BrewDog Does Burns Night 2011

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Beer and food matching is becoming an ever more popular theme in the craft beer world. I’m all for it and have written about my own attempt at beer matching for Christmas dinner and how that turned out. Recently I’ve been doing more cooking and matching with beer than usual, exploring the possibilities. However, I’d never been to a professionally
prepared beer and food matching dinner. So when the BrewDog Burns Night at the White Horse
in London showed up on the radar I was quite keen to sign up. Unfortunately I left it too late, waiting to see if others wanted to attend, and by the time I
called the White Horse it was fully booked. Onto a waiting list for us! Fortunately they had a big enough waiting list that they put aside another room to accommodate the overflow.

On Burns Night we rocked up to a very busy White Horse just before things kicked off. Enough time for a sneaky half of AlphaDog and 4.1% RipTide. Us
“overflow” people were in the room at the back of the right hand side of the pub. Our hosts were Tom Cadden, London sales manager, and Josie Ludford,
Northern England sales manager. The usual sort of intro was made, explaining BrewDog and the concept of matching beer to food and soon we were into the meal.

Haggis Spring Rolls

With Spicy Chilli Sauce

Punk IPA 5.4%

Haggis Spring Rolls

We’ve had haggis spring rolls twice before, exclusively at Musa Aberdeen, and we enjoyed them so much we’re considering making some. (Kat is quite the spring-roll ninja, though she’d call them haggis lumpia – the Filo name.) The pairing with the new Punk IPA with its hop-punch aroma works well. The Punk might be a bit much for some spring rolls but as haggis is heavily spiced these hold up well.

The new Punk IPA was interesting to try, especially since I’ve done a side-by-side between the “old Punk” and “new Punk”. The Punk IPA served with this beer was a little “less” than the bottled “Punk X” I have. Less cloudy, less biscuity malt aroma and flavour, a bit less hop aroma too I think. This Punk was served
from cask, presumably it had been given time to drop quite clear. There was a slight haze to the beer, probably from hop oils I guess. I think they’ve toned it down a little, finding a balance between the previous Punk IPA and the bottled “Punk X”. Keeping the clear-beer folks happier at the cost of hitting the drinker with a bit less flavour? Or rounding out the beer in the quest for perfection? Anyway, this Punk IPA is still definitely a better beer than the original incarnation in my mind.

Scottish Salmon Sashimi

Pickled Cucumber & Soy Sauce

Hello, my name is Ingrid 8.2%

Scottish Salmon Sashimi

Ah, sashimi! We used to eat loads back in Sydney and miss it dearly. Unfortunately sashimi (sushi in general) in the UK is crap, and if it isn’t then it is very expensive. The salmon served here was good stuff and I dug in without remembering to take a photo first. Oddly they seem to have left out the pickled cucumber and served this with a bit of mixed leaf salad instead. Ran out perhaps.

The Hello, my name is Ingrid was quite drinkable (we all drunk it quite happily). Though I recall calling it “muddy” and now wish I’d made some more detailed notes about the beers we tried. This beer will not be available in the UK, except for a couple of special events like this one. It was brewed especially and exclusively for BrewDog’s Swedish distributor.

As for the pairing – nothing wrong, but I didn’t feel there was a notable synergy between the beer and the salmon. I’m thinking something simpler would be a better match. Less malt for sure and a clearer crisper beer. Possibly late-hopped with Sorachi Ace, a bit of a play on the Japanese theme and the lemony note fits as a classic combination for fish. (I like dark soy with a squeeze of lemon with my sashimi.) Or, how about something like the Mikkeller “Spontonale”?

Cullen Skink

With Homemade Bread

Bitch Please 10.5%

Cullen Skink

A sweet and thick potato and onion soup with chunks of smoked fish in it with a big strong barleywine. Seems too much, but it worked. The Bitch Please is a mouthful of flavour, my notes at the time were: “pretty crazy super-malty barleywine cross rich hoppy US super-IPA – late night sipping beer.” This bitch really is crazy, a collaboration between BrewDog and US brewers 3 Floyds, the beer has all sorts in it – not literally, I think. I’m uncertain of the exact details as I keep hearing new stories about it. At the very least there’s toffee and shortbread, as documented on the BrewDog blog.

It’s the IPA side of the beer that makes it work with this food pairing in my mind. Without the big hops the whole meal would probably be a bit over-sweet. I usually find barleywine style beers cloying, and it is probably the hops that transform this beer into something very drinkable.

Haggis with Neeps & Tatties

Roast Winter Vegetables & Mashed Potatoes

Alice Porter 6.2%

Haggis, neeps, and tatties

(There was also a sneaky nip of Talisker (single malt whisky) served with this.)

To start with we had the full haggis ceremony. Bagpipes, haggis on a platter, recital of Burns’s Address tae the Haggis (not quite so perfectly recited), dousing said haggis in whisky, then eager haggis stabbing. Quite a show.

Alice Porter is an excellent beer, I came upon it in Borough Market’s Market Porter a couple of weeks beforehand and couldn’t stop knocking back pints. (Then I realised it was 6.2% and decided I’d better stop and embark on the hour-long journey home.)

How does it go with haggis though? Just fine, this beer and our haggis were both dark and rich so they stood up well against each other. The pairing seemed to me more a meeting of equals than a complimentary relationship. The beer washed down the haggis perfectly without drowning it or feeling thin.

The big surprise for me was that the Alice Porter also stood its ground against the whisky. In fact the Talisker complimented the Alice rather well… as tempted as I was to tip the whisky into the beer I held back and enjoyed the beer in the warm afterglow of whisky sips.

TNP Float

Vanilla Icecream with Tactical Nuclear Penguin 33%

TNP Float

The Tactical Nuclear Penguin is an unusual beast. I got two bottles of this about a year ago, one of which remains unopened. This TNP was all syrupy burnt flavours and smoke. I loved it. It’s the Smokehead variety of the Paradox Stout (~10%) that’s had a bunch of water frozen out of it. Smokehead itself is a sublime beer, for those of us who like our smoke. To obtain this flavour Smokehead is aged in the used whisky barrels of its namesake, Smokehead whisky – which I’ve had and enjoyed.

There are some further complications however. I have had cask Paradox Smokehead three times, all different. One was rich and smoky, one was thin, astringent, and smoky, and the last rich but barely smoky. On my first visit to the BrewDog brewery I was told by one of their brewers that they were freeze-distilling a batch of Tokyo* for TNP. I tasted a bit of this as it was being drained from a large plastic container and it really did seem like super-concentrated Tokyo* – it was a beautiful thing.

Now, this TNP Float – to my nose – lacked smoke. The aroma was sweet and dark fruity richness. This seemed to me to be Tokyo*, not Smokehead. So I asked one of our hosts about this, the London sales manager, and he was certain it was Smokehead and had never heard of TNP being made from Tokyo*. So where do I stand? Utterly confused!

That digression aside, the “TNP Floater” worked extremely well. Next time we have people over for dinner I’m tempted to give it a shot!

Raspberry Cranachan

Fresh Raspberries, Oats, & Whipped Cream

Black Tokyo Horizon 15%

Raspberry Cranachan

Just the memory of this dessert makes me close my eyes and lean back. Trying to re-live it.

Cranachan is a most simple pleasure but something I’d not order because it is often just too thick. Not enough fruit, juice, and acidity to fight the cream. This was one of those cranachans. But it was rescued, enlivened, and made most enjoyable by the Black Tokyo Horizon. A spoonful of the dessert, a sip of the beer, repeat. There was an edge to the beer that cut right through the cream, an umami that rounded out the whole dish. This goes right up there with Mum’s rich Grand Marnier chocolate mouse in my dessert hall of fame. Then again, that could be under the influence of strong ale.

Black Tokyo Horizon rocks. My mission is to track down bottles of its constituent ingredients. The BTH is a blend of beers: BrewDog’s Tokyo*, NøgneØ’s Dark Horizon, Mikkeller’s Black. The Tokyo* is what I drink if I feel like port. Seriously round, rich, deep beer. This blend takes that and fills it full of roast dinner and goose fat. Rich, dark plum conserve, toffee pudding, smoked sausage. Smoked sausage!? Yes! There’s a following mouthfeel of bonfire smoke… I love this in a beer.

Scottish Cheese & Oatcakes

Dunsyre Blue, Isle of Mull and Clava Organic Blue Cheese

Hardcore IPA 9.2%

Cheese! IPA!

Cheese! A step too far? Never!

I do like my cheese, yet this final course was the one I was most concerned about. I love cheese, especially mouldy cheese. I love US-style strong IPAs, especially BrewDog’s Hardcore IPA. But could these two work together?

Almost… but not entirely. As robust and full-on as the Hardcore IPA is, I think it didn’t stand up to the tasty cheeses. That said, the “Clava Organic Blue Cheese” is, as far as I can determine, a “typo” that should be: “Clava Organic Brie”. (I’d have preferred a blue brie personally.) Amusingly, I think of the cheeses provided the brie was the best compliment to the Hardcore IPA.

It’s not dire however. While I felt the strong cheeses were far bigger than the Hardcore IPA I do believe they whipped it into submission and, with their salty richness, smoothed out the hops character and brought out an almost barleywine side of the IPA.

Wrapping Up

I, Kat, and our 3 invitees, all enjoyed the BrewDog Burns Night at the White Horse. It was a continuing education for our non-beergeek friends, two of whom had survived my Christmas dinner. There’s still some way to go to break the mental barrier separating beer from wine though. Note however that we were all Australians, “back home” the culture of beer is even further separated from dining than it is in the UK.

Personally: I’ve been to a few fancy degustations matched against specific wines and feel that this meal was a better effort than all of them. An important element to the beverage that we call “beer” is that it can provide an incredibly huge variety of flavour dimensions. Wine, in my experience, is more limited. (I’m going to get in trouble if I’m not careful. I grew up in a wine region in Australia and love and appreciate good wine.) The point is that a brewer can sit down and produce a beer with a particular experience in mind, possibly therein lies an interesting future of beer in gourmet circles. In the BrewDog Burns Night experience the feeling was that an excellent range of beer had been chosen then a series of dishes had been arranged around this. I think there is a potential to take a degustation menu and design a range of ales to match. Beer really is that flexible. You don’t have to drop to El Bulli levels and create the Estrella Damm Inedit – a beer so bland it’d go with anything (much like water does).

Long live craft beer! And hail those who can see and appreciate beer for the versatile medium of multidimensional flavour that it is.

National Winter Ale Festival 2011

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After years of wanting to visit the National Winter Ales Festival (NWAF) we’ve finally done it. Out visit was a little extravagant: travelling to Manchester and staying for 3 nights – just for a beer festival! Of course we intended to have a bit of a tourist around Manchester as well, the trip was motivated by beer but not quite entirely taken up by the malt nectar. While in Manchester we visited the ale festival thrice: Wednesday and Thursday evenings and Friday afternoon.

Wednesday

Odd balloon sculpture

On Wednesday we arrived in Manchester at about 14:00 and headed to our hotel to settle in. Rather than head straight to the festival we wandered around the city a bit first. Walking down to the river and back, picking up a few groceries (self-catering hotel/apartment) and having an espresso or two along the way. Eventually we headed for the Oldham Street bus stop and after a short trip arrived at the NWAF at around 18:30.

Our focus on Wednesday was the “Championship Bar”. This bar housed the candidate beers for the “Champion Winter Beer of Britain”. Judged during the trade session on Wednesday afternoon the winner was Hop Back “Entire Stout” (4.5%), silver went to Marble “Chocolate” (5.5%), and bronze to Dow Bridge “Pretorian Porter” (5% – no decent link). We tried all of these, of course, and Marble’s Chocolate was my favourite of the three. The Championship Bar’s stock included Thornbridge “St. Petersburg Russian Imperial Stout” – a seriously big beer, probably my favourite beer of those I tried from the championship set. I do like my imperials!

A notable non-championship beer enjoyed on Wednesday was Fuller’s “Brewer’s Reserve No.2” (7.7%). There was a Fuller’s “Brewer’s Reserve” at the GBBF which I didn’t rate very highly, though queuing for 5 minutes to get a ⅓ probably didn’t help. However, the “Reserve” at the NWAF was excellent. Super-smooth & tasty. Certainly one of the best non-imperial-stout cask ales I’ve had that’s north of the 7% mark. Most cask ales this strong aren’t the stouts I prefer but usually “barley wines” and these have a bad tendency to taste a bit off to me. The Brewer’s Reserve No.2 had none of the nasty flavours (overripe banana, alcohol, nail-polish remover, etc) and all of the right flavours (rich, spice, wood, vanilla, light chocolate). Quite tempted to buy a bottle! This is a beer that makes me consider trying more from the “barley wine” list. I went on to try the Strands “Barley Wine” (9.5%) and while enjoyable this ended my barley-wine exploration. My notes on this beer at the time were “Like BrewDog Devine Rebel but less hops”.

The worst beer I tried from the championship selection was the Isle of Sky “Black Cuilin” (4.5%). A pity as I’d heard good things about this brewery. Unfortunately this beer was all rotten banana to me and I had most of my half tossed into a slops bucket.

I made specific notes about three other beers on the night. Regarding Kat’s Boggart “Dark Rum Porter” (4.6%) I tweeted: “really “Baileys Porter”? Very “girly” for a porter. Kat: “chocolate milkbottle candy””. Another one of Kat’s was Robinson’s “Ginger Tom” (4.3%) on which my note was: “ginger beer as it should be. Sweet maybe, but most “ginger beer” lolli-pop is far too sweet.” (That said, the day after we tried Marble “Ginger” at the Marble Arch and found this to be a much better ginger-ale. It was less sweet & more beery, less like a softdrink.) On my final beer of the night, Black Isle “Hibernator” (7%), I merely said “pudding” (but as the last beer of a night at a beer festival that’s not an entirely reliable assessment!)

Thursday

My birthday cake

We decided not to get to the festival until about 19:00, giving us time to digest the beer we’d had at The Old Wellington and The Marble Arch during the afternoon (that’s another story). To keep some focus I had two strains of beer tasting to work through on this day: wheat beers and imperial Russian/Baltic/etc stouts (IRS). This pairs the list of beers down to a manageable (if somewhat high ABV) list.

To wet my palate for the evening I picked up a quick half of the Bernard “Cerne Pivo” (5.1% – unfiltered dark pilsner, if I recall correctly). To be honest this was quite disappointing. I believe I had this at the GBBF and my memory of it was a lot better than this fresh experience. So, on to an imperial. I started with a repeat of the excellent Thornbridge “St. Petersburg” (7.7%), ’nuff said. I followed this with another imperial, the Liverpool Organic “Imperial Russian Stout” (8.9%). I’ve made no notes about this but recall not being particularly excited by it.

I moved on to a sequence of three wheat beers, the only ones easily identifiable as such from the beer list. The first was Little Valley “Hebden Cloudy Wheat” (4.5%) the second Otley “O Garden” (4.8%), and the last Outstanding “White” (5%). The “O Garden” was very tangerine, orange-peel and rindy bitterness, “almost, but not entirely, completely unlike Hoegaarten” I wrote at the time. The “White” was drier but a bit flat in flavour, very little aroma (much more like Hoegaarten!) The “Hebden Cloudy Wheat” was the winner of the trio, with a great balance of lemon juice and spice with a hint of orange rind.

Wheat beers are all very well, but on the night the winner for me was Outstanding “Matron’s Delight” (8%) imperial stout. Making up for their rather dull wheat beer the “Matron’s Delight” was an excellent smooth, full bodied, and tasty example of the IRS species. I had a couple more un-notable beers after this then finished off the evening with another excellent 3rd of the “Matron’s Delight”.

We also ate at the festival on Thursday. I complained bitterly about the food at the time, and in reflection I stand by my complaints. Beer festivals are about good beer with good flavour, the flavour range and complexity available at a winter ale festival is particularly wide and varied. Great beer deserves to sit alongside great food. In general the quality of food at beer festivals needs to move up a few notches. I really expected better from the “National Winter Ale Festival” than piled-high plates of average rice, curry, baked potatoes, and chips. Even a just a selection of quality cold pies and cheeses would be a 100-fold improvement.</whinge>

Friday

Kat enjoying a Matron's Delight

Our final beer festival jaunt. We decided to do an afternoon stint this time since it was Friday and given how busy Thursday night was we expected Friday night would be heaving. Good thing too, on Friday afternoon the festival was packed – busier at 14:00 than on either Wednesday or Thursday evenings.

I boldly launched straight into an Allgates “Mad Monk” (7.1%), a legendary imperial Russian stout. As good as I remembered it and a great, if strong, start to our 3rd trip to the NWAF. My next beer was a bit of a downer, another beer tipped in the slop bucked that was made by a brewery I’ve been hearing good things about. This was the Dent “T’Owd Tup” (6%) and my only note about it was “smells a bit like sick”.

I’d planned to do a side-by-side tasting of two interesting looking beers on this day. However, I was foiled by them obviously being so good that they had been drunk dry! Breweries here have been doing interesting things lately with strong and hoppy IPAs and I had my sights set on the Amber Ales “Imperial IPA” (6.5%) and the Hydes “Hydes IPA” (6%) – alas it was not to be. However while looking for the Hydes I noticed that the Greenfield “Monkey Business” (4.4%) was a cloudy wheat beer (it was marked as a “best bitter” in the guide!) So I tried this to compare with Thursday’s selection of wheat beers. (Of course this mean trying the Little Valley “Hebden Cloudy Wheat” (4.5%) a second time for the sake of a fair comparison.) The “Monkey Business” was very orange-juicy with a pithy bitterness, drinkable but not as good as the Little Valley offering.

I tracked down one more imperial Russian stout, the Heskett Newmarket “Tsarry Night” (8.3%). My notes on this were “smooth IRS, good bitterness, following note of espresso – a little dull for an IRS”. By “a little dull” I suppose I meant it lacked the big fruit-pudding body and flavours I like in my IRS. However, I recall it being an enjoyable beer. My final dabble in the IRS space was the Wapping “Imperial Damson Stout” (8.2% & incorrectly down as “Superior Damson Stout” in the beer list). This was a most excellent beer, really super plum-jam and Christmas pudding. The flavour from the damsons really works well with this style of beer.

To wrap up the day I had some more Thornbridge “St. Petersburg” and Outstanding “Matron’s Delight” in order to get a good hold on which I preferred. As far as I’m concerned the “Matron’s Delight” wins the festival.

I did have one final final beer before leaving. A German “Beck Brau Affumikator” (9.5% unfiltered smoked triple). Quite an unusual culmination to a British beer festival but I was intrigued by the idea of a smoked tripel. It wasn’t surprising that this was a totally nuts palate-destroyer of a beer. Sweet and smoky, like liquid smoked sausage crossed with those little super-sweet Chinese sausages.

We’d hoped to pick up some bottled imperial stouts as well, but alas we’d left it too late. Note for future: buy interesting bottled beers as early as possible at beer festivals!

General Thoughts

Wapping 'Imperial Damson Stout'

This has been my favourite beer festival ever in terms of enjoying British ales. I’m a lover of porters, stouts, and – especially – imperial Russian stouts; the NWAF is a beer festival that has more of these than I can possibly get through in 3 days. Even at a big festival like the Cambridge summer beer festival I can usually work through everything of interest in a couple of trips. And even the GBBF, so dominated by boring brown bitters, isn’t great in this area. (Last GBBF trip I ended up camped out at the “Beers Without Frontiers” bar enjoying cask brews from the US.) The Cambridge Winter Ale Festival deserves an honourable mention here, it’s excellent but I don’t remember enjoying the beers there as much as at the NWAF. Also, the CWAF venue isn’t anywhere near as nice as the NWAF venue.

The venue is the “Sheridan Suite” in some kind of huge conference centre called… “The Venue”. Basically a huge split-level carpeted room. While it is a bit of a trek to get to from the town centre the bus service is frequent and CAMRA managed to arrange a discounted bus fare. Two quid to get there and back isn’t that bad. Though I thought it was a bit pricey getting into the festival itself on Friday, if you’re used to your CAMRA festivals being free for CAMRA members. We made it before 16:30 and had to pay £2 each for entry, if we’d been there after 16:30 it would have been £4! (And that’s with the £1 CAMRA member discount.) However, I presume that this is simply down to the economics of running an event of this size and don’t begrudge parting with the money too much. (Members got free entry on Thursday and we only had to pay £1 each for entry on Wednesday.)

It was great to see how popular this beer festival was. The place seemed packed on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, but was even more packed on Friday afternoon. I’d probably have hated being there on Friday evening, or Saturday! It was also interesting to see that there were a lot more younger festival-goers than I’m used to seeing at a beer festival. Not to mention more women who’re enjoying beer! Cambridge festivals are pretty good in this regard, but Cambridge is a city full of students. It’d be interesting to see the demographic data that CAMRA collected for the NWAF.

If I could single out one complaint about the NWAF it’d be the food, I’ve already ranted about it above so will keep this short: It simply isn’t good enough: We made sure we had a decent lunch beforehand and brought our own snacks along on Friday in the knowledge that there was nothing with eating at the festival. Is there no market for improving things? Are lovers of good beer mostly scoffers of crap food?

Not to end on a down note: despite the food we’ll be back! As I said previously, as far as the range of beer goes the NWAF is now my favourite beer festival. I think the CAMRA guys behind it have put together a truly excellent event that appeared to be well managed and stocked with a well selected range of beer. I hope to be able to attend again in 2012.

The Beer

Finally, I’d like to declare my personal winners for this festival.

Yvan’s Champion “Champion Winter Beer of Britain” 2011

Of the beers winning gold, silver, and bronze in the “Champion Winter Beer or
Britain” competition I’d reorder as follows:

  1. Silver: Marble Chocolate” (5.5%)
  2. Gold: Hop Back Entire Stout” (4.5%)
  3. Bronze: Dow Bridge “Pretorian Porter” (5% – no decent link)

I didn’t try enough, or focus enough on, ~5% stouts to place these amongst wider competition. I’d be happy to drink any of these three beers down at my local, but the Marble brew easily comes out on top for me.

Yvan’s Champion Wheat Beer of the 2011 NWAF

Little Valley “Hebden Cloudy Wheat” (4.5%)

Very well balanced yet tasty wheat beer. While I liked the robust flavours in the Otley “O Garden” I don’t think I could drink more than a pint of it comfortably, I’d give it runner-up.

Yvan’s Champion Imperial Russian Stout of the 2011 NWAF

Outstanding “Matron’s Delight” (8%)

It was hard picking this one out, but after several repeat-samplings of my favourite imperial Russian stouts it took the cake. As far as I’m concerned this is my beer of the festival. Honourable mentions go to the Thornbridge “St. Petersburg” and the interesting Wapping “Superior Damson Stout”. These are all beers I’ll very happily buy again.

Beer: Can vs Bottle

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Emu Export(1)

There’s a stigma attached to canned beer. It’s cheap, lowbrow, and tastes awful. I’ve always thought so. Back home in the country a typical beer was a “tinny” of something like Emu Bitter, Emu Export, or Victoria Bitter (Australia’s favourite beer?) When I was younger I always hated beer and considered the contents of a tinny to taste… well, tinny. But perhaps, all along, the problem has been that all the beer I’ve tried from a can has simply been crap beer? I can’t say I like any of the aforementioned beers in bottled form either.

Wind forward a couple of decades and I’m in the UK. Nothing has changed my opinion of canned beer, to be honest the matter never comes up because no beer I’m likely to drink is available in cans. Then along comes BrewDog – they have a shocking suggestion: how about we package our Punk IPA in cans? Queue much derision from the beer-loving community. (Well, actually, I’m not sure if there was much outcry. The chatter in the blog comments and on the BrewDog shareholder forum was mostly positive and supporting – then again we’re talking about a bunch of people that kiss the ground that BrewDoggers walk on.)

In practical terms cans have a lot to offer, quoting from a can of Maui Big Swell IPA:

Welcome to the
MICROCANNING
REVOLUTION…

Cans eliminate light damage
and reduce the risk of oxidation,
keeping our beer fresher
than in bottles!

Cans are lighter, chill quicker,
and can be enjoyed on beaches
and in sensitive environments.
Aluminum is the most recycled
and most eco-friendly material.

I’m not going to verify all those claims, but they certainly paint a damn fine picture. In the end however, as far as I’m concerned, the proof is in the tasting!

Unfortunately I’m probably not going to be able to try the same beer side-by-side from can and bottle until BrewDog’s Punk IPA cans hit the market. However, I can do a bit of an IPA side-by-side with similar beers to see how the canned beer shapes up. Our contestants are:

IPA Battle!

Some sketchpad notes:

St. Lupulin Extra Pale Ale

  • Aroma: oatmeal/malt, light resinous hop aroma (i.e. malt aroma more powerful)
  • Flavour: Fruity/biscuity malt, floral/resinous hop flavour
  • Look: Lightly clouded golden

Big Swell IPA

  • Aroma: resinous hops, oatmeal/malt (i.e. hop aroma more powerful)
  • Flavour: Biscuity malt, grapefruit/resinous hop flavour (really wouldn’t have picked this as being lower IBU than the Odell)
  • Look: Lightly clouded golden

Punk IPA

  • Aroma: Astringent resinous hops, honey note
  • Flavour: Grapefruit/floral hops hit, then bitterness, then following light malt sweetness
  • Look: Crystal clear golden (note: this is “old” Punk IPA, as up to around end 2010)

[Note: My nose/palate seems unfortunately slightly low-resolution today. Not unwell, just not enough sleep perhaps. Still enjoying the beer and lots of flavour, just not picking out the level of flavour I’d normally find in the Punk IPA.]

So, the verdict?

These are all great beers! I wish I’d tried a blind tasting because the Odell and Maui beers are very similar. I think the Odell was a little rounder in flavour, and the Maui crisper – could I call that “tinny”? No, I call it slightly hoppier and a little more bitter (despite the lower published IBU.) “Tinny” is such a horrible word, let’s move on to woodier thoughts.

I think that if I were asked in a blind tasting of all three beers to pick which came from a can I’d have chosen the Punk IPA. It’s certainly got the hops and bitterness turned up a notch or two. This Maui IPA is even “bottle conditioned”, pouring with a slight haze of yeast. It was certainly the liveliest of the beers and the side of the can bears the words “Live Beer! Keep Cold!”

But what about a beer that isn’t supposed to have tinny (shudder) notes? A porter perhaps? We can do that! Maui’s CoCoNut PorTeR:

Canned Porter?!

This is a bloody tasty beer. Deep toasted malt flavours, lots of chocolate, slightly soured malty sweetness, light yet distinct trailing toasted coconut flavour. I love it, I’d certainly drink this again. As with the Big Swell IPA, I really couldn’t say whether the can makes any difference as I don’t have the same beer handy in bottled form. (In fact, it’d have to be from the same batch ideally.) There isn’t anything “bad” or notably “tinny” about the beer, and it is highly enjoyable. This is a beer I’ll buy again. Both the Maui beers are beers I’ll buy again. I’m thinking of buying a case of both in fact – this is perfect hiking beer, no lugging heavy glass bottles around! I hope BrewDog really do run with the cans; long live canned craft beer!

I, for one, hail our mighty canned overlords!

[1] Photo credit to JonasPhoto

A Beery Christmas

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Just before Christmas I wrote about pairing beers with the various courses of my Christmas day menu. The day is now well in the past – but I’ve finally sat down and written up a quick summary of how it went. In a nutshell: well.

1st Course

Terrine of sweetbreads, black pudding, and spiced pork mince

Served with a salad of rocket, fresh orange, Kalamata olives, and shaved Pecorino Romano – with a zesty orange vinaigrette

1st Beer: Lambic/Tripel

Brouwerij Loterbol “Tuverbol” (2007) – 10.5% (Belgium)

1st Course

The Tuverbol with its spicy and zesty orange notes matched the food brilliantly, especially the zesty orange vinaigrette. The lambic qualities acted as a crisp and cleansing counterpoint to the rich solidity of the cold terrine, while the beer had enough body to not seem too thin in contrast.

Everyone seemed to approve of this pairing.

1st Course

2nd Course

Whole confit duck leg

Served with tempura black pudding pieces, lemony puy lentils, and a salad of julienne celeriac, carrot, and beetroot

2nd Beer: Witbier

Beer: Brouwerij ‘t IJ “Scharrel IJwit” (Netherlands)

2nd Course

This pairing wasn’t as successful as the first one. The beer was light, refreshing, and lemony and matched lemony flavours used in the dish. Unfortunately it didn’t really stand up to the in-your-face richness of the confit and black pudding. It was effectively drowned out – despite being quite a tasty witbier when drunk in isolation.

On reflection I think this beer would be a better match for a white fish dish.

In a future rendition of this pairing I think I’d try for something more hoppy and herbal. Something along the lines of BrewDog’s 5AM Saint, Moor’s JJJ IPA, or HardKnott’s Infra-Red. I could also, perhaps, use the same beer in the “tempura” batter used for the black pudding.

2nd Course

3rd Course

Roast Goose

Served with the usual bits and bobs: a pear, currant, and walnut “stuffing”; roast vegetables; parsnip chips; something green perhaps …

3rd Beer: Real Ale?

Ringwood “Old Thumper” – 5.6% (UK)

Tring’s “Colley’s Dog – 5.2% (UK)

3rd Course

I changed my mind and decided to go with a real cask conditioned ale for the main course instead of the bottled Old Thumper from Ringwood. My choice of ale was the ever-popular Colley’s Dog from Tring Brewery.

This really worked as expected, a good rich ale with a good rich meal. No pussyfooting about!

The caramel/malt body of the Colley’s Dog held up well against all the rich roasty flavours of the meal. With better preparation I’d have liked to have used a bit of the Colley’s dog in the gravy, maybe next time!

3rd Course

Palate cleanser

Alvinne “Melchior Calvados Barrel Oak Aged” – 11.5% (Belgium)

We sipped this while relaxing and watching Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas”.

Dessert

Traditional Christmas Pudding made with Nethergate Old Growler Porter

Possibly served with a whisky crème-anglaise and vanilla-bean icecream

Dessert Beer

Dogfish Head “Palo Santo Marron” – 12% (USA)

Dessert

This was a perfect combination, as planned the beer complimented dessert like a rich and beery chocolate sauce. We didn’t actually have dessert until about 02:30 on Boxing Day though. It was a long day of cooking, eating, and gourmet beerination!

Empties on Boxing Day

Conclusion

I declare the matching of food and beer for Christmas experiment a success. Of course, if this meal were to be repeated there are certainly some refinements that could be made. Beer has been used here in a considered way, no swigging boxes of bland fizzy crap; rather: a careful study of flavours and textures. As you can see from the photo above we didn’t drink copious quantities of alcohol on the day.

I will definitely do this again, and also put more thought toward everyday drinking of beer alongside food.

Bambi, Thumper, & Moor “Old Freddy Walker” Mince Pies

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From time to time I hear it said that Christmas mince pies used to include real mince, not purely a sickly-sweet mixture of dried fruit. Wikipedia documents the use of meat in the Christmas mince pie, so it must be true. There are a few “real mince mince pie” recipes floating around; one even makes an appearance in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s “The River Cottage Year“. My recipe here is based on the one from Hugh’s book, the main difference being the use of game meats instead of beef. This is the second festive season that I’ve made these mince pies, they have gone down very well at home, in the local pub, and in the office (not poisoned anyone yet!)

First: get hold of some Bambi, this shouldn’t be difficult as many supermarkets in the UK sell venison. However It may be difficult to get minced venison; ideally try to buy venison from a good butcher and ask them to mince it. I have a mincer and minced some stewing venison that I picked up in the supermarket. If mincing at home I would recommend buying venison fillets or steaks, as trimming unwanted sinew from diced meat is a pain in the backside. As much sinew as possible should be trimmed off prior to mincing, otherwise there will be chewy gristly bits in the mince pies. A fine mince is desirable, to achieve this I pushed it through a coarse plate and then my finest plate (about 4mm). This recipe includes minced Thumper (rabbit) because I didn’t quite have enough Bambi to make up the weight I wanted. (If you’re dull you could just use minced lamb or beef instead of venison and bunny, I’m thinking of trying minced 50/50 pheasant and bunny next year.)

Another difference this year is that I’ve added Moor’s Old Freddy Walker old ale to the mix instead of brandy. This is part of a recent effort on my part to cook using beer more often. It has worked out fine in this case, though I’m not sure anyone could tell that there is beer in this. Next time I might try using something like BrewDog’s Paradox Smokehead – I think that would make a mince pie that’d go down very well with a wee dram of Islay whisky.

Ingredients, prepared

Ingredients, prepared

The ingredients I used are:

  • 300g minced venison (lamb or beef will do instead of venison and bunny)
  • 50g minced bunny
  • 150g grated beef suet (preferably home-processed, but “Atora” will do)
  • 150g currants
  • 150g raisins
  • 85g ground almond
  • 2 granny smith apples, peeled and fine-chopped
  • 8 dates, chopped to about currant-size pieces
  • 140g soft brown sugar
  • 40g stem ginger in syrup, fine-chopped
  • 25g …of the syrup from the above
  • 1 lemon – juice and zest
  • 3 lemons & granulated sugar – to make candied peel (or 75g of shop-bought candied peel)
  • ½tsp freshly grated nutmeg
  • ½tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½tsp ground ginger
  • ½tsp ground allspice
  • 200ml strong ale (Moor’s Old Freddy Walker)

The candied peel is the most complicated of the ingredients to prepare. I made my own because a friend at work is allergic to oranges and I couldn’t find any candied peel that didn’t contain orange peel. While it would be easier to use peel from the shop, I do think that home-made candied lemon peel is more tasty and lemony than the anything shop-bought. Brief instructions for candying peel can be found at the end of this entry.[1].

The method for making the mince couldn’t be simpler: put the lot into a bowl and mix thoroughly. Hugh’s recipe suggests the mix can be kept in jars in the larder for some time, but I haven’t tried this. I put mine in a sealed container in the fridge and let it sit for at least a week to mature, and for up to 3 weeks (just because it has never lasted longer than 3 weeks!)

Puff parcels

Un-traditional puff parcels

Next thing to do is to bake some mince pies! The photo above is of mince-pie parcels simply packaged in a folded-over piece of shop-bought puff-pastry, washed with a bit of beaten egg, and baked in a 200°C oven for about 20 minutes. I prefer a sweet shortcrust pastry however, which can be simply folded over like the puff version, or formed into little pasties, or used to make little pies in tins just like the shops sell. The little mince pies are a bit of a bother to put together, but they do look good. For the pies in the photo below I used a shortcrust recipe from the Jamie Oliver website and baking was as for the puff version but with 5 minutes at 200°C then 15 at 180°C.

Traditional tarts

Traditional tarts

Have a very meaty &amp beery (not too beery) Christmas! (Well, Xmas has been and gone for 2010 now – so I hope you had one.)

[1] Candied peel, briefly:

  1. 8th the lemons and peel out the flesh
  2. With a small sharp knife slice off the inner fibrous pith (about 1mm)
  3. Blanch in simmering water for 5 minutes
  4. Drain peel and return to saucepan peel in enough fresh water to cover to double-depth
  5. Add sugar, about 1.75 times the volume of water added
  6. Bring to simmering point and simmer until liquid is thick and syrupy, but before it browns
  7. Turn out on some foil and let cool before dicing