What beer are we drinking this week? Episode 3

Western Herd Barrel-Aged Stout 7. Tasting notes: "dark ruby, almost black in appearance. Expect flavours of dark fruits, coffee, chocolate with a strong whiskey finish."

Actual taste: Sour. Lime juice and very little else. Something wrong somewhere - I let the sink be the judge 😣.

9.5%. And the price reflected it 👿. I find imperial stouts can be a bit of a gamble anyway but usually the problem is where they go too far into sugary sweetness and lack dark chocolate or coffee bitterness to dial it back. This was irredeemably sour - definitely not fitting the brief and in no way matching the description. It's a pity as I liked their Turlough Porter. Bad batch I presume.

I saw it in a local off licence this evening. Can't remember the price, but I think it's on the steep side, even if it is nice.

I don't find imperial stouts a gamble so much, as they almost always deliver for me. I do get the odd one that doesn't work out, taste wise. But to have one that's gone sour isn't acceptable. That's why I've gone off these ones from Western Herd. I had a twin set from them last year that was really good though.

Actually just checked my email, and this series 7 that's out now, is the one that was released last October, so it's the same one I had at Christmas that was off. The set that I had before was series 3 and 6, in bottles, and they were fantastic.

I had four bottles of Galway Bay 200 Fathoms last year, the first two were good, the third I couldn't drink it was so putrid, and a mate got me a fourth that was good. So I presume it's something going wrong when it's bottled or canned.

Picked up a few cans of Northern Monk Greed Pastry Stout this evening. 8.4% with Kenyan coffee, cinnamon, vanilla, rum, muscovado sugar. While it's labeled a pastry stout, it's not really that sweet. Northern Monk rarely disappoint, and it's a decent price.

Sierra Nevada Barrel Aged Narwhal is back on the shelves now too, and you can't go wrong with that, for €8.80.

Budvar Dark returns to Aldi on Sunday (27th). €2.59 for 500ml bottle. Nice beer and something you don't see in supermarkets too often.

I often pop into Aldi and pick up the O Brother or DOT beers, but never the Brown Bear ones. Might take a punt one of the days.

WWas in Denmark recently and this was quite refreshing. Had a ginger/pine needle hint off it.

Enjoyed several pints of Wicklow Wolf Bittersweet Limoncello Sour yesterday evening in one of the locals (Byrne and Woods) which has a new rotating Wicklow Wolf tap (to go with the Elevation tap). Perfect for late afternoon beer garden sun.

Maybe it was the weather and I like a limoncello spritz occasionally but thought bittersweet was outstanding when I had a can of it at the weekend

After I enquired about a lack of stock on the shelf, an employee in a branch of O'Brien's Wines off-licence told me: "there isn't any Guinness Foreign Extra Stout being made or available for sale, until the end of June".

Are we a serious country or not? Nearly four weeks of no sale. What next? No tea, bread or milk in ALDI?

Instead, they had two alternatives on the same shelf: Guinness Extra stout, bottled, €2.75 and the West Indies porter, 500ml at €3.75.

It was only when I cracked it open that I noticed the Guinness Extra stout bottle contains 568ml.

I presumed pint bottles are only sold in pubs, and the large bottles in supermarkets are 500ml.