Where to start, and apologies for being away this last week, but so much more for me to publish over the coming days... So, to start with, here is a photograph of Adam, from the FILO Brewing Company based at the Old Town Brewery in Hastings, and of the First In Last Out Pub (FILO), High Street, Hastings 'old' town, wearing a Beermeister polo shirt, nice one! As are their ales...
OK, this isn't one of the FILO ales, but I have mainly been drinking their own wonderfully flavoursome Our Auld Ale (6.5%), see earlier blog, since it first was served at the FILO pub, of course, as a seasonal beer, it won't be around for much longer, so hurry up if you want to drink it! However, there has appeared to be an influx of ales into South East Sussex from the ever reliable Lincolnshire brewer, Oldershaw, including two I have had at the FILO. Oldershaw Great Expectations (4.2%) is a very good bitter, pale and hoppy with a dry aftertaste, and Newton's Drop (4.1%) is another reliable pale bitter all the way from Lincolnshire. The FILO also has a regularly changing Belgian beer on draught, at the moment it is the rather too easy to drink 5.7% Palm Dobbel, which means "dice" or "gamble" in English.
Moving on to the ales depicted in my previous near-blog and the Dolphin, opposite the fishermens' huts and beach, 'old' town too. Like at the FILO, I have had an Oldershaw ale here too, among the many ales available over a few visits, ie Oldershaw Old Boy, a 4.8% copper coloured dry ale with a malty and bitter aftertaste. Also available on that visit, Crouch Vale Yakima Gold (named after the valley where hops are grown, apparently, and from a native American name/word), a 4.2% refreshing and very pale, fruity bitter, with a peach flavoured aftertaste, very good.
Another visit since, provided the ales featured in the previous blog's photograph and the one above, including the Yorkshire brewery, Saltaire's Blackberry Cascade, suspiciously named as if blackberry fruit and cascade hops were used in the brewing process ;-) A pale amber coloured, lovely dry bitter with a hint of grapefruit and bramble flavours, very nice indeed... In addition, 2 ales from reyt further up north than Yorkshire, ie Orkney St Magnus, a 5.2% slightly malty darkish amber bitter, and the 4.8% Orkney IPA, a pale dry bitter with a hint of maltiness, good body and a malty biscuity aftertaste.
Further along the coast westwards in Bexhill-on-Sea, at the RAFA club, The Albatross Club, where, in addition to the local brewer, Rother Valley Level Best (4%) and Copper Ale (4.1%), there was, from Lancashire, OSB Absent IPA, a 5.5% deep coloured amber bitter, very good and with a dry aftertaste. There was also, and me drinking a dark ale yet again, as you can see from the photograph immediately above, the Manchester brewer, Privateer Dark Revenge, a 4.5% very dark bitter, with an oatmeal head, and a hint of liquorice and a fruity aroma, nice one.
Time now to look at my regular luvverly pale hoppy ale provider, the Tower, London Road, upper St Leonards/Bohemia, Hastings. 4 ales on offer usually provide at least 2 Dark Star ales, with American Pale Ale (APA, 4.7%) as its regular ale, as people will no doubt be aware by now... BUT! There's a 'new kid in town', another Sussex brewery producing ales with loadsa hops, ie Burning Sky! Not really all that new though, as the brewer there used to work at Dark Star, and was the originator of the Hophead recipe, and many of their other excellent ales... Burning Sky Plateau 'Pale Ale' is a 3.5% pale hoppy ale, very bitter, and with a grapefruit aroma and taste which takes the Michael out of the strength, I love it!
... and what Dark Star ales has Louisa been providing at the Tower recently? Of course the APA and Hophead (3.8%), but also a variation on the Hophead, ie using the same grist, same strength, but with flavours and bitterness coming from different hops, Simcoe and Ahtanum, and with a pale green coloured pump clip. Believe it or not, I prefer this to the usual Hophead, which I've detected as a wee bit more malty flavoured lately, or is that just my taste buds forever evolving? Version 2, whatever you want to call it, is pale, bitter and dry, of course, and even more fruity than the original, with bitter orange peel and not so much the grapefruit, excellent Louisa, ta... and I haven't even mentioned the excellent 5.7% revelation that is Revelation, which I have written so much about before, spoilt for choice!
More to come soon, first from Sheffield, and my visit to the self proclaimed "Beer Capital of the World", cheers!
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