Athlone Beer Club visits The Malt House

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For those of you who are not on Facebook and have missed it, Athlone Beer Club is returning to The Malt House next Friday, October 24th. I know that there will be a Bo Bristle special on draught, it’ll be either the Imperial Red Ale or their DIPA. They’re both great beers and I’m looking forward to supping them again. We’ll kick off at the usual time of 9:30 pm, see you all then, cheers!

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Sean Lightholder’s Pumkin Ales: Guest Posts 11 & 12

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Our 11th and 12th pumpkin beer of the 2014 Autumnal season come from two different breweries, in two different cans, and one single boxed set of 4: He Said, He Said.
If the box is to be believed, San Francisco’s 21st Amendment and Seattle’s Elysium breweries have differing stories about who approached whom in coming up with these two co­brewed pumpkin beers. Not in dispute is that one is a dark­colored pumpkin beer (25 SRM) in a light­colored can and the other is a light­colored pumpkin beer (12 SRM) in a dark­colored can.

Elysium is known for their obsession with pumpkin beer, having brewed at least 30 different pumpkin beer. Sadly, they are hard to get down here in the bay area. 21st Amendment are known for starting the “micro­canning revolution,” producing craft beer in cans before anyone else thought such a thing was viable.

The “he said, he said” thing seems to be contagious. A fellow brewer and friend trying this beer alongside me admitted he was unfamiliar with the Baltic Porter style (which the first of these beers is brewed in).“What makes a porter ‘Baltic’ he said, scanning the label text.“It’s lagered,” I replied. Screwing his eyebrows together, he said, “a lagered dark beer cannot be a porter. If you lager a beer, it’s a lager. If you use darker malt, that’s a schwarzbier.” “Schwartzbier,” I countered, “eschews roast characteristics ­ the ’schwartz’ is about the color, not the flavor.” “Exactly!” he said, “which is why it’s a lager. You just can’t lager a porter.” “You can,” I said, “it’s called a ‘Baltic Porter’” and handed him the BJCP style guidelines.“Well, hell,” he said, reading the description. As I said, the he said he said thing is contagious. Drink this package with caution.

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Of the two, I have to say the Baltic Porter is a tasty beer. There’s a nice aroma and it’s a creamy sip, balancing roast against a smooth lager character. Unfortunately, one of the two porter cans had a strong diacetyl odor as it warmed accompanied by a harsh pineapple flavor. It was difficult to discern pumpkin or spice flavor.

Not a fan of Belgian yeasts (nor their generally high­gravity beer), I concede that if any type of beer would compliment the sweet, high­gravity Belgian tripel with its estery yeast notes, it might be a spice beer. This was a sweet, gently spiced beer. As I said, I’m not a fan of the style, but it wasn’t the worst Belgian­style beer I’ve ever had. The baltic porter He Said would be a refreshing accompaniment to an appetizer platter of mild cured meat and cheeses. The Belgian tripel would be good with spicy dishes.

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Oktoberfest from the pretender to the original!

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Flying Dog have taken Oktoberfest beer and put their own spin on it with the cheeky DOGtoberfest Marzen. It’s a lovely amber colour and it’s sweet and malty. The most exciting thing about it though is the Ralph Steadman artwork though which is unusual for this stable.

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One of the biggest Munich breweries Hofbrau have a more traditional Oktoberfestbier. It’s more golden and goes down very easily. And then you check the label and it’s 6.3%! I’d have to be swept up after a few half litres! I had it with the traditional Bavarian dish Mac and Cheese. The right job. Sláinte!

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Sean Lightholder’s Pumpkin Ales: Guest Post No. 10

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Howe Sound Brewing’s Pumpkineater Imperial Pumpkin Ale is the ninth 2014 pumpkin beer we’ve tried.
It also has the coolest bottle cap. Seriously; I carefully popped it off and am now using it as a fridge magnet.
I’m unfamiliar with Howe Sound’s beers, but if this is any example, their brewer knows what he’s doing. Where Shipyard’s Smashed Pumpkin tasted every inch of its 9%, Pumpkineater tastes like it’s much less than its 8% ABV. Also in contrast to some other beer we’ve tried *cough* Saranac Our Pumpkin *cough* *cough* there is practically an encyclopedia of information about this beer in web 2.0 infographics on the label (including
a single, large BREWED IN BRITISH COLUMBIA medallion graphic taking up just as much room as 4 other, smaller, info graphics). Disappointingly, there are no aromatics to speak of pouring this into the glass, but it sits comfortably on the tongue. Try as I might, I could not discern much in the way of pumpkin or spice to speak of; I wish there was some nod toward squash or spice to really drive home the seasonal angle here.

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To sum up: this is well­brewed, but nondescript. With its colorful infographic label an imposing, swing­topped bottle, this Imperial Ale reminds me of some other Candians I’ve met: intimidating at first glance, but actually just friendly and approachable once you get to know them. This would be a good beer to drink at (Candian) Thanksgiving dinner.

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Dogfishhead & Wells DNA

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I’d heard a bit about DNA it has been described as somewhere between bad and mediocre. So I wasn’t expecting much but sure you have to try everything at least once! It’s the result of a collaboration between renowned American brewery Dogfishhead and well known English establishment Wells and Young. It’s a reduction of Dogfishhead’s 60 Minute IPA and Charles Well’s English ingredients. That’s what it says on the label anyway.  I’m not sure what the point of it was to be honest. 60 Minute IPA is great, in fact I haven’t had a bad beer from Dogfishhead. This isn’t bad either, it’s just not quite good. And I and everyone else expected more. It’s inoffensive and it’s not as hoppy as I think it should be. Back to the drawing board lads. 

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