Attachment 2574 described as an Oat DDH IPA at 5.9 % it lacks the body of my previous beer, it is juicy and citrusy, thanks to the hop quaternity of Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe and Galaxy. 7/10
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Attachment 2574 described as an Oat DDH IPA at 5.9 % it lacks the body of my previous beer, it is juicy and citrusy, thanks to the hop quaternity of Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe and Galaxy. 7/10
Siren -- Cacao & Cherry Broken Dream Twisted Breakfast Stout
Attachment 2575
Wow! A souped up version of the Broken Dream Breakfast Stout with sour cherries,cacao nibs and bourbon barrel aged coffee.All those flavour are evident in the rich brew with the 7.4% most certainly there.Lactose is used to give a milk stout feel,this is a wonderful complex beer. 10/10
Siren -- Moonlight Beams
Attachment 2576
Described as an Imperial Lager with Oak,I can only assume the Imperial comes from the 7.4% while the lagering takes place in oak casks.It's a classic lager style ,clear clean and smooth with little in the way of heavy hop action but some pleasing malt flavours.Clever in that it doesn't drink 7.4% but maybe just too subtle for me. 7/10
Siren -- Pompelmocello
Attachment 2577
The tin says Juicy Grapefruit Sour IPA and it certainly is sour but not enough to make you wince.The grapefruit is delivered by ekuanot,bravo and mosaic hops along with zest and juice but there is balance from malts you may expect in an IPA although the tin talks about lactose delivering sweetness.I thought that sour is the dominant theme with this beer.Woke me up but an easy drink at 6%.
8/10
Siren -- Scattered Light
Attachment 2579
Described as a Three Wood Barley Wine I had some trepidation.In the days of my youth I found Barley Wines to be sickly ,overly sweet with an overpowering alcohol hit. This effort from Siren shows how modern brewers have improved these brews,the malts deliver a variety of sweet notes but despite being 10% there is a long dry finish.Apparently this beer is spun through Cypress,Oak and Maple spirals (what ever that means !) which I failed to notice but if that helped deliver the balance well done. 8/10
Yes. Oak wood chips have been used in inexpensive red wine for years, hence the 'oaky' flavour. I imagine that spirals were chosen as they have a large surface area, reducing steeping time. Or they're just cashing in on the current trend for spiralizing.
More spinning.
Siren -- Middle Finger Discount.
Attachment 2580
Described as IPA with Mosaic Hops and Cedar Wood.Mosaic I'm familiar with but what does cedar wood taste or smell like ? The nose is more than just mosaic and the 7.2% is well disguised while the suble sweetness of an IPA is more muted.An interesting brew but did I get wood ? Answers on a postcard ;) 8/10
Attachment 2581(Simcoe DIPA).
This really is very good, presses my buttons anyway. An 8.0% Double IPA showcasing the Simcoe hop, predominant flavours are piney citrus and juicy Apricot,It lets you know your drinking a big beer, Its lovely. 9/10.
Expecting a box of Siren tins tomorrow.
Sainsburys have got a few new beers in
turning point -milk foley 6.3 the blurb says strawberry and cream pale ale. Should it not be strawberries and cream.
presumably strawberry means flavouring rather than fruit and lactose which means cream.
Strange flavour imo nice enough but not one I will be buying again 7/10
Next one
Siren -midnight stack 4.2 a maple pancake nitro milk stout.Nice beer but a bit thin for a stout.Brewdog and Guinness both do nitro stouts with a widget in the can.Poured pretty flat but after reading the can you are meant to up end the can and thrash it into the glass.Poor mans nitro or should that be pour mans .7.75/10
I always read the can after the beer has been poured as in the old days you didn't want to disturb the beer.Old habits die hard I suppose.
next one
Brew by Numbers -05 ipa had this before nice enough beer.Thought this was great when I first had it but so many better beers have since surpassed it. 7.75
As I like a fag I usually sit outside in my marque .This is the first time I have sat indoors since the covid struck.Temp was minus 3 at 9.00pm and is expected to be minus 8 during the night.No need to cool the beers recently. Lets have a snout then review the next beer.
last one
Wild Beer -wild ipa a mixed fermentation beer? Dont see what it brings to the party apart from a cidery aftertaste.7.5/10
Shame too as Wild Beer were at the cutting edge of new beer styles and then along came NEIPA.The rest is history.
Probably the Sinclair c5 of brewing.
I don't think cedar is there for flavour, rather it's to deter unwanted guests.;)
Attachment 2582
A Nitro Milk Stout at 4.7% abv requiring the hard pour technique that results in a very smooth drinkable stout, nothing is in your face just subtle Mocha, praline and vanilla.
Very pleasant. 8/10.
Most of the beers I've had this week have been old favourites, but here are three new ones:
Thursday
Salt Hexagon Project #2 Barley Wine 10.9% - “aged for over 12 months in Australian Whisky Casks from Starward Whisky, a Melbourne based distillery which matures whisky in Australian red wine barrels. The Barrels are used to age this beer and impart their signature fruity flavours of red berries, orchard fruits, vanilla, caramel and soft oak spice.” This is one of four beers that I bought from Salt brewery in the same series, and the first one I have drunk. In a 440ml can, this is quite a hefty chunk of alcohol, and it certainly tastes like it. On the whole I found this an enjoyable drink, though perhaps a little harsh compared with most of the barley wines I've had. I guess this relative harshness is from the wine/whisky casks, but it was on the whole a decent beer nevertheless. (After I had finished this one, I went on to Harveys Christmas Ale 7.5%, a barley wine which is much smoother.)
Friday
Buxton Capablanca (2020 Barrel Masters) 11%, a scotch barrel aged imperial porter. In a 33cl can this is less daunting than the Hexagon beer the other night. It pours very smooth and black, and drinks very smooth too. My only criticism of this beer would be that there is a little too much chocolate about it. OK, so at £10.95 for a small can, this is pretty expensive but just for once I think it was worth it. I followed this up on the night with another Harveys beer, their very good Imperial Extra Double Stout 9%, which has the chocolate dialled down much lower.
Sunday
Salt x Docks Beers Bowline, described as a 6.6% East India Porter, with seven malts and three hops: simcoe, citra and centennial. I don't know what an East India Porter is, but this tasted to me like a Black IPA, and a most enjoyable one. It seems to me that the hops and the malt are in perfect balance, with the astringency of the hops and the smoothness of the malts blended in total harmony. The 440ml can was priced at just £3.50 direct from the brewery, which seems like a pretty good deal, and luckily I ordered two.
Last nights beers
vocation -bread and butter not sure if I have had this before but I expected better 7/10
arbor - all the mo,s. ipa with 3 hops.not bad but a bit harsh.Think Arbor are better suited to cask beer.7.5 Arbor beers come in pint tins which is a nice change.
cont
Brass Castle -wallop .A Yorkshire stingo.This tasted quite fruity and ciderish like a cask beer that's been on for 6 or 7 dayd.Only drank half then poured the rest in the drain.Shame as I was looking forward to this.
cont.
I am a sucker for new beer but sometimes its the old fav that raise the bar
Sam Smith -oatmeal stout 8/10 lovely smooth quaffable beer Also a pint bottle .
Tonight I started with Attachment 2583 6.2% and supposedly a NEIPA, murky yes but I found the body too thin for what I recognise as this style, this seems to be a trait in their beers, good hop flavour but a little disappointing. 6.5/10
I followed this (still following) with a big boy, Attachment 2584, an Imperial Coffee Stout weighing in at 11.5%, the can promises this-
"Umbral Abyss is a very rich and decadent experience with a dense aroma of coffee which is followed by thick malts, figs and liquorice. The flavour follows suit with supremely viscous lashings of oak, charred malts and molasses joining the pantheon. Enter the Abyss."
The Coffee's there but there is far too much Liquorice coming through for my taste, there is no doubt though that this is a well crafted beer and It's strength is hitting home as I write, thankfully I have a day off tomorrow. 8/10
Just the one beer tonight, but a pretty good one: it's a subtle New England IPA by UnBarred, a brewery based in my birthplace: Brighton. This one's called, erm, I've no idea what it's called as there is no name on the can. It's a very attractive can, all monochrome photos of waves breaking on the shore somewhere but I've no idea where. Somewhere in New England, I guess.
The hops are amarillo, azacca and el dorado according to the panel on the side. Hold on - could that be the name of the beer? UnBarred Amarillo, Azacca and El Dorado NEIPA 7%. Oops, missed the bit in the panel above: #01.21. So, it's their January 2021 NEIPA. It tastes much like any other NEIPA to be honest, but I've got to give them credit for making it fairly subtle, though in fact it still tastes like fruit juice to me*. And the only hint that it's got alcohol in it is that you feel more woozy after drinking it than you did before. Cheers.
Wait a minute, here's their website: "...this belter of a beer brings peaches, apricots and tangerine zest together in a smooth, soft, lightly bitter New England not to be missed!" Apricots! Yeah, too true. Hey, I got this for £4.95 for a 440ml can at the bottle shop in Sheffield's Moor Market, but they're advertising it on their website for £5.10 - so this beer is an actual bargain! And I got a 5% loyalty discount. Woo hoo!
* Pale Malt, Naked Oats, Flaked Oats, Malted Wheat were also involved, or had some peripheral involvement in the making of this product. But, hey, at least it's vegan. Is it bed time yet?
Tonight's beer is a magnificent 12.5% Imperial Stout from North Brewing in collaboration with Mikkeller. This 440ml can cost £7.50 from Beer Central. First impression is of a massively alcoholic beverage, seemingly stronger than the advertised abv. Made with barley, oats and wheat, and with added cinnamon, cocoa, coffee and vanilla as well as the expected hops and yeast. I was drinking this one fairly slowly, as you might imagine, and after enjoying the first quarter or third of the can, I began to feel that the chocolate was a bit overwhelming, and my enjoyment declined.
This is a fault that I suppose I pick out quite a lot in these modern beers, and it's particularly faulty in this one. I'm a great fan of subtlety, and I'm afraid there's nothing subtle about this beer. Take, for example, breweries that don't add actual coffee and cocoa to their imperial stouts, like Harveys, Pohjala and The Kernel: those flavours come instead from chocolate malt, and balance, subtlety and complexity come from the yeast, hops and barrel ageing. Those are beers that I'll buy again; not so much this one from North x Mikkeller.
I didn't notice the cinnamon, despite the fact that it was listed in the ingredients before the cocoa and coffee, which usually indicates there's more of it - which I find hard to believe. I didn't get much coffee either, but perhaps this is because I'm particularly sensitive to chocolate - it's that crude cocoa powder taste that I associate with drinking hot chocolate when I was a kid. I've had porters with added coffee grounds, which are also pretty revolting, in my opinion. Reinheitsgebot über alles! (Of course, with your aversion to cinnamon, that would have been the dominant flavour if you were drinking this beer!)
A delivery of stouts and porters from Beercraft in late Jan / early Feb included 3 of Tiny Rebel's Stay Puft Imperial Stout variants which I decided to give a try to tonight. I thought about calling my venue K's Bar, but I was reminded of this place in Dunstable I'd visited approaching five years ago, so thought better of it.
Tiny Rebel Stay Puft Imperial Irish Coffee Marshmallow Porter (9.0%)
The beer from this kiddie can poured rather flat with no head, and had a light nose of coffee with a residual hint of marshmallow. A subtle coffee mouthfeel was dampened by the marshmallow, the aftertaste solely boozy coffee. Probably the most drinkable of the three.
Tiny Rebel Stay Puft Imperial Honey Glazed Ham Marshmallow Porter (9.0%)
Wasn't sure what to expect with this one. If anything, I was expecting perhaps a hint of ham – "Imperial Stay Puft poured over honey glazed ham" the can stated. Poured with a faint head which soon died down, but what was most noticeable was the smell which initially seemed artificial but soon gave way to something of a whiff of strong bacon crisps – my other half was continually carping about the smell until I'd finally seen it off. An aftertaste of honey-glazed ham and no hint of marshmallow that I could discern. A novelty, and likely a 'seemed like a good idea at the time' job, but probably more a contender for Bloody Awful Beer of the Week.
Tiny Rebel Stay Puft Imperial Mint Chocolate Marshmallow Porter (9.0%)
The most effervescent of the three, this had a strong After Eights / Bendick's mints flavour – both in mouthfeel and aftertaste, over-powering anything else. Glad I ended on this and not the Honey Glazed Ham version as at least this one acted as a kind of palate-cleanser to finish the night off.
Are you sure? I think I've had this one.
Forget the jab, I'm having a beer and for starters is Attachment 2587by The Kernel who in my opinion sit at the top table of British brewers. This particular beer comes in a 330ml bottle and fairly well carbonated but not excessively so, crisp and clean drinking , the unmistakable hop character is present in abundance, not everyone's favourite hop I know, (OB), but I could happily drink this all night long. 9/10.