Pete Drinks: Three B's Knocker Up

Name: Three B's Brewery Knocker Up Porter

ABV: 4.8%

Bottled/ Draft: Bottled, conditioned

Colour: Deep, deep ruby

Head: Lingers like sea foam

Mouthfeel: Big, firm body

Taste: Deep roasted malt, almost syrupy.

Comment: This is a big headed beer - in a good way. I've got some small experience of pouring beer out of bottles, but even being careful I ended up with something like an 80% head in the glass! It's not so wildly enthusiastic that it escapes the bottle, and with some patience it settles down and leaves a wonderful looking foam cap.

Lots of rich chocolate malt on the nose and thick, sweet chocolaty malt on the tongue with a little subtle hoppiness. It's a wonderful porter with the sort of deep, rich sweetness that I love - surprisingly deep for something which is only 4.8%.

Very taste, very easy drinking, and very regrettable that I only bought one bottle.

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Pete Drinks: Islay Ales' Bruichladdich 2008 Peat Ale #OpenIt

 

As a natural hoarder, I tend to have quite a few beers (and other drinks!) lurking in the back of cupboards, either being saved for a "special occasion" or because I'm just never in quite the right mood for it. It turns out that I'm not alone in this, because Mark Dredge over at Pencil and Spoon came up with the very sensible idea of creating a special occasion just for opening those bottles. He calls this community blog project OpenIt!

My OpenIt!, then, is Islay Ales' Bruichladdich 2008 Peat Ale, a 7.6%, bottle conditioned beer brewed especially for the Fèis Ìle – Islay's annual week long whisky and music festival. As I'm a huge Islay whisky fan, Kavey took me to Islay for my birthday a few years ago, which rather handily falls in Fèis Ìle. We returned for a second visit 2 years ago, again during the festival. Being a big beer fan as well, I had to visit the only brewery on the island, and came home with a couple of bottles of this very unique beer.

First, a quick whisky lesson. Whisky is, essentially, distilled beer. They make a beer, only rather than pouring it into casks and bottles, they put it into stills instead. Unlike for beer, the barley used for whisky is traditionally dried and malted over peat fires, which is what leads to the smokiness which is especially evident in Islay whiskies.

Islay Ales have developed a tradition of brewing a Peat Ale for the annual Fèis Ìle using malt that has had the heavy "peating" treatment usually reserved for whisky making, rather than regular beer-making malts. The result is a strong, smoke-filled brew which evokes more mental images of distilleries than of breweries.

On opening, it's quickly overflowing the bottle; it's a very lively beer - no doubt because it's 18 months past it's best before date. It pours a little murky, with the rather appropriate colour of a light Bruichladdich whisky; the head is fine and frothy with plenty of fine bubbles still rising. The smell is overpoweringly smoky, of bonfires but with a definite sweet malt underneath.

In the mouth, it's got a good firm body to it; the smoke is still pretty intense, lingering past most of the other flavours. The malt is sweet and subtle, and there's a real citrus lime tang with a dryness that leads into the smoke. It really doesn't taste like the 7.6% on the bottle. What it does taste like is that you're sipping a rather interesting beer whilst stood next to the peat fires of a distillery's malting floor.

It's a very odd beer, which I didn't particularly like when I originally tried it - and to be fair, I can still see why. The smoke is overpowering, and it comes dangerously close to tasting like some tyke has put out his cigar in your beer. It's *almost* delicious, and if they can cut back just a touch on the peat I'd be begging them to brew it all year around. Seems like a reason (if I needed one) to get back to Islay for another festival!

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Chocolate Roundup: New Finds

I've encountered several new chocolate producers in the last couple of months – some at Chocolate Unwrapped, some in the prizes our team won at the Big Chocolate Quiz, some through chocolate-loving friends and some when the producers or their PRs have contacted me to offer review samples. I thought I'd post a round up of some those I've reviewed recently.

Cacao Sampaka

Founded in Spain (by, amongst others, Albert Adrià, brother of Ferran) Cacao Sampaka "control the whole process of manufacturing from the selection of the cocoa beans through to the packaging of the product".

In Spain, they sell a wider range of producs, including an intriguing collection of single origin cocao bars. In the UK, it seems they are pushing their creative products, featuring an "eclectic" range of chocolate products which incorporate such flavours as pepper, coffee, aniseed, saffron, jasmine tea, mandarin and liquorice.

I didn't buy as much chocolate as you might imagine at Chocolate Unwrapped, but one that I did hand over hard cash for was Sampaka's blackberry dark chocolate bar, after tasting samples. Twice.

I also really liked the freeze fried raspberries coated in white and then dark chocolate. The combination of fruity sharpness, white chocolate sweetness and dark chocolate bitterness with the mix of textures was just amazing.

Having had a chat with their UK director, Vipan Bij, I'm hoping to meet with him again soon and bring you more information about this producer.

Go*Do

Hailing from Italy, Go*Do launched into the UK in September of this year, hoping to find a strong market for their organic, 35 gram bars of chocolate, currently available in just 6 flavours. Their website says all the right things about quality, environmental respect, ethical trading and an impressive bean to bar traceability.

My favourite was the 60% Dark Espresso Coffee which has lovely crunchy bits of (presumably) coffee beans in a dark chocolate that's sweet enough to offset the coffee. My friend, Matt, who took part in one of my tasting sessions, also really liked it and declared it "proper coffee" as he smiled and nodded in a spaced out, dreamy way! But husband Pete's reaction was that "someone dropped some ground coffee into some chocolate – this is not a good thing". Ignore him, though because I loved it!

Another one I liked a lot was the 60% Dark Sicilian Almond. The same sweet, dark chocolate with a really generous portion of good quality whole almonds. They gave a lovely crunch and flavour. My only niggle is that I found the bar a little too sweet overall.

The Organic White Chocolate Vanilla bar drew some interesting reactions. It was far too sweet for me but I'm not a fan of white chocolate. But Pete is and he had the following to say: "It's too sweet… has a nice creamy texture… vanilla doesn't come through as much as I expected given the visible flecks in it. It tastes rather like a Milky Bar, which is no bad thing, but I imagine it's probably more expensive!" Matt, who wasn't present when Pete first tasted and commented, came to exactly the same conclusion, happily exclaiming "it's a Milky Bar!" So if you like Milky Bars, but are looking for higher production values and an organic product, this one is for you.

The other bars are milk chocolate, dark chocolate and milk chocolate with hazelnuts.

Devnaa

Devnaa sell "Indian inspired confectionary".

Launched by brother and sister team, Jay and Roopa Rawal, the business puts to use their knowledge of authentic Indian cuisine and combines it with modern chocolate making.

They sell chocolate bars and chocolate truffles in a range of different flavours and kindly sent me two of their bars to review.

The packaging is very pretty and I like the mango-paisley design. I'm also rather taken with the Indian sayings along the sides of the bars, translated into English along the opposite edges.

Their Honey and Almond is far too sweet for me. There are hardly any almonds, especially compared to the Go*Do almond bar above. Certainly, no almond flavour is evident at all. My friend Matt says that his first thought is of Lockets, the honey and lemon throat lozenges. The honey flavour I didn't detect comes through for him as he lets the chocolate melt slowly in his mouth. But he agrees with me that there's very little almond coming through.

I like the Milk Chocolate Chai Masala With a Hint of Ginger much more. The chai masala flavour comes through immediately and clearly. The ginger hits the back of the throat after. Both balance nicely with the milk chocolate. But the spices give the chocolate a gritty texture – they need to be far more finely ground. Matt also likes the flavours and doesn't mind the grainy texture, which he also detects. Pete pronounces that "chai masala tastes like Camden". By which, we eventually discover, he means that it tastes like Camden smells in a hippy incense kind of way. Alright, then!

On this sample of two, it's a hard call to come to a conclusion about Devnaa. You'll have to try for yourself and let me know what you think.

Certainly, Indians have a very sweet tooth indeed (as you'll know if you've tried many Indian sweets and desserts) and this definitely comes through in these chocolates. Perhaps they are formulated for a different target market?

Betty's Handmade Chocolates

This little box of Betty's Chocolates was my share of a prize bag won in a chocolate quiz.

The business was founded over 90 years ago by Frederick Belmont. He left his home in Switzerland for France, where he learned the art of chocolate making, before continuing to England where he ended up in Yorkshire (by accident!) and stayed. At first, he worked for a Swiss confectionery business in Bradford but his skills soon lead to a job as Farrah's continental chocolate advisor. Finally, more than 10 years after he came to England, he opened up his first Betty's Café Tea Rooms and shop. From there he sold his own chocolates and confectionary as well as the normal tea rooms fare.

Three generations later, so the website tells me, the family business continues to make fine quality chocolate, or so they claim…

And rightly so. Fine, it certainly is!

I thoroughly enjoyed my selection, especially the raspberry ganache truffle, which was beautifully balanced. The chocolate and fruit flavours lingered in my mouth for ages afterwards, in a very satisfying way.

Plus, I think the packaging is beautiful, and would make an absolutely lovely stocking filler.

Rococo Chocolates

Well, of course, I already knew Rococo and have tried a number of their bars and chocolates over the years. However, a lovely birthday gift box from a dear friend contained a bag of their Chicchi di Caffe, coffee-flavoured dark chocolate beans, which I had not seen before. I absolutely loved these (and just bought myself some more at the recent Taste of Christmas show). They are firmly on my wish list, should any kind person be wanting to treat me to chocolates this Christmas! ;)

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Pete Drinks: Bristol Beer Factory Tour-At-Home

I so enjoyed my first Tour-At-Home, working though Marble's beers, that it inspired me to do more in depth explorations of breweries.

I've been following the Bristol Beer Factory on Twitter for a little while, so when I stumbled across some of their bottles in Borough Market (at the excellent Utobeer stall, run by the owners of The Rake, a fantastic real ale pub just outside the Market) I grabbed one of everything they had - four different bottles, which represents round half of the brewery's bottled offerings.

As before, I've tried to arrange the beers in a reasonably sensible order, from light to dark rather than in strength order.

We start with "No. 7", a traditional English best bitter at 4.5%. Deep amber in colour, it pours with a nicely lingering, frothy head. It has a deliciously caramel or toffee nose on it which leads you into a sweet malt taste, with a tasty, lingering hoppy bitterness that balances it out perfectly. This is the only beer of the four which appears not to be bottle conditioned; there is a little fizz present, but it's well controlled and actually adds to the beer. All round, this does exactly what it says on the bottle - it's a very traditional style best bitter, and it's delicious. It's also going down at an alarming rate.

Next up, Bristol Hefe, a 4.8% German-style wheat beer. Before I get into the taste of this beer, can I just say that although I love my beer to be alive (we're now into the bottle conditioned beers), I am less enthusiastic about a beer that literally leaps out of the bottle when I try to open it. I lose a good two inches of beer in an admittedly pleasant smelling spray across the kitchen that I then have to waste time mopping up. Beer shouldn't be this lively.

Ok, rant over.

In the glass, it's a very murky pale gold; it looks rather like set honey. Wheat beers tend to be murky, and the beer explosion probably mixed in the yeast to a huge extent too. The head is little more than a smear, which considering the volume of foam I just had to wipe up is surprising. It smells exactly as a wheat beer should; yeasty and sweet - and there's something else, almost pine needles. On drinking, I'm glad to see the foam hasn't gone completely to waste and there's lots of champagne-like bubbles filling the mouth. It's tangy, with hints of citrus orange and even zest. I'm not really getting the banana notes that the bottle (and every other review!) suggests, but maybe that's just me. Even so, it's a very good example of a wheat beer - I just wish more of it had ended up in my glass and less on my floor.

On to Exhibition, a classic, strong, dark English Ale coming in at 5.2%. This sounds right up my street, but I open it very cautiously over the sink after my fun with the Hefe. It turns out my paranoia is unwarranted; the beer is virtually flat and pours with no head at all. It has a deep, dark red tone to it and smells wonderful; rich, sweet coffee and dark chocolate malt. It tastes just as good; bitter chocolate, a hint of coffee, roasted almost burnt sugar, and dark fruits. It's not as flat on the tongue as it looks in the glass either; there's some nice gentle bubbles lurking there. It's not as sweet as the nose suggests, and with a lighter body than you might expect from such a dark ale. Very tasty; I can see how it's won awards!

Lastly, Bristol Stout, at 4%. Another relatively flat pouring beer; black as a stout should be and virtually no head. A big nose of deeply roasted malts, perhaps a little less complex than the Exhibition. On tasting, it's another light body. The roast is still there but not so much else. There's a distinct bitter tail to it, but it takes some time to kick in - it's rather odd, the beer starts out with a fairly simple roasted maltiness and it's not until you've swallowed that you suddenly get this quite heavy bitterness jumping up at you. It's quite a nice beer, but it's not as heavy as I expect a stout to be and that big bitter tail is unusual.

Overall, a very interesting collection of beers; tasty and well crafted, and I'll certainly be keeping an eye open for their many other beers the next time I'm near a stockist!

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A Clifton Breakfast at the Rosemarino cafe bar

After a wibbly, wobbly night on an air mattress on our friend Matt's living room floor, we decided a good hearty breakfast was in order. By the time we'd slowly heaved and panted our way up the very steep hill from Hotwells to Clifton (ok all the heaving and panting was only on my part) we really deserved something delicious. And hearty.

We found both at the relatively new Rosemarino cafe bar at 1 York Place.

The space is light, airy and welcoming and the menu full of appealing dishes such as sautéed mushrooms, parmesan and sage on toast (£5), meat and veggie cooked breakfasts (£6.95) and simple bacon butties (£4).

Coffee is excellent and comes with glasses of iced water – a nice touch.

Pete and I both ordered Tommy's 1 pan wonder – bacon, onion, mushrooms and potatoes fried in 1 pan with 2 eggs cracked on top and melted cheese, served with toast (£5.50). It was as marvellous as it sounds with generous helpings of sticky, sweet onions and salty bacon and plenty of potatoes and cheese. A high fat content too which would make it an absolutely stellar hangover cure!

Matt made very happy noises over his eggs benedict (£6.50) with poached eggs and speck served on muffins and drenched in a home-made Hollandaise sauce.

Based on their breakfast offerings, I'd love to see what their lunch menu is like. If you visit, do let me know.

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Pete Drinks: Meantime London Lager & Coffee Porter

 

Name: Meantime London Lager

ABV: 4.5%

Bottled/ Draft: Bottled

Colour: Pale gold

Head: Bubbly but with a short lived head.

Mouthfeel: Lots of bubbles, but not horribly fizzy.

Taste: A tasty lager, with a little more malt, plenty more hops and overall more *flavour* to it than the big names.

Comment: Meantime are one of the leading lights of the lively London brewing scene, having been one of the first of the "new" breweries to open, just over a decade ago. They've been picking up awards and accolades for their beers ever since. A lot of their range has a distinctly European taste but they are very keen to underline their roots, so London Lager joins the London Porter, Stout and Pale Ales in their range.

Don't let the lager in the name put you off; this isn't the insipid, fizzy water lager of the big brands. This is a proper beer that lets the flavour of the ingredients shine through and wears it's European heritage with pride.

As I usually drink my beer at cupboard temperature (our larder manages to sit at a low to mid teens temperature almost regardless of the changing of the seasons, which is handy), my first taste of London Lager was not in the traditional 'chilled' lager style. It has the normal lager fizz, but not negatively so (it is, after all, a lager!); it has a distinct if gentle malt, and a distinct hoppy bitter end that adds a pleasant complexity that is rather less normal.

To give it a more 'lagery' tasting, I also stored a bottle in the fridge. Drunk cold, the malt is more subtle but still there, and the fruity, almost grapefruit hoppiness is still in evidence. It's as refreshing as a cold lager should be, but there's something more to it than you'd expect from more mainstream offerings.

I'm not a complete real ale snob - I usually have a box or two of lager lurking around (Tusker and Asahi at the moment, if I'm not mistaken) because not every night is a real ale night. I'll be happy to add a box of London Lager to the shopping list too.

Name: Meantime Coffee Porter

ABV: 6.0%

Bottled/ Draft: Bottled

Colour: Dark, but more of a ruby ale than a porter in look.

Head: VERY lively (it literally exploded out of the bottle); pours with a big head, settles down (once you've cleaned up the kitchen from opening it) to a fine, thin but lingering head.

Mouthfeel: On the light side for a porter, a little harshness of bubble, surprisingly.

Taste: A strong tasting ale, with definite coffee undertones.

Comment: A curious beer this; on the one hand it delivers exactly what I'd expect; a robust, strong tasting ale, deep dark malts and a perfectly balanced coffee tang. On the other hand, I'm not sure this is really dark enough to be a porter. It's a delicious beer, it's just not quite what I was expecting from the label.

Interestingly, it appears from their website that Meantime agree with me, as this now appears to be listed as simply "Coffee Beer"

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"Oh bring us a Christmas pudding and a cup of good cheer"

Stir-up Sunday has come and gone. All over the land, Christmas puddings have been lovingly made and are now maturing in readiness for Christmas day.

But if you haven't made your own, never fear.
Just resort to buying one, as I do every year!

I shall, over the next fortnight, do a review of a selection of ready-made Christmas puddings, including a traditionally-made beauty from Forman & Field. And, of course, I'll give you my low down right here as soon as I can.

In the meantime, I am happy to run another smashing competition offering you the chance to win your own Vintage Forman & Field pudding, plus brandy cream and vanilla sauce. And by "vintage" we're talking about puddings that have been matured for 9+ months and fed with 5 year old Somerset cider brandy. Oh yes! I have high hopes for this one!

How to enter

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me what your favourite Christmas carol is. Please ensure you leave your email address* in the field provided or in the body of your comment. Entries without any means of contacting the winner will not be included in the draw.
2. Enter on twitter by tweeting the following:
   I'd love to win a Forman & Field Christmas Pudding from @kaveyf. Look at www.kaveyeats.com for details! #kaveyeatsformanfield

Details

• The prize can be delivered to UK residents only. Non UK residents are welcome to enter, if they'd like to win the prize for friends and family in the UK.
• The deadline for entries is midnight GMT Wednesday 8 December 2010.
• The prize is a Forman & Field Vintage Christmas Pudding and Brandy Sauce . The prize cannot be substituted or redeemed for cash. The prize will be provided and delivered by Forman & Field.
• A winner will be selected from all valid entries using a random number generator.
• The winner will be notified by email or twitter on Thursday 9 December and asked to provide a delivery address. If no response is received by the end of Saturday 11 December, the prize will be forfeit and a new winner will be picked and contacted.

*If you don't have a secondary email address already and are nervous about sharing your main email address on the internet, why not set up a new free email account on hotmail, gmail or yahoo, that you can use to enter competitions like this?

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