Siren Sounds with a Pumpkin Alert

Siren Craft is a big name in UK brewing.  I first became aware of it in 2014 after having a very appealing Soundwave, a US west coast IPA.  Siren Craft hail from the west of London direction near Reading and three of their recent offerings had me praising any 1 of the supposed 5 made up patron saints of beer.  Religion sucks by the way.

First up Hillbilly Wine, labelled as a passion fruit and oak IPA. Damn they weren't wrong there, oodles of juicy passion fruit coming through and as you would expect, a light smokiness from the oak.  The 9% ABV is fantastically well hidden and this Hillbilly ain't no gormless redneck neither. Beautiful.



Next, the Cigar City collaboration 8.4% ABV Barrel Aged Caribbean Chocolate Cake.  I'm a fan of the original Caribbean Choc Cake which is like liquidising a Death by Chocolate dessert and ramming it in a bottle. Now imagine before the bottling process, sticking it in a bourbon barrel for a year. Maybe not to everyone's taste as the vanilla and bourbon may be a little sweet for some, but I love this style and I loved this.



Suitably salivating like a demented window-licker, the taste buds were equally in for a treat with another collaboration, this time with New Zealand's Garage Project for the 2016 Rainbow Project.  Blacklight Banana at a hefty enough 9.2% ABV has a lovely smokey aroma from the barrel aged coffee beans that lead into a subtly sweet molasses/banana combo upon tasting.  Crazy ingredients but wow do they work superbly.



Moving onto this year's pumpkin beers (or at least the ones that are available in Northern Ireland)... there aren't many.  I did a review of pumpkin beers a couple of years ago where I managed to track down five.  Alas this year I managed only two.  Thankfully my preference of the five was available again this time around - 7.2% ABV Stingy Jack by Beavertown.  What used to be a 660ml bottle is now a 330ml can and all the better for it.  Very fresh, slightly fruity with a sweet spiciness of maple syrup, nutmeg, clove and cinnamon.



Finally from New York, Brooklyn's 5% ABV Post Road Pumpkin Ale.  Nothing wrong with it, but it doesn't have that little punch of spicy excitement that comes with Stingy Jack.  A little nutmeg but a lot less boom for your buck.

Irish Golden Pints 2015

This is the first time I've nominated beers for the Golden Pints awards and I was initially torn between doing a UK list or Ireland list, then quickly realised I've had a lot more Irish beer this year than ones from England, Scotland or Wales.  So that's sorted then.  Also please remember when reading this that it's what I think.  You probably won't agree with a lot here but that's ok - next time you see me you can buy me a beer and we'll talk about it like reasoned adults. 

Best Irish Cask Beer - Farmageddon Mosaic IPA

Cask is a rarity in Ireland, north and south.  The best tasting cask beer I experienced this year was at the Belfast Beer and Cider Festival in November and goes to Farmageddon's Mosaic IPA.  A cracker of a beer, fresh, crisp, fruity and one of the few beers I tried more than thrice, ahem. 

Best Irish Keg Beer -  O Brother Brewing Brutus

My winner by a long way.  I fell in love with it at the Irish Craft Beer Festival in Dublin's RDS in August and I still love it.  Very much.  Also shout outs to The White Hag's Black Boar and 8 Degrees for their new Belgian stout, Signal.

Best Irish Bottled/Canned Beer - Galway Bay 200 Fathoms  

A Teeling Whiskey barrel aged imperial stout is right up my street.  Their chocolate milk stout Buried At Sea is also high up the list as is O'Haras Leann Folláin.

Best Overseas Draught - Brewdog IPA is Dead Citra

I'll class overseas as mainland GB in this list and first place goes go the juggernaut that is Brewdog, had in their self-named bar in Liverpool.  Titanic's Plum Porter and Fallen Brewing's Platform C are crackers too.

Best Overseas Bottle Beer - Williams Bros Froach 22

Loch Ness' 10%abv Double Cask Prince is fantastically smooth but it is pipped to the top spot by the 11%abv Williams Bros Froach 22, a heather ale matured in ex-sherry casks which were previously used to mature Auchentoshan single malt (it just sounds good!)

Best Overseas Canned Beer - Beavertown Gamma Ray

The two top spots here go to Beavertown from that there London town with the American pale ale Gamma Ray coming 1st.  Also look out for their stunning triple IPA Power of the Voodoo, it's a beezer.

Best Collaboration - Galway Bay Goodbye Blue Monday

Another winner for Galway Bay. Brewed in collab with Begyle Brewing from Chicago, it's a hoppy oatmeal IPA.

Best Overall Beer - Galway Bay 200 Fathoms

I've been dreading this category...but had to narrow it down to about 5.  And then 3. 

And then finally 200 Fathoms.  Maybe absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that guff but it pains me to have had it only once this year - I miss you 200F.

Best Branding - 8 Degrees

Respect is paid to Northern Ireland's two new publicly owned co-ops, Lacada and Boundary for having something different but the boys at 8 Degrees take the crown.

Best Pumpclip - O Brother's Brutus.  

Loved it.

Best Label - Red Hand Pale Ale

Small brewer Red Hand pale ale from Co Tyrone - a child's hand.  So simple.

Best Brewery - Galway Bay

Another one for the GB massive.  Although 8 Degrees and O Brother did run them close.

Best Overseas Brewery - Beavertown

Hmmm... Loch Ness, Isle of Skye and Brewdog are right up there but again it goes daaaaan saaaaf to that Landan taaaan brewery Beavertown.

Pub of the Year - Kiwi's Brew Bar, Portrush

I thought I'd venture out of a city and award this to a cracking wee bar with a really good range of bottles in a town not overly known for its craft beer selection. Plus it shows football on tv. Well done Kris and the team.

New Pub of the Year for 2015 - The Woodworkers, Belfast.  

Although it opened in December 2014, it's a winner here. Regular meet the brewer events, great rotating taps and a fantastic food selection to boot!

Best Festival - Irish Craft Beer Festival

Despite being involved in the Belfast Beer and Cider Festival my favourite festival of the year was the ICBF in the RDS in Dublin last August.  So many brewers selling their Irish beer, so many great food stalls out the back with ample seating and a good DJ doing his thang..

Supermarket of the Year - None

A lot of them are still quite rubbish so I'll pass on this until (some chance) they reach somewhere near the level of independents.

Independent Retailer of the Year - The Lighthouse

Within 10 miles of Belfast, it's this fantastic place in Whiteabbey. Also great to see others like The Vineyard, Gap Wines, Lavery's, Wineworks and Neill Wines have a wide ranging selection too. 

Online Retailer of the Year - www.drinkstore.ie

I've used a few but the winner is Drinkstore, primarily for their discount policy!

Best Beer Blog or Website - http://thebeernut.blogspot.co.uk

Always informative.

Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer

@thebeernut for his dry wit or @twattybeer (Twatty Beer Doodles)

Best Brewery Website/Social Media - ......

Anyone who doesn't retweet 50 fecking times a day. 

Pumpkin Beer

The Hallowe'en party time has come and gone and kids everywhere have thrown their manky old and wilted pumpkins in the bin.  But what else is a pumpkin good for apart from displaying on October 31st?  
Soup, stew, even ravioli.  What about ... beer? Now bear with me on this, don't screw your nose up like that.

One of my favourite Ulster beers is from Rathmullan in Co. Donegal, Kinnegar Brewing's Long Tongue - a pumpkin beer with added ginger. This review doesn't include that one as it's not yet on the shelves, will be soon though.

Over Hallowe'en I did manage to track down 5 pumpkin beers and here's what I thought of them.  (The quick review is Beavertown's Stingy Jack is the best by a county mile - the longer review is below)

 

TROUBLE BREWING'S PUMPKIN BREW (County Kildare)
4.5% abv
Red ale with strange spice mix.  Could have had more pumpkin flavour and also a bit too sweet for me.

BROOKLYN BREWERY'S POST ROAD (New York)
5% abv
More carbonated than Trouble Brewing and with slight nutmeg spice.  Very fresh and easily downed.

BEAVERTOWN BREWERY'S STINGY JACK (London)
7.2% abv
The Beavertown website website modestly states this as "The best damn spiced pumpkin ale you will ever sup on. Fact."  And batta bing, they're bang on the money.  This phenomenal beer is brewed with maple syrup, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, clove and cinnamon!  Hunt it down, buy a few and repeatedly enjoy.  Oh yes.

 

FLYING DOG BREWERY'S THE FEAR (Maryland, USA)
9.0% abv
The strongest of the lot here, this rich imperial porter does pack an alcohol punch.  In my opinion, the alcohol greatly overpowered the taste of any actual pumpkin.  Bit of a shame.  It was still a decent slightly spicy beer but fell short of tasting how a pumpkin beer should - that is - of pumpkins.

RED HAND BREWERY'S PUMPKIN ALE 
(Co. Tyrone)
4.5% abv
I first tried this just after Hallowe'en and I have to admit I wasn't impressed. Very sharp and bitter (Mrs W even made a comparison with TCP).  I tried another a few days later in case I had a bad bottle.  It was the same - so bad I had to throw it down the sink.  And I hate doing that.  
(Edit. Simon from Red Hand saw this review after publication and very kindly contacted me to apologise for the beer being off. It had obviously become infected and should not be been sold he said. Thank you for your honesty and kind apology.)

Anyway, I hope you had a good Hallowe'en and here's to enjoying the Kinnegar offering when it appears.

Cheers
Roy

www.twitter.com/roywillighan