Easter treats: Egg-stra Chocolatey Beers

In the run-up to Easter, we've been saving up a little stash of beers involving chocolate. For Easter Sunday, we've cracked open three of them for a festive night in.

First up is Wild Beer Co's Millionaire (4.7%) - a salted caramel chocolate milk stout, themed around one of Mrs M's favourite desserts. Each promised flavour delivers in abundance, with the chocolate and caramel combining in a luxurious creamy sweetness before the salty notes come in at the end, and build and build in the finish. Without the salt (Cornish sea salt is used in this brew) it would undoubtedly still be delicious but possibly a little on the sickly side - with it, it just screams "DRINK ME MORE" right to the final sip.

Next we have Newcastle's Northern Alchemy, and their dark chocolate and mint milk stout (5.1%). This is a brewery that's not afraid to experiment with flavours, and it certainly shows in this beer. The aroma is intensely minty with none of that synthetic tang that you can sometimes get with essences and flavourings, as only fresh mint is used. It's light and easy to drink for a stout, and the flavour is fresh whilst still having intense chocolate notes and a roasted nature that hits the back of the palate. Nicely balanced, although slightly lacking the robust creaminess generally expected from a milk stout.

And finally for tonight is Thornbridge's Cocoa Wonderland, a 6.8% chocolate porter. Made in conjunction with the lovely Sheffield chocolate shop of the same name, we first tried this at the Sheffield CAMRA Beer Festival last year, where it won best beer of the festival, and remember it being just ridiculously chocolatey. Bottled, despite the slightly carbonated flavour, it's similarly decadent, full-bodied, and with a lip-smacking hit of cocoa. Vanilla aromas draw you in, intense creamy chocolate overwhelms the palate, and a pleasant bitterness is left behind. Scrumptious.


Cheers, and happy Easter!

J&L

Mr Flavour Review

It will come as no surprise to regular readers that we love both eating out, and cooking up a bit of a storm at home. Sitting neatly in between the two, Mr Flavour is a brand new Sheffield business, which aims to deliver restaurant style meals to your door - an interesting and original concept which we were certainly curious to try.

We were invited to try out the service before the launch, and were presented with the pressed shoulder of lamb with rosemary crushed potatoes, confit garlic and aubergine puree, sauteed courgettes and grape chutney. Lamb jus and a herb crust were also included for extra special "cheffy" touches. The ingredients arrived in a simple paper bag, with everything pre-prepped ready to be heated. Each food item was labelled (with allergen information and use-by dates clearly displayed) and an easy to follow instruction sheet was also included.

Oven ready 

All that was really required was cooking the lamb (which we chose to pan fry quickly before popping it in the oven, as recommended on the instruction sheet for an extra layer of flavour - this also made the kitchen smell glorious), frying the courgettes until tender, and heating up the other ingredients, "boil in the bag" style. There was nothing that hadn't been thought of, and the whole process took just twenty minutes, so this service would be perfect as an after-work treat at the end of a busy day and is much more special than a takeaway.

Plating the meal up was fun, with tips provided on how to make the dish look as though it'd come from a restaurant kitchen... not a skill we've quite mastered (don't think we have the crockery for it!), but it still looked pretty enticing by the time everything was on the plate.

And so, on to the eating! Each ingredient was carefully thought through, meaning that everything worked perfectly together and tasted fantastic. The balance of flavours was excellent, and the instructions resulted in well-cooked lamb which fell apart as soon as the fork got anywhere near it, exactly how we like it. What was especially pleasing for us is that the components we enjoyed the most were those which we wouldn't think to make ourselves at home - the confit garlic and aubergine puree was full of flavour and the grape chutney added a deliciously tangy burst of freshness. The portion sizes were generous but manageable - just right. The only disadvantage was that we had to do our own washing up (although even this was considerably less than if we'd cooked a meal such as this from scratch!).

We did notice from the first week's menu that there doesn't seem to be a vegetarian main meal openly available at the moment, although this is certainly the sort of thing that can be developed as the business grows. However, it's definitely worth getting in touch with Mr Flavour himself, who is on hand to answer any questions (by email, at mrflavour.sheffield@gmail.com, or on twitter), and is also happy to make a whole host of bespoke orders provided they're pre-ordered, including fresh pasta and pastry dough, to make your own favourite dishes that much easier to prepare. Taking it one step further, you can even order a dinner party menu with key ingredients of your choice - a great idea for less confident cooks, or just so you can sit back and spend more time with your guests.

Overall, cooking this dish was straightforward and fun to make. The end result was definitely a meal we'd have been pleased to have eaten at a restaurant (and very good value), and we wouldn't hesitate to recommend the service to others (delivery is currently available across S7, S8, S10, S11, S17 and S18).

Cheers,

L&J

The ingredients for the meal were all provided free-of-charge for review purposes, opinions all our own

A Firkin Beer Festival at Picture House Social

Since the bar under the old Abbeydale Cinema, right in the heart of our local stomping ground on Abbeydale Road, was re-opened last year as Picture House Social, it's quickly become one of our go-to places for a relaxed meal and a good drink. So when we heard there was a beer festival curated by the excellent bottle shop Hop Hideout (conveniently located just across the road from the Picture House) we had to pop in for a few.

With 18 beers on the festival bar and another 3 on keg, the range of beers was excellent for such a fledgling festival. Tons of variety and oodles of quality were on offer, with intriguing beers and exciting collaborations aplenty.

First up was a collaboration brew from Fyne Ales and Siren, Wee Milky Way - a 3.1% Black IPA brewed with lactose. Creamy, rich and smooth with a powerful hoppy aroma. A great example of how a lower ABV doesn't mean the taste has to be comprised.

Bad Seed and Northern Alchemy have teamed up to create a Belgian Rose ale (4%), with rose petals added in to the fermenter. Rose tends to be one of those flavours that divides people, but we really enjoyed it - delicately balanced, with just the right amount of floral headiness. Lovely.

With Dinner for Two and Dinner for Three, Vienna pale ales from Siren and Elusive Brewery, both available,  a little taste comparison seemed a good idea. Sampling the releases side by side, the high vienna malt bill gave a biscuity quality to both. Dinner for Two had a tad more bitterness, with Dinner for Three being slightly more floral. While both of these beers are made using similar recipes we each had a different favourite of the two.

We ended the evening on a Cromarty Anniversary III Belgian Quad at the lofty strength of 11%, and crikey was it good. Big fruity flavours, figs and caramels combined with the characteristic belgian floral yeastiness that comes with a quadruple stout overwhelmed the palate deliciously, and frankly despite the high strength it was altogether too easy to drink. We had another.

Alongside all this festival fun, it has to be said that Picture House Social has quickly made a reputation for itself as a purveyor of excellent pizza and snacks. Our favourites are the anchovy and salsa verde pizza, the anchovies giving a real salty hit, with the fresh herby nature of the salsa providing a good level of balance, and the meatball piadina - a cross between a pizza and a sandwich, stuffed full of tasty meatballs, spicy tomato sauce and some leafy greens.

The arancini, served with salsa verde, are the perfect little snack - a crisp outer shell with the perfect amount of melted cheese in the middle. They're just about bitesized, but don't be fooled to gobble a whole one as the centre remains at a molten temperature for an AGE. These went brilliantly with Buxton Brewery's Ace Edge - a Sorachi Ace hopped variation on their Axe Edge IPA.

The regular drinks menu is extensive and interesting, with unusual draught beer, a great bottle menu from Hop Hideout, and a cocktail menu which changes monthly. An eclectic mix of 60s tunes, psychedelia and indie vibes, played at a volume that doesn't instantly put a stop to all conversation, provide a laid back atmosphere.

The whole complex is ever-improving, with one room being brought back to life at a time. Alongside the broodingly elegant main bar, and the diner-style eating area, the festival area is usually a games room complete with table tennis tables. Most recently, there's even a mini-cinema, a brilliant nod to this building's former purpose.

The festival is running throughout the Easter bank holiday weekend, so still plenty of time to try some of these brilliant beers for yourselves!

Cheers,

L&J

St Patrick's Day: Irish Whiskey Tasting

We're pretty much novices when it comes to Irish whiskey, so decided to use St Patrick's Day as an excuse to explore a little. Rather than go out to face the inevitable monstrosity of annual Guinness drinkers, we stayed in, and ordered a bundle of treats from the Emerald Isle from the folks at Flaviar. Among them was the "Whiskey in the Jar'ow" tasting set, comprising the following five drams...

Greenore 8 Year Old - 40%

Colour: Sunlit straw
Nose: Candied walnuts drift initially with a little spice that breaks from the glass after a moment. An interesting sweetcorny note acts as a base to the harmony of aromas.
Palate: Strawberry and cream boiled sweets, super smooth and drinkable.
Finish: A tart lemon meringue pie to close the flavours.


Redbreast 15 Year Old - 46%

Colour: Sun-kissed beach
Nose: Opening with a spicy dry rye character that is carried well with a treacley hum. A dry essence of hay provides contrast and balance.
Palate: Oily and rich sweetness of lavender honey, with a pecan pie and maple syrup stickiness.
Finish: The wonderful character is lifted with peppermint that freshens the mouth delightfully.

Bushmills 16 Year Old - 40%

Whiskey to shout about!

Colour: Burnished amber
Nose: Oddly savoury in the background with woody dried herbs. Autumn fruits and pruny sweetness come to the fore alongside a prominent oak characteristic.
Palate: Leathery ash, well spiced, with strong pine oil.
Finish: Berries and tree sap continue afterwards, filling the mouth with a continued resinous nature.

Jameson 18 Year Old Limited Reserve - 40%

Colour: Vibrant amber
Nose: Classically Irish... vanilla, smooth fruity caramel, and oak. A hint of white chocolate ripples under the surface.
Palate: Smooth and gentle, with a sweet and salty contrast.
Finish: A light rosewater tang develops on the aftertaste, with a long aromatic finish and continuing briny character.

Connemara Peated - 40%

Colour: Spun gold
Nose: Definite peat! Fresh seaweed, reminiscent of being on a beach as the tide goes out. A tiny floral note of freesias is just apparent in the background.
Palate: Creamy and smooth, with dark chocolate and rich coffee.
Finish: A slight wisp of smoke comes in right at the end. It's peaty alright, but not as we usually know it.

We absolutely loved the packaging of the tasting set, which included tasting notes and "instructions" for a tasting night in. The sample sizes were just right for either a little taste of all five between 3 people, or a larger drink to ponder over for 2. The speed and quality of service from Flaviar was also exceptional. We understand the website is still in development, with some features lacking at the moment (such as no option to view open orders) but our email queries were responded to speedily and helpfully. Definitely one we'd recommend.

Cheers,

J&L

Sheffield Beer Week

Regular readers may have noticed that pretty much every week is beer week chez Mashtun. However, a new initiative has popped up this year to get the whole city (plus beer tourists) involved in celebrating this wonderful nectar. Between the 16th and the 22nd of March, every day will see a whole host of ale-ridden events taking place across Sheffield, from Meet the Brewer evenings to tasting competitions.

We're particularly excited to get to the Rutland Arms on Wednesday for the Siren Craft Brew MTB event, having been fans of the unique, adventurous beers created by Siren for quite some time. We're also hoping to get some scran while we're there, as chef Rico is putting together a special dish involving beer every day during Sheffield Beer Week. Having sampled their Siren Caribbean Chocolate Cake ice cream, there's no doubt that the menu will be epic. There's another Siren event held at Shakespeare's (who are hosting something every day!) on Tuesday 17th, with a showcase of their barrel aged beers... Experimental, ingenuitive and downright delicious.

We're also hoping to head to our top new pub of last year, the Tap and Tankard, who are hosting a Great Heck Meet the Brewer on Thursday 18th - another brewery producing consistently excellent products both on cask and in bottle.

The weekend brings SIBA's BeerX festival (preceded by a pub crawl round town, organised by Hop Hideout and CAMRGB - a prime opportunity for us to meet some new beery pals) and a closing party held by Stancill Brewery.

For more information and to see what else is going on, check out the Sheffield Beer Week website or join in the beer chat with co-ordinators Jules Gray and Clare Tollick on Twitter @Sheffbeerweek. We are so lucky to live in a city with such a vibrant, exciting scene for beer drinkers, and this is the perfect way to show it off.

See you at the bar!

L&J

Buxton Brewery: Battle Horse

Buxton have fast become one of our go-to breweries, with every beer of theirs which we've sampled being creative, original and oh-so-tasty (here's looking at you, Wyoming Sheep Ranch). We thought that for our first blog post reviewing a single beer, they'd be a great place to turn, and we found something a bit special to shout about...

Buxton Brewery's 100th brew since moving to their current brew kit is Battle Horse: a bold Double Black IPA bottled at 10.5%. First things first, it looks ace - Buxton's branding is contemporary, clean and eye-catching, and the beer itself is a pure, deep black.

Battle Cat Horse

The nose sings of pine and oak, almost as if aged, but at the same time it is vibrant and fresh with oodles of dark berries.
The malt bill, containing prominent roasted malts, is bold and chocolatey, bringing a dry roasted coffee body. With tropical passion fruit lying in wait underneath all that richness, despite the high ABV it is beautifully soft and deceptively easy to drink. This shows how the imperial-style malty notes in the beer are balanced by the more classical IPA characteristics: the variety of hops in the brew give a great oiliness and body whilst also providing a very fresh, almost floral character throughout the drink. So complex, but it all comes together with absolute panache and completely fills the head with chewy, extravagant goodness.

This landmark brew from this wonderful Derbyshire brewery is truly something to behold - I highly recommend keeping an eye out for it.

Cheers,

Jim

Thornbridge Brewery Tour

Just outside the lovely Derbyshire village of Bakewell, hidden in a small industrial estate lying behind a timber mill, is the forward thinking and ever-growing 'craft' brewery Thornbridge. Since humble beginnings ten years ago, the brewery has become continually more prolific and their reputation for great quality beers has spread worldwide.

We're pretty spoiled by living in Sheffield, in that no matter which part of town you're in you can almost always find a Thornbridge beer. Their range of pubs really does have something for everyone - summed up nicely by twobeergeeks - and their brews are consistently top notch. Despite the brewery being a mere 15 miles from our doorstep, we'd never been to have a look around, so decided to put this to rights and headed off on a Wednesday afternoon.

First impressions... Huge. Slick. Contemporary. We were taken aback a little at just how much of an industrial operation this is, having only been to classic, traditional breweries before. We were greeted by our tour guide and technical whizz Richard and half a pint of Bohemia (4.8%), a refreshing dry-hopped Czech style pilsner.

After a quick Thornbridge history lesson, and a freshly bottled Kipling (where the newness of the beer allowed the Nelson Sauvin hops to shine to their full potential) it was on to the tour, now sporting some rather fetching hi-viz vests.

The continuing transformation of the brewery due to the demand that outstrips their current production means that the brewery building itself is almost overflowing with gleaming steel. We began in the malt room toward the back of the building, where some of the speciality malts are stored (the majority of their most commonly used Maris Otter malt is now stored in silos due to the sheer volume required). The malt room smelt delicious, but we were all ready to head up to have a closer look at the super shiny brewing equipment itself.

Heavyweight dark ale Bracia was being brewed as we were shown round, a little unusually as this is one of the brews that until recently has only been produced at the Thornbridge Hall site. After a little peep in the hopback we were shown into arguably the heart of the brewery - the control room! Every process is overseen by computer controls, ensuring consistency. There's also a lab which is full of high-tech gadgetry and enables a tight watch to be kept on quality control. The air was literally buzzing and we felt a bit like we'd fallen into Willy Wonka's factory.

We followed the brewing process through, wandering by the 18 100hl fermenters and conditioners to the bottling line. More technological wizardry here too, with a centrifuge to clarify the beer and a nifty bottling machine.

Finally, we headed back outside and into a separate warehouse - the Ageing Room. Floor to ceiling barrels contained an array of exciting projects, some to be revealed during their tenth anniversary year throughout 2015.

Thirsty work, this tour lark. Back in the shop we polished off some of the delicious Cocoa Wonderland, a 6.8% chocolate porter made in collaboration with the fantastic Sheffield chocolate shop of the same name. It's rich, full-flavoured, and delivers just the right amount of cocoa naughtiness - a deserving winner of last year's Steel City Beer Festival.

We left with arms full of the hotly-anticipated Jaipur X, firmly believing the Thornbridge motto - Innovation, Passion, Knowledge. It's clear that despite their growing stature, this is a brewery which is still prepared to take risks, implement new ideas, and bloody enjoy what they produce.

Cheers,

L&J