An All American Goodbye

I've only been working at Real Ale for a couple of weeks so was very happy when I found out that I'd been invited to my managers leaving drinks. I'd been called in to cover his evening shift so him and the other guys from work could go out. To have some weird and wonderful beers at the Craft Beer Co in Clapham.

A mini tasting session had been organised for when he knocked off at 6. We'd recently received shipment of some more American beer. Fresh off the truck a few had been put to one side for the tasting.

Before we opened any of the new additions, my now ex-manager removed the lid of an aged festive ale he'd brought in, one he'd been saving for a special occasion and I guess this was it. It was a seasonal Festive Ale from Goose Island, Chicago. I can't remember if he said it had been bottled in 2007 or 2008. Either way, it was unexpectedly fresh as if it had only just been bottled. It was thick, creamy and rich, oozing toffee apple and candy cane (not the menthol sort). It had a much lighter body than we all thought it should and would but oh my, what a delicious beer. I hope they don't stop making these now they have been bought out. Like a said almost a month ago, it's never too late to drink Christmas beers. Especially and more bizarrely when you see people still going round wearing those bloody stupid, tacky and annoying festive jumpers.

So, onto testing out some of the new range. First up was a Schwarzbier or Black Lager called 'Dark Helmet' by a brewery called Westbrook from Mount Pleasant, USA. A traditional German style black lager using a blend of malts and rye. Not one for me though, it was perfectly drinkable but not the kind of taste I'd usually opt for. It reminded me of some beers I drank when I was in Berlin many years ago. Too long to remember anything detailed about them, just the knowledge of its happening.

There was a particular beer I'd been thinking about, more so when I wrote the product description for its shelf edge ticket. I could not get the 'Hazelnut Chocolate Porter' by Heretic out of my mind. Porter is still my favourite overall style of beer, I love how varied and complex or simple they can be, they're sometimes sweet, bitter, smokey, sour, full or light, anyway in which you could possibly imagine. I'm not much of a chocoholic but this was something a bit fancy. Instantly out of the bottle you get an almighty wallop of of toasted and sweet hazelnuts. It is almost as if it was like someone had sprayed a perfume bottle filled with hazelnut extract directly into your nose, with the molecules coating your olfactory glands and taste buds.
The flavour did more than hold up to the smell, it delivered on all levels. It filled the mouth with this rich, dark and incredibly sweet chocolate and hazelnut ice cream. In a blind test and slightly chilled it could easily have been mistaken for a milkshake or something.
So smooth and creamy with enough flavour and an aroma so powerful it would replace smelling salts and could wake sleeping beauty.

The next one was one that was so eagerly anticipated I think you could literally see the excitement is if he were a man. A big mother of a beer, 'Old Viscosity' by Port Brewing Company from California, USA. It is a powerful Mohamed Ali of a beer, aged in oak barrels and at 10% abv, more than strong enough to knock out one of his competitors.
A jet black beer full of dark chocolate bitterness, slight malt sweetness and finished off with a tiny but noticeable amount of wood from its time in oak.
Definitely one to be wary of and works best when shared out in the company of good friends and savoured.

Somewhere in the session was a Black IPA by Ruhstaller from Sacramento, California. I don't know how it slipped my mind but it did. It came before the Old Viscosity I think.
An all American tasting session trying different styles of dark beer.
A lovely, well designed bottle. Big and black with simple white font, complete with a sweatband around its neck. The hessian strip around the neck must be a design feature of the big Ruhstaller bottles as they all seem to have it. It was knowingly the first Black IPA I've tried. It had the dark chocolate maltiness you'd expect from a black beer and with a bitter citrus finish coming from being very hopping that is natural to IPAs. It was very light in body, black in colour with a fizz similar to that of a canned fizzy drink. It filled the mouth with bubbles helping the beer reach part of your tongue it would normally have missed yet keeping the beer light at the same time.

I am finally starting to understand where American beers and brewers are coming from. The future looks very appealing indeed.

Go online or pop in to check out our fine range of beers, wines and spirits from all over the world.
realale

Hazelnut Chocolate Milkshake and others.
hereticbrewing

A star wars themed black lager.
westbrookbrewing

Some of the most beautiful beer bottles I ever did lay eyes on.
ruhstallerbeer

A beast!
portbrewing

If you can find a bottle of this you must get one.
gooseisland
The link is for a new one so I don't know how it would compare but it's worth a go.


The second half of this story is soon to follow.