3 Crackin' Guest Ales on at the same time!

In addition to the very decent regular ales (Hophead, Special and Sussex Best), the Dolphin Inn, 11-12 Rock a Nore Road, Hastings TN34 3DW (website), when I was there the other day had the 3 excellent guest ales (below) from far and nearer, what a great local for lucky me!

To begin with, from way up in Argyll in Scotland, from Fyne Ales Farm Brewery (website), their very fine 4.5% Avalanche, and I'll have to be careful not to include too many superlatives and puns in this blog! 😉 Fyne Ales began brewing with a 1,600 litre brewing kit in 2001 in a former dairy building, then a former grain store became a 'brewery tap' powered by solar energy in 2012, and a couple of years later a larger 6,500 litre kit was installed in a converted sheep shed, where the brewery now resides. The original brewhouse has been kept on as the Origins Brewing project, testing and experimenting with newer recipes.

Brewed with Cascade and Liberty hops grown in the USA, this is a lovely pale refreshing bitter with plenty of body and depth for its strength. Cascade hops were originally developed from the 1950s, when English Fuggles and Russian Serebrianka hops were cross-pollinated, and named after the Cascade mountain range in the West of the country, released in 1972, and now representing about 10% of hops grown in the USA. Liberty hops are related to Mount Hood, Ultra and Crystal hops, descended from the German Hallertau Mittelfruher hop, and were released in 1983. First brewed in 2007, Avalanche continues to delight, with a clean citrus flavour drying out to bitterness, nice one!

Now we go way across to the south-west and Cornwall, and to St Austell Brewery (website), a much older brewery that dates back to when Walter Hicks bought the Seven Stars Inn up East Hill, St Austell, in 1863, where Hicks began to brew his own ales. As demand outstripped supply, in 1893 he moved the brewery to a site in Tregonissey Lane, where the brewery remains. When I lived and worked in Cornwall in the late 1980s/early 90s, I only remember 2 ales from this brewery, and there wasn't much else around from anyone else! One was a rather bland bitter, as I recall, 3.7% Tinners (I called it Thinners), which I did drink quite a lot of though 😁 and a more robust 5.0% Hicks Special Draught (HSD), a tasty ruby strong ale, which is still brewed.

But to the 4.5% Proper Job (5.5% in bottles, and a superb bottle-conditioned ale it is too! Blog), which I still don't believe is as good as the bottle-conditioned version, but I found it very agreeable with my more recent tasting, despite being disappointed a while ago, but very happy the time before that, what can I say? Oh yes, this was the brainchild of Roger Ryman, who sadly died 2 years ago R.I.P. (blog), when he joined and transformed the brewery as Head Brewer in 1999. Proper Job is brewed with Willamette, Cascade and Chinook hops, all from the USA. Willamette was also developed from the English Fuggles hop in the late 1960s, indeed, was bred to replace Fuggles for growth in the USA! Cascade hops I've discussed above, and Chinook hops, which began life in 1985, were developed from Petham Golding hops. Proper Job is a pale golden ale, citrus fruit aroma and taste, with a dry bitter finish, and very refreshing when quaffed during warm summer days, well, quaffed anytime really! 😉

Now to a brewery much closer to the Dolphin and, indeed, where you can regularly find their ales on the 'guest list' - Kent Brewery (website), unsurprisingly, is based in Kent, and first brewed in 2010 using the brewing plant of Larkins Brewery (website), before Kent Brewery had its own kit installed at Birling Place Farm (Birling, near-ish to Maidstone) in April 2011, and where they now brew their excellent ales.

Like the 2 ales already discussed, the 4.9% Kent Brewery Tropic Ale is in the style of an American Pale Ale (APA), so presumably using hops from the USA, as they regularly do. But they do not advertise what hops they use for their regular ales, except when they brew a single hop ale, which then becomes obvious, and occasionally for others, for example their Brewers Reserve, (Columbus hops). So I don't know what hops are used in the Tropic Ale, I apologise, but you can be sure it will be hops easily recognised as from the USA; I'm guessing they don't like to say any particular hops as it may depend on what is on the market, anyway, what's it like? I have written about this before as I do like the Tropic Ale, it has citrus and tropical fruit aroma and flavours, but quite subtle and refreshing with a nice dry bitter finish, I do like this! 👍

Yes I do like my APAs, cheers! 

New Year Ales!

I have had some excellent pale, dry and bitter ales over the past week, notably the excellent 4.8% Oakham Frozen Fresh Hop Citra, a delight, and a variation on a green-hopped ale, where fresh hops, usually used on the day they are picked, are used in the brew. In this instance, the U.S. Citra hops used were 'flash frozen' within a few hours of being picked and arrived at the brewery in the middle of November, when they were thawed out and used a day later for this brew. I can only repeat what I wrote in my notes: very pale with a BIG fruity citrus aroma, bl**dy good with a clean dry bitter finish, and I added 3 ticks, which I don't often go that far, exceptional!

Since that 'Citra' ran out, I have been drinking the more regular 4.2% 'Session IPA' Oakham Citra which they describe as 'feisty, hoppy, citrus' and, in this instance, they are very correct, it does what it says on the label. More easily available dried Citra hops are used, but they still produce a big citrus aroma and flavour, also pale dry and bitter, and very good indeed!

You may take it from this blog I have been drinking plenty of Oakham Ales (website) beers recently, one of my favourite brewers, including their superb 4.6% Bishops Farwell. I have also been drinking other excellent pale dry bitter ales from another of my favourite brewers, Kent Brewery (website), just sneaking into the photograph immediately above is their 5% Brewers Reserve, but also other quality pale bitters, including their own 4.5% Citra (there's a lot of it about 😉), the 4.2% The Quiet American, with a more subtle use of hops from the U.S.A., the 4.9% Tropic Ale, and the excellent 4.8% Prohibition, quality, and with its own 'fan club' of drinkers who follow the beer around Kent and East Sussex to grab a few pints of Prohibition!

I have also sampled some other fine paler ales from nearby and further afield, and for my next blog I will write about some darker ales I have enjoyed, cheers and a Happy New Year!

One Year Ago Today!

On this date last year it was the last day we could drink ale in a pub in what were 'normal' times, before Britain was shut down from Saturday the 21st of March 2020; guess what my last drink at the Dolphin Inn (website) was? Unsurprisingly, from the excellent Kent Brewery (website), their so drinkable, ah memories, 4.9% Tropic Ale, a pale golden ale, with a big citrus and tropical fruit aroma and flavours, and a nice dry bitter finish, refreshing and pretty damn good... 

Tasty memory indeed, cheers! 😄

Favourite Ales of the Crisis, so far!

By now regular readers will be aware that my favourite ales are very much like me, pale, dry and very bitter, but in other years I would include some darker ales in a blog such as this, because I do enjoy a good porter or stout. Since March 2020, it hasn't been so easy, first, months without ales as many pubs were shut for much of the year, and when open, limited, often by supply, plus my regular local was selling Harvey's Old Ale under Tier 2, which I find too sweet for my taste, sorry. So this blog is about wonderful pale 'APA' style bitters mostly, many from Kent Brewery (website), as close by where I live, and regularly sold at my local, when open, including...

Two of my favourite ales from Kent, their Tropic Ale (4.9%) and Prohibition (4.8%) were particularly enjoyed, and if I could only ever have 1 ale if marooned on a desert island, I would be happy with either but, if given a choice, I would say the Prohibition edges it, just. And at the end of the first 'lockdown' in July, this was the first ale I drank in a pub and, as I said in the relevant blog, it was GORGEOUS! A variety of hops from the USA make this very much an American Pale Ale (APA) and gives it a big citrus fruity nose and taste, particularly grapefruit flavour, but such a pleasant refreshing pale bitter with a dry and bitter finish, quality.

Their Tropic Ale is also a dry bitter ale, but with a difference, whereas the Prohibition has a predominantly citrus flavour, the Tropic Ale also has tropical fruit flavours to add to the citrus, making it a wee bit more complex. Tropic Ale has a very nice dry bitter finish too, also refreshing, and gives Prohibition a run for its money. Both are very easy to drink, and because of their strength alcohol-wise, easy to get merry by, if only one of them had been available to me over Christmas... 😉 Further down I will discuss quite a few other excellent Kent ales too.

Also from Kent, Angels & Demons (website), who I'm guessing aren't brewing, for now anyway, as their facebook page is unavailable. Anyway, I had a newer ale from them, another great brewer that likes to use plenty of hops, their Evil Thieves (5.1%). Billed as an IPA, really another APA, although you never know these days, American hops are now being cultivated in Britain too, but I'm guessing hops from the USA were used for this ale. A big citrus aroma, and tropical and citrus fruit in the flavour, a pale golden bitter, very nice indeed. I just hope they get brewing again when the COVID-19 Crisis is under control, fingers crossed. I would miss their wonderful I Spy Dragon Fly and A.D.H.ME, and particularly miss Goldilocks is Dead... 😢 

Also from close to me down here in East Sussex, Gun Brewery (website) who brew mostly 'vegan' beers, and many gluten-free beers too, and I did enjoy their rather tasty strong-ish Zamzama (6.5%) back in July during my second pub visit post-lockdown (blog). A 'Vegan IPA'  although more like an APA again, I'm pretty sure hops from the USA used, a big fruity aroma, plenty of body and flavour, with citrus and tropical fruits, very drinkable, very nice!

The only pub I visited away from home in a year now was in August (blog), so you can see my predicament trying to write about different ales from around the country. On that visit to London I very much was brought back to life by drinking a couple of lovely, refreshing, if expensive, pints of St Austell Proper Job (4.5%) after walking for an hour in 37 degrees! Pale golden colour, citrus fruit, dry, bitter and very refreshing, just what the resus doctor ordered, phew... 😷 

St Austell Brewery has been much remembered over the past year, not just for being the only local brewery surviving from when I lived in Cornwall back in the early 1990s, but particularly because of the sad death of the brewer who rejuvenated the brewery after I moved away, Roger Ryman (blog), and the appointment of Georgina Young as his replacement (blog). Also, the lockdowns have meant that their local representative to us has not been able to visit in December, when she was bringing a very nice Proper Job polo shirt for me, missing you Linda!

From further afield, from way up int' North, in Huddersfield, I had 3 excellent ales brewed by Mallinsons Brewing Company (website), though imbibed down here in Hastings. Tropical Blonde (4.3%) does what it says on the label, it really tastes like 'sunshine in a glass' - well, sort of 😉 Brewed with Calypso, Citra and Nelson Sauvin hops that produce citrus and tropical fruit flavours, and with mango and pineapple in a big fruity aroma. A very easy drinking, pale dry bitter, I did like this, but then, Mallinsons is another excellent brewery.

Also, I had their single hopped Amarillo (4.2%), yes, brewed with Amarillo hops from the USA, unsurprisingly, but surprisingly with a bitter orange in the flavour! A very dry bitter finish, and I definitely liked this, but it is a hop I do enjoy. And Shift (4.3%), what can I say? Brewed with Ekuanot and Centennial hops that produce peach, citrus and tropical fruit flavours, and Mandarina Bavaria hops, a reasonably new variant bred in Germany, released in 2012, and a 'daughter' of the Cascade hop, and which adds a tangerine flavour to the mix! Refreshing and very easy to drink, with a nice dry bitter finish, as I said, another excellent brewery.

Anyway, Mallinsons hasn't been the only Yorkshire brewery whose ales I have enjoyed since the first lockdown, for example, Ilkley Brewery (website) and their 4.2% Pale or All Day Pale. This is a nice refreshing pale bitter, as you'd expect, brewed using Nelson Sauvin, Chinook, Centennial and Hallertau Blanc hops, including dry hopping, and which provide plenty of fruity aroma and flavours, and a lovely dry bitter finish... I liked it! 

Sadly, no Kelham Island of Sheffield ales in 2020, hopefully that will change in 2021, but other excellent Yorkshire ales did get down here, including two 4.3% lovelies from the always reliable Rooster's Brewing Company (website), Cogburn and Union Gap. The Cogburn is an ale I've drunk many times over the years, regularly when I was living in Yorkshire, and the name is a homage to the character played by the actor John Wayne in a couple of films. It is pale and dry, with a subtle citrus fruity aroma and flavour, nice one. 

The Union Gap I recorded as even better! Presumably named after the 1960s band that brought out a single that would be very questionable nowadays, labeled a 'West Coast Pale Ale' and appropriately brewed with Chinook, Cascade, Centennial and Simcoe hops. With these hops you unsurprisingly get a mixture of citrus flavours and aroma, tangerine and lemon particularly. Refreshing, pale dry and bitter, yes it hit the spot, thank you very much!

Coming further down the country, we reach Peterborough and I shall mention 3 of the ales from one of my very favourite brewers, the excellent Oakham Ales (website), including their single-hopped 4.2% 'Session IPA' Citra. Their Citra is, as you would expect from that hop, zesty and with a hint of citrus in the aroma and taste, very pale, and a great dry bitter finish. Another ale I love and could include in my luxury ale on my desert island, along with a cooling system. 😉

The other 2 Oakham ales I particularly enjoyed were the Citra on steroids Green Devil IPA (6.0%), plenty of body, pale, dry and bitter. Also a single-hopped ale with Citra hops, but less subtle, packing a punch with grapefruit and tropical fruit flavours, which could replace the Citra Session IPA on my desert island, and I wouldn't need as much of it! Oh yes, and Bishops Farewell (4.6%), a smoother golden ale brewed with Cascade and Challenger hops, plenty of body and subtle citrus and tropical fruitiness, dry and bitter, also excellent, as are all the wonderful ales in the Oakham range, and I've never had a bad seasonal beer from them either!

I managed to get in this excellent 'green-hopped' ale before Tiers 3 and 4 kicked in, just, not to mention Lockdown Mark 3! This one, Dark Star (website) Green Hopped IPA, a very decent annual arrival for my hopmonster palate, and with a full bodied experience, as you would expect from this 6.5% pale bitter. If you aren't aware, green-hopped ales are brewed using fresh hops, ideally picked on the day and thus seasonal, and this brew used Warrior, Simcoe and Ernest hops. The end result was an amber, subtle fruity bitter with a dry finish, and very good indeed!

I've already mentioned the excellent Kent Brewery above (website), a brewery that competes very well with Oakham Ales and their pale bitter beers, honest, I never thought I'd be that lucky to have another reasonably local brewer so good, and we have some other very fine brewers down here in Kent and East Sussex to compete with them too! But, comparable with their Prohibition and Tropic Ale described above, I'll specifically mention the Brewers Reserve (5.0%). This has a big fruity citrus aroma and taste, with a dry bitter finish, quality!

Quite frankly, I could sing my praises of many of their ales, but will just mention here a few more that I have specifically enjoyed during these upsetting 10 months, and I could add even more, but want to publish this blog today! So, other Kent Brewery ales that helped me cope with the COVID-19 crisis include Mayflower 400 (4.2%, and brewed to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the departure of the Mayflower to the New World), the two 4.5% single hopped ales Citra and Mandarina, and the 4.2% 'session APA' The Quiet American, after recent antics in the USA, surely an oxymoron, but a very easy drinking beer indeed... 😉

Well, I hope this was a reasonably fun read, and here's to the reopening of public houses this year, hopefully sooner rather than later, cheers m'dears! 🍻

Congratulations Again to the Dolphin!

Again, my congratulations go out to the Dolphin Inn (facebook), 11-12 Rock-a-Nore Road, Hastings TN34 3DW, for winning the 2019 SE Sussex CAMRA Community Pub of the Year, nice one! The award was presented yesterday evening, sadly missed by me, consequently no timely images, although I was there at lunchtime...

And, in addition to their 3 regular ales, Dark Star Hophead, Youngs Special, and Harveys Sussex Best, the 3 guest ales were all from close by, indeed, all three from Kent, and all very good. From Folkestone, Angels & Demons (website) 5% I Spy Dragon Fly, a very pale dry bitter, does what it says on the label, and I love it, but...

McCanns, a subsidiary of Angels & Demons, Folkestone Best, is a 4.0% traditional best bitter, and very good too, however... the Kent Brewery (website), from Birling, Tropic Ale (4.9%) is something very special, and I cannot get enough of this brewery's ales, I love them! Completely to my taste preference, and a hopfest in the mouth, they say a "Juicy IPA" and they aren't wrong. Another very pale golden bitter, tropical fruits and citrus aroma big time, grapefruit specifically in the taste, and beer of course, okay, it's getting boring, but like me, pale dry and bitter, quality!

Anyway, that's what the Dolphin is really about, Mark, Mo, family, and colleagues, serve up excellent real ales, not to mention great food too, and a truly 'community' public house, congratulations, yet again, and well deserved, cheers!