Local Retailers

So anyone who has been reading the last few blogs will see I've been slowly ticking off one or two beers off from “1001 Beers...” at a time. Having now racked up 160 beers from the list, it's starting to get a bit more difficult.

However, a few days off gave me the chance to get in trips to the Vineyard and Lighthouse Wines. It's good that they both have a slightly different selection of beers, and that gives us beer geeks a chance to sample many more beers. Importantly, both have friendly and knowledgeable staff. If you're into beer or just want to try something new or interesting give either (or both) a try!

A sample haul from the Lighthouse

So here comes the beers.

From "1001 Beers..."

Number 161

• Batemans Victory Ale. Style: Premium Bitter, ABV: 6%.
  

  
  
  Description: Poured dark copper. Dark fruit aromas, heavy and malty. Biscuit malts, toasted flavour, with a slight sweetness. Medium body, on slight fizz.
  Thoughts: I have said before bitter (even a premium bitter or ESB) isn't my favourite style. But this was pretty solid and drinkable. The 6% ABV added a nice boozy heat that carried the sweet, caramel malts quite well. One of my favourites of the style.
  Score: 6.5

Number 52

• Timmermans Framboise Lambic. Style: Fruit Beer, ABV: 4%.
  Description: Poured dark red with no head. Strong raspberry smell (well what else would you expect?). Fruit raspberry taste, but a sour finish thanks to wild yeast. Light mouth feel, not too fizzy.
  Thoughts: This technically isn't a new beer to tick off as I've had it before (thus why it's number 52), but I fancied a fruit beer and hadn't blogged about this one before.
  I guess fruit beers can be a bit of an acquired taste. Done badly they can be an overly sweet mess (see the next beer in this blog!); done well they can be a delight. This one is a middling example, strong raspberry flavours, but as it's a lambic (wild yeast) – there is a yeasty sourness to the finish that keeps it dry, balanced, and refreshing. Nice wee beer that’s not too high in alcohol.
  Score: 6.5

Others

Number 59

• Timmermans Peche Lambic. Style: Fruit Beer, ABV: 4%.
  Description: Slightly golden more than pure peach in colour. Strong fruit aroma (a bit like peach snapps). Strong fruit flavour, lots of sweetness. Light carbonisation.
  Thoughts: A saw this when buying the raspberry beer above and thought, “what the hell – lets give this a go”. To my palette, peach and beer is probably not a great combination, far too sweet, and no real sourness to make it balanced. Not undrinkable (clearly, as I still managed to finished it...) but not something I’ll be buying again.
  Score: 4

Number 60

• Flying Dog Woody Creek Belgian Style White. Style: Wheat Beer Ale, ABV: 4.7%.
  
  

  
  Description: Poured blond and slightly cloudy. A little head that led to some lacing. Coriander and orange aroma. Spicy wheat flavours, slightly “chalky” sensation. Just a little fizz.
  Thoughts: May be it's because this followed the peche, but I really enjoyed this. This is what Blue Moon should be, a nice example of the style with plenty of spicy flavours, a little bit of orange zest, and a slightly dry finish. 4.7% makes it drinkable too! Another beer I like from Flying Dog.
  Score: 7.5

Number 61

• Amacord Bruna. Style: Dubbel, ABV: 7.5%.
  

  
  
  Description: Poured dark brown, with a little white head. Very little lacing. Toasted malt and caramel aromas. Quite a sweet taste, that hides the 7.5% ABV. Little fizz. .
  Thoughts: The second of this range of Italian beers designed by Brooklyn Beer's Garret Oliver. I can see what they were trying to do here; a subtle malt beer that goes with food. However, while the Blonda worked quite well, I think the added brown candy sugar gave this just too much sweetness. It makes it very light for 7.5% but not that well balanced (more bitterness or toasted malt would help). Drinkable, just not great, though I’d guess this would go well with a dessert.
  Score: 6

There is more to come, from both on and off "1001 Beers...", from my recent purchases. Therefore, the second post of this series will follow soon! There will also be a little beer rant on my visit to the, otherwise wonderful, Slieve Donard Hotel.

Cheers

A Great Belgian Tripel

Thanks to Twitter (and @belfastbeerblog) I've come across a new outlet to purchase good beers. The lighthouse Bar and Wine Shop in Whiteabbey is within easy reach of Belfast and has a nice selection of English Ales, local Whitewater and Hilden Brews, and a very nice range of American Craftbeers. Seriously worth checking out, from taking to the staff they're keen to get in some new stuff (I'm hoping for some Stone Brewing Beers) and they're also looking to set up and beer/ale tasting club. I'll be going back again and if your in the area please support a local company trying to broaden our horizons. Picture of some of my purchases below!

The good weather has made nearly every evening a beer evening, so a few of the recent samples are set out below:

From “1001 Beers...”

Beer number 158

• Tripel Karmeliet. Style: Belgian Triple. ABV 8.4%
  
  
  Description: Poured from the bottle light golden and slightly cloudy. Went into my Leffe Challis, leaving a large white head which quickly left. Good carbonisation, with lots of fizzy bubble to start – though it calmed down a bit as we went along. Strong fruit and herbal aromas, and then really strong Belgian golden ale smell. Mid mouth-feel – bubbly to start though slightly thicker as it calmed down. Citrus fruit flavours – with a nice sourness (slightly cherry like) on the finish – occasional hoppy bitter hits also keep the beer interesting.
  
  Conclusion: This a a great beer – well balanced, fruit flavours but a sourness that means it doesn't become overwhelming. 8.4% gives a really nice alcohol warming kick – it doesn't taste as strong as it should but you know the alcohol is there. Very refreshing after a long day in a warm office! Big fan of the style and of this beer in particular. I'll be buying this again!
  Score: 8.5.

Others

• Wild Hop. Style: IPA, ABV: 5.2%.
  
  
  
  Description: Amber IPA from Harviestoun with a nice bitter finish.
  Conclusion: A really solid IPA with good hop bitterness combined with a decent malt flavour. Nice UK IPA, but not as bitter as some of the US versions. Very Drinkable though
  Score: 6.5
  
  
• Joker IPA. Style: IPA, ABV: 5%.
  Description: Blond IPA from Williams Brothers, quite light and refreshing with a more floral and citrus flavour.
  Conclusion: This beer was covered recently by the Belfast Beer Blog where it received a very impressive score. I'd tried it before but this review made me want to try it again (in fairness they had it on draft which probably improved the tasting and score!). It was better then I remembered. Another nice UK IPA, a little too sweet for me, and a bit more malts would have balanced the overall flavour better. As a Hophead, I prefer something with a bit more bang for my buck – but this might be a good beer to introduce a lager drinker to IPA. Would buy again.
• Score: 6.5

• Brilliant Ale. Style: Golden Ale, ABV: 5.6%.
  
  
  
  Description: Light blond English ale, with little carbonisation, but kept a good head. A little lager like in taste (may be more bitter than an English lager). Overall quite a light beer.
  Conclusion: This was mentioned by Beers I've Known in their coverage of the the recent Beer Bloggers Conference (another source worth following for beer information). Quite refreshing on a warm summers night, but didn't really impress after the beers that preceded it. Worth a try but not something I’d turn too that often (though it might taste much better from cask).
• Score: 6

So that’s a further 51 Beers from outside “1001 Beers...” tasted and scored! Making progress slowly but surely.

The next post will cover the (mostly American) beers purchased at the Lighthouse.

Cheers