Saturday, December 01, 2012

Beers! Cheers!


Wanted to drink local beer. Craft beers preferred. Not going anywhere near the crazy Soho bars. Made a date with like-minded friends and went out further to plonk ourselves at a table at The Craft Beer Company.

The friends gave us an address and link to the website, and didn't worry about us getting lost. In fact, the man and I got there and choped a table a good 15 minutes before the first dude turned up. Loved the casual vibe of the pub. No smoking in these pubs meant that I needn't febreeze the hell out of my wool coat and clothes.

Okay, the abv in beer is nowhere near our usual intake for whisky. However, beer does make us bloat, so we always end up drinking far less abv, and far more in volume. Gaaah. We started conservatively with half pints of something, each. Tasting session! Not a get-drunk night out. Anyway, each of us ended up with at least 2 pints to begin the first half of the night, and shared bottles after. I swear the English ales taste better warm. Most pubs serve the ales not-ice-cold. Chilled, but not numbing. It's intentionally served at a temperature for all the flavors to hit the tastebuds in the first sip.

By my fourth pint, I was ready to protest. Bladder overload, and too bloated for words. Burps were too ready to be popped out. Ugh. No more. The man and the friends did much better. They probably downed about seven to eight pints each. Woot. All in all, my vote goes to Crafty Jane, a cranberry milk stout specially made for The Craft Beer Company by Ilkley Brewery. It's a sweet-ish stout that still hit the right notes. (Not sweet like dessert, but sweet-ish.) Couldn't taste the cranberry. There's the roasted malt nose, and the bitter malt-chocolate aftertaste. Definitely a stout I could drink all night without switching flavors.

No comments: