Woolpack - Hardknot Brewery beers

**Excuse the layout of this post, I tried using Picasa to blog and it made a mess of it**

Firstly, on the left here is a rather foamy image of my Bán Oráiste which I tried on Sunday. I have to say it has a fantastic flavour. As you can see it is very yeasty looking, probably not the most appetising colour but the flavour is worth it in my opinion.

Now on to the woolpack beers. I enjoyed all these beers in the woolpack on cask and I brought some back. I originally had the bottled versions at a tasting session were I met up with other Irish Craft Brewers to try them. Unfortunately something was not right, they all seemed to have this sherbet fizziness going on which to many seemed like an infection. Since then I tried them all again and I did not get that taste so either they were from some bad batch of bottling (unlikely) or else the fact that they fell through the bottom of the box on the way and bounced off concrete may have caused some issue. It is very odd either way but here is what I thought of these beers in the bottle.




Starting off with Woolpacker, which is Dave's session beer seems right. It is his biggest seller and rightly so. It is easy to drink and the ABV is not too high so you can enjoy more of them.
There is a very obvious malty base here with a slight aroma of mandarin and this is also evident when tasting. One thing I found, for whatever reason was that it seemed to me that this was much more bitter than on cask? I liked that fact actually as it was a very well rounded beer with a very nice lingering bitterness. I was having this with popcorn with sprinkles of Cholula hot sauce and it went down very well so I would imagine this is great with spicy food.























Next up is the 4.4% IPA and I think my favourite of the bunch. It had the typical American IPA citrus / grapefruit thing on the nose. This is very drinkable to me. It is not too complex and some might argue that it is just a basic IPA with nothing to make it stand out from the crowd but that is fine with me. It is no Big Daddy IPA but then that is a different beer, it is much bigger and more complex and this is more refreshing I think and since it is only 4.4% I can enjoy this for longer.








When I first arrived at the Woolpack, I had Final Frontier on cask and it was the second last pint I believe as there was no more when it came time for a refill. I remember this fondly on cask but I found in the bottle that it was pretty uninspiring. It is certainly far more bitter than beyond the pale but without anything to back that up in body. There was little in the way of aroma either so it seemed that most of the hops were bittering hops. I remember it being better on cask but I think I even preferred beyond the pale on cask than this. Hopefully there will be more frontiers to cross for Dave's IPA style beers, the bitterness is fine but I think this needs a little more body to back it up. Perhaps a some or more crystal malt (depending on if he uses it) in the next batch.

Lastly we have the stout. This one was professionally bottled and caused a bit of a stir at the tasting. We seem to have been divided on this. The Beer Nut said he liked it I think but some of the others did not. I decided to reserve judgement until I tried another bottle.

I found the body very thin, it was a little watery but then perhaps that is just me as when I brew a beer I pack it full of flavour and body, perhaps too much actually but that is how I like it. There was some chocolate on the nose and this followed through a little on tasting but something else came through which I am not sure about. Where did the citrus come from? At least to me it had a sharp citrus bite which I simply did not enjoy very much.





There is one more beer worth of a mention and that is zippy red IPA. At 6.6% this is the strongest of Dave's beers. I took his last bottle home with me so I did not get to re-taste it myself after the tasting session. I loved this on cask, it was very nice and had I not already been full of beer I would have had more than the half pint (and a taste earlier). In the bottle it was disappointing but it could have been the dropping effect.

If ever there was an example of CASK versus everything else then this is it. These beers were a lot better from the cask so you need to go there to the woolpack and try them, then again since you can only get the bottles from the woolpack anyway, my advice is to just go to the woolpack and try these beers yourself. It would be interesting to go again some time and actually compare the cask and bottles side by side.

Chocawheat - dunkelweisse (Brew # 11)

According to Beertools pro, this will be a low alcohol Dunkel but possibly more like a wheat stout. This is being brewed for the Chocolate festival in Dublin at the end of October.
We will see what the end result is, the gravity may be higher so I may have more alcohol or less if it does not ferment out to the expected terminal gravity.
The wort smells if coffee right (black malt)now, yum.

Chocawheat

15-B Dunkelweizen

Author: Reuben Gray

Size: 24.11 L

Efficiency: 75.0%

Attenuation: 75.0%

Calories: 123.46 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.037 (1.044 - 1.056)

|================================|

Terminal Gravity: 1.009 (1.010 - 1.014)

|=====#==========================|

Color: 51.2 (27.58 - 45.31)

|=============================#==|

Alcohol: 3.66% (4.3% - 5.6%)

|#===============================|

Bitterness: 19.0 (10.0 - 18.0)

|=========================#======|

Ingredients:

3000 g Wheat Malt

600 g Chocolate Malt (pale)

250 g Munich Malt

100 g CaraPils Malt (brupaks)

150 g Black Malt

15 g Northern Brewer-Hallertau Hersbruck (10.9%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min

10 g Fuggle (4.1%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min

1 ea Danstar Munich

1 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 15 min

114.0 gr Cocoa Powder - added during boil, boiled 15 min

0.0 tsp Chocolate (dark) - added dry to secondary fermenter

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.3

Woolpack Inn - Eskdale

Apart from blogging myself, I also like to read other peoples blogs and one blog I have been reading is by Dave who is the owner and brewer and pretty much the Basil Faulty (in a good way) of The Woolpack Inn. It is nestled in the heart of Eskdale near the little village of Boot. Short of a Helicopter, the only way to get there is by very narrow roads 1. If using a sat-nav, the shortest route is the Hardknott pass and this is probably the most fun road you will ever come across. It is also the most nerve racking. Do not attempt this in an underpowered car loaded as it will not make it up the steep slopes. The scenery is worth it but you will probably use your brakes up and need new ones. The other longer route has slightly better approach roads and the main A595 is a decent enough country road.




Sheep are everywhere in Cumbria and perhaps it is fitting that the sign over the main Pub says Woolpack Baa. The pub is a favourite among walkers who either stay at the Inn itself or perhaps at the local campsite.

We stayed at the Inn for 2 nights and found it very comfortable and surprisingly quiet given the age of the building. The food served there was fantastic. The breakfast (included) was pretty amazing. Both mornings I had the Cumbrian fry which consisted of Bacon rashers, Cumbrian sausage, mushrooms, tomato, Black pudding, fired egg and lambs kidney. I opted not to have the kidney. One thing to note, you will not find ketchup or brown sauce etc. Dave believes bought in sauces detract from the flavour of good food and he is right. There was so much flavour packed in that I did not miss ketchup or brown sauce. The black pudding was amazing. Dave gets everything he can possibly get from local farmers/suppliers and the quality shows.

Breakfast aside the dinner menu was pretty fancy and I enjoyed it immensely. We only ate there one night, opting for a pub in Boot the following night for something different. I had a lovely roast pork and the others had probably the softest and most tender Fillet steak they have ever had. I tasted a little and it was lovely. The desert menu was also impressive and all of it is made to order, there are no bought in pre packaged deserts.



The main reason for going to the Woolpack was because it is a brewpub. Dave has a little brewery and serves his own beer as well as some of the best from local Cumbrian microbreweries.
When I arrived I had one of the last draws of his latest batch of Final Frontier which is an IPA style beer and was very very good.
His session ale is called Woolpacker and it is quite tasty.
I had a good few pints of his previous IPA, beyond the pale and that was lovely stuff too. I got to try some of his latest concoction called Zippy Red IPA. At 6.6% this is not a session beer but it is a very nice ale. It has a nice underlying malty sweetness. I only had a half pint as well as a little taster earlier in the evening. Dave also bottles some of his beers and I took some home with me. One of them is his stout which he did not have on cask so I am looking forward to that. Anyway I am having a taste session of his beers tomorrow night with some of the Irish Craft Brewers so there will be a more in depth blog post about his beer.

Of the local beers, Taglag was a very nice Ale. I did not get to try the Thirst Fall as it was out by the time I got to it.


On the first night everyone was tired but I decided to go down and get a whiskey to bring up to the room. I got this at the residents bar but was drawn in to take a look at the main bar and I did not leave till closing time. Some of you may have read about the Tokyo tasting that ensued? Well here are some of the culprits. Washy on the left as well as the lovely Lucy who terrorised the Tokyo by making a shandy with some lemonade (real stuff, not 7up). On the far right is Daves other half Ann. Dave of course is behind the bar. There were a few more for the tasting though including another Irish man but I can not remember his name. Oh I loved the Tokyo by the way, I must get some.




Before leaving I got a little tour of Dave's Brewery, excuse the mess but he has not cleaned it from the last brew and will have to do that for the next one now.
This thing that looks like a cow milking device is actually for bottling his beer, though he has also sent beer to be professionally bottled.







Dave has two Fermenters here with his boiler behind him.











Here is the mash tun. All 4 tubs look pretty much the same.






I highly recommend The Woolpack if you are either after a quiet get away in the arse of no where or if you are a walker. It is also a good romantic spot, the area is beautiful and the woolpack boasts a swanky room with a hot tub (room8). I would like to go back, perhaps go camping next time at the campsite near by and actually do some proper walking this time and spend the evenings at the woolpack. That sounds like fun.

For more info on the pub, take a look at the website.

1. You can technically get there by train, You can get the National rail train to Ravenglass and then get the mini steam railway to Boot.

A quick unrelated note, I am planning to start a new brew this weekend. Perhaps a Chocolate wheat beer for the upcoming Chocolate festival in Dublin at the end of October.

Cumbria beer

Last weekend I was in London, this weekend just gone I was in the Cumbria which is the Lake district. I got the ferry to Holyhead and we drove towards Boot in Eskdale. Along the way we stopped off in a nice Welsh town called Llanfairfechan and went to the village inn. It was there I had my first Dark Mild and I have to say it was lovely stuff. No picture nor can I even remember who makes it, though I am pretty sure it was a pretty well known UK brewery. If anyone has been to this pub, perhaps they can remember the name of the Dark Mild on cask1. I only had a half as the reason we stopped was a bathroom break and a pint would have defeated the purpose a few miles down the road. Oh and I was not driving, my friend was so I was free to drink all weekend.

They had a nice bar setup and at first I thought they had 4 wooden cask beers but on further inspection it turned out to be wine. The sunset Rosé turned out to be a firm favourite of the girls. The food also deserves a mention as it was excellent.











Later on we stopped for lunch in the second (so the sign says) best pub in Britain, called The Chimneys which not far from Liverpool. It was in fact a very nice pub. I had a Black sheep bitter and Brains SA. I also had a taste of the Sunchaser (pictured here) but it was a little too light and apple like for me. The other two was quite fine indeed but the Black sheep was the best and that one I have had in the bottle before.













Unfortunately I have no idea what this was. If I took a picture I must have enjoyed it. Can anyone identify the mystery beer? ** On looking at the picture again, it seems this is the Brains SA I had at The Chimneys**
I enjoyed this very much.











A Jennings Cumberland Ale went down a treat but it was nothing special. Still it was a very nice ale and I could find no fault with it. It was very smooth but I personally like more hop character in my beers.












More on this in my next blog post, this was an IPA called Final frontier. I will be doing a proper write up on the Woolpack later this week.
















My first and only beer in Chester was this Sam smiths and it was lovely stuff. Very smooth and packed full of flavour. It was not too bitter so my friend enjoyed it. The reason for the lack of beer in Chester was this. We arrived later afternoon, about 3:30 or so and did the obligatory walking around the nice little city centre. The girls spent some time in some shops and by the time it was near dinner time we went to a pub called The Falcon as it looked promising on the outside. Unfortunately after getting drinks at the bar we found the inside was packed and the upstairs was closed making it packed. Someone moved though and we got a table to sit down and rest out feet, half way through our drinks lots of people wearing fine clothes and hats arrived. It seems the whole town was at the races which now being over meant they were in the centre packing everything. It seems we were out of luck when we left for somewhere quieter as not only were all the pubs packed with hundreds of people outside, they had all made reservations to every restaurant in town. We entered empty restaurants to be told that they were fully booked. What really sucked was I found a fantastic looking pub around the corner from the falcon called The Brewrey Tap that had a massive range of beer, much of it from small craft breweries and even their own as it had the look of a brewpub but it was too packed. I do not think they brew on-site but there is certainly a microbrewery linked to it. If I was on my own I would have been fine but with three other footsore and hungry people it was a no go. Here is Tandlemans review which I just found.

Anyway that is a quick rundown of some of the beer I enjoyed. I had some others but not as much as London as I was with friends and we were doing less beery things than if it was just myself and my wife.

1. Thanks to Oblivious it seems to be Brains Dark

London - A city of Cask beer

I just spent a long weekend in London. I went to see U2 in London but it was a good excuse to try some cask beer and since every pub I went in to had at least 3 and sometimes more beers on cask I was pretty happy.
I had hoped to get to The Gunmakers Arms to say hello to Jeffrey but I never got the time on Friday and it is closed weekends.







This one was tasty enough bitter. Nothing earth shattering but worth a drink. I got samples of most of the ones above also except Greene King which I decided I did not care for in the bottle so was not bothered with the cask version.













Another nice pint, in fact this was very nice indeed and I would have happily sat there drinking more but I wanted to find another pub. Unfortunately due to lack of a map I never did find the pub called The Pride of Spitalfields thought I probably would have come across it if I had gone further up Osborne street.








Yum, London Pride on cask. I can not remember the waggledance though so it was probably not great.






One pub of note is this one right by St Pauls. It instantly grabs your attention because of the building to the right saying one knightrider court and the street to the left which is knightrider street.







I was confronted with these three cask ales and I was excited but
it turned out that two were out so I settled for the Kingfisher in the middle and the bar man went off the change the casks out.






This is what I ended up with. I enjoyed the kingfisher, it was a very well balanced beer in the London pride style.

To the left I had a sample of fortyniner which smelled and tasted like pressed apples but was not trying to be a cider. Meh....

To the right was Bitter and Twisted which was a blond beer and it claims to be a little spicy, aromatic and zesty. Well it certainly smelled a lot like lemons. It was not my sort of thing so this was also meh...

Thanks to the barman who gave me the 1/3 pint samples for free though and I got to watch him clean the lines which looks like a lot of hard work pumping water through them.

Of course there are pictures of The Hoff there as he has visited simply because of the Knightrider tie in.






Youngs bitter is tasty on cask











Fullers London Porter, Oh Jaysus this is fantastic on cask. One of the richest and most flavoursome drinks I have ever had the pleasure of drinking.









Fullers Discovery was pretty nice too but I am not a major fan of Blonde beers. It is pretty refreshing though and went down well.













An uninspiring bitter but tasty enough to warrant at least a picture. I had this at The wine lodge. It was noisy and full of business people flirting with each other and these people are loud. Not my sort of place, I prefer the more traditional English pub.







Not bad but I preferred the Bombardier I had after it. This was my first Cask beer when I arrived at the first pub near my Hotel called "The Bell" which is just of Petticoat lane.






So that is it, I had other beers not seen or mentioned here.

One thing I should mention is that I went in search of a brewpub called Brew Wharf which I found and have never been so disappointed. Oh they had plenty of beer but there was none of their own in the bar and even the bar staff were uninterested in dealing with me. One girl pushed a sign saying "not a serving area" towards me. Fair enough it might not be a serving area but that was still pretty rude. I then walked through to the restaurant area and no one paid any attention and still no sign of their own beer. This was somewhere The Beer nut enjoyed and I could not believe it was the same place. The chalk board with the list of their current beers was empty. Rude staff and they were not trying to sell their own beer? I walked out in disgust and went next door for sushi and plum wine. Later I went to a fullers pub near London bridge where I had the London Porter and I was in heaven.

Tomorrow I leave for the UK again, this time to the lake district to spend time at Daves brew pub/hotel called The Wookpack Inn.

Interesting Stout face off

This is the first time I have had a beer from the Basque region of Spain. This Pagoa Zunbeltz is a stout no less. It is dark ruby with just a hint of light showing around the edges. It smells mild and chocolaty and reminds me a little of Murphy's except perhaps a little more bitter. It is also fairly carbonated and a little fizzy for a stout but that does not bother me. There are obvious hints of chocolate and coffee, it is almost like a Chocolate stout actually.
It is a good stout, though nothing eye opening. Shame it comes in a small 330ml bottle and it is green as well. Also I can not find a website but the brewery is Euskal Garagardoa S.A.



Next up comes an Imperial stout I was advised to try from Brooklyn. The Black Chocolate stout is Black and smells like melted Dark Chocolate. It is very thick and Holy God the taste is unbelievable. There is a lot going on, too much to describe properly. I am pretty sure I get some wood (in the taste too). A very long deep sniff reminds me of Whiskey for some reason.

I got the Winter 08-09 beer and it seems that the 07 when aged is a fantastic beer. I might have to get a few and keep them for a while. By the way, this is 10% so treat it with the respect it deserves.

To sum this beer up, Go and get some.. in fact go and get a few bottles. Drink one and age the rest. I am afraid the next stout probably does not stand a chance after this one. Since I am writing this as I am tasting I will let you know when I finish the brooklyn.


The last stout is from the Ventnor brewing company on the Isle of Wight. Unfortunately it seems they have been forced to close due to the recession and this makes me very sad. I am always sad to see a brewery close or any company for that matter. Anyway I tried their Oyster stout and it is the first beer of theirs I have tried and the first Oyster stout outside of the Porterhouse that I have had.

After the Imperial stout, as expected I find this beer lacking in pretty much every area but that is my fault for grabbing the beer closest instead of thinking it through and leaving the imperial till last. This beer pours a dark ruby but plenty of light makes it through so it is not as dark as the other two. There is a good head and a very obvious malt aroma. The malt follows through in the mouth with a sour edge sneaking in. It seems a little thin but that might be just compared to the imperial. I can not say I taste any Oysters now but it is an interesting and enjoyable beer and seems light enough to enjoy in more volume than either of the first two beers, even though they were in 330ml bottles and this was 500ml.




Also one last thing, I plan on making a kegerator soon. I picked up a fridge. You can follow my progress here. I am sure there will also be updates on the blog though. In the meantime, here re some pics of the fridge I I will be using.










My two options are put the taps on the door of the fridge, or (and probably what I will do) run lines to the bar and put taps on the bar.

Good Lord that is rank, but a blessing be upon thee.

First up the other night was a rare beer, by rare I mean a beer that found its way down the sink. Ale Mary by the RCH Brewery in Somerset.
Unfortunately this beer was very disappointing, to the point of even being undrinkable. Whenever I have a beer like this I always give it the benefit of the doubt that perhaps it was just a bad bottle? Anyone who has had a better experience please let me know.

It smells and tastes of Sherbet, brown sugar and cloves. It is very sweet, almost sickly oversweet. It reminded me of the Leute Bockbier I poured down the sink because it tasted very similar and was out of date. This beer was far from out of date so that is not an excuse. Perhaps both beers were fine and were as intended and if so, they are not for me.
It reminds me of Orange juice that has gone off and starts fermenting itself.

Anyway, this was not for me but I am open to the possibility that it was off. Even if it was, it was too sweet for my taste.



The next day I tried this Dark Lager from Sam Adams. The last dark lager I had was Zeitgeist which started off as not great but I got very used to drinking them and they are all gone, including the one I was sent in replacement to the broken bottle from my initial shipment. Thanks Brewdog. Anyway this is a different style completely. Where as the Zeitgeist is thin and almost watery but very easy to drink, this is thicker and more chewy and not so easy to drink. I found both the aroma and the taste to contain Caramel, Prunes and a little coffee.
It was very tasty but I do not think I could drink too many of thgem before I want something lighter. So not a session beer for me but a very nice beer all the same and a God send after the Ale Mary.

Cask beer anyone?

In Britain they have enjoyed cask ale for a very long time and it is still going strong today albeit at a much lower rate than 30 years ago and more. Lager has taken over as the beer of choice around the world. You can still enjoy cask beer though in many pubs in most average towns in the UK and it is probably thanks to CAMRA that this is the case today.

Here in Ireland it is a different story, cask ale died out here a long time ago and has only surfaced again in the last few years. The Porterhouse brew pubs in Dublin have had their own Cask beer called TSB running for a number of years and until a few months ago, was one of only (if not the only) place in Ireland that served cask beer.

A few months ago, The Bull & Castle in the Christchurch area of Dublin started to serve Cask ale clocking up the capitals cask beer outlets to two, well that is not quite true as there are a number of Porterhouse outlets so let us say the choice of Cask ale is now two. Either one of the porterhouse pubs or whatever the Bull and Castle is serving. The main difference is that the porterhouse always has their own TSB on cask where as the Bull and castle have different guest beers on cask every week or two.

For those reading that are not familiar with the difference between a cask beer and a Kegged beer then let me give you a quick run down.
1. Cask beer contains (usually) a live beer meaning that the yeast is still in the beer where as kegged beer has usually (not always) been filtered.
2. Cask beer is usually served slightly chilled above room temperature instead of through a cooling system usually employed by a keg.
3. Cask beer is pumped in the opposite way to a keg. A keg is sealed tight and Co2 or sometimes co2 & nitrogen are pumped in to the keg to push the beer out. This pumps the beer out fresh and when it arrives in your glass it is the first time the beer has been exposed to oxygen since it was transferred to the keg. The Co2 also serves to keep the beer carbonation levels up.
Cask beer on the other hand, while also sealed does not use co2 or any other compressed gas to dispense the beer. Instead it uses a hand operated pump which pumps air (including oxygen obviously) in and push the beer out. As a result, the beer inside may have been exposed to air for a couple of days and will not stay as fresh for as long as a keg. Also since there is no pressure, there will be little carbonation.

There are no doubt other differences but these are the main ones and all that matter for this post.

I am a fan of the TSB on cask at the porterhouse so I was interested to try more cask beer.
The Bull can castle started off with Druids brew from the Carlow brewing company. This is a stout from the makers of my beloved O'Haras and is only available on cask and usually only at beer festivals so this was the first time it had appeared in Dublin. I found this grew on me more and more as I drank it. I just had to get over the initial mental messages telling me that the stout is flat.

Next up for me a few weeks later was Carlows Curim Celtic wheat beer. Never having been a fan of this in the bottle I was pleasantly surprised by this in the cask. It had a richer flavour to it, the only thing is that a wheat beer is usually highly carbonated so it lacks the mouthfeel I would associate with a wheat beer.

Then came Cask O'Haras, the stout I love oh so much from the bottle. Unfortunately I was disappointed by this because it seems the cooling system was broken so it was served far too warm and some off flavours were present. I will keep an eye out for it next time it is available to see if it is any better.

Most recently a brand new beer from Carlow was on cask called Malty Bitches and it was lovely. I had it first on Friday and I made sure I went to the porterhouse first to have their TSB so cask bitter was fresh in my mind. I have to say I thought the Malty Bitches was superb and better than the TSB. A proper blind tasting is in order but this is very difficult so will probably not be possible unless I was take put both in a bottle and take them home, or just walk down from the porterhouse with a pint of TSB and walk in to the Bull and castle to compare. Either way, both are lovely beers but the way I remember them it was the Malty Bitches that was the better of the two.

Next up there is an IPA which might be Galway hooker unless *Carlow have also done an IPA. I will find out soon and no doubt someone who has tried it will be able to comment. It went on sale last night I believe.

Anyway according to Geoff who manages the Bull and Castle, the Cask was one of the best decisions ever made as he is getting lots of phonecalls of brewers trying to get their own cask beer on sale so it shows there is a demand out there if a publican is willing to learn how to use a cask system. With luck, more pubs will start to follow suit and not only serve proper Irish beer from Irish owned and operated micro breweries but also start to sell cask.
It was also be interesting for Guinness to bring out a Cask version. It would be interesting to see what that would taste like. While I like Guinness just fine, the normal draught flavour is killed by both being served too cold and by the nitrogen/co2 mix. Bottled Guinness is better so it would be interesting to have a live cask version.

By the way, if I have any info on cask beer wrong then please let me know and remember how limited my experience of cask beer is. It is all a learning process.

*Seems it is in fact a new Carlow brewing company IPA