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Another night, another meet the brewer at the Port Street Beer House. This one was rather special as the brewer concerned was Doug Odell, as in Odells the rather fine American brewery. Doug proved to be a personable guest and we learnt a little more with each beer sample. Founded in 1989 in Fort Collins, Colorado; from small acorns a mighty brewery has grown that now encompasses some 45,000 square feet and produced 58,000 barrels in 2011.90 Shilling
The first beer they produced in 1989 and still is-although IPA is catching up-their best seller. An American twist on the Scottish style, it undoubtedly was an accomplished brew. Unfortunately, it’s simply not a particularly well liked style round these parts. My reason for dislike lies with the use of crystal malt, but even John Clarke (he’ll sup nearly anything) wasn’t that keenIPA
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This is a classic. No crystal malt. Just bags of aromatic and flavoursome hops precisely grafted onto a malt backbone to give a beautifully balanced drink.Cutthroat Porter
This is another winner. A 5.1% smooth operator with appealing hints of dark chocolate and a dry coffee bite.Crimson Stout
One of their experimental brews. Doug explained that if they were to brew it again, they would use more raspberries this time. However I, along with many others, felt that the more subtle flavour worked really well.Aquitaine
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This is a collaboration brew with the Kirkstall brewery in Leeds and is an 8% old ale style beer that has been aged in Bordeaux casks. I think it’s fair to say that this divided opinion. It was vinous and had vanilla, wood and diacetyl flavours: all the things I dislike in beer. And I wasn’t the only one who struggled with it. However, John Clarke (he’ll sup nearly anything) and his band of Lambic-loving-lushes were more than happy to take any unwanted beer from the more discerning drinkers.
An interesting night was brought to a close with some of Thornbridge’s excellent American style pale ale Jaywick. Frankly, I could have done without the late night anti-CAMRA tirade, but ho-hum.
11 comments:
So who was the tirader and who were the tiradees?
Heard from Jack and Jill that the Auitaine was undrinkable piss, but that JC liked it. Ho hum.
Just the (loud) voice of disaffected CAMRA youth. Luckily for you, they weren't ROB members.
Lucky for them.
I missed ther anti-CAMRA stuff too - mind you after a couple of glasses of the superb Aquitaine (you are clearly all Philistines with undeveloped palates)I was likley to miss anything. My guess is the anti-CAMRA stuff came from the crowd who were down from Brewdog Manchester - so they can easily be disregarded.
Actually John, it was one of your members!
Now you've got me intrigued. How do you know it was one of our mob? And what was their general gripe?
John
One dissenter, who I know, is a NM member and the other made it clear that having attended a SSM meeting that you lot are a bunch of old farts who are stuck in the past. Fair enough, but no mention of your liking for odd beers?
I think the crux of the argument was the Brewdog question-i.e why are they ignored by CAMRA.
Oh, I wonder who it was - as you know I pride myself on being cutting edge so would have happily had a free and frank exchange of views with said dissenter.
Of, course it usually comes down to Brewdog doesn't it? I think the question has two answers:
1. They are not, and
2. Which part of Campaign for Real Ale do you not understand?
See you at the Camden thrash (by the way, do we get our CAMRA epaulettes torn off for going to that?).
Now I've got my spoons tokens I'm thinking of going to a north west CAMRA meeting. To see what its all about, like.
Old farts, beards, sandals, beer guts, talk of chemical fizz and euro yellow disco piss. I want as much of that as possible. Which branch comes recommended?
I was thinking of Tands, as he is a celeb, like, but which branch offers the most entertainment value for a bit of real ale twattery?
Yeah, you do have the celebrity factor with TM and he is treated accordingly, but really you need the hardcore that covers Manchester.
There's the Stockport crew-recently condemned as old reactionaries and which would also give you the opportunity to discuss smoking with the PC.
However, Clarkey himself has actually set foot in Brew*** and does sup some foreign muck. North Manchester, on the other hand, wouldn't dream of it and insist that their pubs are cheap and smell of old men's piss.
Of course, you could always do both.
Ta, I might have to tour them all and do a beard count for meself, like. You make North Manchester sound appealing, cheap and smells of piss is my bag.
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