So, a new year and just two beers left in my cupboard-under-the-stairs (joke!). These are the two Williams Brothers cans that I picked up at Aldi last year: Klute West Coast IPA 5.6% and Brel Belgian Style IPA 5.7%. Klute says that it is “a clean, cool, golden IPA with a slightly sweet malt character, giving way to a citrus burst of blended hops”, and just for once this seems a reasonable description of the beer. In some ways it reminded me a little of Allendale Wanderlust 6.5%, one of my favourite beers from the lockdown of last spring, though I would say this one was a little less intense in all departments: malty mouthfeel, citrus burst and bitter finish; even so, a pleasingly low carbonation helped me to appreciate this beer's positive qualities. At just £1.25 for a 33cl can, this is a bit of a bargain and I will certainly be checking the shelves at Aldi for more.
I don't know if Klute (the Donald Sutherland & Jane Fonda movie from 1971) is as redolent of San Francisco as Brel was of Belgium. Or perhaps I should say as the name of Brel is still today, more than 40 years after his death in 1978; the movie Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris was released three years before . It remains to be seen what a “Belgian style IPA” might be – the blurb on the can mentions “a complex hoppy profile & underlying fruity character of coriander & orange peel”. It pours a shade or two darker than the Klute – copper to that one's gold, or Pedigree compared to Landlord, say. On first impression Brel is much less in-your-face than Klute, but that's to be expected of the two styles, and drinking the easier-to-drink Brel with the hey-look-at-me memory of Klute still fresh on the palate is asking for trouble. After my third taste I was still not getting any coriander, and I'd be willing to have a bet that no Belgian yeast was ever imported to Alloa to give this beer an authenticity that is clearly lacking. But all the same it's quite a decent, easily drinkable beer with a lot of bang (33 cl at 5.7%) for your bucks (£1.25). I'll try the second can before deciding whether a repeat mission is required for this one.
Of course it's too late to do a blind tasting of these two, so you're allowed a little scepticism, knowing as you do that the Williams Brothers are long-standing favourites of mine, when I say that these are well above the standard I expect from made-for-supermarket beers.
Last edited by sheffield hatter; 04-01-2021 at 19:33.
Come On You Hatters!
It's about time this place had a lick of paint.
Dave? Got any overalls?
And you should see the state of the toilets.
Anyway, that was then - and now it's Lockdown 3, so everything is spick and span. I've even been out and bought some new stock. Essential shopping, innit.
Yesterday my exercise stroll took me to Beer Central in Sheffield's Moor Market. A couple more bottles of Ashover Brewery's very nice Victorian Ruby Mild 7.0% and Damson Porter 4.8% were joined by a repeat purchase of Pohjola Armchair Detective, a 12% imperial porter, which I had previously on Friday, 25 December; in addition I went for an Imperial Russian Stout from a local brewery which I tend to neglect for one reason or another: Thornbridge's Saint Petersburg 7.4%. As some of you may have realised by now, if it's Thornbridge I'll find a fault with it, and in this case it's agressive carbonation - in an Imperial Russian Stout, FFS. What were they thinking? Everyone knows that this beer is supposed to be smooth and velvety.
Come on, all together now. What's it supposed to be?
SMOOTH & VELVETY FFS.
Also I'm getting coffee clashing with orange peel. Very little in the way of an alcoholic presence. And shouldn't there be some sweetness to complement the bitterness in the finish?
Nice to get that off my chest. And it only cost me £3.20.
On to today's exercise-cum-shopping mission, this time to the Dram Shop. It's less than half a mile from my house, so I took a long-cut through a local park called the Ponderosa - yes, named after the ranch in Bonanza!. This gave me the opportunity to practise the exercises my physiotherapist has given me for my wasted hip muscles on the long series of steps that lead up from the park to the road that takes me to the bottle shop. My first trip there since last May, so I felt a little guilty when I thought of the amount of beer I've bought online since then. Support your local shop! They've got a much more extensive stock than I remember, and the owner's chatty son told me this has been in response to the increased demand for greater variety, by which I gathered that they have been doing very nicely without me.
I won't list the beers (nine of them for £39.40), which can be seen in the attached photo, but one of them was their last can of North Brewing x Deya Triple IPA 10% which had been recommended in someone or other's beer and pubs blog, where he said he had shared a can with his missus and it had made the prime minister's Monday night press conference "more palatable", so I'll definitely be telling you about that one when I get around to drinking it. Because it'll take some beer to make in any degree palatable something that is completely intolerable. Watch this space.
Come On You Hatters!
Imperial stout I think not .7.4 its too weak and at £3.20 too cheap
Currently enjoying a bottle of Oakham Inferno whilst listening to Aqualung, (the album ,not our erstwhile friend). Very much to my taste although it could be considered a bit old school now, featuring five hops, Amarillo ,Cascade,Centennial , Chinook and Sterling.
"Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
-W.C.Fields
"Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
-W.C.Fields