Thistly Cross 'Whisky Cask' Cider ABV 6.9%

'Scottish Cider, pishhh' was the first reaction I had on seeing this cider. My second was 'but I don't really like cider'. I decided I wanted to try it, though. Having had a number of bottles of cask aged beers recently, I thought I may as well. And I wasn't disappointed. I still don't really like cider, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one.

Appearance-

The bottle neck emblazoned with a couple of thistles on a blue background, gives that Scottish feel. The cider itself is a pale, clear golden colour. Not very fizzy, just a light carbonation.

Nose-

I thought I could get a slightly smoky smell from this one. It could be from the wooden barrel it was aged in for 6 months. The dryness of this cider, I thought, is also evident from the smell.

Taste-

I did think it seemed medium dry (reinforced by it being written on their website) so not lip puckeringly dry, with a little sweetness. I found it to be quite a complex flavour, but not overly so. This was pleasant for me, as one of the things I don't like usually about cider is that it's a bit sweet...and that's it. You can definitely get a slight woody hit from it, and I found that I could tell there was whiskey involved somewhere in the mix.

Conclusion-

As with most people, when I think of cider I think of Somerset, Dorset or Kent. Sometimes Sweden these days, but not Scottish. As an 'unbeliever' of sorts this wasn't an ideal one for me to write about, and I'm not going to say I was changed to a cider lover by this experience. It was nice though, a bit different, and I do like different!

Black Isle-Black Run-Tomatin Sherry Butt Edition, ABV 8.4%

Proud as I am to say that I have tried two of the three in the Black Run, this is the first I've written about. That means I will be forced to try the other one again, oh such a hardship. I almost feel bad having another bottle of this fine run of beers though, as they are a limited edition. On this bottle it had written 'Bottle Number:796 of 1272'. I feel privileged somehow by that fact.

Appearance-

The labelling of these is quite clever, as it's very simple, and gives the feeling of a small producer, producing a fantastic little beer. The beer is great, and while Black Isle aren't exactly small, as micro-breweries go, they still have the feeling of one much smaller. The beer is very dark as a good stout should be, with that little hint of red when held up to a light. It has a very short lived brown coloured head.

Nose-

There is a good burnt smell from this one from the roasted malts. This goes nicely with the little hint of coffee you can also get.

Taste-

There is an amazing sweet character from it, which I can only assume comes from the sherry butt. This along the the deep coffee and molasses feeling makes it a delight to drink. There is a slight bitter finish to remind you that it is a beer, with hops, which is reassuring. It has a lovely creamy feeling to it. I like this about a good stout, especially an aged one, as with the sweetness it usually has, it makes it feel so much more indulgent.

Conclusion-

A fairly pricey number, at around about £6-7. If you bear in mind though that it's a limited run, it had to be aged and the sheer quality of it, it's definitely worth a punt. It's also organic, which I don't really go in for. I don't dislike organic things, but I don't go out of my way to get them. If you are that kind of person, though, then this might just be the brewery for you.

Siren Craft Brew-Liquid Mistress Red IPA, ABV 5.8%

While buying some beers for my sister's boyfriend, and some extras for myself over the Christmas break, the lady at my usual spot was totting up the price of my 5 beers. She then advised me that if I got another one, and if it cost around £3, then it would be basically free-because of some offer or other. I obviously jumped at this. Being taken by surprise by my good fortune, I panicked, pointed at this beer because it had a nice label, and cost around £3, and left. I thought later that I should have just got another really nice bottle, because I still would have got the discount. My regret didn't last long, it melted away as soon as I tasted the beer within.

Appearance-

As I said and you can see from the picture it's a gorgeous label. I've done a short internet search and couldn't come up with the artist. But it's nice. On pouring you get a deep ruby red, almost stout-like colour, just not quite as dark. It has a light brown head, not long lived and a bit bubbly, very ale like, but slightly longer-d'ya get me? Good.

Nose-

I thought it smelled like a nice Ale; hoppy and citrusey. It always reminds me of an old English pub, that smell. Not so much like an Irish pub, I always think of an Irish pub smelling like stale porter, most likely from the 'mother's milk' (from the movie Sweety Barrett) which collects under the taps, and is usually made primarily of Guinness. Whereas an English pub, I always think, smells of bitter, or ale-that hoppy smell, except a little stale, I suppose from spilled drink, and drip trays as well. There is also, always the unmistakable smell of humanity off a pub, and in years gone by of course smoke from cigarettes, pipes and/or cigars!

Taste-

Now, like I said, after drinking this lovely stuff my regret left me. It's not the most amazing, complex, breath-taking beer I've ever had, not by a long way. It was lovely though. Hoppy enough to convince me it was an ale. With a nice malty quality, that brings it a little towards the stout side of things. A nice grapefruit hit is the first impression it leaves on the tongue, quickly followed by a little malty burnt taste, and a little sweetness. The bottle says peach and raisins but I wasn't convinced on this score. I will consent to being a rank amateur, though, so don't be surprised if it actually tastes like peach soaked raisins when you taste it. 

Conclusion-

I really enjoyed this beer, and I will be trying the rest of the range. Keep an eye out for their special editions also, and let me know if you come across anything unusual from them. You may have noticed that I've added the ABV to the titles. I feel it adds a sense of completeness, and also stops me having to sneak it into the main body. Hope you like it.

De Proefbrouwerij-To Øl-Dangerously Close to Stupid

I can't figure out if the first or second name above is the brewery I think they are both involved, anyway, it's Danish! This refreshing imperial IPA with an ABV of 9.3% packs a punch in more than one way. It's highly alcoholic, so you feel quite light-headed after, and it's frankly silly amount of hops (mixture of Citra and Cenntennial-both of which provide a citrus/floral quality) packs quite a punch.

Appearance-

Very artsy fartsy label, the front is just a floral pattern, with the brand name really small on the top left hand corner. The back label has an ingredients list (very handy for a learner like me) and a little description which reads-'An imperial India Pale Ale with a close to stupid amount of hops'. On pouring we have a cloudy orange/amber colour, a white bubbly head which lasts surprisingly long, considering the large bubbles.

Nose-

There is a definite citrus and floral hit as soon as you stick your nose in. There is a slightly alcoholic smell also, as the other qualities aren't all

that strong.

Taste-

There is an amazing refreshing bitterness to this IPA. Which isn't surprising considering the two types of hops, and the amount of them in it, you can really tell. The citrus again comes out as a grapefruit kind of hit. The floral quality is almost perfume-like, which isn't at all as unpleasant as it sounds, going quite well with the bitterness. As with the smell there is a definite alcoholic after taste. To be honest this isn't all that bad as it's not too strong, having said that I've drank stronger beers with no alcoholic taste. It may be the clean, simple flavours that don't cover it up. It didn't stop me wanting more though. Great beer.

Conclusion-

Lovely beer, it was well worth the 4 odd pounds I paid for it. Can't really remember, I bought 'Brew Dog's Hoppy Christmas and a bottle of raspberry lemonade for Betty. That was lovely actually. Not too fizzy and no artificial crap in it. Noice! Peace.

Rack of Lamb with a Sticky Guinness Sauce, on Celeriac and Potato mash.

My first recipe, well my first time cooking something new, in a loooooong time. I was inspired by a recipe in one of Jamie Oliver's books, I made some changes though-I'm sorry but marmalade and lamb is just weird, and ketchup is a bit lazy. I also have a problem with raisins in savoury cooking, the idea appeals to me, and then I find one and I think eeeeeeeh no! This quantity fed two of us easily.

Ingredients-
some rapeseed/olive/whatever oil
1 450g rack of lamb (it had little hats on the tips of the bones-strictly optional.)
Sauce:
4 sprigs of rosemary
2 red onions
3 cloves of garlic
6 sun-dried tomatoes
2 tsp tomato puree
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp worcester sauce
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp muscovado sugar
150ml of guinness (I used 'Foreign Extra' because of it's strong flavour)
1 pint of vegetable stock
Mash:
2 medium potatoes
celeriac-as much as potato
butter-as much as you like (a knob?)
a drop of milk

Method:

1. Chop the garlic and onion nice and fine and put them with a bit of oil into a nice big dish, big enough to comfortably contain your lamb. Fry slowly until the onions start to go a little brown, or caramelised, if you insist. 

2. Put in the rest of the sauce ingredients apart from the stock and rosemary and let it simmer gently on the hob.

3. I cut the lamb into cutlets so that I could get more browned sides, but I'd say you could get a good result from leaving it whole and browning the outside too. That's the next step either way, brown the meat. Make sure it's a nice deep brown. Then put the rosemary on the pan until it's a little crispy, but don't burn it.

4. Put the lamb, rosemary and any juices into the big sauce dish and add the stock. Then put the lid on and cook nice and slowly (I did this one on the hob, and it made for some nice blackened amazingness at the bottom of the pan, but if you are a bit afraid of burning, then an oven at 150°C will do the trick) for about 3 hours. YES 3 HOURS. It's so very worth it, you can just suck the meat off the cutlets after, as evidenced by my last picture.

5. With about 30 minutes cooking time left on the lamb, make the mash. Cut the celeriac and potato into smallish cubes and boil for 15-20 minutes (keep checking the celeriac as it takes a little longer). Mash with the butter and milk, as much of each as you like. I know you all know how to make mash, it's here more for completeness than anything.

This makes for an amazingly tender lamb, as I alluded to above you barely even need a knife and fork. The sauce is quite powerful, but it shouldn't over power the lamb, I thought it was a nice level with the amount of sauce on the picture, but I like a good glut of sauce. Hope you try it and enjoy it, and as always comments are appreciated. Well nice ones are ;)

This picture is to show how clean I got the bones, and plate, but don't take my word for it, I'm a glutton, try it yourself.

Beavertown Brewery-Stingy Jack Spiced Pumpkin Ale

I was very excited about this particular ale. I had seen it and another just like it at the usual place I buy my beers the week before, both were described as 'pumpkin ale'. I was advised, when I bought this one, that it was the least pumpkin-ey of the two, but the other was gone, so I went with it. I must say that I wasn't exactly disappointed by it, it's a lovely ale, it was just lacking a little...something.

Appearance-
A 330ml bottle is just about right for this ale. The label is a great piece of artwork-as you can see. It shows Stingy Jack himself and the devil. The story of this can be found on their website. The liquid itself is a medium dark amber ale, with the usual small head and clear quality. It seems to have very little carbonation, as I would expect (maybe wrongly) from an ale.

Nose-
There is a mild smell of ginger which is unmistakable. Otherwise all I can say about it is that it smells warm, like a warm ale. It is very subtle, though, it's not a strong smelling beer by any means.


Taste-
A mild bitterness is the first hit, followed closely by a sweet ginger flavour. It's like those little ginger sweets covered in chocolate, but without the chocolate...you know what I mean. Then you get a warmth from the cinnamon, but no taste of it, I'm assuming that's where it's coming from because I read it as an ingredient on the bottle! No flies on me huh? It also mentions nutmeg, which you can kind of get as a very slight after-taste, but you do have to use your imagination. I sound a bit like a broken record with this one, but this complexity really covers up the 7.2% ABV, but I must say I was quite light headed after it, nothing can disguise that I'm afraid.

Conclusion-
As I said I was excited when I bought this bottle, as I was expecting a strong pumpkin flavour. I must say it was sadly lacking in this, but  it was still an absolutely great ale. Full of lovely extra flavours, and nicely drinkable. Very reasonable too at only about £3.00 for the bottle. Take that Noel, see I like cheaper beers too!

Gone in a Flash-Green Flash Brewing Co. Imperial IPA

This is an outstanding IPA by a company I have never heard of before, but will be looking for again. This is just exactly what I adore about there being so many micro-brewing set ups around now. Before I moved to England I had really no idea about this revolution. My first, and only tipples in the land of the potato were your standard big name beers. I liked these, don't get me wrong, but I'm so much more enamoured by these quirky, fun brews.  I get immense satisfaction from finding something new, that I've never tried before, or may never again. I get most of my gear from a little shop called 'The Bottle Shop' in a farmer's market type set-up in Canterbury, called The Good's Shed. Not only do they supply me with fantastic and fabulous beverages, but they are astoundingly knowledgeable about it all, and I get a great kick out of knowing what I'm buying, why I'm buying it, and where it comes from.

Appearance-

This fellow comes in a tall bottle, which contains a pint of this particular ale. It has just a front facing label, without much fancy stuff on it just a little blurb about the drink inside.
The liquid itself is a pale, clear, amber, and has a nice white head, which lasts longer than I expected.

Nose-
It has a seriously fruity aroma, and you can tell from here that it is loaded with hops. It reminded me of Erdinger wheat beer, a little, just a touch sharper. This may just be to my under experienced nose though.

Taste-
The first sip gives a mouth puckering bitterness that would shame any grapefruit. It really tingles at the sides of the tongue, and is bordering on being too much. This is the confirmation of the hop-ey nature of this exciting brew. The second gave a lovely actual grapefruit hit, I thought, along with a little sweetness. Following this fresh, lip smacking kick the rest of my experience was of a mellow citrus, far too drinkable IPA. This can be a little dangerous with an ABV of 9.4%, but I cleverly counteracted that by only buying one bottle!

Conclusion-
A sumptuous introduction to this American brewer. I would like to end on a comment Betty made after having a sip. I noticed this too, albeit after she told me I did. It is as if your tongue is paralysed by the bitterness, and that really mellows the whole experience out. Oh one other thing. I don't pretend to know about theses things, but I am learning-the bottle says they use a blend of Summit and Nugget hops to get the distinctive flavour. That's something else I must look out for.

ps. I've another beer to drink this week, a sneaky second one. A Pumpkin beer!!!! Watch this space for a review.

A Review for the Common Man

A critic told me after my last post, that I was out of touch with the 'common man' because I bought a £15 beer, so I have decided to review something that he (you know who you are) can relate to. Everyone else, just bare with me, he is a little more 'common' than most.

Every Thursday Betty and I promise ourselves and each other to cook something, even something a little trashy (bacon sandwiches or the like), for dinner/tea. Almost every Thursday recently, however, we have given in and gotten a take-away. What I'm going to review is what got last Thursday- Fish and Chips.

We go to a great little chippy called 'Ossy's Fish Bar' one of a chain in Kent. It's name reminds me of 'Osvaldo's'  in Dublin, you know the one with the great garlic cheese chips, on Clanbrassil street? Yeah that's the one, across from the Mace. Anyway, there are some very friendly eastern European guys working in Ossy's. At least I think they are friendly, with their perpetual smiles, and off-by-heart, off-the-cuff English phrases: "How's the going boss?" and "you like salt-vinegar, yeah?". Somehow, they have started to recognise us (I couldn't begin to guess why) and offer our 'usual'. Betty and I tend to get haddock and chips-this isn't because we prefer it to cod or plaice or whatever else they offer, no, it's because they make it fresh if you ask for it and honestly we can't tell the difference (who can when it's battered and deep fried? No one that's who!).

Let me qualify this-there are two things I expect from my Fish and Chips; that is Fish cooked fresh, and chips that have been sitting there for a while, but not too long. If the chips are too fresh, they are REALLY hot and still a bit hard, too old and they are a bit sickeningly greasy and soft. The chips from there usually are just about right, still hot, crispy on the outside, and like mash inside, and just greasy enough to give a wonderful feeling of naughtiness. The fresh fish has a lovely crunchy batter, and the fish itself is nice and soft. If it's left too long I find the batter gets soggy, and the fish, frankly a bit grim.

Generally we consent to salt and  vinegar, even though we add more of both at home, it just seems polite. I have also thought that when it comes to eating the fish and chips, people can be separated into two groups; those who eat it out of the bag, and those who use a plate and cutlery. We form part of the latter group. I think I like it because it's easier to mop up the salt and vinegar when it's on the plate, instead of soaking into the bag. Frankly I've always been a bit...unsure about the salt and vinegar thing. I tried chips without them once-it's not pretty. It turns out I don't really like chips. I know, it came as a surprise to me too.

We opted for the 'can of coke'  accompaniment with our meal on this occasion-original for Betty, cherry for me. I find that the cherry brings out the sweetness in... Oh who am I kidding, coke goes with chips, 'nuf said. Actually, I don't think anything washes the greasy feeling out of your mouth quite like a carbonated drink with sugar and vegetable extracts. Also when it's out of a can it just tastes better, fact!

Over all I would say that the service was good, the food exactly as I expected and the coke...exceptional, god I love cherry coke. I would also like to add that another reason we get Fish and Chips-say over Chinese, is the look on Skippy-our cat's face when she smells it. She knows she will get some, not from me you understand, I'm way too greedy, but from Betty, who simply can't resist her little face!

Normal service will resume forthwith, I've bought a nice looking bottle of Imperial IPA from Green Flash Brewing Co. for this evening which I will write a post about, as soon as I get the chance.

A Stout Like No Other- Brew Dog's Dog A

This is certainly a good start to my writing about the beers I drink. An Imperial Stout of such astounding distinction that I have no shame in telling anybody that it cost me a tasty £15.00. My Dog was it worth it though!

Appearance-
The bottle is ensconced in a box, I can only imagine to protect the divine ambrosia inside. The bottle itself is quite restrained, as Brew Dog bottles go. Far from the boisterous blue of their Punk IPA or the raucous red of their 5a.m. Saint, the label is grey with black writing. That's not to say I didn't like it, it does lend a look of...quiet quality.

When poured into a glass it has a short lived chestnut coloured head. The stout itself is as dark as I've ever seen. I tried holding it up to every light available, and nothing passed through. Even Guinness, nicknamed 'The Black Stuff' has a ruby colour when held up to the light.

Nose (note: I was toying with 'smell' or 'odour' here, but it just felt wrong)-
I may have been swayed by the writing on the side of the box, which informed me it was brewed with 'dark malts, pure cacao and coffee'. I was, however, absolutely sure I could smell that warm chocolate aroma, and hint of coffee. This, of course, along with the heady smell of a good strong complex stout.

Taste-
Starting off, frankly, like any decent stout should with a lovely creamy mouth-feel and a tingling bitterness on the sides of the tongue. In this case that cacao came through and it was like the bitterness you get from a 70% cacoa solid chocolate. Then you get a sweetness, mixed with the coffee and chocolate of before gives a pleasant feeling that you are drinking some gorgeous hot coffee with dark chocolate through it. Finally, you get just the tiniest bit of warmth from the naga chilli-also used in the brewing process.

A final note I must make is; with an ABV of 15.1% you would expect to feel it, but with the complexity of flavour, and the smooth creamy texture it went down as easy as stout with half that.

Conclusion-

This is an Imperial Stout of absolute class which deserves it's price tag (as any similar quality wine would). It's not easy to get hold of unfortunately, you must get it directly from Brew Dog, or so it says on the side of the box. It was brought out to celebrate 5 years of outstanding brewing, from this innovative and unique company, and what a way to celebrate. Here's to many more years and beers!

David Bowie - Changes

Ch-ch-changes

Hello there readers,

So, I've been very neglectful of late. For that I apologise. The main reason is that I have been very very busy, and frankly haven't been able to do much new cooking. What I mean is I end up cooking a lot of the same things, with little changes perhaps and that wouldn't have made for very interesting reading, I fear. So I've decided to write, not only about what I cook, but what I eat when I'm out, what beer I happen to be drinking, what new things I'm learning about food, etc. This should hopefully give me more things to draw upon and dare I say-write about.

So I've prepared a little something about a very nice beer I had recently. I will get this up asap!

Laters,

Ed