Tatton Brewery

Morning all,

        I first drunk some Tatton ales in 2011, blogging about them in January 2012. Wee Fatha, then much fitter, made regular visits in 2012 and afterwards over to Cheshire to buy bottled and sometimes canned beers. I started on a bottle of their 3.7% Ale which I rated then, and am certain would still now., as very good. There is a link to the relevant post here: WeeBeefy's beer bites

Last night myself and WK were up at WFs for a final meal before we wander off on Friday for a trip to Scotland, and WF has been back over to the crematorium near Altrincham to pay respects and had stayed outside Mobberly. In the morning he had popped into Tatton brewery, as myself and Tash had done with him previously. Last night we tried three bottles of Tatton Ales, and once again found that they did not disappoint.

We started, in no perceivable order, on a 4.5% bottle of IPA - I did pick this beer from many, but purely out of it being available. I realise that regular readers my accurately conclude that I almost entirely drink DIPAs at 8.0% from Pressure Drop and Verdant and Cloudwater, who now noticeably have returned to brewing occasional Cask from the Past, like its 1993 again. I would like to point out that it made no difference to our choices, and whether by style or flavour, all three supped once again demonstrated Tatton's quality.

The IPA was a pale golden colour with that recognisable Tatton bitterness which I first experienced in their Ale back in the past. And there was a very enjoyable slab of hops - I rather slackly declined to find out which but details of the next beer suggest they may have been British hops. As you know, I am a lover of American and New Zealand hops but the flavour in this beer was cleverly balanced, so even tough I could expect it wasn't made with Simcoe and American cascade, I could still enjoy and appreciate the flavours present.

Next up was our strongest beer of the night - a 6.3% VIPA made, it was clear to admit, with British Hops. Reading the pages of their website here, I notice that there isn't much information about the hops used, but I would also say that you can tell the brewery are interested in brewing a particular style of beer that satisfies the expectations of many - and possibly only recently, the brewery now produces some of their beers in keg. Due to its strength, and potentially to improve management of some mild sweetness from the alcohol, the vIPA would suit this dispense method very well - a very big flavour, and once again balanced by that underlying background bitterness which supports so many of their other brews. WK finished first, then myself, and once Fatha had caught up we transferred to the final taster of the evening. This was their Malted Milk Chocolate stout at 4.6%.

Wee Fatha did express concerns about his current advice to avoid chocolate but wee Keefy did point out that the amount of actual chocolate present in the third of a bottle he was about to try would be minimal. That said there was plenty in the flavour of this take on two different beer styles, and this made sure there was sufficient sweetness in the overall flavour. Our last beer of the night was finished quicker than earlier but was none the less very enjoyable.

Overall I actually think the initial 4.5% IPA was the best of the bunch, which is interesting since I have always liked their 3.7% A;e over their Yeti and other strong beers. This may simply be down to the fact that stronger beers of this style do seem to carry a strong sweetness in the flavour which reduces the overall quality a little.

That said however, it was very good to get back to trying some Tatton beers and the experience of tasting their beers is one which I have missed for some time.

Your very good health

Wee Beefy

The first beer of Christmas

Now then.

            firstly: I know, I know. Its supposed to be the first beer of Christmas on December the 1st. Yet, its Christmas Eve. What is wrong with this man, you ask? Why is he reviewing a "Christmas" beer on day 24?

Well the simple answer is, because I can.

Also, my Christmas 2013 beer stash wasn't collected until last night and its only now that I have started to tap into it. There are 18 pints of sedimented Abbeydale Absolution and 12 bottles of rather excellent and at times expensive beer to get through. Not that my supplier, Archer Road Beer Stop is expensive - its just I bought a couple of strong Durham beers and a bottle of Fantome Saison. Which is approximately a million pounds....

So, after an hour of festively moshing to Cathedral and Acid Reign, what better way to cool off than in a spare room chilled to below room temperature (although arguably am in said room and erm...well, its the temperature that it is?....) with a cold-ish bottle of excellent beer.

The first of my box, part of a series of potentially two reviews of the 12, is Blue Monkey Bludolph. Its 5% and an orange hued golden colour and it smells rather fab. Dave told me  in the shop that its three lots of three types of hops which are chosen by the brewer every year. It's been a very long 24 hours since yesterday however so you may be better off looking at the link here from real ale store - since he brewery are. um, too busy to update their website....

It has a lovely tangerine kick with some dry bitterness, a hint of lemon  and a pleasing soft malt in the background which means the bitterness settles back into the beer rather than jarring at the forefront throughout; although the aftertaste is lingeringly bitter, after the more calming malt has dissipated.

Obviously better than your average brown spiced nonsense, it wins plaudits foe being umpologetically  hoppy and not remotely interested in Christmas pudding or berry fruit.

In conclusion, a great example of a Christmas beer that doesn't taste of sherry and rum and raisin chocolate with treacle, like so many of the ilk have a tendency to do. And it was so good that I didn't take a picture.

This is virtually anti blogging.....

Merry Merry Christmas!

WB

Hello old friend

Hello,

    I've been relaxing tonight. I dallied with the idea of popping to DAda to try some of their impressive looking bottled beers but I don't have much cash and also it was perishing, with biting cold winds blowing in icy powder that turned to slippery foam under the warmth of each footstep. I opted instead to get home, cook a curry, and drink some bottled beers. Right now I've arrived at a beer long absent from my stash.

Guinness Foreign Extra Stout is a very inexpensive beer for it's strength. It's 7.5% so probably attracts HSBD, although am unsure about this. It comes in an iconic bottle with a more enticing warming design that Guinness omits from its frozen tar branded fonts and cans, and it looks lovely and appetising in it's 330ml bottle.

I opened it to be wowed by a great aroma. Creamy malt and a Belgian yeast with hints of toffee (not too much mind, it isn't skunked). There's also a strong whiff of alcohol that sits atop the subtler scents. It pours with what is initially a muddy almost caramel head, although that has settled down now to a pleasing coffee cream. It looks delectable. It tastes...interesting.

Hold on there though, it doesn't taste unpleasant, it just has a surprisingly bitter background and an initial tartness in the bite. It settles down to be creamy with a slight molasses, and satisfying big beer mouthfeel en route. The more I drink of it the more flavours I'm picking out - burnt malt, brown sugar, bitter fruit and possibly raisin, although the more I drink the more the slightly ascorbic finish intensifies, but it quickly subsides and seems to harangue your palate into experiencing some more..

It mystifies me why I don't drink this masterpiece more often. Its interesting, aesthetically pleasing, robust and tantalising, in that, there's one more taste just before the aftertaste that is eluding me.

Earlier I had a couple more dark beers so this is a nice contrast. Tatton Brewery Ruck and Maul porter is a soft slightly bitter but well rounded dark brew with their signature Cheshire yeast flavours, whereas Rudgate York Chocolate stout was an interesting and pleasant surprise, being only vaguely chocolaty and having a backbone of malt and surprising bitterness to both counteract and balance the beer.

After this am cracking open a Thornbridge Heather Honey Stout. I expect to really enjoy it, which is a compliment since I don't really rate honey in beer. In the meantime, I'm glad to have reinstated my relationship with Guinness FES after a very long time. A pleasant end to the working week.

Cheers

Wee Beefy

Bottle conditioned beer - doom put on hold temporarily

Hello,

   back in February I wrote about my experience of a bottle of Durham Temptation Stout, perhaps my favourite bottle conditioned beer, that I had tried, and found to be orf. This was an incredibly disappointing outcome for me, since I rated Durham and this beer so highly. As I said though, the only thing when you have a fall is to get back on the horse - so seeking suitable reward for my exhausting endeavours today, I decided to open another bottle.

Please4 accept my apologies for a lack of pics - my phone camera decided to refuse to recharge, and Chala has taken hers to bed with my pics on it!

Here's what I found :

Brewery : Durham, in Durham
Name : Temptation ( May 2007 vintage, BBE September 2012)
Strength : 10.0%
BCA/none BCA? : BCA.
Purchased : Archer Road Beer Stop Sheffield.

Colour : "Black! Black! (No Johnnyy...)  All black! Like the procession of night that leads us into the valley of despair " (apologies to the Fast Show for borrowing this, here's a cursory link by way of recognition) . Anyhoo, also a thin, white-ish but gently fizzing layer of bubbles sits atop the dark chasm of drinkability.
Style win I say.

Carbonation/Pouring : Loud and reassuring fizz on opening - pours silky smooth with a lot of beer coming out before we hit the yeast.

Aroma : Alcohol! Plenty of it, its five years old and clearly not an old ladies drink. There's roast malt, molasses, tar and coffee fighting through in there as well.

Taste : There is an enormous initial mouthfeel of molasses, burnt toffee, massive alcohol, following to an incredible intense sweetish creamy malt finish, with a further bitter burnt aftertaste, which simply increases the desire for more. Even after that lingering wave of taste sensations has left there is still a hint of malt and maybe currants in alcohol? (am struggling for the drunken fruit here).

On the second taste you get more molasses and once again that initial burst of alcohol and warming roast and burnt malt, with that joyous creamy malted aftertaste, as the beer pushes you from creamy to bitter to burnt to toffee and back again over and over again with every swig.
I added the yeast to a small amount of the clear (as far as that's possible!) beer about 10 gulps in, because I noticed a very minor imbalance which I felt the addition of the bottling yeast might remedy. Straight away, the barely 50ml of sediment caused a massive head to form, with a striking yellow brown toffee colour, before receding back into the glass. The result is an even better beer - less burnt, more toffee notes, and and an even longer lingering creamy finish which makes the beer dangerously moreish (note, drinking 500ml of 10% beer is quite tiring, even if it is incredibly enjoyable!).

Head retention - its not really appreciably a head after a bit. The bubbles disperse after about 20 minutes leaving a luscious tar black sea of roasted creamy goodness with enough alcohol in it to confuse a rhino. .


WBrating : 9.0.
Sorry but this is beervana. Perhaps this score is skewed slightly by my disappointment last time but this is an amazingly well rounded tasty, vinous behemoth of a stout.

So, it seems that all is not lost. I have my faith partly restored, and I am happy about that.

I do have a 2010 and 2011 vintage in storage so five years from now I hope to be enjoying one of them, but in the meantime they'll have to wait (hopefully) with the Durham yeast doing its job and taking the coarse strands of the strong stout and melding them together into the ultimate beer, which if you'll forgive my somewhat muddle headed hyperbole, is precisely what the 2007 vintage is.

Wee Beefy

Hopupdate, Delaneys Music Bar, bottled ales, Sales and for sales, Flickr.

Greetings,

  a disparate mix of news bites tonight reflecting my repetitive drinking patterns and a surfeit of new drinking experiences of late.

Hopupdate

A recent visit to The Hop Sheffield helps clarify some regrettably hazy points from my previous posts. Firstly, there aint seating on the left of the entrance, only the right - the left is in fact a slowly ascending sloping walkway to the stage area that overlooks the green. The mural also isn't, perhaps mercifully given its now certain veracity, a picture depicting anything connected with the "Hop" franchise or its brand. Instead, it is a traditional steel works scene, one entirely appropriate given the venue location.

Meanwhile, I have now sampled the pie offer! An ideal and inexpensive after work filler up before a crawl or just to sustain you in general, the deal is a pie of your choice from a range of 3 or 4 , with mash, peas and gravy, and either a soft drink or a pint of the Yorkshire Blonde or Pale Gold, all for only a fiver. I opted for the more traditional offering, the Gold, and it was better than that I tried on the opening night. Service is fast on pies, so choose a perch first, and as long as you don't mind a polystyrene tray and wooden cutlery I can warmly recommend this offer.

N.B - I also tried an excellent pint of Acorn Warrior IPA, but noted that this 5% beer was £3.10 a pint - the same price as the far weaker Osset Yorkshire Blonde would have cost if purchased outside of the pie offer. From this, and experiences on my other visits, it woud appear that the guest beers on offer are consistently better value than the Ossett offerings. Whilst I undertsand the Hop(s) are a franchise, surely the idea is to promote Ossett as a first choice real ale? Am glad there are guests, but what chance a new Ossett own goal beer?


Delaneys Music Bar

Between the bottom of London Road and Waitrose is, apparently, the end of the mighty trackway of Cemetery Road. Petering out meekly and undistinguished at a raised pavement facing the ring road, this seems like no place for  a decent drinking or indeed any other venue. However, in addition to a takeaway, this hidden but so easily reached backwater houses one of Sheffield's best kept secrets, also a venue for live music, right at the edge of the hustle of the city centre.

Delaneys has been open for some time now, and came to my attention a few months ago with the announcement that it was now selling Thornbridge real ales, in addition to those from Bradfield. Despite the Beer Matters report being distinctly shy of identifying the address, I soon worked out that it is what was, in days of yore, the Beer Engine, at times the most expensive pub in Sheffield as I recall, and in between times, a series of theme led incarnations which appear not to have worked terribly well.

I visited on a weekday evening and found the pub had a few punters, some decent real ale on, and a good if at times eclectic mix of tunes playing. Blackboards and posters advertised upcoming bands and behind the bar were details of a distinctly late New Years Eve party, and details of food, which it appears is available all the time, i.e not just at New Year.

The bar area is open plan with the only seating being bar stools or high tables at the edges, with a fireplace to the left.  To the right as you enter are two small cosy rooms, comfortably furnished and displayng a laudable mix of older pub interior staples like fireplaces, bench seating and prints, along with more contemporary stuff like fairy lights and leather seats and white walls. Still, its interesting to note that they have retained 3 separate rooms (and maybe another upstairs? Am unsure!). But is it retained?

I ask only because on my last visit the Beer Engine as it was then was a tired homogenised Whitbread/Sherwood Inns managed "Ale House" or Hogshead" themed pub, with extortionate guest beers (nearing £2.80 a pint in the early nineties, late 1995 to be precise!), and falling foul as so many of these forced antiquity showrooms did, in being a venue which was not what anyone particularly seemed to want, whilst simultaneously failing to be good at those few features that punters probably did appreciate.

So, although I have no idea about its appearance before the nineties, am unsure if the layout I foggily recall has any resemblance to the pub's appearnce now. I can say, however, that the three rooms seem original in terms of placement, and the opened out bar is commensurate with what I would expect of its former themed identity. So at the risk of being proved otherwise, I'd go as far as to suggest a certain authenticity in its appearance. And I like that.

Peripheral structural concerns aside, what of the beers? There are 4 real ales on offer, on my visit 3 Bradfield, and a Thornbridge ale - Bradfield Bitter, Blonde, Belgian Blue (which given its seasonality  would assume is a guest) and Thornbridge Sequoia. There are no noticeable Continental draught options available and there seems to be the usual fare in bottles, but even in these enlightened times, a music or other venue of any kind selling real ale is a good thing. And, on my visit, bearing in mind it was about 5PM, it was cosy and relaxing with a couple of locals sat reading papers at the bar. So if it does get much rowdier later on, at least it would appear to perform the function of a local pub during the earlier part of the day ( I understand they open at 16.00). I think a return visit is required.....

Best of bottled ales

Just a brief run down of a few treats I have managed to purchase in Sheffield - alas a lack of foresight has prevented my taking notes and thus being able to present a detailed review and assessment of each, but using guesswork to identify the sources, I have compiled a list of my favourite recent tipples :

1. Little Valley Brewery, Hebdens Wheat, 4.5% BCA, Asda, £2.07
A puzzling price hike means this is the most expensive but by no means the most alcoholically strong beer on sale, but, even against my perennial favourite Punk IPA, its perhaps Asda's best bottled offering at present.
2. Thwaites Wainwrights, 4.1 % Co-op £1.89 (ish)
A mighty draught offering and my second favourite Blackburn brewed beer after Nutty Black.
3. Fraoch Heather Ale - 5%, various outlets - Gift!
The excellent "Frook" is still a classic and unique beer to try, and despite it being even better on draught, this is still an acceptable, and crucially your most likely, chance to sample delightful heather fragranced hoppy ale.
4. Co-op Bavarian Wheat beer - 4.9%, £1.90 approx, most Co-op stores.
In the absence of some Hebdens delight the other night I found a couple of these wheat beers - unspecified of source, although they are German - are an ample and tasty substitute.
5. Laverstoke Park Farm Organic Real Lager, 4.5%, £1.15 (330ml) Waitrose.
A biscuity, malty, refreshing English lager with more flavour than you might expect at 4.5%, with a very helpful label, and creditably for Waitrose, a sensible price despite its bankable certified Organic proclamations.

Next week - am intending to grab a mixed box of about 16 beers from Archer Road Beer Stop, so may have some more details to share, and if am lucky, another beer tasting  to report!

Sales and for sales

Just a brief note about pub opportunities I have spotted. The premises housing the former Dempseys bar, previously I think the Golden Ball, on Campo Lane, have the lease for sale, free of tie. Despite being hampered by its unfortunate position and rather laboured modernity, this may be an interesting opportunity. Having seen what the Hop has achieved in a modern building, and given the dearth of real ale in the area what with the Wig and Pen now reducing their range and selling only the rather less well known Wentworth offerings, perhaps this could be a prime candidate for conversing to a real ale outlet.

Further down towards the Wicker, The Black Swan, Spital Hill, variously Under the Boardwalk and numerous other incarnations, appears to have abandoned its path towards reopening as a music venue for now, as there are posters on the door offering the premises and upstairs penthouse flat for sale. Unusual not to see an estate or letting agent sign this would appear to be an intended private sale. Perhaps if anyone could overcome the reportedly bizarre owner and pub co trading arrangements/restrictions, this could be another venue combining music and a drop of the best stuff - real ale.

Finally, a Flickr of light across the pictures.....

I have recently joined Flickr - the link is on my Friends and links page above. Its not all pubs and at this early stage uploads are quite random but there will in the near future be albums, allowing you to access more specific image sets, such as pubs for example. More details to come.

In the meantime, happy Christmas, unless I get back on here beforehand!

Wee Beefy.