30/11/2017 0 Comments Beer Review - K3Big Fish BrewingStonehaven's own Big Fish Brewing are back, this time with K3; their take on an American DIPA, coming in at a whopping 8.0% ABV. Big Fish Brewing have highly impressed me so far, with their Long 14 blonde IPA & 12 Fathoms porter both getting very favourable reviews from me. So naturally, I was interested to experience their take on a DIPA - probably my favourite beer type... K3 pours a hazy dark amber, leaving a foamy beige head at the top of your glass. Huge ginger aromas are backed by subtle citrus grapefruit & orange.
After the first sip POW...this beers smacks you right in the face with a booze fueled hop bomb. That is no understatement, this is one boozy beer. Huge hoppy bitterness is at the forefront followed by more bitterness from the grapefruit before being rounded off by some slight warming spice from the ginger. All the flavours come together perfectly. It's quite worrying how drinkable this beer is for its ABV; sink a couple of these & you will be fast asleep in no time! Overall, I REALLY enjoyed this beer. It is easily the best I have had yet from these guys & a worthy addition to stand alongside some of my favourite DIPAs such as Humuloid & King Slayer. If you haven't already checked out Big Fish Brewing, then what are you waiting for? Do it. You won't regret it. It is the perfect time of year to crack open a bottle of 12 Fathoms . 4 out of 5 hops from me 🍻 https://www.facebook.com/BigFishBrewingCo/ https://twitter.com/bigfishbrewing
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23/11/2017 0 Comments Hop Shop AberdeenWesthill Service StationI'm a little bit late with this post, but the guys at Westhill Service Station have ramped it up a gear...they're ready for world domination! Having recently renovated to store to increase the craft beer selection along with the addition of the growler station,they have now unleashed Hop Shop Aberdeen on us; making their incredible beer selection available to buy online & have delivered to your door. The online shop is fantastic; it is jam packed full of great beers from all the top breweries. You can apply a bunch of filters to narrow down your search by location, brewery, style & price. Each week when the newsletter comes out, there is a link that will take you to the online store & automatically filter the latest releases, which is incredibly handy.
You can order online from anywhere in the UK, with free shipping on orders over £45. Orders are delivered via courier so can be tracked to ensure you are there to receive them. If you live local, you can skip delivery chargers and collect in store, with the option to pay online, or pay on collection...this is extremely handy for me with the shop only being 5 minutes from my door! There is also a loyalty points system where the more you spend, the more you can save in future; for every pound you spend, will gain a loyalty point & for every 100 loyalty points collected, you will receive £1 off your next order. If you haven't already signed up for the newsletter, you can do so here. And if for some reason you are yet to check these guys out, you should - they are killing it right now 🍻 https://hopshopaberdeen.com/ https://www.instagram.com/hopshopaberdeen/ 17/11/2017 0 Comments The Byron BoxHappy Birthday Byron BurgerByron Burgers recently celebrated their 10th birthday and to mark this occasion, they brewed up a batch of special beers with some incredible local breweries. My wife was lucky enough to win a Instagram competition to win a box of all the beers...and well, married couples share right? So that means I get to try them out... The box features beers from:
They vary in style and were brewed to be paired with a specific Byron birthday burger. Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of trying them alongside the burgers...so it's beer only. I'm not going to review every beer from the box, just my top 3 and a runner up. Now this was a fantastic box of beer full of different styles and flavours. It was hard to pick a top 3, but I just about managed…
You probably guessed this was going to happen. But my favourite beer was absolutely Little Furry Animal by Beavertown. Little Furry Animal is a beer that I found to be absolutely excellent. It is without doubt classic Beavertown; refreshing, hoppy, murky & full of flavour. It’s a shame this was a limited release because I would 100% drink it again. Close behind in second was Pith & Love by Vocation Brewery; a 4.5% ABV pale ale. This beers was great! It’s actually the first Vocation beer I’ve ever had (I know) – that is definitely going to change though! It was citrusy, light, refreshing & I can just imagine how great it would have been with a burger! The next beer on the list was Hells USA by Camden Town Brewery, a 4.6% ABV unfiltered lager. Camden Hells is a great beer – anytime I’m out in somewhere like Revolution, it is my go to beer. So I was looking forward to trying the unfiltered version, because well, unfiltered beer is normally better! Safe to say I wasn’t disappointed; Hells USA was a belter of a lager – crisp with a real refreshing, citrusy, distinctive flavour. I would definitely drink this beer again. And last but not least was Kuro by Camden Town again; a 5.1% ABV black lager. This beer was absolutely FULL of flavours! Distinctive lager flavours, with a hint of a porter about it - I can imagine that this beer would go very well with a spicy burger. The other two beers; Zehn & Elation were decent, however they just didn't quite match up to the others. All in all, this was a great box of beers from Byron Burger - they definitely celebrated their birthday in style! Also, if you have never checked out their burgers, I highly recommend you do so. I am normally an advocate of trying to keep it local, however Byron's burgers are excellent! Oh, and thanks again to my wife for winning the competition 🍻 https://www.byronhamburgers.com BrewdogBrewdog know how to market a beer. So when the time came to market their latest release; Make Earth Great Again, they decided make a video dressed like Donald Trump. Along with sending a case of it to the White House and tweeting President Trump about it...it's safe to say they have made an impression. Make Earth Great Again is (MEGA) a 7.5% ABV saison & here's what Brewdog have to say about it: "In protest against the potential withdrawal of the USA from the Paris agreement, we've brewed a saison (which ferments at high temperatures) with melted ice caps (glacier water) and cloudberries (an Arctic berry). Make Earth Great Again is a imperial strength saison, with spicy and bright citrus notes of spiced orange, nutmeg, clove, and caramelised banana, with a dry yet warming body and a hint of acidity to balance the sweet notes. All proceeds from Make Earth Great Again will be donated to 10:10, a charity lobbying for legislative changes to tackle climate change." Lets see what it's all about... Before we open the bottle, lets talk about the label. It features a robot Donald Trump shooting lasers at a polar bear. I'm pretty sure that's a metaphor for something...
MEGA pours a golden amber leaving a tiny white sliver of a head, with little no carbonation present in the body. Big floral aromas are backed by spiced cloves, sweet banana & caramel. Taste is spiced from the off, from the cloves, nutmeg & spiced orange. That is rounded off with a combination of sweetness, followed by a dose of sourness from the raspberries. Something wasn't quite working for me with this beer...it felt like the flavours were a bit all over the place and the balance was off. Overall; whilst good, but not great, I definitely enjoyed this beer & recommend that you check it out even if just for its worthwhile cause alone. You can read more about this climate changing polar bear loving beer here. 3 out of 5 hops from me 🍻 |
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