It’s been an age since I was able to post on here and I can only apologise for my lack of technical ability which lead to this hiatus (alongside those bastard hackers who, for some reason, targeted my little blog). Anyway, the blog might have been down, but it certainly didn’t stop me sipping and snapping away, which brings me to these two little smackeroos.
On a recent visit to Drink of Fulham I spied these on the shelf and was instantly drawn to them; they’re novelty, but not too novelty (you know what I mean). Also, I can’t resist a white IPA or a black ale so bish bash bosh and the deal was done.
Nice (5.2%)
Now I’m a sucker for a white IPA so I was hoping for something a bit special. It poured a hazy pale gold with a brilliant white head. This beer is brewed using fresh citrus peel from oranges, limes, lemons and grapefruits and that definitely came through in a strong aroma. I spent some time with my nose in this glass.
I expected this to be much sweeter, given the aroma, but there was a powerful punch of bitterness from the outset, the sharpness mingling with the orange rind and lemon peel. Despite loving a mouth puckeringly bitter IPA, I did feel that this was missing that element of sweetness to balance it out. Not bad, just not quite there for me.
Naughty (5.2%)
Next up was Naughty, a black ale with several kilos of ancho chillies added for extra spice (not too much though, the core of each is stripped out beforehand). It poured a deep black with a full tan head that held throughout. Again, the aroma was strong, with dark chocolate, roasted nuts and raisins coming through; it’s a shame I didn’t have a slice of Christmas cake to hand!
At first taste I was surprised at how light in body it was and, while the chocolate and dark fruit certainly came through, it was nowhere near the richness I was expecting. I can understand how this might disappoint some, but I appreciated the subtlety; I could certainly buy a crate of these and settle down for the night. Very nice indeed.
Back with more naughtiness soon!
The Crafty Beeress 