Archive for the ‘Beer styles’ Category

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Schlenkerla Helles

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

Last year, we met up with Ron Pattinson in Cask and spent a few hours discussing Franconia, East Germany and His Big Book. Ron spotted Schlenkerla Helles in the fridge and recommended it.

We’d not tried it before and loved it. There is no smoked malt in the beer but, being brewed in the same building and with the same equipment as their darker smoked beers, it can’t help but pick up a bit of smokiness.

We never got round to writing this up and, in the months since then, we haven’t seen it on sale in Cask. Our favourite London pub has recently, however, even further expanded it’s beer selection and the Helles has popped up again so were able to enjoy a couple of bottles this week.

In fact, if you’re a fan of Rauchbier, Cask now has several different varieties on offer, in addition to the usual suspects from Schlenkerla.

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Posted in Beer styles, Franconia, Germany | 11 Comments »

We can’t be trusted

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Here’s why you should never take our tasting notes seriously (we certainly don’t).

We were sitting in the garden having a drink in the sun. We started with our own Centennial-hopped pale ale and followed it with Brewdog’s 77 lager, described as a pilsener. We thought 77 tasted like a good Franconian pils — noticeable malt flavour with bitter bite at the end, but with quite restrained, herbal hops.

Reading Barry and Velky Al, however, we realise that this cannot be. Surely we should have spotted the Amarillo hops a mile off? But they were drinking this alongside German and Czech versions, and we were drinking it after having had our tastebuds bludgeoned with c-hops.

Tasting is absolutely relative.

We really enjoyed it at any rate, and will be getting a bit more in for the summer.

Question: have Brewdog stopped making Hoprocker?

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Posted in Beer styles, beer reviews | 5 Comments »

Imperial stout and Sherlock Holmes

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

A poster for Mann's starring Sherlock HolmesWe were feeling a little fragile on Friday night after heavy weeks at work and decided to spend the evening in with a game of Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective and a couple of suitably Victorian gothic beers.

Marble Decadence (8.7%) was pleasing in every way; large gulps were a mindblowing treat for the senses, but delicate sipping worked too, giving us chance to enjoy the  chocolate, vanilla, cherry and raisin flavours which emerged in the mouth one after another over the course of several minutes. A bit of a Heston Blumenthal beer, this one — there’s surely some alchemy at work in its brewing.

Brodie’s Romanov Empress Stout was a freebie and even heavier at a whopping 12.1%. It gave Boak an instant headache (lots of alcohol, lots of sugar) but Bailey enjoyed the almost chewy texture and complex, Harvey’s-like sourness and hints of coal-tar. Enthusiastic conditioning meant that the carpet enjoyed most of it, sadly, but then a full 500ml would have probably done for us.

We solved the case fairly easily. The lion tamer’s brother did it.

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Posted in Beer styles | 2 Comments »

One of each colour in cask ale week

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

The real benefit of Cask Ale Week as we see it is not particularly that it encourages punters to drink more cask ale but that it convinces those selling it to up their game a notch.

In a Fuller’s pub (the Mad Hatter Hotel, near Blackfriars and Waterloo) last week, we were spoilt for choice,  with our beloved London Porter (the Cask Ale Week special), a brilliant IPA (Bengal Lancer),  London Pride, ESB and Chiswick all on offer.

Now, Fuller’s, let’s have that variety all year round: interesting beers are for life, not just for Cask Ale Week.

Posted in Beer styles, real ale | 6 Comments »

A lot of stout about

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

Guinness have set out (pretty successfully) to turn St Patrick’s Day into International Guinness Day but their’s wasn’t the only stout about this week.

For example, Cask in Pimlico had the brilliant, Guinness-baiting Sussex Extra Stout, while Shepherd Neame rolled out their own tastefully branded (ahem) Double Stout.

Could it be that the market is managing to do for stout in March what CAMRA is trying so hard to achieve for mild in May? We’d love to see stouts and porters other than Guinness on sale in pubs during the rest of the year, but this is a start.

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Posted in Beer styles | 7 Comments »

Pretty wits all in a row

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

Our own Belgian style wheat beer

As with koelsch, if you drink one Belgian wheat beer in the middle of a session with other beers, you’d be hard pressed to tell one from another. But, drink them together for comparison, and you can really appreciate the subtle differences.

We took Bailey’s folks to the Dove a while back and, as his Mum is a fan of wheat beers, helped her work through a few from their impressive selection.

Steenbrugge wit was like a drier, more lemony version of Hoegaarden. Next to Steenbrugge, Blanche de Bruxelles seemed to taste of honey, a flavour we’d never noticed before. Florisgaarden was the most interesting of the three, with a pleasing aroma and taste of juniper, which we really liked.  Quite a surprise from the big boys. We’ll be nicking that idea for the next Belgian-style wit we brew at home.

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Posted in Beer styles, beer reviews | 5 Comments »

Sour Stout in a Victorian Pub

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

In search of Fullers London Porter, and following a tip from reader Ant, we found ourselves back at the Royal Oak in Borough, south of London Bridge. The Porter was great, as always, if a little flat. Harvey’s Old Ale (4.3%) had rich fruit cake flavours and reminded us of Adnams Broadside. It was also a little sour, which made us wonder if they really do add some aged beer to new to make it, or just a happy accident.

The highlight, though, was the Imperial Stout (9%). The cheery barman was delighted when we asked if they had any and bounced off to get a bottle. He apologised profusely for the fact that it no longer comes in a corked bottle and presented it with some pride in a big wine glass.  We’ve had before but fairly early on in our beer drinking adventures, when our tastebuds were less mature, and then found it too intensely flavoured to actually finish. This time, it was love at first sight. There is something very sexy about a dark beer with a brown, caramel-coloured head. The smell was pure Cantillon — sour, sweet, and (bear with us) bordering on manure. The flavours exploded with every sip: blackberry, chocolate, tobacco (never thought we’d enjoy that), leather… we could go on. Astounding, in short, and now in our top 10.

As we drank, it began to snow outside. A Victorian pub, snow and black beer: it couldn’t have been more Christmassy.

NB – Fuller’s London Porter is also on at the Mad Bishop and Bear in Paddington Station, in cracking form.

A merry Christmas to all our readers – we’ll be back in a couple of days.

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Posted in Beer styles, beer reviews, bottled beer | 8 Comments »

Half-and-half with the old man

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

pride

Fuller’s London Pride from a cask mixed with Fuller’s bottled London Porter makes a cracking half-and-half.

My Dad has developed a deep affection for Fuller’s beers and, when he’s in London, always finds an excuse to drop into one of their pubs. On his most recent trip, he’d only been off the train five minutes when he had us installed in the Mad Bishop and Bear at Paddington Station. (“Best wait for the rush hour crowds to pass.”)

Another of his favourite things is mixing his beers. At home in Bridgwater, it’s a necessity — every third pint of Butcombe Bitter down there is a bit stale and he relies on Mann’s Brown Ale to rescue them. On this occasion, he insisted on mixing Pride and London Porter, not because the Pride was bad, but because he really wanted a pint of mild and that, in his view, is the next best thing.

Usually, I find mixed beers are less than the sum of their parts, but this really was very drinkable, and offers yet another reason for more pubs to offer a good bottled stout or porter.

Bailey

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Posted in Beer styles, london, real ale | 12 Comments »

Mild ain’t what it used to be

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

A pint of Brodie's Mild at the William IV pub in Leyton

My Dad drank a lot of mild as a young man, in all kinds of pubs and social clubs, and misses it a lot. So, I looked forward to taking him to the Nags Head in Walthamstow for a pint of Mighty Oak Oscar Wilde, which is on of my favourite beers.

It wouldn’t be an exagerration to say he turned his nose up: “It’s alright,” he said, “but it’s not really mild — not like you used to get.”

Brodie’s mild, on the other hand, he absolutely loved. It’s nice enough, but fairly unexciting  — softer and browner — compared to Oscar Wilde, but is apparently more like the real thing.

Bailey

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Posted in Beer styles | 18 Comments »

We have a winner: best British Koelsch Klone

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

A few months ago, we spotted that Young’s bottled Kew Brew (now “Kew Gold”) is a dead ringer for a decent draught Koelsch. We tested that theory again this week and are now prepared to say, outright, that it’s the best substitute for draught Koelsch you can get in the UK.

Filtered, pasteurised bottles of Frueh just don’t compare. It’s even better than Meantime’s slightly bland effort.

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Posted in Beer styles, Germany, bottled beer | 12 Comments »

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