Craft beer in cans?

These crazy 80's designed canned beers from Maui have recently come into my possession and I've been excited all week about drinking them. The thought of decent beer in a can is a bit of a struggle for a lot of people, but after drinking some canned Oskar Blues beers earlier in the year I've been eagerly looking to get my hands on more.

Why cans? I hear you ask, well I suppose some of it is novelty factor, cans are traditionally what crap beer comes in, and as I've still had very little decent beer in can its still a real surprise to crack the top and smell a big hoppy beer or a roasted stout and even more of a surprise to pour something thick in body like a 10% imperial stout out. This is obviously a bit pathetic but my reaction is still 'wow its just like in a bottle', in fact the cans I've had so far have seemed fresher and sharper in flavour than bottles. Lets see what these two are like.

Maui Brewing Co. 'Big Swell IPA' 6.2%
I pull the ring-pull and there's a familiar crack then hiss, and then WOW the hop aroma pours out of the can toward my nose. Poured into my glass its a golden colour and hazy, not much filtration evident here. Its packed full of fruity tinned satsuma flavour and tropical, piny hops. Its has a great mouth feel which again is alien out of a can, its smooth and bitter, but not massively so. Its very drinkable and reminds me of a few other beers I've had in bottles but I can't pin it down... Vuur & Vlam?.. Southern Tier IPA maybe? Whatever, its another superb beer in a can, and all the way from Hawaii in this case.

Maui Brewing Co. 'CoCoNut Porter' 5.7%
This has a roasted, caramel sweet aroma and pours jet black with an off white head. I'm still slightly surprised that its coming out of a can. Its sweet at first but the taste then gives way to fruity chocolaty malt and toasty coconut. As you'd expect from a porter the mouth feel isn't too thick and there's a decent dry mouth cleaning carbonation to it. Moreish beer definitely.

If you think about it, canning beer makes a lot of sense compared to bottling, firstly there's much less risk of the cap seal failing and the beer oxidising, and there is no risk of the beer within being spoiled by daylight and becoming 'light struck'. They're easier to carry, easier to store and quicker to cool. I'm led to believe than aluminium is a much better recycling material than glass, so they're green too. They certainly take up a lot less space when empty (and crushed).

The principal problem with breweries canning beer is the public perception of cans, in that its previously been the packaging method of choice for industrial lager. Discerning beer people associate cans with crap beer which is often overly filtered and carbonated. I'm sure this was just the same in the US though before breweries such as 21st Amendment and Oskar Blues pioneered the canning of craft beers. It took the first taste of one beer to change my mind. There is of course another problem in that canning equipment is expensive and contract canning requires large minimum quantities making it unfeasible for many small UK craft brewers.

Personally I think its only a matter of time before we see canned craft beer in the UK and I think whoever does it first will have a great marketing angle to help the advertising of their beer. No prizes for who's been thinking about canning recently.

A massive thanks to Chris Mair, BrewDog's Scottish sales manager for getting me the beers!

Mark Dredge wrote a great blog on canned craft beer on his Pencil and Spoon blog earlier in the year here.

Raising a glass to Thornbridge(kel)...

I've been saving this bottle for a while now, Its Thornbridges (Caol Ila) barrel aged St Petersburg "The Islay Whisky Reserve" from 2006. I bought it from The Grove about a year ago and its been looking at me ever since, tempting me to indulge.

Beers like this are supposed to benefit from some aging, this bottle has had a very lazy few years and I seem to recall someone tweeting a month or two back that the beer was nearing its best, so as the clocks go forward, the nights draw in and with the weather turning filthy it feels like the right time to open it.

I'm intrigued as I pop the cap on this 4 year old beer, will there be a hiss from the carbonation? what will it smell like? how will it pour? what will the condition of the beer be like in the glass?

Only one way to find out...

Cap off: There is a decent hiss suggesting the beer has held its carbonation over the years, I don't have to get very close to the bottle top at all before I'm hit by the aroma.. a big evocative smell, heady with phenolic (TCP like) and peaty Islay aromas.

Pour: The beer pours a beautiful black, thick and smooth in appearance. Its pretty much opaque as I hold it up to the light but with cola brown edges. The condition looks good, as I tilt the glass away from me bubbles emerge from the deep black liquid, morphing through shades of brown to leave a light browny/white slowly dissipating head,

Taste: Its not quite as thick as I'm expecting but its smooth, very smooth with a skimmed milk consistency. The whisky character is dominant as the aroma precedes the taste but as the beer hits the middle of the tongue it gives way to sweet chocolaty malt, treacle, raisins, figs and an oaky woody flavour that's either phenol confusing my taste buds or coming from the casks the beer was aged in. There's also a distinct but distant saltiness.

Aftertase: Smokiness comes through now, smoke, peat, a touch of tar and loads of alcohol, not biting on the back of the throat burn, but a mellow yet spicy whisky note on the back of the palate. There's a touch of carbonation as the beer goes down, but not a bite, this beer is smooth. You are however left with an amazing lingering phenolic Islay whisky flavour, and the aforementioned oakey woodiness which gives a slight astringency on the sides of the tongue almost like you might get from a nice cigar. Its anaesthetising my palate like you might expect from a good Islay Whisky.

This beer was worth the wait. Its boozy and big, and thankfully I like Islay whisky, because if you didn't this would probably be a bit of a struggle. There is so much whisky character in this beer, its smudged all the way through it from first to last. I wonder if the whisky character has become more prevalent with age? Just as I hoped this beer was a fantastic antidote to the foul weather outside, all I was missing was a roaring hearth. It was yet another great Thornbridge beer for me and a very enjoyably and decadent drink indeed.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish Kelly Ryan, Thornbridge's soon to be ex brewery manager every success in what ever he ends up doing back in his native New Zealand. I don't know Kelly particularly well and I don't pretend to be an authority but its obvious to me that he's has been an important part of the current renaissance in British brewing not only in his work as part of the innovative brewing set up at Thornbridge but also in his embracing of social media on behalf of Thornbridge. His tweets and blogs have been an informative and exciting link to Thornbridges happenings over the last year or so I've been reading. Thornbridge along with a few other breweries continue to lead the way in British brewing, and their beers, ideas, and ethos have been a big inspiration to me.

Good luck Kelly, and cheers!

You can buy Thornbridge beers here

Guest Blog #6 - Graeme Hilton on Autumn 52wbc

This is the third and final part of my review of the 52 week beer club autumn case. The last four beers are all at the darker end of the colour spectrum. Judging beer flavour from the colour is a rough and ready way to quickly work out what you want when you get to the bar, but there are some surprises in the mix. Thornbridge brewed a beer named Raven which was a darkly coloured IPA. Blind tasters said it was an IPA, but then were flabbergasted to be shown they were drinking what appeared to be a stout! Thankfully there are no such surprises in the final four bottles in the autumn case, which means I've left the rich, dark beers for when we really need them - when the nights are swiftly drawing in and we want something rich and warming while we watch rubbish television with our WAGs!


RCH Ale Mary
This is a 6.0% bottle conditioned beer that's listed as "Something Different". Pour carefully to avoid the sediment. The aroma on this is quite interesting; it's like you've opened the oven while the Christmas cake is in there. Loads of clove, ginger, cinnamon and other seasonal spices. I'll admit I didn't chill this beer before tasting, but I think this benefits from being a little warmer than usual. The flavours really come out; all plum pudding and brandy butter. This is definitely one for a cold night when you need cheered up. Also, my wife's only comment was "Oo! That's lovely", so I guess I'd better get a few in for consumption over Christmas!


Felinfoel Double Dragon
The 4.2% flagship brew of the Felinfoel Brewery in Wales. This is a deep copper colour and pours with no head. The aroma is a little nutty, as is the initial flavour. Later there are some toffee notes that come through. To be honest I was expecting more from this beer, but it seems to lack depth to me. What do you think?


Hogs Back TEA
Another 4.2% beer, but from Hogs Back Brewery in Surrey. This one is "Brewery Conditioned" which means there is no sediment. On pouring there is no head, but there is a constant stream of bubbles which slowly form a thin head round the rim of the glass. The initial taste is very smooth and there is the hint of grass from the hops in the background. The whole beer is held together with a smooth malty flavour. This is definitely a beer you could drink quite a lot of!


Meantime Chocolate
And finally, the strongest beer in the case at 6.5%. This is a small bottle, 330ml, but worth every millilitre! It pours a deep black, with practically no head, just a thin rim of bubbles around the glass. The aroma is like standing in a Belgian chocolate shop; all heady chocolate and praline. The first taste is like rich dark hot chocolate with a hint of lightly roasted coffee. This is a truly great beer.

So that's the end of my review series on the Autumn case from myBrewerytap. I hope you've enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing the reviews.

A big thank you to Graeme for his great unbiased reviews of this quarters case. We'll have another guest bloggers thoughts on our Winter case as soon as its available. If you'd like a stab at reviewing and guest blogging in exchange for some free beer please get in touch - richard@mybrewerytap.com

You can sign up to the 52 Week Beer club here. The current excellent selection is also available as an individual mixed case here but don't leave it too long as they'll all be gone soon!

Twissup Manchester/Huddersfield

A 'Twissup' for the uninitiated is the name that was devised to describe a piss up organised by and involving the people who blog, write, sell and above all use Twitter to network and discuss all things beer. The inaugural Twissup was held in Sheffield in January 2010 (which I attended), the next one was in Burton on Trent in May 2010 (which I didn't) and Saturdays venue was to be split between the beery delights of Manchester and my home town of Huddersfield.

As I only had to travel from Huddersfield no early starts were necessary and I rolled up to Huddersfield station at about 10:15am to meet Matt and Mark from Hawkshead and James and Andy from Summer Wine breweries. The train journey passed quickly and after a rendezvous with the other Twissup'ers at the front of Piccadilly station, we were guided by Dom (one of the brewers at Marble) on to the first destination of the day, an eagerly awaited visit to the Marble brewery.

I've made no secret of my love of this brewery and its beers, since my first sip of PINT a few years back I've been hooked on their aggressively hopped beers and contemporary branding. The breweries reputation has been growing quickly in recent years, with their beers often discussed at length online and well deserved acclaim coming from further and further afield.

The tour started with us being handed a glass of Dobber, quite a strong beer to start an all day session (5.9%) but one of my favourites so I wasn't going to complain. The group was split up into manageable portions and we were each given a 15 minute talk through the processes and intricacies involved in producing Marbles beers. The Marble brewers James, Dom and Colin were great hosts, they always give an impression of self deprication and of being slightly overawed at the praise heaped on their beers, praise which to me at least is more than justified.

The brewers then led us 100yds up the road to the Marble Arch, the brewery tap which also used to house the original brewery in its depths somewhere. The Twissup is all about socialising and putting a face to a name while enjoying great beer, and there can't be many better pubs in the country to do that in than the Marble Arch. The pub is a beautiful grade 2 city centre Victorian building replete with sloping tiled floors and and mosaic decoration. My first pints were W90 followed by Bitter, both were bitter, fragrant, hoppy and perfect lubrication for the socialising which was in full swing now.

As the Twissup gained momentum we all pushed on to the Angel just down the road where the drinks of choice were Pictish Centenial (another of my favourite breweries) and Harviestoun Ola Dubh (stupidly strong for 1pm drinking). I can remember very little about what I talked to people about but the great thing about Twissup is that you know the people there even if you don't, and there is always another conversation to be had often inevitably about everyones shared passion.

Next stop was Bar Fringe where I have to admit I can't remember what I drank, or talked about although I did talk to Cooking Lager author of the very funny eponymous anti-beer blog, and thoroughly nice bloke. Bar fringe seemed a nice place with a decent selection and one I'll no doubt re-visit. It was getting to around 4pm by this time and time for the group to press on for the Huddersfield leg of the day. After a brief stop at the Staleybridge buffet bar for halves of porter and bowls of black peas we were on our way to my home town of Huddersfield.

Huddersfield has loads to offer beer wise and it was a bit of a shame that by this time there was no way we were going to fit in more than one or two pubs. As it was en-route we called in first to the Kings Head for pints of heavily sparkled perfectly conditioned beers. This pub is a regular haunt for me, either pre-match or first stop on a night out and I have honestly never had a pint in there that wasn't served in perfect condition. The pub itself isn't the most salubrious but the beer more than makes up for it. I would definitely recommend stopping in there for a pint of something light and hoppy (as the beers there generally are).

As I mentioned before I would really liked to have taken everyone to a few more Huddersfield pubs, particularly The Sportsman, The Star and The Rat and Ratchett. All places deserved of a beer lovers time, but as with the Marble Arch in Manchester, the main attraction on this leg of the Twissup was The Grove at Springwood.

The Grove is a beer lovers paradise. 18 hand pulls, 11 draught fonts and over 230 bottled beers. The pub has permanent hand pulls for some of the UK's best breweries including, Thornbridge, Marble, BrewDog, Gadds, Fullers and Dark Star. I've been spending more and more time in this pub in the last 6months and am always very happy to be spoiled for choice beer wise. I have to be honest and say I used to have a bit of an issue with this pub largely around the fact that they didn't use sparklers even though the pub is slap bang in the middle of northern sparkler country. I do think though that the quality of the beer at The Grove has really improved in the last 12 months and great credit has to be given to Ian, Chloe, Brian and the rest of the team at The Grove for attracting beer lovers from far and wide with their excellent selection of beers.

The Grove had promised to look after us at Twissup and we weren't let down, Thornbridge Halcyon, Moor JJJ, De Molen Blood, Sweat and Tears Bruichladdich cask and Stone Levitation were just four of the beers amongst loads of others I can't remember. It was a great destination and final pub stop for Twissup, and everyone got stuck into the beers with varying degrees of commitment and gusto, (bearing in mind we had been going for around 7 hours). Personally by this point I was doing my best to stay on sessionable beer with a view to not disgracing myself on home ground but remember particularly enjoying the Stone Levitation and Jever pilsner.

As the evening moved on everyone's thoughts turned to food and I was happy to send an advance group a few hundred yards to the excellent Kabana in Trinity Street for their famous BBQ platters which we refer endearingly to as "bin lids" (see the picture for why). This is a great Indian restaurant for hungry drunk people, the food is served without cutlery in a very communal way (basically everyone dives in) which really suited the atmosphere of Twissup and was a great end to the day.

After settling the bill and leaving a few coats we made our way back for a swift nightcap at the Kings Head before people caught there Trains on to where they were staying or back home. I'd had a great day, which again enforced my positive opinions on the people who surround and are part of the beer trade. I'd been pretty apprehensive on attending the first Twissup in Sheffield in January, but just 9 months later many of the people I'd met then are starting to feel like old friends.

Big thanks go to Andy Mogg (beerreviews) and Mark Dredge (pencil&spoon) for doing the majority of the organising for this Twissup, and also Dom (& Janine), James and Colin for the Marble tour and Ian, Chloe, Brian and Staff at the Grove for making us feel so welcome. Oh and of course the Kabana for yet again staining my fingers yellow for the next 24 hours.

I also really enjoyed chatting with - Matt and Mark from Hawkshead, James and Andy from Summer Wine, Rob and Matt from Hopzine, Martin, Steven from Aletalk, Zak Avery, Glynn from the Rake, Kelly (and Cat) and Caolan from Thornbridge, Yan from The Sheffield Tap, Baron Orm, Mark from Realalereviews, Mark beerbirrabier, Leigh Goodstuff, Chris McBride, Edwards80, Dave and Anne from Hardknott Brewery, Cooking Lager, Tandleman, Matt and Karen from The Evening Star and anyone else I missed. Roll on the next one! (apologies for only taking 1 picture on the actual day).

You can buy Marbles excellent range of beers here. And like The Groves excellent Facebook page here.

Guest Blog #5 - Graeme Hilton on Autumn 52wbc

I started my last blog entry with a little explanation of how great it is to get free beer, especially beer of this quality. The next step on from receiving beer is giving beer, which is what I was doing last weekend at the inaugural Woolston Beer Festival in Southampton. I was volunteering behind the bar on Friday evenings's sellout session. There was one customer who professed he was a lager drinker and hadn't a clue what to ask for. Great! A chance to demonstrate to someone what good beer is all about! He was duly given a couple of tasters before he decided on a Barbury Castle from Three Castles Brewery . This is a light, hoppy, easy drinking pale ale. Excellent starter at 3.9%. I had hoped the customer would return and say "That was fantastic, what else can I try?", but instead he said "That was fantastic! I'll have a pint of that." He returned to the bar five times and each time had the same beer. Now, I can't criticise because he was drinking and enjoying cask ale instead of his usual Fosters, but I can't help feeling he was missing out on tasting any of the other twenty real ales, three ciders and a perry that were on offer. That's enough from the soap box, on with the beer-tasting!

These five beers are in the mid-range of the autumn selection, going from Summer Ale through Golden Ale to Bitter. These are all slightly darker than the previous ones I've reviewed here.


1. Hawkshead Lakeland Gold
Even while pouring you can smell the enormous fruitiness of this 4.4% golden ale. It starts with a sweetness that soon gives way to a mellow bitterness. You can detect that these are the same hops as used in the Saltaire Cascade as it has the same zesty freshness combined with the fruits.


2. Crouch Vale Brewers Gold
This pours an extremely pale golden colour. The aroma reminds me of the Williams Bros. Good Times. The flavour starts very light with a slight sweetness going on to a gentle bitterness, but tempered by some tropical fruits. An extremely well balanced beer, as noticed by the judges of the Supreme Champion Beer of Britain competition in 2005 and 2006. As with the Lakeland Gold, this is one you won't get tired of.


3. Inveralmond Ossian
The third Scottish brewery that I've tasted in this selection, and probably the least well known of the three. Which is a shame because they produce some excellent ales. Ossian gives off a powerful aroma while you're pouring. On the first sip you notice there's a slight rawness to the flavour which I think comes from the wheat that's included in this recipe. The initial malty sweetness is carried away by a citrus bitterness that also clears quickly. Very drinkable.


4. Marble Manchester Bitter
A small brewery in Manchester which is making some fantastic beers. Manchester Bitter is a light golden colour that pours with a loose head which quickly dissipates. The aroma is chock full of grapefruit. I could happily sit all night just sniffing this, but I suppose I'd better taste it for you. As expected, grapefruits, but I also detect a hint of vanilla which is pleasantly surprising. As this is a bitter, you'd expect it to be, well, bitter, but I didn't think it was overwhelming so, unlike the next beer.


5. Mallinsons Station Best Bitter
This is a bottle-conditioned beer so be careful pouring it, and leave the last 1/2 inch or so in the bottle. Even so, so of the sediment escaped into my glass which is why the picture shows a slightly cloudy pint. With no head, and a cloudy appearance I was a bit worried about this beer. However, it smells and tastes of nothing but citrus. It's not as sweet as grapefruit, but definitely has lemons, possibly limes. At first I thought it was too much tartness, but as the level in the glass went down so did my worries. Stick it out, it's worth it.

Next time I'll have the last four beers from the case, the darker, more autumnal end of the spectrum.

Thanks again to Graeme for a great review, Graeme's thoughts on the remaining beers in the case coming soon!

You can sign up to the 52 Week Beer club here. This selection is also available as an individual mixed case here.

Thornbridge Kipling

This is the fourth bottle to get the new Thornbridge 'treatment', that is the fourth to be prepared using their new bottling procedure and branding, and as no-one seems to have reviewed it yet as far as i know, I'm going to have a bash.

I was probably more excited by the news of the new bottled Kipling than any of the previous newly bottled Thornbridge beers, as its been a favourite of mine since I first tasted it. If you don't know, Thornbridge Kipling is a pale ale (they label it with the appealing title.. "South Pacific Pale Ale") which uses the New Zealand hop Nelson Sauvin . This is a hop that has created a big stir in the UK brewing scene in recent years, and one which I really latched on to.

The first time I tasted a beer which used this hop (Marble's Pint) I was amazed. This hop transforms beer into another realm altogether. The hop imparts an incredible tropical fruit flavour to beer, a fruit juice character which is really surprising and very moreish. Nelson Sauvin judging on the beers I've had seems to work especially well when used as a late and dry hop, ie, used at the last minute (as you might do with Coriander in a curry) to let the flavours and particularly the aromas really sing.

Anyway on to the tasting...

Cap Off, and straight away I get the tropical aromas, Passionfruit and Pineapple, candied sweets. The beer pours a beautiful pale golden colour as you might expect. There's a nice head, but not too much (this is a fairly new bottle so carbonation will probably increase with bottle age).



Taste, you drink beers like this as much with your nose as your mouth, you get the aroma a split second before the beer hits your mouth and the same aromas explode on your tongue, bringing through more assertive bitter fruits now, grapefruit, and kiwi maybe.. Then the malt comes, sweet caramel, enough to let the hops do their thing but no more.

Aftertaste, the malt dissolves into superb biting hop bitterness, which in turn is washed away by the carbonation which is perfect. Not biting but enough to cleanse the pallet and make you want to taste again.

This really is exceptional beer, Jaipur has taken more plaudits generally and deservedly so (although Kipling has taken its fair share of Gold Medals including most recently at the Nottingham beer festival), but Kipling has always been my favourite of the Thornbidge beers, most likely born out of my love of Nelson Sauvin. I keep toying with the idea that I'm tired of its overtly fruity 'in your face charachter' it is brash in some ways, maybe a bit obvious? but its so moreish and flavourseome and it continues to appear in all my favourite beers... Pint, Dobber, Kipling... If you haven't familiarised yourself with Kipling or Nelson Sauvin, I envy you... check it out... ale will never be the same!

You can buy Thornbridge Kipling here and the rest of Thornbridge's fantastic beers here...

Guest Blog #4 - Graeme Hilton on Autumn 52wbc

When Richard asked if anyone would like to review the 52 week beer club case I jumped at the chance to get some free beer! As Cooking Lager so eloquently put it: "Free beer is, I have decided, one of my favourite things in life. [...] People that send you free beer are clearly among the finest examples of humanity on the planet. If there is a heaven, they have their place, secured by the happiness they have created."

Having already sampled a few of these beers before, I was keen to try and capture their flavours on paper. I've divided the Autumn case into three instalments and the first includes the four hoppiest, lightest beers. Hopefully we'll have at least a couple of sunny days to enjoy these!

1. Saltaire Cascade
Cascade by name, cascade by nature. This pale golden ale is bursting with fresh zesty flavours. Best drunk slightly chilled - say 20 minutes in the fridge. The citrus freshness is nicely backed up by a slight sweetness from the malt. And at 4.8% it's a beer you could drink several of in a night!

2.Williams Bros Good Times
I don't know where to start on this beer. Pour carefully and then take a long deep sniff at the glass. Now, do the same again. I know! Good isn't it! The meadowsweet and elderflowers really come through on the nose, but not so much on the palate where the freshness of the hops dominates. There are also oats in this beer which give it a slightly silky mouth feel. Dangerously drinkable.

3. Thornbridge Jaipur
This modern classic starts with a sweetness that fills the mouth, but it swiftly gives way to tropical fruits and then a huge,almost overpowering bitterness which washes through the sweetness. It's difficult to emphasise just how well balanced this IPA is. The huge bitterness might be too much if it wasn't tamed by the juicy tropical fruits. Truly excellent.

4. Brewdog Punk IPA
Apparently based on the same recipe as the Thornbridge Jaipur this 6.0% IPA takes it up a notch. Bursting with huge tropical fruits and a decent backbone of malt this is a beer I keep coming back to. One thing, and as with all highly hopped beers,I would drink this young, and often.

Thanks Graeme! we'll have more of Graeme's thoughts on the current case soon.

You can sign up to the 52 Week Beer club here. This selection is also available as an individual mixed case here.