BEER REVIEW: 62

BREWER: Loch Ness Brewery, Highlands, Scotland

STYLE: Stout 

ABV: 4.4%

VESSEL: 500ml brown bottle

DATE POSTED: 16th December 2018

 

JYMI SAY’S…

Darkness is just the most stunning name for a Stout!! I mean, how very simple and just totally perfect. I’m going to ignore the fact that this is a play on words from the brewery that produced it as frankly I find it quite annoying. No, I’m concentrating on the fact that Darkness is one of the best and most apt names for a beer out there. I’m just hoping that once released from it’s rather underwhelming bottle that it pours a rich black, as when you come with a name tag like this you better hope that you’re darker than a ninja at night.

And it most certainly was… Darkness poured a beautiful deep black colour with a hint of cherry and gave off a lovely lovely rich burnt chocolate and coffee aroma. Taste wise Darkness delivers in a big way. Such a full flavour with a wonderful smooth finish. And for such a full flavour it’s amazing just how drinkable this stout is.

So big ticks for nose, taste and drinkability… However, by the time I had finished this offering from Loch Ness Brewery the rich full flavour had given me my fill and I was only ready for one more really.

All in all this would be a great opener for any wintery occasion but for me anyway I would have to move onto something else pretty quickly.

But it’s a job well done by #LNB.

Jymi’s Rating: 72%

 

SAMMY SAY’S…

Loch Ness Brewery has a good thing going on with the naming of its beers.  I don’t think this needs explaining, but just in case the Ness bit of the names of all of the beers is in relation to the Ness part of Loch Ness.  This is where the beers come from.  Get it?  Clever isn’t it?  This great play on the name isn’t backed up by the packaging (the less said about that the better) so the overall marketing isn’t quite the full ticket. 

Dark Ness, is quite obviously, a stout from Loch Ness Brewery.  It most definitely looks like a stout (first box ticked) and it definitely smells like a stout (second box ticked).  To be fair, it smells really good for a stout packed full of with lovely chocolatey hints backed up by backdrops of cherry, both of which are most welcome at this time of year. 

In the drinking, there is a chocolate sweetness that is actually very well balanced with the heavier coffee, earthy flavours that we usually associate with stouts.  It’s not a deep flavour and this makes Dark Ness incredibly light for a stout.  It’s easy on the palate and it’s very easy to drink.  The flavour doesn’t have much length, but this leads to this being an incredible session beer (and please do remember that this is a stout!).

In a (Christmas) nutshell, Dark Ness is a contender for an excellent session stout, which has character in abundance.  It’s definitely a big hitter and one that I would recommend for cold winter months. 

 Sammy’s Rating: 81%

 

MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 76.5% 

 

MOB review next weekend: BLACK ISLE ORGANIC PORTER by BLACK ISLE BREWING CO. 

MUSE ON BOOZE

Another Winter warmer for you on this second Sunday in December, though this one is actually cold

 

INGREDIENTS: 

25ml Hennessy 

25ml Bulleitt Bourbon

15ml Gran Marnier

15ml Lemon Juice

15ml Sugar Syrup

 

METHOD:

Add all ingredients and shake with Lemon and Clementine Peel. 

Fine strain into chilled glass.

Garnish with Clementine peel.

BEER REVIEW: 61

BREWER: Dawkins, Bristol, England

STYLE: Chilli Chocolate Stout

ABV: 5.1%

VESSEL: 500ml brown bottle 

DATE POSTED: 7th December 2018

 

SAMMY SAY’S…

Sammy’s Rating: 43%

 

JYMI SAY’S…

Hi there, my name is Jymi and I eat Habanero Peppers for breakfast.

I’m a spice head, I’ll admit it.

Every time I go to my local greasy spoon the Sicilian owner Franco will shout ”Hey Jymi, you want extra Tabasco yeah”? I’ll raise my hand and smile like the cool kid I am.

Every time I pop to my local Deli for lunch Michael asks me “Jalapenos in your sandwich sir”? I nod. He delivers. It’s a nice relationship that one.

Every time I order a curry from down the road for tea I ask if even the hottest of dishes can be spiced up a bit, but they have still failed to take me down.

Spice, I love it. But do I want a warming Stout on a chilly Friday evening in December to actually be spicy? Quite honestly… no. If I get the flavour of chilli from HM I’ll be happy I’m sure but if it is actually spicy I may throw my glass against the wall in disappointment..

Here goes…

What the actual what??

The initial sip and taste we have here is pleasant enough, though the beer itself is certainly lacking a bit of body. But then…. OH BUT THEN!!!…… HOLY MOLÉ, in comes that chilli and wrecks it all! Look, it’s not blow your head off spicy as such but it is without packing chilli heat at the middle and end of every sip. It’s too much and I know that this is what this Stout is about but just kills anything decent it had going for it.

I didn’t throw my glass against the wall but it did however take me almost an hour to drink and that right there tells you all you need to know.

Holy Molé Batman…

Not for me Robin.

Jymi’s Rating: 50%

 

MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 46.5% 

MOB review next weekend: DARKNESS by LOCH NESS BREWERY

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A little warming cocktail for you to try on this first cozy December Sunday…..

INGREDIENTS:

750ml Red Wine

600ml Cold Water

150ml Dark Rum

1 Breakfast Teabag

125g Caster Sugar

6 Cinnamon Sticks to serve 

METHOD:

Pour the Wine, Water and Rum into a Slow Cooker. Add the Tea Bag and Sugar and cook on High for 1 hour. 

Stir the Punch and remove the Teabag. Cook on Low for 3 hours. 

Stir and serve with Cinnamon stick. 

BEER REVIEW: 60

BREWER: Fuller’s, West London, England

STYLE: Bitter  

ABV: 4.7%

VESSEL: 500ml brown bottle

DATE POSTED: 1st December 2018

 

 

JYMI SAY’S…

“Pint of Pride please landlord”

“Evening Stan, I’ll grab a Pride when you’re ready”

“Three London Pride’s and eleven packets of pork scratchings please”

“Afternoon…..errrrrrr, yes, I’ll have a pint of London Pride. Thank you”

“Mornin’, usual ta”

 

Just a snippet of the words muttered by folk when it comes to this absolute stalwart of an ale. London Pride is at the absolute forefront when it comes to go to beers in a boozer in the UK. It will never let you down. But the genius behind Pride, for me anyway, is this…

There are far better beers out there for sure but if nothing peaks your interest and you’re not in an adventurous mood a London Pride will be ordered with confidence. It’s a go to beer, a safety blanket.

Now the trouble is when we arrive at #LP in a bottle it suddenly has way more dudes to contend with. At a boozer you can pretty quickly asses your options and hit up your choice. But at the majority of places Pride in a bottle will be sold there will be a plethora of alternate options…. and that’s why until today I have never had a London Pride from a bottle.

It’s fine. It’s not quite as good as from cask obviously, but it’s fine.

Pub wise. forever an absolute go to in my book, but if something else does catch your eye, well who could blame you.

When it comes to the premise of consumption from a bottle it may not even make it in the beer basket, but when it comes to a beer you can always just always rely on….LONDON PRIDE IS QUITE SIMPLY.. THE ONE

Jymi’s Rating: 71%

 

 

SAMMY SAY’S…

London Pride does not refer to a group of lions based in London but rather to a beer that is aimed at being the top most offering from our fair capital city.  And you’d be hard pushed to come from London (or indeed much further afield) and not know about this staple of the ale world, which is Fuller’s flagship beer.

You know where you stand with Pride, and its somewhere right in the heart of London, just as intended.  This beer truly does represent where it’s from with grandeur.  It’s proud to be from London and Londoners should be proud to have it as their representative.

It has a distinctive taste, which while not groundbreaking, is so very comforting.  It really is a strong representative of an English bitter that is fairly light on the palette with light malty hopiness supported by the almost perfect length of bitter after bite.  The nose is isn’t anything to get excited about – but let’s be fair, it is a bitter!

The success of London Pride lies in its unwavering consistency.  One bottle after another, it always delivers.  It is refreshingly old school.  It doesn’t dress up in anything other than what it truly is.

Fuller’s know what they’re doing and they know that with this brand they have a hit on their hands.

Sammy’s Rating: 78%

 

MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 74.5% 

 

MOB review next weekend: HOLY MOLÉ by DAWKINS 

MUSE ON BOOZE

BEER REVIEW: 59

BREWER: Brakspear, Oxfordshire, England

STYLE: Golden Ale

ABV: 4.6%

VESSEL: 500ml brown bottle

DATE POSTED: 24th November 2018

 

SAMMY SAY’S…

With Oxford Gold, you know what to expect before you even enter in the realms of the inner bottle.  The outer bottle screams of good old British beer tradition.  Brakspear, as a brewer, has heritage.  Everything suggests that what we have on our hands here is a hairs on the chest, beard growing English ale.  

Note to all – this is best handled in a glass with a handle.  

Oxford Gold has the colour you’d expect from an English bitter.  And as you raise the aforementioned jug to your lips, you very soon realise that the aroma is everything you’d expect from a bitter. It’s malty and very pleasantly earthy and that’s incredibly reassuring.

In the drinking, Oxford Gold is most definitely a bitter.  It has the comfort and warmth of malt, which is balanced very skilfully on the palate.  But it does pack some surprises alongside that with its zest and lightness. Overall, this is a master-class in balanced brewing.

Oxford Gold lives up to its name; it’s a great English bitter. It would be a warm welcome at home or out and about on either an autumnal or a winter’s day.  It fights the corner for bitters with aplomb and it stands tall in the world of beer.  

Get ready to whet your whistle because if you do it with Oxford Gold, you’ll be very pleased that you did.

Sammy’s Rating: 81%

 

JYMI SAY’S…

The Brakspear Brewery in Henley on Thames has been part of my life for a long, long time. The fact it’s not there anymore (even though the signs are, as well as the memories (cue floods of nostalgic tears)) I’m just going to ignore. I know this is unprofessional and factually untrue but as far as I’m concerned the brewery lives on and that’s just the way it is.

I mean, Sammy went out with a girl who lived in Henley when we kids so we spent a stack of time in the town. Once we had finished school we took up residence at Henley College. Once the College bit was over I knew I was going to be a professional beer blogger so didn’t bother with Uni and got a job in Oxford, so drove through Henley everyday smelling that yeast fermenting morning and night. After a bit of a break from this quintessentially English Thames town, until recently, I ended up starting most of my working days there too, driving past the brewery on every single one of them. It’s fair to say Brakes is in my heart and when I stare at this Oxford Gold in front of me I trust it to deliver. I mean, it looks great and for me, reliable. I have only ever had OG from cask so was very intrigued to see if it delivered via a bottle too. I’m just praying it does, don’t go braking my heart…  

Wow!! What an absolute winner!!

Ok, Ok, Ok… trying not to sound too pretentious, this is a journey of a beer tasting experience. It really is. And the journey is a stonker!

OG starts off super smooth in ones mouth with sumptuous bursts of citrus accompanied by an elegant floral back drop. As Oxford Gold goes down ones pipe it leaves behind a sensational almost honey like coating on the inner cheek of the drinker. Most divine. As the aforementioned drinker is sitting rejoicing the honey coating, a gentle bitter after taste creeps in and finishes off the whole drinking experience perfectly.

Then it’s time for another sip!!! And then another…

Honestly Oxford Gold is a brilliant beer and will quickly become a resident in Jymi’s beer fridge.

Jymi’s Rating: 85%

 

MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 83% 

MOB review next weekend: LONDON PRIDE by FULLERS

 

MUSE ON BOOZE 

BEER REVIEW: 58

BREWER: Brouwerij Kompaan, South Holland, Netherlands

STYLE: Double IPA

ABV: 8.2%

VESSEL: 33cl brown bottle

DATE POSTED: 17th November 2018

 

SAMMY SAY’S…

Hand Langer is a lively one.  She fizzes up very quickly once she’s let loose from the bottle.  And behind all the fizz, there’s a very nice citrus fruit aroma, which is ably supported by a faint backdrop of caramel.  

In the drinking, it’s the burnt caramel that wins out.  While Hand Langer is not altogether unpleasant, there is something a little forced about it.  It doesn’t quite align its flavours.  As I drink it, I’m not sure that it knows where it belongs.  The lack of clarity leads to it languishing in, dare I say it, being incredibly unmemorable.  

Hand Langer is a beer that I will easily forget.  Funnily enough, I don’t necessarily mean that it’s a bad beer, because it’s not. I just mean that there are so many other beers out there that out strip it.  It doesn’t have a USP.  It will drift into the background.

A little like a day at work, I can say with a degree of certainty that I will very quickly forget Hand Langer.  It will fade into nothingness and I cannot guarantee that come the future I will ever remember having had it.  Oh well.

Sammy’s Rating: 63%

 

JYMI SAY’S…

Beware the HANDLANGER!!! And there are a of couple reasons for this… One comes from the Kompaan Brewery themselves and one from your personal beer adviser, Jymi.

Firstly the advice from Kompaan: WATCH YOUR BACK.. They call him bitter and merciless – we call him the HANDLANGER! 

So I get scared way easier than the usual person I have to admit. I honestly look at the bottom left corner of the TV sometimes if a jumpy moment looks likely to happen in Emmerdale.

The Kompaan description  of this beer  seems creepy to me, like the Handlanger may seek then find you at any moment. I’m sure this was not the brewery’s intention but either way, it scared me.

Now the advice from yours truly: OK, crazy creepy aside the first thing to note about this brew is it does not taste like it is 8.2%. Not even close. Unless you drank a certain amount of these you would have no idea you were drinking an 8.2% monster. Bizarrely it almost tastes weak!! DANGER DANGER…. HIGH VOLTAGE!

Kompaan’s Handlanger pours a beautiful colour with an almost soapy, lively head. There are notes of caramel throughout with the odd hint of banana. But is it the monster of a beer that it should be?

Quite simply, No

… this isn’t a monster of a beer. Far from it. I mean it’s nice enough but with the name HANDLANGER, a big ol’ ABV and the label of Double IPA I just wanted a bit more if I’m honest.

Jymi’s Rating: 73%

 

MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 68% 

MOB review next weekend: OXFORD GOLD by BRAKSPEAR 

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BEER REVIIEW: 57

BREWER: The Three Legs Brewing Company, East Sussex, England

STYLE: IPA 

ABV: 5.5%

VESSEL: 500ml brown bottle 

DATE POSTED: 10th November 2018

 

SAMMY SAY’S…

Some products deliver on the exact level that you’d expect them to deliver on.  A beer branded as English IPA should be unwaveringly bold in both its Englishness and it’s IPAness.  It should be all things expected from an English IPA.  I want to have clarity around this from the outset…on some levels English IPA does deliver…

Let us begin with the Englishness.  Firstly, on the nose you get a heavy foresty odor; a little like a walk through an English woodland on a wet autumnal day.  And that’s very English.  Secondly, the taste is like burnt compost with the aftertaste of tea that has been left to brew for ten minutes too long.   English people like to garden and build compost heaps and they like to follow this activity with a nice brew of good old Rosie.  So once again, English IPA gets a big tick for its Englishness.

So English IPA is definitely English.

Now let’s consider the IPAness.  I’m afraid it’s bad news.   The English woodland nose doesn’t make for a very pleasant olfactory experience.  And as for drinking one’s garden experience in a beer…well I think you can probably guess it’s not particularly pleasant. 

So English IPA is definitely not IPAish.

Given that the IPAness should heavily outweigh the Englishness, and that’s very obviously not the case, this beer is, rather sadly, a very big fail.  I’ll stick to my real compost heap and over brewed tea thank you very much.

Sammy’s Rating: 45%

 

JYMI SAY’S…

So there I was, sat sitting, a progressive beer swilling 9 year old listening to my history teacher go on and on about something in the past….. things are very different now but back when I was younger I just did not see the point in learning about stuff that had been and gone (great attitude I know). I was all up for looking forward and pressing on. Now Mr D, the aforementioned history teacher, could always sense my disinterest of the subject so used to hit me up with random questions to make sure I was awake. I distinctly remember one day a certain question came my way…. James, how long did the Hundred Years War last for? I sniggered (great attitude I know). I thought, who is this guy? What kind of ridiculous question is that? So I answered with aplomb, 100 years sir. The rest of the class sniggered.

So I approach the next part of this review with caution as clearly history didn’t work out too well for me whilst at school…

The Three Legs Brewing Company is based in Brede in East Sussex which is close to Battle which is close to Hastings (geography did work out at school). So I am concluding that we have Norman Longboats on the packaging of English IPA. Though this could be wildly inaccurate!! Huge apologies to everyone involved if this is the case.

I like this packaging… It’s very different without going down the vogue route of cartoon and wacky. I’m not sure it would stand out in a crowd as over all is quite dull in colour but that almost makes me like the look of this bottle more. Understated, subtle and classy.

As for the beer, one thing immediately struck me as I took down that first big gulp…. This IPA is one dimensional. What I mean by this is there is no real journey of taste. With most beers you get an upfront leading flavour accompanied by the nose followed by the taste after you have swallowed and then a finish. With English IPA there were no stages, just straight up beer. Kind of a, here you go, it is what it is vibe. Now I’m not saying this is necessarily a bad thing as the beer was pleasant enough without being great. It was almost refreshing to have a straight up non complex what you see is what you get ale coming my way for once.

English IPA, from packaging to taste, it’s not singing and it’s not dancing and that is not always a bad thing in this wonderfully wild world we live in.

Jymi’s Rating: 60%

 

MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 52.5% 

 

MOB review next weekend: KOMPAAN HANDLANGER by BROUWERIJ KOMPAAN

MUSE ON BOOZE 

BEER REVIEW: 56

BREWER: Brouwerij Oedipus, North Holland, Netherlands

STYLE: IPA

ABV: 7%

VESSEL: 30cl  brown bottle 

DATE POSTED: 2nd November 2018

 

JYMI SAY’S…

It’s 2018 and according to science the end of the world as we know it isn’t necessarily nigh but if we don’t change the way we as humans (supposedly the most intelligent species) currently do things it pretty much will be for the next generation to come and if not them certainly the one after that. Very recent reports on this have been in the media and they are the starkest we have ever had. We have a decade to sort this. Take a moment to absorb that. Ten years to save the world. “We are the first generation to know we are destroying our planet and the last one that can do anything about it”. What an utter and avoidable tragedy this is.

It’s 2018 and according to the President of the United States of America, and some other world leaders to be fair, climate change does not exist, fake news. Followed up (again very recently) by a budget here in the UK that failed to even mention, let alone address climate change. What a bunch of absolute clowns (The MOB swearing regulation team told me I wasn’t allowed to use a much more appropriate C word).

It’s 2018 and Jymi from Muse on Booze fame (shout out to my fans) is genuinely worried that his daughters and hopefully one day grandchildren won’t get to see the incredible planet that we live on in all its glory, if at all.

Will Gaia be able to tolerate this abuse and hold strong for much longer?

But other than a pretty stunning IPA from Amsterdam, what is Gaia?

Gaia is life. The Soul of the Earth. She is a goddess who inhabits the planet, offering life and nourishment to all her children. She is mother, nurturer and giver of life.

Whether a believer in such things or not the ancient history of our planet has a back catalogue of righting wrongs and who are we to say that the wrong that is currently very much underway will not be righted soon?

And should that day ever materialise while I’m still kicking about, as long as I had my family, friends and a bottle of Gaia by my side, I’d be alright you know.

Jymi’s Rating: 80%

 

SAMMY SAY’S…

Gaia comes in an average bottle, which is dressed with a purple label.  Whilst it may not haute couture when compared with some of the forward thinking designs out there, it most certainly is keeping up with high street fashion.  

However, the aroma of Gaia is simply stunning.  It has to be said that it is very sweet with the standard citrus punch that we all expect with pale ales but it really is sublime.  The drinking is very spiky.  What I mean by that is acidic citrus flavours roll around at the back of your tongue and there is almost a warming spice in play too. There is a very short bitter caramel note that makes a guest appearance and disappears very quickly.  It’s a great cameo though because you wouldn’t want it hanging around too long.

For me, Gaia is a very good beer.  I would happily enjoy one of these on many (or any!) an occasion.

Sammy’s Rating: 82%

 

MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 81% 

 

MOB review next weekend: ENGLISH IPA by THREE LEGS BREWING COMPANY

MUSE ON BOOZE 

BEER REVIEW: 55

BREWER: Skinner’s Brewery, Cornwall, England

STYLE: Bitter

ABV: 4%

VESSEL: 500ml brown bottle

DATE POSTED: 26th October 2018

 

JYMI SAY’S…

There has been just a sprinkling of times in my beer drinking life where everyone in the same ale house has reached a drinking equilibrium. The loudest are no longer the loudest and the life and soul are still doing their thing but are no longer the sole life and soul. The quiet are no longer quiet and the witty remain witty of course. The drunk dudes are not too drunk and the I’ll just have a few crew have a daring look in their eye. Yes, drinking equilibrium. That moment that everyone, whether in your group or not, becomes one. It very rarely comes along but when it does it really is something to savour. If not just to capture that moment where no one has lost it, but no one really has it either!

Now, after that, it may surprise you that I’m going to start with the beer itself rather than the packaging. Betty Stogs was made for moments like this. A session bitter like no other that I have tasted…

Betty pours thin, has no head and has the consistency of water. Does not sound great does it?? But it is great. It is. The taste is such a pleasant surprise with subtle tones of caramel kicking around and a satisfying bitter finish. There is literally no body to this bitter but that is almost it’s genius. It slips down so well it’s untrue and the subtle yet wonderful taste I’m sure would never get dull.

I actually wish I’d blind tested this as I truly believe that I would have written the same thing about this beer already regardless of the packaging… and what brilliant packaging it is!….. Even if it does look a bit s*”t.

It’s not necessarily depicting my drinking equilibrium scene as most folk on the label seem as done as the flippin’ dinner, but it is without doubt showcasing a good ol’ session in a proper ol’ Cornish boozer!

Skinner’s…. a job well done I must say.

Jymi’s Rating: 75%

 

SAMMY SAY’S…

Betty Stogs is a great concept of a beer; it is rooted in its Cornish origins.  It has a cracking name, which is well explained on the label. It is, however, very much let down by its packaging, which is indescribably bad.  Luckily for me I don’t need to describe it – you can look at it for yourself.

From the nose, you get fruity maltiness in the foreground with a background hint of floral notes, which when combined are very refreshing and very light.  Not what I expected from such a traditional beer. But it really does work.  The nose is backed up by a light taste as well.  Betty Stogs is a very thin beer, but in this case it is a very good thing. It has subtle bitter notes that are in no way overpowering.  There are acidic hints which are carried through by warming earthiness of the malt. It truly is a very refreshing bitter and I feel all the better for drinking it.

Skinner’s describe this beer as Brazen Cornish Bitter.  It most certainly is an English bitter.  But it is by no means dragged from the depths of the earth and I don’t want anyone to think that you need to enjoy this in the undergrowth of a hedge because it’s just not that type of beer.  It’s much more subtle and interesting that the first meeting might suggest.  That having been said  Betty Stogs will get one’s beard wet and it would be well enjoyed by a roaring fire. It would be very easy to slip a few of these down whilst recounting tales of old.  

Sammy’s Rating: 75%

 

MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 75% 

 

MOB review next weekend: GAIA by BROUWERIJ OEDIPUS 

MUSE ON BOOZE