Whatcha drinking (2018-2022)?

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Friday night was black beer night. We've been struggling to find any black beers, at least in minikeg or minipin form, lately. We've got a few bottles of porter and stout of various origin, but it took a while to locate a larger container.

Happily, Chiltern Black has done the trick. In truth, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. At 3.9%, I imagined a slightly strong dark mild. In fact, it's much more like a stout and they're not kidding when they call it 'black' - even holding it up to a bright light shows nothing but blackness. The first sensation is of a rich, chocolate kick, more bitter dark chocolate than sweet. You then get some roasted barley taste and a little coffee. The bitterness remains throughout. It went down extremely well and we have already made a mental note to revisit this one. Yet another thumb-to-the-nose towards the "ultras" who sneer at anything less than 5%. Your loss, and more for the rest of us.

To finish proceedings, we tried Lancaster Black, a 4.5% stout. Merely opening a bottle gives something away, as you sniff something smoky. The smokiness isn't overpowering and the beer was more reminiscent of a smoked porter rather than a stout. I'm not overly fussed what they call it, because it is a very enjoyable drink with a good roast bitterness.

Success all round.
 
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The welcome presence of the Chiltern Black has allowed us to sample another stout that is new to us, in this case Dhustone Stout from Hobson's. This is a 4.3% beer with a distinct liquorice note to it. I found it very smooth, with a good bitterness.

If I drink black beer early in an evening, I have to keep on with black beer. It tends to have stronger flavours than pale beers and your sense of taste gets distorted if you drink a pale ale, for example, after drinking stout. I recall having a particularly intense porter early in the evening at a beer festival once - it was just about to finish and I was keen to try it, so I had one and found that every beer I drank after that tasted of dark, roast porter.
 
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Plenty of Earl Grey tea gets drunk in this house, but last night it was Earl Grey IPA from Chiltern brewery that was going down. The brewery got together with the London-based tea business Birchall to come up with the beer. It's a rather gentle IPA at 3.9% and that's exactly what it tastes like. There is a light orange tang and a decent bitterness. It's certainly a pleasant beer and good for quaffing, but I struggled to get much of an Earl Grey taste. Perhaps it's better that way or it might prove a little overpowering.
 
Duck59 said:
We usually have three bottles of spirits handy. Whisky, rum and cognac are the favourites and by a strange coincidence, we've got three ready to be opened soon. In fact, there is brandy rather than cognac in this batch and the rum and brandy are both new to us. Thus:

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Didn't know you were into the spirits! I've lately developed a bad habit of a tot or two of whiskey or brandy. Until now I've only ever touched it occasionally...
 
Morning Glory said:
Didn't know you were into the spirits! I've lately developed a bad habit of a tot or two of whiskey or brandy. Until now I've only ever touched it occasionally...
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Only as a little drop at the end of a beer evening (honest, guv). I find a tot of rum goes very well with a stout or porter and the whisky or cognac with a paler beer.

I've had a few changes of habit when it comes to spirits. In younger days, I had a taste for vodka, but I've not touched it for years. I went through a gin and tonic phase, but the only time I've drunk gin in the past few years was when we got a small sample bottle from some order for other drinks. Cognac I've liked for a long time. I used to drink whisky on and off for a while, but it's only in the past couple of years that I've got back into it (that was all the fault of my friend Dr Susie, who gave us a 12-year-old Bowmore as a present). Rum wasn't even on my radar until I went to Cuba a few years ago and discovered that it could be very nice indeed.
 
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