My grey and rainy Friday has been considerably brightened by the arrival of the first consignment of US 52 Week Beer Club beers from MyBreweryTap (@MyBreweryTap).

I could go on (probably at length) about how much I’m looking forward to sampling these little beauties, but I’ll save all that for the (eventual) Tasting Notes.

In the meantime, snapshots:

• Flying Dog – Raging Bitch 8.0% ABV
• Flying Dog – Old Scratch Lager 5.3% ABV [
  • Victory – Hop Wallop 8.5% ABV
  • Sierra Nevada – Torpedo IPA 7.2% ABV
  • Anchor – Liberty Ale 5.9% ABV
  • Brooklyn – East India IPA 6.8% ABV

  

  • Goose Island – 312 Urban Wheat 4.2% ABV
  • Goose Island – IPA 5.9% ABV
  • Victory / Dogfish Head / Stone – Saison Du Buff 6.8% ABV
  • Dogfish Head – 90min IPA 9.0% ABV
  • Dogfish Head – India Brown Ale 7.2% ABV

  Any suggestions as to whether any of the above should be consumed while they’re still young and zingy and / or which of them could stand a little cellaring would be gratefully received…

I seem to have become increasingly interested in US craft beer recently. As per my recent new arrivals post, my last couple of specialist beer shop hauls have been largely US-themed. I’ve also been slowly but steadily working my way through Andy Crouch’s Great American Craft Beer (Book Notes to follow in due course) and I think that’s helped opened my eyes to the sheer size of the US craft scene and the vast amount of choice that’s on offer… if you can get hold of it.

Which is why when Richard Burhouse of MyBreweryTap (@MyBreweryTap) announced the launch of the US 52 Week Beer Club yesterday, it didn’t take me long to decide to sign up.

I did the sums first of course: with the initial delivery charge taking the price to £125.98, it works out at around £2.42 a bottle over the year. Which is slightly more that you would expect to pay for the two or three US imports currently on offer in Tesco, but perhaps slightly less than the independent retailers tend to charge, especially for some of the more interesting brews on their shelves.

And the first quarter’s selection looks pretty darn interesting to me:

• Anchor – Liberty Ale ABV 5.9%
• Brooklyn – East India IPA ABV 6.8%
• Flying Dog – Raging Bitch ABV 8.0%
• Flying Dog – Old Scratch Lager ABV 5.3% [US 52 Week Beer Club you’ll have to be quick: MyBreweryTap are limiting the club to 50 subscriptions in order to guarantee supplies of the more interesting and/or limited brews and I know for a fact that there’s a maximum of 49 available as of 20 minutes ago…

In my London and York posts I mentioned that I picked up a few choice bottles of ale on my travels. Here’s what I brought back from those far-off, exotic, blessed-with-a-specialist-beer-shop places:

Picked these three up at Utobeer in Borough Market. I’m a big fan of Flying Dog, having enjoyed pretty much everything of theirs I’ve managed to get my hands on to-date, so a chance to grab these three was just too good to miss.

• Flying Dog Double Dog – A Double Pale Ale, “dry hopped with an insane amount of Cascade and Columbus hops”.
• Flying Dog Wild Dog – A 355ml version of the barrel-aged Gonzo Imperial Porter release.
• Flying Dog Raging Bitch – their 20th Anniversary brew, an 8.3% Belgian IPA.

Three more from Utobeer and then a bottle of the good stuff as a souvenir of our evening at The Porterhouse:

• Sierra Nevada Bigfoot – the 2010 / 35th anniversary release of Sierra Nevada’s famous barleywine style ale.
• Hardknott Infra Red – the third release from Dave’s brew house, a big, red, 6.5% IPA.
• Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale – one of a few legendary US brews I’ve been keeping an eye out for.
• Porterhouse Brain Blasta – a bottle of 7% thrice-hopped ale for the road.

These four all came from The Bottle in York. More big, bad American brews…

• Victory Golden Monkey – I was tempted by the Hop Devil next to it, but couldn’t resist the Monkey’s Belgian allure.
• Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA – 60 hop-additions over a 60-minute brew for a 6% ABV IPA with 60 IBUs.
• Dogfish Head Raison D’Etre – “A deep, mahogany Belgian-style brown ale brewed with beet sugar, raisins, and Belgian-style yeast.” Had to be done.
• Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA – 90 hop-additions over a 90-minute brew for a 9%ABV IPA with 90 IBUs.

Some pretty special bottled ales there, I reckon. With what’s in there already, my beer cupboard is nothing less than a treasure trove these days. Mind you, I think I really do have to start drinking some of it though, this hoarding habit of mine is getting a bit ridiculous…

Brewery: BrewDog & Stone Brewing
Location: Fraserburgh, Scotland / Escondido, California, USA
Style: Black Belgian Style Double IPA
ABV: 8.6%
Version: Bottled
Source: Brewdog

I bought half a dozen bottles of Bashah – a collaborative project between Brewdog and Stone Brewing – back in October last year. I’ve been drinking them at roughly monthly intervals – I’ve polished off five so far – and have been hugely impressed with how much Bashah has improved in just half a year.

Some things never change: Bashah is inky-black – dark as the inside of a gargoyle – and pours with a big, frothy white head. The essential flavours, too, remained the same: coffee and treacle, with a hint of charcoal smoke.

But there are noticeable differences as well. Bashah #1 was quite dry with a very strong hop-profile (the IPA side of its heritage predominant) and just a hint of sweetness cutting through (from my notebook: “Odd balance. Needs to mature?”).

After six month in the bottle the profile has flipped right over. Bashah #5′s dominant flavour turned out to be one of liquorice sweetness, with the smokiness all-but faded and the hop profile much more muted. The mouth-feel had become noticeably richer and smoother as well; a progression I’d noticed on Bashahs #2 through #4 but which really got into its stride on #5.

Beer evolution in action: Bashah #1 was definitely a big-hopped IPA, although obviously much darker than you’d usually expect. Bashah #5 was closer to an imperial stout or strong porter. Pour a Bashah alongside a BrewDog Riptide and I honestly think you might be hard-pushed to spot the difference. It’s a lot more Belgian than it was to begin with as well, with the sort of depth and richness of flavour that’s associated with the trappist style.

Bashah #1 I wasn’t completely sold on. Bashah #5 I absolutely loved. Bashah #6 is going to sit at the back of the beer cupboard and won’t be seeing the light of day for another six months, minimum. Longer, if can manage to resist its dusky allure.

My advice: if you see a bottle of Bashah on the shelf, you should grab it, age it, savour it. You certainly won’t regret it.

Another couple of consignments have arrived and are waiting for me to cram them into the already over-full beer cupboard:

That’ll be six bottles of BrewDog / Stone collaboration Bashah (a Black Belgian Double IPA weighing in at an impressive 8.4% 8.6% abv) along with two each of BrewDog Nanny State and BrewDog Trashy Blonde, plus a couple of samples of Daas‘s Organic beers – Witte and Blond – courtesy of Daas PR person Pip. Cheers, Pip! Hoping to sample those this weekend, will post the Notes as soon as poss.