Fyne Ales Jarl - Champion Beer of Glasgow

.

.
Fyne Ales' Jarl beer was originally launched as a seasonal beer to an expectant audience at the brewery's beer festival in June 2010. Since then it has become one of the their biggest selling beers and has gained an ever growing legion of fans won over by the delicious fresh citrus fruitiness and thirst quenching bite in this 3.8% single hopped (citra) golden ale. It is a great beer and one of my tip top favourites.

It's not only myself that has sung it's praises and recognised the quality of this beer. It's won praise and plaudits, awards and acclaim most notably winning SIBA's overall Champion Beer of Scotland at the Scottish Real Ale Festival.

a heaving awards cabinet

The most recent award won by Fyne Ales for Jarl was 'Beer of the Year' as voted by the Glasgow Camra branch and as a member of that branch I headed up to Loch Fyne with 18 other hardy souls, enduring the horrid autumnal rain showers, to present the trophy to Tuggy, Wil and Charlie from the brewery.

It's a brewery I'm very familiar with, having been up there a handful of times before, and they always put on a tidy spread and a good range of beers. On this visit, we were treated to a trio of Fyne tastic beer soaked up with some barbequed beef sausages and burgers from the Fyne Ales estate that had been fattened up with the spent grain from the brewery.

Three beers available on our trip were Maverick, West Highland Black IPA and, of course, Jarl. I was in the mood for a Jarlfest and made this my beer of the day. I did dip my toe, metaphorically, into the other two beers but the thought of Jarl straight from the tap was too much of a temptation to resist.

There is something particularly lovely and pretty special about drinking from the brewery tap surrounded by boxes of hops, dozens of casks and hundreds of bottles of lovely beer. Beer always tastes better straight from the brewery tap. No question. 

a glass and a half of class - Fyne Ales Jarl

It was good to have a chat with brewer, Wil and production manager, Charlie. I discovered that plans are coming along well for their shiny new brewery that will triple capacity as Fyne Ales try to keep up with demand for their beers. I was very interested to hear from Wil that he intends 2012 to be a year for IPA's at the brewery with them producing up to a dozen over the coming year. Great news.

Finishing off the day, we made our ritual stop at the nearby Village Inn. More Fyne Ales beers were on, including a beer that I hadn't tried yet. I was about to pop my Fyne Ales Cherry Stout cherry. But, that's for another blog.

Thanks to Tim at Glasgow CAMRA for organising the trip.


Here's what other people think of Jarl, Champion Beer of Glasgow. The Beer Cast , Taste Sensations , The Beer Prole , I Might Have A Glass of Beer

.

Long, Hop Summer

.

.
"The Sun is shining in the sky,
There aint a cloud in sight,
It's stopped raining, everybody's in a play,
And don't you know,
It's a beautiful new day hey, hey"*


And when this happens, I find myself wanting a gloriously golden, well hopped and delicious beer.


Now that June is finally upon us, it seems the chances of long, luscious lingering sunny days that demand a glass or two of something really refreshing grows.


The start of June tends to be the time of the year when I banish the darker beers of the mild, stout and porter variety and go towards the light.


But, what beers will be floating my beer boat and ascending my ale elevator this summer?


Like all beer obsessives, I have a list. It's a mental one. Not in the sense that it's off the wall and crazy but that it's stored in my head and it contains the beers that I want to seek out and try for the first time as well as beers that I've enjoyed in summers past and really look forward to trying again.


The pint pots of gold I want to find at the end of my great summer beer hunt include,

Hawkshead 5 Hop

One of my faves of the year, so far, but pretty hard to come by in my neck of the woods. Hopefully, that will change. The Hawkshead 5 Hop is also known as Citrillo. The last time this beer was available, round my way, the cask was cleared in under four hours. The 5 Hop is simply a lovely beer that, unsurprisingly, contains 5 different hops - Bramling Cross, Fuggles and Goldings  provide the early hops which is followed by a late charge of Amarillo and Citra. This 5% beer also contains Maris Otter pale malt, Munich and malted wheat. It's a stonker.

Also, look out for a new beer in the summer from Hawkshead. They are introducing, very soon, a 6% New Zealand pale ale. I can taste those juicy fruit flavours from the Nelson Sauvin hops as I type. If it is as good as the 5 Hop / Citrillo, then we are in for a treat.

Camden Town Inner City Green

This is a 3.9% pale golden ale that bursts hop full of gorgeous tropical fruit aromas with a grassy, sweet citrus flavour that is balanced by a stiff malt backbone that gives the beer quite a full body for it's ABV. Oh, how I long for a pint of this on a warm summers day as I sit in the beer garden of The Southampton Arms.


Redemption Trinity

Redemption Brewery is the second best thing to come from Tottenham. They make fantastic beers and one such beer that has set tongues wagging and tastebuds tingling is their Trinity beer. I haven't had the pleasure of trying this beer yet but I want, I want, I want! It sounds intriguing - three types of hops, three types of malts and at 3% it is labelled as a light mild. However, the various descriptions I've read about it sound more like a golden floral hopfest of pineapple, grapefruit, malon and mango delight that defies it's miniscule ABV.  It sounds exactly like the sort of beer I like and I cant wait to get my hands on a pint.

Fyne Ales Jarl

My favourite Scottish Beer ever and one that is quite simply jaw droppingly superb. I'm not going to say anymore about it. I've said enough. Scotland's best beer. Scotland's best brewery. Go find.



Sierra Nevada Torpedo

An American beer this time and one that you are more likely to see in a bottle. I've had it from the keg in the Euston Tap before and it was rather special. It's no different from the bottle too. It's a 7.2% American IPA and it is bursting at the seams with fresh, herby, resinous pine aromas and flavours of grapefruit and orange pith created by the whole cone magnum, crystal and citra hops. It's a perfect back or beer garden slow drinker.


Fingers crossed that not only will the sun shine but that I'll get my hands on these and many other great beers over the next few months.


Here comes the summer, so get out, get about but above get drinking some lovely, tasty and refreshing beer.



*Mr Blue Sky - ELO
.

The Fyne Ales Competition winner is.....

.
............ Mr Dave Lozman.


The correct answer was -


C. Citra Hops.


many thanks to all who took part and to Fyne Ales for the beer.


Look out for another beer monkey competition next month.


Jarl and Hurricane Jack are available from the Fyne Ales Website



.

Competition Time - Fyne Ales bottle it.

.


.

                                     



.
It's competition time, folks and your chance to get your hands on some utterly gorgeous Fyne Ales bottles courtesy of the beer monkey.


Up for grabs are a bottle each of Fyne Ales' latest offerings. The superb Hurricane Jack and one of my beers of last year, Jarl. Jarl has turned heads and set tongues wagging since it's cask introduction last summer. It went down a storm at the Great British Beer Festival in August and in a very short space of time it's built up phenomonal fan base.


The success of both beers, up and down the country, has convinced Fyne Ales of the necessity of not only making these beers part of their regular cask canon but also bottling them and make both available on their website alongside old favourites Avalanche, Vital Spark and Highlander. This is the first time these beers have been bottled and if they are as good as the cask varieties, then UK beer drinkers are in for one helluva treat.


What have you got to do to get your hands on these littles lovelies?


It's simple.


Simply answer the question below -




  "What hop is used in making Fyne Ales Jarl?"




A. Nelson Sauvin


B. Perle


C. Citra


D. Fuggles



Choose one of the options and email thebeermonk3y@gmail.com with your answer by 7pm on Sunday the 6th of Feb. I'll choose a winner from the correct answers and announce it soon after.



It's as simple as that.


Don't say I'm not good to you.


Good Luck.



.