Drinks Advice... Pushing the boundaries of taste.
On the nose there's lots of spicy, almost mulled fruit; black cherry and blackberries. The autumnal, earthy fruit has really come to the fore on the palate, and it really wears its nine years well. Back in 2005 the fruit just wasn't expressive enough for me, but with the mellowing of those drying tannins the wine has become far more elegant.
The three Purple Moose beers I had to try were a present from when my parents visited North-West Wales a while back so I don't know any prices. 
Madog's Ale: Pours a lovely red-amber colour. This has a bit more of a spicy, metallic aroma, and is more pithy than the Snowdonia. The sweetness of the Snowdonia is gone, with the hops coming through a bit more, there are hints of orange, and again, marmite in the finish. 3.7% abv.
Glaslyn Ale: Once again the nose is dominated by the malt, the hops on the palate are a bit soapier, and it's more fruity than the other two; showing red apples and honey with a more rounded character. 4.2% abv. |
| I'm kidding, don't send hate mail (again). |
Having left it to stand for quite a while it initially poured clear. Once I'd got to the bottom there was some yeast sediment. It's a light gold colour with a good fluffy head. The nose is dominated by citrus fruit, mainly lemon, and with a touch of spice. This is reflected on the palate where there's loads of tangy apple, juicy citrus and pine flavour that really gets your mouth watering. It doesn't have the dustiness that I associate with its near neighbours over the Belgian border, although it does have a lingering, yeasty finish. Overall I thought this was an excellent beer, lots of character, as you'd expect from a triple, but really fresh, accessible and probably quite dangerously moreish considering the alcohol content!
And so to beer, and why that rant is somewhat relevant. My other half was in the supermarket the other week and gave me a bell to say 'Have you tried...' I said I hadn't, and so she bought it. I would have stopped her if I'd have thought a bit more. Skinner's are responsible for, amongst others, the travesty that is 'Cornish Knocker' and, as I think I probably illustrated above, I would avoid of their beers because I think if they're prepared to associate themselves with that sort of branding then I don't think they'd particularly care about their beer.* I'm not saying that's how it is, but that label is the only impression of them that I have and therefore, before drinking their beer, have nothing else to judge them on.
Brooklyn Brewery East India Pale Ale is fairly restrained on the nose, with caramel and maybe a little stone-fruit. The hops are more noticeable once you get to the palate. There you get more of the dankness which I generally associate with the more hop-heavy American offerings - and their British cousins.* A faint wood-smoke and pine bitter finish rounds it all off rather nicely.
Brooklyn Brewery Chocolate Stout is a different beast altogether. I'm not sure that full-bodied even begins to describe this one. It's almost chewy! I actually found myself swirling it round my snifter glass to see if it had the viscosity of a Pedro Ximénez sherry - it's not quite that thick but you get the idea. It's sweet, stopping just short of being cloying, which is helped by a bitter finish. As well as the rich chocolate flavours I got a touch of liquorice too.
Given I'm not a massive fan of Imperial IPA as a style, I was impressed by this one. It was getting close to its best before date, which might have affected the freshness, but if so I suspect it mellowed rather than deteriorated. It poured a deep reddish-amber colour, and there's bags and bags of hops on the nose, delivering rich citrus and tropical fruit. On the palate the hops are, relatively for a double IPA, held back; which I think gives the beer a better balance, allowing some of the caramel sweetness of the malt to come through. On the basis of this my appetite for Magic Rock beer is well and truly whetted, I'll continue to be on the look out for more of their beers.
I wasn't entirely sure what to expect given the claims about 'controversial' additives. It pours a lovely coppery red colour. |On the nose there's pine and an earthy, herbal note, presumably from the ginseng. On the palate here's plenty of juicy tropical and citrus fruit hops as you'd expect from a BrewDog IPA, but overall I just wasn't that impressed. It's decent enough, but not that exciting or different.
First up was a beer I've been looking forward to trying for ages. Much as I like the American styles of IPA it's British IPAs that are my first love from way back, and in the wake of British performances in the Olympics which have actually stopped my usual cynicism in its tracks it seemed doubly appropriate. As far as I'm aware Durham Brewery (admirably in my opinion) won't sell their beers through supermarkets, so this isn't something you're going to find outside of specialists or on-line. Look out for their #sourpower day to celebrate the release of the really exciting sounding Diabolus that's happening on the 6th of September.
Enough pre-amble, on with the beer. It's bottle conditioned and leapt out of the bottle after opening so it didn't pour very clear, although I just about managed to miss my phone and hit the glass with only minor spillage! Crisis averted I dived right in. It was well worth the wait, a really excellent, unashamedly bitter beer. None of your new world tropical fruit in this one; there's some lemon and grapefruit on the nose but it's just luring you into a false sense of security before the steely metallic flavour on the palate hits you with everything it has. Short, sharp and definitely to the point. The finish is crisp, the mineral hop hit doesn't hang around long enough to get unpleasant, rapidly moving on to spices; pepper that urges you to try more.
For starters this seems to be far less of a 'beer for people who don't like beer.' (See Pintsized Ticker's experiment here.) The nose was dominated by the chocolate malt, despite being only 12% of the malts involved, but it was the aromas that reminded me very much of nosing the chocolate malt at the Gwaun Valley Brewery the other week that stood out - it was in one of the jars pictured. On the palate the chocolate definitely comes through but it doesn't have the viscous texture of the Meantime that leaves it being a lot more 'beery' rather than a more indulgent 'dessert in a bottle' style. If this sounds negative then I don't mean it to be, I think that the two beers, despite obvious similarities, are very different. The Saltaire uses chocolate to complement the beer rather than being the be all and end all of it; the bitterness of the hops is still there and the power of the malt means there's cocoa and biscuity qualities that add another layer of complexity. The name Triple Chocoholic, to me, does suggest something more of a chocolate overload than the beer delivered, and while I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing in terms of making a beer I wonder whether some people might be disappointed.