Porters

US Beer Review: Anchor Brewing Special, San Francisco

20/04/2013
US Beer Review: Anchor Brewing Special, San Francisco

Follow @TheGuestAle San Francisco is possibly my favourite US city and I happened to be there on business this week. As well as being introduced to the impressive bar-cum-off licence, the City Beer Store, by my US colleagues, I also felt it would be conspicuous of me not to review beer from San Francisco’s most famous brewer, Anchor Brewery. Despite tracing its roots back to the 19th century, Anchor Brewing was at the forefront of the revival against the generic mass-produced beers of the 1970s. In the UK, we are probably familiar with the Anchor Steam brand, but in San Francisco I got hold of some other bottles to review… Liberty Ale Anchor Brewing’s Liberty Ale was first brewed...

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Beer Review: Curious Porter by Chapel Down

19/03/2013
Beer Review: Curious Porter by Chapel Down

Follow @TheGuestAle Tucked away down a country lane outside Tenteden in Kent is the Chapel Down winery. Not only does it make wine, but it also does a very passable line in craft beer. We already reviewed the Curious IPA, but tonight is the turn of the Curious Porter. The bottle conditioned London style Porter is matured in oak, giving it a woody feel and mountains of character. You can see the crystal malts come through in the reddish hue, the chocolate and black malts in the strong sweet Marmite nose, and the bitter Admiral hops fighting through to make themselves known. It’s wonderfully balanced and smooth, not too smoky, not too burnt, just a right balance of those...

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Beer Review: Coffee in the Morning by Tap East

30/01/2013
Beer Review: Coffee in the Morning by Tap East

Follow @TheGuestAle Once again The Rake bar in London’s Borough Market served a newbie for my taste buds. Tap East is a microbrewery and brew pub on the Westfield shopping centre at Stratford, East London: AKA that stop you got off at for the Olympics. I wish I had known it was there as I have little reason to venture out that way now. Luckily, east came south and The Rake had Tap East’s Coffee in the Morning stout on draught. I’m in a stouty mood just now – it must be the weather – and this hit the spot. It’s pitch black with a light off-white head. Massive black malt nose, not really a big whiff of coffee...

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Beer Review: Mikkeller Oyster Stout

24/01/2013
Beer Review: Mikkeller Oyster Stout

Follow @TheGuestAle I was at the Craft Beer Co. off London’s Hatton Garden the other day. I love the selection there and decided to splash out £3.95 on a half of Oyster Stout made by surely Denmark’s finest brewer, Mikkeller. Mikkeller’s beer really is reassuringly expensive; you know when you spend your hard-earned cash on a Mikkeller beer that it’s going to be worth it. I’ve got a soft spot for Oyster Stouts, one of my favourites being the Whitstable Brewery Oyster Stout (from the cask), but the Mikkeller Oyster Stout tops that, in my view – and not just because it cost me a king’s ransom. There’s a really silky mocha head crowning the wonderfully tar-black beer and...

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Yuengling Black & Tan Beer Review

11/01/2013
Yuengling Black & Tan Beer Review

Follow @TheGuestAle This month we will see the inauguration of President Obama for his second term. So lets kick off with a review of an offering from Yuengling,  America’s Oldest Brewery and the favourite beer of the President himself. Brewed in Pottsvile, Pennsylvania since 1829, Yuengling (pronounced “Ying-Ling” by the locals) is a prominent label of a family of beers in the North Eastern states. Today as PA lingers in a state of frigid Winter I vote  to try the Yuengling Black & Tan dark brewed ale. It pours an opaque black colour with a slight white head which quickly dissipates. Carbonation level is hard to spot through the dark glass. No lacing at all although a mild but...

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Beer Review: Magic Rock Dark Arts

05/01/2013
Beer Review: Magic Rock Dark Arts

Follow @TheGuestAle It’s dark, artistic, magical and it totally rocks. Dark Arts Surreal Stout by Huddersfield brewer Magic Rock Brewing is one of my favourite of its genre on the market. I first sampled it at Brighton’s Cask (whatever happened to that place?) and was blown away. I used to be skeptical about stouts but it’s exciting numbers like the Magic Rock Dark Arts that brings me back to the black stuff. No quarter asked or given, Dark Arts is a 6% heavyweight. There’s a bonfire in the nose, leading you to expect a backstreet fighter of a stout, something rough and ready. Instead, it’s silky smooth with a big hunk of black malt with hints of coffee, liquorice...

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Beer Review: Whitstable Brewery Oyster Stout

15/11/2012
Beer Review: Whitstable Brewery Oyster Stout

Follow @TheGuestAle I first came across this awesome little brew at the Bricklayers Arms Kent Beer Festival in Putney from the pump but now for the bottle. The Whitstable Brewery Oyster Stout pays homage to the North Kent town’s most famous produce. Oysters have been at the heart of Whitstable life for centuries and this beer is designed to partner oysters. I don’t eat shellfish so I skipped that part but the beer is strong enough on its own that I don’t know why you’d want to spoil it with an oily mollusc. It was pretty lively when I opened the bottle, fizzing over without any shaking. The lively head dies down quite quickly but some lacing remains. Pitch...

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Beer Review: Panther Fine Extra Stout

31/10/2012
Beer Review: Panther Fine Extra Stout

Follow @TheGuestAle Bali Hai’s Panther Fine Extra Stout is the second stout I’ve tried in Indonesia following Storm’s Black Moon Iron Stout. I’ll be honest, for a country where the temperature rarely drops below 30°C I’m surprised that the stout style is quite so popular. India Pale Ale was, of course, designed for just this climate two hundred years ago, so how come all I can find in Jakarta stores is either generic, mass-produced lagers or random stouts? Anyway, my hopes were high for this one, given it won several Australian beer awards, albeit way back in 2005. All I can say straight off the bat is those Aussie judges must have been big Vegemite fans, because this is...

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Beer Review: Storm Brewing’s Black Moon Iron Stout

22/10/2012
Beer Review: Storm Brewing’s Black Moon Iron Stout

Follow @TheGuestAle When my partner’s contract took her on extended periods to Jakarta and Singapore I feared the worst – that on my visits to the tropics I would not be able to get my hands on any decent beer. I’m delighted to report I was wrong! While I envisaged a tea total month taunted by a generic beer counter of Heineken, Guinness and Indonesia’s Bintang, I was delighted to discover Storm Brewing of Bali. The brewery uses English recipes handed down over the last century, which includes a golden ale, a “bronze” ale and a stout. And it’s the stout which I had, as apparently alien as it was welcome in Jakarta’s oppressive 33°C and 75% humidity. The...

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Beer review: 99 Red Baboons by Blue Monkey Brewery

15/09/2012
Beer review: 99 Red Baboons by Blue Monkey Brewery

Follow @TheGuestAle Classic branding: colours and animals are proven to be the most memorable, so Blue Monkey sounds like a great name for a brewery. The Nottingham-based brewers have submitted their 99 Red Baboons creation into the Sainsbury’s Great British Beer Hunt 2012, so you can get your hands on it in Sainsbury’s until at least early October, longer if it wins. As the website says: “This beer is distinctly difficult to categorise – is it sort of a porter or maybe a mild?  You decide!” And it’s hard to pick. It has a session bitter ABV, a really full bodied porter feel but a mild’s silky texture. The colour is magnificent: dark ruby, although there’s zero head or...

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