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?

Brewery: BrewDog
Location: Fraserburgh, Scotland
Style: “Vanilla Bean Infused Belgian Quad”
ABV: 10.2%
Version: 375ml bottle
Source: see below

Ed and I both scored ourselves a couple of bottles of BrewDog’s Abstrakt:01, the first[*] in their new range of Concept Beers. I ordered mine from the Abstrakt website on its day of release, Ed picked his up from the (rather excellent) Gap Wines in Belfast.

This is what Abstrakt:01 looked like when I poured it:

And here are our joint tasting notes:

Ed Said:

The bottle I sampled was number 1747 of 3200. I don’t know if that really means anything, or is any indicator of quality.

Not the easiest bottle to open, that cork was well pushed in. But once I got there I took a whiff from the open bottle and wondered where the aroma had gone, it was almost undetectable. A bit more comes through on pouring but it’s still very subtle, hints of vanilla and mango, with a touch of spice.

And the tasting was… actually quite disappointing. Very underwhelming, considering the price. Some subtle fruit flavours of mango and peach at the start, and a dollop of spiciness coming through shortly after, but I didn’t notice much sign of the vanilla. Despite the strength I thought the alcohol was well controlled, not impinging on the flavour too much, and the overall texture was very smooth. And it was far too easy to drink – I was hoping it would last me a while, but it was all gone in under 40 minutes. Maybe I’ve just come to expect more from BrewDog, but this is too tame, not exciting or challenging enough.

Or maybe it’s just too young and needs more time to mature and develop complexity. Which is what I plan to find out with the second bottle, number 1743; I’m following Darren’s suggestion and have stuffed it at the back of the cupboard for the next year.

As for me, I’m in pretty broad agreement. I picked up a hint of toasted coconut along with the vanilla on the aroma. I thought the mouth-feel was a particular highlight: honey-rich and smooth. And I noted down a stream-of-consciousness list of flavours that occurred to me as I sipped and ended up with: caramel, jam, honey, coconut, almond and overripe banana. It reminded me very strongly indeed of another beer, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember exactly which one… something Belgian, probably.

No surprise then that my overall impression was of a beer that’s rather too sweet at this (very young) stage of its development. To be fair to BrewDog, they do say (although only on the Abstrakt website, not on the bottle itself) that: “This beer is ideally suited to ageing and we recommend cellaring for 12-24 months.”

So that’s what I’ll be doing with bottles #2 and #3. I’ll have a word with Ed and see if we can coordinate another sampling and post up a fresh impression in twelve months’ time or so. I hope the sugars will have calmed down by then and more complex flavours developed. If its improvement-with-age is anything like BrewDog / Stone Bashah‘s then I reckon we’ll be in for a treat.

And I’ll be in for a bottle or three of Abstrakt:02 as well, with any luck. Triple Dry Hopped Imperial Red Ale, y’say? Sounds intriguing…

Around the Beerblogosphere

• Reluctant Scooper waxes lyrical

Look what ParcelForce dropped off this morning:

That’s one to drink young (in a couple of weeks’ time, most likely), one to mature for 12 months or so and a third to keep for as long as I can stop myself from opening it…

Brewery: Sharp’s
Origin: Rock, Cornwall, England
ABV: 6.8%
Version: 330ml bottle
Source: Sainsbury’s

The neck-label carries celeb-chef Rick Stein’s autograph and the story, according to the back label, is that Rick Stein challenged Sharp’s head brewer Stuart Howe to come up with “an English beer with the character, individuality and quality to stand alongside the Belgian greats”. Mr Howe came up with a strong beer that features “wild Cornish fennel” as the not-so secret ingredient and then named it after Mr Stein’s pet terrier.

And a very nice brew indeed it is, too. It’s a big, bold-tasting beer, with a rich, creamy texture. It’s not at all treacly or sweet – as a lot of the stronger beers I’ve tried have tended to be – and although it’s pretty potent stuff, it is remarkably drinkable. Worryingly drinkable, in fact, so it’s probably a good job they’re selling it in 330ml miser’s portions.

The fennel element might be a little off-putting for some, as the raw vegetable has a strong aniseed flavour which doesn’t always agree with everyone. But in beer form the aniseed seems to have been restricted to the aroma, whereas any lingering flavours are more vanilla-esque in essence.

I’d definitely like to try this one on draft, if it’s available, and as Sharp’s also brew the generally very highly-recommended Doombar, I think the idea of a short holiday in Cornwall has just taken on a whole new level of attractiveness.