Visited my brother, Dan the Routemeister, so a trip to the Bricklayers Arms was merited, and many crackin' ales from their handpumps...
Dark Star Hophead was receiving a walloping from the locals, deservedly so, great ale, but I couldn't go there, it's one of my regular supping ales anyway, and there was a fair choice of other ales too, so... we started with the Ilkley Pale, a 4.2% very nice pale bitter, as I expected. Packed with flavour for a 4.2% ale, grapefruit flavour, nice and dry finish; Dan stayed on this, but there were 3 ales from Blackjack Brewery, from Manchester, I do believe...
And the fire was lit too! How the weather has changed. Anyway, they had Black Jack's Stout (5%), "Chocolate and liquorice notes", says the blurb on the pumpclip, and the 2 I tried; their Aces High IPA, a 5.5% rich and complicated pale bitter, claims to grapefruit, but not so much as the Ilkley Pale, despite more strength. I also tried their Four of a Kind (6.2%), you get the theme ;-) Four hops used, all with names beginning with C, so you can guess the flavours that came through from Cascade, Columbus, Chinook and Centennial hops... Citrus and fruit galore, the ale tasted a wee bit darker than it looked, but pretty decent to drink, indeed...
Always a pub to visit if in the area. Cheers!
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