Day 158, Beer 158 - Titanic's "Plum Porter"

Today's Beer

Name – Plum Porter

Brewer – Titanic

Classification – Porter. With plums. Naturally.

Strength – 4.9% ABV

Verdict - At A Glance

On the eye – Rosewood tinged translucent black. Alarmingly attractive.

On the nose – A certain tree fruit dominates the aromas. You'll never guess which.

On the tongue – A novel, but by no means a 'novelty' beer. Rich, fruity, beautifully engineered and impossible to drink without smiling. (See below.)

On the subject – Sinking sea vessels aside, it's taken me far too long to get around to Titanic. Appropriately, this Stoke-based brewery has an increasingly 'big' reputation among ale aficionados (beer geeks), and although it may not the most ubiquitous brand on a national level, it's certainly among the fastest growing.

On the market – You might not find this particular beer in supermarkets, but many of Titanic's core beers are popping up more and more frequently these days. Otherwise, try a specialist retailer to sample some of their more avant-garde products such as today's. I got this one from Newark's Real Ale Store.

On the whole – 8/10

Full Review

Rarely has the first sip of a beer produced such a wide and enduring smile.

I should quickly add that around fifty percent of that grin was induced by a profound sense of relief, as I'd fully convinced myself there was little or no chance of me genuinely enjoying this brew.

That prior fear, based on years of crushing disappointment, is a sensation I experience whenever I crack the lid on a drink which claims to be an established beer style (a porter, in today's case) that has been somehow 'enhanced' with use of an extra, supposedly 'bonus' ingredient. In these days of evermore feverish innovation this additional item could be anything from chocolate or ginger, vanilla, horseradish, caramelised church bench, or the ground bones of the head-brewer's former boss.

(Those latter two may be fictional at the time of writing, but it's surely now only a matter of months...)

Plum, then, could actually be regarded as a reassuringly conservative choice, and in many ways its easy to imagine why the rich, deep roasted character of a stout or porter might benefit from the sweet, tangy sharpness of any number of dark skinned tree or hedge fruits.

My problem is that these 'special' beers can all too often wind up tasting like the kind of tinned confectionery we only ever receive from that elderly lady across the street at Christmas.

Basically, they have a tendency to taste exactly like what the breweries will never admit they actually are. Public relations tools. Firms feel obligated to churn these 'creations' out every once in a while to remind the world that their businesses are populated by warm blooded human beings as well as dispassionate machines, and to remind their rivals that they can be every bit as innovative (bonkers) as they can. It can often feel like companies brew the occasional quirky beer purely to demonstrate that they can, not because they particularly should.

Personally, I don't drink beers in order to marvel that they're possible, I usually just drink them because they're nice.

However, very occasionally, these brewery muscle-flexing sessions will result in something which is not only ground breaking, unique and hugely painstaking to achieve (blah blah blah), but which also happens to be genuinely delicious.

Mercifully, Plum Porter is very much among these beautiful anomalies.

Sumptuous swirling suggestions of liquorice, smoked bacon, cocoa, fresh picked herbs and soft spice – all very much in the porter tradition – combine wonderfully with the guest star of the show, the unmistakable presence of that ultra-juicy, perfectly ripened plum, which imposes itself determinedly upon the overall flavour without ever overstepping that fine line and heading off toward brutal domination. It does get close to that line at times, but if anything that adds a welcome 'tension' to the experience which might otherwise be perfectly pleasant but much less dynamic. There's also a lovely little cameo performance from rhubarb which, in my estimation at least, comes dangerously close to stealing the show at various stages during a full glass.

The body has substance, but there's also an agreeable lightness to it, making the instinct to pour an immediate second glass pretty darned compelling, and the complex aromas have that 'please let me have just one more sniff' quality which is all but guaranteed to earn you a police caution.

There's little doubt that this an extremely successful foray into the potentially hazardous realms of recipe experimentation, and I really needn't have wasted any time at all worrying about it.

Sometimes, 'funking' a beer up can prove to be nothing less than a typo.

With this though, Titanic have brewed a very classy porter and given it a distinctive edge with restrained use of creative ingenuity.

In truth, I image that's what all breweries are really aiming for whenever they have a go at a 'special'.

Few ever get it as right as this.

Day 58, Beer 58 - Lymestone's "Stone Faced"

Today's Beer

Name – Stone Faced

Brewer – Lymestone Brewery

Classification – Bitter

Strength – 4.0% ABV

Verdict - At A Glance

On the eye – Deepest rosewood.

On the nose – Toasted jungle. Fierce and fulsome.

On the tongue – Turbo hops. A robust and relentless bitter. Impressive stuff.

On the subject – Staffordshire's Lymestone Brewery is growing as fast as any in Britain at present. A recent nationwide deal with Wetherspoons pubs is just one example of this. The broad appeal of their complete range of beers and their flair for branding are often sighted as causes of their success.

On the market – Increasing options, but online is still as good a bet as any. Try Beer Here

On the whole – 8/10

Full Review

This is a powerhouse of an English bitter.

There's a definite SAS or Green Beret feel to the hops, which don't so much 'enter' your mouth as 'storm' it, before taking control of your taste buds by force.

I'm not kidding – the first gulps of this brew are properly 'full-on' experiences.

My mouth felt like it had been grabbed by a playful grizzly bear, which then proceeded to toy with it until the drink was finished.

It's an impressive experience.

There's real substance here too though, with all that sharpness countered wonderfully with an understated roast chestnut-like malt base. There's even a hint of fudge in the finish.

I worried a little at first about the size and the behaviour of the bubbles – which were large, abundant, and pretty frisky, and it brought briefly to mind my recent encounter with Robinson's Unicorn. But if I'm honest, I worried about this for around 10 seconds, after which that grizzly bear and those SAS guys showed up and filled my concerns with hot lead and claws.

The fact is, this beer simply will not tolerate any amount of doubt about its own appeal. I've never witnessed 'mild concerns' being dispatched and erased with such consummate ease. If you tend to look for beers that will forcefully remove all your cares and concerns – your search is pretty much over.

Those, like me, who appreciate it when a beer arrives with great self-confidence and takes control of the drink experience – you will absolutely love this ale.

For those who prefer their beers to be a little more reserved and demure, all I can say is – give this a try. You might find that being raided by bears and gunmen is every bit as exciting as it looks at the movies.

That's now two very impressive ales from Lymestone - a company I knew very little about before this project began.

Another from their range is coming soon... and I can hardly wait.

Like a Lymestone Cowboy...!

You all know the song...

"Like a Rhinestone Cowboy....Getting cards and letters, from people I don't even know..."

Well, there haven't been many cards and letters yet, but there really has been a great deal of beer!

There's no better example of this than the above boat-load of ale which arrived from Staffordshire's Lymestone Brewery.

Their 'Foundation Stone' remains the highest 'clicked' review on The Bottled Beer Year so far, but they are now giving their own label a run for its money with three more titles from the range.

They are - (from left to right)

Ein Stein - (Continental pale ale)
Stone The Crows - (Dark beer)
Stone Faced - (Amber ale)
Foundation Stone - (See the Bottled Beer Year review here)


The three new titles will be individually featured over the coming days and week.

As for the extra batch of 'Foundation Stone' - well, sadly they will just have to be consumed for recreational purposes.

I really regret starting this blog!

Day 40, Beer 40 - Lymestone Brewery's "Foundation Stone"

Today's Beer

Name – Foundation Stone

Brewer – Lymestone Brewery

Classification – Golden Pale Ale

Strength – 4.5% ABV

Verdict - At A Glance

On the eye – Radiant, warmest gold.

On the nose – Very refined. Young Mr Malt and the fair Miss Hops are clearly on very good terms.

On the tongue – A delicately poised tussle between high and low flavour themes. Riveting stuff!

On the subject – Based in the former premises of the legendary Bents, Staffordshire's Lymestone Brewery was a bold step taken by Ian Bradford after his 18 years brewing at Titanic. This beer alone implies that this step was a giant leap for beer-kind.

On the market – Outside of the UK Midlands, online is the way to go. Mine was supplied by The Real Ale Store which, yes, does happen to be in the UK Midlands.

On the whole – 8.5/10

Full Review

This beer drinks like a walk in the woods.

It's a liquid autumnal stroll through a moist English copse, where the berry bushes swell with plump, over-ripened fruit, and the well trodden early fallen leaves issue forth their sumptuously earthy twang – and this is just the beer's flavour I'm dealing with here!

The fragrance is quite a different matter - far more tropical and zesty, more of an equatorial coastal forest than a misty English glade.

The mix of all this, though, results in a beer of such varied, nature-extracted richness that it simply forces you to become both satisfied and entertained.

It's a fun drink experience, more 'fun' than many beers manage to be, but it should be added that this is the sophisticated, cultured kind of fun I'm talking about. Its more of an amusing university lecture than a piece of music hall slapstick.

I liked this beer an awful lot. It instantly made me - for want of a better word - 'happy', and it kept me feeling that way till the very end. Without a doubt it has set me upon a (woodland) path in search of the next beer on Lymestone's list.

And I will not be walking along that path.

I will be sprinting.