Almost time to get truly festive, today with Northern Monk Brewery and their Festive Star.
“A silky and smooth Festive porter, wrapped in vanilla, cinnamon and chocolate flavours.”
Christmas Beer Time – Day 23
Christmas Beer Time – Day 22
Time to head back to colder climes and a traditional Old Winter Ale from Fuller’s…
“As the days become shorter and the temperature drops, this beer is a perfect accompaniment with its malt, cookie and liquorice aroma and nutty, biscuity flavours.”
Draught Devil
The last few years have brought to light women in brewing (finally and belatedly), the latest being The Devil’s in the Draught Lines: 1000 Years of Women in Britain’s Beer History by Dr Christina Wade.
It is from the publishing arm of CAMRA and is described as a “new groundbreaking book that delves into the history of women in brewing, explaining the real reasons why women brewers became marginalised, while also debunking some tired old myths along the way.”
Since I am a beer history fan, you know I will be ordering this one.
Holiday Season 2023 – Day 7 – Festive Star from Northern Monk
I had my first Northern Monk beers at this year’s Firestone Walker Invitational. Loved both and now I am longing for their winter seasonal, Festive Star.
“Our annual festive release, Festive Star, returns for 2023. Our Northern Star with a party hat. A silky porter with chocolate, vanilla and cinnamon to get you into the festive spirit. “
Wish I Could Get – Gooseberry Edition
Thornbridge Artesian is on my wish list because I cannot remember any beer with gooseberries in it. They are not well known and are not widely available so I haven’t had one in years but if my poor memory serves, they are a little tart with grape character paired with a botanical like elderflower would make a potent mix.
Find YOUR Beer
Wilderness England has created a simple little internet tool for people to find just the right British beer for their tastebuds.
Here is the scoop, “Working together with craft breweries across England, from Yorkshire to Cornwall, the Wilderness team has indexed the flavour profiles of approximately 100 beers (and counting) across the entire country. Using a few key pieces of information – indicating preferred colour, body, alcohol content, bitterness and hop preferences, sweet or sour, fruity or not, or somewhere in between – this simple tool helps users discover which English craft beer best matches their tastes. It also provides information about the beer, which craft brewery makes it, and in what region in England to find it.”
Seems like a lot of data entry behind the scenes but as the number of beers grows this could be a fun sort of beer roulette you can play. Give it a spin right HERE.
Santa’s Pint Glass – Day 23
We head to merry Old England for a Scandinavian styled holiday ale from Thornbridge Brewing…
“A dark mild with Low Colour Maris Otter, Crystal, wheat and chocolate malt, hopped with Goldings. A brand new beer to provide comfort in deepest darkest December
Knäck is a 4% dark mild, with a rich malty soul giving notes of hard toffee and roasted nuts, much like the Swedish Christmas treat of the same name.”
London Brewery # 2 – Boxcar Brewing
The second English stop is at Boxcar of London. A somewhat trippy destination if their motto is any indication, ” Transporting you to a place of rainbows and hops, dreams of barley and oats, ideas about yeast and water, hallucinations of colour and light.”
Now on to the beers that I would sample first…
starting hoppy with PAL-019 BRU-1 DDH Pale then moving on to a Belgian BIG-001 Mosaic & Vanilla Tripel then to a Dark Mild, DRK-004 Dark Mild and then finishing with an IPA, IPA-005 Ekuanot IPA.
This brewery has a cool design look, very color filled outer space plus the bottles are odd shaped for my eyes. And you can get more Boxcar info from this article in Pellicle
London Brewery # 1 – Affinity Brew Co.
Our first brewery in London to visit is called Affinity Brew Co. and one of the reasons that I selected them is this statement on their website, “We do not filter or pasteurise our beer, allowing the yeast to produce a natural carbonation within the can.”
Now lets get to what I would try first…
Breeze – “A sparkling golden Saison brewed with Lime Zest and crushed Coriander Seed.”
Social Seduction – “A big, bold, west coast I.P.A brewed with a rotating selection of U.S hops.”
Toowoomba – “A Lamington inspired, coconut and raspberry stout. Toowoomba’s complex malt bill produces a rich, dark, chocolatey Stout. It is fermented on fresh Raspberries and conditioned with toasted Coconut.”
Review – Cloudwater
Mikkeller DTLA had a Sunday surprise recently. They had acquired five beers from the English brewery Cloudwater Brew Co. based in Manchester.
I ordered up the taster tray and got a seasonal pilsner, a farmouse ale and two IPA’s.
Fool For You – My first gooseberry beer if my memory serves. It has a strange slight berry/grape taste. Saison base is solid. Hazy almost rust brown color is a bit off-putting.
Spring/Summer pils with Mandarina Bavaria – By far the best of the four. This pils really nice with some orange juice notes. Quite sharp up front
NW DIPA – Not much color difference between the NW and NE. The West Coast has grassy and pine notes and a tiny bit of orange peel. Aftertaste is more bitter than the front of mouth.
NE DIPA – This IPA is a little softer but I am also getting the grassy and woodsy notes. Also a bit papery. Has that weird top of the mouth feel that I get from this sub-style.
Neither of the IPA’s really blew me away though even though I have heard wonderful things about them. I lucked out that the Pils was a mandatory inclusion of the taster tray. Otherwise I may have picked all IPA and come away with a lesser appreciation.
Thanks to Mikkeller for getting these beers to us.