The Friday Pint #21 - Great Lakes Elliot Ness

Those of you who follow me on twitter (@mrdavidj if you don't and would like to) will probably be aware that I am currently in the USA. I've drunk a fair amount of Dogfish Head, and had a rather good afternoon at Erie Brewing Company yesterday, but those will be covered in another post. For this is The Friday Pint post, and although my netbook tells me it's 1:11 on Saturday Morning back home, here it's only 20:11, and so the night is still young.

The weather today in Cleveland was hot, at least to me it was hot. It was the kind of heat where just walking a few minutes makes that entire pint of water you just downed seem worthless. This probably wasn't the best weather for me to enjoy beer in, but I made a good go at it.

This week's Friday Pint came from the Great Lakes Brewing Company, and was an Amber Lager, called Elliot Ness. It was one of those beers that served it's purpose, but failed to provoke any kind of notes in my notebook.

The pulled pork sandwich that I had with it however was gloriously tasty, with some of the best chip seasoning I've ever had on chips. I followed this with some of their homemade chocolate chunk ice cream, made with their porter. Whilst it was rather tasty, I felt it didn't quite seem exciting as the description.

After food and beers, we went on the tour. The things of note that I felt worthy of mentioning are the fact that some of the waste malt is used in the resturant for baking pretzels and bread, and that the beer served in the resturant comes straight from the tanks in the brewery, completely bypassing the kegging process, meaning fresher beer.

I liked Great Lakes. After the tour I popped back in to use their toilet before the drive back and discovered the pub downstairs. It seemed like a good place to drink in, and if it wasn't for the fact that I was feeling perpetually dehydrated, I probably would have stayed for one more.

Black and Tan Experiments #13 - Brewdog 3

Late on Saturday Night, Jonny Bright posted this tweet...

I'm guessing he was rather drunk at this point, though this tweet still put the idea into my head, and so earlier this evening, once I had got back from Leeds and dropped my suitcase off, I headed up to Brewdog Camden.

I've had both Tactical Nuclear Penguin and Sink The Bismarck! on their own before. I find of them to be a bit harsh, especially when it comes to the aroma. It's difficult to distinguish anything underneath the burning alcohol that wafts up from the glass.

Combine the two though, and it actually becomes a lot more drinkable. Everything about it mellows, and the taste becomes a chocolate followed by burning followed by a lingering sweetness, that ultimately satisfies.

Quick research tells me that I'm not the first person mad enough to actually try this. At least one other person has tried it, and noted this fact on the internet. There are references to A TNP/STB Black and Tan here and here. It's not clear if these are two seperate people, or the same insane beer drinker.

It's not something I'd reccomend having on a regular basis, but it's something I reccomend trying, even if you didn't like the component beers.

 

Black and Tan Experiments #9b - The Bourbon Barrel Bearded Lady Edition

A few weeks ago, I tried a black and tan using Magic Rock's Human Cannonball and Bearded Lady. Yesterday, as part of the European Beer Bloggers conference, I got the chance to try this mix using the new barrel aged version of Bearded Lady, of which there are just 8 kegs in existence.

The barrel ageing has made Bearded Lady a lot smoother, and as such, it drinks a lot easier than a 10.5% beer should do. It's full of bourbon hints in the aroma, but they're not overpowering like some barrel aged beers can have. When it becomes mixed with Human Cannonball, it's very similar to the standard mix, with slight hints of bourbon taste coming through, which presently surprised me as I was expecting this to be drowned out by the hops in the Human Cannonball.

Photo to come later...

European Beer Bloggers Conference - Live Beer Blogging

Okay, so this isn't "live". I'm writing it whilst drinking the beers I'll be talking about in this post, but I've opted to not try and actually tweet anything about the beers, as the wifi in the room we're drinking in is horribly unreliable.

The first brewery at our table is Marble Brewery from Manchester. They've bought with them a beer made in collaboration with Emilisse Brewery from Holland, an Earl Grey IPA. It's been made using earl grey tea, and has a lot of citric bitterness.

Second to pimp their beer is Roosters Brewery, with a single hop IPA called Baby-Faced Assassin.  It's a Citra IPA, made with a single variety of malt. As with most Citra hopped beers, it's not really my thing, but it does seem to be at the more likeable end of the range for me. Now I've had a few sips, it actually tastes more like grapefruit juice than it does a beer.

Next to the table is Great Heck Brewery, serving us Stormin' Norman, an American Style IPA, hopped with Cascade and Columbus.  I don't seem to be getting much hop aroma from this, and to be honest, the taste isn't really doing much for me either.

Brewer number four is Slater's Ales with Top Totty (queue Parliament jokes and pump clip taste debates).  To me, it's a nice, lager like ale. There's not much aroma, but it's clean, crisp and very refreshing. I'm not a fan of pale ales, but this I enjoy

Next to our table is Mark Dredge, representing Camden Town Brewery with a bottle of US Hells. I've had one bottle of this that I've "got". The others haven't quite met expectations, and this is the same. It's nice, but it doesn't quite match that bottle that made me "get" US Hells

Half way through and Adnams are serving us with Ghost Ship, a "Ghostly Pale Ale". It contains a combination of Moteuka and Citra hops. These combine to create an aroma and taste that I quite like. It's still not my style as a pale ale, but in the right circumstances, it's a beer I'd enjoy.

Seventh to the table is Innis and Gunn, showcasing their Scottish Pale Ale, which will be available to buy soon. As with all Innis and Gunn beers, it's aged in oak barrels, in this case, Bourbon Barrels. It has a sweet, whisky like aroma, with a hint of vanilla in the aroma and the taste. It's a good beer, but the fact it is sold in clear bottles does put me off

The Leeds Brewery are the eight people to the table, bringing with them Hellfire, a "Fiery Pale Bitter".  It had a subtle aroma of grapefruit, and a bitter taste. After several pale ales I'm starting to get tired of them now. Variety is a good thing. Thankfully, I know Otley have bought Oxymoron with them

Talking of which, Nick Otley is at the table now. Oxymoron is a Black IPA. Aromawise it's one of those annoying bastards of a beer which I can recognise the aroma, but can't quite place what it is. It seems to be a mix of coffee, chocolate, liquorice and aniseed, with something else as well.

Finally, we end with Brains and Brains' Dark, the brewery's Mild. It's full of rich, chocolates and burnt malt flavours. This is the sort of beer I enjoy, and I'm pleased to finish on this.

Sprawling across the web...

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Anti-Social Beer Drinking

Right now, the attendees of the European Beer Bloggers Conference are enjoying beers from all around Europe. Beers from the Netherlands, Sweden, Italy and Bulgaria are all present.

I tried a few myself. There's some good beers there, but I found myself struggling to appreciate them. I needed to sit down, and relax with a good beer. This is what has bought me to North Bar.

It's incredibly antisocial of me, but you know what, I don't care. I enjoy beer best when I can relax, just me and a beer, which is exactly what I have right now. There are other people here, but at this table it's just me and a bottle of Mikkeller 19. From what I understand it's brewed with 19 hops. I can't say I'd know that if I hadn't been told, but I can say I rather like it.

Anti-social beer drinking. Try it some time, you might enjoy it.

The Friday Pint #20 - Raw Brewing Company Grey Ghost IPA

With the EBBC registration and trade show in an hour and a half's time, choosing to come up to North Bar and drink my 20th Friday Pint probably isn't the best of ideas. Here I am though, with a pint of Raw Brewing Company's Grey Ghost IPA. I'm impressed. It's pale, and bitter and seems like a very good start to the day. It's not really inspiring any extravagant descriptive hyperbole from me, but it is a rather good IPA. So, 20 weeks on from when I started this strand, with no real plan in mind other than to improve my writing and descriptive skills, what have I acheived? Well, I'm still not entirely sure if there is a plan or structure. I'm trying to stick to my original idea of trying something new, though this hasn't always been possible, or appropriate. Some of the pints have been responsible for a stream of writing about themselves, whilst others have merely been sipping matter as I jot down what's in my head. I'll be honest and say this one isn't really doing either, despite it being one of the best Friday Pints in recent weeks. Kind of disappointing this post really, isn't it?