Dubbel tasting

I have had this La Trappe Triple for a few months now and decided to open it up. I previously had the Quadruple last year. This was much more to my liking though. It pours a brown and red autumn leaves colour. Alcohol and fruit along with caramel are in abundance on the nose.
On tasting it I was hit by dried fruit, like a fruitcake but one soaked in alcohol. Immediately after the fruit comes a decent bitterness giving it a bitter finish but in the background is always some sweet caramel to balance it out. Also there is spice from the coriander. This is a rather good Tripple and the type I like. Not cloyingly sweet like many Belgian Trappist Ales.
I already talked about how my own Dubbel, called Dubbel Whammy turned out. Well this is the keg version and it is very drinkable. Think of a Belgian dubbel, the kind that is not too sweet. Remove a lot of the alcohol making it an average beer in abv terms and you have a Session Dubbel.
The kegged version is pretty much the same as the bottle although whether it is the extra conditioning time or what but I got a little extra burnt toffee with this.

Currently I have been drinking the wonderfully drinkable Haka for the last week but I think I was have some more Dubbel this weekend. In fact, I will go pour one now and have it with my lunch.

No beer for me for a little while

I recently had some pain in my teeth so I decided it was time to go to a dentist. The last time I went was back in the late 90's I think, probably 1999 or around that time anyway. I had a rotten tooth which was essentially drilled to the point of only having enamel left and then filled. That tooth has been black for a long time so I figured since the pain was coming from there, it is probably time to have it taken out. I was worried though that the tooth beside it, which looks perfectly fine was a little tender also.

So I go to a dentist and he takes an X-ray and it turns out the black tooth is just fine but the tooth beside it has a massive hole which you can't see because it is hidden by the black tooth. I need a root canal. Great.... Well to make things worse, I have a prescription for two drugs now to clear the bacteria. One of them is Flagyl and I can not have any alcohol with that one. That is not a suggestion, it is a simply fact. I drink alcohol and I will probably be violently sick. So no beer for me for 5 days (prescription time), I will probably just stay off it until after the root canal
The root canal happens next Thursday and that is the night of the ICB meet at the Bull and Castle so I will not be in any shape for that either.

Oh and still no water at my house.

My Hero for the beginning of 2010

I mentioned recently we have been having water issues since before the New Year. It was being rationed and turned off at certain times. Well since Friday we have been completely without water as has most of our community. The next housing estate over had a standpipe set up by Westmeath County Council to provide water for those who need it. Running the show was this little kid above in his yellow jacket and green boots. I had heard about him when I was checking with a neighbour I noticed get out of her car with lots of milk jugs filled with water. She told me to follow the road, I can't miss it because it is the one that has all the obvious use through the snow. She said this little 6 year old is running the show and sure enough when I got there, he was. There was an organised line and he was the one making sure everything was done correctly.
The image above shows one of my two fermenting buckets being filled. While this was being filled he noticed a leak in the standpipe so he got people with smaller bottles and containers to pass their bottles to another kid he recruited and told him to put them under the leak.
The real reason this kid is a hero, apart from volunteering his time is because I got to see the sort of person he will grow up to be and I hope to God that he turns to politics some day as he has the makings for a great leader.
The old man in front of me tried to give him a little money and he kept holding his hand up and saying (in a westmeath accent) no no I couldn't take that, no no I am happy to volunteer as long as someone breaks me. By break me I assume he means someone takes over for an hour so he can get some lunch.
That kid will go far if he sticks to those sort of principals.


Another less impressive hero, but a hero of the beer verity none the less is another Goose Island classic. Bourbon County is a bourbon cask aged stout weighing in at 13%. I thought it fitting to pour it in to a whiskey glass and set it on a pile of peat briquettes for the picture.
It pours a motor oil thick black with no head which is to be expected for this sort of beer.
On the nose is a powerful bouquet of Vanilla, Liqourice, alcohol and caramel.
All of these qualities come through with the first sip with the addition of sherry and a hell of a lot of chocolate, and not just dark chocolate either as I was reminded of milk chocolate at times due to its creamy smoothness.
Ruth over at Deveneys off license, where I bought this incidentally is in love with this beer. By the way, they are holding a beer festival next month and there are still tickets available. The proceeds go to charity and details can be found in store or on the blog. It looks like my wife is fecking off to Manila for three weeks for work so will miss out.


At the same time I got the Bourbon County I also picked up this Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier. I had been meaning to try it for ages and have had beer mats for the beer but no beer. Now for those not familiar with a Rauchbier, it is a smoked beer. The smokiness is achieved by smoking the malt grains in the same way as you might smoke sausage or salmon. In fact a description of how they do it can be found on the website.
The beer pours a dark ruby, plenty of light shows through. It also boasts a massive head.
It smells very smoky like smoked bacon.
The smoke assaults you from the beginning and then wood notes come through. The beer is actually quite thin on body, which was a surprise but what that means is that this is quite a drinkable beer and could even be a session beer for people who like the smoked flavour.
I have some smoked malt myself and plan on making a Rauchbier. I need to have water though so brewing has been on hold for a while.

In the meantime I have The Haka tapped and it is a lovely easy to drink pale ale. Not so bitter that my wife does not like it which makes her happy. It is currently cloudy and yeasty but a little time will clear it however I will keep on drinking it.
I reckon Blonde Beggar is nearing the end and Dubbel Whammey will go in soon.

Goose Island Oatmeal Stout

I have not had much in the way of Oatmeal stout and in fact I believe this might be my first Oatmeal stout. Being a big fan of stout I am surprised by the neglect. Well my introduction to Oatmeal based stout came in the form of the brilliant Goose Island Oatmeal Stout. I am not sure what I was expecting but the rich dark chocolate extravaganza was I had was not something that came to mind. Firstly, this beer is dark. It pours pretty much black with a tan/off white head which is short lived (in my case anyway).
The aroma starts off with pure dark chocolate leading to a sort of porridge (oatmeal) thing (sweet) and some coffee and caramel.
In the mouth it is lighter than it looks and vanilla is the first thing I noticed which instantly moved on to chocolate, a little coffee and a citrus finish.

A wonderful beer from start to finish. I have had stouts that I prefer to drink but this was a very lively and interesting stout and worth further exploration.

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.