I bought my son a present for Christmas, a beer
tasting evening contrasting real ales with craft beers. As he is a young
impressionable lad of sometimes-questionable opinions, I felt obliged to offer
him guidance and accompany him on this evening of beer tasting.
It was a really cold evening in Leeds and we were
early, this was the first of our really hard decisions. I was strong armed into
a local hostelry for a pint of Terrier from the York Brewery. Prior to that my
son had already lost his footing on the ice, and that was before any beer had
ben imbibed.
The tasting was another evening hosted by Laura of Yorkshire Wine, branching out this time into her true love – beer. There were around twenty hardy souls gathered at the Radisson Hotel, a further eight or nine had failed to make it through the icy weather. I am not being glib, but that meant more beer for the rest of us. It was a really mixed crowd, with some beer buffs (beards compulsory) to people who had come along for an interesting evening.
The India Pale Ale was not a surprise as IPA is one
of my favourite brews, particularly in summer. In truth both the traditional
brew from Burton-on-Trent and the more modern brew from Manchester were really
good beers. The old ales were much more clear-cut. Theakstons Old Peculiar is a
very traditional ale brewed in Masham, North Yorkshire, one of my favourite
drinks. Interestingly it is called Peculiar because Masham is a parish, which
does not belong to a diocese, so is known as a Peculiar. It was pitched against
a modern Christmas ale from Ilkely that I thought was really unpleasant. It
conforms to my rule that you should not add foreign bodies to beer.
The stout tasting gave me a real discovery, we drank Imperial
Russian Stout, so called because these beers were exported to Russia and were
rumoured to be a favourite of Catherine the Great. I can only say that this
beer was stupendous just a fantastic drink, the only problem is the strength –
a small bottle would be enough for me. So if you can get yourself down the
Northern Monk Brewery in Leeds to buy a bottle. Finally there were the milk
stouts including a Mackeson. The least said about this classification the
better.
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