UK Weekend Beerage

Also drinking the Cloudwater Birthday DIPA, seriously impressive, buy it if you can.

 

Just returned from a nice shortish trip to Alicante. Plenty of Spanish beer consumed :

El Cantero New England IPA, Stone Mason Wheel Stout
Althaia Barlovento, Mistral, Costa Este
Naparbier Kong, Insider IPA, Milkshake IPA, Pumpkin Tzar, The Crimson Bird
Yakka Serious Rye IPA, Yapale, Postureo
Postiguet Varamover IPA
Laugar Aupa Tovarisch
Dougal's IPA No.8
Basqueland Brewing Project/Lervig Nor'way Jose, Coco Chango

Had a fair few chats with bar persons and bottleshop owners about the Spanish beer scene. They suggested they were 5-10 years behind, not sure whom ? Issues include climate, everything seems to be thrown into a low temp fridge even in Feb, price, locals unwilling to pay 4-5 euros for a bottle, tastes, wine is very popular and cheap mass produced thirst quenchers are the norm. Looks like a difficult market. Returning to the beers, the big ABV's were great, Althaia Barlovento, a local lightly smoked imperial porter, Aupa Tovarisch, a phenomenal RIS and Coco Chango, a lovely well balanced imperial porter with coconut. Nor'way Jose I have had overhere but it is so good had to try again.

Noticed some have mentioned Cloudwater Birthday DIPA. As it's my birthday tomorrow I will try to source it in Bristol.

 

Wylam Room 237 , excellent, their recent releases in cans have been top notch, imho.

 

Was at the Duke's Head in Highgate having a couple pints and watching the MU-Chelsea game. This month's pop-up kitchen wowed my wife, so I got today as a bonus round of drinking because she wanted to eat there again with the kids. Anyhow, I tried two beers from a new (or new to me) brewery called Track Brewing from Manchester.
Denali - a 6.5% IPA on cask that was pretty solid, but I couldn't help but feel it was one of those beers that would have quite a bit more "pop" in the aroma if kegged.
Into the Sun - a 7.0 kegged NE IPA. This may have been the best NE IPA I've had here in the UK, as most seem to completely miss the target. Tropical, dank, and yeasty, I wouldn't go as far as to say this is top-tier, but at least it reminded me of top-tier ones from Treehouse and Trillium.

While that is nice and all, the very best news is that I just found out that Mother Kelly's has a new location near my new office down near Vauxhall. Instead of walking an extra 10 minutes to Cask Pub and Kitchen (which I'll still probably do), I can walk a block past the tube and have my pick of 33 tap lines. On the way home Friday (okay, I might have left work early), I had Beerbliotek's Still...Looking For imperial stout (excellent) and Magic Rock's Fantasma IPA (good).

 

Also had a few from Track recently, pretty good imho. Enough to add them to the list of bottles to keep an eye out for.

 

Glad to see track brewing getting a bit more exposure. They have been quietly putting out good beers around Manchester over the last couple of years in the shadow of Cloudwater’s meteoric rise. They only started bottling a couple of months back. I’ve been to their brewery tap a few times as well which is actually just a few doors down from cloudwater’s.

 

So far this evening:
Redchurch Shoreditch Blonde
Wylam Blackberry Milkshake IPA

The latter is a bit odd. Tastes pretty good, but filled with chunks of something that floats around....

I don't have much experience of milkshake beers.

 

Had a milkshake IPA in Spain, fruit pureed with lactose added. Sounds like they haven't gone with the sieve, lol. Think you can get the fruit notes from selective use of hops in my opinion.

 

Snowed in down here so have been hitting the beer cellar/under the stairs :

Siren Suspended in Space
Northern Monk Campfire Strannik Marshmallow
LHG/Verdant Even Sharks Need Cheeseburgers
Lost and Grounded Cool Bananas
HaandBrygerriet Odin's Tipple
LHG Archipelago
Arbor Space Hardware, Choc-A-Block Coco Choc
De Struise Blue Monk Special Reserve

Stand outs Space Hardware, Arbor's first NEIPA and they have really nailed it for me. Another local brew Cool Bananas, solid wheat beer. Also Blue Monk, a lovely lightly smoked complex quad, perfect for this weather.

Also huge news in relation to the beer scene in Bristol. LHG are absolutely smashing it on their Crowdfunding with their proposed new taphouse/brewery/restaurant project. This will be a massive leap in the local scene. With Verdant and Northern Monk going in a similar vein, lots of exciting expansions happening across the UK in relation to quality breweries.

 

Yeah, I've no idea what was going on there. I've got some other similar beers from different breweries to try in the future, so I guess I'll find out if it's a consistent feature or not....

 

Great news about LHG, made a small pledge this morning.

 

Chimay Blue
I've been off snowboarding in the French Alps and it was roughly a £1 a bottle. I don't normally touch the stuff in the UK given that it's almost three times more expensive and so old that it just tastes like bread. I do not subscribe the aging thing. The fresh stuff is so full of vitality and complexity that it's practically a different drink from the stale shit in Tesco.

 

Finishing up the weekend with The Garden Brewery's IPA - an American-style IPA brewed in Croatia. I haven't had beer from this country before, but it's good to see microbreweries springing up all over....

 

Was just scoping a potential visit to Croatia and that brewery did come up. Estonia looks good as well, had a nice Baltic Porter from Sori and good things about Pohjala. Somebody mentioned Bucharest is a good destination as well. Anyway here is my up to date list :

Tiny Rebel/Siren Didgeridank
Sori Vanilla Cake Fever
Northern Monk Slamdank, Muscavado and Oak Porter, Heathen
Wild Beer Redwood
Cloudwater Citra and Simcoe
Odyssey Grievous Angel
Founders Redankulous
Wiper and True Ravens and Doves
Beavertown Double Chin
De Molen 21 grams Cryo Hop

Solid bunch, Muscavado and Oak Porter, really nice and a steal even at the local Brewdog. Nice visit to Bath and brilliant Independent Spirit bottle shop to pick up the De Molen and a bottle of Black Albert.

 

So far on St. Paddy's night I've indulged in Lervig's Christmas Shake, which was sweet and weird (not a good combo) and am now having Black Iris' Divine Elements, which is much better.

I'm beginning to think that milkshake beers aren't my thing....

 

Harvey's IPA. ABSOLUTELY. FUCKING. AWFUL.