Tag Archives: 8 Wired

Feel Good hit of the Summer

Posted on by
4

So after dropping the bombshell of my job change only a few days ago, today I started at Golding’s in earnest   Well technically I started yesterday, but I was on a first aid course, so I only really started at the new bar today. I spent most of the morning painting.  Then I did some painting.  After that, for a change, I painted.

Photo courtesy of Sean

I did not paint this though. Photo courtesy of Sean Golding.

So it seems I’m keeping day-walker hours for the next three weeks or so.  That gave me the perfect opportunity to have that mythical “Afterwork Pint” that all these normal people I know keep talking about.

I’ve also been keen to create an award for my favourite beer of the season, and since summer’s more or less over, I thought it’s about time for me to name it.  Coincidentally, being rather shagged out from a day of painting, the beer I decided to drink for my Afterwork Pint was also my pick of the summer.

So here it is; my ‘Feel Good Hit of the Summer‘ is:

8 Wired Brewing Co. Haywired
Haywired at Sunset, with my paintey hand.

Haywired at Sunset, with my paintey hand.

Approximately one out of three bottles in my recycling bin over the last three months has been Haywired.  This is roughly speaking, my perfect drinking beer.  It’s golden but the malt profile isn’t boring.  It’s hoppy, fruity yet bitter, but neither over or under hopped.  It’s low(ish) alcohol (4.6%) but not too low, so you can drink a fair amount of it easily.  As I say, it’s roughly roughly perfect for summer.  Thus it wins my inaugural ‘Feel Good Hit of the Summer’ Award.  Well done Haywired.

8 Wired Grand Cru

Posted on by
3

DSC_0686Beer: 8 Wired Grand Cru
Style: Quadruple/Blended Sour
ABV: 10%
From: Hashigo Zake
Date: 26/02/2013

Yes.  Oh mother-loving yes.  I want this beer in my mouth.  All the time.  It’s so utterly excellent.  I want to carry around a CamelBak full of this beer.  I want an IV drip bag constantly hooked up to my veins.  Full of this beer.  

I wish clouds were made of this beer.  So that when it rained, it rained this beer.

…

Ok, ok.  I’ll review it properly now.

So as you night have guessed, I really like this 8 Wired Grand Cru. Which is why I’m doing my best impression of the only scene worth watching in Beerfest.1   

My beer is slightly crooked.

My beer is slightly crooked.

Grand Cru is red-brown, with low carbonation and no head.  It smells kind of like port and plums, with a hint of something cheesy.  Flavour is sweetish, but not overly so, with strong raisin and plum character, a hint of chocolate, and a sour note that cuts through the cloying Belgian yeast character.  In short, it’s massive, it’s complex, it’s balanced, it’s beautiful.  

Grand Cru started life as The Sultan, 8 Wired’s Quad, aged in pinot barrels and blended with a Flanders Red.  By coincidence, I happened to taste each of the constituent beers, when I snuck into Søren’s cool-store two years ago.2  I have firm memories of the Red, which was super cheesy and sour.  Hints of this beer come through very clearly in the Grand Cru, cutting through the big, sticky, cloying character of The Sultan.  

I risk being a bit of a tease with this review, as I had Grand Gru on tap.  Readers will probably never see it on tap anywhere, but don’t despair; bottles should be available somewhere, at some point.  I don’t know where, but if you do, grab one.  Taste the clouds…

In other news:

People active in the beer-social media, may have noticed this video from Hancock & Co./Glengarry.  I was going to sling poo at Hancock’s, but it’s clear from that clip, that they are perfectly capable of crapping in their own nest without my help.

Others have promised to write about the dis-ingenuousness of the brand (founded last year in 1859).  And the quality of their beer (I’m not touching that topic).  Maybe I’ll write about that soon.

I would like to dryly observe however, their use of the term ‘entry level’ beer, and how they equate it with ‘small’ flavours (read bland).  I think this topic deserves a longer post, but I would like to point out that ‘entry level’ often seems to be used by breweries (read marketing/brand managers, and I’m not just looking at Hancock’s here) to deflect criticism from the beer community.  Usually this is done using the argument “you’re a ‘beer-geek,’ you don’t like it cos it’s not hoppy/17% ABV/obscure/whatever.”

To that argument I have one thing to say: Bookbinder.  Actually I have many things to say (Three Boys Golden, Townshend Bandsman, Mussel Inn Golden Goose, pretty much every Pilsner brewed in this country…), but Bookie will do.  Bookie is seriously ‘entry level’: simple, uncomplicated, unchallenging, beautiful.  What it’s not is small.  Ok, it is 3.7% which is small, but it’s also characterful.  And it’s loved universally by the uninitiated drinker and the experienced ‘beer-geek’ alike.  

Bookie proves that just because you’re beer is ‘entry level’ status, doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyed by all.  Nor does it mean a company can get away with bland or faulty beer and call it ‘craft’.     

  1. That movie seriously sucked, but the scene where they describe the best beer in the world is utterly hilarious and (almost) makes watching the film worthwhile.  If you don’t mind watching it in an eye-rapingly awful aspect ratio, then it can be found here.
  2. One of the most surreal and geeky moments of my beer career.  Standing in a cool-store tasting beer ageing in different barrels, with two heavy-weights of the craftbeer world: Søren Ericsson of 8 Wired and Kjetil Jikiun of Nøgne Ø (apologies for name dropping).