Revolutions 'Clash' London Porter

If ever there was a beer whose packaging was really going to leap out and sell the beer to me I think this one from Revolutions Brewing Company would be it. Not that I think it's particularly state of the art, because I wouldn't know, or even claim to know, state of the art design if I fell over it in the street, but it just looks great.

Of course it could all be a ruse, a cunning trap to lure innocent people like me who think 'The Clash: must be good!' into buying a sub-standard beer. I can never keep the cynical me far from the forefront. Well, actually, maybe I can. One way to do it would be to drink beer; this one in particular, because once you get to the point where you've poured it out and the cool packaging is forgotten, it really is marvellous. Powdery cocoa-heavy chocolate, smoke and a lovely soft bitterness.

London calling? Well, it might well be, but if it is calling, Yorkshire is not only calling, it's shouting. And with beers like this, it has a lot to shout about, probably with some singing and dancing along to old vinyl, naturally.

4.5% abv. £2.84 (50cl) from Beer Ritz.

Magic Rock 'Human Cannonball' IIPA

Since I left the pub trade a huge number of breweries have started up, completely changing the face of the UK pub and beer scene. Many of these escaped my notice since I was immersed in sitting wine exams and trying to get my head round grape clones and rootstock types. Since I started beer blogging and re-discovering British beer in particular, Magic Rock have been one brewery that has been constantly recommended and raved about, but I've just never got round to trying. The day after IPA day was therefore IPA day squared, a chance to relive #downDIPA perhaps?

Given I'm not a massive fan of Imperial IPA as a style, I was impressed by this one. It was getting close to its best before date, which might have affected the freshness, but if so I suspect it mellowed rather than deteriorated. It poured a deep reddish-amber colour, and there's bags and bags of hops on the nose, delivering rich citrus and tropical fruit. On the palate the hops are, relatively for a double IPA, held back; which I think gives the beer a better balance, allowing some of the caramel sweetness of the malt to come through. On the basis of this my appetite for Magic Rock beer is well and truly whetted, I'll continue to be on the look out for more of their beers.

You can have a bit of a read of the story behind Human Cannonball here.

It's a very well disguised 9.2% abv. I got this one from Beer Ritz, although I'm not sure what I paid for it. Slurp are charging £3.90 (33cl.)

Saltaire 'Triple Chocoholic'

Yesterday was Yorkshire Day, so a bit of a rummage round the cellar unearthed a couple of appropriate beers, and the Saltaire 'Triple Chocoholic' was voted in by my other half as the one to celebrate with. It was perhaps inevitable that we'd compare it to the Meantime Chocolate Porter that we had last week.

For starters this seems to be far less of a 'beer for people who don't like beer.' (See Pintsized Ticker's experiment here.) The nose was dominated by the chocolate malt, despite being only 12% of the malts involved, but it was the aromas that reminded me very much of nosing the chocolate malt at the Gwaun Valley Brewery the other week that stood out - it was in one of the jars pictured. On the palate the chocolate definitely comes through but it doesn't have the viscous texture of the Meantime that leaves it being a lot more 'beery' rather than a more indulgent 'dessert in a bottle' style. If this sounds negative then I don't mean it to be, I think that the two beers, despite obvious similarities, are very different. The Saltaire uses chocolate to complement the beer rather than being the be all and end all of it; the bitterness of the hops is still there and the power of the malt means there's cocoa and biscuity qualities that add another layer of complexity. The name Triple Chocoholic, to me, does suggest something more of a chocolate overload than the beer delivered, and while I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing in terms of making a beer I wonder whether some people might be disappointed.

4.8%, £2.69 (50cl) from Beer Ritz.

PS. A reminder it's IPA day today. Hope you've got your hop-bombs in for the occasion! Potential menu includes Durham Bombay 106, BrewDog Never Mind the Anabolics or Moor Illusion. Nice decisions to make.