The BeerCast

For the past few BeerCasts we’ve concentrated mostly on domestic UK beers - so it’s high time we jumped overseas again. Our Canadian correspondent CraigAS has recently moved back home after several years in Montreal, and of course brought back a clinking suitcase. In fact, he carried over so many local ales that we’ve had to split them into two podcasts - as a result, BeerCasts 38 and 39 are special episodes on unusual offerings from Quebec. This first part sees our panel sample three beers from the francophone province, beginning with Unibroue’s Blanche de Chambly (5%). We then move on to Montreal brewpub Dieu du Ciel’s Route des épices (5%), the first peppercorn beer any of us had ever tried. We ended the episode on a stronger note with La Bock de Joliette (6.1%) from another popular Quebecois micro-brewery, L’Alchimiste. On the panel with CraigAS were Richard, Grooben, and Shovels.

1. Blanche de Chambly (5.0%abv)
Unibroue, Chambly, Quebec.
750ml glass bottle

Unibroue’s motto is ‘Drink Less…Drink Better’, which seems to imply they like adding unusual ingredients to their beers and ramping up the alcohol. This is true in part, as they specialise in Belgian-style ales - their most notable (and best-selling) being La Fin du Monde, a 9% tripel first brewed in 1994. They were started a year before that by Quebecois brewer Andre Dion, and were eventually bought out by Canadian giants Sleemans in 2004 (who were themselves gobbled up by the bigger fish of Sapporo). Almost all of their beers are bottle conditioned - and they take their work very seriously, as proven by a five page tasting tutorial on their website. Blanche de Chambly is Unibroue’s Belgian-style witbier, and was the first they produced, hence the fact that it’s named after their hometown.

What They Say - “Blanche de Chambly is only partially filtered, retaining its natural cloud of yeast that is characteristic of the original white ales brewed during the Middle Ages. The aroma is lightly fruity with a hint of citrus, and the taste is subtly spiced.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Richard - It is a bit spicey - as a wheatbeer you can’t fault it 7
Shovels - It smells and tastes like a general wheatbeer 7
Craig - It smells stronger than I remember and is very cloudy 6½
Grooben - Lighthearted and lemony by Unibroue’s standards 6

2. Route des épices (5.0%abv)
Dieu du Ciel!, Montrel, Quebec.
341ml glass bottle

Dieu du Ciel! are a punctuation-friendly brewery who have micro-brasserie bases in St-Jérôme and Montreal. Their downtown brewpub is apparently unassuming on the outside, but showcases an astonishing range and variety - their online beer list has almost ninety entries. They concoct everything from old-world style saisons and IPA’s to truly fascinating brews containing ingredients such as Morel mushrooms, Hibiscus flowers, Absinthe, and Hemp (not all in the same one). Thinking outside of the brewing box seems to be par for the course as Dieu du Ciel! - who else could come up with Premiere Neige, an aniseed and nutmeg whit? This time we sample Route des épices, a black rye beer infused with black and green peppercorns.

What They Say - “The Routes des Épices is a rye beer in which pepper has been added during the brewing process, lending it wonderful peppery flavours and aromas. The beer also reveals flavours of malt, fresh cereal, chocolate, caramel and a hint of fruit. In the aftertaste, the pepper flavour is once again revealed in full strength and it leaves a pleasing spicy tingling sensation on the tongue. A nice balance is attained between its spiciness and its multitude of other flavours.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Craig - I admire it’s bravado - it’s pretty smokey 8½
Richard - Very unusual and warming with that pure peppery kick 8
Shovels - It’s a wintry beer that tingles the top of the mouth 8
Grooben - I can’t believe how peppery it is, it’s so original 7

3. La Bock de Joliette (6.1%abv)
L’Alchimiste, Joliette, Quebec.
341ml glass bottle

L’Alchimiste are another example of the flourishing microbrewing scene in Quebec, having sprung up in the city of Joliette, 50km northeast of Montreal. Founded by Carl Dufour in 2001, they produce a decent number of regular beers (albeit way behind Dieu du Ciel!), two of which we were brought over by Craig. This episode we sample their 6.1% bock - the traditional style of German strong dark lager first brewed in Einbeck. L’Alchimiste are fairly typical in Quebecois brewing, in that they style beers by colours, with a Blonde, Brune and Ambrée. Their bock is the latter of these, with that characteristic heavy golden colour.

What They Say - “La Bock de Joliette développe au nez des effluves douces et épicées. C’est une bière qui possède beaucoup de corps, développant en bouche des arômes chauds et maltés. Le doux parfum floral du houblon compose, avec la chaleur de l’alcool, une finale longue et moelleuse.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Richard - It’s not something you can power through 5
Craig - I remember enjoying this more than I currently am 4½
Grooben - Too vinegary on the palate for me, it’s not nice 4
Shovels - Sharp vinegar cutting through it, it’s not really enjoyable 3½

Panellists - (from top left) Shovels, CraigAS, Grooben, Richard

BeerCast panel verdict
Dieu du Ciel! Route des Épices (32/40)
Unibroue Blanche de Chambly (26½/40)
L’Alchimiste La Bock de Joliette (17/40)

Fraserburgh’s BrewDog are without doubt one of the most adventurous brewers in Scotland, a fact that earns them a huge amount of publicity on beer websites and blogs. However, they back this up with a variety of good beers – Hardcore IPA made it into our Beer of the Year Show for 2008, we’ve also written about Cult Lager and it’s replacement 77 here on the BeerCast. Never ones to rest on previous achievements, the Aberdeenshire duo have steadily pushed out new beers over 2009 – and we recently got the chance to sample two of those newer brews. As ever with Brewdog, they certainly generated some strong feelings.

First up was their self-styled ‘Imperial Mild’ - How to Disappear Completely. Casual drinkers selecting it on the basis of the 3.5%abv will be in for a severe shock (which one imagines is exactly what BrewDog would like) – this thing is a monster. Mash-hopped, then wort-hopped, and then dry-hopped, How to Disappear Completely reaches an astonishing 198 IBU’s (theoretical IBU’s, as this high we’re off the scale). A hop monster, it’s a great idea – an Imperial IPA without the 8%+ abv. Many times on the BeerCast we’ve tried a bitingly strong beer and just wished it could be that flavourful but at session strength.

Unfortunately, this beer is not it. After a lovely strong hop aroma and inviting dark golden colour, the taste is frightening. “It’s insanely, insanely bitter – it just completely messes you up” says the tasting notes on BrewDog’s website – and I’d say this (unusually for them) was something of an understatement. When the smell is the best thing about a beer, that’s not a good sign - How to Disappear Completely is empty, unbalanced, and ultimately undrinkable. It’s spoiled by the agonisingly bitter aftertaste. Other brewers (most notably California’s Stone Brewery) use similarly aggressive warnings about how unpalatable their beers are, only you can at least force them down, even if you don’t enjoy the bitter bombs. This one is a great idea, but so acridly bitter and unpleasant I ended up pouring it down the sink.

Next up was the culmination of a real experiment in brewing. Atlantic IPA (8.5%) is the first genuine sea-aged IPA produced since the days when they actually were shipped to south Asia. As usual for BrewDog, it’s a fantastic idea – and as usual, they aren’t shy in letting us know - “…a project which is typical of the scale, audacity and boldness characteristic of BrewDog in its quest to take the UK beer industry by storm, [Atlantic IPA is] one of the most ambitious brews by any drinks brand in over 200 years”. The IPA in question was bottle-conditioned for two months aboard a mackerel trawler in the north Atlantic, re-creating the maritime influences of the old-time pale ales lost to history.

They have a point in some respects, as co-founder James Watt reasoned - “Today the term IPA has lost its meaning and UK brewers mainly use it to describe beers which are neither particularly hoppy or high in alcohol, Duecher’s IPA [sic] at 3.8% being a prime example of the complete butchering of the style. It’s sad to see the great IPA heritage in this country come to stand for nothing more than a sparingly hopped low ABV blonde session ale.” Brewing has indeed moved on and forgotten the historical aspects of the IPA style (in the UK, at least). But the real ale drinkers do enjoy the balanced hoppy new generation IPA’s, and they aren’t really ‘butchering’ the style any more than brewers who have stopped charging different amounts of shillings for their barrels of ale.

Anyway, Atlantic IPA really sits up and demands to be noticed, largely due to the best label I have ever seen grace a beer bottle, from a beautiful commissioned drawing by Johanna Basford. It also makes an impression on the wallet, weighing in at a hearty £10 a bottle. You’d expect a pretty special beer to result from that price tag – and thankfully that’s what you get. It pours with a very strong chestnut brown colour, giving an indication of the strength from the alcohol and the conditioning. The smell is fantastic - pruney, malty, hoppy, ethyl alcohol pushing through - it’s a great beer to savour before you even start sipping.

The taste is bitter at first, to be expected with the hops and alcohol. There follows a brief but very welcome syrupy sweetness, before the aftertaste of further bitterness takes over. It’s fascinating, the sugary middle – almost like a strong alcoholic nectar – bookended by a bracing bitterness. More prunes and alcohol come out in the taste, and after a while I remembered where I’d sampled a similar beer – it reminded me of Sinclair Orkney’s Skullsplitter, which is no bad thing. Whether this is a resurrection of a lost brewing style, or just another BrewDog barleywine in a different (and striking) bottle is a moot point, but Atlantic IPA is really worth trying. Just get someone else to buy you one…

BrewDog Official Website

Hartlepool brewer Camerons have a new beer on the market this week, as yesterday they launched 6th Sense in selected Tesco branches in the north of England. Their brand new strong ale had originally been called ‘trial project 3′ when entered into the supermarket chain’s Drink Awards competition, but was given a more suitable name when it won the Northern Section prize for newly-brewed ale. A member of staff suggested 6th Sense to reflect paranormal goings-on at the Camerons Lion Brewery – ale production has been documented on the site since 1573, and the ghosts and spirits of former workers are said to haunt the buildings to this day.

We’ve sampled beer from Camerons before - a couple of months ago in our Stout Special we tried their sweet and roasty Monkey Stout. Thanks to Marketing Manager Yousef Doubooni we were given a sneak preview of their newest addition, before it was released to the shoppers at Tesco this week. 6th Sense is a malty 6%abv chestnut brown ale according to the tasting notes, and is brewed with Magnum, Fuggles and Goldings hops and 100% Ale malt.

It pours with a thin carbonated head and is a deep, dark ruby-brown colour, almost the colour of Coca Cola. The nose is sweet and malty, meaning the floral hops take a back seat, but they come through on the palate – there’s that distinctive Fuggles tang from the start, alongside the expected healthy malt taste. Surprisingly it’s not strong for a 6% beer - only right at the end of the aftertaste do you get the alcohol warmth, along with more malt and some sweetness. In fact, this finish is the best thing about it, as the complex aftertaste combines with a slight alcohol kick. 6th Sense is a malty sipper that would be ideal for drinking slowly while the autumnal winds howl outside. Just don’t let the noises put ghostly ideas in your head.

Camerons are currently offering the chance to brew your very own beer with them. Until the end of August every pint of Camerons beer purchased in 60 pubs across their estate gives the chance of entry into the competition. The winner will meet the team and produce their beer, choose a name and pump clip design, then see the result in the Camerons range throughout 2010 – as well as receiving 20 cases of it to take home. For further details of the ‘Brew Your Own’ competition, visit their website.

Edinburgh likes to brand itself as ‘the festival city’ (although at the moment ‘the city of roadworks’ might be a better option) because of the internationally famous arts events that take place here during August. Theatre, film, comedy, music, art, television, video games all have their own specific festivals – and attract hundreds of thousands of visitors from the UK and beyond. As the home city of the BeerCast, we feel a responsibility to gently prod some of the thirstier individuals in the right direction when it comes to the one subject we can help with – decent beer.

Pubs on the High Street (what us locals call the top bit of the Royal Mile) always do well during August, mainly due to their proximity to the pedestrianised section that contains the crowds. There are plenty of great pubs in the rest of the city however, as we covered in our two-part Edinburgh Pub Guide feature (Part 1 here; Part 2 here). Alongside trusted favourites such as The Bow Bar and the Blue Blazer – both of which are relatively close to several festival venues – we can also add newcomer Holyrood 9a. What used to be the Holyrood Tavern has now been renamed and revitalised with a modern feel, but retaining the large selection of Scottish real ale and good food. It’s also only moments walk downhill from the Pleasance, at 9a Holyrood Road.

Also a newcomer to our pub list – and maybe an indication that we should put out a third BeerCast Edinburgh Pub Guide – is Brauhaus, at 105 Lauriston Place. Handy for Lothian Road venues, the College of Art, and even a ten minute walk from the Teviot Square venues, Brauhaus is a bottled-beer heaven with a Belgian beer-café style menu of over 300 drinks to tempt you. Last time I was in there, I got through an Anchor Steam, Stone Ruination IPA, Kostritzer Schwartzbier, and a memory-filled bottle of Toohey’s New. It’s a pretty small place, so best to get there early and grab a sofa. They do mixed buckets of five bottles for £10, which is great value.

As for the local beers, the only large-scale brewer within the city of Edinburgh is Caledonian - sadly the sole-survivor from over forty (even prior to 1940 there were 25 breweries here). Caley’s major brand is Deuchars IPA, which thanks to their acquisition by Scottish and Newcastle can be found all over the UK. If you fancy the traditional shilling styles of ale, they do an 80/-, as do McEwans, who used to brew here but closed their plant a couple of years ago. Loanhead’s Stewart Brewery produce several tremendous beers such as Pentland IPA, Copper Cascade, and my personal favourite, the zappy citrus flavour of Edinburgh Gold. The Edinburgh Brewing Company have a solitary, but very good beer - Edinburgh Pale Ale, this is currently brewed under licence by Belhaven in Dunbar; and if you’re a fan of oak-aged beers, try Innis & Gunn’s original 6.6% ale, or their stronger 7.7% version.

In an age of official tie-ins and exclusive offerings, it’s pleasing to see the Edinburgh festival’s official beer is produced by the Caledonian Brewery. Fringe Benefit (4.3%) is being sold at many of the major show venues, such as the Gilded Balloon and Teviot Square bars, only for the month of August while the festivities are ongoing. I tried one the other day, it’s a dark malty Scottish ale obviously brewed to be like an old-time heavy. Only slightly hoppy, it’s a lovely burnt sugar colour and goes down really easily. I’m not a fan of 80/- style ales, but I found Fringe Benefit to be really good. Dark and quite strong tasting, with a bit of molasses sweetness, I doubt everybody will like it, but it’s great to see a traditional Scottish product made to support a now global Scottish institution.

The 2009 Edinburgh Festival runs until the 31st of August. Please send us emails for further recommendations (beer-based rather than festival based)…

Back for more at the GBBF, after yesterday with a better idea of what to expect and what to go for. One major change was the number of people, apparently 19,000 visitors in a single day - far, far more busy than the previous day. Great news for CAMRA, less good for us thirsty punters, but the queues weren’t really that bad. Joining me for this session was Mark, BeerCast deputy for the day and committed hater of anything with a bitter aftertaste. Anyway, on with the sampling…

1. Pictish Brewer’s Gold (3.8%) Lancashire

As yesterday the first beer to start with should be something lightly hoppy to get the palate adjusted - perfect time to try Rochdale brewery Pictish’s Brewer’s Gold - a classic British summer ale, with slight nuances of hops, malt, and bitterness. So it proved, it was fantastically well-balanced with that fruity hoppiness up front and a delicate backbone of malt. I could have drunk this all night, to be honest.

2. Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest (6.7%) California

As with the previous day the number of American cask ales on offer was pretty disappointing (but to be expected given the logistics, I guess) - but seeing one I’d been waiting to try for a while, I went straight for it. Chico’s Sierra Nevada have been featured several times on the BeerCast, but not the newest addition to their seasonal harvest range - Southern Hemisphere Harvest. Made with Pacific Hallertau, Motueka and Southern Cross hops all sourced from New Zealand, this is a fresh hop ale for the spring (as hops are normally harvested in Autumn). But the Southern Hemisphere has just been through Autumn, so the hops are at their freshest. You pick this up in the flavour, after a mild hop start they increase wonderfully in the aftertaste. The beer is a lovely dark caramel colour, and it doesn’t really taste 6.7%, so this great beer could sneak up on you.

3. Welton’s Pride ‘n’ Joy (2.8%) West Sussex

The next beer was slightly different - but it had also intrigued me in the pre-festival beer list. Welton’s Pride ‘n’ Joy is deliberately brewed at only 2.8% but according to the brewer is ‘consistently thought to be 4.0%abv in tastings’. It’s a great idea, but on tasting I’m not sure if they have pulled it off, as it tasted very weak and insipid, with no aftertaste at all. However, this could have been down to the Sierra Nevada previously, but I’m not sure if it could have been mistaken for 4% as there was no taste upfront or afterwards. It was refreshing though, and would be nice outside during summer.

4. Jersey Mary Ann Christmas Ale (4.8%) Channel Islands

As I keep banging on, beer festivals are about trying new things - although it can backfire as Mark discovered trying a beer he judged to have an aroma like “a stagnant canal”. That wasn’t a Jersey beer though, but as I’d never sampled anything from the Channel Islands before I decided to go for their Christmas beer. Somewhat incongruous for a rainy August night, but the promised ‘Christmas pudding taste’ sounded interesting. Apparently it features currants, spices, raisins, orange zest and sultanas - which maybe explains the mixed tastes going on. It tasted a bit confused, slightly roasty, a bit malty, some fruityness - but sadly I couldn’t detect any of the special added ingredients. It was nice though, just not very Christmassy.

5. Backyard Brewhouse Nipin (4.6%) Staffordshire

Walsall’s Backyard Brewhouse had only one beer at the festival - Nipin, their flagship 4.6% American-style Pale Ale. That description sold me on the spot, even without the suggested crisp citrus tastes. Mark had already tried arguably the greatest American Pale Ale in the world - Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (his first time ever, too), so I was keen to have a go at a British attempt. It was slightly hazy and very dry, with a nice hoppy zing coming through. Not much citrus though, but it was a very good beer indeed.

6. Lancaster Black (4.6%) Lancashire

Always finish on at least one stout, so the final beer I tried was Lancaster Black, from the brewery named after it’s home city on the River Lune. Like Backyard, this was the only one of their beers on offer at the GBBF, with a coffee smell and soft dark chocolate taste. This was pretty much exactly what I picked up, it fell firmly towards the chocolate end of the spectrum on the palate. Smooth and very well executed, an extremely drinkable stout - definitely one for the coming Autumn months.

That was it, the end to the BeerCast’s first GBBF adventure. Beer of the second day was Pictish Brewer’s Gold, with a very tough choice between it and yesterday’s Marble Lagonda IPA. I think on balance the IPA would come out on top, however. The CAMRA tasters voted for their beer of the festival on Wednesday, picking Yorkshire brewery Rudgate’s Ruby Mild as the 2009 Champion Beer of Britain. Congratulations to them, and to CAMRA for the success of the festival - and we hope to pay another visit next year.