Archive for the ‘beer review’ Tag
Only one full week
And two more days after that
Til Xmas pig out.
Name: Full Sail Wassail
Type: dark ale
Venue: Four Candles, Oxford
Review/notes: 6% abv and bitter but with a fruity finish. Stuck waiting for the next bus as a delay made the last one packed to the gills (expecting two at once, soon, and can see them from this window).
Today’s run while waiting for users to finish with instruments (have to shut down the lab over the weekend) was 3.9 miles looping up Marston Ferry Road. Brrr.
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
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Busy week ahead:
After the weekend just passed
Work will be a breeze.
Name: Malmesbury Westport
Type: porter
Recipe: Untied a rolled pork loin roast and rubbed with cumin, oregano, and paprika then stuffed it with full strength red chilli slices and garlic before rerolling and covering with more chillies, garlic, and lemon grass. Wrapped tightly in four layers of foil, the roast was dumped in a 120 C oven for 8 hours to be finished or charred on the BBQ.
Boiled some potatoes then smashed with butter, salt, pepper, and parmigiano reggiano.
Made a chinese style slaw of shredded cabbage, grated carrot and celery with coriander (cilantro), rice wine vinegar, toasted sesame oil, brown sugar, seeded and de-membraned chillies, and yoghurt.
Venue: Hop Inn, Swindon
Review/notes: While the food cooked or infused, I tidied the rough cut of the carpet in the Drunken Bunny Pub, tacked down the edges, and started moving the furnishings about.
The Public Bar/Dining Room lost the Singapore buffet and gained our minimalist bar and a tall bookcase for a net gain of about four square feet but with the move of the table away from the window seems much greater increase.
The living room is such an odd shape and so cavernous that the shift of the heavy-but-low sideboard/buffet into it (and the tall shelves out) that we doubted the wisdom of the move but it opens a lot of wall space for our far-too-many pictures to go up.
So…nearly a year in we may be getting the ground floor in order.
The porter was spectacular — dark coffee and chocolate and bitter and tart and a perfect break in the midst of the day’s activities.
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
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DT #313, 9 November 2014 (Wychwood Ginger Beard)
A beautiful day
Then, ‘King of Marvin Gardens‘
Ended abruptly.
Name: Wychwood Ginger Beard
Type: ginger beer
Venue: house
Review/notes: Back from a short run just as Jackie returned from a Sunday shift, we tried out some new bottles we recently stocked the fridge with and settled into a movie (with a recording glitch 15 minutes in). My bevvie was the Wychwood Ginger Beard which I opened eagerly but found to be frightfully similar to flavoured malt liquor (an abomination popular in the 1970s back home and which I swore off of back then). The taste of cheap beer fronted and finished each swallow with the ginger tasting more like a chemical dose.
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
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Pint of nostalgia.
Learning to drink in the fens
Although a short course.
Name: Ellgood’s Cambridge Bitter
Type: bitter
Venue: Four Candles, Oxford
Review/notes: Odd to see an Ellgood’s brew in Oxford but a welcome sight, indeed. Brakspear could learn a thing or two about the production end of the business from these Wisbech ladies. This beer was, indeed, bitter, but with layers of hop that maintain their individual flavours. Welcome trip down memory lane to our first year in England, back east in Cambridgeshire/East Anglia.
As this blog winds down (fear not: it will continue at Drunken Bunny), I have been meaning to look back over my old posts from the first to now and list my own personal favourites (about once per month I really knock one for six, but most of the others — like this one — are just there for duty’s sake). This Ellgood’s pint prompted me to start and I just got through February and March of 2009. By the time this blog fills, I should be easily through December 2014.
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
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Beer this fresh and clean
(Translation: Without flavour)
A rare find, indeed.
Name: Wadworth Green Hopped Beer
Type: bitter
Venue: The Prince of Wales, Shrivenham
Review/notes: The only beer on their taps that I haven’t already included in the DT list (their cider selection has already been written up, too), I looked forward to what the GHB had to offer. A bit weak, like something your spinster aunt might drink to hide the fact that she also shoots heroin during those long ‘toilet breaks.’ And, she doesn’t share.
Weird digression, that. Anyway, the Green Hopped appears each year with the first harvest cut of hops and is entirely a crap shoot (like Beaujolais Nouveau). I would have thought the dry, warm weather would have resulted in an oilier bittering agent but it is what it is.
Pub was quiet, today. Good choice as I still feel like shit.
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
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“Frank and the Captain”
Reads the chalk drawing’s caption.
I don’t think Frank posed.
Name: Belhaven Black
Type: stout
Venue: Beehive, Swindon
Review/notes: It’s always a pleasure to go to the Beehive. Of late, I keep hearing tales of the house philosopher they hired (yes, an actual academic…some eastern bloc dissident) twenty-five years ago.
Today, I a ‘buh-LAY-vern’ Black stout, part of their line of Scottish beers for the month of October (theme ‘Bitter Together’ in honour of the failed Scottish Independence vote). The beer had the least character of anything else in the pub, and definitely didn’t merit the 4 quid price tag.
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
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The Swindon Beer Fest:
I could have spent £16
On frivolousness.
Name: Plain Ales Inncognito
Type: stout
Venue: 2014 Swindon Beer Festival
Review/notes: All the notes are in the Beer Fest Review (linked above).
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
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DT #184, 3 July 2014 (How Green Is Our Valley)
Half a naturist
In a field during my run…
Well, alrighty then.
Name: How Green Is Our Valley
Type: bitter
Venue: Red Lion, Marston
Review/notes: This was a very thoroughly hopped bitter and worth seeking out again (although I think the Kite Brewery is small or new or both)
Out for a lunchtime run in the sun I decided paths through the fields were worth a trundle. Not far from where it rejoined the paths near the Uni, I spotted another nature lover hiking through the tall wheat wearing a long-sleeved shirt and a ruck sack. As I turned south from east toward my fellow trekker I noticed that he was trouser-free; after all the times I’ve run around naked in the past it would be churlish to complain, though. Good day for an airing out, though. The route: http://www.mapmyrun.com/workout/631763725
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
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Poet in New York.
Haiku is ridiculous.
On Dylan Thomas.
Name: Mayfields Brewery BV Stout
Type: stout
Venue: house
Review/notes: Pure black with the scent of mouldy leather, an overwhelming mouth of unsweetened baking chocolate, delicate natural carbonation and an iodine finish that lingers for minutes this stout is jsut what I like most in the genre. Rage against the drying of the pint.
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
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Honky Tonk Woman
Is stuck in my head tonight.
Thank you, Private Eye!
Name: Sambrook’s Wandle
Type: bitter
Venue: house
Review/notes: Very good ale, floral and sweet and earthy…much better than their porter.
New issue of Private Eye arrived today, too:
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
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Yay, Mad Men is back.
(Yes, I watch too much tele…
Don’t have a cow, man.)
Name: Sambrook Powerhouse Porter
Type: porter
Venue: house
Review/notes: Not as much body as I would have hoped for. Oh, well, it was a gift for refitting some canoe racks on a work colleague’s car.
Haiku note: I don’t JUST watch telly, though. I had a 3 mile run penciled in for today and the finished route looked like this:
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
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3.6 Percent,
But, a “session” to avoid.
Harry Chapman’s Ale.
Name: Harry Chapman’s Ale
Type: bitter
Venue: The Old Crown, Faringdon
Review/notes: Thin, weak, and with little character but at the low alcohol (and price) you could have several if a session was on the menu. You’ll want the Doom Bar on the adjacent tap for your second one, though.
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
The massive duckling is thawing (breasts for dinner tomorrow, cassoulet on Christmas) and the fence nearly destroyed in the 70 mph gusts of this storm seems stabilised. Settling into the Christmas Box, the penultimate of the pre-Christmas Advent Calendar beverages seemed a good way start the mid-afternoon movie session (watching Scrooged, which I have only seen one scene of–the one where Carol Kane is kicking Bill Murray’s ass–but I’ve seen it dozens of times, à la Groundhog Day, flipping channels).
Overall: Box Steam never let’s me down. This has a lot of the character of a boilermaker (American version) made by dropping a shot of peaty Islay malt into a glass of stout. Good stuff.
Colour: Coal tar.
Aroma: Machine shop…cutting oil and hydraulic fluids. Compelling, to me.
Mouth: Not as full-bodied as I expected, and more bitter and astringent than I would have predicted from the other evidence (and the label).
Flavour: Quite bitter but a good back note of chocolate and dried fruit…European fruit like cherries, nothing tropical. Definitely something from the cold lands for people living with early sunsets.
Yesterday’s entry here.
We made the annual Christmas trip to Franco and Anna’s Italian shop in Gorse Hill and (due to sudden traffic on this site searching for places to buy Vin Santo in Swindon) bought up their remaining stock; then we headed home and I started baking the biscotti di Natale. Then, a miracle happened.
It’s not a miracle that I decided to drink a beer, but it is one that the Cotswold Spring Brewery managed to make something so spectacular out of nothing more than hops, malt, yeast and water (no flavouring or aromatic agents at all). Unusual for these reviews, I will try hard to give an accurate – if not erudite – representation of this spectacular beverage (shifting the order of the reviews to match the order in which this stuff delighted me):
Colour: A brown deep and warm that would make stronger men weep for some lost love; think the colour of Bambi’s mother’s eyes if you can’t fish around for something more appropriate.
Aroma: Spicy and, I shit you not, strongly reminiscent of the Monstrous Erection Sloe Gin that, sadly, no longer is available.
Flavour: There is a sweetness and tang that reminds me of mince pies with a bit of orange peel added to the mince and perhaps some spelt or rye flours added to the crust. Not a small hint of rye whiskey, either.
Mouth: Full bodied and tart-to-very-bitter; so full-bodied, in fact, that it struggles to clear the mouth of the gooey biscotti dough it now competes with.
Overall: My god. Really, Jesus on a stick. I do not have words for how wonderful this is. I am purchasing a few more bottles to parse through the coming months since it is bottle conditioned and the active culture will continue to change the product through to at least the ‘USE By’ date, handwritten on each bottle (May 2014 for the ones I bought on the hill):
Yesterday’s beverage review here.
Overall: Bitter and sweet competing almost equally (what better metaphor for Christmas). Very much like an American blond, odd for a brewery started half a decade before the War of 1812 (sorry Brits, I know you had other things on your plates back then, but the Americans remember this one like it was yesterday).
Colour: Gold
Aroma: Frankincense (or some other aromatic I can’t put my finger on)
Mouth: Myrrh – bubbly, medium density and waxy on exit
Flavour: Weed: it really wouldn’t be Christmas without the tree, or in this case a shit load of weedy hops
Yesterday’s entry here.
Biased by our personal histories we are forced to judge the world accordingly. I know, and have known for a long time, that the Otter Brewery is down in Devon but my first Otter Bitter was nearly five years ago in the Lazy Otter near Stretham (on the River Ouse) then every other pub I hit on the Great Ouse seemed also to stock the stuff, so I have a very Fen-centric view of the brews. Today in the Fork Handles I found Otter Claus waiting for me.
Overall: Not much different from Otter’s Bitter, but that’s not a complaint.
Colour: Streets by the Wisbech docks after a flood, ferric red/brown.
Aroma: A spring jog along the mouth of the Great Ouse close to the Great Wash, with cereal growing in the fields and sugar beet fumes billowing from the factories.
Mouth: Medium but a bit sticky. I’m sure this would prompt an argument with those that know better but it’s an argument that reminds me of pointing out how heavy the accents in East Anglia actually are (like Californians, they think they don’t have an accent, and like Californians they are dead, fucking wrong).
Flavour: All business: bitter, curt, and sharp; but, also a farm business with some of the social niceties left intact, like the floral scents in the aftertaste.
Yesterday’s entry here.
Tomorrow is the last day that the labs are officially open until the Winterval ends and even though we’re both working throughout most of the holidays the feasting must go on. Tonight I’m preparing tomorrow’s roast pork shoulder by unrolling it, giving it a dry rub with fennel seeds, cumin, garlic powder, cinnamon, and oregano then spiking the skin and fat with some cloves and re-rolling it around apple slices doused with rice vinegar, soy and fish sauces the juice of a wedge of lemon (antioxidant). It will go in the slow cooker sometime around noon to be taken out for tea…yum. The beer that stood by me through the effort was Bath Ale’s Festivity.
Overall: My general disappointment with the Christmas ales lacks merit when 3 are already in my short list for next year before this one joined them. Not what most would call a session beer at 5% abv, it would definitely go with some rich snacks — some stinky cheese or foie gras or steamed clams…ah, the Christmas feasting takes the lead over the lab maintenance….
Colour: The brown-black of spent vacuum pump oil, much of which I will see in the coming weeks.
Aroma: Faint but lightly scented of yeast and lighter still of agar plates.
Mouth: Full bodied and bold. A porter with the mouth of a stout, but slips the tongue like fine port.
Flavour: A little sweeter than I expected but not cloying. A bit like a chilled coffee or a chocolate espresso bean. Maybe a bit of toast (or else I might be having a stroke).
Yesterday’s entry here.
“What’s in this?” I wondered as I sat in the window of the Fork Handles to try the Divine Yule Saison. Reading on the web, it turns out it is made with four types of hops and boiled pumpkin…wouldn’t imagine it would work but it does.
Overall: Medicinal in flavour and action, like, “wow, Mom’s prescriptions are better than usual.”
Colour: Yellow like a copperhead’s belly, pale golden.
Aroma: Juicy Fruit gum (first Wrigley’s reference since Baseball season). Ethylene, too, like overripe apples.
Mouth: Medium body, sharply citric. Lot’s of after taste but leaves mouth clean.
Flavour: Floral, like a blond…a very bitter blond. Seasonal bitterness, bitterness of regret and loss. Very good stuff.
Yesterday’s entry here.
Look at how happy I look after the first sip; that is a rare shot, indeed. Back to work after a long weekend but it turned into a long day as I had an engineer in for some repairs on a mass spec and a massive IT fuck-up that prevented another instrument from communicating its needs and desires to its control PC. Once finished there, I was too late to catch the train to the boss’ house in Islip for the annual Christmas do…usually an okay get-together once you are stuck in but crowds that large in such confined quarters makes me uncomfortable; my choice to kill time till the bus home (damn the luck, missed the party) was back at Far From the Madding Crowd. Yeah, that’s it, ’twas my neuroses made me drink….
The brewery is Marston Moor, the ale is Mongrel’s Santa Paws, the notes are below.
Overall: I like it: challenging and different, it would be good to spring on a beer snob after telling them it was a lager (visual inspection would pass), or on a dear friend of dread foe, depending on their mood and yours that day.
Colour: Amber…wee…dog wee.
Aroma: Turpentine and wee…again with the wee. I had a baseball bat that smelled this way after the dog took a piss fancy to the pine tar smeared on it.
Mouth: Surprisingly medium bodied and very lightly carbonated (or, rather, aerated from the sparkler on the taps). Fills the mouth and attacks every bit of the taste buds.
Flavour: Rudely bitter with a bite worse than its bark (if it were willow bark, like you extract salicylic acid from). Floral hints, but overridden by the heavier handed flavours and scents.
Yesterday’s entry here.
Cooking some venison goulash and drinking a Welsh stout from Brains. Merry Christmas to me.
Overall: I thought it referred to Mrs. Claus, but after having one I think it is ostensibly a stout trying to come out of the closet a porter. Still, the best beer so far this advent (the ginger beer being another sort of beverage altogether).
Colour: Black as coalpits.
Aroma: Cardiff Bay: brackish with a lot of decay but occasional fresh notes as if the sea is just over yonder (no, farther than that).
Mouth: Full bodied and sumptuous, sweet and creamy.
Flavour: Chocolate and walnut shell, a bit of espresso bean and brown sugar. Absolutely awesome.
Yesterday’s entry here.
The Endless British Pub Crawl 