Beer About Town : London - July ’13.

Reads 7806 • Replies 113 • Started Monday, July 1, 2013 4:43:21 AM CT

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harrisoni
beers 25331 º places 68 º 14:44 Mon 7/29/2013

No defense needed.

When I first started drinking bitter seriously I could hardly force Harvey’s Sussex BB down. I mean I would avoid it. Didn’t like it.

This was a worse reaction than to my first few Orvals. Orval I just thought was bland and boring and just didn’t see what the fuss was about. But at least I could drink Orval, Harvey’s I found too yeast forward. I wouldn’t say eggy, just not at all pleasant.

And then something happened, can’t tell you what, where, how or why, I think it was a combination of going to other countries and being more exposed to the beer abroad. This made me re-evaluate beers at home.

Coming back from 2 weeks in the States, I couldn’t quite believe how characterful and yeast forward British beers could be. After (mostly) bland American yeast led beers (all about the hops, malt and barrel ageing - the more extreme the better). I began to enjoy different characteristics, subtleties, Belgian yeasts, the enjoyment of trying to find your favourite Kolsch in Cologne, and suddenly Harvey’s Sussex BB went from a beer I couldn’t force down my throat, to a world class beer.

 
harrisoni
beers 25331 º places 68 º 14:52 Mon 7/29/2013

Orval now is one of those beers that I start twitching if I don’t have at least a crate in the garage. And once I’ve had it of an evening, that more or less negates any further beers, cos all I want is another Orval.

Harvey’s I think is now sublime. The perfect mix of yeast, malt, hop and water in a brown British bitter. On cask at The Royal Oak in Borough and The Harp on Chandos Place are real delights. I will happily recommend them to any visitor to these shores. Because instead of neutral Chico led yeasts and American/NZ/Aussie hops, with little malt backbone, we have something unique that is slowly dying in this country, yeasty, characterful, distinctive, brown bitter with twigs in it (or peppery hop as us normal people call it)

We aren’t always going to agree on things. I suggest that there may be people out there who don’t think Spezial U is freaking amazing. I mean they’re WRONG but it’s their opinion.

In the same way, putting a load of wood in a beer makes me want to giggle and laugh. I don’t dislike barrel aged beers per se, just ones where the balance has disappeared from the beer or the base beer has been completely subsumed by the barrel ageing (i.e. too much Bourbon, too much wood). If I wanted to lick a tree, I’ll go and get some bark.

As always, other opinions are available.

 
madmitch76
beers 36790 º places 240 º 14:57 Mon 7/29/2013

In the interests of diversity I would not want to see Harveys die out. But much like the critically endangered Guatemalan 10 legged gnat (okay I made that up) neither do I want to share my space with it.

Can’t recall a problem with Harvey’s bottles. Don’t know if that is because they are pasteurised or if that twangy yeast dies away naturally.

 
harrisoni
beers 25331 º places 68 º 15:01 Mon 7/29/2013

Originally posted by madmitch76
In the interests of diversity I would not want to see Harveys die out. But much like the critically endangered Guatemalan 10 legged gnat (okay I made that up) neither do I want to share my space with it.

Can’t recall a problem with Harvey’s bottles. Don’t know if that is because they are pasteurised or if that twangy yeast dies away naturally.



Bottles except the impy stout and one or two others are pasteurised to shit and mostly not worth drinking.

Don’t worry Ken, there is plenty of beer out there that we can share and enjoy. Share and Enjoy!!

 
madmitch76
beers 36790 º places 240 º 15:05 Mon 7/29/2013

Indeed - got any more tasty German treats for us? I’d honestly forgotten how good German beer can be until the train tasting.

 
harrisoni
beers 25331 º places 68 º 15:07 Mon 7/29/2013

You’ll have to wait until I return from Bamberg in September. Only 5 weeks away from being back in heaven. Won’t sleep for the week beforehand. I’ll be too excited.

 
tdtm82
beers 1704 º places 138 º 14:35 Tue 7/30/2013

eggy sulfuric element suggests poor show in the cellar as their beers are first rate

 
Niall73
beers 2623 º places 2 º 12:07 Wed 7/31/2013

Hi folks. I had a very enjoyable half pint of what was listed as Kernels Export Stout, as opposed to ‘…Export Stout London 1890’, at Pelt Trader today. I was presuming it was a keg version of the esl beer but the abv was 6.9 which differs, if I recall correctly, from the bottled version I’ve had. Could anyone clarify? Same beer? Thanks.

 
harrisoni
beers 25331 º places 68 º 12:58 Wed 7/31/2013

Anyone going to Kernel this weekend to ask for clarification to help Niall73? There is no difference between their keg and bottle versions normally, it’s the same beer that goes into the different dispense methods. It’s possible that they’ve brewed the same beer at a slightly different ABV (but not big enough to separate this version), but this is speculation. Sorry can’t help at mo without more info. Which makes this post pointless. Sorry.

 
harrisoni
beers 25331 º places 68 º 13:17 Wed 7/31/2013

Sorry to hijack (no I’m not) but this is a good barrel aged beer, De Molen Rhythm & Blues BA

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/beername/193976/

and does what I say good barrel aged beer should, the bourbon ageing enhances the beer, gives it depth and structure, adds complimentary flavours, but doesn’t subsume the base beer, and at no point did I think I was licking an oak tree.