3 memorable beers that set the wheels in motion...
As a departure from the reviews that have been taking up the lion share of my time recently, I wanted to do a short piece on the beers that perhaps set me off on my one-way voyage into the craft beer multiverse.
Mikkeller – Beer Geek Brunch Weasel
For me personally, it really started whilst living in Taiwan of all places! I lived there from 2012 to 2014 and to say the domestic Taiwanese craft scene was fledgling would be an understatement, however, there were a handful of pubs, cafés and bars (North Italy Ratting Café, Gordon Biersch, Little London to name a few) that served and stocked imported craft. The aforementioned Ratting stocked a formidable selection of Mikkeller and an impressive variety of German and European beers and is where I really started developing a taste for craft.
Whilst I would consider it gold-dust coming across Mikkeller’s ‘Beer Geek Brunch Weasel’ these days, the Kopi Luwak brewed oatmeal stout that sits within the ‘Beer Geek Breakfast’ series kick-started the Mikkeller revolution, this unassuming and oddly named café seemed to have it permanently stocked!! Clocking in at 10.9 % and pouring jet black with aromas of coffee and cacao and delivering flavours of deep earthy coffee, bitter chocolate, vanilla, toffee and toasted almonds this stout was a revelation and unlike anything I had tasted before, both in terms of complexity and ABV. It also planted the idea that a beer could replace a dessert, a Bloody Mary (brunch livener) or even a nightcap.
Don’t get me wrong, I had been drinking Punk IPA and some of the US beers (Blue Moon, Anchor, Sierra Nevada etc) before 2012 so I wasn’t making the full jump from Fosters to impystouts overnight but I definitely cut my teeth on craft in Taipei. I think part of this was due to the fact that wine and gin wasn’t really accessible, or at-least readily affordable, out there at the time and whilst we did drink a lot of Asian macro-brew lagers (I still have a major soft-spot for Asahi) which went down well in such a humid climate, craft beer offered an occasional treat. Something different and exciting if you like.
Magic Rock – Salty Kiss
Fast- forward 2 or 3 years and I’m living in an apartment in Ancoats Manchester, the former industrial district that was home to the textile industry from the late 19th to mid-20th Century, in one of the many and ever-increasing number of red-brick mill conversions.
Being a trendy hipster area, there wasn’t a Tesco Metro or Sainsbury Local nearby (well within a 5 minute walk) but rather, the wonderful ‘Ancoats General Store’ stocking all sorts of artisanal pasta and wholefoods and crucially housing the equally imposing and inviting wall of craft! During my time living there, I must have sampled the majority of the ‘Wild Beer, ‘Magic Rock’ and ‘Beavertown’ beers in circulation and this gloriously named 4.1% gooseberry gose flavoured with sea buckthorn and sea salt was my standout.
I suspect I didn’t have a scooby what a gose was, or how its pronounced (“goes-uh”) at the time but I’m glad I dumped it in the basket with my edamame hummus and lentil crisps because my word did it surprise and delight me. To think that a beer could be sour and refreshing, salty and sweet at the same time – this was some Willy Wonka stuff on display! Whilst my tastes have moved on since as have the breweries and I rarely find myself drinking their beers these days, you will never find me turning down a can of SK on a hot summer’s day.
Magic Rock x Verdant – What are the Odds?
I was a bit of a Magic Rock fanboy around 2016 to 2018, there I’ve said it. To be honest, I will always have a soft-spot for them and a very, and I stress very, occasional can or pint from them drums up waves of nostalgia of a more care-free life with weekends spent mooching around the Northern Quarter or visiting their Huddersfield tappy.
I first had ‘What are the Odds’ their 8.3% DDH DIPA (craft code for double dry-hopped double IPA) on tap at The Crown & Kettle, the venerable Ancoats boozer, during my tenure there and it left an impression in so many ways!
For starters, I’m unsure if I had tasted a DIPA before and could not comprehend a beer packing such bright and bold tropical fruitiness (mango, pineapple and citrus all stood out in this adults-only fruit smoothie). The London Fog yeast (love that name) gave a chewy but delicate mouthfeel at odds with the crisp and thinner beers I was used to. Finally, and this was perhaps the more dangerous aspect, I had never had a beer (non-stout) that broached 6 or 7% ABV - I think wrapped up in this element was the beginning of an appreciation of beer more akin to wine, both in terms of the strength and portioning (and the love of sharing beer with friends) and similarly, a willing to spend more on beer with an understanding that serious time, effort and money does go into it.
I would love to hear about the beers that started your journey!
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