12 Beers Of Xmas Day 9 - Brutal India Pale Ale

For beer no.9 I head back to the US for the final time.  Tonight I get to enjoy a large bottle of beer from the good ol' US of A because over there they like you to enjoy more of their beer.  None of these crappy little 330ml bottles.  To be fair they do plenty of those too but from my last visit over there I did notice that these large 650 ml bottles were very popular and abundant.  I even enjoyed a 650ml bottle of the 11.2% ABV Double Old Thumper - a real man's beer.  

The beer I have chosen tonight then comes from Rogue Ales.  The story behind Rogue goes back to 1988.  The brewery was in the basement of the Rogue Public House in Ashland, Oregon.  Their second brewpub opened a year later in Newport, Oregon and they now operate brewpubs in California and Washington too.  Their philosophy is to give back to the local community in which they operate too as well as brewing 'revolutionary' beer.  Their beer has certainly won many awards and is often available over here now.   

Brutal India Pale Ale (6.0% ABV) pours a delightful golden colour and has a wonderful fruity hoppy aroma.  Neither the bottle nor the website tells me the strength of this beer although Untappd tells me it is 6.0% ABV.  The website does tell me it is 15 degrees plato and 13 degrees Lovibond and 81 AA and 46 IBU though.  All fascinating to someone I'm sure.  I will make a note of finding out what all of these mean one day (actually I know most of them but I won't bore you with it).  Anyway back to the beer.  It looks great and smells great.  My wife said it tastes like many of the IPAs I ply her with from time to time, no better and no worse.  As I only offer her the best then that must be a compliment.  Very strong tropical fruit flavours with this one particularly mango and there is a dry bitterness in the finish that I think is just fab.  The hops and malt in this beer come from their own farms no less.  In fact Rogue Farms seem to produce everything a brewer could wish for including rye, pumpkins, jalapenos and hazelnuts.  I'm sure these all end up in one or two of their specialty beers.  All in all a cracking beer from a brewery that seems to do everything the right way.  Top marks from me.    

Cheers.

12 Beers Of Xmas Day 8 - Kasteel Tripel

I'm staying in Belgium today because Christmas is not complete without a Belgian tripel.  This particular one is from the Brouwerij Van Honsebrouck.  I know nothing about the brewery or this particular beer so I've done some reading.  The brewery has been owned and operated by Xavier Van Honsebrouck, the fifth generation of Van Honsebroucks in Ingelmunster, since 2009.  The history of the brewery dates back to 1865 but it was in 1900 when Emile Van Honsebrouck, the son of the founder (Amandus) moved to the current location in Ingelmunster where they built the Sint-Jozef Brewery.  It was renamed to the family name in 1953.

Plenty of history behind the name then and this particular beer, a potent 11.0% ABV Tripel, was launched in 1995 although the recipe has recently been changed to include more aroma hops and there is certainly a strong aromatic aroma with fruity and floral notes to the fore.  The tripel is my favourite Belgian beer style but this one doesn't really grab me as much as I was hoping.  My wife thought I was giving her a strong cider to drink.  It is probably a little too carbonated too.  

The beer is a pleasant looking blonde and after experiencing the strongly aromatic aroma and remembering I am not drinking a cider the first thing I detected was a sweet malty base which was a little biscuity.  The fruity notes consist of apple and oranges with some pear drops in there too.  In the finish there is a gentle floral bitterness but this never takes control with the fruit maintaining a strong presence throughout.  Not a bad beer but there are better Belgian tripels for sure.  This one would get a 7.5/10 from me I think.      

Cheers.

12 Beers Of Xmas Day 7 - Chimay Bleue Grande Reserve 2014

Christmas would not be the same without beer from Belgium and for my first Belgian beer this year I have gone for a large corked bottle of Chimay Bleue.  Chimay is the largest of the Trappist breweries and probably the most famous.  It was founded within the Abbaye de Notre-Dame de Scourmont in the Belgian municipality of Chimay back in the 19th century and the beer has been available in bottled form since 1885.  Annual production is now in the millions of litres and about half of their output is exported.  

Chimay comes in three colour-coded forms.  These are, in increasing strength, Rouge (7.0% ABV), Blanche (8.0% ABV) and Bleue (9.0% ABV).  The Grand Cru versions come in the Bordeaux-shaped bottle and this year I chose the Grand Cru version of the Bleue which is known as the Grande Reserve.  After removing the wire cradle the cork is carefully removed with a champagne-like pop.  It is advised to let the beer breathe after opening. This allows some of the natural carbon dioxide produced during bottle fermentation to dissipate.

This beer is a classic dark ale.  The has a gorgeous vinous fruity aroma.  This carries through into the flavour in a big way.  Initially it was a little fizzy (I didn't let it breathe!!) but this does disappear afterr a while.  It really is Christmas cake in a glass and it was indeed first brewed as a Christmas beer which explains the presence of a 'vintage'.  Lots of rich heavy fruit flavours along with some caramel and despite the strength it isn't particularly boozy.  Very drinkable, quite dry despite the richness and quite a spicy hop character in the finish.  It is a beautiful beer that I never get tired of drinking.   

        

Cheers.

12 Beers Of Xmas Day 6 - White Stout

When it comes to bottled beer there is nobody better than Durham Brewery as far as I'm concerned.  It has been quite a few years since I first picked up some of their strong bottled beers for the festive period and Christmas Day is never complete for me now without one or two of their beers.  They have brought out a few new beers this year which I am keen to try but I could not find any of these locally but I could find an old favourite so this is my choice of beer to accompany my xmas lunch.       

White Stout (7.2% ABV) is a beer I only tried for the first time earlier this year and I could just put the link to that review here and say good night one and all.  However I won't because it is worth a second review.  Untappd describes it as an American Pale Ale so firstly let's talk about the categorisation and the name.  This beer is nothing like a stout as in the modern meaning of the term.  Two hundred years ago porter brewers had not hijacked the term and a stout beer was simply a strong beer.  Durham have recreated this style with modern American hops (Colombus) and Maris Otter malt.  So yes it could be described as an American Pale Ale and there are plenty of sweet tropical fruit notes which you would expect.  Mango and mandarin notes are detectable before a spicy bitterness kicks in along with some soft aromatic notes which all leads to a beautifully rounded bittersweet finish.  This beer gets top marks from me yet again and I am delighted to say that my wife loved it too.  She has excellent taste.   

Cheers.       

12 Beers Of Xmas No.5 - Santa's Darkside

This beer was not chosen for it's recognised excellence in the world of beer unlike many of my others in my 12 Beers.  My boy has to leave a bottle of beer out for santa each year and the name and picture on the label is more important than anything else.  My suggestion for the beer to leave this year got overwhelming approval so this beer is already a winner.

I think this is my first beer from Naylor's Brewery in any form.  Naylors began in a pub in 2005 and they moved to a new site a year later.  In 2009 they expanded further but remained where they still are, in the village of Cross Hills in North Yorkshire between Skipton and Keighley, where there is also a shop and bar on site.  Good brewing country indeed.

I'm not sure what kind of beer Santa's Darkside (4.4% ABV) will be but I'm expecting a dark wintry beer.  It looks black in the pic but it actually poured a nice dark brown and it gave off a distinct aroma of toffee.  My wife was a bit bored by it.  A little bitter she said but felt that any taste quickly disappears.  Bah humbug.  It's certainly not as malty as I was expecting.  There are caramel notes in there for sure but a spicy hoppy bitterness comes through in the finish that is a little dry.  I think it needs more dark malt in there but it's a pretty decent bitter.  More of a brown ale than an old ale really but drinkable.  I would give it a score of 6/10 and I hope santa appreciates the remains of it later on.

Cheers.

12 Beers Of Xmas No.4 - Ola Dubh 12

For my fourth beer I am heading north of the border.  Tonight it is our local CAMRA social evening and it is my turn to drive so this beer is a lunchtime check-in.  The alternative is to open it when I get back in around midnight which I do not fancy doing particularly.  So the brewery today is one of my favourites from Scotland.  Harviestoun have now been brewing for over 30 years and have now grown to a 60-barrel plant.  I particularly love their Old Engine Oil and for today I am sticking to the black stuff.

Old Dubh (Gaelic for 'Black Oil') is a black beer matured in whisky casks and it comes in three variations.  Old Dubh 12 (8.0% ABV) is matured in old casks of Highland Park 12 year old single malt scotch whisky.  You can also get Old Dubh 16 and Old Dubh 18 and I think these are self-explanatory.  Highland Park is an award-winning distillery from the Orkney's and the Highland Park 12 won a double gold medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2007.  

I am not a whisky drinker, in fact when I visited a Scottish distillery I was unable to finish the free sample!  Having said that though I did love the smells of the distillery.  The addition of whisky notes to beer though is something I have not had a problem with in the past and I have high hopes for this particular beer.

I don't want to mention this damn cold on every post but if this beer doesn't kill a few germs then nothing will.  It poured black and thick and there is definitely an earthy peatiness to the aroma even to my limited senses along with a distinct booziness.  I particularly love the chocolate notes in this beer.  This is proper dark chocolate and not your milky stuff.  The finish has a distinct earthy bitterness from the whisky which my wife did not like at all.  For me though this beer is another Christmas cracker and it gets a 9/10.

  

Cheers.    

      

   

12 Beers Of Xmas No.3 - Ot The Explorer Double IPA

My wife is out tonight so I get this one all to myself.  She is not a particular fan of IPAs though so that's probably not a bad thing.  For day two I headed to Wales and met up with some Celtic druids.  Today I am in the Netherlands and drinking a beer in praise of the king of all Dutch beer hunters - Ot Louw.  Ot likes them bitter apparently so this double IPA is packed with American hops (Colombus, Simcoe and Centennial).

    

I took to Dutch beers in a big way over the summer during my World Cup of beers.  The best of these was an imperial passion fruit white IPA (7.8% ABV) and yes it is as good as it sounds!!  This beer was not 100% Dutch as it was a collaboration between Ilkley Brewery and the two Dutch brewers of Rooie Dop and Oerseop and this was more than good enough to win my golden pint award for best collaboration of 2014.  It also meant I was determined to add a beer from Rooie Dop into my 12 Beers of Xmas and this one from Beer Hawk sounded perfect.

      

Rooie Dop was born in 2012 by Mark Strooker aka The Dude.  He experiments in a wharf cellar in Utrecht and the big batches are then brewed at De Molen in Bodegraven so until he gets his own big plant he is a bit of a gypsy brewer.  They are already exporting to twenty countries and doing collaborations all over the world so The Dude must be a busy man.  

Enough of all this talk.  Time to test this 8.7% ABV double IPA.  I have built this brewer and beer up so much now it had better not be crap.  To be honest though with this cold it will have to be potent for me to smell or taste anything.  However, this is a really nice beer.  It has a lovely fruity aroma of mango and pineapple.  There is a sweet malty boozy base over which the tropical fruit flavours swirl around before you reach a somewhat bitter finish.  A perfect double IPA even with impaired senses so another 10/10 beer from me.        

Cheers.