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158. Caledonian Deuchars IPA

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Our time in Scotland is drawing to a close, and after a night in Aberdeen, there’s just time to break up the long trek home with a final night in Edinburgh.

This time we’ll go for something altogether more local: Caledonian Deuchars IPA is brewed just down the road to Slateford, in the shadow of Heart of Midlothian’s Tynecastle Stadium.

Caledonian Deuchars IPA at the Oxford Bar, Edinburgh

Caledonian Deuchars IPA is a beer I remember well from my years as a student in Edinburgh. I’m convinced it used to be stronger though: these days it’s an eminently sessionable 3.8%.

And where better to try it than The Oxford Bar, famed as “The Ox” of Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels. Inspector Rebus is a regular here, often holding clandestine meetings in the back room, and this is his tipple of choice. When he’s not on the whisky, that is. That’s because Ian Rankin is also a regular here, and has been known to try the Deuchars IPA once or twice himself.

The Oxford Bar, Young Street, Edinburgh

Of course the Deuchars IPA is in good condition here, and served in the correct glassware, always a nice touch.

Some may dispute the labelling of this as an IPA, given its modest strength and subtle hopping, but by traditional Scottish standards it is a hoppy beer. It’s zesty and refreshing, with lemony fruit perfectly balanced out by juicy malts bearing a hint of caramel sweetness.

That’s all sat on top of a slight Burton-like saltiness from the hard local water that helped to make Edinburgh a renowned centre of brewing for many, many years.

It’s a great little pint, this one, and the sort of thing you could drink all night if push came to shove.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Caledonian Brewery, Edinburgh, Scotland
Style: India Pale Ales
Strength: 3.8% ABV
Found at: The Oxford Bar, Young Street, Edinburgh
Serving: Cask, pint

Golden Pints 2015

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In no particular order.

Best UK Cask

I don’t get through a lot of cask beer, as it’s generally pretty underwhelming, hit-and-miss stuff. But the Moor Beer Sloe Walker two weeks ago at the famous Bag o’ Nails in Bristol was an absolute treat. This is a very personal beer for me, as a few years ago—along with Thornbridge Jaipur and Marble Black Marble—it was a gateway beer, changing forever my perception of what a beer can be, and starting me along a beery journey, of which this ridiculous blog project is just part.

It’s delicious stuff and in painfully short supply, so the 250 mile round trip from London was an easy decision to make. The opportunity to hang with some of the pub’s 15 cats was a nice bonus.

Best UK Keg

I could start listing all sorts of 15% barrel-aged Barley Wines and Belgian Quads and whatnot, but The Kernel’s Pale Ale was the revelation for me this year.

Hiding in plain sight, and often overlooked in favour of the brewery’s giant IPAs and Imperial Stouts, the Pales are the bread and butter of the Kernel range, yet when served eye-wateringly fresh, as can often be found at The Lyric in Soho, they’re very hard to beat. Attempting to brew something similar myself has been enough to show me why the Kernel are a world-renowned brewery, and I’m a computer programmer.

Brewery

It’s almost redundant to mention how good The Kernel are, and it was nearly going to be them, but for me this year has been all about Moor Beer. In many ways an understated brewery compared to some, their keep-it-simple approach to just brewing straightforward beers to the highest possible standards resonates strongly with me. The chance to spend an hour or so drinking and chatting with giant brewery dog Baz at the Moor taproom in Bristol recently remains a special memory, even if he steadfastly refused to pose for photographs.

UK Pub/Bar of the Year

It’s always going to be the ever-magnificent Stormbird in Camberwell, isn’t it. The exceptional selection of beers, the lovely staff and the unnecessarily reasonable prices combine to make Stormbird one of the very finest places to drink beer on the planet.

Extra special mention has to go to The Lyric and The Queen’s Head, both in Soho. It’s so rare to find a proper, honest, individual pub in central London, and I’m lucky enough to have two right on the office doorstep.

Overseas Pub/Bar of the Year

Alright, I’ve only been to two other countries this year, but I’m pretty sure I could travel the globe and struggle to find anywhere of the calibre of Moeder Lambic Fontainas and Poechenellekelder in Brussels, and La Capsule in Lille. Happy, if slightly hazy, memories of all three this year.

Twitterer

It’s clearly non-shrieking beer-drinking sardonic sickpot Matt, isn’t it. A man who knows a good beer when he sees it, and the perfect antidote to the cliquey, self-appointed Twitter beer elite. Besides, who else do you know that has adopted a seagull this year?

156. Orkney Dark Island

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Threehundredbeers is still in Scotland, but a very picturesque Scotrail journey over the Forth and Tay bridges and on up the East Coast finds us in Angus to pay a long overdue visit to The Official Threehundredbeers Mother and her extravagantly-sized new German Shepherd, Kai.

I’ve brought a little something with me in my rucksack, sourced from the heaving shelves of The Beerhive back in Edinburgh. As the name suggests, Orkney Dark Island has come all the way from Stromness in the Orkneys.

Orkney Dark Island

Orkney Dark Island is certainly dark: a deep chestnut brown that appears black in most lights. There’s a small tan froth, though not a great deal of carbonation.

It’s listed in The Book as a Scottish Ale, which seems about right. It’s big and malty and very much at the sweeter end of the spectrum. But where a lot of Scottish ales can seem cloying to those accustomed to the hoppier beers from further south, this one is balanced out by toastier, almost Stout-like notes.

Dark Island goes down smoothly enough, though I’m not sure I made the right decision by choosing this as a pre-dinner beer. It’s a little too heavy for that, and perhaps better suited to keeping you warm on a cold Orcadian evening. That said, there’s a lightness to the body that makes it very gluggable indeed.

Good stuff. Back in Edinburgh I also found this one on cask at Bennets Bar, and that seemed to work well: smoother and fuller-bodied and the perfect preamble to a nice drop of malt whisky.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: The Orkney Brewery, Stromness, Orkney Islands
Style: Scottish Ales
Strength: 4.6% ABV
Found at: The Beerhive, Rodney Street, Edinburgh
Serving: 500ml bottle

155. Belhaven St. Andrews Ale

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It’s Day Two in Edinburgh, and I’m rather enjoying revisiting the city that used to be my home, and learning what a great beer scene it has these days.

Threehundredbeers may not be firing on all cylinders today, though, since that Ayinger Celebrator at the Bow Bar last night led on to BrewDog Edinburgh—downstairs from a flat in which I briefly lived—and the utterly magnificent new Hanging Bat.

After a nostalgic stroll around George Square and The Meadows, I reckon I could manage a half of Belhaven St. Andrews Ale in The Albanach up on the Royal Mile.

Belhaven St. Andrews Ale at the Albanach, Edinburgh

The plan for today had actually been to hop on a train out to Dunbar and visit the Belhaven brewery, but the tour was cancelled since only one person (me) had booked a place. Apparently running this ridiculous blog does not yet carry the weight of beer-related influence I so clearly deserve.

So to make up for that, we’ll at least visit a Belhaven pub. In my day The Albanach was a swanky café bar named “EH1” or something similar, but it has staged a bit of a recovery and is now a decent, slightly localsy, boozer. I believe this is also the pub in whose cellar the skeletons were found in Ian Rankin’s Fleshmarket Close.

And conveniently enough, it has the St. Andrews Ale front and centre on the bar.

Belhaven St. Andrews Ale is a lovely looking beer, deep amber in colour and unfortunately more head than beer due to a somewhat hasty pour. It’s in good condition here though, and welcome enough after the climb up to the Royal Mile.

It’s Scottish alright: sweet and malty and lacking in any kind of hop character. Instead there’s caramel and Werther’s Originals and maybe a little bitterness at the end, unless I imagined it.

I’m initially quite pleased I stuck to a half, but whilst not enormously exciting, this one has enough going for it that I’m soon ordering another, before shambling back to my Travelodge with a chipsteak supper and a couple of nice finds from The Beerhive.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Belhaven, Dunbar, Scotland
Style: Scottish Ales
Strength: 4.9% ABV
Found at: The Albanach, High Street, Edinburgh
Serving: Cask, half pint

154. Ayinger Celebrator

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There are countless Scottish beers on the list which we’ve yet to track down. It’s also long overdue that I should pay a visit to the Official Threehundredbeers Mother, who lives somewhere in the middle of Scotland that I couldn’t necessarily point to on a map. It’s time to hit the road again.

We’ll break up the journey by stopping off in Edinburgh for a couple of nights. It’ll be a nostalgic sort of visit, as I spent five penniless years in Edinburgh as a student, slightly longer ago than I’m entirely comfortable admitting to myself.

The city seems to have a thriving beer scene these days, with The Bow Bar enjoying a particularly good reputation. Where better to tick off a couple of fine Scottish ales?

The Bow Bar, Victoria Street, Edinburgh

Of course, I’ve made all of this effort to get to Scotland only to walk haplessly into the middle of the Bow Bar’s “German Bier Festival”, with the pub currently boasting a terrific tap and bottle lineup of rare and delicious German treats.

Happily enough, the bottle menu includes Ayinger Celebrator, a strong Bock-style beer from Aying in Bavaria, one I’ve struggled to find in London so far. So no complaints from me.

Ayinger Celebrator at the Bow Bar

As a Bock, this is technically a lager, although you wouldn’t know it to look at it. Celebrator pours dark and thick, with a modest tan froth, sticking to the glass as you gently swirl it around.

Maybe I’m just excited to be on holiday, but this seems to me to be lovely stuff. There is a detectable hint of lageriness in there somewhere, but it’s hidden well by rich, sinister toffee and caramel, dried fruits such as dates and raisins, and a potent, warming hit of booze.

German Bier Festival Menu at the Bow Bar

The 6.7% payload is well-integrated though. The malting is rich and sweet—enough to remind me of those Scottish ales that I came here for in the first place—and there’s a lasting, slightly smoky finish. What a complex beer this is, and one to take your time over and savour. Happy days, and a completely unexpected find for the project.

This is a great pub, too. I never drank in the Bow Bar as a student, but it’s the sort of place I’d barely leave if I lived nearby these days. Thanks, chaps.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Brauerei Aying, Aying, Germany
Style: Bocks
Strength: 6.7% ABV
Found at: The Bow Bar, Victoria Street, Edinburgh
Serving: 330ml bottle

153. Abbaye des Rocs Blanche des Honnelles

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Here’s a beer that’s been sat in the Official Threehundredbeers Cellar (my spare room) for a while now. A lazy summer Sunday afternoon seems an appropriate time to crack open a chilled Belgian-style Wheat Beer

Abbaye des Rocs Banche des Honnelles

I always expect this style of beer to pour a cloudy white, but Blanche des Honnelles is another that comes out a vibrant golden colour. As always with a wheat beer, there’s that moment of indecision where you try to remember whether you’re supposed to pour the yeast into the glass too. A dilemma which resolves itself when you realise you’ve already plopped half of it in there while you were making up your mind.

The body is full and smooth, perhaps as a result of oats being used alongside wheat and presumably barley. There’s a pleasant, subtle citrus aroma which reminds you that some folks like to add a slice of lemon to this style of beer. You wouldn’t do that in public, of course, but I think it would work.

Beyond that, in terms of flavour, there isn’t a great deal going on. Instead it’s just a drinkable, refreshing tipple.

Indeed, this is quite an inoffensive beer, and you can see why it’s popular in Belgium with the sort of drinker for whom a stonking great double-figures behemoth like Bush Ambrée or a rich, dark Quad such as Rochefort 10 might not hit the spot. The respectable 6% ABV strength is well hidden too. Blindfolded, I’d probably guess that Blanche des Honnelles weighed in closer to about 4%.

It’s nice enough, all in all. A pefectly fine example of its style, but it’s a beer that doesn’t leave a great deal to say here.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Brasserie de l’Abbaye des Rocs, Montignies-sur-Roc, Belgium
Style: Belgian-style Wheat Beers
Strength: 6.0% ABV
Found at: Beers of Europe
Serving: 330ml bottle

152. Alaskan Amber

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I was very pleased to get my hands on this one. You don’t see a great deal of Alaskan Amber outside of its home country, and it’s pretty much impossible to find at all here in the UK.

So when Threehundredbeers reader (apparently there are some) and Untappd buddy Garth mentioned he was off to Alaska and would be happy to bring a couple home, I jumped at the chance. We soon met up in Stormbird for a few jars and to trade a couple of beers. Garth took home a bottle of my dodgy home brew for his troubles, so I think I got the better end of the deal.

Alaskan Amber

I can’t compete with Garth’s photos from the summit of Mount Juneau, where I imagine this beer tasted particularly fine, though it tastes pretty good in my kitchen in South London, to be fair.

Alaskan Amber is an Alt-style beer. Alt is a German style originating from the Düsseldorf area, and apparently introduced to Alaska by German prospectors during the Gold Rush. I remember enjoying the Diebels Alt and the Duckstein Original very much, so the chance to try an Alaskan take on the style is welcome.

It’s certainly amber, pouring a rich, dark caramel colour with a smooth tan head. There’s a bready, malty nose to it, with very little in the way of hop aromas beyond a floral hint of Saaz reminiscent of a good Pilsner.

That subtle hopping carries through to the flavour too. This is what beer bloggers tend to describe as a “malt-forward” beer: rich and full bodied with only subtle, fragrant hop notes. I don’t imagine it’s terribly easy to grow hops quite so close to the Arctic Circle, so that makes a lot of sense. In fact I’m reminded of those malty, sweet ales from Scotland, a part of the world with—if memories of my distant student years are reliable—a similar climate.

It’s thoroughly drinkable stuff, too. I’m convinced this is a style of beer which would sell well in the UK, so it’s a shame that you rarely see it. There’s one more Alaskan beer to track down, but fortunately I have a bottle of that one patiently maturing in the spare room.

Anyway, huge thanks to Garth for finding this one, and for making me thoroughly jealous of his trip to Alaska.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Alaskan Brewing Company, Juneau, Alaska, USA
Style: Alt and Amber Beers
Strength: 5.3% ABV
Found at: Alaska Cache Liquor, Franklin Street, Juneau, Alaska
Serving: 12 fl oz can

151. Batemans XXXB

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It looks like it might be worth making speculative research trips to the Crosse Keys, a JD Wetherspoon pub in the heart of London’s financial centre, more often. The previous visit unearthed Hambleton Nightmare, and this time we have the opportunity to accompany our reasonably priced lunch with a pint of Batemans XXXB, a Best Bitter from Lincolnshire.

Batemans XXXB at The Crosse Keys, London

I’m always a little trepidatious when it comes to English Bitters, as it’s not a style that’s always managed to get me excited. That said, this one looks and smells fantastic. It’s a lovely deep ruby colour with a big fruity English hop aroma.

There’s a rich malty body as befits a “Best” Bitter rather than an “Ordinary”. It’s full of smoky bonfire toffee and caramel, all finished with a moreish, distinctly tangy bitterness, rather than the harsher aftertaste found in some lesser Bitters. Blindfolded, I’d probably identify XXXB as an ESB-style beer, thanks to all that lovely depth.

It goes down quickly though, and all in all this was a thoroughly enjoyable pint. This is a beer that I’ll be happy to drink again whenever I see it. At the Crosse Keys’ thoroughly reasonable £3.25 it’s positively a steal.

How nice that the Crosse Keys now opens on a Sunday, too. The City has traditionally been a ghost town at the weekends, with pubs remaining resolutely closed. Times are changing, thankfully. Saturdays have been a great deal more lively in recent years, but to be able to get a decent pint of beer on a Sunday is very new indeed. All credit to JD Wetherspoon for making that happen.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: George Bateman & Sons, Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, England
Style: Best Bitters
Strength: 4.5% ABV
Found at: The Crosse Keys, Gracechurch Street, London EC3V
Serving: Cask, pint

150. La Choulette Ambrée

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As the halfway point of this ridiculous project looms, we won’t let the fact that we spent all day at the 30th Colchester Real Ale and Cider Festival prevent us from opening something nice.

This’ll do. It’s another Bière de Garde found at L’Abbaye des Saveurs in Lille, and lugged back home on the Eurostar. They present their beers well in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, and this is no exception.

The 750ml champagne-corked bottled seems ideal to crack open and share with friends Ben & Sophie over a sumptuous feed at their house in Essex.

La Choulette Ambrée

La Choulette Ambrée pours noticeably darker and stickier than the St. Sylvestre 3 Monts, the previous Bière de Garde the three of us shared. It’s sweeter and richer too, making it more reminiscent of L’Angelus, another near neighbour, geographically speaking.

There still a lageriness to it, but it’s a darker, more Bock-like lageriness, rather than the Pilsner crispness that the 3 Monts displays. There are Greek honey, caramel and toffee notes but also a pleasing lingering bitterness.

As such, it’s probably less suitable as a table beer, but it did the job. The bottle did not last long at all, despite the generous 8.0% alcohol payload. You can taste that strength, but you don’t mind. This one elicited another “that’s actually quite nice” from Sophie, not a regular beer drinker.

And it is too. Something a little bit rare, a little bit different, and I can’t think of a more pleasant set of circumstances in which to see off beer number 150.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Brasserie La Choulette, Hordain, France
Style: Bières de Garde
Strength: 8.0% ABV
Found at: L’Abbaye des Saveurs, Rue des Vieux Murs, Lille, France
Serving: 750ml bottle

149. Brains Dark

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It appears I’ve been a little negligent regarding blogging duties recently. Happily, the research has been continuing and I have a few beers to write up. That this one was sampled on the 30th of May will tell you how far behind I am, so let’s crack on.

I can be certain of the date, because Brains Dark was found among the impressive cask lineup at the 30th Colchester Real Ale and Cider Festival. You may remember my visit to the Colchester Winter Ale Festival. This was a similar event except with hotter weather, and the garden was open.

Brains Dark at the 30th Colchester Real Ale and Cider Festival

I say “garden”. It was actually the graveyard, Colchester Arts Centre being a converted church, and I can say with some certainty that this is the first of the 149 beers so far to have been consumed in a graveyard.

Brains Dark is a 3.5% ABV Mild hailing from Cardiff in Wales. It was served here via gravity from a cask, in traditional CAMRA beer festival style. It’s full of flavour: rich, bitter and with a big long finish. There are roasty, smoky notes too and it all goes down very easily.

Brains Dark at the 30th Colchester Real Ale and Cider Festival

So easily that I didn’t manage to take a great deal of tasting notes, not least as I was enjoying setting the world to rights with Official Threehundredbeers Essex Correspondent Ben, and boring the poor chap a little by banging on about my recent, er, “study” trip to Lille.

Needless to say, several further beers followed, including a welcome chance to revisit Beer Number 1, Robinson’s Old Tom from back when I naively thought this would be a quick, easy project. Apparently I didn’t think much of it back then, but I’m pleased to say I enjoyed it a great deal more from a cask.

Other beery highlights of the day included the formidable 10% ABV Thomas Sykes from Burton Bridge, who brought us that rather nice Empire IPA, and the relentlessly hoppy Houblon Chouffe, on tap at the Belgian bar.

All in all a grand day out, and we’ll be keeping our eyes open for further Colchester beer festivals.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: S.A Brain and Co., Cardiff, Wales
Style: Brown and Mild Ales
Strength: 3.5% ABV
Found at: Colchester Real Ale and Cider Festival, Colchester Arts Centre, Colchester, Essex
Serving: Cask, half pint, gravity