Yesterday I visited The Jolly Fisherman, 3 East Beach Street, Hastings TN34 3AR (website), a wee pub that I have written about many times now, for example, the first time for I ever wrote about this pub was in this blog. This visit I drank 2 ciders and 2 dark beers.
My first cider was from Oliver's Cider & Perry in Herefordshire (website) and their 6.3% Making Hay cider. This is a wild yeast fermented still cider that smells like proper cider should, with a slightly sour and apple aroma. To taste it has a very big apple flavour indeed, and very sweet at first, but with a lovely dry finish, I liked it immensely! 🍎🍏🍎
My second cider was from Bollhayes Devon Cider & Perry of Brixham (website) and their 6.5% Farmhouse Dry cider, looking very similar from the colour, but so different! Made with locally grown cider apples from their own South Devon orchard, this has nowhere near as much aroma, and is much drier to taste. I noted "very zider!" Pretty good still, but not as impressive. 🍏🍏
My first dark ale was from Leeds brewery Tartarus Beers (website) and their 4.0% Enfield, a Chocolate Brownie Stout. Brewed with 9 different malts, and with vanilla and chocolate added during conditioning, replicating the flavours of a chocolate brownie (apologies, I cannot discover the hops used). Flavour-wise, is very much chocolate indeed, with a hint of vanilla, coffee and roasted barley, but nicely dries out at the end, thus easy to drink and, for a 'session' stout quite a fair amount of body, which apparently comes from boiling the wort 'for over 3 hours.' 😮
Cheers folks, until next time. 😉
The Real? Oh, have a look back to this blog for an explanation-ish. 😉
So, enjoyed at the Hastings Jolly Fisherman (blog), from Pomona Island (website), up int' North West of England, and their 12.5% If Only I Had The Time To Understand, a 'Russian Imperial Stout' aged in Cognac Casks. The real If Only I Had The Time To Understand does have cognac and coffee in the aroma and taste, with dark fruits and chocolate much more noticeable in the taste. Unsurprisingly, smooth and luxurious, and indeed gorgeous, cheers folks! 😁
Clonakilty is quite a new distillery, set up in 2019, and they use only barley grown in Co Cork, the whiskey is triple distilled in copper pot stills, and matured in ex-Bourbon, Oloroso and Amontillado casks. This produces an aroma strongly teasing me with vanilla and hints of citrus and butterscotch, and tasting gently of vanilla with a hint of pear, orange and butterscotch, smooth, but you know the alcohol is there whilst drinking and as it goes down, good stuff, sláinte!
So, Happy Belgium National Day! Cheers 🍻
I only yesterday found out that an inaugural Belgian Beer Week (24th February to 1st March Beer Today website) had been arranged in cooperation with Visit Flanders (website), I apologise for my tardiness! Knowing that Oliver at The Jolly Fisherman in Hastings (blog) stocks Belgian beers, I wandered along there in the late afternoon. So what Belgian beer did I drink?
As you can see from the image above, I drank the St Bernadus ABT 12 (10.0%), Brouwerij St Bernadus (website) being another excellent Belgian brewery situated in Watou, Flanders. This beer is a very dark deep coloured red Quadrupel, with a slightly malty/fruity aroma, a wee bit sweet with a dry slightly bitter finish, and tasting of dark plum and damson fruits, another Christmas Pudding of a beer as many Quadrupels tend to be, very rich and rewarding to drink!
It pretty much does what it says on the label, as you can see from the photograph, dark with a light brown head, met my opinion of the difference between a porter and a stout (blog), vegan friendly, but it was so rich and smooth, and dark, so that you wouldn't notice. I got the biscuit in the aroma, but not so much in the flavour, inverse with the chocolate, that came out big in the taste, finishing with a slightly bitter 'dark' chocolate taste, but subtle in the aroma. 😁
Another luxurious stout, thank you very much, cheers! 👍
Brewed by Bristol brewery Left Handed Giant (website), this was their Celebration: Blender, a 12.0% Imperial Stout, a blend of Imperial Stouts aged for 12-18 months in bourbon, maple syrup and rye wooden barrels. This was a very luxurious, smooth dark beer that smelt sweet from the maple syrup, and sweet to taste too, a bit of a dark pudding of a beer, as I said, luxurious!
Definitely a beer to end the night with, cheers, now go chase those bargains! 😁
I thought I should get in a few darker beers before I became completely fixated with the paler light summer beers. 😉 2 of these I sampled as crafty keg ales at The Jolly Fisherman in Hastings (blog), and 2 in bottle; you'll be able to work out which is which. The first (above), from Scottish brewery Harviestoun (website), their 10.5% Ola Dubh (which means 'black oil' in Gaelic), which has been matured for at least 6 months in 12 year-old Highland Park whisky barrels, and is significantly stronger than their bottled version. This was the most complex of this blog's beers, brewed with East Kent Goldings, Fuggles and Galena hops, with a hint of coffee in the aroma, and chocolate in the taste, and the whisky comes through in the flavour too, pretty good!
My first bottled beer is from St Peter's Brewery (website), their 5.0% Plum Porter, with 'natural plum flavouring' added. A big fresh plummy/blackcurrant aroma and taste, slightly sweet, but surprisingly 'light' to drink. It's a very deep dark red colour, and not bad at all.
I had been quite upset when I heard, not too long ago that their London-based pub, the historic Jerusalem Tavern, had closed down. However, I'm pleased to report that I more recently discovered that the pub has reopened under new licencees as The Holy Tavern, 55 Britton Street, London EC1M 5UQ, and with longer opening hours than previous, but still selling St Peter's ales in addition to others (website). Opens: Mondays-Saturdays 12.00 noon to 23.00, and 12.00 noon to 21.30 on Sundays.
The other dark ale I had at the Jolly Fisherman was from Siren Craft Brew (website) and their 7.4% Caribbean Chocolate Cake (above), the chocolate flavour coming from adding 'hand-roasted' cacao nibs to the brew, consequently a big chocolate aroma and taste, with a hint of coffee in the aroma, and hints of orange and coconut to the taste. I thought it was 'pretty good' which is what I wrote in my notes unsurprisingly! 😉
This new added festival to Hastings' events has been arranged by the licensees of the 4 public houses and promises a large sample of ciders and perries, still and fizzy, and from near and far, and you have a week in which to sample the many delights on offer, enjoy, cheers! 🍻
As I hinted in my previous blog, I would missed day 2 of Hastings Tap Takeover 2023 (website), but on day 3 I visited the Jolly Fisherman, 3 East Beach Street TN34 3AR (website), where I met up with a few friends, and Oliver (landlord) behind the bar, dishing out good beer and playing decent music as ever! Not many cask ales here, but all his beers were from Nottingham brewer Neon Raptor (website), consequently, my review is dominated by 'crafty keg' beers.
My first drink was my only pint, the rest were imbibed in two-thirds or halves, and the only cask ale I could drink here, as only the one left, Neon Raptor Filament (5.0%), an IPA brewed with Cashmere and Ekuanot hops. This was a very fruity, slightly hazy beer, tasting of citrus and tropical fruit flavours, I got melon particularly, drying out bitterness in the finish.
I then drank the wheat beer, their 4.7% Breakfast Club, with bananas and strawberries added. Sounds a bit too much fruit? But quite subtle in the taste, different...
I finished my visit with the second from their Crimes Against Brewing series, the 10.0% Carrot and Walnut Cake Imperial Pastry Stout, what can I say?!? Had to be done 😏and I thoroughly enjoyed drinking/experiencing this. My notes aren't the easiest to read at this stage, but I wrote: Dark, sweet and nutty, plenty of body (surprise surprise), rich, chocolatey, and I gave it 3 ticks, which means I liked it, a lot... Well, that was an experience!
Sorry I couldn't make it to more venues oh well...
Here's looking froward to next years Tap Takeover, and cheers!
The 2 very decent pale ales I have drunk recently are, unsurprisingly, both from Kent Brewery (website). Their single-hopped Centennial (4.5%) is described as 'citrusy, lemon and floral' although I noted grapefruit rather than lemon. The Centennial hop was developed in the 1970s from Brewer's Gold, Fuggle, East Kent Golding and Bavarian hops (hopslist), and described as "earthy and floral with an element of citrus." It's a lovely pale golden colour, and I got grapefruit rather than lemon, but hey, they're both citrus! Oh yes, and a lovely dry bitter finish.
Where I had the 'very different' drinks yesterday was at The Jolly Fisherman, 3 East Beach Street, Hastings TN34 3AR (website). I'll first mention my final drink of the visit, and cheers to Oliver, the landlord, for this delight from a collaboration between Sussex based breweries Burning Sky (website) and Abyss (website). Dark to the Core is a 9.5% Imperial Stout and comes from dark chocolate malts and Munich, Marris Otter and Cara malts, and with Chinook hops in the boil. Chinook is a cross between Petham Golding and a USDA male, and features pine spicy aroma and grapefruit flavour, and is regularly used for porters and stouts (hopslist). Does what it says on the tin, delightful!
Then the 2 extra-different drinks, first, another collaboration, this time from Sheffield based Steel City Brewing (facebook) and Lost Industry Brewing (facebook), and Sofia based Alchemik, although James was originally from Manchester (website). Imperial Yellowcake is a 8.5% Sour, with lemon zest and vanilla in the brew to produce a lemon meringue cheesecake 'sour' and certainly not too sweet and not too sour for me, strangely delightful too, cheers to Dave Unpronounceable and his collaborators! 👍
They also brew 'specials' and I have no idea if Dan has brought me back a bottle, but I'm seeing him in a couple of weeks time, so fingers crossed, cheers!
Oh yes, and Knoydart beers are only available locally, for details of which stockists go to their website, although I have seen hints that ordering may be available online in the future, but not right now, so maybe book yourselves a wee holiday, it looks like a beautiful place. 😉
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If you are inspired by this blog and decide to visit Hastings soon, cheers! 🍺
