Fairytale of Brew York 2020 has gone nuts!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
london calling
Brew York do like a pun.Good brewer imo.
I couldn't put this off any longer... Fairytale of Brew York 2020:
"Big peanut flavour, buttery pecan, complex maple and creamy vanilla with just a hint of cinnamon spice combine in our annual Christmas stout."
Verdict?
a) yum! or
b) you're kidding - I wanted a beer!
This week at the Sheffield Hatter's Inn
Some beers drunk in the last week at home:
Salt Hexagon Project #3 Barrel Aged Baltic Porter 12.3% 440ml can. The second of four cans in this series bought for £28.50 from Salt Brewery. Aged in Starward Whisky barrels, which have in their turn previously been used to store Australian red wine, giving the resulting beer a complexity of flavour and a vinous quality appropriate to its high level of alcohol. Helpfully, the can is labelled “intended for sharing”. Given the lockdown situation, I decided to share it with myself over a period of approximately two hours. I hope I treated the beer with the respect it deserves.
Wilde Child Marching On Together Pale 6.0% 440ml can £4.95 Dram Shop. As a Leeds Rhinos fan, I couldn't resist giving this one a go, Made with nelson sauvin, citra and simcoe hops, this is not really how I like my beers to be, but it was comparatively restrained and quaffable. A well made beer.
Black Isle Rolling Palace IPA 6.0% 440ml can £4.20 Dram Shop. In a can illustrating a caravan towed by a large car, so not necessarily environmentally friendly, though the beer itself is vegan. The blurb goes on about how it's not a West Coast IPA or a New England IPA, just an IPA, made with mosaic hops: “...bitter, but not too bitter...clean but not too clean...hoppy, but...actually, yeah, it's hoppy”. I've had some mosaic beers that I couldn't stand, but I actually surprised myself by enjoying this. So either my tastes are changing or they've done something different with this one.
Duration Bet The Farm Pale 4.5% 440ml can £2.00 Roscoe Road Liquor Store. Reduced price because the best before date was in February, but this beer was still in very good condition. Described as a Continental Pale, without actually saying which continent: “crisp, dry and elegantly balanced”. The blurb then goes into some techno-babble about “refreshingly hop bitter finish”, “silky mouth feel”, “fruit esters from co-pitched yeast strains”, “rustic barrel aged version off foeder will evolve this into our farmhouse pale”. I'm not sure what version of the English language that was, but suffice to say the brewers at Duration (near Kings Lynn in Norfolk, England) are better at making beer than they are at writing. The hops were tettnang and mandarina bavaria, but it seemed quite similar to the Wilde Child pale which was made with nelson sauvin, citra and simcoe. I may be losing it.
Wilde Child Uncontrollable Occurrence Pale 4.8% 440ml can £2.90 Dram Shop. A double dry hopped pale made with amarillo and vic's secret, but neither outrageously strong, nor outrageously expensive, this was another good beer from Leeds picked up on last Sunday's trip to my local bottle shop. I'm getting to like these Wilde Child beers.
Kirkstall Raynville Chocolate Porter 5.5% 440ml can £3.70 Roscoe Road Liquor Store. Another one from Leeds, in a can made up to look like a bar of Bournville chocolate, it's made in collaboration with Raynville Superstore, an independent and family-run craft beer specialist based in Armley. I'm struggling to think of a Kirkstall beer that I have really enjoyed (maybe their barley wine); this one was a bit too one-dimensional for a porter, with chocolate the dominant flavour only flavour.
Belhaven Speyside Oak Aged Blonde 6.5% 33cl bottle. Roscoe Road Liquor Store. A bit of a bargain this, selling for only £1.50 despite being still in date. I wasn't expecting a whole lot of flavour, but in fact it was nicely balanced, with a whiff of alcohol and vanilla from the whisky barrels not too overpowering for the not overly hoppy or malty beer. A pleasant drink: undemanding, but refreshing.
Nogne O Imperial Stout 9.0% 50cl bottle £5.47 Beer Sniffers. I bought this online three months ago and I can remember having my doubts at the time about a half-litre bottle at this strength. I gave it the same respect I gave to the 440ml can of 12.3% Baltic porter. The blurb on the label is limited to a few key words: “Sweet. Full bodied. Black. Roasted. Warming.” (This appears to be a translation from the same words in Norwegian.) They go on to say how they enjoy it with dark chocolate, ice cream or other desserts, and I'm pretty sure they're still talking about the beer when they say they like to pour it over vanilla ice cream. That wasn't how I drank it. Respect.
Triple Point New World Tripel 9.3% 440ml can £4.95 Dram Shop. This is the first beer I've had at home from the Sheffield brewery that took over what was Sentinel, a brewhouse and bar set up in a former carpet showroom, and apparently reliant on debt for their funding, if their prices and rapid demise are anything to go by. The successor company, having picked it up cheap, have done something about the rather unimaginative brews too, if this one is representative. A true to style tripel but made with Australian galaxy, and wakatau and wai-iti from New Zealand. Despite the usual blurb (how can a beer be both "beautifully balanced" and "exploding with fruit salad flavours"?), it was a very pleasant drink.
Brew York Cereal Killa IPA 6.5% 440ml can £4.50 Dram Shop. Gluten free and described as a crossover, due to the use of “juicy and dank” amarillo, nelson sauvin and citra as well as “bitter and resinous” simcoe and CTZ. It seemed like a West Coast IPA to me, but what do I know? Anyway, a very well made beer that went down a treat, so let's not quibble.