The Belgian think thinks he is the better brew but the Scotsman thinks "Fook Yoo" and head butts the Belgian back to Brussels.
I had two Beers tonight, well 4 but one was the lovely O' Haras Stout and the other was my bottled Cider which i have not had from the bottle in a month. Very nice in the bottle i think.
Anyway the two beers!
Firstly i had the Caledonia 80. I have never heard of it before, i'm surprised VelkyAl never mentioned it as it is not some cheap tasteless brew! The bottle says it is Fire brewed. There is also a cask conditioned version too but i had the normal stuff in a bottle.
I have to say i was pretty impressed with this beer. There was a good combination of roasted barley and the hops were balanced nicely too. It also tasted slightly floral, something i can not put a name to but whatever it was, it worked well.
I will certainly keep an eye out for this again and would be interested to try the Cask conditioned version, especially if i can try it alongside the normal stuff. I love to taste the difference between different versions. For anyone who cares, out of Tayto Cheese and Onion and King Cheese and onion i have decided that King wins it for me.

Next i tried this Duvel Pale ale. This one i have seen around but never actually tried it. I opened the bottle and took a sniff and it had a strong fruity aroma, it was only at this point that i noticed that the beer was 8.5% alcohol. Interesting i thought so i took a mouthful and Jaysus i was not prepared for the cocophony of flavour that hit me. For such a strong beer, i was surprised at how sweet and fruity it was. It was not sweet in the way that some beers i find sickening (leffe and other blondes for instance). It was just enough sweet to offset the strong maltiness. I was very impressed by this because i was not expecting anything from it. I will certainly have to try it again some time but I personally prefer less sweet, bitter beers. Im a Stout man at heart and love my O' Haras. One thing I noticed about this was that when i poped the cap, the foam started foaming out of the top of the bottle. I drank it straight from the bottle so i wonder what the head would have been like had i poured it into a glass? I get the feeling that half the beer would have been head. If anyone knows, please let me know.
I have other beers to try this weekend but for a Friday night, im very happy with the beers that i had.
I personally preferred the Caledonian 80 over the Duvel so +1 for the Scottish.
Tomorrow I will bottle my Wheat Beer and begin my experimental brew. I will be combining a Bock Beer Kit with a London Bitter Kit and see what i come up with.
I had two Beers tonight, well 4 but one was the lovely O' Haras Stout and the other was my bottled Cider which i have not had from the bottle in a month. Very nice in the bottle i think.
Anyway the two beers!
I have to say i was pretty impressed with this beer. There was a good combination of roasted barley and the hops were balanced nicely too. It also tasted slightly floral, something i can not put a name to but whatever it was, it worked well.
I will certainly keep an eye out for this again and would be interested to try the Cask conditioned version, especially if i can try it alongside the normal stuff. I love to taste the difference between different versions. For anyone who cares, out of Tayto Cheese and Onion and King Cheese and onion i have decided that King wins it for me.
Next i tried this Duvel Pale ale. This one i have seen around but never actually tried it. I opened the bottle and took a sniff and it had a strong fruity aroma, it was only at this point that i noticed that the beer was 8.5% alcohol. Interesting i thought so i took a mouthful and Jaysus i was not prepared for the cocophony of flavour that hit me. For such a strong beer, i was surprised at how sweet and fruity it was. It was not sweet in the way that some beers i find sickening (leffe and other blondes for instance). It was just enough sweet to offset the strong maltiness. I was very impressed by this because i was not expecting anything from it. I will certainly have to try it again some time but I personally prefer less sweet, bitter beers. Im a Stout man at heart and love my O' Haras. One thing I noticed about this was that when i poped the cap, the foam started foaming out of the top of the bottle. I drank it straight from the bottle so i wonder what the head would have been like had i poured it into a glass? I get the feeling that half the beer would have been head. If anyone knows, please let me know.
I have other beers to try this weekend but for a Friday night, im very happy with the beers that i had.
I personally preferred the Caledonian 80 over the Duvel so +1 for the Scottish.
Tomorrow I will bottle my Wheat Beer and begin my experimental brew. I will be combining a Bock Beer Kit with a London Bitter Kit and see what i come up with.
In my defence your honour, I never mentioned it because I don't recall having ever had it. Mitigating circumstances m'lord, that I only discovered decent beer when I moved to the Czech Republic.
ReplyDeleteIll let you away with a warning then.
ReplyDeleteI just had the second Caledonian beer I got. Its the IPA and I like it a lot.
Not expecting anything? Duvel is considered one of the classics of the beer world.
ReplyDeleteI'd suggest putting it in a glass next time though. It does foam up in the glass which is what it's supposed to do, there's even a special Duvel glass to contain the foam. Mostly for tasting beers it's better to pour them as much of the taste comes from the smell which you don't get when you drink from the bottle.
Nice blog btw.
I was only not expecting much because I simply had not heard anything about this beer before. That though, is no surprise as I am pretty new to the craft brew scene. It was VelkyAl (Big Al from Fuggled) who truly introduced me to it when he stayed with me.
ReplyDeletePrevious to that I had only had American craft brews and the only reason for that was because I can not drink normal American muck like Coors and Bud lite so I always asked for "local brew" when I walked into a bar. Inadvertently I was introduced to good quality beer and then VelkyAl showed me that we even have good beer in Ireland such as Galway Hooker.
My mission now is to taste as many beers as I can.
Deuchars IPA is one that I do like. Although I get a bit annoyed at people who moan that it is not as good as it was since it went "big time" - they sound like embittered Peral Jam fans jealous of Nirvana's success.
ReplyDelete