by Lee Williams | Jan 3, 2015 | Vault Reserve: January 2015
| 10.8% ABV. | Imperial Porter | Henley-on-Thames, England | 750ml bottle | A strong and sophisticated Maker’s Mark barrel aged Imperial porter that pops with notes of vanilla, coconut, tart dark fruit and maple syrup. One of two very interesting rare barrel aged beers in our Vault Reserve box this month, Lovibonds Dark Reserve No.4 is a massive Imperial strength porter aged in Maker’s Mark Kentucky Straight Bourbon barrels and packaged in an impressive red wax dipped bottle, aping – possibly intentionally, the iconic red wax sealed Maker’s Mark bottle. Alongside the likes of Thornbridge, Moor Beer and BrewDog, Henley-on-Thames based Lovibonds are one of Britain’s true craft beer pioneers, having opened for business way back in 2005. Brewery founder and brewer Jeff Rosenmeier has since gone on to earn a deserved reputation as producer of some of the very best beers across the brewing spectrum, from winning international awards and kudos for his wine barrel aged sour beer Sour Grapes to building a dedicated drinkership for his generously hopped and expertly executed American IPA, 69. The Dark Reserve series of beers started life as a stronger incarnation of Lovibonds core beer Henley Dark, a traditional style London Porter that was then aged in Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey barrels. The winning creation was bottled and designated Dark Reserve No. 1 and clocked in at pleasingly robust and chocolatey 7.4% ABV. (alcohol by volume.) This latest entry in the series steps up the alcohol to a warming and highly cellarable 10.8%. If you choose to, this is a beer than can be stashed away in your beer cellar for...
by Lee Williams | Jan 3, 2015 | Vault Reserve: January 2015
| 6.5% ABV. | Dunkler Bock | Bodmin, England | 330ml bottle | An eyebrow raising combo of fruity red wine barrel and robust dark Bavarian style lager, and a truly delicious example of the boldness and creativity of British craft brewing in 2015. A rare beer that deserves to be savoured as such. It’s still very early days for the craft beer movement in the U.K. but as it continues to grow and mature, we’re already seeing the first signs of creative and exciting long term wood barrel aging programs of the sort that every state in the U.S. already has multiple of as we enter 2015. Back home the likes of Cornwall’s Harbour and many others are now following boldly in the wood pioneering footsteps of Wild Beer Co., Harviestoun, Siren Craft Brew and BrewDog by putting interesting beer styles in wood for extended maturation and enhancement. The practice of wood aging beer is hardly new, it is in fact of course the way beer was fermented and stored for most of the history of brewing. The age of affordable and much easier to manage and sanitise mass production steel meant that wood fell out favour almost overnight. Much was gained in the beer industry with the introduction of steel, cleaner beer and the ability to quickly produce more of it in a shorter space of time being the most obvious and significant gains. It’s safe to say that most beer drinkers, publicans and brewers didn’t miss wood all that much to begin with. That said, something was indeed lost when wood was taken out of the...
by Lee Williams | Jan 3, 2015 | Vault Reserve: January 2015
| 8.0% ABV. | Saison | Dour-Blaugies, Belgium | 750ml bottle | A quintessential dry and funky rustic saison brewed in rural Belgium by a small family run brewery. Saisons don’t get much more authentic or small batch than this. Saison is a beer style born during the 19th century in the Wallonia region of southern Belgium. Traditionally these beers were brewed by farmhouses in the winter months when fermentation temperatures were naturally amenable. Winter also tended to be a slower season for farmers than spring and summer thus allowing more time to fit in time consuming brewdays. Saison is French for ‘season’ and these beers were usually stored for many months after being brewed so they could be used to quench the thirst of seasonal labourers who worked the farmland in summertime. Water at the time was often of questionable cleanliness, so having a good stock of provisional ale on hand provided a beneficial substitute. The fact that these often robust beers provided a significant amount of spent grain was also a bonus as it could then be used to feed hungry livestock during the harsh winter months. These rustic and storied ales were a vital part of farmhouse life and indeed survival during the 19th century in rural Belgium. To ensure their storage potential and in an effort to avoid spoilage and infection during their many months in the cellar, saisons were usually brewed to a fairly robust ABV. (alcohol by volume) of somewhere between 5.0 – 8.0%. They tended to be fermented out until very dry and were often brewed with herb and spice additions which could provided...
by Lee Williams | Dec 16, 2014 | Cellar Builder: December 2014
| 9.1% ABV.| American Strong Ale | Buxton, Derbyshire, England Buxton, Derbyshire, England | 330ml bottle | One of the only examples of a British brewed American Strong Ale. Exactly the sort of concept ripe for a international collaboration beer. One of the most interesting beers you’ll try all year, for sure. Collaborations in craft beer are all the rage. As well as great cross promotion for both breweries involved, they serve as an excuse to dabble at the fringes of brewing styles and continue to break new ground in what might be possible in brewing alongside the larger volumes of pale ales, stouts and lagers – still the bread and butter of the industry, even at the craft end. For us beer geeks, lots of collabs mean lots of wonderful, new and interesting beers to try, which is never a bad thing. This first Cellar Builder box is testament to that esoteric and experimental collab ethos, featuring, as it does, six very different collaboration beers. Five of the collaborations in this month’s Cellar Builder selection come courtesy of the forward thinking bods at Buxton Brewery in Derbyshire and represent their working with brewers in places as far flung as New York (Evil Twin), Arizona (Arizona Wilderness) and T0 Øl (Copenhagen). The two collabs with T0 Øl represent different takes of a similar idea, American, strong and hoppy. Collateral Carnage is a massive 9.1% ABV. American strong ale brewed with oats. It’s a resinous bittersweet monster with a thick body, is loaded with concentrated tropical fruit and exotic citrus fruit flavours and has an appropriately aggressive finish. All are qualities you...
by Lee Williams | Dec 16, 2014 | Cellar Builder: December 2014
| 8.9% ABV. | Spiced Beer | Buxton, Derbyshire, England Buxton, Derbyshire, England | 330ml bottle | If one of the purposes of a collaboration beer is to push boundries and create something new and exciting, then a strong stout brewed with bacon, maple and smoky chillies is definitely a big step in the right direction. Few ingredients have found as much new and versatile fame in the past few years as bacon. You name it, the vulnerable breakfast meat has been used in it or on it. From bacon topped donuts to bacon flavoured vodka and everything imaginable in between. There have been a few attempts to add bacon to beer, or at least the flavour of bacon, by some of America’s more adventurous craft brewers. One of the most impressive and bacon-evoking beers ever brewed was surely Reinschweinsgebot, a bacon fat infused brown ale produced in very limited quantity in 2009 by Brooklyn Brewery’s world renowned brewmaster Garrett Oliver. The beer truly did smell and taste like savoury smoky bacon. Without getting too sciency, the main hurdle facing any brewer wanting to add meat or indeed nuts to a beer, is that fat can interfere with fermentation and also kill head retention, in addition to causing all kinds of other undesirable things to happen to the beer before it reaches the consumer. That said, such has been the desire to bring beer and bacon together – surely two of humankind’s greatest creations, that brewers continue to beaver away trying to figure how to make a truly great “bacon beer.” If you are wondering how Brooklyn’s brewmaster Garrett Oliver was...
