Open It! Sierra Nevada Special

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The idea behind Open It! is a good one. You dig out from the back of your beer cupboard those bottles that you have put away for a very special beer time and instead of letting them sit there, you get them out, pop them open and get them poured down your throat. What's the point of beer if it's not to be consumed.


I haven't taken part before but I thought I would get involved this time. So, over the course of a few posts I shall be blogging about which beers I have dug out of the dark recesses of my special beer cupboard and opened.


The first two are big, old American beers from the same brewery, Sierra Nevada's Hoptimum and their 30th Anniversary beer called Charlie, Fred and Ken's Imperial Helles Bock.


The Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Ale is produced in collaboration with home brewers and highly regarded U.S. 'craft' beer writers, Charlie Papazian and Fred Eckhardt. It is an 8.3% Imperial Helles Bock and comes in a rather elegant 660 ml cork and caged bottle.


It pours a glorious golden orange colour with a lovely soft white head. It's aroma is light malt with some grassy, grapefruit and pine poking through. It had a lively effervescent carbonation that wasn't too oppressive in the mouthfeel.


It had, initially, quite a punchy alcohol hit which gave way to solid flavours of sweet orange, caramel and toffee apple notes. It ends with a crisp, clean and refreshing finish that lingered with a slight bready dryness.  It was, for it's ABV, a very drinkable beer that was maybe just a little too sweet for my taste.


Next up was the 10.4% Sierra Nevada Hoptimum, which is described as a Whole-Cone Imperial IPA. I was expecting this to be a big, bold beer bursting full of juicy hop goodness.

Sierra Nevada claims their Hoptimum beer "Pushes the boundaries of whole-cone hopped brewing: a 100 IBU beer, aggressively dry hopped with new varieties of hops to create ultra intense flavours and aromas."


Boy, they weren't wrong.


It pours an amber orange with a thicky foamy white head that momentarily distracts you before you are delightfully mugged by the awesome aromas of loads of oily pine resin and citrus hops notes that fight each other before taking turns in assaulting my nostrils. This was like taking a walk through a Scandanavian pine forest as someone squirts orange, grapefruit and tangerine zest at you.


It tasted lovely too. Hops, hops and even more hops in the mouth that gave you a citrus and tropical fruit rainbow of delicious tastes and flavours. Present were sticky, waxed orange peel, lemon mango, lychee, floral notes, pineapple, pear and bubblegum. And a tease of sweet caramel too.


The hop loveliness gave way to a  belightfully hoppy, dry but not too bitter a finish that you sometimes get with beers such as DIPA's.


Overall, this is simply a stunning beer and my favourite of the two.


I'm very glad that I opened the Hoptimum when I did as a beer like this benefits from being drunk early whilst the full on hop assault is at it's best.







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The Fyne Ales Beer Festival

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With the nice weather and light nights now upon us, a beer drinker's thoughts inevitably turn to the Beer Festival season. The Paisley Beer Fest has come and gone and it proved to be a fantastic success with a great range of lovely beers being eagerly supped by the attendees.


The next big beer event on The Beer Monkey's radar is one that should not be missed if you, like me, are someone that enjoys a great day out drinking quality beer in stunning surroundings. The Fyne Ales Fest that takes place over the weekend of 11th/12th of June at the brewery next to the beautiful Loch Fyne and it ticks all the boxes.


Great beer, Tick. Great location, Tick. Great food, Tick. Great people, Tick.


Last year's event was a fantastic success and this year's promises to be even better.


There are over 30 beers available with all the finest beers from the Fyne Ales stable, including this year's Paisley Beer Fest Gold and Silver medal winners, Hurricane Jack and Avalanche.

Last year, the festival was used to launch Fyne Ales' Jarl which has since proved to be one of the most successful beers from Fyne Ales. So much so, that it is now part of their regular range and is now available in bottles.


This year will see the launch of Fyne Ales' Fiddler's Gold. It's described as a well hopped 4.5% golden ale made with a handful of U.S. hop varieties that guarantees that the hop flavour and aroma volume is turned up to the max. Fantastic.


At the moment, brewer Wil and Fyne Ales' Jamie are sourcing some of the best British beers from the best British breweries for the thirsty throats of the beer fest frolickers. Included in this year's beer list are beers from superb brewers such as Bristol Beer Factory, Otley Brewing Co, Moor Beer Company, Thornbridge, Marble, Whim, Oakham, Steel City and Greenjack.


Now, that's what I call a great beer line up.


The festival will take place in a field next to the brewery and for the first time it will run on into the Sunday with an 'After Party' beer and BBQ in the brewery forecourt on the Sunday afternoon. This is open and free to anyone who attended the festival on the Sunday. Camping is also available for those that wish to make a weekend of it.


As far as I'm aware, Renfrewshire Camra and The Three Judges in Glasgow are organising buses to and from the event.


If you are not doing anything that weekend, then you should get yourself up to the Fyne Ales Beer Festival as it is one of the most enjoyable events in the Scottish Beer calender.


To book tickets for the event, please see the Fyne Fest website.




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Camra's Big Society

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The 24th Paisley Beer Festival, organised by the Renfrewshire branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), kicked off officially today and for the next four days it promises to be a great festival if the excellent beer choice is anything to go by.


In the Scottish Bar, there are some stonking breweries showcasing and celebrating the best there is in the beer world north of the border.


The English Bar this year has focussed on beers from mainly Manchester and the North West and included in this feast are beers from breweries such as Allgates, Coach House, Hydes and Hornbeam.


The 'Foreign Legion' International bar is pretty special this year too with Cantillon, De Dolle, Girardin, Matuska, Bernard and the superb Jever Pils all making an appearance.


I intend to write about the Festival later on in the week, once it is all done and dusted, but I've been helping out setting up the festival and I wanted to say a few words, just now, about the the selfless and tireless work done by the many volunteers who have given up their time, and in many cases their precious holidays, to expend a lot of physical and nervous energy in making sure that the Festival is set up properly, runs smoothly and meets the very high expectations of a thirsty, knowledgeable beer crowd.


These volunteers have given up many, many hours doing back breaking and challenging work all for the love of their favourite pastime - Beer.


I have to say that it has been fantastic seeing so many people chipping in and helping out to make this festival what it is - the best Beer Festival in Scotland and one that has gone from strength to strength. But, they are not unique. All over the country, in the coming months, many thousands of Camra members will be doing  exactly the same thing as they pool their collective strength and work together to ensure that the cause of cracking beer is furthered.


If David Cameron wants to learn about the Big Society, his first port of call should be to one of the dozens of Camra Beer Festivals taking place in the next few months.


There, he will see the Big Society in action.


So, let's raise a glass to these volunteers that make magic happen at every beer festival across the land.


Cheers.





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Happy Birthday, BrewDog

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Today marks the fourth anniversary of  BrewDog's very first bottles of beer being produced. In such a short space of time they have managed to achieve a phenomonal amount of success as the brand has gone from strength to strength. Regardless of whether you are their biggest fanboy or staunchest critic, you have to concede that what they have done in those four years is nothing short of astounding.

So lets take a minute to reflect on why BrewDog's Martin Dickie and James Watt are entitled to crack open a few lovely bottles tonight and allow themselves a self satisfied and justifiably smug smile on their faces as they raise a glass and toast their role in BrewDog's 'UK craft beer revolution'. They have -

- Created the World's strongest beer with Tokyo

- Created the World's stongest beer with Tactical Nuclear penguin

- Created the world's strongest beer with Sink the Bismarck

- Created the World's stongest beer with The End of History and rammed it up the rear of some rodent roadkill

-  Been extremely astute marketeers that have saw them generate acres of publicity and column inches for near enough price of a six pack of Stella and a packet of penguins at your local supermarket.

- Pissed off the Portman Group

- Annoyed Advocates for Animals

- Caused consternation at Camra

- Stuck some beer in cans, stuck some beer in kegs and stuck some beer in animals

- Successfully campaigned for a change in the law which saw schooner size measurements being allowed.

- Convinced 1300 hopheads to part with £230 to become BrewDog 'Equity for Punks' shareholders to pay for the expansion of the brewery

- Saw their production rise to 500,000 bottles per month and they still can't keep up with demand.

- They have put some fun and mischief back into brewing and the beer game.

- Opened their own BrewDog pubs in Aberdeen and Edinburgh with a Glasgow branch due to be opened in the summer. They also intend to open some in England too.


These are all headline grabbing achievements but, for me, the reason why BrewDog should be celebrating and celebrated tonight is because they have consistently remained true to their mission of creating barrier breaking and boundary busting beers that are not only extremely tasty and flavourful but have also challenged the palates and tastes of beer drinkers. For me, it's all about the beer and on that score BrewDog have consistently delivered.


So, hats off to Mr Dickie and Mr Watt.

Happy Fourth Birthday and hope you have Many Hoppy Returns.





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April Beer Competition

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This month's Beer Monkey competition isn't your usual run of the mill task in which I ask a question and someone who answers correctly is drawn out of the hat and wins some lovely, tasty, refreshing beer.


This month, it's easier that that.


You don't even need to get the question right.


This month's competition has a Royal flavour to it. That's to be expected given the up coming nuptials. However, at Beer Monkey Mansions, we are not Regal sycophants cow-towing and brown-nosing to the children of privilege.  We are made of stronger, more republican stuff. We are meritocrats that base our judgements of people on how nice they are rather than who their fathers were, or whether Granny wears a crown.


Someone's Granny has already decided that beer isn't good or appropriate enough to be served at the Royal Banquet. At Beer Monkey Mansions, we say that is tosh. If 'Bonnie' Prince Charlie can make the stuff, sell the stuff and trouser a handsome profit via his Duchy Originals beer range then it should be good enough to serve to 'C' list Royals, 'Z' list celebrities and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson this Friday. That said, it's widely believed that TPT's drink of choice is coke.


With that in mind, April's competition is simple.


If you could choose a beer to serve at the Royal Banquet, which beer would it be, and why?


Leave your answer in the comments section below, or drop me an email and the most humourous and irreverent one wins four bottles of lovely beer from the beer monkey's special cupboard.


The winner will be chosen once my anti-royalist hangover has cleared next Saturday afternoon.


See, told you it was simple.



small print - only over 18's, UK residents and anyone not called Major James Hewitt can enter. He has entered enough, don't you think?









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Tasting Notes - Mikkeller Hoppy Easter

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This morning, The Easter Bunny has been very busy, dropping off various eggs and chocolate confectionary to remind  children all over the world of the deeply religious significance of Bourneville, Chocolate Buttons and Bunnies. I didn't get any chocolate but I did receive from the alcoholic Easter Bunny a rather fine and lovely looking bottle of a beer made by Danish Brewers, Mikkeller appropriately entitled Hoppy Easter.


Despite the name, the beer is not a seasonal beer. Instead, it is produced all year round and usually goes by the name of Drikkeriget GIPA. It is a 6.6% American IPA using German Tettnanger hops for aroma and Tomahawk hops for bittering. It also has a combination of pilsner, pale and Munich malts. I can only assume that the G in the GIPA stands for German, given the use of these malts and hops.


It has a pretty little cartoon label of a buck toothed bunny happily carrying a basket of hop cones and beer as it bounds excitedly down the sun lit road handing out it's beery loveliness.


It pours a radiant orange amber colour that sits opaquely below a thick white foamy head. It pours and looks like a hefeweissen and it's aroma is not too disimilar also. It has a bready, floury and fairly spicy nose imbued with tentative floral, herbal and grassy lemon notes. It tasted very light and quite summery.


The grassy lemoness of the aroma carries itself through into the taste with these being the initial flavours in the mouth along with a spicy, earthy hop profile. The hops are there but don't dominate and gradually give way to a stiff malt backbone that resonates with more bread dipped in some gorgeously sweet honey. There is also a slight Belgian yeasty taste and flavour to the beer that makes it quite tart, however, the delicate balance of the spicy, floral  hops and the malt sweetness make the taste of this beer very enjoyable. The crisp effervescence of the beer lends itself to being a lovely thirst quencher on a hot summer day.


The Tomahawk hops linger bitterly in the mouth long after the beer has gone as does the sweetness that coats your mouth and lips with honey stickiness that is most enjoyable.


It wasn't quite the huge hop bomb that I was expecting, but it is a very tasty, refreshing and well balanced beer that hid it's 6.6% alcohol extremely well and a beer that I would be sourcing out and enjoying more of when, and if, the Sun finally comes out to play.





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My Beer of the Month

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I've had quite an exciting beer month in which I've been very fortunate to have enjoyed some very tasty and refreshing beer. Some of these lovely beers have come from some mighty fine brereries including The Kernel, Matuska, Caldera, Redemption, Bernard, Dark Star and Fyne Ales. So, to whittle it down to a trio of trememdous tinctures has been a pretty difficult exercise.


However, when reflecting on what I've consumed this month, three beers jump excitedly to the front of my mind and scream in my ear, "Pick Me!, Pick Me!". Strangely enough, they all have the same thing in common - they are all unfiltered beers and so much more lovely and flavourful for it.


The two runners up for my beer of the month are both unfiltered Helles beers; one brewed in Glasgow, the other brewed in Madrid.


West Brewery in Glasgow's East End produce, very occassionally, an unfiltered version of their St Mungo Helles. I don't know why they don't produce it more often than they do because it is an outstanding beer that stands head and shoulders above, in terms of taste, body and mouthfeel, the filtered version. They call the unfiltered version 'Wild West' and I was fortunate enough to have a few pints of it before the supplies were drunk dry by some very parched Glaswegians over the space of an uncharacteristically scorching hot weekend at the start of April. It went down an absolute bomb and I hope that West Brewery consider making this make a bit more often than they currrently do.

My other runner up for this month's best beer is an unfiltered Helles produced on the premises in the Naturbier pub in Madrid's Plaza St. Ana. In a city of gorgeous wine, sherries and fizzy macro lagers, I thought my time there would be one spent on the grape. That was until I discovered this gem of a Tapas bar that, strangely, produces their own rather delicious Dunkel and Helles. The Helles was a very well made and sweetly thirst quenching beer whose flavours and taste were enhanced greatly by having it outside at a table in the main square in the blazing Madrid sunshine.  It's a perfect summer beer, so if you find yourself in Madrid anytime soon, source out this pub.


My favourite beer this month is from a London brewery that has been making major waves not just in the capital's beer scene but also further afield. I tasted this beer in three different pubs on the same day and each time I was blown away by the fantastic full on hop explosion and it's intense tastiness.


The Brewery is Camden Town and the beer goes by a couple of names. It's known as Pompous Red but also has an alias of Filthy Red. Call it what you want but I call it superb. It's a red ale that contains a basket of New World and American hops including Perle, Centennial, Simcoe and possibly Nelson Sauvin among others. The hops are added several times during the boil thats helps give it a punchy  rolling hop flavour that fair crackles with flavour right to the last drop. It is also unfiltered which, I think, adds to the flavour and complexity of the beer. I had my share of this gorgeous beer in The Southampton Arms, The Rake and The Euston Tap. If you happen to come across it on your beery travels, have a pint or two of it. I promise you, you will not be disappointed.


That was my three beers of the month.


What floated your beer boat this month?






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London Pubs - The Southampton Arms

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The Southampton Arms in Kentish Town has only been opened since 2009 but in those couple of years it has blazed a beer trail that has burned bright, illuminating and invigorating the North London beer scene. It has gained a reputation for being an esoteric environment to enjoy an exciting and eclectic selection of Beers and Ciders.


It's also just been voted North London Camra Pub of the Year. No mean achievement given that it's too 'young'  to appear in Camra's 2011 Good Beer Guide. Whilst in London for a couple of days, I thought I'd pay a visit to The Southampton Arms to see what all the fuss is about.

It's a short five minute walk from Kentish Town tube station and as you approach the pub, the first thing that catches your eye are the words 'Ale, Cider, Meat' painted proudly on the side of the pub wall in eight foot high writing. As a statement of intent, it doesn't come much bolder or simpler than that. It's a no nonsense and straight forward message that proclaims - 'This is what you came for, This is what we've got.'  I was warming to this place already and I hadn't even put a foot over the door.

I got there just as it was opening and the first thing that struck me was the interior. The light cascading through the huge single paned glass window revealed the pub in all it's glory. With the stark and brilliant white tiled wall behind the bar juxtaposed against dark wood walls and floor it felt as if I had gone back a hundred years or so. There were reclaimation yard church pews, a working fireplace and even a piano that seems to form the backbone of most evenings entertainment in The Southampton Arms.


I was so taken in by the pub interior that I hadn't even noticed the dozen or so pump handles on the bar standing to attention and ready to serve the beer cause. When I did, though, my heart skipped a beat and my jaw hit the floor at the phenomonal array of awesome ales. Lined up in front of me were 18 pumps dispensing 10 beers and 8 ciders. The Southampton Arms are committed to serving only the best beers from the best independent breweries from London and around the country. I was spoiled for choice.

There were beers from Dark Star, Brodies, Redemption, Crouch Vale, Camden and Thornbridge among others when I was in and over the course of the next couple of hours I was to sink a few halfs of Dark Star Mai Bock, Redemption Pale Ale and Camden Pompous Red Ale. The beers were all superbly kept and served. My favourite was the Camden Town Pompous Red. It had a basketful of hoppy flavourful loveliness that blew my stripey socks off.


They are keen to promote some of the best UK breweries and have had beers from Manchester's Marble Brewery and even from  Scotland's best brewery Fyne Ales. It seems that Fyne Ales' beer Jarl went down a storm the last time it was on emptying two Casks of it in just over a day. When I was in, they also had 5 litre mini casks of Thornbridge Kipling for sale as well as the opportunity to take away some of The Southampton Arms beers away with you in two and four pint packs. It seems the drinkers of North London are being spoiled by the pub.

This really is a lovely pub with friendly locals and knowledgeable bar staff who have a commendable appreciation of, and enthusiasism, for great, tasty beers and seem keen to bring the best beers that London and across the UK has to offer to growing audience. They also have a great taste in music judging by the Jazz and Blues 33s and 45s being played on a record player behind the bar.


Everything about the pub feels lived in, sociable and very comfortable in a shabby genteel sort of way. Judging by the conversations being struck up among strangers all around me it is a place to chat, swap stories and make new beery friends with people who share the same common interests; drinking quality beer in a great pub.

The Southampton Arms really is a fantastic place to have a beer or two and should be used a blueprint for how pubs could be.


The secret of The Southampton Arms is simple. It simply gets everything right. A cracking, diverse and well kept beer and cider range served by beer savvy bar staff in a warm, friendly and welcoming environment.


Oh,.....and the pork pies are great too.





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