Sunday 20 November 2011

Rodenbach Grand Cru.

So I went to Bryne's wine shop in my home town of Clitheroe to peruse the usually interesting beer selection. It did not disappoint, although £2.29 is quite expensive for a 330ml bottle of beer at 6% abv I had not seen it before and I love to try new beers. As you can see from the picture it is quite dark which you might expect from a Belgian ale but this was not reflected in the taste. Anyone familiar with Lambic beer will be aware of the citrus sour flavours these beers are characterized by and although this partciular beer had the citrus zing it was followed by a much sweeter taste than I was expecting. The nose gave off strong peach aromas with the unmistakeable citrus zing. The first sip was amazing and was only outdone by the pleasant sweetness that followed. I was expecting sour and to be fair to call it outright sweet would be wrong but I must say in the grand scale of Flemish brewing this is definitely sweeter. It did not taste as dark as it looked, it had the consistency of a more golden/amber beer which led to me drinking it a little faster than I would the darker ales due to the heavier warmth darker beers usually carry.
After drinking and thoroughly enjoying this beer I did a little light reading on it and found it commonly described as winey, I can't agree with that maybe it's just me but the notion of this beer being sour and winey was not my experience and I drink a lot of beer and consider myself to be pretty good at identifying various flavours and styles. Still if we all agreed it'd be rubbish wouldn't it. I'll end with this, should you have the chance to try this beer do so. You won't regret it.

Wednesday 9 November 2011

Back after a while.



Thought I'd start with a picture in hope of catching peoples eyes and drawing them into the less spectacular aesthetic of plain old text. So yeah I've not blogged in ages so I thought I'd kick off with some of my feelings about my fave hobby Reef Keeping!

Reef tanks are always a work in progress and require what I like to call RUD. This stands for Research, Understanding and Diligence. This alone will not keep your reef ticking over there is also the elusive sixth sense which needs developing. As you keep tanks like this you gain an understanding of what needs doing and how and it is not always explainable. You can take as many readings and fulfill as many standardized parameters as you like but the feel you get for your particular set up and the creatures in your care is what will ultimately determine your successes. This isn't to say that any one aquarists sixth reef keeping sense is infallible, far from it. The dreaded tank crash can strike anyone no matter how well attuned you are to your setup. What I am trying to say is that although it may at first appear that a hobby which included large amounts of biology, a sizable amount of chemistry and a very decent dosing of physics it isn't an exact science. Life is a tricky and chaotic thing (as Jeff Goldblum taught us in JP) and reef keeping is as much about having an unknowable feel for it as much as anything.

This view will of course be condemned by many other reef keepers, its a highly divisive hobby. Much arguing goes on online as what works for one person doesn't work for another, no two tanks are the same. Which I believe just adds weight to my argument but the internet is infested with trolls. Sod em though.