Steam Brew (German Craft Beer Resistance) By @SpectreUK

This Steam Brew is from the German Craft Beer Resistance. I like Steam Punk. I can see why people like to dress up in some pseudo traditional steam punk gear and get down and dirty with coal and hot with steam. I also like the sulty mysterious looking woman on the can. Maybe I'm getting old, but I have always liked steam engines and traction engines. I like the clanking noises they make, and I know it's not environmentally friendly per se, but I do like the smoke and hardiness from that era. Steam engines never fail to fascinate me.

This Steam Brew is a session IPA. At 4.9% in volume it's a pretty strong session India Pale Ale. On opening the rather tall can there was a Pils aroma mixed with the sweet pale malt. On pouring this pale golden IPA I also noticed a herbal hop aroma towards the back of the smell. On taste there was a bitter herbal hops taste to start with. I thought there was also a touch of citrus, which then mixed well with the sweet pale malts into the aftertaste.

I would say this Steam Brew is a pretty classic IPA, which fits perfectly well with the classic theming of Steam Punk. I can just see myself standing in a country pub gazing out at my traction engine in the early twentieth century after a particularly slow trundle through the countryside on a sunny afternoon.

Mr Greedy Hot Chocolate Stirrer (Ocado) By @cinabar

Let me start by telling you what I don’t like or don’t get about this Mr Greedy Hot Chocolate Stirrer as it seems it is a fairly long list. Firstly the link between Mr Greedy and the hot chocolate, seems a bit of a gimmick. Admittedly it is a gimmick I fell for because here we are, I bought the product. Secondly the lack of instructions on how to use the stirrer, just a tiny diagram on the folded blue card. A small point, but knowing how much hot milk to use would have been nice.

 

Thirdly the blue card is stapled, old fashioned staples. I heated the milk in the microwave, then next to it opened the packet and one of the staples popped off and I couldn’t find it. I had this horrible worry it was in the milk, but did eventually find it on the floor, but why would you use staples in packaging a food product. Fourthly, nuts, the topping on the hot chocolate stirrer is toffee and nuts. Nuts don’t dissolve, they are too small to add flavour but what do they add; a bittiness to the hot chocolate, unnecessary lumps in a drink.

So yes there are quite a few things I didn’t like about this Mr Greedy Hot Chocolate Stirrer but what I did was the flavour of the drink. The hot chocolate is sweet and tasty and was a luxury to drink (nuts aside), but the negative aspects just bugged me too much to buy it again.

Winter Edition Caramelised Biscuit KitKat (Ocado) By @cinabar

The very best thing about Winter and Christmas is the surge in products flavoured with cinnamon, which is my favourite spice. I have picked up a few goodies to try, but these new Winter Edition Caramelised Biscuit KitKats caught my eye. It won’t come as any surprise that one of my favourite biscuits are the Lotus Caramelised Biscuits, the idea of combining this flavour with Kit Kat sounded like genius to me.

I love the two stick KitKat bars too as they are only 103 calories which means they are a nice sweet treat with an afternoon coffee and they don’t make me feel too guilty if I just need a little bit of a chocolate fix. The moment the wrapper was off I could smell the cinnamon biscuit and I couldn’t wait to try the Kit Kat. The usual wafers are present (the caramelised biscuit doesn’t replace them), but there is a layer of biscuit fillings in their too. The flavour is sweet and the cinnamon very gently warming. I loved the twist of spice, such a perfect addition. I wasn’t expecting the biscuit layer to add as much sweetness as it did but the chocolate worked well with it and it certainly felt much higher in a calories than it was, the only problem I have is how to stop at one bar when I bought a multipack? :-D

Richmond Meat Free Smoked Bacon Rashers - first good vegan bacon? (@NLi10)

 We reviewed the other half of this combo - the meat free mine - a few weeks ago.  Finally I'm catching up on all the regular things after that Halloween rush.

And well - here they are - the facon, phacon, meat-free bacon of this new range.  Far too realistic for my veggie partner to even consider trying - but firmly living in the uncanny valley for bacon cloning.

Ever wanted to eat the same slice of bacon 8 times? well now you can!  I think food manufacturers underestimate the 'alien' sensation that having a box full of identical cuts of meat provides.  If we are to lab grow meat in the future this needs to be factored in.

I expected them to shrink a little faster so used the small pan - and as this is the veggie pan it felt slightly transgressive! it's nice that they've used colour to show that it's bacon but they also added the smell that a lot of artificial bacon things use.  This is now quite familiar (as some pre-packaged meat uses it too!) and so ironically this works.

They do crisp up decently - the ones on the box look like they were deep fried to get that super crispy outer - these have just sizzled in the oil I provided.

And I just dropped them artistically on some pasta for a very basic dinner.  The texture isn't bad actually - it's not bacon - but it's not offensive.  I'd actually say they've made Turkey Bacon here instead of Pork - which is odd - but I think that's a texture thing again.  The flavour is like meaty, smokey pork bacon and will repulse any life-long vegetarian (I had to open the windows!) but for me I could happily have these as a relatively long-life option to bacon that can happily sit in the fridge until needed.  Maybe I'll slice the remaining ones and pop them in a Carbonara?

I expect to have these again - but I think the mince worked better.

Big Cinder Toffee Stout (@WeeBeerShop @NewBristol) By @SpectreUK

"Thank Crunchy it's Friday!"

Okay, so you're reading this on Saturday, but I'm writing this blog on Friday evening. After another tough and frustrating week of pushing paper around my work laptop, Friday has sneaked up from nowhere and pounced on me. And I'm very glad of it too. I have another four weeks of this troublesome role, with troublesome colleagues, bosses and paperwork to match. I'm counting the hours, let alone the days left to a few months off back rehabilitating my knee, shoulder, and all other aches and pains, gripes and moans for the rest of the year and for a couple of months into 2022. I have some work to do on my heart and mind also, so I'm badly in need of some rest, sauna and steam room time.

This Big Cinder Toffee Stout was produced by the Big Bristol Brewery. At 6.5% in volume it's described on the back of the can as "liquidised crunchy bars in a stout". I haven't had a Cadbury's Crunchy chocolate bar for ages. I do love Cinder Toffee and chocolate. I love a good chocolate stout too, so I'm really looking forward to this beer. I reckon it will go down a treat as a pudding stout after my Fish, chips an£ battered sausage from the local chippy for dinner.

On opening the can the almost black contents indeed smelled like liquidised crunchy bars. Oh my, I could smell that aroma all night. It had me salivating at the thought of diving in. I poured this Big Cinder Toffee Stout into my waiting glass beer tankard. Gosh, I could get lost in that blackness. I was already regretting just having one can in stock of this stout and I hadn't even tasted it yet!

I just couldn't put it off anymore. On first over eager swig I tasted the cinder toffee straight away. Mmm… gorgeous! The roasted chocolate malts then interweaved with the sweet cinder toffee goodness. A little coffee flavour with a smidgen of bitter herbel hops touched my tastebuds at the back of the mouthful, only to be pounced on by those sweet cinder toffee and roasted chocolate malts into the aftertaste. These sweet cinder toffee and chocolate malt flavours stayed in my mouth beckoning me back to the depths of my black beautiful beer tankard once more. Gosh, you need to try this Big Cinder Toffee Stout, and make sure you buy more than one can!