Something a Little Different for a Friday Night In

Last Friday evening – staying in after a rather beery week and gripped as I was by a mood of experimental optimism – I decided to crack open a few slightly unusual bottles. I started with Garlic Beer and then thirty seconds later I reached for something cool, crisp and hopefully palate-cleansing to help me forget, move on and start the healing process.

I opted for the bottle of Baltika 2 that my sister-in-law and her boyfriend brought back from Russia for me. I wasn’t sure what to expect (although the stereotypical sneaky suspicion had me leaning towards ‘cold fizz’) and so I was very pleasantly surprised when this one turned out to be very tasty indeed. Much maltier than your average lager, I’d have guessed this one was a golden ale if I didn’t know different. It wasn’t too gassy, wasn’t too sharp and had just a hint of citrus hops to finish with. I’d happily sup Baltika 2 again, or at least the Russian version (there’s a US variant, but who knows if it’s the same beast?) but unfortunately I don’t think that’s likely to happen any time soon. Ah well, plenty more lagers in the, er… sea..?

Moving on and next up was BrewDog Prototype 17. The text-only label proclaimed this one to be BrewDog’s 77 Lager, aged in whisky casks with Scottish raspberries. The result was… interesting. A mid-reddish-brown colour when it poured, it started off with a big cymbal-clash of fruit sugars and berry sourness which initially, coupled with the fridge temperature chill-bite, it was a bit on the harsh side. As it warmed and calmed down a bit the flavour-highs became less spiky and a more mellow malty note began to round the whole thing out and make it a bit more palatable and enjoyable.

In fact, by the end of the glass I was enjoying it quite a lot, which I wasn’t really expecting; I’ve still not found a fruit beer I can really get on with for more than a few sips, but this one came close. I’ve no idea if BrewDog are planning to put this one into regular production or not. I rather suspect it was a one-off case of “hey, lads, what can we do with this spare whisky cask and these leftover raspberries?” but with BrewDog you never know.

For Bottle #3 I decided on Rogue Dead Guy Ale. Again, I had no idea what to expect with this one (in fact I couldn’t even remember where I’d picked it up – possibly from The Micro Bar in Manchester?) but I knew it was 6.5% ABV. It turned out to be a red-hued ale that poured with a big, frothy white head. The aroma was… odd. It reminded me strongly of something particular that I couldn’t quite place, but after the first sip I knew what it was. Have you ever caramelised a tin of condensed milk to make a banoffee pie? Well, that’s exactly what Dead Guy ale tasted like to me. Jo agreed as well, saying she could definitely detect something milky in the aroma and that it reminded her of the after-taste of a milk stout.

So, er, some sort of milk ale? Apparently not; a quick read of the Rogue website revealed that this one is a ‘Maierbock ale’, brewed “[i]n the style of a German Maibock, using [Rogue's] proprietary Pacman ale yeast”, as well as several interesting-sounding malts, which probably account for all those sugars. For those like me who haven’t a clue – Maierbock (or Maibock) is traditionally “a helles lager brewed to bock strength, therefore still as strong as traditional bock, but lighter in colour and with more hop presence“. Good to know, but it doesn’t really describe Rogue Dead Guy Ale, leaving me almost as clueless as I was when I started: an odd one indeed. Which was great, because it fitted my experimental mood quite nicely and actually, once I got used to the sweetness, was really rather palatable indeed. Good stuff, and definitely worth trying if you find it at your favourite beverage retailer or a beer house near you.

A Few of Those Sainsbury’s Great British Beer Hunt 2011 Beers

I’ve started sampling my way through that selection of Great British Beer Festival 2011 beers that I picked up from Sainsbury’s last week. Here’s what I’ve checked out so far…

Williams Bros Profanity Stout 7%
A big blast of smoky coffee and liquorice flavours and plenty of dry bitterness on the after-taste, but delivered by a slightly thin mouth-feel, which was a tad disappointing. I like stronger stouts a lot, and I was expecting a lot from this one, so maybe it was a victim of over-inflated expectation, but I just thought that at 7% ABV it ought to have a bit more going for it in terms of body. It’s no BrewDog RipTide, put it that way…

Williams Bros Caesar Augustus 4.1%
I thought this second beer from Williams Bros was (perhaps oddly) much more impressive. A lager / IPA hybrid (judging by the the back-label, in this case an ale brewed with lager yeast, then cold-stored before being dry-hopped with ‘IPA hops’, if I read it right) it’s actually one of those rare beasts: a bottled session beer that tastes really rather good indeed. Pale gold in colour, malty in flavour with a hop-burst after-taste that builds and builds, it benefits from not being over-gassy or watery on the mouth-feel. Very nice indeed. A definite candidate for my favourite bottled session beers list.

Harviestoun Wild Hop IPA 5.1%
Pale almost to the point of crystal clarity with a big, big citrusy hop profile: there’s a mix of Fuggles, Goldings and assorted American hops in this one, apparently, and they really shine through. There’s just enough malt sweetness to keep everything check and the beer has a very pleasant mouth-feel as well. All in all a rather excellent drop of ale all round. One I’d definitely be happy to try again, in bottle or draught form alike.

Robinson’s Frederic’s Great British Alcoholic Ginger Beer 3.8%
Definite ginger aroma from this dark copper-coloured beer. Strong malty character with a hint of lemon and a good wallop of Ginger. Jo (who drank this one and has provided the tasting notes) reckons it could be Robinson’s Young Tom with added Fentiman’s ginger beer (in the same way that Ginger Tom is Old Tom + Fentiman’s). Not too sweet; definitely a proper ale-with-ginger rather than an alcopop-masquerading-as-ginger-ale. Very pleasant.

Sadler’s Worcester Sorceror 4.2%
A copper-coloured bitter with a slightly spicy, peppery edge to a mainly malt-led, cough-drop sweet base. Good mouth-feel (not too thin). Easy-drinking and very flavourful indeed. Another good session beer, from what’s turning out to be a very good selection all round.

Hunter’s Full Bore 8.0%
Slightly cloudy (but maybe because I didn’t realise quite how much sediment there was in the bottle) golden amber coloured strong ale, packed with marzipan and toffee flavours, it doesn’t taste quite as alcoholic as its 8% ABV might suggest. Smooth, sweet and distinctly drinkable, a highly enjoyable strong ale, I might have to get a couple more of these in while the stock is still available.

So far, so good. I know these beers were selected by means of a public / expert tasting / voting session (I got an invite myself, but I couldn’t schlepp on down to the Midlands mid-week to take part) and it seems as though the pre-selection process has resulted in some very good choices indeed. More to follow on the other six (and I might have to go back for three of the four I missed – the wheat beer among them excluded for intolerance reasons) when I’ve had a chance to drink them.

Travelogue Ireland, July 2011 – Days Five and Six: Dublin

Or… Part Four: Porterhouse Days, Porterhouse Nights

We left Paul and Marie’s late on a soggy Sunday morning (actually, we left twice – some idiot forgot to pick up his mobile phone charger so ten miles out we had to turn around and go back) and headed South. With a break for a cup of tea in Newcastle (that’s Newcastle, County Down, obviously) and an ice-cream (despite the rain, because we were at the seaside, dammit, so ice-cream had to be done) we made good time down the A25 via Rathfriland and Newry to the A1, which then became the M1 (or the E1 across the border) and got us into Dublin in the late afternoon.

We’d picked our guest house for the next couple of nights for its proximity to two locations: the National Botanic Gardens (which we visited on the Tuesday morning before setting off for the return ferry – photos will be appearing on my other blog at some point if that’s your sort of thing) and Porterhouse North.

Jo and I are both big fans of the various Porterhouse beers, having sampled a range of them a couple of times at their Covent Garden bar. So we were determined to sample as many of them as possible while we were in Dublin – why travel all this way and settle for less? – and it didn’t take us long (about an hour or so) to settle in, sort ourselves out, gather our appetites and then head around the corner to see what delights they had in store for us.

Porterhouse North turned out to be a large, single-room bar split into a few seating areas on different levels. It’s got a great atmosphere and while we were there on the Sunday they played some pretty great music as well (Bob Dylan, The Kinks, The Beatles, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, assorted 60s and Motown hits on the stereo and then a live set from a chap called Colm Lynch, who played a mix of recent covers and 70s rock tracks. Good guitar work, good voice… the lad’s definitely got talent.) and, of course, they served us some great beer.

The Porterhouse Brewery produces nine regular beers – three stouts or porters, three ales and three lagers – as well as occasional specials (speaking of: I noticed on the rolling video screens that they’ve got a new beer coming out – Vienna Dark Lager will apparently be available from December 10th). Jo started with a Plain Porter – a 4.3% ABV rich, smooth session porter with a distinct chocolate and coffee flavour and a dry biscuity malt finish – whilst I plunged right on in with a Wrasslers XXXX Stout, which is 5.0 ABV and blessed with some wonderfully robust flavours; plenty of coffee and a distinct liquorice note on the finish, very dry indeed, with a long, long bitter finish. They were both delicious and the perfect accompaniment to the what turned out to be the best roast beef dinner either of us had eaten in a long while.

I stayed on the Wrasslers for a couple more, interspersed with a couple of pints of Oyster Stout – a little lighter at 4.8%, and with an even richer and smoother mouth-feel than the Plain Porter, more chocolate and less coffee than the Wrasslers and with a distinct dollop of double cream on the tastebuds. Gorgeous. Needless to say, Jo and I had a cracking night and rolled out of the place having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, with plans already made to eat there again the next night.

On the Monday we took the bus into Dublin and did cultural stuff. Jo wanted to see the Book of Kells, so we joined the throng of fellow tourists, made our way around the exhibition and then craned our necks to catch a glimpse inside the glass display cases containing the precious manuscripts. I was genuinely impressed with how incredibly intricate the penmanship was, especially considering the tools with which and conditions in which the scribes who created the volumes would have been working. Well worth a visit, but again: get there early. We walked straight in round about 11 a.m. but by the time we left at 12.30 or so the queue was at least a hundred people long, with more coach trips arriving all the time.

Next on the agenda: lunch. I’d actually done my research, reading through The Beer Prole’s Dublin Travelogue (based on recommendations from Irish beer champion The Beer Nut) and I’d made notes and printed out locations for a couple of likely-looking places. Then, of course, I left the notes in the folder in the car and couldn’t for the life of me remember what any of the recommended pubs were called when we were in town. So, instead, we asked directions from a friendly security guard at Dublin Town Hall and he pointed us in the direction of Porterhouse Temple Bar.

This branch is much larger than North, spread over at least three floors and much closer in size to Porterhouse Covent Garden, with a very similar aesthetic: lots of wood, brass and huge glass cases along the walls full of of vintage beer bottles. Once again: great atmosphere (even though it was quiet on a Monday lunchtime), great beer (they have a much more extensive beer list than North) and great food as well.

Having done the stouts the night before, I decided to try one of their ales. I opted for Hophead, which on draught is a 4.7% dark amber-red cask ale (I think I’m right in saying their only regular cask offering It’s not their only cask offering, they also do TSB in cask, see The Beer Nut’s comment, below) with a frothy, bubbly head. It was a bit on the cold side, to start with, but that didn’t stop the flavour flooding through: a big whack of berry-fruit hops up front, with a dry-sharp finish. I could clearly taste Seville orange marmalade, with a touch of toffee or dark honey on the side. Very good indeed although given the almost US IPA-like bitterness, maybe one of those beers you’d only want to have the one of at a time, unless of course, you really are a proper hop-head (the clue’s in the name, after all). And while I drank I ate my way through a crock of fresh mussels cooked in vermouth cream sauce with thick-cut chips: fantastic.

We spent the afternoon trying to get into the National Museum (we couldn’t: it’s closed to the public on a Monday, which we probably should have checked up on in advance) and settled instead for the National Gallery, which was… okay, but not as impressive as I’d hoped. On the way back to the bus we stopped off at a rather excellent organic / veggie café whose name unfortunately escapes me, but they had a gluten-free chocolate cake which turned out to be awesome, so if I remember what the place was called, I’ll add the name in at another time.

After our sight-seeing day in the City Centre we headed back to base for a cuppa and a sit-down before nipping back around the corner to Porterhouse North for another session. The place still had a great atmosphere even on a quieter Monday evening, although someone else had clearly gotten to the MP3 player first: the music was a mix of 80s, 90s hits with a bit of indie rock thrown in for good measure. We ordered food: meltingly tender spare ribs with a ginger and scallion marmalade glaze as a starter and then for me: pork loin stuffed with black pudding on baby potatoes and buttered cabbage (which, dammit, I thought I’d had at Balloo House on the Saturday… darn my dodgy memory, I’ll have to get Jo to correct me) and settled in for a gentle session (what with a return trip to Manchester in the offing the next day and all).

With the aforementioned gastronomic delight I enjoyed a pint of Porterhouse Red, a 4.4% session keg ale; dark copper-coloured with a thick white head and plenty of malt sweetness – lots of toffee and brown sugar up front – but then with a pleasantly dry, bitter finish that kicks in a couple of seconds after swallowing and then hangs around well into the next mouthful. Very quaffable indeed. After that I thought I’d better try one of Porterhouse’s three lagers while I was there, if only to get an idea of what they’re doing in that direction, so I opted for the Hersbrucker Pilsner (Chiller and Temple Brau being the other two). I just had a half, but I was glad I made the effort. It was a very good lager indeed, with a very solid malt base and a big dry-hoppy finish crisp, sharp & refreshing without the dreaded lager gassiness.

And then to finish I had a half of the An Brain Blasta (or just ‘Brainblasta’), Porterhouse’s strong ale, which I’ve had a couple of times since I first tried the bottled version back in November last year. A cracking beer, this one; dark chestnut in colour, with big strong, sweet, treacle flavours followed by a bitter-grapefruit hop finish that became more and more strident towards the end of the half. Despite the same ABV, the draught version somehow seemed a fair bit more potent than the bottled version I enjoyed a few months ago. Powerful stuff – a more intense version of the Hophead, perhaps? – and a great way to finish off a fantastic few days in the Emerald Isle.

Oh, except for the takeaway bottles we brought home with us, of course. Three Plain Porter for Jo, a Wrasslers XXX and a Celebration Stout (Porterhouse’s bottle-only Imperial) and, at the insistence of the barman in North, a Hophead as well, which he assured me was “excellent in the bottle”.*

So, there you go: Ireland. Great country (this wasn’t our first visit and definitely won’t be our last) and although the vast majority of pubs and bars are dominated by Guinness and the usual lager-suspects, there’s still some very good beer indeed to be found, if you know where to go looking for it. Up North, if we’d been a bit closer to Belfast, we might have found a few more beers from Hilden or Whitewater and I know from reading The Beer Nut‘s regular news updates and tasting notes that there are other good breweries to be found, if you’re either lucky or in the know. I’m already looking forward to the next time we can head on over there and start searching.

Previously on Travelogue Ireland, July 2011: Day One: North Wales, Day Two: Drogheda and Days Three and Four: Good Times With Good Friends.

Photo Credits: All images in this post shamelessly nicked from The Porterhouse website…

*And you know what, he’s not wrong: I’m supping it as I type this (on a Wednesday evening) and it does taste pretty bloody excellent; with a very smooth mouth-feel for a bottled 5%-er and packing a big punch from those robust, orange-marmalade hop flavours, it’s going down a treat. Sláinte!

Brewery: Sharp’s [Sharp’s Mail Order

Sharp’s head brewer Stuart Howe‘s collaboration with Jean-Marie Rock of Belgian Trappist brewery Orval has been the talk of the beertwittersphere for quite a while now and the buzz shows no sign of abating. Caught up in this whirlwind of enthusiasm a couple of weeks ago, I placed an order for a case of 12 bottles direct from Sharp’s in the interests of seeing for myself just what all the fuss is all about.

Monsieur Rock is a lager that was created to showcase the flavours of the saaz hop, a noble variety from the Bohemia region of the Czech Republic that’s widely used in pilsener-style beers (and if any of that’s wrong, please correct it on Wikipedia). There’s plenty of detail on Stuart Howe’s blog about the brewing of Monsieur Rock (some of it way over my head I have to admit) as well as a five-part recounting of the visits to the Orval brewery that were the catalyst for the collaboration.

This wealth of background information has definitely helped to fuel the general levels of enthusiasm for the beer, especially among beer bloggers; I think a large part of what makes us blogging-types so vociferously enthusiastic about certain favourite brews is when a great-tasting beer is accompanied by a great back-story. Seldom has a beer’s back-story been told in such detail as has Monsieur Rock’s, but what of the first part of that enthusiasm-generating equation? Is Monsieur Rock also a great-tasting beer?

I’ve sampled three bottles of Monsieur Rock in the past couple of weeks. Following a spot of Twitter-borne advice from Mark Dredge I chilled the first one in the fridge for a couple of days. It poured a pale, golden-amber colour with a big, frothy white Belgian-lager head and released an aroma blast of tropical citrus: fresh-cut mango and clementine orange. The first thing I tasted was a light, biscuity-malt, followed by an almost gingery spice tang with that Belgian yeast note lurking in the background and a long, lingering, bitter after-taste. It was incredibly refreshing, sharp and dry without being too harsh, although possibly this one had been chilled for a tad too long – it needed to come back up from tooth-numbingly, gum-shockingly cold before I could really settle in to enjoy the back-of-the-throat sweet-spot lager-bite properly. And it was a bit too gassy when it was really cold as well. Lesson learned.

I had bottle number two straight after the first and, for comparison purposes, I opted for one that was still at beer-cupboard temperature. I really can’t recommend that approach to be honest, as the sharpness was distinctly dulled and the crispness had definitely lost its crunch. There was still a fair bit of fresh flavour in there, but it just didn’t seem to gel properly; something about it wasn’t quite right. Another one chalked up to experience: follow the brewer’s instructions when considering chilling; they ought to know best after all.

So bottle number three, which was sampled about a week after those first two, was chilled for just an hour or so. I think that one was just about right: enough of a chill to hit all the right aaaahhhh-receptors – but not so much that my molars were screaming for mercy – and all those saaz-led flavours balancing out quite nicely. Could maybe stand another hour in the fridge, but any more than that and I think it’s probably overkill.

And the final verdict? Monsieur Rock is a very, very good lager indeed; very drinkable, very flavourful and hugely refreshing. I’d definitely recommend grabbing a bottle or three if you see it on sale anywhere or, indeed, ordering a case of 12 direct from Sharp’s, as it looks like they still have stock. But I’m stopping short of using words like amazing, awesome or fantastic… so far. Mainly because whilst I can appreciate a good lager and have tried a few in recent months that I’ve enjoyed, it’s just not my favourite style; I’m much more at home on the malty ale through to imperial porter arc of the flavour wheel. Also, because I have six bottles of my twelve-case left (counting out the three I’ve promised to take over to Ed next time I’m in Belfast) and I’m planning on saving them for much warmer weather. Let’s face it, a dank, drizzly February evening can’t be the right time to showcase Monsieur Rock to it’s best advantage, surely? A scorching summer’s day (should we ever see one of those again) has to be a better environment for a beer like this one?

Plus I think it will be really interesting to see whether, after five or six months additional bottle conditioning, the beer maintains the same flavour profile or perhaps sharpens even more? I’ll report back when I find out.

Brewery: Brauerei Hirt
Location: Hirt, Austria
ABV: 5.2%
Source: The Vineyard, Belfast

The Hirt Brewery in Austria has been around in some form since 1270, and insists in making a pure product with no additives or pasteurisation, using untreated water from the local mountain spring, and claim their beer will never be canned. I’ve no idea what a Privat Pils is, or if the notation means anything at all (enlightenment in the comments at the end will be gratefully received).

At £4 for a 500ml bottle (it’s also available in 330ml size) this was a bit of an extravagance. I’m not a huge pilsner fan, and while I’d happily pay that, and more, for other beers I did have to think twice about doing so on this.

First impressions were good. It’s darker than most pilsners I’ve had, not a washed out straw in sight, more a glowing mid gold. Even the aroma was quite good, light and fruity with a hint of malt in the background, nothing outstanding but definitely noticeable. I even liked the taste, oranges and lemon, very smooth texture, almost no fizz but a bit of zest without any bitterness. More depth than the average pilsner, with a lingering moreish finish, it is indeed a very pleasant brew.

Was it worth it? Mmm, not really. I’m glad I sampled it, but I honestly wouldn’t buy it again unless I saw it much cheaper. There’s just as good to be had elsewhere for a lot less.

Brewery: Namibia Breweries Ltd
Location: Windhoek, Namibia
Style: Reinheitsgebot Lager
ABV: 4.0%
Version: Bottled
Source: Courtesy of Emma at Splendid Communications

With the South African World Cup kicking off, Diageo obviously decided the time was right to introduce the Southern African lager in their portfolio to the drinkers of the UK. Hence the four-pack of Windhoek lager that arrived a few weeks ago.

Windhoek is a pils-style light lager, brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot standard – apparently a German Beer Purity Law dating from 1516 that allows only water, hops and barley to be used in the production process (surely there’s some yeast in there as well?) and it pours a light golden colour with a thin, frothy head:

Taste-wise – served cold from the fridge (as recommended) or at room temperature; I tried a couple of each as I worked my way through the four-pack – it’s light, refreshing and easy-drinking. There’s a slight vegetative quality to begin with – the hops asserting themselves up-front, I’d guess – which gives way to a slightly maltier after-taste. It’s not too highly carbonated – which I think is the main problem that puts me off the majority of factory lagers – and is generally well-balanced.

In other words: a perfectly pleasant, easy-drinking bottled lager. I wouldn’t necessarily pick it as one of my all-time favourite lagers – Hop Dameon Green Daemon, BrewDog 77 Lager and the recently-sampled Meantime Helles are the ones I’d probably go for, or any of the Czech-style black lagers I’ve had to-date – but if someone offered me a bottle then I’d definitely be happy to drink it to toast their good health.

I haven’t seen Windhoek lager in the local supermarkets just yet, but I was up in Bury the other week and passed an enterprising café that was offering a ‘South Africa Special’: two bottles of Windhoek and biltong pizza for £9.99, so it’s definitely over in the UK if you’re intrigued enough to seek it out.

Many thanks to Emma for sending along the samples!

Around the BeerBlogosphere:

• The Beer Justice went to the UK launch in London and then posted a collection of Windheok’s entertainingly surreal and vaguely sinister TV adverts…

I’ve been sent a couple of sample packages in the past few weeks. First up, a four-pack of Windhoek lager all the way from Namibia Breweries Ltd, Namibia (or, just possibly, another Diageo subsidiary a little closer to home), courtesy of their UK PR people at Splendid Communications in London:

I’ve sampled this extensively and thoroughly (all four bottles) and will be posting the Tasting Notes shortly.

Package II was another four-pack, this time courtesy of the Strangford Lough Brewing Co in Northern Ireland’s County Down – a lovely part of the world, Jo and I have visited friends over there a number of times – which contained one each of their Barelegs Brew red-golden ale and Legbiter golden ale, plus a couple of bottles of St Patrick’s Best session bitter:

I expect I shall be cracking at least a couple of those open on Friday evening, as England take on Algeria. Tasting Notes to follow over the weekend, with any luck.

You sometimes find great beer in the most surprising places.

A couple of weeks ago, Jo and I went out to a 40th birthday meal for one of her colleagues, which was held at Eden on Canal Street, in the heart of Manchester’s Gay Village. I did my research and checked out the Eden website beforehand, but when I clicked on the ‘Drink’ tab, it just linked through to a short wine list, so as a result I had rather low beverage-expectations of the place: a couple of lagers maybe, the usual sort of ‘wine bar’ offering, I assumed. So plan ‘A’ was: get in, do the sociable thing, then get out as soon as politely feasible and go find a decent pub.

Which is why I was also particularly keen to get into town and get to a decent pub before we hit the restaurant. As luck would have it we caught an Altrincham service, which meant that The Bank on Moseley Street was a much closer prospect than the Bull’s Head up in Piccadilly. There I encountered the first Good Thing of the night: draught Thornbridge Jaipur. Beautifully kept it was and as good as I’ve ever found it, and so, suitably fortified against the rest of the evening’s anticipated disappointments, I let Jo drag me off to Eden.

On arrival, I went straight over to the bar and yes, as I’d predicted, there was just a couple of generic lager pumps on show (not even a creamflow bitter). But then, more in hope than anticipation, I glanced at the fridge behind the bar… and that’s when I spotted, nestled snugly in amongst the fruit juices and other chilled stuff I wouldn’t normally give a second glance to, a veritable cornucopia of quite fantastic-looking Australian imports. Result!

First up was Cooper’s Best Extra Stout; a delicious moccacino monster of a sipping beer that weighed in at a respectable 5.9% ABV that (particularly after a Jaipur) set me up quite nicely for the rest of the evening, thank you very much.

Next: a beer that has been unreservedly recommended to me on more than one occasion by @thenashmeister (another Darren, this one an Australian mate of mine from work): James Boag‘s Premium Lager; a rich, malty brew that’s low on gassiness, high on flavour and about as far from the usual UK mass-produced and massacred version of Aussie lager as you could hope to get without moving to the Antipodes.

And then came Little Creatures Pale Ale. Easily the (post-Jaipur) Beer of the Night; extremely well-balanced, light, sweet and malty in the main part, but delivering a delightfully hoppy after-bite to the back of the throat as well. Very, very good indeed, which is why I had another one of those (by this point we were well into plan ‘B’ and besides, I was in a round with and chatting away to a top bloke who turned out to be an ex-Royal Marine, so I wasn’t going to argue when he suggested we have another, was I?), although as a result I missed out a beer from James Squires, as well as another couple of interesting looking Aussies… but they were just going to have to wait for another session.

For alas, by that stage we’d all finished eating (the food was excellent as well, btw, especially as they were catering for quite a large group at the time) and the birthday girl had hit on the notion to head across to O’Shea’s Irish Bar, where the only remotely decent beer they had was Guinness Original. On reflection, I probably shouldn’t have had three pints of that stuff to round off the evening. I blame the live music; singing along always gives me a thirst.

So there you go: great beer in a most surprising place. And I’ve learned my lesson. From now on, I’ll always check the beer fridge behind the bar, whatever the taps on top may be dispensing. Always.

Go on then, what’s the most surprising place that you’ve discovered great beer? Comment away!

Brewery: Guinness
Location: Dublin, Rep. of Ireland
Style: Black lager
ABV: 4.5%
Version: Bottled

Guinness have had mixed success with experimenting on variations of their famous stout, with probably more misses than hits. With this new 4.5% Black Lager, currently undergoing a trial period in Northern Ireland and Malaysia, they are looking to attract the younger lager drinker to the brand, giving them the flavour without the heaviness. Priced at £1.25 for a 330ml bottle it’s at the lower price bracket for those of us used to paying premium prices for our beer, but to me it still seems a bit on the expensive side for the average lager drinker used to “stack-em-high” supermarket deals. The draught version likely competes better but I’ve not had a chance to sample that version of it yet. And other than write-ups in various newspapers, such as this good one on the Times Online website, there hasn’t exactly been a high profile marketing campaign (or maybe because I don’t read local newspapers or watch much local TV I just haven’t seen any of it).

So how does the product rate? Well, it’s a black lager so it is, unsurprisingly, black in colour with a lot of fizz, and very watery looking with no head. There’s very little aroma as well, some faint coffee and chocolate maltiness lingering in the background, but then the average lager drinker probably doesn’t pay any attention to such things. So not off to a good start so far, and to be honest, the taste is the disappointment I was expecting as well – not much to it, with a very thin and chewy texture, but not in a good way. It’s also very dry, which I could see putting off a lot of their target market. I’m struggling to find anything positive about this beer, it’s below average for a black lager, I see no reason for it’s existence and it fully deserves to go the way of previous failures. But that’s only my opinion, what do I know, it’ll probably go on to be a roaring success. Although a couple of reviewers over at Beer Advocate do seem to agree with me.le:

Brewery: Hopdaemon
Location: Newnham, Kent, England
ABV: 5% / 4.5% / 6%
Version: Bottled
Source: Courtesy of Hopdaemon

A few weeks ago, the up-shot of a short Twitter conversation with Hopdaemon’s @PeteBrissenden was that Pete very kindly offered to send me a few samples of his beers, seeing as I was unlikely to be able to find them on sale anywhere in Manchester. A box containing three bottles of Hopdaemon’s finest duly arrived and I got stuck in last Friday evening.

I started with Hopdaemon Green Daemon, a bottle conditioned helles bier (which, Wikipedia tells us, simply means ‘pale lager’) and frankly it turned out to be one of the very best lagers (pale or otherwise) that I’ve ever had the pleasure to encounter. Things started off rather well with a lovely, fruity-caramel aroma as soon as the bottle was opened. The beer poured a dark amber-gold colour with almost no head and the first taste released a cascade of rich, sweet fruit flavours: most noticeably cantaloupe melon, with a touch of peach and papaya. There was a bit of toasted-almond in there as well and coupled with a lingering dryness to the after-taste that helped to keep the fruit in check, providing a good balance to the whole. Great flavours, carried along on a silky-syrupy mouth-feel. Quite a distance from my mental picture of a typical pale lager – if I didn’t know better I’d have said this one was more of a Belgian-style beer – but I’ll take Pete’s word for it. Definitely worth seeking out.

Bottle number two was Skrimshander IPA. I first tried Skrimshander a few years ago, when some friends of ours hosted a barbecue party and some of their Kent-based relatives made the trip with a case or two in the boot. I remember enjoying it immensely – that’s why I’d gotten in touch with Pete in the first place, to see if he could recommend a sales outlet Up North (alas. no, Hopdaemon generally only supplies retailers Down South) – and I was very glad of the opportunity to re-acquaint myself. Weighing in at 4.5% ABV, Skrimshander might not be as strong as a we’ve come to expect an IPA to be, but it certainly doesn’t disappoint in the big hop flavours department. Again, a very pleasant mouth-feel conveys a dry, crisp, hop-heaviness with a lingering bitter finish that sneaks up on you a couple of seconds after you’ve swallowed. There’s a faint nuttiness, hardly any fruit and an almost whisky-like character to the malt notes. Very, very nice indeed.

Going for the hat-trick, I cracked open the Leviathan, anticipating the biggest and boldest beer of the evening from this 6% ABV ale. It was a pleasure to behold as it poured; a rich ruby-chestnut body with a thick, frothy head. Flavour-wise it was all rich malt, with hints of treacly smoke and another long, dry finish. Not as sweet as I thought it was going to be; everything kept nicely in balance. Another damn fine beer, which I enjoyed immensely.

So: three damn fine beers from Hopdaemon there. If I had written down the one I though I would enjoy most before I started, I would have predicted Leviathan, but on reflection I think I’d actually pick the Green Daemon as the best beer on the night, if only because it was so much better than I was expecting it to be. Skrimshander is a very good example of a relatively low-alcohol IPA and Leviathan is an extremely tasty strong dark ale. But for a helles lager, Green Daemon really stands out from the others I’ve tried recently, kicking even BrewDog’s very fine 77 Lager into touch.

And now of course, I have a problem: I’ve run out of Hopdaemon and it’s not generally on sale up north. Time to start scouring the online retailers, I reckon. Please do let me know if you do spot it on sale anywhere in Manchester though, and if so be sure to grab a few bottles for your own beer cupboard. You won’t be disappointed.