Brooklyn Mine-Mine

If you’re not familiar with the TV show – Brooklyn Nine-Nine, then the above pun may be lost on you. Anyway, I digress…

A recent trip to our local Weatherspoons had me perusing the drinks menu once again. You may remember before that I missed out on a chance to try the Brooklyn Lager in my local, as they were out of stock. Here, at the Spoons, I had another chance to get my hands on a bottle of this American brew. Success! They had a good supply of them!

As I proudly stood my lager on the table, some of my real ale drinking buddies were a little derisive that I would pick up a bottled lager by choice. In fact, shortly before this, they had poked fun at a Heineken drinker who felt our real ale was a bit “tasteless!”

I tried to explain that lager, as they knew it, was mostly watery, light and tasteless, but I knew this Brooklyn Lager would be different. If, in your mind, lager means Becks, Bud or Carling, then you are missing out on true beers and especially what true lager can be. Brooklyn Lager is worlds apart from these aforementioned lagers, and is certainly not watery or tasteless!

About the beer

Brooklyn Lager by the Brooklyn Brewery – classed as a Vienna beer

Brooklyn Lager is a great beer. It is full of flavour and would please any a real ale drinker I’d wager. Vienna style beers have been popular in Brooklyn for a long time, but this has a slight twist on the usual Vienna style. According to Brooklyn Brewery’s own web site, they “dry hop” the beer to create an American original. This dry hopping (explained later) gives the beer a great floral aroma. The beer is amber-gold in colour, balancing a strong malt flavour with a firm bitterness.

Alcohol: 5.2%

My rating: 7/10

 

Dry hopping is a technique where you add fresh or dried hops to a batch of fermented beer, leaving it to steep for several days. This gives the beer a fresh hoppy aroma, and depending on the hops you use, can really alter the scent coming off the beverage. Many breweries use this technique to lift their beers, but it’s a great thing to do at home (when using kit brews) as it can bring the ale to life.

As I said above, Brooklyn Lager can be found in Weatherspoons pubs but also other non-Spoons establishments. I understand it’s also available in Waitrose, and likely other supermarkets as well, so I hope you can get your hands on some.

If not, you could always hop across the Pond to the Big Apple and get it from the source!

Norfolk Nog

Believe it or not, I’ve been to the pub twice this week! It is slightly unusual, as I often don’t get time to go but I managed to get there.

Earlier in the week, I met a friend for a chat over a pint. Actually, it was just me who had the pint as he’s staying dry for the moment. He popped to the bar and came back with a pint of Old Speckled Hen for me, which was darn decent of him I thought. It may not be my favourite beer but it’s better than some and pickings were slim on the pumps that evening.

Anyway, whilst waiting on him to come back from the bar, I started perusing the drinks menu. White wine, red wine, pink wine and the usual, and a whole page of various gins. Who knew that one of my locals offered a selection like that! I then turned over to find a “Craft Beer” page! Fantastic! I looked with interest to see what they had on offer, and low and behold, two of the 300 list were on there!

Looking somewhat disappointedly at my pint of Old Hen, I thought I’d missed a golden opportunity. Round two shortly followed and I skipped eagerly to the bar looking for either one of the Goose Island IPA or a Brooklyn Lager. Sadly, double disappointment was to follow as the barman shook his head to say they had neither on offer tonight. Like a child told they weren’t allowed any sweets, I returned to my seat with a second Old Speckled.

I shared my disappointment with my companion and we discussed whether the barman had even heard of the two beers on the list I had asked for. He did seem a little confused when asked about them, and certainly didn’t go looking. Could it be that no one had asked for these beers before?

Later that same week, some work colleagues and I went to our local Weatherspoon’s. I know, some don’t like the Weatherspoon’s’ way of doing things, but often they have a good offering of real ales. The other appeal is the price. The average cost of a pint in our non-Weatherspoon’s’ local is £3.25 which is often a pound a pint more. I know that Weatherspoon’s charge less because they buy in bulk, they buy beers nearer the end of their shelf life (because they can shift them) and sometimes don’t look after their beers so well. Anyway, perhaps we’ll pick up this subject another day – but for now, we were in there!

Our first round was a no brainer. A quick glance along the pumps and we saw the wonderful Norfolk Nog by Woodforde’s. This is a tremendous dark beer and slips down way too easily. I didn’t have the 300 list with me at the time, but would have bet good money that Nog was on there. As it turns out, it is not. Woodfordes do have two beers on the list; Wherry and Nip, but not Nog sadly.

About Woodforde’s Nog

Nog is a smooth and rich beer, quite black but with a hint of ruby red (according to Woodfordes) and is like velvet in a glass. Woodfordes suggest it’s a great match for game or venison, but a beer that stands on its own for sure. It has a good balance between sweetness and bitterness and is in the “Old Ale” class.

Alcohol: 4.6%

My rating: 9/10

I do rate this highly, as it’s a delicious beer. If you don’t like dark beers or beers in this style, of course you won’t be a fan. It’s a very different beast to the multiplicity of golden ales out there these days, but for me is hard to beat.

If you can’t find Nog in your local, then you can buy it in various forms from Woodfordes directly. For homebrewers, you can even buy a Nog kit to make at your leisure.

After the double disappointment of missing out on ticking off two of the 300, a couple of pints of Nog really made up for it. Get yourself one and see what you think!

Empire Strikes Back

Burton Bridge Empire pale ale is an IPA. In case you have ever wondered, IPA stands for India Pale Ale. It doesn’t originate from India, and is not Indian Pale Ale but I believe has its roots in sending British beers overseas. To endure the journey, they were brewed stronger than your average beer, and that should still be the same today.

You see a lot of beers boasting the title “IPA” these days but I’m not always convinced they are true IPAs. In my book, two things are true about a proper IPA. 1) They are pale and 2) they are brewed strong (perhaps to the 6%+ range but certainly 5.5%). You see plenty of examples in the supermarkets and elsewhere of ale that are dark and weak, and yet still claim to be IPAs. Not so in my humble opinion!

The Burton Bridge Empire pale ale is both strong and pale, and an excellent example of what I think of when I hear the term “IPA”.

About the beer

Burton Bridge Empire pale ale – my fourth beer on the 300 list and is classed as an IPA – you may have guessed.

It is pale and golden, and if I had to sum it up in one single word, that would be “rich”. This is truly a “rich” beer, and its sumptuous taste doesn’t disappear as soon as you swallow it. You don’t get punched with bitterness, as some IPAs can, but rather the richness of the malt and hops fades leaving a lingering bitterness on the tongue. It really is a splendid beer!

Referring to my previous post about not wasting your units; this is furthest from doing so. A pint or bottle of this beer could last you a fair while if you savour it. At a hefty ABV too, you won’t need too many before you reach the recommended daily alcohol limit!

Alcohol: 7.5% (that’s 3.75 units for the 500ml bottle and above the daily intake recommended by the new guidelines)

My rating: 7/10

 

This is a great beer, and one I’ve not had before. If you get a chance to try it, I’d recommend you do so. It’s brewed by Burton Bridge brewery, in Burton-on-Trent and if you can get to their brewery tap and try it, you won’t regret it. For those of us who don’t live in the area, you may find it harder to come by.

Where did I get mine? Believe it or not, I bought it from Amazon! They don’t just stock CDs, books and the like these days, and actually have a fair few brews to choose from. You have to watch the delivery prices, as they can really sting you if you’re not careful, but a pack of six Empire ales was a little more than £20 delivered. That may seem quite expensive, but don’t forget how strong this beer is and you won’t find it on 4 bottles for a fiver in your local Asda!

More on where to get your beer in a future blog I suspect!

A final word about bottle-conditioned beers. Empire ale is an example of a beer that is bottle-conditioned and what this means is that there is live yeast in the bottle and it will therefore have sediment in it. If you don’t pour it carefully, you will get a cloudy beer. This is worsened by buying online, as it will only get shaken up and disturbed on route to your home.

Again, more on bottle conditioning in a future blog. But for now, if you procure one, just make sure you pour it slowly and carefully, and where you can see the beer clearly. Stop pouring if you see the sediment coming out! It won’t hurt you, but could affect the taste of your beer.

Let's get cracking!

I’ve been a fan of buying, making and drinking beer for a while now and decided to take on a new challenge in 2016. You may be familiar with the book – 300 beers to try before you die – which is a great read for any beer lover. The book sets out a list of 300 must try beers, and this coming year (2016), I’m going to try and acquire and sample as many of them as possible.

Now 300 beers is a fair few, and throughout the year I’ll continue to make my own delicious home brews so it’s unlikely I’ll be able to hit all of 300 in one year. However, I’m going to set out on the journey and see how far I get! Even if I never reach all 300, it sure will be fun trying!

 

This blog is intended to track my progress on this journey, share my thoughts on the quality of the beers themselves, and just generally point out anything of interest along the way. I’ve no doubt some of the beers will be hard to come by, so I’ll try to share my success stories as well as the inevitable frustrations!

 If you want to join me in the challenge, please feel free to comment and tell me how you’re getting on. You can find the list in the book, of course, and no doubt some of the darker corners of the web also!

After deciding to take this on over Christmas, I’ve had a hunt through my rather sizeable stash in the garage and found six of the 300 already in stock! Hurrah! This will get me started, and many of the beers are also readily available from the supermarkets. Once those have been ticked off however, I suspect I’ll have to get a little more creative about where I find them. If you have any suggestions or tips, please pass them on!

 I look forward to sharing this challenge with you, so check back regularly for updates. I don’t drink every day, I hasten to add, but I’ll try to post frequently and fill in the gaps with my highs and lows of home brewing, pub crawling and other such shenanigans!