Session Notes: Port Street Beer House, Manchester, 21.01.12

Walking up to the bar in Manchester’s Port Street Beer House requires an exercise of willpower. The temptation is to cast your eye over the bewildering array of pump-clips, start seeing beer-flavoured stars and just blurt “one of everything!” then just hope your liver (and your wallet) can take it. It just all looks so good.

My top tip: they have three blackboards up on the wall behind the bar: one for their cask ales, two for their draught beers. Focus on one of those boards at a time, and just pick one. Assuming you’re in for a session, you’ll have plenty of time to switch boards later. Try not to worry that you might miss a really good one on another board that runs out just as you come back for your second pint – c’est la vie. Plenty more top-notch beer in the cellar. And for the love of all that’s hoppy, don’t even think about looking at the bottled beer menu, not until you’re settled in with your first of the evening. Quite apart from the fact that some of the prices in there will send you screaming out the door, it’s the start of a slippery slope to decision-making madness.

Of course, I’m a great one for ignoring my own advice, so I usually end up trying (and failing) to take in all the on-board options at once and make some sort of plan for the evening. Which almost never works, especially given my habit of changing my mind six or seven times before I actually get to the bar. Anyhow, here’s where my decision-making process (such as it was) took me last Saturday night:

Magic Rock Dark Arts
I’ve had Dark Arts a couple of times before and for me it’s the dark star of the Magic Rock range. It’s a wonderfully deep-flavoured stout, delivering a big hit of dark chocolate, coffee, charcoal-smoke and toasted nuts, wrapped up in a smooth, satisfying mouth-feel. At 6.0% ABV it’s not a quaffer, and maybe it was a bit adventurous as a session starter, but what the hell, too good to risk missing out on.

Thornbridge Halcyon Imperial IPA
Last year I tried and loved a bottle of the Halcyon 2009 Harvest, so when I saw this one on the board – presumably the new, 2010 Harvest vintage – I jumped at the chance top sample a half on draught. Halcyon is a very, very impressive beer indeed. A 7.4% ABV Imperial IPA, it delivers bucketloads of big, fresh green-hop flavours, topped off with an enticing honey aroma. In the glass and on your tongue, sticky sugars mix and merge with all those sharp, citrus hops in a perfect blend of sharp and sweet. Big flavour, big impact, always a beer that’s worth seeking out. Great stuff.

BrewDog Winter Porter
I fancied something dark and roast-malty again after that big blast of hops and this one leapt off the board at me. Come on though, ‘Winter Porter’ is their Christmas porter with the tinsel taken off, isn’t it? It’s the same blend of dark, smoky roast malt and fruity, spicy notes from a dash of chili, if I remember correctly. Yeah, thought so. Not that I’m complaining, mind. It’s a lovely drop and at 6.0% ABV it packs a satisfying kick as well. Grab the chance to try a drop of this one if you see it anywhere.

Moor Illusion
I wanted to dial down the alcohol content for my next one, so I went for a pint of Moor Illusion, a 4.5% ABV black ale that I’ve enjoyed before. So what went wrong this time? I’m really not sure, but for some reason I was just over-powered by a blast of coffee and hops, lots of coffee, lots of hops and then more coffee and more hops on top. It was very sharp, very dry, with a burnt, charcoal-taste to finish. I was bemused, befuddled and frankly gutted, but I just couldn’t finish it. Bizarre, but true.

Brasserie Lefebvre Barbãr Bok
For my last half pint of the evening I opted for a Belgian beer that I’ve tried and enjoyed in bottled form couple of months ago. Barbãr Bok is a dark ale that’s brewed with honey, which the brewery website says is “from Yucatan in Mexico and is hardly noticeable”. I’d argue that second point, I thought there was a lovely, deep honey tone, that blended well with the Belgian yeast tang and the toasted malt flavours. All in all, a sweet and delicious strong ale that I’d be happy to sit and sip any time.

Good session, all things considered. But then that’s one thing you’re pretty much guaranteed at the Port Street Beer House, whatever you end up choosing.

Beer Notes: Bateman’s Salem Porter

Another day at Nottingham HQ yesterday, another pre-train pint after work at the Kean’s Head (it’s a tradition, or an old charter, or something). And and a new guest beer to try: Bateman’s Salem Porter.

I’m always happy to try a new porter and turned out to be a very tasty one. As well as the anticipated roast malt flavours there was a good dose of dark, berry-fruit sweetness. The overall effect was something akin to Green & Black’s dark chocolate with cherries – a personal favourite and so no bad thing.

A rather good mouth-feel rounded off a very pleasant porter experience, one that I’d be happy to re-visit.

Session Notes: The Marble Arch, Manchester, 01.01.12

There we were, sitting in the Marble Arch on Christmas Eve, supping our halves of Stouter Port Stout when Jo spotted a posted adversing the MA’s New Year’s Day opening times. Which gave her an idea…

Eight days later we were back again, for dinner (venison loin for Jo, pheasant for me, both delicious) and our first session of 2012, which covered the following bases:

Moor Amoor Porter 4.5% ABV
A rather delicious glassful of mocha sundae & toasted hazelnut flavors with a lingering dry finish. Great mouth-feel, too. Very pleasant indeed.

Marble Trial Lagonda No. 6 (IPA) 6% ABV
I’m guessing the Marble folks are testing out a few alternate hop-combinations for their Lagonda IPA? No.6 is blessed with bountiful big IPA flavors: predominantly a grapefruit dry-sourness, with a hint of honey keeping it all in check. Well-balanced and easy-drinking but with definite bite.

Marble Draft No.9 (golden ale) 3.9% ABV
Another example of the sort of sharp, hoppy session beers that Marble do so well. Pale gold in colour, hop-led, with dry citrus notes throughout. Similar to Pint, but with more of a biscuit malt character.

Marble Stouter Stout 4.7% ABV
A classic on the Marble list and with good reason. Stouter Stout is a classic bone-dry black beer with an almost charcoal-like character, off-set by just a hint of dark chocolate. One of the driest, tastiest stouts around.

Dark Star Festival (bitter) 5.0% ABV
Jo’s a huge fan of Dark Star Original and was happy to re-visit a half of its label-mate Festival: as last time, it was quite savoury and dry, with a spicy-nuttiness leading the flavour-charge. Very tasty, very drinkable indeed.

Marble Pint (golden ale) 3.9% ABV
The aforementioned king of the Marble session beers – indeed, one of the best session beers around, IMHO, right up there with the likes of Fyne Avalanche or Hawkshead Lakeland Gold – Pint was on top form on Sunday: light, refreshing, hoppy-sharp but with a softer, fruitier finish than some of Marble’s other session brews. Lovely stuff.

Marble Chocolate (stout/mild) 5.5% ABV
Marble’s show-stopping stout/mild (they describe it in their beer menu as possessing characteristics of both rather than being a blend of the two) was as tasty and more-ish as ever. Rich, malty, packed with just the selection-box array of flavors that you’d expect from the name. Not too bitter, not too sweet, a well-balanced, full-flavoured dark winter warmer. Rather fabulous.

How’s that for a cracking start to the year? Not to mention the birth of a new annual tradition, with any luck.

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!

Once Around the Northern Quarter, Manchester 25.06.11

Saturday night, time to hit the town. First up: a visit to the new Korean place on Shude Hill to take on solid sustenance. Baekdu has a slightly stark look, but the chairs are comfortable, the clientèle mostly Korean students (always a good sign when a restaurant is frequented by a lot of people who really know the cuisine in question, I reckon) and the food is very good indeed. Well, actually, the salmon salad I had as a starter was a bit of a let-down; I was expecting something Korean and interesting, but instead I got mostly iceberg lettuce and a few lumps of salmon sushi, garnished with… salad cream. But Jo’s chicken skewers were very tasty and the main courses – beef bibimbab for Jo and spicy, stir-fried, thin-sliced pork for me – were excellent. Food done, it was time for a beer or four.

First stop, the Marble Arch. One of my three very favourite Manchester pubs and a regular session-starting location. We timed it just right, hitting the early evening lull, and managed to get a seat. Up to the bar, and there was no question whatsoever what we were both going to have: Marble Ginger Stout. I was moved to tweet at the time that it was **bloody gorgeous** and I stand by that. A deep, rich mouth-feel, with semi-sweet, dark chocolate & vanilla-cream flavours to begin with; then a lingering, dry-sharp root ginger finish. The bastard offspring of a dark chocolate brownie and a ginger nut biscuit, in a glass. Also the best draught stout I’ve had in quite a while, bar none. One slight snag: I thought the pump-clip said 4.2% but on closer examination that turned out to be 6.7%. So, not a session-swigger. But still, I could happily have supped a few more of those over the course of the evening… before sliding slowly under the table with a stupid grin plastered all over my face.

Instead, we erred on the side of caution and upped-sticks to The Angel, favourite Manchester pub #2. Marble Ginger Stout was always going to be a tough act to follow, but to be fair the Bowland Black Dragon Porter had a good go. An ebony body with ruby highlights and a tight white head was promising. Dry, biscuity malt flavours with a raisin and chocolate finish was a result. Very drinkable, quite sessionable at 4.5%. Jo went for a Pictish Ginger (I think that’s what it was called). She’s very particular about her ginger beers is Jo. She’s sampled many, disliking the ones that are basically fermented ginger pop (too sweet) or anything with too strong a clove flavour (sorry, Marble Ginger and Big Ginger as well) and she declared this one a good ‘un. Again, we could’ve stayed for a couple more at The Angel (there was an IPA that looked interesting), but we had a stagger-plan, so onward we went…

…to The Castle Hotel, on Oldham Road. This place has a decent rep as a bit of a node on the Manchester real-ale scene, but for some reason we’d never been in for a pint; maybe because the last couple of times we’ve been past on a weekend night it had been hammered. Saturday wasn’t so bad; we managed to find a seat and then I sidled up to the bar to peruse the range of mainly Robinson’s beers on offer. I got Jo a Hatter’s Dark Mild (pleasant enough, if not exactly amazing) and I was going to have a half of Old Tom, but instead I opted for a pint of the Robinson’s Crusoe. A seasonal beer, apparently it’s a “double-hopped” golden ale, but it I’m afraid it wasn’t particularly hoppy, or particularly malty, or for that matter particularly good. I ended up wishing I’d stuck to my original plan, but there you go. You live and learn. The pub itself was nice enough, although far too warm. We’ll probably come back and give it a fresh go another time, maybe on a Friday afternoon or some other quieter time.

Onwards again, and this time to favourite Manchester pub #3 (the order changes, by the way, depending on which one I’m sitting in and what’s in the glass in front of me) – The Port Street Beer House. The usual bewildering array of cask and keg ales and draught beers to choose from. Jo went in search of seats and I got her a Dark Star Festival; a deep chestnut coloured ale that was very pleasant indeed. I took a little longer choosing my own and, after consultation with the bar-fella, eschewed the cask Thornbridge Jaipur (which took some willpower) and eventually decided on a half each of Odell IPA and Hardknott Queboid.

The former was very nice indeed, even better than the bottled version that I sampled a while back, with a big, orange-citrus hop aroma and a smooth, clementine hop-blast leading the flavour-charge. It was cool and refreshing, just the right drop for an increasingly-muggy Saturday night. Alas, I think the Queboid had turned. When I sampled it on Tuesday it was beautifully fresh but by Saturday it was a very different beast; sour on the tongue and with a faint whiff of Stilton about it (and not in a good way). I reluctantly took it back to the bar and the bar-fella graciously swapped it for a half of cask Jaipur* with nary a quibble. The Jaipur was as Jaipur pretty much always is: a hoppy blast of liquid sunshine and a pure joy to end the evening on.

* It occurred to me afterwards that they actually had keg Jaipur as well as cask, so I could’ve done one of those taste-comparison thingies. But to be honest, I couldn’t be bothered. It was the end of the night, and I only had room for a half after all of the above (Korean food is surprisingly filling, especially when you’ve finished off your wife’s bibimbab for her). Maybe next time, eh?

Brewery: WharfeBank [The Angel, Manchester

Jo and I opted to celebrate the long weekend just past with a trip to one of our very favourite of Manchester’s many excellent pubs: The Angel. We were there for the generally excellent food, but ended up with an extremely pleasant bonus when we ordered a pint and a half of the ,most promising-looking beer on the bar: the April 2011 seasonal special from the WharfeBank brewery, Aztec Dark.

I’m not 100% sure whether Wharfe Bank is a stout, a porter or a dark mild. The WharfeBank websites describes it as “A dark beer full of flavour using real chocolate … Supported by a blend of coloured malts and black treacle” and I think this is a classic example of occam’s razor in action: Aztec Dark is a ruby-hued chestnut colour, with a tight off-white head and whilst it has characteristics of all three styles – the rich cocoa notes of a chocolate stout, the lingering roast-malt finish of a dry porter, as well as the mellow warmth of a good dark mild – it’s a direct match for none of them. But that really doesn’t matter, because you can take mine and Jo’s joint word for it that Aztec Dark most definitely is an extremely well-balanced (not too bitter, not too sweet, so that ‘real’ chocolate must be good chocolate), highly flavourful and incredibly drinkable ‘dark beer’. And when push comes to shove that’s pretty much all you need to be sure of, isn’t it?

All in all: absolutely delicious – as was the lamb rump that the Aztec Dark complemented perfectly – and in fact, I’d probably the best session-strength dark beer I’ve tasted for some time.

According to the WharfeBank Twitter feed:

January 1, 1970 12:00 am viaReplyRetweetFavorite

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So if you live within pub-going distance of Mr Foley’s and are fan of dark, smooth, tasty ales, I’d highly recommend you head on down there and give this one a go. Or of course, you could try The Angel in Manchester, although I rather suspect that they’ll have run out by now…

Brewery: Smuttynose Brewing Company [MyBreweryTap.com

This bottle of Smuttynose Robust Porter turned up in the third instalment of MyBreweryTap.com‘s US 52 Week Beer Club and I have to say I think it’s quite possibly the best US52WBC bottle so far (perhaps with the exception of old-favourite Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter).

An aroma of rich, dark chocolate hits you as soon as you crack the top. The pour is slow and smooth, with a thick tan head forming (although, sadly, not remaining long) on top of an almost opaque ebony body. The flavour is all about the big, dark, roast-malts, with another hit from that dark, dark chocolate up front, gradually giving way to a sharp coffee-bitterness. There are other flavours in play as well; a sliver of coconut, a sprinkling of pepper. But if you imagine a mocha made with Italian espresso and 90% cocoa chocolate and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what Smuttynose Robust Porter is all about.

I’m enjoying this one as I type (as-live Tasting Notes, folks!) and I hope to enjoy another one before too long; I’m pretty sure I’ve seen bottles of this one in both the Port Street Beer House and the Euston Tap. Next time I’m short of draught inspiration – or just fancy something dry, bitter-sharp and deeply, deeply roasted – then I think this is the bottle I’ll re-visit.

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

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

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

Brewery: Nethergate Brewery
Location: Sudbury, Suffolk, England
Style: Porter
ABV: 5.0%
Version: Bottled
Source: Selfridges, Manchester

I picked this one up in the Manchester branch of Selfridges before Xmas (they have a surprisingly good selection of beers, over in the wine & whisky corner and although most of them seem to be artisan lagers, every so often they’ll chuck in a really good dark beer or pale ale, just to keep you on your toes).

Nethergate Old Growler poured thick and black, with a creamy head (although unfortunately it didn’t last too long). The mouth-feel was very good indeed and the beer delivered an incredibly potent blend of rich, sweet, heady flavours: dark berry fruits, red wine and port on a deep, chocolate malt base. The after-taste was one of lingering fruit sugars, cut through with subtle coffee flavours that added a touch of balancing dryness just at the end.

So: pretty much exactly my favourite blend of porter flavours, y’say? By ‘eck, I think I might have made my first Beer Discovery of 2011! Lovely, lovely stuff. I’ll definitely be back for more.

Brewery: Bath Ales [Bath Ales

It’s that time of year again; when breweries up and down the country blow the dust off their holiday-season ale recipes and take a good, hard run the Xmas Beer market. Festivity is the seasonal offering from Bath Ales and is available in bottle, micro-cask and 36-pint box, as well as on draught. I got hold of the bottled version and decided to crack it open a few weeks early rather than hang on until December (and why not?)

Bath Ales Festivity is billed as an old-style porter and promises hints of coffee, vanilla and rum. It certainly delivers on the first of the trio, with a smooth, dry-coffee character and there are definite vanilla notes as well. The rum is a little more elusive; it’s not as up-front as in something like Boggart Rum Porter or Innis & Gunn Rum Cask, but comes in subtly on the after-taste. I far preferred the not-so in-yer-face approach, having found both the Boggart and the Innis & Gunn a touch too sweet. And of course, all the flavours become steadily more strident once the beer has been allowed to stand and warm for a while (it was bloody cold in the beer cupboard last Friday night). Having a sip of Jo’s Hawkshead Organic Stout (which is very dry and coffee-led) then going back to the Festivity also helped to emphasise the latter’s spicier notes.

Seasonal Beers are tricky things to get right. Some breweries don’t seem to make much of an effort – stick some holly leaves on the best-bitter pump-clip, pick a vaguely Xmas-themed pun for the name and away they go – and others seem to go over-the-top, drenching the beer in strong spices or syrupy sweetness. I think Bath Ales have got the balance just right with Festivity: the flavours are suitably seasonal without trying too hard, and the underlying porter-base would be tasty enough in its own right to make it a success all year round, I’m sure. And I’ll definitely be trying a pint of the draught Festivity if I get the chance, knowing how much better the condition and mouth-feel is likely to be, so I’ll be keeping an eye out for this one over the next few weeks, just in case it turns up this far north. Or maybe the next time I’m at The Euston Tap, who knows?