Anchor Brewing Co. Brekle's Brown

This bottle has been sitting in my shed since the new year.
Its a piece of Anchor brewing history apparently, inspired by the all malt browns ales from their history.

Its also in a typical Anchor shaped bottle of 650mls, its 6% abv and I paid £4.99.

Deep brown in colour, a creamy head that's pretty big to begin with but it settles to a nice finger height.

Rich and sweet aroma, brown sugar, and that's how its tastes also. The malts give caramel and toffee, with a sort of luxurious smooth quality and depth, reminding you of the best Belgian beers.
The citra hops give it a nice moderate bitterness, on the medium body with good carbonation, this is a great beer well worth picking up if you see it.

Anchor Small Beer

Back on International Stout Day I entered DrinkDrank's competition and was victorious!!  Well, okay i WAS the only entrant, but still Craig was as good as his word and sent a prize across the atlantic to me.

I received a lovely looking pint glass, details of the Albany Pump Station on the side, nice looking place with some tasty sounding ales. Cheers Craig.


Obviously I had to have an American beer to christen the glass, and only had the Anchor Brewery bottle 'Small Beer'.
I didn't know much about this beer so looked it up online, this is from their own website:

A unique low-alcohol brew reminiscent of an English bitter, with a light amber color and lots of hop character, Anchor Small® Beer is certainly not small on flavor.
Made from the second runnings of our Old Foghorn® mash, Anchor Small® revives the ancient brewing tradition of creating two distinct beers from one mash – a sweeter, stronger and more expensive barleywine made for sipping, and a more plentiful drinking beer. We sprinkle warm water over the Old Foghorn mash after the first “wort” has run off, creating a second, lighter brew. Technically, both beers are "ales" because they are made with top-fermenting yeast. Like its forebears, the result is an easy-drinking “session” beer.

 I noticed that on Ratebeer opinion is split between those who enjoy it and those who consider it a weak light 'whats the point?' brew that pales next to their other beers.

I found it to be a nice session beer as they describe it, very drinkable. Its 3.3% abv, and i paid £3.29, volume is the odd figure of 650mls.

 A light golden colour, small head that reduces to a ring. Very well carbonated, perhaps a tad too gassy.
Aroma is light citrus with some grain and cereal. Its dry and crisp, light biting citrus and malts, thin in the mouth, a little oily but great fresh flavours of fruit and small amounts of caramel sweetness.

I'd certainly drink it again, it does exactly what its supposed to do, a session bitter that I wish I'd had a session on rather than just the one bottle.

Perhaps this is how the British brewers should make their new lower alcohol 2.8% beers, and get some flavour into them.

bit of a beer round up no.1

I've been busy, or working nights, or the wife is using the computer, so a few beers over the last couple of weeks have escaped being blogged about so i thought a round up post was in order. 


Lets start with a goody.
Fullers 'Golden Pride'  (8.5% abv) was picked up at Waitrose a while back, a beautiful reddish brown colour with lovely aroma of berries and caramel. 
Full bodied in the mouth, a little oily too, warmth and reasonable amount of alcohol come through with flavors of sugars and rich fruit, a bit malty with a dryness also. Really good.




From Scotland and quite well known, and usually found in beer collection books, next was Williams Brothers Kelpie seaweed ale. I don't know if its the suggestion after reading books and reviews but the fresh sea breeze aroma really is there! A dark ale with a light salty chocolate taste, earthy aroma and taste also, this was a different beer one i would have again but not frequently i think, could become a little monotonous on the palate.
 







Fullers Chiswick bitter was a new one on me, and a very pleasant introduction was made. Small creamy white head, beautiful fresh orange pithy bitter aroma. Good malty and hop balance, crisp and some dryness also, lovely beer.



 



After really enjoying the Anchor Porter a while back i was quite looking forward to their Liberty ale that i bought at the same time. A yellowy orange in colour and good creamy head on top. Quite bitter but not a sharp fresh bitterness, its quite a heavy body in the mouth and lasts, ?some pine. I was a little disappointed with this, i was expecting to be wow'd like when tasting their porter or when i first had Sierra Nevada's Pale ale, but its still a good complex beer.





The last of the beers i picked up at the Cowbridge festival this year was Otley's O-HO-HO which i assume is their Xmas beer from the title. Thus i also assume it would be rich fruity dark ale like most other Xmas/winter ales, so was pleasantly surprised when i poured a fresh orange'gold coloured beer with a minimal head. Immediate light aroma of sweet oranges, like pulling satsuma's out of your stocking!! Dry, citrus hops, a crisp beer with hints of spice and a delight to drink. Made me rethink what a Christmas ale should be really, although i would be just as happy to drink this on a hot summers day, it would be a real thirst quencher i believe.

Anchor Porter Vs. Tesco Finest Traditional Porter

This is less a taste test, more a 'one bottle after another' evening.
I settled down to watch the new Star Trek movie finally and open up another in the latest Tesco Finest range. The Traditional Porter is produced and bottled by Harviestoun , Scotland and is 6% 330mls.
Colour wise its a very dark brown verging on black, nice light brown head that quickly goes. Aroma was chocolate and light coffee. Nice and smooth, again light coffee and chocolate malts, with a slight bitterness staying at the back of the throat. Enjoyable overall.

I then opened the Anchor  Porter  ,5.6%  355mls, and wow, what a difference, all round really. Immediate aroma is immensely enjoyable but i struggled to put a name to some of what i was getting. Creamy, sweet chocolate, almost treacly smell, lovely. Colour again is almost black with larger light brown head. Taste - quite malty, coffee bitterness but a full mouthful of flavour, sweet rich fruit. Extremely good beer, and i defiantly pick some more up when i next see them.

The Harviestoun porter was quite nice , nothing wrong with it but it is dwarfed by the Anchor, even with less abv it drinks much higher such is the flavour.

And the movie was quite good too.

Good times ahead.

Just before the weekend i had to go into Cardiff for a work thing which meant i could make a slight detour to probably the best (as in most varied selection) beer shop in South Wales that I'm aware of. Please feel free to correct me if you know of another.
On 97-99 Whitchurch Road is the Discount Supermarket which from the outside looks reasonable ordinary, little hint at the treasures inside.



Aside from the usual convenience shop fare and a large wine section, is a fantastic beer selection. Floor to ceiling shelves with a choice from all corners of these isles, including as high up as the Scotland's Orkney Brewery. Then there is the Belgian beers, German, many other European, and a good but small selection of US beers.
I picked up:
two from the Anchor brewing co. Porter and Liberty Ale
Orkney Brewing co. Red MacGregor

William Brothers Kelpie Seaweed ale
Timmermans Gueuze Lambic   -   this will be my first lambic beer btw.
Schneider weisse Tap 6
Samual Smith Oatmeal Stout
Marble Lagonda IPA
Leffe 9
and the Untapped Triple S  in my last post.

I then went to Dorset for the weekend to see family and friends, and my oldest friend Dougie kindly gave me three beers he picked up on holiday in Devon recently from the Teignworthy brewery. Cheers mate!!

Unfortunately i know am working three nights and then have the next few nights already booked up so all of these will have to wait until next week!!! To be fair thought one of these nights out is a small stag do which will be attending a beer festival so that pretty good compensation!