McColl's Double Bubble...
- Matt Morris
- Jul 27, 2017
- 3 min read
I will first start off with a big thanks to McColl's Brewery and the guys at Beer O'Clock Show for these beers, first time I had won the giveaway albeit via a substitution but as I tend to never win anything I was more than happy to be Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. McColl's are as new a brewery you could imagine to the point they are still teething, need winding and have that baby smell they are based in County Durham which is not a bad bloodline to come from.
The bottles came in 500ml and their branding was really strong, simplistic and stylish so that is a good start to any new brewery. First off I had the 4.4% Best Bitter. Now I would be lying if I was a big best bitter fan but I do enjoy one on occasions and thankfully Tuesday was one of those days. It poured a rather clear light brown/dark orange colour with a slight off white head, the body was highly carbonated so it needed banging on the table to get the large quantity of bubbles from the side of the glass. The aroma was that of orange and like a metallic scent which is not that uncommon in a best bitter. The initial taste was that of over riding bitterness as I am not a bitter lover it took my breath away it was that strong, but after the first few mouthfuls I got use to it with orange peel and again a slight metallic note to the flavour came through predominately, however the mouth feel was utterly gorgeous it was so smooth and had a rich feeling; it was bottle conditioned with little bits floating about so it was giving it the biggest bang of flavour possible - so a decent start for the Geordie boys.
The second beer that I was treated to was the IPA coming in at 5%. This is more my territory and after all that bitterness I was hoping for a change up and bring some sweetness which I was crying out for. It was advised by the McColl's guys on Twitter to pour this specific beer aggressively, so I did and it poured a slightly hazy pale orange colour with again an off white head, it looked promising. The body was not as carbonated as the 'Best Bitter' which makes sense as to why it needed that type of pour and the aroma was that of a traditionally English hopped beer and it had a really familiar smell which bugged me until I finished which for the life of me I still can't pick out. The taste had more going on than it's smell, obviously it had plenty of hoppy notes which any good IPA should but there was a good amount of lemon in there, bit of grapefruit too with a biscuit note on the back end of it; overall it had in general a slight sweetness to it all but not too much if you aren't sweet toothed and again the mouth feel was lovely. One bit of advice if you read this before you drink the beer is that I plead you to get the entire bottle into the glass as the 'bottom funk' rounded the beer perfectly it even changed the colour to a hazy blonde, the flavour was boosted and more body pushing this beer experience up a notch.
For an extremely new brewery this is a good start, both beers were traditionally English which makes a nice change but they both had full of flavour suiting many different palates, but the biggest positive and one I was not expecting was the mouth feel of both beers they were absolutely fantastic which many far bigger breweries have and can't manage. There are still issues such as the carbonation which were an issue in different ways, but that wasn't much to complain about. They also have a Golden Ale and Pal Ale, so if they make it to a bottleshop near you in the next few months give them a go - they certainly hit the criteria for many a real ale drinker.
Give McColl's a follow on Twitter - @McCollsBrewery
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