A new dawn for Panda Frog. Bullfrogs At Dawn

Alas the Panda Frog Saga continues at Mordue brewery. December seems a long time back now and to open the 2013 lineup we bring you Bullfrogs at Dawn, a 5% multi-grain spiced pale ale. Named after a North American amphibian, the beer, naturally, features North American hops Chinook and Amarillo over a slightly abstract grist of oats, rye and wheat. As for the spices, well I will only leave clues.

Underback runoff from mashtun

Lots of fun brewing this one and the resulting beer reminded me slightly of your typical crazy Italian craft offering. Bright yet smooth and oily with tangerine like citric hops leading to spicy rye notes in the finish. A multi-layered affair with a mouthfeel I'm very pleased with. I'm also happy to announce that Bullfrog's is heading to this year's Newcastle beer festival (last years Pandazilla passes down the torch).

 Bullfrogs at Dawn is available presently in cask only form. and throughout April we hope to get it bottled.

Rogue Post 2

Tea is one of those fascinating beverages I manage to explore every now and then. Unlike wine or whisky (covered in Rogue post 1) it won't break the bank. Tea can be bold, like an estate black, or incredibly subtle and refreshing like a an Oolong or a green tea such as the Japanese Gyokuro (pictured above)  In the right mood tea is my favourite soft drink and a great place to discover it is Alnwick's very own Bari Tea. They do a good cheese platter and some nice cakes too.

A long time back, I mean way back, tea was thought of as a fierce rival to beer. People were given access to foreign goods and both competed for the place of national staple beverage of the nation. A place for everything I would say.

Old Dairy Tsar Top and Over The Top

It seems a continuous feature of the modern brewing scene to be littered with the opinionated, the renegades, mavericks and those brewers with that personal fetish for certain styles and methods of brewing. Former microbiologist and Heriot Watt student Ed Wray of Kent-based Old Dairy brewery is no exception to this. Some may remember his beer being featured on the quest back in December. This time I'm covering Ed's more specialist offerings, both of these offerings being inoculated with a brettanomyces yeast culture dated from 1910 bottles of English stock ale.

For both of these beers the words 'old school' come to mind. Think not Hawkwind cover band but more seventeenth century Baroque. Lots of classy complexity and subtleties without many bold statements. First in comes the imperial stout Tzar Top at 10% pouring with immediately lively carbonation and a quickly fading head. Aromas are leathery and familiar with more leathery notes on the palate.  Sweet liquorish and deep cherry is countered by an almost lactic sour note. Late on this turns to dry tobacco and peppery hop bitterness that lingers in the finish. The mouth feel is slick, oily and brings everything together with an almost red wine sort of feel. As one of the more sophisticated Imperial stouts I've tried it takes a little time to get to know and would  pair nicely with a nice medium bodied cigar.

Next up, Over The Top vintage ale 2012 a peculiar little number at 10.5%. The first thing I thought when I saw the bottle was 'funky wild yeast, big abv vintage ale, this has cheeseboard written all over it', It's a worthy match for cheese, but without any sharp bitter or acidic elements to it to contrast, it struggled with the big cheddars a little. Again a big yet subtle beast but with a lot of slightly underdeveloped nuances about it. Deep bronze and dominated by an orange marmalade like character. Damp leather mingles with some sweet malt and there's an overall mustiness present.  My overall thoughts are that it needs more ageing but the overall flavours are nice.

Overall, some rather splendid beers.
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2013 and the list

Ever been in that awe-inspiring position where you've wondered what a past version of yourself would think of your present day situation? To the 2009-era Rob this would have been a distant dream. Back then it seemed the company I worked for was taking a (very gradual) turn of interest towards pleasing wider audiences. Homebrewing was my not so secret love affair, and having a range of special release beers like the ones listed above at a brewery where I was the head brewer was something that I thought would only ever exist in some kind of fantasy world.

But here we are. The Mordue 2013 monthly specials range combines some big abvs, fruit beers, bold hops in places and some slightly more unorthodox ingredients here and there. Myself and the Fawson brothers are responsible for the list in its entirety and yes four new Panda Frog beers are also featured. Many of the old seasonals are out but the Tyne range remains (Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn Tyne). Al Wheat Pet it to be re-vamped to become Al Cherry Pet at a slightly higher abv than the original. Killswitch 51, the munich malt, single malt beer from last years battle of the beers at Newcastle Beer Festival is coming back. Then a few months later, the biggest Panda Frog beer of the year the 6.8% Operation Red Thunder imperial red ale comes out in October.

I could go more into the Panda Frog range, but that's another blog post in itself. For now there's plenty of work to be done i.e sourcing ingredients, planning brewing schedules as well as trying to find the time to get plenty of special releases kegged and bottled. Mostly it's going to be about keeping on top of it all, so wish me luck.

Finally trying Diablous

Go back to september last year and many drinkers will remember this one. Durham brewery had matured a batch of their Imperial Stout Templation with a lambic culture. The resulting beer, Diablous was pretty much the first of it's kind in the region and most probably the UK. Launched at Newcastle's The Free Trade Inn for their official 'Sour Power' night.

Anyway Diablous is one intriguing beer. Slightly lively carbonation with little head and a very barnyard like aroma. Diablous is signatured by burnt grain, leather, dark chocolate and sweet liqourish met by a sharp cider/geuze like tang that runs right through it. Then you get interludes of almost red wine like dark fruit, coffee and more leathery roast grain over barnyard like wild yeast. Theres a lot going on here.

This is one of those beers that takes a little time to get your head round, and I think around half way down the glass I got it. Diablous is like an untamed beast yet with nuances and flavour harmonies that almost shine like flashes of brewing brilliance. Sadly, the word 'almost' sum it up more accurately. Think of this more like the notes of a symphony to a masterpiece. All the notes are there to make this masterpiece work. Yet somethere down the line half the orchestra got distracted, decided to make everything more shouty, more dramatic and ended falling slightly out of tune.

What keeps repeating in my mind is that tastes almost like someone's taken a half full glass of rugged imperial stout and topped it up with gueze. It still sort of works in a crazy chaotic challenging sort of way, yet it still tastes more like the variant of a sour beer not a variant version of a stout. Yet all in all I found Diablous to be an interesting beer. The experience memorable mainly for being interesting alone and I can see why there was a lot of divided opinion about it.