For Variety, a Delightful Whiskey!

What can I say, I saw an advertisement, I kept talking about it, and Lotte at the Rye Waterworks said to me "go for it" so I bought a bottle online from The Single Malt Shop in Dublin (website), not cheap but worth it, and what an adventure the bottle seemed to go through to get to me! Because it was coming from the EU, duty appeared to be an issue that they had to deal with, not the buyer. It appeared the day that I received the bottle, it had started out from Dublin, went to Brussels, then to Luton, then to Heathrow, from whence it came to me, some journey!

My August Whiskey of the Month!

The whiskey itself, from Bushmills (website), close by the Giant's Causeway (Discover Northern Ireland) in Northern Ireland, and appropriately one of their Causeway Collection (cask finished single malts), is their, and I do have a little left 😉 2011 finished in Sauternes Casks for 2 years, although matured first for over 7 years in Oloroso Sherry casks and Bourbon casks. Certainly well aged and matured, this cask strength 56.3% single malt whiskey is gorgeous! 👍

I can only add to their description of "delivering fresh white wine aromas, rich flavours of ripe apricot, toffee apple and a warming summer fruit finish." To me, they missed out vanilla, but, indeed, a luxurious and warm smooth triple distilled single malt whiskey, alcoholic (!), and certainly worth buying, not that I have the money to buy regularly. Excellent, Sláinte! 😁

Delightful Beers at Home!

Four delightful beers, starting with 2 from the Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat, or Duvel Moorgat Brewery, a Flemish family brewery (website) founded in 1871 by Jan-Leonard Moortgat, and now run by the 4th generation of Moortgats. A combination of yeasts from a Scottish ale (McEwan's Scotch Ale, very popular in Belgium at the end of WW1) was extracted and used by Moortgat's sons to help create a lighter ale, which, legend has it, was called a 'real devil' or Duvel, the local dialect for Devil.

Duvel (8.5%) is a multi award winning pale golden ale (my description), or Strong Blond ale (their description), with lots of body and flavour, and a subtle bitterness, it is very good. I just wish they still sold it in the buffet car on Eurostar, I used to love supping a couple of bottles of Duvel to and from Brussels! OK, we're starting in very good territory, and I rate this 8.5 out of 10.

Another slightly different beer from Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat (website), their 9.5% Duvel Tripel Hop Citra Belgian IPA. Since 2007, the brewers at Duvel had been creating a unique Tripel Hop each Spring, with a different third hop added to the regular Saaz-Saaz and Styrian Golding hops, this brew includes one of my favourite hops from the Wakima Valley in the USA, that is Citra. In addition, the beer is dry-hopped, and seems to have carried on for a few years now with those magical Citra hops!

Of course it's a gorgeous beer, indeed, it is quite a refreshing golden ale and, despite the strength, quite easy to drink too. There is a fruity aroma to invite you in, and, a hint of sweetness at first taste, but with much grapefruit, citrus and tropical tastes washing round your mouth, ending with a dry slightly bitter finish. I wrote "pretty good!" in my notes and gave this version of Duvel 9.0 out of 10, yes, it is that good, indeed it was close to 9.5, cheers!

Moving away from Flanders to the Ardennes, in the French speaking region of Wallonia, for the next ale, and to Brasserie D'Achouffe, or D'Achouffe Brewery (website), and their 8.0% La Chouffe (the Chouffe is the bearded gnome which became a symbol of the brewery from its inception 40 years ago, and is on the label). Called a Blonde (French, so an E at the end), although they describe it as golden, there you go, slight citrus flavour, full bodied, with a slightly dry bitter finish, I like it! Scores 8 out of 10.

Cascade is one of the 3 hops used by the American brewer Sierra Nevada (website) for their Pale Ale (5.0%), The Cascade hop was pioneered at Oregon State University in the 1950s and is widely used, indeed Cascade hops have been grown in England since 2002, after development at Wye College (website). However, Cascade was originally developed from the English Fuggle hop and the Russian Serebrianka hop. Cascade provides spicy citrus flavours, particularly grapefruit. Indeed, this Sierra Nevada is slightly weaker than the bottled version (blog), but certainly has grapefruit in the taste. Less to it than the others, so 7.0 out of 10.

Cheers folks! 

Mini Polish Beer Tap Takeover in Hastings!

Indeed, I had a chance to get in on the takeover early last night (I'll be elsewhere tomorrow), but beers from the Polish brewery Pinta Barrel Brewing (website) will be served up for this weekend (9/11th August) mini tap takeover. Beers will include Rose Wild Ale, a hazy IPA collaboration with Third Moon Brewing  Hazy Discovery,  Wild Ale, Scarlet, and Harmony (above).   

This event is being held over this weekend at The Jolly Fisherman, 3 East Beach Street, Hastings, East Sussex TN34 3AR (facebook). So far I have only tried the 12.00% Imperial Stout, Harmony, brewed with cocoa nibs, dried bananas, and peanuts, and aged for 18 months in Bourbon and Madeira barrels! It basically does what it says with chocolate being the more dominant of the flavours, but peanut and banana coming through too, luxurious, cheers!

Where to drink this weekend!

PS. I would call it an Imperial Porter (blog). 😉

Hoppy International Beer Day!

Happy International Beer Day! 🍺 Today is a day of global celebration of beer (website). The first Friday in August has been International Beer Day since 2013, before that it was August the 5th, confused?!? Anyway, now just remember it's the first Friday in August! A celebratory day created by Jesse Avshalomov at his local bar in Santa Cruz in California in 2007, you have to love those Americans for suggesting I celebrate beer regularly, cheers! 

The purpose of the day is to gather with others and enjoy a few beers, indeed, to celebrate the variety of beers, and to celebrate those who brew, manage, and serve beer to us, not to forget the wonderful pubs and bars where we drink. As Simon Difford suggests, let's raise a glass "to Beer, a drink that brings the world together." (diffordsguide) 🍻

And yesterday was IPA Day 2024 (daysoftheyear), apologies I forgot to say before, a day to celebrate India Pale Ales, and how they've been heavily influenced in recent times by craft brewers and hops from the USA. IPAs were originally brewed in England in the 18th century to be transported by boat to India, hence the name and, consequently, they had plenty of strength and were heavily hopped as a preservative, so that the beer could survive the long journey. The origin of IPA Day was 13 years ago in 2011, and the brain child of the American beer enthusiast and author Ashley Routson, who has written an excellent beer guide* and to whom I have to thank for making me also take advantage of the day over here in Britain, cheers m'dear!

To celebrate I drank a couple of pints of Hopback Summer Lightning (5.0% - website) This always excellent pale (originally a summer ale, but now brewed all year round) is brewed using East Kent Golding aroma hops (hopslist). I have used this ale to tempt lager drinkers into drinking cask conditioned ales over the years (plus Thornbridge Jaipur works very well too 😉). Light, dry, and refreshing with a bitter finish, it still hits the spot, cheers! 🍺

* Ashley Routson, The Beer Wench's Guide to Beer: An Unpretentious Guide to Craft Beer (2015), Voyager Press, Quarto Publishing Group. My Review.

Excellent Tonbridge Cask Ales & Real Cider

I hadn't visited for a while, and yesterday I decided it had been too long! So I caught the train to Rye and had a few drinks in the Rye Waterworks micropub, Tower Street (corner with Rope Walk), Rye, East Sussex TN31 7AT (website). If you know nothing about the Rye Waterworks (ales and ciders available yesterday shown in the image above, although another ale filled that gap, but I forgot to make a note of it, apologies), and the building's 300 years history, please read this blog I wrote soon after the pub opened 6 years ago. 

I drank 2 beers I hadn't had before from the getting better and better in my estimation, Tonbridge Brewery (website), starting off with their 4.2% Blonde Ambition, well, 2 pints of it actually, it was that good I had to make sure. 😉 All their ales are vegan friendly, and clear as a bell, I thank you Tonbridge for being yet another brewery showing that you don't have to be lazy to brew suchlike! Tonbridge tend to use English hops a lot, in this instance First Gold (hopslist) and Challenger (hopslist), providing just a hint of orange to this pale dry bitter ale, very good indeed!

The second new ale to me from Tonbridge Brewery was their Velvet Raven, a 5.2% Stout, which is certainly what I would call a stout, despite its deep red colour suggesting a porter (see blog). Again, bewed with English hops, Northdown (hopslist), Fuggle (hopslist) and Kent grown Bullion (hopslist). There was a subtle aroma of coffee, with a spicy/fruity taste, and hints of liquorice, coffee and chocolate, finishing off quite dry and bitter, good stuff! 👍

I finished off with a cider from Biddenden Vineyards (website), their 8.0% Dry Cider, made from culinary and dessert apples; it looks a wee bit below a pint because the glass had been brim filled nd I didn't want to spill any! 😉 This is what a cider should taste like, but so smooth, gorgeous!

Great company and staff... Cheers folks! 🍎🍏🍺

Cider (and a Perry) For a Change...

Where better to enjoy ciders and a perry in Hastings, than at The Jolly Fisherman (facebook page), 3 East Beach Street, Hastings TN34 3AR (tel: 01424 428811), the first micropub in Hastings (blog). Opening hours (usual, but can be a little flexible, eg on Pirate Day and other special occasions, keep a check with their facebook page), now are Tuesday to Friday 4-11pm; Saturday 2-11pm; Sunday 2-10.30pm; unlikely to be open on a Monday. Anyway... 

On my last visit I started off with two-thirds of a pint (indeed, I chose two-thirds for all the ciders too) of a perry from Dorset cider maker Temple (website), their 6.5% Hendre Huffcap & Winnal's Longdon Perry; the 2 pear varieties used, unsurprisingly, Hendre Huffcap (National Perry Pear Centre) and Winnal's Longdon (National Perry Pear Centre). How to describe this slightly cloudy perry? What you would expect, hard to make anything up really, definitely tasting of pear with a dry finish, very good!🍐

My first cider, from Herefordshire based Ross on Wye Cider & Perry Company (website) was their 6.1% Five Apple Oak Cask Cider, and I apologise, but I cannot discover anywhere the apple varieties used, usually a blend, no doubt. Just slightly cloudy, what I would call a 'proper' real cider, great balance with a dry, bitter even, finish, very good indeed! 🍏🍎

The first of 2 very clear ciders, and both very good, but I've drunk them before so I'm not surprised by the quality, was from Kent, Biddenden Vineyards (website) Bushels (6.0%). This is a medium dry cider, made with a mixture of "orchard ripe culinary and dessert apples" although still not individually specified by them, unsurprisingly. Anyway, this is a very easy to drink medium dry cider, too easy actually, therefore potentially dangerous to drink, nice one! 😉

Also from Kent and the second clear cider, Turners Cider (website) Dry Cider (6.5%), again, the varieties of apple used are not specified, so obviously a carefully selected combination of their locally grown apples to endure the correct blend. This had a big apple aroma, more subtle taste, with a lovely dry finish, very nice again, and easy to knock back!🍏

Finally, another cider from Herefordshire, this time Little Pomona (website), which started up with the EU part funding their business and orchard with its 4 classic cider apple varieties, and that now produce their ciders, in this instance, their 5.8% Little Miracle. This is a blend of "3 different vintages" which produced a deep orange/gold colour, slightly cloudy and slightly sweet to start off with, a tartness to the aroma and a dry finish, not bad at all, cheers!🍏🍎

2 Rather Good IPAs and a bit more!

I couldn't believe it when I saw this on sale in Morrisons, but a 500ml bottle conditioned Thornbridge (website) Jaipur (5.9%). This superb version of an IPA with many hops from the USA, that are Chinook (hopslist), Centennial (hopslist), Ahtanum (hopslist), Simcoe (hopslist), Columbus (hopslist) and Cascade (hopslist). This is an excellent pale golden ale, with plenty of tropical fruits, grapefruit and citrus in the aroma and taste, with a dry bitter finish. I once had a few pints of a dry hopped cask conditioned version of this at the University Arms in Sheffield, when my old friend Mike Pigeon was the manager there, that was a bit special too, quality! 👍

Easily found at Marks & Spencer is their 4.9% Citra IPA, which is brewed by Oakham Ales (website), in the middle of Oakham's 4.6% bottled Citra and the bigger hitting 6.0% Green Devil, all brewed as single hopped ales, the hop being the excellent Citra, unsurprisingly (hopslist). Anyway, to the 4.9% M&S version, which has a big citrus aroma and taste, and paler than the Jaipur, with a lovely crisp dry bitter finish, very good indeed! Oh yes, and not forgetting... 😉

Have a guess what I was drinking yesterday in the Dolphin Inn in Hastings Old Town, yep, the wonderful session ale that is the  4.2% cask conditioned version of Oakham Citra! Not much to add really, does what it says on the label, and I can't remember it in better form, excellent!  😁

Cheers Ears! 🍻

The Dolphin Inn, 11-12 Rock a Nore Road, Hastings TN34 3DW (website).

The University Arms, 197 Brook Hill, Sheffield S3 7HG (website).