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.

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.

Beer Notes: Sainsbury’s (Black Sheep) Celebration Ale

When picking out my last beer of 2011 last night, Sainsbury’s own-label ‘Celebration Ale’ seemed an appropriate one to reach for.

Brewed for Sainsbury’s by Black Sheep and not, as far as I can tell, just a re-badged version of one of the brewery’s regular range, Celebration is actually a stout rather than an ale (it even says so on the back label) that pours a thick, treacly black with a big, dark brown sugar and allspice aroma.

It’s a flavour-bomb and no mistake: sour-sweet coffee, raisins and more of those spice notes give way to a bone-dry finish that’s packed with liquorice – and at 6% ABV it’s not one for the casual quaffer either – so caveat emptor if you don’t like your stouts rich and robust. But if you do enjoy a deliciously deep, full-flavoured and satisfying stout then you might want to nip down to Sainsbury’s to see if their 4-for-£5 offer on own-brand beers is still in force.

(Quick Aside: perusing the Black Sheep website I’ve just spotted their Autumn-Winter seasonal, Ruddy Ram Porter, which looks rather tasty. Did anyone managed to try that one while it was available in November & December?)

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.

From Waterhouse to Bank to Beer House, Friday 02.09.11

Last Friday Jo and I decided to stay out in town and hit a few pubs. I was heading back into Manchester city centre from the Trafford Centre and met up with Jo (who’d spent a pleasant latter part of the afternoon in the City Arms with a book and a couple of halves of bitter) at the Wetherspoons’ Waterhouse branch. The plan was to go for food right away, but after a couple of hours’ worth of talking I was absolutely gasping, so I decided to grab a half before we moved on.

I was glad I did: the Waterhouse had Acorn IPA on offer. Very smooth, with a solid malt base and good, strong hop flavours on top, but not too dry or harsh. A damn fine example of the English IPA and at 5% it was reasonably quaffable. Good job, too: I really was gasping, and the half lasted all of nine or ten seconds… not my usual drinking speed by any means, but the stuff was very drinkable indeed.

After that little refresher, we nipped round the corner to Tampopo for a beer-soak Nasi Goreng and then thought about the best pub to head for a bit of a celebration (more about that at a later date). No competition, really; it had to the Port Street Beer House. But on the way, we decided to nip into The Bank on Moseley Street, just on the off-chance they had something interesting on. They did, too: Hopdaemon Incubus was on the bar. I’m a big Hopdaemon fan, so a half of that one really was a no-brainer. Bloody good stuff it turned out to be as well: sweet malt flavours and a sharp hop-bite on the finish, packed with a pleasantly surprising amount of flavour for a 4% session beer, and one I’d definitely have again.

For my second half, well, Nicholson’s had been having an IPA week, the tail-end of which was still available, so I went for a drop of Marston’s Old Empire. I’ve enjoyed this one in bottles before now, but alas this particular half wasn’t quite up to scratch. Maybe the barrel was getting on a bit or had been sat there all week or something, but I’m pretty sure the oddly sweet, barley-sugar notes and muted hop profile aren’t what this one was supposed to deliver.

Suitably pit-stopped, we moved onwards and upwards to Port Street. The place was jumping, as is the norm on a Friday night, and they had Thornbridge Evenlode on the bar, as part of their Breweters’ Week selection of beers. I was in a tasting and sampling kinda mood and Evenlode is 6.2%, so I only went for a half. But I ended up wishing I’d opted for the full pint: it was gorgeous stuff. A wonderfully smooth, rich, double-cream mouth-feel delivered a wash of lush cafe-creme and milk chocolate flavours. One of those deliciously, dangerously drinkable stouts I could happily sup all evening.

Alas, that was not to be, as by the time I nipped back to the bar, the barrel had run out. Which annoyed Jo no end, as she’d been after a half of that herself, to follow on from the Dark Star Over the Moon that she’d enjoyed for her first half. I had a sip of that as well: a sharp-sweet, dark bitter with lively hop notes bouncing on a solid malt base and a tangy, sultana-fruitcake after-taste. Very nice indeed.

Anyhow, for my next one I decided to re-visit a beer I’d sampled on my last Tuesday Stagger with my very good mate Andy: BrewDog Hello, My Name is Ingrid. At 8% this one is definitely a slow-sipper, although again, it’s a dangerously drinkable beer. Its a blend of sweet, fruity cloudberries, wrestling and scrapping with the sharp bitterness of an Imperial IPA hop-profile. The fruit definitely has the upper-hand to start with but then the hops come back fighting strong and it’s a contest that’s a real delight to experience. I read on the BrewDog blog that Ingrid had been brewed for the Swedish market, in which case I’m very glad indeed that PSBH managed to divert a barrel from Stockholm to Manchester. Lovely, lovely stuff; a prime example of BrewDog at their innovative best.

And for the final act of the evening, a beer that I’d had my eye on since I first perused the bar: Magic Rock Human Cannonball. With this one being a 9.2% double-IPA, I wasn’t sure whether to expect a detonation of ascerbic hop acids or a more subtle, structured, malt-backed salvo of rich, rounded flavours. So I was very pleased when the latter proved to be the case: Human Cannonball is a very well-balanced blend of highly complimentary marmalade hops and sweet toffee caramel malts. Smooth and very easy-drinking, quite reminiscent of BrewDog Hardcore in top condition. Altogether sublime and very highly recommended indeed; an excellent beer with which to finish a rather excellent day.

Picture Credit: Very cool Thornbridge Evenlode pumpclip pic borrowed from The Good Stuff, used with Leigh’s very kind permission. Everything else nicked from brewery websites.

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!

A Trip to the Euston Tap Last Tuesday

The Euston Tap is my favourite London pub. Not, I hasten to add, because London isn’t blessed with a number of very fine pubs indeed (The Rake, The Gunmakers and The Porterhouse are my three other faves to-date) but this is the one I get to call in at, usually once a fortnight or so, on my way back to Manchester after a day at my employers’ London HQ.

Last Tuesday was the latest such occasion. London was muggy that day; muggy, musty and dank. A couple of pints of something to chase away the heat were most definitely in order. Scanning the boards at the Euston Tap – with eight cask ales and no fewer than nineteen keg beers, ales, lagers and stouts to choose from – rarely makes for a quick or easy decision-making process. Not so last Tuesday. I spotted Fyne Avalanche and knew it had to be done. Crisp, fresh, dry, hoppy, golden, cool, grassy and floral; it tastes how I’d imagine it feels to stand in the middle of a Scotttish heather meadow on a cool spring morning. Just the ticket. It didn’t last long, but it took the edge off my thirst a treat.

Suspecting this might be the case, I’d already got my next one in, and at 6.2% ABV, this was one I was going to savour. A new stout / porter from Thornbridge y’say? Oh, I think so. Evenlode is a full-bodied dark mocha coffee stout (or porter) and a beer of two halves. It starts out smooth and rich with a slightly sticky mouth-feel and a distinctly coffee-dry finish. But half-way down the pint it flipped: suddenly it was a sweet strong stout with a lot more chocolate and more than a hint of treacle, as if the sugars were all hiding down at the bottom. And odd effect, but it didn’t detract from a generally excellent pint. What with the Evenlode and the Marble Ginger Stout the weekend before, it had turned out to be be an excellent few days for top-quality stout.

Reaching the end of that one with a soft sigh, I realised I still had ten minutes to kill. Another half of Evenlode? Tempting, but perhaps a little heady. So instead I asked for a half of Buxton Black Rocks – an intriguing-looking Black IPA – but it had just run out. I went for a half of Thornbridge Chiron instead. A fresh, malty ale; very lively with a caramel sweetness, a hint of lemon and a long, lingering hop finish. Another refreshing and satisfying summery ale, just what I needed to fortify me for the two hour train ride. And I’m looking forward to my next London trip already.

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: Ascot Ales
Location: Camberley, Surrey, England
Style: Stout
ABV: 5.0%
Version: Bottled
Source: Courtesy of Ascot Ales

This bottle of Anastasia’s Exile was the second survivor from the ill-starred sample package that Ascot Ales sent me last week. I rather suspected that this one would have the edge over the Posh Pooch and my prediction turned out to be bang on the money.

Anastasia’s Exile poured with an opaque black body and a frothy tan head, giving off enticing aromas of rich chocolate and strong coffee in the process. The first sip delivered a good mouth-feel, carrying intense flavours of dark chocolate, roast coffee-beans, hickory smoke, liquorice and pepper. Slightly sweet, but with a long, dry, roast-malt finish, this is just the sort of complex, deeply flavourful stout I love to slowly sup and savour and I thoroughly enjoyed the two-thirds of the bottle that Jo let me keep for myself (after having a sample sip she insisted on nicking a measure and who can blame her?)

This one was very, very good indeed and I have a feeling the draught version would be excellent. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for this one on a hand-pump, definitely.

Many thanks again to the folks at Ascot Ales for sending this one along!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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