Your own personal Jesus

Your own, personal, Jesus someone to hear your prayers, someone who cares..

Now I’m not suggesting that you should seek solace in a bottle during troubled times, but if you were of a mind, you could do a lot worse than this dark and brooding little bottle of deliciousness from Danish brewery Evil Twin.

Up until September of last year I’d tried only a couple of beers from Evil Twin, these were Yin and Yang, a pair of beers designed to make up the ultimate black and tan as demonstrated admirably by Ghostdrinker in the picture, read his review here.

That all changed in September though when I visited the Borefts beer festival at De Molen brewery in Bodegraven.

Evil Twin were one of the invited guest breweries present and my god did their beers rock, the good folks there-present lapped them up big style. The beer list they arrived with came and went, each time you returned to the bar, another had the words “SOLD OUT” hastily scribbled next to it. Somehow, from nowhere, more beers turned up and very quickly went the same way and all were soon again long gone whilst many others around them lagged behind.

The sign-writing may not have been up to the mark but the beers were a revelation, Hey Zeus, an imperial stout laced with liquorice and chilli was one of my top five beers of the weekend, Molotov Fruit Cocktail Impy Double IPA (irresistible name for a beer) was not far behind and for anyone in the UK close enough to be able to visit a Brewdog bar, available on keg at most of them at the time of writing this.

Even More Jesus is an Imperial Stout coming in at a whopping 12%abv. It pours as black as old motor oil into the glass, but forms this amazing copper brown head. Imagine molten rich milk chocolate whisked to a meringue-like froth and you’re somewhere close (this picture doesn’t do it justice).

The smells are amazingly intense. Masses of chocolate and coffee, stewed prunes in sweet baked rice pudding, warm molasses and a hint of kipper smokers flat cap, it’s smokey man..

You take a taste and are rewarded with a humongous mouthful of big old flavours. Chocolate of course leads the way coupled with dark roasted bitter coffee beans. Seared whisky barrel oak brings a pleasant but not overpowering smoke to the party mellowed by rich boozy rumtoft fruits and fresh malted bread. All these tastes are huge but still somehow manage to come across mellow and smooth, there’s no harshness here at all.

Even More Jesus coats every corner of the mouth with a thick oil-slick coating of delicious flavour that takes about as long to clear, make this your last beer of the night and savour every moment.

Luxurious, stunning, POSH?

Reach out and touch faith, go on, it’s over there, right next to the Soft Dookie…

STOP PRESS!

Wow, that was a surprise and actually hard to understand! Best Danish brewery after only 2 years.don't know what to say http://t.co/hPQjBWOE

— Evil Twin Brewing (@EvilTwinBrewing) January 31, 2013

A tune to celebrate..

Cheers

More De Molen hits The Mother Town.

I posted a little while ago in my post “Burslem twinned with Bodegraven” about my delight that after some gentle nudging my local pub, Titanic Brewerys “The Bulls Head” had taken the plunge and was getting a larger stock of foreign import bottled beers, in particular those from Dutch brewers De Molen.

Well I am doubly thrilled to tell you that they have been a roaring success and that from today another eight are being added to the beer menu. I’ve gleaned a few tasting notes from various internet sites to give an idea about what to expect, but I stress, I have only tasted one of these so far so don’t hold me to them.. If reputation is anything to go by though you won’t go far wrong.. 😉

Engels: Our attempt at creating a real English cask ale. And we certainly succeeded. At the Great Brittish Beer Festival our Engels was appreciated by all that tried. Cask ale from the continent? Yeah! Also available bottled by the way.

Hemel and Aarde: Made with the most heavily peated malt in the world from the Bruichladdich distillery. Almost pitch black and opaque, small head. Furiously peated aroma, hiding the malt, licorice and dark chocolate somewhat. Very full-bodied, thick mouthfeel, like fluid bread. Dark chocolate, loads of peat, lapsang souchong tea, chocolate cake, culminating in an almost endless aftertaste that also has licorice.

Op & Top: Light IPA/Bitter using European hops and late hopped with US Cascade and Amarillo. Light floral aromas with notes of lemon, bread & caramel. Fresh and delicate flavours of citrus fruit, grass, and yeast. An uncomplicated light refreshing style.

Hel & Verdoemenis: Brewed with brown malts, an English traditional specialty malt, we created an Imperial Russian Stout that has won prizes at festivals across Europe from Sweden to Italy. It’s big (10% ABV), black, roasted and complex. We are convinced that not trying this ale will be a mortal sin to your taste buds and beer experience.

Bloed Zweet & Tranen: The standard Bloed, Zweet en Tranen (Blood Sweat and Tears) is a beer inspired by Bamberg smoked lagers, but upped in alcohol and with the addition of English peated malt to the Franconian smoked stuff. This variant is the result of an incident in which Scottish peated malt intended for Bruichladdich whisky got into the mash tun by mistake. (courtesy of Beer Culture with Des De Moore)

Man & Muis: Copper cloudy, with aromas of grass, grapefruit, citrus zests and some malts. Taste is light malted, good sweetness, still quite light and drinkable. Finishes with nice american hops combined with grassy saaz hop bitterness

Geboren and Getogen: Born & Raised’ is a smoked pale ale, the beer has lovely light citrus & bittering hops, & the smokey embers are ever present throught the flavours

Licht and Lustig: Described as a speciality grain beer,pours a hazy medium orange colour. Aroma is slightly malty, toasted caramel, hops bring tropical & citrus fruit, banana, slightly yeasty. Taste is citrus again, wheats, some caramel, banana and toffee.

All good news for the drinkers and visitors to Burslem.

If you’ve not tried one you’re unlikely to get the chance to drink 13 varieties all in one place anywhere in the UK I’d bet, so come on down and get stuck in. Oh and when you do PLEASE pop back on here and let me know what you think in the comments section below and give the staff at the Bulls some feedback too.

Cheers

Burslem twinned with Bodegraven?

The brewery in the Windmill

OK so that might be a teensy exaggeration…

Bodegraven is the home of Brouwerij de Molen (or “Brewery the Mill” in English). I think I can safely say they are one of the worlds most respected breweries, if the list of old, new and would be collaborators is anything to go by, not to mention the many guests for their famous Borefts beer festival and stunning beer pedigree.

Being a massive fan after sampling many different beers from their vast range I was really excited to hear them being mentioned as a potential addition to my local pubs foreign beer menu. Of course I heartily recommended them amongst others available and to my deep joy was over the moon to see not one but FIVE arrive.

The venue is The Bull Head in Burslem, Stoke On Trent, the Titanic Brewery Tap. It’s a cozy friendly pub with of course the obligatory selection from the Titanic range, a regular 5-6 pump ever changing cask ale selection and also quite a healthy stock of foreign beers both on the font and in bottled form. Being an antagonistic soul with the latter I’d always thought most of the selections as being a little “safe”. I can understand that of course from a commercial point of view, it’s a standard drinkers pub and not a swanky big city craft beer bar and the clientele reflect that, they are far more likely to go for say a Chimay Blue over a fridge full of completely unrecognisable labels.

That’s why I think this time around management team Bob and Jim at The Bulls have really excelled and perhaps popped their heads above the parapet a little, a brave and most welcome move. What needs to happen now though is for more and more people to go in and support their efforts by trying the beers, taste, chat and tell friends about them to make their arrival a resounding success.

This in turn will hopefully lead to a more and more adventurous customer base willing to try more new and interesting beers from around the world and so the cycle continues and the menu grows.. 😉

So what of the beers themselves? Well I’ve tried all of the De Molen beers on the list and although I’ve not made any tasting notes would recommend each one at the drop of a hat. Amerikaans is  a light and hoppy beer with a taste that defies it’s 4.5% abv, fruity, perhaps slightly floral in flavour and very very fresh on the palate, a spicy bitter finish cleans everything up nicely.

Vuur and Vlaam (or Fire and Flames) is an absolutely stunning IPA and is one of the best beers I’ve had in the last year. First tried from the keg at Port Street Beer House and many times since in bottled form. Loads of citrus and tropical fruit flavours are evident from the first sniff and follow throughout, at 6.2% easy to drink for a dabble in the fridges at any time of day, looking forward to warmer summer sunny days ahead in particular though.

Jaar & Dag is a Saison, pale and hoppy with (from memory) hints of orange spice and banana, it’s been a week or two since sampled this so it’s a little vague, one to revisit at my next session methinks. Going darker we have the Hamer & Sikel, a dark roasty porter coming in at a very easy-going 5.2%. It’s smooth and very drinkable with a good helping of bitter chocolate, espresso and dark boozy winter fruits.

Finally we come to the Daddy, the dark destroyer, Mooi & Meedogenloos. “Some people say it’s served in Mordor on Saurons breakfast serial and that by drinking it you sell your soul to the devil” (unless of course you are ginger and suffer from Gingervitus), “all we know is that it means in English “beautiful and ruthless” and is absolutely gorgeous”. It’s described as a Belgian Strong ale and I’d say it’s almost quad-like, rich malty flavours, sweet caramels, dark chocolate, liquorice, fruitcake and more, there is so much going on in this beer I’m not going any further without any notes or a sample as I simply won’t do it justice. Try one..

As a side note there are a few more additions to the fridges in the Bulls, notably from American brewery Rogue with Juniper Ale, Mocha Porter and Dead Guy Ale, again another welcome sight in the Mother Town, plus these two newbies for me St Fueillien Grand Cru and Gulden Draak 9000 Quaduple.

So what are you waiting for, the Burslem drinking scene looks set for a revival, get down here, support the cause…”POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!” 😉

Cheers

UK drinkers & pubs, are you happy that price of your pint is up 35% in 4 yrs? No I thought not, so please spare two minutes and sign this online Government e-petition to stop the beer duty escalator: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/29664