Hello
in the 1980's and 90's people really seemed to like canned beers. Almost all breweries canned their beers, from Multinationals to regional family brewers and even some new, up and coming microbreweries. Cans were available in corner shops and supermarkets and were inexpensive. My first party aged...um...an age, where canned drink was bought, was memorable as much for the antics of the guests as the number of cans and PET bottles that I disposed of the next day.
At Hagueys on Crookes you could buy cans of beer with widgets in - Castle Eden, John Smiths, Guinness, Trophy being ones I remember. These produce a silky smooth, film-like, jet of foamy beer which had almost no taste apart from a slight malt and bitter aftertaste - sometimes a lingering pharmaceutical aftertaste. Probably as bad as smoothflow beers are now.
As soon as I got into real ale aged 18 (ish) I started drinking less cans and moved onto pints and bottles - most notable when I started going to Archer Road Beer stop. Pretty soon I stopped drinking crap cans of bowze. I mean, why would I?
In the US of A, am fairly certain that breweries producing hoppy, excellent quality beers, Sierra Nevada, Brooklyn and Anchor spring to mind in this respect, have been producing their wares in cans for a long time. However, its probably only five years ago in the UK, likely with London based Microbreweries, that high quality hoppy tasting UK beers have started to appear in cans - most noticeably, in my experience, in the last eighteen months.
Given the above memories, and the often sky high cost of such products, I immediately turned my nose up - just like I did with keykeg, before I understood what it actually was. Earlier this year I tasted a couple of UK cans, I think from CamdinBev and Roosters at Sheffield beer week, and really enjoyed them, And then later, Tom, or Barry Valentine at the Beer Engine, kindly gave me and Tash a can of Roosters baby faced assassin to try. I was amazed at how hoppy and distinctive it was. Granted, the beer itself is a hoppy easy drinking strong pale ale, so right up my street, but it tasted superb. What on earth was going on?
I have since tried Beavertown cans, and Magic Rock and think that as long as they are sold at a sensible price, the can is, or rather can be, a valuable means of dispense. A case in point is Magic Rock Grapefruit High Wire. Bought from Archer Road Beer Stop for £2.00 a can, which is a sensible price given its cost on keg, I was immediately struck by just how grapefruity the beer smelled and tasted. I have had this beer on keykeg, which I expected to love, (expectation versus delivery, I know...) and found it disappointing - the grapefruit was no more than a subtle hint in the background, perhaps overwhelmed by the carbonation?
In the can, the grapefruit is a complimentary but strong flavour at the forefront and again in the aftertaste. Supping a can last night I found it was refreshing and fruity and hoppy, as well as excellent value. Is this an example of the can being the best dispense method for a particular type pf beer?
Well, alas I can't say - I have not had the beer in a bottle or on cask so its not a fair comparison. What is a fair comparison is that cans from forward thinking innovative microbreweries now seem far better than the widget weary smooth foam of the nineties. If those selling such a product could be more realistic about pricing then I may start drinking more canned beers. And cans are after all, recyclable.
I would always prefer to drink real ale though, in case anyone is worried...!
Psssht click
Wee Beefy
Showing posts with label Cost considerations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cost considerations. Show all posts
Monday, 28 December 2015
Thursday, 7 February 2013
Room with a phew.
Hello,
last night I got to the new brewery room at the Sheffield Tap (formerly a dining room, situated to the far left as you look from the outside). Having become convinced it was a fairytale or trick to frustrate me, I was relieved to discover that you really could just walk in, sit down, soak up the fab vistas, and, one assumes had I arrived earlier, watch beer being made.
Meanwhile I had two fab beers to keep me company - half a Marble Stout, which was excellent, like almost all Marble beer is, and a Junionaire (most probably not the name, but Sheff Tap FB page deactivated so no idea what is on!) from Thornbridge, brewed by young people. Somewhere. Admittedly this paucity of detail is a reporting failure, but I assure you I was too mesmerised by the grandeur of the brewery room to care.
Interestingly, it was surprising how many people seemed to arrive and then immediately walk out - but then, yer can't ignore the fact that there's nowt as queer as folk.
One slight downside to my visit was the much vaunted arrival of Kissmeyer beer in keg, and a forthcoming meet the brewer event. Not that meeting a fermenty spargey chap is a bad thing, just that the beer from said brewery took the piss in terms of price.
Of course, one could suggest that the fault of the heinous over pricing should lay fairly and squarely with the retailer, but am not so sure. In a pub where people wee themselves at the chance to buy the "latest" and most talked about (dear God, trending?) beer, no matter what the price, you can't blame the Tap for putting on something unusual even if its cost is astronomic. However, I wonder how much of the eye watering cost is profit, especially if the producer is taking the piss?
Lets face it Denmark's craft beer isn't cheap - but the argument for buying Mikkeller is that its renownedly excellent. So it could be a country thing. I realise Carlsberg isn't expensive, but then, the likelihood is, any you buy in the UK is brewed in the UK.
I like to think that Thornbridge and Magic Rock are a great example of brewers setting the bar higher than most of us would like to jump. Recent excellence in a bottle has made me less begrudging of that ethos regarding Thornbridge; likewise the stupendous Bearded Lady and Human Cannonball offerings from Magic Rock have done the same. Thornbridge in particular though seem to trade on an "our beer is simply excellent so you should pay more than the going rate for it" business outlook. So maybe Kissmeyer think they are likewise uber fantastic?
I say they, but the blurb on the Tinternet is all about one guy, Anders Kissmeyer. He could still be incredibly certain of his own brilliance though.....
The final puzzle is that being keg, I don't think there is an expected extra cost that would come with a Keykeg. I don't think continental kegs are single use, yet, I don't know for certain that this was in a conventional continental keg.
For info, the beer was called (I wrote it down as "f*ck that" but sense I may have been having a giraffe), was 7.%, and was £4.40 a half. Making it as, or possibly more, expensive than Magic Rock Bearded Lady - yet being 3.5% weaker, and below the HSB duty limit, and not definitely being in a single use container.
Lastly, Mikkeller and Magic Rock and Thornbridge have a really good reputation. I am willing to be wrong here, but I suspect Kissmeyer doesn't have the same enigma. Perhaps if it did (bearing in mind no tasters were available), I might have been willing to fork out for a half.
Wee Beefy
last night I got to the new brewery room at the Sheffield Tap (formerly a dining room, situated to the far left as you look from the outside). Having become convinced it was a fairytale or trick to frustrate me, I was relieved to discover that you really could just walk in, sit down, soak up the fab vistas, and, one assumes had I arrived earlier, watch beer being made.
Meanwhile I had two fab beers to keep me company - half a Marble Stout, which was excellent, like almost all Marble beer is, and a Junionaire (most probably not the name, but Sheff Tap FB page deactivated so no idea what is on!) from Thornbridge, brewed by young people. Somewhere. Admittedly this paucity of detail is a reporting failure, but I assure you I was too mesmerised by the grandeur of the brewery room to care.
Interestingly, it was surprising how many people seemed to arrive and then immediately walk out - but then, yer can't ignore the fact that there's nowt as queer as folk.
One slight downside to my visit was the much vaunted arrival of Kissmeyer beer in keg, and a forthcoming meet the brewer event. Not that meeting a fermenty spargey chap is a bad thing, just that the beer from said brewery took the piss in terms of price.
Of course, one could suggest that the fault of the heinous over pricing should lay fairly and squarely with the retailer, but am not so sure. In a pub where people wee themselves at the chance to buy the "latest" and most talked about (dear God, trending?) beer, no matter what the price, you can't blame the Tap for putting on something unusual even if its cost is astronomic. However, I wonder how much of the eye watering cost is profit, especially if the producer is taking the piss?
Lets face it Denmark's craft beer isn't cheap - but the argument for buying Mikkeller is that its renownedly excellent. So it could be a country thing. I realise Carlsberg isn't expensive, but then, the likelihood is, any you buy in the UK is brewed in the UK.
I like to think that Thornbridge and Magic Rock are a great example of brewers setting the bar higher than most of us would like to jump. Recent excellence in a bottle has made me less begrudging of that ethos regarding Thornbridge; likewise the stupendous Bearded Lady and Human Cannonball offerings from Magic Rock have done the same. Thornbridge in particular though seem to trade on an "our beer is simply excellent so you should pay more than the going rate for it" business outlook. So maybe Kissmeyer think they are likewise uber fantastic?
I say they, but the blurb on the Tinternet is all about one guy, Anders Kissmeyer. He could still be incredibly certain of his own brilliance though.....
The final puzzle is that being keg, I don't think there is an expected extra cost that would come with a Keykeg. I don't think continental kegs are single use, yet, I don't know for certain that this was in a conventional continental keg.
For info, the beer was called (I wrote it down as "f*ck that" but sense I may have been having a giraffe), was 7.%, and was £4.40 a half. Making it as, or possibly more, expensive than Magic Rock Bearded Lady - yet being 3.5% weaker, and below the HSB duty limit, and not definitely being in a single use container.
Lastly, Mikkeller and Magic Rock and Thornbridge have a really good reputation. I am willing to be wrong here, but I suspect Kissmeyer doesn't have the same enigma. Perhaps if it did (bearing in mind no tasters were available), I might have been willing to fork out for a half.
Wee Beefy
Thursday, 3 January 2013
Clear, but not as mud.
Hello,
aside from my exotic purchase of a beer that didn't meet my expectations (as covered in my previous post) I have seen a couple of other bloggers mention strong beers and prices recently - but in contrasting ways. Whilst Steve at the Beer Meisters blog here recorded the prices of Dark Star Imperial Stout in the Hastings area, Timbo at A Swift One made a plea here for 2013 to be a year when prices were fairer, and expressed his frustration at the high price of Keykeg "craft" beer in, "craft beer" establishments. Whatever Craft beer is.... (only joking!)
aside from my exotic purchase of a beer that didn't meet my expectations (as covered in my previous post) I have seen a couple of other bloggers mention strong beers and prices recently - but in contrasting ways. Whilst Steve at the Beer Meisters blog here recorded the prices of Dark Star Imperial Stout in the Hastings area, Timbo at A Swift One made a plea here for 2013 to be a year when prices were fairer, and expressed his frustration at the high price of Keykeg "craft" beer in, "craft beer" establishments. Whatever Craft beer is.... (only joking!)
Given that Steve has seen, albeit locally brewed 10.5% beer on sale on cask for less than £5.00 a pint in two pubs in Sussex, yer know, in the Saaaaarf, where everything is expensive, it seems odd to me that supping in the North I have somehow sleepwalked into a mindset where anything above the idiotic beer duty punishment threshold gets to be acceptably £7.00 a pint. Which throws up a few questions..
Firstly - am I going soft? Wibble. And when the hell did this happen? Could it be that endless sessions in Thornbridge pubs and the Sheffield Tap plus my visits to North Bar and Port Street Beer House and the like has led me to form a skewed picture of how much beer should cost? The Keykeg Arbor Ales beer at 12% was on at below a fiver a pint at the White Swan in Chesterfield as was the Keg Anchor Old Foghorn (what a coup by the way!) at Shakespeares in Sheffield. If the excuse for Keykeg costing more is that the container is single use then why is that not always the case?
Also, why are some brewers forging ahead with putting everything into Keykeg dispense? Where is the justification for supplying locally in Keykegs, and for putting much lower strength beer in them? One of the things about Keykeg as a dispense method is that its usually used for stronger beers, indeed, it pains me to concede that often they are suited better to that dispense (eeeurrgh, that feels icky). But is this a smokescreen? Because take off the alleged 80p difference per pint from cask, and it still ends up being 2 or 3 quid more!
Having taken a much needed breath and sought an oft missing "grip" I can now provide the start of an explanation, if not something as radical as a defence.
We don't know what pricing/purchasing arrangements the pubs in Hastings have with Dark Star. And we don't know for sciencertain that those quoted are correct (sorry Steve - assume every one is as lapse with the detail as I am!). Also, in the Shakespeares example, I don't know if the keg used was a trad or Keykeg - since its an American beer. I readily admit that I have come to associate all exotic none cask dispensed draught beer with Keykeg, and I'm not sure that's very helpful.
The final puzzle is, last year, I virtually popped a lung in apoplectic derision at Thornbridge Bracia selling for £9.60 a pint on cask at the Hallamshire House. Now, a year later, its the same price*, but its on Keykeg. I don't understand!
I know many beer bloggers have had this same disorientating sensation that their "pain barrier" of unacceptable expense has been withered away by a seamless procession of ever rarer, more exclusive and more preposterously expensive ingredient featuring beers from the darlings of UK and world brewing. So I don't expect any sympathy.
What I and all fellow sufferers could really do with is some inside knowledge. A brewer. Or a brewery owner. Or a bar owner. Someone who cares about beer, profit and customer experience (and there are thousands of you lets make that clear) who can honestly explain, counter or confirm any of the above points to me. I promise to share the results with erm, well, this blog. Too long for a tweet, one would hope.
Holding my breath now brewfolk...
Wee Beefy
*Mr Ash - I can't read your chalk board writing. Hence I couldn't work out if a half pint was £4.60 or £4.80. So if £9.60 is wrong, its your fault, basically....
Saturday, 14 April 2012
How much is too much?
O'rate,
I have seen quite a lot of coverage on beer blogs about the cost of stuff. Beer stuff, obviously. Boak and Bailey posted about it, and judging by the venue and product choices of many bloggers it seems theres more blog folks that will pay whatever is asked than there is who'll question or decline.
Personally am not keen on paying over the odds, and I suppose our old friend expectation comes into that. Also, having worked in the off trade (albeit before HSBD) I do have some understanding of costs, and often consider that what I'm being asked to pay is unreasonable.
Recently I have been to many establishments that have made me think about the point at which something is just too expensive, and how much people would be willing to pay and why. Here are a few examples :
A low gravity 500ml bottle in a shop, costing £4.00. (Its very rare, in that its possibly the only time the brewery have ever done a 500ml bottle, or sold them outside of their pub estate.)
A pint of aged beer in a pub retailing at £9.00 a pint. (The beer was aged for quite some time and was potentially only available on draught at a small number of venues. Its just as expensive in a bottle.)
A 500ml bottle of beer from a local brewery selling in a bar for about £6.00. (The bottles are hard to come by I understand.)
A pint of lower gravity beer (about 3.5%) sold in a pub as a guest for the same price as a 5.0% beer. (Its unusual to see the beer in the area.)
The first three examples are specific, the last one is more a general annoyance that you get in pubs.
Please note, there is no evidence that the above retailers aren't selling this stock. So why are people willing to pay so much for it? I have tried to suggest the reason I think the retailer is charging the stated price, because I'm interested to know what factors might make someone part with their cash for something that is more expensive either than you'd expect, or that you would consider acceptable.
If I'm buying beer, here are a few considerations that I may undertake :
Is it being sold at the going rate.
If its not, does it seem like there might be reasons why not.
Is it something I've always wanted to try, and if so does that justify buying it if the first two criteria aren't met
Will I get chance to buy it again
Is it limited edition (most likely with bottled conditioned ales, and Christ, that's a whole other can of worms)
If it meets none of the above criteria, but I am convinced it will be nice, shall I treat myself.*
Do you have similar considerations? For instance, is the rarity or otherwise unattainability of a product reason to pay more than you would normally? Or indeed, is cost an issue for you at all when buying something as relatively cheap as beer?
Wee Beefy
*I am not holding up the queue at the bar having this internal dialogue. Having a good idea of price and which beers I have tried/breweries I like means that probably only one or two of these considerations apply at any one time. These are a broad representation of what I might consider when buying ale. Which is perhaps for the best.
I have seen quite a lot of coverage on beer blogs about the cost of stuff. Beer stuff, obviously. Boak and Bailey posted about it, and judging by the venue and product choices of many bloggers it seems theres more blog folks that will pay whatever is asked than there is who'll question or decline.
Personally am not keen on paying over the odds, and I suppose our old friend expectation comes into that. Also, having worked in the off trade (albeit before HSBD) I do have some understanding of costs, and often consider that what I'm being asked to pay is unreasonable.
Recently I have been to many establishments that have made me think about the point at which something is just too expensive, and how much people would be willing to pay and why. Here are a few examples :
A low gravity 500ml bottle in a shop, costing £4.00. (Its very rare, in that its possibly the only time the brewery have ever done a 500ml bottle, or sold them outside of their pub estate.)
A pint of aged beer in a pub retailing at £9.00 a pint. (The beer was aged for quite some time and was potentially only available on draught at a small number of venues. Its just as expensive in a bottle.)
A 500ml bottle of beer from a local brewery selling in a bar for about £6.00. (The bottles are hard to come by I understand.)
A pint of lower gravity beer (about 3.5%) sold in a pub as a guest for the same price as a 5.0% beer. (Its unusual to see the beer in the area.)
The first three examples are specific, the last one is more a general annoyance that you get in pubs.
Please note, there is no evidence that the above retailers aren't selling this stock. So why are people willing to pay so much for it? I have tried to suggest the reason I think the retailer is charging the stated price, because I'm interested to know what factors might make someone part with their cash for something that is more expensive either than you'd expect, or that you would consider acceptable.
If I'm buying beer, here are a few considerations that I may undertake :
Is it being sold at the going rate.
If its not, does it seem like there might be reasons why not.
Is it something I've always wanted to try, and if so does that justify buying it if the first two criteria aren't met
Will I get chance to buy it again
Is it limited edition (most likely with bottled conditioned ales, and Christ, that's a whole other can of worms)
If it meets none of the above criteria, but I am convinced it will be nice, shall I treat myself.*
Do you have similar considerations? For instance, is the rarity or otherwise unattainability of a product reason to pay more than you would normally? Or indeed, is cost an issue for you at all when buying something as relatively cheap as beer?
Wee Beefy
*I am not holding up the queue at the bar having this internal dialogue. Having a good idea of price and which beers I have tried/breweries I like means that probably only one or two of these considerations apply at any one time. These are a broad representation of what I might consider when buying ale. Which is perhaps for the best.
Friday, 13 April 2012
A pub crawl of new (to some) pubs in Sheffield Part 1
Greetings,
yesterday I was a busy lad. I had to meet my friend of 34 years Christingpher at the Sheffield Tap at lunch (well, I say had, perhaps preferred to) for a catch up and then later I was off out with Davefromtshop for a tour of Sheffield's newer real ale venues that he had never visited before. Since Christingpher has never been int Tap, this makes our visit the start of my crawl, which involves taking people to pubs for the first time. (Not literally. Not reformed Methodists or anything. Or Puritans neither. You get the picture though....)
Dave's tour will be in Part 2.
Tap Rout
I was a trifle late having crammed some last minute food into me to soak up the beers I expected to have (although my achy heavy head wasn't exactly suggesting I have anything more than a glass of water). As I entered my drinking companion was enthusiastically coming out of the pub to greet me - I had to explain that I was delicate and at risk of sudden unconsciousness, which is usually a status I achieve at the end of the evening. We went inside and got served straight away by a barman with a dry sense of humour. I watched Christingpher eyeing up the beer and recommended the Marble Stout - then I had half an orange juice. The barman passed the stout over describing it as manly and went to get my "kids orange" - I asked for a balloon and a sweet, and was given a free biscuit. Bless.
We sat down in the seat next to the fireplace that overlooks the bar. We had much to catch up on, but due to a minor misunderstanding, Christingpher had come on his motorbike, and thought I was only staying for one. He made a great job of slowly supping his pint but I soon finished my OJ and admitted defeat - I would be having beer...
I opted for a pint of Marble Pint (hur hur, it sez pint, and it is (etc)...) which was a nice enough drink, but, if am to be honest, nothing like the beer I was expecting. It seemed a little dull actually, which surprised me. We tried moving seats to the booth in front of the bar, to see if a change of scene would improve things, but all this did was present me with a vista of beers and prompted another purchase.
I gave Christingpher the last quarter of my Pint and bought a new pint of Marble Stout. This was a far better beer, with coffee and smokey malt bitterness and a short but pleasant finish. Our discussions soon turned to Magic Rock, - as Christingpher is an artist I figured he'd love their artwork, and he did. We looked at the Magic Rock bottled beers on the beer menu and having decided they were too expensive, finally I caved in and went to buy a half of the Magic 8 ball (7%) on keykeg dispense.
Crikeykeg
I knew that keykeg was more expensive than cask, (never really understood why) and, with all due respect to the Tap, in a venue not afraid of expense, this could be a bad combination. Worse still, as I bought something else at the same time, I wasn't entirely sure of its price. I can reason however that a half cost me between £3.60 and £4.00. Now, I'll come to describing the beer in a moment but lets be clear. That, is fecking expensive. No mincing of words here, thats more than twice as expensive as anything they have on cask and nearly as expensive as the barrel aged 9% Bracia they had at the Hallamshire House. It felt wrong and reckless to spend so much money on one half of beer. It would have to be very very damn good.....
And it was, of course. Even for a keykeg, a dispense method which I don't rate that much. Don't get me wrong, keykeg beers can taste good, but its so rare you get to try a beer in keg and cask side by side to make any kind of meaningful comparison. Even if you could, I can't see room temperature, conditioned cask ale tasting worse than higher carbonated colder keykeg, and vice versa. Quite simply, this was fantastic.
More importantly, having tried numerous Black IPA's now, I think it was a really very good example. None of the imbalance of dry ascorbic hops and no finish, or dry stout flavours with odd peaks of hoppy bite, this was bitter, yes, initially, but then followed instantly by a smooth and creamy warming taste, much like a rich lustrous stout, and finishing with a joyous mix of malt and hops that followed the creamy taste perfectly, rather than being crowbarred onto the end. Brilliant, and nearly as good as Red Willow Faithless.
Christingpher figured a half was in order and he had the Nogne Porter, also 7%, partially based on my recommendation, verging on insistence. I warned him it would be pricey, and he uttered not a word on the price. If you transposed the cost percentage difference between Magic Rock and Nogne bottled beers (although they may be different sizes) I think he could have parted with £4.50. Jeee-eee-zus.
I tried a bit and it was very nice, not as good as the Magic 8 Ball, but with an endearing and curiously brilliant taste which was suggested to be Bubblegum. I couldn't for the life of me work out for certain what it was, but it was a central flavour of the beer, and really enjoyable. We sipped our wares slowly, me enthusing about the 8Ball every time I went back to sip it (I probably spent an hour or more drinking it) and although I had to go by 4PM I'd had 2 and a half pints in 3 hours (how sensible!) and a fantastic time catching up with a great friend.
Roll on 18.30 in the Hop!
Wee Beefy
yesterday I was a busy lad. I had to meet my friend of 34 years Christingpher at the Sheffield Tap at lunch (well, I say had, perhaps preferred to) for a catch up and then later I was off out with Davefromtshop for a tour of Sheffield's newer real ale venues that he had never visited before. Since Christingpher has never been int Tap, this makes our visit the start of my crawl, which involves taking people to pubs for the first time. (Not literally. Not reformed Methodists or anything. Or Puritans neither. You get the picture though....)
Dave's tour will be in Part 2.
Tap Rout
I was a trifle late having crammed some last minute food into me to soak up the beers I expected to have (although my achy heavy head wasn't exactly suggesting I have anything more than a glass of water). As I entered my drinking companion was enthusiastically coming out of the pub to greet me - I had to explain that I was delicate and at risk of sudden unconsciousness, which is usually a status I achieve at the end of the evening. We went inside and got served straight away by a barman with a dry sense of humour. I watched Christingpher eyeing up the beer and recommended the Marble Stout - then I had half an orange juice. The barman passed the stout over describing it as manly and went to get my "kids orange" - I asked for a balloon and a sweet, and was given a free biscuit. Bless.
We sat down in the seat next to the fireplace that overlooks the bar. We had much to catch up on, but due to a minor misunderstanding, Christingpher had come on his motorbike, and thought I was only staying for one. He made a great job of slowly supping his pint but I soon finished my OJ and admitted defeat - I would be having beer...
I opted for a pint of Marble Pint (hur hur, it sez pint, and it is (etc)...) which was a nice enough drink, but, if am to be honest, nothing like the beer I was expecting. It seemed a little dull actually, which surprised me. We tried moving seats to the booth in front of the bar, to see if a change of scene would improve things, but all this did was present me with a vista of beers and prompted another purchase.
I gave Christingpher the last quarter of my Pint and bought a new pint of Marble Stout. This was a far better beer, with coffee and smokey malt bitterness and a short but pleasant finish. Our discussions soon turned to Magic Rock, - as Christingpher is an artist I figured he'd love their artwork, and he did. We looked at the Magic Rock bottled beers on the beer menu and having decided they were too expensive, finally I caved in and went to buy a half of the Magic 8 ball (7%) on keykeg dispense.
Crikeykeg
I knew that keykeg was more expensive than cask, (never really understood why) and, with all due respect to the Tap, in a venue not afraid of expense, this could be a bad combination. Worse still, as I bought something else at the same time, I wasn't entirely sure of its price. I can reason however that a half cost me between £3.60 and £4.00. Now, I'll come to describing the beer in a moment but lets be clear. That, is fecking expensive. No mincing of words here, thats more than twice as expensive as anything they have on cask and nearly as expensive as the barrel aged 9% Bracia they had at the Hallamshire House. It felt wrong and reckless to spend so much money on one half of beer. It would have to be very very damn good.....
And it was, of course. Even for a keykeg, a dispense method which I don't rate that much. Don't get me wrong, keykeg beers can taste good, but its so rare you get to try a beer in keg and cask side by side to make any kind of meaningful comparison. Even if you could, I can't see room temperature, conditioned cask ale tasting worse than higher carbonated colder keykeg, and vice versa. Quite simply, this was fantastic.
More importantly, having tried numerous Black IPA's now, I think it was a really very good example. None of the imbalance of dry ascorbic hops and no finish, or dry stout flavours with odd peaks of hoppy bite, this was bitter, yes, initially, but then followed instantly by a smooth and creamy warming taste, much like a rich lustrous stout, and finishing with a joyous mix of malt and hops that followed the creamy taste perfectly, rather than being crowbarred onto the end. Brilliant, and nearly as good as Red Willow Faithless.
Christingpher figured a half was in order and he had the Nogne Porter, also 7%, partially based on my recommendation, verging on insistence. I warned him it would be pricey, and he uttered not a word on the price. If you transposed the cost percentage difference between Magic Rock and Nogne bottled beers (although they may be different sizes) I think he could have parted with £4.50. Jeee-eee-zus.
I tried a bit and it was very nice, not as good as the Magic 8 Ball, but with an endearing and curiously brilliant taste which was suggested to be Bubblegum. I couldn't for the life of me work out for certain what it was, but it was a central flavour of the beer, and really enjoyable. We sipped our wares slowly, me enthusing about the 8Ball every time I went back to sip it (I probably spent an hour or more drinking it) and although I had to go by 4PM I'd had 2 and a half pints in 3 hours (how sensible!) and a fantastic time catching up with a great friend.
Roll on 18.30 in the Hop!
Wee Beefy
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