I've just been out for a run. London is hot tonight - the sun might be in, but it's still mighty hot out there. This beer is in danger of lasting about thirty seconds because I am THIRSTY.
Anyway, this one stands out in the case because it's Hawkshead. I've heard a lot about Hawkshead, but I'm yet to try their beer. 'Red' is 4.4% ABV and is made with "English hops, malted barley and yeast". Could mean a lot of things then.
Today's glass is a nod towards the trip to Pilsen and Prague that I'm just back from ... in case you were wondering.
The aroma here is full of sweetness, hard-boiled candy sweetness, some caramel, toffee and burnt sugar. This follows through into the taste, lots of hard-boiled sweets and caramel; it feels sticky and sweet and like a whole shed-load of crystal malt was used to make it. There's a slight spicy, grassy hop note in the background that I immediately associate with English hops. It then finishes with a slight burnt sugar dryness and a bright, short-lived, punchy bitterness. There's some metal right at the end there too.
This reminds me of the Shepherd Neame beers I used to drink back home. It reminds me of them a lot!
Decent. Not really my sort of thing, but pretty decent.
And, to end, a question. Is this a summer ale? Drinking this one I'm instantly cast into autumn: browning leaves on the ground, the fire being lit down the pub for the first time - a beer that's not quite a winter warmer, but one that's nudging you in that direction.
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Agree with the crystal malt thing, like drinking a pint of burnt toffee :-) Agree with your review in its entirety actually, even the metallic end taste.
ReplyDeleteGricey
Thanks for the comment Mike. Good to see someone agrees. :) You're not an old Sheps drinker too are you?
ReplyDeleteI do enjoy the odd drop, Bishop's finger is a delight ;-)
ReplyDeleteThere was a lot hidden in this beer, I got hints of Black Treacle and Toffee and as it warmed a bit I was picking up a bit of chocolate, specifically that cheap drinking chocolate you get out of coffee machines.
ReplyDeleteThere was a good Citrus hoppiness to the taste, with a full and complex malty backbone, Toffee, Treacle, Chocolate, and even a slight hint of coffee, but the citrussy bite never really subsided and remained throughout, the flavour ended both sweet and dry in the mouth, and maybe a little salty. I finished the bottle about half an hour ago but the taste is still here, it's quite pleasant.
Overall I really liked this beer, I thought it had a really good balance of flavours, one of the better bottles I've had this year.
As to your point about is it a Summer Beer, I think not. I could imagine sitting down on an Autumn evening, curtains closed, all the leaves on the trees falling to the floor, with some rain starting to fall. The log fire crackling away for the first time this Autumn. I could see myself sitting down enjoying this beer as an accompaniment to a nice plate of Cheese and biscuits, preferably a good Stilton or Shropshire Blue.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, not a summer beer so much, but a very tasty drop indeed.
ReplyDeleteGD: Interesting you got citrus notes from the hops. For me it was more of an English grassy, spicy, hay-like flavour. Something I instantly associate with English hops like Fuggles and Goldings.
ReplyDeleteCould imagine it working well with quite mild cheeses - something like a white stilton that can handle a lot of sweetness well.