Many Old Posts (for) #AnyOldAle

As a sort of winter warm up to this Saturdays shenanigans, I thought I’d do a little round of some of the posts other folks have written/recorded that have inspired me to buy, save and serve the beers up at my tasting session. Some date back a while but obviously struck a chord at the time. Hope they inspire you too…read on.

Ghostdrinker – Cockeyed Cooper

So apparently (from the powers that be) I’ve heard that in about six weeks we should be getting a new shipment of Exciting beers. Within that shipment is a range of four beers you may have heard of:

Cockeyed Cooper: A bruiser of a Bourbon Barrel aged Barley Wine at 11.1%
Detour Double IPA: A fierce 9.5% juicy gem of an IPA
Labyrinth: A destroyingly drinkable 13.2% Black Ale
& Tilted Smile: a 9% rock and roll Imperial Pilsner

These are a range of beers in the Crooked Line Series I’m sure you’ve seen before from the Uinta brewery. These 75cl corked bottles of art meets beer are absolutely fantastic just to look at, let alone drink. Read more..

Oh Beery Me – Beer 359 – Orkney Brewery Dark Island Reserve (10%)

I last sampled The Orkney Brewery on Burns Night and their delicious Red McGregor was the perfect accompaniment to haggis, neeps and tatties. However tonight’s beer promises to be something very special indeed.

The idea behind the Dark Island Reserve was to create a super-premium, unique and special beer that set new standards in Britain in quality of product and packaging. Using Orkney’s Dark Island Ale, it has been matured in aged Orkney malt whisky casks for three months. Read more…

Broadford Brewer – Quantum Brewing Company, SK1 Barley Wine

Yup, a beer review.  This beer is the product of a collaboration between Jay Krause, owner of and Head Brewer at Quantum Brewing Company and Colin Strongewho was at Marble at the time, but now Head Brewer at Black Isle.

This 7.4% abv Quantum branded beer, brewed in August 2011, is described as a Strong Amber Barley Wine “generously hopped with Nelson Sauvin, Super Alpha, Motueka and dry hopped with Super Alpha“. Read more..

Beer Reviews – Hardknott Granite

Hardknott are one of the breweries I have a great fondness for, this stems back to visiting Dave and Ann when they ran the Woolpack inn. It was easy to see how passionate and knowledgable they both are.

Since selling th pub and moving the brewery they have gone from strength to strength, re branding and releasing some excellent new beers such as Dark Energy, Cool Fusion, Queboid  and Infra red. Now with the new versions of Aether Blaec and Granite about to be released I thought it was about time I published my thoughts on the previous versions, starting with Granite. Read more…

Beers I’ve Known – Old Numbskull (with cheese pairing too)

Its been a few months, but that doesn’t mean the cheese and beer pairing has fallen by the wayside. In fact its stepped up somewhat as I did 50 pairings in September and October in preparation for the e-book I am writing. I still had some spare time (and more importantly spare cheese!) to do a pairing for the blog though.

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It pours dark amber with fluffy off-white head. Amazing sticky orange marmalade and underlying ginger-snap biscuits. Read more…

Zac Avery – Stone Old Guardian

Hope that has whetted your appetite…see you Saturday

Cheers