Category Archives: Beers

The beers

53. Pitfield Shoreditch Stout

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This is the first beer I’ve ever tried from the Pitfield Brewery, and until today I knew very little about them. In fact, I still know very little other than they are a small, independent brewery with a complicated history.

Founded in the cellar of a specialist beer shop in Pitfield Street in Shoreditch, London, the brewery is now based on a farm in the Essex countryside, having changed location and ownership several times over its 30-year existence.

The core beers in Pitfield’s range are all certified organic and vegan, but are otherwise a fairly traditional-looking selection of pale ales, IPAs, porters and stouts. The naming of the Shoreditch Stout harks back to the brewery’s geographical roots, and conveniently I didn’t have to travel to Essex to find it: instead all that was required was a ten-minute stroll from the office to Old Street in—appropriately enough—Shoreditch.

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Pitfield Shoreditch Stout pours a deep blackish brown colour, as befits a stout, and there’s a generous tan lacing and a promising smoky aroma. It’s remarkably malty and full of date, fig and other dried fruit flavours topped off with a dry, bitter and slightly salty finish.

This one is a little lighter-bodied than might be expected from a truly top-notch stout, but it’s far from watery. It’s very drinkable, and at a restrained 4.0% ABV it’s eminently sessionable.

I may be a little spoilt in the stout department, having easy access to the Kernel Brewery and their magnificent Export and Imperial Brown stouts, but I do feel the Shoreditch Stout struggles to really distinguish itself from many other half-decent stouts. That said, if the vegan/organic thing is up your street then this is probably one of your better options.

There are two more Pitfield beers in The Book: a London Porter and an Imperial Stout. I’ve yet to find a source for the latter, but I certainly look forward to tracking it down and seeing how it compares to this one.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Dominion Brewery Co, Moreton, Essex, England
Style: Porters and Stouts
Strength: 4.0% ABV
Found at: City Beverage Company, Old Street, London EC1
Serving: 500ml Bottle

52. Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier

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Every so often, along comes a beer that takes me far outside my comfort zone. This is just such a beer, and I have very little idea what to expect.

Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier hails from Bavaria, Germany and is a smoked beer. Smoked beers are made much like any other, except that the barley malt is infused with smoke from wood fires prior to mashing.

I’ve very little experience with this style of beer, beyond having once accidentally ordered a pint of Anarchy’s Smoke Bomb, which was so over the top as to be rather charming, and Beavertown’s much more subtle, and remarkably smooth, Smog Rocket.

Let’s see how this rather authentic looking beer compares to those two upstarts.

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On cracking open the bottle, there’s an instant, ominous smoky aroma, and I’m reminded strongly of Lapsang Souchong tea. The beer pours a sinister and not entirely appetising dark greyish brown colour.

It tastes absolutely awful, of course. The use of smoke is in no way restrained, providing an unpleasantly bitter taste that sticks in your mouth and nose for hours afterwards. You can’t taste the underlying beer, as its flavour is completely obscured by the smoke. Apparently this one started life as a Märzen, but there’s no way of knowing that without reading the label.

The experience is reminiscent of sucking on charcoal or a burnt log, which is not my idea of a good time. The brewers have tried to tame the smokiness a little by upping the sweetness, but it just muddies the flavours and makes the beer sickly and cloying.

I’m sure there’s a lot of love and craft goes into Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier, and the brewers are no doubt extremely proud of it, but it isn’t to my tastes. To be frank, if it weren’t for my dedication to the 300 Beers challenge, and to both of my readers, this one would be going down the sink.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Brauerei Schlenkerla, Bamberg, Germany
Style: Smoked Beer
Strength: 5.1% ABV
Found at: Utobeer, Borough Market, London SE1
Serving: 500ml Bottle

51. Goose Island Honker’s Ale

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It’s always interesting to experience American attempts to replicate classic British beer styles. This time we’ll be trying Chicago-based Goose Island Brewery’s interpretation of a Best Bitter.

I wasn’t entirely convinced by Goose Island’s IPA when I reviewed it a few weeks ago, finding it far too sweet and cloying. Let’s see how their endearingly-named Honker’s Ale compares.

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Goose Island Honker’s Ale pours a lovely warm bronze colour with a generous off-white head, and there’s an enticingly fragrant malty aroma.

The beer is very full-bodied, and packed full of flavour: there are big biscuity malts, tart fruit and an intriguing marzipan note.

Unfortunately, that sweetness that plagued the IPA is back. Although Honker’s Ale isn’t quite as tooth-janglingly sugary as the IPA, it’s still too sweet. Bitter is named that way for a reason, and while there is a bitter finish here, it’s well hidden under a coating of sugar.

This is a genuinely good beer that’s let down by what seems to be a pandering to the American palate. That’s a real shame, because I’m sure that the kind of drinkers that would buy Goose Island’s beers have far more sophisticated tastes than mainstream beer swillers.

Maybe I’m wrong—Goose Island are currently owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, the giant international corporation responsible for Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona, after all—but I don’t think so.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Goose Island Beer Co., Chicago, IL
Style: Best Bitters
Strength: 4.3% ABV
Found at: Bossman Wines, Lordship Lane, London SE22
Serving: 355ml Bottle

50. Saison Dupont

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Reaching the minor landmark of Beer Number 50 seems like a good excuse to crack open something special, or at least a little bit different. To celebrate, I’ve plumped for a beer that I’ve been eyeing up for a little while: Saison Dupont.

Saison is a particular style of beer originating from Belgium—where else—where, in a refreshing deviation from the usual narrative, it was traditionally brewed not by monks, but by farmers. Saison was originally a relatively weak beer, designed to hydrate and fortify the farm workers at a time when there was no reliable source of untainted drinking water—hops and alcohol forming a particularly successful preservative partnership.

In that regard, Saison echoes the “small beer” that kept Britain alive through the centuries when cholera would take your first born as soon as look at you, and which was even issued to schoolchildren at morning break until mediaeval Tory cuts took hold, probably.

Anyway, this is only the second Saison I’ve ever tried, after London-based Beavertown’s experimental Saison 34 a few weeks ago. With the greatest of respect to Beavertown, Dupont is the real deal, the one against which all Saisons tend to be judged. The Dupont yeast strain alone is legendary, and is highly sought after by other brewers. In fact, that Beavertown Saison and many others are brewed using Dupont yeast.

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Saison Dupont pours a slightly hazy golden colour, with a big, frothy white head. It smells fresh, floral and hoppy, and it tastes that way too, with the distinctive Belgian esters being present, but much subdued. It’s a little reminiscent of Leffe Blonde, but much more subtle.

I’m also reminded of Duvel, though there’s an extra peppery spice that Duvel lacks. Saison is often herbed and spiced, for example with coriander, cloves and orange peel, and while I’m not sure which botanicals are used to make this beer, they’re used in restrained quantities, so proceedings remain light and fragrant.

Although I mentioned that Saison is traditionally a weaker beer, times keep on changing, and you do have to remember that we’re talking about Belgium here, so Saison Dupont weighs in at 6.5% ABV. It tastes a lot lighter though, and remains particularly refreshing. It’s all finished by a crisp, dry, lingering finish.

So do I like it? I do, but it was going to be hard for Saison Dupont to live up to the high regard in which it has historically been held, not least since this isn’t a style of beer which is likely to blow your mind.

Saison Dupont is really just a very refreshing, enjoyable Belgian ale, and a very good one at that. It would be great with food, particularly mediterranean flavours, ideally sat outdoors late into a summer’s evening.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Brasserie Dupont, Tourpes, Belgium
Style: Saison
Strength: 6.5% ABV
Found at: Utobeer, Borough Market, London SE1
Serving: 330ml Bottle

49. Hook Norton Old Hooky

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It’s off to the Cotswolds we go to try the first beer I’ve ever had from the Hook Norton Brewery, their delightfully and somewhat misleadingly named Old Hooky.

I say misleadingly, because unlike Old Peculier or Old Tom, this is a Best Bitter rather than an Old Ale.

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It’s a handsome enough looking beer, pouring a warm, rubyish amber colour with a big off-white head, albeit one that fades quickly. The nose is remarkably fruity, and I’m surprised to notice that it smells almost like a Belgian Dubbel, such as Westmalle Dubbel or Chimay Rouge. There’s that distinctive, estery waft of dried fruit so typical of that style.

The fruitiness comes through in the flavour too, where it’s especially reminiscent of sultanas, and is backed up by some hefty malts. There’s a huge bitterness, but also a sweetness, and finally a saltiness that’s reminiscent of Marston’s Pedigree.

There’s a lot going on flavour-wise here then, but I’m not sure it all comes together into more than the sum of its parts. I’m just not sure what this beer’s driving at or trying to be.

In fairness, Hook Norton are all about cask ale: they refuse to let a drop of their beer be served from a keg, and sell very few bottles. It’s quite possible that I’m doing them a disservice by trying this one from a bottle, but given that Old Hooky is nigh impossible to find on cask outside Oxfordshire, it’s all I have to work with.

A reasonably good beer then, full of flavour, but not mind-blowing in any way. Still, I promise I’ll try it on cask if I ever have the opportunity!

Facts and Figures

Brewery: The Hook Norton Brewery, Hook Norton, Oxfordshire, England
Style: Best Bitters
Strength: 4.6% ABV
Found at: Bossman Wines, Lordship Lane, London SE22
Serving: 500ml Bottle

48. Coopers Extra Strong Vintage Ale

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This is the third and final one of the three beers in The Book to hail from the Adelaide-based Coopers Brewery, following on from their Sparkling Ale, and their Best Extra Stout. I happen to suspect that this one is a little bit special.

This is Coopers Extra Strong Vintage Ale. A few breweries put out a Vintage Ale, which will typically be a limited edition, once-yearly bottling of a strong, high quality ale. Each year’s vintage will tend to take on its own unique characteristics, and once in the bottle, will improve greatly for years to come.

This is one beer that I thought would be a challenge to get hold of—not least since these things typically become collectors’ items within weeks—until it silently and without fanfare appeared on the shelves of my favourite local boozeteria.

And knock me down with a feather if this isn’t the 2007 vintage, which was the first that was made available in the UK. The internet tells me there were only about 5,000 of these ever made. The bottle carries an oddly-specific “best after” date of 3:17pm on the 8th of June, 2007. No problem there then. It’s probably about time to drink the stuff.

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Once again we see Coopers stock 375ml bottle, with a hefty dose of yeast at the bottom to allow the beer to continue to ferment and improve in the bottle. As with Coopers previous beers, there’s so much yeast in there that it’s impossible to pour the beer clear, even if you wanted to. Instead it pours a dark, cloudy ruby colour with absolutely no head at all.

I’ve very little idea what to expect from the flavour: my only point of reference for a Vintage Ale so far has been a couple of bottles of too-young Fuller’s Vintage Ale. That one is essentially a bottle-conditioned Barleywine, and there’s certainly a hint of Barleywine in the aroma of the Coopers brew.

There’s a lovely, spicy bonfire toffee note on top of that though, and I’m reminded strongly of Texels Bock, which is rich, sweet and thick, and tastes just like liquid Werther’s Original candy.

To taste, that sweetness is there in spades but it’s balanced with just enough bitterness to prevent it becoming cloying. The beer is still full of caramel and butterscotch, though, and the body is thick, rich and treacly.

At a nominal 7.5% ABV, the alcohol is warming without being overpowering, and I wonder if six years of bottle-conditioning hasn’t made it a little stronger than the label states. Either way, this is not an everyday beer by any means: it’s one to take time over and savour.

And it’s good. I’m not convinced that it’s six-year-wait good, but then I only bought it last week, so can’t have any complaints. Even so, I’ve a couple of bottles put aside in the Official 300 Beers Cellar—my kitchen cupboard—and I look forward to seeing how it performs with another couple of years behind it.

All in all, I have to admit that Coopers have single-handledly changed my perception of Australian beer over the last few weeks, a little like Brooklyn Brewery destroyed my prejudices about American beer.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Coopers Brewery, Adelaide, South Australia
Style: Old Ales, Barley Wines and Vintage Ales
Strength: 7.5% ABV
Found at: Bossman Wines, Lordship Lane, London SE22
Serving: 375ml Bottle

47. Bitburger Pils

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It’s time to add a new category to the site, as we come to try our first Pilsner so far. In this case it’s a Pilsner not from Pilsen, or even from the Czech Republic, but from Bitburg, Germany.

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Bitburger Pils pours a dark golden colour with an almost negligible amount of white foam. What there is doesn’t stick around for long. There’s a toasty malt aroma with the faintest whiff of hops.

Bitburger is slightly fuller-bodied than is typical for a lager, and better for it. A good malty backbone is present to underpin the nicely balanced bitterness and sweetness, and it’s all followed by a long, dry finish.

I’m secretly enjoying this one more that I tend to expect from a lager. Bitburger is a very gluggable yet satisfying beer. Whilst I wouldn’t pass over a good ale or stout for it, this is a very pleasant beverage to drink straight from the fridge on a summery evening like this one.

Another enjoyable beer, and there will be a few more Pilsners along in due course, including some actually from Pilsen, so it’ll be interesting to see how Bitburger measure up against those.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Bitburger Braugruppe GmbH, Bitburg, Germany
Style: Pilsners
Strength: 4.8% ABV
Found at: Bossman Wines, Lordship Lane, London SE22
Dispense: 330ml Bottle

46. Marston’s Pedigree

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I’ve had this poor old bottle of Marston’s Pedigree sat around for a little
while now. Amid a sea of Belgian Trappist ales and craft-brewed American Barleywines, it has been difficult to get excited about this relatively commonplace, corner shop-bought Burton Pale Ale.

That’s clearly unfair, as Pedigree is a very well-regarded beer and is something of an English classic.

Pedigree is nominally the second Marston’s beer to be covered here, after their very tasty Old Empire IPA, but in fact the company is something of a supergroup, owning the Jennings and Brakspear brands, along with Ringwood and Wychwood, both of whose wares we’ll soon be tasting.

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Marston’s Pedigree pours a warm amber colour with a smallish off-white head. The bottled stuff weighs in at 5.0% ABV, a little stronger than the cask version’s more sessionable 4.5%.

Despite a fairly mild beery aroma, Pedigree is absolutely chock-full of flavours. It has a hefty malt backbone and a generous dose of English hop bitterness. There’s some light, vinous fruit and the distinct saltiness for which Burton ales are known, due to the famous local water.

Despite all those flavours vying for your attention, proceedings are remarkably civilised: everything is beautifully well balanced, resulting in a hugely drinkable, classic English beer.

Though I must have had Pedigree in a boozer at some point in the past, I look forward to trying it on cask before long, and I suspect next time I have a bottle in, it won’t hang around for quite so long. Good stuff.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Marston’s Beer Co, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England
Style: Pale Ales
Strength: 5.0% ABV
Found at: Maxy Supermarket, Norwood Road, London SE24
Dispense: 500ml Bottle

45. Coopers Best Extra Stout

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This is this blog’s second trip to the land of Oz, and also our second beer from Coopers, having enjoyed their famous Coopers Sparkling Ale a few weeks ago. In the meantime, I’ve also tried their Original Pale Ale once or twice, and found it to be most refreshing.

Truth be told, I’m developing a bit of an affection for this plucky Adelaide brewery, swimming as they are against the tide of flavourless golden lagers for which so many Australian drinkers have so much affection.

This beer is as far from your stubby of Foster’s as you’re likely to get Down Under: it’s a bloody great unfiltered, bottle-conditioned stout weighing in at 6.3% ABV.

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Here we have Coopers signature 375ml bottle, and you know you’re in for something a little bit special when your beer has a “best after” date and no sign of a “best before”. This one’s label suggests it should not be drunk until after 9:12 in the morning on Boxing Day 2011. No problems there then. By my maths this one has at least a year and a half under its belt already.

That’s good, because being bottle-conditioned, just like the Sparkling Ale, there’s a good dose of yeast sat in the bottom of the bottle, helping the beer to ferment in the bottle, and to continue to improve year upon year.

While many brewers recommend that you let their bottle-conditioned beers settle upright, then pour carefully so as not to land the yeast in your glass, Coopers helpfully suggest a variety of rolling, twisting and agitating rituals, each one tailored to the specific beer, to reintegrate the yeast in to the beer before pouring. I just gave it a little shake.

Coopers Best Extra Stout pours as black as you like, as befits a quality stout, with a big tan head that sticks around tenaciously. The nose is all dark bitter chocolate, freshly-ground coffee and soot courtesy of the roasted malts. It’s a stout alright.

It’s reasonably full-bodied, though lacking the sheer velvet luxury of the Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, which I’m aware that I mention in every single review, or The Kernel’s magnificent Imperial Brown Stout.

That said, the Coopers offering is easier-drinking and more gluggable than those two hooligans, whilst still being a big, big stout. There’s a hefty, raisiny dried fruit flavour in there which reminds me, interestingly enough, of Bishop’s Finger and a massively dry, bitter finish that embiggens as the beer reaches room temperature.

This is a good stout and no mistake. In fact I suspect it’s the best stout being made in Australia right now, though I’d be delighted to hear of a better one. It’s still eclipsed by several British stouts, obviously, but it puts many of our weaker efforts to shame. Good stuff once again from Coopers.

We’ll be returning to Coopers Brewery one more time, and quite soon. Stay tuned, because I have an inkling that the third and final Coopers beer might just be something a little bit out of the ordinary.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Coopers Brewery, Adelaide, South Australia
Style: Porters and Stouts
Strength: 6.3% ABV
Found at: Utobeer, Borough Market, London SE1
Serving: 375ml Bottle

44. Brooklyn Brown Ale

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This is the third and final beer we’ll meet from the Brooklyn Brewery, having already tried the Vienna-style Lager and the magnificent Black Chocolate Stout. They were both cracking beers, so I have high hopes for this one.

Brooklyn Brown Ale was originally brewed as a seasonal beer, but proved so popular that it found its way into Brooklyn’s core range. It has subsequently been tweaked heavily over the years by Brooklyn’s famous Brewmaster Garrett Oliver.

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There’s that smart Milton Glaser-designed Brooklyn branding again, though the label replaces the Brooklyn Lager’s green detailing with an appropriate-seeming reddish brown colour scheme.

The ale is certainly brown, pouring a deep chestnut colour with a small tan head. It’s a smooth, drinkable beer with a slightly lighter body than I expected. It’s full of deep roasted flavours and nutty, bonfire toffee sweetness.

There’s a slight bitter finish, though the hop bitterness isn’t especially pronounced, despite a generous amount of hops being used in the brewing process.

All in all, with their Brown Ale, Brooklyn have created a successful modern American twist on a classic British style of beer, ramping up the malts and strength to create a deeper, more complex brew that remains pleasantly refreshing.

I can’t help thinking this would be a great beer to cook with, perhaps in a steak and ale pie or game casserole, but I’ll stick with drinking it for now.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Brooklyn Brewery, Brooklyn, NY
Style: Brown and Mild Ales
Strength: 5.6% ABV
Found at: Utobeer, Borough Market, London SE1
Serving: 355ml Bottle