Harviestoun Old Engine Oil - Get Lubricated

I spotted this on the Harviestoun website after I had the Bitter & Twisted from the same brewery. It sounded the business so I decided to give it a shot when I spotted it in my favourite haunt.

This is marketed as a dark beer as distinct from a stout or a porter but to my taste it's a stout. Mind you, descriptions count for nothing sometimes.

The taste reminded me of dark plain 70% chocolate, even down to the balanced bitterness. It has a wonderful smokey flavour, as distinct from burnt. A lovely creamy taste, tiny bit of spiciness and light carbonation are the other appealing characteristics of this beer.

It's a winner in by book (or blog).

The Verdict

This is one of my favourite 'dark beers'. Very tasty, pity the bottle's not a bit bigger....

Harviestoun Old Engine Oil - 33cl - 6% alcohol - Scotland

Whitewater Clotworthy Dobbin

This was one that I was eagerly anticipating for the last few weeks. I tried it at Septemberfest in Dublin on cask and it blew me away. I was in Kilkenny at the weekend and spotted it in The Wine Centre so I grabbed a bottle along with a few other that were new (to me) ones.

As I mentioned before, sometimes your mind plays tricks on you and I wondered was this as good has I had remembered?

It was.

It really is a mouthful and a half. The same wonderful fresh, fruity taste that I remembered from before that almost defies description. You get a beautiful malty flavour with just a hint of bitterness and a lightly burnt taste that still reminded me of confectionery.

Having said all that I still preferred the cask version. It had a smoother more velvet quality that suits my palate better. I felt the bottle was a bit sharper perhaps.

But anyway, it's still bloody good!

The Verdict

A great, great beer. 

Whitewater Clotworthy Dobbin - 50cl - 5% alcohol - Northern Ireland

Peroni Nastro Azzuro - Memories are made of this....

I was fully preparing to my usual bit about this one when I realised something. Sometimes it's not about the taste, it's not about the flavour, it's not about how it looks. None of that is important.

It goes deeper than that.

One of the first holidays we ever went on was to Sorrento many years ago. It was one of the places I had always wanted to visit. It was a great holiday and we have a lot of fantastic memories about it. 

Back then, I was not to pushed about beer. I just saw it as a thirst quencher that gave me a nice buzz. Nothing more nothing less. More often than not, in restaurants I'd have wine not beer but would often have one beer at the start of the night.

One night, before we went for our meal, we went for a drink in a bar at the top of our hotel. The bar had a narrow balcony with spectacular views over to Vesuvius and the island of Ischia in the distance. We both asked for a beer and the waiter arrived back with two Nastro Azzuro and we sat quietly drinking and nibbling on the snacks. It was a perfect evening. The lights started to appear along the coast like twinkling stars and a light breeze came up from the sea to cool us down. We were in a perfect place.

I have had the same beer many times since in Italy as we continued our love affair with the country. Now, every time I have it, whether in an Italian restaurant or at home, my mind 

wanders back to Italy and particularly that evening in Sorrento.

Maybe that's what beer should be about? Reminding us about that perfect holiday, that certain someone or a perfect feeling.

So what about the beer? It's a better than basic lager and it's fine. Nothing special in one way but special to me.

The Verdict?

Need I say more?

Peroni Nastro Azzuro - 33cl - 5.1% alcohol - Italy

Rochefort 8 - Halleluja!

My first encounter with this beer was in Brussels a couple of months ago. I did a bit of research before going over and I remember reading somewhere that Rochefort was a must drink beer. This turned out to be the case as I remember having it and thinking I had died and gone to heaven.

I had previously tried the Rochefort 6 but had come to the conclusion that it was not the one I had in Brussels. (I forgot to take notes at the time. It was before I started down the road to being a real, and proud, beer nerd.)

This was the one. The subtleness of flavours, the velvety quality and the hint of spice. Holy Moly there is a god, and he brews in Belgium.

What struck me most about this beer is that no one flavour or ingredient over powered another. They all seemed to dance on my palate in perfect harmony. Even the alcohol, at 9.2%, didn't take over the taste. It was just deliciously smooth and subtle, like a well blended whisky.

The Verdict

Fantastic. A beautiful beer.

Rochefort 8 - 33cl - 9.2% alcohol - Belgium

Timmermans Framboise Lambic - Berry Good?

This was another one I picked up for the missus. Not that I'm insinuating it's a lady's drink but she enjoyed the Kriek I got her before.

I didn't get much of a look in but I got a quick taste.It was a little sweet for me but was certainly tasty. I felt the raspberries overpowered the lambic a little but that's just a question of taste. It was a little gassier than the Kriek but not too much. Timmermans do a Kriek too so will pick that up next time.

Who knows, I might get more than a sip of that one.

The Verdict

Nice and tasty. A hit with the Missus.

Timmermans Framboise Lambic - 33cl - 4% alcohol - Belgium

Flensburger Weizen

I've had mixed feeling about Flensburger beers. The pilsner was good but the keller was a bit ordinary, I felt, so I was open minded about this.

The taste was quite mild compared to other wheat beers but nice in it's own way if a little watery. I thought I got a slight metallic taste from it but ,thankfully, that disappeared after a few tastes. It had an unusual quality, maybe like malty banana?

I know that wheat beers have a proportion of barley in the mix but I couldn't help the feeling that this fell between two stools. Either not enough wheat or not enough barley.

Maybe it was just me.

The Verdict

Not a bad beer my any means but I know there are better ones out there.

Flensburger Weizen - 50cl - 5.1% alcohol - Germany

Singa - Fancy a Thai?

I know there's nothing terribly unusual about this one but I guess I've started down a road so I want to stop at every door.

I have had Singa before in restaurants but never thought to much about it. Probably because it was with food and it was before I had any regard for the complexities and variations of beer. I do remember I liked it.

I still like it, a little anyway. It's not a blow your mind kind of beer but it's an improvement on the 'macro swill', as others have called it, available in most pubs.

Or maybe it's just a macro swill from another continent. At least it's imported, unlike other Asian beers I've tried.

It has a sweet, fruity taste reminiscent of grape juice or to be more accurate a sweet wine like a Loupiac only not as intense. It was a nice, pleasant tasting beer to start but seemed to fade badly as I got in to it. Some ales I've had seem to improve as you drink them but this lost a lot. It even went flat quickly. Maybe I'm drinking to slowly these days.......

The Verdict

Would be ok in a Thai restaurant with a meal but I wouldn't go out of my way to drink it.

Singa - 33cl - 5% alcohol - Thailand