The BeerCast

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.

After the refinement of classical Bruges (or Brugge as it’s referred to when you’re there), we travelled the short distance inland to Brussels. There are even more beer opportunities here, as befits a major European city with a pretty rich history. We visited the Cantillon Brewery (see previous post), and also several bars and cafés – the most notable (and famous) being the Delirium Café, hidden in a backstreet to the north of the Grand Place. The street address is Impasse de la Fidélité 4, but it took some wandering along alleys populated with tourist restaurants before we found it, even with the street name.

There are three floors to Delirium, the top one is non-smoking, and this followed the pattern of every other non-smoking area we saw in Brussels – in that it was almost totally deserted. Coming from the UK, it was a shock to the system to be surrounded by smokers again – of course we’d forgotten how much it affects those of us that don’t – so we started up the top, joined only by a couple of middle-aged American men clearly on a beer holiday. As the place was so empty, the barman was chatting to them and helping them choose, then bringing each drink to their table – no wonder they were enjoying themselves. He even let them go behind the bar and pose for photos. In their honour I had the only non-Belgian drink to pass my lips during the holiday – a Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA (7.1%), which was predictably hoppy and alcoholic, and very nice.

But we’re here to talk about Belgian beers after all, and as there was a complete lack of atmosphere upstairs, we descended into the bottom-most bar. Things were much better here, we got a seat at the back in the raised area and picked from the ’select beer menu’ that was on the tables. Delirium is renowned for it’s enormous range – they were in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most beers on sale in the world (I think it was over 2000 in all). Those larger menus were at the bar, and as the table versions had about a hundred Belgian ales on them, that was more than enough choice!

La Guillotine (9.0%)
Brouwerij Huyghe, Melle

We’ve featured Delirium Tremens on the BeerCast before, and surprisingly it didn’t do that well. I attribute this to the early days of our beer journey when we reviewed it – as it’s become one of my (and my girlfriend’s) favourites. I’d never tried La Guillotine before – which is essentially a stronger version, so gave it a go at Delirium. It pours a dark golden amber colour, and gives off deep alcohol aromas. The taste is wonderful, it really is a darker, punchier, DT. It really doesn’t taste 9% either, so could be very dangerous. Aside from the Van Steenberge Tripel de Garre I’d had in Bruges, this was one of the beers of the trip for me.

Queue de Charrue Brune (5.6%)
Brasserie Vanuxeem, Ploegsteert

La Guillotine was a tough act to follow, so I figured a change of tack was the best way to go. Sour Flemish ales are an acquired taste – possibly the hardest to acquire in the beer world (you need only look to the bottom of our beer rankings). Having not had much experience with the style – and certainly none that were pleasant, I nonetheless went for one to counteract the rich grassy fruit of the last beer. Picking a total random beer I’d never heard of (always one of my favourite things to do) landed me Brasserie Vanuxeen’s Queue de Charrue Brune, from Ploegsteert. The bottle looked old and battered, but the beer was actually pretty good. Crucially for me there was just a touch of sweetness that counteracted the more acrid flavours from the tart yeasts. It was in no way as bitter as something like Rodenbach Grand Cru, although still being quite puckering. It made an impression on me, that not all sour Flemish reds are the same, and was actually pretty refreshing.

Bobeline Blonde (8.5%)
Brouwerij Huyghe, Melle

Keen to try as many types and styles as possible in what was sadly a limited time in both Delirium and Belgium, next I went on to a blonde ale. I’d tried one before – the really rather good Bruges Zot Blonde, in the city of the same name – so went for another from the minor menu in the café. Bobeline Blonde packs a punch at 8.5% (the small menus in Delirium don’t have abv contents listed), and comes in a nice-looking artistic bottle. I found out later it’s actually produced by our old friends Brouwerij Huyghe, so I actually had two rarer ‘house beers’ in the Delirium Café. Bobeline was very sweet and rich, with a peachy taste. It poured a hazy golden colour, with a dense pillowing head. It kind of reminded me of champagne, with that carbonated sweet/dry palate and fruity tinge (although the tinges were more ripe stone fruits than tart green ones). Again, it didn’t taste anywhere near it’s weighty abv. These Belgian brewers know how to craft a good beer, of that there is no doubt.

Delirium Cafe website

We’re rightly proud of our home city when it comes to decent real ale opportunities, and the other night a select band of BeerCast panellists headed out to a new local. Well, not exactly new – the Stockbridge Tap was renamed after Bert’s was sold, and it became a freehouse. There’s another Bert’s in the city, over in the West End (see our second Edinburgh pub guide). So maybe Edinburgh wasn’t big enough for two of them, after all. The Bert’s that went was pretty plain but always had a varying selection of beers on – and it seems the Stockbridge Tap has picked up the baton, with seven pumps proudly on display. Also, they are currently offering a mini beer festival, so that was even more reason for us to pop in on a chilly Thursday night.

First on the list was Valhalla Brewery’s Simmer Dim (4.0%). We featured Britain’s Northernmost producer on our Northern Isles special back in January last year, and commented that they certainly impart an unusual flavour into their beers. Simmer Dim – although it was almost totally flat – was a pretty decent malty bitter, even if it did smell like a football stadium toilets, according to an un-named BeerCaster. Fireside (4.7%) is one of the lesser-known of Arran’s ales, one of the few that missed our Arran Special. As it happens, that was probably a good thing as it weighed uncomfortably towards the 80 shilling end of the spectrum.

After that, we sampled Homecoming Ale (4.2%) from the Perth-based Inveralmond Brewery. Begun in 1997, they bottle classics such as Ossian and Lia Fail, and cask Thrappledouser that the Hopmeister is so fond of. However, Homecoming was a new one to us, and after a bit of Googling (it’s not referred to at all on their website) we discover that it is practically brand new, having been released to co-incide with Homecoming Scotland 2009, an events programme of Scottishness. Given the brewing history in this country, it makes sense to have an offical beer – an Homecoming Ale is fantastic. All were in total agreement, it was dry and biscuity with an almost raw oat taste. Similar to the nuttiness of Ossian, it got nicer the more it went down – whoever decided to get Inverlamond to brew the celebration beer for Homecoming 2009 should be congratulated.

Next up we moved on to Derventio’s Cupid (4.1%), a beer for the romantics in time for Valentine’s Day perhaps – although nothing says romance quite like portly men in pubs. Derventio began in 2005 in Trusley Brook Farm in Derbyshire, midway between Derby and Burton on Trent. I can’t say we know too much about them, but Cupid was also biscuity, but a bit too watery and with less body than the Homecoming. After checking online, apparently it’s a honey ale – although we were hard-pressed to find any. Finally we plumped for a bottle of something imported – Denver’s Flying Dog Old Scratch (5.3%), a strong amber lager that reminded me of Old Peculier without the dark body, almost like tree sap. Nice, though.

And with that we staggered out into the Edinburgh night – having not even tried some of the beers on offer. We’re all massive fans of the Stewart Brewery, but not particularly their 80/-, and likewise the Black Isle Brewery and their Organic Wheatbeer. I attempted a pint of Little Valley’s Stoodley Stout, but it tasted badly of vinegar (I’ve had it before and was looking forward to it). Full marks to the Stockbridge Tap’s staff though, they took it back without protest and gave me a refund, plus a free pint of something else (Homecoming Ale), and then immediately changed the barrel. Later on when our last round drained Inveralmond’s final cask we had a pint that was a finger short given free, with a free pint to make up for the missing centimetre of ale. If they keep this level of customer service up, they might need more than seven pumps, but we’ll keep coming back…