Category Archives: craftbeer

Day 20 – V for Victory again.

by

1

vicory-vital

Back on the same footing as the official Beer Hawk Advent Calendar today. We both got Victory Beer  Vital IPA. Although it’s the second beer from this Pennsylvania, USA, brewery it’s a can rather than a bottle this time. I like cans, I like draught beers better, but I like cans better than bottles. The beer always tastes fresher to me and I actually don’t mind drinking out of a can, whereas I’m not keen for drinking straight from the bottle. I know you don’t get to see the beer, but there’s just something about cans. For starters they don’t smash when you drop one out of the fridge onto the floor.

Whatever. I’m glad I got this one, it’s a belter. Really, really enjoyed it. My first thoughts were it’s a Lager with attitude, real attitude. When I had a look on the Victory Beer website this was confirmed as this IPA is made with Pilsner malt and a Kölsch strain of yeast and hopped with Citra, Simcoe, and Chinook hops. If you want, a sort of a cross between an IPA and Lager, and it works big time. At least it does for me. It’s available in the USA in cans, bottles and draught. I think I could get smitten with the draught version?

Vital is ever so slightly hazy, if you hold it to the light you can see the fine suspended particles. The taste is piney, citrusy, grapefruity but it’s not ‘in your face’ and it’s nicely balanced with a silky sweetness from the malt running through it, but yet it’s crisp, clean tasting and refreshing. When I say all this, you really have to swirl it around your mouth and sieve the various layers of flavour out before you try and verbalise the constituent parts – can you tell I’ve been on a Sommeliers course? Not!

My first thoughts were, ‘this really is a session IPA’! You know one that you could drink all afternoon watching the match on TV. I think there are far too many so called American ‘Session IPA’s’ that are given that appellation on strength alone. Despite their lower ABV, they’re so hop forward, after four or five pints you end up with a mouth like a budgie cage bottom. You don’t get that with Vital because everything is in moderation and balanced. The only drawback is that it’s so balanced it doesn’t drink like it’s 6.5% ABV. I was quite shocked when I saw those numbers on the can and it’s firmly in the category of ‘fighting beer’, if drank on a proper session. For those not familiar with UK drinking habits, and I am seeing quite a few visitors from the other side of the Atlantic, for example a session would be like, a couple of hours or three and at least six pints. You can’t do that with beers much above 5%.

Verdict – Very good beer, beer made for enjoying rather than beer geeking – in my current top 3 from this case (I think). Make sure you drink responsibly folks!

Day 18 – Real ale or craft beer? Does it really matter when it’s this good?

by

0

day-18

It seems that whilst everyone else is poring over the CAMRA Revitalisation Project proposals at the minute, I’m stuck with my Beer Hawk Advent Calendar, and I’ve started, so I’ll finish; only five more beers to go! I didn’t realise how much was going to be involved, blogging every day for nearly a month. It’s been interesting, almost firing from the hip on a daily basis, and I’ve been intrigued by some the feedback.

If you ask me what I think about the CAMRA proposals? I think my initial reaction is that it doesn’t go far enough, yet I hear reports of branch chairs saying that they will not be a part of CAMRA any more? Personally, I think that’s sad. Almost as extreme as the reaction I got from the twitterati when I suggested that a distinctive and traditional, regional German beer may not be ‘craft’.

Some of you will know that I’m a proud and active CAMRA member who is trying to promote diverse styles and dispense systems of distinctive and quality beers, including both traditional and cutting edge, progressive brewers, at the same time as upholding the traditions and values of the organisation. These thoughts all came together with Day 18’s beer – Real ale, in a can!

I’m not entirely bothered whether this unpasteurised, unfined and unfiltered ale is, by CAMRA’s definition, a real ale or not. It is without doubt the best beer to date that has come out of Beer Hawk’s case. Fresh, fresh, fresh, pale, pale, pale, hops, hops, hops, tasty, tasty, tasty, and hazy. Nay murky, something that would put many a traditionalist off. Thing is, it’s not a pint of Timmy Taylors that’s designed, and expected, to be bright, it’s something else entirely, yet they are both excellent examples of the brewers art. Both something to be enjoyed, just like a true motoring enthusiast can equally appreciate a vintage Bentley alongside the latest BMW hybrid i8.

Verdict – Drink Moor Beer! in fact drink Moor Beer Company Nor’hop (4.1%). Please forget about the real ale/craft thing, it’s just a cracking drink in a can. Thank you Mr Justin Hawke & Co., this is just so good, and I hope you find the thieving so and so’s that nicked your Lambics.

Day 15 and I’m stuck in Belgium ???

by

1

day-15

Day 15 of the Beer Hawk advent calendar sees another offering from a Cistercian Order of Strict Observance, this time it’s a Westmalle Tripel  from the Trappist Abbey of Westmalle, Belgium. It’s quite a strong brew (9.5%) which I‘ve drank previously, and has a BBE Sept 2018 date on it. So, it’s going in the pantry with the other strong ones, to be sampled on a day in the future. That might not be that far ahead, but it certainly won’t be before Christmas because I’m setting off to Belgium tonight to go and ask the monks whether they think their beer is ‘craft’ beer or not? They’ll probably look at me daft and think what in God’s name is he going on about, it’s beer, Abbey beer, but we’re Trappists so it can therefore rightly be called Trappist beer, of the Belgian variety, as opposed to the couple of Dutch Trappist monasteries, and the odd one or two elsewhere that also brew beer.

Everyone is now thinking, ‘He can’t be serious, can he, going to Belgium to ask whether it’s ‘craft’ or not’? The answer is no, I’m not! But I’m 100% certain that if I did, just like you, the monks would truly think I was barmy. Thing is though, I really think they would just say it’s beer, their beer. And I would tell them I thought it was very very good beer. Seriously, I would recommend anyone who is interested to have a look at their website, it really is a nice introduction to their life and work, including a section on the brewery.

This is the third strong Belgian ale to emanate from my Advent Calendar, which sort of got me wondering about the prices? I started to compile (not scientifically viable) how much each bottle would cost. If it was available on the Beer Hawk site then I used their price, if not, the first online shop that came up on a Google search for that beer. Surprisingly, four were not available on the Beer Hawk site and two more were shown as out of stock? Anyway, after 15 days, the mean price per bottle equates to £2.69, which extrapolates to roughly £65 quids worth of beer in the full case. It is possible that a late run of more expensive bottles would increase this average, I doubt whether I’m going to see a flurry of bottles at £8 or £9 though. I’m also doubting whether I will see a dark beer neither? Value for money? Well the case was advertised at £75 (inc P&P), although Mrs C reckoned that with discount, at the death, she got two at £65 each (my son has the other one).

I know you get discounts on cases and the like, but overall, I don’t think that’s too bad, we pay over the odds for everything at Christmas, and I don’t begrudge anyone earning an honest crust. There is of course the theory raised in the comments on Boak & Baileys post about my thoughts on Früh Kölsch to be addressed – Ordering mystery boxes is a mug’s game, full stop — 30 per cent OK beers, 50 per cent weird stuff they couldn’t shift, 20 per cent stuff you can get in the local corner shop. (To generalise rudely.) You might have started to formulate an opinion from what you’ve seen already? Me? I’m going to leave answering this until the end, I’ve noticed the door to Day 24 is twice as large as the rest?

Day 13 and I’ve not got the Monk on!

by

0

day-3

And it’s another European beer; Belgium; Trappist –  Rochefort 8, a beer brewed in a brewery associated with the Abbey of Our Lady of Saint-Remy, Belgium, a Trappist monastery, sub-category of the Cistercian order.

After all the activity on various social media accounts yesterday, I probably shouldn’t go anywhere near the word ‘craft’. Instead, shall I just say that I don’t hold with using ‘craft’ as an outdated, catch-all term referring to any interesting, distinctive beer. I’ve nicked this notion from Boak & Bailey’s Beer Blog recent post, and I’m indebted, not for their verbal support, but for actually sorting out in my own mind the process I’ve been going through. Their verbalisation of what I’m thinking, or trying to say, is much clearer than my own!

If I’m honest, do I know what ‘craft’ is? Maybe I’ve an idea. Does anyone actually know? One of the critical tweets I saw yesterday said something along the lines of, ‘trying to define craft is like trying to find Zeuss on a mountain top playing chess with Jesus.’ So why are we doing it then? And why is it so controversial when we try to define it?

Looking back to where I set off with this series of posts, it all started with an Advent Calendar given as a present. I’d no intentions of going anywhere specific with the posts, I just thought I’d let things go where the box took me. It’s proved fascinating for me and I’ve learned so much, I just love discovering things; about myself and others. If you’ve read any of my posts, you’ll see one of my mantras is, ‘Different isn’t wrong’.

Only thing is, ‘Different can be wrong’, especially when it’s so confusing to the average person who doesn’t know what ‘craft’ is/was/might be/going to be. It’s so confusing that I reckon you could sell anything labelled craft these days, and people, ordinary everyday people, will buy it in total ignorance. I’ve been watching the progress of a craft beer advent calendar elsewhere and seen nothing but very steady, traditional, British ales come out, I didn’t know you could still get Manns Brown Ale?

This mysterious protectiveness around the term ‘craft’ seems almost reminiscent of the Medieval Guilds, who stuck together, withholding and protecting key bits of information, which if released meant that anyone could do what they did. Me? I’ve always tried to be inclusive, in everything I do; as a husband, father, neighbour, professionally, and just as an ordinary bloke.

I didn’t drink my Belgian Trappist ale, it’s gone into the pantry along with my other esoteric, artisanal, boutique ales. You know, those that can benefit from some time in the bottle and will stand a while in the dark, and maybe improve, mature, or at least change a bit.

day-13-rochefort

Verdict? A pretty decent bottle of ale to get in an Advent Calendar case, probably best part of what, nearly four quid in a bottle shop.

Advent Calendar Day 6: Blue point Mosaic Session IPA and ‘Are AB-Inbev craft?’

by

3

day-6-blue-point

I thought I might be getting a different style today, but No, it’s another IPA. This time from Long Island, NY based brewers Blue Point Brewing. Cleary the term craft beer is linked to IPA’s? I knew that, obviously. What I didn’t appreciate was the theme of Anheuser Busch running through my craft beer advent calendar, because this is the second brewery that is owned by them in the case. Apparently Blue Point Brewing were bought out for $24M in February 2014, according to NY Times. People are even suggesting that Beer Hawk, the suppliers of my Advent case are actually owned by AB-Inbev?

Am I bothered? I had a look at Blue Point Brewing web site. It looks and feels like a US craft brewer, they’re even doing cask conditioned ale, and Nitro keg. I applaud the former, I’m none too sure about the latter. I instantly think of John Smith’s Smooth and shudder, but I won’t judge until I’ve tried it. They have a tap house, tours and tastings and I’d definitely go and have a look see, if I had the opportunity. There is however nothing apparent to connect them with AB-Inbev anywhere on their web site, you have to do a bit more digging to reveal this.

That raises the argument, does it matter? So long as the beer is alright. And why are AB-Inbev buying up craft breweries? Personally I think that’s because it’s a rather good marketing term that will sell more beer and make them even more money than they generate already.

What worries me with this is that some people might start drinking ‘craft beer’ because it’s cool, but end up drinking an inferior product. Thwaites Crafty Dan range springs to mind here, other traditional brewers have also sneaked in, along with some of the very thin and stannic tasting ‘craft’ bottles I’ve tried from places like Lidl and Aldi.  To continue to universally use the term craft could, I reckon, eventually devalue something that set out being really good, innovative, original. We still have the latter three adjectives in abundance in the brewing industry, but does modern UK brewing need to be called craft? Aren’t we now mixing up a whole variety of really diverse things by continuing to do this, at the same time confusing a lot of people? You tell me?

Getting back to today’s beer. The breweries tasting notes sum it up; a complex India Pale Ale flavour without all the punch. Grapefruit and passion fruit aromas, tropical fruits continue in the mouth. It’s quite medium bodied and there’s no overly strong malt flavours. There’s a nice lingering bitterness and a bit of a lemony aftertaste, but nothing extreme, quite nicely balanced. I’ve got mates brought up on large quantities of Northern Bitters who frown when I press them into trying something new. I won’t relate the expletives, but you probably get the idea. I reckon I could get them to drink and enjoy this Blue Point Brewing beer, which in my opinion at 4.8% ABV, is rightly termed a Session IPA. If I had a criticism, the name Mosaic Session IPA may be a little misleading, this isn’t a single hopped beer, there are several different American hops in the brew.

I liked the way the beer changed as the temperature increased. Almost a fractional distillation of the various flavours happening in the glass. The bitter notes were more pronounced straight from the fridge, the fruitier, softer ones came to the fore as the beer warmed up. I know there are suggested temperatures for storing different types of beer, but do you know exactly how cold your fridge is? I certainly don’t. Perhaps I should take more care over this?

Verdict – a really nice easy going, tasty, but not demanding sort of everyday beer. It would fit into the ‘go to supping beer (if I fancied a US style IPA)’ category for me if it were universally available on draught in the UK. I’d even seek it out. The Advent Calendar continues to deliver.

Are AB-Inbev craft? Course not, and they don’t care, so long as they continue to generate profit, seemingly by trying to obtain a stranglehold on the global beer market.

Advent Calendar Day 5 – Elysian Immortal IPA and more thoughts on craft beer.

by

4

day-5-elysian

Some of the feedback I’m getting tells me yesterdays post might have been a bit controversial! It’s certainly highlighted the fact that some people are really precious over the term Craft Beer?

Perhaps a little contextualisation needs to be made from my point of view; this series of posts have arisen purely because someone bought me a Beer Hawk Craft Beer Advent Calendar. I thought it would be a good idea to post every day about each beer revealed in the run up to Christmas. Nothing has been staged, but I knew that whatever I encountered would throw up interesting little points. I didn’t know I’d get a bottle of FUBAR yesterday, but it tied in nicely with something I saw with my own eyes as a member of the public, several weeks previously.

This time yesterday I had no idea what was behind window number 5 neither, nor what I was going to say about it? My first thoughts may prove controversial once again, because despite this being a craft beer Advent calendar, todays bottle just isn’t craft beer! Not if you take the Brewers Association (USA) definition of a craft brewer, anyway. They say an American craft brewer is small, independent and traditional. Independent is defined as, ‘Less than 25 percent of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcohol industry member that is not itself a craft brewer’.

That definition disqualifies Elysian Brewing Company from being a craft brewer as they were taken over by Anheuser Busch in January 2015. This deal precipitated the comment by Paul Gatza (then Brewers Association Director) in this article by Coral Garnick, “When a deal like this goes down, there is a sense of loss in the craft-brewing industry, as well as some of the customers,” he said. “Some people will certainly look at it as a sell out and a betrayal. But others don’t know, don’t care, or just care about what is in the bottle.”

So where do I stand? I’m open minded, if I’m honest. Elysian Brewing Company started out in Seattle in 1996. They’ve done over 350 craft brews since then and have four restaurants. Restaurants? Doesn’t sound like somewhere you go for a beer to me? In fact it’s almost the opposite of the food led managed pub called Vintage Ale House that Goose Island (AB – inbev) are opening in Balham (Morning Advertiser 05-12-16), which is probably a restaurant. Whereas the Elysian Brewing Company restaurants really do appear to be brew pubs with food, yet they call them restaurants. I’ve been in a few over the years and got put off Pumpkin ale for ever one Holloween (sic) in New York, Yuk! I can’t get over the full service concept neither, I don’t want to have to be shown to a table in a pub!

According to the Elysian Brewing Company web site, Immortal IPA (6.3%) is; a refreshing and hoppy, medium bodied IPA. A Northwest (USA) interpretation of a classic English style, golden copper in colour and loaded with New World hop flavour and aroma. It’s made with Pale, Munich, Crystal and Cara-hell malts. Bittered with Chinook, finished with Amarillo and Centennial hop to give an IBU of 62.

The aroma is toffee apples and really ripe melon. It’s pale amber in colour and there is a decent little head on it which laces onto the glass as you swirl it round. The toffee apple continues in the mouth and then goes to a juicy flavour before leaving a piney bitterness. It’s not a headbanger of an IPA, it’s far more subtle than that, and is actually a sensible, easy drinking beer. Although I like many of the extreme IPA’s, you’ve got to have some like this that you can drink whilst sat watching footy on TV.

Like it says on the bottle, it’s not an English style IPA, it’s an American take on an English style beer with lots of powerful malt and different hops. Like I often say, different isn’t wrong and this American interpretation of the style has given a lot to the beer world.

In five days I have had five really nice beers, good beers well made. In terms of whether they are craft beers then you have to make your own mind up. Before you do that you have to know what craft beer means, or maybe what it means to you, as clearly it means different things to different people. Despite the Brewers Association (USA) definition of a craft brewer if I hadn’t known that Elysian Brewing Company were no longer independent I would have instantly said US craft brewer, US style IPA, nice. Does a definition change that? If you’re reading this then please let me know your thoughts. Lots of you have done already in various forums, and I appreciate everyone’s views in my quest to define what craft beer is in the UK. The quote from Paul Gatza in the fourth paragraph is probably so, so true, in terms of the whole ethos around craft beer.

Verdict – Looking forward to my next beer and any dialogue it throws up. There hasn’t been a dark one yet? Will I be lucky tomorrow?

Harbour Brewing ‘Little Rock IPA’ – Day 2 of Coldwell’s Advent calendar

by

0

day-2-can

The can doesn’t want to come out at first, but as I ease it out I see the initials ‘H B’. I just bought a few cans of this Cornish brewers beer from Morribog’s on special offer; four cans for £6. On a positive, I like their gear, on the downside it’s currently available for  £1.50 a tin from the Potato King! Mind you, I’ve never seen or tasted Little Rock IPA.

Can: IPA style: That can only mean a period of isolation in the fridge with the other eight Harbour Brewing Co. cans in there. Just out of interest, there’s also; three bottles of Elvis Juice – I’m not keen and they have been donated to Mrs C, and three dozen cans of Bud. There’s also half a dozen botts. of St Austell Proper Job in the pantry, also on special offer at Morrisons – not half as nice as the cask version I had in The Globe, Weymouth  in the summer, not enough condition for me in these bottles. I could go into the merits of cans here? I like cans, for lots of reasons. I digress … let’s go back to Day 2 of the Beer Hawk Advent calendar.

Looking on a map I couldn’t find a harbour in Bodmin, Cornwall, where Harbour Brewing Co. are based? I couldn’t find any mention of Little Rock on the Harbour Brewing Co. web site neither? A few core beers and a few others in the shop (£3 per can!), but no Little Rock? Is it a one off special brewed for my Advent calendar? I doubt it. I found several references online, Untappd etc. and it’s described as an East coast style IPA, full malt body with Chinook, Centennial, Amarillo, Simcoe and Mosaic, £2.50 per can was the cheapest I saw it at. I like Harbour Brewing Co. beers, especially in cask, they’ve had them on occasionally in a few of the Leeds Brewery, now Cameron’s, pubs in Leeds and they are pretty decent.

day-2-beer

I poured my beer into a third glass today, leaving plenty of room to swirl it around. There’s no indication of when it was brewed on the can, only a best before date of July 2017 and the ABV  – 5.5%. The beer is quite dark amber almost brown, reddy brown, and bright. Initially there’s a head appearing as it pours which slowly disappears to leave a ring of foam around the periphery of the glass. The aromas are hops, hops and more hops, fruity hops. It’s dry, bitter, hoppy. There’s a malty taste of slightly burnt toffee, I guess some people might call that caramel? There’s some fruit flavours, but the overall impact is hops and a dark brown taste underlying it, not quite spicy cloves, more a woody barky feel.

Just checking out some of the tasting notes, from various sources I found online:

Caramelised hops – I get that, but thought it was the malt?

Thick peel orange marmalade – got the orange, wouldn’t go so far as marmalade?

Toasted white bread palate – not really.

Grassy green fresh pine needles – yeah, there’s some of that

Quick squeeze of lime zest – hint of, yes.

Strawberries – not really, but Mrs C detected strawberries on the nose and palate?

Pine, papaya, mango, Grapefruit, Red berries etc etc – Yeah, I got all the fruity, mainly grapefruity flavours you get from a mix of Simcoe, Centennial, Chinook, Equinox and Amarillo hops.

It just shows again how widely tastes differ and there’s no real divergence from the Beer Hawk sommelier on their daily video. I hope she’s not wearing lip gloss today. Mind you, the flavours here would cut through any cosmetic grease.

I thought it was a bit like a bright version of Magic Rock Rapture. An American red style IPA. I like Rapture, I like Little Rock IPA, it’s everything you imagine a beer with all these hops in would taste like. You might not taste much else for a while afterwards! Overall? A nice drink. Acid test, would I buy it again? Definitely yes. I wished they had it in Morribog’s at four cans for £6.

Verdict – Advent calendar living up to expectations at the minute.