Beer #178 - Thwaites Crafty Devil

Another annoying post for me to write as it’s the second duff pint I’ve had to put onto the blog. After my five a side football match on Wednesday we went to our regular haunt, The Compton Arms in Islington for a couple of beers. I was pretty happy to see that they had Thwaites Crafty Devil on, knowing that the brewery has put out some great beers lately including a couple of great beers lately. Unfortunately the beer had gone bad, it smelt like vinegar and didn’t taste much better. On asking for a refund the bar staff poured another pint and said that “it looks ok” without either smelling or tasting it. I was then given the immortal line: “people have been drinking it all evening and no-one else has complained”. Being an Englishman I didn’t fight it and begrudgingly drank as much of the foul liquid as I could. Being a 21^st Century Englishman, I’m now going to bitch about it on my blog. I’ve had a lot of good beer at the Compton Arms and I’ve never before been served a dud pint. It’s a Greene King pub but they often have a decent guest or two on offer. However, it really irks me that two of their bar staff considered it acceptable to tell me that the beer was fine without tasting it or smelling it and to be honest, I think it should have been replaced no questions asked. Disappointing.

 

Brewery: Thwaites

Country: United Kingdom

ABV: 4.3%

Beer #101 - Thwaites / Elysian Avatar Jasmine IPA (Wetherspoons Autumn Festival Special!)

Another of the ten collab brews and another brewer from America's Pacific Northwest. Avatar Jasmine IPA has been brewed for the festival by Dick Cantwell of Elysian Brewing Company at Thwaites in Lancashire. Much like the Ninkasi cream ale in my last post there initially doesn't seem to be a lot going on here. It's a perfectly drinkable, medium-bodied ale. Nt too strong on the hops as you might expect for an American-influenced IPA. There is the feintest floral Jasmine hint in the beer, I found it barely noticeable though and in fact the harder i tried to pick it out the more elusive it seemed! Again it's a perfectly good ale in it's own right but I was quite excited to try this one and it didn't quite deliver in the way I'd anticipated. Good, but not great.

 

Brewery: Thwaites Brewery / Elysian Brewing Company Collaboration
Country: United Kingdom
ABV: 6.3%

Beer #68 - Thwaites Crafty Dan

Crafty Dan is Thwaites' entry into the Sainsbury’s Great British Beer Hunt – a nationwide competition that sees twenty shortlisted entries stocked in Sainsbury’s stores for three weeks. The best-sellers during this period go to a grand final where two overall winners will be chosen and stocked in the supermarket for a further six months. I picked up a handful of the 20 beers last week (for an excellent £1.50 each). Crafty Dan was the first of the beers that I tried and it’s really very good. Much lighter in body than its 6.0% ABV would suggest. It’s a lovely deep copper colour and combines toffee and fruit flavours absolutely beautifully. Much like the DNA collaboration that I featured in yesterday’s post this beer really acts as an excellent stepping stone between real ale and craft beer, it packs in some lovely flavours yet remains incredibly drinkable. Super.

Brewery: Thwaites

Country: United Kingdom

ABV: 6.0%

Beer #41 - Thwaites Smooth

Every so often I fear I’m going to have to feature beers on here that I simply don’t like, that I had to drink because there was simply nothing else available. This is one of those beers. I really don’t like smooth beers at all, but at Upton festival this weekend the bars offered Thwaites Smooth, lager or cider. I opted for the Smooth and don’t really have anything to say about it. It was smooth, as the name suggests but I didn’t really like it. Did I mention that I don’t like smooth beers? Anyway I’d like to point out that I don’t want to do Thwaites’ down at all here, I know they make some excellent cask ales and whilst it is regrettable that this is their first appearance on A Lovely Drop it won’t be their last.

Brewery: Thwaites

County: United Kingdom

ABV: 3.4%