Thornbridge Je t'aime

The time finally came- the night when I had nothing to be up for the next day nor any other beery flavours already tainting my pallate. It was Thornbridge night! Well I say Thornbridge night, more like me drinking three of the beers back to back.

Jaipur (which I know and love), Halcyon 2009 green hop (a new one to me) and Saint Petersburg (one I have heard lots about), were all on the menu.

I started with Jaipur and I dont need to say much more than it was brilliant, as always. I have to admit though that I had kept this bottle maybe a little longer than I should have and the hops were noticably restrained but when you live in the middle of a beer shop desert you sometimes have to stockpile. Although a slight faded hop profile it was still noticably the Jaipur we all know and love. Its punchy, a touch resiny, herby and its generally a party in my mouth. Jaipur is 5.9% and is appearing in wonderful little places all over the UK. I never know when I am going to walk into a good cask pub and find it and thats one of the reasons I like it.

Now it gets a bit more serious- Halcyon. At 7.7% its immediately noticable that it is a bigger beer and unlike Jaipur, not one I could drink all night. Thornbridge had some issues with this green hop batch of Halcyon which basically resulted in the yeast not compacting correctly and combining that with the green hop party it was all a little cloudy. I love it though and I honestly dont care and in fact if I am going to have something different and quirky like a green hop beer I almost expect it to look a bit different. Note to Kelly @ Thornbridge- Dont worry if the 2010 batch doesnt come out clear, I will willingly take delivery of the whole batch! Halcyon 2009 is a truly epic beer and maybe one of the best I have had this year so far. Not sure how much is left now so if you come across it- grab and take (and by 'take' I mean pay for like a responsible person).

Lastly I had Saint Petersburg- a 7.7% Imperial Russian Stout (no not stoat). It was like a coffee with foam on top (ed- surely a latte?). Dark and inviting, just the thing for the miserable night I had it on. It was herby and spicy, lots of chocolate and coffee and a little chicory. My only gripe was that I was getting quite a few metalic notes of this bottle (something which a friend also found with his). It wasnt an unpleasant metalic taste but not one I actively look for. I will try this again to see if I find it the same in future. Saint Petersburg was still a cracking beer though and has not reduced my opinion of the mighty Thornbridge at all.

I had a great night tasting these beers and I must say thanks to MyBreweryTap for the latter two bottles.


Only two weeks left with BrewDog and still loving it. Expect the blog to be back to full posting capacity when I have more free time!