Advent Calendar Window 11 - Noel de Calabaza

It's hard to begin a blog post with a mop in your hand. It's hard to really consider the depth or complexities of a beer when you are wiping dregs of it from your ornaments, books and plug sockets. It's difficult to consider a beverage's place in your festive line-up when all you want for Christmas is replacements to your personal possessions it has just damaged.

I speak, once more, of a gusher. Like it's previous American resident in this Advent Calendar, Jolly Pumpkin Noel de Calabaza 9% was so eager to escape from it's glass bottled coffin that it gushed all over my floor. Although, in fairness to it's predecessor, this did not just gush, it erupted, continuously building volcanic eruption until more than half of it was emptied, either onto laminate flooring or into a drinking glass.

In truth I was looking forward to this beer perhaps more than any other in my Advent Calendar. My recent sample of Jolly Pumpkin's Luciernaga only made me salivate more, being my first taste of a brewery I now demand great things from. So let us now concentrate on what is left of this beer.

Another murky, swap water offering of deepest umber and forbidding, Noel de Calabaza's wicked, festive pumpkin smiles at you whilst you soak in its funky hazelnut, honeyed tang and Pepsi MAX nose. The taste is more sour than expected, with sharp apple bite, lots of Brett, sugar cane, Vanilla, Tarragon, all behind a fizz that's more Buck's Fizz than Champagne. I find the bigger the gulp the bigger the impact and fuller the body. It's certainly complex and different with each mouthful and mouth feel. Yet after 750ml, that is probably closer to 500ml after the clean-up, I've still not decided if I like this beer. This is a new feeling for me and something I've never experienced before. Did I enjoy Noel de Calabaza? I don't know, I just know that I'll be able to smell it around my house for weeks.

Purchased at Beers of Europe, June 2013

Enjoyed with OPEN IT OVER A FUCKING DRAIN

Comments

THE STATE OF CASK part 2: The Cask Consumers

In what has become one of the most written about subjects amongst beer communicators for a long while I am going to follow on with my own thoughts about cask beer. Yet these ideas are formulated from potential posts I've been writing the odd paragraph about for around 18 months but never managed to construct into something relevant. I have much to say on the subject; so much so that rather than making this into one enormous read I've split it into three sections regarding the current trends and effects on cask beer as I see it. Today I look at the problem with consumer's and the immunity of one Timothy Taylor's Landlord. Part 1 can be read here . On the first Saturday morning of June 2016 I travelled to Stockport Beer Festival with my Aunt Marie and Uncle David; famously more traditional beer drinkers. They enjoy a day out in Stockport as, coming from Dewsbury way, they don’t actually see much beer from my side of the Pennines, incl...

National Winter Ales Festival 2013 - A Reasonable Farewell

Perhaps if this had been three years ago I would really have lamented the loss of the National Winter Ales Festival in Manchester . Not only has it long been held in my home city, but it was also my first ever beer festival, signifying a special place in my heart. That first visit was in 2006 and the event was then held in a co–operative building near Victoria station. At the time, my young ale loving mind was rather gobsmacked by the wondrous multi roomed, multi floored experience as barrels and casks of the good stuff stood waiting for me to try at no more than 90p for a generous half pint. Breweries and beer styles I had never heard of were present. It was also where I had my first taste of rauchbier, an encounter I have never regretted. I paid £3 to enter that day as a non CAMRA member. The organisations members that did travel with me on the occasion entered the festival for free (so they say, I’m inclined to believe they paid at least £1.) “They’re not a money making ...

Beer is Available in Supermarkets

Thanks to @Adam_G_Manning for the photo and everyone else who offered to help on Twitter This beer blog has become a near eternal snake of content but at least I’m distinctly aware of it. First comes the repeated speeches every time a brewery sells up to a large multinational. Then comes the turn of brouhaha because a supermarket has changed its range of beers. It must be that time of year and I still feel as impassioned to comment. It was, once again, the major retailer T esco who increased their range two and a half weeks ago - this time with additions including North Brew Co and Magic Rock - for the second time in 6 months. I felt the need to make comment about the bewildering excitement then, just as I did in 2016 with the arrival of Dale's Pale and Pinner . This time there has been further furore, both from people that see the positives and negatives, aided by successful marketing tactics that has led to an awful lot of commentary. Late to...

Beer Compurgation

Search This Blog