The twelfth beer of Christmas

Hook Norton Twelve Days

Well, this is it folks, the last beer of Christmas. And I think we've had enough left of centre foreign brews for this series, time for a no nonsense British winter warmer from a highly respected British brewery. The twelfth and final beer of Christmas, Hook Norton's Twelve Days, is one nicely rounded malt driven beer with a nice roast malt bitterness. It has a dark chocolate note, with subtle winter fruit and hints of spice. Covered by the Baron here, and like he says, a nice beer to savor by the fireside on a winter's night.

Well, sadly that's it for Rob's beer quest's 12 beers of Christrmas.  I sure had a good Christmas. As expected the majority of my stock of seasonal beers have now been replaced by beers from gift packs (tho I havn't seen much coming in from the Asda 3 for £5 range this year). But we all know from now on it's all down hill. New year resolutions, taking the decorations down, assessing the financial damages and oh crap, I've just put on like a stone in weight in four weeks! You know how it goes. But anyway, a happy new year from Rob's Beer Quest.

The eleventh beer of Christmas

Castle Brewery Samiclause 2010

Hardcore 14% Doppelbock lager from Austria, formerly the strongest beer in the world (it seems so long ago now). This beer undergoes 10 months of lagering before filtration and bottling. I remember years back having bad first impressions of this beer, but I've grown to like it. It's heavy going, and surely the ultimate beer for being stuck indoors on a blisteringly cold winters night.

Very deep golden bronze with plentiful carbonation but never any head retention. Expect lots of boozy warming alcohols, virtually no hop presence, and a rounded warming sweet sherry, syrupy, toffee sort of character finishing with heaps of warming alcohols. The carbonation keeps the sweetness in check. It's also a great talking point at parties as everyone seems to make something slightly different of it. Alternatively you could cellar it a few years or more, it should age well.

The Golden Pints Beer Awards 2010, my contribution.

Here it is folks, my winners for The Golden Pints Beer Awards 2010, proposed by Dredgie. This year has brought many a memorable beer and some categories were tough to answer, others were omitted. Mind, I had to look back long and hard into my beer reviewing diary for this, and to make it simpler I haven't filled in all the runners up. But here it is anyway.  

Best UK Draught Beer: Blue Monkey 3 Wise Monkeys

Best UK Bottled Beer: Fullers Brewers Reserve No. 2.

Best Overseas Draught Beer: Not really been abroad much this year (except Cuba). But my best overseas draught beer experience ever would be sitting outside a Cafe in Brussels drinking a Bosteels Tripel Karmeliet.

Best Overseas Bottled Beer: Stone Old Guardian barley Wine Style Ale early 2009 release (thanks again for bringing that across for me Wend).

Best Overall Beer: Too difficult to answer I'm afraid. Lots of great ones, no real winner.

Best Pumpclip or Label: Goose Island Christmas Ale 2009

Best UK Brewery: Far too many to choose from, but for consistency, quality and the sheer number of beers tried, I'm going with Daleside Brewery.

Best Overseas Brewery: Again a tough one, probably Stone, CA, with De Struise, Belgium a close second.

Pub/Bar of the Year: For me, The John Bull, Alnwick

Beer Festival of the Year: Newcastle Beer Festival

Independent Retailer of the Year: Hispirits, Knaresborourgh (hi Adam!)

Best Beer Book or Magazine: Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher

Best Beer Blog or Website: Plenty of em, and plenty of newcomers. I'm splitting this award between two sites. For stuff on beer, food, drinks etc, Dredgie. For sheer amusement, Cooking Lager. For like ability, both.

Food and Beer Pairing of the Year: The winner for this snuck in last minute. In second place Saint Stylvestre 3 Monts with Munster Cheese. But first place was given to a special Christmas eve pairing. For me that was Stilton, Walnuts, and Samuel Smiths Imperial Stout. Simple, Traditional, Brilliant!

In 2011 I’d Most Like To… Visit more breweries, hunt out more beers and brew some more experimental oak aged home brews.

Open Category: Best newly discovered hop variety of the year: Riwaka

The tenth beer of Christmas

The Bruery 2 Turtle Doves

A beer with a very fitting name for this post. I got this over a year ago from a little beer shop in San Francisco. As the story goes, our baggage went missing between flights on the way home and I thought I would never see this baby (along with others) again. But here it is.

From the brewery website you can see this beer is part of a series of seasonal beers. Made with 'turtle' candy, cocoa nibs, toasted pecans, caramelized sugar and a lot of caramelised malts. With an abv of 12%, i was a little excited about it, but didn't get too carried away after memories of being let down by many a random seasonal beer in the past. But this didn't fall short of expectations.

Honestly, this is a fucking exceptional beer. Thick deepbrown almost brown with big boozy alcohols, huge toasty malt depth and a very rich, kind of oily viscosity. Caramelised malt, dark chocolate and nutty grain all play in harmony with rounded warming alcohols.

As an after dinner beer it just begged for a cognac laced Christmas pudding. A great pairing. Think about it, raisins, nuts, rich sponge and congac notes that just echo on the boozy alcohols of the beer. As the tenth beer, this is probably the most memorable of the series so far, It totally takes the cake and is just perfect for the occasion of Christmas day.   

Merry Christmas everyone.

The ninth beer of Christmas

De Dolle Stille Nacht

It was Christmas eve,

 and not a creature was stirring,

not even our friends the yeast...

Stille Nacht translates as silent night, the ultimate Christmas Eve beer from those crazy folks at De Dolle, Belgium. Last year I remember opening a recent bottling of this and thinking it could probably be better with a bit more age on it. So this year I'm opening one from a 2008 bottling.

A good beer despite some fobbing from this bottle. Amber shaded, loads of carbonation, and what I get most from this beer is a kind of  orange zest and marmalade like character. Once the carbonation dies down a bit it unveils itself. Sweet candy, summer fruit and spice with boozy alcohols in the finish. Surprisingly light bodied for the 12% abv, which should sort you out for getting to sleep with all that excitement.

Anyhow, time to get set in for the night. The snow is falling outside (no exaggeration, it really is snowing!) and the last I checked it was 453 minutes till Christmas (according to Helen's 'Santa lite' iphone app), that sure ain't long. But if you can't wait for the big day, you can always see how old Santa's doing by tracking him here. Have a good one.