Wednesday 24 November 2010

Warcop 'Furnace' & 'Honeyed Stout'

The final two bottles from Warcop are 'Furnace' a ruby ale, and their 'Honeyed Stout'. Again the bottles have interesting pictures on them, alot of religious iconography and some other odd pictures, here is the list of their ruby ales alongside the label pictures, check them out yourself.


Onto the beers, first up 'Furnace' 500mls, 4.8%. This indeed pours a nice ruby colour, a small head that quickly goes. Aroma has a sourness about it, reminds me of a heavy oaked white wine. Taste has a solid malt element but i'm struggling to differentiate between bitterness and sourness. I put away 2/3rds of it before i knew it i must admit, but i'm really not sure about it, whether i liked it or not.



The 'Honeyed Stout' sounded really interesting, they use honeycombs from local beekeepers and its aged for at least 2 months. It had a just off white head which was light and frothy, its body was relatively light for a stout but not thin. Again the aroma has some sourness to it, plus a sort of burnt malt element. Upon drinking i get dryness and a little smokiness at the end, little sweetness, no honey at all though. Although there is a spicy edge to it there is again that same sourness i got with the ruby ale, i'm not sure whether this is a feature of the yeast they use or something else.
Some of the other beers they had on sale sounded interesting also (and i really wanted to like these), but they possibly might make me a little hesitant before buying any of them is all i can say.

4 comments:

  1. Sour ay? Maybe a bacterial infection, or maybe the bottles wern't kept well some point before you got them.

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  2. ah good, a brewers expertise!
    talking generally - so can an infection do this, although it was 2 different beers an infection could affect two brews? could the yeast do this?

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  3. Having a bottle of the Honeyed Stout myself, and that's exactly how I'd characterise the flavour: sour; almost like a lambic. (Which I like! :-) )

    And it's the same with all the Warcop stuff I've tried. Surely not an infection then...

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  4. thanks john, that interesting. Possible a house yeast characteristic then?
    I've not seen any more of their bottles since but i'd certainly try them now.

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