Jacobi Brewery of Caio 'Light Ale'

My third beer from the Jacobi brewery, following the very good 'Dark' and disappointing Red Squirrel, is their golden ale 'Light'.

A 3.8% abv 500ml bottle conditioned ale, and it was lively enough too.
Pours a light golden yellow, with a quite floral aroma and wafts of citrus.
It has a good light body, not too thin, and citrus freshness and sharpness. A little oily in texture, and as it warmed I got some buttery notes, plus it became grassy too.
Sweetness is provided by hints of honey, and matched with some hop bitterness which help it stay crisp throughout

Not bad, I would imagine on a hot summers day this bottle chilled perfectly would go down quite well.

Open It!!!

I was reminded that this weekend is marked as the first Open it!! of the year, an excuse to get out those beers your hanging onto for 'that' occassion but then never get round to opening.

George Gale & Co Ltd. D-Day Anniversary Ale.

I was given this bottle by my dad a couple of years ago, it had been in his garage for several years alongside this Prize Old Ale bottle. I am assuming that they are both from 1994, there is no date on the Prize Old Ale bottle, but the D-Day bottle is a 50th anniversary release.

I had no idea what type of beer the D-Day one was, Google searching two years ago produced very little results, it appeared in a couple of lists from collectors websites but no details beyond what I already knew, but today when I decided to open it tonight I searched and found an entry on a Dutch site listing it as a pale ale.

Its 275mls, corked, 6.5% abv, bottle numbered. 15430.

I was worried about the cork disintegrating when pulled out but it stayed in very good condition.
A reasonable pop upon opening but on pouring it was obviously flat, zero carbonation. I was not sure if this was bottle conditioned but the bottom of the bottle showed a lot of sediment.

Aroma was like a fortified wine and the taste was not far from that also, more like a very watered down port or red wine. It was not unpleasant but there was also a sour element which combined with the flatness meant that I poured it away after a few mouthfuls.

I suppose not every 'Open It' will end up with a beautifully matured barely wine, or an imperial stout brewery collaboration that rocks your world. Sometimes they will be a duff beer, but all you do is open the next beer and sup that.

Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Scottish Craft Brewed Lager

Picked up at Sainsbury's by my wife as she wasn't sure what I'd had or hadn't had in the beer isle, but she guessed correctly that this was one that would be new to me.

Made by the brewery Harviestoun, producers of other fine beers such as 'Bitter and Twisted' and 'Old Engine Oil' and the specialist line of whiskey aged beers 'Ola Dubh', one of which I have waiting in the wings myself.

This one made for Sainsbury's is 4.1% abv, 500mls. That is lighter than the 'Schiehallion' in their range which weighs in at 4.8%, and one I've not tried so I'm unable to compare.

Golden yellow in colour as one would assume for a lager, grass aroma, light citrus.
Reasonable carbonation, light and crisp, slightly herbal and grassy again, cereal malts, lemon.

Very enjoyable, decent lager, that thankfully leaves no nasty metallic after-taste, and I'd happily drink this again.
Certainly I'd choose this over the other 'craft lager' on their shelves, that being the Meantime London Lager which I found quite unappealing frankly.

Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat Ale

Quick pop review.

Do you remember pop up video? Late night music video show that had 'pop up' bubbles with facts and silly comments on them. For some  reason that popped into my head whilst trying this beer.
I imagined Michael Jackson (obviously the beer hunter, not the 'keep away from my children' music one) supplying the facts, the bubbles appearing and telling me:

"cloudy, yellow in colour",
 "minimal hop flavours and low bitterness",
 "creamy body",
"yeasty but little else in flavours".

Of course these comments are my own not his, I wonder if he would be as disappointed in it as I was.

I open it today to go with some home-made pizza's myself and the kids made. The pizza was excellent, the beer not that special.

Introducing - Tiny Rebel Brewing

I said at the beginning of this year that one of my aims was to feature more Welsh beer and breweries, so to feature a brand new brewery from Newport pretty much ticks all boxes!!

Here in South Wales the Tiny Rebel Brewing team are about to make a splash onto the scene, with a unique look about themselves.

Certainly I feel a new presence can only be good in an area where one large company dominate and we only have those Otley boys to give us new beers. Exciting times for beer lovers.

 



I'd been in contact with one of the team, Gazz, via the beer social media platform Untappd and asked if I could put some 'Meet the Brewer' style questions to them, and here are the responses:

Where are you based and where did your name come from?

The name Tiny Rebel was originated from what me and Brad wanted to create and achieve as a brewery. 'Tiny' is our brewery size and 'Rebel' because our beers and image are far from traditional. Our base is in Newport where there hasn't been a local brewery for over 5 years so these are real exciting times.

Who is 'The Tiny Rebel Team' and what is the size of the brewery?

The Tiny Rebel Team is myself Gareth Williams and my business partner Bradley Cummings.

How long have you been brewing?

I have taken an interest in brewing since I was a kid due my Grandfather brewing endless amounts of exploding bottles of Ginger Beer, Mead, Wine & not so good beers, I was probably more interested in the exploding bottles! I started All Grain home brewing 6 years ago with a few Brew days with Micro’s here & there. Then I converted my brother in law Brad from drinking lager to cask and he has never looked back. Since the idea for Tiny Rebel was created we have spent the last 18 months researching & experimenting on our 50L system.


Tell us about 'Fubar' and your 'Urban IPA', what ingredients were used, hops etc.

Living in a small Urban city we wanted to give the Brewery that Urban City feel, hence the birth of Urban IPA. We have mixed up the Traditional English IPA with the popular US styles of IPA to create a well balanced alternative IPA. ‘FUBAR’ means Funked Up By A Rebel, not the other acronym! It's a pale ale that's got an English malt base and finished off with a healthy American hop flavour and aroma. Inspired by the pale's we love to drink.

What other beers can we expect in the future? you were mentioning a black IPA on untappd the other day?

At Tiny Rebel we massively believe in Researching & Experimenting, after all that’s what craft brewing is all about. We plan to have a permanent gang of about 6 beers & we will be brewing a wide range of speciality, limited edition and seasonal beers that will be small batch bottled on our in house bottling plant as well as cask & keg.

Which other beers and breweries do you admire currently.

Gazz – Probably ‘Thornbridge’ Everything these guys do is done with a bit of class & style, it’s not all about the hops!

Brad - So I guess that makes me the Tyler Durden of our team because I'm more of a hop junkie and love really unique beers, so it's Dogfish Head for me.

You open officially in March, what do you have planned?

Along with our beer launch event we will be having our official launch at the brewery early summer. The Great Welsh Beer & Cider Festival will be a big event after last years success so expect a few interesting beers from us there. Keep an eye out for our Tap House opening early March ‘The Navigation House’ in Abercynon.

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to Gazz and Brad for making the time to answer my questions in an obviously busy period in this new venture.
The beer launch mentioned is at The Commerical Inn in Pontyminster 1800 hrs onwards. 
I'm going to be unable to attend (dammit!!!) so am looking forward to trying the Tiny Rebel beers at the next available opportunity.

 http://www.facebook.com/tinyrebelbrewingco

Light and Dark

I've been busy recently, lots of decorating, assembling furniture and a first turn at wallpapering hence the lack of recent posts. All good fun, not,  and now I have a weeks holiday just when its half term holiday.

I certainly though have not been denying myself some decent beers, including another trip to the Cardiff beer shop to pick up some new bottles. I did tend to hit the more well known names this time, Thronbridge and Kernel bottles, Mikkeller and Anchor again. I could have gone for some breweries I've not experienced before but the above mentioned when on the shelf I really felt I couldn't pass over.

Tonight however I drank one from my last shopping trip pre xmas, Orkney Brewery's Dragonhead stout, and then followed it with another bottle from the Mikkeller Single Hop IPA series, this time the Nelson Sauvin.

Obviously 2 very different styles of beer, but at the end of the day its still malts, water and hops.


 Orkney's Dragonhead, a surprisingly low 4% considering how it tastes, 500ml bottle.



On the other side is a Mikkeller Single Hop Nelson Sauvin IPA, a much bigger 6.9% abv, 330ml bottle.





 Both in excellent condition when opened, aroma's flowing free from the pour. One was chocolate, earthy notes and wood, the other bountiful exotic fruit, which was which??!!

The taste couldn't live up to the aroma's surely?
Oh yes, but first the look - black as a stout should be, with a head that clings on throughout being respectable to the image, and the colour of light melted chocolate, which I'm convinced got darker as I drank more. Oily in texture, good mouthful, you just keep swirling the glass to see how it looks and settles. Dark chocolate, light coffee on the tongue, woody and a little smoke. Total joy. Within the creamy sensation you get some vanilla, and then a good roasted end.

Why did i follow a stout with this IPA, I'm not totally sure. I know I wanted to continue the high qualitity I had just had had, I didn't want to be let down with a lacklustre beer and the last Mikkeller was a pretty good bottle. And I'd recently re-discovered Brewdog's 5am Saint and fancied another similar hit of hops, so hoped this would provide it.

Wonderful colour, sort of a bright copper, the citrus and passion fruit aroma. Great freshness again with this bottle like the last, the bitterness creeps back in your mouth and hits the back nicely, fades a little early but by then your going for another sip so it's a moot point. Crisp sharp orange that should be left in the fruit bowl a little longer, and a wonderful hop dryness.


Good choices.

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.

Burns Night beers

Every January 25th is celebrated as Burns Night in Scotland, Robert Burns with traditional food, verse and music. Me, I love haggis but the wife will not entertain the idea and I don't think the kids would try it either. And seeing as I do not drink whiskey I'm left with Scottish beer, ah well, never mind! (I'm actually out tonight so it was last night I sampled these)

Bought in Aldi this week, 2 beers from the Traditional Scottish Ales, a Blonde beer 'Rabbie Burns' 4.2%, and according to the label a 80/- export 4.5% 'William Wallace'. Both 500mls, and £1.49, neither bottle conditioned.

Firstly the Blonde beer, pours nicely carbonated, pale yellow in colour with little bubbly head. Slight citrus aroma with cereal. Biscuit base malts, light zing of lemon, slightly sweet and oily texture. Very little in the way of hop bitterness, and the whole thing ends quite quickly in the mouth. But its inoffensive and easily drinkable.

Next up the William Wallace, the 80/- Export has a reasonable sweetness to the aroma, not much else. A nice amber in colour, medium body, its got a lot of sweet malt, and a little fruit. It has a nice dryness, but none of the peaty or smoky character that you may be expecting with some Scottish shilling beers.

Overall two easy to drink but quite average beers on offer currently in Aldi.

Tesco - The Big Price Increase

So now its "Tesco - The Big Price Drop Increase" apparently, not surprising after their recent bad profits news.
Pretty much all the range of 500ml UK produced bottles which previously ranged from £1.69 to £1.89 are now all £1.99.
The few stronger beers, that were already over that margin ie. Old Tom, Marstons VSOP, seem to be at similar prices as before.
Their 330ml selection I was unsure whether it had been effected, although I noted Brewdog Punk IPA unchanged at £1.49.

As we are all used to these pricing games, I'm sure no-one will be surprised when in a month they 'drop' the prices again, potentially saving us more money gawd bless 'em!
Down to the prices that they were, um, last week!



Edit: see the comments below, Curmudgen is right that Punk is not £1.49, my store now sells it at £1.69.

a big Stout round up

Little run of stouts recently either side of some night shifts and the holidays, some good, very good at that, some not. Two of the five are welsh beers.

The Sainsbury's beer competition last year produced one beer that was roundly praised, even surprising people that it was not more highly placed. I never got to a store whilst the competition was on, so missed most of the beers but a few weeks after I picked up two bottles left on a clearance shelf, the last bottles of the Williams Brothers Profanity Stout.

Spoiler - Its excellent, basically. 330mls, 7% abv.

Dark black ruby edges. Aroma of coffee and malts but also hop fruits coming through. Great full body, chocoloate, creamy, nice bitterness, rich coffee, rich figgy fruit. Excuse me while I go dig the other bottle out of the shed.




Pen-lon Stock Ram , bottle conditioned stout, 4.5%, Pen-lon are based in Ceredigion, West Wales, and all their range are conditioned and vegan friendly made on their farm. Previously I've had their Chocolate stout which was very good, but their bottles are still not easily obtained in South Wales.
It has conditioned well, light carbonation, reasonable full in the mouth. Aroma is light chocolate and ash. Taste is a little odd, there is coffee, its yeasty,  but also some slightly sour fruits, blackcurrants. Its also got a faint cheesy quality. Overall unfortunately I was not that impressed.

Neath Ales Black, this was brought to me in my christmas stocking, coool santa thanks!!
5.5%, 500mls, Neath ales black is light in the mouth, but nicely so, overall its flavours are light and nicely balanced with its body, making it very drinkable. There is bitter chocolate and rich fruit, an ash dryness, finishes with good bitterness.

Saint Petersburg by Thornbridge, is remarkable in that it drinks nowhere near a 7.7% beer. This Imperial Russian stout is beautiful to look at, in and out the bottle, to smell and taste. Beautiful mocha head, aroma is roasted malt, smoke, milk chocolate. Deep flavour, although not as huge as i was expecting, licorice, coffee, good hop bitterness alongside a little metallic edge.
One everyone should try.









Recommended by the Folk & Ale blog I picked this up on an occasional visit to Sainsbury's.
Brewed for them by Black Sheep brewery, one I've always enjoyed beers by, its 6% and damn tasty.
Very dark brown into a black, thick but small head, solid body.
Chocolate on the nose and mouth, milk chocolate, coffee with sugar, dried fruits.
Obviously much more easily available that most of the above and well worth checking out.

The Plough and Harrow, Monknash, South Wales

We hadn't been here for a few years, about five my wife reckons, when we had our daughter in a papoose on my back reaching out for blackberries from the hedgerows. We had a sunday lunch outside the pub whilst she crawled in the grass purple juice on her cheeks, on a lovely sunny day.

The Plough and Harrow is found in Monknash which is a 15-20 minute drive from Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan through a few country lanes. You can do a great walk using the pub as a starting point, we just did part of it, starting going past the pub down the lane and a stony path (good boots needed) for 20-30 minutes and ending up on the Vale of Glamorgan coast line, fabulous views. The walk is great if you've an interest in photography, loads of  natural little waterfalls. ( Some photos here, more to be added over next few days)

Not bad huh?!

So, back to the pub. A traditional country pub. Nooks, crannys,  bits and bobs on the walls and ceiling.  Oozing it from the pores. And that is meant in no way disrespectfully, you end up looking at the houses around it and imagine your self living there so you could be a local in this pub. You sink into the chair, and want time to stretch. We wonder if our kids could manage the walk we did so we could come back sooner.

An old building, fires and small bars, ales up front on pumps, five casks behind the bar.

No menu's, its written across the beams, as are the beers and ciders, abv's and prices. 

Lunch was some traditional faggots, peas and chips this time, superb and priced fairly. The staff friendly and professional, absolutely no complaints there. 

On cask was Wye Valley HPA, Wickwar's Cotswold Way, Hancocks HB, and Kingstone's Gold but I went for the Cotswold Spring Brewery stout Guv'nor. 

Light to medium in the mouth, chocolate, dry and burnt coffee beans. Fruit and chocolate beautifully balanced, £3 a pint. Money well spent. 

A day well spent.

Celt Experience 'Dark-Age'

The Celt Experience are a brewery based in Caerphilly, Mid Glamorgan, also the home of Newmans. I'm not sure of the relationship between the two, it seems that Celt are an off shoot focusing on organic ales inspired by Celtic history. 

Each bottle I've bought has a little historical statement, this one says
"This beers name comes from the Dark age. Folklore has highlighted many stories of Celtic warriors and kings that waged successful battles against the intruding Anglo-Saxons. None more than King Arthur, who legend has it, fought in 12 battles in the late 5th and early 6th century."
Each bottle is also very well presented, several awards for them have been won and rightly so.



Dark Age, 500mls, 4%,  not bottle conditioned.


Labelled as a full bodied Welsh dark beer, it looks like a mild, smells and tastes like a mild, and a very good mild at that.
 
Aroma was muted but thats because I have a cold, but certainly roasted coffee and chocolate.
Nice ruby colouring through the darkness. Lovely and smooth, light burnt coffee and chocolate, but not to dark or strong. A little fruit sweetness and light brown sugar. Understated hop bitterness comes through, light carbonation, with a small creamy head all the way down the glass.

I would love to know who the brewers are at the two previously mentioned breweries, is there a difference or is it the same people? I ask because the Celt bottles I have had in the past are generally quite good, this Dark-Age a case in point, where as the Newman beers, (granted I've only had four), but they have not been as impressive.

Into 2012, bringing you Welsh beer

Already we are only into the new year a few days and a couple of excellent posts are around, from Ghostie talking about his aims, Boak and Bailey's 'What wedge?' post, Leigh talking sense, and Tandlemans cracking post here.
Go read and enjoy, or not, whatever your opinions are.

For this year myself I had already been thinking about the blog and how it would progress.

A quick scan of the beer reviews I did last year showed about only 20% were Welsh beers.
I had noted this a couple of months ago and tried to address this, featuring beers by  Newmans, Purple Moose, Jacobi and Wye Valley.
So to this end I am going to focus more on Welsh beers this year on the blog.
I will still drink and review all other beers that take my fancy, but you can find many reviews on other blogs for the likes of Thornbridge, Magic Rock, Kernel et al, so I aim to bring Welsh beers you may not be aware of to a little wider attention. 
I'm just an English beer drinking fella living in Wales and shall attempt to share what I find out.
(Regular brewery news, announcements and pub information is already brilliantly served by Brew Wales so I wont be going there.)

I've already got several bottles lined up, from the likes of Pen-lon, Celt Experience, Neath Ales,and  more from the Purple Moose and Vale of Glamorgan breweries.


(....but the beer geek side is still there and I have still to open that Mikkeller Breakfast bottle!!!).

Purple Moose Brewery X-Mws Llawen (Merry X-Moose)

Purple Moose Brewery X-Mws Llawen  (Merry X-Moose)   5% abv, 500mls.

Merry Xmas indeed, lovely beer thats ruby red, little head but dry, light with fruit, plums, and its got a nice sourness/bitterness that cuts a little into your palate. Hints of smoke, perhaps a little thin in body but tastes strong if that makes sense. Very enjoyable.

Chimay Bleue

I am currently on a run of night shifts up until Christmas morning, so a few beer free days at the moment. This post then harks back to a couple of weeks ago when we put up the decorations one saturday afternoon.

I fancied my 'first xmas beer' whilst the kids argued over whose bits and baubles went where on the tree.
Something warm, cosseting, a beer to sip and blend into the occasion.
I opened the classic Chimay Bleue.

Dark brown, dense creamy head. Aroma of brown sugar, prunes, dark fruits generally, and malty.
Taste is rich and velvety, warming indeed, the 9% alcohol certainly comes through fantastically.
Sweet dark sugar, more dark fruits and rich malts. Chocolate and treacle is noted too.

A superb Sat afternoon soother.



Merry Christmas to all fellow bloggers, may all your beers taste brilliant this holiday.
Cheers!!