2011 Aspirations

Just realised I haven't blogged yet in 2011.

As I did last year I thought I'd commit my thoughts and aspirations for myBrewerytap in 2011 to paper (so to speak).

• Sign up more breweries to the site.
• Get a pick and mix section of the website integrated so customers can pick and mix their own cases of our rarer bottles.
• Integrate international shipping into the site
• Import some great beers for the pick and mix
• Source some great UK beers for our 52wbc
• Source more great US beers for our US52wbc and re-run the club.
• Launch some more style specific mixed cases ie, Summer Case
• Visit more beer festivals
• Visit a beer festival abroad
• Visit more breweries

That lot should do for now.

2010 Aspirations: Update

Back in January I wrote a list of aspirations I had for the year ahead, some for the website and some on a more personal level. As its nearly 2011 below is an update on how 2010's aspirations went...

Continue to build the number of breweries listed on our site: In January we had around 40 breweries listed on the site, we now have 120 breweries and over 600 beers but considering there are over 700 micros in the country there's still a lot more work to do here.

Work with breweries to build their range of beers listed including more mixed cases: We've definitely added more breweries products to the site but I still think we need more mixed cases and other brewery products like clothing and gift packs listed.

Find new cost effective ways to market/spread the myBrewerytap word: We've had some success here, joint competitions with Thornbridge and our listing on I Want One Of Those stand out and I've been really happy with response to our fixed membership US 52wbc which I hope to run again in the summer.

Find more interesting ways to 'add value' for our club members, so more glasses, more crisps etc...: Bit of a failure here, we did give away some great extras such as pork scratchings, keyrings and glasses but it soon became apparent that we just couldn't afford to include extra gifts in the club when the margins involved were so tight. We did though add quite a few extra non-beer products to the site including Pieminister pies and T-Shirts from Thornbridge as well as our T-Shirts own which we had designed and made.

Add more features to the site (better events calendar etc...): I'm pretty happy that we satisfied this aspiration by adding a great beer festival calendar (big thanks to Steven at Aletalk!) as well as adding beer and food pairings to many products (big thanks to Alex at Allbeer!). We have lots of new features for the site in the pipeline in the early part of 2011, such as multi case shipping discounts when buying more than one case from a brewery. We also hope to have international shipping integrated and a dedicated pick and mix section for the unusual and or popular beers we hold in stock shortly.

Learn more about brewing /brew some beer: This was a personal aspiration and I've had lots of fun learning more about brewing in 2010. In March myself and two friends enrolled on Brewlabs "start up brewing" course which as well was being a lot of fun, contained lots of practical information on brewing as a career. The course also gave me a lot more confidence in the subject of beer in general with the module on flavour characteristics (bad ones as well as good) particularly helpful . I also enjoyed a couple of brew days at friendly breweries which were great fun.

Start a pilot brewery: Too busy to achieve this in 2010, as for 2011... watch this space!

Visit more breweries/Meet more brewers: I always enjoy visiting breweries (who doesn't) and was lucky enough to visit lots of breweries in 2010 including, Allendale, Bull Lane, Kelham Island, Sheffield Brewery Co, Crown, Great Heck, Wylam, Marble, Moor, Hawkshead and Mallinsons. If you've never been on a brewery tour/visit, make sure you do soon, they really are a lot of fun and I've found without exception brewers to be a very accommodating and friendly group of people. I'm looking forward to visiting more breweries in 2011!

Visit more beer festivals: I went to a few good festivals in 2010, including GBBF, SIBA north and Hawkshead but nowhere near enough.

Drink more (good) beer: Although a completely subjective thing, I think I did this in 2010 although there's always room for more!

Blog more: Hmm not sure I managed this, finding time and/or inspiration continues to prove difficult.

Looking back I've had a fantastic 2010, developing myBrewerytap has been great fun (as well as at times infuriating) but has confirmed that beer is what I want to be involved with going forward. Its such a fascinating and fun subject to be involved in, I've met so many great people and made some great friends in 2010. My only regret is not becoming involved in the industry sooner.

Here's to a great 2011. Happy New Year!

The Golden Pints 2010

The Golden Pints are an online awards initiative started last year, it's your chance to talk about the beers you've enjoyed, beery places you've been and say what you've enjoyed about beer in 2010. As far as I know there are no physical awards but its a nice way to recognise great beer and breweries and hand a bit of credit out where it's due.

Post your winners to the following categories in the replies below.

My Golden Pint winners for 2010 are as below...

Best UK Draught Beer: Marble Manchester Bitter, so much flavour for the ABV I could drink it all day long.
Best UK Bottled Beer: Marble Dobber/BrewDog Hardcore, the new bottled Marble Dobber meant I could have my favourite cask beer at home in a bottle. Delicious grapefruity beer which never fails to satisfy. Brewdogs new Hardcore was a revelation, a genuine US double IPA which beat the yanks at their own game at the 2010 World Beer Cup to take the gold. Try it, its incredible.
Best Overseas Draught Beer: Odell IPA / Jever. Odell's IPA is one of my absolute favourites from probably my favourite style. I drank a lot of IPA's this year, Odells version is so fruity and so easy drinking. I had the draught version recently at the Euston Tap and loved it. Jever was also a lager I'd never had on draught until recently but I love its crisp refreshing dry hoppyness. Great to drink for a break in the middle of a session.
Best Overseas Bottled Beer: Stone Sublimely Self Righteous Ale. Amazing cross over of two styles, this beer is almost overwhelming in its full on flavour attack. Massive piney, resinousy hops alongside a roasted, malty, chocoloatey body.
Best Overall Beer: Marble Dobber. Grapefuity, tropical, amazing...
Best Pumpclip or Label: Brewdog Bashah reserve. Another beautifully intricate hand drawn label from Johanna Basford.
Best UK Brewery: Marble. Beers which never fail to deliver flavour wise. It doesn't matter what else is on the bar 99 times out of 100 the Marble will have more flavour.
Best Overseas Brewery: Bear Republic. For their beautifully full bodied IPA's 'Racer 5 and Hop Rod Rye" which I had this year, which have more of a caramel malt charachter than many IPA's alongside the obligatory, pungent, piney hops.
Pub/Bar of the Year: The Grove, Huddersfield. 18 Handpulls, 12 Keg and over 230 bottles. Sheffield Tap. Beautiful pub ressurected from the old waiting rooms at Sheffield station, always has a number of Thornbridge beers as well as great guests and loads of bottles. Always look forward to a visit.
Beer Festival of the Year: GBBF, I thought it was rubbish the year before mainly because I wasn't keen on gravity fed beer, enjoyed it so much more this year. So much beer, so many beery people. It all passed in a very enjoyable blur..
Supermarket of the Year: Morrisons. because they sell BrewDog 5am Saint.
Independent Retailer of the Year: Beer Ritz. Because they got me addicted to hops.
Online Retailer of the Year: myBrewerytap
Best Beer Book or Magazine: Ben Mcfarland, Worlds Best Beers. I received this last Christmas day and spent most of that day with my head in it. Really nicely written, laid out and accessible to the layman. Its got great information and beer recommendations, and a section on beer and food matching. Its also particularly good on the US stuff.
Best Beer Blog or Website: Are you tasting the pith/Pencil and Spoon. Zaks blog is always worth a read, informative, interesting and engaging. Likewise Marks prolific blog is always an entertaining and erudite read.
Best Beer Twitterer: @dogmair. Because he's a nice bloke oh and he keeps swapping incredible beer with me.
Best Brewery Online: BrewDog. They do online so much better than anyone else in the UK.
Food and Beer Pairing of the Year: Biltong and anything. Not much of a food and beer matching person.
In 2011 I’d Most Like To…: Sell more beer
Open Category: Best overseas bar visited: Studio Square, Queens, NY. Have a read of my blog on New York here for why..

BrewDog/Stone Bashah 2009 Highland Park and Black Raspberry Reserve ABV 8.7%: Open It!

Tonights Open It! is a bottle of the BrewDog / Stone collaboration Bashah which has been aged in Highland Park Whisky casks which have also had Scottish Black Raspberries added.

I loved the original Bashah, a black IPA fermented with a Belgian yeast strain. I was amazed at the depth and complexity of flavour. Roasty, Hoppy and 'estery' as in giving of fruity/bubblegum aromas and flavours from the strain of Belgian yeast. I've sinced learned that the recipe was very similar to Stones 'Sublimely Self Righteous" albeit with that different yeast strain.

Its worth mentioning what a beautiful label this beer has. The bespoke hand drawn label by Johanna Basford is as nice as I've ever seen.

Here are my tasting notes:

Pour: After a bit of persuasion the cork explodes out of the bottle. Dark black pour with a big off white head, which is mottled with something, yeast? Raspberry residue?
Aroma: Earthy Hops, Raspberry, Whisky, Chocolate, hint of Coffee, Summer Fruits, pleasant bubblegum/estery sweet aroma.
Flavour: Raspberry, Summer Fruits, Chocolate, soft, full mouth feel, fruity esters, very light Whisky, soft carbonation.
Aftertaste: Subtle, warming aftertaste with slight bitter Raspberry and Chocolate.

I loved Bashah and I really loved Stones Sublimely Self Righteous, but this is a different beast all together. Its amazing how much the barrel ageing has changed this beer. Its a while since I had a Bashah but i'm sure it was much more bitter than this. The ageing in the Whisky casks and the Raspberrys have really softened the beer and infused it with fruit flavours which in turn are really complemented by the belgian yeasts, estery flavours.

The alcohol is really hard to detect as well, as is the Whisky but if you think about those flavours and taste the beer, they're there, just in great balance. There are myriad flavours in this but you have to think and taste to pick them out, as with the Founders KBS I drank last night the alcohol is really well disguised.

I really loved this, big thanks to BrewDog's Scottish sales manager Chris Mair for sending it down.

Thanks to Mark and Andy for coming up with the great idea of Open It, there's still the rest of tonight and tomorrow to get involved!

Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout ABV 11.2%: Open It!

My second Open It! beer tonight is one I've been looking forward to for a while: Its a barrel aged US Imperial Stout from Founders brewery of Michigan. Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout or 'KBS'. Its Founders Breakfast Stout which has been aged in Kentucky bourbon barrels.

I've had the normal breakfast Stout and it was phenomenally good... rich coffee ,chocolaty, roasty, amazing... the picture on the bottle was very apt, it felt like you could have eaten it with a spoon.

After drinking the normal Breakfast Stout I'd been eagerly wanting to try this special version of the breakfast stout and Open It! seemed like a good time to indulge...

Here's what it says on the bottle: Founders "The Amazing Kozicki's" Highly Acclaimed KBS. A Stout Ale Aged in Oak Bourbon Barrels. DOES NOT GIVE RELIEF FROM: rheumatism, neuralgia, sciatica, lame back, lumbago, contracted muscles, toothache, sprains, swellings, and all manner of distress. IS GOOD FOR EVERYTHING A STOUT OUGHT TO BE GOOD FOR" 70 IBU 11.2% ABV

I bought this bottle mail order from Cracked Kettle in Amsterdam.

Here are my tasting notes:

Pour: Thick consistency, decent carbonation, dark brown black colour with a mucky dark coffee head
Aroma: hazlenut, milk chocolate, coffee, vanilla, bourbon
Flavour: Coffee, Chocolate, Hazlenut, lovely thick velvety mouthfeel, soft Bourbon, sweet but incredible balance and drinkability, some citrus hops hiding in there, zero alcohol harshness, soft carbonation.
Aftertaste: Lingering soft bitterness, sweet chocolate, sweet bourbon aftertaste.

This is right up there with the best beers I've ever had, its like a glass of hot chocolate, soft, warming and decadent. Its astonishing that this is 11.2% ABV it drinks like its 5%. A absolutely fantastic beer which deserves its revered status. In short a beery masterpiece.

Thanks to Mark and Andy for coming up with the great idea of Open It, now what to have next?

Thornbridge Alliance Strong Ale Reserve 2007: Open It!

Open It! is all about a reason to open those bottles that you never know quite what to do with, you've earmarked them as for a special occasion, but how many special occasions are there? My saved bottles are usually pretty strong so the times I want to open them are also limited. Open It is the perfect excuse to dig into the back of the beer fridge.

My first 'Open It' bottle, is a Thornbridge Alliance, Strong Ale Reserve 2007 11% ABV. I bought this bottle about a year ago from The Groves excellent bottle list.

Here's what the label says:

The Alliance Strong Ale Collection, During 2007, an alliance based on friendship and love of great beer between Thornbridge's Head Brewer Stefano Cossi and Brooklyn Brewery's Garrett Oliver led to the brewing of this refined Strong Ale which has been matured for over 18 months before being bottled. The Collection includes the unoaked Alliance Strong Ale and two finished exclusively in fortified wine casks. Spanish oak Pedro Ximenez Sherry (PX) and American oak Madeira.

My bottle is #258 Unoaked Strong Ale.

Here are my tasting notes:

Pour: Burnished golden/amber colour, good carbonation, off white head
Aroma: Fruity, syrupy, figs, raisins, alcohol
Flavour: Raisins, figs, sherry, maple syrup, fruity hops, some bitterness, smooth, well hidden alcohol, very well rounded.
Aftertaste: Lingering fruity hop flavours, alcohol, cleaning carbonation, some residual bitterness.

I'm not a fan of these type of 'strong/old ale' style beers usually, I just don't go for those complex malty, dried fruit falvours but I enjoyed this, It was very refined and easy drinking despite its high alcohol content, in fact it drank like a 6 or 7% beer rather than the hefty 11% it is.

Thanks to Mark and Andy for coming up with the great idea of Open It, now what to have next?

Cheers!

Marble Specials

We took delivery today of Marbles latest corked and caged 750ml special bottles. One is a US style IPA called "Utility Special 2010" and the other Marbles "Stout Porter Stout" which previously has been bottled in the smaller 500ml standard bottle. I'm always excited to try anything new from Marble, so I thought I'd crack them both and share my thoughts.

Utility Special 2010 IPA ABV 6.5%

Aroma: The cork comes out with little force and a decent 'pop' and the beer pours a lovely golden colour. The beer is slightly hazy with a bright white head. As might be expected the aroma is typical Marble, a big sweet fruity aroma reminiscent of pear drops. Its dry hopped with Nelson Sauvin but smells more of pears than gooseberries to me; pears, grapefruit and maybe some tropical fruits.

Taste: The Nelson Sauvin really comes through as the beer hits your mouth, the flavour and astringency remind of white wine flavours, its slightly thinner than the 7.2% Vuur and Vlam but has a similar smoothness. Its also a bit thinner in mouthfeel than 5.9% Dobber and definitely more bitter than both. The flavour is more grapefruit, gooseberries and a sort of candied pineapple. Its nicely carbonated, less so than US IPA's, but still plenty and it makes it very drinkable.

Aftertaste: I like bitterness in beers and this one doesn't disappoint, and as mentioned above the carbonation is soft so the beer goes down easily. You're left with loads of bitterness at the back of your mouth/tongue which just makes you thirsty for more.

This is another great IPA from Marble. I believe its one they've brewed in the past when experimenting but didn't put it into their regular line up. Maybe tastes have changed? I'd say its not as refined as Vuur and Vlam and its slightly thinner and more bitter than Dobber. To me It's sort of an IPA version of Marbles session beer PINT and a very satisfying hop fix if thats whjat you're after. Another great Marble IPA.

Stouter Port Stout ABV 5.1%

This is a beer I've had before both on draught at the Marble Arch and in the bottle. To be honest though I can't remember exactly what it was like.

Aroma: This cork also leaves the bottle with a satisfying 'pop', the beer pours a thick black/brown colour with a milky coffee coloured head. The first thing I smell is chocolate and then roasted malt. There's a rich plummy smell and a bit of a burnt toast aroma.

Taste: The tastes in primarily bitter chocolate, coffee and a slightly vinous charachter (as you might expect). Once the beer warms up a bit there's a decent velvety mouthfeel. There are lots of hops in there, and lots of roasty malt flavours.

Aftertase: There's a cleaning carbonation on swallowing and the aftertaste is a hoppy bitter astringency to the sides of the tongue rather than the back of the throat.

This is another very tasty beer, which stands out in its strength of flavour for its relatively low ABV. Its very roasty and bitter and very Christmasy. I can see myself tucking into one of these with some cheese or christmas cake over the Christmas holiday.

You can buy Marbles beers including the new specials here. They're also available via our pick and mix list here.