Beer Advent Calendar Window Two

Beer Advent Calendar Window Two - Christmas Kitty

After the briefest exchange with David Bishop (@BroadfordBrewer) - and I mean brief - I've decided that I am going to eat a Mince Pie alongside every beer in this Advent Calendar. As every beer is a Christmas themed beer, I've decided they should definitely be judged on their ability to be paired alongside my favourite holiday treat.

Window two of this Beer Advent Calendar sees another Yorkshire brewery, this time east of York with Malton’s Brass Castle Brewery.

Beginning life in a garage in 2011, Brass Castle became a firmly established Northern favourite due to their popular Vanilla porter Bad Kitty. Their Christmas treat is a product of this beer with extra added Christmas spice, courtesy of a collaboration with North Riding Brewery

This beer was imbibed and reviewed close to midnight after a lengthy evening out.

"Rats. Nobody sent me a Christmas card today. I almost wish there weren't a holiday season. I know nobody likes me. Why do we have to have a holiday season to emphasize it?"

Brass Castle - Christmas Kitty (Dark Porter with Vanilla and Christmas Spices) - 5.5%

Dark umber in colour, there's a strange Dr Pepper hum to the nose, or root beer, or sarsaparilla, A little dark chocolate is certainly overwhelmed by this familiar fizzy drink scent. The initial flavour is of old fashioned root liquorice. With it comes a meaty sweetness; there's something of the bacon jam in there. A flavour in the background that reminds me oddly of blue cheese comes through but isn't unpleasant.The vanilla that you've been expecting since handling the bottle is present in the aftertaste, next to a little clove and nutmeg. Similarly to when I had Bad Kitty in bottles, I'm getting plenty of flavour but it's all held together by a thin, carbonated body that doesn't blend any of the mixture together. I can imagine this being a very different beer on draught, just like Bad Kitty. For now, what is a decent festive idea just falls apart when it has the promise to be something; like a Christmas tree hashed together with any decoration it could find.

Mince Pie Pairing Rating: 7/10. There can be no doubt the dark sweetness of the beer brings extra flavour to those fruits.

Best Paired With: The Polar Express film. One to enjoy once and then move on to further and better festive ventures.

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...

WHEN CELEBRITIES DIE - THE INFINITY OF PUBS

Recently I was stood outside Huddersfield Railway Station waiting for my Replacement Bus Service. I was eating much needed food from a nearby fast food outlet and contemplating my next move. Other match-goers had gone home but I had over 50 minutes to wait for my bus. We’d already been to a few of our post-match regular spots and so I was contemplating somewhere new or different to pass the time now. I stood in St George’s Square, behind the statue of Harold Wilson, and pondered where I should waste my next hour. And pondered and pondered. After deliberation that ate into much of my allotted time, I walked down to the familiar setting of The Sportsman, realising that there wasn’t anywhere different to go at all. But whilst I deliberated, I cast my eye over the currently scaffold-covered George hotel opposite the station; a place I had been in once with my Dad. It’s downstairs public bar had stood as a firm and available option to match-goers fo...

BEER INDUSTRY PERSONNEL - COME TO DADDY!

Around 7 months ago I started dating a pub manager. It was inevitable in many ways. Amongst the perks that come with being involved with somebody on the other side of the bar, came the dread of how to react in future to the interactions involved in bar work. It isn’t a situation I’ve been in before so it has required adjustment. I’ve never had a partner pull up a chair in the office and stare at me through part of the working day whilst occasionally ordering goods from me. So you don’t want to interfere in your partner’s work whilst still getting to enjoy the pub. You don’t want to suddenly take up a spot on the bar where you make gooey eyes at each other with every pull on a hand pump. You don’t want to be one of those possessive teenagers, watching like a bar hawk and scowling at any intimidatingly handsome pair of arms that makes your other half roar with laughter. You want to separate their work from your social life and allow everything to sti...

Beer Compurgation

Search This Blog