OK, my first beer of 2018 has not been a British ale, but I do like many Belgian beers too! For a Christmas present from friends Mark and Maureen, I was given a presentation case with four bottles of beer and a stone chalice from relatively new Belgian brewery, Brasserie de Waterloo (website), which has been brewing since 2014, indeed, since my last visit to the area which I went to with my brother when he was living in Belgium. The brewery is in a wing of Ferme de Mont-Saint-Jean, a 13th century farm adjacent to the famous battlefield and which was used as a hospital for the Duke of Wellington's troops during the battle.
Adrien Desclee and Anthony Martin, grandson of John Martin, the man who brought Export Guinness to Belgium over 100 years ago, opened the brewery at Waterloo to continue brewing the Triple Blond and Strong Dark that Adrien had already been brewing since 2005. I was given 2 bottles of each of these beers, and will talk about the dubbel style Strong Dark soon, once I have tasted it of course! So, to the Triple Blond...
An 8% tripel style (tripel/triple, depending on the Dutch Flemish/French Wallonian language used), brewed with the usual water, malt, hops and yeast of course, but also with herbs too. This is a top-fermented beer, as are British ales, and has a secondary fermentation in the bottle, thus producing sediment, so to be poured very carefully if you don't like to drink the yeast product with your beer! This a golden beer with a spicy, fruity and slightly citrus aroma, full-bodied, sweet at first, with a similarity to Leffe Blond, but dries out with a more bitter finish. A very decent example of a tripel/triple indeed!
My last two ales of 2017 were imbibed yesterday at the Dolphin Inn, Hastings (website), and were both golden ales too. First, from the Staffordshire based Burton Bridge Brewery (website), their Screwbydoo (4.5%), with the pump clip depicting engineer Joseph Whitworth, who was born on the 21st of December 1803, and who devised a standard for screw threads, the British Standard Whitworth (BSW), still recognised today.
Anyway, the Screwbydoo is a 4.5% golden bitter with Progress and Pioneer hops used in the brew. There is a slightly fruity aroma and taste, gentle sweetness at first taste, and a wee bit too easy to drink for 4.5%, unless that's what you call a supping strength! I had been warned by another customer that it had seriously influenced him the day before... Not bad, but not bitter enough for a hophead like me though, so, what about:
From West London, and one of my old stomping grounds in my youth, White City, the Portobello Brewing Company (website) and their White City, another 4.5%, slightly darker, golden bitter, indeed, all 3 of the Dolphin's guest ales (6 ales in total) were 4.5% yesterday! Hops used in the brew are Fuggles, East Kent Golding and Cascade, producing hints of pine, and citrus and tropical fruit, in the flavour. A bit more bitter, with a very slight 'sourness' to the taste, apparently not everyone's favourite of the two, but I thought they were at a pretty similar decent level...
Cheers Mark and Maureen!
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