AF&TB - Massive 2011 Year-End Special Feature!

by Beedo Sookcool
on 2011-12-01, 11:38:35

Wa tetu dat uta, gang! I’m actually a ways from starting my next big run of AF&TB (I’m thinking of starting in the first week of January again), but events demand that I put out a one-off special to cover the end of the year’s news and developments. An Action Figures & Their Beers Holiday Special, if you’ll forgive the allusion. (And I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t.) Let’s start with the Best of the Best and finish up with some Christmas cheer, shall we . . . ?

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FULLER’S VINTAGE 2011

Once again, Fuller’s of Chiswick brings out its finest experimental, lovingly-crafted ale for the year’s end. Instead of trying to match it up with every single 2011 Vintage Star Wars figure (mostly because I couldn’t get all the Vintage Star Wars figures for this year), I’ve decided to go with what I believe to be the finest Vintage figure of the year to go with the finest vintage ale of the year. It was a tough and very close decision between two great toys, so I used them both.

For starters, Ponda “Walrusman” Baba not only came with a glass of milk and a pistol (the wrong pistol, I might point out), he also came with two sets of hands (flippered Aquala and fingered Quarra) and a special “battle damage” arm that lets you recreate his run-in with an old weirdo carrying a laser sword. Quite a customising opportunity all in one package! But his place as finest Vintage figure (in my mind) was juuuuuuuuuuuust overshadowed by the character of Captain Fordo, the ARC Trooper Commander. (Others may disagree with this viewpoint, but it’s my article, so tough noogies.) You get enough armour and kit to give him his complete Clone Wars I look or his complete Clone Wars II look. Okay, the holster is a little off for the Clone Wars II version, and I’m not sure I’m used to the new-style Clone Trooper body yet, but on the whole, this is also a great customising opportunity all in one pack, as well as being a representation of a kick-arse heroic fighter who didn’t get various body parts handed to him in a seedy bar.

As for the ale itself, let’s delve into the blurb on the back of the box. And I quote: “The malt grist includes a proportion produced by Warminster maltings, from organic barley grown by Sir James Fuller on the Neston Park Estate. This will be married with choicest Goldings, Organic First Gold, and award-winning Sovereign hops, to produce a beer with a firm malt base, marmalade notes, and a satisfying bitter finish.” For the most part, that’s true (although I don’t get anything marmalade-y out of it, I must admit). But here’s where temperature can be an unexpected ally.

Drunk ice-cold, it does indeed have a tangy, almost tart ’n’ fruit quality to its flavour, along with the sugary-brandy-butter tinge that goes hand-in-hand with these fine, high-potency beers. And it does have a bit of a bitter tang to it, which could, I suppose, be construed as marmalade-like in nature. BUT! If you are to let it warm up, it actually gets mellower. At about 40° F / 5° C, the usual temperature at which I draw the upper limit for beer, it’s markedly smoother. But here’s the strangest thing: I had to walk away from writing this beer review for a while to help my father, who recently injured his shoulder in a fall. When I came back, the beer was at least 50° F / 10° C, edging towards 60° F / 15° C. I thought it would be ruined and skunky, but I wasn’t about to pour almost £4 (about US$6.40) of high-end beer down the sink, no sirree! So I started by sipping the remainder . . . and it was the most mellow, rich, and satisfying beer I’d had since Fuller’s Vintage 2010. But only if drunk at slightly below room temperature, which is a bit of a limitation in the quality department. At room temperature, though, the hard-liquor component tends to overpower most of the other flavours. While I think it may be a long time before Fuller’s Vintage 2010 will be displaced from Best Beer I’ve Ever Drunk status, there are two other beers, produced regularly and not in one-off batches, that just beat out Fuller’s Vintage 2011. And you will learn about them in next year’s monumental run of AF&TB!

They’ve upped the production level of this special edition ale to 150,000 bottles this year. So far, I’ve nabbed twelve of ’em. At 8.5% ABV, it’s another strong mammajamma of an ale. As with last year, it comes in a high-quality cardboard box, and contains a card with details on all the previous years’ Vintage brews, and each bottle is individually numbered (the one I drank for this review was # 063941). And, as before, it’s bottle-conditioned, so you need to pour it out gently to avoid getting any nasty sediment in your nice drink. Also, the longer you hold onto these before drinking them, the better they should get. My mind reels at the possibilities . . . .

Drink this if you also like: Other Fuller’s Vintage Ales, strong beers, well-crafted commemorative or limited edition beers, fine brandy.

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BAH HUMBUG!

After missing out last year for whatever reason (most likely lax gits in the ordering and distribution departments of various supermarket chain head offices), Wychwood Brewery again released their Christmassy Bah Humbug! Ale, this time without the exclamation point in the name. I’m sure it was there last time I had some of this stuff. Anywho, as I know of no Ebeneezer Scrooge figures (and I don’t own any figures of a certain trademarked miserly Aylesbury duck with a Scottish accent who wears pince-nez and spats), the next best thing is to have a figure of the other famous Yuletide yutz, The Grinch.

Bah Humbug! is a 5.0% ABV ale spiced with a touch of cinnamon and a slight dried-fruit tang to give it a sort of Christmas cake flavour. While supposedly brewed with “the choicest hops & malt,” it’s still got a bit of bitterness in the aftertaste. While nicer than two-thirds of the last batch of similar beers I reviewed, it’s still only the second-best Christmas beer I’ve ever had.* If only I could get some more Christmas Pudding Ale, which I haven’t seen in years. That stuff rocked. And I can’t even remember who made it.

* Although it appears in the last holiday beers review, Brew Dog’s 5 a.m. Saint isn’t really a Yuletide brew and I don’t actually count it as such; I just wanted to include it and made the tenuous Christmas connection so I could shoehorn it in and get it some exposure.

Drink this if you also like: Seasonal ales, spicy ales, traditional Christmas desserts.

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RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED WHITE HORSE

The name of the ale got a Christmasoid update, so the figures that went with the original beer get a similar brush-up, to whit: a white horse with a digitally-added red nose, and Vader wearing a Playmobil Santa hat. There’s a bit of a change to this seasonal edition, though, and I can’t say it’s entirely for the better. You see, the taste is different and delicious, but the problem is, the aftertaste hits you a bit like acid reflux.

The last time I reviewed the regular old White Horse, it went down rather well, as you can see by clicking the above link to said review. Now, this holiday-themed version is similar, but they’ve gone and added festive “warm citrus & candied peel” flavours, which contribute to the lingering bitter aftertaste. Appropriately chestnut in hue, this 4.8% ABV beer gives a warming sort of fruitcake taste for a few seconds as it’s flowing over your tongue. A few seconds after it stops flowing is where the problems start.

Have you ever had a bad concussion or massive hangover, and you threw up so much that your stomach completely emptied itself, and after a few rounds of dry heaves, you start bringing up greenish-yellow bile? Yeah. That’s the aftertaste you get with this stuff. And it doesn’t begin to fade for several long minutes. Which means you have to drink more of this stuff to overpower the aftertaste. Repeat ad nauseam. The only reason this beer doesn’t get ranked absolute last in the seasonal / special occasion beer rankings is because the main taste is very good. You just need to eliminate the aftertaste when you’ve finished drinking it. Have something nice at the ready.

Drink this if you also like: Seasonal ales, very bitter bitters, sour marmalade.

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MORRISON’S CHESTNUT BEER

In time for the festive season, the Morrison’s supermarket chain (in an exclusive partnership with Titanic Brewery) brings out another of their limited edition seasonal beers. Their Chocolate & Vanilla Beer was outstanding, their Hot Cross “Springtime” Ale was excellent (if you got a good batch; if you got a bad batch, it wasn’t so much excellent as excruciating). With Christmas coming on, it’s time for roasting chestnuts over an open fire, and who better to help with that activity than Dragon from the Shrek saga?

“The best of British malt and hops combine beautifully with natural chestnut flavours to create a warming winter beer to savour,” says the label. At 4.5% ABV, it’s average-ish in terms of alcoholic potency. And you know what? This is pretty good stuff. You get a very strong flavour when you start drinking this ale. It’s what you would expect from the label, i.e. a beer and chestnut taste, but there’s also a tinge of that almost-chocolatey Tootsie Roll-ish flavour, which blends everything together beautifully. Kind of like you’re washing down a chocolate-fudge-nut brownie with beer: that kind of experience. The only thing that lets it down — as far as I’m concerned, anyway — is the aftertaste, which is a bit too bitter for my liking. Unlike the abovementioned Red-Nosed White Horse, though, the aftertaste is definitely beery and easily washed away, even though it lingers a bit too long on its own. So, on the whole, yeah, this is a pretty darn good beer for the festive period.

Now, I haven’t mentioned Titanic Brewery in my reviews of the past two years so far, for some very good reasons. Firstly, this is the first Morrison’s seasonal beer I’ve seen which specifically names this brewery as their partner and supplier in these ventures. Secondly, I’m waiting for Hasbro to get off their duffs and make a new version of G.I. Joe’s Iceberg, so I can pair it up with Titanic’s Iceberg Beer, which I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, as I recall it being quite nice. Finally, I have yet to find a figure to match up with Titanic Stout. I’ve got a few ideas along that line, though . . . .

Drink this if you also like: Seasonal ales, dessert beers, hoppy, strong-flavoured beers, bitters.

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Right, so there you have it, gang! This should keep you going until 2012 and keep your holidays merry, if not downright drunk. Enjoy, and until next time, may all your hunts be rewarding!