Beer Advent Calendar Window 10 - Xmas Chaos

You can do many things when you're an anarchist. Besides causing anarchy by brewing beers (watch out government) you can also remove the religious aspect from the term "Christmas." 'Cause ain't no men of the cloth going to tell this crazy bunch how to celebrate a commercial holiday.

There's little that irritates me more than anti-religious folk who celebrate Christmas. Heck, just the other day I had a long chat with somebody who believes that all of the world's problems are caused by religion and that anybody with faith is an idiot. A week later, I wander into their house to find it coated in Christmas decorations. Irony level: Master.

Let us not let an anarchist's view of religion judge how we feel about Anarchy Brewery's Xmas Chaos - A rum & raisin porter. I certainly like the beer concept and the branding; a little nod to the chaos that ensues around Black Friday by shoppers who have problems.

This Morpeth based brewery began life in 2012 and have already gone through a large rebranding exercise to create something rather loud but exciting. Their beers also tend to be solid too, if a little on the unspectacular.

"You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!"

Anarchy Brew Co. - Xmas Chaos A Rum & Raisin Porter 4.3%

There's a rather spectacular nose here, with plenty of the raisin present, lots of chocolate maltiness and something of after eight mints in the hum. The taste doesn't quite live up to it though. For some reason I'm mentally convinced this beer should be around 6.9% and the taste shows that it probably should have. There's lots of the roasted chestnuts, some prunes and apricots, a touch of oaky smokiness, crisp frosted grass and a gentle background of fresh sage. It's chewy and refreshing - which isn't what I want it to be. The body and finish are all too short and the beer doesn't go anywhere. It needs a big boozy rum finish to bring the flavours together; as the name suggests. I have no idea why I thought this beer was 6.9%, but it would make a very good 6.9% beer. Here, the body doesn't provide the stage to make the flavours sing. Probably would be better presented on cask as it is.

Of course, the beer fatigue had really started to set in upon drinking this beer so my opinion may have been blighted by this.

Mince Pie Pairing Rating: 5/10 - the beer adds nothing to the pie, the pie adds nothing to the beer

Best paired with: A spiced rum chaser, so you get the booze you were looking for

Comments

"They Had Their Issues, So..."

There’s a set of garages to rent as storage units near my workplace. One of them is taken by a local florist that uses it to store flower arrangements for various events, that are more often than not funerals. As such, at least once a week at 8am I will pass a car being loaded up with flowers arranged into heart shaped patterns or the letters M U M. It is a grounding reminder that, as I mentally grumble my way through the upcoming arbitrary grievances of my ordinary working day, a group of family and friends locally is going through the hardest time. It provides much needed perspective on days when I could do with being reminded of all that I have to be thankful for. These little moments explain to me why it is possible for us to share a communal loss when a celebrity passes away. Grief is often a personal and lonely experience, shared between a minority of people in your life. When a co-worker loses a relative or friend, it has little affect on me, bar signing of

LIVERPOOL - the City that Craft Beer Forgot Part II (and found...)

After visiting Liverpool, one of my favourite cities, in February this year, and not impressing people with my rather hasty but honest verdict on the city’s lack of craft beer, I jumped at the chance to return last week and hoped to come out with a more attractive judgement. A couple of friends and I visited on a day out, with neither of them having been drinking in the city before. It was left to me – or rather, I volunteered – to plan the day’s itinerary and places to visit. I had a couple of new or unvisited places in mind myself, but knew it would be unfair to miss out on some of the city’s famous gems. With around 10-12 hours in which to fit in an entire city, I opted to concentrate on the famous Georgian Quarter and see if we had time for the Dale Street end later on. We planned to arrive in the city for around 11a.m. just in time to walk up Mount Pleasant to the new-on-me, though I believe it has been opened three years, Clove Hitch on Hope Street for breakfast.

Advent Calendar Window 14 - La Goudale de Noel

"Keep my distance, but you still catch my eye, Tell me, baby, do you recognise me? Well, it’s been a year, that doesn’t surprise me" La Goudale is an interesting French enigma. I searched for this under the label Brassee a L’Ancienne believing this to be the name of the brewery. After some fruitless searching, I learnt that this is not the name of a brewer, but rather a French saying that, roughly translated, means “Brewed in a Traditional way.” La Goudale is actually from the Brewery Gayant based in Douai, North-east France that aleso houses other well-nown brews such as Amadeus and La Biere Du Demon. The real reason I find them an enigma though is for the discovery the other day that two of their beers – the Abbey and Wit – are sold in Aldi. They are in 750ml bottles and are £2.49 and £1.99 respectively. Housed here, the repugnant snob in me thinks they look cheap and unappetising on these shelves and managed to slightly put me off my La Goudale

Beer Compurgation

Search This Blog