Eating isn't Cheating: Magic Rock Brewing

Showing posts with label Magic Rock Brewing. Show all posts

Magic 8 Ball Black IPA from Magic Rock Brewing

Neil, Eating isn't Cheating Sunday, January 15, 2012

Every now and again you try a beer that genuinely knocks your socks off. It happened with My Antonia by Birra Del Borgo and then again with I Hardcore You, the BrewDog and Mikkeller collaboration beer. Then last night, when I wasn't really expecting it, it happened again.

I thought I had a handle on Black IPA's as a style of beer, that I knew all its tricks and what to expect, and as such when I saw that Magic Rock Brewing had produced a Black IPA I was looking forward to trying it, as they make awesome beers, but I wasn't in any rush and the cynic in me did think "Another brewery, producing another black IPA".

But Magic Rock Brewing Magic 8 Ball isn't a Black IPA, it's THE Black IPA. I can confidently say that this was the best Black IPA I've ever tried, hands down, by a bloody country mile. It is genuinely astounding.

The colour is the first thing you notice; properly, absolutely black, with an off-white, sticky head that clings to the glass and laces the sides with pungent hop oils.

Then you are hit by that aroma. It's a full on tropical fruit punch of mango, passionfruit, orange pith, apricot, a little bit of sweet lemon even. The thing that instantly struck me was the fresh whole hop aroma you get from this beer, like sticking your head in a bag of raw, unboiled whole hops.

The flavour completely lives up to what's promised in that aroma but marries prominent flavours of mango, apricot and passionfruit with a resinous, bittersweet IPA quality wrapped up in a silky medium weight body. It's thick enough to properly coat your mouth and spread around those amazing flavours but not too heavy or cloying, and remains extremely drinkable and moreish.

As your palate adjusts after the initial onslaught of hops you also get a very slight caramelised/burnt sugar flavour with an orangey edge, alongside a bit of liquorice and faint, fruity dark chocolate. You've really got to look for it though, and pushing past those big hops isn't easy. The 7% abv doesn't even get a look in.

In my opinion it's the best beer that Magic Rock Brewing have produced, and it's definitely the best Black IPA I've ever tasted, from any brewery.

Joining the Circus: Magic Rock Brewing's newest recruits

Neil, Eating isn't Cheating Sunday, December 04, 2011

Magic Rock Brewing are one of the most exciting new breweries in the UK, members of an elite club of unashamedly American inspired brewers, which has historically been dominated by the Scottish punks over at BrewDog. It’s a title BrewDog deserve, but it’s good to see some new dogs on the block, nipping at the heels and challenging for leader of the pack.

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.

Bearded Lady Imperial Brown Stout 10.5% (Keg)

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.

Stout Day

The Dark Art of getting a Stout just right

Neil, Eating isn't Cheating Thursday, November 03, 2011

There doesn’t seem to have been quite the giddy anticipation in the run up to Stout Day that #IPADay caused, but nevertheless, today is Stout Day and I want to get behind it by talking about a great Stout I drank recently from one of the UK’s most exciting new breweries.

Dark Arts, from the unstoppable Magic Rock Brewing.

I want to talk about this beer because it's a great example of one of my favourite kinds of beer, a perfectly executed Dry Stout. I did see rumblings from some bloggers (was it you Ghosty?) saying it should be International Imperial Stout Day - an homage to the over the top beer geek favourite - but I'd have to disagree.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Imperial Stouts, but a medium strength normal stout that is big on mouthfeel, flavour, and balance is perhaps an even more difficult undertaking. Particularly from a bottle like the beer here, where the thickness of Cask serving cant hide a lack of body.

First off, Dark Arts gets the mouthfeel spot on, Medium-thick but not syrupy or overly creamy. My first thought flavourwise was genuinely “that is what a stout should taste like”. Very roasted, quite dry, almost burnt in it's smokiness and only just kept in check by some bitter, dry hops in the finish. It is very familiar tasting, in many ways - It's a proper, full on, dry stout.

Once it warms up you get a bit of tobacco smoke, burnt bitter sugar, ashy chocolate and just a tiny bit of mild liquorice. It's just a very, very well crafted beer that at 6% just about sneaks into the winter warmer bracket but doesn't enter the 'this will hurt in the morning' ABV range of impy stouts.

Genuinely loved it.

www.magicrockbrewing.com

http://www.stoutday.com/

The Grove

Tasted and tested: The Magic Rock beers

Neil, Eating isn't Cheating Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Last night was the official launch of Magic Rock Brewing at The Grove in Huddersfield, and what a night it was.

Most breweries do a 'soft launch'; with their new beers slowly making it into different pubs and beer bars as they begin to spread the word, and build up a loyal following over a few months or even years. Magic Rock on the other hand took a leaf out of the BrewDog book of Marketing, and decided to kickoff the brewery with a wollop rather than a whisper, inviting anyone and everyone to come and try their brand new beers fresh from their fledging brewery. The potential pitfall of this strategy of course is that once you've got everybody's attention you run the risk of the beers not living up to the expectation, in other words, not fulfilling your own hype.

However I'm very pleased to announce that this wasn't the case in any way, shape or form when it comes to Magic Rock. These beers deliver.

The place was absolutely packed and there was a genuine buzz in the air, with a heady mix of beer geeks, bloggers, brewers, beery Biebers (see @GroveBri's twitter for clues) and slightly bewildered old regulars, all mixing together happily and discussing, assessing and most importantly enjoying the fantastic range of beers from Magic Rock.

I did what everybody did for my first pint and went for the session strength "Curious" Pale Ale 3.9% - which was so good the first cask went in 30 minutes and at one point there was a 12 pint queue.

"Curious" has that quenching, juicy-yet-bitter citrus hop flavour that great session strength pales like Hawkshead's Windermere Pale or Ilkley Mary Jane achieve, along with just a hint of sweetness and a finish which is bitter yet balanced, making it very drinkable. I spoke to Rich from Magic Rock briefly at the event and remember saying to him that I could see this beer selling like crazy. With a mix of drinkability, flavour and relatively low ABV it's exactly what most cask drinkers are looking for in a beer.

Next up was the beer I'd been looking forward to most, the "Rapture" Red Hop Ale 4.6%. The taste definately lived up to my hopes and this was by far my favourite beer of the night, and the beer I chose to buy a second pint of when I only had time for one more before my train back to Leeds. Which in itself says a lot.

"Rapture" hits you with a big juicy smack of fruity orange peel hops, which combine with a stewed fruit, raisin and mixed berry malt body to create a hugely satisfying beer. It's also got a very slight chocolate note - that fruity, juicy flavour you sometimes get with really high quality, 70+ cocoa dark chocolate. For me the berry pushes through stronger than the chocolate though, and combined with the strong hop profile makes Rapture remind me a little of BrewDog's 5am Saint, which I hope the Magic Rock guys will take as the compliment it's intended.

My third beer of the evening was the "High Wire" West Coast Pale Ale 5.5%. If "Curious" is the beer that regular cask drinkers will lap up then "High Wire" is definately the beer bar staple, where the regulars won't touch anything under 5% ABV this is going to be a winner.

"High Wire" was the one beer that wasn't quite what I expected. Slightly lighter and more balanced than I thought, making it hugely drinkable. I think I was expecting a sort of mini AIPA, but actually this is a true West Coast Pale, with mango and a touch of passionfruit hop flavour sitting atop a lightly bitter body and just a hint of crisp malt, it finishes bitter and clean, and is another great beer.

Last, but by no means least, was a half of the "Cannonball" IPA 7.4%. Unlike the other three beers this one was, in my opinion quite rightly, being served on key keg with an added spritz of carbonation and an ever so sligthly cooler serving temp. It was initially pouring a bit frothy, which someone mentioned to me could be down to the fact that the key keg hadn't been racked upside down. I've got no idea if this is correct or not, so don't shoot the messenger if it's way off the mark.

By the time I bought my half the beer was pouring perfectly, obviously just some first night jitters, and my doubts were pushed aside after the first sniff. Wow that's a good smelling beer! It's got a sweetly floral, fruity aroma from the dry hopping, with tropical mango, orange pith, passionfruit (Nelson Sauvin?), lime citrus and a little pine resin all coming through, even before you take a sip. The taste is a continuation of the smell, but there's also a slightly unexpected amount of sweetness that acts well to balance out the onslaught of bitterness that your palate is bracing itself for. It's a very rich beer, with a definate slickness to the mouthfeel similar to something like Sierra Nevada's Torpedo IPA, which again highlights the amount US Craft beer has to play in the flavour of Magic Rock's brews.

So there you have it, four great beers from a brand spanking new brewery, how often can you say that?

I'll hopefully be getting my hands on some of Magic Rock's bottled beers soon too and will let you know what they are like compared to their cask and keg cousins, so keep your eyes peeled.

On a final point, we all commented on how much we liked the branding, particularly the frankly beautiful pumpclips, and it's reassuring to find out for myself that the beers match up to the hype. No amount of eye catching branding or social media marketing (both of which are good things for a brewery to do) will cover up bad beer, and I couldn't be happier to say that this is one brewery that have the full package, and certainly can't be accused of style over substance. The fact is, their just lucky enough to have both.

Visit Magic Rock's website here www.magicrockbrewing.com for the latest information on where to buy their beers, although an obvious place to start is of course www.mybrewerytap.com

The Grove

Magic Rock Brewing launch at The Grove, Huddersfield

Neil, Eating isn't Cheating Tuesday, June 21, 2011

This is just a quick reminder to anybody living near Huddersfield that the launch night for Magic Rock Brewing happens this evening at The Grove; it's the first place you'll be able to try their brand spanking new brews before the bottles even hit the shelves.

On the bar tonight there will be: Curious 3.9% “Original Pale Ale”, Rapture 4.6% “Red Hop Ale” and High Wire 5.5% “West Coast Pale Ale” on cask, as well as the formiddable 7.4% IPA Cannonball available on keg.

The Grove is a fantastic pub even on a normal night and well worth a visit, with an umbelievably good range of ever changing beers, a well stocked craft beer bottle fridge, and surprisingly cheap prices for what you're getting. It's just a cracking pub.

Magic Rock Brewing are for me a really exciting new company because they brew unashamedly brash beers inspired by the US craft beer scene. The range looks fantastic - hop forward and jam packed full of flavour with some interesting styles such as the aforementioned Rapture Red Hop Ale I featured in my Ten Great Beers from West Yorkshire piece on The Culture Vulture.

Of course the proof of the beer is in the drinking, so why not take this opportunity to try them for yourself? Plus, I'll be there so come over and say hi!