Don't mix your drinks

'Don't mix your drinks.' Sound advice, but I rarely listened, even on the best-behaved of evenings. Delighting in the next day's forecast of pain that followed a cocktail of red wine, whisky, maybe a rum, porter, a DIPA and so on. Maybe even a proper cocktail. Dinner would be chips.

Best practise for blogging and social media, too, is all about sticking to the one subject. Owning it, whether that be bikes or beer, fashion or fiction. Stick to a USP, say the experts, and go heavy on the U. They also command you use a picture.

Well, this wee beer diary has been very beer focused since my very first post almost five years ago: a brew by Alechemy, purchased at the now sadly shut Hippo Beers on Great Western Road.

But the blog's been quiet for the past year (though I've continued to write about beer, whisky and gin in other capacities). Not since I was blown away by a batch of beers sent from a new-ish brewery called Fierce in 2016 have I taken the time to sit down and try to put my sense of tastes into words.

And while the real world got madder in this blog's five-year life, in my world I felt the beer reviews got better, evolving from the mildly cringey "This IPA is a full flavoured, hoppy and delicious beer" to a regular (and paid!) beer review in The Herald that had quotes, interviews, tasting notes and everything. Even paid advertising.

I spent the first meagre but magnificent earnings from that column on a bottle of GlenDronach Revival 15 yo from the Good Spirits Company in Glasgow. I was blown away by it, and remember it now a couple of years later with great fondness. It was seriously stunning, and at that point was the most expensive whisky I'd ever bought (I think it was about £60). It must have been one of the last ones around as the range is now on a three-year sabbatical due to lack of stock causing the price to rocket.  

All of which serves as a rather long and self-indulgent introduction to the predictably earth-shattering announcement that it's time for something new. Time I listened to the advice and kept the great and the grain, the old and the new, the boozing and the swimming all very separate.

So, the vlogs, blogs and swimming logs continue here on my scottishswimmer blog.

India India by Pilot brewing

The third review of the year is another big-hitter, a double IPA from Pilot, one of Scotland's newest breweries and a product of the boom in craft beers and ales.

Pilot of Leith, Edinburgh, began brewing in November 2013 with the ambition to make beers that were different yet drinkable, off-the-wall rather than out-and-out wacky. They launched with a Vienna Pale Ale, a fairly tame precursor of what has since followed. These past 12 months Pilot's adventures in brewing have seen them brew beer with parma violets, seaweed and cocoa nibs.

With their latest brew, Pilot used ingredients including jaggery sugar and fenugreek, putting the India back into IPA and making an educated nod to the history of this style.

The aroma is warm spice and tropical fruit, and these carry through to the taste, which is surprisingly sweet, delicate and welcoming, with washes of passion fruit, liquorice and toffee, before suddenly moving to a medium dry bitterness that lasts and lasts.

You can certainly taste its 8.5% strength, though it's far from harsh or over-powering. Texture-wise, it's lovely. Think mango juice.

India India is complex and sophisticated, a beast of a beer with big flavours, a solid body and a potent hit. It comes in hefty 660ml bottles, making it ideal for sharing.

Easy IPA by Flying Dog Brewery

Easy IPA (4.7%) by FLying Dog Brewery

Continuing January's vegan theme, attentions switch Stateside to the town of Frederick, Maryland and the magnificent Flying Dog Brewery.

Flying Dog celebrate their quarter century this year, and since their maiden flight in 1990 they've brewed a steady series of craft ales, winning over beer lovers in the States and on this side of the Atlantic. Their international acclaim and reputation for good beers was no doubt aided by renegade journalist Dr Hunter S Thompson and his artist chum Ralph Steadman who helped with their branding. It was Thompson who coined their slogan, Good People Drink Good Beer, and it's the indefatigable Steadman whose distinctive artwork adorns their labels. (Thompson was a neighbour of founder George Stranahan - they shared a love of explosives apparently - and introduced him to Steadman.)

Flying Dog's Easy India Pale Ale, packaged in cans, is relative newcomer to these shores. Its aroma is a hefty hit of pine resin along with more delicate notes of spices, apricot, clementine and soft summer berries. It pours straw pale gold with a thick creamy head and light lacing down the glass.

First off, this IPA has a gentle malt flavour - think oat biscuits rather than anything more caramel - and the sweet stone, spices and soft fruit flavours remain as the drink progresses through to a long, dry bitterness that'll have your lips smacking loudly for more, but leave your palate intact.

The canned Easy IPA is a fine beer, and worth trying out if you see it, but it's their Imperial Porter Gonzo (named in honour of Thompson) that you really, really, really must try out. Complex, potent, rich, delicious. It's truly a great. At 9.2%, Gonzo is a beer for savouring rather than swallying. The Easy IPA on the other hand is a session-friendly 4.7%.

With a couple of exceptions - the Black Honey IPA and Pearl Necklace oyster stout - all of Flying Dog's products are vegan.

Vestan West Coast IPA by Heidrun Brewing Co/Drygate

Vestan West Coast IPA 6% by Heidrun Brewing Co.

Rather than having a Dry- or a Tryanuary I've gone vegan for a month.

Beer-wise, having a Veganuary means being a little bit more discerning about what you fill your glass with. Beers that use isinglass, or finings, are out. (Isinglass is derived from dried fish bladder and is used to help filter out the small particles of dead yeast left over from the fermentation process.) Bottle-conditioned craft beers are a fairly safe bet for vegans; mass-produced beers and cask ales less so.

Vestan West Coast IPA is one such vegan-friendly beer, and hails from the Drygate Brewery in Glasgow under the Heidrun label. Bottle conditioned, this powerful IPA proclaims its vegan, unfiltered status on its lo-fi branding, something more breweries ought to consider.

The aroma on Vestan carries a big resin and pineapple hit, thanks to the hefty helpings of Simcoe and Amarillo hops, both hugely popular in American IPAs.

Unlike many IPAs though, Vestan West Coast IPA pours very cloudy and has little carbonation, much like a cask ale. The first taste is a headrush of pine and pineapple, grapefruit, tangerine and new leather, and there is a long, long-lasting bitterness that carries with it hints of pepperiness. At 6%, Vestan is a big, bold and brooding pint, one that's more suited for sharing than for sessions.

Sharp's Brewery - Dubbel Coffee Stout

Rich and black and sweet, with a gratuity hop twang. 

Glasgow Beer Week - starts today!

Glasgow In A Can, by Simon Varwell

Hey, guess what! Today is the start of Glasgow Beer Week. That’s right, the city that invented heavy engineering and alcohol is spending a whole week celebrating yon malts, hops, yeast, sugar and water thing. Sure, those boffins at Lonely Planet might reckon Scotland will be the place to be NEXT YEAR, but you really need to get over to Glasgow THE NOW.

Workers throughout the city are being encouraged to take extended, boozy lunch breaks. Pop-up bars will be, err, popping up in shopping malls, high schools and old cemeteries. Dour bar staff will be replaced by attractive, friendly ones. The city council is planning to turn the Chambers into a craft beer hall AND will also be subsidising taxi fares for mild and heavy drinkers. Meanwhile, FirstBus, SPT and yon other transport providers are putting on additional services to cater for the extra drunkards, with plans afoot for a special freedom of the city beer pass that’ll get you onto any bus going anywhere (cause rest assured the polis will be putting on extra patrols to check the roadworthiness of your car). Best of all, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has declared a bloody hangover amnesty!

Other slightly less cool Glasgow Beer Week events include a vegan beer and food testing at the BrewDog pub opposite the Kelvingrove Galleries, and a Michael Jackson appreciation at West Brewery. Wee bit suspect that one but who doesn’t like moonwalking and squealing sh’moan when half-cut?  There's also a meet-the-cask do at the wonderful Blackfriars, as well as a (tbc) live homebrew event. (Bet you I’m bloody working that day. Hmmmm .... )

Supermarket Aldi is even in on the act and is stocking up on quality craft beers just so we don't run out. Yaldi!

The whole thing climaxes messily with the SIBA beer thanksgiving prize event in the southside next weekend, where they’ll be casting judgement on the best beers of 2013. Looking forward to the fallout from that one. 

Call of Duty: Black Hops

Did you ever play Dungeon Master on Atari or Amiga, with its crappy graphics, naff sound, but awesome gameplay and characters like Gothmog, Sonya, Linflas and Wuuf? Remember how you felt when the dungeon's gate opened for the first time and it was just you on the edge of 14 levels of darkness and days of gamer angst? That's exactly where I am right now.

Apologies to FTL Games & Nintendo.

I'm about to start home-brewing. I've spent much of the past year prattling on about hops and malts, citrus and caramel, it's time I got to grips with the process of packing these flavours into a glass bottle. It's like I'm in the Hall of Champions about to choose my four adventurers. 

After months of negotiations, and even agreeing to move house, I have managed to secure a small cube of cupboard space just the right size for a 40-pint fermentation barrel. But winning agreement from my end-of-level bosslady was just the first stage; I also had to choose whether to go for a kit, and if so, which one.

First part was as easy as decking Dhalsim in Street Fighter: Noobs start with a kit. And seeing as I was too busy playing games in my teens and twenties to brew my own beer, solving that puzzle was easy. So I moved promptly on to: which kit.

Oh dear, there are many.

Fortunately, I have a crack.

It's the home-brew haven on Dumbarton Road. Inn House Brewery is like a real-world PokeMart. But instead of PokeBalls, potions or antidotes, it's stacked floor to ceiling with tins, tubs, barrels, flasks, bottles, and packets of yeast and hops. (For those of you sick of my shoddy videogaming metaphors, it's like an old-fashioned ironmongers, but beer and wine stuff instead of tools, screws and fuses.) 

And thankfully the vendor's more like Beedle than the Happy Mask Salesman (one hopes).  After a series of dumb questions that really did play out like a scene from Zelda, I think I'm going to accept the Cooper's Starter Kit quest. That I can swap their starter lager for a Brewmaster IPA is like an in-game special bonus. And you know what, if I muck it up and brew a bad batch I can always respawn.

(Fans of Xenon 2, and Assault on Precinct 13, this song's for you. Cx)

Tough Mudder: a beer well earned

At the start of this year I signed up to an event called Tough Mudder. Kind of like a cross-country half-marathon with loads of nasty obstacles thrown in to make it even more fun. Part of my training involves running and that; and part of it involves drinking tasty craft beers. So I can pick a top-notch carry out for the evening after, you understand. 

Anyhow, I wrote this article on Tough Mudder for The Herald and they went and gone and published it.

Here's the promo video for last year's event, held in July at Drumlanrig Castle:

This year it's in Dalkieth in August, which makes it even harder by my reckoning. 

On completion you get a hip orange headband and a well earned beer. Last year it was cans of Black Sheep Ale. This year ... well, that's the question everyone's asking. 

Hope to have an answer real soon.  

Dragonfly Daydream

Dragonfly by Fallen Brewing Co.

Wow.

I've just a had bottle of Dragonfly by Fallen Brewing Company.

It was superb. You know what, I kinda knew it would be.

It came from Kippen, a lovely wee village overlooked by the Fintry Hills near Stirling. Just say the name. Kippen. Sounds magical. Imagine you were from there. Kippen. Imagine telling folk you were from there. Your first date. Job interview. Police. Kippen.

Now think of a dragonfly. You're outside on a hot day. Imagine a light wind, some clouds up there. Cirrus and cumulous, drifting lazily, high and far away. You're by a wee stream, sunlight scattering on the water; oaks and beech and elm resting haphazard along its banks. Roots reaching into the river; above, the canopy casting shadows across the water - that's where the brownies are. You can see them rise now and again. But you're sitting on grass by the water's edge, your socks and shoes off, jeans rolled up, the water dripping off your toes hanging inches about the surface.

The breeze carries with it a sweetness from flowers unseen but nearby, a fragrance of pine and tablet. Maybe a hint of citrus. You've a couple of beers cooling in the water, stacked in a safe spot by the dam you built with rocks. You're about to go and reach for one of the bottles when you spot it darting over the water. Its bright Irn-Bru blue capturing the light so it appears almost neon, fluorescent. It's the length of your pinky. You watch it, entranced. Beer forgotten. You watch it, eyes focused, as it darts back and forth, here and there, in and out of shade. A fish rises. A bird calls. Then it's one last dash from the dragonfly and it's lost among those ancient trees. You reach for your beer. Open the bottle. A Dragonfly, and it's as beautiful as the day itself.

Going, Going, Gunn

I mind years ago, some influential barmaid on my life telling me that if you have a good time somewhere, whether it's Skye or Ibiza or wherever, you should never go back cause if you do it'll be shit.

I think there's truth in that but ... aw jeez, I'm trying to write a beer review here.

It's been an odd week. Not shit; different. I've been back working for the Sunday Herald newspaper this past week. Bit of a nostalgia trip, but anyway, on to Innis & Gunn.

I used to work with somebody at Waterstone's called Innis. Possibly Innes. He smoked and had teeth missing and was possibly a former junkie, knew too much about books and complimented my jumper too many times for comfort. He could be difficult though I kinda liked him. I think he was from the Black Isle. I knew a Maria Gunn from high school. I don't know if she's alive or dead or married someone called Innes.

Innis and Miss Gunn don't fit into this narrative by the way, and if space were an issue a decent sub would wheech that bit out.

I had one and half bottles of Innis and Gunn's flagship wonder Original tonight. I drank them towards the end of my 12-hour Saturday shift at the Sunday Herald. Years ago, we'd abeen over the Station Bar pouring as much beer as we could down our necks in two hours as was possible. Actually, years ago 12-hour shifts were normal.

The beer:

Aye, it's a paltry 6.6%, and sweet, amberish in colour. You can taste the vanilla and the toffee - I thought caramel - so the blurb on the bottle has some truth in it.

Truth is: it was too sweet for me darling. Aftertaste had a bit of a spirit sensation. And not in a good way, though I kinda liked it. Like an echo of a memory of poteen. Is it possible to dislike a beer you liked? Or like a beer you didn't like?

Honestly though, I wouldn't choose to buy this. Wasn't for me. Sorry Innis from Black Isle and Maria who might be dead but is probably married.

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.

Twistedmouth's Beer Blog - How you can get involved!

It's not me, it's you. 

I've made a decision. It's likely my last one of January and it's a blooming blinder. It's probably the best decision of 2013 to date, and even though it's not yet February, it'll surely be a contender for Best Decision of 2013. (Betcha can't wait for those awards to swing round.)

Ready?

Here goes:

This site should not just be about me and what I drink with silly musings and whinges and that. No, it should be about you. Yes, you.

So, I've been thinking about how I can get YOU involved in what is quickly becoming one of the best read and critically acclaimed beer blogs in the history of the internet, past present and future. But instead of thinking about me, I've been thinking about you. Yes, you. Yes, I've been thinking about how to get YOU involved and I've finally figured it out.

Sure, you can leave comments and Like on Facebook and retweet on Twitter and sign up with your email and share with the Google + thing and do all the other really cool social media stuff that you can do. And please do. But that's so ... 2012.

So here's the 2013 way you can become involved in this site AND help Scotland's beautiful craft beer industry AND kickstart our triple-dipshit economy. That's right, I'm going to reveal how you can be the saviour of humanity.

Ready?

Here goes:

You decide what beers I'll be drinking this year.

Isn't that brilliant?!

All you have to do is choose your beer and send the money, via PayPal or postage cheque, to Hippo Beers and I'll just nip along, pick the choice beer up, and drink it for you. In fact, you don't even have to choose. You can just send the money and let the guys in the shop choose for you. Yes, you! I think it's a stormer of an idea, and the best thing is, everyone wins.

Isn't that brilliant?

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.

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.

Happy New Beer! Belgian Cherry Wheat Beer

It's 2013 very soon, and I've just had my first cherry wheat beer.

I knew it'd be good for several reasons:

1. I've had several glasses of Glenfiddich already. 
2. My wife bought it. 
3. It's from Marks & Spencers. 
4. It's beer.

Number 3 might seem incongruous with the ethos of this site but hey ho ... it was dandy. I've had a few other ales from M&S and they've all been reliably tasty. 

This one was from the Huyghe Brewery in Melle, Belgium and lists orange peel and coriander among its ingredients. 

Check Huyghe's site out: they've got this neat out-of-focus pink elephant thing going on. And their brewing timeline goes back to the 17th century. That's impressive. 

Anyhow, there was a bit of a floral aroma to this that minded me of daffodils. And a rich dark colour. Taste? Like a chewy cherryade. Not my usual, but delicious. 

Now I'm gonna wash it down with more whisky. 

Hoppy new year!!

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.