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By the numbers
I didn't realise I'd bought an antique. But it turned out that the XVII barley wine from Utah's Uinta brewery which I acquired at The House of Trembling Madness in York during the summer has a bottling...
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Santa Gueuze
You have to hand it to De Troch's Chapeau range of beers: they keep on surprising. I mean, they look like knock-off candy-lambics: doing a pineapple version suggests they aren't even trying to be taken...
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Reflections on the lake
You know how it is on those crisp, breezy autumn afternoons when you hop on the paddle steamer at Nyon -- first class, of course -- for the leisurely cruise along the lake shore back to Geneva. Seated...
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Strong recollection
My end-of-year ambition was to clear out all the scribbled unused tasting notes I have and turn them into proper blog posts. I nearly did it too. Among the stragglers were two from Hardknott brewery,...
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Repeat prescription
My three bottles of Embrasse by De Dochter van de Korenaar brooded under their wrappings in my fridge for several months before I got around to opening them. The first surprise on doing so is that the...
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The zymurgist as epicure
Usually, when The Session rolls round, I try and twist the theme to whatever I'm currently interested in or am already thinking of blogging about. Hey, it's totally within the rules. But this month's...
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The thin black line
The mass exodus was in full swing as I walked into King's Cross station, the day before Christmas Eve. While hordes of hopeful travellers gazed longingly at the departures board, I had rather less...
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Yuletide miscellany
It wasn't all fancy pub-hopping in England over Christmas. I was well looked after by my sisters who sourced a selection of bottles for general drinking.Among them was a box set from Adnam's, one of my...
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From the Bad Name Choice file
Luppoo? Really? Did they think that one through? Still, at least it's only the last two letters that they've highlighted on the label. It's part of the Belgoo range and, oddly for a hop-forward Belgian...
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Celebrate!
As I mentioned last week, I managed to sneak in a quick north London pub crawl on my last visit to England. From that I brought away a bottle of Cigar City's Jai Alai IPA. This Florida brewery has been...
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Dutch masters
Eight whole years had managed to fly by since I'd last visited Brouwerij 't IJ. I've no idea how I let that happen. I used to love coming to the quirky little tap room under the windmill: very much a...
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Canal hopping
One of the things that makes Amsterdam a great place for drinking beer is its compactness. Time it right and you can do a very efficient pub crawl through the western city centre with minimal walking...
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Can't see the sap for the trees
The claim on the back to be brewed with "a glimmer of Canadian maple" is a bit of an enigmatic one. I can't help thinking that the word "syrup" got cut from the copy at the last minute. As is, Holt's...
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New tricks from the old guard
It had been many years since I tasted any beer from 3 Fonteinen. Once upon a time it was one of the top lambic houses in Belgium and then in 2009 disaster struck when a faulty thermostat destroyed...
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Serially and cereally
Session time again. February's host is Montana Beer Finder and the topic is "How We Love Beer". Well this shouldn't be too hard. Specifically, Ryan's Valentine's-inspired theme asks for the little...
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Skálduggery
I smelled a bit of a rat when I first encountered the Einstök range up north. Icelandic beer, in the supermarket, with an English language label? It screams inauthenticity (a difficult word to scream,...
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A rare occurrence
Hooray for freebies! This collection arrived courtesy of Molson Coors Ireland who seem to be on a bit of a PR drive at the moment, hot on the heels of their recent acquisition of the Irish microbrewing...
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Knock-out stout
In the black corner, the champ -- brewed since the 1780s at the Barclay Perkins brewery in Southwark, surviving the merger with Courage and now, following nearly twenty years on hiatus, revived under...
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A spanner in the works
Different: that's my main assessment of the new IPA from Trouble Brewing, Sabotage. It's the Kildare-based brewery's third regular beer and they launched it a fortnight ago in Against the Grain,...
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Baby brothers
My bottle of Gregorius Trappistenbier predates the Engelszell monastery's recent accession as the eighth member of the trappist brewery club so I'm still claiming I drank it before it was cool. It's...
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