The entire beer blogging community seemed to review this beer when it was released last Autumn alongside a West Indies Porter. The smart retro branding indicated an attempt by Guinness to tap into the 'craft' market (or whatever you want to call the current wave of beer enthusiasm), unfortunately the beer itself is a fairly pitiful effort that demonstrates quite nicely how badly the 'big boys' are getting it wrong and why they are losing some of their market share to smaller breweries. The beer itself is far too light in body, almost watery. The flavour is inoffensive; roasted malts give it a pleasant coffee backbone but the mouthfeel is way off. Part of the reason that smaller breweries are doing well is because they are really pushing the boundaries flavour-wise and making beers that make you think about what you're drinking. The likes of Guinness really need to up their game in that regard, it simply isn't enough to design a nice label and put it on a distinctly average beer.
I've been pretty busy lately hence the lack of posts; fortunately I haven't been drinking too many new beers so I don't have too much of a backlog to catch up on, but its been eating away at me regardless. I had this Triple Chocoholic from Saltaire a couple of weeks ago so its high time I got my thoughts down on...er...paper. I bought this bottle in the summer but until recently it hasn't felt appropriate to drink it and its been stored away in my beer cupboard alongside quite an impressive array of stouts and porters, most of which will probably crop up on here over the coming months. Its very definitely dark beer season. Anyway I'd heard this was a good one and I like what Saltaire do. My benchmark for chocolate beers is Sam Smith's Chocolate Stout which is the closest thing to a chocolate milkshake I've ever had in a beer. This one is another absolute cracker, it pours as a stout should, dark with with a lovely tan head. On the nose it's very chocolatey indeed with perhaps a hint of sweet vanilla. It's probably not as robust in body as I'd hoped but it does have a lovely chocolate flavour met with a decent dose of bitterness and a clean dry finish.
This was the third of six Lervig beers I had at the Draft House Sunday Sessions last week, you can read more about the event in my review here. This collaboration between the Norwegian brewery and Sweden's All In Brewing is one of the best dark beers I’ve ever had. Rich and smooth in flavour yet light in body, it had lovely roasted coffee tones with velvety chocolate notes; absolutely delicious.
Please see my entry on the Great British Beer Festival 2014 for tasting notes and further info.
Beer 10 of 11 from my visit to the Bermondsey Beer Mile. and the fourth and final beer of the day from Partizan Brewing. The five grain porter pours very dark brown with a nice creamy tan head. Coffee on the nose with a taste of bitter coffee, chocolate and some earthiness with a slightly sweet finish. It was pretty thin on the palate although this may well be down to the fact that I was drinking it alongside the FES. I'd like to give it another try without the comparison as it just felt very light in comparison. As a small aside I didn't expect to hit 200 beers within less than a year of posting...I'm not quite sure whether to be proud or concerned!
Beer eight of 11 from my visit to the Bermondsey Beer Mile. We went for variety at Partizan and variety was what we got.
This FES (does the E stand for Extra or Export? Not quite sure!) was absolutely
superb and for me ran Anspach & Hobday’s porter close for dark beer of the
day. It poured black with a tan head and had a lovely roasty aroma. It was very
full-bodied with a taste bitter coffee, chocolate and dark fruits, really
smooth and rich. A really nice stout this one and I will definitely have it
again.
Beer four of 11 from my visit to the Bermondsey Beer Mile. In the interest of fairness a second beer was in order at Brew By Numbers and this time it was the Porter on offer, with the aim of comparing it to the earlier one that we'd had at Anspach & Hobday. The BBNo Porter poured dark brown/black as you would expect. The nose is roasted malts with a hint of hoppiness, the label described this as a a 'hoppy US style porter' so I guess that makes sense. Unlike the Anspach & Hobday porter this is pretty light-bodied yet still smooth. The flavour is bitter, dark chocolate, some smokey coffee with the hops coming through too. This is a good beer, the hops giving it an extra dimension and the light body making it very easy to drink. I'd normally like my porters full-bodied this one really works.
Beer two of 11 from my visit to the Bermondsey Beer Mile. As Anspach & Hobday currently produce just three beers it seemed rude not to try at least two of them so following The Porter my friend and I went for a bottle of The Smoked Brown. I particularly love the label on this one, I think A&H have branded themselves very well (someone knows what they're doing) and the firemen are my favourite of the labels that have been produced so far. Anyway, the beer. The Smoked Brown pours a hazy dark brown with a creamy-beige head. I wasn't really sure if I expected to like this or not but it was another winner. Some caramel on the nose and less smokiness in the taste than I anticipated; you can pick out the hoppy bitterness, some nice malt in their too and the smoke comes through on the finish, although not strongly. It's beautifully balanced and very drinkable, like the Porter the word that comes to mind is mellow. Good beer.
