Please don't Kill These Darlings

This is my first blog in about a month, I’ve been moving house and a few other things going on which have distracted me from spewing my thoughts on ale into the blogosphere, but do not fear I’ve still been drinking, heavily. Sixteen new beverages have made it onto my spreadsheet but I’m only going to pick out five of them that have really stood out for me in terms of quality.

Thornbridge Kill Your Darlings, 5.0%

Kill Your Darlings is Thornbridge’s take on the Vienna style lager and I must say there marketing spiel on the label is very polished and explains away the name ‘the term Kill Your Darlings is used by writers to describe the painful process of cutting cherished characters or scenes which don’t serve their overall story. This captures out brewing spirit and asks us not to be too precious about beer’. It pours a darkish copper with a nice white creamy head, a sweet fragrance with some subtle spice and maybe a little honey, to taste there are crisp malt breadiness with some sweetness very refreshing and full bodied with a snappy  dry finish. Well let’s hope this doesn’t get cut from Thornbridge’s repertoire as I love this lager and its one of the few I regularly order, 8.75/10.

Alechemy Cockleroy Black IPA, 4.8%

Alechemy technically have two breweries in West Lothian, Scotland one is their 1650 litre (10BBL) main plant and there is a smaller test and special batch plant of 100 litres (0.5BBL). First of all I must say I like the label design on this bottle, no walls of text here just strong design and quite a lot of information about the beer itself and where the name ‘Cockleroy’ comes from which is a local landmark bearing a Bronze Age hill fort (this fits with Alechemy’s naming convention of local landmarks). The beer pours a very dark brown, with a nice lacy white head, aroma of citrus and burnt malts, the taste has flavours of grapefruit and pine but with a backbone of chocolaty malts and is well hopped with a clean slightly bitter finish. A real contender for my favourite Black IPA, 8.25/10.

Victory Golden Monkey, 9.5%

Victory Brewing Company operate out of Pennsylvania, USA where they have a 300 seat restaurant and a full on brewery, this is a Belgian style tripel and pours a deep yellow with a hefty head which receded a little to begin with but then held at one finger. The Belgian yeast imparts spice and a little fruitiness to go with cloves and banana notes, the taste was sweet with more banana and cloves with an intrinsic slight level spice on a backbone of malts, a really pleasant mouthfeel and I found it very smooth and drinkable, 8.5/10.

Redchurch Old Ford Export Stout, 7.5%

This is the first of a series of special edition brews from Redchurch according to their website, brewed in Bethnal Green in East London, Redchurch make some cracking beer and I particularly enjoyed their Hoxton Stout a few months ago (read about that brew here). The Old Ford pours an impenetrable dark, dark brown with a nice tan head, I got aromas of dark chocolate, roasted caramel, and a little coffee. To taste it begins with big flavours of coffee followed up by sweet dark chocolate and then a complex bitter sweet ending with a really smooth mouthfeel. Such a well balanced stout which never lets any of its big flavours overpower each other, 8.75/10.

Einstok Icelandic White Ale, 5.2%

Einstok’s labelling make me want to go Iceland even more than I want to already (which is a lot), hailing from the North of the Iceland in Akureyri they have a motto which I spied on their website of “Drink, Conquer, Repeat”. The Icelandic White Ale pours a hazy yellow with a tight white head, a yeasty and sweet aroma with essences of coriander, lemon and orange. To taste the White Ale you get a little bit of sweetness and spice combined with yeast and fruit which is taken over by the orange peel flavours, a citrus aftertaste and a wholesome mouthfeel complete this refreshing, excellent ale, 8/10.