Today is technically my day off, but like most “days off” I find myself dropping into work to see what needs to be done, and going to meetings for the slightly less urgent tasks that need to be done.
Today it was about updating our website, mostly amending the “What’s on tap?” part of our website to make it a little more user friendly, and generally making a bit more space for Beer related stuff. After which, I had plans of being productive, going to the gym, updating said website with some of the propaganda that has been missing over the last couple of months, and doing a couple of orders…
But it is after midnight, and I still haven’t done any of this, not even close! And I blame it on Kyle, our web developer… Near the end of our meeting, after talking about beer related stuff for quite a while, we were both feeling a little thirsty, and he uttered those words I rarely seem to be able to resist: “Feel like a beer?”
Before I could even think about the rest of the stuff that I had to do tonight, I heard myself saying “…yeah sure, won’t say no…”
Next thing I know I have a glass in my hand, filled with Corsendonk Pater, an Abbey style Dubbel, that is fruity and dry, and oh so refreshing. We were still working, so I didn’t really pay the fullest attention to the beer, but it was damn good …and it seemed to set the pace for the night…
We didn’t finish up until a little bit later, so I got back to work, tidied things up, emailed a couple of things home, and left intending to get some stuff done there.
…well I had the best intentions…
I cooked dinner (some spicy burritos…) and sat down to get some work done.
….but everything else suddenly became so darn interesting… Beer blogs, then DIY blogs, then my flatmates terrible TV shows… Until I decided to just take a break, have a beer, and get back to it later…
A couple of hours later, I still haven’t been able to get back to it… And I am dreading looking at it… So I figured why not write a blog post instead? Then I can still call myself productive! Right?
The beer I grabbed was one that I have has been sitting in the back of my fridge, forgotten, for the last couple of weeks, the Harviestoun Old Engine Oil.
A Porter that claims to be: Viscous, Bittersweet and Dark …lets see…
It pours a deep dark brown, almost pitch black, with about a finger of tan head. The body is so dark, when I hold it up to the light to see if any light is getting through this bad boy, I just get my reflection staring back at me… So it definitely has the dark part down.
The first thing I get on the nose is, well, for lack of a better term “beer”. And while this may sound like a stupid thing to say, the kind of thing you hope your girlfriend doesn’t say while you are picking apart the intricacies of a beer with your beer geek mates, it is the first thing that comes to mind. It’s that kind of comforting smell of beer, one that hasn’t been crazily hopped, or infused with some weird spice, or smell deceptively like a dessert. It’s that grassy, herbaceous kind of smell I remember from drinking Dad’s beer as kid (although that probably sounds worse than I mean it too…). Like when you were a little kid, you would go to watch dad play sports, and take a little sip of his beer after the game… Like, well, beer…
There is a little more depth to this one than the terrible lagers Dad used to drink after a game of squash… A nice roasty, malty sweetness, dark fruits, prune(?) there’s an inherent earthiness to it as well. Nothing to outlandish, but good, really good.
In the mouth it’s surprisingly viscous, and really tasty. At first, it’s relatively light and creamy, but as I swirl it around in my mouth the body feels like it’s increasing, and tasty coffee-like flavour begins to build. The flavour just sort of lingers and keeps building, until the bitterness seems to be fading and blending into a nice bittersweet chocolate flavour, which kind of lingers and develops for a few minutes until you are left with just a twang of hop bitterness on the sides of your tongue.
Dark? Check!
Viscous? Check!!
Bittersweet? Check!!!
This is a seriously good beer that lives up to it’s claims, and definitely will not sitting in my fridge, forgotten about, ever again!
beyond beer pong 