Collaboration Review- Marston's Oyster Stout

Good afternoon all. The second collaboration review beer was chosen by Luke- Oyster Stout (4.5% ABV) from Marston's. No oysters are actually used in the brewing process, the name is simply to indicate that oysters would be a suitable pairing for this beer. We both seem to have devoted this year to exploring a particular beer style- whist I have opted to try as many Belgian beers as possible, Luke is going all out for stouts, hence his choice being at the darker end of the Degrees Lovibond scale. Review after the pic....

As mentioned in the last collaboration review, the reviews have been divided into the individual's opinions and the reviewers are denoted by their initials (EH being Elliott Hamilton and LA being Luke Albutt). 

EH:

Appearance- dark red, verging on black, off-white head that dissipates quickly to nothing in the glass. Oily "slick" on surface during drinking

Aroma- light chocolate and coffee, malt, sulfurous quality

Taste- malty, cocoa, diluted roasted malt flavour, dry finish, acrid bitterness, cloying after short time

Mouthfeel- thin, low carbonation

Overall, a disappointing stout that delivers a lot of roasted malt bitterness but nothing else to balance and suppress this flavour, leading to a lot of cloying on the palette. The mouthfeel is also far too thin and watery. Not recommended, try Bristol Beer Factory Milk Stout, Camden Town Brewery Camden Ink or Young's Double Chocolate Stout for much better examples of low-ABV stouts that deliver a lot of flavour. 

LA:

Appearance- shimmers like a ruby in Icarus' gaze, generally quite black

Aroma- very subtle for a stout (typical yet subtle), noticeable sulfur presence that masks other aromas

Taste- very delicate and held back, personal preference is for more robustness from a stout

Mouthfeel- thin, low carbonation

Restrained stout, good gastro beer as flavours are subdued and wouldn't compete with the food. Seems like a failed experiment to an extent. 

Until next time....

Collaboration Review- Schneider Weisse Tap X Mein Nelson Sauvin

Good afternoon all. On Thursday evening my flatmate Luke Albutt and I decided to conduct a couple of collaboration reviews as I was departing for Devon the next day, so we both chose a beer and busted out the pontification. The first choice was mine so I opted for a bottle of Tap X Mein Nelson Sauvin, a Weizenbock (7.3% ABV) from Schneider Weisse with the interesting inclusion of Nelson Sauvin hops. Reviews after the pic....

The reviews have been split into individual perspectives and the reviewer is denoted by their initials (Elliott Hamilton being EH and Luke Albutt being LA). For the purposes of time saving, and because I can't remember verbatim what Luke said, I've opted to present the opinions as capsule reviews.

EH:

Appearance- pale golden colour with a short lived off-white head that dissipates to nothing in the glass

Aroma- banana, cloves, herbal quality, yeasty, dark fruits, honey, bittering hop quality

Taste- characteristic wheat beer, yeasty, herbal, hoppy bitterness, light citrus fruits, vinous character, banana

Mouthfeel- slightly thick, light carbonation

Overall, a fantastic beer from the masters at Weisses Bräuhaus G. Schneider & Sohn that's packed with typical hefeweizen aromas and flavours, and a refreshing injection of hop character. Immensely drinkable and a very interesting take on a classic German beer style. Well worth the money- it would be interesting to see how this changes with some age behind it! 

LA:

Appearance- translucent like set amber, head dissipates quickly

Aroma- characteristic wheat beer, berries, dark fruits, honey, vinous aroma

Taste- characteristic wheat beer flavours with some sharpness round the edges from the hops

Mouthfeel- not particularly lively, not too thin on carbonation

Overall, a good beer (probably the best wheat beer so far) that represents a thirst quenching and refreshing experience.

Until next time....

BrewDog Sunk Punk

Good afternoon all. I've amassed quite a backlog of beer tasting notes recently, mainly due to the last few days being packed with coursework, finalising project work and travelling. I'm currently back in Devon for Easter and enjoying a bit of time off before I resume my project dissertation, so I should have ample opportunity to write these up before starting on new ones! The first beer is from a brewery that regularly features on Misplaced Hours, and was brewed at the bottom of the North Sea using buckweed, sea salt, rum and a lager yeast. It can only be Sunk Punk, an American IPA from BrewDog. Review after the pic....

Sunk Punk (7.1% ABV) pours a dark amber colour with a bubbly off-white head that dissipates to a patchy covering over the surface of the beer. It's slightly cloudy but looks like a typical hoppy American IPA, good stuff so far. The aroma is composed of resinous hops, some sweetness (caramelised sugar) and a boozy rum quality in the background. Definitely has a maritime property to it- very interesting stuff and definitely seems like more than just another publicity stunt!. The hops are quite oily and piney, with virtually no tropical fruit character. The taste is predominantly herbal, with resinous hops, citrus fruits and a salty bite in the background. The finish has a warming alcohol quality, with some hop bitterness and a sweetness in the aftertaste. The mouthfeel is slightly thick with moderate carbonation. Overall, an interesting take on a popular beer style, with characteristic piney hop character/bitterness cutting through an unusual oceanic herbal feel. Definitely worth trying once, although the price might be quite a deterrent for the beer equivalent of a curio.

Until next time....

Hardknott Vitesse Noir

Good evening all. After tempting me for a couple of months, I finally decided to break out my bottle of Vitesse Noir, a "triple imperial mocha vanilla stout" from Hardknott Brewery in Cumbria. This beer is an imperial stout brewed with coffee from Latin America, chocolate from France and vanilla from Papua New Guinea, and was made in conjunction with the website "aletalk" (full details on the process can be found here: http://www.aletalking.aletalk.co.uk/2011/10/vitesse-noir-the-beer-i-helped-brew/). Sounds like a very lavish concoction, so let's get down to the review....

Vitesse Noir (11.0% ABV) pours a dark red colour (verging on black) with a very short lived light brown head that dissipates to nothing in the glass. The aroma is simply incredible, with tonnes of coffee, dark chocolate, vanilla, dark fruits (blackcurrant, raisins) and a noticeable boozy quality. It's one of the best stouts I've put to my nose, it's that rich. The taste continues to deliver, with hints of vanilla custard, coffee piquancy, dark fruits and rich dark bitter chocolate, with the coffee lingering in the finish predominantly but accompanied by the rest of the flavours in the background. The mouthfeel is quite thick and creamy with low carbonation. The flavours are quite heavy on the palette but not cloying, a testament to how balanced yet extraordinary the beer is. Overall, this is a fantastic imperial stout that I couldn't throw enough complimentary adjectives at. It's so rich and velvety, with each ingredient being supplied in heavy quantities but somehow not overpowering each other. I've had one other Hardknott beer before (the limited-release barleywine Granite 2011) and found it to be very good, but this takes things to a stratospheric echelon by comparison. Get a few bottles of this, drink one now and keep the rest for years to come, this beer can only improve with time. Perfect for desserts or as an after-dinner treat- very highly recommended!

Until next time....

Great Divide Brewing Company Titan IPA

Good afternoon all. Last night I had two rather special beers, the first of which came all the way from Colorado, a state renowned for its brewing prowess with the likes of Odell, Left Hand, Avery and countless other big names all based there. That beer was Titan IPA, an American IPA from Great Divide Brewing Company. This is my first beer from Great Divide- despite having a number of their beers waiting patiently in the cellar- so hopefully the hype will be justified. Review after the pic....

Titan IPA (7.1% ABV) pours an amber colour with a thick white head that settles to a thin halo around the inside of the glass. Because of the bottle-conditioning, there is some lacing present during the first half of the beer. It does look great though, the picture doesn't do it enough justice. The aroma is more subdued than I was expecting, with piney/resinous hops, plenty of tropical fruits, a vinous quality, malt and some sweetness in the background. The resin comes through every so often, but the predominant hop aroma is definitely the citrus/tropical fruits. The taste is composed of citrus fruits, pine, malt and grapes, with the finish delivering a slight bitterness but nothing overly offensive. The mouthfeel is slightly thick with moderate carbonation. Overall, this is a very well-balanced IPA that delivers plenty of characteristic flavours with a pleasing yet assertive bitterness in the finish. It's not particularly "aggressive" as billed in the bottle description, but frankly the flavours and aromas will leave even the most ardent hophead pleased. Definitely recommended, I'm more tempted than ever now to reach into the cellar to try the other offerings I've got from Great Divide, so expect more appearances from these guys in the future!

Until next time....

Mikkeller 19

Good evening all. Last year Mikkeller produced a series of 19 single hop IPAs, giving drinkers an opportunity to gauge how different hop types impart certain characteristics on a beer. These were released in bottles and on draft in various places, with one night at the Mikkeller Bar devoted to presenting all of the beers, during which votes were cast on the public's favourite and the results used to calculate the percentages of the hops that were used in the following beer- 19, an IPA brewed with a whopping 19 hop varieties. I've had this on draft twice before, but when I saw a bottle at Craft Beer Co I knew I had to purchase it and give it a proper review, which you can find after the pic....

19 (6.8% ABV) pours an amber/dark gold colour with a thick white head that settles to a thin halo around the inside of the glass. Looks like a typical high-ABV IPA, great stuff so far. The aroma is pretty amazing, with resinous/piney hops, citrus fruits, a slightly vinous quality and a light sweetness in the background. Despite the large number of hops used, the different aromas are surprisingly detectable and the hops are very fresh and oily. Tasting the beer brings up a similar response, with strong resinous hops, tropical fruits, malt, bittering hops, grass, some oily freshness and a bitter bite in the finish, accompanied by some cripsness from the bittering hops. There's a grape aftertaste and the finish is slightly dry. The mouthfeel is quite thick, with decent levels of carbonation. Overall, this is a surprisingly well-balanced IPA that demonstrates how, in the hands of skilled brewers, a large variety and number of hops can be blended together to create a distinctly unique experience that doesn't overpower the senses with a particular flavour or aroma. If you can get a bottle of this, or better yet try it on draft, don't waste the opportunity. It's also relatively easy to find bottles of the individual single hop IPAs at places like Cask Pub & Kitchen, and I would highly recommend getting as many as you can as they were all great learning experiences. 

Until next time....

The Mars Volta- Noctourniquet CD Review

Good afternoon all. When I started this blog all the way back in June last year, I was intending to focus on film/music reviews, with the occasional beer thrown in for good measure. However, once the Beer Advent Calendar got in the way I decided to shelve any plans to do music reviews and focus on man's favourite libation. Today is an historic day, as it marks the first of hopefully many departures from the beers as I review a recently released album. Anybody who knows me will be aware that I generally despise most modern music and the current music-buying culture of deifying glorified record players (DJs as they're commonly known) who wave glow sticks in the air and cover the audience in foam. I know there are some talented DJs out there so apologies to anyone who feels differently but it's simply not my preferred music genre. Also, the day oscillating sine waves and triplet-feel drums are no longer a prerequisite for chart success will be a glorious day in my book. Anyway, because of this I generally don't listen to many new albums, as hip hop is in quite a bad way (for example, listen to three Rick Ross songs and try to tell the difference), death metal is all about pig squealing and dischordant chromatic guitar runs, and electronic music is so distant from the likes of Kraftwerk and Cabaret Voltaire that it's almost unrecognisable. Despite this, every so often a new release will captivate me out of the blue, or I'll purchase an album from a band I've known for quite some time, and in today's case the latter is so. I've been a fan of The Mars Volta ever since I heard "Inertiatic ESP" on Kerrang! at the tender age of 14, being completely taken aback by Jon Theodore's incredible drumming during my most fertile years of study on the instrument, and every release since has built upon that fantastic template and taken their sound to new heights of aural bombardment. Despite the departure of drumming powerhouse Thomas Pridgen after the mind-blowing "The Bedlam in Goliath" and the comparatively serene yet brilliant "Octahedron", I've been looking forward to their new release for months now and felt it was appropriate that one of my favourite bands became the subject of my first CD review. The album's called Noctourniquet, and the review is after the pic....

The first thing you might notice, even before delving into the music, is the lack of Jeff Jordan's surrealist artwork on the cover. I didn't read into this too much until I started listening to the album, and then thought back to myself that it's probably to indicate the transformation they've undergone since their last album, and how they want to be viewed in a different light. This is no truer than on the first offering "The Whip Hand", with it's lurching odd-time beat, pulsating synthesizer arpeggios and restrained guitar work giving a feeling of trepidation before unleashing into a heavily distorted synth bass chorus that could make you forget Juan Alderete is even a member of the group. At least the synth bass isn't oscillating rapidly, I might just have skipped it otherwise. Cedric Bixler-Zavala seems to be the only unmodified element, alternating between disconcerting tenor and blaring soprano with relative ease. TMV have always dabbled in electronics before, but they were to create an atmosphere to accompany the more conventional rock instruments- this time round they're more at the forefront and are an integral part of the sound. There's also a significant trip-hop feel to some of the tracks, with new drummer Deantoni Parks channeling a mixture of the previous drummers to create rhythms that wouldn't be out of place on a DJ Shadow album (cases in point; "Lapochka", built on thirty-second note hi-hat beats with occasional bass and snare drum stabs, and "Imago", with plenty of gated reverb giving a pronounced boost to the anthemic feel of the track). Lead single "The Malkin Jewel" tramples from the outset with a gypsy-jazz aurora, complimented by decidedly menacing vocals from Bixler-Zavala and some well-placed organ work in the second half. One thing that might be noticeable from my review so far is the lack of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's name, which is purely because he's not particularly noticeable in his usual form on this album. His guitar work is much more focused and limited on the tracks, which does work but makes me long for the frenetic passages and unique riffs that he's come up with over the years. Regular collaborator John Frusciante is also absent, meaning his blazing fuzz-laden guitar solos no longer permeate from the speakers. There are a few tracks that hark back to the more traditional days ("Molochwalker", "Aegis", "Noctourniquet") but overall, this is TMV like you've never heard them before. It's certainly not a bad album at all, but it might be slightly startling at first to fans expecting another barrage of sonic terrorism. The best thing about this album is that it demonstrates the lack of complacency that TMV has in regards to their music, and how they're continually striving to find a new sound regardless of what is incorporated. Give it a go and see if it grows on you, I know it will for me given enough time.

Arbitrary Rating: 7/10

Track Listing:

"The Whip Hand"
"Aegis"
"Dyslexicon"
"Empty Vessels Make The Loudest Sound"

"The Malkin Jewel"
"Lapochka"
"In Absentia"
"Imago"
"Molochwalker"
"Trinkets Pale of Moon"
"Vedemalady"
"Noctourniquet"
"Zed And Two Naughts"

Favourite Tracks: Aegis, Empty Vessels Make The Loudest Sound, The Malkin Jewel, Molochwalker, Noctourniquet, Zed And Two Naughts