Tonight at Sheffield Hatters Inn
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bucking Fastard
The nose of the beer as it goes down also changes to antiseptic and musty ,much like old brickwork inside a canal tunnel :eek:. However it still went down and the overall experience was positive.
Coincidentally, I had a similarly unusual and almost musty-dry experience (not so much with the elastoplast, though) with De Moersleutel x Frontaal Give or take imperial stout 11%, tonight's only drink in the Sheffield Hatters Inn. This 440ml can from the Dram Shop cost a whopping £7.30, but I make it reasonable value at £1.50 per unit of alcohol. It lasted me through two hours of telly, so that can't be bad. And I enjoyed every sip, which is even better.
De Moersleutel "beer engineers" are in Alkmaar (to the north of Amsterdam), and have teamed up with Frontaal Brouerij of Breda, near the Belgian border for this one. Ingredients, as listed on the can, would find approval over the border in Deutschland: water, malted barley, hops and yeast.
Here's what they say about the beer on their website:
Together with the people from Frontaal we've brewed this amazingly smooth beer that you're going to want to try!
This brew contained a triple mash, one of which was a cold steep with all the dark malts to get a super smooth roasty coffee profile. The beer was then dry-hopped with the new experimental hops from Yakima, HBC472, which gives an oaky and earthy notes to the beer.
The beer itself is super smooth, fruity, coffee and lightbodied for an excellent summer evening vibe.
Just for once, the blurb matches the drinking experience. No coffee grounds, no tonka beans, no marshmallows and no bloody peanuts were in any way incorporated in this beer. So many of today's imperial stouts or variants thereof get spoiled by throwing adjuncts into the beer, or storing it in barrels for months on end in the hope of inducing some additional hitherto unexperienced flavour, or just notoriety. (Like the guys who attached their barrels to a ship wreck.) This one is just beer - and it works!
Well done you Nederlanders.
This week at the Sheffield Hatter's Inn
Some beers drunk this week, mostly from my local bottle shops.
Wilde Child Yuletide Exorbitance Figgy Pudding Imperial Brown Ale 11% 440ml £6.20 “We’ve gone all out to produce this big hitting winter ale. Belgian candi sugar, figs, sultanas and orange peel combined with an array of darker malts and fermented on a Belgian Abbaye strain of yeast will certainly ensure you’re living that exorbitant lifestyle.”
Despite the 11% abv this didn't have the alcoholic impact expected, and there wasn't much in the way of malt or hops to balance the overwhelming sweetness of the fruit. I've had figgy beers that were much more interesting and complex than this. Not an unpleasant drink, just not particularly memorable.
RedWillow Ruby Mild 6.5% 440ml £4.20 “Rich ruby in colour, hints of burnt toffee over a satisfyingly complex malt base then judiciously dry-hopped with Amarillo for a satisfying finish. Perfect for this time of year.”
Part of RedWillow's “Heritage” series, but it wouldn't be RedWillow if it didn't have New World hops to the fore, and they just couldn't resist adding a dose of amarillo, making it more like a black IPA than a strong mild. I wouldn't mind drinking this again if they brew it again, though.
Little Valley Dark Vale Porter 4.5% and Stoodley Stout 4.8% both bottle conditioned in 50cl bottles. £2.09 each from an online bottle shop in Hipperholme, not far from the brewery. “Dark Vale Vanilla Porter invites you to explore a full landscape of flavour at your own pace. Feel free to stroll the gentle slopes of rich, dark textures and pass by subtle hints of vanilla and liquorice.”
This one had some unusual flavours which didn't make it undrinkable, just raising a slight query about what had happened to it after bottling. I've a second bottle of this one, so will see if the same fault arises.
“Stoodley Stout sets off with rich, roasted flavours, but as your taste buds settle in, the chocolate and crystal malts begin to work their magic, delivering a curiously complex finish.”
Not overly in-your-face with the roasted malt flavours, just subtly more-ish. Poured nicely, with a fluffy head and was a very pleasant drink. If the second one is of the same quality I might get a few more direct from the brewery. (All their beers are vegan, which is a plus for me.)
Brew York Grainsley Harriot rye wine 11.6% 440ml £6.60. “The first beer to come from a continuing competition from our brewers, Grainsley Harriot is a peppery and bold rye wine with a soothing warmth. We’ve also put a certain amount into rye whiskey barrels for a long kip, so be sure to check out our barrel aged version coming out some time in 2021.”
I've never really warmed to this brewery, though I know some swear by them. Too many strange ingredients, like gooseberries or rhubarb, or even lactose, though to be fair when a beer is vegan they make sure it is labelled as such. And their punning names for the beers are a bit off-putting too. But just a first sip of this “rye wine” was enough to dispel any doubts - this is a very fine beer indeed, and just up my street.