Brewery: Dark Star [Rudgate Ruby Mild (which went down extremely well in the Museum Tavern) and a Fuller’s London Porter (a fantastic night-cap at the Doric Arch). Hoping for a successful hat-trick, I decided to nip into the Bree Louise on the way back to catching my train from Euston and see what they had to offer.

The obvious choice, that positively leapt out from among their typically broad selection, was Dark Star Six Hop; a strong pale ale weighing in at 6.5% ABV, it sounded like just my sort of thing. I briefly thought about sticking to a safe half, but decided what the hell – it wasn’t like I was going to be driving myself back to Manchester, was it?

Dark Star Six Hop poured a dark golden colour with a decent white head (even sans-sparkler) and gave off a light, slightly floral aroma. The first sip resulted in a big, strong and quite delicious hop-burst of flavour. Hardly surprising, the current Dark Star Tasting Notes sheet reveals that it’s brewed with five varieties of hops and then dry-hopped with a sixth (apologies to hop-heads: no further detail on the pdf there and the Dark Star website isn’t exactly geared for regular updating).

Despite the massive hop-profile, Six Hop wasn’t as drily acerbic as the big US IPAs tend to be. Instead its strength was tempered with a lot more subtlety: there was a distinct sour-sweet citrus note – bitter-orange or grapefruit – and a syrupy sweetness, carried along on a slightly sticky mouth-feel, that became more pronounced as the pint went on.

All in all: a great mix of deep, rich, lingering, sustained flavours. Tongue-tinglingly good; the sort of beer you could happily drink all night, as long as someone else was happy to carry you home at the end of the session…

Brewery: Adnams [spotted an old advertisement for a beer called ‘Tally-Ho Old Strong Ale’, brewed by Adnams. I’d never heard of it before, despite being reasonably familiar with the range of Adnams bottled ales, so I assumed it was a long-dead vintage from a bygone era, presumably the 1950s.

Then, a couple of weeks later I nipped along to the sorting office to pick up a missed parcel and opened it to discover a bottle of 2009 vintage Tally-Ho, courtesy of Sean Clark at Adnams. As far as I can work out, it seems that Adnams have been brewing small-cask runs of Tally-Ho every year since 1880, but this year is the first time that they’ve produced a bottled (limited edition and bottle-conditioned) version of this strong, barley-wine style, winter ale. Well, it’s the first bottled run for a good while, at least; ‘in cask and bottle’ is printed on the aforementioned ad poster, so it has been bottled at some point before now.

Anyhow, a very handsome, 330ml bottle it is, too, elegantly lettered and with a subtle, red-jacketed huntsman motif. The ale itself poured a lovely dark chestnut colour with ruby highlights and a thinnish head. No trouble with sediment, despite the bottle conditioning. Dried fruit aromas wafted from bottle and glass alike and the flavours were all about warming yourself in front of an open fire on a crisp winter’s day: rich, smoky chocolate, spiked with spicy, peppery notes, all carried on a marvellously creamy mouth-feel; it put me in mind of a rich, dark-chocolate mousse (you know, one of those Gü ones that cost twice as much as anything else but are definitely worth the extra…)

So, in conclusion: I’d say that Tally-Ho is an extremely palatable, eminently sippable and quite delicious strong winter ale that’s just my sort of thing. I’ll be keeping an eye out for this one and although a 24-pack at £35.75 might be a little rich for my current beer-budget, if I can find an outlet selling singles then I’ll definitely be in there for a half-dozen.

Thank you very much indeed to the folks at Adnams for sending this one along for me to try.

Brewery: Howard Town
Location: Glossop, Derbyshire
ABV: 6.4%
Version: Draught
Source: The Angel, Manchester

After a Saturday afternoon mooching around Manchester City Centre, Jo and I decided that food followed by a couple of pints was definitely in order. First we swung by the Micro Bar in the Arndale Market, looking for a few bottles of Dunham Massey Stout to take home with us, but struck out (although I did pick up a bottle of BrewDog Physics and a 2009 Dark Star Imperial Stout for the special cupboard), and seeing as they had their Boggart Rum Porter on draught we thought we’d give that a go. I tried the bottled version a while ago and whilst the carbonation I’d noticed back then wasn’t a problem with the draught version – which had a lovely, creamy mouth-feel – it was probably just a bit too tiramisu-sugary-sweet. I downed my half happily enough, but Jo couldn’t bring herself to finish hers (so I did the gentlemanly thing and helped out, as you do). After that we queued for Far Eastern Fusion food in Tampopo and then headed off in search of a post-Nasi Goreng / Pad Thai pint.

We tried the Wellington – which was showing some definite promise, with Sharp’s Doom Bar on draught – but it was absolutely hammered with post-match Manchester United fans celebrating their 3-0 victory over Burnley and as I was lugging a couple of fairly hefty bags around, we thought we’d better try again. So we aimed for the Crown & Kettle at the top end of Oldham Street, but it was packed out as well; Manchester City fans this time, watching their team getting beaten 2-0 by Everton. [Oh, just for the record I'm a neutral there: I support Bury FC and we'd already recorded a 2-1 win away at Bournemouth, so I was already quite happy, thank you very much.]

This put us up in Marble Arch territory, but we weren’t sure if we’d get somewhere to sit and stow our bags on a Saturday afternoon, so we thought we’d give the under-new-management Angel a go instead. And we were very glad we did, because nestled in amongst a selection of four pale and / or golden ales was one highly likely-looking winter warmer: Howard Town Dark Peak. Jo and I both tried it and we both thought it was bloody marvellous.

You know how, every so often, you try a new brew and there’s that moment when with the very first sip your tastebuds scream “yes!” and you just know you’re going to be enjoying this one right down to the bottom of the glass? Dark Peak was one of those ales. It poured a beautiful dark ruby chestnut with a healthy head and was packed with flavour: rich, dark berries, chewy raisins, just a hint of toffee and burnt sugar. Sweet but not too sweet. Easy-drinking but not a quaffer; Jo and I were both aware we were drinking a 6.4% strong ale – the alcohol content was noticeable by its warmth, but was by no means harsh or intrusive – so we sipped accordingly. Although to be honest it wasn’t one we would have wanted to rush anyway. Howard Town Dark Peak is definitely an ale to savour and enjoy at leisure (and the same again afterwards, thank you very much, and have one for yourself as well). Lovely stuff. Highly recommended.

[A note for any Manchester-locals wondering whether the new Angel is worth a visit: they've got Williams Bros Midnight Sun due in next weekend, as well as a selection of brews from Simpson & Simpson (

Brewery: Phoenix
Location: Heywood, England
ABV: 7.0%
Version: Draught
Source: Trackside, Bury

On a pre-Xmas trip to the Trackside in search of a lunchtime winter warmer I was lucky enough to strike gold in the form of Phoenix Humbug.

This 7.0% ABV strong ale is packed full of huge malt, caramel, toffee and burnt sugar flavours with plenty of seasonal spices – noticeably ginger and nutmeg – on the after-taste.

The alcohol level compliments rather than dominates the flavours, resulting in an incredibly satisfying slow-sipper that’s guaranteed to chase the winter blues away. Absolutely gorgeous.

Brewery: Dunham Massey Brewing Co
Location: Altrincham, England
ABV: 6.6%
Version: Draught
Source: The Trackside, Bury

I was up in Bury town centre on Saturday lunchtime and wandered into Malt in search of a pint. But all the tables had been taken over by overspill food customers from Automatic and the selection of beers on offer was less than impressive anyhow, so I headed round the corner to the Trackside instead. A bit of a calculated risk on a Saturday lunchtime – air redolent of cooking fat and a high probability of children underfoot, especially just before Christmas – but luckily the table in the corner was free and my gamble was rewarded with a pint of Dunham Massey Winter Warmer.

A lovely chestnut brown with a thick, frothy head, Winter Warmer tasted even better than it looked: rich, malty and spicy, with ginger and nutmeg, pepper and cloves all swirling around a base of dried fruit and candied citrus peel. Lovely, lovely stuff: Yuletide in a pint glass!

I could have happily stayed for a couple more, definitely, but the aroma of burger and chips from the next table (it smelled a lot more appetising than it looked – the Trackside may be brilliant for beer, but the grub in there is a bit on the basic side) sent me forth in search of lunch. You know, think the Microbar in the Arndale Market sells Dunham Massey beers in bottles though, so I might have to find an excuse to swing by and check for Winter Warmer; it’s well worth tracking down.

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

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

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

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

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

Brewery: 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.

Brewery: BrewDog
Location: Fraserburgh, Scotland
ABV: 8.0%
Version: Bottled
Source: Brewdog

When BrewDog announced the completion of their Atlantic IPA project I was online and buying a bottle from them within moments. I’ve mentioned before that I’m a sucker for a beer with a good back-story, and this beer has a back-story that’s definitely more interesting than most (as well as some of the best artwork I’ve seen on a beer bottle label).

Inspired by a recipe in an 1856 brewer’s handbook, the BrewDog boys wanted to get as close as possible to the original taste and character of an India Pale Ale. The key to the process would obviously be recreating the truly unique element of the beer’s production: the sea voyage from England to India, via the South African Cape, that gave the beer time to mature and transmute from a strong, hoppy pale ale into a proper India Pale Ale.

I’m currently about half-way through Pete Brown‘s rather excellent new book Hops and Glory. In-between recounting the history of the original C18th and C19th IPA beers, the book regales us with tales of Pete’s own attempt to re-create the unique style of a true IPA by transporting a cask of Burton pale ale all the way from the UK to India, by sea, by himself. At BrewDog they went for a different nautical option: they loaded the casks of freshly-brewed beer onto a North Atlantic trawler and sent them out to face the elements for two months before the brew was brought back to base and bottle conditioned (there’s more on the creation of Atlantic IPA over on the BrewDog website).

The result? Interestingly, it wasn’t at all what I was expecting. I’ve been led to understand – based on reading round the beer blogs and sampling a few of the IPA-style beers currently produced by a number of American and UK-based craft breweries, including BrewDog themselves – that a proper, authentic IPA needs to be two things: strong (in the >5.5% ABV sense) and extremely hoppy. After all, the whole point of an IPA was that it was packed with both alcochol and hops in order to help it survive the journey to India without going flat, right?

At 8% abv BrewDog Atlantic IPA certainly fulfils the strength criteria, although the alcohol content didn’t dominate the flavour profile. The big surprise for me was that Atlantic IPA wasn’t really all that much of a hop-monster. Or at least, not compared to the bottle of BrewDog Chaos Theory I had as a palate-cleanser before I sampled the Atlantic, or the likes of BrewDog’s own Punk IPA or Hardcore IPA, or the excellent Thornbridge Jaipur or Halcyon, to name a few.

Instead, Atlantic IPA had a very rich, malty character with flavours of dried fruit and biscuit (Jo tried a sip and commented that it was rather like fruited malt loaf) and just a hint of sea-salt. There’s a distinct dryness to the after-taste, but not so much in the way of out-and-out bitterness; the overall impression is one of a beer’s that’s certainly savoury, rather than sweet, but with a hop-profile that’s much less pronounced than I was anticipating.

As it turns out that’s probably quite correct: in the chapter of Hops and Glory that I’ve just read, Pete Brown mentions that you’d have to expect even an over-hopped beer’s spiky bitterness to fade over time. In addition to the original sea voyage and bottle conditioning on BrewDog’s premises, I’d kept my bottle in the cupboard for another three months before drinking it, which on reflection would rather explain the missing Big Hop flavours.

In conclusion, then: Atlantic IPA is a terrific, interesting, robust, flavourful beer. I thoroughly enjoyed my lone bottle (which was a bit of relief seeing as I’d spent a tenner for the privilege and a brief Twitter exchange with Hop Daemon‘s @PeteBrissenden revealed that he hadn’t been so lucky on a couple of occasions) and I was happy to have bought in to the end result of a fantastic brewing story.

And of course I’m now desperate to find out what Pete Brown discovered when he got to crack open his cask at the end of Hops and Glory (N.B. I’m halfway through and am hoping to finish on the train back from London tomorrow, so I don’t yet know how the experiment turned out… please, no spoilers!) If he ends up describing his beer as having a similar flavour profile to Atlantic IPA, then perhaps I’ll need to revise my estimation of what constitutes an authentic India Pale Ale. There was a rather interesting discussion on the subject over at Mark Dredge’s Pencil and Spoon blog recently. Well worth a read if you’re at all interested in the IPA style and the ongoing discussion over the widespread use of the IPA appellation and what, if anything, constitutes a ‘true’ IPA these days.

BrewDog Atlantic IPA around the Beerblogosphere:

• Impy Malting waxed lyrically on the topic of malt and kelp.
• Barry M was reminded of “bitterest Seville orange marmalade on toast”.
• Reluctant Scooper noted a “nose of oak, tobacco and dark orange” and a “caramel palate warmed by alcohol and not overtaken by the dry and dusty hops”.
• Zythophile debunks BrewDog’s marketing and concludes that Atlantic IPA was “an experiment that didn’t quite come off”.

After the sushi yesterday evening Jo and I headed up to one of our very favourite watering-holes – and one of the very best in Manchester – the Marble Arch. Following a recent tip on Tandleman’s beer blog I was keen to try a couple of their lighter ales and my luck was in: the two I had in mind – Pint and Summer – were both available on tap.

I started with the Marble Pint which, at 3.9%, seemed like an ideal session starter. It poured a pale straw-gold colour and had a sharp, hoppy aroma, with a strong hoppiness carrying through to the flavour. There was a fresh, citrus-tang to the after-taste and all in all it was extremely drinkable and most pleasant indeed. Could have happily stayed on that one for a good while longer, but with a total of ten different ale pumps to choose from at the Marble Arch, the urge to experiment was too strong.

For the next pint I opted for Marble Dobber, a 5.9% hop-monster with a rich, hop-fruit flavour and a huge pink grapefruit after-taste. There was a slight sourness to it, although that mellowed over the course of the pint, and all-in-all it was absolutely delicious. Recommended if you’ve got a taste for stronger ales with a big character and plenty of bite. Absolutely delicious, but not one you could stay on all night. Not if you wanted to remember how to walk at home-time.

Time for one more before we headed off and I decided to go for the Marble Summer (another of Tandleman’s recommendations). This one was another light, pleasant pale ale, once again fresh and hoppy. It was quite similar to Pint, but Summer had a dry, biscuity finish rather than the citrusy zing of Pint. Once again, another highly drinkable session beer that I’d be extremely happy to sup all night.

Three very good beers indeed. And I’m sure if I’d tried the Marble JP Best, which was also on offer (iirc) I’d have been equally impressed. Meanwhile, Jo was drinking Marble Stout (smooth, mocha-flavoured, hints of vanilla, quite delicious) and Pictish Dark (stronger coffee notes, also very tasty). Both fine beers as well, good stuff all round.

Brewery: Innis & Gunn
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
ABV: 7.4%
Version: Bottled
Source: Courtesy of Innis & Gunn

The Rum Cask finish is a limited edition bottling from Innis & Gunn that’s finished in oak barrels which previously contained navy rum. I&G explains the process on their website: “Maturation in special oak barrels imparts Navy rums with the sweet, spicy character for which they are renowned … We brewed a special batch of Innis & Gunn beer and matured it in oak for 60 days. Every single drop spent half of that time in American oak barrels before being refilled into selected navy rum barrels to finish the lengthy maturation. Once the beer had absorbed the unique character the barrels were emptied, the beer blended and then maturation continued for a further 47 days until all of the flavours had married together and mellowed.” Total maturation time: 107 days.

That aforementioned spicy-sweetness is distinctly noticeable: as well as being darker in colour, Rum Cask I&G is also much sweeter than their standard Oak Aged Ale and there was definitely a faint spiciness in there – the rum really stamping its character on the beer from the first impression onwards. Check out the spidergraph on the I&G website for more info on what you might expect.

I have to admit, I’m not a huge fan of rum in its own right – when it comes to spirits I much prefer whisky (or whiskey) or even bourbon at a push – and I think my impression of this brew was coloured by that. All in all, this one was drinkable and interesting enough, but I definitely preferred the Canadian Cask finish that I tried just before it. The Rum Cask is still a big, smooth, flavourful beer, but the given the choice of two, I’d go for the Canadian every time. Shame it’s only available on export.

Anyhow, another big thank you to Nicky at Innis & Gunn’s PR agency R&R Teamwork for sending this one along for me to try!