July Whiskey of the Month

                                 

An anecdote to start with, the first time I drank Powers whiskey would have been 1995/96, soon after I moved to Sheffield as a postgrad student, at O'Hagan's (once the Raven, and the Hornblower when it was demolished), 12-14 Fitzwilliam Street S1 4JN. Sadly, the pub was knocked down for redevelopment of the area, see above image (Sheffield History).

The purpose of this anecdote explains why I drank Powers Whiskey at O'Hagan's, we drank there and (an aside), after eating their soda bread with Irish Stew, my wife baked her own soda bread for a while, great stuff! The licensees were Irish, from Dublin if my memory serves me well, and the lad told me that Powers was the roughest whiskey they had, not to turn down a challenge, and I wasn't really a whiskey or whisky drinker then, I was surprised how smooth it was, and so started the Irish whiskey drinking phase of my life, and Powers was the stimulus. 😁 

Powers history goes back to 1791 when James Power set up his distillery in Dublin, in 1975 they joined forces with other distilleries to form Irish Distillers, and their whiskeys are now produced at the Midleton Distillery in County Cork (website); oh yes, and their Gold Label has been around since 1886. For July I opened the bottle on the 30th June, and wrote this last night. 😉

I purchased the cheapest of their range to be sure I was drinking the equivalent to 30 years ago, a bottle of Powers Gold Label (website). This is a 40.0% strength, blended whiskey (70% pot still whiskey and 30% grain whiskey). Last night I detected honey with hints of lemon, cinnamon and caramel in the aroma, and similar flavours in the taste, with honey definitely there, but pepper and cloves comes through at the finish too. A very light and easy drinking whiskey indeed, and very enjoyable, sláinte! 👍

Beers from Black Tor Brewery, Devon

Friends of mine were lucky enough to enjoy a holiday, during the recent sunny week, in Brixham in Devon, and brought back a nice wee presentation box present for lucky me, and many thanks to Mark and Mo! The bottled beers they brought me (above) were from Black Tor Brewery (website), Unit 5&6 Gidleys Meadow, Christow EX6 7QB, on the edge of Dartmoor, and a wee village I used to drive through regularly on my way back into Exeter from walks on Dartmoor back in the days I used to live down there.

The 4.0% Pride of Dartmoor, described as an Amber Ale, was a lovely refreshing ale with a fruity aroma, slightly sweet at first taste, but with a slightly bitter aftertaste and dry finish, and not bad at all, very enjoyable!

The 4.2% Raven, a Best Bitter, was a deep chestnut/red hue, with a slightly malty aroma. This is very much a traditional best bitter brewed with English hops, again, a bit sweet to start with, but with a nice nutty bitter finish, very decent again...

The 4.5% DPA, or Devon Pale Ale, was a golden bitter brewed with hops from the USA as well as England used in the brewing process. There were hints of tropical and citrus fruits in the taste, but subtle, and a smooth refreshing drink, slightly dry finish. Mark drank this one 'cask conditioned' and, apart from Devon Dumpling (which he didn't realise was 5.1% 😉 - Bays) was his regular and favourite tipple down there.

Cheers again to Mark and Mo! 👍