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.

Alechemy Cockleroy Black IPA

I didn't want my first review of 2013 to be a bad one. Start positively and that, but then I remembered my Ne'er Day review of Williams Brothers' Joker IPA. Huzzah! My conscious is clear.

I wrote a while back about Alechemy's magical Cairnapple IPA, a delicious ale I'd gladly buy again. Well, I tried their Cockleroy Black IPA in the dregs of 2012, and ...

Och I want to be nice, but it just wasn't for me. While its dark malt colour and citrus aroma are intriguing certainly, and the glass boasts of fulsome promise, I found it a tad thin on the palate and I was left a wee bit wanting. More so when I considered the other fine, chewy black beers out there. Pity.

I'll probably try it again one day, just to be sure.

Anyway, Livingston-based Alechemy's another wee micro-brewery that's opened up in Scotland's eastern lands, and like Edinburgh's Barney's Beer, it's a wee business with a heap of passion and big ideas. That, I do like.

Hippo Beers, My Favourite Shop

Sometimes my kids ask me what my favourite shop is.

Well, I quite like Forbidden Planet but it's too cramped and often too busy. I loved A1 Comics until they got rid of most of their comics. I loved Go Outdoors for the miles of aisles of ropes and boots and waterproofs and camping stuff that I really, really need but never could afford. I have a wee fetish thing for Aldi and its crazy middle row. But they all leave me, well, wanting.

Hippo Beers entered my life in November. We've exchanged glances from a distance. Had the odd flirty exchange. They have my details but not been in touch. I don't know, should I contact them? Maybe I wrote my email down wrong. Maybe they lost it. Maybe they've been too busy and not had time. Maybe their PCs are down. Or their internet. Maybe I should call them. Just to check they've still got my email. Would that be pushy? Would that just be weird?

But what if it's because they don't like me?

Their shop on Queen Margaret Drive in Glasgow has more than 300 beers in stock at any one time. About a dozen shelves of Scottish beers. A bay of ciders. Ales from England, Europe and the US. They have wheat beers and anti-allergy ales. Porters and stouts and wines and whiskies. They probably have the cure for cancer buried in there. Here's an article the Evening Times wrote about Hippo Beers last week.

It's a neat shop, an airy shop, a shop you like to spend time in, wander about in. Read the labels and not feel a twat. Have a chat with the staff and not feel a twat. Buy one beer and one beer only and not feel a twat.

I think I might be falling in love.

Christmas Day beer, Barney's Red Rye

And so to what is possibly the Campbell Beer of 2012, certainly December.

Barney's Beer Red Rye was a Hippo Beers recommends, and a Christmas present from my daughter.

Maybe it was the spirit of Christmas, maybe it was the joy of fresh pine needles sticking into my socks, but I loved the colour, the fulfilling taste, the bottle, the label. I loved that it was 100% natural so obviously it's good for me. And good for you, too. I loved that it was from a wee microbrewery in Edinburgh.

But most of all, I loved that my wife went in to the beer shop, explained she was after something special for her special guy, told them what beers I liked, and the staff there went straight to this one.

Spooky.

Beer, the first. Alechemy Cairnapple IPA.

Bought from the top left corner of the Scottish bay of shelves at Hippo Beers on Queen Margaret Drive. It's a beautiful shop. A wonderful shop. A happy shop.

This IPA from Alechemy is a full flavoured, hoppy and delicious beer. Robust and fruity, I guess that's where the Cairn and the Apple in the name come from.

Drank on my son's birthday. Would hoppily have again.