Happy New year - And new year woes.

I hope everyone reading had a good Christmas and new year? I know I certainly had fun. The only downer is that our water supply has been turned off a lot of the time and since it is the Christmas holidays, there are few people working in the public service to fix it. I myself was off work from December 23rd and I go back tomorrow. No water means I can not even consider doing a brew and even showers are optional. Luckily we spent time away over the new year in other peoples homes and they had water so I could shower there. It is amazing how something we take for granted in Ireland like running water is so vital to us and we do not realise how important until it is gone. Consider this (and it may be different in other countries), Our mains feeds a water tank in our attic which is where our shower water and normal bathroom water comes from including flushing the toilet. It also feeds the hot water tank for our hot water as well as the radiators for our central heating. So if the water was off for long enough, I could end up with with not only no running water & no plumbing but also no heat during the coldest winter I can remember where the snow/ice is actually staying for more than a few minutes.
Of course the worst part is, no brewday. At least the water is not off, it is just limited. They seem to be turning it off between 8am and 9pm so at the time of writing this, the water is off.
A neighbour managed to get hold of someone and they said they think a lot of people went away for Christmas and left taps running, well if that is true I hope it was their baths and they come home to flooded houses. It would serve them right for leaving thousands of people without proper running water over Christmas. Apart from that, Christmas and New year were fantastic.

Anyway that is enough moaning about water. I may not be able to brew but I have plenty of beer. The Blonde Beggar and What Ales Ye? IPA are still flowing from the kegerator and I have The Haka and Dubbel Whammey kegs ready to replace them.

So far I have only had two new beers over Christmas as I limited them due to having no intention to spend Christmas blogging.

First up from Goose Island is Mild Winter. This very tasty brew pours a dark red with caramel, dried fruit and malt on the nose. It tastes like it smells but also is spicy. The mild in the name probably refers to the bitterness which is quite mild but is still a good 28 IBU so it works very well. The finish is malty and winey and this was a brilliant Christmas beer (not strictly Christmas as they have a Christmas beer), in fact one of my favourite seasonal beers and certainly the only one I can remember currently that stands out, that said I have very limited experience with seasonal Christmas/winter beers.

Last night I had Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale. Great aroma here, it smells like a Double IPA but at only 5.9% it is certainly not. I had the 2009 edition. It is a normal IPA in the sense that ticks all the American IPA boxes and does not add anything new to the mix. The only thing this beer does is tick those boxes perfectly. It is a lovely beer and they somehow made an IPA feel more complex than they are. I love IPA's but lets face it, your standard IPA is rarely innovative and has as much character as an average German Weisse. Sierra Nevada have managed to make a standard IPA just a little more interesting. At the same time I had a pint of my own IPA for example and mine is a lot simpler. Bitter hops, citrus and not a lot of body but the Sierra Nevada is much thicker, the body is superb and it just has a much rounder flavour than mine so Sierra Nevada shows they know what they are doing and maybe next time I brew an IPA I will attempt to make it more like this than a standard refreshing session beer. I see no reason this Anniversary ale can not be a session beer.