Category Archives: USA

Day 19 – Still no dark beers and I’m Steamin’.

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Seventh time in nineteen days that I’ve had a different bottle/can to the one being tasted in the video for the official Beer Hawk case! The most annoying thing being they’ve got a dark beer and I’ve not. And I was certain whoever curated this case had to have included at least a … ? Dark IPA, an Imperial stout, a porter perhaps? Well they have, and it’s a bottle of Two Roads Espressway, an oatmeal stout brewed with roasted coffee beans, in the ‘official’ case that is, just not in mine.

My spirits fell even lower when I thought I’d just got a bottle of Anchor Steam Beer (£1.99 a bottle in Tesco). Closer investigation revealed that, although it was from Anchor, I’d got a bottle of Dry Hopped Anchor Steam Beer (£2.85 330ml, Beer Merchants). I’d never seen one of these? Reason being, I discovered, that they were first brewed in 2016 and are only available between September and December. Now if the Anchor website is to be believed, and I do, that means I must have one from a very early batch of this brew. Like many other beers in this case it has come via importers James Clay, and the date on the bottle confirms my thoughts with it’s BBD of August 2018.

The bottle and label will be familiar to those who’ve had an Anchor beer before. It’s just got ‘Dry Hopped’stamped over the normal label. Other interesting features on the bottle include – ‘Use Opener’ printed on the crown cap! How else you going to get it open? You can only do it with your teeth for so long before the old molars start to crumble.

The beer? I quite liked it actually. It’s a take on the California Common, just a bit more extreme. The beer is a deep Amber and is slightly hazy. You get a nice head on it as it pours and a malty aroma. It tastes malty, almost malteser malty, along with some juicy ripe fruits. It’s quite sweet until the end when a quite strong bitterness takes over. You really have to let the bitterness subside between sips, otherwise all you would get is the hoppy bitterness.

To be fair, I quite enjoyed this beer. It might not be an esoteric one, but it’s certainly pleasant, in an undemanding, yet nicely bitter way. Craft beer? Best ask those who reckon they know. It’s certainly a slightly different take on a recognised, traditional Californian style. All I will say is that Anchor have been making beer in San Francisco since 1896.

Verdict – Please, please Beer Hawk, tell me you have put at least one bottle of dark beer in my case?

Advent Calendar Day 14 – Hopefully Carlsberg UK will be bringing it to a supermarket near you?

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Total disaster with this one! I nicked the rim of the bottle opening it. No one’s fault, these things just happen from time to time. I think there was only one clean shard of glass that fell onto the counter, so I carried on undeterred. Please don’t do this at home though, just sling the bottle, just in case. I’m glad I’m not of the Snowflake generation, and could therefore carry on regardless of this accident, because I really enjoyed Day 14 of the Beer Hawk Advent Calendar – Brooklyn Scorcher IPA.

This 4.5% brew is billed as a session beer, as opposed to some of the stronger American IPA’s. I think I liked this beer because you actually get a bit of where it came from; a traditional English IPA. If you wanted to do a taste off to see how things evolved you could start off with an English IPA like Worthington’s White shield, a Scorcher IPA and, just sticking to the contents of my case, something like the Elysian Brewing Company Immortal IPA or the Victory Beer Hop Devil. I reckon this would nicely demonstrate how the IPA style developed when it went transatlantic. The Brooklyn Scorcher IPA probably being nearer to an English IPA than the more malty, hoppy IPA’s I received on Days 5 or 11, yet still with the dial turned up in these departments. I guess this explains why it’s only available in the UK and Scandinavia and not made for the (US) home market.

It’s quite lively and makes a nice head. Subtle aroma of hops and tastes citrus, piney, maybe a tiny hint of grapefruit. There’s a soft caramel malt taste and a nice bitterness. The only strange thing was the second pour was hazy. Now that doesn’t necessarily bother me, I just expected it to be bright. Obviously there was some sediment in the bottle, suggesting only a light filtration.

Pricewise, I found it on the interweb priced between £1.95 to £3.77, depending where you looked, most online stores were just above the two pound mark though. I didn’t think that was bad for a really nice, easy going refreshing drink. I haven’t seen it in any supermarkets near where I live, but I would really like to.

It got me thinking a bit when I couldn’t find the beer for sale on the Beer Hawk web site? I then discovered that Carlsberg UK have taken over the distribution rights for Brooklyn starting on 30th December 2016. The previous UK distributor being James Clay, the Halifax vintner, who are importers for quite a few of the other beers in this case. Should one be bold enough to suggest that Beer Hawk have banged out all their existing stocks of Scorcher in the Advent Calendar, knowing that they will get no more from who are obviously one of their existing business partners? I quite like a conspiracy theory, now and then.

Verdict – If you are looking for a powerful US style hop monster IPA, this isn’t what you are looking for. If you want something that’s different and subtly bolder than a traditional English IPA then I reckon you will enjoy this beer. I would love to see it in Morribog’s sometime soon.

Advent Day 11 – Hop Devil!

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Today Beer Hawk have Nøgne in their Day 11 Advent Calendar, whereas, for the fifth day out of eleven I have something entirely different to the beer they taste in their video blog. Disappointed? Not really because I’ve got a bottle of Victory Beer  Hop Devil and I’ve liked the beers from this brewer that I’ve tried previously. In fact, I think I’ve had Hop Devil on draught in Leeds city centre before. Probably in North Bar.

What started out in 1995 in Pennsylvania is now quite a big brewer who produced close on 150,000 Barrels in 2015, including ten core beers and more than fifteen seasonal brews that cover virtually every style of beer you can imagine. Their strap line is European tradition – American ingenuity, which accords directly with my thoughts of what craft brewing actually is.

I’m loving the scary Green Man inspired Hop Devil on the label, it’s suggestive of what might be contained in the barrel, it also foregrounds Victory Beer’s ethos of only using hop flowers and not pellets. I think it’s also a nice link to the Old World that gave us this style of beer, along with the all powerful earthy connection that anything made from nature has.

Deep Amber in colour, a malty almost tobacco like aroma, along with hops, lots of them. It didn’t hold any head after the pour. The tastes were lemony citrus and ripe fruits and a nice balance of toffee malt flavours. I also got a (bitter) almond like flavour and a few spicy notes. It’s quite smooth in the mouth and leaves an after taste a bit like bitter cream soda. Overall, balanced flavours, but you could tell it was all of it’s 6.7% ABV. Victory Beer’s website tells me that the beer is hopped with Cascade, Centennial and Chinook –  powerful American hops in a powerful American style IPA, no surprise there then.

The acid test, would I drink it again? Yes, by the case load, it’s yummy.

Criticisms – the bottle was only in date by two months (BBE 02-17). Would I be buying something from a bottle shop that only had two months date left on it? Not unless it was in a reduced case I wouldn’t. Having said that, eleven days in, this is the first bottle from the Advent Calendar that hasn’t had a very long date on it. Despite the variations from the official Beer Hawk case showcased in their video, I’m still enjoying my selection.

Advent Calendar Day 8 – This is Craft!

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So far as I can determine, there are no AB-Inbev ties with the brewer Evil Twin? I don’t think I have tried any of their beers before neither, despite them being highly regarded.

The term Gypsy brewer augurs romantic ideas of a mysterious wild rover with dark curly, flowing locks. Whoever coined it wasn’t familiar with the class of Gypsy who roam the West Yorkshire metropolis preying on the vulnerable and elderly, setting up illegal sites and bare knuckle fights, generally leaving a trail of rubbish and animal cruelty in their wake.

All that said, I don’t think my experience of Gypsys bears any resemblance to Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø founder and brewer at Evil Twin. Currently they brew at ten different breweries in six countries, although I read they are opening a permanent brewery and tap room in New York sometime in 2017. Although Jepe now lives in New York with his family, his Danish roots are reflected in the breweries .dk web extension.

Okay, Hipster ale might be in the lower price and rarity echelons of Evil Twin products when compared with brews like Even More Jesus which costs around £14 a bottle(660ml) in the UK , it is however a nice introduction to the brewer and the concept of Gypsy brewing. Hipster ale is actually brewed at Two Rivers, the brewers of the Day 1 beer of the Beer Hawk Advent Calendar.

If I’m honest, I’m hoping the people (the ones not reading this) who’ve got an Advent Calendar and aren’t familiar with the beers are doing a bit of research of their own, learning something about the brewers and the styles; rather than just drinking the beers and saying … ‘ooh that’s nice!’ or ‘I’m not keen,’ or whatever. That’s why I’d expected to see a little literature accompanying the box, or at least a pointer to the tasting videos, which aren’t immediately apparent on the Beer Hawk web site, I discovered you have to go onto Youtube to find all of them.

Strangely the Beer Hawk team are a little out of sync with the contents of my Advent Calendar and they’re not always discussing the same beer that I got. Instead of FUBAR on Day 4 they have a Blue Point Hoptical Illusion, on Day 6 they have a bottle of Ilkley beer instead of the Blue Point Mosaic I drank, and on Day 7 they got a Leffe Blonde, thankfully I got a bottle of Kwak. Personally I cant see Beer Hawk spending money on videos that don’t match the product? Maybe someone in the warehouse is inadvertently putting the wrong beers in the wrong slots? I hope not, there’s nowt wrong with it, but I wouldn’t be impressed with a bottle of Leffe Blonde – £4.97 for four 330ml bottles in the local Morrisons!

I guess Evil Twin tick all the craft beer requirements and I think these are a brewer that can safely be called craft; styles, geographical location, ethos. Even the description of todays beer on Evil Twin’s web site reads;

“Perhaps you heard of a worldwide beer-movement that tributes favorite hipster neighbourhoods across the globe. If you feel excluded because you’re hip but your city is not, this cutting-edge, ‘hip without border’ pale ale is an homage to you – the global hipster. Cheers!”

Despite all this waffle, their inclusion in the Advent Calendar is a considered one. A brewer you have heard of, but might not be familiar with, full marks to Beer Hawk for this one.

Okay, after all the hype, what was the beer like? Not much pssshhhhtttt! when you crack the can. I didn’t pick up a great deal of aroma beyond a few hops. Hazy, and left a rim of head around the glass after the initial pour effect had settled. Juicy, touch of citrus, hops, a hint of biter almond and soft toffee.

After the previous US stye beers in the case, this one at first might appear to be a bit tame to those expecting another hop forward beer. It’s not though, it’s actually very, very subtle. Everything is in there, but it exists in balance with everything else. Its a considered beer with a taste that has to be considered and the more you sum it up, the more you appreciate it.

We’ve all watched football teams that rely on a single striker, or one or two key players to achieve results, it often works. It’s only rarely that we see a team that has quality players across the park, none of them stand out, but they all play a key role, and when they play well then they are unbeatable. Hipster ale.

Verdict – top pick, I am really wanting to try more of Evil Twin beers.

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

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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.

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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?

Craft Beer OR just JDW exposing themselves?

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I was somewhat bemused to see this laminated flyer in a local Wetherspoons, the one in the concourse at Leeds station, which is probably my favourite JDW in Leeds. A proper station boozer, with all types of folk calling in, at all times of day for an ale, tea or coffee or just a plate of cheap grub.

I’ve read endless debate about what Craft beer is, or isn’t. I’ve even taken to calling, what might, in the eyes of some, constitute Craft Beer as post modernist beers, especially to differentiate between the original American Craft beer from what followed here in the UK. Let’s be honest the term is one that was crafted by the American brewing industry long before it surfaced on the european side of the Atlantic.

So, what did I think of the ‘Guest Craft Beers’ being showcased by JDW?  Mmmm. Well, they certainly think along different lines to me. Now before I go any further, I don’t think there are any bad beers on here, nor any poor breweries. In fact, I think they are all pretty decent to top class, breweries and excellent bottled beers. All of which might hit the spot at the right time and none of which pass the CAMRA real ale test, something that doesn’t bother me, neither.

Lets start with the ‘Local Craft Showcase’. Fair enough, Roosters make very progressive modern ales, as do Sonnet 43, if perhaps to a lesser extent. Now that cannot be said about Acorn, or Ossett, or Rudgate, who all make excellent, solid, real ales, yet could never be mentioned in the same sentence as Craft Brewers, surely?

If you have a look down the side of the flyer, JDW give us a definition of Craft Beer – Craft brewers are generally small independent breweries who add a twist to traditional recipes to create something authentic, unique and quirkier?

Okay, so how come Mythos, the Hellenic, Carlsberg subsidiary industrial scale Lager producer or Red stripe the Jamaican, industrially brewed (under license) and owned by Diego, Lager fit into that description. And what about Leffe, a brewing tradition since 1420 (their words, not mine!) and Duvel, since 1871? I don’t think they have added any twist to their authentic recipes which are no quirkier than when they originally started, something these Belgian brewers pride themselves on. Similarly Negra Modelo the Mexican brewed dark Lager (Dunkel) has been brewed since 1925 and although it’s one that you don’t often see in bars and pubs, it’s still not Craft Beer JDW.

Daleside say, our draught beers are brewed using traditional methods drawn from a long history of beer making. Again, I draw you too JDW’s definition of craft beer and brewers from exhibit A. If you look at Springhead’s web site they classify themselves as craft brewers. Personally I think they fail to draw the distinction between skilled Artisan and the marketing tactic JDW mis-use. Indeed, they state Roaring Meg is a surprisingly smooth, classic IPA style beer.

I’m none too sure that Craft Beer sums up the infamous Jaipur neither? Again an excellent beer, a post modernist, progressive UK beer from a pioneering brewery, but is it Craft Beer? Maybe we should ask Brewdog? Their products are featured and I reckon they want to be called Craft Brewers, following on from The Flying Dog and similarly named Snake Dog, breweries from the USA which inspired the term and a certain style of hop forward IPA in the UK.

Do I think that JDW have got it wrong? Yes, it worries me is that there are now all sorts of people going round thinking that all these beers are craft beers, when in reality, it’s just a selection of decent ales. A few being able to call themselves craft, several being mass produced Lager beer and the rest being right honest examples of modern brewing.

I’m a big fan of JDW, but not of this type of misleading marketing that can only mislead the average punter rather than promoting good beer and brewing.

Come on JDW, have a word with yourself and straighten your self out!