So I’m going to take a break from beer reviews and spend the limited amount of time I have for blogging, trying to write different kinds of blogs. Things like the Bristol Beer Factory Twelve Stouts of Christmas might come in some form later in the year, or they may not. Either way, you’ll probably not see anything from me for the rest of the month, work will be rather busy and I have some other things I want to finish up.

So until then, remember, it’s only beer…

It was a tale of two beers though, as the first and second glasses, both smelt and tasted different. The first had far less woody character than the second, where as the second had hardly any head and looked pretty flat in the glass.

The nose was very complex, with lots of dark chocolate, wood and vinous notes. Similarly the taste was pretty full on to, and as I alluded to with the pour, the taste of the two glasses were quite different too. The first was all dark chocolate, with hints of coffee and not much in the way of barrel aging. The second glass was all wood, wood and booze, with chocolate fleeting round the edges.

• De Molen
• List & Bedrog, 11.9%, 750ml

It was very nice, very nice indeed.

Anyway, I’m not sure there’s much I can add to what’s already out there about Fuller’s Vintage Ale, even this latest edition. Des de Moor has a fantastic article on his website from a recent vertical tasting of all the Vintage Ales. Definitely worth a read, especially if you’ve been storing bottles for a rainy day like I have.

My notes said it poured a burnished brown, with a slightly off white head. The head was initially quite sizeable, but dropped back fairly quickly. I didn’t really get much on the nose, but I was suffering with a cold, so your mileage may vary. You could tell it was a Fuller’s beer right from the initial taste, due to all that spicy, pithy orange character that is prevalent in a lot of their beers. I didn’t really get any hop character at all, it seemed to be all malt, but not in a bad way, as it wasn’t cloying and overly sweet.

• Fuller’s
• Vintage Ale 2011, 8.5%, 500ml

To be honest, it’s just another classic Fuller’s Vintage Ale, all be it, a young one that needs time to mature and develop. Give it a few years and it’ll be even more gorgeous.

I don’t think I’m limitited in what I drink, but I suppose other people probably do, especially my wife. During the day at work, I drink water. When I’m at home, I’ll drink pints of Rocks OJ, or if I’ve run out, just plain water. I don’t do hot drinks, no coffee, no tea and certainly no hot chocolate. I also don’t drink Coke, Pepsi, Fanta, Sprite, or equivalents, I’ve even given up drinking Irn Bru. Although I’ll admit to a nasty Red Bull (or cheaper equivalent product) habit, I’ve got to get caffeine somehow…

As far as alcoholic drinks go, it’s a similar story, I always drink beer. No wine, it makes me puke; much to my wife’s annoyance, as she’d love to share a bottle of wine with me when we’re out for a meal. No cider, I don’t like the taste, it’s either too sweet or two dry and I drank far too much Merrydown when I was fifteen. No whisky, I’ve tried for over twenty years to like it, but I’m just not a fan. I’ve pretty much tried all the other spirits, but I don’t really get on with them, it’s just not the same as dinking a pint of beer.

When faced wth a no beer, or a shite beer situation, I used to drink Guinness with a shot of Tia Maria in it; anything to improve the flavour. These days though, I tend to drink vodka and cranberry juice, although I found out at my recent work Christmas party, fresh grapefruit juice is quite nice, if there’s no cranberry. I pretty much wont consider anything else; after all, life’s too short to drink stuff you don’t like.

That makes it sound like I wont try anything new though, which isn’t the case. How can you know you don’t like something, unless you try it? I’ve tried a pints of Long Island Ice Tea at a beach front bar of a hotel in Banjul. I’ve had Singapore Slings in the Long Bar at Raffles. Russian vodka straight from the bottle while on the slopes of Mout Elbrus in the Caucusus. Génépi in the Italian Alps and Glenfarclas 105 chasers in a pub in Kingussie. I’ve tried…

I’ve tried other drinks, both long and short, but for my money, nothing beats a beer. There’s one for every occasion, for every location, for every meal, for when it’s hot, cold and every temperature inbetween. I don’t think I’m limited in what I drink, I think that I’m lucky, lucky that I enjoy the best drink that there is. To bastardise a popular song, nothing compares, nothing compares to beer.

Unlike the previous Brooklyn Advent Beer, Local 1, this one didn’t blow the cork out of the bottle, which was a bit of a relief, although it did try its best. I managed to force the cork back in until I got a jug ready, but it still took two jugs and my glass to get it all in, as it was foaming all over the place. I didn’t get much on the nose, but to be honest I was suffering with the onset of a nasty cold, so probably wouldn’t have been able to smell raw garlic if it had been thrust under it.

It didn’t feel overly carbonated for a beer that almost spat its cork out, which was surprising, but I did pour from a bit of a height to try and knock out any extra condition. If anything it felt a bit on the watery side in the mouth, it certainly didn’t feel like a nine percent beer. Which was surprising given that it has honey in it, I was expecting something with a much fuller body. I’m not saying it wasn’t full bodied, just not as much as I was expecting.

Maybe it was the fruity citrus flavours that were giving it the illusion of being a bit thin. I home brewed a Belgian Wit, which had a load of citrus peel added after the boil and it reminded me of that. You could also detect the honey, it gives off such a distinctive edge, but I’m not able to describe it. If you’ve ever had Thornbridge Bracia, you’ll know what I’m on about, imagine that, but toned down quite a bit.

• Brooklyn
• Local 2, 9%, 750ml

It was a complex beer, especially the lingering after taste and while it wasn’t what I was expecting, I think I’d buy another.

It was full bodied, but didn’t quite feel like it was nine odd percent, even though it felt quite large, it still felt easy to drink. When I first tried some, I thought there was a fleeting hint of smoke, it wasn’t here on the next mouthful thought, so I thought I might have imagined it. For the vast majority of the bottle I didn’t taste it again, except for another couple of fleeting moments. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be there or not, but it did add a bit of an extra dimension when it appeared.

Mainly thought, it was just sweet, malty, juicy orangy type flavours, that lingered and lingered. I didn’t really know what to expect, but it was a very nice beer and didn’t really get boring, even thought it really was, just all sweet orangy flavours.

• De Molen
• Ruig & Rood, 9.5%, 750ml

I’d been pre-warned that this bottle of De Molen SSS might be a bit on the lively side, so I was prepared with extra jigs and a big pan. I undid the cage and the cork pushed itself out about half way before I managed to clamp my hand over it and stop it popping off completely. It was foaming really badly during the pour, which meant I’d filled one jug and my glass and only dispensed about half the bottle. When I put the bottle down, foam was still coming out the top of it, so I had to pour the rest into another jug.

It was a really dark brown colour, so it sat black in the glass and, amazingly enough, had a huge tan coloured head. The second glass didn’t really have a head though, as it dropped to a ring round the edge of the glass fairly sharpish. The nose was a bit confused, with musty dark chocolate notes and some yeast. I can’t help thinking what it would have smelt like, if it hadn’t been an over carbonated bottle.

In the mouth it was amazingly smooth for a beer that was so desperate to redecorate my kitchen. I was expecting far more of a carbonic mouth prickle, or at least each mouthful to turn to foam the moment it hit my tongue. Mainly though, there was just a musty yeasty taste to the whole thing, which was really disappointing and annoying. You could tell that there was a cracking beer just wanting to flaunt all it’s dark chocolate and subtle coffee flavours, but it couldn’t, because it all just tasted of yeast.

• De Molen
• 1914 Triple Stout SSS, 9.99%, 750ml

As I said at the start, I’d been pre-warned by a mate that the bottle might be lively, but we’re not the only ones who’ve had the same issue.

@RecentlyDrunk had one last week. Would have been better if we hadn’t lost 3/4 of the bottle when we opened the fucking thing

2011/12/21 22:38 via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@TheBlackIsleBoy

Chris

It doesn’t really reflect well on De Molen that they keep producing bottle bombs…

I’d love to tell you what it tasted like, what the colour was, how long the head lasted, all the usual stuff I write about, but I can’t. I’d only just unwound the cage, when the cork flew out of the bottle and nearly took my face off. I managed to grab a jug form a nearby cupboard and decant the rather lively beer into it and my glass. But the over carbonation had caused all the sediment to fly off the bottom of the bottle, so the resulting beer was a touch on the opaque side.

Unfortunately, this also had the side effect of making all the beer taste just like yeast. There was occasional, fleeting glimpses of the actual beer and you could tell it was going to be superb, but everything was just stomped on by the yeast. So I can at least tell you one thing; leave the sediment out of Local 1, especially if you want to actually taste the beer.

• Brooklyn
• Local 1, 9%, 750ml

Maybe it’s the penance for not buying some sooner, alternatively it might just have been a duff bottle. Either way, I’m going to have to buy another one, best not leave it for six odd months this time…

It poured a auburn brown, with a slight orange hue, at least that’s what it appeared to be to me. the head was off white and easily formed, but, it was formed from rather large bubbles and thus didn’t last. In just a few minutes, it had dropped to a few patches and then a few minutes later, to a ring round the edge of the glass. I didn’t get much on the nose, if I’m being honest. there was maybe some of that general bottle conditioned musty, yeasty type aroma, but it wasn’t very strong.

It felt quite lively in the mouth and was borderline for just turning into a mouthful of bubbles the moment it hit the tongue. So you could say it was a touch over carbonated. At first I thought it was a bit dull, that there wasn’t really anything going on. I thought about it for a bit and let the beer come to me and reveal itself, after all Sharp’s are known for balanced beers, I wasn’t expecting a hop bomb or anything.

After leaving it for a bit, it had just come out the fridge after all, it revealed itself in all its glory. A lovely biscuity malt base laid the foundations for a nice fruity tingle of hops. The main flavour appeared to be a subtle bitter orange kind of thing, at least that’s what my brain was telling me it was. Although I think it might have been slightly more complex than that. The after taste was lingering and juicy with a nice bitterness, that meant you could still taste it minutes later.

• Sharp’s
• Special, 5%, 500ml

It was very nice, with wonderful balance between the malt and hops; never too malty, never too bitter and ridiculously drinkable. I imagine that it’s pretty special indeed, when served from cask.

Mooi & Meedogenloos poured a seriously dark brown, so it looked black in the glass. It appeared to be a bit over carbonated, as the head got massive during the pour. In fact, I had to pour into three vessels as the head got so big in the first jug, I needed a second to hold the second half of the bottle. The head on the first glass actually got bigger over the first twenty minutes or so after the pour as well, so it was a bit on the lively side. The nose was all dark and mysterious, with subtle coffee and chocolate notes.

In the mouth is wasn’t as lively as the head generation indicated, that might have been due to me leaving it for a bit to settle down, and writing all of this while drinking the second glass. I do find that leaving a lively beer in a jug, in the fridge, does calm it down a bit once it hits the glass.

This beer was all about chocolate, right from the get go, till the last of the lingering after taste, it was all chocolate, with just a bit of smoke to keep it interesting. I was quite surprised by the woody, smoky edge as the bottle didn’t give any hint of barrel ageing or smoked malt. I didn’t find it distracting, quite the opposite, I actually like it, for a change. It worked really well with all the subtle, soft, dark chocolate.

• De Molen
• Mooi & Meedogenloos, 10.2%, 750ml

This was a really, really nice beer, especially as it wasn’t a bottle bomb. Definitely one I’d buy again, but maybe I’d open it and drink it before midnight next time…