Invited I was and along I went. I had never been to Cask bar and Kitchen before and had only seen a dodgy old photo of it so wasn't sure what to expect considering the hype that this pub is getting at the moment.
Very smart, the old woodwork has been repainted in a nice soothing pastel green and they have two rather large beer fridges full of tasty treats from around the world which look like they've come straight out of Beer merchants range but £35 for a 500ml bottle of beer? no thanks, they might have trouble selling that one.
Anyway, for a tuesday night it was quite busy, there were the Ratebeer crew hanging around the bar waiting for their chance to rate the new Abstrakt 02, there were regular Cask customers, an influential beer writer and a couple of beery bar managers all here for the beer!
The excitement was almost tangible and when Richard McClelland got up and rang the bell for everyone's attention he certainly got it! His loud and witty introduction captivated everyone and so when he finished the rush for the bar was quite a sight to behold.
The beer? Originally advertised at 16% abv, it's now more like 18% according to Magic Dog himself. The style is a triple dry hopped imperial red ale, James and Martin have both said that this beer will be much better once it's been aged for at least another year so why they chose to launch it now was anyone's guess.
It could have used an extra bit of ageing because whilst the beer had tonnes of flavour, it seemed a wee bit thin and you could really taste the alcohol too I remember I said if I had a lighter I could have taken out half of Ratebeer!(Not that I want to).
Given another year this beer will be abstraktlutely(sorry, couldn't resist) superb, I'm actually going to buy a bottle and give it the age it needs before opening it in a year or so then repost about it, see how it is. Watch this space!
Anyway, busy day today. Hoovering awaits!
3 comments:
i did wonder about the aging thing when they released ab:01, everyone i know has drunk it said it needs age, so why sell it unaged. Still i've got a bottle of it in the cupboard and will drink it later rather than sooner.
out of interest what was £35 a bottle??? thats a good session up here lol
I forget which one it was, I was soberly challenged!
It's available on the site now with 3000 limited bottles. I thought it was ok but loved the Hardcore version 2. That's improved. What a beer. I was flawed. Fantastic night.
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