MikeGrice.com

This is the second of the BBF 12 Stouts of Christmas case I bought this year.  I’m a day behind now, so I should do two today.  Let’s see.  Anyway, next up is their Raspberry Stout.  After the Saltaire Raspberry Blonde I reviewed earlier, I’m a bit hesitant with this, but it does explain how they used real raspberries, so maybe it won’t have that sacharriney effect that the Saltaire beer did.  The label says, “strong, black, tart and fruity” and “flavours of raspberry, chocolate & dark fruits”.  It also advises to drink from a brandy snifter, but I always try and do my reviews in my ALLBEER FlavourMax glass, it makes it kind of fair.  The Belgians would kill me!

Raspberry Stout (7.7%) opens with a loud hiss and pours brown-black with a brown, dense head.  This quickly recedes, lacing its way to a few mm with bald spots in the middle.

Aroma-wise, we get dark coffee and acidic, sharp, tart raspberry notes.  The raspberry smells ripe and fruity – this beer is made with Belgian yeast so there may be some harmonies there.

The mouthfeel is medium-full, with an interesting flavour.  We have rich, black chocolate and christmas pudding flavours, the raspberry is definitely in there but its more mixed in amongst the other dark flavours, as mentioned like a boozy Christmas pudding.   The aftertaste is warming which might have something to do with it being the best part of 8% ABV, in a 500mL bottle that’s not to be sniffed at.  The further I get down the glass, the more the raspberry jumps out, but I can say in contrast to the Saltaire Raspberry Blonde it does feel more like real raspberries.  I hate to keep making the contrast but I think the composition of the beer helps it — the rest of this beer is dark, fruity and dense, whereas with the Blonde, the other flavours are very light and delicate and the raspberry swamps it.

I’m not liking it as much as their Chilli Choc stout if I’m honest, but it’s not a bad drink.  I think it would be better paired with some 85% Lindt dark chocolate, I think my pancreas would implode.  If I had to distil this flavour down into something simple, it would be cracked black high% cocoa chocolate melted into a double boiler, with a handful of very ripe raspberries smushed into them, allowed to set and then melt in the mouth.  If that’s a nice image for you, then you’ll probably love this beer… as long as it stays cold.

As the beer warms, the raspberries come more to the front, which is a testament to how tricky it must be to get exactly the right amount of them into the beer.  I suspect they did a few trial runs on this one!  They start to edge towards becoming a little too brash on the nose, maybe just a little too much on the palate as well.  Definitely a beer best tasted cold (not chilled), but not overly warm either.  I think, I know, how un-British of me! that it would be better sold in a 330mL format rather than a 500 too, but again, that might just be me.  By the time I’d got to the last mouthful, it wasn’t pleasant.

Rating: 3/5 (…this is a good beer, don’t get me wrong.  Definitely better executed than the Saltaire RB, but I’ve had the BBF Chilli Choc Stout so I know they can do much better.  If you see it, pick one up and prove me wrong!)

I saw on Twitter that these guys were doing a “12 stouts of Christmas” thing and thought, what a great idea.  So promptly bought the case!

The first I’m trying today (I’m a day behind, OK?!) is their Chilli Choc Stout (5.0%).  They are using locally sourced chillies from the Upton Cheney Chilli Farm, the “Fruitburst Habanero”.  Like the sound of it so lets give it a whirl.

The 500mL bottle opens with a short loud hiss.  It pours dark brown/black with a dense dark tan head… this recedes slowly without lacing the glass.

The aroma is very interesting.  There’s burnt coffee and chocolate notes, but something definitely different in there.  I’m having to swirl it a few times and get a few nosefuls to pick it up – not obviously chilli, but definitely something spicy.

The mouthfeel is medium, I expected it to be thicker given how it poured.  It is creamy on the tongue, and a little sweet.  The roast flavours come out as you swirl it across your tongue, and yes, theres some definite flavour of expensive, very dark chocolate as the sweetness subsides.  In terms of flavour, I can’t pick up the chilli – but then I notice that in the aftertaste, there’s a subtle but definitely present warming feeling that isn’t alcohol.  Almost “black peppery” in heat rather than what you’d expect from eating a chilli.

One thing is certain – these guys know how to make dark beer.  The more I drink, the more the chocolate flavours are coating the inside of my mouth.  Very Christmassy!  It’s massively complex!  I keep having to swirl the drink across my tongue to capture the different flavours in there.  Finally I notice the chilli on my tongue – it was hiding in the chocolate… sneaky!

The more I drink of this, the more I have a slow build up of chilli flavour right in the centre of my tongue.  Clever!

This drink marries chocolate and beer together very well indeed.  As well as the 5/5-rated Meantime Chocolate Porter.  The chilli adds another, subtle dimension but I’d really love to see some more chilli heat in there.  I guess they’ve had to cater it to the average palate – I love hot and spicy food, so to get more of a kick in this would really have been my cup of tea.  The risk there then, I guess, would be it could push this beer into novelty territory – which it isn’t.

Rating:  5/5 (I’m going with a 5, in my heart of hearts I think it’s a 4.5.  But I’m going to round up for Christmas)

Another mini review.  Picked this bottle up from Waitrose, a festive porter.

Lovely silky mouthfeel, roast coffee and definite chocolate malt combine to make a very satisfying beer.

A good mix of hops (Challenger, First Gold) round off the drink nicely and leave a well balanced flavour.  It’s finished off with a toasty aftertaste.

Perfect for Christmas night!

Mini-Rating: 4/5 (more please)

Bit of a quick one this as its Christmas and so I am a bit less methodical.  Grabbed this bottle from the Dram Shop in Walkley.

Appearance: Pours light straw, no discernible hiss from the bottle.  A 500mL bottle too, not seen any Kernel ones in this format before.

Mouthfeel: Silky.  I am not an expert on Rye but I am guessing this helps!

Aroma: very hoppy but not overpoweringly so.  I know the aroma, but can’t put my finger on it.  Could be cascades!

Carbonation: Medium/high. Lots of bubbles.  Lots of thick lacing down the glass.

Flavour: Deliciously drinkable.  The flavour matches the hop aroma, theres sweet malt mixed in there, it’s really well balanced and refreshing.  Lovely fruity hop aftertaste, not very bitter.

Mini-rating: 5/5 (delicious!)

This little guy has been sat in the back of my fridge for a while, and rather than crack into my newer ones I thought I’d dust it off.  It came from the MBT 52WBC, and the label says it is “Inspired by the Red Planet, has a warm red glow and a smooth malty flavour”.  They brewed it for the Beagle 2 launch (cool!) and contains Dark Crystal and Progress hops with a hint of roast barley.

Mars Magic (4.6%) opens with a gentle hiss and pours ruby with a dense off-white head.  There’s an interesting toffee-apple aroma, I should have had this on bonfire night!  Fruity and caramelly.  Taking a sip, theres a very slick silky mouthfeel and a real toffee explosion – dried fruit, caramel, theres little hops on the flavour, but plenty in the aftertaste.  The aftertaste lingers a while, its astringent and broad – a pleasant counterbalance.

Letting it warm, the aroma becomes more roasted, and it carries through to the flavour.  Not so sweet now, more balance to it, there is a very interesting candied quality to the toffee, I guess that must be the dark crystal and roast barley mixing together.  Very nice.

This like many is a much tastier beer when let to warm up a little.  Very nice!

Rating: 4/5 (when warmed up, it would only be a 3 from the fridge despite its lovely aroma!)

This bottle has come from MyBreweryTap yet again – and as the Winter box has turned up, I need to get my drink on.  As I’ve posted before, I have a bit of a mixed relationship with Meantime.  The latest one I tasted was incredible though, so I am going to go into it eyes open.

Meantime London Pale Ale (4.3%) explains that it uses Goldings and Cascades to “brew a Pale Ale that embraces London’s past as the brewing capital of the World.  Not sure they had Cascades in London back then but I’m easy.

The label is really well done, it looks like a Sunday afternoon in London, people on deckchairs in the park, with the London Eye in the background.

The 330mL bottle opens with a very quiet hiss and a whoosh of aroma that I picked up while using the bottle opener.  It pours gold, with brisk carbonation and a foamy white head that leaves a thick lacing as it recedes.  The aroma is very nice – toasty malt coupled with peppery fruit.  I don’t pick up the traditional cascades aroma that I was expecting.

The body is very thin and incredibly crisp.  There’s nowhere near as much malt flavour that is hinted at by the aroma.  As a matter of fact, theres not much of anything.  Perhaps it’s too cold (out of the fridge) – it reminds me more of a Helles or a light Pilsener than a pale ale at this stage.  A gentle, non-offensive light bitterness is somewhere around as the aftertaste, but nothing sticks out.

Letting the beer warm up, we get a little bit more.  There is an initial bitter hit on tasting, but it doesn’t really carry over into an aftertaste.  The malt very faintly comes into the background.  Other than that there is little of note.
Rating: 2/5 (This may be ok at cleaning the palate with a spicy meal at a push, but I’m not enamoured)

So I was on the hunt for one of these after fellow imbiber Barl Fire recommended it in his list of top 5 UK IPAs.  I then got home and was putting some beers in my fridge, and lo and behold!  There was one in my MyBreweryTap 52W beer club.  Ace!

Acorn Conquest claims to be a well-hopped traditional IPA and promises citrus and a bitter finish.  I’m a fan of Acorn, their Gorlovka has had me on my arse a couple of times Let’s see what we have.

Conquest (5.7%) opens with an assertive loud fizz and pours light copper with a meringuey white head that slowly recedes, coating the sides of the glass as it goes.  A promise of hop oils to come?

The aroma is spicy and syrupy, almost candied oranges.  It’s not sharp, but it’s a broad aroma.  I did expect more of a hit but it’s very pleasant.  The mouthfeel is medium.  The flavour is where this ale kicks in, it’s very big!  There’s a definite citrus flavour front and centre, oranges.  It’s a very smooth drink but the bitterness builds in layers on your palate, delicious and clever.  It’s not all bitterness though, in the background theres a rounded sweetness that I wasn’t quite expecting, it’s a welcome counterbalance to the bitterness.  Taking a break, the bitterness recedes pretty quickly and you’re left with the familiar astringent tongue feeling that you get when it’s had it’s fill of hops.

Warmed a little, the aroma takes more of a caramelised aspect, still candied oranges.  The flavour really opens up, it’s delicious.  Theres a new, solid malt backbone to this beer that I never noticed.  Theres almost a syrupy feel to it and it perfectly balances with the hops.  You can’t tell it’s 5.7%, another dangerous beer!  The flavour is formidable, and very different from the comparative whelp it was when cool.  Drink this beer at 12 degrees C!

Rating: 4/5 (this beer is lovely, and I expect is exceptional on cask.)

Another beer with a high bar, I first encountered Buxton at the Thornbridge-owned DaDa bar in Sheffield the other week.  I had four of their beers and they were all superb!  Thanks to the MyBreweryTap 52 Week Beer Club, I also have a Buxton ale in my stash here… so it’s getting cracked open.

Buxton Gold (5.2%) claims to be a refreshing golden beer and contains a mix of US and NZ hops: Amarillo, Liberty, and Nelson Sauvin.  I’m a fan of the latter, I love the mango flavour they impart, so we might be onto a winner here.  Let’s see.

The bottle opens with a short sharp hiss and pours burnt orange with a medium white head that fades very slowly.  The aromas coming off the beer are lovely – I can definitely pick up the Nelson Sauvin, I’m not great at picking out American hops but I can tell they’re there as well.  The aromas are fresh and pithy and very pleasant!

The mouthfeel is silky and slippery, and the flavour is dominated by a burst of fresh hops.  The beer manages to fill your whole mouth with bitter rindy flavours – I’m getting mango from the NS, but it doesn’t dominate.  There’s still an element of malty sweetness in here and it’s certainly a very refreshing beer.  At 5.2% I can see this getting me into quite a tangle if I caught it on draught anywhere.  The aftertaste is long lasting and fades to grapefruit.

It’s clean and refreshing and the impulse is to top up and finish it, but I’m resisting the urge and letting it warm a little.

Having done that, the hops have dialled back a little bit (or maybe I’m now saturated in lupulin!) and the malt has come forward.  Theres a lovely biscuity almost oaty malt flavour in there, framed beautifully by the hops.  I don’t know which I prefer, warmed or chilled, it’s almost like it’s two different drinks!  Both of them are delicious.  The aftertaste changes a little on warming too, less of the harsh bitterness, but still a rounded hoppy bitter lingering.

Rating: 5/5 (These guys are at the top of their game!  Refreshing, fruity, summery, superb.)

I have a hit and miss relationship with this brewery.  Some of their beer I really really like (Yakima Red, Wheat), some of it just doesn’t do it for me (Raspberry Wheat, Pilsener), and some of it feels middle of the road (London Porter, IPA, Chocolate).  I picked up this MCP from Waitrose.  I’ve had a couple of nice Peroni Gran Riserva in the Pizza express this evening so I’m ready to cap it off with a nice dark beer.  I’m hoping that theres a porter bitterness mixed in with the chocolate, I think it will go great if done correctly!  The label explains the use of four different roasted malts, and the addition of chocolate during the maturation period.

Meantime Chocolate Porter (6.5%) opens with a very soft hiss.  It pours black, with hints of dark ruby at the edges.  It has a fluffy, large compact head that very slowly recedes its way down the glass, lacing beautifully as it goes.   The aroma is promising, that characteristic grainy porter aroma mingled in with melted dark chocolate.  The aroma on its own would be heaven with a Rutland Arms brownie

The mouthfeel is medium full and silky on the tongue, and wow, they’ve nailed the flavour.  Coffee and rich, dark dark chocolate.  This is what a chocolate beer should taste like, everybody else take notice!  It’s warming, and packed with characteristic flavours you’d associate with cracked black chocolate on the top of a  rich dessert.  My only regret is not having something chocolatey to pair with it!  The finish is gradual, a dark chocolate bitterness similar to that found in high % cocoa solids chocolate.

You probably couldn’t drink more than one, but for the end of a meal, especially paired with a dessert, this beer would be exceptional.

Rating: 5/5 (I think I need to go back and get a couple of these for my stash!)