Xmas Eve

I can tell you the exact moment that Xmas 2010 started. It was early in the evening of December 24th, when I suddenly realised that I was sitting in my favourite pub (The Marble Arch, Manchester), with my favourite person in the whole world (my missus, Jo), listening to one of my very favourite songs (‘Vagabonds’) by one of my all-time favourite bands (New Model Army), whilst supping a rather excellent pint of beer (a rich, fruity, roast-malt chocolatey Marble Port Stout), which the lass behind the bar had recently informed me was completely free of charge (I think the Marble Arch has an annual tradition, or an old charter, or something). Now, if that’s not my own personal idea of Xmas perfection, then I really don’t know what is.

And that was just the start of the evening. From there I moved on – not wanting to abuse our host’s hospitality too much – to a full price pint of Ossett Winter’s Tale; a 5% ABV dark-amber ale with a thick tan head and a rather lovely mouth-feel. This one delivered a rich, malty, chocolate base note, with a lightly spiced, dry finish. It was very pleasant indeed. Jo and I weren’t able to stop too long as the trams stopped running at nine, so we just had time for one more after that. Earlier in the evening I’d exchanged season’s greetings with Opening Times editor John Clarke, so what with him being a big fan of the Belgian beers, I asked him for a recommendation from the Marble Arch’s bottled Belgians menu.

John had no hesitation in suggesting I go for the St Feuillien Triple, an 8.5% ABV golden Belgian and in John’s words, “the best triple in Belgium”. I’d already tried this one back in October last year at another Belgian-loving friend’s recommendation, and I had no hesitation in giving it another go. St Feuillien Triple delivers a huge flavour-burst: massive hops up front with a sweeter note dancing on top; grapefruit sharpness followed on, with herbal, faintly liquorice, slightly medicinal highlights. A quite delicious slow-sipper to savour.

The one minor disappointment of the evening was the blackboard at the end of the bar, which was advertising draught halves of Marble’s Chocolate Dubbel. But when I asked, I was told they’d run out earlier on and now only had the 750ml bottles left. So there was only one thing to do: head on home and crack open the bottle that I’d been saving since I bought it back in November. It was another big, boozy, deliciously dark beer, packed full of rich cocoa flavours and smooth as silk. I happily sipped that one over the course of an hour or so whilst catching up with a few Xmas specials on the telly box. Lovely stuff, highly recommended. I can see another couple of those coming home with us next time we visit the Marble Arch, if they’ve got any left by then.

Xmas Day

Round about two of the clock, as I stood there in the kitchen – elbow-deep in sprout-trimmings, gluten-free stuffing mix and streaky bacon rashers – I realised something was missing: a glass of beer. So I reached for a bottle of Hook Norton Twelve Days, which I’d picked up in Selfridge’s earlier in the year. Dark, chocolate malt flavours characterised this 5.%% dark ale, along with lighter, spiced highlights. It was quite delicious and the perfect accompaniment to Xmas dinner (lemon, garlic & thyme chicken, with all the trimmings). An all-round winner in the winter warmer stakes and far too good to only drink at Xmas. I tried to stock up the other day, but Selfridges in Manchester had run out. Somehow I’m not surprised.

After dinner, it was time for a drop of Harveys Tom Paine Ale. This 5.5% ABV golden amber ale was packed full of tangy, sweet, orange-citrus hop flavours and light spices, as well as honey, marmalade and perhaps the faintest hint of whisky-smoke. Very tasty indeed; a rather excellent after-dinner palate refresher. Next up: Hook Norton Old Hooky. This one is a darker, maltier, but no less refreshingly tasty cousin of one of my personal faves, Hooky Gold, and it’s one that I’ll definitely be buying again when the opportunity arises.

Later in the evening, after a round of family phone calls and a bit of a sit down in front of the telly, it was time for Xmas pud. And what better to accompany that than a glass of Het Anker Gouden Carolus Christmas? This 10.5% ABV Belgian seasonal special was a glorious riot of sweet, fruity flavours; with its rich, dark-sugar malt base and an explosion of cherries, dark berries and ripe bananas it’s definitely one for the sweeter-toothed palate. Jo thought it tasted like highly alcoholic Vimto. I thought it tasted like liquid fruit cake. Either way, it was delicious and almost as good as the draught version I’d enjoyed at the Marble Arch last Xmas. And yes, it went fantastically well with our Xmas pud and brandy cream.

Boxing Day

Another day at home with not much to do but eat, drink and be merry in front of the TV. After a couple of regulars – a Fuller’s Bengal Lancer and a Black Sheep Ale – I reached for a couple of seasonals that I’d saved over from our trip to Beer Ritz in Leeds back in December ’09.

First up – accompanying the traditional cold meat with bubble and squeak dinner – was Ridgeway Very Bad Elf. As far as I know, this 7.5% ABV dark ale is brewed primarily for the US export market and I think it’s one of a few ‘Bad Elf’ variants. It turned out to be quite a bit lighter that I’d expected – golden amber rather than darker brown – but it still had a smooth, luxurious mouth-feel and a warming chocolate malt-sweetness, plus hints of sherry or maybe whisky. There really wasn’t much hop action from this one at all and the alcohol hit was noticeable but not at all harsh. All in all, another deliciously, dangerously drinkable winter warmer. One for the keep-an-eye-out-for list, most definitely.

Finally, I finished the evening off with Hepworth’s Vintage Christmas Ale. Another boozy, 7.5% ABV winter ale, this one poured a mid-amber colour and had a slight sour edge to the underlying sweetness – maybe from the herbal flavours, cloves in particular, in the mix – over a malty base, with good hop notes and a light dryness to the after-taste. It was pleasant enough, just not as great as some of the others I’d tried. Of all the Xmas beers I tried this year, I think this is the one I’d probably give a miss in future.

So there you have it: three days’ worth of relaxing and feasting, helped along by a selection of (mostly) terrific beers. That’s what I call Xmas!

Brewery: Harveys [Open It! beer number two: Harveys Elizabethan Ale. I’d been keeping hold of this one for almost a year, since our first visit to Beer Ritz last December.

Harvey’s Elizabethan Ale turned out to be pretty much aroma-less and poured a deep amber colour, with absolutely no head. A rich, smooth mouth-feel conveyed a selection of sweet, sherry and toffee notes, with touch of red wine fruitiness and a slightly grapefruit-sour after-taste.

I think I was a victim of my own mental hype with this one. It was pleasant and flavourful, just not as amazing as I’d hoped it might be. Somehow I had built up an idea that “strong barley wine reminiscent of the ‘October Ales’ brewed in domestic brewhouses during the sixteenth century” was going to deliver something weird and wonderful in the flavour department; a distinctly herbal tang, perhaps, or hints of some other exotic ingredient; something more Elizabethan-tasting (even though Harveys Elizabethan Ale was actually first brewed in 1953 to mark the coronation of Elizabeth II, rather than being a re-creation of any centuries-old recipe). Serves me right for over-thinking it.

Usual caveats apply: I might have had a flat bottle, or one of a not-so-good batch, or it might not have been left to age for long enough to get the full benefit. It certainly wasn’t a bad beer by any means and I definitely wouldn’t say no if someone put a bottle in front of me, but it isn’t one I’ll be making a point of seeking out.

Brewery: Hardknott [@Hardknottann]
Location: Millom, Cumbria, England
Style: Red IPA
ABV: 6.5%
Version: Bottled
Source: Utobeer, Covent Garden, London

Friday Night was Open It! night, so I brought out a trio of beers that I’d been saving for a while. First up was Hardknott Infra Red. I (literally) grabbed this bottle off the shelf on a visit to Utobeer earlier this year (I think it was their last one) and had been saving it ever since.

The first thing I noticed was the thick, spicy hop aroma that poured from the bottle when I cracked the top. Infra Red poured with a deep, copper-red body and a frothy beige head.

Hardknott Infra Red is a very savoury beer. The first sip brought a flood of flavours that were all about the hop-burn. It was slightly sour (in a Belgian Red kinda way) and slightly metallic, with a long, lingering dryness, and hints of something that was struggling towards sweetness but never quite arrived. Burnt sugars – caramelised roast veg, something like that – came in towards the very end but there was still nothing you could call ‘sweet’ about it.

All in all we’re talking a distinctly acerbic, bone-dry, big IPA in a very definite Brewdog Hardcore mode, rather than what seems to be a more common sweet malt base for the big US-produced IPAs that I’ve sampled recently. Definitely a beer for the more adventurous palate, but one that rewards the bold-hearted with a big, brash blast of hoppy flavour. I liked it a lot and I’ll be buying more the very next chance I get.

Dredge and Mogg‘s latest beer-related wheeze is Open It! – a weekend-long celebration of all those rare and interesting bottled beers that beer geeks like me have a bad habit of stashing away at the back of a cupboard for a ‘special occasion’.

Simple idea: pick out a choice bottle or three, Open It! and blog about it.

Here’s my Friday evening selection:

That’s a bottle each of:

• Harvey’s Elizabethan Ale
• Hardknott Infra Red 2009
• De Dolle Special Extra Export Stout

Maybe not the rarest beers you’ve ever seen, but I’ve been saving them all for a while and I’m looking forward to trying all three of them immensely.

Btw, does anyone else think “Dredge and Mogg” sounds like a firm of Dickensian solicitors..? :)

First up was Ascot Ales Alligator Ale, a golden ale brewed with single-varietal (US cascade) hops. I was expecting something light and refreshing, but this 4.6% ABV ended up punching well above its expected weight. It poured a slightly cloudy (although that may have been my fault, I might not have been as careful with the sediment as I should have been, distracted as I was by watching the World Cup draw) dark gold colour, with a very thin head. The first sip delivered a big hit of rich malt, which took on a chocolatey character as the beer warmed up. The hop finish was sneaky: it crept up and slugged my taste buds when I wasn’t looking, but hung around for ages afterwards in the lingering, dry finish. There was a hint of citrus sourness in there as well; a mix of bitter orange and acid drops. Very little in the way of sweetness, but with plenty of character and flavour, I definitely enjoyed my first Alligator encounter.

Second round: Dark Star Imperial Stout. I had a strong suspicion that I’d get on with this one very well indeed, Imperial Stout being pretty much my all-time favourite beer style, and I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest. This 2008 vintage, 10.5% ABV roast-malt monster poured a lovely opaque black, with no head whatsoever. The first sip released a cascade of big, big flavours: rich, dark chocolate, sour cherries, port wine were the first three I scribbled down as tears of pure joy leaked from the corners of my eyes. After that I noted treacle, liquorice and then a definite vanilla, toasted almond, marzipan-esque semi-sweetness began to creep through. The sweeter flavours became more pronounced as I sipped my way down the glass, but at no point did they take over or become cloying; that bitter-sour note was ever-present, keeping the whole thing in quite wonderful balance. Delicious. Absolutely delicious. I’d happily drink a bottle of Dark Star Imperial Stout any day of the week.

And so to round three: Harvey’s Imperial Extra Double Stout. Not just Imperial. Not even just Imperial Extra. No, this one’s Imperial Extra Double Stout… so I was expecting something that was going to be nothing less than absolutely incredible. Bottled in 2003, this beer had already been maturing for six years when I cracked it open on Friday evening. I have no idea what it tasted like when it was young, but aged for 60 months or so, it was… well… I started off with ‘smells like christmas cake’ (when it was still in the bottle) and moved on to ‘looks like used engine oil’, this second observation provided by Jo, after the pour. And it tasted like… rubber. And burnt coffee. And red wine vinegar. And… okay, you know how the phrase ‘a bit of a Marmite beer’ is usually used metaphorically? in the case of Harvey’s IEDS it’s quite literal, too. Individually, there’s not a flavour there that should have endeared me to Harvey’s ober-stout, but slam them all together and you get something that really works. In an oddly savoury, distinctly medicinal, weirdly masochistic way, it all just works. I managed to finish the bottle, anyhow (which surprised me almost as much as it did Jo) and, although I wouldn’t rush back to it, I’d still give it another go. I think. Tell you what, offer me another one and we’ll see what happens…

Huge, huge thanks to Beer Viking crew member Simon B for sending me this eclectic, interesting and extremely generous selection. Some genuinely remarkable (and surprising) flavours, there. I’m very happy indeed that I took part in the first round of the Beer Swap project, and I’ll be glad to volunteer for the next one.

Earlier this week, I finally got the long-awaited and much-chased email from Collect+ confirming that my Beer Swap package had arrived at the local store for collection. My Beer Swap buddy was Simon B, a loyal crew member on the good ship BeerViking.com and – judging by the selection of beers he chose to send my way – a man who definitely knows his brews.

The package from Simon contained the following:

      

Alligator Ale from Ascot Ales. A single-varietal (US Cascade) hop golden ale made in small batches of 4 barrels at a time.

Imperial Stout from Dark Star, 2008 vintage. A 10.5% ABV uber-stout in the Baltic export tradition. (I owe Simon a pint for sending me this one, definitely.)

Imperial Extra Double Stout from Harveys, 2003 vintage. 9% ABV and sanctioned by A. Le Coa and Tartu Brewery in Estonia. (If the last one earned Simon a pint, then for this one I probably owe him a hogshead…)

Now, anyone involved in the Beer Swap project will have spotted that I’ve only mentioned three bottles there, rather than the four that Beer Swap participants were asked to send. Simon did send a fourth – a bottle of Dark Star Sunburst – but alas, it didn’t survive the journey intact. So, whilst I’m truly impressed with Simon’s generosity and dedication to the Beer Swap cause, I can’t say the same for the efficiency of service or customer care demonstrated by Collect+. They were, frankly, a bit crap. Not only did they take ten days to ship the parcel from Marple (just South of Manchester) to Prestwich (just North of Manchester) – which is a journey of “19.2 mi – about 35 mins” according to Google Maps – but they also managed to break the bottle of Sunburst, despite the copious amount of newspaper packing that Simon had included in the box and the ‘Fragile’ tape he’d used to seal it up with.

So when I picked up the parcel I was greeted with one end of a box reduced to a mass of soggy cardboard and the pungent (yet still oddly enticing) whiff of stale beer, handed to me by an apologetic shopkeeper who assured me that this what it had looked like when he received it:

I mentioned the damaged parcel to Collect+ (pointing out that the broken bottle had been removed, so I couldn’t see whether it had been crushed in transit or had just cracked under its own pressure) and asked them to refund Simon his sending fee. They flatly refused. Instead, they apologised for the damage, but in the same email quoted chunks of their terms & conditions stating that they don’t carry liquids or glass except by prior arrangement.

Which, of course, they’re perfectly entitled to do. Fair’s fair, terms and conditions are agreed to in advance and all that. But to me, that sort of approach (“oh, sorry… not our problem though”) still smacks of an opportunity lost on their part; an opportunity to impress a first-time customer with their dedication to providing an above-and-beyond standard of service. Their loss: I won’t be using them again in future. Terms and conditions aside, Collect+ still managed to break a beer bottle that was perfectly well-packaged in a box clearly marked ‘fragile’, which suggests their drivers or depot staff are nowhere near as careful with other people’s property as they should be.

Anyhow, today is actually the last day for posting a Beer Swap write-up, according to the original schedule. Thanks to Collect+’s amazing ability to turn a 35 minute journey into a 10-day delay, I’m going to be cutting it fine if I’m going to make the deadline… Sunday seems like a much more likely prospect than this evening, but I’ll do my best. Depends on how much recorded TV we end up watching. Or rather, if I’m honest about it, how engrossed I get in Football Manager 2010… :)

I was in London for an overnight stay last week, in between two days’ worth of meetings. Seeing as I was staying on The Strand, it was a pleasantly warm evening and Clerkenwell looked like it was within easy walking distance, I realised this was a great opportunity to visit the legendary Gunmakers.

With the help of Google Maps I found the place quite easily and I fell in love with it pretty much immediately. The Gunmakers is small but perfectly formed, with the décor, atmosphere and – most importantly – beer selection of a proper pub. Being a bit peckish I perused the food menu on the blackboard and was frankly spoilt for choice, deciding on the chicken liver & bacon salad rather than the mixed grill, but only by the narrowest of margins. The food turned up quickly and was, frankly, delicious. The chicken livers were cooked to perfection, the bacon was freshly grilled, the salad leaves fresh and the dressing tangy. Absolutely lovely grub (it knocked ten bells out of the bog-standard re-heated chicken & chorizo salad I’d had at lunchtime) and I’ll report back on the mixed grill next time I get down there.

Even better was the aformentioned beer selection. I’ve been keeping an eye out for fff Alton’s Pride since it won CAMRA Champion beer of Britain at last year’s Great British Beer Festival and there it was. A very fine beer it turned out to be, too: a golden-amber bitter with a fabulously fresh, hoppy flavour and plenty of lingering malt-notes in the after-taste. Throw in a hint of citrus and a biscuity, caramel sweetness and it all added up to a very fine drop indeed. At 3.8% it’s a definite session-candidate and I’ll certainly be trying this one again if I find it out and about in Manchester.

I reckoned I had time for one more before I headed off, so I opted for a pint of Harvey’s Sussex Best bitter, which turned out to be another very fresh-tasting pale ale with a well-balanced hop-malt flavour and was expertly poured by none other than Jeffrey the landlord, widely known in beer-blogging circles as the author of Jeffrey’s Beer Blog.

I said hello and introduced myself, then Jeff in turn introduced me to John, his flatmate, and we ended up chatting for a good half hour or so while Jeff did important landlord-stuff. We covered a range of topics – John’s work at the BBC World Service, my work in publishing, the state of the economy, a few suggestions as to the best pubs in Manchester and York – all sorts of interesting topics. All in all I was made to feel most welcome indeed and it turned out to be an extremely pleasant evening, even if I did have to be anti-social and slope off a bit early to get in an hour or so’s prep for the next day’s meetings. But I’ll be back, dammit. Just try to stop me…

And Jeff, if you happen to end up reading this piece, many thanks indeed for your hospitality and congrats again on your terrific boozer. If you do decide to make that Manchester trip and you think the services of a local guide might be useful, please feel free to drop me a line and I’ll see if I can free up an evening for a bit of a crawl.

Photo Credit: I found this pic of the Gunmakers on Ewan-M’s photostream on Flickr, which features a wealth of London pubs – check it out!