Archive for the ‘Beer styles’ Category

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Read Ron on Amber Beer

Monday, July 25th, 2011

Ron Pattinson has just published a really great blog post about “amber beer”.

We’ll admit it: we sometimes struggle with the level of scholarly detail on Ron’s blog. This post, though, is really illuminating.

It’s interesting to us for a couple of reasons.

First, because when we first started brewing, we tried to make something called an amber beer based on a recipe we found on some corner of the internet. It didn’t work, but the malt smelled incredible.

Secondly, Ron talks about punters with a fixed idea of what a beer should cost  — 3d. That reminded us of the Czech Republic, where we got the impression that bigger brewers were dumbing their beer down to keep to a magic price point that local punters demand.

In the UK, we seem to have smashed through £3 a pint without blood on the streets, but we were worried there for a while.

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Posted in Beer history, Beer styles | 5 Comments »

Right beer, right time

Sunday, November 21st, 2010

Lots of people don’t like German-style wheat beers; in fact, this blogging partnership is divided on the issue, with Bailey something of a fan, and Boak being very much a sceptic.

Even if you like a good weizen, Franziskaner is probably not your favourite. Of those you can get easily in the UK we think, somewhat predictably, that Schneider is the one to go for. Our all time favourite is Distelhäuser’s (Würzburg), which gives a fantastic hit of tropical fruit, and especially pineapple.

On Friday night, though, after a two and half hour German lesson, a tall, cold Franziskaner at a mediocre, would-be-trendy pub in Waterloo really hit the spot. It didn’t fit the season — it defied and defeated it.

Posted in Beer styles, Germany | 11 Comments »

Autumn: apples and smoke

Sunday, September 5th, 2010

Much as we’d like to pretend it’s ‘late summer’, nature won’t play along.  The leaves are turning brown, we’re being pelted with conkers on the way into work, and the mornings are getting unmistakeably misty.

So, if you can’t defy the coming of autumn, you might as well embrace it.

What does autumnal beer really look and taste like, though?  Many brewers seem to do some word association and so you get lots of beers described as nutty, copper, red or fruity, but which are really the same as the spring, summer or winter ales with a bit more crystal malt.

What would a real autumn beer taste like? It’s apple season, of course, but apples in beer don’t really work — that’s why we have cider — but we’ve said a few times that a good, sour Gueuze reminds us of West Country scrumpy, so that’s a possibility.

Even better, though, would be a good, subtly smoked beer. Nothing tells you it’s autumn more clearly than the smell of a bonfire on the air. I wonder if we’ll have to stick to Schlenkerla (not so subtle) or American examples? It would be nice to come across a few more smoked beers from British breweries.

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Posted in Beer styles | 15 Comments »

Schlenkerla Helles

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

Last year, we met up with Ron Pattinson in Cask and spent a few hours discussing Franconia, East Germany and His Big Book. Ron spotted Schlenkerla Helles in the fridge and recommended it.

We’d not tried it before and loved it. There is no smoked malt in the beer but, being brewed in the same building and with the same equipment as their darker smoked beers, it can’t help but pick up a bit of smokiness.

We never got round to writing this up and, in the months since then, we haven’t seen it on sale in Cask. Our favourite London pub has recently, however, even further expanded it’s beer selection and the Helles has popped up again so were able to enjoy a couple of bottles this week.

In fact, if you’re a fan of Rauchbier, Cask now has several different varieties on offer, in addition to the usual suspects from Schlenkerla.

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Posted in Beer styles, Franconia, Germany | 11 Comments »

We can’t be trusted

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Here’s why you should never take our tasting notes seriously (we certainly don’t).

We were sitting in the garden having a drink in the sun. We started with our own Centennial-hopped pale ale and followed it with Brewdog’s 77 lager, described as a pilsener. We thought 77 tasted like a good Franconian pils — noticeable malt flavour with bitter bite at the end, but with quite restrained, herbal hops.

Reading Barry and Velky Al, however, we realise that this cannot be. Surely we should have spotted the Amarillo hops a mile off? But they were drinking this alongside German and Czech versions, and we were drinking it after having had our tastebuds bludgeoned with c-hops.

Tasting is absolutely relative.

We really enjoyed it at any rate, and will be getting a bit more in for the summer.

Question: have Brewdog stopped making Hoprocker?

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Posted in beer reviews, Beer styles | 5 Comments »

Imperial stout and Sherlock Holmes

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

A poster for Mann's starring Sherlock HolmesWe were feeling a little fragile on Friday night after heavy weeks at work and decided to spend the evening in with a game of Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective and a couple of suitably Victorian gothic beers.

Marble Decadence (8.7%) was pleasing in every way; large gulps were a mindblowing treat for the senses, but delicate sipping worked too, giving us chance to enjoy the  chocolate, vanilla, cherry and raisin flavours which emerged in the mouth one after another over the course of several minutes. A bit of a Heston Blumenthal beer, this one — there’s surely some alchemy at work in its brewing.

Brodie’s Romanov Empress Stout was a freebie and even heavier at a whopping 12.1%. It gave Boak an instant headache (lots of alcohol, lots of sugar) but Bailey enjoyed the almost chewy texture and complex, Harvey’s-like sourness and hints of coal-tar. Enthusiastic conditioning meant that the carpet enjoyed most of it, sadly, but then a full 500ml would have probably done for us.

We solved the case fairly easily. The lion tamer’s brother did it.

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Posted in Beer styles | 2 Comments »

One of each colour in cask ale week

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

The real benefit of Cask Ale Week as we see it is not particularly that it encourages punters to drink more cask ale but that it convinces those selling it to up their game a notch.

In a Fuller’s pub (the Mad Hatter Hotel, near Blackfriars and Waterloo) last week, we were spoilt for choice,  with our beloved London Porter (the Cask Ale Week special), a brilliant IPA (Bengal Lancer),  London Pride, ESB and Chiswick all on offer.

Now, Fuller’s, let’s have that variety all year round: interesting beers are for life, not just for Cask Ale Week.

Posted in Beer styles, real ale | 6 Comments »

A lot of stout about

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

Guinness have set out (pretty successfully) to turn St Patrick’s Day into International Guinness Day but their’s wasn’t the only stout about this week.

For example, Cask in Pimlico had the brilliant, Guinness-baiting Sussex Extra Stout, while Shepherd Neame rolled out their own tastefully branded (ahem) Double Stout.

Could it be that the market is managing to do for stout in March what CAMRA is trying so hard to achieve for mild in May? We’d love to see stouts and porters other than Guinness on sale in pubs during the rest of the year, but this is a start.

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Posted in Beer styles | 7 Comments »

Pretty wits all in a row

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

Our own Belgian style wheat beer

As with koelsch, if you drink one Belgian wheat beer in the middle of a session with other beers, you’d be hard pressed to tell one from another. But, drink them together for comparison, and you can really appreciate the subtle differences.

We took Bailey’s folks to the Dove a while back and, as his Mum is a fan of wheat beers, helped her work through a few from their impressive selection.

Steenbrugge wit was like a drier, more lemony version of Hoegaarden. Next to Steenbrugge, Blanche de Bruxelles seemed to taste of honey, a flavour we’d never noticed before. Florisgaarden was the most interesting of the three, with a pleasing aroma and taste of juniper, which we really liked.  Quite a surprise from the big boys. We’ll be nicking that idea for the next Belgian-style wit we brew at home.

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Posted in beer reviews, Beer styles | 5 Comments »

Sour Stout in a Victorian Pub

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

In search of Fullers London Porter, and following a tip from reader Ant, we found ourselves back at the Royal Oak in Borough, south of London Bridge. The Porter was great, as always, if a little flat. Harvey’s Old Ale (4.3%) had rich fruit cake flavours and reminded us of Adnams Broadside. It was also a little sour, which made us wonder if they really do add some aged beer to new to make it, or just a happy accident.

The highlight, though, was the Imperial Stout (9%). The cheery barman was delighted when we asked if they had any and bounced off to get a bottle. He apologised profusely for the fact that it no longer comes in a corked bottle and presented it with some pride in a big wine glass.  We’ve had before but fairly early on in our beer drinking adventures, when our tastebuds were less mature, and then found it too intensely flavoured to actually finish. This time, it was love at first sight. There is something very sexy about a dark beer with a brown, caramel-coloured head. The smell was pure Cantillon — sour, sweet, and (bear with us) bordering on manure. The flavours exploded with every sip: blackberry, chocolate, tobacco (never thought we’d enjoy that), leather… we could go on. Astounding, in short, and now in our top 10.

As we drank, it began to snow outside. A Victorian pub, snow and black beer: it couldn’t have been more Christmassy.

NB – Fuller’s London Porter is also on at the Mad Bishop and Bear in Paddington Station, in cracking form.

A merry Christmas to all our readers – we’ll be back in a couple of days.

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Posted in beer reviews, Beer styles, bottled beer | 10 Comments »

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