When is an IPA not an IPA?

I’ll be the first to admit the title of this post is slightly misleading because what I’ve been thinking about over the last few weeks is how several of the beers I’ve drank recently should have been classed as an IPA but they haven’t mentioned those three immortal little letters on their label. With modern craft IPA being such a beer du jour it should make sense that in order to sell more of your beer you should print those three letters in a giant font on your label in order to suck in hop perverts like myself. Not all brewers are in it for the money (although it’s surely a motivational aspect of your chosen career) but it seems to be absolutely essential for craft breweries to include a well hopped IPA in their resume.

Plenty of room on this label for three more letters

Take, just as an example, New Belgium in the USA. They specialise in producing modern and very Americanised takes on classic Belgian styles of beer but one of their best sellers is Ranger which is an incredibly well hopped IPA. Now correct me if I’m wrong but last time I checked those funky Belgian monks weren’t chucking armfuls of Cascade and Chinook into their mash tuns. Unsurprisingly Ranger sells very well, it’s a fantastic beer and no doubt some of the revenue this beer generates funds their more experimental brews such as Biere de Mars and La Folie.

The modern style of IPA, heavily dry-hopped with lashings of American hops is without question my favourite style of beer, I could drink it all day long and quite often do. After drinking the two beers I’m going to look at during the course of this blog my mind cogs started whirring, they definitely had all the qualities of a solid IPA but they don’t play on this fact in order to shift more units. Perhaps their brewmasters do not consider these beers to be IPAs, maybe they are off-kilter or perhaps something else entirely? When you think about it, when does pale ale become India pale ale? Surely this is indicated by an ABV of at least 5.5% or above (if it’s not been watered down of course) and has been well hopped to ‘survive its journey across the ocean’. Of course much of the IPA we drink today hasn’t been brewed to survive an arduous ocean journey, we just like the way it tastes, so why the hell do we still label it with the word India when that doesn’t really have a great deal of association with this beer in it’s modern form. Of course it would be incredibly bold and very wrong of me to dismiss centuries of brewing history with one swing of a stick but have you ever though just how relevent the IPA tag really is in modern brewing?

Of course it says IPA so that beer lovers like us can find the beers WE want to drink, for me those three little letters simply indicate that this might just be another great beer waiting to be discovered. The first of the two beers I’m going to devour during the course of this article fails to mention this anywhere obvious on it’s simple yet incredibly effective label and that beer is Marble Dobber. It was down to the recommendation of others that I discovered the Marble brewery who unlike many of their fellow Northern Craft Brewers seem to shun mass social networking and their website gives very little information away. If you Google any Marble beer you are met not with a well designed and thoughtful website but instead with a plethora of blogs that almost unanimously sing their praise and it is because of us, the bloggers that Marble have gained such a stalwart reputation.

The first couple of Marble beers I had were very enjoyable, I really like their Lagonda IPA and their Chocolate Stout is one of my favourite examples of that style but it was when I finally got hold of my first bottle of Dobber that Marble gained a special place in my heart. I’m sure many of you reading this (in the UK at least) will have tried and loved Dobber, it leaps out of the bottle lively as anything, smacks you round the face with huge chunks of pineapple, heaving great slabs of mango and hides almost all but a smidgen of booze which lingers in the back of your throat as you swallow. In a decades time we will still be drinking this beer with hushed reverence, it’s a beautifully British example of a modern craft IPA, or is it? For me it most definitely is, it has all the hallmarks that make craft IPAs great, huge hops on a massive malt backbone perfectly balanced and dangerously drinkable. Would it be even more popular if the minimalist pea-green label said Dobber IPA?

That little red bastard owl stole my wallet

I am a man of simple mind, I am easily taken in when a selection of cool ‘n’ kooky new beers shimmy into town and this was most definitely the case when Hitachino Nest beers arrived in the UK. I immediately fell in love with that little owl and had to procure some of their beers, if I was quick enough I could maybe blog about them before anyone else and how cool would that be! When I did finally get hold of some I thought of how silly I had been and decided, like with most of the beer I drink to just enjoy it, by myself, in the comfort of my own home. I often wonder if the Internet really needs to know of each and every beer I consume complete with ‘arty’ photo taken on Instagram. I know some of you like it, and I love seeing what other people are drinking but I can’t help but feel that many of my non-beery mates are simply baffled by this activity. So sometimes I don’t tell the Internet what I’m drinking, but that’s not because I don’t love you all very much, it’s because it still sometimes feels a little bit silly.

So I wasn’t going to blog about the quite frankly excellent beers from Hitachino Nest but I felt that their Nipponia was quite suited to this post, in fact it probably inspired it. This well malted and well hopped brew uses the Kaneki Golden barley malt and the now world renowned Sorachi Ace hop. Nipponia is simply described on its label as ‘ale’ and weighs in at a reasonable 6.5% ABV but are we in IPA territory? Well if American breweries can use all American ingredients and describe a beer as an IPA and if British breweries can use all British ingredients and describe a beer as an IPA then why can’t the Japanese?

Nipponia pours a very pale gold colour and produces a nice creamy head that leaves a ring of foam around the edge of the glass. It has a pungent nose of jasmine, melon and elderflower with just a hint of caramel and has some lively carbonation going on in the glass. For me the Sorachi Ace hop provides a very herbal almost medicinal flavour which is very much present in this beer but there are also hints of lemongrass and lychee with the malt tasting of rice cakes that have been dipped  brown sugar. The finish is bone dry, the beer is wonderfully refreshing and despite the slightly medicinal taste I was left begging for another sip. It’s a quintessentially Japanese take on a style of beer that is dominated by brews from the US and the UK (not forgetting a certain Danish Gypsy brewer of course) but once again I ask the question, is this beer an IPA?

If this beer wanted to be an IPA and it wore that badge proudly on its label then I would accept it as an IPA but Nipponia refuses to be labelled as such, standing it’s own ground despite sharing so many similarities with the style. Is IPA a deserving genre of beer of its own or is it merely a label that has been bastardised by breweries with huge marketing departments and then lovingly adopted by the craft beer scene as the sign of a truly great beer. Realistically it doesn’t really matter how a brewery wants to label its beer, as long as they are brewing good shit then I’ll continue to throw money at it and drink into the night with reckless abandon.

BrewDog IPA is Dead 2012

BrewDog, despite what you think of their zany, in your face marketing schemes you cannot hide from the fact that they brew some pretty awesome beer. Whether you love them or loathe them it’s hard to deny that Punk IPA is one of the most solid core beers on the market at the moment and Hardcore IPA is an absolute stunner that I urge hop freaks like myself to go out and try if you haven’t already done so.

Last year I decided to buy shares in BrewDog based mainly on the fact that I would get a discount at their Camden bar and from their online shop, whether or not I would make any money from them was a bit of an afterthought but in terms of a personal business decision it looks to have been a pretty solid one. BrewDog are everywhere and last week saw them steal the headlines when drinks giant Diageo attempted to cheat them out of an award that already had their name engraved on it. I won’t go into it here as this particular post is not about the BrewDog marketing machine but about their great beers however you can read this great post by Pete Brown if you want to know a little more about what happened.

IPA is alive and well, actually.

I do often wonder just how long BrewDog will be able to stick to their punk ethos especially now their beers are available in several major UK supermarkets and their brand and chain of bars seem to be growing at an exponential rate. I’m sure that one day soon a man in a very nice suit from a big multinational corporation will come knocking at BrewDogs door with a very, very large cheque and it will be interesting to see exactly what Mr. James Watt does when he sees that many zeros. If it was me I’d take the money, go into hiding until it all blows over and then build a tower to keep my money in so I could swim around in it like Scrooge McDuck. I’m not much of a punk though, I just like good beer and towers full of money.

Last year I bought BrewDogs IPA is dead four pack and found all of them bar the Nelson Sauvin really disappointing. The much lauded Sorachi Ace tasted unpleasant and medicinal and the Bramling Cross didn’t really taste of much at all. The main reason I didn’t like them was that there was almost zero malt backbone, the hops were left on their own out in a disparate wilderness and for me they just didn’t work. I thought I’d give it another go this year because I’m a bit of a glutton for punishment but as it turns out BrewDog have delivered four very exceptional beers this time around. The malt base appears to have been completely restructured and the four hops that have been chosen not only shine brilliantly but all have unique and interesting tastes that really had my palate working overtime.

I decided to start with Challenger as I expected it to be the most muted of these four hops. I had made the decision to work my way through all four bottles in a single evening but also bought a second pack so I could taste them individually at a later date in case of palate fatigue. Although Challenger was indeed the most muted and subtle of the four beers it was in no way unpleasant, in fact it was supremely drinkable. The nose was typical of many British hop varieties; earthy with notes of freshly cut grass and a hint of golden syrup from the malts. Challenger provided a really nice level of bitterness, flavours of chunky orange marmalade and caramel combined in the mouth to provide a really level, balanced taste. The finish was very dry and I found myself wanting a little bit more citric zing to appease my taste buds but all in all this is a very good IPA.

Next I jumped straight to the beer I was most excited about; Motueka. I love New Zealand hops, they have a fresh, rich, tropical flavour that just cannot be beaten and this hop did not disappoint. The nose was totally tropical, in my tasting notes I’ve decribed the aroma as being a bit like alcoholic Lilt or Um Bongo. The taste was a real fruit basket of guava, pineapple, mango and passion fruit flavours and the finish had a little bit of black pepper to it. As my tongue unlocked the complexities of this brew I also started to get pine and grapefruit notes but despite all these flavours bouncing around Motueka is actually surprisingly mellow and really easy to drink. Instead of assaulting your senses by being bitter and resinous Motueka lolls around gently as if it was relaxing in a hammock on a sunny New Zealand Day (apparently quite a rare thing). This beer was the best of the four, so good in fact that I would be pleased to see it as a regular edition to the BrewDog lineup, fantastic stuff.

I then decided to hop over the Tasman Sea and see what the Australian grown Galaxy hop would bring to the table. The nose had hints of freshly cut grass and an earthy quality not dissimilar to the Challenger but with more tropical and citrus fruits added into the mix. The taste was bittersweet with lemon, pine and mango combining nicely over a backbone of brown sugar. For me Galaxy seemed to work great as a bittering hop but I found the aroma a little lacking, still it was a really enjoyable IPA.

The final beer of the four is hopped with a new US grown hop simply called HBC. I’m not quite sure what this stands for but while writing down my tasting notes I decided that it was named after British actress Helena Bonham Carter who is obviously a massive craft beer fan. HBC is supremely bitter, the aroma was of big, juicy Seville oranges, lemons and breakfast grapefruit. This bitterness translates beautifully onto the tongue and notes of citrus, lychee and chunky marmalade whiz around in unison. I also detected a vinous quality not dissimilar to the one given off by Nelson Sauvin which added a sharp edge to the bitter flavour and made this my second favourite of the four close behind Motueka.

All four of these beers on their own have stunning individual qualities and unique flavours and had I bought a third pack I might have tried experimenting by blending them together. Galaxy and Challenger seem to work brilliantly as bittering hops whereas Motueka and HBC were heaped with huge, heady aromas and I could see these four hops working very well together. If anyone has tried blending these together, do get in touch an let me know how you got on!

Despite your personal opinion on the way BrewDog go about their business it is hard to deny that they produce some stunning beers and these four IPAs are no exception. They showcase a brewer that really understands the nature of hops and how to get the best out of them so if you are lucky enough to find a four pack for sale I’d advise you pick one up.

A Night with the Mayor of Old Town

I have just about got over the jet lag since my arrival back in to the UK about a week ago and now I’ve had the time to sit and digest my fourth visit to the wonderful Fort Collins it feels like time to write it down. I had planned to simply summarise the week in one or two posts but a single night sticks out far further in my mind than some of the others.

It was a Wednesday evening, I had been out the previous night and was struggling with a pretty bad hangover which wasn’t being helped by the mile-high altitude of Colorado. Despite the headache my Dad suggested we head to the biggest dedicated craft beer bar in town, The Mayor of Old Town and sample a few brews. Within seconds my hangover had lifted and I was out the door in a fashion akin to a rat out a drain pipe. The Mayor is actually about a ten minute walk from Old Town which lies in the centre of Fort Collins and stands just across the road from the smart campus of Colorado State University. The bar is set in a spacious and relatively new building (It’s the American west so old buildings are a rare thing indeed anyway) with modern furnishings, nice low yet warm lighting and a lengthy bar. You can either take a seat at a table or at the bar itself and thanks to the glorious thing that is American service there is no need to queue at the bar as a server comes to you to take your order.

The Mayors selection of beers is very impressive

Now the Mayor is no ordinary craft beer bar, it has no less than one hundred beers on tap, the line up of tap handles is mind blowing (the taps themselves span 26 feet) but what’s more impressive is the huge projected screen above the bar which features of a list of every beer that’s available and is updated in real time. The selection is a breathtaking mix of local and not so local craft delights but in a true open minded step they cater for those of us that don’t have a hop addiction with more common beers such as Bud Light, Stella Artois, Guinness and even Strongbow for those seeking sweet, spiky refreshment. ‘Real ale’ fans will be pleased to know that there is even a selection of British beers such as Morland Old Speckled Hen and Wychwood Hobgoblin, all on keg of course, there’s not a cask in sight.

Trivial things such as dispense method have never bothered me however, especially when there are so many delights to choose from, but where to start? I decide on something not too crazy to begin with and after Dad and I have taken a seat at the bar I order a Firestone Walker Pale 31. You know you’re in for a treat when the servers reply is to simply exclaim ‘DELICIOUS’ and he wasn’t wrong, I’ve never been remotely underwhelmed by a Firestone Walker beer before and Pale 31 is simply about as perfect as a pale ale can get. It was the colour of golden straw and had a wonderful aroma of lemon and pine, it cured my bad head in mere moments as its sharp grapefruit notes whizzed across my tongue. It had a wonderful refreshing dryness and try as I might to make it last the glass was soon empty.

The bar staff were beyond excellent, no sooner than you had drained the last dregs of your glass than you were being quizzed about what you wanted to fill it with. I’d being eyeballing the extensive menu for the entire duration of my last pint and was about to plump for a Saison Dupont when I spied another farmhouse style ale; Collette from Great Divide Brewing. I’m a big fan of Great Divide, Titan IPA is one of my favourite beers and for me they are one of the most consistent breweries out there. Collette is a wonderful take on this Belgian style, in fact my tasting notes read that if no one had told me it was from Great Divide I would have assumed it was Belgian. Delving into the yeasty aroma also gives you a hint of the tart, raspberry flavours that lie within. The fruit is wrapped in a wonderful blanket of funky Belgian yeast that manages to be fulfilling but never overpowering, it’s another really refreshing beer and not surprisingly it’s the Great Divide summer seasonal, well worth a punt if you can find some in the UK. Another nice touch was that the beer was served to me in a Belgian style ale glass which really helped me get the aroma and enhance the all around drinking experience, a nice touch and something that I would expect from a bar of this calibre.

I was having a whale of a time already and it wasn’t too long before my glass was emptied once again only this time I was ready for some hops. I ordered a glass of Oskar Blues Deviant Dales IPA which is a relatively new IPA from this awesome Colorado brewery, it arrived in a large snifter and my server asked me ‘I hope you are ready for this’. It seems only fair that I refer to my tasting notes here which read; ‘this is an IPA you could paint your house with.’ Deviant Dales IPA is without a doubt the most oily, most resinous brew I have ever consumed. The hop aromas of pink grapefruit and a blooming pine forest dig their claws into your face and slam it down into the bar. The hop oils literally coat your mouth as your drink, it’s not unpleasant, it’s a very good IPA, the citrus and pine flavours combining with a nice malt backbone but it’s one of those beers that for me, has taken it a step too far. I love hops, I love ridiculous double IPAs but I found even this to be a little bit too much, when my Dad tried some he chose to add a little water just to calm it down, it’s one crazy beer.

Later that week I did try some more Deviant Dales and enjoyed it but not as much as I enjoy their regular Dales Pale Ale which is a beer that I often gush about. Still I would like to hear from anyone else that’s tried it, I’m sure a beer like this has a lot of fans!

An IPA you could paint your house with

It was around this time and after a Bushmills chaser (The Bar Manager didn’t give us much choice about this, but you didn’t hear me complaining) that I struck up a conversation with the guy sat next to me, or maybe it was the other way around, it’s hard to remember these things when you’re quaffing strong beer at 5000 feet. His name was Dave and he was the head chef at a local restaurant and a fellow beer nut. He had been in The Mayor longer than I had and the signs were all there; slurred speech, drooping head, big smile, you get the picture. He turned to the bar staff and uttered the immortal words ‘What’s the most expensive beer you have here?’ While we waited for their answer my Dad ordered the three of us more Bushmills, not necessary but not unwanted nor wasted. The barman returned with two bottles because as it happens they were the same price (Twenty five dollars each, not cheap but for what we were about to consume I don’t think it was excessive and besides, Dave was paying) and from the same brewery, Firestone Walker.

The beers were both in presentation boxes, the first was the excellent §ucaba Barley wine. I had expected Dave who had asked for all of us to be given a glass to just give us a little taste but when he gave me a third of the bottle, I was honoured. Sadly I mixed the tasting notes up between the §ucaba and the equally awe inspiring XV Anniversary ale (because I was drunk, duh) but I was throwing words like amazing, boozy, port-like and wonderment around with reckless abandon. It was an honour to share and savour those two excellent beers with you Dave and if you ever read this, I thank you dearly.

Despite imbibing a large amount of alcohol already my Dad and I weren’t done yet and we ordered ourselves a cheese stuffed pretzel with Jalapeno jam to boost our resolve. It’s worth noting that as well as a simply ridiculous amount of beer that the Mayor has a full menu and the food is top notch. My Dad was getting itchy feet and wanted to head to another bar in Old Town which was fine for him, he lives in Fort Collins but I wasn’t going to get the chance to drink here again for a long time so I insisted we stay for one more. Despite wanting to sample the output of as many breweries as I could I had been hankering after some Great Divide Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti for as long as I had been staring it on the beer list, which was all night.

I’ve had Yeti in the bottle before, it’s one of those brews that made me want to start writing about beer in the first place and it’s no surprise that among imperial stouts it’s got a bit of a cult following. I really liked the standard Yeti from the bottle and despite enjoying it immensely it didn’t quite rise to the massive hype that I’d read online but this could have been due to the way the beer travelled or simply that my palate wasn’t ready for it yet as it was one of the first ever big stouts I tried.

I had expected by now that my palate would have been shot to pieces and that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy this beer to its utmost but thankfully the truth was far from this. The aroma held notes of cocoa, oak, espresso and subtle bitterness from the finishing hops, it was like velvet in the mouth, full of deep rich bitter coffee and warm, boozy flavours that had been absorbed from the barrel. The chocolate added a pleasant sweetness that was wonderfully balanced with a sharp hint of lingering grapefruit as you swallowed. It was so good that my Dad, who is not a big stout drinker also found many charms in its complexity, it was a thoroughly impressive beer and it’s easy to see why it’s so popular.

It was only when we wrapped up our tab that I realised something important, the price of each beer was absent from the giant projected display on the board. Now not all of these beers were expensive but there were several that you would not call cheap. Personally I didn’t have a problem with this as I drink beer for enjoyment, life is too short to worry about the price of a pint when you can get beer this good however judging by some of the beer blogs I read which seem to obsess over these prices you wouldn’t get away with this in the UK. Besides I stand by my previous statement that breweries, pubs and bars all have the basic right to make a decent profit from their living. The last thing a small independent business needs is people moaning about their prices.

The tab was inconsequential (it was my Dads round) and so was the rest of the night (which continued hazily into the early hours) but what was not was the Mayor of Old Town. Fort Collins is famous for its breweries and mountain vistas but visitors should not overlook the great nightlife the city offers and the Mayor is by far one of my favourite haunts and I can’t wait until I can go back.

Camden Town Brewery

I often over-enthuse about how I love the USA beer scene with reckless abandon, it’s not just the beer that’s got me captivated but the very vibe that runs all the way from the brewer to the consumer. When I came back from my first trip to the States, which you can read about here, I was captivated not just by the hop forward brews that were transforming my taste buds but the tap room culture that’s at the heart of the local community. In many parts of the US local craft beer nuts are encouraged to swing by the brewery for a growler refill whilst stopping for a couple of pints and a chat with passionate bar staff and down to earth brewers. They are the most popular hang outs for local workers, students and fans of craft brewed beer alike.

When I returned to the UK after my first trip to the States I not only craved a sensory barrage of hops and malt but I also wished that there were more bars that catered for my new found tastes. My wish was soon granted as bars such as the Euston Tap and the Craft Beer Company started popping up like daffodils in spring but despite these bars being excellent I still desired to feel the ‘tap room’ culture that I had observed across the pond.

This is what the bar looks like after several pints of Pale Ale

Camden Town brewery was established in 2010, by coincidence the same year I started to become an established beer nerd and I remember the first time I enjoyed Camden Town Pale ale at the Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes, since then I have followed their development closely. Now, creating the same community feel in London is quite different to creating it in a small town in northern Colorado but when I heard that Camden Town were going to build a bar and open up to their adoring public I felt that finally the UK brewing scene was catching up to it’s transatlantic cousin and sorely wished that the bar would carry the great vibe that I felt in the States.

Earlier in the month they had their debut public opening as they launched their US hopped lager ‘USA Hells’ but as I work on Saturdays I couldn’t make it down so when I saw that there would be a second opening last Friday I yelped with a little excitement and hastily emailed a bunch of friends to see if they fancied visiting with me. As chance would have it my Dad, who lives in Fort Collins, Colorado and frequents the tap room at Odell brewing with alarming regularity was also in town and in a further twist of fate one of the three guest beers that Camden Town would be tapping along with Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye PA and Ska Brewing Modus Hoperandi was Odell IPA. I thought it would be an excellent chance to see how well these hyper hopped US brews fare after they have completed their trek across the Atlantic as the IPA is my Dads regular tipple, I was also wondering how he would react to the price as he is used to paying just $3.00 for a 16 ounce pint.

For the record I didn’t make any tasting notes on this trip as it was more about socialising with friends and experiencing the brewery itself than over analysing every drop of beer that slipped down my throat. I started the evening with a pint of USA Hells, now I’m not normally a lager drinker as I generally find it too gassy and lacking a bit in substance for my tastes but I was very impressed by this beer. It smells faintly of lemon juice and elderflower and this translates perfectly into the taste which is backed by a lively, refreshing lager base. It was very easy to drink and easily up their with some of the best lagers I’ve had but those zingy USA hops appeal to my personal tastes more than the peppery, earthy notes you usually get with the Saaz variety. I’d definitely sip USA hells on a hot summers day but it was a Friday night and I was ready for something a bit more robust so moved on to my old favourite Camden Town Pale Ale. I’ve had this beer on numerous occasions in both bottle and on keg but never has it tasted so fresh and flavoursome as it did this time, it smelt of lemon rind, grapefruit and a bouquet of spring blooms and tasted incredible. The malts were robust but never too sweet and the bitterness was wonderfully balanced, zesty, but not too bitter, my perfect idea of a session beer and I did indeed come back for several more pints of this later in the evening. 

I only really drink wheat beers in the hot summer sun so I skipped the Camden wheat effort and sent my Dad to the bar for a pint of Camden Ink a stout that’s served using a nitro-keg. It’s my understanding that nitrogen fuelled kegs produce smaller bubbles resulting in a creamier mouth feel than standard carbon dioxide based kegs and so Ink is not dissimilar to Guinness in appearance. The taste though, is quite a lot better, imagine if you will the roasted malt flavour of around ten pints of Guinness condensed into a single pint then dry hopped for good measure. Once you get past the beautiful smell of roasted coffee beans you get a lovely deep espresso flavour backed with burnt toast and then a long, lingering bitter grapefruit finish. It’s a beautiful beer and definitely one for stout aficionados and fans of beers such as Magic Rock ‘Dark Arts’.

Strong branding is prevalent throughout the brewery

I then moved on to the guest selection, two of which I have never tried before. My dad commented after his first sip of Modus Hoperandi that this was ‘definitely more his thing’ proving that living in the town that contains both Odell and New Belgium wrecks your palate (he also commented that earlier in the evening he had a pint of cask ale and couldn’t taste a thing!) This IPA from Ska brewing was a delight, the malt character was a lot more present than the other pale beers I had sampled this evening but unlike the roasted flavour of Ink these were much sweeter, like chewy toffee in the Ska and in the Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye PA it was like a sickly caramel and I actually found it a little too sweet for my tastes. I love the grassy, piney hop character of the Modus Hoperandi and vowed to track it down in a bottle when I’m in the States next month so that I can taste it with a fresher palate. This shouldn’t be a problem seeing as Ska brewing are also based in Colorado. I did enjoy the Ruthless but I’ve had better beers from Sierra Nevada so I’m not too fussed about trying this again.

We then made our way to the bar to get some of the holy elixir, Odell IPA. When we ordered it (my Dad refused to have a half so forked out £6.00 for a pint because ‘that’s what he usually has’) the barman commented that ‘this is the best beer we have on tonight’ and he wasn’t wrong. I don’t really feel the need to describe Odell IPA to you, it’s probably one of the best examples of an American IPA and one of the best beers being brewed at the moment, it’s pretty easy to track it down here in the UK so you have no excuse not to try some. The real test was passed when my Dad said he couldn’t really tell the difference here to how it would taste in the tap room back at Odells which is a real testament to how well hop forward beers keep in a keg as long as they are drank within a relatively short period of time.

After my half of Odell IPA I felt that it would be rude not to have another as it truly was the best beer of the evening but then I returned to the Camden Town Pale. I was initially worried that the big USA brews would have over coloured my palate but the wonderful citrus notes still cut through and so carried on drinking it until inevitable oblivion ensued. Perhaps my one complaint of the evening was that the choice of guest beer was all too similar, they were all American IPA’s and it would have been nice to have a slightly broader selection of styles to choose from.

So does Camden Town Brewery have the tap room vibe that I feel has been the missing element to the craft beer culture that’s blossoming in the UK? Yes, it has it in spades, down to the USA style pump handles, each beer listed complete with IBU and which hops have been used in the brew and although they don’t fill growlers they do have an off license so you can take some bottles home with you! The brewery officially opens up in April and I look forward to making many more visits when it does. I’d also like to give a special ‘big-up’ to Big Apple Hot Dogs for providing some fantastic food to go with some fantastic beers and congratulate Camden Town Brewery on such a successful evening, keep it up guys.

Summer Wine Brewery Mixed Case – Part 2

If you were reading earlier in the week (and why wouldn’t you have been) you will have already seen my thoughts on three beers brewed by the good folk at Summer Wine Brewery. I started on the beers that I thought would least appeal to my twisted tastes, a porter, an espresso stout and a Saison, the latter literally blowing my mind and forcing me to reconsider my opinion on this style of ale.

Now though, it is time to review three beers that are placed firmly in my ballpark because by my reckoning they will have been dry hopped to high hell and back and I’ll tell you what, I wasn’t wrong. For the record I didn’t review these beers at the same time for fear of the blight that is palate fatigue. As much as I love the overpowering flavours brought about by hop flowers I do dislike that they temporarily render me unable to taste anything else which isn’t handy when you’re trying to review a beer.

The first hop laden tonic to have the pleasure of lacing my glass is Covenant, a ‘red-hop’ style ale. Until maybe a few months ago I would have said that this style of brew was my favourite because it has a good combination of hop and malt flavours and delivers the best of both worlds but more recently I’ve found my favourite brews are generally pale ales that have had the living daylights dry hopped out of them. Covenant pours a deep amber-red colour and leaves a nice off white head, there is plenty of carbonation which is nice to see in this type of beer as I feel it helps those complex flavours work their way into your palate. It has the distinct aroma of pine needles, ground black pepper and citrus with a slight sweetness at the end. The mouth feel is lovely, Covenant has plenty of body matched with a sharp citrus bite and an almost earthy, freshly cut grass taste backed up with a malt sweetness that’s not unlike a digestive biscuit or perhaps a hob nob. This beer is ideal for fans of beers like Brewdog 5am saint or Magic Rock Rapture however if you’re a fan of something like Old Speckled Hen (you poor soul) I strongly urge you to try Covenant as I’m pretty sure it’ll set you on to the wonderfully dark path to hop addiction.

A devilish trio of ales...

Hermes is a pale ale that gives more than just a tip of a hat to our American friends across the water. Despite not being as strong as a typical IPA I was hit by a wave of lemon, grapefruit and tropical aromas as I poured it into my glass and before I had even taken my first sip I could tell that I was going to really enjoy this beer. The first think that struck me about Hermes is how well balanced the flavours are and how massive it tasted for a beer of only 5% ABV as I’m more accustomed to beers with this much going on being around the 7% mark. The flavours are predominantly bitter citrus fruits but with definite hints of more exotic flavours such as passion fruit and lychee dancing around in the background. The hops in this beer are fantastic but it is the perfect balance of the malts keeping them in check that makes this beer so drinkable. I think that out of the hoppy beers in this selection this was my favourite and this is definitely an ale that I would happily stick to all night if it was on in one of my local craft beer houses.

The final beer is Summer Wines hop monster, Diablo IPA which unsurprisingly was the beer that I was most excited about tasting and as such I made sure it was the last of the six beers in my mixed case that I got around to trying. Pouring it into the glass I did not get quite what I expected, whereas Hermes managed to produce a lovely, crisp white head Diablo failed to produce even a whisper of foam. The beer was not flat, there were plenty of bubbles whizzing about inside the glass and the nose was one of huge, bitter grapefruit but sadly this was the case with both of my bottles. Hop monster is about right when it comes to describing Diablo as the hops are big, aggressive and very immediate with the flavour of sharp grapefruit dominating from the outset like a world class test batsman. I really enjoyed this beer but I found it lacking a little in the malt department, the hops eclipsed the other elements this beer and I found myself wishing it had a little more backbone. After I had almost finished my first bottle is struck me that this beer strongly reminded me of the original recipe for Punk IPA which was a lot more bitter and less balanced than its current incarnation so if you were a fan of original recipe punk this might just be the best way to get your fix.

There is no denying that Summer Wine brewery are a serious brewing force to be reckoned with (and are lovely to deal with to boot) and I definitely have them down as one of the most innovative and knowledgeable British craft brewers about at the moment. I enjoyed all six of the beers in this selection but the three that really stood out as exceptional were Teleporter with its massive barrage of ten different malts, Hermes which is a sublimely drinkable hop forward pale ale and the absolute stand out winner was Saison which knocked me for six. Thanks to Summer Wine I’ve already been out and picked up some Saison Dupont to review at some point in the future and potentially a weekend jaunt to Belgium is on the cards later this year…

Don’t forget you can order this mixed case direct from Summer Wine from their website which I highly recommend you do.

The Kernel Brewery: India Pale Ale Citra

I love discovering a new beer that totally blows my mind, especially when the brewery is located within the same city as I am. Despite loads of people gushing about their beer until last week I had never had the opportunity to sample a brew from The Kernel Brewery who are located near Tower Bridge in South London but after a wonderful debut visit to the Mason & Taylor I finally picked up one of their bottles to take home with me. The beer is their incredibly popular India Pale Ale and this one has been hopped with Citra, instead of brewing to strict recipes The Kernel use what ingredients they have available at the time and so their menu is constantly evolving and their brewers adapting and it is a method I highly respect. As a drinker I am quite excited at the prospect of trying this beer again in the future but seeing how it has changed based on the ingredients used at the time so I will definitely seeking out more beers from this brewery as the year progresses.

Hype can be a terrible thing as it can result in a terrible anticlimax as it has done to me so many times before. Being such a huge fan of hoppy IPA’s and reading all the praise that the Kernel have so far received I assumed that this beer was going to be the best thing since sliced artisan bread but was worried that I was perhaps a little too excited and if the beer turned out to be ordinary then I would surely be bitterly disappointed.

The contents of that shot glass was the yeast of my problems

Before heading to work last Friday I decided to place the beer in the fridge before I left the house and as the day progressed the hype began to build, slowly at first but as the clock approached closing time I could barely contain myself. When I finally got home the first thing I wanted to do was rip the top off and start smashing it down but DISASTER, I’d stored the beer on its side and failed to realise that this was a bottle conditioned beer and that the brewers yeast within needed to settle. Thankfully after standing upright for ten minutes the little yeast dudes had sank back to the bottom of the bottle and I carefully poured the hazy amber contents into a glass. After pouring I swilled the remaining liquid and yeast around the bottle and emptied it into a shot glass, see I was told by the nice folks at the Mason & Taylor that yeast, in small quantities, is very good for your skin and nails however I wasn’t tempted then and I wasn’t tempted now, I think I’ll just stick with the beer.

Before I move on to my tasting notes I’d like to mention how fantastic I think the labels used by The Kernel are. Proof if was needed that less is more, the smart modern logo on a simple brown background are used for every beer with the contents and the ABV simply printed on after the bottle has been filled. The Kernel are open every Saturday from 9am to 3pm and you can buy beer directly from the brewery, sadly I run a shop and my Saturdays involve doing selling of my own but perhaps I shall have to take a day off at some point to go and check the brewery out and tell you good people all about it.

Right, back to the beer, is it going to live up to this mountainous hype that I’ve created for it? The lovely pale copper liquid is hazy and has most likely seen very little filtering, if indeed any in order to preserve the lofty flavours of those Citra hops. The aroma literally leaps out of the glass but instead of punching you in the face it embraces you with a warm and welcoming sleeper hold luring you in and politely requesting you take a large gulp. Who am I to refuse such an offer and diving in I immediately get a huge rush of citrus fruit with a few notes of tropical fruit just about present underneath. The beer feels fantastically funky in the mouth with loads of substance and a hint of fine carbonation to help unlock all of those complex lemon and grapefruit flavours.

IPA Citra is both smooth and zingy and has the perfect amount of malt to give the hops a solid backbone without ever bordering on being too sweet. The beer is tart and refreshing and leaves a lovely lingering bitter finish with each mouthful practically begging you to take another sip. Sadly I gave in to those begging cries and the beer lasted me all of around fifteen minutes but that was time enough for me to repeat the word ‘wow’ out loud several times and fall head over heels in love. This IPA ranks as not only one of the best beers in its class but surely one of the best beers available right now and I thoroughly recommend trying any IPA from Kernel regardless of the hop content because if it’s half as good as this then it will still blow your mind.

This is the best beer I’ve had so far this year, and I’ve already had quite a few.

Great Divide Brewing: Titan IPA Vs Rumble Oak Aged IPA

I’m a huge fan of the not so humble Oak tree, its majesty has captured my imagination since I myself was a little acorn. Not only is the tree itself great but the wood has been crafted into barrels or shaved into chips to be used by the brewing and distilling industries for a very long time. As the keener eyed readers among you may have already noticed (assuming you’ve read any of my previous blogs) I’m also a massive fan of the American style India Pale Ale and so tonight’s experiment involves comparing one of my favourite IPA’s to exactly the same IPA that has been aged using a combination of French and American Oak in an effort to alter or perhaps enhance the flavours of an already impressive brew.

The duo of beers up for assessment in what is surely going to be a true head to head 'clash' are Titan IPA and Rumble oak aged IPA from Great Divide Brewing based in Colorado, USA. I’ll confess now that I have had both of these beers before, in fact I’ve had Titan several times both in a bottle and from a keg. I’ve also tried both beers at the same time when I was lucky enough to visit their tap room in downtown Denver when on one of my jaunts to the States last year. However this is the first time I’ve had the chance to sit down on my own, really geek out over them and pit them together in a one on one battle for survival where only the best beer can win.

It would have been easy enough to write this blog based on those previous tastings, I pretty much got the gist of the two beers and had made my conclusions. However I think it’s important, as a beer geek, not to over analyse every single mouthful of ale and looking back at when I first tasted those beers I wasn’t in a situation that warranted in depth analysis, I was out with my family and my girlfriend having a few beers on my way to see Steve Earle and so that was not the time to be taking tasting notes. It was reasons like this that previously put me off writing a beer blog, I didn’t want to agonise over every beer I ever tasted, sometimes I just want to enjoy a beer with my mates and as a beer writer this is something I will try to remember… or not depending on how much I had to drink the night before.

This time though is the time to sit down on my own with a bottle of each of these beers, see what sets them apart and try and decide if there are any benefits to ageing this wonderful ale on oak. For the record I have thus far been unable to find out if Rumble is aged on oak chips or in a barrel so I would genuinely appreciate it if someone could enlighten me. Both beers are a hefty 7.1% ABV and once again I am drinking them straight from the fridge as I believe that a cool temperature best suits this style.

Cracking both bottles open I take a whiff before I pour them, Titan is everything I remember; freshly cut grass, pine needles and bitter citrus, a real thick and almost creamy nose. Rumble is almost noticeably thinner, sharper but much less in your face with definite notes of vanilla creeping up the nostrils. The nose translates pretty accurately into the pour with Titan oozing out of the bottle and leaving a nice, rich head around the rim of the glass but Rumble barely manages to gather enough bubbles to produce one. I take another whiff and my initial thoughts are backed up and so I hastily move on to the tasting. I decide to take a sip of Rumble first because I feel pretty familiar with Titan and so I wanted to give it the full benefit of my fresh palate having not had any other beers before these today.

Clash of the Titan... Rumble in the Jungle, etc.

My initial taste of Rumble found it to be very bitter and sharp with those subtle vanilla notes combining with lemon peel and a tiny hint of lychee. I found Rumble to be lacking a little in body for an IPA and it had a very dry, bitter finish missing enough malt sweetness to back up it’s sharpness. Titan, on the other hand had a much thicker mouth feel and loads of bready, digestive biscuit-esque malts to balance out flavours of grapefruit, lemon and pine from the stacks of hops used in this brew. Titan also had a much longer, more satisfying bitter finish whereas Rumble was very dry and did not stick around to party in my mouth.

I’ve tried and enjoyed many barrel and wood aged beers before but I’m not sure that the IPA sees much benefit from this process. IPA should be as fresh as possible when it is drank so that you can reap the maximum amount of flavour from the brew and so with Rumble being ‘aged’ it implies that it might not be as fresh as a typical India Pale Ale. That said after finishing of my fantastic bottle of Titan I went back to the Rumble and found it’s flavour starting to grow on me, I definitely enjoyed this beer but Titan was so awesome it wins hands down for me. As beer preference is relative to ones own taste buds I would love to hear from anyone who enjoyed Rumble more than Titan and why they thought it was a superior beer.

My Standout Beers of 2011

It occurs to me that as it’s still January and I’m still awaiting the delivery of some fine beers from mybrewerytap.com that it would be appropriate to reminisce on ten of the finest beers I had last year. I consider 2011 to me my first full year as a craft beer enthusiast as I like to trace my craft beer ‘awakening’ to my first trip to the USA back in July 2010.

What follows is not a top ten, it’s simply the ten beers from the last twelve months that have stuck in my mind most prominently. Unsurprisingly to me this list is dominated by hop heavy US brews and this is because although not exclusively, this is by far my favourite kind of beer. Alongside some outstanding American beverages are some fantastic European beers and not all of them hop bombs. I am super excited to see what delights 2012 will bring and I have a feeling that next years list will instead be dominated by amazing British craft beer but for now, here are my beers of 2011…

Oskar Blues Dales Pale Ale

I’m already cheating a little with this one because I first tried it in 2010 and I’ll be honest that I struggled with it back then. On my first trip to the states my palate had not developed enough to enjoy a really hoppy brew but on return journeys I’ve enjoyed it over and over again. Dales Pale Ale is so crammed full of hops it makes the popular Sierra Nevada Pale ale (which for the record I think is great) seem almost bland in comparison. Bitter lemon and grapefruit notes burst on the tongue but and despite reaching a pretty high ABV which similar pale ales in the genre do not it’s still supremely drinkable. Dales Pale Ale is brewed by Oskar Blues in Longmont, Colorado and sadly is not readily available here in the UK. It may be one of the greatest beers in the world.

Thornbridge Raven

I remember sitting upstairs in the Euston Tap about two thirds the way through a particularly heavy session and sending my mate Dom to the bar for ‘something stouty.’ He returned with a pint of thick black liquid that he ‘saw some bloke order and it looked interesting’ and up until that point I had no idea just how interesting it would be. This was my first sip of a black IPA, at first I didn’t know what to think, I was getting hops, glorious resinous hops sitting upon a rich, roasted malt backbone. I looked into the black liquid and wondered how something so dark could taste so bright and lively but soon stopped caring and went and ordered another.

Deschutes Inversion IPA

Inversion, from Oregon based Deschutes, is one of several American IPA’s to make this list which is no surprise being my favourite style of beer. Last year I tried more American IPA’s than any other type of brew which made it the toughest decision deciding which ones were my favourites. Inversion is almost the perfect example of how an American IPA should taste alongside Odell IPA (which I didn’t include as I've already gushed about Odell in a previous post) with bitter, resinous hops perfectly matched with sweet caramel malt flavours. The irony about this American IPA is that it’s not actually that pale, more a deep amber colour but semantics needn’t get in the way of good beer.

Bath Ales Gem

It’s often important, as a beer geek, not to let yourself get carried away by an obsession with one kind of beer. I don’t turn my nose up at decent kolsch or lager because just as much effort goes into the brewing of these beers as it does into the beers I prefer, in fact I think a lot more craft breweries will decide to produce a lager of their own this year. British best bitter almost always disappoints me, I find the taste of Goldings hops repetitive and boring but Gem is indeed a diamond in the rough. Instead of dreary leftover dishwasher water Gem is robust and full flavoured with plenty of vim to keep even hop nutters like me interested. This is the best session beer I tried all year and it’s also really easy to find in supermarkets such as Waitrose so you have no excuse not to try it for yourself.

Some beers that I drank last year...

Evil Twin Cats Piss

It was a toss up between this and Mikkeller Mild Interpretation, having tried the latter on cask at… err... CASK pub and kitchen in Pimlico. In the end only one mighty Dane made my list and it was Cat’s Piss from Evil Twin brewing that made the biggest impression on me this year. I ordered this beer based purely on it’s name, I had never heard of the brewery and the name to me was a challenge to the discerning drinker that I duly accepted. What I found was one of the most sumptuously hoppy brews I have ever had and I was kicking myself having only ordered a single bottle. Evil Twin beers can be very expensive and hard to find but if you have a few extra shekels in your pocket, dig deep and give them a try. One thing not to try is milking a cat, turns out that cats are not involved in the brewing of this beer at all and I for one find the name to be a tad misleading.

Boulder Beer Co.Hazed & Infused

From one hoppy, hazy brew to another, Hazed & Infused is quite simply dry hopped brilliance. The Boulder Beer Company is Colorado’s oldest microbrewery and although they’ve been peddling their wares since 1979 you’ll be hard pressed to find their produce outside of their home state. Hazed & Infused is a lesson in subtlety, unlike most dry hopped American brews its flavours rock gently instead of slam dancing on your palate but it has enough citrus punch to keep even folk such as me entertained. The best thing about this beer is that it’s a measly 4.85% so you can go at it with seemingly reckless abandon, that’s if you’re used to getting smashed at 5000 feet above sea level, which is the norm for denizens of Boulder, CO…

Flying Dog Wild Dog Barrel Aged Gonzo

I love Flying Dog, they’re one of the first breweries that made me excited about craft beer and with their beer being readily available in the UK it’s a love affair that’s long to continue. The more astute readers among you may have noticed that I am a fan of the work of one Hunter S. Thompson and Flying Dogs Gonzo Porter is brewed in tribute to the great man. This wild dog version of the beer has been aged for an extra three months in wooden barrels used to make whiskey and as such this already superb dark, smoke laced porter has absorbed rich sweet flavours that’ll take you to Woody Creek and back. It was a limited release at the time but if it ever becomes available again be sure to treat yourself to a couple of bottles.

Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA

If you’re into American craft beer then you’re sure to have heard of Dogfish Head and if you’ve tried one of their ales then you’ll know what all the fuss is about. 90 minute is a sublime example of a double IPA with rich, deep malt flavours providing a strong platform for a massive hit of citrus and tropical fruit. Double or Imperial IPA’s have a characteristically thick mouthfeel which can be off putting to people who don’t normally drink or are new to this style of beer but something about 90 minute makes it one of the smoothest sipping IIPA’s of it’s class.

Brewdog 5am Saint

You can’t escape the Brewdog juggernaught, if you’ve taken even the slightest bit of notice of the UK craft beer scene recently then you’ll know the Brewdog have been making waves and ruffling feathers. I for one love them and proudly invested in their Equity for Punks scheme in which they sold off shares to their fans (something I’ll no doubt touch on again at some point.) I worked out that I probably sank more bottles/pints of 5am Saint than any other beer last year and for that reason alone it makes this list. Saint is my go to beer when I have nothing else at hand, the instant it’s pine needle aroma smacks me around the chops I know my thirst will be quenched. It will more than likely be my most consumed beer of 2012 too thanks to Brewdog opening one of their bars a mere four miles from my house, thanks guys.

Magic Rock Human Cannonball

For a brewery that has only been open for just over half a year Magic Rock have impressed, surpassed even the highest expectations and blown minds with their outstanding brews. I have tried five of their beers so far and not a single one has disappointed, in fact I might go so far as to say that they might be the single best craft brewery in the UK at this point in time. If you read beer blogs then you must already know about this beer, it is absolutely awash with tropical fruit flavours and is perfectly balanced with rich, chewy malty goodness. There is not a lot more to say about a beer that has been so highly praised and the best news is that they recently tweeted that they’re brewing another batch. 2012 will be massive for Magic Rock and massively damaging to my bank balance as a result, in fact when they launched their new Black IPA ‘Magic 8 Ball’ last week I ordered 12 bottles without having tasted a single drop because I just know it’ll be another corker.

So there you have it, 10 absolutely phenomenal beers that you must try. Didn’t see any of your favourite beers in the list? Please comment below and I’ll endeavour to try them at some point. Who knows, perhaps they’ll make next years list!