by Lee Williams | Feb 17, 2015 | Lock Box: February 2015
There is a distinctly hoppy theme to our Lock Box this February, seven of the eight beers showcase fruity and piney New World hops to their absolute fullest. This month’s box also marks a first for a Lock Box, it’s the first time we’ve picked a foreign beer for inclusion. The beer in question is of an obscure and almost forgotten style of German sour beer from Leipzig called a Gose (pronounced “Gose-uh” as in “rose” plus “uh”), a style of beer traditionally brewed with salt and coriander. This particular Gose by Bayerischer Bahnhof is as true to style as you can get and it hasn’t been easy to get in the U.K. previously so we’re very excited to include it here for you guys to try. Gose are very different in terms of flavour to anything else we’ve featured before and as such are quite different from most beers you’ve likely ever had the opportunity to try before. We’re all about expanding beer drinkers palates at The Beer Vault though, so expect even more left of centre beers in the coming months. You might also notice that we’re trying something new this month. Rather than posting eight separate writes up for our Lock Box beers we’ve brought everything together into an easier to absorb and easier to share single page post. Each month we’ll be focusing on three of the eight beers in more depth, with tasting notes for the remaining five. So without further ado, we present our February 2015 Lock Box beer line up. Crane Boom IPA | 6.2% ABV. | American IPA | Bristol, England...
by Lee Williams | Feb 16, 2015 | Vault Reserve: February 2015
Wild Beer Co. Wineybeest | 11.0% ABV. | Imperial Stout | Evercreech, England | 750ml bottle | This spectacular beer is Wild Beer Co.’s luxurious and much praised 11.0% ABV. Imperial espresso chocolate vanilla stout Wildebeest aged in Burgundy Pinot Noir barrels for nine months. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Wineybeest. Only two oak barrels of the beer have been produced and only five hundred bottles released. In keeping with our mission to source the best and most exclusive limited release beers for our Vault Reserve members each month, we’ve secured one tenth of those bottles just for you. Wildebeest is an incredibly rich, unctuous and desserty beer, loaded with sweet vanilla beans, Valrhona cocoa nibs and roasted Colombian coffee. To this already multi-layered and sophisticated sipping ale, the extended nine month red wine barrel maturation delivers a vinous and jam-like red berry quality that is akin to the cherry topping on an expensive cheesecake. In other words, it just makes the whole experience even more indulgent. From massive saisons to sours and strong ales, Wild Beer has produced no shortage of very high caliber beers suitable for cellaring. In addition to Wildebeest and Wineybeest they’ve also produced Whiskebeest, which as the name suggests is a whisky cask aged version of Wildebeest. In fact, so prolific and consistent have the Somerset brewery been at cranking out cellarable hit after hit, that you’d be forgiven for not having a cupboard full of Wild Beer goodies. Wineybeest then has pedigree and follows in some very well established and highly regarded footsteps, and it definitely comes through in the beer. Hyperbole and...
by Lee Williams | Jan 9, 2015 | Lock Box: January 2015
| 4.4% ABV. | American Pale Ale | Newport, Wales | 330ml bottle | A bright, fresh and juicy American style pale ale brewed by one of the most exciting and awarding winning new breweries in Wales. Tiny Rebel have done more to put Wales on the wider U.K. good beer map than any other brewery in recent years. Their core range of no nonsense American style pales, IPAs and stouts have won many dedicated fans beyond their local catchment areas of Newport and Cardiff. The Newport based brewery is the brainchild former homebrewers Bradley Cummings and Gazz Williams. In 2012 they finally realised their ambition of opening a modern and forward thinking Welsh craft brewery and Tiny Rebel was born. Since then the brewery has gone from strength to strength, racking up some significant silverware in the process. Especially winning is their bright and vibrant American styled pale ale F.U.B.A.R. And, it’s that beer it just so happens that we have chosen to showcase in this month’s Lock Box. Recipient of back to back 2013 (Silver) and 2014 (Gold) Great Welsh Beer Festival awards, F.U.B.A.R. is without a doubt one of the best beers being brewed in Wales today. F.U.B.A.R. is an archetypal modern American pale, blending some of the best characteristics of both East Coast and West Coast pale styles. Representing the East are bitter herb and pine evoking flavours, and just a touch of residual malt sweetness. Representing the West are bright yellow and orange citrus notes and a lovely balancing dryness. The beer actually has a lot in common with the newly styled and very popular...
by Lee Williams | Jan 9, 2015 | Lock Box: January 2015
| 5.1% ABV. | American Brown Ale | Hackney, London, England | 330ml bottle | A delightful toffee and nut evoking brown ale that is a shining reminder that brown ales can be absolutely delicious when brewed with care and passion. Brown ales are roughly categorisable into three sub-styles, Southern English Brown Ale, Northern English Brown Ale and American Brown Ale. The esteemed BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) quantifies the three flavours of brown ale as follows: – Southern English Brown Ale: “A luscious, malt-oriented brown ale, with a caramel, dark fruit complexity of malt flavor. May seem somewhat like a smaller version of a sweet stout or a sweet version of a dark mild.” ABV. (alchohol by volume) typically 2.8 – 4.1% – Northern English Brown Ale: “Drier and more hop-oriented that southern English brown ale, with a nutty character rather than caramel.” ABV. typically 4.2 – 5.4% – American Brown Ale: “Can be considered a bigger, maltier, hoppier interpretation of Northern English brown ale or a hoppier, less malty Brown Porter, often including the citrus-accented hop presence that is characteristic of American hop varieties.” ABV. typically 4.3 – 6.2% Pressure Drop Stokey Brown can be best described as an American style Brown Ale. It’s higher ABV. and it’s piney aroma and bitter hoppy bite definitely positions it comfortably alongside the best of the style being brewed in the U.S. today. Hackney based Pressure Drop have modelled many of their core and one-off beers on American style craft beers. It’s a modern approach that is driving much of the craft beer movement in the U.K. From their outstanding...
by Lee Williams | Jan 9, 2015 | Lock Box: January 2015
| 6.2% ABV. | Export Stout | Bristol, England | 330ml bottle | This rich, roasty and robust stout harks back to the tropical stouts of late 19th century. Loaded with juicy exotic fruit notes courtesy of an Australian hop variety called Topaz. Wiper and True are one of the most buzzed about and exciting craft breweries in the U.K. These Bristol based nomadic gypsy brewers developed their love affair with the art of brewing – as many do these days, while homebrewing small batches in their kitchen. Fascinated as much with traditional beer styles as new and experimental approaches to brewing, Wiper & True produces small batches at their new brewery in the St. Werburghs area of central Bristol, as well as travelling to make bigger batches at larger craft breweries across the South West of England and Wales. Choosing a beer to feature by Wiper & True is no small feat. In addition to an ever evolving line up of vibrant and juicy pale ales, ambers and IPAs, the chaps at W&T are just as likely to release a desserty vanilla milk stout as they are a pucker inducing Gose – a lactic bacteria soured German wheat based beer brewed with slightly salty water and coriander, and it’s pronounced “Gose-uh” in case you were wondering. There is a definite air of excitement and fun about the beers and approach that Wiper and True take to brewing, which isn’t that far removed from the approach of an excited homebrewer. The Wiper and True beer we have decided to give pride of place in our January Lock Box is a single hop...
