Early Oktoberfest in Hastings!

Oktoberfest at The Prince Albert, 28 Cornwallis Street, Hastings TN34 1SS (website), comes early each year at this genuine free house, which I believe has a relationship with the London brewery Anspach & Hobday (website). I'd been meaning to check up on when its Oktoberfest was being held, as I remembered from last year I just got in at the end (last day), which I did again this year! But they do have quite a busy period coming up... 🍺🎉🍻

I started off with the cask ale, brewed by Anspach & Hobday (website), their 4.3% session IPA Wunderbar, brewed in collaboration with German Kraft Brewery (website). German hops are used in abundance, Callista (BarthHaas), Hersbrucker (hopslist), and Huell Melon (hopslist), producing a cornucopia of fruit taste and aroma, notably, melon, dark berries, forest and citrus fruits. The beer was slightly cloudy and, yes, packed full of fruity flavours indeed, with a dry bitter finish, and I thought a wee bit different, and not bad at all! 🍺

I then started on the lagers, first from Edinburgh brewery Newbarns (website), who the pub featured during Hastings Tap Takeover last year (blog). I drank their 5.6% Festival Bier (5.7% last year) brewed using a blend of 10 different malted barleys, producing a German style golden lager. It was slightly bitter, with plenty of flavour, and very easy to drink for its strength! 😁

I then moved on to the real thing 😉 from Bavarian brewery Hacker-Pschorr (website), their special seasonal 6.0% Oktoberfest Bier, brewed with Alpine Spring Water and 'noble' Hallertau hops (hopslist), and brewed in March specifically to mature for Oktoberfest. This was a slightly darker amber colour, a subtle maltiness with a clean finish; my notes say 'folks will realise I'm not a lager drinker, but this is pretty damn good!" Which says it all really, nice one. 👍

Then, from another Bavarian brewery Hofbrau Munchen (website) and their 6.3% Hofbrau Oktoberfestbier, another festival 'special' beer brewed with Herkules (hopslist), Perle (hopslist), and Spalter Select (Hop Alliance) hops. This is a pale golden colour with a subtle sweetness and hints of grapefruit and dried fruits to the taste, very refreshing, and 6.3% (!) so dangerous to drink. My notes say "so much better than the commercial lagers brewed over here." So obviously true, no comparison, I could (shouldn't) drink this all day, cheers. 🍻

I finished off with another Bavarian brew from Flotzinger Brau (website) and their 5.8% Wies'n-Marzen, brewed specifically for the Rosenheim Autumn Festival, not Munchen Oktoberfest like the previous 2 😉 but available all year round. Brewed with Hallertau (hopslist) and Tettnanger (hopslist) hops, and I'll just repeat my notes: "I could get addicted to proper European beers brewed in their own country, pale, drinkable, in fact tasty! Nice one 👍"

Oktoberfest done for another year, cheers folks! 😁

Cask Ale Week 19-29 September 2024

How I missed he beginning of this 'festival' I do not know, but know I do now 😉 Cask Ale Week 2024 has begun, and runs for another week until next Sunday the 29th of September (website). This is a week organised to celebrate cask ale, so is essentially British, cask ale being lauded as "Britain's national drink." Although I only found out yesterday, I did partake in a few pints...

We started off at The Crown & Sceptre, 57 Melina Road, London W12 9HY (website), where an ale from the Welsh brewery Tiny Rebel (website) was imbibed by us both, but only by me continuously, it being a Fullers pub... 😏 Anyway, Tiny Rebel Park Life is a crystal clear 4.2% pale golden session bitter, brewed with Cascade (hopslist), Citra (hopslist) and Ekuanot (Yakima Valley Hops) hops, regular readers will appreciate these hops aroused my interest! My notes say 'very easy to drink' which it was, the subtle citrus and pine proved they hadn't gone over the top with the hops, and with a gentle bitter finish, I could have drunk this all day! 👍

On our way back to the South Coast we had a brief period in-between trains at Clapham Junction, so took the break to drop into The Falcon, a Nicholson's pub (website) at 2 St John's Hill, London SW11 1RU. The Falcon is on the corner at Clapham Junction of Falcon Road and, at the bottom of St John's Hill, with Lavender Hill going up the other way, pretty much a landmark. The building is Grade II listed, and was built in 1887, although a pub had been on the site for at least another 150 years. It used to have the longest continuous bar in the country, a claim supported by the Guinness Book of Records previously. But they've done some weird thing around the back where customers can stand behind what was the bar?!? For the sake of a few more standing customers I don't see the point! Now they can no longer make the claim. 😕

Nicholson's get ales brewed for them, and this one was brewed by the 'organic' Stroud Brewery in Gloucestershire (website) in celebration of Organic September (Soil Association). Gaia is named after the Greek Goddess of the Earth, Gaia/Gaea (Britannica), and is a 4.2% 'organic pale ale' that we chose from the 5 ales on offer (they used to have 10 available from handpumps not so long ago). Apologies, but I cannot discover which specific hops were used, but I did find out that Gaia is brewed with 'old and new world hops.' A bit darker and with more body than the Park Life, slightly spicy with citrus and tropical flavours and aroma, with a dry bitter finish, not bad at all, cheers! 🍻

For further information about this collaboration I suggest a good read at the Stroud Times.

September Whiskey of the Month!

I may just start this continuing as a regular monthly event, maybe until March anyway... So, a whiskey I've been wanting to try for years, and I finally got around to buying a bottle, Redbreast 12 (40% - website), which I think is owned by Jameson now, but, what the heck! It is a 'pot whiskey' not a single malt, and I just discovered that means it is made from both malted and unmalted barley, which apparently saved on taxes in the past, those canny Irish! Like most Irish whiskeys it is triple distilled in copper pot stills. It is then matured for 12 years, first in American Bourbon seasoned oak barrels, then in Spanish Oloroso sherry seasoned oak barrels.

Redbreast 12 Year Old (I'm not loaded, so not the 15 year old!) is pretty decent indeed, my immediate notes were "warm and fruity" but there are subtle tastes and aromas of sherry, nuts, spices and caramel. Very smooth and very drinkable, I like it, cheers! 👍

Belgian Beer Weekend!

Although the Belgian Beer Weekend that set me off on this blog was at Brussels Grand Place 6-8th September (website), and we could only drink a few Belgian beers, not the hundreds that were available in Belgium, I was visiting my brother's to celebrate our birthdays, and would see one of my Belgian nieces too. So we had to do something relevant, our own mini festival.😉

We did other things over the weekend too, but did manage a different Belgian beer each day, first, an Abbey style beer brewed at Grimbergen, where the abbey was first built in 1128, and the monks started brewing later that year (website). This was their 6.7% Blonde, which has a sweet slightly toffee flavour at first, with a gentle hint of cloves, a smooth golden blonde with a much drier finish that completes a very nicely balanced beer, 'pretty good' I noted.

The beer Saturday was from a slightly newer Abbey brewery, where they've only been brewing since 1240 😉that is Leffe (website), and their 6.6% Blonde. Similar strength, and pretty much a go to beer for my brother Dan as it's very dependable. Hints of caramel and spices, notably more cloves than the Grimbergen, gentle bitterness too, balancing the beer with a slightly dry finish.👍

Our third Abbey style beer on Sunday was from St Feuillion (website), with a history going back to the 7th century, with it's own brewery too, but sadly soldiers of the French Revolution condemned the abbey in 1796 following Napoleon's invasion and annexation of Belgium. It was not until 1873 that Stephanie Friart took over the name at her own brewery, which was producing light beers, and not until after World War II that her descendants started brewing what we now more readily recognise as Abbey style beers.

With my birthday dinner prepared by Dan we had the stronger 7.5% St Feuillion Blonde, a deep golden colour with a wee bit more body. This is slightly maltier than the others mentioned above, and slightly more bitter, and having less spicy undertones. It was very pleasant with a dry finish, a pleasant accompaniment to dinner and end to my birthday weekend beers, cheers!🍻

Jolly Fisherman: Good Company, Beers & Amusement!

I had a very pleasant time yesterday afternoon/early evening at The Jolly Fisherman, 3 East Beach Street, Hastings, East Sussex TN34 3AR (facebook). Plenty of convivial discourse, and leading to Tim following my facebook page, cheers! Not to forget an interesting potential 'customer' wanting chilli sauce, did he think it's a shop, but with merry customers?!? 😁

Anyway, I had a bit of variety drinks-wise, starting off with a cask ale from the ever dependable Marble Beers (website) and their 4.2% Manchester Bitter. Brewed with Cascade (hopslist) and Ekuanot (Yakima Valley Hops) hops, and Marble say HS Exp hops, an experimental hop which I think may be Eureka (hopslist), but please don't hold me to that. 😏 Marble Beers proving yet again that 'vegan friendly' ales brewed can still be clear, sorry but no photograph, so please take my word for it. A deep golden amber coloured traditional bitter, with a hint of citrus, nice one!

I then had the perry from Worcestershire based Barbourne Cider Co (website), who have their own orchard growing cider apples and perry pears, not to mention many other fruits in Ombersley  (website). Their 5.0% Painted Lady perry is made from the juice of freshly pressed Worcestershire Painted Lady pears (National Perry Pear Centre). I certainly recognised pear flavour in the taste, refreshing with a nice dry finish, a very decent perry indeed. 🍐

Then I moved on to the more local Bignose and Beardy Sussex Cider (self-deprecating humour creating the name from their personal attributes; a good read at the website) and their 6.8% Shelter from the Storm dry cider. They get apples that would otherwise be wasted, and 'wild ferment' and age their ciders in a solar powered cidery. Shelter from the Storm was made with apples from the nearby Little Shepherds Orchard, producing a slightly acidic cider with a big apple aroma and taste, certainly not for sweet cider drinkers, but I liked it. 🍎🍏

I then moved on to the crafty keg beers and, from Berkshire based Siren Craft Brew (website), their 7.4% Serendipity, above, a 'Ruby Chocolate Stout' believe it or not, brewed by the women of the brewery to celebrate International Women's Day (website). Obviously with cacao nibs added, but also with Ruby Chocolate, which I'd never heard of. I was very interested in what hops were used as there was a tropical fruit flavour too, but Siren haven't shared hop information, although they solve the problem by stating that Black Cherries are among the adjuncts used! So yes, very chocolatey and fruity, very drinkable, although I couldn't drink pints of it 😉 and I would call it a porter rather than a stout; I've written about this subject before (blog).

My final beer was a porter (I'll agree with this 😉) from Pohjala Brewery in Tallin, Estonia (website), and their 11.0% Tallin at Dawn, an 'Imperial Baltic Porter' aged for 16 months in Madeira casks. Chocolate, coffee and liquorice in the aroma and hints of coffee and chocolate in the taste, pretty subtle, plenty of body of course, and a very decent last beer of the day, but...

Oliver tempted me to help finish his Irish Whiskey by showing me the bottle of the next one to come! So, from the Hinch Distillery in Northern Ireland (website), I had a wee glass of their 43% Small Batch Bourbon Cask, aged for 3-4 years in bourbon casks, and a blend of Single Malt and Single Grain Whiskeys. Smooth, as triple distilled Irish whiskeys tend to be, with hints of caramel, citrus and dried fruits, very easy to drink, a nice end to the session, cheers!