Bag o' cats

I made my second trip to Bristol this year in late October for a family event. With the wife accompanying me, that meant a fair amount of time in the feline-infested surrounds of The Bag o' Nails pub. Luckily the handpumps did some decent turnover during the weekend.

First for me was Livewire by Electric Bear, an IPA of 5.4%. It either wasn't well kept or, more likely, wasn't well made. The appearance was a nasty greyish orange and the flavour fuzzy and dreggy with a long acidic tang on the end. The centre of the flavour was a sweet strawberry note which wasn't unpleasant, but equally wasn't suited to something calling itself an IPA. Not a good start.

That beer wasn't meant to be a gamble, but I felt genuinely apprehensive about the Little Valley Dark Vale which accompanied it. This is described as a "vanilla porter" and is only 4.2% ABV. I braced myself for a thin syrupy mess. And it's not. Yes, there's a syrupy twang which is utterly unnecessary, but it's not too intense and doesn't overpower the proper beer elements. Those begin with the rich and roasty aroma and continue on a proper warm coffee flavour. You very much get what's advertised: a real English porter with dash of vanilla in it.

Keeping it sweet with a candy concoction from Bristol Beer Factory next, or so I thought. Sugar Plum Shake is a collaboration with Tiny Rebel. Ostensibly a pale ale, it's 5% ABV and a murky shade of orange. For all the lactose in it, it proved surprisingly savoury; heavy, chewy and bitter; spiced like a fruit pie. There's no clanging cloying sugar but a very pleasant real plum flavour, finishing quite cleanly with a tangy acidity reminiscent of Tilquin's Quetsche plum lambic. This wasn't at all what I expected and I think it works quite well. Sometimes it's worth ordering a beer you don't think you'll enjoy.

A stout next: Stanage, by Intrepid. I had to check and double check that it was advertised as just 4.5% ABV. It's a massive beast of a thing with a dense and wholesome dark malt base on which is placed an array of sharply bitter herbal and mineral flavours. I got tar and eucalyptus as the main ones but there's aquavit, mint and liquorice too. It's tough drinking but that doesn't matter as it's well worth savouring. Perfect winter fare, even on a sunny day with the change of seasons still some distance away.

Dagger Ale by Three Daggers brewery replaced one of the above around this point and I finished the session with one of them. It's pretty much a straight-down-the-line brown bitter. A little on the pale side, perhaps, and sweet with caramel notes rather than twiggy or vegetal. Plain fare, but mercifully completely clean. One of those beers I couldn't be fond of but which I'm sure has a receptive audience out there.

The pale and hazy boy next to it is Sonic from Dark Revolution. The brewery claims full-on American hop flavours at a more English 5.2% ABV. The lemon zest aroma at least begins to deliver on that promise but it falls away on tasting. Grainy biscuit becomes the centre of the flavour, and while there's some citric hop bitterness it's muted and faint. I see the brewery also sells it in cans, and that leaves me wondering if this is one of those hop-forward beers that doesn't translate well to cask. I think it might be.

There was time for a couple more beers at the Bag before we left on Sunday. Another hazy yellow session IPA starts us off: BS2 by Croft. Here they've done the hops right for cask or whatever and it's packed with lemony zing. It's a little thin, even for 4% ABV, but the bitterness never turns harsh as can sometimes happen. The haze brings yeast to the flavour profile too, and here it's a delicious seasoning spice and certainly not a flaw. Untraditional for sure, but very tasty.

I don't know if it was herbal stout season at the pub or something but there was another one on that afternoon: 4T's Stout from the brewery of the same name. This one begins on a quite sharp note of toasty roast before mellowing to sweet milk chocolate later. The herbal quality is gentler this time, like an old-fashioned throat lozenge. The ABV is a full 5% which gives it a filling smoothness.  Overall it's balanced and mellow drinking, ideal for a relaxing Sunday afternoon when nobody has to run to the airport... Oh no! Is that the time?

There was one more beer I wanted to try before leaving, and I confess to not giving it the full consideration it deserved. I spotted quite late that the line of available bottles included Tynt Meadow, the unique English Trappist ale launched with great fanfare back in the summer. It's 7.4% ABV and a brackish red-brown colour. A wholesome fruitcake aroma begins the experience, and I know that the producers have tried to avoid tagging a monastic style onto it but it really tasted like a dubbel or quadrupel to me. More like the latter, actually, despite the strength, with a quite intense bitterness, combining liquorice, orange peel and dark chocolate. There's plenty of sweet malt to balance this, however, and it finishes up luxurious and warming: just the sort of thing you go to a dark Trappist beer for.

Those pub visits bookended the weekend. And in between...