Fulham 1 Portsmouth 0!!!!

I came home tonight and celebrated the succesful end to Fulham's relegation line dance with a pint of Fullers 1845. Its so much more fun at the bottom of the league , so much more to fight for.

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I support Fulham as that is where my grandma came from.

Kings of Keg – Meantime

With their rejection of cask conditioning, Meantime is one of the more controversial English micros to find success in recent times. Alistair Hook’s training at Weihenstephan and Herriot Watt clearly shows its self in the range of Continental and New World styles he brews rather than the more traditional English session ales brewed by Brewlab trained micro brewers. Alistair gets a fair bit of flak from traditionalists and as an enthusiastic proponent of cask ale I can’t help but feel sympathy for their view.

Regardless of the politics I was genuinely excited to get the chance to try the Meantime IPA and Porter both of which stress their historical accuracy (nothing new here!) and see how they stacked up.

First up was the Pilsner, hardly a style close to my heart this beer ticked all the boxes but did it with little flair.

Pilsner 4.7%abv

Pours a crystal clear gold with a disappearing white head. Aroma features noble hops with a minerally slightly chalky character. On the palate there is a close balance between malt and hops, a very clean yeast profile with a light dry mouthfeel. there is a hint of lager malt flavour and a decent bitterness. Competent but unremarkable.

Next up a chocolate beer, often a novelty style pumped out for supermarket sales this one is probably the best I have ever tasted!

Chocolate 6.5%abv

Pours a near pitch black with a tan head. Aroma features rich Belgian chocolate, spicy resiny hops and hints of berry fruit. On the palate there is mouth filling chocolate, sweet rich confected malt, and a touch of warming alcohol. Lovely beer!

A suped up German style wheat beer this one left me wondering why if had to be 6.3%abv and why anyone exports such a fragile style.

Wheat Grand Cru 6.3%abv

Pours a mid gold with a fluffy white head. Aroma features phenolic cloves, a touch of cornflower, and a dusty note. On the palate cloves are continued, muted malt, and a short finish all matched with a flabby limp mouthfeel. Rather underwhelming beer that seems to drink way below its strength.

Coffee beer, another novelty style and one that is almost universally botched through brewers knowing lots about malt, hops and yeast and next to nothing about coffee. Coffee beers are often characterised by flavours of over extracted coffee and harsh bi products of beans left in contact with beer for way to long. This example surprised me with how good the espresso flavours were, like the chocolate beer was very well done.

Coffee 6%abv

Pours a dark mahogany with a tight white head. Aroma features earthy dusty stale espresso reminiscent of the coffee tin, a touch of charcoal, and sweet toffee malt. On the palate there is an initial burst of bitter hops, coffee acidity cushioned by sweet chunky toffee, a touch of sweetened short black, and a long bitter/sour acidic finish. Good stuff.

The first of the ‘historic recreations’. The London Porter was an interesting and enjoyable beer let down only by a minty medicinal character that built up in the palate as I made my way down the glass.

London Porter 6.5%abv

Pours a dark red with a beige head. Aroma features sappy hops, a hint of banana and light grainy chocolate. On the palate there is firm understated roast grain, a hint of chocolate and caramel malt, banana, and minty character that becomes more and more medicinal as the beer warms. The finish is malty and medicinal. Good beer although medicinal character detracts somewhat from the whole.

The India Pale Ale is renowned for being overly sweet and it lived up to its reputation. While there were all sorts of good flavours going on in the end these were smothered by an overwhelmingly sweet unfermented malt character that left the beer rather sickly.

India Pale Ale 7.5%abv

Pours a light gold with a thick white head. Aroma features zesty hops, melons, and lime contributing to a tropical character. Also a rather off putting saccharine sugary note with touches of caramel. On the palate Melons and lime make a quick appearance before succumbing to a sickly barley sugar character, stewed malt, sugary unfermented malt, ending in a long bitter finish. Could be a fantastic beer if it was attenuated properly.

So again a bit of a mixed bag, the Coffee Porter and the Chocolate Beer shown through as the real stars certainly over shadowing the spectacularly packaged Porter and IPA.

Brewing Blind

I woke this morning with the worst sinus occupying head cold. Today was marked down as a brew day, even though I didn’t feel like it I persevered. In addition to brewing a batch of best bitter I was intending to rack a batch of O.S.B. into a corny, it has struck me that carrying out this task with absolutely no sense of smell and little sense of taste is an extremely hard thing to do. Is the O.S.B. ready? I have no idea , diacetyl? Not sure, acetal aldehyde? God I hope not, I can tell it’s got a decent mouthfeel! How about the Berhampore Best I’m brewing today? astringency from the sparge? not sure, conversion? Well the hydrometer says so but I usually like to check with my palate. It all reinforces to me how important the human is in brewing at this end of the scale. I’m off for a port and brandy.

The Session- Beer Evangelism

The start of my beer evangelism can be traced back to the winter of 1998, I was in Dunedin train station waiting for the Taieri Gorge Tourist Railway to depart. I was in the south on a family holiday, the next time I would visit would be in the quest of beer. I took the train with my mother who is always keen for a beer or two. We scanned the menu to make our selection, up until then the drinking on our trip had been dominated by the ubiquitous CD and Speights. The name Emerson’s immediately took our fancy as it shared its name with the street where my family home is located. One sip and my experience of beer changed utterly. Unlike the sweet unchallenging New Zealand Draughts I was used to this beer had a strong malty presence, a marmity yeastyness and definite roasty finish, in other words it had character. Upon returning home I started hunting out more beers like this one, first ones from the big two like Monteiths Black, Guinness and Speights Old Dark, but soon beers from smaller breweries like Founders Long Black, Emerson’s Oatmeal Stout and pretty much anything the supermarket or off license had that was dark and rich.

It wasn’t until I stumbled across a copy of Michael Jackson’s 1988 New World Guide to Beer that I started to hunt out and learn about styles of beer that weren’t dark. At the same time I was starting to homebrew and like fact that music never sounds the same after you have worked in a music studio, so to my understanding of what I was tasting in beer developed changed.

My taste in beer developed again dramatically in 2001 when I tasted my first pint of real ale at Galbraith’s in Auckland. This was beer at its most drinkable, glorious peak, extremely complex, and yet utterly sessionable, my fate was sealed.

Who let the dogs out?

Last Thursday with the help of some friends I tasted my way through the 4 Brewdog beers that came in on the most recent import. I approached the task with mixed feelings, on the plus side the beers have had a mainly positive reaction from bloggers in the UK, and they are in styles that are perhaps more commonly found in the new world than in Britain offering a bit of a novelty factor. On the negative they have to take the prize for the worst labelling I have seen in a long time, the trendy urban dog themed labels left me wondering if I was going to get a pair of new jeans and a hoody rather than a tasty beverage. Unfortunately with at least two of the four beers I would have been better off with a new piece of street ware. While there was certainly evidence that the boys in Fraserburgh can brew some top beer there was also evidence that quality control has a way to go yet.

First off I started with Hoprocker, a lager brewed with NZ hops and one that in this part of the world is sure to draw comparisons with the Macs beer that shares its name. Unfortunately the Scottish contender has a long way to go with this example being riddled with diacetyl.

Hoprocker 5.5%abv

Pours a light gold with a quickly disappearing white head. Aroma is totally dominated by a huge dirty butterscotch character with a hint of grassy hops. On the palate the butterscotch is joined by a smoky note, a hint of sourness and a late bitterness. Diacetyl bomb.

So not a great start but things can only get better right? Next up was the Punk IPA I had heard good things about this one and was relieved when clean hoppy aromas wafted up from the glass. While the Hoprocker is marketed as including NZ hops, Punk IPA isn’t but I would be surprised if it didn’t have a healthy dose of NZ hops added late in the boil. Tasting broadly like a cross between Emerson’s Pilsner and Three Boys IPA Punk IPA was a solid NZ style pale ale, from Scotland of course.

Punk IPA 6%abv

Pours a light gold with a thick white head. Aroma features resiny hops, citrus particularly grapefruit, and passionfruit. On the palate there is good deal of perceived bitterness right from the start. Grapefruit and passionfruit are continued with just enough sweet pale malt character to cushion the bitterness.

Next up was Hardcore IPA, punks bigger brother. So Bad Brains went on the stereo, I did my best Henry Rollins impersonation and I got ready for what should have been a fantastic beer. It wasn’t . I have tasted a limited number of Imperial IPA’s a couple from NZ and a couple from the States and let me tell you this had very little in common with any of them. Alcoholic heat obliterated almost anything else this beer might have been able to offer. At the time I muttered something along the lines of it being similar to washing you mouth with vodka prior to performing self dentistry.

Hardcore IPA 9%

Pours a light gold with a fluffy white head. Aroma features butterscotch and big solventy hot alcohol with hints of bubblegum and the slightest trace of resiny hop. On the palate there is a mouth coating alcoholic sensation, sweet cloying malt and a huge warming alcoholic finish that reminds me of shoting vodka. Dire beer.

Time for some redemption. Last up was the stout Riptide and a cracker it was to. Full of all the right flavours it was a well constructed beer that drank well below its strength (is that a good thing?) and much improved my plummeting opinion of the brewery.

Riptide 8%abv

Pours a very dark ruby with a tan fluffy head. Aroma features confected malt character with hints of green banana, astringent grain and chocolate. On the palate there is a creamy mouth feel, chunky chocolate and toffee a resiny hop note and a long balancing roasty finish. Great strong stout but not an Imperial in my opinion.

And so to my title, who let the dogs out? Two of these beers should never have left the brewery gates let alone travelled the length of the earth to be sold for a small fortune. Even rising stars need to worry about quality control. Next up will be the kings of keg Meantime.

Fullers ESB on draught

After being let loose in the candy, I mean beer, store I retired to the Courtney Arms while I waited for SWMBO to finish work. To my surprise Fullers ESB had appeared on the bar, and then to my astonishment after ordering I was charged a measly $5 (2 pounds) as some launch special. It was tasting fantastic, and despite being the keg version it was a good temperature with a gentle carbonation. Despite getting some flak for the state of their lines from some quarters the beer at the Courtney Arms has been tasting very good recently.

Beer Import

One of the things that makes it hard running a blog on British beer is that I am so far from the action. Often the beers that are discussed and debated are not available to me. So when Rumbles brought an import of 40 plus beers in recently including both Meantime and Brewdog beers I was excited to say the least.

Here’s what I bought:

- Meantime IPA

- Meantime Porter

- Meantime Pilsner

- Meantime Chocolate

- Meantime Coffee

- Meantime Wheat Grand Cru

- Brewdog Punk IPA

- Brewdog Hardcore IPA

- Brewdog Hoprocker

- Brewdpg Riptide

- Brain SA

- Bradfield Farmer Brown Cow

- Cropton Balmy Mild

- Coniston Old Man Ale

The bank balance groans, but I am happy, tastings to come.