I Heart You I Hardcore You
The flavour has an initial sweet red apple lollipop flavour before the hops kick in, but when they do they are big and piney and orange peel tinged yet not overly bitter. The finish is bittersweet with sharp orange and bitter pine.
Golden Pints 2011
- Best UK Draught (Cask or Keg) Beer = Summer Wine Brewery 7Cs (Keg)
- Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer = Fullers Vintage Ale (Bottle)
- Best Overseas Draught Beer = Pretty Things Jack D'Or (Keg)
- Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer = Crooked Line Detour IPA
- Best Overall Beer = Birra Del Borgo My Antonia
- Best Pumpclip or Label = BrewDog Sunk Punk
- Best UK Brewery = The Kernel
- Best Overseas Brewery = Stone Brewing
- Pub/Bar of the Year = Mr Foleys (Dean has dragged it kicking and screaming into its position as a great craft beer bar)
- Beer Festival of the Year = #IPADay (It's my list!)
- Supermarket of the Year = Morrisons
- Independent Retailer of the Year = Beer Ritz
- Online Retailer of the Year = MyBreweryTap
- Best Beer Book or Magazine = BEER Magazine
- Best Beer Blog or Website = Mark Dredge
- Best Beer Twitterer = @MelissaCole
- Best Online Brewery presence = BrewDog
- Food and Beer Pairing of the Year = Mango and Stilton Burger with Caldera IPA
- In 2012 I’d Most Like To = Write more whimsically, more frequently, and well, better.
- Best Brewery that goes to show you can be big but don't have to be bad, you can be good, of the Year = Fullers
Joining the Circus: Magic Rock Brewing's newest recruits
Magic Rock haven't quite gained a global Beer Geek fan base like BrewDog, but after tasting two of their most recent beers I can definitely vouch for them being headed in the right direction.
Human Cannonball Imperial IPA 9.2% (Bottle)
The bigger brother of the 7.4% Cannonball IPA, Human Cannonball pours a nice medium-dark amber/orange/red as I was hoping, but the aroma isn't actually as big as I expected. Just a little faint booze and orange hoppyness. This beer doesn't show it's hand that easily, it's sneakier than that…
Then you taste it and it's an onslaught. Massive bitterness, loads of juicy grapefruit and mango hops, very assertive pine bitterness and an American IPA malty sweetness lingering in the background alongside a smack of alcohol just after you swallow, which is then bowled over by the hops once more.
It's full on, punishing, and not to be taken lightly. But it's bloody good.
Consider yourself warned.

As I’ve found with a few keg stouts the aroma is subdued, slightly colder than I'd like it too, even though I left it to warm while drinking a half of Red Willow Oyster Stout. A warm up if you will.
The flavour is dark, boozy, bitter chocolate fondant - big and rich and slightly hot with alcohol, it reminds me a little of Black Mozart, but in a good way. (It's a liqueur which any skier who's been to Austria will have seen in the airport). There's also a touch of prune, fruity espresso bitterness, even a hint of dark chocolate orange. The finish has a hit of alcohol but the aftertaste is dry and herbal, and only slightly Cocoa dusted.
Its a great beer, and from any other brewery it would probably be their best. But Magic Rock have set the bar so tight rope high that anything below excellent appears lesser in comparison.
This is a very, very good beer, but do I like it more than Human Cannonball or Rapture? (my two favourites) possibly not.
Would I buy another, or recommend it to a friend?
In a heartbeat.
Cigar City Brewing Jai Alai India Pale Ale
Just a quick one today. This is my first beer from Cigar City Brewing, an american brewer that I've heard a lot of good things about but never tried. I wasn't even going to blog about about it, but it was so good I thought I'd spread the wealth. So here we go.
The aroma is a mix of tangerine, a little fresh pine, a slight sweet butterscotch in the background and just loads of fresh citrus. It smells great.
This has got a really great fresh hop flavour that reminds me a little bit of the Crooked Line Detour IPA which I absolutely loved a while back. Despite being 7.5% it’s not got that typical resinous American IPA flavour to it, and is much fresher, less reduced, and an altogether more quaffable beer than I was expecting. Super fresh and just generally delicious, I loved it.
Buy some from www.mybrewerytap.com you won't regret it.