The BeerCast

Note to self…remember to take photo before drinking the beer

If you’ve been following the BeerCast for the past couple of weeks, you’ll (hopefully) know we’ve been talking a great deal about a recent piece of Government legislation. On the 1st of October, the UK Treasury raised duty on all beer over 7.5% – ostensibly to tackle ‘problem drinking’. We’ve written several posts on why we feel this is a bad idea (here, here and here) – and so today we’re holding a protest podcast. Richard, Shovels and Grooben get together to sample four British beers over 7.5%, and debate the state of UK alcohol taxation (along with vikings, addictive coffee and why you can never lose a greyhound). The four strong beers we drink responsibly are:- Sinclair Orkney Skull Splitter (8.5%), Traquair House Jacobite Ale (8.0%), Thornbridge St Petersburg (7.7%), and BrewDog Abstrakt AB:06 (11.2%). Fight the power!

1. Orkney Skull Splitter (8.5%abv)
Sinclair Orkney Brewery, Quoyloo, Orkney Islands.
330ml glass bottle

Founded by Roger White in 1988, the award-winning Orkney brewery are another local producer who started in untypical surroundings – in this case an old school house in Sandwick. In June 2004 they merged with the Atlas Brewery of Kinlochleven, to form Highland and Islands Breweries – which in turn was taken over by the Sinclair Brewery Ltd in 2006. All the way back in January 2008, we sampled Orkney Dark Island as part of BeerCast #11. Drinkers in North America may know the brewery best for the very beer we’re sampling today – Skull Splitter is seemingly far more popular over the pond than back home.

What They Say -
“Sophisticated, satiny smooth with a deceptively light character, it is a tribute to our colourful forbear Thorfinn Einarsson, the 7th Viking Earl of Orkney.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Richard – Classic Skull Splitter aroma – sweet fruity caramel 7½
Shovels – Not as syrupy as I remember, good balance 7½
Grooben – I do like it but probably wouldn’t drink it much 6

2. Traquair Jacobite Ale (8.0%abv)
Traquair House Brewery, Innerleithen, Peeblesshire.
330ml glass bottle

Traquair House is an extremely impressive, and very old, country estate about an hour south of Edinburgh. Famed in Scottish history for it’s association with the Jacobites, it also contains a thriving microbrewery – which begun in the 18th Century, brewing for the estate workers. The 20th Laird of Traquair re-founded the brewery in 1965, and they specialise in Scottish styles – that are all rich, dark, and above all – strong.

What They Say -
“Brewed to celebrate the anniversary of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion the ale proved to be so popular it has become a permanent addition to the range. Based on an eighteenth century recipe the ale is spiced with coriander which gives a remarkably fresh aftertaste.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Shovels – Spices linger at the end, needs a bit more body 7
Richard – Not as spicy as I was expecting, it’s a nice old ale7
Grooben – Doesn’t bash you around the head for an 8%er 7

3. St Petersburg (7.7%abv)
Thornbridge Brewery, Bakewell, Derbyshire.
500ml glass bottle

The first Thornbridge beer to make it onto one of our BeerCasts was their chestnut honey ale Bracia, back in BeerCast #61. A 10% powerhouse of flavour, we’re following that with another of their big hitters – the fantastic Russian Imperial Stout St Petersburg (7.7%). We already know it’s fantastic, as it was awarded one of our much-prized Best New Beer Awards for 2010. Doesn’t mean we can’t put in on a podcast…

What They Say -
“Rich and dark with smoke, subtle peatiness and the power of the dark malts. Molasses and liquorice and chocolate goodness all wrapped up in a smooth, warming liquid.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Richard – Black, roasty, creamy, chocolatey, smoky, love it 9
Shovels – Lovely flavours – one of my favourite beers 8½
Grooben – Doesn’t have any bitterness at the back of the palate you get with some strong stouts 8½

4. Abstrakt AB:06 (11.2%abv)
BrewDog, Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire.
375ml glass bottle

BrewDog are without doubt the most talked-about brewery in Scotland, with their charismatic press releases and wacky ideas. Not afraid to experiment, there’s no denying they always elicit strong opinions. What is often overlooked amidst all the hoo-hah is that they have only been going for just over three years. Their ‘concept beer brand’ Abstrakt is already on the 7th version (a whisky aged Scotch Ale), the original, AB:01, made it to our most recent Beer of the Year Show, and AB:04 (a coffee, cacao and chili Imperial Stout) might just be the best beer they’ve ever made. Can AB:06 cut it?

What They Say -
“AB06 is a 11.5% Imperial Black IPA which has been triple dry hopped. This beer is savage; boasting more bitterness and more hops than any BrewDog creation to date, combining loads of awesome malts and monumental amounts of our favourite hops.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Shovels – You can definitely tell it’s dry hopped, love those hops 8½
Richard – Very good beer, this could be a great regular 8½
Grooben – Decent, but I expected it to be better 7

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

BeerCast panel verdict
Thornbridge St Petersburg 26/30
BrewDog Abstrakt AB:06 24/30
Sinclair Orkney Skullsplitter 21/30
Traquair House Jacobite Ale 21/30

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Please keep those comments and emails coming in, and check back in a couple of weeks for our next podcast. In the meantime, keep drinking those strong beers wherever you are. In the UK, you can sign this petition against the duty rise. For the BBC article on responsible drinking we discussed during this episode – click here. We’ll be continuing with our strong beer month right the way throughout October. Fight the power!

BrewDog certainly like to blow their own trumpet – my goodness do they ever – but if you can filter out the punk-nonsense they have a number of interesting ideas. Having one eye keenly focused over the Atlantic at all times (understandable given the styles of beer they create), they have latched on to a very American idea – the growler. Other British brewers do have them, but only BrewDog have their own network of bars at which you can fill them up.

The reason behind the rather unusual name has been lost in the mists of time, but one oft-quoted explanation is the growling noise created as CO2 escaped from early examples. These were little more than tin buckets – local urchins hauling them from American bars in the pre-war era, to replenish thirsty workers (for a fair price, no doubt). With many bottle shops closed on Sunday, having the ability to continue your weekend drinking via a take-home container made a lot of sense. When these liquor sellers gained Sunday licences, the need for growlers decreased.

It wasn’t until the 1980′s that some American brewers decided to resurrect the idea – that decade that did so much for US brewing (ditto classic television). These days, pretty much every Stateside producer encourages their use, and as a result growler design has improved somewhat. Intended to keep draught beer cool in the fridge for a few days – and with most of the carbonation retained – they must also be intended to reduce the ‘one-for-the-road’ mentality that can lead to horrendous accidents.

In BrewDog’s case, their beers are served cold and kegged – so are closer to the bottled equivalents than, for example, a pint of St Austell Tribute and the version in the bottle. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a noticeable difference – I filled up with Punk IPA, and it tasted a lot fresher than their other portable versions (some of the canned Punk I’ve tasted recently has been truly awful). Although there was a slight seal leak in the growler – spumey bubbles were rolling outwards from the lid – the carbonation lasted for about three days.

From what I’ve read, Stateside when you fill growlers up, the bar gives a discount price – the equivalent of getting a triple-whip mochachino with sprinkles* to go, versus the sit-in cost. Same price at BrewDog. However, £6 for the growler isn’t too bad – it holds two pints (contrary to their press release), so loading up with Punk cost me an additional £7. As the equivalent of a few beers from the offy, I’d happily pay that. Ok, growlers have some drawbacks, but kudos to BrewDog for highlighting their use – I’ll be back down to their Cowgate bar to fill up, asap.

What are your thoughts on growlers? Would you use them? Do they work? Our American readers – how do they work in the US, and are they well used, or just a gimmic?

*I’m still learning to like coffee

BrewDog made something of the splash yesterday, as they released the second slice of equity for prospective investors. Seeking to raise £2.2m to finance a new, carbon-neutral, brewery – there was certainly plenty of interest, if the Twitter flood was anything to go by. Kenny over at the Beer Monkey posted his thoughts on the implications of the deal – which, to be honest, doesn’t really float my boat (if you’ll pardon the pun) – but fair play to BrewDog for trying something different, and their legion of investors for supporting the company.

Personally, I’m just keen on the beer, rather than dabbling in financial markets. With that in mind, last night Edinburgh’s bloggerati (i.e. us and Craig from Make Mine a Half) gathered at the BrewDog Bar for a night devoted to the most successful style in modern brewing – the India Pale Ale. More often than not you’ll find the flagship of a US brewery to be an IPA, and the new wave of Atlantic-thinking European breweries are following suit. There are a few reasons for this – the increased variety of hops available, brewer’s desire to experiment, and the bitter, fruity bite makes them just so damn tasty.

There were plenty of examples on offer last night – in the past BrewDog Bar special events have been hit-and-miss affairs, with beer taking an age to appear or not being available. Not so with this one – straight in the door and the choice was between two of BrewDog’s (Punk and Hardcore IPA’s) and eight others *deep breath* Port Brewing Wipeout (7%) and Hop15 (10%), Flying Dog Snake Dog (7.1%), Evil Twin Before, During and After Xmas (10%), 8 Wired Hop Wired (7.3%), Mikkeller Koppi IPA (6.9%), 10 (6.9%) and 1000IBU Light (4.9%).

Clearly, if you’re a fan of imported hop-led beer, that’s a list that’s going to take a while to make a selection from. I started off with something I’d had before – the fantastic Mikkeller 10. From the bottle it’s akin to drinking liquid fruit salad – served cold on keg, the fruitiness takes a bit of a back seat – but it’s still outstanding. The blend of ten different hops is impossible to differentiate, but it’s a corker regardless. The 1000IBU Light is not, however. Pushing the hop envelope to the limit, and yet at session strength, it’s a total bitter bomb (although the clue was there in the name).

Next up, New Zealand’s 8 Wired brewery, and their all-kiwi ingredient Hopwired, which was fantastic. Crisper and with a different fruit edge to the American IPA’s – by design – the southern hemisphere hops give the beer quite a distinctive edge. Evil Twin’s BDA Xmas was even better, a riot of pineapple and grapefruit from the off. By this point, my palate had taken a battering (and I could still taste the 1000IBU). A couple of fruit lambics seemed like the obvious thing to do – hence Mikkeller Spontanredcurrant and Spontancassis. Harsh, acetic sourness from the first, harsh blackcurrant sourness from the second.

Job done, it was back to the draught IPA theme – and as luck would have it, the beer list had changed. The choice at this point was between the following – Southern Tier Oak-aged Unearthly IPA (11%), Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale (8.7%) and Cali-Belgique (6.9%) – and four 6.8% single-hop IPA’s from Mikkeller – Cluster, Warrior, Challenger and Galena. Well, having had both the Stone’s before it was the single-hop beers that caught my eye, and the Warrior was the pick of these. Mikkeller have nineteen in this series, so it was great to try some at last.

With that, it was time to head away – but not before a final beer. Or three. Produced at BrewDog’s facility in Fraserburgh for Denmark’s Evil Twin Brewery, Yin and Yang are 10% beers – one light, one dark – that can be drunk independently, or mixed together. It’s part clever marketing, part tremendous idea – a self-made black and tan. The light (Yang) is a double IPA, cloying sweet caramel – the dark (Yin) a roasty imperial stout. Combined, the sweetness mingles beautifully with the toasty flavours of the Yin – it’s really rather clever.

By this point, it really was time to leave, as I was entirely adamant that mixing two 10% beers together would create a 20% beer. To be honest, I’m still not entirely sure that it doesn’t…

You can check out what Kenny and Craig thought of the IPA Night here and here, respectively…

Day three, really – having been at the Trade Session on the Wednesday – but the second day of the SRAF is always the busy one, occurring on a Friday. And so it proved, as we turned up to Adam House* to find an enormous queue stretching round the block. Having piled our way through twenty-three different beers over the previous two days, and faced with the prospect of queuing in the rain for another shot, we decided to check out the other beer festival currently happening in the city.

BrewDog have been hosting an ‘alternative’ beer festival all week just round the corner, so we descended into Little Saigon and levered our way inside to find….a fairly typical Friday night in the BrewDog Bar. The only thing slightly out of the ordinary was the mythical hopinator bubbling away, coursing a different edge through Punk IPA. In fact, I much preferred it to the new Punk recipe, the sweeter hops gave the beer a more rounded edge – which itself is more rounded than Punk Mark I.

BrewDog are all about the tinkering, and I’m not sure what they’ve done to Chaos Theory but it’s far more bitter than it used to be – some puckering astringency on the end where there used to be citrusy grapefruit. Royal Virility Performance was also on, but we went straight for the only non-BD beer on offer – a strangely non-inclusive vibe for a ‘beer festival’. Lost Abbey Angel’s Share is a monstrous 12.5% oak-aged barley wine that feels like drinking Irish creosote. Thick, chewy tar, mixed with that sweet boozy alcohol and fruity chocolate. Just incredible.

At this stage the bar was crammed to capacity, so we headed out and watched a couple of the Cowgate’s finest inviting out a couple of doormen for an altercation, as a group of twenty men dressed as Where’s Wally? meandered past. Not something you see outside the SRAF. We also bumped into one of our other contributors who said the heat had been so intense in the SRAF venue he’d decided to leave – so maybe it was the better decision to seek out the alternative, such as it was.

Best beer of day two of the SRAF – Lost Abbey Angel’s Share

*Apart from a certain BeerCaster, who went to the Assembly Rooms on George Street – venue for last year’s festival…

Reviewing a beer brewed by other beer writers is a new one for us here on the BeerCast – and something of a minefield too. Not that we’re putting ourselves in the category of the three chaps responsible for BrewDog’s Avery Brown Dredge (7.5%) – the multi award-winning trio have the pageviews and Wikio rankings we can only dream of. But the dilemma still stands – love the beer and it sounds suspiciously like the ‘bloggerati* boys club’. Hate it and it’s because we wish it had been us raking out the mash tuns in Fraserburgh instead.

In case their work hasn’t reached you – Zak Avery is the spirited proprietor (and now owner) of Beer Ritz in Leeds, Pete Brown the respected author and 2009 Beer Writer of the Year, and Mark Dredge is the New Media writer of the year 2009 and 2010. Clearly, these guys know what they are doing – and they also know their history. So when BrewDog approached them to make a beer, the style they chose was an Imperial Pilsner – a re-imagining of the classic Czech beer that started so many of us on our beer journeys.

You can debate the merits of selecting the three most affable and engaging beer bloggers of the moment to brew a beer – clearly there’s plenty of free publicity in it for BrewDog. But free publicity is what BrewDog do so well – and any blogger would give their left arm and favourite tasting glass to see their name on a beer label. Not me, I hasten to add. MrB smashed it during one of our podcasts (the glass, not my arm – but that’s another story). A beer like ABD creates a terrific buzz. Bloggers are never shy of a bit of self-promotion, and as the Fraserburgh outfit aren’t either, everybody wins.

Until they get to the beer, that is. It looks lovely, a clear gold with a perfect peaky mid-European head. The aroma is bitingly strong – ABD showcases the Saaz hop, and with 50kg used per brew it strips the nasal passages. There’s some sweet malt in there on the taste, but from start to finish you get sharp, bitter hops. It’s seriously oily at the same time, which combined with the alcohol burn results in something like grain alcohol at times.

Thankfully there’s a fruity edge that helps cushion this, but it’s puckering like lemon juice, packing one hell of an oily punch on the aftertaste – I can see why Glyn at Rabidbarfly christened it SpecialBrewDog. I can understand the reasoning of Zak, Pete and Mark – when let loose in BrewDog’s hop store I’ll bet the sky’s the limit – and I really wanted to like it. I promise this isn’t bloggers’ envy, but for me Avery Brown Dredge – lovely chaps that they are – was too much.

* ™Colin Valentine

Pencil and Spoon (Mark Dredge)
Are you Taking the Pith? (Zak Avery)
Pete Brown’s Blog (Pete Brown)