Black and Tan Experiments #14 - Sam Adams Imperial Stout and Sierra Nevada Hoptimum

I'm still in America, the land of big roads, big cities and big beers.

Sam Adams Imperial Stout is a gloriously delicious stout. Full of rich chocolate flavours and aromas with hints of aniseed. By far one of the best Imperial Stouts I've had in a while. I'd been enjoying it for a while when I thought about adding some Hoptimum for a Black and Tan.

Hoptimum is an Imperial IPA with an IBU of 100. It's an extremely bitter and hoppy beer. It's not that strong in aroma compared to many DIPAs, but it's very strong in taste and alcohol.

The mixture surprises me. From experience I was expecting the high IBUs to cut through the stout and add bitterness to the stout. As it is, the Stout overwhelms in this case, with only a bit of hoppiness in the taste.

Two individually great beers make an okay black and tan.

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 #12 - Magic Rock and Brooklyn.

So, I am now in Leeds, and after failing to find a comic book shop to buy this weeks issues of Batman, I find myself in North Bar.

I like it. It's how a bar should be in my mind. A bar is long, it can get busy, and conversations often merge into one murmuring noise. A pub in comparison is more square, it will often have separate areas for different purposes. A pub is very different from a bar.

I look at what's on. Behind the bar on the blackboard I see the words "Black and Tan", in this case a mix of Magic Rock's Dark Arts, and Brooklyn Lager. On the bar though is Brooklyn's Soriachi Ace. I order a half only to find it's run out.

And so here I am, Black and Tan #12 in front of me. It's my first beer since reaching Leeds. It's not overly impressive. The lager mellows the stout in a way that isn't really noticeable, but makes it a lot more quaffable. Dark Arts on its own I tend to sip. This I appear to be swigging.

I have half a glass left. The question is, with the pre conference pub crawl looming, do I stay for another?

Sadler's Dr. Hardwick's IPA (Plus Black and Tan Experiment #11)

A few weeks ago, Chris Sadler posted this tweet. I was instantly excited, and wanted to try it as soon as possible. On Monday, he posted this tweet, and  by the end of that day I had booked train tickets to and from Birmingham New Street, with enough time in between for trains to and from Lye, and a couple of pints of beer.

I started with a pint of the Dr. Hardwicks, and a pint was more than enough, especially on top of what I'd already had at the Euston Tap beforehand. It's a dangerously drinkable beer, not too far away from how I remember 90 Minute IPA to taste, with perhaps a tad more grapefruit.

As I was there I took the chance to see how well it worked with Mud City Stout as a Black and Tan. I'm pleased to say that this blend works well, with the stout taking off some of the bitterness of the IPA.

I was opening to write more, but I stopped making notes quite early on. I hope that Dr. Hardwick's proves successful. I'm not sure if it will do well on tap, but I think it could find a market in bottles. Here's hoping it has a future.

Black and Tan Experiments #10 - Thornbridge

You'd have thought, with Thornbridge being Thornbridge and all, that this experiment would turn out to be rather good. It turns out that if you thought that way you'd be wrong. At least, you would be in my opinion anyway.

For the tenth installment of this irregular series of blog posts I took a bottle of St. Petersburg, Thornbridge's 7.7% Imperial Russian Stout and a bottle of Halcyon, their 7.4% Imperial IPA.

I'd had St Petersburg before, last February (2011) at the Battersea Beer Festival. It was one of the best beers I had during my session there, and one I've wanted to try again since. As a result I was looking forward to opening this bottle. Another result of this was that I was slightly disappointed that this bottle didn't seem to live up to that first time I tried the beer.

The aroma is a mixture of subtle spicy berries and high cocoa dark chocolate. It has a warming alcohol taste to it, with a burnt toast after taste that coats the mouth and lingers far too long for it's own good. If there was more in the initial taste of the beer I could cope with this, but there's not, and so ultimately, I was disappointed.

The Halcyon was a new beer to me. The aroma was a floral/grassy aroma, rather than the citrusy aromas that are common in Imperial IPAs. It seemed to be much more subtle, and less hoppy than most Imperial IPAs, and as a result, much easier to drink.

This subtleness wasn't a good thing for the mix though. The characteristics of the St. Petersburg dominate, though the harshness of the burnt aftertaste has been lessened by the Halcyon. The good mixtures I've been able to write a fair bit about. This inspired nothing.