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Next is a bottle of Guinness West Indies Porter 6% that I picked up at the Co-op last Friday. [I wasn't planning on going there, but when I walked down the hill to the large Tesco at the bottom, the queue went half-way round the car park. So I walked into town and found myself one of only three customers in the Co-op. This Co-op has seen better days - it was part of a large department store, including grocery and travel agent, opposite the Castle Market, but when that was demolished a few years back (and the market rebuilt on the other side of the city centre) the Co-op lost so many customers that they scaled right back. There's now just the grocery store on the lower ground floor and a post office above; a lot of the space in this 1960s building is now made over to Kommune, a food hall with drinking options.]
The beer offering is a little limited for choice, and their 4-for-£7 offer pales into insignificance by comparison with other supermarket groups. I bought a bottle of Lagunitas IPA plus a couple of Vocation cans - I never can remember which beers of theirs I have been drinking as they're all named in a very similar style. These were Heart & Soul and Pride & Joy, and those three comprised my Monday night at the Sheffield Hatters Inn. I quite like the Lagunitas, but I don't think Vocation beers are really my thing.
Anyway, back to the Windies porter. The label describes "a group of enterprising brewers on a quest to explore new recipes, reinterpret old ones and collaborate freely to bring exciting beers to life [and provide employment for writers of crap blurb, clearly]. With origins in an 1801 entry in our brewers' diaries, Guinness West Indies Porter is complex yet mellow, hoppy with notes of toffee and chocolate."
[I actually have a genuine Guinness glass that wasn't stolen from a pub: I won it in a quiz at a pub in Leeds in about 1986. We (my girlfriend who became the mother of my daughters, and a friend of hers plus her boyfriend, when she had one) would sometimes go to The Primrose on Meanwood Road (when it was a little better than OB's review of last October). I can't remember how we heard about the quiz, because it was at an estate pub (now demolished - and its name is beyond my recall) further down the road. It was sponsored by the Guinness area rep, so there were balloons and streamers and prizes. We'd never been there before (or since) so we got some dirty looks when the three of us won the quiz and walked off with a little plastic trophy, a Guinness tie (which I've never worn) and a glass, which is now about 34 years old. I think there might have been some beer tokens too, but we gave those to the third member of our team as she said she was more likely to come back than we were.]
Pouring Guinness takes me back to when bottled Guinness was bottle-conditioned and was a reasonable alternative drink when in a keg-only pub. My glass is a brim measure pint, of course, and pouring a 500ml bottle into it shows how much space the head takes up. About 10%, I reckon.
The first sip immediately shows that there'll be no need to stir this one with a fork to disperse the carbon dioxide. It's just lightly carbonated, a bit more than a cask beer, but nothing like most bottled or canned beers. Partly this may be because the thick maltiness of the beer hides the bubbles from the tongue (I'm just making this up as I go along, you know), but whatever the reason the first sip suddenly becomes a mouthful and before you know it half the beer is gone. There's that old familiar roasted malt, not familiar so much from Guinness these days but in better versions of stout porters from modern brewers. Then quite a strong hint of molasses, a hit of alcohol and then a bitter finish and a residual liquorice aftertaste. It reminds me a little of Gorlovka 6%, the slightly-low-alcohol-for-its-type-but-very-nice-anyway Imperial Stout from Acorn Brewery, which appears from time to time in the Kelham Island Tavern and the University Arms (sorry, which used to appear...).
I may have to return to the Co-op for some more essential supplies.
Started off with a couple of Roosters Yankees followed by a couple of Magic Rock Cannonballs, both in kiddie cans, curry for tea so a chilled bottle of Augustiner Helles to wash it down. Sadly I haven't been able to source any of the superior Edelstof but I'm not complaining; anything from my favourite Munich brewery is fine, all rounded off with a small (275ml) bottle of Harvey's Imperial Extra Double Stout. An excellent beer, many thanks to Sheffield Hatter for alerting me it was available on-line, so I have case of 12. Fairly close in taste to the wonderful Courage (Barclay Perkins) Imperial Russian Stout I used to enjoy as a lad, sadly it suffers from the low (9%) strength rather than the more robust 11.5% of the Courage version.
This beer has taken a bit of a pasting from Beer Nut on his blog today.
"I despair for anyone who considers this a good beer or somehow progress. I've had worse, for sure, but here's a deliberately poor and unfinished-tasting beer..."
Yeah, well, he's obviously totally on the ball as he apparently paid €4.40 in a Tesco Express. Pretty sure our local one doesn't take the Euro!
Personally I quite like it and I've never paid that much for it either.
A pint was £3.80 at The Flyer (The Flying Horse) minus a 50p CAMRA discount a week or two before lockdown!
Just about to kick off a Zoom quiz with a Vocation Love & Hate.If the blogger in question doesn't like it that's up to him,it's a personal taste thing.
Must be tough in the Republic of Ireland with so little real ale availability.
Bit of an epic fail on the beer reordering front,so I will just have make do with Vocation Life & Death and Thornbridge Jaipur IPA,four kiddie cans of each for £9,a Tesco multibuy deal.
After a hot day toiling in the garden,a very decent pay off.
The Beernut doesn't seem to like NEIPA,s. I have read all his posts for about 10 years or more and he only seems to like about 10%of the beers he tries. I have commented on some I disagreed with years ago but his attitude is piss off its my opinion . Untapped (while not the best source of ratings )has it at 3.75 with 31,500 rates which tells me the Beernut is totally out of step with the drinking public.Let him stick to his lambics.
just posted some beers but I keep getting told I haven't signed in although I have.Must have lost hundreds of posts due to this.Cant be bothered repeating it tonight.enjoy
I'm going to have to look out for this beer! Had a look on Untappd just now, and the latest reviews are nearly all around 3.5-4.0, but one reviewer tipped it down the sink ("Disappointing can; ended up in the sink. Very acidic. ") and another gave it 1.5 with no comments.
It does look like the Beer Nut dislikes the characteristics of a NEIPA that are actually crucial to the style and which you aficionados rely on (a deliberately poor and unfinished-tasting beer?) but also he's got that reaction to certain hops that make them taste like onions (which I get sometimes) or in his case garlic (...the garlic dominates the aroma and there's a worrying heat in the nostrils too. Is this the style reverting to its usual naughty ways? Yes.). His review would be less provocative if he mentioned some NEIPAs that he liked, and said why, and how they differed from this one.
I'm glad this conversation didn't take place in a pub, because I could see a major ruckus breaking out!
Big session on Thursday.Bought three Arbor beers in pint cans to swill.Surprisingly good
Arbor -rocketman 7.5/10
arbor -zero zero 7.5/10
arbor -c bomb 7.75/10
also had Arbor -café crème 7.75/10
Also had
bbno -50 apa 8.0/10
fourpure last train stout 7.5/10
vocation -blueberry waffle stout 8.0/10
hammertons -peanut butter stout 8.5/10 the more times I have tried this the more I like it)
Also had
howling hops -shout mode 8/10
from one of these keg machines I had
tiny rebel -club Tropicana 7/10
goose island -session ipa 7.25/10
only two poor beer both from
bad co -off tempo 6/10
the other I forgot to record.
Shared some of those beers and a few others.Woke up with a sore head on Friday.Somehow in my drunken state I bashed my head between leaving my diningroom and getting into bed.Tip -to remove blood from sheets and pillowcase wash in cold water then hot water.Next week tips on how to remove curry stains from your clothes.
Bad Co Off Tempo is a whole range of different beers, I think. For instance, I've got DIPA 2 7.4% in my fridge (bought it last week at Morrisons), but there's also a milkshake IPA 5.8% (yuck), DIPA 3 7.4% and cloudy pale 6.1%. If the one that you thought was poor was the DIPA 2, please let me know and I'll pour it straight down the sink, because I trust you.
Cider season is well underway, and I've replaced my daily pub visit with trips to local cider mills, what with this being Somerset. Not as good or as sociable as the real thing, but at least I get to take lots home.
It's been a while, and these beers aren't going to drink themselves, so here I am with a line up of three seemingly very different beers: the only thing they have in common is they are not Bass.
Northern Monk Order of Faith 6.0%
Bad Co Off-Tempo 2 DIPA 7.4%
Kirkstall Session IPA 4.5%
As before, I tried to keep the identities of the beers, if not hidden, then at least easy to forget. But this time they are so different in appearance that I couldn't by any stretch of the imagination make out that I didn't know which was which. However, I'll try to keep the secret by referring to them as A, B and C - though not necessarily in the correct order.
Beer A did its best to climb out of the can when I pulled the tab, and poured a frothy head which soon settled down. It is moderately hazy, with quite a dark orange colour. It has a fruity smell to it, with what I decided was pineapple predominant, but having burned an incense stick in my sitting room a few days ago, I may be misleading myself. On tasting, it's quite well balanced, with a pleasant fizz on the tongue. The finish is slightly bitter, with a hint of orange.
Beer B was also lively, and the head lasted longer. It is pale and murky, with that look about it that says they haven't bothered with malt and hops, but just stuck with grapefruit juice. On the nose it's grapefruity, with what some people would say was a hint of garlic. In the mouth it's so gloopy that it could be the contents of a spittoon; only kidding, it was actually quite pleasant. Clearly not a fruit juice though, which is good: it's malty so it must be a beer! Slightly fizzy but again pleasantly so, with a bit of complexity coming through (this was about half an hour after taking it out of the fridge). Quite a bit of flavour still remaining in the aftertaste, and a bit of pithy bitterness from the grapefruit, er I mean whichever hops are making with the grapefruit impersonation.
Beer C was content to be poured without making a fuss, and didn't retain much in the way of head. Almost transparent, though this wasn't immediately apparent, as the glass was covered in condensation (beats condescension any day). A fairly run-of-the-mill aroma, citrus and pineapple if pushed, but the mouth feel was dominated by carbon dioxide. It looks, feels and tastes like one of those beers that is designed to appeal to lager drinkers. (Afraid you might taste something, lager boy?) Consequently, it has a sweetish finish, and leaves me looking around for some mouthwash.
Do you know what they are yet?
On Northern Monk Eternal Session IPA, I really like this beer. Also have Kirkstall Virtuous IPA...
Listening to Depeche Mode, a good combination
My second tasting session of the week, with three cans as before:
Magic Rock Clairvoyance 7.2%
Northern Monk Newer World 7.6%
Rooster's Baby Faced Assassin 6.1%
The two higher abv beers were in 440ml cans, with the lower alcohol Rooster's in a 330ml "kiddy kan".
One of the beers was noticeably darker when I was pouring, which again makes it hard for me to "forget" which one was which (but I'll try not to drop any hints so that you can try to guess the identities). All the beers poured with big frothy heads, though beer B's head subsided quicker. The two paler, more hazy beers gave out great wafts of tropical fruit aroma while I was pouring, and yes I was maintaining an appropriate distance while doing so.
So, beer A is pale and hazy, with a flavour reminiscent of pith and suggesting grapefruit to match its colour. It is lightly carbonated, with a pleasant mouth feel and a fairly dry finish.
Beer B is the slightly darker one, and is almost clear, and in fact the apparent darkness is due to background colours being more noticeable - if held up to the light there is almost nothing in it. Almost no aroma (at least, by comparison with beer A), but the taste is of very astringent seville oranges. The mouth feel is rather thin. The flavour is still present at the finish, even after swallowing.
Beer C is the other pale one, though not as hazy as A, but cloudier than B. Tropical fruit on the nose, but the taste is much sweeter than the other two, with a suggestion of coconut. A very smooth mouth feel, but a rather sweet finish.
I quite liked beer A, although I have to suppress my antipathy to grapefruit when assessing it. The pleasant mouth feel and bitter finish suit me, but I can't see myself singling this out again in the supermarket. B has the taste of oranges which I prefer to grapefruit, but it's very in-your-face. A subtler version of this (like Fullers 1845) would be more to my taste - or some maltiness to balance the bitterness. C is too easy drinking, too eager to please, too goddam sweet. For anyone old enough to remember Juke Box Jury, this one would get that strange motor-horn sound for MISS. (Just like Tell Laura I Love Her did back in 1960, before spending three weeks at No.1 in the charts.)
Can you say what they are yet?
Not sure if I've had the Clairvoyance before without checking back, Newer world fairly recently in a tin and Baby Faced Assassin some time ago on cask. So another stab in the dark, aided by your tasting notes, while bearing in mind, as peoples differ, so I believe, does what they actually taste ,or perception of what they are tasting, if any of that makes sense?
Anyway...
A- Clairvoyance
B- Baby Faced Assassin
C- Newer World
Interesting use of ridiculed. It got me reaching for the dictionary:
ridicule: derision, mockery; to make fun of
ridicule (2nd meaning): same as reticule (now dialect, but also seen in Jane Austen), meaning a small handbag made of netting
reticule: alternative spelling of reticle
reticle: network of reference lines attached to an optical instrument
reticular: netted or netlike
riddle: a large coarse seive; to make full of holes (like a riddle)
riddled: shot full of holes (like a riddle)
illuminati: the enlightened; a name given to various religious sects; people who claim to have special enlightenment
conspiracy theorists: people who claim to have special enlightenment
ridiculed with illuminati: shot full of holes like a network of enlightened conspiracy theorists