Day 147, Beer 147 - Thwaites 'Triple C'

Today's Beer

Name – Triple C

Brewer – Thwaites

Classification – Blonde Ale

Strength – 4.4% ABV

Verdict - At A Glance

On the eye – Brooding orange amber. Eye-catching carbonation makes for the only (microscopic) blot on this beer's copybook.

On the nose – Understated citrus hops. You might even say 'stealth' hops, given the true scale of what lies beneath...

On the tongue – Traffic-stopping, jaw-dropping citrus, yet not without some sense of restraint. Vivid, dynamic, and utterly delicious.

On the subject – Thwaites have been an established part of the cosy beer landscape in Britain for a good old while now, so this ultra-modern brew came to me as the most welcome shock. The reality is that an 'internal revolution' has been underway at the brewery for quite a while now, making for a portfolio of beers which hints at something of a split personality. Half their range is proudly traditional, whilst the other half swaggers around like it couldn't give a monkey's about such tedious things as 'heritage'. This beer is from the latter half of that spilt personality, and I can reveal that the substance behind that 'swagger' is nothing less than diamond hard.

On the market – Fairly strong national presence, with the likes of Morrison's stocking this and plenty more from Thwaites' borderline-schizophrenic output.

On the whole – 9.5/10

Full Review

Does the following statement apply to you?

"Since discovering the new wave of massively hopped beers, I find all my old favourites boring."

If your answer is 'Yes' you are by no means alone, as this sort of sentiment represents a growing phenomenon in the beer loving world which, left unacknowledged, could eventually pose a significant problem for the beer industry.

That 'problem' is essentially described as follows. Those of us who are brazen enough to consider ourselves 'clued up' about the contemporary beer scene will inevitably have sampled a number of the so-called 'hop bomb' beers which dominate the output of the modern 'craft beer' market – but many of us have subsequently found that going back to our established favourites after discovering these new beers can be an alarmingly unrewarding experience.

It's a fairly straightforward, one-way-street type of a scenario. Once you've experienced a bottle of Thornbridge's 'Jaipur', going back to buying bottles of Badger's 'Golden Champion' seems a fairly pointless endeavour.

Similarly, a glass of BrewDog's '5AMSaint' served straight from your own fridge reduces the enjoyment of shop bought Marston's 'Pedigree' by around 73.6%. Roughly speaking.

Of course I'm being ridiculously unscientific here, but although my point may be crudely put – I'm absolutely certain that the essential core of this argument is dangerously near the knuckle. And it's an argument more and more people are having to grudgingly admit.

The best 'contemporary craft' beers make the best 'old classics' taste dull.

And that statement comes from a guy who once said he'd happily die before saying anything remotely like it.

The truth which I've since had to accept is now crystal clear to me. Once you've seen the world through the prism of cutting edge craft brewed beer, it's difficult to imagine how you could ever look at it in any other way.

The comforting news, perhaps, is that the beer world is so vast, complex and enduring that any permanent shift is never going to be quite as straightforward as I'm making it seem. It's very likely that those old favourites of ours will win back a lot of the ground they might initially appear to have lost forever. Like with many aspects of life, it's really just a matter of letting new and exciting things have their moment, before they too take their place in our established experience base and thereby become every bit as boring as every other thing we've grown used to.

But for those of you still caught in the delicious glare of those 'new wave beer' headlights, today's brew is likely to become a mainstay in your fridge for a good old while.

In short, Triple C is everything a 'hop head' could wish for.

Tellingly, the widely lauded Cascade hop variety has been added at every stage of the brewing process (which happens to be three times, giving us the 'Triple' and the 'C'). The result being that this beer engulfs you with repeated swathes of vivid grapefruit, gooseberry, lime, orange peel and Bramley apple, each of which is pitched just at that mesmerising point at one extreme of the taste spectrum where any fruit sweetness inherent in the citrus begins to cross the impossible line into an almost salty bitterness, leaving your taste buds in a frenzied state of delicious bewilderment, grasping desperately at explanations as to what might be causing this glorious feeling to occur to them.

It's a massively rewarding first few sips, and it only gets better.

I want to make something absolutely clear though. This may be a hop-heavy brew, but it's certainly no 'bomb.'

'Hop bomb' is a widely used expression for beers such as this, and it's a phrase I dislike because it tends to imply that little of what happens to the drinker was a specifically targeted experience brought about by those who created the drink in the first place. Bombs, after all, are among the messiest weapons humans ever conceived of and their outcomes, once triggered, are fairly arbitrary. 'Bomb' really says very little about the enormous levels of skill found in most brewhouses these days.

If we absolutely must use multiple-casualty-devices to describe the experience of drinking a beer (snore) then Triple C has to be far closer to a 'guided-missile' than a mere explosive. It knows exactly where it's going, and it hits that target with devastating accuracy each and every time.

So, having established that there is a distinctly modern, hop-lead feel to this beer, I should add that Triple C has very little of that aforementioned new beer 'swagger'. Thwaites have been careful to keep this brew's 'traditionalist' feet sufficiently on the ground to appeal to that other (ever shrinking) section of the beer loving community whose inhabitants steadfastly refuse to be dazzled by the twinkly lights of 'so-called progress.' The sense of balance hasn't been entirely flung out of the equation as can happen with more aggressive beers of this kind – and just enough savoury biscuit malt has been left in play to keep the old guard from reaching for their torches and pitchforks.

On reflection, perhaps that's actually the best thing about this monumentally likeable drink. It has been so brilliantly conceived, so expertly brewed and so carefully brought to market in these deceptively unassuming bottles – that I don't think anyone who claims to like beer could possibly find any aspect of it not to like.

In fact, I'm now feeling so emboldened by my own super-confident rhetoric, I hereby urge everyone of legal age to go out immediately and buy one.

Trust me, there's no tastier way to work on your swagger.

Day 128, Beer 128 - Royal Tunbridge Wells' "Sovereign"

Today's Beer

Name – Sovereign

Brewer – Royal Tunbridge Wells

Classification – Blonde ale

Strength – 3.8% ABV

Verdict - At A Glance

On the eye – Warm straw gold.

On the nose – An aggressive citrus kick from the hops proceeds a gentle toffee caress from the malt. By no means unlovely.

On the tongue – High impact citrus, high impact bitterness, high impact wonderfulness. A very impressive lower strength beer.

On the subject – The Royal Tunbridge Wells Brewing Company's manifesto states that they are “...responding to the rise in demand from the discerning beer drinkers of Kent and beyond.” All I can say is, the discerning beer drinkers of Kent must be pretty darn demanding if this brewery's ales are the response. Quite simply, these are uncommonly good beers.

On the market – From the aforementioned phrase '...drinkers of Kent and beyond', I'd say there's still a fair bit of work to be done on behalf of those drinkers living on the 'beyond' side of things, but I'd also say that it's only a matter of time before these bottles are springing up everywhere. Whilst you're waiting, try online at Master Of Malt.

On the whole – 8.5/10

Full Review

The British microbrewery scene is in such excellent health right now, I almost feel inclined to do excitement-fuelled cartwheels all the way to the pub and back.

On reflection, though, I'm not at all certain that the British microbrewery scene would want to see me hospitalised indefinitely on it's behalf, so I reckon I'll just remain motionless and express my strong feelings of joyous pride with the aid of carefully chosen words rather than poorly executed gymnastics.

Don't be too disappointed.

Today's beer is merely the latest in an ever extending line of top-notch, innovative, dynamic beers from young, small-scale companies spread across the country who are consistently pushing the major players into the shade with their artistry and craftsmanship.

Sovereign is a crisp, refreshing, high citrus gem, with that same invigorating sense of 'something new and different' which radiates from so many of these modern creations.

Most notable about this ale, is the manner in which it utterly disregards it's own alcoholic content, blasting you with an intensity of flavour and a rich complexity that leaves you staring in bewilderment at those low numbers on the label.

It's impact is quite incredible for a 3.8% beer, and it's crammed full of surprises – not least in the sublime finish, which swerves this way and that between an almost electrically-charged gooseberry note, to soft swathes of fresh buttermilk. This feature alone is stupendously delicious.

I cracked the first of my three Sovereign's a couple of months ago after they'd been delivered to me at London's Theatre Royal Haymarket (where I was being forced to thrill record-breaking audiences half to death with my comic acting skills at the time) and I was kind-hearted enough to share (microscopic) amounts of the beer with some of my fellow cast mates. Their reactions to it were quite dramatic. This was partly because some of them were non beer drinkers who were experiencing 'real ale' for the very first time and finding it nothing like what they had been led to expect, and partly because they were all actors – so everything they do is 'quite dramatic'.

It was at this point that I first began to see why the recent hop revolution had been such a huge hit. Aside from being quite lovely, all these hop dominant ultra-citrus ales are a giant leap away from 'beer' (as perceived by the unacquainted) towards a whole bunch of other types of widely enjoyed beverages. Wine drinkers, cocktail drinkers, cider drinkers and even juice drinkers (and who isn't one of those!) suddenly have a bunch of beers within which they can find something familiar.

“I'd actually drink this again”, was the response of one of the more stunned cast members, renowned for her fondness of vodka and tonic. I could only smile knowingly at her like a smug git, in spite of all my efforts not to.

Of these new golden greats, Royal Tunbridge Wells' Soveriegn is the perfect representative.

It's certainly one to confidently offer to the proud non beer drinker in your midsts.

And among it's more immediate rivals in the 'under 4' category – this really is a stand out brew.

Day 123, Beer 123 - Oldershaw's "Blonde Volupta"

Today's Beer

Name – Blonde Volupta

Brewer – Oldershaw

Classification – Premium blonde ale

Strength – 5.0% ABV

Verdict - At A Glance

On the eye– Stunning. An almost luminescent mango gold.

On the nose – Truly massive citrus. Faint nutty malts. Just lovely.

On the tongue – Deliciously vivid citrus thrives amidst a perfectly pitched sharp, dry bitterness.

On the subject – Grantham is becoming something of a centre of excellence in these micro-brewery times. Oldershaw are but one of a growing bunch of breweries in and around this relatively small Lincolnshire market town, with Brewster's, Newby Wyke and Belvoir also conjuring up some seriously fantastic beers.

On the market – Cask versions of Oldershaw beers are appearing with increasing frequency nationwide, especially at the more 'trendy' end of the craft beer market. For bottles, try online at The Real Ale Store.

On the whole – 9/10

Full Review

In the context of this website, I've had a soft spot for Oldershaw Brewery right from day one.

I mean that quite literally, too, as the inaugural 'Day 1, Beer 1' slot was given over to their excellent premium ale Old Boy.

Back in those distant days (last November) today's beer didn't even exist, but having since sampled a great many of Oldershaw's ales, I'd say Blonde Volupta is not only an excellent addition to the range - but it might just be the very best of the lot.

Either way, it's special.

After a few short moments, it was obvious to me that this was a top-drawer contemporary craft beer, one which could stand shoulder to shoulder with any of the current hop heroes of today.

There's been all kinds of change at this brewery over recent times, the new owners have had the foresight to fully unleashed the creative talents of the extremely gifted team, and that freedom of expression translates into their new beers with remarkable eloquence.

Basically, they're lush.

Blonde Volupta serves as a drink to define these times, with crystal clear citrus and sharp fruit flavours - grapefruit, melon, kiwi, mango - investing everything they can into the mix, triggering an explosion of such vivid intensity that you can't help but smile. An astonishing salty bitterness keeps all this hyperactive fruit solidly in check, making it every bit as impressive as it is entertaining.

Add to this a subtle biscuit and pine nut finish, and you have a brewing achievement which borders on monumental.

As you may have noticed over recent times, these highly hopped 'yellows' are really starting to win me over. You could say that finally I'm beginning to see the 'light'.

But I really can't be certain whether it's me evolving or the beers themselves. I'm absolutely convinced that the recipes are getting better and better all the time, and if that's the result of all this crazy, almost fevered experimentation – then maybe it ain't so bad after all.

Without doubt, the 'yellows' and the 'blacks' have reaped the greatest rewards from all of this experimentation, if breweries could finally start working that same kind of magic with the 'browns', I might just start doing little leaps of joy. (In fairness, some breweries have already started to do precisely that.)

Anyway, of the yellows, few beers in the land can claim to be better than this one.

As good as this?

Maybe.

But better?

I seriously doubt it.

Seek it out and see for yourselves.