MikeGrice.com

You can make your mind up as to whether this is a review or a ramble.

So, my good friends Ben and Amy brought went on holiday to the future, and while they were there they found lots of tasty beer.  They managed to smuggle one of them back for me in their time machine, and this is what I will be trying today.

Now: this is a bit of a weird one for me.  I can’t read the label, all I know about it is that it is a Saison.  I am a fan of Saisons, the familiar dirty farmhouse Belgian ale that quenches the thirst and buzzes the head.  I have had Saisons from Silly, domestic ones such as Darkstar, and I have even had a crack at doing one myself.  In short: I like Saisons.

It’s a pretty bottle, and Ben tells me that I have to drink it quickly, someone from the future told him so.  I should be going out, but I have ordered food, sounds like an opportunity to sneak this chap in to me.

Indian Summer Saison (7.0%) comes packaged in a 330mL stubby bottle, covered in writing from the future.  It opens with a quiet hiss and pours light copper with a short lived loose white head that fades to a ring of bubbles around the edge of the glass.  This beer is bottle conditioned.

One thing I noticed immediately when I opened this is that there was a fresh burst of hop aromas.  This can only be a good thing, I’ve had similar from Mikkeller beer and in general this is a mark of great hop use.

The aromas are quite intense, but make no mistake this is a saison.  We have some sweet malt, but the aroma is dominated by a mix of bready yeast and lightly floral peppery noble hops.  There’s something else in there that’s hard to pin down but I have noticed it in Saisons before.  A hint of acidic, cider-like character.  It’s certainly true to style so far.

Taking a taste, the mouthfeel is medium, with a gently tingling carbonic bite.  The flavour is led by a light malt base, I can imagine they have stayed true to style and gone with a pilsner malt.  There’s a creamy, bready flavour imparted by the yeast punctuated by that cidery tang.  The hops aren’t immediately evident but start to appear as the rest of the flavours fade, leaving you with peppery spice that gives way to a lingering bitter finish.

Dangerously, there is absolutely no betrayal in the beer that it is 7% ABV.  I’ve seen this before in Saisons and it is a dangerous characteristic!  This beer is ideal to quench the thirst on a hot summer day, I can imagine sinking a few of these after slugging it out on the allotment for a few hours.

Overall, this is a very pleasant beer.  The aromas are superb, the flavour is good.  I wonder if having left it a few days it has lost something, as it is the beer is very nice indeed, but with a little something more in the flavour it would have been exceptional.

Clearly, I need to go to Japan and find out for myself.

Rating: 4/5 (tell you what, I’ll go to the future and revise this later.  Actually, hold on, surely if I say that, I will have already gone to the future and amended the rating before you read this?)

When I saw this bottle in the Dram Shop, I found myself grabbing it on autopilot.  It marries two of my favourite things: Russian Imperial Stout and Thornbridge Brewery.  I have had the Saint Petersburg, and while it’s not my favourite take on the style, its certainly quite good.  This beer is brewed to a Courage recipe from the 1850s, so more true to the style than you’d see in one on the shelves today.  I had planned on stashing this for a while, but circumstances have made it so that it has appeared in my glass right now.  Oh, well, if it’s good I’ll buy another one.

My bottle says brewed in April 2011 and bottled in December 2011.  I’ve not seen them on the market until this month, I wonder where they have hidden them This bottle helpfully tells me some of the ingredients, which I like.  We have malts: Maris Otter, Amber, Black Patent and Hops: Apollo, Hallertau Hersbrucker.  The malts certainly sound characteristic of the time; brown and amber malts were used a lot, and Black Patent was invented in the 1800s.  I can imagine from the hops, Hallertauer have been around a very long time, but Apollo is new (~2000).  I guess if its just used for bittering, who cares

Anyway, that’s plenty of waffle, let’s crack it open.

Russian Imperial Stout (9.4%) comes packaged in a 330mL bottle that appears to be hand-labelled with the Thornbridge Hall paper label.  The beer is bottle conditioned with a thin layer of sediment at the bottom of the bottle.  It opens with a loud hiss and pours very dark brown with a firm, dense moussy tan head which sticks to the sides of the glass as it slowly subsides.

The aromas are not as intense as I’d expect.  There are notes of coffee and dark chocolate, faint hints of bitumen.  That said, this is an old authentic recipe, tailored to the Russian Imperial courts of the time, not to a beer geek like me who expects things along the lines of Bearded Lady, Vitesse Noir and Temptation!

Taking a sip, the mouthfeel is full and slick, with a light carbonic edge.  The flavour – wow!  I can see where all the effort in this recipe has gone.  Right away, you get thick treacle, bonfire toffee, muscovado sugar.  This gives way to the traditional Imperial Stout mix of luxurious melted dark chocolate and rich, dark soupy espresso.  As these flavours subside, you get a lingering coffee aftertaste, layered with hints of different flavours: old wine, sherry, and unmistakable alcohol warmth.  Long after the drink is swallowed you are left with a coffee flavour coating your mouth and tongue, like you’ve swilled an espresso.

This is a fantastic beer; I can see what all the fuss is about.  I would go as far as to say it’s a great reference for the style, you can explain the history and idea behind it.  Other beers are great interpretations of this style, I love and hoard many of them, but for someone wanting to know what an Imperial Stout should taste like, well, this is a cracking beer and I will be stocking up.

Rating: 5/5 (and now to go get some more, dammit!)

I’m pretty much a fan of Marble beer.  From the mysterious ginger-laced crack they sell in the Knott Bar in Manchester to clever, delicious one-off creations. Marble Beers seem to consistently knock out tasty brews and for that I tip my hat to them.

The one I am drinking here, is the Marble Bitter which came as part of the MyBreweryTap 52-Week Beer Club.  I’ve had it before in my local, but never from a bottle, and so for that reason alone it’s life on my beer shelf was always going to be limited.

Manchester Bitter (4.2%) comes packaged in a 500mL bottle and is bottle conditioned.  It opens with a loud hiss and pours golden amber with a fluffy white head.  It shows signs of heavy carbonation with lots of bubbles rising to replenish the head as it sits there.  One thing I did notice about this beer when I first had it in the pub, it’s lighter than you’d expect a bitter to be.  Not that that matters, there are all kinds of beers that refuse to play by those particular rules.

Aromas are biscuity malts, some spicy hop notes and maybe a hint of fruit, grapes, blackcurrant maybe?  Hard to tell.  Nice anyway…

Taking a sip, the mouthfeel is medium-light with a gentle carbonic edge.  The initial taste is of biscuity, grainy malts, which give way to some lovely tropical fruit flavours coming from the hops.  It’s very refreshing, like a hop sorbet the hops linger through to the finish, which becomes more bitter, though there are still fruits in there, orange zest, grapefruit.

Overall this is a lovely, refreshing beer.  It’s certainly not a typical brown bitter chock full of fuggles, goldings and crystal malt but sometimes I can enjoy one of those too

I could certainly sink a few of these, but I only have the one.  That said, I do head for it when I see it on tap, I’m glad that it has translated to bottle format without losing it’s character.

Rating: 4/5 (not much to say other than its nice, go get one)

The penultimate beer in my five month journey that is the Bristol Beer Factory Twelve Stouts of Christmas is the Laphroaig Cask-aged version of their Imperial Stout.

This beer has been aged in an oak cask for six months and as such takes on some of the properties of the donor barrel. In this case, it rested in a Laphroaig 10-year whisky barrel, and so has taken on some of the famous characteristics that particular spirit, a single malt from Islay, is famous for: peat, smoke, the sea air.

Imperial Stout (Laphroaig Barrel) (9.5%) opens with a quirt hiss and pours brown/black with a small densely-packed tan head. This slowly dissipates to a ring of tan bubbles and a dusting of tan on the surface of the beer.

Aromas are very full on and what can be expected from a beer of this heritage: peaty smoke, woody, salty. Somewhere miles away in the background are hints of the original Imperial Stout; black chocolate and coffee.

Taking a taste, the body is medium light with no carbonation evident. Flavour wise, it’s massively complex. The Imperial Stout is back, you can pick out some of the flavours remembered from that drink; the dry coffee grounds, the expensive black chocolate. However, this is a cask-aged version and as such has a new character melded to it, imbued from it’s six months spent in the barrel.

The peat and smoke build as you work your way down the glass, they take over front stage from the coffee and chocolate of the stout, but the original beer stays there. What I like about this is that the flavours aren’t overpowering – I am a fan of the BrewDog Paradox series of beers, but their Smokehead is an example of how I don’t like that kind of beer. This is done differently; the flavours play off against each other, no one single flavour cancels out the rest.

The finish is long and powerful. The coffee is there, but it’s married to the peat, and it works really well. One thing’s for certain, the hops have gone on holiday, there’s no point in them coming out to play here!

I wouldn’t be able to drink more than one of these in a sitting. Maybe even a year. But as a one-off, it’s interesting, tasty, and very good indeed.

Rating: 5/5 (powerful like an Imperial Stout should be!)

This beer came from the MyBreweryTap 52-Week Beer Club and has been sat on my shelf for a while.  I’m on a stout tip today, so out it came.

Wensleydale Black Dub is named after a deep pool to the rear of Middleham castle.  It is brewed from four malts.  Interestingly the label looks hand cut (with a guillotine), and the bottle has the round impressions on the cap you see when the bottle is capped by hand.  I don’t know much about this brewery, but this looks hand made

Black Dub (4.4%) opens with a hiss and pours black with a medium tan head.  The head slowly fades, leaving a dense lacing around the edge of the glass.

Aromas are big: treacle toffee and milk chocolate with hints of coffee at the end.

Taking a taste, there’s a slick oily mouthfeel with a medium carbonic bite.  Flavours are of burnt coffee, tobacco, with hints of milky sweetness.  This gives way to a roasted, malty flavour with a bitterness fighting through it.

The finish is long, consisting of burnt, dry coffee and tobacco.

This is an interesting drink.  It’s satisfying, and another good stout – it must be a good night for it!

Rating: 4/5 (a very nice stout, now to find more of their beer too).

This is another beer from the fantastic MyBreweryTap 52-Week Beer Club.  Stout Mary claims to be a ‘Rich, creamy and strong Oatmeal Stout’.  I like their label as it lists the ingredients:  Malts – Pale, roast barley, chocolate, crystal.  Hops – Galena, Bramling Cross.  Let’s give it a go!

Stout Mary (4.5%) comes packaged in a 500mL bottle, opens with a sharp loud hiss and pours inky black with a firm, large off-white head.  The head is pretty substantial and slowly fades to a creamy lacing along the sides of the glass, with a few mm depth of unbroken head on top of the beer.

Aromas are of dark malts, blackcurrant, with a very faint caramel/fudge hiding way at the back.

Taking a taste, the mouthfeel is medium-full, with a gentle but assertive carbonic edge.  Up front there’s a lovely creamy flavour, which plays with the blackcurrant from the Bramling Cross.  This gives way to a backbone of cereally toasted malts, hints of dark chocolate, which stay throughout to the finish.  There’s a hint of hop bitterness in the finish but it’s hiding behind the dry dark chocolate and roast barley flavour that persists in the mouth.

Overall this is a very tasty, smooth and easy to drink stout.  This is also the first Ilkley beer I’ve tried and I’m impressed.  Creamy, fruity with roast flavours and hints of chocolate, it’s very well put together.

Rating: 4/5 (and now I have to go hunt for more of their beer)

This beer has been sat on my shelf a while; it came as part of the MyBreweryTap 52 Week Beer Club.  But, I was looking for something to drink while I brew, and it shone out like a beacon on my shelf.  Ok, not quite, but I do love Buxton beer (challenge: find a bad one, I dare you).

Anyway, having cocked up the volumes on my current brew, I had to do a lot of boiling down, so I had time to kill.  Out comes the beer!

SPA (4.1%) is packaged in a 500mL bottle. It opens with a loud hiss, pours light copper with a fluffy white head that recedes slowly, lacing the glass.

The aroma is … wow! Fresh cut mango, orange zest, grapefruit, basically a tinned fruit salad from when I was a kid. Lovely. This reminds me of an Odell IPA or a Mikkeller Single Hop in terms of big hop aromas right in your face.

Taking a sip, the mouthfeel is medium-light, with gentle carbonic bite. Flavours are predominantly hop-led, there is a subtle background of biscuity malts but front and centre there are flavours of bitter orange, grapefruit and orange zest, and yet more mango.

The body builds to reveal some malt sweetness but this takes a back seat to the fruity flavours imparted by the hops. The finish is rounded, there is bitterness but not overpowering the hop flavours, so you are left with more lovely bitter citrus flavour, predominantly mango but also orange zest.

This is a fantastic beer. To say it is a sensible 4.1% ABV, the flavour they pack into it without having to up the malts is a great achievement. I’m sad I only have one bottle of this, I could drink it all night. I’m not a fan of beer packaging trumpeting itself, but it really is delicious and refreshing.

As I reach the last leg of the Bristol Beer Factory 12 Stouts of Christmas, I come across the Bristol Stout, the most diminutive of those I have left.  It reads as a velvety & full-flavoured stout, well-balanced and warming, and contains seven malts.  Having recently had the Milk Stout, I am interested to see this take on the style, as the latter had me impressed.

Bristol Stout (4%) opens with a gentle hiss and pours dark chestnut/ruby with a creamy tan head.  This fades fairly quickly to leave a creamy ring round the edge of the glass.

On the nose, we have coffee grounds, dry bitter roast grain.

Taking a sip you get a full velvety mouthfeel with no carbonic bite.  Up front we have some assertive roast malts, hints of tobacco, coffee and spices.  The finish is fairly subdued, light toasted flavour and maybe some hints of peppery, spicy hops.

I will come out with it right now and say I prefer the Milk Stout to this.  This is a fairly pleasant stout but I think that the previous one I had was more of a clever, rounded beer.  Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t bad, and as with all of the BBF beers I am trying of late, they get moreish the further I get down the glass.  That can only be a good thing!

Rating 3/5 (A decent stout that you could drink all evening)

My next beer from Bristol Beer Factory‘s Twelve Stouts of Christmas is the Milk Stout. This beer has won awards and I am a big fan of stouts so on we forge!

Milk Stout (4.5%) comes packaged in a 500mL bottle and opens with a quiet hiss. It pours dark chestnut with a small vanilla head that quickly subsides.

The aroma is sweet, with notes of coffee, sugar, ovaltine/horlicks. Very dessert-like.

Taking a sip, the mouthfeel is medium and slick with little to no carbonation evident. The flavour is very interesting. There’s roasted malt flavours in there, but they don’t play a leading role. They’re mixed with an acidity in the background, a smooth creaminess that lasts through to the finish. There are some very subtle hop flavours that linger past the finish, joined with a building maltiness, the kind of malty flavours you find in a Horlick’s or an Ovaltine… or a Rich Tea biscuit, even.

I don’t want to slur this beers good name by saying that it reminds me of necking a pint of cold Guinness very quickly after a long day grafting…because that’s a great feeling! It has that same type of satisfying draught to it, something alluded to on the packaging. It’s an interesting style and a good take on it. I’d definitely try this again if I saw it, not sure if I could drink a lot of it but as a refreshing rewarding pint, yes, I like it!

Rating: 4/5 (…and the more you drink, the better it gets, good job I have one bottle for a schoolnight)