– Beer on the moon / By William France
Well, I got married and coincidently our honeymoon was in one of the best countries to drink beer, North America. It was never my intention to celebrate being wed by drinking beer but it coincided with enjoying great times with my new wife. We landed in San Francisco at the equivalent time of about one in the morning but it was mid afternoon, to spur us on we went for food and right away I was confronted by a choice of great craft beer.
San Francisco is the home of Anchor brewery and their Steam Beer is everywhere, however I went for Fat Tire by New Belgium brewery based in Colorado. This is a new American classic like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, these pioneering beers have captured the imagination of beer lovers worldwide and I was on the west coast near where the craft beer movement began. Fat Tire was amber, sweet & hoppy, everything you come to expect from a yankee craft beer, it hit the spot, I was in the cradle of the craft beer pioneers.
There is plenty more to discuss, drinking with a fantastic budding new brewer, getting served a ‘dodgy’ Alvinne and paying through the nose for the pleasure and hunting Magic Hat beers in NYC with a regular at PSBH. However, I thought I would break it up into bits, beginning with the top ten beers I drank whilst on the moon.
As follows are the beers in no particular order:
New Belgium – Fat Tire
Classic American amber ale. Sweet, hoppy & balanced
Pacific Brewing Lab – Squid Ink Black IPA
Seriously hoppy with tobacco & citrus notes. Added squid ink.
Pacific Brewing Lab – Hibiscus Saison
Refreshing & dry with loads of funk. Bright pink.
Green Flash – Rayon Vert
Belgian Pale Ale. Amazing yeast character with new world punchy hops.
Unibroue – Blanche de Chambly
Seriously good Canadian Wit bier. Lovely aromatic yeast with spicy aromatics.
Lagunitas – IPA
Really good IPA without sweet malt. Massive hop character.
Dogfish – Chateau Jiahu
Serious contender for the best beer I’ve ever tasted. Sake barrel aged blonde with honey & grape juice. Sweet, woody, balanced with slight sharpness.
Allagash – cuRieux
Jim Beam barrel aged tripel. Belgian style blonde tripel aged in bourbon cask. Amazing vanilla sweetness, with slight sourness.
Dogfish – Saison Du buff
On draft at Eataly. Collaboration between Victory, Stone & Dogfish. Aromatic yeast with spices.
Loverbeer – Madamin
Stunning Flanders style brown ale made in Italy. Beautiful malt balance with sour notes & red fruit.
– Struise Related / By John Paul Cassidy
If you are follower of what we do at Port Street Beer House, you will know that we constantly try to fill our fonts and fridges with the sort of beer that not only keeps things fresh and exciting for you (and us), but also to enable you to taste what are widely considered as some of the best beers in the world.
From time to time, although we think all of the beers on offer are worth a mention, sometimes we get a delivery of something that warrants a little more of an introduction. On both counts this is definitely the case for a selection of beers from a certain De Struise Brouwers that arrived in our fridges a week or two ago. The reason being that not only are they from Belgium, the country whose ‘beer scene’ is revered across the world, but in their relatively short history (well we all know that Belgium’s beer heritage owes a special thanks to a certain type of balding, dress wearing men stretching back several centuries).
De Struise have been voted as the ‘best brewery in the world’ (as voted for by the Rate beer members in 2007 only 4 years after they first began brewing), they were also voted as the ‘best brewery in Belgium 2010’ (as well as 2007) and have received numerous accolades individually for a number of their beers. So you can see why we think they are worth a special mention.
The beers we have for your delectation are as follows:
Pannepot – Possibly De Struise’s best known beer, is named after the old fishing boats that could be seen in the ports bordering France during the early 1900’s and is in the style traditionally enjoyed by the Fishermen who sailed them. A unique dark and flavourful beer with warming malt and sweetness.
Pannepot Grand Reserva – As the name suggests, this is Pannepot with a twist. Aged on Calvados (apple brandy) barrels, this reserve pours deep black with an amazing sweet aroma. Lots of dried fruit and wood on the palate.
Pannepeut – First brewed in 2006 specifically for the for the Danish Københavnske Øldage beer festival this Belgian strong ale has a rich dark fruit nose & sweet finish and due to it’s popularity production now equals that of Pannepot.
Rosso – Lively amber beer with nose of red fruit & yeast. Pours hazy orange with flavours of caramel with pleasing sour (ish) finish
Elliot Brew – Part of Ratebeer’s masters series this beer is a collaboration brew with the Danish heavyweight Mikkeller. Big IPA hop profile with Resinous notes & some sweetness and a big malt body with nice bitterness.
So now you have read about them, maybe it’s time to try one or two and make up your own mind or add your own tasting notes to the site. While you do so here is a little bit of useless trivia for you to ponder whilst you savour one of these beauties.
You may have noticed that on the De Struise crest there appears the image of an ostrich. The reason being that the beers were originally produced by owners of an ostrich farm-cum-bed and breakfast, for their guests. The company also takes it’s name from the historic Flemish word for ostrich, which also is a contemporary slang term meaning ‘tough’, and this why De Struise are referred to as ‘The Sturdy Brewers’. Considering the accolades they have received this is probably quite apt, if not a little little humble…. Enjoy!
Words by John Paul Cassidy
– Festival of Britain(s Beers) / Your opinion
The Festival of Britain(s Beers) has seen such a wonderful week and a half of tasty beers, we only have a few days remaining.
So now is you chance to pay us a visit and more importantly we would like to know YOUR favourite beer from the past couple of weeks. Let us know by posting a comment below, maybe get a bit of debate flowing?
Highlights for us have been Camden Black Ink and anything by Gadds, two of the best brewers around at the moment! Amazing beers.
The Festival has proven such a success we have decided to make this an annual event, bring on 2013!
– Port Street Beer House ‘Field Trip’ / March 2012
Monday 19th March saw the whole Port Street ‘gang’ head over to the sunny surroundings of Huddersfield.
We had the pleasure of visiting Magic Rock Brewery, sampling some of their wares then onto The Grove for some ‘staff training’ (aka beer tasting).
Unfortunately the extensive tasting notes were lost in a briefcase left on the train back home! So we only have a list of what we tasted, plus additional pictures for your pleasure
PSBH Field Trip tasting session included:
Cantillon / Iris 2007 – 5%
Lost Abbey / Red Barn Ale – 6.7%
Marble / Vuur & Vlan – 7.2%
Mikkeller / Black Hole (Barrel Aged Red Wine Edition) – 13.1%
* Plus there were many drinks afterwards that were not documented by myself! I left everyone about 8pm and it was me that ‘lost’ the tasting notes on the train. Sorry. It was fun though…..
Words and pictures by Duncan Sime
