Cracking open the Skull Splitter

Nae use for stripping paint.

It was Up Helly Aa yesterday, so I figured to helly aa with this sodding drinking ban. And although it's from a different Viking archipelago to the firey insanity in Shetland, I chose Skull Splitter by Orkney Brewery to be my first new beer of 2013.

It's robust and rich and sweet and dark; there was bloomin' loads going on in that glass. Loads. And all of it good. In a Pepsi Challenge between Tennent's Supey and paint-stripper, Skull Splitter wins every time. By a bloody axe head.

I mentioned before the nonsense they wrote on the label about dates and figs and dried fruits and molasses, but this beer, this mighty, Viking beer was way more flavoursome, way more complex, way more tasty than I ever expected. I should probably give their marketing folks a wee bit more slack ...

... cause you know what? It was delicious. It was fruity and spicy and deep and sexy. At 8.5%, it wasn't asking to be gulped down (and after a meagre 29 days off the drink I was wanting to gulp). It was wanting savoured. It was wanting a bit of attention. It was wanting made love to slowly.

Skull Splitter, it's my first nomination for Beer of the Year.

Washed down by a good helping of Highland Park.

Kill List

Last post I mentioned a couple of daft decisions I'd made recently. Starting a blog about beer and then pledging to not drink for 31 ever-lengthening days is probably one of the daftest decisions I've ever made. I may have mentioned how fun it's been.

But it means I've had time to think about what beers I want to try, and about what I want to do with this site. I've put together a Kill List of beers I'm going to try on or after February 1st.

Top of the Twistedmouth Kill List is Skull Splitter by Orkney Brewery. On the back it says:

Skull Splitter is our strongest ale: which is named after Thorfinn Einarsson who was the 7th Viking Earl of Orkney. Sophisticated, satiny smooth with a deceptively light character, it is a tribute to our colourful forbear. On the nose, this strong beer has a fruity malt character, with hints of dark fruit, spicy hop, dates and figs. On the palate, rich and complex with sweet toasted malt, molasses, fresh and dried fruit and hints of warming spices.

Molasses and figs. That's beautifully over the top for a beer that's 8.5% and is surely going to make my eyes water and leave me with some sort of UTI. I'm half thinking about getting a can of Tennent's Supey and some paint-stripper and doing a wee Pepsi challenge or something ...

Next is a strong stout by Tempest, a Morello Cresta 4 grain stout. I bought this purely for the lo-fi, hand-printed label. I love that. It's 7.0%. A session ale for Borders folk then.

What else?

Well, I got me a Cromarty Brewed Awakening, recommended by my new beer chum Magnus, who has his own beer blog (far, far superior to this one). He also suggested Cromarty's Red Rock and Tempest's Cresta Black and Red Eye Flight, but I didn't see them in my last visit to Hippo Beers. Ho hum, next time.

And just before you start thinking I can't think for myself, I've also included West's St Mungo's lager cause it's my local brewery. And a Dragonfly amber ale from Fallen Brewing Co, cause it's from near where I grew up and not because it has a nice label and a dragon in the title, oh no.

Now, a wee clarification: as well as dumbass decisions, my last post may have falsely given the impression that this January has just been a series of loathsome days that have been relentlessly tiresome, each one more miserable than the last, apart from two auspicious days. This is not true; a couple of other great things have happened.

My wife and I learnt how to play Netrunner. And Utopia happened.

Happy (late) Burns Day.

Skull Splitting in the US

Real scary Viking that.
Doesn't even have a beard.

Good news in January is as rare as French vegan in a boucherie. And as much as I like beer, I also like good beer good news stories. So here's a wee one, luke-warmish off the press.

Axe-grinders Orkney Brewery have declared that their Skull Splitter ale is selling so well in the US that they've started shipping the stuff over in barrels as well as bottles.

First pub to start selling Splitter on draft is some pub on Passyunk East in Philadelphia called, err, Pub on Passyunk East. They've planning some mental Viking night to celebrate. Cause it's a classy joint, I take that to mean they'll be doing a traditional Ba' game up and down the streets of Philadelphia, seeing as the Orkadian season is over and US gun shops are doing great deals on body armour; and not a naff, daft night of loonies wearing fake beards and furry tabards and plastic helmets with horns sticking out the side of them. And going aaaargh like pirates. Cause that would never happen in Glasgow, oh no.

Anyhow, I like that a wee Scottish brewery is sending barrels of beer over the Atlantic. I like that Americans are drinking proper Scottish beer. (By the way America, at 8.5%, Skull Splitter is considered a fairly weak beer in Scotland; bit of a session ale if you know what I mean.)

I haven't drunk Skull Splitter, and remembered. In fact, last time I drank a beer that strong was a Christmas Party years ago that had gone from tedious to torturous so to take the edge offof it I nipped down the offie for a couple of cans of Tennent's Supey. Great idea that.

Anyhow, last night I nipped down to the marvellously curated Hippo Beers shop on Queen Margaret Drive in Glasgow and got me a bottle for February 1st. Also something from Tempest Brewing Co purely because I liked the label. Reviews to come you lucky duckies.