December 9th, 2009LanesyBeer Events, Beer Reviews, Beer Swap, Breweries, British, Independents

You might have heard of the guy who I managed to draw for the beer swap: Pencil & Spoon’s own New Media Writer of the Year 2009 Mark Dredge. This was a selection of ales to look forward to; a brief glance at his excellent blog shows his good taste and awareness of beers and I had no doubt he would have developed an encyclopaedic knowledge of the local market over the year or so of working on his blog.

Kent is his part of the country, and is somewhere I have never been, so it was almost guaranteed that most of these beers I would never have come across.

So here is what I received:

- Westerham Brewery’s Little Scotney IPA (4%)
- Harvey’s Star of Eastbourne East India Pale (6.5%)
- Hopdaemon Brewery’s Skrimshander IPA (4.5%)
- Whitstable Brewery’s Raspberry Wheat (5.2%)

- Westerham Brewery’s Little Scotney IPA

Little Scotney IPA is created using National Trust-grown hops which would suggest something of an overtly traditional pint. I couldn’t

have been more wrong. The warm, malty scent is infused with a sharp fruitiness that intrigues, suggesting a beer that is stronger than its 4%. In the glass, the golden amber looks terrific.

The mouthfeel is extremely smooth and full-bodied; the fruitiness is pleasant on the tongue, whilst the hops are prevalent and really allowed to shine in this richest of flavours. The taste reminds me intently of one of my favourite IPA’s: Goose Island. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the flavour is the nearest I’ve come to finding a British equivalent to that beer.

The aftertaste flows back a lovely, warming bitterness that has a touch of ground coffee in the flavour. The long finish remains for some time; the satisfaction can be compared to a good Sunday lunch on a crisp wintry day – it’s that good!
This is a perfectly balanced ale in terms of the hops and malt. The flavour of all the ingredients can be savoured in every gulp whilst each brings something to the beer.

It is also a great advert for British beers. The traditional image of the National Trust and the careful, down-to-earth branding of the brewery make a neat little package that is thoroughly English but stands up to the brash, all-conquering American IPA’s. Definitely a beer I will seek to bring to the North at some point.

Harvey’s Star of Eastbourne East India Pale

Harvey’s are a company I have seen at a couple of beer festivals this year, although I can’t recall if I have sampled my next beer

swap offering: East India Pale. At 6.5%, it is stronger than the Scotney, something that was evident right from the moment the cap is flicked off.

The nose is extremely rich. Extremely sweet with grapes and apples particularly prevalent within the scent, all combining into a great looking dark amber colour.

The fruit remains in the flavour and does enough to prevent the higher level of the alcohol from taking over this factor of the beer. It is very sweet with the same flavours that were present in the nose (along with raisins being evident at this point), whilst the extremely full-bodied nature of the ale creates a combination that is a little sickly-sweet in the first taste for my liking.

There is a certain ’softness’ to the mouthfeel that I find is common in more fruit-based beers, whist a slight bitterness in the aftertaste adds another interesting element to the experience.
And this beer can certainly be described as an experience. Right from beginning to end, new flavours and textures seem to explode at different parts of the glass. In all honestly, this was a little sweet for my liking (I don’t have a particularly sweet tooth in any sense), but I can’t deny that I was baffled with the beer for all the right reasons.

The key issue for me was the size of the bottle. At 500ml, I felt there was a little too large a sample for such a rich, flavourful beer. 330ml would have been perfect and would certainly encourage me to try this again; but such as it is, I would be likely to resist if I saw it on a shelf next to one of my old, comfortable favourites. A must for anyone who craves strong, fruity flavours, however.

Hopdaemon Skrimshander IPA

From a brewery named Hopdaemon, I was anticipating a hop attack from Skrimshander IPA. However, the scent was pleasant, warm and

malty, with a citrusy edge that suggested the presence of hops. The beer poured a lovely copper colour and was instantly appealing.

The lightest of carbonisation hits the tongue, and it is the hoppy side that hits the taste buds first, fairly refreshing with a certain warmth. It is the stunning milk chocolate aftertaste that makes this beer a true winner though. It is incredibly distinctive and isn’t too sweet as to kill off the dry, bitter finish that warms the throat lovingly in the way that only chocolate can.

This is a brilliantly balanced beer again, with none of the bitterness, sweetness and so on dominating any one element of the glass. It is interesting, tasty and intriguing all at the same time, which makes it a real winner for me.

Whitstable Brewery Raspberry Wheat

The title of Whitstable Brewery’s Raspberry Wheat beer was the bottle that interested me the least in terms of looking at the bottles (which

is probably why I saved this until the end). Wheat beers and fruit beers are two styles that have somewhat baffled me in the past in terms of their appeal; although I would suggest that my early dislike of them has led me to instinctively avoid them from the shelf or the bar. However, this is what Beer Swap is all about: trying beers that you wouldn’t normally, so from this angle, I was quite excited to see if this was the ale to alter my mind about either or both these forms.

As expected, a fresh raspberry aroma is noticeable straight from opening, although a certain maltiness also blends into the nose. A deep, unusual reddish-amber colour is particularly cloudy, as expected from a wheat beer, whilst a particular liveliness creates a slightly off-white head.
The mouthfeel is very soft as a result of the dominant fruit, whilst there is a slight ‘dry’ raspberriness to the flavour that is supported by a warm, beer flavour. The beer disappears dramatically in the way that a dry wine does, a certain sharpness in the short, sudden finish.

This is an impact beer that will either be loved or hated in the first sip. But I would urge caution and don’t expect the feeling to last for the rest of the bottle. This didn’t really change my mind about fruit beers (that’s what I would describe as the predominant style of the two), but despite the initial shock of the dryness, I have to say that there is enough to keep it interesting as a glass of beer. I did begin to warm to it slightly and could imagine if fruit beers are your forte, then this could be a high-ranker for you!

Summary

My experience of trying the beer swap beers was everything I wanted it to be. Adventurous, exciting and experimental. Mark selected beers that clearly fit with his tastes, but achieved enough variety into them to make them individual. His hopheadedness was obvious in his choices of Little Scotney and East India Pale, but there is clearly a fruity side to his ‘beer personality’, and despite their differences, it was interesting to locate the similarities – subtle as they may be in some instances – to help me understand why Mark made this selection and why they were amongst his favourites.

Beer Swap provides a tremendous opportunity for beer writers and bloggers, remote as they may be from certain beer regions, to expand their palate and experience of the vast landscape of the British beer scene. From the brewers, to the bloggers and the readers and back again, surely this is truly an experiment that can only benefit all stakeholders in the industry.

I shall look forward to the first Beer Swap of 2010; in the meantime I’m going to find the best way to get hold of more Little Scotney!

Beer reviews and words like this

1. Beer Swap Pt 2: Oxfordshire to Yorkshire Beer Swap Pt 2 It went right to the wire but I did manage to drink my beer swap beers just in time to write about them this week. I had two beer swap...
2. Artisan beers – beer reviews and X Factor It all started with an off the cuff comment on Twitter (as so much does these days!). I mentioned on my personal twitter account that I had ’some cracking beers in’ but wasn’t...
3. Beer Swap quarantine! I've had my own beer delivery fiasco tonight, whilst trying to collect my beer swap beers. It seems that the experience of using collect+ to transport our regional's finest ales around the UK...

Tags: Beer Swap, east india pale ale, harveys, hopdaemon, IPA, kent, scotney, skrimshander, whitstable