Dear Reader -

Blogobeer.com will be three years old at the end of June. Which seems like as good a time as any to knock it on the head and do something different instead.

In the beginning, three blokes (Ed and Joe and myself… which later became four blokes when we were joined by Tim) set out with the idea of using a blog as somewhere to discuss all things beery and swap real ale and pub recommendations amongst ourselves. Gradually though, things like real life, work and family intervened (as they tend to) and one by one my co-bloggers gracefully bowed out, until I was the only Blogobeer Bloke left beer blogging. Which is absolutely and entirely fair enough (and if you’re reading, chaps, it was a blast and nothing but a pleasure to share a blog with you) but I’ve decided that if it’s going to be my beer blog, rather than a team effort, then I might as well strike out in a new direction.

This time last year I wrote a long, rambling piece about what I felt I might have to offer the beerblogosphere – I’m not an industry professional, I don’t have much in the way of relevant expertise to offer; I’m just an ordinary, ale-loving, Northern bloke with my take on beer that’s worth drinking and talking about – and none of that has changed.

Since that time though, I’ve not done as well as I’d have liked in terms of posting more frequently, or participating more (either on Twitter or other peoples’ blogs) and I think part of that is because I’ve fallen out of love with the quasi-magazine, review-style format of blogobeer; fine for a regular team-blog, but if it’s just going to be me on my tod then I think I’d like a setup that feels a bit more personal.

So, in order to give myself a shot-in-the-arm, enthusiasm-wise I’m going to be retiring the blogobeer.com site – archiving the current content on the new site, so it will still be accessible via relevant Google searches etc. – and starting up something new, slightly different and hopefully reasonably interesting to a few more people than just yours truly.

The new blog will be called Folk & Ale. The idea is to bring together my two abiding passions: real ale and real music. I’ll still be posting beer reviews, pub notes, all the usual sort of stuff, as well as dropping in anything else beery and interesting that comes to my attention, maybe even joining in with the debates of the day, who knows. And I’ll be adding music videos, gig reviews and snippets of news from my favourite bands and artists into the mix as well (variety being the spice of life and all that). I have a fairly wide-ranging taste in music, but most of what I like tends to centre on story-telling and song-writing, so there’ll be a blend of actual folk (traditional and modern), singer-songwriter, Americana, blues, bluegrass, that sort of thing.

If, along the way, I can introduce a few folk fans to some great ales and a few ale fans to some interesting new music, then I’ll be happy with what I’m doing.

I’m currently in the process of building myself the bones of a new Worpdress theme and, with the help of some graphic design work from a much-more-talented-than-I-ever-will-be designer friend of mine, I hope to have a rather lovely new skin to decorate the site. I’m not entirely sure how long the process will take, so I guess it will be done when it’s done. Or I might just chuck the new blog out there in its minimalist, skinless state for now and just tweak as I go along. It depends how quickly I end up with something I desperately want to say, I suppose.

Anyway, thanks for dropping by to read this note, and I hope you’ll also drop by and say hello when the new site is up and running. I’ll be putting the word out via Twitter, Facebook, the usual channels.

All the best

Darren
Blogobeer Bloke, signing off

Brewery: Duvel Moortgat [@Vedett_UK]
Location: Puurs, Belgium
Style: Pilsner-style lager
ABV: 5.2%
Version: Bottled
Source: Courtesy of Vedett’s UK PR Agency, R&R Teamwork

Vedett Extra Blond is the pilsner entry on Belgian brewery Duvel Moortgat’s brand list, which also includes the Duvel ales and Maredsous Abbey-style variants as well as assorted styles under the Liefmans, Bel Pils, Bernard, La Chouffe, Ommegang and De Koninck labels.

I was sent a couple of bottles by R&R Teamwork as part of the current ‘ETT promotion’: they’re re-labelling some of their bottles with ETIKETT, KADETT or RAKETT* – and if you spot one in a bar or pub and upload a pic to Twitter you could win a case of Vedett. Anyway, as last weekend was an atypically hot and sunny one I was definitely in the mood for a pilsner-style lager, so into the fridge they went. An hour or three later, I cracked the first one open. It was… pilsner. Lightly carbonated so not too gassy, pale golden yellow in colour, not much by way of aroma, mild hop flavours, light lemony citrus notes, slightly grassy after-taste. Refreshing, crisp, sharp enough to hit the back-of-the-throat sweet-spot quite nicely: all major pilsner boxes ticked.

To be honest, there’s nothing deep, different or particularly remarkable about Vedett Extra Blond, but then I don’t think there’s meant to be. It’s the ‘fun and funky’ brand in the Duvel portfolio, so it’s probably not meant to be taken as seriously as its Abbey-style cousins. It was perfectly pleasant to drink a couple of bottles on a scorching Bank Holiday Sunday and I think that, for the Vedett brand managers, probably constitutes ‘mission accomplished’. I’ve had better pilsners, true, but I’ve definitely had much, much worse as well. This particular pilsner is worth trying, if it sounds like your sort of thing.

Brewery: Ascot Ales
Location: Camberley, Surrey, England
Style: Stout
ABV: 5.0%
Version: Bottled
Source: Courtesy of Ascot Ales

This bottle of Anastasia’s Exile was the second survivor from the ill-starred sample package that Ascot Ales sent me last week. I rather suspected that this one would have the edge over the Posh Pooch and my prediction turned out to be bang on the money.

Anastasia’s Exile poured with an opaque black body and a frothy tan head, giving off enticing aromas of rich chocolate and strong coffee in the process. The first sip delivered a good mouth-feel, carrying intense flavours of dark chocolate, roast coffee-beans, hickory smoke, liquorice and pepper. Slightly sweet, but with a long, dry, roast-malt finish, this is just the sort of complex, deeply flavourful stout I love to slowly sup and savour and I thoroughly enjoyed the two-thirds of the bottle that Jo let me keep for myself (after having a sample sip she insisted on nicking a measure and who can blame her?)

This one was very, very good indeed and I have a feeling the draught version would be excellent. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for this one on a hand-pump, definitely.

Many thanks again to the folks at Ascot Ales for sending this one along!

Brewery: Ascot Ales
Location: Camberley, Surrey, England
Style: Session Bitter
ABV: 4.2%
Version: Bottled
Source: Courtesy of Ascot Ales

The folks at Ascot Ales sent me along a three-pack of their beers last week. The aim was for me to sample their Royal Wedding tie-in beer, Royal IPA (4.1% ABV, available in a limited run of 1,000 bottles and on draught in a selection of Nicholson’s London pubs this weekend as part of their Thameside Festival) but alas, Royal Mail didn’t do the folks at Ascot proud and, despite a decent amount of packaging, the following happened en-route:

Nevertheless, the Royal IPA’s two companions – a Posh Pooch bitter and an Anastasia’s Exile stout – survived the ordeal intact, and I decided to crack open the Posh Pooch last night whilst watching the final of Masterchef. (On that note: massive congrats to Tim Anderson – @vikingtweats – currently the manager of The Euston Tap – although not, I suspect, for all that much longer – on his utterly deserved win for absolutely astounding displays of pure culinary craft and creativity throughout the series!)

The Posh Pooch poured a copper-amber colour with not much head and a very light carbonation. There was plenty of toffee-malt on the aroma and that was the dominant flavour profile as well: malt-led, although with a lingering dryness on the after-taste for a sharper finish. Brown sugar, caramel and a slight grapefruit-ish sour note cutting through the sweeter flavours. The mouth-feel was a bit on the thin side, but I’m sure that’s down to the bottling; I think this is yet another example of a session bitter that would be much better sampled in draught form. And I rather suspect that I’ll be more noticeably impressed with the Anastasia’s Exile when I get around to that one this weekend. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Many thanks to Ascot – and to Maria at their PR company, Haslimann Taylor – for sending this one along for me to try. And I hope that the Royal IPA is a huge success at the Nicholson’s festival this weekend!

Brewery: WharfeBank [The Angel, Manchester

Jo and I opted to celebrate the long weekend just past with a trip to one of our very favourite of Manchester’s many excellent pubs: The Angel. We were there for the generally excellent food, but ended up with an extremely pleasant bonus when we ordered a pint and a half of the ,most promising-looking beer on the bar: the April 2011 seasonal special from the WharfeBank brewery, Aztec Dark.

I’m not 100% sure whether Wharfe Bank is a stout, a porter or a dark mild. The WharfeBank websites describes it as “A dark beer full of flavour using real chocolate … Supported by a blend of coloured malts and black treacle” and I think this is a classic example of occam’s razor in action: Aztec Dark is a ruby-hued chestnut colour, with a tight off-white head and whilst it has characteristics of all three styles – the rich cocoa notes of a chocolate stout, the lingering roast-malt finish of a dry porter, as well as the mellow warmth of a good dark mild – it’s a direct match for none of them. But that really doesn’t matter, because you can take mine and Jo’s joint word for it that Aztec Dark most definitely is an extremely well-balanced (not too bitter, not too sweet, so that ‘real’ chocolate must be good chocolate), highly flavourful and incredibly drinkable ‘dark beer’. And when push comes to shove that’s pretty much all you need to be sure of, isn’t it?

All in all: absolutely delicious – as was the lamb rump that the Aztec Dark complemented perfectly – and in fact, I’d probably the best session-strength dark beer I’ve tasted for some time.

According to the WharfeBank Twitter feed:

So if you live within pub-going distance of Mr Foley’s and are fan of dark, smooth, tasty ales, I’d highly recommend you head on down there and give this one a go. Or of course, you could try The Angel in Manchester, although I rather suspect that they’ll have run out by now…

Brewery: Bewdley Brewery [Bewdley Brewery, was created in honour of the eponymous Mr Mucklow, the last commercial brewer in Bewdley and quite possibly a ‘journeyman’ brewer who travelled the area plying his trade at various inns and pubs. William ceased brewing in 1912, but during his time he was reputed to have brewed a strong, sweet dark mild at an OG of 1060, reputed to be the second strongest mild in the country*. Bewdley haven’t gotten their hand on an original recipe, but they’ve given a tribute version their best shot, and this 6% mild is the result.

William Mucklow’s Dark Mild might not be strictly authentic, but it certainly tastes like a beer that might have been enjoyed by the good folk of Bewdley a hundred years ago. Back then a ‘mild’ beer meant one that was brewed to be consumed fresh, within a relatively short period of time, as opposed than one that was aged (as detailed in Martyn Cornell’s rather excellent guide to British beer styles, Amber Gold & Black). Bewdley Brewery’s take offers a deep, mellow, chocolate malt profile with just a faint hint of coffee on the after-taste. It’s smooth, it’s rich, it’s entirely and dangerously drinkable; all too easy to forget that this one is a 6%-er.

All in all, definitely my kind of mild and nothing like the sometimes sour, often rather insipid modern-day examples of what tends to pass for the style. Maybe not quite as good as my favourite mild of all time – the truly excellent (and, sadly, long gone) Marble Brew 1691 – but definitely a close second and, as it’s still available – for instance, via MyBreweryTap.com and from Riverside Wines in Bridgnorth, last time I was there at least – technically the winner by default.

Give this one a go; if you’re a fan of dark milds, smooth winter ales, or beers with interesting back stories, then you shouldn’t be disappointed.

* Although I suspect Mr Cornell might have something to say about the strength of that particular claim…

Brewery: Smuttynose Brewing Company [MyBreweryTap.com

This bottle of Smuttynose Robust Porter turned up in the third instalment of MyBreweryTap.com‘s US 52 Week Beer Club and I have to say I think it’s quite possibly the best US52WBC bottle so far (perhaps with the exception of old-favourite Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter).

An aroma of rich, dark chocolate hits you as soon as you crack the top. The pour is slow and smooth, with a thick tan head forming (although, sadly, not remaining long) on top of an almost opaque ebony body. The flavour is all about the big, dark, roast-malts, with another hit from that dark, dark chocolate up front, gradually giving way to a sharp coffee-bitterness. There are other flavours in play as well; a sliver of coconut, a sprinkling of pepper. But if you imagine a mocha made with Italian espresso and 90% cocoa chocolate and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what Smuttynose Robust Porter is all about.

I’m enjoying this one as I type (as-live Tasting Notes, folks!) and I hope to enjoy another one before too long; I’m pretty sure I’ve seen bottles of this one in both the Port Street Beer House and the Euston Tap. Next time I’m short of draught inspiration – or just fancy something dry, bitter-sharp and deeply, deeply roasted – then I think this is the bottle I’ll re-visit.

Brewery: Roosters [The Euston Tap, London

Last Friday, before my mid-afternoon train back from London to Manchester, I called in for a quick pit-stop at the Euston Tap. Perusing the blackboards, I spotted a fair few I was familiar with (Marble beers aplenty that day), as well as the usual selection of mid-strength US imports. Normally I’d go for something interesting, something challenging, seeing as I’m only in the vicinity of the Tap once a fortnight or so. But last Friday I was feeling jaded after a company conference the day before, so I just wanted something refreshing and I spotted one beer that I reckoned might fit the ‘mid-afternoon pit-stop pint’ bill perfectly: Roosters Orange Blossom Ale.

I was right, too: Roosters Orange Blossom was light, fresh and thirst-quenching, zesty hops on a decent malt base with a clementine-citrus aroma that made me think of summer Sunday afternoons reading a book in the garden whilst the bees buzz fat and lazy among the strawberry blossoms. Exactly what I was looking for, mission accomplished. I supped that one slowly (whilst gazing longingly at the Mikkeller and Kernel section of the bottle-fridge opposite, wondering how many I could afford / carry / explain to Jo when I got home) then headed off for my train a happy man.

Dammit, yes, I am. Even more so after watching these fine people have their say on the subject:

And if you’ve ever enjoyed a bloody good pint of just-right British session beer, or if you’ve tasted an amazing new hybrid-style creation from one of the UK’s many wonderfully innovative brewers, or if just you’ve got a favourite pub that feels like the perfect home-from-home, then so should you be.

My suggestion: use WritetoThem.com, search for details of your local MP, then send them the link to Vimeo, with a simple, five-word message: “Please watch this short video.”

Yup. BrewDog got me again. This time to the tune of three bottles of the latest release in their ongoing Abstrakt series (Abstrakt:05, a “Belgian Imperial Stout aged on toasted coconut and cacao”) plus a four-pack of their single-hop-varietal IPA collection, IPA is Dead.

I’m planning on sampling one bottle of the Abstrakt:05 this weekend and then ageing the other two for a while. I found Abstrakt:04 a bit of a challenge, but hopefully 05 will be a bit sweeter, with both coconut and cacao in the mix. We’ll see before too long.

Those IPAs might be hanging around for a later date as well. Yes, I know you’re supposed to drink Big IPA’s young to get the full benefit of the sometimes quite insane hop-blast, but over the past couple of years I’ve developed something of a taste for aged IPAs; they tend to have a smoother, mellower, rolling hop flavour on a stronger, more pronounced malt base, which seems to suit my sweeter tooth. But then again, I do love a big, insane hop-blast from time-to-time… damn, I’m going to have to buy another four-pack so I can compare and contrast, aren’t I?

[Also: quick hat-tip and shout-out to Kayleigh at BrewDog for helping me out with my ordering issues. Cheers, Kayleigh!]