Some Burning issues

I am writing this slightly tipsy after a pint of Stone Ruination IPA and a few bitters straight from the fridge (with a little time to warm up, lets not be too much of a philistine), and have decided in my drunken wisdom to not do a beer review, and instead write a blog about some blogosphere topics.

First up, BrewDog vs CAMRA/Cask vs Keg. Is this really going to sway the average drinker. No. Wouldn't it be better to educate that drinker about the pleasures of great beer and moving away from the large corporations then squabble about what is the best way to serve beer, or what beer goes well with Cask or Keg. even if we have to denigrate ourselves by serving Punk IPA in a cask form (Shock. Horror). we need to focus energy within the beer community on the real enemy, the massive corporations advertising they yellow soda water and buying up craft brewers. this brings me on to my second point.

What a load of marketing bollocks

Animee, a beer for the ladies. Now i know a few women (don't scoff, i do have relations with the other sex), but this is a fucking shit idea. End of. There is not even any point in discussing this, i can't imagine any women buying this. They will either stick to lager, craft beer or spirits (although i may try a little just to see what it is like).

Rant over.

Stone Cali-Belgique IPA and my new job.

Many of you reading this will either be perusing the internet or be a beer geek. If you are in the latter you’ll probably be interested in my latest review; Stone Brewing’s Cali-Belgique IPA.

Already the name spikes interest, what is a Cali-Belgique IPA. Simply put, it is a IPA brewed with Belgian yeast strains. This is supposed to add funkiness to the flavour of the beer. Whether this is true or not I will discuss later.

I actually now work at the Euston Tap so I am at the point of a great supply of bottled beers from around the world, some admittedly better than others, yet better than the average off-licence selection. Adding to this greatness is a small discount which I can use to buy some more expensive beers. We recently had a shipment of Stone products which included most of their regular line of beers in bottles plus some in keg (including the lovely Smoked Porter). I bought this and an Arrogant Bastard Oaked with my tips. I would save this for a little longer but after a 3-day shift, this was calling out from the fridge

But back on to the beers, literally and figuratively, and to the review of this IPA. First of all the beer comes in a strikingly good looking bottle. One advantage the American brewers seem to have of their British counterparts is the great marketing aspect of their beers. Although the new wave of craft breweries such as Otley and Kernel buck the trend of pump clips that have some truly awful designs, the American Brewers seem to have such great marketing originality in their packaging.

But on to the actual beer itself; the beer has a slight hazy look. Although many people are put off by this, I actually quite like it, it looks quaint and nice, a break from the clear as water mass-produced lagers. This is also a bit of a subjective view, although it is expected you are served a beer that has good clarity in a pub, at home it can be forgiven.

The smell is intoxicating, and is very similar to Sierra Nevada Torpedo, which is an outstanding beer, yet if you smell for a little while longer than other people (go on, have a gander), there is a very complex aroma that I could not get my head around, almost spicy, maybe piny; I cannot discern, yet it was good enough to dive into on the first whiff. But it is very tutti-frutti (if I am allowed to say that).

The taste is altogether a little step back, the first sip you take is full of those pleasing citrus pithy flavours that are indicative of an American IPA: orange, grapefruit and lemon are all there and it’s like seeing a bunch of regular friends. You then get an almost citrus bitter taste as you swallow the first mouthful. Then there is a lovely citrus-yet-spicy character lingering in your mouth. The malt comes through in the alcohol; and this is an alcoholic beer at 6.9%, yet I don’t actually want to taste malt in a beer like this. I enjoy them for the lovely fruity flavours they bring, but I equally dislike it when they are unbalanced e.g. with too many fruit flavours in place of malt. Yet this is balanced enough to provide a canvas for the fruit flavours.

But how does the Cali-Belgique IPA stand out. I’ll tell you how. The yeast strain gives it, in my opinion, a Imperial IPA taste, without the massive amount of alcohol (although this is suitably boozy). Yet it could stand out a little more in my opinion.

Overall I would give this an 8/10, not as good as Torpedo, but a damn sight better than a lot of IPA’s.

As ever put any comments in the comment box. Cheers

Homebrewing

If you have even the slightest interest in beer, many of you will know that home brewing, especially in the US, is becoming a big deal.Once seen as a bit of a maligned past-time as the preserve of old-men who were too tight too buy their mates a round at the local, it has instead become a massive past-time; many of the US brewers (most notably Sierra Nevada's Ken Grossman) starting out as home-brewers.

I have actually been in possession of a home brewing kit, albeit a basic Coopers kit, for a year but i have wanted to revisit it recently. So i have decided to put it to good use but add something extra.

I wanted to add an extra twist to the basic bitter recipe by adding a bit of summer zest to the beer. After the Malt has been dissolved in hot water, i will add some kaffir lime leaves and lemon peel to give the beer, hopefully a more refreshing taste for the coming summer months.

Will update on this when fermentation is complete and i can have a preview taste before being bottled, but hopefully it will accentuate the typical citrus flavours you get in a English bitter.

Oh, and this is in memoriam to one of the greatest saxophonists of all time who sadly died over the weekend:

The Euston Tap and Sierra Nevada Torpedo

Haven't blogged for a while due to exams and all; revision is a killer. But i am now free to drink as much great beer as possible until i go away to Kavos where there will a lack of good beer for sure.

The Euston Tap, albeit in colder climes

As most in the English beer scene know, the Euston Tap has become something of a mecca for beer lovers in London and the home counties due to its friendly and knowledgeable staff as well as its amazing beer selection.

They serve both cask ale and keg beer, which will no doubt annoy some CAMRA members. I treated myself to two cask beers in the form of BrewDog's The Edge and The Redemption Brewery's Trinity. Both absolutely amazing beers form two very young breweries.

The BrewDog was my first and was in the mild style of ales. This often has a reputation for a lack of flavour, boring socks and sandals problem. But here that was simply not the case. It is incredibly low strength at 2.7% a.b.v. and made up in flavour what it did in taste. For such a low alcohol beer it was incredibly malty, there was an almost sourdough like taste to the beer, this was followed by coffee taste with a fruity after-taste. An excellent beer.

The second beer i had was the Redemption Trinity. Redemption are one of the newest breweries in London and they have some real guts behind them as they ride the wave of new London breweries like Sambrooks and Kernal. Trinity derives its name from the three types, the trinity if you must, of hop. They are all American and it is a pale ale in the style of the American Pale Ale. The nose is dominated by tropical fruit, as is the palette and it makes for a bloody refreshing beer at only 3%.

Better than it's younger brother

The Euston Tap also stocks bottled beer, albeit rather expensive at  minimum price of around £3.00 (making it possibly the only downside of this great craft beer bar), but quality does come at a price. I purchased a Sierra Nevada Torpedo and a Goose Island IPA. The Goose Island will have to wait, but for now, the Sierra Nevada. Most people will be familiar with Sierra Nevada's classic pale ale and it is very good, a store cupboard favourite for me; yet this i a wholly different beast. It is incredibly strong at 7.2% but the alcohol never really comes through. On the nose is an almost tutti-fruitti smell. like a sweet shop. The palette has some nice maltiness, and this is complimented by a massive explosion of tropical fruit and grapefruit. It is a roller coaster ride of flavour and one of the best bottled beers i have had for a long time. The only problem is that it is too drinkable, not good at 7.2%, you could get shit-faced pretty easily on these (although you would look more dignified than half the paint-stripper-cider drinkers).

Review: Badger Golden Champion

I'm going to continue the Pale and Blonde Ales theme for a while on this blog, it just seems too warm to be focusing on milds and bitters at this stime of year. Whereas with my first review i looked at a distinctly eclectic beer, whereas here i'm looking at what would at least seem to be, a more traditional English summer ale.

Badger's Golden Champion is an interesting ale. It styles itself as a: "delicately strong and refreshingly light" ale, with the great tagline: "summer in a bottle". This bodes well, as i am currently sitting in a very humid north London and i need something to slake my thirst.

And from the off it is a great summer drink. It is fresh and light, yet it has a sweet and malty taste which doesn't dominate. A good thing too as the malt gives way to a fruity and crisp after taste. Badger added an extra ingredient in the form of elderflower. I love this as it goes back all the way to a time where there were no hops to flavour ale, all that was used was the ingredients around them such as honey, heather and, like here, elderflower. This gives it an extra something, a certain something or other, that brings out all the fruit flavours. Bitterness follows through to give a certain amount of balance.

But this ale is not perfect in its own right. I can be a tad too sweet, especially due to the elderflower which, if anybody has tried elderflower cordial before, is very sweet. There is also a hint of a little too much carbonation. This could be from the bottle, but it is a little annoying.

Overall i would give this an 8/10. It is a great ale for a time like this, a hot and humid summers evening, but it i just a little over-balanced in terms of sweetness for it to quench my thirst properly.

Cheers

Review: Thornbridge Kipling

Of the myriad of brewers that can be found within the UK, none has really had much of an effect on the use of new hops (i would like to state at this point that this is not a plug) as Derbyshire's Thornbridge. Originally set up by Steffano Cossi and Martin Dickie (who would go on to set up the now infamous BrewDog), the brewery has, in my opinion anyway, been radically transforming the brewing landscape with the bold flavours and use of new world hops.

So in the spirit of those new world hops, Thornbridge have brewed a rather interesting beer called Kipling. According to them it is the first beer to brewed in the UK using Nelson Sauvin hop. Nelson Sauvin imparts a tropical fruit flavour, and is favoured by many American, and an increasing number of British, brewers.

Kipling in its bottle

So how does it measure up. I'm already a big fan of Thornbridge's Jaipur IPA, and this is slightly similar. Kipling styles itself as a South Pacific Pale Ale, yet it seems to be in the same vein as Sierra Nevada's flagship Pale Ale. This is due to the dominance of the Nelson Sauvin hop which imparts that hit-you-round-the-face tropical fruit flavour the beer. I got this in waitrose after seeing they had Thornbridge in stock and was delighted to see it there. It came in a 500ml bottle and has an abv of 5.2%.

The initial aroma is complete tropical flavour. You've got mango, grapefruit, passion fruit and even a hint of Papaya, which is always nice as it gives off an almost mellow aroma. When you actually get down to tasting it, as you'll probably want to keep on smelling it for a while, There is a definite bitterness to the brew. Although you get the fruit flavours, the bitterness runs down you throat. It's a nice counterbalance to the large fruit flavours in the brew and adds balance (which can only be a good thing), you don't want to be constantly bombarded with fruit flavours, you're drinking a Pale Ale, not a fruit beer after all.

But as you go through the beer, it starts to give you grassy notes and the malt really comes through. Not in a big way, but it comes through just enough to give it that little bit of sweetness that it deserves.

By the end of the beer, i really wanted another one, but it would probably be good not to (it is 5.2% after all) as it's not exactly a session beer like Castle Rock Harvest Pale, but it is extremely quaffable nonetheless. Overall i would give it a 9/10, although it is un-doubtably a great beer it isn't one you would have for a session.


Hope you enjoyed the review, please post any constructive (please no spam) comments in the comments box below. Or even suggest what i should review next. Cheers.

Introduction

Hi and welcome to A Bottle or Two. As you may notice this is my first blog post so things are looking a bit sparse at the time of writing but bare with.

I started this blog primarily because i saw a lack of beer blogs that seem to be centered on the bottled beer market, although this is not to say i will only look at beer that comes in bottles, it will mainly be about bottled beer.

Bottled beer seems to be a real emerging market in terms of beer itself, be that real or cask ale (whatever you want to call it is fine, just don't drag me into that argument), Bottled beer is a great way to take home a bottle of your favourite tipple from the supermarket, or increasingly order in from a dedicated online retailer.

So who am i? I'm a student from London (yes i hear the howls and cries of "get a job"). But unlike many of my peers i prefer beer that is unusual or not from a massive corporation. That is not to say that beers such as Stella, Heineken and Carlsberg make me throw-up, they just aren't as good as say BrewDog's 5 A.M. Saint, or Fuller's Discovery, but they are bland and who wants to be a slave to a massive corporation anyway.

Though i will state now that one of my favourite beers is Guinness, whatever you say about how it isn't as good as it used to be; if served properly after a long days walking, in the middle of Ireland, on a mountainside, then you can't really beat it.

So here's to many future blog posts and the enjoyment of bottled beer. Hope you enjoy (please do, otherwise the others will laugh at me).