The BeerCast

Gift packs are a relatively new phenomenon in the real ale world – multipacks of beers on a theme for easy purchase in supermarkets. Either several beers showcasing one producer, or a mixed pack giving a selction, they serve as a safe bet for people willing to go above the usual randomly-chosen bottles for that real ale fan. But are they any good? One such gift set is Great British Ales, which consists of two beers from England and one each from Wales and Scotland. Unfortunate for real ale fans in Northern Ireland then – maybe a true British Ales selection could include one from somewhere like the Whitewater Brewery? Anyway, be that as it may, this particular pack features four ales – here’s the BeerCast’s verdict…

Black Dog 3.6%
Elgoods Brewery, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire
“Our award-winning dark mild, full of roast malt flavour” says the back of the bottle – and we love an award-winning ale here on the BeerCast. A mild though? Our (admittedly limited) experience of that particular style of beer hasn’t been a good one until now. But Black Dog is really rather good. It is roasty, with a touch of the dreaded caramel and a dark molasses aftertaste – it’s almost like a shandy version of Theakston’s Old Peculier. It certainly has more taste than any of the milds I’ve had before – probably put together.

Fraoch Heather Ale 5.0%
Heather Ales Ltd, Alloa, Scotland
We’re no strangers to Fraoch, indeed it featured in our BeerCast #23 when we looked at beers with unusual added ingredients. It scored 50% that day – we’re immune to accusations of Scottish favoritism here – even though it is produced by the affable Williams Brothers, Bruce and Scott. Pronounced ‘fro-ik’, it has a “floral peaty aroma, full malt body, a spicy herbal flavour and a dry wine like finish” according to the label. There is a dryness there, but it couples with the floral taste from the heather really very well.

Double Dragon Ale 4.2%
Felinfoel Brewery, Llanelli
‘The National Ale of Wales’ according to the boast on the label, Felinfoel’s Double Dragon pours a rich dark brown and has a seriously malty aroma. This continues in the taste – malt malt malt all the way, with a sweetness at the end. It actually gets sweeter the more you have. This is in no way negative – it’s a very good brown ale, and certainly belongs in the pack due to the style. It gets a bonus for being named after a tremendous 80′s computer game, as well.

Spitfire 4.5%
Shepherd Neame, Faversham, Kent
Spitfire is also a British ale in the classic style, so no surprises to see it included in the selection. Amusingly it describes itself as ‘The Bottle of Britain’ – ho ho – yet it actually tastes pretty similar to the Double Dragon. Also a dark nutty brown colour, it has a consistent malty flavour. According to the tasting notes, a ‘generous aroma of tangy malt’ can be detected, and this is imparted on the taste as well – tangy is the word for this one. Average is another. It would be better if it was a bit stronger maybe, but it’s certainly drinkable.

Nothing stomach-churningly awful in the Great British Ales gift pack then – but what would we like to see in a similar set? We’re a British beer website after all. Despite my opening tirade, sadly we’ve yet to taste any beers from Northern Ireland so we’ll follow the country format of the original pack. Here are the BeerCast’s suggestions for a Great British Ales boxed set…

St Peter’s India Pale Ale 5.5%
St Peter’s Brewery, Suffolk
The first thing to package up is an IPA – just one of the many styles of beer we’ve given to the world. Admittedly several other countries have down a lot more with it since, but the 5%-ish India Pale Ale is one of the quintessential British beers. We’d be tempted to rock the boat with something like BrewDog’s Hardcore IPA, but as this is a mass-marketed boxed set, something classic like St Peter’s India Pale Ale, from Bungay in Suffolk. Hopped to survive lengthy voyages, it’s robust and really zesty.

Brains SA Gold 4.7%
Brains Brewery, Cardiff
Our Welsh offering is from the most successful brewery from the country – Brains. Their flagship beer is Brains SA, a dark coppery ale similar to Spitfire or Double Dragon (although none of the parties may appreciate the comparison). But they produce a fantastic golden ale which I enjoyed tremendously during a trip to the Welsh capital last year. Us Brits invented the golden ale – and pioneers like the wonderful Hop Back Summer Lightning and Exmoor’s Exmoor Gold are world-renowned. But they make great golden ales outside of the South West of England, too.

Yorkshire Terrier 4.2%
York Brewery, York
York Brewery was established in 1996 at the site of an old motorcycle showroom inside the city’s famous walls. Any foursome of ales from this part of the world has to include a premium best bitter – and Yorkshire Terrier certainly is that. Named after a small dog that used to be taken to work every day by it’s brewer owner, this one mixes well the lively hops and creamy malt. The Great British Ales set seems to be all about tradition, so there’s no chance we could put one out without a northern English bitter.

Dark Island 4.6%
Sinclair Brewery, Orkney
It would also be unforgivable to put out a best of British selection and not include a porter or a stout – and the very greatest exponent of that style is Sinclair Orkney Dark Island. Twice CAMRA Champion beer of Scotland, it’s an iconic standard bearer for traditional Scottish ales (their words, not mine). They never really refer to it as a porter, only a ‘very dark beer with a ruby tint’ – but however you pigeonhole it, Dark Island is wonderful. Chocolate, figs, dried fruit, it’s warming, malty and moreish, with hops on the finish. It’s at the very top of British beers.

The Midlands can be a joyful place for the real ale drinker – from the city pubs of Birmingham in the west to the original trailblazers of Burton-on-Trent in the…north? (We’re based in Scotland so forgive our geography). But the East Midlands can also hide some great beery secrets, if you know where to look. Take a train to Derby and turn right out of the station, and a few minutes walk brings you to a long, pointy brick building with high walls – the Brunswick Inn. Originally built as the centrepiece of a railway village, it closed in 1974, but was rescued and restored in 1987. After an on-site brewery was added it became one of the best known freehouses in England – so of course the BeerCast had to pay a visit.

The multiple rooms of the historical layout strike you as soon as you enter, with a ‘family parlour’ immediately on the right. The bar is round a corner to the left – but what a treat for the real ale drinker. Seven handpumps for their own range of beers, and another half-dozen guest ales from other breweries (many from Everards, who bought the Brunswick in 2002). The wooden fittings and flagstone floor give the place an authentic feeling of age – unlike so many ‘restored’ pubs that have the look, but not the character. A glass window on the way to the beer garden (which sadly we didn’t experience) shows the brewing equipment, the kettle and wooden mash tun.

But what about their beer? Well, between myself, Shovels and honorary BeerCaster Gillian (our Cointreau expert) we got through their entire range, plus a bonus from another producer. First up from the blackboard – and priced at a stunningly reasonable £1.70 a pint – White Feather (3.6%), the Brunswick’s latest addition to their stable. It’s very light, as you’d expect given the abv, with a classic sessiony citrus hop taste. It reminded me very much of Harviestoun’s Bitter and Twisted, which has won global awards. White Feather is just as good – to be honest I didn’t want to switch to anything else – plonk me in the beer garden with four or five of those and I would be very, very happy.

But switch we did, and then went for Second Brew or The Usual (4.2%), as it had two names. This was a ruby bitter, malty and very flavoursome – think my Dad would have loved this, as did our Cointreau expert. Being hop fans, we had to sample Triple Hop (4.0%) which with the Second Brew is their other regular offering. It had something of the hops about it at first, but the dryness soon took over and it faded in the aftertaste somewhat – which was a shame as that almost held it back a bit. It has hops in the title, but I actually preferred the weaker White Feather. It wasn’t at all bad though, and neither was Old Accidental (5.0%), another drinkable copper-coloured bitter, with that hint of banana these malty beers sometimes have. At this point I was eating an excellent bowl of chilli, and it brought out the malty sweetness of the ale really well.

Being a railway pub, the Brunswick are almost obliged to produce a porter – Railway Porter (4.3%) ticks all the boxes in the classic British style, dark, coffee, a bit of chocolate, light taste – session beers don’t have to be straw-coloured and hoppy. Valour, the abv of which I missed, is seemingly a seasonal of theirs, and gets the biscuity flavours going right at the start. It’s nice at first, but the relentless dry malty tastes do make it tough going after a while – don’t get me wrong, I love dry beers, but this one was maybe just a touch too much. Speaking of which, Black Sabbath (6.0%) is their strongest ale, although it really doesn’t taste like a 6%er. Viscous and black it may be, but it tastes like a regular porter – albeit towards the coffee end of the spectrum. Malty and very moreish, this one’s very dangerous.

Finally, a quick word to the only non-Brunswick beer we tried, due to a changing barrel near the end of the night. At random from the guest selection we went for Fox Brewery’s Grizzly (4.8%). Despite the animal references it turns out this is a special ale brewed to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown settlement in Virginia. The Norfolk based Fox are located in Heacham, which is the birthplace of John Rolfe – who apparently helped establish the Jamestown colony, became the first to plant tobacco over there, and infamously married a native American called Pocahontas. Anyway, whatever the reasons behind it, Grizzly is a real treat – floral hops, with citrus and grapefruit, this is a classic refreshing session beer.

With that, we were pretty much done – hopefully one day we’ll return to the Brunswick and sample some more of their en-site brews, all of which are worth drinking, and the vast majority truly excellent. There’s plenty of space, the food is basic but tasty, and the most expensive pint of the night (Black Sabbath) was a seriously reasonable £2.70. If only every city had somewhere like the Brunswick.

The Brunswick Inn
1 Railway Terrace, Derby DE1 2RU
Open 11-11 Mon-Sat, 12-10:30 Sun
Official Website

Our 30th BeerCast podcast is a second attempt to showcase the wares from a single brewer. We tried that previously for Gloucestershire’s Wickwar Brewery in BeerCast #22. This time, friend of the BeerCast Gary managed to persuade the head of the Hebridean Brewery to let us have a foursome of his finest, and these take centre stage in our podcast today. Andy Ribbens founded the operation in 2001 on the Isle of Lewis, and from their Stornoway base they are the only legal alcohol producer in the Western Isles. From their range we sample today – Clansman Ale (3.9%), Islander Strong Premium Ale (4.8%), Celtic Black Ale (3.9%), and finally Beserker Export Pale Ale (7.5%). These varying styles and types of beer produced interesting results. On the panel today are regulars Richard, MrB, Shovels and Grooben.

1. Clansman Ale (3.9%abv)
Hebridean Brewery, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis.
500ml glass bottle

What They Say…
“Golden Hebridean bitter, brewed with Scottish malts. Lightly bittered, a session beer with a light golden colour. Good all day beer, plenty of hop and malt character, with lots of malt in the finish. Brewed to make you want more – so go-on, give in, you know you want to!” [Official Website] “A light Hebridean beer, brewed with Scottish malts and lightly hopped to give a subtle bittering.” [Good Beer Guide]

What We Say…
MrB – It’s a pleasant session ale with a strange aftertaste 7
Grooben – Not sure about it, but your palate would acclimatise 6
Shovels – Nice until you get to the bitter aftertaste 6
Richard – Astringancy detracts from it’s session beeryness 5½

2. Islander Strong Premium Ale (4.8%abv)
Hebridean Brewery, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis.
500ml glass bottle

What They Say…
“Brewed with special coloured Scots malt, deep ruby in colour and predominantly malty with robust hopping to match. Complex like the Hebrides themselves, with hidden rewards waiting for those who search them out.” [Official Website] “A malty, fruity strong bitter drinking dangerously below its ABV.” [Good Beer Guide]

What We Say…
MrB – Refreshing and slightly wheatbeery, I like that a lot 8
Richard – Not ruby, but is similar to a dry northern bitter 7½
Shovels – There’s an orange hint to it but it’s alright 7½
Grooben – Tastes like the Clansman with added orangepeel 7

3. Celtic Black Ale (3.9%abv)
Hebridean Brewery, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis.
500ml glass bottle

What They Say…
“A dark porter style ale full of flavour, balancing an aromatic hop combined with a subtle bite and a pleasantly smooth caramel after taste.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
MrB – The first dark beer I’ve ever found to be refreshing 7
Shovels – A session porter, no bitterness to it at all 5
Grooben – It’s like a dark lager you could brush your teeth with 5
Richard – Dark but insipid, tastes vaguely beery 4

4. Beserker Export Pale Ale (7.5%abv)
Hebridean Brewery, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis.
500ml glass bottle

What They Say…
“A real India pale ale based on 150 year old recipies. Light in colour but strong in flavour. Malty with an intense hop to match. Conditioned over a number of weeks to develop full and complex flavour.” [Official Website] “This malty, fruity winter warmer is packed full of flavour, with toffee apple and caramel notes right through to the long, satisfying aftertaste.” [Good Beer Guide]

What We Say…
MrB – I think it’s an unexpectedly nice warming surprise 7½
Richard – A malty, bitter aftertaste to it with some warmth 4
Grooben – Strong and sweet without a bitter punch to offset 4
Shovels – I can’t find anything redeeming about it at all, the more I drink the more I don’t want it 1½

BeerCast panel verdict
Islander Strong Premium Ale (30/40)
Clansman Ale (24½/40)
Celtic Black Ale (21/40)
Beserker Export Pale Ale (17/40)

Panellists – (from top left) Shovels, MrB, Grooben, Richard

• Listen to the episode here: BeerCast #30 – Hebridean Showcase
• Subscribe to the podcasts in iTunes or our site feed

We’ll be back in a couple of weeks with our next podcast, episode 31. Stay tuned for details…and please leave us comments on the blog or iTunes, or emails. Cheers!

It’s a bit odd that me, the Twitter naysayer, nay the Twitter heretic! is doing the twitter posts.

Anyway i said last week (was it last week? maybe two weeks ago) that i would post back here with an update on how we were doing on Twitter.

Well, incremental progress i’d say, we started out with 0 followers (well that’s not entirely true Twitter do lob you some randoms just to make you feel loved) but scientifically, we started out with 0, and we now have… 6!

That’s a 600% increase in just two weeks, i’ve plotted this below.

The only way is up for The BeerCast on Twitter, in fact if we go up any more i’ll have to increase the scale on the graph, we’d be quite literally ‘off the scale’ with followers. So join us and help us push the Twitter Totaliser off the top and into the sky! (whereupon we’d employ the use of skyhooks).

PS: After thought, this post will appear on Twitter, and soon we’ll have a sidebar widget on this page that will show our twitter updates, surely this will set up and infinite loop into which the internet would disappear? Answers on a postcard.

Andy

Fraserburgh’s BrewDog are certainly hot property in the brewing world at the moment, with James Watt and Martin Dickie pumping out a startling array of unusual beers. Coupled with a regular media presence, they really do like to go about their business in a different way to everyone else. Whether it’s their up-to-the-public ‘Beer Rocks’ plan to let the punters decide what they brew (currently a soon to be named blueberry and oakchip-infused black IPA), threatening to sue the watchdog Portman Group for defamation over the use of certain terms on their beer labels (Speedball, Hop Rocker, etc), or their most recent escapade – producing a new beer (Atlantic IPA), which is so authentic it has actually been aged in barrels whilst at sea (although not en route to India, but an Atlantic mackerel trawler).

We’ve featured them on the BeerCast too, their excellent Hardcore IPA made it from our Scottish IPA Special to our 2008 Beer of the Year show – and still sits in our top five all-time listing. As they are constantly turning out new types and even styles of beer, when Lagerboy noticed a bottle of their 5.4% Cult Lager he had to snap it up to give it a go. This one used to be known as Hop Rocker, but was re-branded and re-named. We had never tried it in the old guise, but as Cult Lager it pours a lovely dark golden colour and has a strong alcohol tang to the nose. The taste is pure pilsener, lagerish but with that bitter aftertaste and a hint of the citrus as well. Comparing this to certain mass-marketed German pilseners, it is far ahead of the game – Cult Lager really is worth talking about.