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:

January 1, 1970 12:00 am viaReplyRetweetFavorite

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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: 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.

Brewery: Thornbridge [The Port Street Beer House, Manchester

Last Saturday, after mooching around Manchester City Centre looking for new boots, Jo has one of her genius ideas: “Let’s have lunch at Rice and then head down the Port Street Beer House for a pint.” And that, folks, is the secret to 14 years – and counting – of happy marriage: no kids + free weekends + a shared interest in Going To The Pub = wedded bliss… but I digress.

The place was fairly quiet when we got there, just after 1.30 or so. And on the bar was a new (to me) Thornbridge brew: Maniola. A quick chat with the barman established that it was a dark, winter beer and weighing in at an upper session-strength 4.8% ABV, it sounded like the perfect pint for a chilly February afternoon. Just had to be done.

It was spot-on: buckets of rich, roast chocolate malt flavour, cut through with a deliciously spicy bite. There wasn’t a distinct, stand-out flavour note to it, but rather an extremely well-balanced blend of characteristics that combined to make a very drinkable, very smooth, very toothsome winter warmer.

If we’d been staying for longer than two pints I’d definitely have had another, but they had Dark Star Six Hop on draught as well, and that just had to be done, too.

Brewery: Moorhouse’s
Location: Burnley, England
ABV: 5.1%
Version: Draught
Source: Malt, Bury

Last Friday evening, Jo and I took our mate Paul up to The Met in Bury to see Roddy Woomble in concert. We made sure we got there in plenty of time for a pre-gig pint in Malt and thanks to the above-and-beyond dedication of whoever is in charge of @TheMet‘s Twitter account – they actually took the time to post a Twitpic of the day’s pump clips in response to an idle enquiry from yours truly about their current ale selection – I already knew what I was aiming for.

I used to drink Pendle Witches Brew quite often, back when I was a student and in the years just after uni. At the time it was a fair bit stronger than the stuff that was usually on offer (Boddingtons, Flowers, Castle Eden etc.) and if you could find it on draught in your favourite pub (The Crescent in Salford, or the Ox Noble in Castlefield was usually a good bet) then a good night was pretty much guaranteed.

Then I lost touch with the stuff for a while (I now tend to think of my nothing-but-Guinness drinking days as my wilderness years) until a couple of years ago, when I found PWB on draught in a Wetherspoons (the Paramount, in Manchester) and gave it a go. It was pretty naff – dull, flat and lifeless – and the one time since then that I tried it again, it was similarly uninspiring.

But on Friday night at Malt, I’m happy to say that the Pendle Witches Brew was excellent. It was in great condition, with a smooth, velvety body and a tight, creamy white head and the flavours danced over my palate; bucketfuls of sweet malt and fresh red berry fruits with just enough hop bite to balance it all out to perfection. The first pint went down a treat – it was even good enough to tempt Paul away from his Duvel and Jo had a sip and agreed it was nice, but declared herself happy enough with the Outstanding Silver Fox – and I took a second up to the gig; I would have had a third at the interval too, but Roddy Woomble played straight through (the gig was similarly excellent; consider me a new Woomble fan).

Ah well, two was fine on the night – after the gig we took Paul down the Trackside for a drop of Outstanding Piston Broke, him being a fan of the hoppier beers and all – and it was great just to have my faith in an old favourite most definitely restored.

Brewery: Elland Brewery
Location: Elland, West Yorkshire, England
Style: Porter
ABV: 6.5%
Version: Draught
Source: Common Bar, Manchester [Elland 1872 Porter at the SIBA Great Northern Beer Festival back in October, when it had just won their Champion Beer of the Festival. The half I had then was impressive and I jumped at the chance to have a pint when I found it on draught at Manchester’s Common Bar last Friday afternoon.

I’m happy to report it was just as good as I remembered: a deep, dark beer with ruby highlights, packed full of flavour: smoky roast malts, sweet blackberries and a big hit of dark chocolate. Delicious. I could happily have supped this one all night, but after the one I nipped off to meet up with Jo elsewhere in town. By the time we got back to Common after food it had all gone and the pumpclip had been replaced by one with cherries on it. I wasn’t feeling quite that adventurous, so we wandered off elsewhere and ended up on a mini-crawl of the Northern Quarter (more on that in another post). Perhaps it’s just as well; at 6.5% it’s probably a bit o.t.t. for a session beer.

So: definitely one to try if you get the chance, particularly if you’re any sort of fan of the porters, stouts or strong winter ales.

Yesterday I made my last work-related London trip of 2010 and took full advantage of one more opportunity to visit The Euston Tap.

But first a very important end-of-year review-type meeting with my boss who, being a bloody good bloke, was more than happy for us to hold said meeting over the road from our office at the Black Friar (see Travels With Beer for a photo gallery of the rather magnificent interior) and he got the beers in as well.

The Black Friar being a Nicholson’s pub, you’ve usually got a good chance of finding something half-decent on the pubs, but I was particularly delighted to spot a Thornbridge pump-clip and one I’d not seen before, to boot: Wild Holly. I’m guessing this is a new Thornbridge beer for winter 2010 (guessing because there’s no info on the Thornbridge website yet).

Wild Holly was dark and should have been delicious – plenty of dark brown sugar flavours, with hints of cherry and spices, all very pleasant indeed – but the mouth-feel was desperately thin, particularly for a 5% ABV winter ale, which rather spoiled the overall effect. If ever there was a beer that was screaming out for a sparkler, this was it. I’d definitely want to try this one again, but not unless the pub in question was likely to serve it up in better condition.

So, on to the Northern Line and up to the Euston Tap. Wandering in, I spotted and occupied a spot at the end of the bar and got cracking on my two target-beers for my quick visit. The first of these was the Thornbridge / Dark Star collaboration, Thornstar.

This one is a 4.7% ABV Black IPA – a style I’m becoming very fond of – brewed with a CaraFa roast malt base and several varieties of New Zealand hops: Pacifica, Southern Cross and Nelson Sauvin. It poured (via sparkler!) dark and beautifully full-bodied, with a creamy white head. Rich malt flavours gave an impression of gentle sweetness, with hints of dried fruit & chicory. This sweetness gave way to a drier, hoppier finish and stronger coffee flavours came into play towards the end of the half. Lovely stuff.

Next up: a half of Anchor Christmas 2010. This is the thirty-sixth annual Christmas brew from the Anchor Brewery in San Francisco. It’s rare to find Anchor beers on draught over here, so I was particularly keen to give this one a go.

The beer poured with an almost opaque dark body and faint ruby highlights, with a thin head and not much aroma. This 5.9% ABV beer had plenty of rich roast-malt flavours, and was subtly cinnamon-spiced with a dry-sharp, gingery after-burn. Bizarrely though, the dominant flavour seemed to be Coca-Cola, which threw me a bit, I have to admit (I’m not mad keen and haven’t drunk the stuff for years). It wasn’t unpleasant but I think I was expecting something fruitier and richer. I definitely preferred both the Thornstar and my last swift half of the evening: Matuška Black Rocket.

This Czech import – another black IPA, it must have been my lucky night – had a gorgeous mouth-feel, with a sweet, malty base delivering hints of sherry and coffee on the after-taste A very smooth-tasting beer with a lovely roast-malt, dry-hop balance. One of those beers I could happily drink all evening, but at 6.8% ABV probably shouldn’t.

Apologies if the notes were a little sparse on that last one, but by this point Jeff, the legendary landlord of the Gunmakers in Clerkenwell had wandered over, having spotted me down the end of the bar and recognised me from the last time Jo and I were down in London. He introduced me to Yan, landlord of the Tap, and I’d already started nattering to the bloke next to me at the bar – a local CAMRA stalwart by the name of Errol – so the four of us had a good old natter about beers, pubs and all sorts of stuff (that’s one of the things about the Euston Tap: it’s very easy to strike up a conversation with pretty much anyone in there). Couldn’t really make notes on my phone halfway through, would have been unforgivably rude of me…

So, that’s my last visit to London for this year, and my last visit to what is rapidly becoming one of my very favourite pubs. I’ll definitely be back next year. Often.

Brewery: Thornbridge [The Euston Tap

My second pre-train swift half on Wednesday absolutely had to be Thornbridge Alliance. This strong pale ale (or is it a barleywine?) was first brewed by the Thornbridge crew, along with Garrett Oliver of the Brooklyn Brewery back in 2007 (see Mark Dredge’s post on the subject for more info). I absolutely loved the bottle of the Madeira Reserve version that I sampled a few weeks back and let’s face it, you really don’t see this sort of thing on draught every day of the week, so I simply could not pass up an opportunity to try it.

There was hardly any aroma (which was surprising) and the flavours were stealthy. To start with: it tasted like a strong pale ale. This caused a moment of doubt (hold on, is that it?) but then my brain caught up with the information overload my tongue was trying to send its way and started screaming at me: Honey! Sherry! Whisky! More honey! Honey on toast! Mead! Which is honey again, I know, and I also know it’s not a honey beer per se, but definitely it had that unmistakeable tang you only get from really good bee-food.

Thornbridge Alliance is a wonderfully warming beer as well. It didn’t hit me in the throat – it’s far too subtle a strong beer for that – but it felt like a golden glow was spreading out from my belly a couple of moments after I’d swallowed, spreading through my limbs and eventually setting my extremities all a-tingle (which was entirely pleasant and most welcome on a bitterly cold London evening). It was incredible stuff. Truly incredible. If I ever see it on draught again, I’ll be ordering up another half before you can say “Thornbridge”.

(By the time I’d slowly sipped and savoured my half-pint, it was time to dash across for my train. A train that, it subsequently transpired, was delayed for about 30 minutes by the bad weather. So theoretically, I could have stayed for a half of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot 2010, which the Euston Tap also had on draught. Ah, well. Maybe next time.)

Brewery: Fyne Ales [Kelly Ryan – @thornbridgekel)
Location: Cairndow, Scotland
Style: Black IPA
ABV: 5.9%
Version: Draught
Source: The Euston Tap, London

Sometimes, synchronicity is your friend. Here’s an example: when I head on down to London it’s usually on a Tuesday, but this week both my boss and my colleague in the online marketing department were out of the office at Future Book 2010, so I switched to Wednesday. And that turned out to be the day that the Euston Tap ran their Collaboration Celebration, which meant that I got to sample a couple of rather excellent beers that your man Kelly Ryan, formerly of Thornbridge, had a hand in creating.

The first of these was the Black IPA that Kelly brewed recently up at Fyne Ales. I had a half and it poured with a dense black body and a thick, frothy tan head. A very viscous, syrupy mouth-feel delivered a rich glut of flavours. Front-loaded with hops, the tangy bitterness quickly gave way to a positively jammy sweetness, full of blackcurrant and plum flavours, with (I’m pretty sure) lychees in the mix as well. Dark chocolate notes became more noticeable as the beer warmed a litte and there was maybe the subtlest hint of whisky, but nowhere near as much coffee as I expected.

Fyne Collaboration Black IPA is one of those rich, flavour-packed beers that I thoroughly enjoy. Delicious stuff, highly recommended if you can get hold of it. The only caveat is that I think you’d definitely need a sweet tooth to properly appreciate it as it stands at the moment. I’d love to try this one again after a few months’ maturation, just to see what sort of changes might take place. I’d imagine the sugars would calm down a little and the alcohol flavours come through much more strongly, packing an even bigger and better punch. Hopefully Fyne have got a couple of casks (or even a few dozen bottles?) squirrelled away with just that in mind.

Brewery: Moor Beer Company [Bury Beer Festival on Friday I trammed into Manchester to meet up with a couple of good mates and have a few brews. After fuelling up on nasi goreng (beer soak of the gods, Fact) and noodles at Tampopo we headed for the Marble Arch.

A quick glance down the bar: a selection of Marble favourites and a stand-out guest pump-clip: Moor Illusion. This was the first time I’d seen any Moor Beer brew on draught, so it absolutely had to be done. The fact that it turned out to be a black ale was a definite bonus; I’m a big fan of the style, which blends the roast malt flavours of a porter or stout with the hop-character of a pale or golden ale. Moor explain the process better on their website: “Illusion is our latest creation, which is inspired by the awesome new beer style created in the States known as Imperial Black Ale. We really admire the profile of this new style but wanted a session strength version. We brewed ours at 4.5% instead of the typical 8%+…”

The result is extremely palatable indeed. A translucent ruby-black body and bubbly white head suggests a stout, but the aroma and flavour is all about the fruity freshness of hops over a roast-malt base, with a faint bitter coffee note playing nicely with the lingering dryness of the after-taste. The whole comes together in something that at session strength is incredibly refreshing and very easy-drinking. Moor Illusion is aptly named, too; the way the visuals contrast with the flavours makes for a pleasant surprise if you’re not familiar with the style. Highly recommended, and I’d love to see more black ales from other brewers.

We moved on from the Marble Arch after that one and the rest of the night played out as a re-visiting of a few dark and tasty favourites: Rudgate Ruby Mild at The Angel, a half of Acorn Gorlovka in Bar Fringe, and then a Dunham Massey Porter to finish at the Crown & Kettle. A fantastic evening, drinking great beer in excellent company and I’m hugely looking forward to the next one.

Brewery: Potbelly
Location: Kettering, England
Style: Golden Ale
ABV: 4.5%
Version: Um… draught?
Source: The Waterside Arts Centre, Sale

First off: full marks to UK folk legends Bellowhead for commissioning Kettering ale brewer Potbelly to come up with an ale to accompany the band’s new album, Hedonism and letting the venues on the current tour know about it so they could order some in for the gigs.

Slightly fewer marks to the Waterside Arts Centre, who decided that the best way to cope with the inevitable rush would be to draw off a couple of pints of a time (gravity style) from the cask into plastic jugs and then pour from those into plastic pint pots. Which wasn’t actually all that much quicker a means of getting the beer out and resulted in varying degrees of lack-of-head, depending on how far down the jug they were when you ordered yours (guys, next time, just have two people drawing off a pint at a time from the casks and lining them up for someone else to hand out to the punters?).

But you know what? Despite the slightly dodgy method-of-dispense, Hedonism Ale was still a very tasty beer indeed. Pale but packed with malt, with a thirst-quenching hop-bite on the after-taste, this was exactly what I needed to get me through an hour and a half of jumping around like a madman to a fantastic set from one of the best live bands in the country. So it was a bit of a shame that the Waterside had only ordered two casks and they ran out about twenty minutes into the set. They’ll know better next time, I’m sure.

In other, more sedate, circumstances – a summer’s afternoon at a country pub, a hand-pump, a sparkler and a pint glass, for instance – I reckon Hedonism Ale would make for an excellent session beer. If you’re curious about trying this one, you can order a case of the bottled version from www.beerathome.biz, otherwise you’ll just have to get yourself down to one of the few remaining gigs on the current Bellowhead tour and hope the venue has bought some in.