Stonch lives in London, where he runs a pub.Ron's Porter - the verdict
It must be one of my favourite beer labels of all time. The amount of information crammed onto that 75cl bottle is a reminder that this is no ordinary brew. You can keep your merry monks and lanky cats: reams of dense text are just the ticket here.
As reported two weeks ago, my friend Ron Pattinson is working with Brouwerij de Molen to recreate authentic beers from the London breweries of past centuries, using original brewing records. When we last met in February, he kindly gifted me one of the first bottles of batch #1: a 1914 recipe Whitbread Porter.
Tonight I tackled the bottle, after giving it an hour in the fridge to reach the optimum serving temperature. With a crassness only I could manage, it was supped it in front of Hotel Babylon. A less appropriate televisual accompaniment you could scarcely imagine. I unscrewed the cage whilst the fragrant Emma Pierson strutted across my screen in a pencil skirt and killer heels. The cork popped, unleashing a plume of dense vapour, just as Alexandra Moen made a heart-stopping appearance.
It looks the part, with a rocky, voluminous tan head and a clear, dark brown body. Then there's a full, malty aroma. It's wonderfully dry and slightly spicy, and there's gentle but ever-present carbonation on the tongue. Those grainy, coffee flavours dominate. This is delicious, I'm enjoying it, I want more of it. Even from a big bottle, there aren't enough refills. My flatmate Jon eyes it enviously. I ignore him.
My conclusions? First, Ron's brought a bloody good beer to the table. Second, Whitbread's porter of 1914 tasted much like the better examples of the style we enjoy today. Third, Dexter Fletcher's really aged since he was in Press Gang.
14 comments:
Now, where did I leave my time machine?
With your description getting into such detail, are you sure that you are not a ticker?
Culinarybrewer, surely tickers don't pay much attention on to each beer as they've always got their eye on the next one!
wowee, i didnt realise you actually liked the taste of beer
Julia hasn't aged too well either (we're more Lark Rise to Candleford people chez Nut).
surely tickers don't pay much attention on to each beer as they've always got their eye on the next one!
This is the kind of prejudice my people have had to deal with, through centuries of persecution and getting-funny-looks-in-the-pub.
Hath not a ticker eyes? Hath not a ticker palate, nose, tongue? If you buy us a beer do we not enjoy its taste?
Wasn't the bard thinking of this moment when he wrote "Get thee to a nunnery, ticker!" Or was it a bunnary?
"Tunnery", I think. Or is that from Charles Wells That Ends Wells? I don't remember...
Beer nut, I disagree. Julia will never age for me . .
Is all telly in Ireland just British telly?
S'pose it makes sense given all our comedians are Irish.
"...all our comedians are Irish"
Only the shit ones. Someone in the Jerusalem tried to convince me Dave Allen was funny the other day.
I too was enjoying a bottle of Pattinson's 1914 Porter last night - how odd. But I wasn't watching crap on the telly though. Oh no, I was watching newsnight.
Fatman, if you don't mind me asking, where did you get the Porter?
Hey "stonch doubter": Why don't you join Whorst's bandwagon? Or are you just Whorst in disguise? It is actually quite an honour for Stonch to have someone else bearing his name -- a kind of next of kin.
Boak, no we have five wonderful channels of our own. Four of them are even in English.
A bunch of UK channels gets bundled with basic cable. Though not Channel 5, presumably owing to a clause in the UN Declaration of Human Rights about unnecessary suffering.
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