Last summer Jo and I went along to the Outstanding Brewery up in Bury to have a chat with the brewers about social media, online marketing and what have you. After a quick tour of the premises, we sat and talked about websites, Twitter, Facebook, keyword advertising and what-have-you. Then after an hour or so of (hopefully useful) conversation (and a beer or two) we left with a bag of label-less bottles – Outstanding aren’t bottling much at the moment, focusing most of their efforts on supplying the local pub-trade, so it was mostly a few end-of-cask-filling leftovers – that the Outstanding chaps very kindly thrust our way.

We were also sent away with a few friendly warnings (as in: “not sure what this one is, could be anything, good luck”) and a warning in no uncertain terms about one of them in particular: a rare-as-rocking-horse-poop bottle of Outstanding’s genuinely rather excellent Matron’s Delight – an 8% imperial stout / winter warmer that was the definite Beer of the Festival for me at last year’s National Winter Ales Festival.

The Outstanding fellas confessed that this one had quite possibly been “double-finished by accident”. Not so much primed, as primed to go off, potentially explosively. “You’ll want to stick that in the fridge for a while and open it over the sink.” Dave Porter advised, whilst the other Outstanding blokes nodding along in agreement.

Three weeks ago today, I put it in the fridge. Last night, I decided to open it. Jo and I stood ready: me with the bottle, bottle opener and pint glass already in the sink, Jo with the camera ready on my phone, in case anything interesting happened. I popped the cap, and…

…pffft.

No explosion, no need to wipe down the ceiling or ourselves. So far so good, and the pour was very promising indeed. I mean, look at that! Lovely, no? I couldn’t wait to try it.

First up, plenty of strident aromas: rich fruit cake, liquorice, coffee, red wine. Then a sip, and a definite explosion of flavour: huge, sour-sweet berry fruits, lots of coffee again, then some sour cherries, plenty of dark chocolate (85% cocoa, minimum), a touch of rye bread, some sour red wine… uh, oh. Did I mention sour a couple of times there?

Obviously I knew there was a chance that this one wasn’t going to be 100% fresh or 100% drinkable, but by heck I was determined to give it a good go. Alas, though, it quickly went from “maybe not as delicious as the last time I had it” to “er, hang on, this really isn’t right”. I managed about a third of it, but as I manfully sipped my way down the pint it gradually became more and more apparent that no, I wasn’t going to be able to finish this one. Not without making myself quite poorly, anyhow.

And so, with a heavy heart, I made my way back to the kitchen sink and poured again…

Which was a real shame, because when Matron’s Delight is on form it really is a terrifically tasty strong, dark ale that’s packed with flavour and character; one that I’d happily sup halves of all night (as long as someone else promised to steer me afterwards). By all the gods of malted barley I wish Outstanding would brew this one on a regular basis and bottle it up more often!

Last Saturday night, Jo and I had plans to meet up with our good friends Lucy and Murray in Manchester city centre. 5.00 p.m. outside Sinclairs / The Old Wellington was the usual nightmare of noisy teatime crowds, so despite there being a couple of interesting-looking IPAs (one of which was Adnams American IPA, the other I can’t quite recall) on offer at the Welly, we elected to de-camp and move on up to the Marble Arch instead.

Good decision. We got there just before the early evening lull, so it didn’t take us too long (with a little bit of strategic loitering, pouncing and relocating on the part of Jo and Lucy whilst Murray and I were umming and ahhing at the bar) to bag ourselves a table-for-four and settle in to a pint or two before we ordered food.*

I started off with Hawkshead Cumbrian Five Hop and it was absolutely marvellous. An explosion of huge citrus-hop flavours (the beer is a.k.a. ‘Citrillo’ so I’m guessing there’s Citrus and Amarillo in there for a start) with plenty of grapefruit, burnt orange and candied lemon peel on a solid malt base. The dry-sharp finish lingered for ages and the mouth-feel was rather excellent as well. At 5% ABV it wasn’t o.t.t. and I could happily have supped this one all evening, but dammit we were in the Marble Arch and there were new Marble beers to try!

So, next up: Marble Utility IPA No.5, the latest in the Marble Brewery’s ongoing Utility IPA series which, if I understand it right, changes slightly each time on account of their using whatever blend of hops they have to hand at the time. Something like that. Anyhow, No. 5 was a winning combination, whatever was in there. Another big, hop-heavy, mouth-feel-rich beer; this time with a more pink grapefruit citrus flavour and, whilst still bitter and dry, a slightly softer edge. Again, a lingering dryness and again, at 5% ABV both palatable and reasonably sessionable. This was the first of the Utility IPAs that I’d encountered, but I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for them in future.

After that, fortified by a starter round of mackerel paté and a main course of lamb rump with some truly tasty trimmings (including boulanger potato, which must be the dish that all potatoes aspire to from the moment they’re pulled from the ground) I decided it was time to try the Marble Rye, a.k.a. The Last Stronge Beer. I assumed this was Brewer Colin Stronge’s farewell brew and if so, then it was a hell of a going away present for the Marble’s punters. A 5.7% strong ruby mild (I think?) reminiscent of the legendary (to my mind, at least) Marble Brew 1691 Mild, packed full of spicy fruit cake flavours; rich and just sweet enough, with a slightly peppery edge and a tang of port wine, this one really was terrifically tasty, easy-drinking and very more-ish indeed.

Although for some reason, when I got back to the bar next, I decided to have a Marble Dobber instead. I guess sometimes you just can’t resist the lure of an old favourite,eh? As usual, Dobber didn’t disappoint: big hops all the way; fantastic.

After that we decided to move on in the general direction of Piccadilly station, with an almost inevitable stop-off at the Port Street Beer House. There I cast my eye over the selection of “Jocktoberfest” Scottish ales on offer and, eschewing the temptations of Fyne Jarl, opted for a half (just a half, mind) of BrewDog Abstrakt:06, which I’d spotted on my last PSBH visit the previous Tuesday, but not tried then for strategic, mid-week session restraint reasons.

I’ve tried the bottled version of this one and thoroughly enjoyed it (but not blogged about it quite yet), so I couldn’t really pass up the chance to sample the keg version. And it was lovely. A “triple-hopped Imperial Black IPA”, it was full of herbal cough-drop, liquorice and coffee flavours with the rolling, fruity profile of a slightly sweet, fortified wine. I sat and sipped that one for a happy half hour before we called it a night, rolled out the door and headed for home.

Another selection of great beers from two of the very best (and two of my three personal favourite) Manchester pubs. Another great session in great company. Cheers, Lucy and Murray, very good indeed to see you. Let’s do it again soon!

* From the Marble Arch’s new Autumn menu, which I have to say is pretty fantastic-sounding throughout. They really have excelled themselves this time around, with a selection of (apart from the puddings, as you’d expect) mostly gluten-free dishes (whether that was intentional or not, we’re certainly very happy that’s how it turned out) and I fully expect that we’ll be back to try the rest of it before too long.

I’ve bought a couple of potentially great bottled beers in the past few weeks.

BrewDog released their Black Tokyo* Horizon collaboration (with Mikkeller and Nogne-Ø) imperial stout, so I grabbed a three-pack of that one while I could. And while I was there it would have been rude not to pick up a bottle of their Prototype 17 raspberry-infused, oak aged 77 Lager. I’m not saying this one will be great, but it certainly ought to be interesting…

This was shortly before I found out that Brewers Reserve No. 3 was available, so that was another order (two of those and a spare one of No. 2, so I can sample it young as well as keeping one for the hell of seeing what it tastes like after it’s matured for a few years).

Lovely stuff (with any luck). I’m definitely looking forward to trying those.

In which I post another half-dozen links to items of interest I’ve spotted around the Beerblogosphere since my last Six Beer Links post.

1. Now this is what I call attention to detail. Portuguese brewer Sagres wanted something special to promote their new chocolate stout, Chocolate Preta so they made a promo website entirely out of chocolate. “Every banner, every button, was meticulously crafted by chocolatier Victor Nunes, then photographed, digitized, and coded.” Even the Flash loading page is chocolate melting in reverse. Wow. [via @OkellsAles]

2. The Magic Rock Brewing chaps hosted their official launch last Tuesday at The Grove in Huddersfield and earlier that day they brewed up a special collaborative beer with colleagues from Hawkshead and Marble. Human Cannonball is a double-IPA, and initial reports are favourable, the cooled wort being: “extremely hoppy to say the least, reminiscent of the smell of pine floor cleaner but also with a massive malty sweetness and extreme bitter finish”. The first in a planned series of specials, Magic Rock say the beer “should be ready in a couple of weeks and is mainly destined for bottles although there will also be a few key-kegs about and there’s a rumoured special guest appearance on cask at Hawkshead’s excellent beer festival in July.”

3. Over at I Might Have a Glass of Beer, Barm talks to a group of four students from Edinburgh Herriott-Watt University who have been developing their own brewing company – Natural Selection Brewing as part of an MSc Brewing and Distilling Master’s Thesis project. The beer in question, Finch, is a “Robust Red Ale” at 6.5%, and will be available in the Edinburgh area from round about July 20th.

4. I always enjoy Martyn Cornell’s Zythophile blog and I’m a huge fan of Imperial Stout, so Imperial Stout – Russian or Irish? was right up my street and statements like “‘Russian’ seems not to have been attached to ‘Imperial Stout’ until the early 20th century. Indeed, the first nation to have its name linked to Imperial stout looks to be Ireland” are bound to get my attention. Well worth a read if beer history is your cup of tea.

5. As I mentioned in my last Six Beer Links post, Robert Gale of Beer Lens fame visited the Marble Arch and 57 Thomas Street in Manchester recently. Turns out he also posted longer write-ups of another couple of Manchester pubs over on www.travelswithbeer.com, namely The Crown and Kettle and Micro Bar (in a couple of those shots you can see the selection that makes it the best bottled beer shop in Manchester).

6. The Keg vs Cask debate has been rumbling for a while now. Tandleman opens a new, price-based front with a visit to the Port Street Beer House…

Brewery: BrewDog [@BrackenBrewdog]
Location: Fraserburgh, Aberdeen, Scotland
Style: Imperial Stout
ABV: 15.0%
Version: Bottled
Source: BrewDog, via www.abstrakt.com

With the fifth release in BrewDog’s Abstrakt concept beer series just a couple of weeks away, it’s probably high time I posted my notes for Abstrakt:04, which I actually sampled back in November.

Things didn’t start too well, as I had a hell of a time getting the cork out – it seemed to have been sealed with araldite or something – but I eventually managed to wrestle the stopper free and, whilst the half-feared volcanic explosion failed to materialise, Abstrakt:04 poured with an energetic, buzzing fizz and plenty of frothy head.

When things calmed down a bit I found myself facing a dense, oily-viscous, black beer that gave off an absolutely incredible roast coffee-bean aroma, with a hint of port-wine fruitiness. That aroma lasted to the very end of the glass and was accompanied by an explosion of rich, dark flavours: mocha-espresso, blackcurrant jam, cherry liqueur. It was a smoky, rich, indulgent, excessive, cognac-soaked chocolate cake of a beer. I couldn’t detect much in the way of in-your-face chilli, but maybe that was just contributing to the general melange of spice-flavours.

At 15% ABV it was no quaffer, either – and Jo really didn’t fancy it, too strong for her taste – so I was left to slowly sip over the course of an hour or two. And I have to admit that by the time I was halfway down the 375ml bottle I felt like could have done with someone to share it with… it was maybe just a bit too heavy on the coffee, perhaps and the dryness was beginning to get a bit much. I I was having flashbacks to the time I had some 95% cocoa dark chocolate and it sucked all the moisture out of my mouth…

So, as I tweeted at the time, Abstrakt:04 was… interesting. Incredibly flavourful, absolutely fascinating, but also very deeply challenging. I’ve got another two bottles of Abstrakt:04 maturing in the cupboard (along with two each of :02 and :03, which I haven’t actually sampled yet, and I think a couple of :01 as well… I’ll have to check) and I’m going to give it another go in six months or so, then leave the final bottle for at least a couple of years. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to all that coffee-dryness, and whether some of that cocoa develops into something sweeter and a little easier to swallow.

Manchester city centre is already blessed with a number of very fine pubs and alehouses: The Marble Arch, The Angel, Common, Bar Fringe, Knott Bar, The City Arms, The Crown and Kettle, The Bank, The Bull’s Head, and The Smithfield Hotel to name just the ones within walking distance of the tram that Jo and I drink in fairly regularly and I can remember off the top of my head.

Well, last Saturday Jo and I popped in for a couple of drinks at a newly opened establishment which I think already stands head-and-shoulders above the majority of the rest, and is surely set to be recognised as one of Manchester’s very finest: The Port Street Beer House. Here’s why:

First: the location. At the Piccadilly end of Manchester’s Northern Quarter, about 5 minutes walk from the tram stop in Piccadilly Gardens, it’s far enough off the beaten track to avoid attracting passing hoardes of alcopop-seeking teeny-boppers (is that the right technical term? I’m terribly out of touch these days). Perfect.

Next: the pub itself. From the highly polished wooden flooring (which is quite lovely) to the sophisticated decor, muted lighting, eclectic-yet-comfortable furnishings in the upstairs lounge and the light jazz playing softly in the background, it’s a very grown-up sort of space. Which is just the sort of space I like, seeing as I’m well over the hill and accelerating comfortably into middle-age. Again, perfect.

And finally, the beer selection. Oh, my word, the beer selection…

Five cask pumps, which on the night in question were offering beers (from left-to-right) by Dark Star, Acorn, BrewDog, Thornbridge and Prospect. Another ten or so keg taps; two more BrewDog, a couple of continental (Czech or German, I think) lagers, one American guest and some others I failed to make note of. And then a couple of six-foot fridges half full of bottled delights from the UK, Europe, the US and probably Asia and Australia as well, with another two pallet-loads en route, so I was told. To be fair I will say that some of the bottles in question sounded like they were a little bit on the pricey side. But then, quality costs, you tend to get what you pay for and we really are talking about the sort of beers that you definitely aren’t likely to see in many other places outside of their country of origin (again I forgot to note down specific examples, so I’ll make a quick list next time I’m in). Caveat emptor if you’re picking stuff from the fridges at random, is all I’m saying.

Anyhow, the first pint of the evening for me: Thornbridge Hark. A light, session strength golden ale, with bags of hoppy freshness up front and then a long, dry, biscuity finish. Very drinkable, quite moreish, easily the sort of ale you could stick with all night. Meanwhile, Jo tried a half of Dark Star M&M Special Porter. This 6.5% ABV, dark, rich porter was massively smoky and spicy (chorizo!) with sweeter liquorice to follow. Maybe a bit of a challenging flavour profile, but if smoked beers are to your taste then this one is definitely worth trying.

Next up, I chatted to one of the chaps behind the bar about just how bloody marvellous it was to see Brewdog Hardcore on draught and as a result ended up with a half from the keg. In bottles, this 9.2% ABV imperial IPA is pretty damn amazing. On draught it’s… just awesome. All the burnt-orange citrus flavour, dry hop bite and incredible tropical-fruit aroma of the regular version, but with a silkier, richer mouth-feel. Quite splendid. Jo meanwhile had gone for a freshly-tapped cask ale: Prospect one-twenty. At 4.0% ABV, this light malty ale with a dry, biscuity finish and a slight orange-citrus tang (think orange shortbread, but not at all sugary) was another excellent session choice. Jo said she could quite happily drink this all night and wouldn’t have complained if it was the only cask beer on.

At this point, I decided to step away from the monster IPA and renew my acquaintance with an old favourite: Acorn Gorlovka. This 6.0% ABV stout is smooth, dry and packed full of delicious flavour: high-cocoa milk chocolate (think Green & Blacks), with a lingering roast-malt finish and a faint coffee bitterness giving it a distinctly mocha profile overall. Very, very good indeed. And at this point in the proceedings, I brought Jo a half of Left Hand JuJu Ginger. Jo likes a good ginger beer, but this one turned out to be not quite gingery enough. It was cucumber-fresh and not too sugary (which is a good thing), with a tangy, lemony after-taste, but the ginger did’t linger (which is a bad thing…) and by the end of the half it was a case of lemon, lemon and more lemon. “Lukewarm lemon tea”, Jo concluded, and went back to the Prospect one-twenty for the rest of the evening.

I blame my early-doors dalliance with Hardcore for what happened next: a pint of smooth, hoppy, malty and delicious BrewDog Punk IPA – again, imagine the bottled version, but then add a good 50% to the quality of the mouth-feel. It was cask rather than keg and I have no idea whether it was old-recipe Punk or new-recipe Punk, but whatever the case, it was high-quality stuff and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Then I went for a pint of BrewDog Zeitgeist – their Czech-style black lager. 4.9% ABV, packed with burnt coffee flavours and possessed of an incredibly refreshing hoppy bite. Lovely stuff once more and I was very glad indeed that I’d been able to try three BrewDog favourites on draught, be they cask or keg, old recipe or new, they were all very, very good indeed. Then there was one more half of Gorlovka for the road and then Jo and I called it a night – a truly excellent night – and headed for the tram back home.

So, what do I think of Manchester’s newest specialist beer emporium? Frankly, I absolutely love the place. I’ll be closely following developments on the Port Street Beer House blog and keeping an eye out for new beers announced via their Twitter account. And whilst I’m sure Jo and I will still frequent our other favourite drinking places on a regular basis, if our visits don’t more usually turn into stops en-route to an end-of-the-evening session at the Port Street Beer House, I’ll be quite surprised.

In the excellent company of Jo and our good friend Paul, I made my way down to the National Winter Ales Festival at the Sheridan Suite yesterday evening. Jo and I stopped off for suitably beer-soaky food on the way down (if you’re heading to the NWAF via public transport and are wondering about food on the way, I can heartily recommend Rice in Piccadilly Gardens – purveyors of extremely fine and fast Asian fusion cuisine by the carton-load) and then hopped on the bus for the short ride to the venue.

We flashed our CAMRA cards at the door and were waved in (Thursday’s session being free for CAMRA members, tonight and tomorrow are also £1 off on the door), then handed over a quid for a programme (Jo loves to do the research), another two quid for the cloakroom and then four quid for a couple of souvenir half-pint tankards (pint glasses also available, deposit refundable on exit if you don’t want to keep your glass). Then we met up with Paul and started to think about drinking a beer or two.

This was the first time any of us had been to a National CAMRA festival and we were all quite taken aback by the sheer size of the venue, the crowd (happily busy even for a Thursday, tonight and tomorrow could be absolutely hammered) and the range of beers on offer. The last decent-sized festival we were all at was the SIBA Great Northern, back in October, where they had something like 56 beers from a choice of 200 on offer at one time. Yesterday it seemed as though every one of the programme beers was available at once – some on hand-pull, the majority on gravity dispense – and the choice truly was bewildering.

Luckily, Paul had a decisive brainwave: “Let’s find an IPA to start with.” So we did; after scanning along all four bars we settled on halves of Summer Wine Diablo. 6.0% ABV and a rich, golden amber hue, it gave off a waft of marmalade aromas and the flavour was all about the sticky, sweet oranges and hops. If I’m honest, I could have done with something lighter and fresher to start the session with. It reminded me a lot of the pint of Moor Hoppiness I’d tried in the Marble Arch a while back; I was a bit over-faced by that one as well. Ah well, onwards and upwards.

Next up, one that I’d spotted being recommended on Twitter earlier in the day: Milton Nero. A 5.0% ABV stout, gravity dispensed so I was expecting something flat as a pancake, but still, the lack of conditioning on this one surely didn’t do it any favours. Flavour-wise, it was milk chocolate on a biscuit base and not much else to it. I thought I’d p-p-p-picked up a Penguin. Paul said dark chocolate digestive. Jo reckoned it reminded her of bourbon (again, the biscuit, not the malt liquor). Coupled with a lack of depth and a thin mouth-feel, it meant this multi award-winning beer failed to impress on the night and I was very glad I was only drinking a half. Time to try something a little more adventurous, perhaps?

How about Black Isle Hibernator, a 7.0% ABV oatmeal stout; surely that should pack a tasty and interesting punch? Disaster. Sugar, sugar, a touch of fruit cordial, more sugar and very little else… reminded me of nothing so much as blackcurrant cough syrup. I couldn’t even finish a half of this one, I had to ask a bar volunteer to dump it in the slops bucket for me and I rather wished I’d taken the hint when the chap who served me asked “a half?” in a very “we serve the stuff in thirds as well, you know…” kinda way.

By this point – despite the ongoing excellence of the company and the hugely enjoyable conversation – I have to admit I was beginning to feel a little despondent. Three beers so far and none of them had managed to hit the spot. I realised early on that the lack of conditioning wasn’t helped by the fact that none of the hand-pumps had sparklers, but I didn’t want to ask if there were any in the room (I knew that Tandleman, that stalwart champion of the sparkler, was one of the festival organisers, so if he hadn’t been able to impress on them the key role of the small, plastic nozzle, then surely a request from me wasn’t going to sway anyone). But still, was I going to be doomed to an evening of flat, warm beer? That was the other problem – the room, large though it was, was extremely stuffy and even with the cooler jackets on the casks, surely that wasn’t helping the beer quality at all?

Or maybe I just had my festival tactics wrong. I was mindful of something that The Reluctant Scooper said a while back about how he used to seek out beers by breweries he’d never heard of, just to find yet another variant on boring brown beer, whilst something excellent he already knew went un-drunk. Should I in fact be sticking to what I knew, or at least, beers by breweries I was familiar with, rather than trying to expand my horizons? Or would I be better off drinking my favourite beers in my favourite pubs, in much better condition? A dilemma and no mistake.

I eventually settled on erring on the side of caution and went for a third pint measure of a beer I knew: Dunham Massey Winter Warmer. I had happy memories of this 6.6% ABV winter ale, and even on gravity pour, I’m happy to say that it restored a smile to my face last night: sweet and rich, with hints of sherry and lots of malt, it was a pleasant pick-me-up after a disappointing start to the session.

After that, Paul was in IPA-mode again so I suggested, and then joined him on, a half of Worthington’s White Shield. An old favourite and another great fall-back… rich and malty with a big hop hit on the after-taste, just what the beer doctor ordered. It still could definitely have done with a sparkler, but it wasn’t all that different to the bottled version, so I was happy enough.

Then I strayed again. Possibly my judgement was getting a bit lax, possibly my ‘stick to what you know’ strategy was beginning to feel too safe, what with all these potentially amazing new beers around to try, but I decided that I liked the sound of Liverpool Organic‘s Russian Imperial Stout. Surely, surely this 8.6% ABV imperial stout couldn’t be another dud? Yeah, yeah, the triumph of hope over experience… again, it turned out to be another massively sweet, sugary beer, with just the faintest touch of liquorice. But seriously: where were the roast malts, where were the sharp, bitter coffee notes, the rich seams of dark chocolate? Where was the flavour? I managed to finish the third pint I’d ordered but again, was rather disappointed. Time for one last roll of the dice, before heading home.

At the start of the evening I’d spotted a beer called Matron’s Delight – from one of my very favourite breweries, local outfit Outstanding – and had been saving it for the end. I could trust good old Outstanding not to let me down, not with an 8.0& ABV strong winter ale, couldn’t I? They certainly didn’t. At last, a beer with some actual condition and flavour! First of the night with a head (of sorts), Matron’s Delight delivered deep, rich fruit flavours – blackberries and plums – in a sweet (but not too sweet) spiced-fruitcake of a beer. It was very lovely indeed and I was very glad to find a redeemer at the very end of a largely lacklustre session.

So, there you go. A night of distinctly mixed results. At best I discovered a delicious new beer from a favourite brewery and re-acquainted myself with a couple of old favourites. At worst, I tried a few beers that just didn’t taste all that great. But the really annoying thing was that I ended up disliking three beers that under other circumstances – had then been served differently – I rather think I would have absolutely loved. I mean, strong oatmeal stout, imperial stout, malty chocolate stout? These are the sorts of beers what I usually thoroughly enjoy. Last night though, it just wasn’t the case.

Feel free to tell me where I went wrong with my selection strategy, or tell me about all the absolutely fantastic beers I missed because they were on the pump / cask just next door to the ones I tried, or tell me that I was just expecting too much in terms of beer quality at a large beer festival. But I’ll still say this: the SIBA Great Northern Festival was head and shoulders above the NWAF on that front and I think it was all down to a combination of two factors: the use of a sparkler to provide proper condition in the served beer, plus the simple, but rather civilised procedure of swapping your glass for a clean one whenever you went to the bar. Okay, maybe the sheer size of the NWAF would make this second measure a logistical impossibility. But I stand by my assertion that all the beers I had last night would have tasted so much better if they’d been served sparkler-style. Feel free to correct me if a technicality (something to do with the behaviour of a beer at room rather than cellar temperature, perhaps?) makes me completely wrong on that score, but that’s my position and I’m sticking to it for now.

And as a result, whilst I’ll definitely be making time to visit next year’s SIBA Great Northern on at least two evenings, I’m going to have to have a good think about next year’s NWAF. Unless I can come up with a better plan for identifying the good quality stuff (Jo rekcons I should have spent more time reading the brochure, which is a fair point, but then she studied it in detail and yet her luck was about as mixed as mine; she had to ditch two of the beers she tried to my one) and some simple method for cleaning the glass between beers (a bottle of water in my pocket for a quick rinse should do it) then I think I’d rather spend the night down the Marble Arch, the Angel, Fringe, Common, or the Port Street Beer House (which opens in Manchester at the end of the month and sounds amazing) instead. Because that way I’ll be able to sample just as many different beers in the course of an evening, and at least I’d know that they would all be served in tip-top condition.

I called in at the already-legendary Euston Tap for the first time yesterday evening, on the way back to my home-bound train. It’s a rather tiny place, with an excellent range of beers, much like The Rake in Borough Market. It wasn’t too busy when I arrived at around 17.45 (but got considerably busier shortly after 18.00) so I plonked myself and my luggage down at a bar-side seat and fired up my decision-making engine.

No easy task, that: I took a good couple of minutes to peruse the beer-blackboard which, with its choice of eight cask ales and a further nineteen draft beers, took some time to sort and digest (and that was without even glancing at the two large and exceedingly well-stocked beer fridges on the back wall). I spotted Brewdog Paradox right away, but decided that starting with that one might be… unwise. Instead, after a quick chat to Australian Barman about dark & malty options, I went for a half of Bristol Beer Factory Bristol Stout.

A classic black and white stout configuration, it’s a deceptive little beggar, this one. There really wasn’t much flavour up front, instead everything was saved for the follow-through; a dab of chocolate and a subtly pleasant milk-coffee dryness on the finish. Turns out (according to the BBF website) that this one’s an oat stout, which could explain the overall mildness of the flavours (I’ve noticed that oat stouts or oatmeal stouts tend to be quite mellow in comparison to drier, coffee stouts and not as sweet as chocolate or milk stouts). Anyhow, I enjoyed my half and have made a mental note to introduce Jo to this one if the opportunity ever arises, as I think it would be right up her street.

Next up, I asked Australian Barman for another two halves, please (and keep the change). The first of these was Bath Ales Barnstormer. I’m quite familiar with this one in bottled form – it’s a definite go-to beer when it turns up in the supermarket special offers – so I was interested in trying the draught version. It poured a rich chestnut-brown, with a thick, creamy head and was very, very smooth indeed. I have to admit I had trouble picking out any particularly unique flavours. It was pleasant malty and nutty but in a rather generic way; nothing that really threatened to grab hold of my taste-buds and gave them a good work-out. Nonetheless, a good, solid easy-drinker and one I could happily sup all evening if I was in the mood for sessioning rather than sampling.

The other half was of the aforementioned BrewDog Paradox. I’ve had a couple of bottles of this rather excellent imperial stout in my time – Smokehead and Longrow – and I’ve got various varieties (or do they call them ‘expressions’, whisky-style?) stashed away in the special cupboard. It’s one of my all-time favourite beers, so I couldn’t possibly pass up on an opportunity to try the draught version, even though there were plenty of other great options on offer (including Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, which I was extremely tempted by).

What can I say? It was absolutely gorgeous. The same rich blend of dark chocolate, bitter coffee, heady port-wine sweetness and light, wood-smokiness as the bottled version, only more so. The difference was in the mouth-feel, which just took the velvety smoothness up that extra notch. By this point I was chatting away to a couple of gents in the immediate vicinity (one of whom is in charge of staffing at next year’s London Drinker Beer & Cider Festival, which looks well worth a visit) and I could feel myself settling down quite nicely. But I had one of those pesky trains to catch, so I had to bid them a good evening and head on over to the station, the taste of Paradox lingering long.

All in all: a great little pub, highly recommended, although I can imagine it could be a big of a nightmare at peak drinking times; if you can get there for lunchtime, or mid-afternoon, you might have a better chance of getting in the door. I’m in London fairly regularly and nearly always on a day-trip basis, so I can see myself becoming a lot more familiar with the Euston Tap in the months to come.

Edit 17.11.10: There are some photos of the interior – including those beer fridges – over at Alan P’s East London Drinker blog.

The Euston Tap:

Brewery: Thornbridge
Location: Buxton, England
Style: Imperial Russian Stout
ABV: 7.7%
Version: Bottled
Source: Courtesy of MyBreweryTap.com

I’ve learned a lot in the almost-two-years that I’ve been expanding my beer horizons and two of the most emphatically driven-home lessons have been:

1) Imperial Stout is my absolute favourite beer style.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good, hoppy IPA, I’m steadily growing partial to a range of interesting Belgian beers and I’ve even learned to appreciate a good Helles lager. But give me a choice of something to sip and savour and love, then I’ll pick a rich-nosed, full-bodied, black-as-the-inside-of-a-cat Imperial Stout any day of the week.

2) Thornbridge brew bloody good beer.

No, scratch that. Thornbridge brew bloody excellent beer. Every one of their brews that I’ve sampled to-date have genuinely impressed me.

So, combine 1) and 2) in the form of Thornbridge St Petersburg Imperial Russian Stout and it’s pretty much a no-brainer.

I’ve had Thornbridge St Petersburg before, on draught at the Marble Arch, and it was superb. And the bottled version – whilst not quite hitting the same dizzy heights – was still very good indeed. Big hits of chocolate and coffee accompanied by faint vanilla notes; a slight sweetness up-front, with a long, smooth, dry, roast-malty finish to follow. Lovely.

If I’m being perfectly honest I’ve had bottled Imperial Stouts that I’ve enjoyed more – Dark Star Imperial Stout and BrewDog Tokyo* spring to mind, as well as BrewDog Paradox – but it’s definitely up there with the likes of Acorn Gorlovka and Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout; one of those big, bold, flavourful beers that I’ll happily come back to time after time.

Another very big thank you to Richard at MyBreweryTap.com for adding this one to my recent order!

Brewery: Brooklyn Brewery
Location: New York, USA
Style: Imperial Stout
ABV: 10.0%
Version: Bottled 355ml
Source: Courtesy of R&R Teamwork

Ed sampled and wrote about Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout back in October ’08 and I’ve been keeping half an eye out for a bottle ever since. So when Natasha from R&R Teamwork got in touch with a list of bottled beers left over from a tasting event that were going spare, and I saw this one was on it… a polite ‘yes, please’ email was on the way back about as fast as I could type.

Black Chocolate Stout poured an opaque mahogany colour with a thin head. The nose was all about the chocolate, although the flavours were more mocha. Quite sweet, quite a chewy mouth-feel, smooth tasting and deceptively gentle – not so much of that overpowering alcohol-hit that Ed found off-putting at the start of his bottle – this one also improved noticeably after the beer had been allowed to stand and breathe for a while, even in the narrow tulip glass I was drinking it from. This was the Winter 09-10 vintage, so it was a different batch to Ed’s and I was drinking it quite young, which could explain the milder profile. And while it compared well to a few of the other imperial stouts I’ve sampled recently, there are a few I’ve had that have been bigger and bolder, but again, I was probably drinking this one before it really had a chance to develop properly.

All in all: quite delicious and one I’d be delighted to encounter again, especially if I could somehow force myself to leave the bottle in the beer cupboard to mature for a couple of years before drinking it. Many thanks indeed to Natasha for sending this one along!