Sobremesa

 Afternoon readers - am going to post about a new brewery to me that I came accross at Indie Beer Feast back in March. 

This year I secured 2 tickets and before I went to the first session i received a text from the lovely Tash about a chap she had met or been introduced to in the Old Shoe who specialised in Saisons - he was called Adrianne and was showcasing his products at Indie Beer Feast. Half an hour after arriving, and finishing my bold opening pint, I spotted what sounded like his bar, and I introduced myself. After a quick chat, I promised him I would pop back later on to purchase some saison, although I did get to try a sample of his bottled saison, and I admit I absolutely loved it.

So having finished my starter and after meeting up with kieron and RJW, I went back to his bar and got a half of his Farmyard ale - a saison style brew which was lovely, but sooooooooo easy to drink! I cant accurately recall if you could buy bottles to take out from the Beer Feast, but he assured me that his beers were available in Hop Hideout, and also the Old Shoe - infact, on my next visit there they were indeed selling two of his beers on draught!

The brewery is based in some out buildings at a farm in rural Wales - writing this post has pointed out to me that there are some facts which I need to check out - in the meantime - here is a link to their website: Brecon Breacons Craft Beer & Tap Room | Farmhouse Beer & Natural Cider | SOBREMESA Drinks

I admit that I had forgotten that they had a taproom in the Brecon Becons, for example......

I also forgot the meaning of Sobremesa - it describes the period post meal when friends and family members chat with each other sat at the table......

And also that they produce their own cider.

And I cant recall definitely if Adrianne's name is Adrianne......

What I do know is that his beers are marvelous!

Last week I popped into Hop Hideout and bought a can of his Farmhouse Pilsner, a 750ml bottle of his Farmhouse Ale, and an as yet untried bottle of his Damson Saison. I had the whole bottle of his Farmhouse Ale last night - it was poured over about an hour but I finished it all and after a large meal and a few hours in the pub this was an ideal finisher!

This is a link to the details of their Rosalind Yeast -Rosalind yeast | SOBREMESA Drinks

I always like to read these sort of facts at such a detailed level on a brewery website because many breweries seem reluctant to share this amount of info? Not an industry criticism, of course, but a valid observation - its reassuring to see the length of preparation undertaken by the brewery and cidery before they started - and thus far, possibly affected by the yeast used, their output has been fabulous!

Aswell as ordering online from the brewery in Talgarth, you can probably still buy from Hop Hideout here in fine sunny Sheffield! So I would recommend that you should pop in there to get a bottle or a can.....

Finally - and this is not proven - I suspect that Adrianne is probably Spanish - although his name may still not be Adrianne - have had a sleep since then.......

Warmest regards

Wee Beefy

Dronfield

Hulloo,

       this post, in keeping with ongoing issues of procrastination, is fairly late. I went to Dronfield at the beginning of the month, but hey, the facts are still there. Those that I can remember at least. Not the ones I have conflated with other events at random points in the past. Not them. Um.....

So, I had been to Beer Central once again for my monthly catch up - where am introduced, in what is becoming a veritable smorgasboard of equal delights and surprise, to beers I may have said I would buy whilst online in the preceding week. s. As always there were some shocks, not in terms of prices, more in terms of my not remembering ordering some of them. There was also a lot of Cloudwater. Hooray for me!

I cut down past the Lord Nelson and wandered up to the Rutland to get a couple of drinks before I headed off. Continuing the Cloudwater theme I had  a half of their London Ale DIPA at 9%. Its come to something when you have to express surprise at a beer being on at less than £7.00 a pint, but that's what it was, and that is what I paid for. I also got a frankly sublime half of Lervig Passion Tang, a passion fruit sour at 7.0%. Having never disliked a Lervig brew this did not disappoint.  Both beers were on keg and in excellent condition. This was a good start to my trip.

Once at the station I didn't have too long to wait for the unfeasibly small Nottingham train to trundle into view and was quickly in Dronfield and heading for the Dronfield Arms. In the days before I had tried a number of pints of Hopjacker Stargoon on cask at Shakespeares - one of the best cask beers I have had this year. Alas there was none on cask at the Arms, and also no Edd, but still lots of excellent beers to choose from.

I started with a pint of Hopjacker beginning with M - it was about 3.8% and having lost some of my memory I have searched Google to find a suggestion of "mock draft". Is this even one of your beers Edd? If not, the one I tried still began with M. The beer was easy drinking, and accompanied some delicious olives which may or may not have been stuffed.

Next up I discovered that Stargoon was available, on keg. So I had to have a pint of that, along with a cheese and pickle pork pie. The pub was starting to get busier, and it was good to see plenty of customers with dogs. The Stargoon on keg was actually not quite as good as the cask at Shakespeares. Its a weird one, but that remains even now after other tries, the best I have ever tasted it. A cracking beer from a fab brewery.

Off next to find the Dronfield Beer Stop, which, it turns out, is about 3 minutes walk away. Spotting the lane the shop was on I then noticed the shop itself, and so headed in. The guy was friendly and chatty and didn't mind serving me a beer on keg, which I had promised to drink quickly, despite him soon being closed. The beer was from a brewery based not in the UK. For reasons of crapulence, I cannot recall it or the beer's name. We had a good chat about what was good and available and I bought a can of Verdant Some Fifty Summers, a 4.8 or similar percent dry hopped pale. I made it clear that I liked Verdant, as did the man, who had an identifying sound, AKA a name. Names eh......  

My penultimate stop was at the Coach and Horses down the road - passing at least two former pubs, one closed down and one now a restaurant (although that may not have been a pub.....). The Coach was busy when I got in and I initially sat outside with my pint of beer, which was definitely pale, and also owned one of those defining noises which one makes when identifying or remembering it. Neither of which I can. Alas it soon started to rain so I nipped back inside and finished my enjoyable but alas unmemorable beer.

I finished the day's supping back at the Dronfield Arms having another pork pie (plain this time) and at least one more pint of the Hopjacker Stargoon, a fabulously cloudy, hoppy, fruity American style and hopped (probably) IPA. I tried a pint of this last time I was in Shakespeares and it remains a truly wonderful beer.

All too soon alas I had to return to the station and get the train, and once back in Sheffield I ignored the draw of the Tap and went home to indulge in one of my cans of Cloudwater, which was a 4.5% double hopped pale if memory serves. It does, but alas it double faulted.

I am well aware that there are other venues to tempt me to Dronfield but in fairness this was something of a whistlestop tour so apart from my first visit to the Beer Stop I stuck with what I know. Luckily, when beer is as good as it is at the Dronfield Arms, there seems little point going anywhere else.

Cheers!

Wee Beefy

Cloudwater DDH Simcoe Vic Secret pale

Hello,
   
     I have tonight had a second can from my haul from Beer Central. I tried to resist but its been a tiring day of work in the garden (luckily all standing on soft grass and slowly moving as am not well enough to stand on step ladders yet) and although the sun and temperature lessened as the day went on I fancied some liquid reward for my efforts.

What I have discovered is more about Cloudwater, specifically their ingredients, and I have reached some possible conclusions about their distinctive Manchester sweetness aroma. Of course, I am not a brewer. So apologies to the Cloudwater's if I muddy them with guesswork.

The first thing to say about this 440 ml can is that the distinct (to me) Cloudwater nose was missing when I opened it. They have used WLP001 yeast which means nothing to me, other than its not the one which they use from J W Lees, which a quick scan of some cans from Cloudwater shows is either known simply as that, or is used with WLP4000. Am starting to cluelessly grab hold of the idea that the JW Lees and or WLP4000 yeast is the singular characteristic in the nose of other Cloudwater beers....

The can also states that they have increased the carapils and dextrin (malts?) and brewed with WLP001 for a "neutral yeast profile". This may be more egg to my omelette.

So, what of the bose itself?

The beer looks London opaque, and is a pale yellow hued colour. Crucially, the primary  characteristic of this beer is its bitterness. Chuff me. Even before reading it was double dry hopped with Simcoe, Vic secret and Chinook I was agog at how wonderfully bitter the initial and aftertaste was. I know I like Simcoe and Chinook but that combination with Vic secret and dry hopping with each takes this beer to another level. Its 5.5% but is considerably more bitter than their DIPA's. That, is a triumph of dry hopping.

I discovered some small clumps of yeast in the bottom of the glass so mixed them in just now - this makes the beer smoother, but also increases the bitterness. The key feature is the balance of those two competing flavours. Its difficult to pull off with very bitter dry hopped ales, and Cloudwater have managed to do so without that niggling sweetness. I really hope they use the neutral strain again as it sets this beer apart from its predecessors.

Its taken me thirty minutes, slowed down only by writing this and searching for an empty can of DIPA13, to drink this beer and I enjoyed every mouthful. The hoppiness is lingering and in some ways a little too much perhaps, but that is the only minor fault I can find in this exemplary modern pale ale.  

I look forward to drinking many more ales of this caliber in the future. A very enjoyable and accomplished, and very bitter, pale ale.

Cheers!

Wee Beefy

Cans.

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