An unforseen future, nestled somewhere in time,
Unsuspecting victims no warnings, no signs,
Judgement day the second coming arrives,
Before you see the light, you must die!
Ah, whoops. Have got DEYA, a Cheltenham based brewery, mixed up with Tom Araya's excellent thrash master's Slayer. Soz....
Back to boohar, and over Loockdown, and largely via my chums at Bar Stewards, DEYA have produced some of the frankly finest pints. Prior to writing this I had a quick check of my previous posts and noticed that in 2018 and onwards I had already recognised the excellent quality of their soups - and had written about it a number of times previously, thereby proving me right. Tonight I had the first of three cans of theirs which I picked up from Bar Stewards, and found it unsurprisingly excellent.......
Over the past four months their Steady Rolling Man, an excellent 5.2% IPA, is probably the beer, of many, that I have drunk most often. Its a great quality, vegan friendly, unfiltered and unpasteurised IPA which drinks like babbeh milk with an excellent hoppiness in the background. This was well received and enjoyed, and in fact most of their best beers have been 5.2 - 6.9%, but they did also do a fabulous DIPA collab with Left Handed Giant in Brizzle. Despite some disappointing brown colours this once again was excellent.
One of the things I like about DEYA is that as well as them producing big cans, therefore supplying a whole and wholly enjoyable 500ml, they also state that the beer was produced "in our house style". Am well aware that this is neither a soul changing nor spine snapping revelation, but I do think it perfectly sums up their output. Tonight I enjoyed a 6.5% "Glue IPA" and it was outstanding. Perfectly pale, utterly clouded, hoppy and fruity in the aftertaste and displaying an excellent overall mouth feel. Although it sadly does not list the HOPS used, it's noticable that they are of good quality, perfectly balanced, and the overall taste is so good that I can forgive that lack of information.
Have never had chance to travel down to Cheltenham to pop into, as well as what I hear are some excellent pubs, their brewery tap. It is however something that I would love to do. Not least because, its actually very rare to find a brewery whose every output you desire, simultaneously doesn't disappoint. and which leaves you craving some more....
So although this is a short post I would like to thank DEYA for their marvelous output, and to hope to see then in keg or can, or who knows, perhaps even Cask from the Past, at sometime soon.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Showing posts with label Unfined beers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Unfined beers. Show all posts
Thursday, 13 August 2020
Friday, 27 March 2020
Salt Beer Factory
Hello,
after last Friday and Monday's announcements by the government about restrictions on movement and socialising, a point reiterated a number of times since, I thought I might try remembering the sort of things I got up to in the recent past. Admittedly some shops and breweries are doing deliveries but lets be honest, even home delivered bowze comes no where near the enjoyment of meeting up with friends, or strangers, in an excellent boozer and drinking the night away in company. To which end I thought I might try as best as my slightly less effective brain can manage, to recollect those same halcyon days.
Its probably a year or two ago that I first came across Salt Beer. I recall I was in my second home, Shakespeares, and found an IPA or possibly a DIPA from the same on keg, at a very reasonable price for it's strength. Not only that but I was equally surprised by its flavour - well balanced, fruity and hoppy but without any lingering sweetness.
After this episode I saw them a few times more and I may have purchased a can from Beer Central - although I may have not - but despite enjoying the first two I tried I was still somewhat concerned. Am guessing it must have been their residing in Saltaire that reminded me of some of the rather disappointing and middle ground market led beers of Saltaire Brewery, whose brews I had quickly started to avoid for fear of the way their flavour profile had changed. Against this backdrop, I was interested then to see their cans in Bar Stewards, selling at a comparatively low price, and was pleasingly chuffed when I started tasting them.
Suddenly they were launching - or perhaps I should instead claim all along they had been launching, hoppy and fruity beers with sufficient bite and citra notes to blend well with their background bitterness. In effect this describes many of the beer styles that I love, but I was sufficiently impressed to try a couple of IPA's and, if am right, as well as a DIPA.
As my supplies of scran and beer dwindles pre payday, I found that I had two Salt Beer Factory beers left, and last night I tried a can of their Alpaca, a 6.6% DDH IPA with tropical flavours and once again very well balanced by the bitterness. What's more, and I realise I perhaps favour this more than necessary, the beer was unfined and therefore reassuringly cloudy. I still find it disappointing to hear drinkers observing a beer with a sign below, or indeed written on the clip, stating that it is unfined and therefore cloudy, claiming that this fact alone means the beer is off. Sadly that still happens, but luckily this has not dissuaded Salt from encompassing this process, and as a result, their beers are blessedly easy to drink.
During a recent conversation in Bar Stewards it was suggested that a former Cloudwater brewer or other employee had moved to Salt. Whether this is true or not remains irrelevant as, although they might share the latter's reluctance to confirm the hops used, they also share the ability to make excellent beers. And as I have previously pointed out, it had got to the stage in a number of cases where knowing the hops and yeast used perhaps changed the level of enjoyment based on the gaunt spectre of expectation. Their beers are good, tasty, and accurately described. That matters, and is an aptly satisfied desire.
Once we escape from the stultifying doom of isolation I am indeed looking forward now to seeing their beers both on keg and cask - although, if am honest, am not certain whether they do the latter or not.
Either way, I shall anticipate the next tasting of their brews with confidence.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
after last Friday and Monday's announcements by the government about restrictions on movement and socialising, a point reiterated a number of times since, I thought I might try remembering the sort of things I got up to in the recent past. Admittedly some shops and breweries are doing deliveries but lets be honest, even home delivered bowze comes no where near the enjoyment of meeting up with friends, or strangers, in an excellent boozer and drinking the night away in company. To which end I thought I might try as best as my slightly less effective brain can manage, to recollect those same halcyon days.
Its probably a year or two ago that I first came across Salt Beer. I recall I was in my second home, Shakespeares, and found an IPA or possibly a DIPA from the same on keg, at a very reasonable price for it's strength. Not only that but I was equally surprised by its flavour - well balanced, fruity and hoppy but without any lingering sweetness.
After this episode I saw them a few times more and I may have purchased a can from Beer Central - although I may have not - but despite enjoying the first two I tried I was still somewhat concerned. Am guessing it must have been their residing in Saltaire that reminded me of some of the rather disappointing and middle ground market led beers of Saltaire Brewery, whose brews I had quickly started to avoid for fear of the way their flavour profile had changed. Against this backdrop, I was interested then to see their cans in Bar Stewards, selling at a comparatively low price, and was pleasingly chuffed when I started tasting them.
Suddenly they were launching - or perhaps I should instead claim all along they had been launching, hoppy and fruity beers with sufficient bite and citra notes to blend well with their background bitterness. In effect this describes many of the beer styles that I love, but I was sufficiently impressed to try a couple of IPA's and, if am right, as well as a DIPA.
As my supplies of scran and beer dwindles pre payday, I found that I had two Salt Beer Factory beers left, and last night I tried a can of their Alpaca, a 6.6% DDH IPA with tropical flavours and once again very well balanced by the bitterness. What's more, and I realise I perhaps favour this more than necessary, the beer was unfined and therefore reassuringly cloudy. I still find it disappointing to hear drinkers observing a beer with a sign below, or indeed written on the clip, stating that it is unfined and therefore cloudy, claiming that this fact alone means the beer is off. Sadly that still happens, but luckily this has not dissuaded Salt from encompassing this process, and as a result, their beers are blessedly easy to drink.
During a recent conversation in Bar Stewards it was suggested that a former Cloudwater brewer or other employee had moved to Salt. Whether this is true or not remains irrelevant as, although they might share the latter's reluctance to confirm the hops used, they also share the ability to make excellent beers. And as I have previously pointed out, it had got to the stage in a number of cases where knowing the hops and yeast used perhaps changed the level of enjoyment based on the gaunt spectre of expectation. Their beers are good, tasty, and accurately described. That matters, and is an aptly satisfied desire.
Once we escape from the stultifying doom of isolation I am indeed looking forward now to seeing their beers both on keg and cask - although, if am honest, am not certain whether they do the latter or not.
Either way, I shall anticipate the next tasting of their brews with confidence.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Tuesday, 10 April 2018
Dankers
Helloo,
is it not bonkers that I love a beer style with the description dank, murky, and soupy? When did I stop caring about pristine clear beer? And does beer have to be clear to be good?
Well, the answer to the last is a clear no. Of course not. Some styles, such as hefeweizen, dunkelweisse, saison and others are almost exclusively cloudy. And lets not forget unfiltered beers, or ales so heavily dry hopped that the hop residue never settles. The key is, I am talking about beer. All beer. In all climates, themes, styles and circumstances. Ever had a can conditioned can? Yes. It pours cloudy. And it should. The answer to the first question, ironically, is not as clear...
This is partly because I have been interested by a debate that has ignited itself on Faceache recently about DIPAs, and laterally, TIPAs. My good chum Danny started this off by saying that he was "over" DIPAs. For reasons unclear this really bothered me. But why? Am not a brewer after all. And surely, as it remains, one of the unending joys of beer is that there are so many styles, and so many different people who love different of them. When did I start to lose sight of that?
Sean at Beer Central also recently admitted concerns about the D and Tipa scene, and its products. Danny reiterated his position, and said that his issue with the style was that they all tasted the same. And that was it. I was now in a proper conundrum.
Had I accepted that all beer should taste like Wards, Stones, Tetley or Marstons, as it seemed to when I started drinking in 1990 (ish), then I wouldn't have undertaken the frankly marvelous, multifaceted, joyous journey of exploration that has underpinned my beer drinking life. So it is definitely a bad thing that all beers of a certain style taste the same.
Well.....in some ways no. As with all alepinion, it depends entirely where you stand. I, as a person who is always more than willing to try new styles, or old styles on cask or keg not previously, would still say that choice is the elixir. The choice to have a Fantome saison or a Buxton single hop IPA or a Black Sheep Bitter is inherently important, in fact crucial, to our freedom to enjoy the unending myriad of beers and styles available in the world today.
As it may be obvious to some of you, I absolutely love soupy, murky, dank IPas and DIPAs. Its one of the ironic facts of my battle with over consumption that I have "fallen" for a style where easy drinking characteristics are prized. As I said to a mate recently, its strange I should love a strong ale that is easy to drink. For reason of health and affordability, my best beer should be like near set concrete......
To me then, all D and Tipas tasting the same, which is a pervasive theme, if not literal fact, is actually fine. Its like finding my favourite Iberico chorizo, and then slowly discovering that all other styles of chorizo taste virtually the same, and there-everafter being able to enjoy this porcine prize. The downside of this dream is that there isn't actually the possibility for agricultural, geographical, cultural and financial reasons, that this could ever happen. And even if it were, the issue would be the elimination of every other chorizo style (and humongous, unmanagable herds of pigs in Iberican oak forests). The difference with the assimilation of style and to some extent tastes in the beer scene, is marked.
The gamut of choice on the beer smorgasboard is immense. There are too many styles to list here, and whilst through the ages some styles have dominated, the affect of that domination has been vibrant spring shoots of change. Remember when almost all beer except lager was brown? I do. And I knew nothing else until Kelham Island Pale Rider and Abbeydale Moonshine arrived, some twenty years or more ago. Can you still get brown bitter? Yes. You may have to go to a specific type of boozer to find it but it remains well loved, and well drunk by those who love it. Did you have to seek out Kelham Island and Abbeydale in specialist guest ale bars when they started? Yes. And you have to do the same to find cloudy dank I and DIpas now.
Our beer universes, irrespective of personal preferences, are in fact very small. This does not for a second disprove the claim that all D and Tipas taste the same, it simply reassures us that other types and styles of beer are not only available, but are also being developed and released all the time. Am not suggesting dankness is a fad or short lived peak on the heart monitor of a dying industry. Am just saying that the same vibrancy that gave us dank, cloudy DIPAs and soupy IPAs loaded with hops is the same part that will, if we do get bored of them, save us once again from that self same repetition of style, format, product and taste by pioneering new styles.
The future's bright. The beer is cloudy orange.
Am now off to drink a soupy DIPA.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
is it not bonkers that I love a beer style with the description dank, murky, and soupy? When did I stop caring about pristine clear beer? And does beer have to be clear to be good?
Well, the answer to the last is a clear no. Of course not. Some styles, such as hefeweizen, dunkelweisse, saison and others are almost exclusively cloudy. And lets not forget unfiltered beers, or ales so heavily dry hopped that the hop residue never settles. The key is, I am talking about beer. All beer. In all climates, themes, styles and circumstances. Ever had a can conditioned can? Yes. It pours cloudy. And it should. The answer to the first question, ironically, is not as clear...
This is partly because I have been interested by a debate that has ignited itself on Faceache recently about DIPAs, and laterally, TIPAs. My good chum Danny started this off by saying that he was "over" DIPAs. For reasons unclear this really bothered me. But why? Am not a brewer after all. And surely, as it remains, one of the unending joys of beer is that there are so many styles, and so many different people who love different of them. When did I start to lose sight of that?
Sean at Beer Central also recently admitted concerns about the D and Tipa scene, and its products. Danny reiterated his position, and said that his issue with the style was that they all tasted the same. And that was it. I was now in a proper conundrum.
Had I accepted that all beer should taste like Wards, Stones, Tetley or Marstons, as it seemed to when I started drinking in 1990 (ish), then I wouldn't have undertaken the frankly marvelous, multifaceted, joyous journey of exploration that has underpinned my beer drinking life. So it is definitely a bad thing that all beers of a certain style taste the same.
Well.....in some ways no. As with all alepinion, it depends entirely where you stand. I, as a person who is always more than willing to try new styles, or old styles on cask or keg not previously, would still say that choice is the elixir. The choice to have a Fantome saison or a Buxton single hop IPA or a Black Sheep Bitter is inherently important, in fact crucial, to our freedom to enjoy the unending myriad of beers and styles available in the world today.
As it may be obvious to some of you, I absolutely love soupy, murky, dank IPas and DIPAs. Its one of the ironic facts of my battle with over consumption that I have "fallen" for a style where easy drinking characteristics are prized. As I said to a mate recently, its strange I should love a strong ale that is easy to drink. For reason of health and affordability, my best beer should be like near set concrete......
To me then, all D and Tipas tasting the same, which is a pervasive theme, if not literal fact, is actually fine. Its like finding my favourite Iberico chorizo, and then slowly discovering that all other styles of chorizo taste virtually the same, and there-everafter being able to enjoy this porcine prize. The downside of this dream is that there isn't actually the possibility for agricultural, geographical, cultural and financial reasons, that this could ever happen. And even if it were, the issue would be the elimination of every other chorizo style (and humongous, unmanagable herds of pigs in Iberican oak forests). The difference with the assimilation of style and to some extent tastes in the beer scene, is marked.
The gamut of choice on the beer smorgasboard is immense. There are too many styles to list here, and whilst through the ages some styles have dominated, the affect of that domination has been vibrant spring shoots of change. Remember when almost all beer except lager was brown? I do. And I knew nothing else until Kelham Island Pale Rider and Abbeydale Moonshine arrived, some twenty years or more ago. Can you still get brown bitter? Yes. You may have to go to a specific type of boozer to find it but it remains well loved, and well drunk by those who love it. Did you have to seek out Kelham Island and Abbeydale in specialist guest ale bars when they started? Yes. And you have to do the same to find cloudy dank I and DIpas now.
Our beer universes, irrespective of personal preferences, are in fact very small. This does not for a second disprove the claim that all D and Tipas taste the same, it simply reassures us that other types and styles of beer are not only available, but are also being developed and released all the time. Am not suggesting dankness is a fad or short lived peak on the heart monitor of a dying industry. Am just saying that the same vibrancy that gave us dank, cloudy DIPAs and soupy IPAs loaded with hops is the same part that will, if we do get bored of them, save us once again from that self same repetition of style, format, product and taste by pioneering new styles.
The future's bright. The beer is cloudy orange.
Am now off to drink a soupy DIPA.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
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
Friday, 25 August 2017
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
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
Wednesday, 19 September 2012
Not another fined mess
Hello,
now regular readers may wish to admonish me or mumble under their breath in dissatisfaction at the fact that my detox and stop at home money saving plan lasted only 2 days. However, any such scathing disapproval would only prevent you from sharing in my joy at drinking two utterly faultless beers last night, in ideal surroundings. So forgive me, and allow me to tell you why breaking my abstinence was so worth it...
I left work with a significant thirst after a day of frustration and poorly executed projects by those above me. I decided to go straight to Shakespeares Ale and Cider House on Gibraltar Street, not five minutes away (well, literally, if you walk slowly) without even stopping to secure myself some cash first.
Having checked the card machine was working, I selected a pint, a half of somethiong strong and a packet of crisps. It came to a fiver. Myself and the lass behind the bar were impressed, and I paid on card and got some cashback. I realise I may have mentioned this before, but giving cash back, especially in the form of for example, charging £12.80 for a pint and giving a tenner back, is simply good business sense. Punters stop around longer, and assuming they purchase more beer, don't pay by card thereby saving you the transaction fee...
Anyhoo, todays business lesson aside, lets talk about the incredible beer.
Revolutions Brew Demo, 4.5% unfined late hopped ale. A glorious amber, possibly slightly chectnut ale which, was crystal clear. Initially I was disappointed about this. However, my sense of let down evaporated, after one swig told me straight away I had picked the best beer on the bar. As my visit continued, it became obvious that I had probably picked the best beer on any bar, anywhere, on that night.
Demo drinks so easily as to be embarrassing. There is a distinct and pleasing nutty flavour lurking in the bitterness which I swear I have detected in unfined beer before. That its colour is so glorious maybe an anomaly, since I was expecting a cloudy offering, but it was suggested to me that the finings weren't there to clear the beer, rather to keep the yeast at the bottom. Arguably, one is the same as the other - I found out though that the beer had been in the cellar at Shakespeares for a good while. So you could suggest that all the "matter" i.e. yeast and hop debris had naturally settled to the bottom of the cask. I still don't understand if or how that could have contributed to the beer being so damned amazing though....
Five minutes after my first purchase, without even having entertained the idea of starting to sup my half of Raw Pacific Ghost, 5.9%, I was back at the bar using my tenner to purchase a sarnie and another pint of Demo. This time I had to force myself not to drink Demo until I had finished my Raw beer. It was a very enjoyable and impressively balanced hoppy beer in itself, but it possibly didn't receive a fair assessment in the face of the competition.
All too soon I was once again delighting in the absurdly pleasing quaffability of the tremendous Demo. Had I the money, time and physical capacity, I think I would have drunk the beer until it ran out. It was that good. That it was also safe to drink plenty at a sensible 4.5% made it all the more satisfying. An unrivalled start to any night's drinking.
I was off oop troad next to pop in Dada as Tuesday's demand. The two other Tuesday regulars were in and we chatted about darker beers, mild at the Temple, and the National Inventory of Unspoilt Pub Interiors. On the bar there were no guests, which would normally annoty me immensely, but I didn't care, because they were selling Thornbridge McConnells. Which is bloody excellent. I haven't drunk it since December, and it was well worth the wait.
Plenty of Thornbridge favourites have fallen from grace recently for me. Most notably Kipling, Jaipur and for a while now, Lord Marples. So to find McConnells in such fantastic form was reason to celebrate. And I did so by buying several pints of the wonderful drink.
The enjoyment of my visit was enhanced by chatting with beer genius Emily and James, the youngest man in the world. There are times I have been to Dada and been non-plussed about the beer, but not minded in the face of excellent company. I have already written at length about why I like the place so I won't go over old ground, but its safe to say that my trip there, on this occasion of beer excellence, was the perfect end to the evening.
This year has seen me bowled over and blown away by Brodies Citra, Red Willow Faithless, Magic Rock Bearded Lady Bourbon Cask and Magic 8 Ball, Blue Monkey BG Sips (again), Steel City 666, Dark Star Saison and now Revolutions Brew Demo.
It looks like I've nearly settled on my top ten beers of 2012....
Wee Beefy
now regular readers may wish to admonish me or mumble under their breath in dissatisfaction at the fact that my detox and stop at home money saving plan lasted only 2 days. However, any such scathing disapproval would only prevent you from sharing in my joy at drinking two utterly faultless beers last night, in ideal surroundings. So forgive me, and allow me to tell you why breaking my abstinence was so worth it...
I left work with a significant thirst after a day of frustration and poorly executed projects by those above me. I decided to go straight to Shakespeares Ale and Cider House on Gibraltar Street, not five minutes away (well, literally, if you walk slowly) without even stopping to secure myself some cash first.
Having checked the card machine was working, I selected a pint, a half of somethiong strong and a packet of crisps. It came to a fiver. Myself and the lass behind the bar were impressed, and I paid on card and got some cashback. I realise I may have mentioned this before, but giving cash back, especially in the form of for example, charging £12.80 for a pint and giving a tenner back, is simply good business sense. Punters stop around longer, and assuming they purchase more beer, don't pay by card thereby saving you the transaction fee...
Anyhoo, todays business lesson aside, lets talk about the incredible beer.
Revolutions Brew Demo, 4.5% unfined late hopped ale. A glorious amber, possibly slightly chectnut ale which, was crystal clear. Initially I was disappointed about this. However, my sense of let down evaporated, after one swig told me straight away I had picked the best beer on the bar. As my visit continued, it became obvious that I had probably picked the best beer on any bar, anywhere, on that night.
Demo drinks so easily as to be embarrassing. There is a distinct and pleasing nutty flavour lurking in the bitterness which I swear I have detected in unfined beer before. That its colour is so glorious maybe an anomaly, since I was expecting a cloudy offering, but it was suggested to me that the finings weren't there to clear the beer, rather to keep the yeast at the bottom. Arguably, one is the same as the other - I found out though that the beer had been in the cellar at Shakespeares for a good while. So you could suggest that all the "matter" i.e. yeast and hop debris had naturally settled to the bottom of the cask. I still don't understand if or how that could have contributed to the beer being so damned amazing though....
Five minutes after my first purchase, without even having entertained the idea of starting to sup my half of Raw Pacific Ghost, 5.9%, I was back at the bar using my tenner to purchase a sarnie and another pint of Demo. This time I had to force myself not to drink Demo until I had finished my Raw beer. It was a very enjoyable and impressively balanced hoppy beer in itself, but it possibly didn't receive a fair assessment in the face of the competition.
All too soon I was once again delighting in the absurdly pleasing quaffability of the tremendous Demo. Had I the money, time and physical capacity, I think I would have drunk the beer until it ran out. It was that good. That it was also safe to drink plenty at a sensible 4.5% made it all the more satisfying. An unrivalled start to any night's drinking.
I was off oop troad next to pop in Dada as Tuesday's demand. The two other Tuesday regulars were in and we chatted about darker beers, mild at the Temple, and the National Inventory of Unspoilt Pub Interiors. On the bar there were no guests, which would normally annoty me immensely, but I didn't care, because they were selling Thornbridge McConnells. Which is bloody excellent. I haven't drunk it since December, and it was well worth the wait.
Plenty of Thornbridge favourites have fallen from grace recently for me. Most notably Kipling, Jaipur and for a while now, Lord Marples. So to find McConnells in such fantastic form was reason to celebrate. And I did so by buying several pints of the wonderful drink.
The enjoyment of my visit was enhanced by chatting with beer genius Emily and James, the youngest man in the world. There are times I have been to Dada and been non-plussed about the beer, but not minded in the face of excellent company. I have already written at length about why I like the place so I won't go over old ground, but its safe to say that my trip there, on this occasion of beer excellence, was the perfect end to the evening.
This year has seen me bowled over and blown away by Brodies Citra, Red Willow Faithless, Magic Rock Bearded Lady Bourbon Cask and Magic 8 Ball, Blue Monkey BG Sips (again), Steel City 666, Dark Star Saison and now Revolutions Brew Demo.
It looks like I've nearly settled on my top ten beers of 2012....
Wee Beefy
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