Black Friday & An Imperial Stout!

Okay, it's 'Black Friday' but I have nothing to sell, let alone cheaply, so my 'bargain' is reporting on a beer that was my 'one for the road' last night, drank at The Jolly Fisherman, 3 East Beach Street, Hastings TN34 3AR (see my first blog about this atmospheric wee pub).

Brewed by Bristol brewery Left Handed Giant (website), this was their Celebration: Blender, a 12.0% Imperial Stout, a blend of Imperial Stouts aged for 12-18 months in bourbon, maple syrup and rye wooden barrels. This was a very luxurious, smooth dark beer that smelt sweet from the maple syrup, and sweet to taste too, a bit of a dark pudding of a beer, as I said, luxurious!

Definitely a beer to end the night with, cheers, now go chase those bargains! 😁

Congratulations to my local The Dolphin!

Congratulations to The Dolphin Inn, 11-12 Rock-a-Nore Road, Hastings TN34 3DW, which, on Monday, was awarded this certificate as CAMRA South East Sussex Branch Community Pub of the Year 2024, nice one folks, good to see CAMRA waking up locally, cheers!

November Whiskey of the Month

My November 'Whiskey of the Month' is The Sexton (40% - website). This triple distilled, in copper pot stills, single malt whiskey was created by Master Blender Alex Thomas at the Bushmills Distillery in Northern Ireland. It is aged for at least 4 years in Oloroso Sherry casks made from European oak, apparently grown in France. It is sold in unique octagonal bottles, and is the best selling Irish single malt whiskey in the USA, first being sold there 7 years ago, shortly afterwards in 2018 brought home and sold in Britain and Ireland. 

The Sexton is a pretty reasonably priced whiskey, with a deep golden colour. It has a spicy caramel aroma and is slightly sweet to taste, with subtle hints of cinnamon and butterscotch, the colour and flavours coming from the Spanish Oloroso Sherry seasoned casks used in the ageing process. Very smooth and luxurious, and so easy to drink, slainte! 👍

CAMRA joins me in Campaign for FULL Pints!

It was good to see the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) calling for a pint to be a pint in their Winter 2024 edition of their magazine BEER, following their lobbying of all political parties before the General Election on Independence Day a few months ago (CAMRA). CAMRA points out that the Chartered Trading Standards Institute has found that 'most beer served in pubs and bars are short measure.' I've been saying this for years, eg blog. 🍺

Let's hope trying to influence this Government works better this time; indeed, Labour Party policy in 1997 was to introduce lined pint glasses in pubs, it appears the big brewers had a bigger influence then, despite 'New Labour' winning the 1997 General Election by a mile! 😣

Don't hold your combined breath... 

International Stout Day 2024

This Thursday, the 7th of November 2024, being the first Thursday in November, is International Stout Day 2024 (website), surprise surprise, to celebrate Stouts. Stouts appear to have developed from Porters (blog), a dark ale favoured by London market porters 300 years ago, though a blend of ales originally, before brewers started brewing Porters specifically. 'Stout' tended to be a term to describe stronger beers. Stout, as in Stout Porter, was a stronger dark brew that London's brewers developed, and what we think of today as a typical Stout style.

Technically, nowadays, Porters are brewed using dark malts, and are usually a very deep, very dark, red in colour if you put your glass up to the light, whereas Stouts are brewed using Roasted Barley and are black or very dark brown, notably brown in the colour of the head. Of course, I've drunk different brewers' Stouts, Porters, and strong Dark Milds, that taste as you would expect one of the other styles to taste, but, for me, I would define the Stout from the roasted barley taste, though no doubt many would disagree with me.

Whatever, enjoy a dark ale on Thursday, cheers!