We’ve got another unusually structured review for the beers this month, firstly in part down to the addition of another fantastic local bottle shop, but also due to a generous donation from a brewery for a review of one of their limited release ales, which I will go into a little more depth with compared to my usual summations. Firstly, let’s go back to my first reason for the restructure; another great bottle shop in West Lancashire, Holborn Cask Ales in Ormskirk. The shop has been around for a few years and was set up in conjunction with the Belpasso Wine and Oil shop on the same business park, whilst it indulges mainly in wholesale business, the shop is open to the public too and as a result, in a position to provide quite an impressive range along with some very reasonable pricing. Speaking to the proprietor, Ian McClelland, he is looking to ever expand the range of beers he gets onto the shelves, along with a doubling of size of the shopfloor he wants to take on some more unique and local stock. The shelves are shared with an impressive selection of wines and spirits; leaving plenty of scope for stocking up on party supplies. The pricing is very, very fair thanks to the nature of the business run at Holborn, you can easily pick up a large range of impressive beers for under £20. The brewery range is very impressive, boasting the likes of Thornbridge, Buxton, Flying Dog, Ludlow, Bank Top, Coniston, Hawkshead, Salopian, Roosters along with some less well-known Italian craft beers and continental lagers and ales. It is very easy to lose a lot of time agonising at Holborn’s premises, in time it seems it will only get harder, with Ian looking to add many more London breweries to a growing roster. So on with the bottle round up, although an additional aspect of the blog this month is a bottle I was given for review… it’s actually first in the line up this month… Meantime Brewery – Barrel Aged IPA Much has been made of the takeover of Meantime by SAB Miller, though there are plenty of articles out there covering the transition, we’ll concentrate on the release of this limited release IPA from the Greenwich based brewery. Firstly I have to thank a friend who works for Meantime for procuring this and giving me the opportunity to review the IPA, so cheers! This barrel-aged IPA is a 7.5% strength effort which pour a dark golden to light and red-brown colour crested with an off-white head. The carbonation is good, as would be expected for a cork-cage bottle. The aromas come in a markedly sweet set; brown sugar, honey, touches of wood, especially cedar are accompanied by a confected golden syrup note. The sweetness trend continues with the flavours, translating into prunes and figs with a touch of vanilla and a surprisingly light and creamy body for such an ale. Sadly it doesn’t really deliver on what it sets out to do; there is little hop presence in the aroma for what should be quite a bitter and possibly pronounced IPA. The finish is very boozy, akin to a fortified wine and pretty sweet, meaning the balance isn’t quite right here. In its own right, this would make a good dessert beer with certain puddings, but for a barrel aged IPA something is amiss, definitely short on bittering hops and hop aroma. I invited a few other writers to share this bottle with me; the response was mixed, but the outcome comments all similar; maybe longer needed in the barrel and the use of more hops? On with the regular tasting…
Hope you enjoyed the read this month guys, see you again soon! Pedro. ------------------------------------------------------------- Holborn Cask Ales Unit 4G Malthouse Business Centre Ormskirk L39 1QR Tel: 01695 577016 Twitter: https://twitter.com/holborncaskales
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