UK Weekend Beerage

Having a few watching the football tonight as Mrs. Kozel is having her Xmas night out tomorrow in Stirling and I have to pick her up at 1pm on Saturday morning.

Traquair - House Ale, had this a few times and never disappoints,
Brewdog - Hoppy Xmas, like a lighter version of the Tesco DIPA,
Titanic - Plum Porter, had this on draught before, still really nice from the bottle,
Williams Bros. - Profanity Stout, lovely smooth stout,
Valente's - Double Espresso,
Hatherwood - Porter,
Hatherwood IPA,
Not tried the last 4, but had the Profanity loads of times and think I've tried the Espresso. Does anyone know if the Hatherwood range of craft beers are brewed specifically for Lidl ?, never seen them anywhere else.

 

Had the Titanic Plum Porter last night - real good, especially at £1.50 or whatever it is at Lidl.

As for today, I'm off to Saltaire Beer club today. Don't know if anyone's been before? I've never been blown away by Saltaire stuff, but 13 of there beers on + guest ales all at £2 a pint + a hog roast = no complaints.

 

Stumbled upon a Manchester Breweries Tap Takeover on Thursday and had some rather nice Cloudwater, Runaway & Track beers. Didn't try any Chorlton as I couldn't reconcile the stupidity of an Imperial Black Gose.

 

M&S Black IPA from Purity. Ok , needs more hop aroma imo. Picked up the sorachi saison form adnams, a smoked beer fromt hem as well I think and a couple of bottles of Jarl

 

Had the Sorachi Saison the other week, quite liked it, but surprised Mrs. Kozel didn't as that's usually her sort of beer.

Dropped into 'Spoons on my way home from the football, had a pint of Birrificio del Ducato - Ale For Obsessed, then had another, then another and a further other. Think it's meant to be a Pale Ale, but had a slight sweetness and creamy mouthfeel as well.

 

Drank it with my dinner - was good but I can only have one sorachi ace beer at a time as it's a bit of a weird taste.

Now onto a homebrewed ESB, recipe from Jims Beer kit forum. Still not dropped bright, tasty but a bit green

 

M&S smoked ruby from adnams again. Insipid, needs more of everything

 

De Dolle Brouwers Special Extra Export Stout
Brouwerij de Landtsheer Malheur 12
Founders Centennial IPA
Affligem Dubbel

Top 2 lovely winter warmers. The top one like their Oerbier very lively out of the bottle.

 

Had the bottom 2, fancy the top 2.

 

I've just got back from spending last week in Boston and New York City so just want to share a few of my beery highlights.

We arrived in Boston quite late and found a nice brew pub Boston Beer Works. There beer was decent, not spectacular but was perfect after the long late. Had an Irish stout, a flight of different strength IPA's and a quad with brown sugar and cherry.

Also in Boston had Dog Fish Head 60 Minute and Anderson Valley Blood Orange Gose on tap, and Punkin Ale in bottle from the local shop, which also cans of had Ballast Point Sculpin. These were all really good.

We then visited the Sam Adams Brewery and was nice to see more about their heritage and about all the different beers they've done that don't make it to these shores. We tried an experimental lychee and pear pale ale and bought a bottle of American Kriek to bring home. We visited a bar round the corner from them and had also Grumpy Monk, Rebel IPA Grapefruit and somewhere else later on a Cream Stout.

Final place we went to in Boston was Harpoon Brewery tap house. I'd not heard of them before but it seemed a popular spot, was still busy when it was closing at 7. Again we had a couple of flights, which included a Russian Imperial Stout, a mango pale ale, a gingerbread beer and a winter warmer amongst a few others.

In New York City there was a noticeable step up in quality of beers available although this came with an expense. Tried Bell's for the first time, Porter and Two hearted in bottles. These were good too but preferred the Sculpin to the Two Hearted. Also had the Blood Orange Gose from a can and preferred it to the tap version.

We went to a great bar called Rattle and Hum. Here I had Stone Your Father Smelt Of Elderberries, a coffee and cream stout and a barley wine aged in rye barrels.

As it was then Black Friday we had seen there was a store doing an event for the launch of Bourbon County Brand Stout so we headed there. We didn't go for the opening which was apparently queuing overnight but then we weren't lo spend a fortune snapping up all the different variants. It reopened at 12 with beers on tap so there was another queue to get in and tickets for one sample only of each of the new beers. We tried the 4 main BCB beers on tap and bought a bottle of the regular to bring home. There were people there spending like $300 on cases. I've never experienced anything like this in the UK.

We then headed over to Brooklyn in the evening and went to the Brooklyn Brewery tap house. This was good, but busy and lots of queues. Had the Sorachi Ace, Post Road Pumpkin, Greenmarket Wheat and Mal Du Pays sour all on tap.

Next stop near by was Torst. Really good bar with amazing beer selection on tap. Mikkeller Spontanpassionfruit, Evil Twin Yin, De Struise Cuvee Delphine Four Roses Barrel Aged, Evil Twin Aus Mas Chilli Jesus.

The final thing was some beers to bring home in our suitcases. We found a great beer shop where we picked up some Lagunitas Cappuccino stout, Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast, Sixpoint Resin, Ommegang Three Eyed Raven and some other Goose Island (Sofie, The Muddy).

All in all, an amazing experience.

 

Sounds like a great trip. Did you manage to see any decent UK brews overthere ?

 

Not particularly. I think I saw fullers esb and a few Sam smith's. One shop had 4 packs of brewdog 's hardcore ipa but with the old style bottle design so got to be 12-18 months old. Other than that just the standard Newcastle brown and boddingtons. Interestingly enough the harpoon brewery had what they called an 'English pub ale', which was basically a stronger version of Boddingtons. I saw no cask ale there either although a few places had 'cask' as a heading on the board but nothing available. The kegs were never served at a freezing temperature as you find here though in modern uk craft though.

 

When I was there a couple of years ago I was amused to see Innis & Gunn in the wholefoods for about $6 a bottle. Their uk selection wasn't great it was fair to say, but the us selection was obviously rather impressive compared to here. I think I rated most of the beers I had there and almost all of them I rated lower than the average score. They were still good though. I was just drinking them in restaurants mainly. I reckon I'm a bit more pessimistic than the average american ba rater

I wasn't there on a beer centric trip as I was there visiting my brother who barely drinks - favourite beer is Heineken, the damn fool.

Your post makes me want to go back!

 

Just tried the Lidl Hatherwood Green Gecko IPA, brewed by Marstons I think. I was expecting it to be awful, but given that it is only a month old.....it's actually not too bad. Another APA claiming to be a modern IPA of course, but the aroma is decent, hop forward, flavour is pretty simple but not offensive in any way and there is a bit of bitterness and dryness there too. Quite a dark pale ale. Tad watery pehaps. IF you want to try it then I'd try it soon before any hoppyness drops off. I'll give their porter a go too, that might be decent. Not sure about the other ones.

 

I had that last week along with the Porter, both were ok. I asked at the time if Hatherwood beers were exclusive to Lidl, didn't realise they were brewed by other brewers for Lidl. Notice you had a bottle of the Titanic Plum Porter in the background.

 

I assume they are by marstons as that's who they are listed under on ratebeer as it doesn't say on the bottle.

Yeah first time I@ve seen the plum porter there, although I've not been in lidl for quite a while. Beer range has definitely improved but its still fairly rubbish imo

 

Yeah, I agree, slightly better range, but not as good as Aldi.

 

For anyone knocking about Belfast next Monday (7th Dec) , Brewbot on the Ormeau Rd will be hosting Stone Berlin's launch party. One of 40 bars across Europe. Beer list looks cracking:
Beers from StoneBerlin:
•Stone IPA
•Arrogant Bastard Ale
•Stone Xocoveza for the Holidays & the New Year
•Stone Busted Gasket IPA

Beers from Stone San Diego:
•Stone Smoked Porter
•Stone Saison
•Stone Coffee Milk Stout
•Stone Delicious IPA
•Stone Ruination Double IPA 2.0
•Stone Go To IPA
•Stone Pale Ale 2.0
•Juli Goldenberg/Monkey Paw/Stone 24 Carrot Golden Ale
•Stone 20th Anniversary Encore Series: 08.08.08 Vertical Epic Ale
•Stone Cali-Belgique IPA
•Bourbon Barrel-Aged Arrogant Bastard