Emmanuales - eh?

Orw waaaaarh. 

You may be thinking. 

              I know I was - I thought that Emmanuales had closed down? Do you not remember that number of slightly grim bottles without the leter K that they produced a few years ago? I did!  So it was with a certain amount of surprise that I saw 2 or 3 of their brews advertised at Beer Central back in August. And, purely on a research basis, I went for two - their Black IPA which was about 6.9% if memory serves (and it doesn't) along with their 10000 Saisons, described at the front of the can as a "Rustic saison". What would it be like? And who and where are they these days? 

Well, perhaps to my surprise - both were excellent. I tried their black IPA first, which had a name and everything, and it was fab! Quite an old time flavour if am honest - but not in a bad way. It was actually the perfect blend of bitter hopiness, fruit/citra and dark smokey malt. I loved it.

And what of their Saison? Well, to start with, it was a marvelous 7.8%. One of the things I very much appreciated about the Emmanuales bottles back in the day was that they were always strong - and in this case, not afraid to breach the 7.4% barrier that many brewers currently and understandably stay away from. So I was very pleased - and admittedly not surprised - to find that this saison was simultaneously strong as well as very refreshing!

There was also thankfully a lot of yeast left in the can - one thing that disappoints me a little about...um....modern cans...is the lack, irrespective of the cloudiness, of yeast in any substance, or possibly other adjuncts(?) left in the bottom of a can? Not least because I like to ensure that I get a good drop of each brew so am usually willing to wash out the bottom of the can or bottle in order to add more murk or depth to each taste, and of course' slightly prolong it's consumption. This ticked every box.

So - where are they based these days I hear me ask? Because I distinctly recall the brewer/founder being interviewed on Look Norfff about 5  years or so ago showing him selling, and presumably brewing, his bears at a Sheffield Brewery tap - am thinking perhaps at Sheffield Brew Company? Or I may have misremembered one of those facts....

I know that Neepsend had to move last year or  similar, and there's nothing preventing Sheffield Brew Company doing the same. But I wasn't actually sure whether firstly that would see him leave, or whether the issues with the brewing or bottling previously caused him to at best postpone production.

Now the can says they are based on Cromwell Street in S6. As a can it rather unsurprisingly doesn't name the brewer, but I have no reason to presume it has changed hands or indeed brewers. Either way both of the beers tried were more well balanced and perhaps more accomplished than the brewery's previous offerings. Alas, having as yet not carried out any internet searches - where everything is true - on the same, am unsure of whom it is brews there, and what happened to their previous undertaking or location.

I am however sure that they are now producing fabulous and very quaffable brews here in fine, sunny, Sheffield - go give them a try!

Cheers

Wee Beefy

Did I see you with IBU?

Morning!

    earlier on today I was able to taste a very special beer indeed. Its made with ingredients, including all those that you would expect to see, then put in casks, sent to a public house, and proceeds from there through beer lines using a pump and out into a pint glass.

Luckily, it managed to be a little more interesting than that....

DCLXV1 (nice catchy name lads!) was brewed by Steel City Brewing, beers they brew, here of using hops fame, and Arbor Ales, who are from Bristol and everything. Its 6.66% and 666IBU. Now, I'm no biochemist (or even a brewer) but I am led to believe that the above International Bitterness Units measurement makes this a very very hoppy beer indeed. And as if to reiterate that, I could smell the hops when the pint was put on the bar in front of me. Wow.

By way of comparison, BrewDog Hardcore IPA has an IBU of 150 (but Punk IPA apparently only 40?) so if you ever tried Hardcore and pulled a lime, salt and tequila face you might expect this Steel City beer to kill your tastebuds. Except it doesn't.

Its a Black IPA in style, granted, and they can often have masses of harsh dry bitter hops in the initial taste, and some Black IPA's, regrettably, fail to balance this out with the malts used and the way this leads through that malt to the aftertaste. This beer, on the other hand, achieves that perfect balance (considering the amount of hops such as Sorachi Ace and Simcoe used) of astringent hop, quickly followed by creamy malt and ushers a mixture of both into the finish, with hoppy flavours lingering long in the mouth.

This may be the best beer I have tried from Steel City Brewing. And its perhaps because the level of threatened bitterness, whilst am sure is there, is incorporated so successfully into the overall flavour. One wonders if perhaps it was the collaboration with Arbor that made the beer so much more balanced? Not for a minute wanting to take anything away from Steel City, but weirdly, I found the hoppiness in this beer nicer and easier on the palate than that in both the Black Hops and the Dark Funeral.....

In fact, the most terrifying or perhaps equally the most impressive thing about this beer was its excellent drinkability. Granted I only had one pint (it was 2 in the afternoon, am not mental) but had I been in for a longer session I reckon I could have put away three quite easily.

Finally, its not clear how much of this will be available and for how long so if you fancy a taste I suggest you get down to the Rutland Arms on Brown Street and get some.

Now to wait for the desperately silly Mikkeller 1000IBU beer, which I understand is served in lead lined tankards....

Wee Beefy   

Testing testing 123 - Wee Beefy's dark pale jet black light beer conundrum

Good evening again readers

         am afraid the main reason for this post is that I want to know if I can now post again successfully! Formatting really kicked my ass earlier, as our cross Atlantic chums might remark...

However, in order to create a vague semblance of beer relevance, I can report that last week I had several tasty pints, starting with about 4 of  yummy Jaipur in the White Lion at Heeley, whilst on a homework collecting errand for Waaaarf.

I also got to the Sheffield Tap, where I had two delicious pints of Kirkstall Black Band Porter, which is the first beer of theirs I tried back in June, and I absolutely loved it. It didn't disappoint this time, but I followed it with a rather cold and hard to drink Dark Arts from Magic Rock. I really like their beers, but trying this one, that seemed not to work terribly well, made me wonder about the reasons behind fusion and hybrid beers.

Pale Red Porter

For a start, iinitially I thought I'd gone and purchased one of them new fangled Black IPA thingies, but actually that isn't the case. This is clearly a stout, and whilst its admirable that Magic Rock, as they have done so successfully in so many of their beers, are challenging the tired preconceptions of a particular style, they have so very nearly not managed to make a stout at all.

As you will know from the past, when everything was so January, I tried a rather delightful Dark Funeral from Steel City Brewing. It was vociferously hoppy and very dry and astringent, so ticked those boxes, and given that it was also jet black, it likewise ticked all the boxes regarding it being a Black IPA. It was dark and very very hoppy. So what makes this different from Magic Rock Dark Arts?

Well there are a few subtleties, notably in strength, and the tasting notes for Dark Arts allude to some quite complex fruitcake and malty flavours (which when served cold seemed to be washed away by the tide of bitterness), so its clear there are intended to be two different beers here. But there are two definite characteristics that appear inseparable - high bitterness, and very little balancing malt or roast malt flavours.

Citrus Stout?

No doubt Black IPA exists to remove the need for the evils of balancing maltiness or god forbid, sweetness, but there is a strange dichotomy then when we have a beer described as a stout (Magic Rock describe theirs as a "surreal" stout which I agree suggests one should expect some challenging or surprising taste experiences),  that pays so much attention to and promotes the flavours of bitter high alpha hops. What is the point in adding strong citrus hops to a stout, or likewise dark roasted malt to an IPA? Arguably you could instead concentrate as much effort into producing one IPA, one stout and another high hopped pale ale and make them all excellent examples of their art.

The proof of the pudding's in the taste of course - and to demonstrate how that works, in the end I poured half the Dark Arts into the warm Kirkstall porter glass on a vaguely equal ratio and got the best beer of the week!  .

Wee Beefy