The Hoppy Golfer

  Part four of my Christmas Stout series focuses on 2 highly impressive imperial stouts from Kileel brewery, Beer Hut. Less impressive was the idea to have a few beers and then try an 11% and 12.5% imperial stout back to back. Needless to say, I'm suffering slightly as I write this!!  First up in Interstellar, a salted caramel imperial stout brewed back in February of 2020. I was lucky enough to pick up a couple of these at the time and had one set aside for the back end of the year. Lots of toffee caramel flavours, backed up with the warmth from the 11% ABV left this one enjoyable stout.   Last stout of the night was Intergalactic. The guys at Beer Hut held back some of Interstellar and aged it for 9 months in whiskey barrels to produce this 12.5% barrel aged imperial stout. A quality beer on its own, but for me it has lost some of the toffee caramel flavours that I enjoyed so much in Interstellar. You still get the roasted malt flavours of coffee and ch...

 So the initial plan for the christmas stout ports was to have a mix of stouts from different breweries in each post, but its since turned into a post per brewery, with Mourne Mountain and Galway Bay breweries in the first two posts. So in keeping with the new theme, tonights post is Brehon Brewhouse's turn. Despite only living a stones throw from the Monaghan border, it was always difficult for me to get hold of their beers in general but fortunately they have made their way in to Armagh more recently, so hopefully I'll get my hands on more of their core range,  For the Brehom Christmas stouts, I was hoping to get hold of Shanco Dubh, their porter, but unfortunately it was sold out, leaving me with just Ulster Black and Crann Beatha. First up was Ulster Black, an oatmeal stout. I had it a few year back, and had been keeping an eye out for a while but never managed to find it until just before Christmas. Its a proper stout with loads of roasted bitterness and hints of coffee a...

Second part of my Christmas Stout series is devoted solely to the Galway Bays Two Hundred Fathoms 2020 release. Two Hundred Fathoms is a limited release Imperial Stout aged in Teelings whiskey barrels. The 2018 version was the 5th iteration of the hugely successful stout. To celebrate this Galway Bay Brewery kept back some 2018 blend, aged it in Rum and Bourbon Barrels and then blended it with Madagascan Vanilla beans and toasted coconut flakes, and Calendar Coffee Expresso shots to create the special boxset pictured below. I was fortunate enough to get hold of the boxset back at the start of December, although it did involve 2 1/2 hours of hammering their web shop before I managed to be successful!     Over 3 night (Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day) I settled down and enjoy my Christmas treat to myself. First up on Christmas Eve, was Two Hundred Fathoms. Much smoother than I remember from previous releases but still rocking the whiskey warmth from the barr...