Wild at Heart

A much anticipated brewery came flying onto the scene in 2012 and now have over 20 different beers under their belts as diverse as bretted stock ales to luxuriant imperial stouts and aggressively hopped IPAs. I wrote about their hybrid apple beer Ninkasi earlier in the year. Here are my thoughts on a few more of their range.

Instantly recognisable stags head logo

Up first is one of my favourite styles- a saison but with a twist. This is blended in a similar way to gueuze with a young (jonge) and old (oude) saison blended out of a solera system*. Each batch will still have some of that original first barrel in it; so its one to try over time.
Dark hazy amber with light off white head. At first musty then spicy yeast esters on the nose. Very Belgian, wit like at first with building biscuit sweetness and yeast complexity, bready notes, dry herbal hops, medium carbonation, quaffable yet layered and v easy drinking.  

Less wild perhaps but still fantastically put together is Madness IPA. Brett missed the West Coast IPAs he could pick up on almost any corner in his native California and decided to recreate one for us lucky Britishers. Slightly hazy pale amber with fluffy white head. Rich aroma of citrus pith and resinous pine alongside grassy hop freshness and mango rind. Spiky carbonation, pithy hops, chalky bitterness, rich hop flavours up there with the best UK IPAs. Full pithiness, lemon freshness and mango rind right through to a long finish. 

A beer that went down a storm at the recent B-cubed festival was schnoodlepip, a crazy collaboration concoction with Kelly Ryan of Good George, Mark Tranter (normally of Dark Star, soon to be Burning Sky) and of course Brett at Wild. On paper it sounds as if it may not work, passion fruit? hibiscus? pink peppercorns?!? I've had the good fortune to try all of these ingredients in beers before*, but never at the same time. Add to that the obligatory spell of barrel ageing and wild yeast magic and you have a really special beer on your hands.
Scarlet tinged amber with white lacing. Rich tropical fruit nose, Belgian yeast esters and a slight pepper tingle. Moderate carbonation, tart at first, lots of hibiscus like Goose Island's Fleur, pepper tingle on tip of tongue, sharp passion fruit and dry malt finish.

They've just recovered from a fairly serious fire; so why don't you support them to recover by buying some of their bottled beers, or better yet head to Bristol for Bristol Beer Week to try them in situ at the various bars taking part.

Wild Beer Co
@BrettJEllis
@WildBeerCo
@WildBeerAndrew
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*Goose Island Fleur, Cigar City Papsoe's Passion Fruit Porter and Elixir's Jump the Shark

Irish Beers to Watch Out For

Following on from Boak and Bailey's suggestion (I think) here's some of my favourite beers available from (Northern) Irish Brewers. Its not an exhaustive list,I've not tried everything and with new breweries coming online all the time the next gem could be just around the corner!*

Whilst the majority of these beers are available in bottled form, i think they taste better on draught (cask/ keg) with the exception of one. Some of these beers started off as seasonals and became regulars, I hope the others don't remain as one offs.


White Gypsy's sessionable Weiss (aka Blond), 4%, really impressed me out of keg at Hilden Beer Fest a few years ago. Proper German weisse banana esters on the nose, hazy, full bodied with handsome foamy white head and spicy wheat and clove esters mean it can hold its own against stronger German offerings. Its now a part of the core range; so may be easier to come by. 

Tiny Beoir Chorca (West Kerry) produces a fantastic porter in the shape of Carraig Dubh. I've had it on both cask and bottle and both are lovely. A complex and mouth-filling porter with smoke, chocolate, coffee red berries and a touch of roast barley in the finish. Just how I like my porters.Condition spot on too. This may be a little harder to track down but drinkstore.ie often has bottles.

Via Beermack (Alex)

A recent trip to Waterford for the Beoir AGM saw me drinking Metalman Sahara (6%) at the brewery. Its a modern take on a Vienna lager with the deep amber colour and toffee malts but the addition of sorachi ace creates subtle cheesecake/ custard creams flavours that build and interact with US hops to give tangerine pith and noble hop dry bitterness leading to a long finish. I could still taste it half an hour later.

Another modern take on a traditional style is Brown Paper Bag Project with Doxie a 5.6% wheat ale with magnum, amarillo and cascade, which was released for a blind Twitter tasting.
In bottle form it has an interesting Belgian ester saison character, despite being fermeneted with a neutral US ale yeast. This is apparently due to warm conditioning post bottling and doesn't appear in keg form. Immensely drinkable, with plenty of pithy hop character, try side by side to see the differences dispense method can make to a beer.


Trouble Brewing Dark Arts is another from the porter spectrum at the more robust end. Thick bodied with roasted coffee and chocolate notes. They're expanding which should hopefully mean this beer becomes more widely available.




Another beer which really stood out recently is JW Sweetman's Pale Ale. Out of the growler the carbonation had diminished somewhat allowing the dank hops leafy freshness to shine through with grapefruit balanced by shortcake malt making this marvellously refreshing and a real showcase of cascade.

Sneaking into export stout territory is Carlow's Leann Follain at 6% It brings aromatic pipe tobacco, chocolate and a touch of lactose on the nose, dry roast barley up front and finishing with chocolate malt  and caramel.

Whitewater Hoppelhammer smashed onto the Northern Ireland scene last Novemeber at Belfast beer festival and really impressed me (finally a Norn Iron beer with hops!) Plenty of citrus fruits, oranges and tangerines to the fore...could be simcoe. Doesn't matter what it is its a hop bomb and very moreish.

Via Chilli and Chocolate

Ards Ballyblack is another newish addition from the newest (until recently that is) Northern Irishbrewery.
Dark brown black with lively white head its a dry stout how they should be made. Chocolate, roast barley and a slight chalkiness and very easy to knock back by the pint when served at (the correct) cellar temperature.




Another of Whitewater's specials that seems to have survived to be brewed again is McHugh's 300. At only 3.5% and often kegged, you'd be forgiven for thinking this is justa bog standard lager substitute/ golden ale but you'd be wrong. Alongside the biscuit malt and clean hop aroma there's a pleasing level of bitterness and somegrapefruit flavours which I suspect just might be cascade. Perfect summer refresher.

Back to black again for College Green (Hilden) Molly's Chocolate Stout. Unlike some, this derviews all of its chocolate flavour from the malt. Definitely worth hunting for in cask (try Molly's Yard in Belfast) It pours an attractivegarnet-brown with hints of beech-smoke then rich roast barley on the nose. A giid robust body withplenty of burnt toast, coffee and rich fruits thatlovers of high cacao chocolate would lap up and certainly drinksmore than its 4.3% ABV would sugges.



Perhaps the longest established Belgian style beer in Ireland is Hilden Barney's Brew. It gives a cough candy spicey medicated aroma on the nose with plenty of the requisite corriander. However this from a wit when a peppery punch of ginger sneaks up on you unawares demanding you to take another gulp. Its difficult to say no. Its available right now all over the UK as part of Sainsbury's Great British Beer Hunt, though sounds like it may not be at its best by some accounts.

Also look out for Dungarvan's Coffee and Chocolate Stout if its released in bottle form again, white gypsy's weisse which I loved, Franciscan Well's Bell Ringer and Eight Degrees Cyclone/ Hurricane #IPAoff duo. These were not included in the main post as they're not regularly available and may even have been one offs.

*Looks like this couldn't be truer with at least 12 breweries due online in 12 months and a whole host of specials available at the recent ICBCF. I reckon I'll need to do a new beers post in 2014.

Apps for Boozehounds

Smart phones are ubiquitous these days and they've become a useful tool for roving (beer) drinkers. Not least having Google Maps to hand can help prevent walking in the opposite direction to where the pub is! I've assembled a collection of apps I use regularly below, no doubt people will be aware of some, but hopefully there will be others that come in handy.

Finding decent beer is often a challenge, especially when in unfamiliar territory. the first three apps are all beer finders of one sort or another.

Good Beer Guide is the venerable CAMRA publication now available in app form. It allows you to locate nearby pubs and "tick" pubs if that's your thing alongside all the content from the printed book in a much more travel-friendly format. Charges a small annual fee.

Craft Beer London is an app from journalist Will Hawkes covering decent beer bars, pubs and breweries all over London. One off purchase price.

Beoir Finder is a free app to find Irish Craft Beer all over the island of Ireland. Regularly updated (full disclosure: I'm a Beoir member)

For those whom reviewing and cataloguing beers consumed is a force of habit, both Ratebeer and Untappd have mobile apps.

Untappd (from repatriated Bristolian Lee Williams) allows check-ins via foursquare and awards to collect, whilst the Ratebeer app (designed  by site user Eric Kok)  is a great catalogue of beer information, allows offline rating and also has a places finder.

Aside from beer apps, there are some great apps for keeping up with beer news, or getting yourself organised whilst on a day out.

Train Times UK is indispensable for planning train journeys and checking current status of trains. You can find out whether you've time for another before heading to the station...
One off purchase price

Catch Notes (apparently its shutting down, disappointing!) is a handy app for making review notes, or if you're like me and have your best ideas whilst trying to sleep, handy for making quick notes if you can't find a pen and paper without getting out of bed!

RSS Demon is what I use as a blog aggregator, add whatever you want to read on there and posts autosync to your phone. Great for long bus journeys.

Pocket is another handy little app to bookmark and cache long articles/ blog posts for later reference. Thanks to Boak and Bailey for mentioning this one!

Dropbox is a great way of transferring files between phone and computer or vice versa. It saves having to use a USB lead to transfer those snaps captured whilst on the go.

Feel free to suggest other apps people should be using in the comments below.

A decatet of brewers!

Northern Ireland brewer numbers will have near doubled by the time 2013 is over. Northern Ireland is finally waking up to the beer resurgence going on in both Britain and Ireland! Along with the Red Hand brewery in Donaghmore and a top secret brewery development in County Down in conjunction with Belfast's Love and Death Inc, we're gaining new breweries in both  Fermanagh and Tyrone.

The first brewery I read about in Easyjet's in flight magazine of all places! I'm not sure how George wangled that but its certainly gained him a lot of notice, with orders and enquiries for his flagship blonde ale flooding in over the last week. Have no fear that this will be another generic golden ale/lager substitute producer as a stout and an IPA are also both on the way.

As a chemist he should certainly know his stuff and I'm looking forward to trying his first beers in the coming weeks and months. He's delivering to the vineyard in Belfast this week; so be sure to go check it out. The brewery itself is housed in a picturesque building, with George and his wife Helen also running a tea room next door.

Dr George Catchcart Sheelin brewery

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Closer to home for me is Pokertree Brewing. Darren is also planning a blonde ale, alongside other such Irish staples as a red ale, stout and pale ale...but with a twist. Ghrian (blonde) will be hopped to the hilt with tasty antipodean hops - galaxy, green bullet and Nelson Sauvin whilst the red ale Ruby Earl will be robust with a darkside. Completing the quartet are Tain a Rye Pale Ale and a Treacle oatmeal stout. 

All of these beers have been through pilot batches and are moving onto the shiny new full size kit with the first brew due this week. Bottle conditioned beers should hit the market in time for Christmas and in the meantime we may get our appetites whetted with the cask he hopes to have ready for Belfast Beer Festival.

Darren Nugent Pokertree Brewing

@Pokertreeales

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I look forward to sampling these new beers and chatting further with both Darren and George, perhaps even having a nose around their breweries if they'll let me!

So by my reckoning that gives us two brewries each in Co. Tyrone (Red Hand and Pokertree) and Co. Fermanagh (Innishmacsaint and Sheelin), four breweries in Co. Down (Ards, *secret*, Strangford Lough, Whitewater), Clanconnel in Co. Armagh and Hilden in Co. Antrim. Come on Derry/ Londonderry brewing potentials, pull your finger out!

You can read about other breweries in Ireland on my new Irish beer page

Edit: Beer Nut remidned me Clanconnel are now contract brewed at Hilden, meaning Armagh are strictly sans brewery too.
Strangford Lough Beer Co may no longer exist due to a $1.7m lawsuit ruling. Certainly their main staff were laid off.

Waening Again

I  hadn't tried any beers from Waen since my very first blog post, some 2 1/4 years ago; so decided to rectify that when some untried beers popped up in stalwart bottle supplier Ales by Mail.

I must say the new branding is much more eye catching and stylish than the previous multicoloured stripes, I wonder how the beer stands up?

Up First is T.W.A. standing for traditional Welsh Ale, though how that differs from pale ales elsewhere is anyone's guess. This is a dark burnished gold with herbal hop aroma, sweet biscuit malt, vegetal notes then some sweet red berry leading to a dry grainy finish. Not my favourite of their beers really, could be from any UK brewer.

Landmark is a hazy dark amber with fluffy off white head. Herbal dry noble hop nose, fairly high carbonation, full bodied, biscuit malt sweetness, slightly vegetal astringent bitterness. Good for quaffing.

 

Chili Plum Porter (6.1%) pours a hazy ruby tinged brown with tan tinged head. Gives little away on the nose some muted cinnamon notes and cardboard. Begins fairly sweet, a dusting of cocoa, stewed plums, a tingle of chili, burnt roast barley notes, some coffee. Finishing fairly dry. A little lacking in chili but plums are certainly there.Its not quite what I had expected but enjoyable nonetheless and certainly doesn't drink its strength. One for cask sampling I'd wager.

So are these beers simply not as good as the first ones I tried or has my palate moved on a bit? A bit of both I'd wager. Try them yourself as I may be wrong.

Waen
@TheWaenBrewery
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#CABPOM August Seno RusioKvass and Diplomats Siers

Something a little different cheese and beer wise this month. Perusing my local Eastern European food store I came across a selection of nominally alcohol free Kvass beers. Kvass is fermented from rye bread and a beer style I've been interested in since reading Pete Brown's account in Three Sheets to the Wind. Here's what I picked up:

Yes, the middle one is in a plastic bottle!

These particular examples are from Lithuania and Latvia. I don't expect them to be a patch on the real thing, particularly the one in PET (I suspect this is made with syrup and force carbonated) but its fun to try new things and ranging from 50p- £1.10 in price they don't exactly break the bank.

In drinking order Porteris, Kvasa, Gira Kvass.

Bauska Porteris Bezalkoholisks pours a ruby tinged brown with a lacing of tan head. Lactose sweetness on nose but fairly faint. Fairly sweet with plenty of carbonation, fudgey full bodied, plum, muscavado and toffee finish.

The Sencu Kvass is a sparkling ruby chestnut with lacing of off white head. You can see its fairly similar to the porteris in appearance. Malty with sultanas, dusty flour on the nose. Very fizzy, very sweet but not exactly unpleasant. Sweetened coke.

Best of the bunch is Seno Rusio,unsurprisingly the "strongest" at 1.5%. It also differs somewhat from theother two in that it retains its head. Perhaps this is actually brewed? Dark chestnut with a tan head, retains well, sour aged fruit and christmas cake on the nose. High carbonation with a sweet molasses and fudge flavour, but the body helps to absorb it and prevent cloying. Liquid Edinburgh tablet with stewed plums. I'd love to try a higher strength version of this...I guess that would be a scotch ale.

What better to go with Lithuanian and Latvian beers than the corresponding cheese? I also picked up an unaged and a smoked Gouda style cheese from the same shop. Certainly thefirst time I've tried Latvian cheese.

Diplomats Siers (unaged) first, its waxy with a semi-open texture (holes) Rich milk fattiness and a semi-aged edam quality about it with a hint of smoke. Slightly waxy texture. Would make a good beer cheese for snacking on with a pilsner.

The Rokiskio Suris Rukytas appears to be a smoked cheese,with waxed rind. The paste here is solid and a darker yellow than the first cheese. There's a good level of oak smoke on the nose and immediately smoky in the mouth with a richer depth of flavour and very Edam like, unaged cheese.

So how do they fare with the beers?  Well the Diplomats reduces the porteris sweetness whereas the Rokisko brings outblack forest ham notes. The same cheese coaxes kola from the PET-bottled Sencu whereas Diplomats does nothing much. It does add a lot of depth to the flavour of the Seno Rusio however, the richness of the cheese complementing the texture and taming the sickliness somewhat,could enjoy the whole bottle with the cheese in tow. The smoked cheese, whilst tasting good has an unusual chalky texture with the Seno; so falls down at thefinal hurdle. 

The winner this month? Seno Rusio Kvass and Diplomats Siers. What are your thoughts on kvass (interesting article here from Beer Hunter Michael Jackson)? Have you ever tried any beer /cheese from Lithuania or Latvia or where's the most exotic place you've had beer/cheese from?

Buxton Sours

One beer style which is currently "on trend" in the UK at the moment is the berlinner weisse, or even sour beers in general. We've had a number from Brodies and now Buxton is getting in on the act.

They recently launched a collaboration, Sky Mountain Sour with To Ol which I enjoyed very much indeed whilst in Edinburgh and the general view from twitter too is that its a great beer. I was also kindly given a few pre-release bottles of Buxton sours, by Denis  brewed by the Buxton team separately to the collaboration brew. They use three strains of yeast/bacteria to ferment (Buxton house yeast, lactobacillus and Bretanomyces) which all contribute to the beer in their own unique way.

Raspberry sour is what it says on the tin, scarlet tinged pale amber with a nose redolent of raspberry jam. There's  a fair bit of up front lacto-sourness then the tart, earthy raspberry flavour comes through. Its packed full of flavour despite its relatively meagre 3.2% strength and its something that went down well, chilled in the heat of Scotland's heat wave.

Even better is the snozberry sour (snozberries? who ever heard of a snozberry). This frankenberry concoction pours a deeper shade of red - crimson perhaps with a melange of berry fruits on the nose, redcurrant and blackberry seem prevalent. In flavour its difficult to distinguish any particular berry, but they all work together well, bouncing off the tart weisse backdrop to produce a flavourful and refreshing beer. It finishes fairly dry too with the added Brettanomyces yeast chomping through residual sugars leaving its familiar fermenting hay notes on the palate. I could easily spend an afternoon session on pints of this and still be compos mentis on the way home.

Buxton will be launching these beers in bottle at their new Tap House, due to open iimminently.I hope to visit before the year's out. If we're lucky they'll make a bigger batch for keg too. Fingers crossed! TThey've also recently released a black sour which sounds intriguing!

I'd love to see more UK brewers take on this style, though understandably we probably won't see many go "full gueuze" because of the risk of contamination of regular brews. I think Brewdog have suggested they may use their old brewery for wild yeasted beers and of course Somerset's own Wild Beer Co are doing all manner of interesting things with wild yeasts. More please!