Autumn

Autumn is my favourite season. It hasn't always been, but a while back I just decided it was. A similar thing happened when I was about eight years old when after long periods of thought I decided my favourite colour was green (the trendy kids always liked red or blue). But overall summer is nice, winter has it's strong points and spring is just boring. But autumn is a great season, and the seasonal beers it brings range from brown ales to nutty auburn-hued bitters to the elusive pumpkin ales.

This autumn has been a nice enough. Plenty of brewing and planning new projects. I also managed to get the old Panda & Frog home brew kit back in action. After not brewing on my kit for such a long time I was very eager to get mashing. This time the brew in question was a collaboration between myself and Mordue brewery's brewery wing man Dave Kerr. Bear Hug is a 4% golden ale brewed with naked oats and honey. A nice easy batch to get things going again.

But there's more to life than brewing, at some point you have to dedicate some time to drinking the stuff. So while the Bear Hug ferments it was time to get into the first of my colder weather beers. Port Brewing's Old Viscosity is a 10% imperial stout with a big mocha chocolate aroma and a rich, assertive palate of dark chocolate, raisins and some vinous fruit. The hop bitterness is firm and backs everything up before plenty of heavy alcohols and berry fruit warm the finish.

So a pretty intense beer. I would advise drinking this with medium to full bodied cigars. A solid winter warmer. Its a shame I can't get hold of another bottle.