I
promised a rant at the end of my last post. Well, this isn't really a
rant more a... helpful suggestion. I was lucky enough to be treated
by my wife and toddler to a night in the Slieve
Donard Hotel. I love
the Slieve. It's one of my favourite places in NI to go to
get away from it all. The rooms are lovely, the views spectacular,
the Spa reinvigorating, and the food is mouth watering.
It's
great that they make a big deal of all the local produce
they use, from sausages, to beef, to bread. They also have a great
(if expensive) wine list. They have spent time devising menu's and
picking the accompanying wines. Yet when it comes to beer, the
choices are the usual mediocre selection of international lagers and
a token stout.
The
closest thing to a local beer is Murphy's Irish Stout. I mean how
hard would it be to sell Harp... just joking! The Slieve, and all
Hastings hotels, are among our premier tourist hotels, and this
extends beyond the Slieve to all
our hotels, restaurants, and bars. They have a prefect
opportunity to promote the best beers we have locally – seriously
even 1 or 2 beers from Whitewater,
Hilden,
Clanconnell, etc, would
do. When I'm a tourist, even before I was a beer geek, I
always tried the local brew – there must be more people out
there like me! Seriously, any Americans who are into craft beer
would lap up HoppelHammer,
or Twisted
Hop, or McGrath's
Irish Black, or – well you get the idea by now.
There
might be good reasons why its not done, may be they tried before but
there wasn't the demand. If so, given the explosion in the craft beer
scene, may be now might be a good time to try again.
This
isn't a serious gripe, I love the Slieve and I'll be back either way,
I just think there is an opportunity here for everyone.
Anyway,
back to the beers.
From
“1001 Beers...”
Number
162
Maredsous
10. Style:
Tripel, ABV: 10%.
Description:
Poured golden/honey with a decent head. Lacing stayed throughout.
Slight yeasty/bready small with a citrus little fruit. Quite a sweet
taste, but with a little spicy/tart (may be a little vanilla?) but
not much sourness. Syrupy but light mouth feel.
Thoughts:
I really enjoy a Belgian tripel. This was a nice beer – but not as
good as Tripel
Karmeliet.
Most tripels hide their ABV well, this one was slightly less subtle
and came across slightly too boozy to me.
A bit more fruit and a sour finish would have lifted a level. Solid
beer though.
Score:
7
Number
163
Maredsous
8. Style:
Dubbel / Belgian Brown, ABV: 8%.
Description:
Poured dark honey in colour with beige head that lasted. Smells of
biscuit malts and brown sugar. Mid mouth feel, slightly syrupy.
Toasted caramel and spice tastes, with some dark fruit and
nuttiness. A little bitterness on the finish.
Thoughts:
Quite light for a dubbeI, started by hiding the ABV well but got
slight thicker and boozier as it warmed up. This improved the
overall finish of the beer. Very nice (if strong) beer.
Score:
7.5
Not from "1001 Beers"
Number
62
Schlosser
Alt. Style:
Alt Bier, ABV: 4.8%.
Description:
Poured light brown, with a decent white head that dissipated
quickly. Biscuit malt aromas. Slight burnt caramel tastes, a little
hops, and quite a light mouth feel.
Thoughts:
Another new beer style. This hybrid beer is slightly lagerery with
plenty of dark malt (a wee bit like anchor steam). Decent but not spectacular. Interested in trying more Alts.
Score:
6.5
Number
63
Skimshander.
Style
IPA, ABV: 4.5%.
Description:
Poured amber with with a small head that completely disappeared.
Slightly bitter taste, with some light floral flavours and a little
bit of grapefruit. Mid mouth feel.
Thoughts:
To me this came across more like an English pale ale, than an IPA.
When I see IPA on a label I expect more hops, this was a wee bit too
subtle for me.
Score:
6
Cheers
Description: Poured rose/pink and hazy. Big pink head that stayed for ages. Strong berry aromas. Not as much fruit on the palette as on the nose. Quite a lot of hops and malt in the taste, despite the fruit content. Bitter-sweet berries. Light mouth feel, but slightly syrupy.Thoughts: I have enjoyed all the Williams Bros Beers have had to date, this was... not bad. A slightly different take on a fruit beer from Belgian examples, given the malts. Personally I prefer a sour finsh on a fruit beer. Being colder might have helpedScore: 6.5
Description: Poured light golden with a wispy blond head. Grapefruit and sour yeasty/bready aromas. Light fruit flavours, again grapefruit and citrus tastes. Slightly sour finish. Started light body but with decent carbonisation, though it became slightly flat before I finished it.Thoughts: Nice solid Belgian blond. This would have been my favourite of the maredsous range if it hadn't been for how flat it went at the end. May that was my fault (badly poured maybe?) but it brought down the score a wee bit. Very refreshing beer though, you'd never guess it was 6%!Score: 7
