Hello,
so far in this new decade I have tried one or two new styles of beers. In fact, some of them are not my usual favourites of gloopy hoppy pales, although they do feature, but non soupy potions also feature in this post as well.
Not strictly this year but I started the new decade the night before in Shakespeares and Bar Stewards, where I eventually saw in the new year. One of the highlights of the first was a pale ale from Errant Brewery, who may be based in Newcastle - recommended by Jason, I have to say that I really enjoyed this, and had a couple before we headed across the road. And whilst eating at Vikkie's earlier, we tried the excellent St Mars of the Desert and Zapato brew for Indy Man Beer Con, which sadly I missed this year - am led to believe they are fairly rare, and I wasn't disappointed.
Soon after the start of the year I purchased some cheap beers from Asda - and I really enjoyed them. This does not for a second undermine the qualities of sometimes more costly micro and nano brewery outputs, it just serves as a reminder that you can purchase beers in supermarkets that stand up to the quality of ones bought on a smaller scale. The Vocation Life and Death was on at a very low price and still as excellent as I would expect, whilst the Off Tempo cloudy pale at 6.1% from Bad Co was also very enjoyable at very little, along with the Cleanwater Scottish lager.
I also tried a few Lervig beers in the Crow - a collab with Verdant called its not you its me was fabulous, as was their collab DIPA on keg from the future which I have sadly since misplaced the picture of. There was likewise an excellent IPA on at the Wellington as well as a number of excellent beers from Duration Brewery in Suffolk. I tried a can of their 5.5% Turtles all the way down, a pale ale, in Bar Stewards, as well as a third of their 3% Table beer on keg, and even, in a rare event, enjoyed a can of their warm hugs stout as well. Good to see previously rarely seen brewers popping up in the Stewards!
This sudden liking for dark beers probably stemmed from the wonderful Keep it Impe-Real big stouts bash at Shakespeares. I was supping with Tony and we only had thirds, not least because all were strong and only available in halves and thirds. Some of those on offer were very interesting - such as the Alvinne Mano Negra which I thought was a little like wine, and the De Molen and Hel and Verdomenis Gin BA at 10.8% which was just as odd as it sounded. The strongest on offer was an Ultje Staff Sergeant ice distilled Imperial stout at a whopping 18.6% - now lets not get into a discussion about whether ice means a beer is not a beer please - it was our last of the kegs and acceptably tasty, but understandably strong. Meanwhile the best of the show were both on cask from the past - Atom and Northern Monk Neutron Death Star at 12% was ludicrously easy to drink. but the real star was the Boutilliers and Emperor's Leia Cake at 10.8% featuring honey, vanilla and cocoa. It was likewise easy to drink but was probably the most enjoyable of those that I tried.
The final tastes I had were also at the Crow Inn, of Verdant Putty, along with their excellent strong stout and an excellent DIPA at £6.80 or thereabouts on fabulous keg. I have been wanting to try the Putty ever since they first brewed it but a number of reasons means I have always missed out. Although I missed out on buying a can by a few minutes I did get to try two marvelous halves along with a third of the excellent stout. The people I was sitting with agreed that this was perhaps the beer of the night, from an absolutely excellent selection.
Finally, I should point out that I enjoyed a couple of pints of the Anthology Session IPA at 3.9% on cask in Shakespeares. Since the weird tastes and negligence (in some quarters) of the previous below 3% beers push, many small UK microbrewers have taken to perfecting the ideal flavours in lower gravity and now more accurately described session ales on both cask and keg and in can. At the moment with the impact on the trade caused by Dryanuary it is noticable that a lot of low very low and zero gravity beers along with numerous session pales and IPAs have found their way into local bars.
May this interest in providing a full and choice of all gravities of beers long continue.
Your very best health!
Wee Beefy
No comments:
Post a Comment