Brewdog fanzine issue 6

Here we go again with the next fanzine. I think I’ve had 6 out of the 12 beers so far, and King of Eights v1, a tribute NEIPA, is about the best yet, although I’ve been saving up some of the imperial/double beers which could turn out to be better (and hopefully nothing will be worse than the small batch English IPA). Here’s what’s in the mix this time…

Raspberry Rivet – 6.5% – “Speciality Beer”

A cranachan-inspired New England Pale Ale, brewed with the addition of raspberries and a lot of love (whatever that tastes of). Perhaps raspberry, lactose and Citra, Mosaic and Amarillo hops.

Zephyr V3 – Pina Colada – 4.6% – Sour Ale

The latest twist in the Zephyr series, a Pina Colada-inspired summer session sour, made with Perle hops and the addition of coconut, pineapple & lime.

Vinyl Vigilante – 7% – Stout

A coffee milk stout making use of bold espresso and smooth sweet mocha to mix it up, coffee and lactose added to Magnum hops.

 

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Brewdog Fanzine issue 3, May 2018

The next issue of fanzine is upon us. Might be a while before these ones get sampled as there are a couple of big beasts.

Ten Ton Truck (Espresso Edition) – 10% – Stout / Porter

An evolution of previous Fanzine release, Nebula with the addition of espresso coffee. Fruity espresso, bitter chocolate and roastiness on the nose. Followed by a payload of bitter coffee red berry, dark chocolate and some floral notes.

Pulp Patriot – 9.5% – IPA

An amped up spin on our previous Milkshake IPA, this fruited NEIPA combines peach, mango and milk sugar with low bitterness. A juggernaut of a double IPA that delivers a payload of big fruit with mango and peach front and centre. Milk sugar builds and rounds out the full juicy notes.

Zephyr V2 (Lime Gose Edition) – 4.6% – Sour Ale

The latest twist on our Fanzine session sour, emulating a sour German wheat ale, with lime and salt. A zesty gose with a twist of lime and a pinch of salt to crank up the crisp sour character. A juicy, bright beer, with a light acidity resting on a biscuity backbone.

 

The Needle & Pin Craft Beer Club – sour selection box #3 – May 2018

We are already up to the third sour beer selection box, lots of interesting beers from home and much further afield coming up in this one. Pucker up buttercup!

Brasserie Trois Dames – Joyeuse – 5.6%

A pile of whole raspberries was co-fermented with a fresh saison. After which, a mature barrel aged sour saison was added to taste, creating this lush and alluring blend. Unlfitered, unpasteurised, unadulaterated, and ready for the celebration of the everyday.

Brekeriet Beer AB – Pink Passion – 4.7%

Another Scandinavian discovery for me this year, Sweden’s Brekeriet Beer AB are all about sours and wild ales. So far I’ve had Wild & Juicy (super juicy sour fizz) and the far more subtle Rhuboise (gentle raspberry and rhubarb flavours).

Pink Passion is a tart, refreshing and gluten free oat Berliner with passion fruit and hibiscus.

Founders Brewing Co. – Rübæus – 5.7%

Optimising the flavour of fresh raspberries added at several stages during fermentation, Rübæus is the perfect blend of sweet, tart and refreshing, not just another boring summer wheat beer or shandy. With a hefty malt bill, this beer is 100% Founders.

Stillwater Artisanal – Shoegaze – 6%

‘Distorted Farmhouse Pale Ale’ is a New England style IPA that met a farmhouse pale ale down a darkened alley. Brewed with oats, spelt and lactose and then hopped with Simcoe, Citra and Pacific Gem.

One that I’ve had before, a very easy drinking spicy saison.

To Øl – Sur NEIPA: Citra & Mosaic – 5%

A sour mashed New England style IPA (yes, another one) with Citra and Mosaic, it does exactly what it says on the tin. Hoppy and sour, but not too much of either – a quick shot of hoppiness followed by citrus notes of lime and spice.

Wild Weather Ales – Ask Me About Loom – 4.8%

Wild Weather Ales are another of my favourite breweries at the minute. I think I’ve now had 15 of their beers, and they excel at fruity and sour beers such as Dark of Ages Past, Peach of a Weekend, Damn Dead Strawberry and the ever reliable Curse of Threepwood.

The Monkey Island theme continues here, with Ask Me About Loom. For those of you not into 1990s PC games, Cobb was a character found in the Scumm Bar on Mêlée Island, and he wore a badge reading, “Ask me about Loom(tm)”. He mostly answered questions from Guybrush Threepwood by saying “aye” until asked about Loom, when he would then advertise ‘Loom’ – another game made by LucasArts.

Back to the beer, which is an orange and passion fruit sour, in fact it is a forward thinking tart colossus of a beer. An under current of rich passion fruit gives way to the satsuma umbrella wrapped around a lip puckering sour wheat base.

Brewdog, Soho, March 2018

It’s a Friday night in London. Everyone is out out. Trying to find somewhere for a drink is a bit of a tricky proposition. After a bit more wandering (our dinner plan A turned into about plan F after lots of wandering), we settled on Brewdog, based on the fact that it’s not the cheapest night out in London, and we might just be able to get a table.

After working our way through to the bar, we spotted a table becoming vacant, and Mrs MOFAD slipped through the crowd to grab the table whilst I grabbed some drinks.

For me it was Siren’s Kisetsu, a Japanese Saison with yuzu for a tart and zesty citrus kick, sudachi (another small, tart citrus fruit) and cedar, created with Tonkotsu Ramen bar. There are also Oolong tea leaves and Saison Dupont yeast brings it all together, and you really get the fruitiness from the citrus fruits.

Mrs MOFAD was also on a sweet and sour kick with this Shanghai Noon from Cleveland’s Platform Beer Company, a prickly pear (aka Indian fig opuntia) and lychee sour, fruity and sweet with a nice tartness to it.

As you will have noticed from the interesting hue, we once more found ourselves sitting underneath some neon in Brewdog, much like York last year. Despite that, it was good to be in here for some quality beer.

Craft Beer Co, Covent Garden, March 2018

When is Covent Garden not Covent Garden? When it’s High Holborn. If you’re on the corner of Endell Street and High Holborn, I don’t think you’re in Covent Garden. If you know your way around London then you might agree. If you are thinking of opening a bar, sticking the words Covent and Garden on it will certainly help you to attract visitors.

However, I’d argue that if you’ve got 11 cask ales, 2 cask ciders, 28 more beers on keg and another couple of keg ciders, that’s all that you need to attract visitors. It was enough for me. I went out of my way to come here, instead of going back to my hotel via a nearby pub. I hadn’t located any decent pubs near to the hotel at this point, so I came here instead, for a pint before catching the tube back.

I say pint, it was actually two halves, because with 39 beers to choose from, how can you have just one? It was hard enough picking two.

I started Tai Chi from Tiny Rebel, probably my favourite Welsh brewery right now. It’s just your run-of-the-mill lychee and sea buckthorn pale ale, one of the birthday beers brewed to celebrate their sixth birthday.

There’s a slight sweetness and some lychee tartness, and sharpness from the buckthorn. It didn’t really work for me, but I like the idea. I think finding this on cask might confuse a few people.

My other half was Scrambler, from Rooster’s Brewing Co, who are also celebrating a birthday, their 25th to be precise. This one is just your run-of-the-mill melon pale ale, available in the first part of the year.

Tasty melon flavours, and if it was soured up a bit it would be very nice indeed. A tasty pale ale with a difference, and another one that might confuse a few cask fans.

This is a great bar if you’re looking for a great beer. I suspect it gets really crowded at peak times, but there was space in the ground floor bar at 10pm on a Thursday, and seats downstairs in the basement too. I’ll be back after my next west end night out…

The Needle & Pin Craft Beer Club – sour beer selection box #2 – February 2018

It’s already time for the second sour beer selection box. The highlight (so far) from the first box has to be Mango Mango Mango from Dugges, lots of lovely mango and no overbearing sweetness. Gose to Hollywood was also a good one, full of sour fruits and zingy tartness. Let’s delve into the latest box of delights…

Lines – Citrus Grisette – 3.5%

Lines decided to make a summer fruity blend, combining a soft juicy grisette with a wheat and oat body, and using a saison strain to leave some delicious sweet spice in the background. The beer, which Lines class as a fruit grisette, a lemon zest and grapefruit conditioned summer Belgian beer.

Wild Beer – Fruitbooter – 5.7%

A blast of fruitiness, a foudre-fermented (and then aged), pink peppercorn saison topped up with an acid drop of select barrels from the Wild Beer library before being packed to the brim with the ripest Somerset raspberries to create a tart, jammy, and mouthwatering beer.

Stillwater – A Saison Darkly – 8%

Brewed with dark malts and burnt sugars then lightly spiced with rose hips, hibiscus, & schisandra berries. Even though Stillwater Artisanal Ales are based in Maryland, United States, this dark saison was brewed at Sint Canarus, a house brewery in Gottem, Belgium in association with brewmaster mister Piet Meirhaeghe – also known as Dr. Canarus.

To Øl – Mr Blue – 7.5%

A rustique Saison brewed with blueberries, and the first beer to be released from the To Øl ‘Reservoir Dogs’ series. A malt base of rye, wheat and oats to deliver a spicy, full mouthfeel, hopped with Galaxy and Belma and then 500 kg of blueberries per 1000 litres. This beer is complex and well rounded with Belgian yeasty notes blended with the fresh blueberries that adds notes of Nordic forest floors.

Buxton/Stillwater – Raspberry Superluminal – 7%

A raspberry version of Superluminal Sour India Pale Ale, part of a continuing collaboration with Stillwater Artisanal. Big raspberry flavours with mango and grapefruit coming through from the hops and sweet raspberry on the finish.

Gipsy Hill/Duration – Barnstormer – 4.7%

A collaboration between Gipsy Hill and the “work in progress” farmhouse brewery Duration. It’s a wild sort of saison that’s been kettle soured overnight, cherry wood was then added to the boil and it was then fermented with three strains of yeast. Tart, dry and complex.

 

 

 

Beer of the month – January #tryanuary 2018 – Amber Rocket by Eden Brewery

#tryanuary has been good fun. Learning about lots of new beers and breweries from around the country. I even hosted one of the days on social media, bashing out loads of tweets about pubs and breweries from all across Leicestershire.

I’ve also been sampling new beers from near (Framework tap takover night) and far (Cumbria and Hampshire feature in this line up as well as a couple of Scandinavians). The year starts much like many of 2017’s monthly round ups, with all beers featured here being sampled in bottle or can at home (or on holiday). Other good beers were had in the pub, but they didn’t beat these ones.

We start with Dugges from Landvetter, near Gothenburg in Sweden. They have featured here before, with Jasmine Dragon and Tropic Thunder both featuring in previous round ups. You would hope that a beer called Mango Mango Mango would have lots of lovely mango flavours and no overbearing sweetness. That’s exactly what it does have, one of my favourite mango beers (they seem to be so hard to get right).

The wonderfully named Murk Du Soleil from Marble Beers next. A New Zealand take on the New England IPA style and a collaboration with their Kiwi friends at Hop Burns and Black in London. A pale, oat-laden grist gives a full, silky-smooth body, setting the stage for fruity South Island hop character – passion fruit, papaya, nectarine, kiwi and mango. The pine and fruits are nicely balanced, but where is the murk? Maybe it had all settled in the last few millimetres of the can.

To another regular star of these round ups, Vibrant Forest Brewery and their Rum-Barrel Aged Kick-Start, full of smooth and sweet stoutiness. Something barrel aged under 6% – very much welcome! Classic Vibrant liveliness too.

Another interloper now in the shape of Tropical Super Itchy by Evil Twin Brewing, the Danish nomadic brewery who are making some of the best beers right now. TSI is a sour wheat beer packed full of lovely sour passion fruit flavours. A tropical super winner.

Something that hasn’t featured in the round ups so far is a sour farmhouse IPA, and U.F.I.P.A from Redchurch Brewery rectifies that, an IPA that has been introduced to some Brettanomyces. My initial review began with the words “slam dunk da funk”, but this reference to a 1997 song by tedious boyband 5ive is probably lost on most people. You should be glad of that, my head is filled with this kind of useless trivia. A really interesting funky flavour from the souring, with no hops noticeable. Another great example of what #tryanuary is all about.

Familiar territory again next, and where would we be without a Cloudwater in the round up? More Danes involved too, as this was a collaboration with Dry and Bitter, and I foresee more of their beers in my future. Mobile Speaker was smooth, fruity, juicy, and had a delicious thickness. A lovely dry hopped beast with Citra and Galaxy hops swirling around.

We are up to third place, and off to Tottenham next, for Domino Topple, a Mosaic IPA from Pressure Drop Brewing, and there was a hint of strawberry about it. Delicious with Sri Lankan black pork curry (what I cooked), and easy drinking too.

To Cumbria for this month’s silver medal, Mutiny from Stringers, my favourite of their beers so far. Dark fruits, dark chocolate and coffee and maybe a little bit of liquorice somewhere in the mix. A dark and smooth delight.

To this month’s winner then, in the shape of Amber Rocket by Eden Brewery, a “supercharged” American amber ale. One of the top 5 of this style too, up there with Hawkshead Sundown, Vibrant Forest Cydonia, and Cwtch (which I’d put in this category). Probably half of my top 10 come from Cumbrian breweries, which is interesting. 

Lovely hoppiness and a deserving winner but it probably won’t be beer of the year because there’s some amazing stuff to look forward to in 2018, and that’s just the stuff that I’ve got in stock. Who knows what wonders are being brewed or dreamt up right now?