UK beer in the new era

the motherlode is being held over. we may begin it tonight.

for now we're drinking an Alechemy (they're Scottish) - Bring Out The Imp, a very powerful and liquoricy imperial stout with a slight Belgian buzz. very good

oof though it's a killer

guys is he ok

surprise buckfast

Wait what's the motherlode? Given we appear to buy beer in the same shop now.

alechemy is based in an industrial estate near where I grew up which is a funny thing and I bought some of their beers on the strength of that but don't recall liking any of them - hop bombs as usual

this is it, matt: https://honestbrew.co.uk/rainbow-project/

they've only got a few left. one is a seafood and gooseberry gose. get your copy now.

I'm glad you are enjoying those LJ but my goodness they *all* sound awful to me.

oh I haven't started yet. full report to come. so tweetable

Sold out now. I've tried Upside Down (disappointingly a Hoegaarden-a-like and little more) and a trial version of Black & Blue which I tried without knowing the concept and was very strange - agressive peppercorns at the front and back but a smooth NOTHING taste across the middle.

sold out on the website but a few left in blackheath oddbins, for matt's benefit

will verify these claims as and when

at the risk of being accused of puritanism, they all sound like the beer equivalent of a pumpkin-spice latte or a chicken tikka masala pizza

the truly discerning ponce will draw distinctions. pumpkin-spice latte is fantastic; chicken tikka masala pizza is shit. case-by-case basis, my friend

and that's not to completely rule out chicken tikka masala pizza when done perfectly, although almost every curry/pizza hybrid i've had has been somewhat woeful

Yeah those all sound revolting except the Dortmunder Adambier which is intriguing.

sadly they are not selling them individually. i asked. ;_;

blackheath oddbins do a tasting every month (yesterday was this month's) - could be a FAP lol

Partizan's 'Royal Beer', a barley wine, was nice if a little on the retiring side of these things. It was very smooth and had a pleasant flavour. Fireworks yet to come, I feel

didn't really like the look of those motherlode beers - but equally strange that say "coffee" would be an unusual flavour for stout. or again that pumpkin-spice latte would be arbitrarily cited as a definite bad thing in a thread about some different drinks.

I'm actually quite down with the idea of a beer that tastes a bit like coriander and cardamon or whatever.

Me too but seafood and gooseberry seems to cross a line, even though I say I'll try anything once.

what if it has sea gooseberries floating in it like a kind of bubble-tea beer:
https://seagooseberry.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/sea-goosberry.jpg

esp.if the bar has fancy lighting:
http://www.seawater.no/fauna/ctenophora/images/IMG2014-4999.jpg

I'm into it

Gap in the market, quick get in there.

A friend bought over a can of the brewdog "neon overlord" chilli/coriander/mango IPA last week and my god it was literally undrinkable

Sitting with a can of Tropigamma just now and it mellows the sharper characteristics of Gamma Ray noted above by changing the fruit bias to more mango/guava.

picked up two cans of this from the amazing off license by seven sisters yday, going in on them tonight

the tropigamma is extremely like orange juice, i mean i assume it's meant to sound like "tropicana" - i had a glass last night but didn't love it.

there's an estonian brewery called pohjala which i've been trying lately. some seriously good dark beers, the imperial baltic porter is one of the best drinks i've had in a long time.

http://pohjalabeer.com/en/beers.html

a friend (= former ilxor carsmile steve) gave me a taste of his wild fermented beer last night: he says "acquired taste", i say "literally the nastiest thing i ever had in my mouth and let me tell you i've had some things in my mouth"

= hannsens oude gueuze

he (= a well known expert of beer) recommends it, i do not (but basically the only reason i like chocolate or coffeee or fruit beers is bcz chocolate and coffee and fruit are all better than beer)

oh that's a pretty good one

you'll be wanting the boon oude gueuze next

you know, i don't think he will

oude is a scary signal post to a variety of dutch secret culinary weapons

oude where's my beer

Siren/Garage Project - Blacklight Banana - a very well-balanced imperial stout with the right level of banana. Much better than say Banana Bread Beer and I'm no hater of that. Perhaps a little unremarkable as is usual for Siren but very tasty.

Coming up next are some heavy hitters

Wild Beer Co + 8 wired - Black And Blue - well, here it is! And it's great. I don't get the pepper/nothing/pepper vibe as ascribed to its prototype - it's a pretty intense lambic from start to finish, perhaps with a lighter texture than is standard but a firm peppery buzz through the finish, and almost no sweetness at all. Another sour triumph!

Btw, all the collaboration partners in this are from NZ - it makes a certain sense (high levels of wacky, high levels of intoxication)

OK, my poor vegetarian gf is missing out now, because the Hawkshead Brewery / Yeastie Boys - Kai Moana Gose is WONDERFUL. Less extreme than 'seafood-infused gooseberry gose' might have you dread, it's sumptuous and refreshing, with perfectly-balanced hops complementing the yoghurt buzz and the seafood swirl. It's got a fantastic texture and for all its subtlety there's something magical in there somewhere. The Trolltunga gooseberry gose by Buxton and Lervig (iirc) was the star of the craft beer festival I went to a while back, so it really does seem a winning method that I expect and hope to see much more of. I'm not even joking about all this, btw - this beer is great, and I'd even recommend it to more normcore drinkers in a way I wouldn't do for the preceding WBC effort.

Sounds like the beer equivalent of tilapia,cockles, and crab with a Thornton's and camembert sauce

Well remembered, but these folks know what they're doing

it was epoisses rather than camembert if we're splitting hairs

Keg Tropigamma superior to the can.

Glad to hear the Black & Blue has improved, Wild Beer Co are sending me some of the proper batch (and, God help me, the lobster one).

Odyssey's Grievous Angel is far and away the best beer they've ever produced and easily top 5 of the UK craft beer wave. Astonishing.

What's it like?

What are some good red ales? That's my favourite tipple. I had some Dunbrody Red last night. It was daycent

Grievous Angel's a chocolate coffee brown ale, but the balance of flavours is exquisite. Nothing dominates (maybe chocolate is just ahead, but it's a proper cocoa nib flavour) and it still tastes like beer (which many competitors forget).

Tropigamma... works, doesn't it? v nice.

Speaking of gooseberry goses, I'm currently drinking Magic Rock's Salty Kiss in my local pub. By no means the best exponent, but more evidence that the gooseberry gose is taking over. And it's pretty tasty, really. Magic Rock have a lot of work to do in general but this is encouraging and I've gotten it three times now.

...and more Magic Rock now, in the form of their contribution to the Conventionally Disgusting Motherlode - the Upside Down Rainbow Yellow Ale, which tastes a bit like every other Magic Rock beer ever except significantly nicer - must be the Fork Brewing collaboration kicking in. A very pleasant light sour witbier with turmeric and tropical fruit notes. More sour, more complex (as you'd hope) and far fruitier than Hoegaarden IMO.

Wild Beer Co have sent me some of the lobster one. I am drinking it just now.

I'm going to be diplomatic and say it's a completely failed experiment rather than flat out revolting. It tastes of something. Unfortunately the thing it tastes of is not very pleasant and isn't any of the ingredients. It's slightly salty but DOESN'T TASTE LIKE BEER.

haven't had magic rock in ages. their "big top", which they've stopped making, was an all-time favourite.

had my first schlenkerla of the winter at the weekend:

http://www.schlenkerla.de/indexe.html

SCHLENKERLA.

tt loves that stuff. idgi. it's probably the one extreme beer flavour i just can't do