And very nice it is too.
20200502_214815.jpg
And very nice it is too.
20200502_214815.jpg
"Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
-W.C.Fields
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 .
2020-05-02 21.15.15.jpg
"Good people drink good beer" Hunter S Thompson
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.
'Beer is for all day, not just for breakfast'.
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.
Come On You Hatters!
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?
Come On You Hatters!
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.
"Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
-W.C.Fields
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?
Come On You Hatters!