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!
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