Deanston 12, it rocks!

Every now and then I like to top up the old whisky collection, not often, but often enough to keep a good variety of different malts/vatted malts available. You could say with the recent brutal wheather I've been inclined to visit the whisky cabinet a little more frequently after a good session on the beer. That's right, I'll admit it, I've been knocking back on grandpa's old cough medicine. So I decided the time was right to top up the stock.   

Hail from Perthshire, the non-chill filtered 12 year old Highland malt of 46.3% vol with a brilliantly balanced, nutty, fruity, gingery caramelised sort of character. For some it might be hard to believe but I'm not wrong in saying it's a tad sweet, a little heavy even, but not peaty. With a sort of warming cuddly character that even the non-whisky accustomed wife liked, its approachable yet bold at the same time.

Being only a 12 year old a lot of the flavours from the original distillation are still in tact. I quite like this, which is why a lot of my whisky collection consists of 12 year olds (being cheaper also influences this). But this one was kind of picked at random. A good half hours browsing in the Whisky shop and I was still undecided but the very raw almost edgy packaging and bottle description influenced the final decision a bit I admit. It was definitely worth it tho and a great one for the collection.

The fifth Beer Of Christmas

Abbaye Saint-Remy Trappistes Rochefort 8

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a Rochefort around at some point. Or at least some kind of Trappist beer (well it is brewed by monks isn't it, or at least people employed by monks). This bottle was enjoyed at the John Bull of Alnwick, where you get your beer served in the correct glassware.

Since I have discovered the Rochefort range I have always enjoyed them at this time of year. And out of the Rochefort beers (that includes the under-rated Rochefort 6, 8 and the highly fortified 10) The Rochefort 8 is more or less the middle weight of the pack. On the nose it brings dark figgy fruit and dark chocolate before it opens up on the palate with a full dark fruit, yeasty, bready, slightly spicy, dark chocolate complexity. It's bold, with the 9.2% alcohol providing warming notes to the slightly drying finish. Chocolate pastries come to mind, Belgian chocolate pastries that is. Have never tried this with chocolate tho.

The fourth beer of Christmas

Goose Island Christmas Ale 2009

As I mentioned, last night was myself and Helen's 1st wedding anniversary (hence the background), so aside from a particular Russian River beer, I had to open something special. A 7% American Brown ale aged since last year had to be at least half decent, and it sure was expensive. No disappointments here tho, it sure is delicious. Rich with nutty, cakey like malt is at the centre, nicely laced with piny floral hops and nutmeg like rolling spice. A wonderfully rounded middle weight that leaves one with the urge to slowly waste away in front of a Christmas film or two, or maybe even the Queens speech (depending on how many you drink). Should I buy another for Christmas day? Maybe... No... Yes... No... Yes... No... I shall have a think about that, it is lovely.  

Open It! My contribution.

So here it is folks, my contribution to Open It! Being my first wedding anniversary and all made it all the more worthwhile. And for this particular beer I have had a few apprehensive thoughts, like why should I open this beer after saving it so long?

It was nearly a year ago now. The flight back from San Francisco, the rushing between terminals at the flight change. Waiting for luggage for seemingly forever at Newcastle before they told us the luggage was missing.

But no, the Russian River!... It... It was in that case!!!... It cost me 26 dollars, this can't happen!

Anyway I got it back in the end and for a while I was stroking it and saying goodnight to it every evening pondering on the day that I should actually open it. So why today? Well let me justify this with a few facts. Firstly it's my first wedding anniversary. Secondly Dredge says to do it, and if someone encourages me to drink a beer or invites me for a pint, I probably will (especially if he's a legend of the the beer blogging scene). Thirdly... Well... live for the day.

I remember a while back in my interview from the Beer Wench that I mentioned that If I could work for any brewery in the world it would be Russian River. Well this isn't strictly true. There are a long list of breweries I would love to work for and RR are in that list and I had to pick one as I didn't have all night to fill in the questionnaire. Plus Russian River make some really interesting sounding beers which I have never tried (until now) a lot of them barrel aged and deliberately infected with specific wild yeast of bacterial strains.

This particular barrel aged beer (as it says) has been aged 6 months in current fruit holding Cabernet Sauvignon barrels. The alcohol content is 10% and the barrels were deliberately infected with Brettanomyces, Saccharomyces, Pediococcus and Lactobacillus. At Heriot-Watt they teach you all about how nasty these organisms can be to your average mass produced session beer so this is crazy stuff indeed.

Anyway, time for the tasting. Given the occasion I thought it would be great to share a few samples around since we were in the company of some of the wife's work associates. I don't really like drinking great beer alone, I prefer having it with someone else. Now for the review...

My first impressions of this beer was  'it's basically kind of like a Lambic', but with a bit of caramel malt influence that really makes it interesting. At first the carbonation is lively, and the character of the beer a bit forward. But giving it a bit of time the aromas emerge more defined. Red grape, berry fruit and a brandy like sweetness. On the palate you get lots of sourness countered by candy sugar and caramelised malt, subtle alcohols and malt depth with complex red grape and berry fruit. The 10% alcohol is well hidden, making it quite elegant.

Overall I would say a good beer. But to be honest, it did fall short of my incredibly high expectations. A good beer, but not exceptional. Mind, if your in the mood for a good sour beer, it's great, but it's not one of those beers that you find are instantly lovable, like an oatmeal stout. It's complex, and takes a bit of time to understand and come to terms with, like some women or progressive metal albums I have known in the past. Once you get into it, you notice it is quite a complex beer, its deep, and that's it's strength.

Maybe I was just not in the right mood and moment but to be honest, the reason I'm happy I opened this beer is because originally I was planning to open it Christmas day. But now I know what it's like I'm happy that I will be exchanging it for some delicious seasonal beers instead, because despite the hype it really isn't that much to rave about, but still interesting.

The third beer of Christmas

Daleside Old Winters Tale

This dark, subtly spiced 4.3% ale was designed by both myself and brother priest of the yeast M.A. double T Daleside brewer Matt Bloomer. We didn't decide on the name, or the abv, but technically it's ours. A trial brew of this one was done on my very own home brew kit to give an approximation of the finished product. It turned out alright, but we decided to make it a bit darker. Then when we came to brew it on the Daleside kit I lover every minute of seeing this baby being born.

Tweaking around with it on the day and getting everyone to smell my spice mixture made it all the more enjoyable, and we are glad of the results.

A mixture of spices on a bed of Willamette hops

Brewing scedule for the week

Transfer to the FV, where the magic of fermentation really begins

But enough of the brewing highlights. Now for the important bit...

This sample was taken from a plastic polypin set up in the brewery but I will be hunting out the properly conditioned stuff from a hand pull in the near future. I find the spice influence moves more towards the background as it ages and it's nicely balanced. Medium to full bodied dominated by dark currant like winter fruit, figs, subtle nutmeg spice and a touch of roast malt bitterness over a bready rounded malt texture. I'm quite happy with it and so was my homie co-worker Col (below), who gave it a thumbs up.

Col (On day release)