Beer Review: Rascal London Porter by Inveralmond Brewery

Rascal London Porter by Inveralmond Brewery

Porters have nothing to do with port or Portugal and everything to do with the London porters who hoiked hogsheads, hessian sacks and hefty boxes onto carts, wagons, steamboats and trains. Or so the stories go.

Style-wise, they're a dark heavy-hopped beer - a precursor to stouts - and were hugely popular during the Industrial Revolution but fell out of favour after the Second World War; an unfashionable weak drink for old men. Now, however, thanks to our ongoing renaissance in good beer, brewers have increasingly been looking back to old styles to brew great new beers and have revived this wonderful old style.

Midnight Sun from Williams Brothers, Smog Rocket by Beavertown and Porter by Anchor are great examples of the porter style. So too is Inveralmond Brewery's latest offering, Rascal, a dark, smooth and beautifully balanced bittersweet beer that comes in at 5.6%.

Rascal's the third release in Inveralmond's Inspiration series of world beers, and follows the Sunburst pilsner and De Mons Belgian Abbey beer. Those two were excellent, and Rascal is a very worthy successor, so much so that it won Wetherspoon's Champion Beer of Britain only a few weeks after its release (and prior to its official launch).

Crack this rapscallion open and you're greeted with chocolate aroma, roasted malts, and some tangy citrus hops. Spices and a bit of salt too. 

Rascal pours a deep, dark and broody brown, with a head the colour of bone washed up on the beach. 

Taste it though and this is a beer full of life and character. Initially, the tangy citrus hops work wonders with the rich, dark malts - a bit of young sapling there, also some blackberry and burnt sugar; the roasted flavours so well balanced by the vibrant bittering.

And then it eases, slightly, into a long, amiable bittersweet finish that hugs you and asks, very persuasively, for more. A brilliant beer.

Beer Review: De Mons Belgian abbey beer by Inveralmond Brewery

 

In the dark dregs of last year, Inveralmond Brewery in Perth brought a bit of winter warmth with the launch of De Mon, the second in their Inspiration series of world beers. While Inspiration No 1 - Sunburst - paid homage to the Czech pilsner, head brewer Ken Duncan looked to the Belgian abbey-style beer for Inspiration No 2.

And whereas Sunburst, with its gentle bittering, floral aroma and crisp finish was ideal for summer drinking, De Mons (6.0%) is one for long nights and smouldering fires, a seat by a big window with seaside views where you can watch the last of the autumn sun kissing the tops of the waves.

De Mons pours straw golden with a malty aroma that carries a light hoppy touch. Initially, there's a sudden sourness and that distinctive estery flavour typical of Belgian and Dutch beers that comes from the type of yeast commonly used throughout the Low Countries. Then you get a big complex rush of sweet flavours - raisins, red grapes, ginger, malt loaf and cloves - before a long medium dry and bitter finish. This might be a Belgian abbey beer, but De Mons does retain a Scottish feel to it, perhaps from the soft Perthshire water.

In the years since they launched in 1997, Inveralmond have built up a solid core range and a solid reputation, with Lia Fail, Ossian and Thrappledouser winning plaudits and prizes. Will De Mons match their success? Who knows. One thing's for sure: Inspiration No 3 has a couple of tough acts to follow.

Beer is the News

Munro's in Glasgow. Just opened. 

In Glasgow, new bar Munro's has finally opened on Great Western Road. It's putting itself out there as a craft beer bar, so I'm greatly looking forward to getting along and sampling the cask ales they've got on offer. Their website's not doing much, but their Facebook and Twitter chat is a bit more lively. Good luck guys. 

PR super agent and micro-berwer Seb Jones of Speyside Craft Brewery got himself in the pages of The Herald AND the Forres Gazette with the news he's launching a Save the Dolphins-type ale. If you drink enough of their Bottlenose Bitter, it says on the label, you turn into some sort of James Bond meets John McClane eco-warrior. Or maybe profits to charity or something. Read about it here, here or here. 

Meanwhile, those beer nuts at Inveralmond got a bit of a write-up in The Courier for getting a six-figure funding boost from, err, oh, the article didn't say. Well, this, err, six-figure investment should afford a wee bit of expansion, both in capacity and in export markets. Great stuff.

Then there was this little ditty in The Herald about Houston hostelry Fox and the Hounds landing a deal with a major upmarket national deli chain to stock their rather drinkable Crystal beer. Aldi wants 7000 bottles of the stuff. Not bad at all. 

Finally, there's the splendid announcement that The Herald and Sunday Herald are to host a craft ale event on Sunday, March 24th. Kicks off in Citation in Glasgow at around noon, and lasts four or five hours. The do has someone speaking at it. You get lunch AND beer. You also get to tug on the beards of brewers from Alechemy, Eden, Innis & Gunn, and Loch Fyne. Tickets are £30.