Malt Fascination

In my recent surge of beer-drinking I could not just taste different BrewDog beers without giving some attention to the other ‘dog’ that’s rather easily to get. Flying Dog is an American brewery, and one of the few Americans that is available in the Netherlands, and affordable. Of course, cooled urine like Budweiser is not counted…

Doggie Style – Classic pale ale
A very classic beer indeed. A traditional ale, but better. The carbonation is a lot better compared to the factory made version you get in pubs and not as thick as (for example) Newcastle Brown. Better than regular ale, but not stellar.

In Heat – Hefe weize
Well, its hefe weize. A craft beer that is very easily obtainable as a craft beer. Not as good as Weihenstephaner. Rather crisp but very heavy on the wheat. A hint of acidity to make this a true summer brew. It ticks all the boxes.

Tire Bite – Golden ale
This is the one that taste most like lager. It is a bit heavier on the palate and flavours that you expect in a lager (but rarely find, nowadays) are there and bit more pronounced than I’m used to. Which is good. Quite malty and refreshing. Dangerously drinkable. The flavour is less beery than it smells, the maltiness is accompanied by some herbs and spices. Not sweet, with a rather short finish.

Bloody awful labels, though…

I recently ordered some samples from the SMWS. They have their own sampling system from which you can order 2cl of almost all bottles they have available. The price is rather high, though, so its still practical to organize Bottle-Shares of their whiskies every now and then. More on that in a later post.

35.48 – Coffee Kisses and Cappuchino, 59.3%, 10yo, first fill barrel (Glen Moray)
A mountain of citrus fruits is what I get at first. Slightly sweet with lots of lemon and lime. Some banana as well, but not much wood. I don’t get the coffee at all. Light peppery on the palate, chili peppers. Its a real fruit bomb, with a hint of singed wood. The finish gives a bit more vanilla with spicy salsa and orange. A rather simple whisky, but the flavours that are there, are tremendous. Loving this!

93.42 – Explosion in a honey factory, 59.1%, 11yo, Refill Sherry Butt (Glen Scotia)
A very heavy, nutty scent with soaked old barley. Those plastic crusts around Gouda cheese. The taste is rather sharp, somewhat industrial with ‘sponge’. Its very dry. The finish is long with a hint of peach. It coats your mouth. Not my cup of tea, a bit too heavy on the nuts.

41.44 – Wildflowers in the warehouse, 53.8%, 25yo, Refill Hogshead (Dailuaine)
This starts off a bit similar to the Scotia. Quite fierce, with mostly old moldy wood. Also some nuttiness. The taste is dry, and quite strong with chili pepper. A warming finish can’t really save this dram. I expected a lot more from this.

31.20 – Cornish pasty and plasterboard, 53.4%, 21yo, Refill Bourbon Hogshead (Isle of Jura)
This starts all very quietly, but you get the feeling there’s something going to happen. A massive bonfire is an afterthought, but the smoke gets there before the heat does. Tea with a hint of lemon. Lapsang Souchong with wet straw. Also some chipboard. The taste is rather peppery and spicy, quite fierce and a little dry. Still lemon on the background. Quite smoky with again the smoked tea. A little bit more vanilla and sweetness than on the nose. The finish has some lemon sweets but those are gone in a second. After that it gets quite heavy. A very nice surprise dram from Jura!

Several months ago at a BYO tasting my whisky friend Bas gave me 5 samples of American whiskies. He only numbered them and gave a sheet of paper with their names on it, so I could decide for myself whether to taste them after looking at the make and model, or to do that blind.

#1: Clarke’s Westpoint, 40%, Aldi Germany
A supermarket bourbon, as it appears. Quite spicy on the nose with a high rye content, I think. Corn and pink peppercorns. Liquorice and something floral as well. The flavour is not really fierce, light sweetness and some spices. The finish has some strawberries, and the pepperiness is gone quickly. The taste lingers for some time.

#2: Blanton’s Silver Edition, 49%, Barrel 234 dumped on 28 August 2006 
Less peppery than Clarke’s, a bit sweeter but rather thin. There is a certain crispness to it with black pepper and clove. The flavour is rather spicy with chilli peppers, sharp and dry. Some pear as well. Lots of stuff going on. The finish is beefy with sweet spices. Not fruity at all. Cherry seeds.

#3: Blanton’s Straight from the barrel, 65.45%, Barrel 87 dumped on 7 November 2005
Very hot, but also a bit musty. There are some factory smells with oils and machinery. Dark cocoa en chives… The flavour has mocha, mole and the sweetness comes second place after the spiciness. Some wood as well. A long finish, again, very spicy but the heat is gone rather quickly.

#4: Elijah Craig 18yo, Single barrel, 45%, Barrel  2783 barreled on January 3rd 1991
I get a hit of creme brulee right away, cigars and nuts as well. Dry autumn leaves with crushed black pepper. It starts of rather light on the palate but it builds some heat quickly. Pepper, cream and vanilla. Lots of spices and a tad dry. The finish has sweet red fruit, strawberry, clove, cinnamon and pepper.

#5: Old Quaker 4yo, 43%, 70s, discontinued.
A crisp but intense bourbon smell hits me right away, even when I’m just pouring and not even sniffing yet. Corny sweetness with clove and rye. Light cigars and heavy cloying vanilla, fudge and caramel. On the palate its a bit more smooth, but still full flavoured. Summer fruits but not without some spices to add a little heat. Not as sweet as expected, which is good. The finish is long and beautiful and builds in power. Lots of herbs and spices here.

My findings:

• I have to adjust my opinion of Elijah Craig 18 from an average dram to a top bourbon.
• I’m still no fan of Blanton’s.
• I love bourbons from times gone by.
• I might have to drop by an Aldi store in Germany.

What does that mean, I hear you asking. ZaanDram is something I’ve been thinking about for some time now. It was one of the whisky projects I planned for myself to take on in 2011. It is a whisky club I am starting in my home area.

I live in Krommenie, which is part of Zaanstad just north of Amsterdam. For some reason there are 150,000 people here and no whisky club. Tastings usually sell out quickly, so there  are quite some enthousiasts, but no one has done anything to put these people together.

The club is still ‘under construction’, but there is already a small website running where I plan to update people every now and then on the progress there has been made. Also, it will be a portal for members, discussions and the agenda of planned activities.

I am planning to use the summer to get some publicity and to lure people to the first ‘meeting’ somewhere at the end of August or early September. Not the ideal time of year to do so, but if I didn’t start now, I’ll never get around to it.

I will post updates here every now and then on the progress I am making (or hoping to make, for that matter…).

Yesterday there was another Twitter Tasting hosted in the Netherlands. Those seem to really be picking up. Not that I mind, of course. This time it was organized by DH17 Slijterijen, with whiskies from Erik Molenaar‘s Kintra Whisky brand. Erik started his own indie bottler company a few years ago and has been rather popular since. These were my first encounters with his brand.

Dalmore 11, Refill Sherry Butt, 6-4-1999 – 4-2-2011, 57.2%
It starts of with a blast of alcohol, which is no surprise. After that nectarine and apricot, quite nutty as well with macademia and Brazil nut. The flavour is rather similar but hints at dried fruits as well with raisins and peach. I also get a lot of unripe pear from this one. The finish is somewhat ‘warmer’ with more dried fruits and a bit more wood as well. Rather NOT like regular Dalmores, which I do not consider a bad thing. Never been a big fan…

Ardmore 18, Ex-bourbon Hogshead, 25-6-1992 – 4-2011 , 49.8%
At first I get a hint of aceton but that is quickly replaced with a mountain of sweet heather and quite some peatsmoke. The wet peat kind. Dried orange and lemon. Lavender as well. I fell in love with the nose of this one. The flavour is rather dry, with lemons, a hint of vanilla, liquorice, lavender and white pepper. Grilled apple and pineapple. The finish hints at a little fishiness. Smoked and salted salmon on the grill. Love it!

Tamdhu 20, First Fill Sherry butt, 1990-2011, 48.1%
This stands out immediately with huge hints of typical sherry scents. Raisins, a hint of sweet molasse, simple syrup and mixed nuts. Also a strong association with old tawny port. A lot of fudge as well! The mouth feel is a little rubbery, but mind, that is the feel and NOT the flavour! Quite some european oak, fudge and dried fruits. Plums, apricots, raisins. The finish has grilled banana, fudge and that tawny port again.

A very fine tasting indeed! It started off with a heavy hitter, which might be up for debate to do so, but the flavours were not as intense as in the latter two. I loved the Ardmore the most, closely followed by the Tamdhu. The Dalmore didn’t really work for me. Not a bad whisky at all, but not something I spend my money on.

This is a very, very rare thing. A single blend is not unheard of, since you can buy a bottle of Loch Lomond Single Blend for about 15 euros, but from Lochside, its another story. There has only been one release of this ever, and not even by Lochside themselves, but from Scott’s Selection.

Single Blend means that both the grain whisky and the single malt whisky come from the same distillery. There are not that many distilleries that are able to distill both save Loch Lomond and Ben Nevis.

A blend, distilled and blended in 1964, this has been marrying in casks for 42 years before being bottled. It took me sometime to track a sample of this down, but Govert van Bodegom, one of the Longmorn Brothers, was able to supply me with a drop.

Nose:
European oak with a hint of cheese. A pretty heavy nose, but there is a light hint in the background. My guess is the lightness is the part of the grain whisky, the oak and heaviness part of the single malt. Candles with fruit and some flowers.

Taste:
A very full flavour with a hint of burnt caramel. Lots of stewed fruits with some treacle, cinnamon and nutmeg. Plums, peaches, raisins, you name it.

Finish:
The finish gets even more fruity than the taste was. It also turns quite creamy with vanilla cream, creme brulee and crema Catalana.

This is a very, very nice dram. Shame there is only so little of it available. I still hope to encounter a bottle of this at some point, and I probably will buy it, if I can. It used to  be available for about (I thought, don’t know for sure) 150 euros.

Lochside Single Blend, Scott’s Selection, 1964-2006, 42yo, 47.7%.

Nose: 8
Taste: 9
Finish: 10
Overal experience: 10
Price/quality: +1

Total: 38 points

During the months of 2010 this blog was running I kept closing in on 1,000 visitors per month. In November and December I crossed that mark. Not expecting things to keep that up-and-running, I set a target for myself to have 12,000 visitors in 2011, in total.

Yesterday, I crossed that mark, with about 55% of the year still ahead of me. Yesterday was also the busiest day this little blog has ever seen with 290 visitors in total. My busiest day last year was the day I posted my top 10 CDs of 2010. Yesterday’s post was about beer. I might have picked the wrong topic to blog about!

Tonight I think I’m going to celebrate the 12,000 hits the blog has seen with a nice dram of something kick-ass that’ll show up here later this week.

Everyone who has contributed in one way or another to this blog becoming what it is, thanks a million!

Recently I contacted Jolanda at Drinks & Gifts to see what BrewDog beers she had available. It turned out she had a 4 pack of single hop India Pale Ales called IPA is Dead. Of course, I felt obliged to try them and here are my findings.

First of all, IPA. India Pale Ale. It is called that because regular beer didn’t last long enough to be sailed to England’s colony in India, and they had to find a way to adjust the brew to last months in a ship. They adjusted the ABV slightly upward and added a lot more hops to make it last and the style of beer kind of took of. It still is available while the empire has been in decline for a long time.

Nelson Sauvin
The first beer is very fruity to start with, almost tropical. Slightly more sour scents after a minute with a very clear hoppy influence. Slightly mineral and quite a bit of cereal. The flavour is a bit more warming and full. Sickly sweet fruit and a slight lack of crispness. Cherries?

Soraci Ace
A lot more crisp with apple and pear scents. Less in acidity and cereal. It has a bit of a Sauvignon Blanc feeling to it with a bit of a burnt scent. The taste is quite contrary to what I expected with a viscous taste. A lot sweeter than the scent made me expect.

Citra
A lot lighter in colour is the first thing that stand out to me. The previous two were almost Irn Bru coloured. The sweetness of this one is more of a doughy kind with a hint of mango. Not as sweet though. A slight bitter hint that I expected with hoppy beers. The flavour is full and long with a light sweetness. More beery…

Bramling X
Bitter and sweet. Beer. This one smells like it really is a factor that holds the other ones together. It has the fruityness of the Soraci Ace and the Nelson Sauvin with the bitter of the Citra. It adds its own hoppyness to get even better. Lots of barley! The flavours continues this with a slight stickyness and very high quality barley.

After I had all four of them over a course of 6 hours, I still felt slightly buzzy, but in a good way. The order I picked at random kept giving me better beers, which I kind of liked. The one that most surprised me was the Soraci Ace, since the nose and the flavour were a bit contradictory at first. Bramling X is just a kick-ass beer, but I think I prefer the combined hops to the sinlge hop varieties.

Of course, the trip to Scotland a week ago couldn’t have passed without me sipping some nice drams here and there. Although I didn’t do too many whisky related things, I still managed to have a few very nice whiskies, most of them at the SMWS at Queen Street, Edinburgh.

Tomatin 17, 56.4%, 1989, WM Cadenhead’s Authentic Collection
Mostly almond and tropical fruit with a gentle and light nose. Some sirupy sweetness. The palate burnt like a bonfire and the alcohol was very prominent. Mango and other soft fruits. The finish was a bit more gentle and that gave a somewhat more mature feeling to the whisky.

44.49 (?) Lamb chops, mint sauce and blueberries. 11yo, refill ex-sherry butt. 57.7%
Not sure if it was this bottling of 44, but it was a 44…
Sweet citrus, orange, blood orange and light creamy milk chocolate. Quite some malt as well. The palate was rather fierce, very dry and very fruity. The long finish gave me flavours of sweet lemon and some European oak.

35.52, Lush, Divine and Exotic. 34yo, refill ex-bourbon hogshead. 52.3%
Fudge and toffee at first, carrot cake and orchard fruits like pear and apple. Gets more woody as you go along. The flavour gave me leather and wax, dry and quite crisp with fudge, caramel and gets quite thick after a minute. The finish is very nice with fruitcake and hinted at a dry fruitiness that you can get from white wine. A very, very good dram!

23.68, Smoky Pavlova. 8yo, refill ex-sherry butt. 66%
Very sweet on the nose with caramel, warm sugar and quite some smoke. The taste is very dry, with bonfire flavours as well as straw and field flowers. The sweetness comes after that. The finish is dry and fiery, quite long with a smoky sweetness and those burnt pavlova bits.

I still regret not getting a bottle of the 35.52, but I would have had to go to Leith, since it wasn’t available downtown. Maybe next time!