La Fin Du Monde Craft Beer Tasting

Eric, Kevin and Marcus are blind tasting Unibroue La Fin Du Monde. This is one of our all time favorite beers.

Imperial IPA Taste Off, Oskar Blue Gubna & Southern Tier 2X

Get ready Kevin and Marcus are blind tasting two big IPA's. Today's lineup in Oskar Blues Gubna & Southern Tier 2X IPA. Both are awesome beers.

ST BOTOLPH'S TOWN Cask Ale at Aroma Thyme

Cask Beer Night is this Friday June 11th at Aroma Thyme Bistro in Ellenville NY. Our next cask beer is ST BOTOLPH'S TOWN - from Pretty Things. The cask is taped at 3pm and goes until it is empty.

This Yorkshire-inspired beer is a big malty brown ale fermented in open squares with Yorkshire malts and eclectic yeast strains. This is another of our year-round offerings.

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SAINT BOTOLPH'S TOWN - Rustic Dark Ale

When Martha and I began thinking about what type of beer to brew next for PRETTY THINGS, there was no discussion. In fact we've had it figured out for years. We both had our hearts set on brewing the sort of beer we loved so much in Yorkshire.

Many people know that Martha and I love Theakston's Old Peculier, at least the cask version. But Robinson's Old Tom is high on our list as well. Now that Samuel Smith has released Yorkshire Stingo that makes three. At the brewery where I worked in Yorkshire we made a unique beer called Morocco Ale that is quite similar as well.

Obviously PRETTY THINGS isn't all about simple replication. As a rule we don't do beer "styles" straight up, as it doesn't leave any room for creativity. Instead we take our inspiration from great beers as a starting point.

"Rustic Dark Ale", is about as apt a descriptor as we could come up with for Saint Botolph's Town (we almost used "New World Stingo" but decided to save that for a future beer). This ale is formulated with the malts of Thomas Fawcett & Sons of Yorkshire, England as its base. When I was brewing in Yorkshire I visited this magnificent maltings many times, seeing crystal and roasted malts still made by hand. On brew day their crystal malt gave an amazing golden raisin-like aroma in the kettle. Fantastic!

As we did in Jack D'Or, we used a small amount of Malted Oats, but cut it this time with Torrefied Wheat. We "chaptalized" using four different types of sugar in very small doses for both flavour AND colour. Lastly we employed some old world decoction-like techniques to give this beer malty sweetness and aging characteristics it would never have had otherwise.

In the Yorkshire tradition, SBT is fermented in open squares, with two yeast strains for a unique rustic finish. But it's in the yeast strains where this beer really departs from the typical: one is a German ale strain, the other is a common Belgian strain. Why? Because it's about the flavour, not just ticking the "style" boxes.

In the end we have an ale of 5.7% abv with a big malty, almost smokey Black Malt character, a bitter attack from First Gold hops, a rich barleymalt finish and an old ale tartness around the edges. We've even timed its tan head, standing proud for ten minutes!

The name "Saint Botolph's Town" is in tribute to our great home in America: Boston. The original Boston in Lincolnshire, England is an abbreviation of "Botolph's Town" or "Botolph's Stone". When we were back in Yorkshire recently, we found a churchyard where St. Botolph spoke in the year 675; a 'stump' (broken old cross) marks the spot. Saint Botolph is a 7th century saint from England whose feast day is June 17th. Perhaps a great day to save a bottle or two for!

Southern Tier Back Burner Barley Wine & Brooklyn Monster 2007 Tasting and Review

Southern Tier Back Burner Barley Wine Tasting and Review with Marcus & Kevin.

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My Chef H Rating System

100pts perfection, most likey not available because I will try to buy everything that is available
95-99- this beer rocks, go out of your way to get some
90-94- awesome beer all around
85-89- solid beer, but maybe lacking one quality like finish, body, nose
80-84- depending on the price it's a toss up. This beer is just ok and may be lacking two qualities like finish, body and/or nose
70-79- not recommended, has no like-able qualities
under 69- just a mistake or maybe stored wrong. off notes and you will most likely pour it down drain