Hello,
some of you may know that I had an issue recently known as a stroke. Am telling you this now so that you can judge me and then read with a clear head. I am not for a minute suggesting I have been sensible in my recovery. So lets now get on with the gen....
I had heard about this takeover a few weeks ago and had already enjoyed two of the beers in can in the last month, so no amount of minor brain injury was going to keep me away. It did take a while to walk from the Wicker, and it was cold, but I had my stick my phone and company. The beers did not disappoint.
I started on two halves, of Northern Monk and Wylam I want to moob it moob it, and Cloudwater and the Pilcrow pub Missing piece IPA at 7%. The Northern collab was fabulous, very cloudy and tantalisingly hoppy and absurdly easy to drink.
I had heard some in the tiny village of my drinking universe suggest that they were tired of Cloudwater and of the DIPA style. I found this quite interesting. I realise that price is an issue (the Northern Monk Wylam collab was £6.60 a pint at 8.8 and the Cloudwater collab was £7.20 at 7% for example) and also that their DIPA series of 9%ers had probably run its course before it finished. However, their New England DIPAs and Double dry hopped 6% pale ales have been far better, in some cases amazing, and the idea of double dry hopping a DIPA whilst also maintaining its balance and easy drinking smoothness brings the style to a whole new level.
The missing piece IPA with Pilcrow was very interesting and featured Citra, Eukanot and Mosaic and was double dry hopped, pulling off the hoppy and balanced trick perfectly. It was also thick yellow in colour - not that this matters, but it suggested different malts or yeast to usual had been used which perhaps contributed to the flavour. It was quite frankly exceptional. A proper hop smoothie.
I also tried the Weird Beard and Odyssey Brew Co Fuck you I won't brew what you tell me, a 9.2% West Coast IPA. I have a lot of time for Odyssey and the only thing that let this down was that the strength possibly gave the beer a noticable sweetness.
The final IPA I tried was the Deya Into the Haze, a wonderfully cloudy tropical IPA at 6.2%. This was perhaps the beer of the night in terms of mouthfeel and taste, and its the only beer I had a pint of. Deya are another good brewery whose products thus far have not disappointed me. A fantastic, smooth, hoppy end to a short tasting. Alas I did not get to try the Chorlton Mandarin sour or the Amundsen from Norway, and I didn't try the Lost Industry Landlocked streets in the sky because I had tried it in bottle and didn't fancy its unavoidable sweetness (although it is a very good beer).
Having missed two excellent pub fests whilst in hospital or recovering am glad I risked a trip to Shakespeares to sample some truly fantastic ales from some influential breweries. Looking forward to another which I would recommend should take place in February when am good and better.....
Cheers
Wee Beefy
Showing posts with label Lupulin smoothies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lupulin smoothies. Show all posts
Sunday, 10 December 2017
Sunday, 15 October 2017
Verdant
Hello there,
verdant eh?. Verdant fields of green. Verdant skies of...um...no wait. Cape Verdant in Africa? Erm...wait! Hoppy cloudy fruity zesty beer producers! That's them! Now its all coming back. This post hopes to explore details and my observations of Verdant Brewing, in that there far away Cornwall.....
Verdant are bloody excellent. A bold opening gambit, based on my promise of exploration, but in my opinion that is a cold hard fact. Absolutely bloody excellent. Never had a beer of theirs I didn't like. Never balked at the price (which is significant), never turned down the opportunity to sample their wares. Why is this?
Well, excellence is the simple answer, but it almost wasn't the case. I think the first time I saw one of their beers it was a wheaty type of ale on keg at my house, Shakespeares. I wrongly assumed they were American, for some reason, and immediately discounted the recommendation of Adam. Who wants to drink a Belgian-y American wheat beer anyway? I remembered saying to myself, inside my head. In the end, I didn't try any of their beers until a chance tasting of a very fruity beer at Hop Hideout, and a conversation with Seanio at Beer Central who recommended their Pulp DIPA in cans. I bought one. It was delicious. I was hooked.
In the last two weeks a lot of Verdant, which is pronounced Ver-dunt, as opposed to V-daant, as I have been miscalling it, has been spotted in Sheffield. Shakespeares had their Headband (which found its way into the Riverside of all places a month or so ago!) on keg, which is a 5.5% pale ale, and the eponymous Pulp DIPA, on at £7.20 a pint on keg at 8%. Bar Stewards meanwhile have had their 6.5% IPA Even Sharks need water, and two DIPAs, Jacob the Canary brewed in collaboration with Deya, and the truly astounding Maybe One More Psi, both DIPA's at 8%. Mind you, they were on sale at £9.80 a pint. That is new territory for me.
I tried the maybe one more Psi DIPA in can when myself and Matty had one of this year's many beer tastings. It was up against at least two Cloudwater DIPAs and other impeccable output but was probably the beer of the night. It is so fruity, yet gloriously hoppy. Its like a meal in a glass. A friend of mine described the Even sharks IPA as being "meaty". I know what she means. Talk about a beer you can get your teeth into.
I have long been a fan of unfined beers, and then Cloudwater started doing unfined DIPA's at 9%. All of a sudden, the world of easy drinking but stupidly strong hopshakes started to become real. A lupulin smoothie in a glass is a delight. And thus far every Verdant beer I have had is basically just that. A wonderful exercise in opaque beauty.
I have to say I was surprised to find they were based in Falmouth. I have been to Falmouth once, in 2008, and drank in the fabulous Seven Stars with the old landlord giving myself and WK a tour. I loved the pub, I loved Barrington which is what I recall his name was, but until the bookstore with a bar up an alleyway opened a few years ago I never associated Falmouth with good beer. To find that many hops in a Cornish beer was a surprise, but somehow the way they excellently blend with the fruit and other ingredients (oats?) makes sense, given they are brewing for the noticeably different Cornish palate.
That said, the fact that Verdant have now done collabs with North Brewing, and Wiper and True to name two, and are so sought after oop ere, shows their growing popularity continues unabated.
I am looking forward to trying numerous other Verdant beers, not least their license payers IPA, as shown on their website , brewed with the excellent brewery North, and indeed anything else they may care to brew in the future. I understand that this unshakeable belief in the produce of one brewery leads only, eventually, to disappointment, but for now, whilst it leads to boundless joy, its very much good by me.
Hooray for Verdant. And hooray for dank, juicy, hoppy, cloudy IPA!
Cheers
Wee Beefy
verdant eh?. Verdant fields of green. Verdant skies of...um...no wait. Cape Verdant in Africa? Erm...wait! Hoppy cloudy fruity zesty beer producers! That's them! Now its all coming back. This post hopes to explore details and my observations of Verdant Brewing, in that there far away Cornwall.....
Verdant are bloody excellent. A bold opening gambit, based on my promise of exploration, but in my opinion that is a cold hard fact. Absolutely bloody excellent. Never had a beer of theirs I didn't like. Never balked at the price (which is significant), never turned down the opportunity to sample their wares. Why is this?
Well, excellence is the simple answer, but it almost wasn't the case. I think the first time I saw one of their beers it was a wheaty type of ale on keg at my house, Shakespeares. I wrongly assumed they were American, for some reason, and immediately discounted the recommendation of Adam. Who wants to drink a Belgian-y American wheat beer anyway? I remembered saying to myself, inside my head. In the end, I didn't try any of their beers until a chance tasting of a very fruity beer at Hop Hideout, and a conversation with Seanio at Beer Central who recommended their Pulp DIPA in cans. I bought one. It was delicious. I was hooked.
In the last two weeks a lot of Verdant, which is pronounced Ver-dunt, as opposed to V-daant, as I have been miscalling it, has been spotted in Sheffield. Shakespeares had their Headband (which found its way into the Riverside of all places a month or so ago!) on keg, which is a 5.5% pale ale, and the eponymous Pulp DIPA, on at £7.20 a pint on keg at 8%. Bar Stewards meanwhile have had their 6.5% IPA Even Sharks need water, and two DIPAs, Jacob the Canary brewed in collaboration with Deya, and the truly astounding Maybe One More Psi, both DIPA's at 8%. Mind you, they were on sale at £9.80 a pint. That is new territory for me.
I tried the maybe one more Psi DIPA in can when myself and Matty had one of this year's many beer tastings. It was up against at least two Cloudwater DIPAs and other impeccable output but was probably the beer of the night. It is so fruity, yet gloriously hoppy. Its like a meal in a glass. A friend of mine described the Even sharks IPA as being "meaty". I know what she means. Talk about a beer you can get your teeth into.
I have long been a fan of unfined beers, and then Cloudwater started doing unfined DIPA's at 9%. All of a sudden, the world of easy drinking but stupidly strong hopshakes started to become real. A lupulin smoothie in a glass is a delight. And thus far every Verdant beer I have had is basically just that. A wonderful exercise in opaque beauty.
I have to say I was surprised to find they were based in Falmouth. I have been to Falmouth once, in 2008, and drank in the fabulous Seven Stars with the old landlord giving myself and WK a tour. I loved the pub, I loved Barrington which is what I recall his name was, but until the bookstore with a bar up an alleyway opened a few years ago I never associated Falmouth with good beer. To find that many hops in a Cornish beer was a surprise, but somehow the way they excellently blend with the fruit and other ingredients (oats?) makes sense, given they are brewing for the noticeably different Cornish palate.
That said, the fact that Verdant have now done collabs with North Brewing, and Wiper and True to name two, and are so sought after oop ere, shows their growing popularity continues unabated.
I am looking forward to trying numerous other Verdant beers, not least their license payers IPA, as shown on their website , brewed with the excellent brewery North, and indeed anything else they may care to brew in the future. I understand that this unshakeable belief in the produce of one brewery leads only, eventually, to disappointment, but for now, whilst it leads to boundless joy, its very much good by me.
Hooray for Verdant. And hooray for dank, juicy, hoppy, cloudy IPA!
Cheers
Wee Beefy
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