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A Tasting of Traditional Bottled Ales
Ian McLaren
There were twenty four of us, some regular beer drinkers, most regular
wine drinkers: the Inmarsat Wine Society were about to tackle a beer
tasting. Three styles from three countries (England, Belgium and Germany)
was the brief, but it didn’t quite work out that way.
First up were the wheat beers, and the first problem – no British
entry: I'd intended to show the O'Hanlons champion product but we couldn't
source it. So we had the standard Belgian and German styles, plus a gueuze,
the traditional sour beer of Brussels. All were about 5% abv. Both the
orangey Bruges Tarwebier and the yeasty Franziskaner Hefe Weissbier were
well received, scoring a consensus 7.5 out of ten each. The Cantillon
Gueuze, with its intense, sour, fruity character was too much for many of
the participants: the average score for the beer was about 2/10, with
several zeros. Don’t let that put you off, though!
The ales followed. For comparison, I bought best bitter strength beers,
about 5-6%. To make up for the extra Belgian in the first flight, this set
had two British beers. The North German alt-bier styles (Kolsch and
Dusseldorfer Alt) were unavailable, so instead I showed an Australian ale,
which is a similar style. The most popular of the three was the Youngs
Double Chocolate Stout (8/10) which has a dry, rather astringent finish.
The Coopers Sparkling Ale, from Adelaide, was also well received (7.5/10).
It is a very pale, fresh beer with a subtle, complex flavour. The Pitfield
Original Bitter, from our only local brewery, was not on good form,
tasting rather old and vinous and looking rather hazy (all four bottles
were similar).
The last flight were a batch of stronger dark beers, all representing
traditional styles for their region. The were all popular, and not just
for their strength. The British example was a recreation of the nineteenth
century London Porter style with about 7% abv. The Pitfield Black Eagle
is a rich, slightly sweet brew with a chocolate finish (6.5/10). The
German example was a dark wheat beer in the winter festival style from
central Bavaria. Schneider Aventinus is rich (8%) with fruit aromas and
a very warming taste (7.5/10). Finally, we drank the pride of the dark
Trappist Ales, Rochefort 8 (9%). This beer comes from the Trappist
monastry at Rochefort, in southern Belgium. Thanks to my casting vote,
this was beer of the tasting, scoring 8/10.
The beers came mainly from the Beershop in Pitfield Street, N1 (next door
to the Pitfield Brewery). Other sources are supermarkets (especially
Waitrose) and Oddbins. Some pubs, including Wetherspoons, sell foreign,
especially German beers. For a wider choice, many CAMRA beer festivals
feature a foreign beer stall, and some also sell British bottled beers.
The next major festivals are in Ealing and Stratford (Pigs Ear).
Ian McLaren
Reproduced from the Full Pint, Issue 6.
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