Christmas Westmalle 2025!

Trappist beers are traditionally brewed by Trappist monks within the walls of a Trappist monastery, Westmalle was founded in 1794, and became an abbey in 1836, their ales, brewed at the Brouwerij der Trappisten van Westmalle (brewing since 1836 - website), are up there among the best beers of Belgium. Although the monks no longer brew the beers themselves, they remain in overall charge of the brewery, ensuring traditions are upkept, and pure ingredients used, water from their own source, 100% barley malt, hops, and yeast from their own culture.

This year's Christmas present from my brother was 4 bottles (top image) of my favourite regularly available Belgian ale (glass from last year, cheers Dan!), always bottle conditioned of course, the Westmalle Tripel, which I have written about many times before (eg blog). The Tripel is a 9.5% golden beer, with a subtle fruitiness and quite dry and bitter finish, quite frankly an excellent beer! There are a number of bars in Brussels where I would always drink this, the waiting staff in the magnificent Le Cirio in Brussels (website), by La Bourse, always taking care not to disturb the sediment, but leaving the bottle for people to add the sediment if they so wish. Indeed, the owner of the bar closest to where my brother used to live always called me "Monsieur Westmalle", but that bar, sadly, is no longer open, the owner having retired.

You will appreciate just how much I appreciated this Christmas present brought back from Belgium by my brother, he knows what I like, cheers Dan, Merry Christmas! 👍 

Happy Hoppy Christmas!

BEST WISHES TO ALL, CHEERS M'DEARS! 😁

So this is Christmas...

I saw the St Bernadus (website) Christmas Ale (10.0%) in the Jolly Fisherman in Hastings (blog) and there were only 2 bottles left, so I had to go in for one! I've talked about the brewery before, eg in my blog about St Bernard's Day back in August, so I shan't repeat myself here, but just write about the ale. As you can see it has a very dark deep red in colour and yes, it is a Christmas/Winter ale in style indeed! A fruity roasted malt aroma with a hint of chocolate too, and a big fruity taste, I noted damson plums in particular with a hint of cherry, plenty of body unsurprisingly, and with a dry finish and pretty damn good! A Belgian Christmas ale to add to the English one from Harvey's I recently imbibed (blog).

And my brother Dan has brought back beer from Belgium for me again for this year's Christmas present, he told me it's not the same as last year (blog), so I'll have to resist temptation and see what bottles there are, yes, I can tell it's 4 bottles from the shape, to come... 😁 

Met up with Leeds John yesterday at the Eel & Bear (blog), and drank this rather sumptuous Biscoff Chocolate Brownie, a 7.0% Pastry Stout from Somerset based Yonder Brewing (website). Again, does what it says on the label big time, biscuit, vanilla, caramel, coffee and chocolate in the aroma and taste, smooth and luxurious, sumptuous indeed, cheers! 👍

A Christmas Ale Story...

Yesterday I received my first Christmas Card, many thanks Neil and Sara, so I thought I'd open this bottle that Jackie had kindly donated to me, cheers m'dear! Indeed, I hadn't drunk Harvey's Christmas Ale (website) since we visited East Sussex Harvey's Brewery 6 years ago (blog), and it was a pleasure to return to drinking their, as they describe it, Barley Wine.

First brewed in 1972, Harvey's Christmas Ale, a mere 7.5% 😉 and I believe brewed with locally grown hops, Fuggle (hopslist) and East Kent Golding (hopslist). These hops, combined with the malts used, produce an ale with dark fruit flavours, notably damson/plum and a suggestion of port wine. A deep chestnut colour, a bit sweet to start off with, though a nice bitterness coming through at the finish. It's not quite as good as the cask version we drank back in 2019, but as I said before, it's a bit of a Christmas Pudding of a beer, I like it!

I'm not saying Harvey's nicked my calling it a "Christmas Pudding of a beer" and now include it in their blurb, they probably always have, but I came up with that description back then independently, but which came first, who cares? I guess we'll never know, cheers! 😁

December Whiskey of the Month!

My November Whiskey of the Month was so good I decided to go back to the same West Cork Distillers (website) for my December Whiskey of the Month! I wrote about this relatively recently set up distillery (22 years ago) in my November blog, if you haven't already read it, there's some background to West Cork Distillers and the 3 lads who set it up in that blog.  

West Cork Distillers Glengarriff Series Bog Oak Charred Cask Single Malt Irish Whiskey (43.0%) being an Irish Whiskey, is triple distilled using locally grown grain; the distilling process is excellently explained in detail on their website. The Bog Oak Charred Cask Single Malt Whiskey is then matured in casks before bottling, adding colour, flavours and complexity. This one is first matured in sherry casks for at least 30 months, and then for a further 4-6 months in unique 'bog oak charred' casks; indeed, being an Irish whiskey it has to be matured for at least 3 years. The casks they use come from the USA, but they are charred on the inside, on the Irish side of the North Atlantic, using oak harvested from the local boglands of Glengarriff.

So, what was my second whiskey from West Cork Distillers like? Aroma-wise I got toffee and butterscotch, and a very subtle wood and spiciness, and an even more subtle smokiness. Indeed, I got little of the smokiness in aroma and taste apparently described in some other reviews, but we do all have very different palates! The flavour of this very smooth whiskey was sweet to start with, toffee, butterscotch, stoned fruits, pear and apple, and with a lovely dry warm finish.

Another pretty damn good Irish Whiskey, sláinte! 😁

Iron Pier Brewery

I've reviewed these beers before, but again given 2 cans of beers from Iron Pier Brewery in Kent (website) to review. I didn't take photographs individually in a glass, but just now took this photograph of the empty cans before they go into the recycling bag. The Cast Iron Stout (4.7%), is based on a Victorian recipe, brewed with 7 different malts, and Admiral (hopslist) and First Gold (hopslist) hops. The roasted malts produce hints of coffee and chocolate, and citrus fruits in the taste, slightly sweet to start with but with a dry bittering finish. The colour is very dark and to me this is what a stout should be like, plenty of body, smooth and warm, and very easy to drink; if you haven't already read it, see this blog explaining my thoughts on stouts and porters.👌

Their 4.2% Session IPA, is now brewed with a slightly different hop combination since my last taste (2 fewer types included), indeed, but still with Sultana aka Denali (Charles Faram), and Citra (hopslist) and Columbus (hopslist), and yes, still producing what I expected... A big fruity aroma with citrus, forest and stoned fruits in the flavour, another American style IPA, an APA, with a dry fruity finish too, and absolutely gorgeous, cheers m'dears! 😁

Sam Smith's Organic Pale Ale!

The ciders are having to be put on the back burner until later during the week coming, because I was surprised by how much I enjoyed drinking this! Consequently, why I only took this photograph after the 550mls was drunk, because I didn't think I would be writing about it.

Not my favourite brewery, but this bottle came into my possession because a friend, Jackie, gave it to me with another 2 bottles (different), that I may just save up for Christmas time. The brewery? The oldest brewery in Yorkshire, Samuel Smith of Tadcaster (website), famed for not allowing mobile phones to be used in their pubs, and for supplying everything under their own name, crisps, spirits, wines, everything, and of course, their own beers. They've been brewing from the same brewery since 1758, using the water pulled up from their well since then too!

To this beer, Samuel Smith's Organic Pale Ale (5.0%), no idea what hops are used, as Mr Smith shares very little information, but as it's a traditional English Pale Ale, has to be English hops, and drinking the beer supports that informed guess, hardly a guess really. 😉 It has a dark amber colour, a sort of cross between copper and chestnut, not too much aroma, slightly malty, but gentle maltiness in the flavour, slightly bitter, full bodied, and very well balanced, I wrote "refreshing" and meant it, probably my favourite Sam Smith's beer I've ever drunk!

Many thanks to Jackie, and to Mr Smith, cheers! 👍