Of time in the city

Monday saw a delayed trip to London come to light. After browsing various records shops and a mouth-watering venture into Selfridges wine, beer & spirits department we decided to hit the pubs.

First up was covent garden's Porterhouse where we supped their fine Plain Porter; filled with chocolaty-roast-coffee-malt delights. Next up we stumbled upon the Belgian beer cafe Lowlander, where we were lucky enough to experience the superb Flanders red ale, Duechesse De Bourgogne, on tap; accompanied by a fine meat and olive platter. Delicious!

After a swift tube ride towards the river we walked a short distance to borough market. The market was closed, however there were still two fantastic pubs to visit. The Market Porter provided us with sustenance in the forms of Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter & Meantime's Belgian style wheat beer.


The next pub was to be the daddy, no wait, GRANDADDY, of all. The Rake is the minimally styled beer bar with a jaw dropping array of bottle beers and a fine, but small selection on tap & cask. The beers we had included Dark Star's Imperial Stout on cask (they also had their American style pale ale.) After supping this Delicious and rich 10.5% beast we decided to sample some bottled beers. First up was Lefthand Brewery's Milk Stout, which was quite simply milk laden chocolaty madness. Brewdog's Hardcore IPA was next, weighing in at a hefty 9% and was hopped to the nines! Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale from Stone brewery was up next, and was quite possibly beer of the day - fruity & rich but with a high quaffability. Another lefthand brew was had (blackjack porter) keeping the standards high. The mega surprise came last when Sierra Nevada's fresh hop Harvest ale appeared on tap - and certainly was as fresh as a daisy; plenty of super juicy hops and a perfect balance!

Another trip to London will ensue shortly I'm sure!

The White Stuff! (Lots Of It!)

Now I am shocked at how long it is been since our last post, I am sat at home trapped inside by the freezing cold snow and ice, so I thought I would give the beer world an update. As you may have noticed its snowing in Britain, like really snowing hard (well for us), a few inches of snow has brought our country's transport infrastructure to its knees! last night, upon returning from a potentially hazardous trip to the cinema (with beer in toll), I cracked open a couple of darker beers to celebrate this bizarrely seasonal weather. Both beers are exclusive stocked by Tesco having won a pair of awards from the supermarkets food and drink awards, I don't want to sound like I am plugging Tesco its just their the only place to get these brews. first up was an imported Czech dark lager from the Bernard family brewery it was nice enough, good balance but considering the style I expected more from the darker malts and a bit more firm coffee bitterness from the hops, not terrible, but not Budvar dark. Then onto Midnight sun from the Scottish micro William's brothers, this was better a full bodied rich and warming porter ,with a subtle ginger spiciness and firm coffee like bitterness a really good winter warmer.

Now we realised a post hadn't been made for a while, and there has been some fine beer drunk recently, particularly in the form of a Xmas spend up at the beer shop A bottle of the sublime De Dolle Brouwers Stille Nacht among other delights, including De fonteinen oude gueuze form 2006, which was among the finest we have had form the style. We were planning on a trip to London yesterday but that didn't happen for obvious reasons. We are now going in two weeks, and excited to visit The rake, market porter and a return visit to one of my favourite pubs the seven Stars. heard it on the grape vine that the rake has just had Sierra Nevada's Celebration ale on tap and have lots of flying dog beer sin as well! I expect nothing but a brilliant pint form The Stars, hopefully one of Darkstar's seasonals. Can't wait!

Fuller's Brewer's Reserve

Tasting notes as promised!

This is a very limited release and we are extremly pleased to have got our hands on a bottle the beer is a blend of 1845, golden pride and fresh ESB, it has been aged in thirty year old whisky barrels for 500 days, so we are expecting somthing special!

The beer poors a deep amber colour with a redish hue with a thin off white head that dissipates quickly. The nose presents figgy fruits with a hint of sweet whisky followed by a complex musty sourness. The 500 days oak ageing is very apparent, notes of wood and vannila are also pronounced in the smell. On to the taste! The beer has a deep sweetness balanced by supberb hoppy bitterness. Predominant flavours are orange peel, bitter marmalade (presumably from the ESB) , whiskey, oak and vanilla with some dark fig and plum fruits notes. As it warms we get a more prounounced whisky flavour, this is truely a brew to to sipped and savoured espeicaly at the steep price tag (£5.50!)

At 7.7% the beer is actually quite drinkable, this being due to it being a fantastically balanced blend. It is very complex, with lots of complex subtleties in the mouth and nose, if you can find some definitely invest in one, this is truly something else, a fantastic beer! Puts the well known oak aged Scottish beer, Innis and Gunn, to shame!

WHAMMY!

We have just got back from our local beer mecca (Bitter Virtue) and have purchased a bottle of Fullers Brewers Reserve! The chap in the shop had recieved it just this morning, so we may well be one of the first to try this amazing beer. We also managed to pick up 3 bottles of Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, double whammy!

Tasting notes will follow shortly!

Mad Belgians...

Recently we have been dabbling in some fantastic bottled Belgian beer. One style that really stood out was the spontaneously fermented lambic beers. Right, first some history on these beers! Lambic beers have been brewed for as long as 400 years. To produce such a brew the malted, wheated and hopped beer is stored in unlined oak casks and stored from anywhere between 18 months to 6 years. During this time wild yeasts attack the beer, making it ferment.

The beers we have been able to buy are Gueuzes, these are a blend of old and new lambic in bottled form. These beers aren't for the faint hearted, they present musty and cheesy noses with huge sour and cidery tastes.

Another style of these beers include fruit in the fermentation process, the most popular, called Kriek, is made with cherries.

Here are some tasting notes of a few Gueuzes we have tasted recently. The first two were bought in our local beer shop, Bitter Virtue.

Girardin Gueuze 1882 Black Label (unfiltered):

We tasted this beer in a large red wine glass. A Burnished orange colour, almost marmalade, with a thick cream head and significant lacing. The nose was hugely complex with baked sour apples, varnished wood, lime cordial, sulphur, minerality like a fine white wine, strong cream cheese and vague hints of pepper and asparagus. The palate was full of deep sour apples, with a hint of oakyness and vinous fruits. All topped off with a deep dry uncompromisingly sour finish - akin to sucking a lemon!

Cantillon Gueuze 100% Lambic Bio:

A thick orange colour with a thin dusty head that dissipated quickly with minimal lacing. The nose presented an intense amount of must with rich orange rind and lime cordial aromas. The palate was intensely sour, the lemony spritz dances on the tongue and is followed by granny smith apples, hints of oak and vintage cider. A long lingering musty finished with a lemon/lime sourness.

Lindeman's Gueuze:

I manged to pick this up in france, haven't seen it in the UK yet, however we do get an awful lot of Lindeman's Kriek in the supermarkets.

A dark orange colour with light copper hints, a full thick dense head that clung to the glass. Sweet caramelised apples on the nose with tart lime cordial and musty smooth vanilla oak. The palate is full of the classic sour apples but followed by soft fleshed fruits. Other tastes of note were raisins and a figgy brown sugar sweetness. This gueuze tasted slightly artificial and was far too sweet!

Our tastebuds head west!

I am sat at home, with the day off, while Rory toils away in the wine rack, I thought I would deliver a little update. A trip to our nearest bottled beer meca has been made since we last posted (Bitter virtue in southampton; http://www.bittervirtue.co.uk/). The purchases were smalll (it was the end of the month!) but extremly worthy. We had a slightly odd selection including a Belgian attempt at a english style IPA, which was actually not bad at all, a distinctly hoppy nose with citrus fruits dominating, but a distinct lack of hop bitterness in the mouth coupled with the distinctly Belgian yeasty note lead to an odd but none the less very drinkable brew. The highlight for us though were the three American beers we picked up; Brooklyn brewery's lager, Anchor's special Christmas ale and Rogue's brutal bitter. Neither of us had tried any of them before; we have had a few American craft beers namely SN's pale ale, Anchor's steam beer and Goose Island's IPA, they made a good intro to what we could expect from the States. And we were not disapointed with our selection! The Brooklyn lager was sensational; a completly unexpected attractive amber colour, with a brilliantly balanced nose of malt and hops. A wonderful quenching beer that we both agreed could be drunk by the gallon all year round. I tried the Rogue ale's Brutal bitter on my own and was blown away by its brillinat nose of bitter orange peel and deep biscuity hops, you could smell this was going to bitter! And it kept its promise being one of the bitterest beers i have ever drunk! The brillant oranges and hints of tropical fruits flooded the mouth leaving a long intensly dry and bitter finish with a final taste of crackers. It was my
favourite of the beers we tried, I had read of the American "hop bombs" and this deliverd big time. The Anchor was tried together and we both really enjoyed its brilliant balance of warming spice and hop bitterness, with tastes of cinamon, cloves and nutmeg this was a winter warmer to savour. An order for some more Rogue brutal bitter, two bottles of Rogue's brown ale, a bottle of their heffe wiesszen and a Brooklyn black chocolate stout have been made on a fantastic beer site. (onlyfinebeer.co.uk) There due to arrive in a couple of days! We are truely are in flavour country!

Beer Update 1

Since we last posted a significant amount of Ringwood brewery's winter seasonal beer "XXXX Porter" has come our way, free of charge! It was delicious, fresh with lovely roasted coffee and dark fruit notes. A deliciously smooth quaffer of a beer! There are still a good ten to fifteen pints of the 36 left we reckon, however it is not as fresh as it was.

Numerous trips to the vine have been made since our last post, and some of the new guests we tried will wrote about soon. We have newly discovered another watering hole of note in nearby Parkstone; the Bemuda triangle. It is a fantastic little pub tucked away in a back street near the church, with a fantastic atmosphere and beer selection to match! The pub has a small bar with four hand pumps all producing ever changing guest ales (Adnam's east green, Hopback's red ember, Young's winter warmer and Beartown Brewery's bearly literate were on offer when we arrived.) Of the four we tried the Hopback, Young's and Beartown. The Hopback carrying with it the brewery's distinct charistic yeasty hoppy notes, but having a warming feel just right for this time of year. The Young's also had a distinctly warm feeling but lacked the complexity expected of a beer of this gravity( around 5%.) The overall winner of the night was the bearly literate a floral and fruity beer. The selection did not stop at the guests, the pub states it specialises in imported German beer, these included: Warsteiner, Erdinger and Bitburger, all on draught, as well as the czech classic Budvar Dark!

Im sure we will update the blog in the near future, mainly to inform you about the recent guest ales at the vine aswell as all the astounding bottled beers we have purchased from Southampton beer shop, Bitter Virtue.