Stash kill the roundup.

So there have been a few bottles emptied over the past few weeks, but with little time to sit down and update the blog these have gone undocumented until now! Thankfully I have notes on them all and am not just having to rely on memory.

Bla Spogelse - Mikkeller/Three Floyds

This awesome beer first came to my attention on my last visit to IndyMan beer festival, and was in my top 3 beers of the entire festival. A blueberry sour ale that was aged in oak barrels. Firstly the colour is nuts, an awesome deep purple with a light purple fluffy head. The aroma is pretty full on, blueberries and funk. Even though this bottle was a few years old, the blueberries haven't gone anywhere and are matched only by the sprightly sour notes. This is such a great beer, so keep an eye out for it.

Sanctification - Russian River

Last year I was lucky enough to holiday in California, and luckier still I got to visit Russian River. Well known for their imperial IPA Pliny the Elder, it is their sours that are the must try. This is a bretted golden ale, and supremely refreshing. The Brett gives it a subtle sourness, not mouth puckering at all. This just sparks with citrus, sherbet and banana. A perfect beer for a warm day.

Cuvee Reserve 2015/16 Burning Sky

I don't hide the fact that I am a Burning Sky fanboy, and there are certainly plenty more bottles of their exemplary beer still in my stash. I dug this out for two reasons, firstly I had two of them :) and secondly I had just tasted their 2017 Cuvee which left me wanting more Burning Sky goodness. This is a blend of Saison á la Provision with a large portion of lambic from Girardin which was then aged for a year in oak barrels on lambic lees. Now if that doesn't float you boat, check your pulse!
This is golden in the glass with a puffy bright white head, and is all subtlety and depth. Slight sourness but not overpowering, lots of hints of citrus lemon, white grapes, grapefruit and oak funk. Basically this is something to be enjoyed, shared and bathed in... ok that last bit may just be a dream I had.

DeuS (Brut des Flandres) - Brouwerij Bosteels

Where do you start with DeuS? It is a Belgian Triple that is literally the Champagne of the beer world. Once brewed it is transferred to the Champagne region of France where it is matured and fermented in the same way as Champagne, decadence in a bottle. It is sweet on the nose and taste. Lots of peaches, pears, lemon and hints of spicy pepper. There is an oiliness to it, so it goes down very easily but there is a hint of warmth from the alcohol. One for a special occasion, or in my case a Saturday night ha ha!

Szech 'n Brett 2015 - Logsdon

Logsdon Farmhouse Ales do some awesome saisons and this is one of them. An off white head sits on top of a golden honey coloured beer. The nose is what you would expect zesty funk with a pepper spice in the background. The taste follows but it is the level of that pepper spice that sets this apart, it is 100% on the money. There is also a herbal note to this. This is just a straight up saison but done better than most others. I have had a few others from Logsdon and this is what they excel at, old school beer styles done incredibly well.

Alexander 2015 - Rodenbach

Rodenbach should need no introduction, but Alexander might. From their own description, this mixed fermentation beer consists of two thirds beer that was matured in oak casks for 24 months and one third young beer, and has been subjected to maceration with sour cherries. In the glass this is a hazy brownish red. You can immediately tell this is a Rodenbach beer with that hint of soy sauce on the nose, along with some red wine and toffee. On tasting there is the immediate sour soy sauce tang that I love, but the cherries are actually quite subtle and I get a more prominent taste of toffee apple. As it warms there is more cherry but it never becomes dominant. It is a cracking beer, and once the bottle is finished I am immediately thinking about getting another.

Bourbon Barrel Oil of Aphrodite - Jackie O's

So you think you have tasted a big robust stout? So did I, but another one comes along that makes you just go, whoa!! This stout did that to me. It is stout brewed using walnuts and Belgian Candied sugar, then aged in Bourbon barrels just for good measure. The aroma that comes out of the glass is almost overpowering, bourbon, chocolate, nuts, truffle oil just fills the room. You get all that in the taste, with the extra hit of coffee roast and caramel. It is so full and smooth, it is like molasses. This is 100% what I like about imperial stouts taken to the next level. I am already scanning the online stores looking more from this brewery.

So there you have it, all up to date, hope you enjoyed reading.

Mikkeller/Brewdog/Nogne - Black Tokyo Horizon

The icy weather we have been having just cries out for big stouts, and this is a fusion of three of the biggest stouts out there. Mikkeller's Black, Brewdog's Tokyo* and Nogne's Dark Horizon! All three breweries got together at Brewdog and put this beast together. I have been lucky enough to savour all three on their own and none of them let me down in terms of flavour and heft. So I was looking forward to tasting this.

I bought this on my first visit to friends in Aberdeen and my first visit to Brewdog's flagship bar in 2013. Since then it has been sitting in my stash until now.

Black Tokyo* Horizon

In the glass this is pitch black, completely opaque! It has a small tan head which went as quickly as it formed, which isn't surprising given the age and style. I didn't have to get my nose too near the glass before I could smell the wondrous aromas of malt and treacle, think the smell of a treacle soda farl and you are in the right ballpark. This was mingled with raisins, fruit cake and roast, bordering on a slight smokiness.

The taste fairly much followed the nose, with that malty breadiness being the predominant flavour. As it warmed, all the dark fruit comes through with added chocolate and a muscovado sugar sweetness. In terms of alcohol heat, there isn't much. Don't get me wrong you know you are drinking a big beer, but that 15.2% is hidden scarily well.

All in all this was exceptional and everything I like about imperial stouts!

Jolly Pumpkin - Maracaibo Especial Vintage Reserve 2015

Catching up with last week's gem from the stash, Maracaibo Especial from Jolly Pumpkin. I have had various beers from Jolly Pumpkin over the years and they have always been exceptional so expectations were high for this one.

The side of the bottle gives a better description of what this is than I could.

A rich brown ale inspired by the enigmatic monastic brews of Belgium, and the mysterious mist shrouded jungles of the tropics. Brewed with real cacao, and spiced with cinnamon and sweet orange peel for a sensual delight. A brew to be sipped, savoured, and enjoyed!

This poured a lovey chestnut brown, with a good one finger beige head on it. I could smell the Belgian influence straight away, with a subtle barnyard funk emanating from the glass. Closer inspection you get some sour cherries with a hint of chocolate. Cinnamon and Orange Peel are usually quite strong aromas but I didn't get any of them.

The cinnamon comes through more on the taste, but it was still fairly muted and the orange peel was non existent. But there was chocolate, and a sort of candied sugar sweetness. As with other Jolly Pumpkin beers the sour funky side of things is subtle rather than face puckering, which works well in this style and is actually more of a Flanders red funk with those cherry notes and a bit of soy on the back end.

All in all this is wonderfully subtle, which may seem like a weird thing to say, but you can pick out all those flavours without a big punch from any of them. My opinion of Jolly Pumpkin has been reinforced by another excellent beer from them.

Lost Abbey - Track #10 (Bat out of hell)

This week's dip into the stash, I came away with Lost Abbey's Track #10 Bat out of Hell

Well what is it? Another big stout as it happens, more specifically a 13.5% imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels with coffee and cacao nibs. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

Years ago when I first started looking further afield from your run of the mill ales and standard Belgian fare, I happened upon Lost Abbey. They seemed to come up time and again on American beer blogs and YouTube videos I had been reading/watching. When Beer Geek Nation uploaded a review of Serpent stout I just had to get a bottle and that I did. It certainly lived up to the hype and maybe one day I will crack another bottle and review it here. But when I found out they had thrown Serpent Stout in a bourbon barrel and added cacao nibs and coffee to it, I was on the search to find a bottle of what is Track #10 Bat out of Hell.

Now I have no idea how old this bottle was, and there is nothing on the bottle to indicate the date it was bottled on, but it is at least 2 years old. Popping the cork I could already smell the coffee and bourbon, once in the glass it opened up a bit more with milk chocolate and dark sugar sweetness. 

The taste is layers of coffee and vanilla, but that milk chocolate has turned dark with the associated bitterness you get with high percentage dark chocolate. All the coffee and dark chocolate bitterness is perfectly balanced when the caramel sweetness kicks in. For 13.5% there is no heat or booze on this, a dangerous thing given how smooth and easy drinking it is. That smoothness is mirrored in the mouth feel, it is like engine oil and coats the entire mouth.

All in all this is another perfectly balanced imperial stout, all components working together in harmony. I was sad to see the bottom of the glass, but I will no doubt seek out another bottle of this some day and I would recommend you do too.

The stash must die!

It’s a new year, a time for reflection and new beginnings. Or new endings?

It has been two years since my last post and I haven’t really thought about posting in any of that time. So why now? Well I had a plan for this year, it includes beer and I thought I could probably document it.

Firstly, when I moved house it became apparent just how many beers I had squirreled away, a frightening amount to be honest, I’ll not go into numbers but I could set up a small shop (for a while anyway).

Secondly, last year we lost some good folk along the way, saw the turmoil in the world increase, U2 kept on playing music and I have had, on more than one occasion, a chat about life being short yada yada yada.

This prompted me to think about all that beer sitting there and what if something unfortunate happened to me. I would never get to experience or taste those wonderful beers, and some other beer wankers (you know who you are) would get to drink them in my absence. I can’t have that lol. Therefore as the title suggests, the stash must die! Before I do :)

Starting shortly, each weekend I will be plucking a beer or two from the stash, uncapping/corking it and enjoying it. Some on my own, some with friends, but all will be savoured and hopefully not drain poured. I plan on letting you know, what the beer is, why I sought it out, how I acquired it and of course did it live up to expectation.

Now I did start this during the tail end of last year, opening some of my bucket list beers, so to give you a taste of things to come I give you Avery Tweak

Avery Tweak

This is a bourbon barrel aged coffee stout; massive in flavour and abv, coming in at 16%. It takes their Mephistopheles stout as its base, adds coffee and then barrel ages it in bourbon barrels for about 4 months. The non barrel aged version was called Meth Addict, but was deemed inappropriate so they changed it to Tweak for the barrel aged version. I don’t know, I would have bought a beer called Meth Addict. On a trip to the States I had sampled some of Avery’s wears, in particular their Raja DIPA, The Maharaja DIPA and Ellie’s Brown Ale. All awesome and they made me look further into their other brews, and Tweak hit all the notes as their beer for me (I happen to be a fan of big stouts, throw them in a barrel and you have my attention). Being unable to find it anywhere and even less so on my return to Belfast, I have always kept an eye out for it. As luck would have it, the wonderful Beergium got some in at the start of last year and an order was made.

Did it live up to the hype? In several words, it did and then some! It stunk to high heaven of coffee, roasted cacao, vanilla, tobacco, barrel and booze. This all followed through on the taste, but had an unexpected sweetness, not cloying, just the right amount to balance the coffee bitterness and booze. Although it hid the abv, there was a warmth at the end that just reminded you it was 16%. All in all, this is a lesson in how to make this style work, everything coming together and nothing overpowering everything else. Highly recommended and I would definitely get some more given the chance.

Happy new year folks, hear is to living life and killing the stash!!

Beer, it's a social thing.

We live in an era of social media and instant access, but is that a good thing for the beer community?

As with everything, there are two sides to every story. The consumer side and the business side. So let's look at the consumer side first and let's face it the more positive side. By positive I mean the pros vastly outweigh the cons.

So what do you get in this digital age? You know what is on in the bar (or growler system) before you arrive courtesy of TapLister, so you can choose your beer on the way or decide you have better beer in the house. Through Twitter you get a constant stream of up to date information on what is in your local bottle shop, send them a query about stock or ask if they are getting the latest releases in. You can do this through Facebook, but to be honest, Twitter is where it is at. You can see what everyone else is drinking through Untappd while detailing your own journey into casual alcoholism. Now for a personal bugbear of mine, unlink this from your twitter as you will be duplicating content and spamming people who follow you on both. You will have people reaching for that mute option! All in all, you can engage with your beer providers 24/7, be that the bar, bottle shop or brewery. But beware, you can also become an asshole fairly easily. Complaining about a service on Twitter is an easy thing to do, you are cloaked in an internet version of yourself and don't have business to lose. Have the common courtesy to deal with bad service with the business directly, if they don't respond positively then get your keyboard warrior hat on but don't be surprised if you get ignored. Is all this healthy though? Time will tell about the pros and cons of being constantly connected, but when you look around your local and everyone is simply staring at their phone updating whatever, think, are we actually removing the social aspect of beer, by being more social?

Be social in the bar, not social!

Now to the dark side, the one fraught with danger at every turn! The business end, in every sense of the word. You guys have a lot to lose and in my day to day I have seen some of the worst uses of social media, and I am surprised some of these businesses survive. Most businesses who set up a Twitter or Facebook profile do not understand the overhead of doing it properly. People have an expectation to get answers, and those answers better be quick! The social media crowd are a demanding one, even being seconds behind your competitor can cost a sale. One rude reply can cause a backlash that can last weeks and damage reputation for some time after that. Remember, this is your business account, not your personal one. Retweeting something you have a vested interest in, isn't always the best thing for your business. You can unwittingly give your businesses support to a cause that can be misread or lead to requests for support from others miffed that you didn't support them in the first place. Retweeting should be used sparingly, it isn't the favourite button and is duplicating content rather than creating it. So are there a set of rules for engagement? Well rather than reinvent the wheel I found a great piece on this written by the Digital Cabinet Office and I would recommend anyone read it who takes part in social media, especially businesses. It is their Social Media Playbook, a social media how-to if you will. Obviously, government has little to nothing to do with beer (bar dreaming up some wacky laws) but it is chock full of good advice that can be applied to any business.

For me the main headliners are, don't feed the trolls and don't be a dick. Be part of the community, be respectful and don't air your dirty laundry.

I will leave the bloggers out of this, we are like assholes with opinions and everyone has one.... or something like that.

My name is Bruce!

Photo Credit

Nothing is rotten in the state of Denmark...

I recently boarded a plane from Dublin to Copenhagen, a city I had been through but never stopped to look around. I thought that should be rectified and with the choice of several Mikkeller bars on offer it would have been rude not to.

I had been told a few things about the city before I left - it was clean, chilled out, but expensive. All these things I can confirm are true, and I took the opinion you get what you pay for. There was a distinct lack of litter, graffiti, and undesirables. Although we did manage to wander into one altercation that seemed to be outside a shelter of some sort, but it was a short interruption to our relaxed meander through the streets.

The food was astounding on all levels and one thing I would recommend was the walking food tour. You get food, drink, exercise and a bit of history about the city. A great way to see about and there is a brewery visit. The brewery in question was  Nørrebro Bryghus, which we had sampled the previous night in the hotel. I specifically had the IPA which did the job after a long day travelling. In the brewery we got to try their Lemon Ale, Wheat Street - American Pale Wheat Ale and From Latvia with Love - Baltic Porter. The Baltic Porter being my favourite by far.

So now onto the beer bars, and what beer bars they are!

Spontanframboos

Mikkeller and Friends

All I see are taps!

My first visit was to Mikkeller and Friends out in the suburbs, quite the dander from our hotel so a journey I took alone. Since I was also looking to pick up some bottles from their bottle shop this suited me fine. The bar itself is one of those 'blink and you miss it' places. It is down stairs with no glaring signs to alert you to its presence, I am always thankful for Google maps. Inside the bar is understated, with a very quirky and unusual decor/layout. With 40 beers on tap it is probably worth having a look online so you have at least your first beer selected. I plumped for Mikkeller's Spontanframboos, an awesome sour beer that is really refreshing after a long trek. This was followed by the awesome Speed Way Stout (War Pigs edition), a big creamy imperial stout and then I finished my visit with Gotlandsdricka from Jester King, a smoked lager. The Gotlandsdricka was one of those beers that took me half a glass to make up my mind whether or not I liked it, safe to say I did.
Now to their bottle shop, beware! Bring your wallet because it is full of awesome beers and some fairly pricey ones at that. I always go away with a list of beers I want to bring back, helps when you are presented with such an array and a baggage weight limit. I came away with some FiftyFifty - Eclipse Imp Stout aged in High West Bourbon barrels, De Molen - Rasputin and Siren/Mikkeller collab BA Broken Daydream. I was also on the lookout for some Alesmyth Speedway Stout and Westbrook Mexican Chocolate Cake but they had none. They were helpful enough to point me in the direction of Kihoskh, but I will talk about that later.

War Pigs 

The next day saw a brief visit to War Pigs to sample some of their brewed on-site output. My beer of choice here was the Blakk Out Gose, a collaboration brew with Surly. The bar itself is completely opposite in style to Mikkeller and Friends. A massive space inside is lined by canteen type tables, with an open kitchen at one end serving awesome smelling BBQ (which I, unfortunately, didn't avail of due to the massive brunch I had already eaten). Outside is quite industrial looking as it is situated in the old meatpacking district, where on Saturday there is also a great food market which added to the vibe. All a bit rough and ready, with old school rock and metal on the jukebox. Had I been in different company, I probably would have stayed here until sundown but alas we headed on.... luckily it was to the main Mikkeller pub.

Mikkeller

Smaller than Mikkeller and Friends, but with the same quirky decor and only 20 beers on tap (1st world problems). We thankfully got a table outside, so we could enjoy the good weather. We sampled too many beers to list but standouts for me were Mikkeller's Sort Kaffe Black IPA and Prairie's BOMB! Imp Stout. Great pub, with a nice relaxed atmosphere, but inside I can see it getting fairly cramped if busy.

What no photo?

Too busy enjoying the beer!

Fermentoren

I had been advised to head here and it wasn't looking like I was going to make it but I am glad I did. Has a bit more of a student bar feel about it inside, 20 taps of great beer, and an awesome beer garden. Thankfully the sun was shining and they had some De Molen on tap. Definitely worth going to as it has a great selection and is completely different to the Mikkeller bars.

Bottle Shops worth checking out.

Mikkeller and Friends - great range of Mikkeller as you can imagine but in the back some crackers and a cabinet that if you fear for your wallet just don't look in it.

Kihoskh- strange one this, it looks like a 7/11 from the outside and even on entering doesn't seem to have much of a range. But once I let them know what I was looking for I was shown the basement. A real treasure trove of beer from all over the world. I would say it was better than the Mikkeller bottle shop.

Bottle shop heaven!

All in all, we had a blast and intend on a return trip. I would advise you give it a go as well.

My name is Bruce!