Beer & Food Pairings – Careful Now

Deeekos Beer, Beer Festival, Bottles, Brewers, Food , , , , ,

Twitter polls are fun – it seems Sunday’s are the time for beer related ones and other that the regular #hopinions that Beer O’Clock show pods loving fires out on God’s day there was one and a subsequent blog piece by the former Ale Bastard now more journalistically savvily named Yes Ale

The poll was about whether beer and food pairings were possibly going to become common place in, what I suspect was certain places.  I was adament it wouldn’t be the case, in fact I’d go as far to say it probably won’t ever be but it was actually his blog that reminded me that after a random day drinking around Manchester centre, myself and a group of acquaintences had ended up at the Red’s BBQ place and I had noted that most of thier meals came with beer suggestions, all of which were ultimately ignored, by everyone at the table.

I like food, I like it a lot.

I like beer, I like it a lot.

The two together – nope.

This is merely a personal and actual physical thing where on my palate both things are ruined rather than complemented and it isn’t a case of not finding the right pairings because for some odd reason, probably to do with the occasion and general vibe, constant eating at a beer festival is easy, a sit-down meal with a side of beers, far from it.

The closest I thought a good pairing would be considered menu worthy was a sorachi ace beer (I forget which one, it isn’t important) with a meat dish with sriracha chili sauce and that is about as well to do as it gets.  Give me pub snacks with my pint, or stodgey festival fodder and you’re laughing but that is me chosing what I want to eat with the beer I’ve chosen, what I don’t want is for the beer to be chosen for me.

I noted  when last at the Alphabet/Grub Brewery Tap that happens most Saturdays in Manchester that they suggest food to go with the beers.  Convieniently each beer goes with a food from each food stall and of course they are only suggestions, there is no compulsion but sometimes nothing beats a pint of bitter with those odd packets of Ploughmans.

The wineification of beer won’t happen but I fully expect quite a few people to make quite a bit of money out of people before most realise they’ve been conned into a taste of a lifestyle that their pay day loans won’t support.

One finally thought, with so many beers desperately trying to be more like food and be as far away from beer as possible, why bother pairing it, just keep on guzzling down murk bombs stuffed with lactose and fruit juices and save money by buying a few packets of Cheese Moments.

 

Thanks for reading.

Day 10 – #12BeersofXmas 2016

Deeekos Uncategorized

Day 10 – #12BeersofXmas 2016

wp_20170113_001

Brewery – Buxton Brewery

Location – Buxton (duurrr), Derbyshire.

The Drink: Double Axe

ABV: 10.4% – 330mL

Style: Barrel Aged Double IPA

Additional info: Brewed to celebrate their 200th gyle, suitable for cellar again (bottled: 05/04/2016)

Pouring with a wispy but retained white head its colour is a deep, deep gold, it has apparently been aged in Armagnac (brandy) barrels. It has a very subtle nose for such a big beer, certainly hoppy but very restrained.  The taste is thick syrup, honey-like but so very smooth with a light bitterness in the after taste.  Another dangerous drink that doesn’t taste its strength.

 

Brought to by….Tad…who are fucking ace…

Thanks for reading.

Day 9 – #12BeersofXmas 2016

Deeekos Beer, Bottles, Brewers , , , , ,

Day 9 – #12BeersofXmas 2016

wp_20170106_008

Brewery – BlackJack Beers

Location – Manchester

The Drink: Ace of Spades

ABV: 10% – 330mL

Style: Barrel Aged Imperial Stout

Additional info: I drank this yesterday and don’t have the bottle.

What I do remember is that this bottle says it is BlackJack’s strongest beer to date and boy is it good.

Pouring obsidian black with a frothy and well retained brown-tinged-cream head it is well carbonated but has a silky mouth feel.  It drinks big, strong and boozy which I prefer and has the slight hint of cherries in the taste and in the aroma, but it is all about the power of the alcohol and the usual stout notes (coffee, liquorice, etc) that make this an excellent fireside drink.

This post was due on the 28th of December 2016, the one year anniversary of the death of Lemmy Kilmister – who died in 2015 (and not 2016 as the mawkish and quite frankly shit Sgt. Pepper death cover incorrectly groups him on).

Also dedicated to Philthy Animal Taylor, Motorhead’s original drummer who also died in 2015.

Brought to you by…well it was going to be Overkill but I’ve head this in my head all week…

 

Thanks for reading.

Day 8 – #12BeersofXmas 2016

Deeekos Beer, Bottles, Brewers , , , , , , , ,

Day 8 – #12BeersofXmas 2016

wp_20161227_003

Brewery – HawksHead Brewery

Location – Staveley, Cumbria (historically, Westmorland)

The Drink: Tonka

ABV: 8.5% – 330ml

Style: Imperial Porter

Additional info: Pale Ale, Crystal, Chocolate & Vienna Malts – Oats.  Cascade, Bramling Cross & Jester hops.  Tonka beans, cacao nibs and vanilla.

Earlier this year I toddled off to the Hawkshead brewery for their annual beer festival and it was a hell of a treat.  One of those rare days where all the transport works and links up and you get a seat on every journey.  You walk in the right direction each time, the scenery around the place is fantastic and the beer and company isn’t half bad too (especially when its, accidentally, Mark from Runaway and Jay nee Quantum).

Tonka I have had before on keg and it was very, very good then, so lets see how the bottled version stands up…

Pouring a thick black with a long last, off-cream-white head the smell is a very subtle dark chocolate.

Lusciously thick and obesely-bodied in the mouth with light carbonation and a smooth nature its taste is dark chocolate, cherries and a slight nuttiness, think liquefied black forest gateaux only less sweet, a more boozy mature version.

Hawkshead are another of those consistently good brewers, able to blend old and new styles seamlessly but seem to drift under the radar and yet are ever present, in short they let the beer do the talking because, well that is how it should be and its all beer needs.

This post was brought to you by…

Thanks for reading.

Day 7 – #12BeersofXmas

Deeekos Beer, Bottles, Brewers, Pubs , , , , , , ,

Day 7 – #12BeersofXmas 2016

wp_20161227_002

Brewery – The Spell Factory

Location – Burnley, Lancashire.

The Drink: Spell One

ABV: 7.0% – 330ml

Style: E.S.B

Additional info: Triple Hops of Citra, Cascade and Centennial.  Triple Malts of Maris Otter, Munich and Rye.

Pours a wonderful deep orange with a quickly dissipating white head. The aroma is of any typical lightly malted bitter with a sweet almost sticky twang.

Mouth feel is light and well rounded, smooth with a nice sweet but slightly bitter after taste.  This is very much a beer of balance and precision and I first had this at one of my favourite pubs The Pendle Witch in Atherton (pronounced a-theeer-tun) and I’d highly recommend a visit there if you fancy getting away from tawdry city centre boozers.

If you’ve not heard of the brewery before, that is because it was supposed to be an off-shoot of Moorhouse’s (much like the other bigger family breweries have started their own, slightly more craft, side projects) but this appears to be the only drink they produced.

If it is the only one then it remains a corker.

This post was brought to you by…

 

Thanks for reading.

I Don’t Read Your Blog

Deeekos Beer, Beer Politics, Censorship & Free Speech, General Crap , , , , ,

As I grew up, grew my hair, taught myself guitar and dreamt about being in a famous band, I had one rather odd music-related foible.

This quirk was that I refused to listen to any Led Zeppelin. Sure I knew some of their more famous songs but I staunchly refused to listen to anything else and in my burgeoning LP and CD collection of rock and heavy metal any other fan of those genres would cast their eye over them and ponder why the obvious gap under “L”.

It was quite simple in my young mind, I was tired of reading reviews of bands I liked where every journalist writing the piece would describe certain songs as Zeppelin-esque.  In my mind, if my songs became popular and some reviewed them with that lazy hack term I would be able to turn around and say “no, a-ha, I never listened to Zeppelin therefore what I’ve produced is my own work, without any direct influence from the band you mention.  I am brilliant and original.”

Then at 18, looking through a second hand shop’s wares I found a double-CD set of Zeppelin’s greatest hits for £7 – I’d spited my own ears for long enough and besides journalists will write what they want anyway.

If you look to the right of this piece you’ll see my blogroll of some blogs I like.

The frequency that these blogs are updated varies wildly and some are archival bits of useful info more than up-to-date musings.

Some of the authors I follow on twitter and am therefore more likely to know when they’ve published a new piece, though sometimes timings are out and I’m sometimes only made aware by someone else’s retweet.

Truth be told there are about 5 blogs on that list I actually make a point of reading, or at least click on once a week to check for updates.

Those blogs aren’t necessarily better, more entertaining or more knowledgeable than the others on the list (and the many others out there) they just appeal to me more.  But every time I read a new piece I always hope they aren’t going to cover the same(ish) ground of a blog I’ve been working on.

Granted blogs (and vlogs and podcasts) are all about having a larger conversation, about exchanging ideas and usually responding to something you may fundamentally disagree with but there is a hell of a lot of white noise out there.  This blog is far from anything resembling good but it is at least mine.

My problem is I’ve listened to far too many podcasts and read far too many new blogs whose style seem to follow a pattern based on those who are perceived to be leaders in the field.

They are cold, banal and trite.  Cookie-cutter fodder, following the formulae laid out as when one Led Zeppelin becomes successful there are then another dozen copycats riffing in their footsteps.

It dilutes the well while also elevating mediocrity to unnecessarily high levels and this then impacts on everyone’s ability to read, write and critique with any effective objectivity and impartiality.

Write, blog and talk from your heart and head.  Not from you wallet.

Thanks for reading.

Day 6 – #12BeersofXmas

Deeekos Beer, Bottles, Brewers , , , , , , , , ,

Day 6 – #12BeersofXmas 2016

wp_20161225_012

Brewery – Beer Nouveau

Location – Greater Manchester, Lancashire via Peterborough, Cambridgeshire (historically Northamptonshire).

The Drink: Big DIPA

ABV: 10.9% – 330ml

Style: Double IPA – Barley Wine Hybrid

Additional info:

Galena & Challenger hops; Maris Otter, Lager, Wheat and Crystal malts. 35 IBU, suitable for vegans.

Pouring a lovely deep orangey-red with a quickly dissipating clear white head.  The aroma is smokey, boozy, hoppy and burnt sugars.

Light on the tongue with very little aftertaste, this is a very, very dangerous high ABV beer whose taste gives you no warnings whatsoever.  The taste is light citrus, smoke and hoppy.

I personally can’t get passed the colour though, it just looks fantastic.

I think all of this beer was bottled but what you do need to do is get down to their brewey tap.  Unit 75 on North Western Street/Temperance Street, you’ll be greeted by a fine range of cask and keg beers plus generally a beer served from the wood.  Wines and ciders are also available and Meads too.  Plus snacks the fire to keep you warm, that is if you don’t work up enough of a sweat playing the Wii games.

Merry Christmas to all and thank you to Steve.

This post was brought to you by Weezer – a band I like but don’t actually have any of their albums in any format.

Thanks for reading.