British ales

[SpaceCadet]

I'm impatiently awaiting the release of Newcastle's spectacular "Werewolf" seasonal, which I'd thought they were supposed to start selling in August but haven't. Last year the supplies in stores had run dry by mid-November, so this time I plan on basically filling up my storage unit with enough cases of it to allow blissful tippling through the gap. Not that their other three seasonals aren't great as well, but Wolfy is just orders-of-magnitude better, an easy leapfrog all the way to the top of my Favorite Beers list. It even pushes aside Wychwood Brewing's "Wychcraft," wych is quite a feat.

Werewolf hits your tongue in a way that makes you think "Oh, another John Courage/Bass-type ale," but only for a split second. Then an overwhelming taste/smell hits that's more or less exactly like the smoke from a bonfire at one of those keg parties out in the woods we used to hit in high school and college - just intensely smoky, but just as surprisingly flavorful. That's what brings the sense of mild astonishment at the finish: You can't believe that something so wet can taste so much like smoke, nor that something so intensely smoky can taste so blissfully good. Just flat-out the best beer I've ever had, but... where the hell is it?
Grrr! ~ Snarrl! ~ Woof! ~
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