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!

Jo suggested we have dinner and a couple of pints at the Marble Arch on Saturday and it didn’t take much to get me to agree (she had me at ‘dinner’, to be honest, ‘pints’ and ‘Marble Arch’ were icing on the cake). We were hoping to get there early enough to bump into MyBreweryTap.com‘s Richard Burhouse (@MyBreweryTap) and Rob Derbyshire (@BGRTRob) of Hopzine.com fame, but alas they got there earlier than we did and had already supped their fill and moved on before we’d managed to get into town.

So instead we ended up chatting to half a dozen complete strangers over the course of the evening (topics of conversation ranging from bondage trousers and Stiff Little Fingers, to the relative acoustic merits of the Bridgewater Hall and the Lowry, via the best way to get to the Palace Theatre by car whilst avoiding the gas-main works that have buggered up the city centre for months) and had a bloody good time doing so.

There was ale involved, of course. And oh, my word, what ale there was…

On arrival, I headed for the bar to get Jo her customary half of Marble Stouter Stout and made a b-line for the Thornbridge Raven, which Rob D had mentioned was on earlier in the day. As it weighs in at 6% ABV I thought I’d just go for a half to start with, so I got myself a pint of Marble Pint at the same time, to ease myself in. But Jo finished up her stout and sent me back to the bar for another (along with our food order) and the Raven was so damn good – a dark, smoky, delicious black IPA with a lingering hop-bite – that I couldn’t resist a second. And that pretty much set the tone for the session…

Our food arrived just as we’d both gotten a pint of Marble Chocolate in and we feasted on char-grilled belly pork and black pudding (actually, the best damn black pudding I’ve ever tasted) with duck’s egg for starters, followed by sea bass served with creamed crab meat and spinach for Jo and turbot poached in red wine on creamed polenta with salsify sticks for me, and some lightly steamed greens on the side. Fantastic food, as always in the Marble Arch – we’ve eaten there a few times now and have never been anything less than blown away by whatever we’ve ordered – and it all went extremely well with the rich, tasty Marble Chocolate. Perhaps a dark ale or stout might not the obvious choice for a with-food beer, but the bitter-sweetness of the chocolate and roasted malts were very complimentary indeed to the satisfyingly meaty, beautifully cooked fish dishes.

After dinner we ordered dessert: another Marble Chocolate for Jo, whilst I decided to try a pint of Marble Brew 14. This one was a completely new to me (although apparently it went down rather well on the first #twissup pub crawl / blogger outing in Sheffield back in January. Brew 14 turned out to be a feisty session bitter that was all about the bitter oranges and big hops with a long, dry finish. Very, very good indeed and one I’d definitely have again.

At this point, Jo and I were thinking about winding down and heading home, so I opted for a quick half of Marble Dobber for the road. But of course, one half of Dobber is never enough and as I was heading back to the bar for another top-up, I spotted a new pump clip nestled among the array of Marbles: Thornbridge St Petersburg! I’ve been trying to track down and try this 7.7% ABV Imperial Stout for a while now, so this was just too good an opportunity to miss. And it was delicious: rich, smoky malt, chocolate and coffee, blended to perfection. A top-up of that one was absolutely compulsory, it would have been the very height of rudeness not to.

That really did finish the evening off for us and we weaved our way out the door to find a tram and head home for a nice cup of tea and a kip. Lovely, lovely evening and a fuzzy, fuzzy head the next day, but absolutely, totally worth it. I tell you what, it’s a good job we don’t live just round the corner from the Marble Arch, we’d never be out of the place.

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… :)

The Saturday before last, after starting the evening off with a curry and a couple of bottles of Black Sheep Ale at our favourite curry house (the Lime Tree in Prestwich), we (Jo, myself and our friends Andy and Dawn) headed up to Bury to visit the Trackside (we were there just before Tyson, by the sound of things).

Talk about a tricky decision when I got to the bar. The Trackside is usually a good bet for a dark beer or two, but last Saturday there was a choice of four, plus assorted bitters and pale ales. I started off (possibly a little rashly) with a pint of Acorn Gorlovka Imperial Stout; a gorgeous, coffee-rich, smoky stout that weighs in at a session-hefty 6% ABV. I sampled this one a few weeks ago at the Marble Arch, in a more cautious half measure. Possibly I should have saved that one for later and stuck to the halves as well, but I think I must have had a rush of blood to the head and besides, the night was still (fairly) young. That one went down very nicely indeed (although probably far faster than it should have) and so it was back to the bar, this time for a swift half of Rossendale Pitch Porter. Not quite as robust as the Gorlovka, although still a respectable 5% ABV, it was another very pleasant roast-malt experience and definitely one I’d be happy to repeat.

After that I made my first tactical error of the evening: instead of joining Jo on the Dunham Dark – a smooth, slightly sweet mild with a light touch and only 3.8%% ABV, I instead opted for a bottle of Robinson’s Chocolate Tom that I spotted in the fridge. I’ve tried both the Old Tom and Ginger Tom before, and I’d always promised myself I’d have a go at the Chocolate version, after Ed gave it a write-up a while back. This was clearly the opportunity I’d been waiting for, so I went for it. Bad move. I’m not sure whether it was because the bottle had been chilled, or the beer was too young, but in any case it was far, far too sweet for even my sweet tooth to enjoy. If Marble Chocolate is Green & Black’s in a glass then this was Dairy Milk by comparison and I’m afraid there was little else to notice or to recommend it. If I ever see a bottle on sale I might grab it and put it away for a while to see if it ages at all well, but I’ll be definitely steering clear of drinking it out of a fridge again.

My second tactical error of the night involved sending Andy to the bar for a half of Dunham Milk Stout. I should have known better: Andy doesn’t really do beer by demi-measures and came back to the table with a large half (two halves in a single glass, if you catch my drift). Which was a bit of a shame, because I’d already sampled some when Jo got a half in an earlier round and whilst I was interested enough to give it a decent go, I didn’t really want to invest in a full draught. It was… okay. Considering Dunham’s beers usually rate ‘damned good’ to ‘excellent’, I was a bit surprised at how ordinary this one tasted. A bit thin, nothing in the way of defining characteristics or stand-out flavours. I’m no milk stout expert, I admit, so maybe it’s actually a cracking example of the style, but if you ask me their Dunham Porter and Dunham Stout are much, much better. By this stage Andy was back on the bitter instead of the stouts and I had a glug of whatever he was drinking (it might have been Dark Star Sunburst, that rings a bell) and very tasty it was, too. Ah, well.

So, there you go: another great selection of beers at the Trackside, which is pretty much par for the course for those guys. We’ll be back, and it won’t be too long before we are, either.

Brewery: BrewDog
Location: Fraserburgh, Scotland
ABV: 18.2%
Version: Bottled
Source: Courtesy of BrewDog

The Back-story: At 18.2% ABV, BrewDog Tokyo* is the strongest beer brewed in the UK and as a result, it’s currently the most infamous: it has been condemned by health groups, the Scottish Parliament and the largely ignorant media.

The Beer: BrewDog Tokyo* is “an imperial stout brewed with jasmine and cranberries added in the kettle”, dry hopped “with a combination of North American and New Zealand hops” and then aged “for 4 weeks on toasted vanilla French oak chips”.

The Tasting Notes: I drank this one soon after the BrewDog Rake Raspberry, the better to compare the two. Tokyo*’s aroma was a lot more muted, but still noticeably fruity; more rich fruitcake than crushed berries. The pour was noticeably effervescent and the head slightly lighter, but still with that same tan colour.

And the flavour? Bear with me, I may run out of superlatives halfway through these notes… let’s start with ‘absolutely incredible’ and move on from there, shall we? The first thing I noted: a distinct sweetness that was malty without being syrupy and an overall impression of definite alcoholic warmth, but without the stridency that you’d expect from a similar ABV beverage; port or sherry for instance. The flavours are rich, dense, complex and quite fascinating: a touch of cough-syrup, toasted bread, treacle, vintage port and dark cherry, with a hint of nuttiness, and a very slight herbal tang. Not much smokiness, not too heavy on the tannins; an extremely smooth, immensely satisfying drink all round.

Honestly, I could have happily gone on slowly sipping this one all night. All weekend, in fact. An absolutely stunning beer… quite possibly… in fact, no, definitely the best I’ve ever tasted. There, I’ve said it. Back in February Ed, Tim, Joe and myself all posted our tasting notes for BrewDog’s Paradox Smokehead and RipTide stouts and concluded that they were quite possibly the best stouts we’d ever tasted. I hinted at the time that there was actually one or two I’d tried that were even better: I can tell you that I was alluding to BrewDog’s Paradox Springbank and Paradox Longrow (I’ve just been too bone idle to type up the Tasting Notes since then). Well, I can promise you that this year’s Tokyo* surpasses even those utterly stellar beers. Really, truly, unbelievably good…

And that’s it… I really have run out of different ways of praising the stuff. Seriously, if you haven’t grabbed a couple of bottles yet, do so while you can. I’m contemplating investing in a few more myself, even though I have one more stashed in the special beer cupboard already (and may actually transfer that one to the house safe…)

In a word: wow. Just… wow.

What the other Beer Bloggers are saying: I sampled this one last Friday night so I was hoping to have the Notes posted at the weekend, but BT managed to kill my landline for four days, so I’m lagging behind both Pencil & Spoon‘s Mark Dredge’s video review and Pete Brown‘s blog. Haven’t seen any more reviews just yet, but I’ll post the links as and when I find them.

Brewery: BrewDog
Location: Fraserburgh, Scotland
ABV: 10.0% (ish)
Version: Bottled
Source: BrewDog

What do you get if you cross BrewDog‘s Paradox Smokehead Imperial stout and a cask full of fresh Scottish raspberries? Answer: Rake Raspberry, a beer that’s round about 10.% ABV (the bottle arrived unlabelled so I’m a bit hazy on the details) and has a flavour that could actually be genuinely indescribable… although I’m going to give it a go.

Everything kicks off with an extremely pungent, rich fruity aroma as soon as you crack open the bottle. As you’d expect, the beer pours a delightful jet black and has a a thin, tan-coloured head. Then first sip unleashes an incredible explosion of dry, almost bitter fruit flavours, under-cut with a dark, smoky malt-sweetness, just a hint of liquorice and an oddly sharp, almost soapy tang on the aftertaste. Yes, soapy… unless that’s a dollop of umami I’m getting (could be – I don’t think I’m very good at spotting umami yet). After a period of breathing in the glass – and there was plenty of opportunity for this beer to breathe; Rake Raspberry really isn’t a quaffer – the fruit flavours develop a bit more complexity, with the sour-sweetness of under-ripe plums coming to the fore. At the same time there’s a tannin-dryness that comes through, giving the beer a claret-like flavour as well.

Final verdict: with its highly challenging flavour profile, Rake Raspberry is most definitely a beer you might have to work at acquiring a taste for, although as it’s already sold out on the BrewDog website, that could be tricky (if you see a bottle in a specialist beer store near you, grab it). Luckily, I bought two bottles of this one as soon as I saw the announcement on the BrewDog blog, which means there’s one more lurking in the special beer cupboard: I plan to let that one mature for a while and then re-visit to see whether the balance between the tart berry flavours and the whisky-malt smokiness has shifted at all. Should be an interesting one to re-visit.

When I placed my order, I noticed that Rake Raspberry was billed as ‘Abstrakt AB:01′ – the first in a new experimental series from BrewDog, perhaps? If this one is anything to go by then I definitely look forward to trying Abstrakts AB:02 onwards.

Brewery: Port Brewing Company
Location: San Marcos, California, USA
ABV: 10.0%
Version: 22 fl oz (660ml) bottle
Source: Courtesy of Beermerchants.com

As it’s Easter it seems only appropriate to be twisted and review a Christmas beer, that and as Phil from Beermerchants included it in the generous sampling box he sent me it seemed wrong to leave it until the end of the year to try it. Port Brewing has only been operating since May 2006 but the owners have been in the brewing business for longer, having originally run the Solano Beach brewery from 1992 before moving to bigger premises and founding the new company. They currently produce 9 beers, 5 all year round and 4 seasonal.

Weighing in at 10% ABV and a hefty 660ml bottle Santa’s Little Helper shouts from the outset that it means business. I often bemoan the preferred use of small bottles by US breweries so this makes a welcome change. Being an Imperial Stout it’s a thick treacly black colour but with no head. There’s  a lovely chocolatey aroma from the bottle as soon as it’s opened and this continues on to the pouring, with some underlying hoppy fruit notes and a peppery smokiness coming through.

So on to the tasting. Initially I thought it was surprisingly smooth for the strength. Very warming and malty, there are 7 different malts used in the mix, with chocolate, coffee, liquorice, a touch of smoke and some peppery spiciness. Not overly complex in the flavour, but still quite heavy and the alcohol content ensures drinking is taken slowly. As time goes on though, I found that peppery aspect and the alcohol pushing through to the fore, overpowering all else and actually making it a struggle to finish the bottle; but I persevered and nearly 2 hours later it was all gone. It’s not a character of the beer I’ve read in reviews elsewhere so perhaps I didn’t get a perfect bottle, or they were reviewing a different year.

On this occasion I go back on that comment I made earlier about the bigger bottle, I would have much preferred a smaller quantity. A 330ml bottle, or maybe sharing the bigger bottle, would be ideal, ensuring what is at heart a decent enough brew doesn’t outstay its welcome but sometimes you can have too much. Taking into account the price, it’s more expensive in the UK than many wines, I certainly won’t be rushing out to order more, I’d rather get 2 or 3 bottles of something else for the same money.

BrewDog announced yesterday evening that they’ve bottled up two new variants of their Paradox Whisky Cask Aged Imperial Stout for Japanese export and general website sales.

Almost before I knew what was happening, a stout-coloured mist had descended and I found myself clicking the ‘Buy’ button: coughing up £25.00 (less 10% with the BLOG discount code and £28.50 in total with an additional £6 for postage on top) for the Xmas Box Set containing three bottles of each and additionally tempted, I’m sure, by the rather natty DrewDog beer glasses they’ve thrown in for good measure. I know. £28.50 for six bottles of beer is a tad pricey. I sincerely hope the stuff is worth it (although I rather suspect it will be…)

Anyhow, BrewDog are promising next-day delivery as well, so if the consignment does arrive by Saturday I’ll be able to add Paradox Springbank and Paradox Longrow into the tasting of the Paradox Smokehead and Rip Tide stouts that I’ve tentatively planned for the weekend. Then again, maybe that’d be just too much of a good thing all in one go, eh? Perhaps I should save the new ones for next Thursday, say, round about dinner time..? We’ll see.