The Trashy Blonde New York Dolls

Well thats it........my days as a punk are over. I now go back to drinking beer and listening to Morrissey. I had to go out in style though.....something very 'Punk'.

After getting a new venue on the BrewDog bandwagon- The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen; I noticed that they had a gig from one of the only Punk bands I actually like. The New York Dolls

Since it marked the end of my time with BrewDog, I had to go. David Johanson rocked, as did the rest of the band too. Nevertheless there was only one star of the show, Trashy Blonde. Its been ages since I had it on handpull. I may have been baking within an inch of my life inside a hot room with low ceilings. I may have been served my pint in a plastic pint cup. I may have been getting impatient because being rock and roll The Dolls were keeping Aberdeen waiting. That all didnt change the fact that my pint was stunning.

Not many beers are nice warm. Very few are drinkable from a plastic cup. Trashy Blonde still held its own though and it made me happy to have worked for such a great team of people. I have never seen so many BrewDog bottles and pints of Trashy in one place in my life before but it made me smile a little to know that I made sure it was all available to enjoy that night.

I will be posting a full round up of my time as a Punk before too long but in the meantime I have my life to pack up into boxes (yet again) and a BrewDog BBQ to attend.

Slàinte

Thornbridge Je t'aime

The time finally came- the night when I had nothing to be up for the next day nor any other beery flavours already tainting my pallate. It was Thornbridge night! Well I say Thornbridge night, more like me drinking three of the beers back to back.

Jaipur (which I know and love), Halcyon 2009 green hop (a new one to me) and Saint Petersburg (one I have heard lots about), were all on the menu.

I started with Jaipur and I dont need to say much more than it was brilliant, as always. I have to admit though that I had kept this bottle maybe a little longer than I should have and the hops were noticably restrained but when you live in the middle of a beer shop desert you sometimes have to stockpile. Although a slight faded hop profile it was still noticably the Jaipur we all know and love. Its punchy, a touch resiny, herby and its generally a party in my mouth. Jaipur is 5.9% and is appearing in wonderful little places all over the UK. I never know when I am going to walk into a good cask pub and find it and thats one of the reasons I like it.

Now it gets a bit more serious- Halcyon. At 7.7% its immediately noticable that it is a bigger beer and unlike Jaipur, not one I could drink all night. Thornbridge had some issues with this green hop batch of Halcyon which basically resulted in the yeast not compacting correctly and combining that with the green hop party it was all a little cloudy. I love it though and I honestly dont care and in fact if I am going to have something different and quirky like a green hop beer I almost expect it to look a bit different. Note to Kelly @ Thornbridge- Dont worry if the 2010 batch doesnt come out clear, I will willingly take delivery of the whole batch! Halcyon 2009 is a truly epic beer and maybe one of the best I have had this year so far. Not sure how much is left now so if you come across it- grab and take (and by 'take' I mean pay for like a responsible person).

Lastly I had Saint Petersburg- a 7.7% Imperial Russian Stout (no not stoat). It was like a coffee with foam on top (ed- surely a latte?). Dark and inviting, just the thing for the miserable night I had it on. It was herby and spicy, lots of chocolate and coffee and a little chicory. My only gripe was that I was getting quite a few metalic notes of this bottle (something which a friend also found with his). It wasnt an unpleasant metalic taste but not one I actively look for. I will try this again to see if I find it the same in future. Saint Petersburg was still a cracking beer though and has not reduced my opinion of the mighty Thornbridge at all.

I had a great night tasting these beers and I must say thanks to MyBreweryTap for the latter two bottles.


Only two weeks left with BrewDog and still loving it. Expect the blog to be back to full posting capacity when I have more free time!

My big fat BrewDog tasting night

Ok so its not quite as catchy as My Big Fat Greek Wedding but you get the idea. It started off as a small affair. A few guys round to the house to open the bottle I have been keeping since I bought it back in Feb.

Love it or hate it. I couldnt give a damn

Sink the Bismarck!

The evening quickly became a twisted plan in my head taking on a new darker and more boozy side everytime I thought about it (which was a lot). Eventually I had the troops rounded and a beer list printed. 7 men,5 women, enough food to sink a ship (no pun intended) and some of the craziest beers made in the UK today. It made for an intersting night as I knew that most people werent beer geeks like me and would be baffeld by talk of IBU and Original Gravity, so I kept it as beer novice friendly as possible. Only the gents wanted to do the actual beer tasting at first but this quickly changed. 

We started with a bottle of Alpha Dog which fortunately for me our bottling machine decided would never reach Norway because it was a bit underfilled. I gave everyone a sample in the bottom of the posh tasting glasses I bought and I was amazed at how quickly everyone became an expert. Holding the glass up to the sun that was very kindly beating down on us, swirling it about a bit and even smelling before tasting. I was proud, very proud. The troops did not dissapoint, the closest comment that I remember nodding and agreeing with was 'very much like that 5am Saint but more reserved and more nutty'. I beamed like a new father......maybe this beer convertion is easier than I think.

We raced through my collection of rare BrewDogs that I have been collecting over the last year or so. TM:10 was up next. This divided opinion more as some people werent so keen on the carbonation but we all agreed that it was very nice if not a little too polite. After moving our tasting table back into the sun which had moved around the shadow of the house I opened the first of the real rare ones. This time it involved two samples, some Hardcore IPA and some of the madness that is Prototype 27. We tasted the Hardcore first so we could see what the original beer is like and then we tasted the P27. 'Its quite sweet and a little bit medicinal' said David 'I dont really taste the whisky' said Peter. It should be pointed out at this stage that Peter had decided in between the TM:10 and now to run home a fetch the biggest Montecristo cigar I have ever seen (not the best idea when you are tasting beer I told him).

We all agreed that as a result of the enormous cigar Peter was smoking we were going to listen and see if he could detect any flavours from the rest of the beers on offer. After opening AB:01 and AB:02 it became apparent that we had found a champion (or so we thought) in AB:01. It was very rounded and has aged amazingly since its been bottled. AB:02 is a little big for me right now give it another 10 months to let the booziness mellow a little and it will be spectacular. I think we all agreed at this point that the very pretty AB:01 was winning so far.

Next up was the reason why everyone was invited. Sink the Bismarck. We watched the video to get everyone in the mood (you know, that controversial one with the two brewers, one dog and a ship). This was a beer I knew was going to divide opinion and it did to a certain degree but much less than I thought. Remember that most of the people tasting this are not beer geeks or even wine buffs but they do know when they taste something they like (they just dont write a blog about it). I filmed the tasting and after I edit it down it will be posted soon. I dont want to give too much away but its fair to say that it went down well and the women couldnt hold back any longer and got fired in too. 

We all had a great night tasting some beer that I will probably never get my hands on again (mainly because a lot of it was a once off brew). It was great to see non beer drinkers getting really fired up about the taste and characters of these beers.

I also thank David Bald for bringing Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA, Victory Golden Monkey and others too which we enjoyed after the tasting died down a bit. Also thanks to my parents for allowing me to invade the house with almost 20 people although it was mostly there friends as well as my own!

Soon on the blog I will be reviewing Thornbridge Saint Petersburg and Marble Lagondola IPA. Stay tuned!

A night at the Dogs

First of all I start by saying sorry. Sorry for not writing more about my time at BrewDog. Along with a rather busy working life a family illness is also reducing my desire to blog at the moment but rest assured all is coming on well and I intend this blog to be tearing through the posts sooner rather than later.

Nevertheless, this weekend I have decided to have a bit of a clear out. You see, ever since I started collecting beer Ive kept a heck of a lot of BrewDog beers in my collection. I still have bottles of the original Hardcore IPA, an early TNP, a second batch Sink the Bismark!, some Dogma and some Chaos Theory (and this is just the tip of the Iceberg)

So this Friday (9th July) I am having some friends round who are just as passionate about craft beer and some who will be more so by the time they leave. Craft beer is to be enjoyed right? And thats why Ive decided to share the following with the guys tomorrow

Alpha Dog - A rare treat as its only available in Norway (Mine has an odd fill line and couldnt go out in a case, I happily agreed to make it vanish)

TM10- Brewed for the Tates 10th Birthday (Another short filler)

Prototype 27- Hardcore but more Hardcore with smoke and mirrors (or raspberries maybe, I forget which)

AB:01- One from my personal collection, really looking forward to it

AB:02- Still young but I bought 3 so I will age the other two

Sink the Bismark!- Another one from my collection. First time I will have tried it bottled and not right from tank

TNP- My last bottle :-(

Some of the guys are bringing some Americans too (beers not the people, although American people are welcome anytime). It should be a fun night and I am looking forward to unwinding and getting really excited about great beer.

There will be plenty tweets throughout the evening and a full review appearing here a few days after (probably Sunday or Monday)

Guinness in a can? Yes please

Forgive me....you may think that I have gone mad but the other day I had Guinness in a can that I actually ENJOYED! No it was not infact a trick someone was playing on me by sticking a Guinness logo on another can it really was tasty Guinness from a can....well almost.

Before I tell you how to get a pint of good Guinness from a can I should explain one thing. Guinness has always been my fall-back drink. Im sure most of the beer bloggers have one. We've all been there, you go into an unknown pub and find they have absolutely nothing in the way of good cask or bottled beer and it leaves you with a bit of a problem. Certainly near where I am if a pub doesnt specialise in cask beer then it is likely it will have Greene King if you are lucky or Belhaven Best or Tennants Ember if you are not. The prospect of any of those drinks never fills me with confidence so I usually bounce straight back to the drink that was infact my first ever pint in a pub, Guinness. So there you go, I am not saying that Guinness is the best thing since sliced bread (though it is a bit like drinking it) but I am saying that I do enjoy a pint when the bar is barren.

Back to the canned stuff though. Guinness tried and failed in 2009 to launch 'surger' units in Tesco. The idea was that you paid £16.99 (yes, its a crazy price) and you get a pint glass, a surger unit and two tins of special 'surger' Guinness. The Guinness that is in the can is apparently the stuff that is in the keg before it goes through the chiller etc etc. After you used the two tins you then went back to Tesco and bought cans of the surger Guinness to use because the usual stuff explodes everywhere when you put it on the surger.

Basically the surger sends a sonic pulse through the bottom of the glass and up through your flat pint of Guinness and it eventually settles out to look like a nice pint of the black stuff. Nevertheless it never took off. Tesco were lumbered with huge amounts of stock and Guinness never really bothered with a full advertising campaign so it faded away. That is until now though.....Diageo are slowly starting to reintroduce pub sized versions of the surger into places that struggle to sell a full keg of Guinness during its peak freshness. In other words small rural pubs and that is exactly where I got to give the surger a whirl.

I was very sceptical about tinned Guinness as I have had it once before in first year of University and I swore never to have it again. In my opinion canned Guinness is to the world of beer what Christine Hamilton is to the world of professional darts, bollocks. So very worried I cracked open the Guinness surger can and poured away. It could only be described as black and VERY flat. A little drop of water on the surger (I have no idea why but I am sure there is a reason) and place the glass on and press the button. What happens next is a little moment of magic as you watch the head mysteriously appearing and shooting up the glass as if Paul Daniels was in the room. You need to give it the same time to settle as a regular pint and it does look the part I have to be honest.

Now for the most important part- The taste; Well it tastes like a pint of Guinness as if it was poured from the tap. Maybe even a bit creamier or that could have been my imagination. I was quite shocked I have to be honest but it does really taste like a normal Guinness. As far as cost goes I think it levels out at about the same. The pubs that they are targeting with this gadget this time around are small pubs which normally lose a lot of Guinness to the drain as they cant sell it quick enough. Therefore when you factor in that the cans are more expensive cost price but wastage will be reduced, it probably works out the same for both landlord and (hopefully) consumer.

I have to be honest, I dont see this kicking off in Weatherspoons as they have a big enough turnover to sell kegged Guinness but for places which struggle I can see this being a great alternative. Personally I struggled to tell the difference between this and normal Guinness but I would be interested to see how a regular Guinness drinker faired with this device. In the meantime I think I will stick to seeking out craft beer and just use Guinness (surger or not) as a fall back drink.

Cheers

Jaipur- A legend in its time?

You know that beer right? The one with all the hype. In every beer community whether it be in Chicago, Kent or Brussels there are always a handfull of beers that get an unbalanced amount of airtime on blogs and in conversation about beer. Not that I think all hyped beer is a bad thing right enough. There are many breweries and beers that I would probably never have touched hadnt it been for someone blogging and hyping up the beer. Whether it be Mark Dredge and his praise for Marble or Richard at MyBreweryTap telling me that I had to try some Crown Unpronouncable IPA.

One beer that springs to mind when I think about hyped UK beer is Thornbridge Jaipur. From the very first smell of this beer I could tell I was in for something that I hadnt quite bargained for. The aroma was fresh, a little pine and a balance of citrus and malt. The nose is very well balanced but that doesnt quite prepare you for just how balanced this beer actually is. Every sip of Jaipur is a pleasure with its perfect balance of sweet malt and a shovel full of citrus and pine hop. It is quite simply a piece of art in a glass.

Jaipur makes me wonder why more UK breweries dont give a little bit more trust to the powers of the hop. Jaipur is a perfect example that you can make (under UK standards) a well hopped beer and still balance it out and make it perfectly quaffable. It has inspired me more to finally seek out Thornbridge on cask and this is a little trip I am already working on. Naturally I'd also love to see the brewery but maybe I will wait till after September so that they dont think that I am a spy!

So thanks Thornbridge, thank you for restoring my faith in English IPA. I have another two offerings to drink from Thornbridge in the coming weeks, St Petersburg and Halcyon thanks to MyBreweryTap and I am looking forward to these even more now. Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing a part of my craft beer education. Next review should be coming very soon for Great Divide Hercules Double IPA too

A promise from me to you

I realise that this blog has come to a point where I need to make a choice. I now work for one of the breweries which features quite heavily on this site and that means that many people are now put off whenever I talk about beer at all because it is hard to be fair and balanced.

The promise that I make to anyone reading this now is that from now until september (when I finish my job with Brewdog) I am going to make an effort to keep the reviewing down to other beers. There might from time to time a couple of mentions about Brewdog beer but I intend to channel my writing down two roads

1. Writing about my time with Brewdog and anything that may be of inteterest such as new beers or mad goings on at the brewery

2. Reviews of other breweries beer, starting with a review on Jaipur very soon.

I dont want people to think that this blog is paid for by brewdog and this is an issue which has been brought to my attention recently by a fellow blogger. For the next few months I want to use this blog to give you an insight into the brewery I work in but also to objectively review other beers and this is why I will keep my reviews on Brewdog beers to a minimum this summer.

Thanks for reading