Categories
American beers

Memorable Beers #1: Goose Island IPA

We first tried Goose Island IPA in the Rake, probably around Christmas of 2006.

We never spend Christmas together but have always compensated with a sort of ‘office Christmas do’ a week or so before. When we lived in London, that usually meant taking a day off work, Christmas shopping for as long as we could bear it, and then chasing beer from midday onwards.

Borough Market is like the set of a Dickens adaptation at Christmas: roasting chestnuts, carols and mulled wine on the air. Expensive apples.

Were we just in a ‘peace on Earth and goodwill to all beers’ kind of mood, or was drinking that IPA really like tasting in Technicolor? We said wow a lot and marvelled at its slight haze. We may even have giggled with excitement. We declared it our favourite beer for some time thereafter.

These days, though we still enjoy it, we find GI IPA muted and too full of crystal malt — not Seville orange marmalade so much as seaside fudge.

If we write another fifty or so posts in the next twenty-five days, we’ll hit 1000 by the time we hit our fifth anniversary of blogging; as that date approaches, we are also feeling nostalgic. Hence this series. Yeah, we like round numbers — sue us.

Categories
American beers beer reviews

Overheard at the Rake

“Have you got a nice stout?”
“Well, there’s the Dark Star, but that’s 10.5%. How about Anchor Porter?”

“Have you got anything south American?”
“Er…. Quilmes?”

“We want some sour beers. Have you got anything by Cantillon?”
“Yes, but it’s about £8 a bottle.”
“That’s fine. One bottle, two glasses, please!”

“Why are you having a lager again, mate?”
“Coz I want something cold and refreshing, with bubbles, that doesn’t make me feel like my Dad.”
“Goose Island IPA is cold and refreshing, and your dad wouldn’t like that.”
“Stop trying to make me drink your old man beers.”

“How long would you keep a barley wine for, in the cask?”
“Well, we keep ours for up to six years, but you could definitely keep it longer, if it was filled properly.”
“Oh, I know our filling techniques, and they introduce way too much oxygen.”

“What do you have that’s a normal strength and comes in a normal pint glass?”

Whilst eavesdropping, we also worked our way through a few beers, including Sierra Nevada Unrivaled, a rye beer with a hint of smoke that actually tasted how we’ve always imagined rye beer ought to. It’s a late contender for beer of the year — very complex and utterly delicious, with citrus hops and fruity, nutty, spicy flavours, too.

Doggie Style delivered an American style IPA (heavy body, lots of hops) at only 4.7%. It’s yer actual session beer, that.

Goose island Christmas Ale (7%) was a final treat. It was £9.50 for a large bottle. It was like malty golden syrup with a touch of orange. Nice, but not as nice as something like 1845. We wonder if some complexity got lost on the Atlantic crossing?