Togetherness. One Possible Future.

My last blog post about keg's absence from the Great British Beer Festival triggered some interesting reactions - some here, but predominantly on Twitter and in 'real life' (where, mercifully, the concept of good debate still endures in spite of social media.)

One of the comments left on that post hinted, quite reasonably, that I follow up on my observations with some action. Maybe in the form of an idea. After all, it's all very well highlighting what's wrong, but quite something else to find solutions.

So I've given it some thought, and I'm wondering if the answer may be more simple than many of us thought.

Firstly though, let's not beat about the bush. The problem for CAMRA is a very tough one.

How can they possibly embrace keg without betraying the essence of their core principles?

How can they be seen to undo all those decades of hard graft?

How could anyone spend years attaining victory over their version of the devil – only invite that very same devil to join their ranks?

It sounds impossible. And yet...

I think all talk of 'giving up principles' or 'betrayal of ideals' is actually a red herring.

I don't think CAMRA needs to change at all.

Not one bit.

They can keep a firm grip on their principles and ideals – whilst giving their blessing to new ideas which just happen not to involve the same adherence to the honourable CAMRA code.

There is a way CAMRA can remain distant from keg – whilst simultaneously offering gentle encouragement to any versions of the old enemy which appear to have mended their evil ways.

Basically, if deemed to have sufficient beer-loving merit, certain kegged beers could be invited to The Great British Beer Festival...

...as guests.

Not fellow exhibitors.

Guests.

A stall or area - perhaps named something like 'Guest Zone' or 'Twilight Zone' or 'Friendly Visitors From Space' or 'The Third Way' or 'Our Quirky Cousins' or 'Keg's Last Chance Saloon' - could be given over to the concept of reborn keg... and CAMRA could simultaneously remain entirely independent of it. No values would be betrayed, no code re-written, there'd be no need for embarrassment, explanation or confusion.

Basically, CAMRA could make it clear that whilst CAMRA is firmly for Real Ale, the Great British Beer Festival is open to ALL GOOD BEER.

10 years ago, Real Ale was the only good beer.

Things have been developing rather rapidly since then, and a gesture like this would quickly abort the need for any further parting of the ways between what have become two needlessly isolated camps.

Let me say at this point – having a separate CAMRA-backed 'craft beer' festival (one of which does exist at present) is not the same as offering a place at the year's major beer-related event. And let us remember that's exactly how the GBBF identifies itself. As a 'beer' festival. Not a 'cask beer' festival.  Surely any event using 'Great British Beer' in its name should not have a separate craft beer festival happening down the road. Anyone arriving from Mars wanting to learn what makes British beer so great would find the two separate competing venues a bit puzzling. “Is craft beer not great beer, then?”, they might very well ask, in Martian.

It is my firm belief that the ultimate ideal for everyone (even for CAMRA) is to enjoy beer that is properly good. Regardless of how it got that way. CAMRA battled to do away with the one size fits all beer production mentality that was killing creativity during the 1970's. They need to keep that battle raging – whilst being careful to recognise a fellow combatant when one arrives, however strangely dressed they might first appear.

It seems to me that what CAMRA still do not fully realise is that they are actually responsible for the very existence of the craft beer movement.

The concise history of it reads something like this -

CAMRA flexed their muscles and forced beer to be tasty...

Our American friends went crazy over the results...

They were inspired and got super creative...

The whole world went crazy over those results.

In other words, CAMRA and Craft Beer are genetically linked. They are parent and child. The rebirth of keg is something CAMRA should be taking credit for, not fighting against.

The very involvement of keg in this new movement is actually more out of accident than design. Keg simply became involved because America, where all the fevered experimentation initially kicked off, doesn’t really do cask. Most of the USA is too hot to keep cask beer in good condition and besides that they've always preferred their brews chilled.

Keg, simply put, comes naturally to Americans. It is not, nor has it ever been their devil.

Ask a US craft beer enthusiast what their enemy is and they'd almost certainly say 'Big Beer', by which they'd mean bland corporate beer, or in other words – they have exactly the same perception of the enemy as CAMRA did when it was first formed.

Because boring beer is the true devil. It always has been.

Good beer has always been the messiah.

Cask, keg, bottle or can. Beautifully brewed beer is what we want, and what we will all continue to strive for, together or apart.

It just seems to me that 'together' makes a huge amount of sense, and 'apart' makes absolutely none at all.

CAMRA champions Real Ale, be it from bottle or cask. They always should. May that never change.

But the Great British Beer Festival should showcase all good beer, and CAMRA should open the door to some guests who share so many of their ideals, but also have a few different ideas too.

Good beer in kegs wasn't around ten years ago.

It is now.

Now we have two entirely different versions of fantastic British beer.

Let's all join forces and really show off.

Let's really show the world just how good this country is at creating beer.

British Cask and proper British keg, side by side, would surely make one hell of a spectacle.

A mouthwatering statement to the globe which we can all reunite behind.

Now that really would be a 'great' festival.

The greatest beer festival in all human history. And no other nation could say otherwise.

The most important thing is that CAMRA doesn't need to change in order for this to happen.

Not one bit.

The next time it throws its giant annual party, all CAMRA needs to do is add a guest list.

The results could be quite extraordinary.

My 'Top 5' Craft Beers in LA

Over the last twelve months I spent a total of six weeks in and around Los Angeles, sampling contemporary American beer whenever I deemed it appropriate to do so. (Nearly always.)

A beer-loving statistician might argue that this is not possibly enough time to get a full perspective on the US craft beer scene and I'd usually be among the first to agree, but by the end of my most recent trip over there, I reckon I've been sufficiently exposed (and sufficiently well advised before any exposure) to feel confident enough to list the best five brews I have come across on American soil.

As a bottled beer themed website, I wanted to limited the list to those beers which can be bought in bottled form, but some of these are either too new or too 'niche' to have made it onto the bottling line, but assurances were given to me that most of these will be both 'on tap' and 'under cap' within the very near future.

And so, in no particular order...


Avery - 'Maharaja' (Imperial IPA)





The undisputed talk of the town in Hollywood and its near neighbours, I first tried this at the marvellous Stout Burgers & Beer on Cahuenga Boulevard shortly after seeing a burst of frenetic activity behind the bar which (it turned out) had been triggered by a fresh consignment of this beer finally being hooked up to a tap. Moments before this excitement began I'd ordered something else entirely, but the bartender brought me Maharaja instead because "This is something you just have to try..."

She was right. With this beer, Avery have probably elevated the IPA to a point beyond which it will simply have to be called something else. Technically an 'Imperial' IPA, which loosely means it's had a multi-stage ramping up of strength, flavour and general awesomeness, and weighing in at a fairly hospitalising 10.4 ABV, this is quite simply the mothership of all other beers wearing those three ubiquitous capital letters. Of all the double, triple, quadruple or bigger India Pale Ale's in the known universe, there is none better than this masterwork of creativity.


Angel City - 'Angelino IPA'





Just arriving in the bars of Los Angeles, this beer is about as enjoyable a drink as I've tasted in recent times. With shades of Thornbridge's sublime 'Kipling' and BrewDog's 'Punk IPA' this is an exquisitely crafted highly hopped beer which is impossibly easy drinking and comes imbued with a sense of freshness which is peerless in my experience. Without doubt, Angel City will be a dominant craft brewery in two years time. No question.


Dogfish '90 Minute IPA'





This brew is already a big fish having recently been voted Best Craft Beer In America (I forget who by, but whoever they are I can't really argue with them). It's another of those US IPA's that can only really be enjoyed in small amounts due to the crazy levels of alcohol they come armed with, but the bewildering array of flavours at work here make that small amount truly memorable. It's not a one-trick-(hop)-pony like some modern IPA's can justifiably be accused of being - there are dynamic spices, funky herbs and all kinds of malt-derived deeper flavours that add up to a mind-bending showcase of brewing ingenuity.


North Coast 'Old Rasputin' (Imperial Stout)





They might not win as many headlines, but it's worth pointing out that the 'dark' beers in the US craft movement are every bit as impressive as the hop bombs. Some of my most pleasant surprises on the Pacific Coast have been in reaction to stouts and porters, many of which could give anything I've ever tried in Dublin or London a decent run for its money. However, I won't try to pretend might that I paid as close attention to the darks on either recent trip - although this is a state of affairs I intend never to repeat! Of the relatively few 'roasty toasty' brews I sampled Old Rasputin was a stand out, and it had me nodding my head sagaciously right from the off. Everything you'd want from a stout with a whole load of elements you never dreamed you'd want. A very clever beer.


Bear Republic - 'Cafe Racer 15' (Double IPA)





Most often found at The Blue Palms Brewhouse on Hollywood Boulevard, this beer is every bit the challenger for Maharaja's reputation as the best Imperial/Double IPA around. What we have here is essentially the big sister to Racer 5 - the much lauded brew which careered around the globe winning the hearts of relentless hop-fiends everywhere. In short, if you enjoyed Racer 5, imagine a beer that's almost exactly three times as good. Nuff said.


Notable others -


Russian River 'Blind Pig' (IPA)

A lower ABV India Pale Ale which sacrifices little in terms of flavour impact but comes with the advantage of being drinkable in amounts greater than two smallish glasses per evening. (A concept still largely ignored by most US craft breweries, who continue to focus almost entirely on high-alcohol brews!)



Stone 'Ruination' (IPA)

A beer which emphasises my previous point rather beautifully!

Famously powerful, and supposedly every bit as rare. Nonsense! It's available in singles or in four packs in Los Angeles if you take a while to find the right supermarket.

Day 156, Beer 156 - Odell's "5 Barrel Pale Ale"

Today's Beer

Name – 5 Barrel Pale Ale

Brewer – Odell

Classification – Yup, you guessed it, this is a pale ale!

Strength – 5.2% ABV

Verdict - At A Glance

On the eye – Lustrous beeswax amber. Utter glory.

On the nose – Massive orange, massive dark rum-infused malt, massive smiles.

On the tongue – Boundless complexity and dynamism. Tangerine, black treacle, ginger, wildgrasses, exotic herbs and spices, and a further list of flavours as long as your arm. (Assuming your arm is around seventy miles in length.)

On the subject – Colorado based Odell's have been central players in the US 'craft beer' movement from the onset having started out long before any such concept was conceived way back in the mid 1990's. The beers they produce are among the best examples of what 'craft' really is. If you haven't yet been introduced to this distinctive new world of beer creation, I can think of few better places to start.

On the market – Tragic UK availability. I'm not kidding, it's seriously upsetting. It's hard enough finding great contemporary British beers here in Britain, but finding a great American version is about as easy as discovering Atlantis, or Valhalla, or a trustworthy car dealership. I got this sample from The Real Ale Store, and only similar specialist outlets can sell this brew to you at the present time. To those of you who currently reside in the US, I hereby transmit relentless waves of jealous rage.

On the whole – 9.5/10

Full Review

Some reviews are harder to write than others.

Even for the most passionate beer aficionados (shameless geeks) it can be tricky to appear enthusiastic about a beer you found more or less coma-inducing, when perhaps the only redeeming feature of the brew was how delicious it looked in the moments before you tasted it and learned otherwise.

Fortunately, such beers are rare, making the challenge of having to write about them equally uncommon.

Terrible beers are easy to write about because they tend to make you angry, and anger has a canny knack of assisting with writing, as any sports journalists assigned to Nottingham Forest over recent years will testify.

Excellent beers, similarly, tend to stir the soul sufficiently to ensure the compilation of any subsequent appraisal is a fairly straightforward task.

However, in addition to dull beers, awful beers and generally marvellous beers, there's a certain other kind of brew which comes along only very infrequently, which can drag your mind and spirit into unpredictable territory, and transform the task of sitting down and writing into a particularly daunting task.

I'm talking about the beers you love.

Yes... those beers.

I'm talking about beers which generate primal reactions of such intensity that they can render otherwise competent brains utterly redundant.

I'm talking about beers which leave tongues tied, minds empty, typing-hands clammy, and which can lead to sentences like this one being rephrased up to twenty times before being completely deleted, only to be retyped all over again.

I'm talking about the instant favourite beers. Those which steal your heart in a single moment and never give it back to you.

Specifically, in today's case, I'm talking about a beer named '5 Barrel Pale Ale.'

Oh boy...

(Weighty pause...)

The experience of drinking this beer is so profoundly enjoyable that – even if I possessed the necessary talent to do so – I would not be fully able to share it with you here today without risking arrest on various charges of gross indecency.

I'm not even kidding.

The only reason I didn't weep with joy throughout this tasting was because my tear-ducts physically removed themselves midway through and ran off to buy a bottle of their own. These are the unbridled extremes of pleasure that we're dealing with here.

So, given the (presumed) legal limitations imposed upon me, and given that I'm actually finding it increasingly hard to see anything due to my eyeballs being without moisture (my tear-ducts have been gone a while now), I'm going to make a brief attempt to outline the key elements of this modern-day miracle.

Ridiculously vivid tropical/citrus/intergalactic fruits – chiefly mango, apricot, blood orange, grapefruit – have been perfectly aligned with soft wildgrasses, exotic spices and fresh herbs, and then let loose upon a malt base infused with the deep restrained sweetness of honey roasted nuts, French toast and molasses, which complements all those hop-derived higher notes every bit as well as wide open sea does to wide open sky. It really is on that level of 'made-to-measure' perfection that these elements are coexisting. The flavours in this beer fundamentally belong together – is the overriding impression throughout. And for this many flavours to have been so intricately and successfully assembled, reveals beyond any doubt that there are people with unusual levels of ingenuity, vision and plain old skill currently at work in the Odell's brewhouse.

The body has that quintessentially 'US craft' feel to it - with simultaneous firmness and lightness defying the laws of science and vying deliciously for your attention, the aromas are staggering in their unrelenting complexity, and the stuff even manages to look amazing.

This beer is quite simply vast.

It's a genuine craft beer beacon, illuminating the full extent of the possibilities here in this super-exciting age of contemporary beer creation.

Frustratingly though, I'll never be able to properly convey the true nature of it's impact to you because, try as I might, I just can't find the words.

That's what love can do to you.

Craft Beer In Hollywood.

I came, I saw, I drank their beer.

Although, in actual fact, I didn't drink a lot of their beer, and that became a surprising source of frustration.

The truth is that the craft beer scene in Los Angeles - whilst evolving nicely - makes it somewhat difficult for you to get your hands (and, more significantly, your taste buds) on American-brewed craft beer.

How weird is that? 

I certainly wasn't expecting it.

Sure, most of the craft beer bars in this part of the world tend to dazzle you with huge selections of taps at any one time, (imagine The Euston Tap on various banned steroids) but I was staggered by the tendency to avoid home-brewed US creations (in my opinion, the most exciting beers in the world at this moment in history) in favour of the European beers which inspired them. A modest portion of these ales hail from the UK, and include titles I was appalled to find being showcased in this new mecca of the craft beer world. Old Speckled Hen and Boddingtons were literally everywhere, as were my tears after a few days.

However, in spite of this apparent institutional reticence to get 'out and proud' about just how excellent their own products are, most other aspects of the scene in LA, particularly in Hollywood where I happened to be based, are extremely positive.

There are three venues I ended up frequenting more than others, and I'm going to say a few things about each, but the final of these mentions is also effectively an appeal, because whilst I was over there this fabulous and much loved joint was forced to close down for reasons beyond its own control and it may never be able to open its doors ever again.

First up, however, is BoHo, which sits in the fairly shocking setting of the H&H complex on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue (hence the acronymous name). The H&H is a self-knowingly mighty, ultra modern structure which would appear at first glance only to appeal to tourists or people who enjoy feeling a sense of their own comparative insignificance in relation to giant media-focussed corporations.

Sounds grim, right?

Well, the journey up to the second floor terrace - however harrowing - is worth it every time.

BoHo has an average of 25 working taps, a clearly constructed beer list with knowledgeable assistance freely available from the affable bar-staff, and a great 'taster rack' option (a fabulous concept not unique to this part of the world, but ubiquitous within it) where smaller measures of a selection of beers can be enjoyed before committing to a larger glass of your favourite among them. (Or simply ordering another rack!) BoHo even add the nice touch of serving each measure separately to ensure every one is tasted at optimum temperature.  

The décor is typically 'aiming at' a style based on a perception of 'European' reality, but that fails to make it tacky despite the fact that it absolutely should. The food - prepared with equal pride as the beer - is excellent, including the very best French-Fries I can ever recall indulging in. 

This is a first class venue, and the one to which I returned most often during my stay.

Second up is Stout - Burgers & Beers (more often known simply as 'Stout') which sits in a far more 'authentic' street setting along Cahuenga Boulevard in between Hollywood Boulevard and Selma Avenue. 

I found this place a little irritating every time I went, which was a big shame because so much about it is otherwise perfect and I really wanted to like it more. However, I'll deal with the positive aspects first because they really are very positive indeed.

I couldn't count the taps which jut out of every spare inch of the back wall of the curved bar area, but let's just say there are probably as many taps as there are states in the Union. (Okay, maybe a bit less, but there are plenty!)

Again, the foreign brews outnumbered the domestics, but the selection is large enough to keep you happy without Europeans having to 'go back home' during a session. (Isn't it odd how US and UK beers seem to be revered more by their opposite numbers than by themselves at the present time!) The bartenders are always responsive to a 'geek level' enquiry (partly as I sensed most punters at this place just want 'a beer' and are far more interested in those other items referred to in this venue's full name which, incidentally account for a greater overall chunk of the place's considerable local reputation.) 

The open air 'beach hut' feel to the joint is nice and the vibe among the punters is relaxed and unpretentious. 

My unassailable gripe was simply with the members staff who work on the 'room side' of the bar, who carry themselves around the place as though it were perfectly obvious that they are of far greater significance within the confines of this establishment than any visitor could ever be. I once saw one poor guy sat near me at the bar ask a passing waitress for a bowl of fries and, with a look of undisguised contempt, she informed him that any customer sat in his position needed to "speak with the bar tender about that". It's one of those places (actually pretty rare in LA, in my experience) where there is no attempt to hide the fact that certain people are only nice to you because of the possibility that you will eventually show your appreciation for such friendliness in the form of a tip. You can almost smell the sense of - "Why be nice to people sat at the bar when protocol dictates that the bartender will eventually be taking their money?"

Making things yet worse, was the staff's tendency to conduct their conversations with each other (about whatever was on the 'after-hours' agenda) across the room at whatever volume was necessary, even if it meant leaving menu-clutching punters open mouthed in the middle of placing their order whilst they waited for the chat to conclude. (Which, on one occasion I witnessed, was a moment that never actually came!...The waitress in question in this case continued a conversation with a colleague across the room - pad in hand with half of the customer's food order already written down - until the folks who were trying to complete that order eventually made a decision among themselves to get up and leave. A proactive measure which the waitress herself remained oblivious to until they were long departed.)

All of the beer at Stout left a great taste in my mouth.

Some of the staff at Stout left an ulcer in it.

This brings me nicely on to the third venue, a place where great beer, great food and great atmosphere was very much enhanced by concious and diligent employees. What this third venue has been let down by, however, is the small print in its own tenancy agreement.

The Blue Palms Brewhouse, situated (or at least it was until very recently) on Sunset Boulevard near Gower Avenue, quickly became a favourite with proper brew loving Los Angelinos, and it's sudden closure - on the very day after I first discovered it - is a cruel blow to the entire craft beer identity of the city. 

Totally unaware of the imminent downing of tools, I chose this place to watch the Superbowl (an event which I learned much about from a fellow punter - the generally malt-preferring Brian - who succeeded in revealing to me that American Football is actually pretty damn riveting once you know what the hell is going on!)

It was only after the game was nearing its conclusion that word began to pass through the bar that this was actually its last night of business for the foreseeable future. Details emerged that ownership of the larger 'parent' building next-door (a cinema) had changed hands, and that new owners had ideas of their own about best use of the site. New ideas which were unlikely to revolve around the serving and enjoying of immaculately kept craft beer.

The closest we could get to the truth that night was that the closure was "Temporary... hopefully!" (Three weeks later, there has been little subsequent change in that night's unsettling assessment, and fears of a permanent 'lights out' are growing ever stronger.)

This, then, was a really mixed night for me. The discovery of the (long hidden) joys of the NFL, and the simultaneous discovery of a genuinely outstanding bar, one which was about to be comprehensively undiscovered through no fault whatsoever of its own.

To mention a few things that made (make) the Palms special are the beer list itself  (a giant screen looming over the bar like an airport departure board and filled with more beers than you ever thought could coexist under one roof), the sheer quality of the beer which appears shortly after a choice from that screen has been made, the terrific staff members who assist you with that choice and bring the chosen beer to you, and the relaxed but comfortable feel of the place in which you sit back and drink it. 

Those marvellous staff members, by the way, deserve far better in my opinion than to be left in limbo like there appear to have been. 

As well as the enormous choice on the screen, there is a separate Bottled Beer menu (pictured below, among a few other shots of this venue), and the fiendish lure of this particular list was one which I manifestly failed to resist. (Those of you who know this website will have guessed that I didn't actually attempt to resist it at all. Not one little bit.) 


So, all in, the loss of The Blue Palms is one which should absolutely be prevented if at all possible. I can only think to suggest to beer lovers across the world - who view any closures of such places as a seriously bad thing - that they 'tweet' their support to the staff themselves via this link or give a shout out on their own website here, in the hope that a large enough show of support might tip the balance in their favour.

Overall, there are a fair number of other fine craft beer joints in the Hollywood area of LA (Mowhawk Bend also comes highly recommended), and although this city still lags behind many other US destinations in this regard, it is certainly way ahead in a great many others, and the sooner this famous town has as many such bars as it merits the better. In the meantime I'd say it needs to fight as hard as it can to keep the excellent ones it already has.

It would be a bad time for LA to start losing what has become some very healthy momentum. 

----

(Here's a badly shot visual flavour of The Blue Palms, including my bottle of Avery Brewing Co's anniversary brew 'Seventeen' - a very decent dry hopped black IPA. Oily, 'roasty', hopped with restraint, and with an alcohol content which must have been deviously concealed by Darth Avery himself, assuming such a malevolent figure exists.)

Yes, I know, the Avery has a big head. 

It was the Superbowl! 

It's hard to pour beer in that kind of atmosphere!

Day 59, Beer 59 - Flying Dog's "Doggie Style"

Today's Beer

Name – Doggie Style

Brewer – Flying Dog

Classification – Classic pale ale

Strength – 5.5% ABV

Verdict - At A Glance

On the eye – Pale? Not so sure. But brown is beautiful, and this beer proves it.

On the nose – Creamy, yet seriously intense. Deep, sharp, zesty. A truly huge aroma.

On the tongue – Smooth bodied, with masterfully crafted flavours.

On the subject – This airborne hound was born in the Rocky Mountains, but in more recent years the lovable mutt has been shipping his beer out of Maryland. The Hunter S. Thompson-themed branding, though splendid, should not mask the painstaking care which clearly goes into these beers. Unlike the famous 'Gonzo' journalist, I reckon the folk who oversee the Flying Dog brewing process are all extremely clear-headed.

On the market – A growing global presence, but in the UK it will tend to be the more specialist or select oulets. This dog flew from Newark's Real Ale Store.

On the whole – 9/10

Full Review

There's just no danger of this being anyone's least favourite beer.

Now, I realise there may be seven-and-a-half-billion chances of someone disliking this more than all other beers – but I'd stake my reputation on that opening statement all the same.

But a very different question is – how many people would name this beer as their most favourite, and am I about to become merely the latest person to do so?

Believe me, after a couple of sips... I knew there was every chance of that happening.

Well, before I give the game away, let's look at exactly what we have here.

A gorgeous looking pale ale (my oh my, aren't pale ales looking dark these days!) which has the fruitiest, maltiest, most elegant bodied characteristics anyone could wish for, and all of its attributes – in all departments – are pitched to near perfection. Nothing is over or underdone.

There is a traditional feel to the drink, but at the same time there are subtle flavours at work here which I'm certain are quite unique to this brew. There's some old stalwart themes such as grapefruit and cookie dough, but is there also ginger? And isn't that marzipan?

This beer literally toys with the tongue. In fact, it plays the tongue like a grand piano, and it knows some very catchy tunes.

The American beers I've included so far in the The Year are relatively few in number, but as you will see from the chart – every one of them has leapt straight into the top ten.

This brew is merely the latest to do so.

Our friends in the US are truly on the march. Right now, no other nation is producing new beers as consistently exciting and delicious as theirs.

Is that a provocative, controversial statement?

Only to those who've not yet discovered American craft beer.

To anyone else, it's just a fact.

If only the American's would ship out less of their beers in these child-sized bottles. 

That way I could start to seriously enjoy them.

Day 41, Beer 41 - Goose Island's "Honker's Ale"

Today's Beer

Name – Honker's Ale

Brewer – Goose Island

Classification – 'English Style' Bitter.

Strength – 4.3% ABV

Verdict - At A Glance

On the eye – Uncommonly attractive ale. That's exactly what it looks like.

On the nose – Bionic dark malts! Licorice and sticky toffee pudding.

On the tongue – Tangerine peel versus burnt bark in a vat of maple syrup. Trust me, it's nice.

On the subject – Out of Chicago, John Hall and, later on, his son Greg evolved a really genuine local micro into a pretty genuine global micro by harnessing the power of customer involvement and seemingly keeping their heads screwed tightly on. Impressive. Their website modestly speaks of their growing presence in 'the Europe'. Sometimes, clerical errors can be so damn heart-warming.

On the market – Ouch. Specialist shops only in the UK. Online outlets are plentiful. This came my way via Richard at the Real Ale Store - (website under construction I'm told).

On the whole – 8.5/10

Full Review

'Blackcurrant undercurrent.'

Try saying that after a few glasses of this stuff!

But, yes, this beer does have such an undercurrent of flavour running through it but, quite honestly, there's so much going on in this drink that any undercurrent – however delightful – simply doesn't make it onto the list of 'vital things to mention.'

Where to begin...?

Well, how about starting with this – A more potent clash between bitter and sweet you will seldom find. Every single mouthful gets you guessing at which is the more dominant. It's an incredibly fine line between the two, which in itself reveals a lot about the rarefied engineering going on behind this brew.

Experts brewed this beer – there's no doubt about it.

Coming in to play after each of those aforementioned mouthfuls, is a finish imbued with the most delicious apple pie quality – bringing yet further emphasis to that bitter sweet conflict.

It has the sultry appeal of a dark beer – a bock springs to mind – and yet it has all the lively tingles associated with a golden ale or even a boutique lager.

This is a powerhouse brew, and it doesn't waste any time making a big impression. Only the occasional faint trace of a soap-like after-taste prevents me from sending a current-record-equalling 9/10 score in this mighty beer's direction.

If only the bottle were of normal size – and not this very small 335ml– then I'd have had more time to get to properly know it. Maybe then I'd have re-evaluated that soap-like flavour entirely.

It's funny, the folks at Goose Island even recommend pouring this drink into an Imperial pint glass. But surely they realise that 355 into 568 just doesn't go!

This whole tiny-portions issue just refuses to stop bugging me...

Anyway, there's no escaping it - this is a truly fine ale.

My (decent sized) hat is off to the Goose.

Day 34, Beer 34 - Anchor's "Porter"

Today's Beer

Name – Anchor Porter

Brewer – Well... Anchor, naturally.

Classification – Oh, now come on!

Strength – 5.6% ABV

Verdict - At A Glance

On the eye – Even an MRI scan would reveal only black.

On the nose – Dark berries and brandy-soaked liquorice.

On the tongue – Peppery cocoa and spiced treacle. A subtle but lingering butterscotch finish.

On the subject – One of the USA's craft-brew major league players. And how this drink deftly explains this!

On the market – Ubiquitous US presence. UK and Europe buyers need to search harder and that's a pity. Got this at Selfridges (in store only.)

On the whole – 8.5/10

Full Review

Depth and anchors have a great deal in common.

Naturally.

But there is a point at which this common ground becomes stretched beyond capacity. Any seafarer will tell you that certain depths lie below of the reach of any anchor known to man.

This claim, however, is false. Because a certain brewery in San Francisco has comprehensively re-written that very maritime rule, with truly startling results.

There is no depth which this beer does not reach.

At play within this beer, there is deepness of flavour and of texture which is so unfathomable – that it simply astounds. It is a rich, creamy, bitter-sweet assault on the mouth, and it has been crafted with textbook precision to simultaneously soothe, excite and satisfy.

I've often marvelled at why anyone would ever choose a porter or a stout (for the difference between these two see here) in place of a dark premium or strong ale.

This little US gem is the explanation I have long awaited.

Perhaps my new source of bemusement should be – why would anyone follow a cool winter stroll with a black coffee, a chunk or two of dark chocolate and a brandy, when they could round it off infinitely better with a single jar of this exquisite brew?

Answers on a postcard please....