Beer tasting: The Kernel India Pale Ale Citra Galaxy Mosaic

Each of the three hops featured in this beer on its own makes for a fantastic IPA; indeed, Kernel has made a world-class single-hop IPA using each, with the IPA Citra being arguably the brewery's best known beer. Put these three hops together, though, and the outcome is all but guaranteed to be good.  

This beer pours hazy, rich orange-gold with a frothy, white head that settles into a cream. The nose is rife with dank, citrusy hops, piss, orange and grapefruit; this is vintage Kernel right here. Medium sweet flavor with sturdy pale malt structure that allows the hops to really come out and play. This guy is loaded with juicy citrus, sappy pine, overripe melon and papaya, tangerine, some lightly pithy grapefruit and dry pine needles. It's medium bodied with fine carbonation. Good and resinous to finish with outrageous citrus juice and ripe tropical fruits. Moderately bitter with notes of toasted grass and pine. Glorious stuff. This definitely takes me back to the early days of the Kernel, when they first started splashing on to the scene with their brand of clean yet still super dank IPAs. Ah, lovely. (Score: 4.1/5.0)

Beer Tasting: Beavertown Holy Cowbell India Stout

Beavertown recently put out another dark, hoppy beer. They call this one an 'India Stout', suggesting that it straddles the line between IPA and stout. I'm not sure why they wouldn't simply call it a black IPA, but I suppose that at 5.6% it's slightly below what could be considered IPA-strength territory. Nevertheless, this beer carries on the proud Beavertown tradition of making absolutely stonking roasty, well-hopped beers.

I can remember the first time I tried Black Betty - Beavertown's flagship black IPA - shortly after it came out back in November 2012 and being absolutely blown away by it. Beavertown hadn't really made a name for themselves at that point, so to have something that I considered world-class from a relatively unknown London brewery came as something of a surprise - albeit a very welcome one. Indeed, in the ensuing two years, the beer has made quite a name for itself and currently ranks, in a tie with two other beers, as the 8th highest-rated black IPA in the world, according to RateBeer. And at the same time, Beavertown has made quite a name for itself, rocketing into the craft beer collective conscious as one of the UK's top breweries.

The Holy Cowbell takes its place as Black Betty's slightly milder younger sibling, but by no means is it tame. It pours deep, black-brown with a thick, lasting beige foam head - it looks fantastic. There are heavily roasted malts in the nose, some burnt popcorn, cocoa, earth. The flavour is light-medium sweet with further hefty roasted malt character, some tar, burnt molasses, raisins, baking cocoa, burnt toast, rich earth and burnt pine. Medium bodied with fine, massaging carbonation and a chewy mouthfeel. It's well balanced to finish and it has dynamic dark, roasted malt character, plenty of bittersweet cocoa, some oily chocolate notes, scorched earth, burnt wood, some ripe and leathery dark fruits, and more resinous and burnt pine. This is an excellent beer, and there's loads of depth for being sub-6%. The mouthfeel, in particular, is truly exceptional. Basically, what you've got here is another superlative hoppy dark beer from Beavertown. Well done. (Score: 4.1/5.0)

Be sure to pop by Beavertown's new taproom, which has its grand opening today, 5 July. See our Events page for further information.

Beer Tasting: Partizan Pale Ale Mosaic Kazbek

Recently I tried another of Partizan's pale ales; this one uses mosaic (aka HBC369, and the son of USA's simcoe) and kazbek (of Czech extraction, derived from saaz). 

The beer starts rising out of the bottle once it’s cracked - a bit heavy on the carbonation, this one. It pours cloudy, orange-gold with a large, ever-expanding white froth head. There's great aroma here, with lots of fresh, juicy hops, grapefruit, tangerine stuff, pretty much what you might expect from the expressive mosaic. The flavor is moderately sweet with a bit of lightly tangy tangerine, slight rindy bitterness, orange juice, faint minerals and pine needles, mango, a bit of earth. Light bodied with lively, mouth-filling carbonation. Nicely balanced on the finish, with pleasant juicy hop character, lightly dried orange and tangerine, lemon peel, faint dry pale bread, some dried pine needles. Pretty clean overall. Shame about the carbonation, which distracts a bit. Otherwise, it's solid. (Score: 3.7/4.0)

Beer Tasting: Weird Beard Dark Hopfler

In their never-ending expansion into new styles, Weird Beard has brought us Dark Hopfler, a beer that really doesn't fall neatly into any existing style category (not that it matters). This is a fantastic beer, with a depth of character that belies its impressively low ABV. Weird Beard calls it a 'dark milk ale', which doesn't necessarily do the beer justice. I'd say it's part milk stout (the sweetness and the roast), part black IPA (the hoppy edge), part mild (the low ABV). What would you call it?

The beer pours deep, black-brown with a large, thick, lasting beige cream head. It has a great aroma, with lots of burnt pine, dark chocolate, pleasant roasted malts. Light sweet is the flavor with nice overriding dark roast character, some burnt sugars, a bit of piney bitterness, subtle milk chocolate. Light bodied with fine, massaging carbonation. Finishes with moderate sweetness, earthy and burnt pine bitterness, cocoa, grapefruit. Extremely solid. There's a kit going on in here, and it smacks of beer much stronger than it is. This is like a black IPA-lite - a session black IPA, if you will. Whatever you want to call it, it's well executed and very tasty. (Score: 4.0/5.0)

Beer Tasting: Brew By Numbers 12/01 Barrel Aged - Saison

The Brew By Numbers boys have been nailing saisons since day one so, as we head towards their 'Super May Day Celebration', it seemed only fitting to try out one of their newest saison creations.

The beer I tried last night is one of the first outputs of BBNo's barrel-aging program. The 12/01 Barrel Aged - Saison uses the Motueka & Lime Saison as a base beer (01/06 for anyone keeping score); it then spent a few months sitting in Burgundy white wine barrels.

As you can see in the photo above, this 12/01 is a very attractive beer. It pours mostly clear, bright yellow-gold, moderately effervescent with a sturdy, creamy white head. The aroma has a nice bit of juicy lemon, doughy pale malts, light straw, touches of white grape, and faint urine (thanks, motueka!). The flavor is lightly sweet and exceedingly clean, with dried hay, mild bitter white grape skin, slight herbal and grassy bitterness, some zesty lemon and lime. Light bodied with fine, massaging carbonation and an airy mouthfeel, it's quite easy on the palate. It finishes clean and crisp with more lime essence, some further grass and dried herbs, a bit of woody and tannic dryness, and lemon rind. It is highly drinkable and quite graceful. In its subtlety the beer certainly impresses. Though at 5.7% ABV it has enough heft such that it never comes across as overly delicate. It's fine work. This beer augurs well for the BBNo barrel-aging project. (Score: 4.1/5.0)

The 12/01 Barrel Aged - Saison, in addition to 14 other beers, will be available this weekend for the Brew By Numbers party. The action kicks off at noon on Sunday, 4 May, and you would be wise to get there early.

Beer Tasting: Bullfinch Citrageddon

In case you didn't know, black IPA (or cascadian dark ale, if you like) is one of my favourite styles of beer. While there are some people out there who misguidedly deride the style, I happen to think it's great (and I'm not alone). So I'm always thrilled to see London breweries take on this hoppy-cum-roasty hybrid. To date, many of London's best breweries have tried their hands at black IPA; offhand, the most notable successes I can think of have come from The Kernel, Partizan, Brodie's, Weird Beard, London Fields and Howling Hops.

This latest black IPA release from Bullfinch deserves a place among the list of Great London Black IPAs.

I picked up a bottle of the hyperbolically-named Citrageddon directly form the brewery. The beer pours deep black-brown with a thick, mocha cream head. The nose has lots of oily, dark chocolate, decent roast, hints of espresso and burnt earth. The flavor is medium sweet with robust but balanced overarching roasted malt character, prominent chocolate, low bitterness, understated ripening orange and grapefruit. Medium bodied with fine, massaging carbonation and creamy texture. It finishes with some gooey chocolate and resinous, lightly torched pine, a bit of dark bread, minimal bitterness, light charcoal, dark chocolate, slight licorice and raisin. There's some very nice depth here. This black IPA is neither excessively roasty nor hoppy and certainly not overy bitter - which is fine by me. Rather, it’s fairly creamy with lots of roasted malt and chocolate character, along with subtle citrus and dried fruits. It is quite approachable, especially given the strength. Very good work here. I would love to see a Mosaicgeddon or Simcoegeddon in the future. Fugglesgeddon would be fun, too. (Score: 4.0/5.0)

A Visit to the London Drinker Beer & Cider Festival

Going strong for 30 years.

Another year of the London Drinker Beer Festival came and went last week, marking the festival's 30th anniversary. For anyone who has never been, London Drinker tends to attract an interesting cross section of London's drinking populace. Given the festival's venue - the Camden Centre, just a few minutes away from Kings Cross - it requires little effort to travel there (assuming, of course, you're a Londoner who passes through central London). And so you see every type of drinker imaginable at this festival, from the pensioner types who really seem to enjoy the early sessions on Wednesday and Thursday (which have free entry); to the office types who find it a great option for post-work relaxation; to the beer geeks who know they will find good beer here.

London Drinker: where the CAMRA hardcore and the hipsterati intermingle peacefully.
"Bro, fuggles are in right now."

I was fortunate enough to attend the Thursday early session, so the crowds had not gotten too intense. In past years I have attended the evening sessions where you often need to wait in line just to enter the venue and then, once inside, it's difficult to move. I spent the bulk of my time last week working through the London - or "LocAle" - bar, trying out the newest wares from our local breweries. The best beer of the day, by far, was the Redemption Make Me Smile. While the beer itself was outstanding there's actually a nice (if sobering) story behind it. The beer was brewed in memory of Gerrie Stokes, a former CAMRA volunteer who passed away recently. The name of the beer reflects Gerrie's ever-positive disposition.

At only 3.5% ABV, Make Me Smile punched well above its weight class. The hop character of the beer was dynamic and juicy, with lots of tangerine, lemon and payapa. Delicate, sun-kissed pale malts provided structure to the hoppy menagerie, and the beer finished with mild bitter grass and straw, which gave it satisfying quench. It's the kind of beer best drank by the gallon rather than the pint, and it certainly put a smile on my face as I drank it amidst the ethereal sunbeams of an unseasonably bright March afternoon.

Those are actual beams of sunlight; this image was not Photoshopped.

There were a handful of other standouts. I quite enjoyed the East London Brewery Wheat Porter, which had a nice, layered chocolate and dark fruit character to it. Although, truth be told, I couldn't detect anything especially 'wheaty' about it. Perhaps there was more toasted bread character than you might find in a normal porter but beyond that, stylistically, it was a normal porter. I also liked the Twickenham/ Kissingate Nooksack, a fairly sweet, strong pale ale (or American pale ale, if you like) marked by ripe lemon, melon and pale, bready malts. 

Also worthy of mention is the Hop Stuff Saison. This was an ambitious beer that didn't completely hit the mark for me, though it was still an interesting beer. The lemon thyme, rosemary and sage additions came through in abundance, to an extent that I found them heavy handed and dominant. Saison, as a beer style, can mean different things to different people, but to me one ought to be, above all, subtle and drinkable. I found elements of the Hop Stuff Saison to enjoy but overall it lacked balance. I'll reiterate that I like the ambition and creativity this beer represents; but the execution wasn't completely there.

Once I had had my fill of London beers (it does sometimes happen) I sauntered over to the non-London bar and tried a few more. The Strathaven Craigmill Mild really impressed me with its depth; lots of roast and chocolate notes packed into this 3.5% tipple. The Great Oakley Delapre Dark also provided some diversion with its woody bitterness and aged, leathery fruit character.

All in all it was another successful visit to the London Drinker, and my early afternoon session further reinforced my belief that drinking four pints of beer before 3pm is a terrific idea. Congratulations to North London CAMRA for putting on another solid festival. 

I'll leave you with a few more photos that I hope capture the spirit of the London Drinker. 

His brow furrowed, the CAMRA volunteer speedily calculated change owed to the waiting punter.

Great technique. 

This guy looks like he knows what he's doing.

Windsor & Eton Guardsman: always a good option.

The Joy of Cask Ale.