tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29519713987602410042024-02-22T08:56:43.373+00:00The Porter PagesA regularly updated beer review blog!Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.comBlogger155125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-8583439878356310302013-03-04T12:38:00.000+00:002013-03-04T12:50:53.188+00:00Review #128: William Mucklow's Dark Mild (Bewdley Brewery)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTiMVuoqMwmXd0vFZ3JmSzIoJIxn2-BPJGFjFCkfEsdU8Q4RJbyO1qsuhIyNah6hRZt6ramgoy3pCxEYMBNwpAeP4TBRWn50z4VWy7Z-p6kOo0rA-xXGGXfeUCMWx0LtZT5YkrMTt8Hzc/s1600/bewdley+dark+mild.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTiMVuoqMwmXd0vFZ3JmSzIoJIxn2-BPJGFjFCkfEsdU8Q4RJbyO1qsuhIyNah6hRZt6ramgoy3pCxEYMBNwpAeP4TBRWn50z4VWy7Z-p6kOo0rA-xXGGXfeUCMWx0LtZT5YkrMTt8Hzc/s320/bewdley+dark+mild.JPG" width="191" /></a></div>
<b style="color: #3a134e; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Style: </b><span style="color: #3a134e; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Strong dark mild.</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Appearance:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Distinctive dark ruby/garnet colour and off-white head. </span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Nose: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Subtle c</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">ream and berry aroma. </span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Taste: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Light red grape, redcurrant and blackcurrant fruit notes make themselves felt at first. Backing these up is a s</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 21.107954025268555px;">trong vanilla and soft caramel sweetness from the malt. There's also a 'stale' flavour to the malt, a little like stale bread, a characteristic I often come across in milds.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Hops are detectable but stay out of the way, giving a little bitterness to a herby finish. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 21.107954025268555px;">Little alcohol to detect despite being 6%.</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Mouthfeel:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Full and rounded. </span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Carbonation: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">M</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">id to low.</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">ABV:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> 6%</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">What's in it?:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Maris Otter, Crystal and Chocolate malts. Fuggles and Goldings hops.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 21.107954025268555px;">This is the first beer I've tried from Worcestershire's Bewdley Brewery. When they started up in 2008 they were the first brewery in Bewdley for 96 years. This dark mild is named after the last head brewer, William Mucklow, who created the original strong Dark Mild on which this beer is loosely based. Milds in general, let alone strong versions such as this, are few and far between these days. Although saying that, many a British microbrewery has one in its repertoire, albeit often as a seasonal special. Sarah Hughes Brewery does about the most famous strong mild in the UK, its</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 21.107954025268555px;"> Dark Ruby Mild, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 21.107954025268555px;">being at the same strength as William Mucklow. Today its brewed at the Beacon Hotel in Wolverhampton. Also, Dark Star Brewing Co. (Sussex) do Victorian Mild, reportedly another good example of a strong mild, available in May.</span>Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-71950727090763189192013-03-01T07:37:00.000+00:002013-03-01T07:37:26.678+00:00Cider Review #6: Prior's Tipple (Isaac & Jo Nixon)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2UFEh1IkdRZw_mQ6zmwk3K3XQtFfpwIG9qQmiOU6DPYhXFOpq2u83Ia5EKv86kqbU1N0nBjsvuHAKoMcnNSChoRll-4yisKi4n59SXmdvWOIExNbZwqZXwGeAMAZonXvqWArszaAiXXo/s1600/priors+tipple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2UFEh1IkdRZw_mQ6zmwk3K3XQtFfpwIG9qQmiOU6DPYhXFOpq2u83Ia5EKv86kqbU1N0nBjsvuHAKoMcnNSChoRll-4yisKi4n59SXmdvWOIExNbZwqZXwGeAMAZonXvqWArszaAiXXo/s320/priors+tipple.jpg" width="92" /></a></div>
<b style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Style: </b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Medium dry</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"><b>Appearance:</b> Deep copper/gold.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"><b>Nose: </b>Moderately sharp ripe apple aroma.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"><b>Taste: </b>The first thing that strikes me is the balance and complexity. Neither acid, tannin nor sweetness stand out, although the latter is the least assertive. I think plenty of bittersharps must have gone into the mix, and perhaps the sour tang of a cooking variety or two. It has a satisfyingly earthy, farmyard funkiness to it too, like a good vintage cider often has, and not unlike the <i>Brettanomyces</i> flavours of a Belgian lambic beer. A good, fiery tannin grip takes hold at the finish, in addition to a grassy, sour fruit twist. </span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIM7ptnH8c1GRrAUPP26ujwpR7aNukE1plJ8VF2oFK3oVQUMfanVMF1-WVMC0zznWp2XUA7uKdwmQBPZJtvIG_W6mJnz1dZ7bjGdmkYeRT-h9SFWFEInpwRWPOATobWc_sMmsOHO-cfRQ/s1600/priors+tipple+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIM7ptnH8c1GRrAUPP26ujwpR7aNukE1plJ8VF2oFK3oVQUMfanVMF1-WVMC0zznWp2XUA7uKdwmQBPZJtvIG_W6mJnz1dZ7bjGdmkYeRT-h9SFWFEInpwRWPOATobWc_sMmsOHO-cfRQ/s1600/priors+tipple+2.jpg" /></span></a><b>Mouth-feel: </b>Solid mid-full body.<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"><b>Carbonation: </b>Few bubbles to look at in the glass but feels persistent on the tongue.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"><b>ABV:</b> 6.5%</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">What's in it?:</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Cider, dessert and culinary apples from ancient Worcestershire orchards. Varieties and yields vary from year to year. </span><br />
<br />
This is one of the most flavoursome and pleasant cider's I've yet tasted. Its a commercial cider produced on a small, local scale. Its availability is limited to the Cotswolds area, as well as the odd shop in Bristol and Reading. No sulphites for preservation or lab-grown yeasts to kickstart fermentation are added. A reliance on wild yeast is therefore necessary; I'm not sure the same can be said for many of the bigger producers. Isaac and Jo allow the cider to age and develop for up to two years, ample time for malolactic fermentation to convert a percentage of the total malic acid into softer lactic acid, yielding a smoother, more rounded cider.Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-8109952108174433142013-02-28T07:47:00.002+00:002013-02-28T07:51:09.575+00:00REVIEW #127: Black Cab Stout (Fuller's)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIrYZhqDJj1QMq01zgW-JqdHFTI7tX71vSpiKU9co9dpcpnukbhIEXdhPiCxRj4YwQa0sVWzVKzoCDr2W5IBYTSJgOkWnyldXXXUhXTt7AhSBwRuGaAE19aaYbFYy3dPhPPIg9T19FwIk/s1600/fullers+black+cab.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIrYZhqDJj1QMq01zgW-JqdHFTI7tX71vSpiKU9co9dpcpnukbhIEXdhPiCxRj4YwQa0sVWzVKzoCDr2W5IBYTSJgOkWnyldXXXUhXTt7AhSBwRuGaAE19aaYbFYy3dPhPPIg9T19FwIk/s320/fullers+black+cab.JPG" width="103" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #3a134e;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 21.107954025268555px;">Fuller's new(ish) seasonal, dry Irish-style stout, Black Cab. Finally found a bottle in the supermarket!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #3a134e;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 21.107954025268555px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Style: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Dry</span><b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Stout </span></span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Appearance:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Dark brown with a ruby glint.</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Nose: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Lovely rich chocolate digestive aroma, reminds me of Young's double chocolate stout. </span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Taste: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Some light plum, cherry and toffee notes up front, all relatively sweet (residual sugar) and creamy. Then the roast barley starts to comes alive, brushing away hints of</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.107954025268555px;"> coffee and custard cream,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> leading up to a bitterly dry finish.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> The length of the finish is impressive, easily exceeding that of it's closest competitor, Guinness. </span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Mouthfeel:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Medium body. Smooth and slippery to drink</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Carbonation: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">low to mid.</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">ABV:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> 4.5%</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">What's in it?:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Five types of malt. Hops. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">I would be happy if this replaced Guinness in all pubs and bars the world over*. Saying that I have had even tastier dry stouts than this from a few microbreweries, but there's not doubt Black Cab is a very good example of this style of beer. It seems a perfect session beer; loads of flavour and not too strong.</span><br />
<span style="color: #3a134e; font-family: GFS Didot;"><span style="line-height: 21.107954025268555px;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">*I'd also like Guinness Special Export (<a href="http://porter-pages.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/review-78-guinness-special-export.html">#78</a>) to replace Guinness in all pubs and bars too, but I can't see that happening either :p </span>Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-8409745426482729552013-02-27T07:37:00.002+00:002013-03-01T13:40:18.024+00:00Cider Review #6: Browns (Dunkertons)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqFLTwNGCKLJIj5iDVAb8_PChXaiXIiKaqtFD1edPby7Bn7oF8RPFs4I0pHqLMEyBbtOJPe6xuNj3D8VlCzKTiGcpbLy7h6sUVTfQIFx5W-uVnv3ol7zGcLzwkP7YLjVDh7VAq1Xafdkc/s1600/dunkertons+browns.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqFLTwNGCKLJIj5iDVAb8_PChXaiXIiKaqtFD1edPby7Bn7oF8RPFs4I0pHqLMEyBbtOJPe6xuNj3D8VlCzKTiGcpbLy7h6sUVTfQIFx5W-uVnv3ol7zGcLzwkP7YLjVDh7VAq1Xafdkc/s320/dunkertons+browns.jpg" width="100" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">The second single varietal cider I've reviewed by Dunkertons of Herefordshire...</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;" />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Style: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Medium-dry</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> / Western Counties / SV.</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Appearance:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Pale lemon / straw.</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Nose: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Rich, ripe apple aroma, floral perfumed.</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Taste:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Uniquely juicy, somewhat tropical, with a citric tartness, lightly done, and mid-to-low tannins that mainly appear in the finish. To me it gives a little more sweetness (a boiled-sweets sort of sweetness - but not artificial) than dryness, but saying that its particularly well balanced and very moreish!</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Mouthfeel: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Firm. </span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Carbonation: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Mid range.</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">ABV:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> 7.5%</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">What's in it?:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Browns' apples and sulphites. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #3a134e; font-family: GFS Didot;"><span style="line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Browns' cider apple is classed as a sharp, possessing a very high malic acid content and a low (approaching dessert apple) tannin level. For this cider, Dunkertons seem to have transformed the sharpness into a pleasurably tart tang and combined it with a lemon sherbert fruitiness. Despite being an SV, the cider feels so well balanced and integrated its as if it was made from a range of cider apples chosen with great consideration. This is a testament to both the Browns apple and Dunkertons' class as a cider maker. I've tried three of their ciders so far and all have been impressive. Oh and I love their labels too!</span></span></span>Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-63747935265990652022013-02-26T08:07:00.000+00:002013-02-26T11:16:40.731+00:00REVIEW#126: Narwhal (Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxwU5S4R7YA-kjNdDm2VYD4bJN8R6gJBaD2rSOw0ymeQQrhWHT3DMW6QjhMnC-uwqrVYRIOawMXesSgPNNQiIje6V81rqiGs_rTOsUsGcDpO0U03VPyJpmRWPoqZ7NihJBln62q-GvPOg/s1600/sierra+nevada+narwhal+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxwU5S4R7YA-kjNdDm2VYD4bJN8R6gJBaD2rSOw0ymeQQrhWHT3DMW6QjhMnC-uwqrVYRIOawMXesSgPNNQiIje6V81rqiGs_rTOsUsGcDpO0U03VPyJpmRWPoqZ7NihJBln62q-GvPOg/s320/sierra+nevada+narwhal+1.jpg" width="107" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Well, a new imperial stout from Sierra Nevada, the granddaddy of the US craft brewing scene. I'm more than a little excited/expectant...</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;" />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Style: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Imperial Stout</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Appearance:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Pours a deep brown but appears black as pitch in the glass. The head is golden brown.</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Nose: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot';"><span style="line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Pungent! It has a bit of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale pine aroma (although no new world hops in this), sweet and resinous, but there's also charred wood and treacle, and a </span><span style="line-height: 21.107954025268555px;">phenol</span><span style="line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> undertone. </span></span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Taste:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> This is one decadent beer... there's leather and tar, liquid honeycomb and herbal cough syrup notes. These flavours travel into the finish where things become much drier. Acrid charred wood also found in the nose, comes across very plainly in the finish. Cocoa powder is also apt, both in terms of flavour and bitterness; roast coffee too. There's a hefty 60 bitterness units (IBU) to this beer, but even so, and quite rightly for the style, it acts purely as a backdrop to the vicious malt attack, helping to highlight the malt character rather than compete with it. There's little in the way of alcohol, save for some warmth... Its probably hidden by a sea of gloopy malt!</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Mouthfeel:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Thick and chewy.</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Carbonation: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Minimal.</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">ABV:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> 10.2%</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">What's in it?:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Magnum and challenger hops (60 IBU)... 2-row pale, chocolate, honey and carafa malts, plus roasted barley (not malted). </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.107954025268555px;">The name for this beer comes from a whale with a giant tusk, found only in the Arctic around Canada and Greenland. It's heavily hunted and sensitive to climate warming unfortunately so not sure how long the species has left! </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Narwhal the beer is part of Sierra Nevada's 'High Altitude' series, currently made up of three BIG beers: Narwhal, Hoptimum (an imperial IPA) and Bigfoot (a barley wine). </span>Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-19866055532020463822013-02-25T07:50:00.002+00:002013-03-01T13:39:57.180+00:00Cider Review #5: Falstaff (Sheppy's)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaydmRucp-6fDD0yIkdWI7vrPH107Z_WdJZlQHJ0wFmBprcXCHxCeA45HYuIv0dwGp8jHUMgGSZWa1j3wbh-_u7TI7ac3awu8VCqjLHL5Ydll40egKJwPKoMmCQ9SiVtNxWmz53l41jeY/s1600/sheppys+falstaff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaydmRucp-6fDD0yIkdWI7vrPH107Z_WdJZlQHJ0wFmBprcXCHxCeA45HYuIv0dwGp8jHUMgGSZWa1j3wbh-_u7TI7ac3awu8VCqjLHL5Ydll40egKJwPKoMmCQ9SiVtNxWmz53l41jeY/s320/sheppys+falstaff.jpg" width="102" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">I've got a couple of single varietal ciders lined up from Sheppy's of Herefordshire, in addition to Dabinett which I reviewed previously. Let's see what Falstaff has to offer... </span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;" />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Style: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Medium-sweet / Western Counties / SV. </span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Appearance:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Straw coloured, very pale. </span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Nose: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Fresh and sweet smelling; a little marzipan, quite unique. </span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Taste: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Full of flavour; fresh and somewhat savoury (reminiscent of spongecake) fruitiness with a sharp/sour twist in the finish and little in the way of tannin. Very drinkable and not watery or thin in the slightest, despite the low-end ABV.</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Mouthfeel:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Medium.</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Carbonation: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Moderate to low.</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">ABV:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> 4%</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">What's in it?:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Falstaff apples & sulphites.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Falstaff was borne in Kent in the 1960s as a cross between Golden Delicious (a dessert apple) and James Grieve (a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">cooking apple). The variety has also produced a naturally selected 'brother' known as Red Falstaff and has itself been crossed with Cox's Orange Pippin to produce Meridian, released in 2000. But enough of geneology, here we have a west county producer making a cider without </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">a cider apple in sight; just goes to show there are always exceptions! I think the taste is spot on; a mix of acidic cooking apple combined with a sweet dessert flavour. </span>Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-84534323228069407122013-02-24T11:39:00.000+00:002013-02-24T11:39:04.773+00:00REVIEW #125: Coffee Stout (Nils Oscar)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb_iaxIQgSyEGOw_8v2_6rgsHZJRjmD-YjQq70ghkeCbOlbfRhCFDNuOn2qt3kDakEJ9cbGxD3_9giuT6EprS10L3_Lr-H1viD1aQnXgcTEhjbxUmAsKW7xCxxzomAlPhoYW4Wv1i2W7g/s1600/nils+oscar+coffee+stout.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb_iaxIQgSyEGOw_8v2_6rgsHZJRjmD-YjQq70ghkeCbOlbfRhCFDNuOn2qt3kDakEJ9cbGxD3_9giuT6EprS10L3_Lr-H1viD1aQnXgcTEhjbxUmAsKW7xCxxzomAlPhoYW4Wv1i2W7g/s320/nils+oscar+coffee+stout.jpg" width="92" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Sweden's Nils Oscar beers are not easy to come by over here in the UK, save for Rökporter and God Lager, so I was pretty excited to find this in Leicester's finest, The Offie. Now is the time to stop waffling and start drinking...</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: 21.111112594604492px;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Style: </b><span style="line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Stout.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Appearance:</b><span style="line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Dark brown body and pale brown head. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Nose: </b><span style="line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Subtle musty malt with a bitter, spent coffee scent.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Taste: </b><span style="line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">There's a depth to this ale. What starts off full of oaky vanilla and milk chocolate, silky smooth and creamy, develops body and evolves into something sweeter and sharper, showcasing wholemeal cereal flavours, both spicy and nutty, with hints of tobacco. The finish has signs of a well brewed filter coffee, along with an appreciable dark or espresso roast bitterness. All this is done judiciously, carefully, nothing brash or tacky. One to savour and think about. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Mouthfeel:</b><span style="line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Medium bodied and a little oily/slippery. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Carbonation: </b><span style="line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Moderate, nothing obtrusive.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">ABV:</b><span style="line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> 6.4%</span></span><br />
<b style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">What's in it?:</b><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> A mysterious (to me, anyway) blend of malt and hop. Along with </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 15px;">Brazilian 'Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza' espresso-roast coffee.</span><br />
<br />
Whenever I'm out and about in Birmingham I like to visit the Urban Coffee Company, a coffee house which is fairly unique in doing filter coffees 'the right way', i.e. freshly ground beans placed onto filter paper sitting in a porcelain filter cup, which then has boiling water poured over it sporadically for a few minutes. Simple and effective! They offer four coffees, one of which is Brazilian. This beer reminds me of that coffee a lot, being both chocolatey and fruity. So it was no surprise to find Brazilian coffee added to this beer. Although to be fair I'm sure an Indonesian, e.g. Javan or Sumatran, would work equally well. Wish I'd bought a few of these coffee stouts... After drinking this stout, I'm tempted to add an espresso to the next Guinness I drink and see what the result is :pPorter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-80863736945602536732013-02-23T09:09:00.001+00:002013-03-01T13:39:33.346+00:00Cider Review #4: Dabinett (Sheppy's)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwqL40Ufqtqt4v8sHUAVbvvWCWQ-oZ7m78id-MGwOaDIJG77FGyR2eFJ3wf11FCTyl_98XmwhqKsLY6jKpCTQuC_OADCVgTGnis99h9emhT2rqh6wmQAnjNscvRu1Oxo6VUGQjDp6Hkq0/s1600/sheppys+dabinett.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwqL40Ufqtqt4v8sHUAVbvvWCWQ-oZ7m78id-MGwOaDIJG77FGyR2eFJ3wf11FCTyl_98XmwhqKsLY6jKpCTQuC_OADCVgTGnis99h9emhT2rqh6wmQAnjNscvRu1Oxo6VUGQjDp6Hkq0/s320/sheppys+dabinett.jpg" width="105" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">This single varietal is from Sheppy's, a Somerset independent but a big one whose ciders are widely available... </span><br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Style: </b>Medium / Western Counties / SV</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Appearance</b>: Pale gold</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Nose</b>: Strong, aromatic and quite sweet</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Taste</b>: Starts with some good tannin (gets in early!), a little sharpness, and a fairly low level of sweetness. Surprisingly, the latter characteristic grows in intensity throughout, reaching its peak in the finish. Thankfully at this point a slug of tannin fights against the sweetness, but only semi-successfully, leaving a remnant of refined sugar as an aftertaste.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Mouthfeel</b>: Mid to full.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Carbonation: </b>Medium.<br />
<b>ABV: </b>7.2%<br />
<b>What's in it?: </b>Dabinett cider apples and sulphites. I would guess sugar has been added to the final cider also, but I could well be wrong.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
The Dabinett variety is a mild bittersweet, vintage-quality cider apple and bittersweet is an apt way to describe the taste of this cider, therefore this can be thought of as a good single varietal cider. But thinking about it, I can't help feel this is a little too sweet for its own good. I suppose describing it as a medium is accurate, but the sweetness seems to become overwhelming - though not to the extent of cloying... bitterSWEET is the best way to sum up this SV.</div>
Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-51647941002682196942013-02-22T07:43:00.000+00:002013-02-22T11:41:16.426+00:00REVIEW #124: Ritterbock (Schlossbrauerei Kaltenberg)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnVOHMRF2nXK8PBZiNiHvXjmjcSY5ivJ1sC-x74tWJ4Pl44mlcyGDLHWexyV2z8YB9TRF7WzzhZuVu_QuJAgN3a0KzXIOma-_51ki-IpWO0vjy6HYL_v_G2aChn1ONzpLuKRcDclv249M/s1600/kaltenberg+ritterbock+doppelbock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnVOHMRF2nXK8PBZiNiHvXjmjcSY5ivJ1sC-x74tWJ4Pl44mlcyGDLHWexyV2z8YB9TRF7WzzhZuVu_QuJAgN3a0KzXIOma-_51ki-IpWO0vjy6HYL_v_G2aChn1ONzpLuKRcDclv249M/s320/kaltenberg+ritterbock+doppelbock.jpg" width="81" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">I love it when I find a new doppelbock to try, thus was thoroughly happy to happen upon this (and a few other rareties) in a local off-licence, Arden Wines, of Bulkington. The bloke who runs it must know a thing or two about ale because he always has a few surprises in and seems to particularly like his German 'biers', stocking an especially good range each Christmas. </span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;" />
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Style: </b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Doppelbock (a lager)</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Appearance:</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Sits somewhere between amber and ruby.</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Nose: </b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Caramel / apple & blackberry / fresh grass / herbal. </span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Taste: </b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Malt rules the roost here, as it should in a bock / doppelbock.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Its all b</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">urnt sugar and caramel, with shortbread biscuit too. There's a decent grassy (noble?) hop character on display, not always found with the style. It has a very long, herbal finish with hints of liquorice and aniseed. The alcohol seems to get drowned out by the dense and malty goings on, making the beer reasonably refreshing and quaffable (it is a lager afterall), but this is dangerous at 9%!</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Mouthfeel:</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Full bodied.</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Carbonation: </b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Medium...</span><b style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> </b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Lively enough to prevent it becoming heavy going and syrupy </span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">ABV:</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> 9%</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">What's in it?:</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"> Hop extract, light and dark barley malts and yeast, that's it. Being German it has to conform to the reinheitsgebot; stringent laws governing beer purity. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkLjYVccTueLNwSYl518U8wWmyZ7XhczHQNaJt4KxfCg47-1nwfuOSFMARVjvgXdimg1clsbxmaI7QNBzzpxPbyo_jLhhyFG3Y9G-ePiP4b-iK7dVKKc8y2Tx9jPvZZBBpMZ4I_eDUvEo/s1600/KALTENBERG+2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkLjYVccTueLNwSYl518U8wWmyZ7XhczHQNaJt4KxfCg47-1nwfuOSFMARVjvgXdimg1clsbxmaI7QNBzzpxPbyo_jLhhyFG3Y9G-ePiP4b-iK7dVKKc8y2Tx9jPvZZBBpMZ4I_eDUvEo/s1600/KALTENBERG+2.gif" /></span></a>This doppelbock is brewed by the Kaltenberg / Konig Ludwig castle brewery (actually breweries) of Bavaria, each year to celebrate an annually held medieval jousting tournament (I kid you not) in July. It was founded in 1979 by Prinz Luitpold himself. He's a direct descendent of the mad King Ludwig II, who built the fairytale Neuschwanstein Castle. If you get the chance to go see it I recommend it as it really is picture-postcard stuff. I was in Munich last year in August, but there was no sign of this beer anywhere, and believe me, I looked! So I was pretty astonished to find this a couple of miles from home! If you want to find out more about the Kaltenberg Brewery and German / Bavarian beer in general, I must point you to the late Michael Jackson's superb Beer Hunter TV series, as he devotes a whole episode to the subject. Find it on YouTube.Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-48688445245617745942013-02-21T08:02:00.001+00:002013-03-01T13:39:10.282+00:00Cider Review #3: Kingston Black (Gwatkin)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbBVwPf7XXkcU7fHcDAO-sQyZzb7Qy2Vr2U5lljMkX17_GMJ71T0Y0mXzu4ie-wggFurN_rPDGzrkCgTEwVFyDb64VGRF4ewblRdTTFvGpYGxYn5QUH3sb1ch4x4mP2P5ZUiOOfB2Kh_E/s1600/gwatkins+kingston+Black.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbBVwPf7XXkcU7fHcDAO-sQyZzb7Qy2Vr2U5lljMkX17_GMJ71T0Y0mXzu4ie-wggFurN_rPDGzrkCgTEwVFyDb64VGRF4ewblRdTTFvGpYGxYn5QUH3sb1ch4x4mP2P5ZUiOOfB2Kh_E/s320/gwatkins+kingston+Black.jpg" width="102" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">My first cider from Gwatkin, a smallish, independent family producer with a farm & orchard in Herefordshire.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;" />
<b>Style: </b>Dry / Western Counties / SV.<br />
<b>Appearance:</b> Burnished gold colour.<br />
<b>Nose: </b>Pungent, ripe apples.<br />
<b>Taste:</b> Dry is the word for this cider! It lacks the juicy sweetness that so often comes with dry ciders, even though they are supposed to be dry! So on that basis it must be applauded. The dryness almost makes it feel a little thin or lightweight, but tannin is prevalent from the start as is a mild acidity which helps to balance the cider to a degree but not exactly pad it out. There's also a distinctive, very dry finish which ends all of a sudden and the only trace of having tasted this cider is a little grip in the aftertaste.<br />
<b>Mouthfeel:</b> Mid to light for reasons mentioned.<br />
<b>Carbonation: </b>Vigorous but not OTT.<br />
<b>ABV:</b> 7%<br />
<b>What's in it?:</b> Kingston Black apples and sulphites.<br />
<b><br /></b>
Kingston Black is a mild, bittersharp variety of cider apple regarded as having 'vintage quality', a rather nebulous term linked, from what I gather, to how well the cider will age (usually in oak). In addition to this 'definition' I think a vintage quality cider apple is one regarded as being able to carry an SV cider, i.e. a variety that has every aspect (tannin + acidity + sweetness) necessary to produce a good SV. This is analogous to the situation with wine where you have certain varieties of grape, e.g. Nebbiolo (of Barolo and Barbaresco) and Sangiovese (of Chianti), that produce wines well suited to (and that often improve with) ageing and that are more than capable of producing quality SVs precluding the need to blend.<br />
<br />
As for this particular cider, well I wouldn't say its particularly well-rounded but then again its a single varietal so should be judged more on how well it represents the variety if you ask me, and less on how drinkable you may find it. After all, there are people who love their sharp, bitter ciders and there are those who like sweet, juicy ones. This will appeal to the former demographic but more importantly will give everyone an accurate taste of what Kingston Black is all about. Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-35735342613799267262013-02-20T07:03:00.000+00:002013-02-20T07:12:42.778+00:00REVIEW #123: Dr. Rudi (Arbor Ales)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioT9FIv17d_iwxHw78eWKuDV7PuZGpk4lEHNi8VJSQVpkyjiZtZwy8Wyxh1-Wfx5605XpxTIj0wqiZgYfOsT4HRex7zT1jrdGyva4xKKzguw5T5HbFczlEyEdnfP_RUupCKa6B8z8fg4A/s1600/arbor+ales+dr+rudi+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioT9FIv17d_iwxHw78eWKuDV7PuZGpk4lEHNi8VJSQVpkyjiZtZwy8Wyxh1-Wfx5605XpxTIj0wqiZgYfOsT4HRex7zT1jrdGyva4xKKzguw5T5HbFczlEyEdnfP_RUupCKa6B8z8fg4A/s200/arbor+ales+dr+rudi+2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<b style="color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Style: </b><span style="color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">SV hopped proper (i.e. strong!) IPA.</span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Appearance: </b>A hazy (oops, my fault!) honey orange colour with sturdy white head.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Nose:</b> Sticking with the honey theme, that's definitely coming across in the nose too, floral and delicate... Nothing in-your-face but definitely hop accented. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Taste:</b> Hops stick right out in the foreground with a malty base fleshing out the body. Dry, resinous and a little vinous (mostly due to a hefty body and low carb) throughout. Dr Rudi gives flavours of mint and eucalyptus, pine, liquorice, even jasmine; more floral than fruity/citrusy. There's a lovely bittersweet balance to it. The finish is not without alcohol, but its mainly the dry resin that dominates, leaving a slight mouth numbing sensation.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Mouthfeel:</b> Medium-full.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Carbonation: </b>The fizz is persistent but gentle.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZngPQHVZqCaquzOGYp0aX1Hr466Vdcj94FMZGnEyrnCp6y6dNBxqaYAOlury7AULLXIAq0pBumNnaDK2Rx1BNPLeO__NVa-n87mURg6-wRjZFX73CrQaL_kMzGHDGVOqD7fnY1bo7A8g/s1600/arbor+ales+dr+rudi+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZngPQHVZqCaquzOGYp0aX1Hr466Vdcj94FMZGnEyrnCp6y6dNBxqaYAOlury7AULLXIAq0pBumNnaDK2Rx1BNPLeO__NVa-n87mURg6-wRjZFX73CrQaL_kMzGHDGVOqD7fnY1bo7A8g/s200/arbor+ales+dr+rudi+1.jpg" width="146" /></a></div>
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
Having not tried any Arbor Ales' ales prior to last week I now find myself reviewing another one, with another to review later in the week. Its like the buses! Dr. Rudi is part of a series of single hopped strong IPAs, a spin-off of Arbor's single hop pale ale series. Dr. Rudi the hop is from New Zealand and like many antipodean varieties is BIG in alpha acid (bitterness) and aroma. It seems to work extremely well as a single variety, giving all the aroma an IPA could possibly need. Arbor's suggestion on the bottle that certain hops (inc. Dr Rudi) suit higher gravity beers is interesting. I guess New World powerhouse cultivars would overwhelm beers lacking the strength and malt backbone to balance them.</div>
Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-49743545378717143532013-02-19T07:41:00.001+00:002013-03-01T13:31:03.908+00:00Cider Review #2: Dry Cider (Henney's)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAkKn6dqoVDMZ9Q7zYVP2QBB4-Sxrh3w7qGQ2RO8UKSPXSToFLuBU1SMMS6NIeTkEeI9mU_QXXgJXrz5QSYs5LsHtNIO95xyZ7N-1oacY6RS2UgKawb5YIO5Kg0gVh80iKMbyQyHsShR4/s1600/henneys+dry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAkKn6dqoVDMZ9Q7zYVP2QBB4-Sxrh3w7qGQ2RO8UKSPXSToFLuBU1SMMS6NIeTkEeI9mU_QXXgJXrz5QSYs5LsHtNIO95xyZ7N-1oacY6RS2UgKawb5YIO5Kg0gVh80iKMbyQyHsShR4/s320/henneys+dry.jpg" width="97" /></a></div>
This next cider is a dry one from Henney's, a big Herefordshire producer with its products in most supermarkets, but one with a reputation for quality as well as quantity.<br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;" />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Style: </b>Dry / Western Counties.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Appearance</b>: Deep gold and clear as a bell.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Nose</b>: Medium-sweet apple aroma, very floral.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Taste</b>: Despite its name, this cider doesn't strike me as particularly dry, mainly because a rich apple blossom aroma lends delicate sweetness. This is in turn counterbalanced by a dry acidic note fairly effectively. The finish showcases some nice grippy tannin. I'd describe this as thoroughly bittersweet with a dry finish. All in all then it's a fairly gentle cider but very well structured and appealing.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Mouthfeel</b>: Firm</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Carbonation: </b>Much like the rest of the drink, the carbonation is definitely felt but its done with a light touch.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
Henney's say this dry cider is the best selling of their range, which also features a medium (called England's Pride - review upcoming), a sweet (with added apple juice concentrate - at least they're honest about it!) and a still vintage. In line with the West Counties tradition, Henney's only use cider apples; specifically Dabinett, Ashton Bitter, Tremletts Bitter, Yarlington Mill (I've an SV of this cultivar by Gwatkins waiting to be drunk) and Michelin. All of Henney's ciders qualify for Herefordshire protected geographical indication (PGI) status although for some reason they, and most other cider producers, choose not to put this designation on the bottle. I guess they don't want people mistaking it for wine :p</div>
Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-34114306706369690882013-02-18T19:56:00.000+00:002013-03-01T13:30:44.376+00:00Cider Review #1: Breakwells Seedling (Dunkertons)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZObN0mLEQYxmzzTpoxbRihuxyl0Z607URSpTokhJ6YboLxPDAXMnYd9BlxFv326ZA4kXwg1iCLAFATa3nGBqZp41C7NPfJFr9Bl8Sq79HpqQ2mc-0P0wvOyNF2tMwkZF5uF3AR49FhHE/s1600/dunkertons+breakwells.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZObN0mLEQYxmzzTpoxbRihuxyl0Z607URSpTokhJ6YboLxPDAXMnYd9BlxFv326ZA4kXwg1iCLAFATa3nGBqZp41C7NPfJFr9Bl8Sq79HpqQ2mc-0P0wvOyNF2tMwkZF5uF3AR49FhHE/s320/dunkertons+breakwells.jpg" width="96" /></a></div>
My first cider review! And its a single varietal to boot, from the medium-sized but well respected cider mill, Dunkertons of Herefordshire.<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Style: </b>Medium-dry / Western Counties / single varietal.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Appearance</b>: An appealing golden colour with a little haze.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Nose</b>: Good strong, sweet and earthy fresh apple aroma</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Taste</b>: A semi-sharp acidity is present throughout in addition to a lovely full, fresh apple taste and a faint sweetness. Dry tannin dominates the finish, stretching it out indefinitely. In fact its certainly more intense than both Dunkertons Premium Organic cider and Co-ops Tillington Hills cider (which showcase no small amount of tannin themselves). The sensation this amount of tannin gives is not too far off (but not exactly equalling, either!) sucking on a sloe berry or more pertinently a crab apple, making tongue and gums stick to one another. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Mouthfeel</b>: Quite full and a little oily.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Carbonation:</b> A characteristic that tends to be on the low side in cider (in the dozen or so I've tried so far that is) compared to (too) many ales - a good thing in my opinion! In Breakwells the fizz is persistent but not over the top, helping the cider achieve a welcome freshness and drinkability, arguably needed at 7.5% ABV.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
Breakwells Seedling is an early maturing apple cultivar first discovered in Monmouthshire about a century ago. It's a bittersharp cider apple meaning it has high levels of both tannin and malic acid, respectively. Both of these characteristics come across in a big way in the taste and that's what makes this such a good cider. The sweetness to begin with however is enough to prevent the drink becoming lopsided. Dunkertons themselves are a fully organic, family-run Herefordshire cider maker that started up in 1980. They also produce two other single varietals, from Browns and Court Royal apples. </div>
Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-38307504470922467922013-02-17T14:57:00.003+00:002013-02-19T12:59:54.418+00:00REVIEW #122: Mad Hatter (Outlaw Brewing Co.)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijcms5obfue6Uxx2Nv48bUXztipdnSTD98OfpWH276bqpo64rvqFYzl7X2hyphenhyphentkkVMiQhEyxPzROlWldP1X4HhZltKKWwXAE3YsjJDuF1CKpo7sNJYb_-utTonj3CQXryMBHYpC4IL3hFE/s1600/outlaw+mad+hatter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijcms5obfue6Uxx2Nv48bUXztipdnSTD98OfpWH276bqpo64rvqFYzl7X2hyphenhyphentkkVMiQhEyxPzROlWldP1X4HhZltKKWwXAE3YsjJDuF1CKpo7sNJYb_-utTonj3CQXryMBHYpC4IL3hFE/s320/outlaw+mad+hatter.jpg" width="87" /></a><br />
<div style="background-color: white;">
<b style="color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Style: </b><span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;"><span style="color: #3a134e; font-family: GFS Didot;">Jasmine Green Tea IPA</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Appearance</b>: Golden orange with crisp white head</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Nose</b>: Pine forest hops and honey</div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<b style="color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">Taste</b><span style="color: #3a134e; font-family: GFS Didot;"><span style="line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">: The honey and orange and lemon citrus hops immediately grab the attention. These are backed up with a weighty, chewy malt base that flows into a mouth-tingling, juicy but crisply bitter finish and a dry, tannic aftertaste. The jasmine is understated throughout but becomes plainer towards the end, lending its uniquely floral, dry flavour I would describe as a kind of flowery, musty vanilla or sponge cake. Green tea itself is difficult to discern but this may be expected as it possesses a fairly subtle aroma even in the tea cup, far more delicate than its fully fermented counterpart, black tea. </span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Mouthfeel</b>: medium to full</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<b>Carbonation:</b> mid to low... This is a strong point of the beer. Heavier fizz may have interfered with the body and flavour</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; line-height: 21.111112594604492px;">
I'm a big jasmine green tea drinker so when I saw this beer on the shelf I couldn't pass it up; its a unique creation and besides, its a limited edition! Outlaw Brewing are the more daring and experimental arm of Roosters Brewery, dating back to 1996. They teamed up with Melissa Cole (the beer writer) and Taylors of Harrogate (the Yorkshire tea merchant) to arrive at Mad Hatter. It contains four hops and simpsons pale malt as its base with Taylors jasmine green tea plus jasmine flowers added. The hops are Brewers Gold, Cascade, Crystal and Galaxy. It weighs in at 6.2% ABV.</div>
Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-53673958750185395912013-02-17T00:40:00.003+00:002013-02-20T17:35:35.300+00:00REVIEW #121: Phoenix Stout (Arbor Ales)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbxfqdbr3SxqMeoVSWizGgdDmP6Hs-i9H33TGLD7X03TRcNqbvvEujvrSPu715DjbfZf8evj05cfEtHhLUAGP9RSCxzTrobyiR3fv-urMn-_nth8nrjEz3It4fu3vV3RhjbWdZrMJCL_E/s1600/arbor+ales+phoenix.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbxfqdbr3SxqMeoVSWizGgdDmP6Hs-i9H33TGLD7X03TRcNqbvvEujvrSPu715DjbfZf8evj05cfEtHhLUAGP9RSCxzTrobyiR3fv-urMn-_nth8nrjEz3It4fu3vV3RhjbWdZrMJCL_E/s200/arbor+ales+phoenix.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>Appearance</b>: Ruddy mahogany with a solid tawny head. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>Nose</b>: Sweet milk chocolate and a touch of sour malt. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>Taste</b>: Starts with a combination of savoury maltiness and custard creme biscuit sweetness with some dried fruit flavours developing. Sharp and peppery hop notes back this up, preceding a woody finish with cocoa bitterness and some lingering heat, surely not from the alcohol at 4.3%, but more likely from the smoked malt, which is held at a distance throughout.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>Mouthfeel</b>: Weighty</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>Carbonation:</b> On the high side</div>
<br />
This is the first beer I've tried from Bristol's Arbor Ales, but having heard their name bandied about among craft beery people for a while now I was expecting a competent ale... and that's what I got. Nothing extraordinary or ground breaking but a solid, sessionable stout with decent depth of flavour.<br />
<br />
Phoenix Stout is #25 of their Freestyle Fridays range, which is where the brewery tries something a bit different at the end of a busy week doing the serious stuff. It was brewed with several different malts including smoked malt and also dates, a fairly novel ingredient in a beer. The picture above is of the pump clip for the cask conditioned ale, but the bottle label is virtually the same.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-22606156865288174912013-02-16T21:15:00.003+00:002013-02-21T22:57:07.831+00:00Getting into Cider... and other musingsI've been on a bit of a cider kick lately. For too long I've ignored this great traditional British commodity and I feel now is as good a time as any to learn about it and gain a deeper appreciation of the nuances and flavours inherent to cider. Now it can be argued that ciders showcase a more limited spectrum of flavours than beer, but then again I think the same can be said about wine and just about every other alcoholic beverage out there, particularly fruit-based ones. The combination of barley, hop, yeast as well as adjunct in beer gives so much scope and possibility to the final product, fruit-based booze (wine, cider, perry...) just can't compete. But I hasten to add that a lack of versatility doesn't mean ciders or wines are any less real, important, interesting or delicious to drink!<br />
<br />
However, if I may go off on one for a moment, having swatted up on wine in a fair bit of detail lately I increasingly find the wine industry on the whole a bit bananas, for want of a better phrase. Much of it seems based on subjectivity and there seems to be so much money floating around in there that big producers are able to employ geologists to postulate theories bordering on pseudo-science, about "terroir" affecting final product flavours (much of which isn't backed up by findings of sound research at academic institutions). It seems to me much more reasonable to assume its down to grape variety and even more importantly, the equipment, method and technique involved in its production that makes a detectable difference to the flavour profile of the final wine. Other gripes I have with the grape include not being able to drink it in big enough quantities (for my liking at least) due to the high alcohol level. The astronomical prices producers end up charging once they've gained a 'reputation'. And at the end of the day there just seems to be an aloofness to wine in comparison to other alcoholic drinks. On top of that wine labels are often annoyingly useless unless you have prior knowledge of all the rules and regs that apply to whatever AOC/IGT/DOC/DOCG (to name but a few...) it has been created under. I've mainly stuck to Italian wines thus far (they often say what grape cultivars have been included for one thing - unlike France!) and out of these I find the most exciting were the single varietals from lesser planted grape cultivars such as Nerello Mascalese, Nero d'Avola, Nero di Troia,... these wines seem to have individual characters and don't cost the earth, or even £10.<br />
<br />
Rant over and I'm glad to report the world of cider seems to suffer from none of the pretence indigenous to the wine industry. Its not without its corporate giants however (Bulmers, anyone). In the main though it seems much more down to earth and much easier to navigate! You have your different apple varieties: cider apples (over 365 cultivars!), cooking (culinary) apples and dessert (eating) apples. Cider apples tend to have the highest sugar levels - food for yeast to make ethanol and CO2 from. Cider apples are further broken down into sweet, sharp, bittersweet and bittersharp categories; each based primarily on tannin and acidity levels. Two schools of cider are generally recognised in England: Western, referring to the south west counties of Herefordshire, Somerset, Dorset, etc, which tend to stick solely with cider apples. Eastern on the other hand, i.e. the counties in and around East Anglia, like to throw dessert and culinary apples into the mix. There are also many exciting and some off-the-wall single varietal ciders to be had out there too.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.habitataid.co.uk/acatalog/apple_kingston_black_ext.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.habitataid.co.uk/acatalog/apple_kingston_black_ext.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Kingston Black cider apples</span></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Below are a few of the ciders I've tried which are widely available (we're talking supermarket bought ciders) and which I think have quite differing characteristics...<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Aspall Organic Cider:</b> A medium dry cider which starts sweet enough but then shows a remarkably abrupt, dry finish. Being made in Suffolk, chances are Aspall throws dessert apples in the mix with this one.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>Co-op's Tillington Hills cider:</b> A dry cider, but not without sweetness not to mention bags of fruitiness. The great thing about this cider is the tannin, which is palpable and really coats the tongue & cleans the teeth! Another one very similar to this (but not found in supermarkets as far as I know) is Dunkertons Premium Organic. It may even pip the Co-op one in the tannin stakes, being almost abrasive, but seriously tasty.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>Weston's Old Rosie:</b> An overtly acidic cider which is also distinct in being cloudy. Don't be misled by the word scrumpy on the label. Scrumpy, a west country word, tends to refer to any cider which is produced in a craft or artisanal manner on a small scale, it can be still or sparkling and is generally unfiltered/unpasteurised. However this offering from Weston's (a big producer by anyone's book!) would conform to none of the above were it not cloudy.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I won't specify one in particular but I've found that <b>vintage (oak aged) ciders</b> seem to offer an increased depth of flavour with some yeasty funk and/or acidic maybe even slight acetic notes from greater levels of oxidation. These properties vary from cider to cider though. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Finally for now, <b>Sheppy's</b> are probably the largest producer to offers a substantial range of single varietal ciders. I know that their Dabinett is available in supermarkets and others may also be found. <i><u>Deli's, markets and independent off-licences are also excellent places to look for some of these and other less widely available ciders.</u></i></li>
</ul>
Hopefully that gives a good starting point for anyone getting into cider. I've got plenty more to learn being just at the stage of moving away from the ciders of the large producers to those smaller scale ones which craft their products with greater care and individuality. One of the best cider review blogs I've found, (co)incidentally, is called <a href="http://ciderpages.blogspot.co.uk/">Cider Pages</a> (no relation to this blog, I promise!).Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-43280047716876524202013-01-27T18:19:00.000+00:002013-02-19T13:03:58.155+00:00REVIEW #120: LittlePod Vanilla Beer (Hunter's Brewery)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaDT7Lq7H54D-sDGWdM-WDLY615OAYhZyC3ARzPeJ72-3zIDVgXZw0EaWxTabEV25k3l77cdui0ts_Hojm2rIDCKRiQ0fPwh9JQG0tNPR0Y1qR6rbZ9oAE1GRUQlE_bt_k52zYMRQ4ois/s1600/hunters+little+pod+vanilla+beer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaDT7Lq7H54D-sDGWdM-WDLY615OAYhZyC3ARzPeJ72-3zIDVgXZw0EaWxTabEV25k3l77cdui0ts_Hojm2rIDCKRiQ0fPwh9JQG0tNPR0Y1qR6rbZ9oAE1GRUQlE_bt_k52zYMRQ4ois/s320/hunters+little+pod+vanilla+beer.jpg" width="92" /></a></div>
Pours dark ruby made hazy by yeast. Forms an off white head. Sweet honey, blackberry, mango and, not surprisingly, vanilla aromas on the nose. The taste initially offers passion fruit and fresh grassy hop, very juicy and fruity. These flavours combine with a mineral yeastiness reminiscent of slate (I find many of Kernel Brewery's dark beers have a similar characteristic) in addition to creamy milk notes aided by the inclusion of vanilla as an adjunct. Delicate coconut and leafy hop prickle in a mid-length finish. Minimal carbonation and a medium body add to the ale's vinous quality. Refreshing and a bit different but not something I would go out of my way to try again.<br />
<br />
Vanilla Beer won a gold star at the 2012 Great Taste Awards. LittlePod are a company based in Devon selling a range of vanilla pod-related products including cake, fudge, chocolate, coffee and best of all, beer. They commissioned Hunter's microbrewery, also Devon based, to brew Vanilla Beer initially to commemorate the Queen's diamond jubilee, but now it's a permanent fixture.<br />
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 2.5em;">
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>MALTS: ?</b></span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small;"><b>HOPS:</b> ?</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>IBU:</b> ?</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>ABV: </b>6%</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>Also contains:</b> honey; littlepod vanilla</span></span></li>
</ul>
Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-32872940033071315542013-01-25T12:41:00.003+00:002013-02-20T17:05:02.098+00:00REVIEW #119: Manchester Star Ale (J. W. Lees)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBquP51l3AJ2EAnkWoWvB5EKHhOXxUk1alCztA3r1LcHgQW2ixPr3d07wJ2Y2UNVxsYVsDIVK6ed1K3MPSZtG6uLr6bqFKrOY1LV_yIYtnWYiqPAhMMHf-6IckllA5PMxgL8B1kcO9urw/s1600/jwlees+machester+star+ale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBquP51l3AJ2EAnkWoWvB5EKHhOXxUk1alCztA3r1LcHgQW2ixPr3d07wJ2Y2UNVxsYVsDIVK6ed1K3MPSZtG6uLr6bqFKrOY1LV_yIYtnWYiqPAhMMHf-6IckllA5PMxgL8B1kcO9urw/s320/jwlees+machester+star+ale.jpg" width="93" /></a></div>
Comes out dark reddish-brown with an ephemeral, sandy coloured head. Smells musty and malty, a lot like a mild, there's also wet grass in there. Up front comes Créme caramel and suggestions of rum and blackcurrant, with light cracked pepper, warm savoury spice and a burnt sugar bitterness blended into a grainy finish. Heavy bodied - thick and foamy - and softly carbonated. Alcohol is very well hidden. Not overly complex but rich and satisfying nonetheless... One of the main draws of ale for me is the fact that it's been an integral part of English history for such a long time. Drinking a porter such as this, which is brewed to a recipe dating 1884, is like stepping back in time; its a unique sensation. I mean when supping this sort of beer its hard not to imagine being in a thatch-roofed tavern, handing a burly barkeep a few bob in return for a jug of his best murky ale slapped onto the solid oakwood counter in front of you. Or is that just me?!<br />
<br />
And returning to reality... Manchester Star was runner-up at the Sainsbury's Big British Beer Hunt 2012 and I should imagine it ran Bateman's Mocha beer <i>very</i> close. J. W. Lees have been an independent brewery based in Manchester since 1828. Other notable beers of theirs include their annually released and wonderfully strong (11.5%!) Harvest Ale, intended for bottle-ageing. Also Moonraker, a 6.5% old ale. The latter is highly recommended and easily to get hold of, being stocked by Morrisons (I need to do a review). For what its worth, Moonraker is reminiscent of Highgate's equally good Old Ember, however Highgate Brewery is now owned by Davenports I believe and I'm not sure if that particular beer has survived the transition.<br />
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 2.5em;">
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>MALTS: </b>CHOCOLATE (AND POSSIBLY PALE & ROASTED MALTS?)</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small;"><b>HOPS:</b> GOLDINGS; STYRIAN; HALLERTAU</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>IBU:</b> ?</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>ABV: </b>7%</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;">AVAILABLE FROM: SAINSBURY'S</span></span></li>
</ul>
Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-56028425389789717912013-01-24T12:26:00.001+00:002013-02-20T17:03:45.491+00:00REVIEW #118: Mocha Beer (Batemans)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVzFHJaFBJQ0xLZOkntcSygTmP2Ua7uZ-Vac3X75nzafHcPU60C-wo6tZ3mSOW18lmtNkNUMENCmPeuPHVs4Sjf480_u0vo6SNZotX0nEqDRYakntyjESAMIcTN5OMhnTpxI1JheMO2jE/s1600/batemans+mocha+beer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVzFHJaFBJQ0xLZOkntcSygTmP2Ua7uZ-Vac3X75nzafHcPU60C-wo6tZ3mSOW18lmtNkNUMENCmPeuPHVs4Sjf480_u0vo6SNZotX0nEqDRYakntyjESAMIcTN5OMhnTpxI1JheMO2jE/s320/batemans+mocha+beer.jpg" width="98" /></a></div>
Pours deep ruby with a dark beige head that's swift to disappear. Strong scent of caramel, vanilla and raisin on the nose. Initial creamy coffee and milk chocolate notes, underlined by a mild vegetal hoppiness, drift into a fairly complex christmas cake finish with faint hints of tawny port (particularly dried fig and raisin), créme de cassis and solvent; bitter, warming and yeasty. I'm impressed with the depth of flavour and robust body the beer, the fizz is about right too. An interesting porter worth checking out.<br />
<div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This beer hit the big time by winning gold at the Sainsbury's Big British Beer Hunt 2012 (JW Lees' Manchester Star Ale was runner up and will be reviewed next). Wainfleet brewing co. George Bateman and Son have been a family run business for four generations. They ran into some trouble back in the eighties (which Michael Jackson delved into in some detail on his superb Beer Hunter TV series back in 1990) and were close to selling the company but thankfully managed to keep hold of ownership as well as keep it afloat. And today they are still going strong. </div>
<div>
<ul style="background-color: white; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 2.5em;">
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>MALTS: </b>PALE; CRYSTAL</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small;"><b>HOPS:</b> GOLDINGS</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>IBU:</b> ?</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>ABV: </b>6%</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;">CONTAINS ARABICA COFFEE GROUNDS AND BEANS AS WELL AS BELGIAN CHOCOLATE</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;">AVAILABLE FROM: sainsbury's</span></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-10467587885852273902013-01-23T07:21:00.001+00:002013-01-23T14:30:08.629+00:00REVIEW #117: Owd Rodger (Marstons)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMV92k0B60zCLVT94VqlPU5Q6bcmnZK5uWsmCc4QZFqz6bNd2dY5SEB2hLpuWCvyz4x_wZll4BT_pq_U5-2H3TT5JrSH3OUZ2S2nF_U3CpoqMY293N76QJ5ACcz6BNn5NZevmuuiJuVE8/s1600/marstons+owd+rodger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMV92k0B60zCLVT94VqlPU5Q6bcmnZK5uWsmCc4QZFqz6bNd2dY5SEB2hLpuWCvyz4x_wZll4BT_pq_U5-2H3TT5JrSH3OUZ2S2nF_U3CpoqMY293N76QJ5ACcz6BNn5NZevmuuiJuVE8/s320/marstons+owd+rodger.jpg" width="88" /></a></div>
Pours red mahogany with faint tan head. Gentle almost musty aroma of dark skinned fruits, particularly grape, cherry and damson. The taste is complex, its all about stale, damp if you like, cereals - bran, rye, barley - clashing with concentrated candied fruit. The finish features dense, sweet n' savoury malt offset by an assertive acidity and dry, gently warming alcohol. Full bodied with little in the way of carbonation (thankfully).<br />
<br />
Daintily referred to as a 'country ale' on the label, Owd Rodger can be more usefully described as an 'English Strong Ale', although I think the term 'old ale' is equally apt, if not quite a barleywine (ABV too low?). From experience but for reasons beyond me, I find that the vast majority of the most profoundly flavoured ales are those which are high in alcohol. This ale agrees with that theory perfectly. It is so rich and well structured its as if it has been aged in oak and matured like a fine wine. In fact if only it were bottle conditioned I think it would benefit even further from cellaring for several years. Marstons may be a big, microbrewery-eating company these days with its eponymous core range comprising dozens of beers ranging from terrible (Pale Ale, anyone ;) to workmanlike (Old Empire, Double Drop, Firestoker...) but Owd Rodger has long been the jewel in their crown, albeit one that doesn't seem to gleam very brightly; to my mind this beer has never received the recognition it deserves. Poor Owd Rodger!<br />
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 2.5em;">
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>MALTS: </b>maris otter</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small;"><b>HOPS:</b> FUGGLES; GOLDINGS</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>IBU:</b> ?</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>ABV: </b>7.6%</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;">AVAILABLE FROM:- ONLINE & many off-licenses</span></span></li>
</ul>
Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-76187073894517662032013-01-22T12:49:00.002+00:002013-02-20T17:23:04.481+00:00REVIEW #116: Rökporter (Nils Oscar Company)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOBctn6THJXA_jPEtCNWj136A_AEEDNxZqvuXhm8l7cVvGCOBX6_wK46lou60AWa5NQqiTfSgFfAAqZsi1X7JoX7EGP9bQ-LHRXm6lnf1R6JsefB8Rnqab45hRUtul596rx_8l15sH5_E/s1600/nils+oscar+rokporter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOBctn6THJXA_jPEtCNWj136A_AEEDNxZqvuXhm8l7cVvGCOBX6_wK46lou60AWa5NQqiTfSgFfAAqZsi1X7JoX7EGP9bQ-LHRXm6lnf1R6JsefB8Rnqab45hRUtul596rx_8l15sH5_E/s320/nils+oscar+rokporter.jpg" width="96" /></a></div>
Pours a rich tea brown from the bottle with a milky coffee head. Pungent smoked sausage & chocolate digestive nose. Smoke, tar and charred wood dominates the palate, underneath which lies rich and sweet rye bread and treacle notes. A strong and tangy, smoke-smacking bitterness occupies the long finish. Surprisingly light bodied and bubbly with a slippery mouthfeel, but don't that put you off because it is so savoury and full in flavour its body matters little.<br />
<br />
This Swedish brewing company, which originally had a long Swedish name difficult to write, was founded in the capital in 1996 by Charles-David Sundburg, the grandson of eponymous Nils Oscar. Shortly after founding they merged with a local distillery and gained a new long and difficult to write Swedish name. They then moved to a site out of town and after that - thankfully for this English writer - they settle on 'The Nils Oscar Company' and started exporting their beers & spirits to the UK, US and Denmark. 80% of the malt in Rökporter has been smoked over beechwood, a very high proportion, accounting for the intensity of the smokiness found in the final beer. Rökporter was awarded a gold medal in the 2012 Stockholm Beer & Whisky Festival. The brewery churn out a wide range of beers but not many make their way over to the UK unfortunately...Its imperial and coffee stouts are two I really would like to try. However I know that their Göd Lager is stocked by Waitrose.<br />
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 2.5em;">
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>MALTS: </b>BEECHWOOD SMOKED; CARAMEL; ROAST BARLEY</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small;"><b>HOPS:</b> FUGGLES; AMARILLO</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>IBU:</b> ?</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;">SG = 1.057 (14 PLATO)</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>ABV: </b>5.9%</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;">available FROM:- oNLINE & IN GOOD BEER STOCKISTS</span></span></li>
</ul>
Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-36982602216327128962013-01-21T15:34:00.001+00:002013-01-21T15:40:28.036+00:00REVIEW #115: Ename Cuvee 974 (Brouwerij Roman)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqD_TgS-_KFuB-_ZOSpcAo-DML-xrBmAY6SGAEv58ZV7e9qzV5vKHpPWbjBs5aAdjZDar4UyxEEhKfEFai9W5S-NCAf7FfBSJAdjy3nb2TnPSKTMiG_KjiAgRyPa85xLRv-ZuQKHTl2Z8/s1600/ename+civee.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqD_TgS-_KFuB-_ZOSpcAo-DML-xrBmAY6SGAEv58ZV7e9qzV5vKHpPWbjBs5aAdjZDar4UyxEEhKfEFai9W5S-NCAf7FfBSJAdjy3nb2TnPSKTMiG_KjiAgRyPa85xLRv-ZuQKHTl2Z8/s320/ename+civee.bmp" width="129" /></a></div>
Pours out an attractive rose tinted amber. A fluffy cream head develops as is the norm with many Belgian beers. Highly floral aroma of carnation and coriander. Again floral notes come across on the palate, especially pear and elderflower. A sweet, punchy corn syrup and candy cane sugar melts into a dryly herbal, slightly tart finish. The mouthfeel is mid-range and the whole beer seems refreshing and drinkable; not quite the heavy winter beer I was expecting. A solid abbey ale.<br />
<br />
The name 'Ename' refers to the location of the brewery, a municipality of Oudenaarde, East Flanders. 974 (AD) is a reference to the year in which the borough came into being, and it was approximately half a millennium later, in 1545, when Brewery Roman also saw the light of day. But not until 1990 did the brewery shack up with a nearby abbey (the done thing in Belgian brewing) in order to launch its Ename range of 'abdijbiers'. Others in the range include a blonde, dubbel and tripel (the strongest at 8.5%). Cuvee 974 is the youngest, born in 2002, is intended as a winter beer and as such suits the snow-covered scene visible from my window as I write this.<br />
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 2.5em;">
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>MALTS: ?</b></span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small;"><b>HOPS:</b> ?</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>IBU:</b> ?</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>ABV: </b>7%</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;">Bottle conditioned</span></span></li>
<div style="line-height: 1.4; text-align: center; text-indent: 5px;">
<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="line-height: 16px; text-transform: uppercase;">-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></span></div>
</ul>
Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-62355877895456903372013-01-20T15:26:00.000+00:002013-01-20T19:38:31.443+00:00REVIEW #114: Stateside IPA (Saltaire Brewery)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge5UKr6y9YV5HlVq9mo10pbjzRLLMenLdAQL9wHMANJG28GhbX3kp6uDpnInrL5zz-IHDTVwmfqsKXPnRJZuY0lHE1KhHbMYO_inRwb8S2JLqA0krq7VhhIsRkpBOmiiIOYo4URrKfFrM/s1600/saltaire+stateside+ipa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge5UKr6y9YV5HlVq9mo10pbjzRLLMenLdAQL9wHMANJG28GhbX3kp6uDpnInrL5zz-IHDTVwmfqsKXPnRJZuY0lHE1KhHbMYO_inRwb8S2JLqA0krq7VhhIsRkpBOmiiIOYo4URrKfFrM/s1600/saltaire+stateside+ipa.jpg" /></a>An amber coloured beer with a thick, near-white head. Juicy tropical aroma, particularly grapefruit. The APA/American IPA is all about big pine and tropical hop flavours and this beer has all that you would expect of the style; especially prominent are exotic fruit notes. However, rather than full-out acrid bitterness, a more resinous, sticky finish is to be found, rounded off elegantly with a creamy vanilla sweetness. With this in mind I'd say that the Summit hop must have been used very judiciously! My overall feeling is that the hop and malt are very well integrated creating a well balanced ale, full bodied (a touch oily) but refreshingly carbonated. Below is an overview of the hops used to craft this beer:<br />
<br />
<b>Galena</b>: US high alpha and beta acids, developed from Brewer's Gold in '68.<br />
<b>Cascade</b>: Classic US variety for APAs and one of the 'three Cs'; developed from Fuggles x Serebrianka in '56. Didn't hit the big time until the 70s though. Similar alpha and beta acid content of between 5 and 7%<br />
<b>Magnum</b>: A German variety with high alpha acid content.<br />
<b>Summit</b>: US variety... The highest alpha acid hop available at 17-19%!<br />
<br />
This UK brewed ale is clearly an homage to the APA and goes to show that UK brewers can be just as adept at handling high alpha acid US hops as the US brewers themselves. Saltaire Brewery is based in Shipley, Yorkshire and was founded as recently as 2005. They are one of the many award winning, independant, modern breweries that have popped up over the last decade or so (Hardknott, Kernel, BrewDog, the list goes on...) that are pushing the boundaries and pushing the UK beer scene well into the 21st century. I think Stateside IPA is clear evidence of this.<br />
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 2.5em;">
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>MALTS:</b> pale; crystal; torrefied wheat</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small;"><b>HOPS:</b> CASCADE; MAGNUM; SUMMIT; GALENA</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>IBU:</b> ?</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>ABV: </b>6%</span></span></li>
<div style="line-height: 1.4; text-align: center; text-indent: 5px;">
<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="line-height: 16px; text-transform: uppercase;">-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></span></div>
</ul>
Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-80721243491628003042013-01-18T11:01:00.000+00:002013-01-18T18:59:11.539+00:00REVIEW #113: Butcombe Bitter (Butcombe Brewery)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB3AUty6WRNswnLGdfGLCB-Rpb_CrbvikK9OcbOCuPCYHFNcTBG_qjIlMWdZPEWffGpvS5JnRhTL6x6NwowAVCMBgneoiHi1NiTU5W07-_Pd-ZDsTgDgR5AkWWp3FlDSRP3jBJhdjghKs/s1600/butcombe+bitter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB3AUty6WRNswnLGdfGLCB-Rpb_CrbvikK9OcbOCuPCYHFNcTBG_qjIlMWdZPEWffGpvS5JnRhTL6x6NwowAVCMBgneoiHi1NiTU5W07-_Pd-ZDsTgDgR5AkWWp3FlDSRP3jBJhdjghKs/s320/butcombe+bitter.jpg" width="105" /></a></div>
Pours a dark amber with crisp white head possessing impressive retention for a bitter. Grassy, earthy sweet-tea notes float from nose. Quite a dry bitter, as I like them to be, with aromatic herbal hop and a muted caramel, sugar malt sweetness hiding in the background... Biscuit and golden syrup finish with the light tea notes detected in the nose finally showing up too. Needless to say the hop bitterness also carries through right to the end. The body is nice and firm and the carbonation spot on. This is about as good an example of an English bitter as there is to be had out there.<br />
<br />
This award winning bitter has been around for a long time, getting on for 35 years in fact, and is a big deal down in the South West, recently out-selling Sharp's Doombar and St. Austell's Tribute in the area. The brewery get Fuller's to bottle their beers and for a long time only had this one bottle on the market until Butcombe Gold came along. This has been followed by Butcombe Blond, Rare Breed (brewed with farmer/TV guy Adam Henson) and Butcombe Brunel IPA. On cask look out for Mendip Spring, Old Vic Porter and Christmas Steps. Started by Simon & Maureen Whitmore in 1978, the couple sold the brewery in 2003 to Guy and Becky Newell. They moved into a brand new brewery in 2005 and this is one brewer to keep an eye on in 2013!<br />
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 21.111112594604492px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 2.5em;">
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>MALTS:</b> MARIS OTTER</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small;"><b>HOPS: </b>UNDISCLOSED BLEND OF ENGLISH HOPS</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>IBU:</b> ?</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>ABV:</b> 4.5%</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>Available from: </b>morrisons</span></span></li>
<div style="line-height: 1.4; text-align: center; text-indent: 5px;">
<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="line-height: 16px; text-transform: uppercase;">-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></span></div>
</ul>
Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2951971398760241004.post-16603810780854822592013-01-16T22:49:00.000+00:002013-02-20T17:24:08.139+00:00REVIEW #112: Bloed Zweet & Tranen (Brouwerij de Molen)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir4rFzarvEEI9Lnzkf0qN1bNzhPjbE0EDbzB2XUIs7qflxO7tkDcINLNXq-8u_oOCdkSvvX8MJ6PMuZpy52zm9ij1gCsjb201FMxpe07_LCv709VdHtFs1ErGPMZU0dGOeizDH-nXou9s/s1600/de+molen+blood+sweat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir4rFzarvEEI9Lnzkf0qN1bNzhPjbE0EDbzB2XUIs7qflxO7tkDcINLNXq-8u_oOCdkSvvX8MJ6PMuZpy52zm9ij1gCsjb201FMxpe07_LCv709VdHtFs1ErGPMZU0dGOeizDH-nXou9s/s320/de+molen+blood+sweat.jpg" width="84" /></a></div>
Pours a shade off black with a huge, frothy dark beige head that leaves loads of lacing behind. Aromas of peat, chocolate and sour apple burst forth from the glass. Upon tasting, milky, stout-like, bready malts mingle with pervasive, but not overpowering, peated whisky and plum-laden port notes. The smokey peat is significant whereas whisky flavours are relegated to more of a base note detected along with roast cereal bitterness. Sharp dark chocolate and sweet lactic malt combine in a lengthy finish. The beer is medium to firm of body and the strong ABV it possesses is well disguised by its bold flavour profile. This is a very full and satisfying smoked beer in the vein of a porter - bordering on stout - and one I would certainly recommend. A perfect winter beer to drink in front of a roaring log fire.<br />
<br />
This beer is remarkable in that it contains both an English peat smoked malt as well as a German (Bamberg to be precise) smoked malt - a rauchmalt. Its name means 'blood, sweat and tears', a term coined from the fact that this is what it cost Menno Olivier and co. at De Molen to achieve balance with these two smoked varieties in the final beer, and is of course a nod and a wink to the past animosity between England and Germany. All beer under the bridge! See reviews <a href="http://porter-pages.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/review-37-bed-and-breakfast-brouwerij.html">#37</a>, <a href="http://porter-pages.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/review-48-geboren-getogen-brouwerij-de.html">#48</a>, <a href="http://porter-pages.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/review-49-rasputin-brouwerij-de-molen.html">#49</a> and <a href="http://porter-pages.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/head-to-head-6-de-molens-engels-vs-de.html">HTH#6</a> for more examples of products from this world-class brewery.<br />
<ul style="background-color: white; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 2.5em;">
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>MALTS:</b> pale; chocolate; smoked; cara; whisky; roasted barley; wheat</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small;"><b>HOPS: </b>SLADEK</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>IBU:</b> 29</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>SPECIFIC GRAVITY</b>: 1.074 (18'PLATO)</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; color: #9b510b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16px; text-indent: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;"><b>ABV:</b> 8.1%</span></span></li>
<div style="color: #3a134e; font-family: 'GFS Didot'; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 1.4; text-align: center; text-indent: 5px;">
<span style="color: #783f04; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="line-height: 16px; text-transform: uppercase;">-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></span></div>
</ul>
Porter-Pageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02453148372640828868noreply@blogger.com0