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!