Monday, February 2, 2009

Jubilate!

What a dire month January was. It is one of my traditions these days to give up the booze for the whole month and gladly see the Christmas excess drain away. If it wasn't hard enough to not drink for a month then Liverpool decided to make life yet harder by giving up the winning habit - other than beating Preston North End in the FA Cup, they drew every game in January.

February could not come soon enough, and what better to break the fast than a bottle of Porterhouse Celebration Stout? A gift from The Beer Nut when Mrs Velkyal and I went over to Ireland in November. Created to mark the 10 anniversary of The Porterhouse Brewing Company, this 10% ABV bottle conditioned imperial stout was already 2 years old when I popped off the crown cork.

I must say now that I like big stouts, and this was up there with the best of them - black as coal, dark biege head, coffee and cocoa in abundance on the nose, big, big big so far. What a lovely beer this was to drink as well, burnt caramel and rich luxuriant chocolate held beautifully in tension, wonderful to sip and feel the warmth of the alcohol. The perfect way to re-enter the wonderful world of beer.

The day of course got better because Liverpool re-discovered their winning ways and gave Chelsea a right spanking at Anfield! Things are looking up.

7 comments:

  1. Glad you enjoyed it. I understand they're about to begin full-scale bottling soon, though probably nothing as special as this.

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  2. I wonder if they would ship a case of Wrasslers to the Czech Republic?

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  3. Worth a punt. When they asked us what they should bottle, Wrassler's was high on the request list.

    They already ship kegged Oyster Stout to a pub in Italy, so you could always ask the proprietor of one of Prague's high-quality beer bars to make a request for Wrassler's.

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  4. Not a bad idea at all - will have a word with relevant people.

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  5. Wow, sounds fantastic! A great reward for the month long abstinence. And it must be hard writing about beer every day but not drinking it, how did you manage?!

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  6. By drinking loads over the Christmas holidays!

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