryear and hope that John finds many more recipes lurking in the archives. He's by no means the only brewer doing it but as the quantities involved are much bigger its certainly the most accessible. Whether or not I enjoyed them is somewhat irrelevant!

German beer is best?

I'm a few months late with this post, but I've only just drunk the beers; so consider it useful information for next year. Oktoberfest beers are becoming more and more prevalent outside of Germany, both exported and domestically brewed varieties. Thornbridge have recently released one which I'm yet to try.

One I have been able to try however is Ireland's 8-Degrees Ochtoberfest. Brewed on August 8th (8/8) at 8 degrees West of Greenwich.

For comparative purposes I picked up some German festbiers, namely Spaten Oktoberfestbier, Erdinger Festweiße, Weißenoher Altfränkisch Klosterbier and Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest-Marzen. The first thing to note is that there is a wide range of colours, although the ABV of all of the beers is similar. The Erdinger isin keeping with the rest of that brewery's output and a weisse bier.

Up first, the Klosterbier. It looks appealing with a traffic-light amber with fluffy snow-white head. Its  flinty, dry, fruity and toffee on the nose, so far so good. Unfortunately its too highly carbonated and harsh in the mouth, dry, bland and astringent with no finish. I had to ditch it after a few gulps. Not a very promising start.

The Erdinger didn't really raise the standard. Normally I'm fairly impressed by Erdinger beers despite being mass-produced they still have a fair amount of flavour. Not on this occasion though,i n fact the mouth feel was about the only thing going for it, with none of the traditional weizen esters in attendance I may as well have been drinking barley water.

Spaten was a bit of a surprise, pouring the palest of golds, not so much marzen as kolsch-style. There are some pleasant lemon and banana notes but again a harshly astringent finish with a touch of aspartame-like sweetness. Perhaps the use of hop syrup had something to do with it?!

Hacker-Pschorr is a beer I enjoyed on draught at National Winter Ales Fest this year. I say enjoyed, I meant I tolerated it. I say tolerated I meant I fobbed it off onto Daisy. In bottle it seems to have held up a little better. It has some of that alleged doughiness that I've hitherto failed to find and a pleasing mouth feel. The first beer I didn't feel needed chucking.

Finally; the Ochtoberfest from Eight Degrees reprised its debut at the Dublin beerfest in bottle form. Immediately the contrast was stark. There's an aroma this times-light cloves on nose with orange & licorice. Medium carbonation, doughy, marmalade, a bit thin bodied, booze, sweet, noble hop finish. Its the best of the bunch, but would I go out of my way to try it again? Probably not. As to whether it successfully mimics a German Oktoberfest beer I can't really say, but going by the evidence of the preceding beers maybe not.

On this evidence I'm beginning to think that the style is perhaps not for me and it joins the ranks of bocks, dubbels and Irish Ales as "ones to avoid" in my book.

Beer Nut

The Beer Nut was kind enough to take a couple of the International Arms Race beers off of my hands and leave me some of his homebrew in return. I must confess to liking his 'brand-name'-"Dodgio" and its great to see all of the ingredients on the label, even down to the yeast used, something I wish other brewers would do.

Informative labelling, my favourite!

 

Pours hazy burnished gold with Nelson Sauvin grapey kiwi aromas distinguishable at ten paces (didn't even need the comprehensive ingredients list to know this one!). Moving closer there's tangerines and a light sourness. There's gentle carbonation and the flavour is all about the tangerine at first with a gentle bitterness and balanced malt. Those tropical flavours and low bitterness remind me a lot of |Roosters Baby Faced Assassin. This beer drinks like a session beer, I'd love another!

A Dark brown with coca-cola head. Chocolate, acorn coffee, touch of roast barley and sleepy yeast on the nose. At first there's chocolate and orange fruit followed by a long nipping, warming chilli that gets the tip of your tongue and back of your throat. Chocolate makes a final flourish before the chilli leaves a lingering glow. Quite light bodied and fairly low in carbonation, the head took some coaxing to form then disappeared.

Again two fantastic homebrews that would any number of "commercial" brewers a run for their money!

Apologies to John for being so tardy with posting this!

Red Hand Brewery: An update

I took my fiance and in-laws along for lunch in the Brewer's House yesterday. Owner Ciaran walked through the door and offered to show me the newly arrived brewkit. Its a 100 litre setup and so new its yet to be wired in. It'll be located in a (yet to be) converted stables and there will be a weekly brew to supply both pubs. 

Initially trial batches will be brewed and given away to get feedback from regular pub customers. In the long run the 100litre kit could serve as a trial plant fora bigger setup or allow for limited edition releases to be brewed.

Conditioning tank

The pub itself is going from strength to strength, and was featured on national news last week, the phone hasn't stopped ringing ever since. People from all over the island of Ireland are coming to eat and drink here and its certainly putting the tiny village of Donaghmore on the map.

According to Ciaran, of 18 people on his brewing course, 6 have bought the same kit; so we could see a spate of similar start-ups in the coming months. I for one am certainly keeping my fingers crossed.

Session #69: Beery Pipe Dreams

This month's session requires a bit of thought. What would I change to make the beer world a better place and how would I bring it about?

The obvious answer would be for beer to be free; therefore cost not having to factor into people's decisions whether they should have a beer or not. And a method of delivery...how about the health benefits are recognised and its available as a free prescription on the NHS (yes I know that we pay taxes that pay for the NHS, which means it wouldn't actually be free but it would seem like it...). 

The realist in me knows this is never going to happen, perhaps a more achievable goal, one that would benefit everyone would be to convince more people to try beer, either for the first time or something more flavourful than the mass produced convenience beers*. How should we go about doing this? Blogging is a part of it but for the most part that's only preaching to the converted (to use a well worn cliché). What you have to do is "step-out" of your comfort zone, get out into the real world and share beers with the unconverted. Leigh has done a great round-up on his blog.

So your challenge for the end of 2012 (or 2013 if you think that's more realistic) is to get out into those pubs and bars and get talking to people about beer. It doesn't have to be a specially organised, ticketed event but just do something, other than sticking to your usual group of friends or sitting at home blogging. If you already do something to step-out of your comfort zone then let us know in the comments below.

The session this month was brought to you by Jorge from Brew Beer and Drink it

*Thanks World Beer Atlas

#CABPOM October: Alesmith Old Numbskull and Cornish Blue.

Its been a few months, but that doesn't mean the cheese and beer pairing has fallen by the wayside. In fact its stepped up somewhat as I did 50 pairings in September and October in preparation for the e-book I am writing. I still had some spare time (and more importantly spare cheese!) to do a pairing for the blog though.

 

This month its a Trans-Atlantic mash-up with a beer from across the pond and a cheese from sunny Cornwall. I picked up the beer (a bottle of Alesmith Old Numbskull if you haven't yet read the post title) from Brewdog online. There are still some left if you're quick. At £15.29 its at the pricier end of the spectrum but for an 11% beer in a 750ml bottle its comparable to the price of a bottle of wine (and in my view much tastier).

It pours dark amber with fluffy off-white head. Amazing sticky orange marmalade and underlying ginger-snap biscuits. Quite sweet, light bodied, oranges, crystal malt, orange pith, balanced with malt bitterness. Touch of mango, long dry orange juice fairly pithy finish. It reminds me somewhat of Franciscan Well Bell Ringer with a bigger hop-hit.

The cheese is on the milder side of the blue spectrum, though still fairly funky and creamy. The pale yellow paste has a few slashes of blue bacteria which of course yield the most interesting flavours. Its also on the firm side for a cheese.

Initially the cheese is lost against the hop onslaught of the beer, but it soon regains ground stomping an hitherto unseen fruitiness into the middle of the mix. The gentler carbonation (Alesmith bottle condition expertly, some UK brewers could learn a thing or two) means the cheese sticks around a bit longer allowing a progression of flavours to develop. 

Its a solid, complementary pairing but I think a funkier, stickier blue cheese might even be better still. Try a Gorgonzola piccante or even a Shepherd's Purse Yorkshire Blue. For those of you that aren't blue inclined then you can't beat a good mature cheddar with a barley wine. The hops are pretty brash; so pick something with plenty of flavour.

I also got bottles of Wee Heavy, Yulesmith (summer), X and Speedway stout all of which were tasty, though the darker beers were perhaps a tad over-boozy. The pale ales were exceptional though and the 650ml bottles were finished in short shrift. I was aware of Alesmith from their rave reviews on rate beer, but now I have tried some I will definitely be looking out for others.

More barrel aged beers

Clicking the "new post" button after the best part of two months away from my blog is not done without some trepidation. Will the words come easily or will it be a struggle? Perhaps more nagging is the feeling that perhaps no one will read it after so long away. 

It wasn't particularly a planned absence, but became prolonged due to a number of real life changes which seem to be very much for the better. I now have a new job, new place of abode (still in Northern Ireland) and my fiancée has moved in with me. I've an impending wedding to plan for, not to mention the cheese & beer e-book (book?) I'm writing.

Anyhoo, enough introspection for one post and on to the subject that you're all here for...beer. And not just any beer but the barrel-aged kind. Yes, I know a lot of people will have already decided the beer is not for them, but bear with me and I'll attempt to change your mind.

The beer that has been aged in this case is an imperial stout. These tend to be the best for barrel-aging as the complex malt base is often robust enough to withstand additional spirit andwood flavours. The ABV can't harm either, helping to coddle that increased booze hit some people are all too familiar with as a side-effect of barrel ageing.

These beers also contain additional flavour components in the form of coffee beans and vanilla which marry well with the flavours of the spirits in question; namely an Islay and a highland whisky: 27 y/o Caol Ila and 14 y/o Clynelish to be precise.

I was a big fan of the base beer: "Pours garnet-tinged viscous black with a foamy mocha head. light chocolate, lemon a rich fruity coffee on the nose. Thick bodied, smooth, rich carbonation, smokey coffee first, then fruit, rich coffee, dry coffee on the tip of the tongue. Chocolate, a touch of orange peel not much sign of the vanilla but a fantastic stout. Can feel the coffee buzz a few sips in." How did the barrel aging cause the beers to evolve? I opened my bottles to share with my (future) father in law to find out.

The Clynelish barrel had imparted a sourness to the beer in both taste and aroma but it had also gained underlying honey, seaweed and soap. There was also some cola flavours and malty sweetness where previously there had been none. The finish was quite warming in alcohol but not at all harsh.

Caol Ila brought some meaty iodine and sticky tar to the table. Light smoke was the only contribution to the taste from this bully of a whisky, with a gentle caress of alcohol integrating much more smoothly than in its younger sibling.

Although both well-crafted beers with differing but related flavour profiles; I think I actually enjoyed the base beer more. Yes it was a sweeter after dinner sipper but it was one which evolved as the drink progressed. The whisky aged beers pulled out all the stops at the start but became a touch samey by the finish. Perhaps more people to share them with would have helped. Still, an example of barrel aging done well.

Big Thanks to Andy @Tabamatu who gifted me the original Kopikat at the beer blogger's conference earlier this year and to Dan @dandanglover for hand delivering the barrel aged variants to me during my flying visit to Edinburgh. If you're ever in town check out the shop he works at Great Grog for a decent selection of UK and overseas beers.