Now then,
do you see what I did? I put "the city of ale", knowing that those of you who live in Sheffield will at once correctly identify Sheffield as the city of ale, and that those of you who don't, may have other, erroneous assumptions about it. Its no more than a lure, of course. Its obviously Sheffield.....
Last Sunday, despite both of us being injured, myself and Tash decided to walk into town to meet Wee Keefy at the station. We took an unusual route, down to Darnall, over the railway, up to and over the Parkway and up Manor Lane to the castle then down City Road, Granville and along Norfolk Road to the station. Considering our injuries it didn't take too long. And once there, we headed for the Sheffield Tap.
Inside Wee Keefy was patiently waiting, and had been for 30 minutes. I got us both a pint of Oakham JHB and we chatted to WK about Scotland, the ttrip to which we were discussing and were given the tickets for. I thought about trying the non German and non mild German Mild from Kirkstall but went instead for delicious pints of Loki Black IPA from Tiny Rebel, in fact we all did. WK then lost control of his wallet and made a rash but ultimately delightful purchase.
We had been laughing at the absurd price of the Harviestoun Ola Dubh whisky aged reserve stout at 10.5%. It was nearly a tenner a bottle. Nobody would pay that wild they? Well,. WK did and got three third glasses and shared it between us. Gawd Blezzim! I understand from the blurb on the bottle that it was brewed in 1991. Or, at least, that is when they first did their increasing by 0.1% strong beer up until 2000. It could, therefore have been the 2000 brew, bottled in 1991 whisky casks, but to be fair its not clear. What was clear, was the absolutely beautiful beer the bottle contained.
Absolutely jet black, with a strong aroma of whisky - Highland Park casks were used - its difficult to convey just how easy drinking it was. At 10.5% you expect a bit of chewiness, but this was so smooth and ultimately very well balanced. Looking at the back of the bottle I see now - the beer was aged in oak barrels used previously to age Highland Park's 1991 vintage scotch whisky - and the front tells me it was bottled in April 2013. Irrespective of when the beer was brewed, it tastes amazing. It contains oats and barley by the way, but also is not a stout. Its a strong dark ale.
To finish, and now joined by Mr Devden, we had haves f the Magic Rock Human Cannonball at 9.3 %. I shan't disclose the price. It was a lovely end to a fantastic drink with WK in the Sheffield Tap.
Up next, after we had seen Matty off, we went to the Tap and Tankard. Sunday nights in the TnT are always quiet but all other drinkers had left by about 22.00. Me and Tash sat in the little alcove at the end of the bar for an hour or two enjoying perfect pints of the Hand Drawn Monkey Aussie Red, a deliciously smooth, easy drinking, but hoppy and bitter red ale from the Huddersfield brewers.
There was excellent tunes from female blues singers in the 30's to the 50.s and as it got quieter the atmosphere became more soothing, making us feel right at home. There were other beers on than the Aussie Red but we didn't want anything else. It was the perfect, mildly soporific finisher, to an excellent session of drinking.
Out of interest, we were given a free 3rd of the Harviestoun Old Engine Oil, which is more likely a stout, with our free food tasters at the Beer Engine a couple of weeks ago. It complemented the chorizo and sweet potato perfectly. I think I may have unknowingly fallen out of love with Harviestoun recently but along with Schiehallion their cask lager, I think the above displays a fantastic quality of products from the brewery. One to look out for, I think, across all formats.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Showing posts with label Aged beers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aged beers. Show all posts
Sunday, 26 April 2015
Sunday, 30 September 2012
Genius in a bottle?
Good evening,
Wednesday 1st July 1981 was a good day. I was 7 years old, probably doing something carefree in the garden, most likely involving a hosepipe or climbing frame, and it was probably sunny. It always was. That's a fact, using rose tinted glasses. To be fair, even if it wasn't sunny, it was certainly a good day for me because Davefromtshop graduanded in Bournemouth and purchased at least 2 bottles of Eldridge Pope Thomas hardy Ale, brewed on that date. We tried one in 2006 and it was astonishingly good. Kept for 25 years, as the bottle promised you could, the beer was in amazing condition.
One bottle remained, and it was getting to the point where Eldridge Pope'/s claims about it still being drinkable were seeming less likely. Dave mentioned to me a while back that he as looking forward to opening it and kindly asked if I'd like to partake of half the bottles contents. Unsurprisingly I said yes, and have been looking forward to the prospect ever since.
So 11,412 days after it was brewed, we hoped to find out if 01 July 1981 is still a date worth remembering, as we opened the second bottle.
I wasn't writing a blog in 2006, which is a shame because I don't have any written details about the taste or even appearance of the 25 year vintage, in order to make a clear comparison. All I can do is fossick through my obfuscate cupboard of beer memories to note a few things - like its colour, which was a beautiful chestnut orange (memories don't seem to wheedle out absurd sounding colour combinations it seems), that it was incredibly strong, that you could still taste the hops in amongst the overpowering alcoholic punch and that crucially the yeast was still alive, and doing its job.
We opened this one with trepidation. It fizzed, but it was more like a tiny cough and straight away we could tell the bottle was not carbonated as the brewer had intended. It smelled very similar to the last bottle, if that's even possible, with a huge sherry and slightly musty aroma in amongst an unsubtle blast of alcohol and , I swear this is true, leather. However, here the similarities with the 25 years old version ended.
It was a far darker colour. It tasted sharper, and there was no hint of hops. It even managed to taste slightly musty, and also had the sherry flavour that was present in the George Gales Prize Old Ale. It was better than that though, really much more fruity and the strong alcohol flavour was faintly reminiscent of port. There wa also just enough sweeteness to balance it out, similar to the taste of barley sugar sweets
One really interesting feature was the bubbles. We had poured the beer quickly into each glass to teases some otherwise missing carbonation from the brew. They were a really beautiful white, really large in size and they didn't seem to disappear as we drank. Taking a close up in the glass, with the bubbles grouped round teh sides, the image below nicely shows the beer with a deep russet red colour, flanked by the sparkling pearl like bubbles.
We kept aside a small amount of the yeast, and we did actually add it at the very end. It was clear from the less harmonious flavours that the yeast had died. This was disappointing, but I think the yeast does pretty bloody well to last 25 years, which our previous bottle demonstrated it had.
There are, as with all live bottled beers, numerous factors that could have contributed to the yeasts demise and the slight spoiling of what is a truly incredible beer. I have tasted a 1 year old, 8 years old, 15 year old and a 25 year old prior to this. And I still can't say what the best age is to drink it given the myriad of possibilities that there are for how the beer could turn out. The 25 year old was amazing, but Dave mentioned that this bottle had been mistreated over the years, kept at different and unsuitable temperatures amongst other things, so perhaps the beer is drinkable aged 31, but only if its kept at a constant suitable temperature?
Who knows, but if you see a vintage for sale I would still recommend shelling out for it. I am still taken aback by how brilliant the 25 year old was, and the slightly off flavours in amongst the overwhelming vinous qualifies reminded me that this was probably only a random event away from being one of the best beers I ever tasted. So near, yet maybe a year or two too far.
Next year my oldest bottle turns 20. I only have two left now, and both are different vintages so I'm going to have them both at 25 years and hope for the best. Despite this minor upset, I am really looking forward to it.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Wednesday 1st July 1981 was a good day. I was 7 years old, probably doing something carefree in the garden, most likely involving a hosepipe or climbing frame, and it was probably sunny. It always was. That's a fact, using rose tinted glasses. To be fair, even if it wasn't sunny, it was certainly a good day for me because Davefromtshop graduanded in Bournemouth and purchased at least 2 bottles of Eldridge Pope Thomas hardy Ale, brewed on that date. We tried one in 2006 and it was astonishingly good. Kept for 25 years, as the bottle promised you could, the beer was in amazing condition.
One bottle remained, and it was getting to the point where Eldridge Pope'/s claims about it still being drinkable were seeming less likely. Dave mentioned to me a while back that he as looking forward to opening it and kindly asked if I'd like to partake of half the bottles contents. Unsurprisingly I said yes, and have been looking forward to the prospect ever since.
So 11,412 days after it was brewed, we hoped to find out if 01 July 1981 is still a date worth remembering, as we opened the second bottle.
I wasn't writing a blog in 2006, which is a shame because I don't have any written details about the taste or even appearance of the 25 year vintage, in order to make a clear comparison. All I can do is fossick through my obfuscate cupboard of beer memories to note a few things - like its colour, which was a beautiful chestnut orange (memories don't seem to wheedle out absurd sounding colour combinations it seems), that it was incredibly strong, that you could still taste the hops in amongst the overpowering alcoholic punch and that crucially the yeast was still alive, and doing its job.
We opened this one with trepidation. It fizzed, but it was more like a tiny cough and straight away we could tell the bottle was not carbonated as the brewer had intended. It smelled very similar to the last bottle, if that's even possible, with a huge sherry and slightly musty aroma in amongst an unsubtle blast of alcohol and , I swear this is true, leather. However, here the similarities with the 25 years old version ended.
It was a far darker colour. It tasted sharper, and there was no hint of hops. It even managed to taste slightly musty, and also had the sherry flavour that was present in the George Gales Prize Old Ale. It was better than that though, really much more fruity and the strong alcohol flavour was faintly reminiscent of port. There wa also just enough sweeteness to balance it out, similar to the taste of barley sugar sweets
One really interesting feature was the bubbles. We had poured the beer quickly into each glass to teases some otherwise missing carbonation from the brew. They were a really beautiful white, really large in size and they didn't seem to disappear as we drank. Taking a close up in the glass, with the bubbles grouped round teh sides, the image below nicely shows the beer with a deep russet red colour, flanked by the sparkling pearl like bubbles.
We kept aside a small amount of the yeast, and we did actually add it at the very end. It was clear from the less harmonious flavours that the yeast had died. This was disappointing, but I think the yeast does pretty bloody well to last 25 years, which our previous bottle demonstrated it had.
There are, as with all live bottled beers, numerous factors that could have contributed to the yeasts demise and the slight spoiling of what is a truly incredible beer. I have tasted a 1 year old, 8 years old, 15 year old and a 25 year old prior to this. And I still can't say what the best age is to drink it given the myriad of possibilities that there are for how the beer could turn out. The 25 year old was amazing, but Dave mentioned that this bottle had been mistreated over the years, kept at different and unsuitable temperatures amongst other things, so perhaps the beer is drinkable aged 31, but only if its kept at a constant suitable temperature?
Who knows, but if you see a vintage for sale I would still recommend shelling out for it. I am still taken aback by how brilliant the 25 year old was, and the slightly off flavours in amongst the overwhelming vinous qualifies reminded me that this was probably only a random event away from being one of the best beers I ever tasted. So near, yet maybe a year or two too far.
Next year my oldest bottle turns 20. I only have two left now, and both are different vintages so I'm going to have them both at 25 years and hope for the best. Despite this minor upset, I am really looking forward to it.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Sunday, 16 September 2012
The 4th Sheffield RUFC Beer & Cider Festival
afternooned
I'm coming to the end of my three weeks off now, back to the unseemly drag of generating pay on Monday, but I have finished off my celebrations and relaxation with a trip to the Abbeydale Rugby Club beer festival.
I arrived after 17.00, a bit later than planned, due to some classic First Group incompetence - no 97 or 98's for over half an hour - then 3 came at once. Luckily, some time was saved by now knowing the correct bus stop to get off at. It was interesting to note that this year the SRUFC had excelled themselves by having ABSOLUTELY no signs whatsoever about where the festival was, or even its existence. It was only because I'd been before that I had any inkling where to go.
I'm not really sure I understand the idea of "enticing" new visitors by being invisible, but it seemed busy, if not as much as it could be, although far fewer of the customers seemed to be from outside the family of the Rugby and Sports club.
It was also smaller than last year, with a slightly reduced range, but as promised, the prices remained the same, which is an admirable achievement, and it cost precisely nothing to get in. Tickets were 4 halves at £1.25 which were marked off as you went through. A brilliantly simple procedure that required no tills, and importantly, no confusion or small change. And the volunteer staff behind the bar were cheerful and helpful throughout, as they were last year.
I started on a half of the Dancing Duck Dark Drake, which I had really enjoyed at the Exeter Arms on my last two visits. It didn't disappoint, and dark beers were to be the signature of my drinks for the night. Next, I finally got to try the excellent Abbeydale Old Stock. Not as brown as I was expecting, with a slightly amber colour, and some tremendous malt, caramel and spirit alcohol flavours that reminded me, as it should have, of a good quality aged beer. Unfortunately, at 6.9%, this was my only taster - I intended to remain compus-mentus for the event as far as was possible.
Next up was the Elland Nettlethrasher, a beer that has come through more brewery name incarnations than I care to remember (I seem to recall the first was as Eastwoods, along with Ecky Thump - anyone concur?). It was a decent enough bitter, with some hoppiness, maybe requiring a tad more.
I also tried a Blue Bee Rugbee Rugbee Rugbee, launched at the festival last year, and which was ironically a drink that a third of was spilt down me by some rugby players forming a scrum in the tiny bar tent. Thanks nobheads. A good tasting beer though, and one of a brace that I had before settling on my beer of the night - the other being the tasty Spire Chesterfield Best Bitter.
Said offering was the excellent Raw Dark Peak Stout. Without the usual Black Mass to slowly remove me from proceedings I opted for a sensible strength (4.5%) dark beer to finish on - I think I had 3 fantastic pints in all. A cracking way to round off my drinking, until the next time...
Thanks to Blue Bee Rich, the authoress K E Page from the world of writing, Geoff, Wee Keefy, Carlos, Half Pint, Lauren and finally my fellow Dark Star attired tweeter T_i_B, from the world of the Internet, for their company and chat during my enjoyable 5 hour stint. I even made it out for the bus in perfect time and was home for a much needed feed before midnight.
Roll on the 5th event, hopefully, for first time punters sakes, with some signage...
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
I'm coming to the end of my three weeks off now, back to the unseemly drag of generating pay on Monday, but I have finished off my celebrations and relaxation with a trip to the Abbeydale Rugby Club beer festival.
I arrived after 17.00, a bit later than planned, due to some classic First Group incompetence - no 97 or 98's for over half an hour - then 3 came at once. Luckily, some time was saved by now knowing the correct bus stop to get off at. It was interesting to note that this year the SRUFC had excelled themselves by having ABSOLUTELY no signs whatsoever about where the festival was, or even its existence. It was only because I'd been before that I had any inkling where to go.
I'm not really sure I understand the idea of "enticing" new visitors by being invisible, but it seemed busy, if not as much as it could be, although far fewer of the customers seemed to be from outside the family of the Rugby and Sports club.
It was also smaller than last year, with a slightly reduced range, but as promised, the prices remained the same, which is an admirable achievement, and it cost precisely nothing to get in. Tickets were 4 halves at £1.25 which were marked off as you went through. A brilliantly simple procedure that required no tills, and importantly, no confusion or small change. And the volunteer staff behind the bar were cheerful and helpful throughout, as they were last year.
 |
| Old Stock Ale - inspirational |
I started on a half of the Dancing Duck Dark Drake, which I had really enjoyed at the Exeter Arms on my last two visits. It didn't disappoint, and dark beers were to be the signature of my drinks for the night. Next, I finally got to try the excellent Abbeydale Old Stock. Not as brown as I was expecting, with a slightly amber colour, and some tremendous malt, caramel and spirit alcohol flavours that reminded me, as it should have, of a good quality aged beer. Unfortunately, at 6.9%, this was my only taster - I intended to remain compus-mentus for the event as far as was possible.
Next up was the Elland Nettlethrasher, a beer that has come through more brewery name incarnations than I care to remember (I seem to recall the first was as Eastwoods, along with Ecky Thump - anyone concur?). It was a decent enough bitter, with some hoppiness, maybe requiring a tad more.
 |
| Men. Talking about stuff. |
I also tried a Blue Bee Rugbee Rugbee Rugbee, launched at the festival last year, and which was ironically a drink that a third of was spilt down me by some rugby players forming a scrum in the tiny bar tent. Thanks nobheads. A good tasting beer though, and one of a brace that I had before settling on my beer of the night - the other being the tasty Spire Chesterfield Best Bitter.
Said offering was the excellent Raw Dark Peak Stout. Without the usual Black Mass to slowly remove me from proceedings I opted for a sensible strength (4.5%) dark beer to finish on - I think I had 3 fantastic pints in all. A cracking way to round off my drinking, until the next time...
Thanks to Blue Bee Rich, the authoress K E Page from the world of writing, Geoff, Wee Keefy, Carlos, Half Pint, Lauren and finally my fellow Dark Star attired tweeter T_i_B, from the world of the Internet, for their company and chat during my enjoyable 5 hour stint. I even made it out for the bus in perfect time and was home for a much needed feed before midnight.
Roll on the 5th event, hopefully, for first time punters sakes, with some signage...
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Thursday, 16 August 2012
George Gales Prize Old Ale (corked)
Now then,
the Olympics finished on Sunday and in a moment of heady excitement I decided it would be good to celebrate the event with one of my "stash" - a cavalcade of bottled beers from 1971 (yes, long before I was old enough to drink, or even born) til the present day, amassed since 1993.
One such bottle was a Gales Prize Old Ale from the last batch brewed in Horndean and thus corked. I had two so figured one could be sacrificed, having had them laid on their side (as per the label instructions) since 2005. A cursory glance at the label proclaimed it had been brewed that year and was best before March 2010. Well, I thought, its 9% for chrissakes. Surely it had the balls for the journey? And besides, whenever I caved in after 3 years and drank one it was invariably unbalanced and too "young". So this seemed a perfect chance to try a good one.
With the roar and razzmatazz of the Olympics blaring out of the TV behind me I set about opening the chilled beer. Not rate chilled you understand, but I had concerns that it might be fizzy. I broke the pinkish red plastic seal round the top and slightly indelicately removed the cork. There was little sound. Hmmm..
The aroma was predominantly sherry. As I breathed n a bit more there was a sharper stronger aroma like whisky, plus the sweetness, reminiscent faintly of cane sugar, and for a mad moment fruit salad sweets.
I poured it out flat as a millpond. Some carbonation was caused towards the end of the pour, although not knowing what to expect from the yeast it was eked out slowly so no gravity pushed the bubbles into the glass. I still don't think throwing it in would have created much bubbles, if that is even grammatically correct.
The colour was, well, sherry to be honest! Maybe brandy depending on the light. But with a darker brown shade more reminiscent of the beer it was supposed to be, with some attractive reddish hints.
The first taste was something of a slow motion slap across the face. I could see it coming, but couldn't avoid the massive sherry, tart fruit and residual alcohol smashing into me in one angry wave of tipsy bravado. Further tastes allowed the sugar to increase, or rather its sweetness to come through, and I detected candy, lavender sugar, treacle, and fighting unconvincingly at the back, some hops.
Later tastes revealed lemon sherbet and a taste I can only describe as the smell of leather (just trust me) and, regrettably, cardboard. I added the yeast half way down which only served to increase the sweetness but it was also mildly acidic and there seemed to be even more alcohol - certainly my complexion was telling me that this was no longer 9.0%.
The body was thin, there even seemed to be a little suggestion of water, almost like I hadn't dried the glass after rinsing, except I had. It was strange having a thin beer with such incredibly strong flavours.
So in conclusion, not a subtle beer, and not really a beer at all in terms of taste. More a sherry with a suggestion of malt and hops with sweet tart fruit and alcoholic flavours.
This is interesting since I don't think I've ever had a really good Gales corked beer. They've always been a bit muddled or eccentric or unbalanced, usually with only one prominent characteristic on display - I am thinking of 5 examples over the past 18 years. The best one was a celebration beer at around 7.0% which had a bit more subtlety to its flavours and was a bit more, well, beer.
That the Harveys Imperial Russian Stout that was brewed in the mid nineties and was undrinkable was blamed by the brewery on their contracting bottling to Gales says a lot, although perhaps more about Harveys, since it was their yeast which died in the bottle. It makes you wonder whether the passage of time clouds our memories of what was good beer, I mean, does it all have odd flavours and no carbonation? And it also begs the question, can we make good corked ale in Britain?
Wissey Valley managed it , at least I think they did! But really its not a British strongpoint - its got to ne Chimay who nailed it. So perhaps we once again have to look at how the Belgians do things.
In defence of the "old stagers" of brewing though, I'd like to try a bottle conditioned new world hopped IPA or Black IPA, or heavy hopped stout after 7 years to see how the more popular ingredients fared over time in the bottle. It would be really interesting to see if they could match classics like Thomas Hardy Ale.
To which end, I am, co-incidentally as it happens, hoping to try what I think is a 29 year old vintage next month. The 25 year was still carbonated and you could taste the hops. So already better than Gales, but might 29 years be a step too far?
Wee Beefy
the Olympics finished on Sunday and in a moment of heady excitement I decided it would be good to celebrate the event with one of my "stash" - a cavalcade of bottled beers from 1971 (yes, long before I was old enough to drink, or even born) til the present day, amassed since 1993.
One such bottle was a Gales Prize Old Ale from the last batch brewed in Horndean and thus corked. I had two so figured one could be sacrificed, having had them laid on their side (as per the label instructions) since 2005. A cursory glance at the label proclaimed it had been brewed that year and was best before March 2010. Well, I thought, its 9% for chrissakes. Surely it had the balls for the journey? And besides, whenever I caved in after 3 years and drank one it was invariably unbalanced and too "young". So this seemed a perfect chance to try a good one.
With the roar and razzmatazz of the Olympics blaring out of the TV behind me I set about opening the chilled beer. Not rate chilled you understand, but I had concerns that it might be fizzy. I broke the pinkish red plastic seal round the top and slightly indelicately removed the cork. There was little sound. Hmmm..
The aroma was predominantly sherry. As I breathed n a bit more there was a sharper stronger aroma like whisky, plus the sweetness, reminiscent faintly of cane sugar, and for a mad moment fruit salad sweets.
I poured it out flat as a millpond. Some carbonation was caused towards the end of the pour, although not knowing what to expect from the yeast it was eked out slowly so no gravity pushed the bubbles into the glass. I still don't think throwing it in would have created much bubbles, if that is even grammatically correct.
The colour was, well, sherry to be honest! Maybe brandy depending on the light. But with a darker brown shade more reminiscent of the beer it was supposed to be, with some attractive reddish hints.
The first taste was something of a slow motion slap across the face. I could see it coming, but couldn't avoid the massive sherry, tart fruit and residual alcohol smashing into me in one angry wave of tipsy bravado. Further tastes allowed the sugar to increase, or rather its sweetness to come through, and I detected candy, lavender sugar, treacle, and fighting unconvincingly at the back, some hops.
Later tastes revealed lemon sherbet and a taste I can only describe as the smell of leather (just trust me) and, regrettably, cardboard. I added the yeast half way down which only served to increase the sweetness but it was also mildly acidic and there seemed to be even more alcohol - certainly my complexion was telling me that this was no longer 9.0%.
The body was thin, there even seemed to be a little suggestion of water, almost like I hadn't dried the glass after rinsing, except I had. It was strange having a thin beer with such incredibly strong flavours.
So in conclusion, not a subtle beer, and not really a beer at all in terms of taste. More a sherry with a suggestion of malt and hops with sweet tart fruit and alcoholic flavours.
This is interesting since I don't think I've ever had a really good Gales corked beer. They've always been a bit muddled or eccentric or unbalanced, usually with only one prominent characteristic on display - I am thinking of 5 examples over the past 18 years. The best one was a celebration beer at around 7.0% which had a bit more subtlety to its flavours and was a bit more, well, beer.
That the Harveys Imperial Russian Stout that was brewed in the mid nineties and was undrinkable was blamed by the brewery on their contracting bottling to Gales says a lot, although perhaps more about Harveys, since it was their yeast which died in the bottle. It makes you wonder whether the passage of time clouds our memories of what was good beer, I mean, does it all have odd flavours and no carbonation? And it also begs the question, can we make good corked ale in Britain?
Wissey Valley managed it , at least I think they did! But really its not a British strongpoint - its got to ne Chimay who nailed it. So perhaps we once again have to look at how the Belgians do things.
In defence of the "old stagers" of brewing though, I'd like to try a bottle conditioned new world hopped IPA or Black IPA, or heavy hopped stout after 7 years to see how the more popular ingredients fared over time in the bottle. It would be really interesting to see if they could match classics like Thomas Hardy Ale.
To which end, I am, co-incidentally as it happens, hoping to try what I think is a 29 year old vintage next month. The 25 year was still carbonated and you could taste the hops. So already better than Gales, but might 29 years be a step too far?
Wee Beefy
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