Critical Temperature

Thank goodness that the weather has calmed! I mean, tropical storm, but at least it's not another heatwave. 2020 has brought many things (and I do mean to blog about some of them) but heatwaves... well, there's been rather too many of them. It seems, therefore, somewhat fitting that when I popped into The Crafty One Bar and Bottle Shop (largely because I could) that I pick up a coffee-porter by the name of Critical Temperature from Atom because, well, it is.

It's a mark of how long it's been since I have blogged that I honestly can't recall if this is the first mention of the brewery or not. Still, it's not terribly important if it is or it is not. Would you like to know more?

The style, coffee porter, rather gives a few things away from the off: it's not a stout, it's not sweet and it's not a stout. It does this because the name includes the hidden word: porter. And coffee. In fact, it rather tells you that you're not in for a dessert experience. Which is perfect, because I was attempting to recreate the experience of an annual trip to the Proms with my father and brother, which includes a decent ale on the train to London. The fact that it has coffee in it, in the name at least, means that it is the sort of ale that would usually feature on such a trip as a pick-me-up rather than a put-me-to-sleep. And so it proves on the pour. I shall be honest, it has not been long since I got it from the shop and I walked rather quickly back, so it was a bit fizzier than I would have liked and was a bit lively in the glass!

That said, it calms quickly and rapidly expands in aroma. It has a pleasant sort of roasted smell up close, putting me in mind of the old coffee shop on Bank Street in Carlisle that I don't even know whether or not still exists. So, making a reference to a particular smell that probably no one reading this will know. I'm a man of the people, I am, regular populist. Anyway, where was I? Oh, Carlisle, on a train. Yes, this is coffee heavy up close and as someone who isn't a huge fan of coffee you might think this was a bad thing. But it's not. It's hard and meaty, it knows what it is and it is definite and not insipid. These days, few ales are. But this is a definite aroma and, for that, it is good. Like one expects of a porter, it knows its way around, guv. Good colour, dark and swirling, and a nice head on it.

Into the taste and I was surprised. A lot of my drinking has been dessert stouts (like the amazing Desserts in a Can from Amundsen that I hope I will get round to talking about on here) and so the fact that this is not sweet is something of a change. Once I had got over my initial confusion, borne almost entirely out of expectation, then we were into the real territory. Second sip! Bit fizzy around the edges, soft and velvety in the middle, with the texture of flat cola. This is not a bad texture for a porter to have, it is smooth and gentle. The aroma plays a role, of course it does, pushing for a rougher edge that never quite appears, and the roof of the mouth plays host to the dryness of the bubbles and the coffee taste. The roast never dominates, never pushes aside, and the dryness never becomes bitter - but it remains not sweet. As it pulsates down to the back of the throat there isn't any roar of the alcohol, and it is 5.5% so it's no lightweight, and then it drains pleasingly down the throat like a cough lozenge without the sugar. What I'm saying is, it's a porter done well with coffee overtones, exactly what it says it's going to be.

As I am not, in fact, on a train; this beer works well for me. I can imagine it being the sort of ale that I would enjoy on a trip to London and the sort of size that would make for amusing tales of how I managed to find a glass/cup that would take it. It's 440ml, which appears to be something of an industry standard now. Back when I was posting more regularly such ideas were far off and bottle still dominated (was it really only two years ago?) but I have spotted a definite trend to this size. I'm not complaining, it meant that the lively head and pour was well contained by my pint glass!

And yes, it moves through the glass well. the first taste is very much a facet of the coffee, but as I get through the ale I find that it remains dry without becoming rough and brusque. It stays smokey without becoming like a BBQ sauce or paprika spice. In short, the more I drink, the clearer the balance becomes in the taste and I can't and won't complain. Unlike the very hot weather that has had me in actual shorts for a while (I know, and I call myself a northerner too! Mind you, I don't even have a big coat) this has been comfortable and pleasant. It's not an A-Team theme tune but it is a nice little drinker to have on the way to somewhere (my somewhere will have takeaway Chinese food and a Prom performance on the telly) without spoiling one's appetite or making one tipsy enough not to be able to enjoy another ale.

One thing has been pretty constant, I don't tend to have more than a single beer on any given day, because I am a. a lightweight and b. boring. Oh, and 3. me. Anyway, this is the sort of ale that, if you give enough space, you can probably risk having something else later. I like that. One final point: it does say treacle on the can, I can't detect it but that doesn't mean it's not there. I suspect that is what stops it getting too dry for me and keeps things balanced, but I honestly can't say I spotted it. Maybe it's the texture (I went with velvety rather than treacle, but the effect is much the same).

Drink best when waiting for something with anticipation. Autumn. Waiting for winter. Leaves are golden, squirrels are eating acorns and there's a band playing in the park bandstand with an accordion, drum and fiddle. Somewhere there are women singing in harmonies without instruments. There are pine trees and a bat is courting a maiden fair. Hoo-hoo, says the wise owl and you take a sip that lets the alcohol warm and the coffee keep alert. Settle, rest, sip again and close your eyes...

Chocolate Orange Porter

Back last Sunday when I was at the Crafty One I was in... shall we shay, rather late. As I was leaving Stuart, for twas he, passed on a bottle brewed by a customer and asked me to have a try and see what I thought. Obviously I drank it stra- no, I did a me and left it in the fridge, fully intending to drink it but still had not by Wednesday when I met the guy that actually brewed it. One Tony Start. Having met him I promised that I would have it on Thursday but... well, I was out on Wednesday and so... well, I didn't.

Now I finally get round to it! Hurrah!

So, I have some Chocolate Orange Porter, would you like to know how it tastes this fine Easter and my thoughts on drinking it? Would you like to know more?

The Crafty One

I don't think I've actually reviewed my local bottle shop, which is something of an oversight as it has become something of a fixture for me these days. I went when it was just starting up and assumed I would spend about a fiver a week. Of course I ended up at a tenner, but then he started getting in the good stuff and announcing it on Facebook and so I had to come along and, well, long story short: I remember what it was like to have a bit of spare cash of a month, nowadays I seem to spend it all on beer.

I refer, of course, to the establishment that is The Crafty One Bar and Bottle Shop what is rather amazing and always has some decent stuff in stock or on the craft board. This visit was had because it was announced over Faceparts that there was some Macchiato and Limoncello IPA on tap, so obviously I had to pop along. Would you like to know more?

Epic Beer

A friend and I had been trying to get together for a bit of pub crawl in Ilson for some time. See, last year about this time he had taken me around Derby and I, like the capricious soul I am, have never got round to writing up the experience. However, I had promised him a tour of my gaffe and some of the pubs that are to be had. Since then we have had some new pubs open, including the bottle shop, and it was time. Thankfully, our wives were also in need of meeting up and thus organised us into a night on the pubs.

We set out into the warm summer's evening and found that my usual was shut, it being Wednesday, and so had to quickly take that into consideration. A recce earlier in the day had identified some decent ales on and so it was that we ventured into town in high spirits and with some gung-ho spirit! Would you like to know more?

Stay Puft

Back around Easter (yes, I know, I am slow) I got a big crate of ales in that I was looking forward to diving into. I have said before that there were many substitutions made (9 of the 15!) and one of these was replacing the Tiny Rebel Dirty Stop Out with Tiny Rebel Stay Puft. Now, I've had the Dirty Stop Out before, at the Leeds International Beer Festival (click here), and so the replacement for something I'd not already had was something of a welcome one. And it sounds like the sort of sweet and ridiculoous ale that could pass as a dessert. I've just eaten a tea, oven roasted chicken fried with its own juices, garlic, onion and cherry tomatoes and chips. What could go wrong?

Well, plenty, of course. To say anything else would be to tempt fate. So, let us not tarry too long at this juncture and get into the drinking and the reviewing. Would you like to know more?

KeTo RePorter

This was one of the surprises from my crate of porters and stouts, a replacement, and my does it come in an interesting bottle. The use of the brown leaf as a motif makes me think that this is designed for the autumn but here I am having it in in the Summer, because I am different doncha know! Also, it is late in the evening and it is the sort of time that is ripe for something a bit darker and heavier regardless of weather or situation. I am reviewing the rather interesting looking KeTo RePorter by Birra del Borgo and rather looking forward to it.

Anyone would think that I have a thing for stouts that I am finally getting to indulge. Well, anyone would be right about that. Would you like to know more?

Red 'n' Black

I know, I know, it's Good Friday now and it's all darkness and mourning and sorrow. Dulled gongs, bells with no ringers and what have you. It is fitting therefore, I think, to review a porter (being a dark ale) from a brewery that is craft-ish without being a full craft brewery. I speak of course of the Red'n'Black limited edition porter from Robinson's from whom I've yet to have a clanger. I picked up this bottle from the local low-cost supermarket on offer, and it is the limited edition, not even a bad batch. I'm not complaining, they did me the Mocha too and that still ranks as one of the best ales I've had.

So, to remember the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross (or just to celebrate the fact that there are chocolate eggs over the weekend), would you join me in the review of this version of a porter?

Chocolate Porter

Another speciality Sunday that is supported by my patronage of the Crafty One Bottle Shop in my locale of Ilson. I can't claim that it is supported in any way beyond the fact that I popped in and got me some chocolate ales and heavy stouts and porters for this dark part of the year. The window resounds with rain, the night with cold. It's a night for some porter and some chocolate to make me feel a bit better. Tonight it's the return of the rather maligned Meantime who sold out and I first encountered back last summer on holiday at Center Parcs. It's their Chocolate Porter because I didn't telegraph that at all!

I do rather like the shape of their bottles, if truth be known, and if I ever get a bottle capper I suspect I I shall hoard these for to use with my own brewing. Would you like to know more?

vALEntine's Day

It's that time of year again when people feel a mandatory urge to proclaim their relationship status to the world and the corporate world is happy to help us do so by charging us for the privilege of buying our saccharine sweet affectional gifts. Because gifts is a thing. I am happy to report that here in the household we avoided most of the awful extremes and stuck to having an evening, ish. I plumbed for having ales that I had been collecting for a while.

Basically, I bought in some Thornbridge ales with the idea that there ought to be a floral scented IPA, a strawberry flavour thing and then some chocolate to enjoy afterwards because what is Valentine's Day without something chocolate-y to enjoy and indulge in? I would wager it is nothing. To that end I purchased and stored three likely looking ales.

My intention is to have them all and review them briefly as I go to see if I can create the perfect date night, so I'm told, in a single set of beer reviews. I am nothing if not up for pointless challenges that I set for myself involving the reviewing of ale and so I accepted my own challenge. Would you like to know more?

Station Porter

Dark and gloomy is the night, late is the hour and I though me chanced to catch an apparition as it floated beyond the crackle of the flames in the other room, as though watching me watching it and lo, did it disappear, leaving naught in its wake but the bottle of ale that I now feast upon as part of my trying new brewers thing this month. The last one, alas, of yet another meme into which I have bought. Still, it can't be too bad and certainly won't affect me as much as did the Christmas ale shenanigans!

Tonight I refer to Station Porter, the apparition according to the label on the neck of the bottle, hence my rather strange opening sentences. Or not, interpret them as you will. And I'm sure you will! Anyway, yes, this was brewed by Wickwar Wessex Brewing Co. and comes to me courtesy of the local bargain store so I cannot complain.

The night is dark, so they say, and full of terrors. Personally, living as a middle class beer bore in a post-industrial town in the heart of the Western World I find that the night isn't even all that dark these days and the most terrifying thing in it is the news of the day on Radio 4. I digress, would you like to know more?

Festive Star

Next on my list, as I mark my way through the next load of papers to get sorted and there is a fire on in the other room. So, to join the warmth and leave the pile of marking behind, to relax and to ruminate on the start of the new year and to take stock of this madness where I'm drinking twelve ales in twelve evenings. I suspect I'm mad. Which is why I'm cracking open the Festive Star from Northern Monk Brewing Company and their fine stable of ales.

I really ought to get back to Leeds and sample their brewery taps in the centre again, it was a lovely place and great company. Would you like to know more?

Smog Rocket

Tonight it is time to have my very first canned real ale. I have seen so many people trying this method of delivery and so many recommendations have been made of the brewery, Beavertown, that when I saw this back when I visited my father in Hinckley in the micro-pub I realised that I had to buy a couple and then take them home. Tonight, then, I am trying Smog Rocket Smoked Porter and trying very hard not to have snobby thoughts about cans. At the price I paid for it, though, somewhere around £3, I can't be that snobby.

No animated image this time because the last attempt I made was so bad.

Would you like to know more?

Spill the Beans

This is the fourth from that rather nice stable of Great British Brewing Co that serves as an imprint of Aldi with many different brewers contributing, like Hog's Back Brewery last time. Tonight's is actually from Brains which is probably less fitting for the end of November and more the sort of thing that is associated with Hallowe'en, if you see what I mean. A zombie brew, surely? Ahem, sorry, I'll stop trying so hard with my puns. As a porter and thus a dark ale I thought it fitting to the darker nights, shorter days and harder work. I'd have preferred a stout but I am rather clinging to my meagre supply of them - the trouble with having lots of nice and special stouts is that once you've drunk them they tend to be, well, drunk. I shall save them a little longer yet.

All of which serves as a pre-amble for tonight's Advent review of Spill the Beans, a coffee porter, that I am rather looking forward to. I had it back at the beginning of October and promptly went back to get more in because it was so nice. Would you like to know more?

Raising Purgatory

I take the title from my friend's comment on our activities this weekend on a Saturday in Ilson town. I think it most appropriate! Two blokes out for a beer or two with the hope of curry are hardly the sort of combination to cause trouble or raise the roof particularly. So it was that my friend from FE and I descended on the southern part of Ilkeston in the evening to sample ales and discuss matters of import - setting the world to rights - and nary a sporting anecdote to be seen.

There was very little in the way of planning, as one might expect, and a rumble of thunder (that caused a comic dash from me to unplug the EV before setting off) preceded a big fall of rain that pretty much obliterated chances of getting exterior shots of the pubs we visited whilst the joy of catching up pretty much obviated the collection of pictures from within. Luckily my beer bore settings were high so I managed to gain pictorial proof of the ales consumed.

Would you like to know more?

A Weekend of Ales

This week is the time I can make it official - we are getting another addition to the family in the form of a small human some time in April. Scan at the beginning of the week confirmed that it was not a Velociraptor (which is a shame if you ask me) and that it had the normal expected complement of limbs and features for a 12 week old foetus. Announcement of this garnered ales from my colleague and friend at work who shall remain nameless but awesome and thus I had some Yorkshire love in the form of light and frothy beer. Add in a swift trip to my favourite local (the Burnt Pig, you can find many references to them by clicking here) and you have the makings of a good weekend with much ale, why not? I even have an excuse.

As usual, there is still time to bail out, and much of this entry consists of re-reviews rather than new ales, so there's a dash of Midlands and the South thrown in for good measure. Would you like to know more?

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?

Exploring

It has been a while since I went around pubbing and Willow had said that I ought to go to my local, so it seemed like as good a time as any. The observant will have noted, however, that my usual notation for just heading down the Burnt Pig Ale 'Ouse is missing: that is because I didn't stay put. A hot day, a warm night in the offing and the feeling that I wanted to be moving all contributed to me not sitting still. That and the fact that the Burnt Pig continues to attract large crowds of friendly people (and I am not very good at being alone in friendly crowds) - no criticism of the place, but it did mean that I got to see some parts of where I live that I have not seen before and have, well, a bit of an explore of an evening.

Also, there was the small matter of the lovely sunset-thing that I saw and think I even managed to capture on my new phone camera. There's a function that messes with the brightness that allows me to take some shots I would simply have been unable to capture in the past.

Now that I have thoroughly bored all five of my readers, would you like to know more about the important parts of my trip: the beers?

Downt'pub: Light up the fire

Another chance to sample the delights that my locals have to offer. I'll be honest, I expected to stay in one place this evening but ended up traipsing around between two local offerings. I have to say that the welcome was excellent, as always, in the Burnt Pig and the staff were very indulgent of a half-cut hairy beast in the local JDW: The Observatory. Also, this was all at the encouragement of my wife and I can't really pass up an opportunity to go out and get some halves in on the suggestion of someone else, can I?

Come, fair web-traveller, join me on a journey twixt two public houses so to sample the ale-libations and delights that are contained therein. Would you like to know more?

Beer Review: Night Porter

I saw this and it was one of my buys on impulse because, let's face it, you see something brewed by Madness and you just know it's going to be rather good. Also, being a Porter, you know that it's nice and London-centric. Also, I needed something to make up the offer from the supermarket and this seemed like a good bet all round. So it is that tonight I introduce and review Night Porter by Madness because you haven't already guessed that, obviously.

It was had whilst on holiday in the North, obviously, hence the fact that the picture below was not taken in my house (because I know that you all secretly stalking my life through beer reviews... or not). Anyway, we're back home now and this review is due.

Would you like to know more?

Pub Review: An unexpected night out

Last Saturday I decided that I would make good on threats and promises with myself and pop out for a quick half of an evening. Of course, being me, I decided to make it a thing and ended up visiting three local public houses and, naturally, decided to compare my impressions as well as sampling some of the ales on offer.

This is very much a local effort and I may well do something similar with more pubs locally as I think I quite enjoyed the contrasts and comparisons. I ended up visiting The Poacher, The Burnt Pig (previous review here) and The Brewery Taps (previous review link). Twas a good evening and I still managed to get some work done at the end of the night.

Would you like to know more?