Hello,
it's not particularly scientific but the answer to the above is - go to another one! And then return to the first, but more on that later.
On Friday The Hop in Sheffield hosted it's Sheffield Showcase beer festival, with an extra bar jimmied into the small offshoot to the right of the entrance. I was looking forward to meeting Fluffy in the Bath Hotel first, and we were going to spend a few hours trying the beers but Fluffy, alas, was indisposed. So I went alone, on the assumption I'd bump into someone from the world of drinking along the way.
I started by having a pint in a nearby hostelry - erm, the Closed Shop, at Commonside. It wasn't overly tortuous getting there for once, and I arrived to find a good range of ales, and plenty of customers. I had a pint of Brampton Mild, and it was excellent. A really complex rich dark beer at 4.5%, and selling for £2.90 a pint. In fact, it was so damned nice that I "had" to have two more pints, although I was tempted by the Dukeries Gold on the other end of the bar.
It was a visit that heralded new information as well - it turns out that multi-instrumentalist Beck was in fact the founder of the brewery that make inoffensive fizzy drinks like Vier. This fact, which is made up, stemmed from a conversation about apostrophes - why aren't there any on pump clips? A case in point was J W Lees Bitter. Surely Lees'? Robinson's? Thwaite's?
I don't know why this doesn't apply, or whether indeed its needed (the only explanation I could come up with was "its different for beers", but I had nothing to back that up). None of this would have arisen as a subject if The Closed Shop hadn't elected to sell a product with an amusing superfluous apostrophe, thus "Kevin's Pie's hand made in Sheffield". As far as I can tell, that slogan informs the consumer that the hand that belongs to Kevin's pie is made in Sheffield. Am over it now though, obviously....
Anyway, off to the Hop next and it was rammed as always. I quickly spotted Mr and Mrs Greg Robbery and sat down with them supping a very quaffable pint of the 4.2% Bramling, a collaboration between The Hop and Tapped Brewing Company. Although delicious, it soon became clear that some of the other specials and collaborations were somewhat lacking.
I had a pint of Oatmeal Stout from On The edge, which was surprisingly heavy on the vanilla, which perhaps let down an other wise excellent beer. The Blue Bee and The Hop collaboration Ideal Mash was pleasant enough, but to my surprise, the Steel City Corrosion of Conformity was grim - although I suppose a pale beer with rum and raisins in has a lot of work to do to be enjoyable.
I got my final pint as the Robbery's were leaving, an excellent Dark Hart from Harthill Village Brewery, who seem to have hit the ground running. Alas this coincided with the band starting playing, and sat on he fringe of the infuriatingly large crowd of punters stood at the bar, I suddenly remembered why I can't get on with the Hop. Not least, because Dark Hart was misspelled Dark Heart. Disgraceful!
I finished the night in the Bath Hotel, where I was pleased to spot the rare visitor Steff, and even more pleased, having first had a pint of the Espresso Stout from Dark Star, to spot the Thornbridge Halcyon. On cask. Oh. My. God. Even better than I remembered it on cask, having more body to it than on Keykeg, and served drinkably cool rather than cold, it was an absolutely amazing beer.
I drained my glass whilst catching up with Sparklepete, who is that much easier to spot now I know what he looks like. However, I only spotted him because I thought I recognised someone from Shakespeares sat near the door - and having rather drunkenly established he wasn't who I thought he should be, I discovered he was sat with Pete. Recognised by proxy, as the young man commented.
So, a mixed bag regarding the Hop festival really. Ironically, I'd heard someone in the pub earlier in the week suggesting that rather than go to a beer festival, even one in a pub, I should just go to some great pubs. I did. And as it panned out, they were better.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Showing posts with label Brampton Brewery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brampton Brewery. Show all posts
Sunday, 3 March 2013
Sunday, 22 April 2012
A Premier Cru bottled beer
Afternoon,
the title, you will be relieved to discover, is not a reference to some dreadful over-concept "craft"(?) bottled beer made with wine, instead, its simply a wine term used to afford compliment to an excellent British bottled beer, from an excellent local brewery.
Brampton Brewery in Chesterfield produce a regular range of really very good beers. Impy dark is a classic, and a personal favourite of mine, and the Stout and session bitter "Best" are worthy features in a commendable portfolio. Interestingly though, it seems like they haven't branched out much into stronger beers yet, or at least, not until the end of last year.
Winter Bock
When I went to buy my Christmas beers from Archer Road Beer Stop, Davefromtshop told me that, despite its rather exclusive price tag, Brampton Winter Bock was one of the best beers he'd tried for a long time. Curiously, seeing its tempting livery of mucky white and black in a flip top 750ml bottle I assumed it was really strong. I was actually a little disappointed to discover that it was "only" 6%, so accustomed had I become to stouts being of imperial strength when packaged so well. Dave reassured me that despite its strength, it was still a brilliant beer. And then, I was bought one for Christmas.
I was going to patiently store it until my birthday in June but caved in last night and offered to share it with Chala - after all, at the sharp end of a refreshing night, the last thing you want is to munch your way through a wine bottle sized slab of beer, no matter how delicious it is. As it turned out, it was so good that I could easily have sunk the lot on my own. A good job then that it wasn't a gorilla baffler.
I should confess now that I didn't make notes. I couldn't be arsed to be quite honest! I didn't want to impinge on the event by thinking carefully about what flavours I could pick out, so here are some rambling vaguely useful notes about this wonderful bottled beer that I have managed to more or less remember.
Brampton Winter Bock is 6.0%, numbered 063 from a limited edition of am not sure how many and, possibly due to an identified degree of refreshment last night, I thought it was bottle conditioned, whereas the label makes no such claim. No spine chilling "CAMRA says this is real ale" vinegar portent to be seen. The label also proudly proclaims that its a barley wine. This is in fact, the only thing that I could find fault with - I think barley wine does it a disservice, since its much more drinkable and well balanced than most barley wine offerings. And really, at 6.0%, its too weak to be a barley wine. But I digress....
It pours a glorious black and smells straight away like a a Belgian Dubbel, but that is quickly knocked into touch by a familiar Brampton dark beer aroma. Aside from this, Brampton do three dark beers - Impy, Mild and Stout. I swear if you tried every one of them one after another you'd soon recognise that Brampton waft. Is it the yeast they use perhaps, or do they always prefer to use specific malts in their dark beers? I don't know, but why change something that works - if they continue to all have that appealing sweet and roast malt aroma I'll continue to enjoy drinking them.
The taste is the same as the aroma, in that there is a definite dark Belgian or possibly German, perhaps Andechs Dopplebock taste, giving way to a glorious blend of roast malts. This is a surprisingly refreshing drink for a strong beer - the label describes it as dangerously drinkable and I think that's spot on. There is some bitterness, it kind of appears with the malt in the second part of the taste, and lingers subtly in the background when you finish each mouthful.
The primary feature though is its lustrous creaminess, the sort of smooth palate caressing warm satisfaction that could never be achieved by filling beer with Nitrogen or other crap. Its smooth in a good way. And tremendously enjoyable.
Labouring under the illusion it was a BCA I actually poured it in to 4 glasses - a near full pint for me, a small measure for Chala who also loved it, another small measure leaving what I thought would be yeast in the bottom, and then a mug containing the last of the bottle contents. In the end this interesting but needless exercise served me very well as it drew out the drinking experience that little longer. Its just a shame that mild befuddlement means I am not 100% certain it wasn't bottle conditioned, and so will now have to buy another to find out - which depending on its limited edition numbers, will either be extremely expensive or impossible.
Overall this was an example of a recommendation deserved. It was fantastic. If you find one buy it; if you own one, drink it.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
the title, you will be relieved to discover, is not a reference to some dreadful over-concept "craft"(?) bottled beer made with wine, instead, its simply a wine term used to afford compliment to an excellent British bottled beer, from an excellent local brewery.
Brampton Brewery in Chesterfield produce a regular range of really very good beers. Impy dark is a classic, and a personal favourite of mine, and the Stout and session bitter "Best" are worthy features in a commendable portfolio. Interestingly though, it seems like they haven't branched out much into stronger beers yet, or at least, not until the end of last year.
Winter Bock
When I went to buy my Christmas beers from Archer Road Beer Stop, Davefromtshop told me that, despite its rather exclusive price tag, Brampton Winter Bock was one of the best beers he'd tried for a long time. Curiously, seeing its tempting livery of mucky white and black in a flip top 750ml bottle I assumed it was really strong. I was actually a little disappointed to discover that it was "only" 6%, so accustomed had I become to stouts being of imperial strength when packaged so well. Dave reassured me that despite its strength, it was still a brilliant beer. And then, I was bought one for Christmas.
I was going to patiently store it until my birthday in June but caved in last night and offered to share it with Chala - after all, at the sharp end of a refreshing night, the last thing you want is to munch your way through a wine bottle sized slab of beer, no matter how delicious it is. As it turned out, it was so good that I could easily have sunk the lot on my own. A good job then that it wasn't a gorilla baffler.
I should confess now that I didn't make notes. I couldn't be arsed to be quite honest! I didn't want to impinge on the event by thinking carefully about what flavours I could pick out, so here are some rambling vaguely useful notes about this wonderful bottled beer that I have managed to more or less remember.
Brampton Winter Bock is 6.0%, numbered 063 from a limited edition of am not sure how many and, possibly due to an identified degree of refreshment last night, I thought it was bottle conditioned, whereas the label makes no such claim. No spine chilling "CAMRA says this is real ale" vinegar portent to be seen. The label also proudly proclaims that its a barley wine. This is in fact, the only thing that I could find fault with - I think barley wine does it a disservice, since its much more drinkable and well balanced than most barley wine offerings. And really, at 6.0%, its too weak to be a barley wine. But I digress....
It pours a glorious black and smells straight away like a a Belgian Dubbel, but that is quickly knocked into touch by a familiar Brampton dark beer aroma. Aside from this, Brampton do three dark beers - Impy, Mild and Stout. I swear if you tried every one of them one after another you'd soon recognise that Brampton waft. Is it the yeast they use perhaps, or do they always prefer to use specific malts in their dark beers? I don't know, but why change something that works - if they continue to all have that appealing sweet and roast malt aroma I'll continue to enjoy drinking them.
The taste is the same as the aroma, in that there is a definite dark Belgian or possibly German, perhaps Andechs Dopplebock taste, giving way to a glorious blend of roast malts. This is a surprisingly refreshing drink for a strong beer - the label describes it as dangerously drinkable and I think that's spot on. There is some bitterness, it kind of appears with the malt in the second part of the taste, and lingers subtly in the background when you finish each mouthful.
The primary feature though is its lustrous creaminess, the sort of smooth palate caressing warm satisfaction that could never be achieved by filling beer with Nitrogen or other crap. Its smooth in a good way. And tremendously enjoyable.
Labouring under the illusion it was a BCA I actually poured it in to 4 glasses - a near full pint for me, a small measure for Chala who also loved it, another small measure leaving what I thought would be yeast in the bottom, and then a mug containing the last of the bottle contents. In the end this interesting but needless exercise served me very well as it drew out the drinking experience that little longer. Its just a shame that mild befuddlement means I am not 100% certain it wasn't bottle conditioned, and so will now have to buy another to find out - which depending on its limited edition numbers, will either be extremely expensive or impossible.
Overall this was an example of a recommendation deserved. It was fantastic. If you find one buy it; if you own one, drink it.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
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