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.

Another week, another beer tasting at Appellation Wines on Dalry Road. Becoming something of a fixture for the BeerCast, not only do we get to drink some very good beer, but we also get to meet the producers and ask them questions, which is always good fun. The Stewart Brewery are no strangers to the BeerCast, since operations began in 2004 their distinctive pump clips are a regular sight across the real ale pubs of Edinburgh (they supply 250 pubs in total). In November 2009 they diversified, adding a range of bottled beers to their lineup. I tasted three of these when they first came out, but it was interesting to give them a second go at Appellation. Also on the menu was a BeerCast Exclusive – what Steve and Jo informed us was the first sampling pretty much anywhere of their latest beer – Stewart Dopplebock (7.0%). We began, however, with one of their all-time classics…

Edinburgh Gold (4.8%)
The 2007 SIBA Champion beer of Scotland in the premium bitter category, Edinburgh Gold sings fruity Tettnang hops from the first mouthful. On cask, it’s probably my favourite Stewart beer (although for me Copper Cascade runs it close). I’d not tried the bottled version before, but it compares very well to the cask, and is incredibly refreshing. Interestingly, Stewart decided to go for 330ml bottles rather than the standard 500ml – primarily to distance themselves from the competition, but also to appeal more to restaurants and bistros. I can certainly imagine pairing this with seafood, they would really complement each other.

Hollyrood (5.0%)
At only 3.9%, Stewart’s most popular cask ale Pentland IPA isn’t really strong enough for bottling – shelf-life would be something of a problem. As such, Steve and the team have styled a stronger beer along the same lines, but with more Amarillo hops added to the Magnum base. Weighing it at around 30 IBU’s Hollyrood is dry and biscuity with a fantastic citrus fruit aroma. All of their new bottled range are slightly hazy due to the lack of filtration, clearly this adds something to the flavour.

Embra (5.0%)
I was wondering who thought of the clever name for Stewart’s amber ale – the play on words of Edinburgh is also an anagram of the beer style – but it turns out nobody did until a customer pointed the fact out to them. Embra has Chinook hops added to the Magnum, and gives off sweet, slightly caramelly notes. An evolution of Edinburgh Marathon Ale Embra was the one I was initially unsure about – but this bottle tasted much improved on the one back in December.

St Giles (5.0%)
Named after the historic kirk on the Royal Mile, St Giles gives off some dark, roasty malt aromas. Hopped with Cascade and Magnum it gets better as it warms – all of Stewart’s bottled beers are designed to be drunk cold from the fridge (hence the amenable 330ml sizes), but St Giles really comes into it’s own when it approaches room temperature. The chocolate flavours start to come out, and the strength of flavour improves. Steve acknowledges this is their most challenging beer, but it’s one of the best.

Dopplebock (7.0%)
So after the four established bottled beers, came the new addition. The Dopplebock was brewed to be as faithful to the style as possible (albeit with slightly different spelling), so the fabled Reinheitsgebot purity laws were followed along the way. Tettnang and Saaz hops were added and the brew fermented at 12ºC. As a true doppelbock, these hops take a back seat to the dark, toasty maltiness that comes out on the nose and the palate. At the suggested cold serving temperature, a lot of the flavours are muddled, but once the beer warms the slight smokiness appears at the first taste, which gives way to the sweetness and warming alcohol. This one is extremely young, having been only bottled four days previously – and with a shelf life of two years will undoubtedly lose a lot of the ‘green’ flavours once it develops. Opinions at the tasting were mixed – as I guess they will always be for beers of 7% or higher – but the consensus was that this one is one to watch for the future.

Thanks to Steve and Jo Stewart for showing us the beers, and Ash at Appellation for hosting. We’ll be back for another tasting event, and will of course post our findings.

Stewart Brewing
Appellation Wines, 43 Dalry Rd, Edinburgh

A city needs plenty of good bottle shops, and Edinburgh until recently had only a few – led by the standout Cornelius Beer & Wine on Easter Road. But towards the end of last year a new establishment opened across the city near Haymarket. Appellation Wines on Dalry Road also offer something slightly different – guided beer tastings. That’s something the BeerCast is all for, so recently we went along to a tasting hosted by Ed Quinn of Cairngorm Brewery. Founded in 2001 in Aviemore – the capital of the Cairngorms – they have a twenty barrel plant and a range of eight core beers, both bottled and casked. We sat down with Ed and sampled seven of them over the course of an enjoyable hour.

Sheepshaggers Gold (4.5%)
First up was the rather awkwardly-named Sheepshaggers, poking fun at the taunts given to Highlanders from those further south in Scotland. Ed acknowledged the controversy over this – apparently there’s at least one publican who won’t take the beer due to it’s name – but it is also marketed as Cairngorm Gold for the people who can’t see the humour. With Bobek and Saaz hops it’s golden and slightly spicy, but with a touch of honey sweetness to it as the hops fade. Very drinkable at a perfect session strength, it was a great one to start with.

Trade Winds (4.3%)
Cairngorm’s flagship beer, Trade Winds outsells all of their other beers several times over. The simple reason for this is it’s fantastic – and is possibly my favourite session beer, something reliably good on cask and pretty good in the bottle. An old recipe from the Tomintoul Brewery (precursors of Cairngorm), Perle hops are combined with dried elderflower to give a tremendously fruity, almost tropical taste. CAMRA Champion Speciality Beer of Britain for three years out of the last six, and deservedly so.

Stag (4.1%)
Stag is Cairngorm’s 80/- style ale, and pours the expected mahogany brown with the musty dry Fuggles tang augmented by Challenger hops. It’s pretty dry for it’s type, there’s very little sweetness that you usually find. This may or may not be a good thing depending on your love of Scottish ales – for me Stag is drinkable and pleasant, but lacking a defined aftertaste – there seems to be something missing.

Nessie’s Monster Mash (4.4%)
Next up was another beer named after another one of Scotland’s famous animals – Nessie. About 30 miles separate Aviemore from Loch Ness, but there’s much less distance between this beer and the last one. A nudge up the abv meter, maybe a little more malt on the palate, but that’s about it. I asked Ed if Cairngorm didn’t yearn to create a 12% walnut-aged imperial balsamic porter rather then several similar types. His diplomatic reply highlighted their small size and lack of space – but we can dream, I guess.

Wildcat (5.1%)
Outside of their seasonal Christmas beer, at 5.1% Wildcat is the strongest beer Cairngorm produce. I remember having one on cask a couple of years ago and struggling with it – there is a convoluted flavour going on, no question – initially a strong malty whack, followed up by fruit and more malt, with a touch of toffee towards the end. I think it’s a grower, which explains why a single pint probably could repel some – but persisting with it would probably pay off.

Blessed Thistle (4.5%)
Ed then brought out a couple of other beers not on our tasting list – starting off with the one I really wanted to sample – Blessed Thistle. Named after the herb it contains, the predominant flavour is of the other added ingredient – ginger. Light and refreshing, with some flowery notes – to be honest I have no idea what thistles taste like so I was struggling to pick them out. But it was drinkable even as a slightly spiced ginger ale.

Black Gold (4.4%)
In true BeerCast fashion, we finished on a dark note with Black Gold, their Scottish stout hinting at one of the main industries in the north-east of Scotland. Highland CAMRA’s reigning beer of the year, it combines Challenger and Fuggles hops with Chocolate, Crystal and Pale malts and a touch of lactose. It’s pretty smoky, the lactose not coming to the fore like in a milk stout, but making the beer very smooth. With the roasty smokiness at the same time, this is a seriously good stout, and a great note on which to finish.

Thanks to Ed from Cairngorm for showing us the beers, and Ash at Appellation for hosting. We’ll be back for another tasting event, and will of course post our findings.

Cairngorm Brewery
Appellation Wines, 43 Dalry Rd, Edinburgh

Cantillon are the last remaining lambic brewery in Brussels, and on my recent trip to Belgium I managed to make the trip to where it all happens and have a look round. For a few Euros you get a self-guided tour around their facilities and then have a taste of two of their beers. Guides only take around pre-arranged tours, but fortunately for us there was one of those going on, so we did a bit of eavesdropping to augment the ten-page booklet given out. Established in 1900, they use the same equipment (see photo below of the original red copper cooling vessel, still going strong), and traditional methods. Continuing in the hands of the same family, Cantillon and their distinctive ‘man overbalancing on chair’ logo are found throughout Belgium.

Obviously I’ve been to a few breweries in my time, but never a lambic producer – only a small corner of Belgium can claim to produce this distinctive style of aged beer (the Senne Valley area south west of Brussels is the heartland). The mash tuns look like any others, the process is the same until the wort has had the hops cooked and removed, when it is pumped into what looks like a giant pie dish for the magic to happen. Here it is cooled (during the night and only between October and April) with window shutters open to allow the airflow to bring naturally-occurring windblown yeasts into contact. Then it’s placed into wood barrels for the fermentation to take hold. In truth, there are more microorganisms in the barrel wood than arrive on the breeze, but it all helps. The beer is then aged for three years once the barrels are sealed (they are left open for three days to vent the carbon dioxide in case of explosion). But what does it taste like? The samples we were given were their Gueuze and their Framboise, Rosé de Gambrinus.

Cantillon Gueuze 100% Lambic (5.0%)
A blend of one, two and three year old lambic, the Gueuze is their stock beer and is a classic Belgian style. It’s also famously something of an acquired taste, particularly for a Brit like me raised on bitters and stouts. It was poured for us at the brewery serving area, and was (as you can see from the photo) totally opaque and extremely hazy, almost peachy in colour. A vinegary tartness dominated the aroma, with gooseberries and other sharp fruit coming out. On the palate it was colossally sour, extremely bitter with an acid tartness. My girlfriend gave up after a couple of sips, so I had both and managed to get through them, but I’m not going to deny it was a struggle. I can see why lambics are revered, but I’ll clearly need to drink a lot more before I get a taste for them.

Rosé de Gambrinus (5.0%)
The other Cantillon we got to sample was their blend of two-year old lambic and raspberries. The fruit is added for between five and six months, then before bottling more young lambic is added to promote refermentation. This one was unsurprisingly a deep, cloudy pink colour with a tart raspberry sourness on the nose. This comes through on the taste as well, which is predominantly the sour lambic with a rising bitter fruitiness at the end. It’s like mistakenly eating a green raspberry from a bush – but the fruit gives it a more forgiving finish than the straight Gueuze. These are challenging beers, no doubt about it, and ones that any beer lover should try – even if they aren’t immediately accessible like other styles.

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!