The BeerCast

Oddbins are not usually known for their beer sales, having become an established name on the UK high street due to their wines – but maybe that’s starting to change. The closure of some of their competing chains (Threshers, Wine Rack) has meant it more likely grain fans will turn up trying to find something to their liking, along with all the grape already on offer. Recently what looked like an entire brewery range stared back at me from the shelves of a local outlet, and a previously unknown producer at that – Hobson’s Ales, from Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire. Four in total, I bought one of each and retired for some sampling, to put them through their paces.

Manor Ale (4.2%)
The bottles look quite classic in style, each one a single bold colour. The first, Manor Ale, is described as a Bitter Amber Ale, brewed to celebrate the Severn Valley Railways Manor Class steam engines. It pours very flat, with a deep dark orange colour. The aroma is extremely bitter, none of the citrus zest mentioned on the label tasting notes comes through at all. Earthy bitterness on the palate, with some hops following. I’m quite a fan of bitter beers, and this is certainly a bitter amber ale as described. There’s a very dry, almost acrid aftertaste, which may put some drinkers off.

Old Henry (5.2%)
This one is a Rich Auburn Ale, and is the strongest of the lot at 5.2%. It’s named after the ex-master brewer Henry Hobson, who liked to sport a bowler hat of the style originally favoured by gamekeepers rather than City gents. It’s an opaque dark red rather then the advertised chestnut in colour, with a malty aroma. Tastewise it’s drinkable but for me was a bit empty and overly sweet. I drank this on a different night to the Manor Ale, so my tastebuds were unaffected! It looks and tastes quite light for it’s malty background.

Town Crier (4.5%)
Golden Ales are ubiquitous now in British brewing, which in my mind is a good thing. Town Crier is Hobson’s offering in that category, and as with their other beers the slight haziness hangs in the glass, but it doesn’t spoil the light straw colour of the beer. The smell is fantastic, crisp fruit – almost a hint of apple in there. As you’d expect, it’s pretty refreshing, and is slightly sweet for a Golden Ale, it leans away from the dry end of the spectrum – I imagine it would be tremendous on cask. My only quibble would be that the bottle has a black label, instead of…

Postman’s Knock (4.8%)
…their porter, Postman’s Knock, which is pinky beige – and therefore maybe more suited to the Manor Ale. Then the Golden Ale could be green! Anyway, that’s by the by – the last one is thick and dark, with aromas of malt and chocolate. The ripe, juicy smell is tremendous, and the taste really follows on well. Rich, treacly warmth and molasses – it’s a great example of a dark ruby porter, with aromas similar to Theakston’s Old Peculier, and that slight smokiness akin to Sinclair Orkney Dark Island, which is one of my all-time favourites.

A while ago we started to discuss one of the ‘unmentionable’ aspects of drinking beer – the custom of adding something to alter the taste. Clearly this practice is frowned upon by most beery aficionados – but for certain people or situations it’s increasingly common. The BeerCast concentrates primarily on real ale, American craft beer and the like – but as we also talk about lagers (see our regular Lagerboy feature) we’re not outside the boundaries of experimentation. So, when my father told me of a very peculiar habit in a small part of Yorkshire we had to investigate.

It may be an apocryphal story – or an urban myth – but apparently the Asian taxi drivers of Huddersfield have developed a taste for Guinness and Lucozade. I’m not really sure why, and a search for clues found absolutely nothing to shed light on the claims. Guinness shandy (i.e. with lemonade added) was rumoured to have been invented by the New Zealand rugby team during a tour of the UK, putting a slightly different twist on the usual bitter shandy. That fact came direct from the Guinness website, so it may have some substance to it – even if it sounds unlikely that Jonah Lomu and friends would drink anything diluted.

Of course, there’s only one way to discover what the combination tastes like, and that’s to try it. The wishy-washy nature of the Huddersfield rumour doesn’t help when it comes to purchasing the ingredients – is it canned Guinness or bottled? Original or widgeted? And what flavour of Lucozade to pick? I ended up with the most basic, and therefore readily available varieties – canned stout and original Glucose Lucozade. The next hurdle was the ratios – I started off with about 2/3 Guinness to 1/3 sugary sports drink, before frantically adding more stout to take the taste away.

It really is awful – the sweetness of the Lucozade totally overpowers the stout, which is something I had not expected at all. Looking at the pint glass, the resulting blend is slightly less opaque than unadulterated stout, but not by much. The whole thing tastes like a swizzle stick from a tuck shop Sherbet Dab. Adding a second slug of Guinness doesn’t alter the taste that much – sweet glucose is still the dominant flavour, there’s just a slightly longer dark taste fighting a losing battle. It’s really not nice at all – although if you don’t like the acrid edge to Guinness it might be a good entry level alternative. Good for the taxi drivers of Huddersfield that they’ve found something unique to drink, but they can keep it.

‘Since 1004’ says the label, in a modest, small font. Žatec Blue Label Pilsner certainly comes with a history. In German the town is known as Saaz, which of course gives it’s name to the variety of hops commonly found in Bohemian pilsners – brewing certainly seems to be endemic to that part of the world. Lagerboy is always keen to tick off another of the Czech pilsners – there are so many, after all – and Žatec is one that had yet to pass his parched, chilled-beer seeking lips. Of course, the date on the label is a misnoma – the brewery wasn’t founded prior to the Norman conquest of Britain. 1004AD was the first date from which historical reference was made to the town of the same name – this particular Žatec brewery didn’t begin until 1800 (although beer has been made in the town since 1261, using the Saaz hops).

The beer pours like a true pilsner, with that characteristic straw-yellow colour and large, fast dispersing head. There’s quite a lot of carbonation going on, with several steady streams of rising bubbles. The smell is pretty average, not really much going on other than a slight maltiness – no spiciness to speak of from the Saaz. The taste carries on in the same vein, being frankly a bit boring compared with other Czech pilsners (such as Jever). That being said, it’s not unpleasant and it’s certainly not bad. There’s a slight malty sweetness with a touch of fruit from the hops. Žatec is very much a session pilsner – down the middle of the line – it doesn’t repel the taste buds, but it doesn’t fascinate them either.

Žatec Official Website

Our latest podcast revolves around a theme which at first glance may seem tenuous, but actually has a pretty strong connection with British brewing – the railways. The rapid expansions of brewing centres such as Burton-on-Trent were aided by the arrival of the railway to transport barrels to the major population centres of the UK. London’s St Pancras station, for example, had raised tracks to negotiate the Regent’s Canal – creating a huge pillared cellar for storing beer transported from Staffordshire by the Midland Railway. These days, there are heritage railway pub crawls, and many stations have real ale opportunities for the discerning drinker. So our homage to the British railways begins with Wylam Locomotion No1 (5.0%), a pilsner lager named after one of George Stephenson’s Rocket precursors. We then move on to Richmond Station Ale (4.0%) from the Richmond Brewing Company in North Yorkshire, before sampling Wold Top’s train-related A4 Amber (4.4%). Our final beer is a nod to that most famous railway style, as we taste Dent Porter (3.8%) from Dent in Cumbria. Catching a ride on this podcast are driver MrB, ticket collector Grooben, and manning the buffet car, Richard.

1. Locomotion No1 (5.0%abv)
Wylam Brewery, Heddon on the Wall, Tyne and Wear. 500ml glass bottle

Heddon on the Wall is a Northumberland village located nine miles from the centre of Newcastle (the wall being Hadrian’s). Nearby is Wylam – the birthplace of the father of the railways George Stephenson, who built the first public steam railway in the world, the Stockton and Darlington. On this route travelled Locomotion No1, an early prototype of his more famous Rocket steam engine. A few hundred years later, John Boyle and Robin Leighton set up a brewery in Wylam on an old dairy farm in May 2000. They outgrew the original plant in 2006 and expanded to a new facility three times the size in a bespoke barn conversion. They decided to name their pilsner after Stephenson’s Rocket precursor, the ideas for which were formed only a few miles from the brewery site.

What They Say -
“Made with lager and Vienna malts, a lager yeast and with the famous Saaz hop. This continental style beer is traditionally lagered for 3 weeks at1oC to give that distinctive lager style and the flavour of a classic hop.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Richard – Low carbonation with a little dryness at the end 7½
Grooben – Smells quite nice, but I think it lacks a little body 6
MrB – I don’t know where it fits with that low carbonation, to me lager is barbecues or holidays 6

2. Richmond Station Ale (4.0%abv)
Richmond Brewing Co, Richmond, North Yorkshire. 500ml glass bottle

Another railway-related brewery opened by two established brewers, the Richmond Brewing Company are much smaller than Wylam, operating from a six barrel microbrewery in a restored station. On the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, the market town of Richmond (Britain’s Great Town of the Year 2009) recently renovated their old station buildings into a tourist centre, with art galleries, cinemas and restaurants. Also on site is a resident microbrewery run by Andy Hamilton and Richard Bowerman, who have a combined 44yrs experience from such notables as Theakstons, John Smiths, Websters and Tennants.

What They Say -
“Richmond Station Ale is a light golden coloured bitter brewed using ale and crystal malts with English hedgerow hops.” [Official Website]

** On opening this one we immediately found strong indications that the beer had gone bad, despite being ‘in date’. We carried on to score it, but we may have to re-sample to get a better indication of Richmond Station Ale. **

What We Say…
Grooben – No body to this at all, it’s such an underpowered beer 4
Richard – You get bitter oakiness then off-tasting flatness 3
MrB – I don’t like this, it tastes like corked Chardonnay 2

3. A4 Amber Ale (4.4%abv)
Wold Top Brewery, Wold Newton, Driffield, East Yorkshire. 500ml glass bottle

The Wold Top Brewery at Wold Newton near Driffield in East Yorkshire was set up by two farming families, the Mellors and the Grays, in 2003. Both families have been growing malting barley for some time, and eventually decided to cut out the middle man and use the barley to make their own beer, sourcing the water from local chalk-filtered reservoirs. They not only set up this micro brewery but also bought a local pub, The Falling Stone in Thwing, as an outlet for their beers. Driffield is the ‘capital of the Wolds’ – the distinctive low rising hills that undulate around East Yorkshire. A4 Amber Ale was launched in 2007 to celebrate the A4 train festival on the North Yorks Moors Railway.

What They Say -
“Tasting Fruity and light with a dry finish, it is made from a combination of Maris Otter malt with Goldings, Styrian and Cascade hops.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Richard – Genuinely interesting – elderflower, fruit, hedgerows 7½
MrB – Fruity, refreshing, nice and hoppy, it’s good 7½
Grooben – They’re all juicy tonight, got a lovely apricot aroma 7

4. Dent Porter (3.8%abv)
Dent Brewery, Dent, Cumbria. 500ml glass bottle

Nestling in picturesque Dentdale, in that corner of the Yorkshire Dales National Park that is actually in Cumbria, is one of the most remote breweries in the Country. Originally, the intention was to sell Dent beer only at the Sun Inn, but such was its popularity that other landlords in the Dales and Lakes asked for supplies and the brewery was soon operating at capacity. Most of their beers have a sheep theme – their Golden Ale is called Golden Fleece, they do a German-style lager called Rambrau, and past seasonals include Ewe Wants to be a Millionaire, Ewe Let the Dogs Out, and Ali Baabaa. On our last BeerCast podcast, we sampled their best bitter Kamikaze, which ended up with the higest score on the night. Will Dent’s classic British porter do as well?

What They Say -
“A dark classic traditional English porter, with delicate tones of five different malts, a rich smooth head and lingering light bitter after-taste.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Richard – Very well balanced for limited leeway at 3.8% 8
MrB – I prefer my porters to be bitter like this rather than sweet 8
Grooben – Coffee hit at first but it mellows out, although maybe it needs that sweetness in the background 6

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

BeerCast panel verdict
Wold Top A4 Amber (22/30)
Dent Porter (22/30)
Wylam Locomotion No1 (19½/30)
Richmond Station Ale (9/30)

Stay tuned for our next podcast, as we unleash MrB with the BeerCast kitty as he takes the reigns for BeerCast #49 – the MrBCast. Expect hops ahoy….

In 1990 a small brewpub opened in the Rocky Mountain town of Aspen, home to plenty of thirsty outdoor enthusiasts. The first such establishment in Aspen for over 100 years, Flying Dog were named after the subject of a painting seen on the wall of a hotel in Pakistan. Apparently George Stranahan and Richard McIntyre had seen this picture when on a poorly-planned mountaineering trip to the Himalayas. Loving the ‘can-do’ attitude of a dog attempting to fly, they set up the brewpub several years later – and it also took off in spectacular fashion. Today they are based in Denver but all production takes place in Maryland, where their distinctive Ralph Steadman labelled bottles roll off a 50,000 barrel plant.

Flying Dog Double Dog is a Double Pale Ale ‘double hopped with insane amounts of Columbus, Warrior and Cascade hops’. At 11.5% and 85IBU’s it’s going to be full-on, without any doubt. It pours with a very fast dispersing head to leave only a thin lacing around the very edges of the glass. The colour is really something, a deep hazy raspberry red, with plenty of sediment slowly swirling around. The aroma – as you’d expect – is very heavy alcohol, spices, almost a touch of cloves, alongside the hops. The taste is extremely strong alcohol, roast fruit, prunes – almost a barley wine, although it’s not quite as chewy. The high alcohol combines with the massive overpowering hops to make it extremely bitter indeed, with a long astringency that reminded me of dark chocolate (although without the chocolate flavours, of course). It’s challenging to drink, without doubt. Rewarding? Maybe. It’s a taste I’ll need to acquire in order to go back, I think.