New England IPA V2

It was a while ago now, but we had a lovely friend come to stay and visit. You may remember her as the Belgian with whom I drank some beer back in 2014 (find that by clicking the word clicking). However, all of this is mere prelude as I wanted to share something a bit special and had picked this up from my local bottle shop with the exhortation to 'savour it'. I'd picked it up on a whim as I'd missed that they had any in, but seeing a collaboration between the giants of the craft scene, BrewDog  and Cloudwater meant that I really had to part with a sizeable fee to see what happened.

Before getting down to this I have seen many opinions expressed on this ale and I should point out that I did not have those in mind when having this. I had intended to follow it up with other ales but, for reasons that will become obvious, I did not. Would you like to know more?

Pumpkin King

I said I wasn't disappointed with Pendle Witches Brew yesterday and, well, maybe I wasn't. It is still a great brew and I still like it, nothing has changed there. But it wasn't the brew I was hoping for when I cracked it open and I was hoping to have something a wee bit special with which to end the half term break. To that end I purchased Pumpkin King by brewdog mostly on a whim on Saturday and intended to keep it from prying eyes, having it either that day or the Sunday when round at friends or afterwards. Alas, it was not to be, one thing and another and the hint of stress about going back to work all conspired to prevent my drinking of it.

Now, now the first day back has happened. The world did not explode. My marking is mostly on track, my lessons mostly made (and what isn't will be soon) and so there's an element of peace. Add to that the fact that a comedy of errors at the end of the day bring me home, with a relatively quiet house and no actual work begging for my attention. It's time to drink some ale!

Would you like to know more?

Beer Review: Elvis Juice

Once again, I am very late to the party. Saw this in my local supermarket and decided that I had to get it in to try because, well, why not? A lot of people I know and respect in beer-reviewing circles have had this and already reviewed it and I thought I'd join in. Only much later than they did. Because I'm so cool and hip and 'with it'. Anyway, it will surprise no one to learn that I am having Elvis Juice from Brewdog and that I am looking forward to trying it. I took the photo in front of our newly opened fireplace. Well, I say 'newly', it was done at the beginning of August but this is the first time you'll have seen it on here. It's the same room as I took many other ale pictures but my how it has changed.

You didn't come here for a treatise on the rooms in my house though, you came here to read what I think about beer (or maybe just out of pity, either way, my ego is supported by your visit - thank you) so the big question is now: would you like to know more (about the beer, not the fireplace)?

Leeds International Beer Festival

Been a while in writing this. I was invited up to Leeds by some good friends ages back and the first time I could actually get along was for the Leeds International Beer Festival. My previous and continuing host provided tickets and a place to stay, because he's great like that, and we left it to percolate a while, this being back in July. Alas, my brain is bad at these things and so the weekend crept up on me somewhat. And then, on the Thursday, my cable that I use to charge my electric car (because I have one) broke and stopped charging the car.

It was fine, I charged at work (with permission) on the Friday and then reasoned that I could charge at the other end. The journey was thus begun on Saturday morning, bright and early, but on the way my car told me I had a puncture. I pulled in, charged and checked the wheel. No sign of any damage. I pumped the tyre a bit, more because I felt I had to do something, and drove on. The light remained resolutely on. I stopped and checked pressures a few more times but no difference. Thus it was that I turned up to Leeds just in time to drop the car off outside my host's house, scaring him with its sleek silence, and jump onto the bus into town. Stressful journey much?

All of which is to serve as prelude. We met our final member of the trio and promptly entered the wonderful world of the Town Hall and the beers on offer. Would you like to know more?

Beer Review: Jet Black Heart

Stout time! It seems that every year I get all contrary and, despite the fact that it's not winter, go mad and have something that is a little stout-y and wintry. Let the records show that this year was going to be no exception by dint of the fact that I have just unearthed, disinterred and poured an oatmeal milk stout from Brewdog by the name of Jet Black Heart.

This has been waiting for quite some time and now seemed like a good time to liberate and try it after the adventure of the small Boy's brush with a wooden beam. So it was and came to pass that I opened the bottle and damn' well drank the ale that I have been teasing about for all of four or five sentences. I'm no good at this setting up tension malarkey, that may be why I'm writing beer reviews rather than best selling thriller novels.

With all of that rather pointless preamble out of the way, and I bet you're glad to hear it, would you like to know more?

Beer Review: 5am Saint

Right at the beginning, not long after Willow suggested that I needed something to do at the end of a work week, my first ales at the end of a week were Brewdog ones because they were on offer at Morrison's and they looked interesting. I remember that I got a Trashy Blonde, a Punk IPA, a 5am Saint and a fruit beer that may or may not have been raspberry. Hard to remember now. I also recall that, back then, I was not a fan of the ruby ale and was dismissive of it for a very long time afterwards so that even when I started the reviews on this place I tended to avoid the ruby ales on the strength of that early experience.

Since then much has changed. This place has become an actual beer blog for a start, showing me as a fully-fledged beer bore (who does now do that thing where you tell others about which beers you like and why) and I have also moved to another part of the country. My job has changed three times (sort of) and I have attended my first beer festival, several trips for the purposes of drinking ale and I have had a good few ales. All of which preamble brings me to my point, being that I saw 5am Saint in the shop and thought that it was maybe time that I tried it properly and saw what happened.

The following review, therefore, bears witness to this momentous event and brings me full circle to the very first ales I tried. Okay, no, my very first ale was, in fact, a pint of Black Sheep back at University which I semi-rated but thought spirits more cost effective, but certainly the first ales in my more recent conversion to them as something that I drink. Would you like to know more?

Big Ale: Sink the Bismarck

I believe that it is something of a rite of passage that anyone who is pootling about talking about ale, in my case being a beer-bore, has to try something bonkers from Brewdog at least once. The ale of choice is usually the rarely brewed and surprisingly hard to locate Sink the Bismarck both because of it's ridiculous 41% ABV and the over-the-top nature of its production in an ice cream factory following a friendly spat with a German brewery over who could brew the most ridiculous, sorry, the strongest ale. My wife and enabler, Willow, kindly bought me a bottle from the proceeds of her own fantabulous career (no, seriously, I'm not jealous) in writing and so it came to pass that I, too, could pass into the halls of those idiots that have tried this ale and lived.

I have to say that I was very much looking forward to this and had gathered together many people to try it with me over the course of a few days, meaning much mooching around and sharing tiny glasses with other people and refusing to divulge the 41% ABV until after they'd tasted it because I am a mean-spirited and cruel individual Hell-bent on making people cough. Or something. Also, just look at that bottle: who doesn't feel like they want to try that when they see the wrapping?

It's a triple IPA just jam-packed with hops and hop oils because Brewdog are legitimately insane and it looks like something out of the 1970s. All of these points make it an ale worth trying even before you get to the actual ale itself. So, be honest, would you like to know more? Of course you would, follow me please, keep your hands and feet in the car at all times and ensure you have fastened all the safety devices securely!

A Night on the Tiles

Which is actually a bit of a poor title as it wasn't anything like that, I was honoured to have some excellent company to try out some of the nicer and out of the way bars and public houses in the centre of Leeds, thus avoiding the Hen Nights with large phalluses (phallii?) wandering the main areas of the city, as well as starting the night with excellent curry. And then there was the following morning where there were pancakes - it's been about nine years since I had pancakes at any point of the day, let alone cooked for me at breakfast with lemon and sugar on hand.

I digress, this is a beer blog after all, and I'm guessing that people aren't that fussed about what I ate so much as they come to read about the ales imbibed. Ales were imbibed, conquering heroes were spoken to (no, really, both gentlemen that made up my company have conquered areas of the workplace and deservedly so) and good craic, as I believe they say in Ireland, was had. And how could I forget the morning conversation in the kitchen that followed the night out - brilliant as always!

Ahem, yes, onto the ales. Would you like to know more?

Beer Review: Libertine Black Ale

This has been a long wait. I got it in from a local supermarket because they happened to have some in some time before Christmas, possibly even last November, and then I have hoarded it in my pantry (I have a pantry) because I was looking for the right occasion to drink it. I'll happily admit that part of the reason for the long wait was the strength, 7.2% ABV, and the memory of having it on a night out in Leeds. I wanted this bottle of Libertine Black Ale to be savoured and enjoyed.

Alas, finding no such occasion that didn't involve other people (and not sharing an ale with company could well be considered quite rude) I was forced to just throw caution to the wind and to actually drink the dang thing. Which I have now done and so can share the result with you! Aren't you glad?

You are? Oh, lovely, well, thank you! Would you like to know more?

Beer Review: Nanny State

Not sure if this counts as a beer review in one sense, but it is by Brewdog and they are usually anything but normal and expected and so I feel that it is fine to be reviewing it as an ale. Besides, the Christmas season was full of heavy ales and big sessions so it is perhaps more fitting that I try something a little less heavy in order to recover. You never know, as we pootle about this New Year in which we find ourselves, you may find yourself needing a slow down.

So it is that I am reviewing Nanny State for lunch. Hence the odd picture of my DVD collection below (they are stacked next to my chair). Actually, some of those... most of those are Anna's.

Would you like to know more?

Cultural Exchange - A Night in Leeds

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have ventured north once more to the fine and fair city of Leeds, there to meet with two erstwhile colleagues who remain good friends. I was shown the pinnacle of hospitality (and I'm not randomly exaggerating that at all!) and had a really good night. I managed to play the hand I was dealt rather poorly but we still had some fantastic beer, good conversation and a reet good night. Also, Leeds happened.

And it goes a little something like this...

In the process I was treated to not one but TWO home brews by my host and, the following day, a much needed romp in the woods. through an old and almost unknown POW camp from the Second World War. His girls were much enamoured of the toilet block (what remained of it) and I loved the references to 1996 that were spray painted on listing the X-Files that may have happened there. All in all, a great weekend (albeit last weekend) and one that deserves a blog post. So, here it is.

For the faint of heart and those with medical conditions, there is a line break here as a salve and shield for your sanity. Would you like to know more?

Curry Night in Leeds

So, this was a little different to a cultural beer exchange in that there wasn't really an opportunity to share the same beers with people nor compare beers from different locales. However, it was a night to check out multiple craft ales and to have a decent curry for the first time in ages. Say what you like about where I live at the moment, but the curry really isn't what I'm used to.

Reviews of the beers imbibed are necessarily truncated because I forgot to take a pad to record my thoughts and the main purpose of the trip was to share my own home brew with the colleagues that had procured the kit for me in the first place!