Chilli Porter or Stout

I had to try to be the first customer up in Bohemia yesterday afternoon, following my blog the other day about the Tower being the latest real ale provider to return to business in Hastings with off sales, but I was second, oh well... But I did get to buy a couple of pints of the very interesting sounding Franklins (website) Sriracha Ace (5.0%) which, as I said, is brewed with Sorachi Ace hops to add a citrus note to dark chocolate and coffee flavours, apparently subtly spiced with Guajillo Peppers...

Well, it pretty much does what it says on the tin/what the brewery says, my notes give it a coffee in the aroma with a hint of chilli, flavour-wise, there is coffee and chocolate, though I didn't really get the citrus, but then, there are other very dominant flavours, and I caught the chilli, just, yes it is very subtle, in the aftertaste, just at the back of the throat. I'm not going to go on again about the difference between stouts and porters, you can read my thoughts here if you haven't already done so, but I thought it was more of a stout than a porter, there you go! But very nice, I'd drink it again, cheers! 😀

More Real Ale Available during this crisis...

The Tower

Apologies to readers from elsewhere, but this is mostly local to me and where I live on the south coast, but I did write a blog not so long ago about initiatives around the country, so please don't feel left out. Anyway, I more recently wrote a blog about real ale brought to me by The Jolly Fisherman in Hastings, but now I have an extra source of cask-conditioned ale, yay! 

The Tower (see, for example, an older blog), up on the corner of London Road and Tower Road in Hastings & St Leonards TN37 6NB, is holding a launch opening on Monday 1st June 2020, and then will be opening 3 evenings a week from Wednesday 3rd June to provide off sales, with 'social distancing' facilitated, and hand sanitizer provided too:

Monday 1st June 4-8pm; THEN

Wednesdays 4-8pm

Fridays 4-8pm

Saturdays 4-8pm

There will be 2 cask-conditioned ales on sale at a great value £3.99 for 2 pints, changing as each cask runs out: kicking off with 2 Sussex ales this Monday, from Dark Star Brewing Co (website), their superb 3.8% pale refreshing session ale Hophead, brewed with Cascade hops providing plenty of citrus flavour and bitterness, a dependable old favourite. 

The second is a darker ale from Franklins Brewing Co (website), and a very interesting Porter style too, their 5.0% Sriracha Ace, brewed with Sorachi Ace hops to add a citrus note to dark chocolate and coffee flavours subtly spiced with Guajillo Peppers... I so need to try this one!

They are also selling 6 different real ciders (2 pints for £3.99, again, great value); keg beers, beginning with Guinness, Fosters and Stella Artois; cans, including ale and lager (2 cans for £3.80 or 4 for £7.49), from another local brewer, Gun Brewery (website); bigger cans (!) as in Mini Kegs from Gun Brewery too (small and large cans, I gather, will change as stock changes, and 'showcasing' different breweries); and 3 bottles of wine for £20. 

2 pint reusable plastic bottles are available, but customers are asked to please bring their own bags in which to transport them. It is excellent to see another local business helping us real ale drinkers survive the Coronavirus Crisis, and I wish good luck to, and express my thanks to, Louisa and her colleagues, who I may just see very shortly. 😉

Look after yourselves folk and be careful out there, cheers!

More great ales, oh dear, cheers!

I'll start off with 2 pale bitters, OK, they're all pale bitters, 😉from The Park Brewery in Kingston upon Thames (website), the theme of their ales being Richmond Park, obviously. First, their 4.4% Gallows Gold, brewed with Simcoe and Cascade hops, providing a big fruity aroma with tropical and citrus flavours, with a great dry bitter finish. I liked this a lot, but... 

Spankers IPA (5.4%), like Gallows Gold but with knobs on! Brewed with three of the 'C' hops, Chinook, Columbus and Centennial, you'd expect citrus flavours and aroma, and you wouldn't be wrong, an enormous citrus aroma, and grapefruit ++ in the flavour, loadsa body, pale golden, dry and bitter, I wrote "gorgeous" in my notes, that's how I remember it!

Next, 2 more excellent pale bitters, but this time from East Sussex brewery, Franklins Brewing Company (website). I've already recently discussed their 4.2% Resurrection EPA, a couple of blogs ago, with its wonderful flavours from the Amarillo, Galaxy, Centennial and Citra hops used, and I've had it at 2 further bars since, still excellent! 

Next though, their stronger North Shore IPA (5.5%), another ale I always love to drink. This is brewed with New Zealand hops, Rakau, and another pale golden bitter with plenty of body, plenty of fruit in the aroma and taste too, and, again, noted as "gorgeous!"

I mentioned the Three Sods Trade Union Pale Ale in my last blog, so we'll pass my notes on that one this time, but, another brewery that seems to be consistently putting out great ales is Green Duck Beer Company of the West Midlands (website). Their Duck & Dab IPA (5%) is brewed with Sorachi Ace and Mount Hood hops which provide plenty of citrus on the nose, not just a fruity aroma, but citrus in the flavour too, plenty of body, and finishing off as a very dry bitter, another excellent ale!

Finally-ish, we come to Shiny Brewing of Derbyshire (website), another brewery I keep tasting great ales from! Their 4.6% Affinity, they call an ESB, and do not share the hops used on their website, but it is yet another nice one! You'll have to believe my description, a pale golden ale, with much citrus aroma, I had to think again and again at what fruit is in the flavour, definitely grapefruit, and hints of orange and mango, whatever, finishes off a lovely dry bitter indeed! 

I also drank an ale from the ever reliable Oakham Ales, but you'll have to wait for my next blog, because there's an extra story there, cheers!