So far today
BrewDog Hazy Jane ( not overly keen on this one)
Magic Rock Highwire Grapefruit'
A little later I'm looking forward to some...
Magic Rock Dark Arts and
BrewDog/Evil Twin Roaster Coaster , one I'm now warming to.
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So far today
BrewDog Hazy Jane ( not overly keen on this one)
Magic Rock Highwire Grapefruit'
A little later I'm looking forward to some...
Magic Rock Dark Arts and
BrewDog/Evil Twin Roaster Coaster , one I'm now warming to.
Next up is Roosters Baby- Faced Assassin,a proper IPA with some decent bitterness 9/10
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Upping the ante now with Magic Rock Cannonball IPA 7.4% .Didn't read the label on the tin and got a bit of sediment but who cares,this is another winner with lots going on. 9/10
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Yes,it is.
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Had Thornbridge -Jamestown nice 7.5/10
same score for Vocation -life and death
And very nice it is too.
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Yes I have to agree.At first besides the coffee I got a firm hit of the 9% but as it goes down the alcoholic content is overtaken by the complex flavours.A balance of sweet and bitter.The nitro seemed to improve the head.A great beer and the shipping may be behind the £3.50 price tag for 402 ml.Worth every penny.Another 9/10 .
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Tonight's offerings were both from Faversham's finest - Nun's Delight to start, followed by a couple of Whitstable Bay and washed down with Double Stout. I feel a bit tired now.
I bought a few beers from Morrisons the other day, partly prompted by something I had read by Boak & Bailey about Thornbridge Jaipur, a drink I haven't tried for many years. I enjoy reading their blog because they seem to be honest, diligent, enthusiastic, engaging; I didn't need to read this post to realise that our tastes in beers are pretty much unaligned. However, they made a good case for trying Jaipur again.
My main reason for avoiding it? Well, I suppose I took against Thornbridge for the same reason I didn't like Led Zeppelin: I didn't like what they did, I didn't like their business model and I was particularly pissed off that they were incredibly popular. Led Zeppelin eventually scored with me because Physical Graffiti somehow crept up on me unawares; there's been no similar epiphany with Thornbridge and their beers, which all appear to have been ripped off uncredited from ancient blues artists. (Some confusion there, but you get my drift.) Most of their beers seemed to me to have a residual taste that reminded me of lemon sherbet (I used to have a sweet tooth as a child), and when they tried to make a non-lemony beer, it was just boring.
Another reason for avoiding Jaipur was that, when on a pub crawl (and when am I not on a pub crawl - apart from now obv), I look to drink at somewhat lower abv than 5.9% unless it's something I really fancy. This is all about getting to the end of the day without throwing up or missing a train or otherwise making a fool of myself, with consequent hangover.
Maybe the last time I had Jaipur was when I went to this Best Western hotel in Sheffield city centre so that I could write a review. And ok it was the keg version, but it was utter crap. (I haven't been back - the review is six years out of date. Anyone?) However, B&B were very keen, and they mentioned that the beer had improved after being less good a decade or so ago (presumably someone let the accountants have a go at brewing). So I thought I'd give it a go.
Anyway, getting back to Morrisons. So, Jaipur is £6 for a box of four 33cl cans; £11 if you fancy two boxes. Also at four for £6 were any number of other beers in cans, so I bought four different, modern IPA-type beers that I hadn't had before, thinking I'd see what I could do by way of a blind tasting. Difficult if you live on your own in lockdown, because how can you taste them blind? And I don't have five identical glasses, so it's difficult to blindside myself. But I do have four almost identical festival glasses (different festivals, but similar enough), so tonight I did a tasting of the "other four" - I still haven't touched the Jaipur. I stuck labels (1 to 4) on the base of each can and each glass, and poured a third of a pint out, returning the cans to the fridge for later. I then took each glass into the other room, placing them onto upside down coasters that I had previously labelled A to D. By this time I had forgotten which beer was which, so I turned over the coasters and started to taste.
Watch this space.
To save referring back to the photos, these were the beers:
1. Allendale Wanderlust IPA 6.5%
2. Siren Soundwave IPA 5.6%
3. Drygate Crossing the Rubicon West Coast IPA 6.9%
4. Vocation Life & Death IPA 6.5%
Here are the notes I made when I started to drink the incredibly well disguised beers:
Beer A was a straw colour, not quite clear but not what you could call murky. It smelled quite strongly of grapefruit, and this was the dominant flavour, with a sweet finish.
Beer B was quite an attractive orange in colour, but with a slight haze; again, not really murky. I didn't pick up much on the nose, maybe a bit of subtle citrus. Citrus was noticeable in the mouth and the finish was very bitter.
Beer D (they got out of order on the table) was pale yellow, almost white, and very cloudy, a bit like a wheat beer. There was fairly subtle grapefruit on the nose, but in the mouth it seemed more lemony, and the finish was sweetish.
Beer C was a similar colour to Beer B, but was perfectly clear. On the nose it was difficult to identify anything, but on tasting it was citrussy, but more like subtle orange. There was a bitter finish to this one.
So, which was which?
Had all four of them didn't think much of the Allendale or Drygate but its a while ago so
a-3
b-2
c-1
d-4
I have a very little sense of smell but it comes and goes so rarely notice what a beer smells like and its a big advantage when my wife asks me to clean up the cat shit in the garden.
I would agree with Johns assessment of the beers identities, I've tried 3 of the 4 missing out on the Drygate, I disliked the Allendale, but love the Siren and Vocation, the latter breweries beers has been a revelation to me this lockdown, for the record I don't give a jot whether a beers murky or not, I know some beg to differ.
These were the four beers in their numbered cans/glasses:
1. Allendale Wanderlust IPA 6.5% Pale malt, Oats; Zeus, Cascade, Centennial , Citra, Mosaic
2. Siren Soundwave IPA 5.6% Maris Otter, Dextrin Malt, Wheat ; Citra, Simcoe, Chinook, Columbus
3. Drygate Crossing the Rubicon West Coast IPA 6.9% Pale, Crystal, Malted Oat; Ekuanot, Cascade
4. Vocation Life & Death IPA 6.5% (Malts & hops not identified on can or website, but they're "proud to put [their] name on the can", so they must be good'uns.)
4. Vocation Life & Death
3. Drygate Crossing the Rubicon
2. Siren Soundwave
1. Allendale Wanderlust
I was a little surprised that I didn't like the Vocation beer, because I've had a few of those before - can't remember which, because their names are all so samey.
Siren beers just don't suit me, or at least, none of those I've had so far.
Drygate is a new brewery to me, and I enjoyed this one. I've had a few beers with Ekuanot, and I can remember one that was very bitter and another that was sweetish, which is a matter of how the hops are treated, i.e. when they are added in the brewing process. Liked this one.
I've had a few Allendale beers before, and always found them well made, even if not always to my taste. If I'd read the list of hops (Citra, Mosaic), I wouldn't have bought it, but this was the beer of the day for me. How about that?
Well, you both correctly identified the Allendale. Probably my lousy tasting notes to blame for your failures on the other three!
Interesting how the beers I like are the ones you two don't. You two clearly aren't into bitter beers. (Surprise!)
Changing my daughters' nappies all those years ago prepared me for the by-products of the various cats that we somehow acquired, and also stood me in good stead for the alcoholic homeless guys who sometimes used the toilet in my betting shop. Or almost used the toilet. Luckily my daughters have grown up into delightful human beings, unlike some I could mention (not on this forum, it goes without saying).
The Burrow Hill Cider Mill has reopened its shop, so as on one of my dog walking (or 'dogging' as it's know in these parts) routes, looks like I'll be drinking more cider for the foreseeable. Ah, dogging with a glass of warm, strong cider, it's things like that that make 'Somerset' an adjective.
"Worst Pub Crawl Ever-"
No Wonder!
You failed to do even one third of a Winfield.
You will have to buy Buckingham Palace and try again! :bemerry:
PS. Just noticed this is my post number 1,000, sure taken me long enough!
I have been trying the Lidl purchases from last week as I am now off call and back in the bar! I wasn't expecting to like Drygate Disco Forklift Truck - Mango pale ale but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I wasn't impressed with the By The Horns West End Pils.
Tonight am mixing between Brewdog and Vocation. Now on Life & Death, some Elvis Juice for later on, plus Bread & Butter, all are fab. Can't wait to hit Hebdon Bridge when everything gets back to normal :pray: :cheers:
First cask ale since March 15th with a takeout from my local, The Bridge End Inn at Ruabon. Conwy Rampant and another I can't remember. My tins of Vocation etc. are OK for a can or two but today feels like I have had a drink for the first time since March at the above location. I can sample (and mostly enjoy) anything, but my palette is so strongly pro cask, I really miss the Real thing! :drinkup:
A bit like you I have downed BrewDog / Cloudwater New England IPA then Vocation Love&Hate and Life & Death ,all superb.A boating visit to Hebden Bridge ,Tod and Rochdale were all part of the plan for this year but due to Storm Ciara and now this terrible pandemic maybe 2021 is the year ? Due to lockdown moored in Berkhamstead since mid March and unsure when the next move will be.
The Allendale Wanderlust I had recently was probably the least flavoursome (in your face?) beer of its type I've had recently, possibly why it was preferable to you Will, not saying you don't like flavour, just not the flavour I like. That said sometimes I can try a beer and don't rate it, have it a different time, maybe under different circumstances and quite like it. Some beers can be enhanced or vice versa by the previous beer you've had.
Yes, it's not so much a matter of "not liking flavour", I think it's more that I appreciate subtlety in a beer*. For instance, I can't drink a lot of a beer like Titanic Plum Porter, because it just tastes of plums. And more plums. And then some more.
I remember a hazelnut porter made by Neepsend, one of the breweries local to me, which I discovered in a bar in Newcastle under Lyme when I was scoping the pubs for our crawl there. At first I couldn't taste much at all. On the second swallow I could identify a faint nutty flavour. Towards the bottom of my glass it was definitely hazelnutty.
Beers that I tend to avoid are those where the brewers have very cleverly obtained the flavour of blood oranges, or tangerines, or mandarins from whatever combination of hops. And then not only said so in the name of the beer and in the blurb on the can (or the pump clip - remember those?), but also (just in case you didn't read the message) HIT YOU IN THE FACE WITH AN ORANGE AT EVERY SIP. No thanks.
Yes, there's that. And there's also how cold or gassy the beer is. How fresh or stale, too.
*Not saying that you don't, Mick!
I can't get on with Plum Porter at all, I am more than happy to have this with a light lunch though.
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I might try a Jaipur with food. Thanks for the suggestion. It's the sort of bland, undemanding lager-ish beer that would work. I had one last night, but not with food, and didn't like it much. Too fizzy - I can't believe Boak & Bailey said it was the nearest thing to real ale they'd had since lockdown started! (See https://boakandbailey.com/2020/04/sa...-thornbridge/: "a glass filled to the brim with the contents of most of two cans is about as close to a pint of cask ale as we’ve been able to get at home.") - And totally lacking in depth or complexity.
The can of Jaipur I had with some cheese and salad was ok. I didn't chill it as much as the previous one, which had been in the fridge for a week. Mind you, temperature hadn't been a problem with the four cans I had for the blind tasting the other night (#256). But the carbonation is still a problem for me with Jaipur. Again, none of the four was overcarbonated, but I find Jaipur to be aggressively so. A matter of taste, I guess, because some people like their beers gassy but for me it's a no-no.
I did try the Drygate Crossing The Rubicorn today, it was alright but a long way off being a favourite beer.