You see, the choice of beer you choose often has some sort of "occasionality". Depending on what you are doing or where you are, or even what type of weather it is, usually dictates what beer you go for.
Spent all day on the beach in the hot sun - grab a four pack of something Mexican. Not because Mexico is also hot - but because the beer they produce (Sol, Corona, Bohemia, Negra etc) generally are beers that are very light in taste (Sol and Corona contain no hops at all) and are best enjoyed ice cold. Hops provide bitterness, bitterness provides flavour, flavour gets in the way of refreshement. So to get to the heart of refreshment, the brewer removes all hops and recommends that the beer is served at 2-4 degrees in temperature. The colder you chill a beer, the less flavour it will have. It's all to do with the essential oil in the hops. I always use an example in my beer lectures when there are women present. I tell them when they get home to put their bottle of Chanel in the fridge, open it up in the morning and take a smell - nothing. Only once it starts getting back to room temperature will the essential oils in their perfume start to come to life. Same with beer. English beer is traditionally served at room temperature because you want to taste all the flavours that are in a good hoppy ale.
It's this same fact that you probably wouldn't reach for an English ale when you are on the beach or in a nightclub. It's got too much flavour (if served at the correct temperature) and it gets in the way of your primary reason for drinking it - refreshment (beach), or to get drunk (nightclub). It's a drink to savour and drink slowly.
Guinness had a problem with younger people associating it's product with being too "chewy" and heavy. They didn't like the fact that in some night venues, people were only drinking one or two Guinness before switching to the easier drinking alcopops. Guinness realised that if they reduced the serving temperature, then it would take away some of the flavour, it would make it easier to drink. Easier to drink means more volumes. More volumes means more profits. Guinness Extra Cold was born.
Nice bit of marketing that.
So what do you drink when it's cold, rainy and downright miserable outside? You want something warming (a cup of tea?), you want something with some nice flavours (a bowl of soup?), you want something that effectively gives you a big hug, puts a glow in your cheeks and reminds you that it's much more sensible to stay in the pub than venture outdoors (a dark beer?). Yes - a dark beer. A stout. A porter. They are really all the same. Stout means strong and full bodied - just like the liquid and flavours inside your glass. Porter comes from the fact that it was the luggage boys drink of choice back in the 1800's. Spend all day transporting peoples luggage from train to hotel, and you are certainly going to give your name to that drink you sit in front of and relax afer being on your feet for close to fourteen hours. It's a style of beer that is meant to be appreciated. Often full of smokey, burnt, coffee and caramel flavours, this beer should never be served straight from the fridge. Its got too much in it to be masked by temperature. Think of Christmas and you'll probably think of a porter (unless you are under twelve where you will probably be thinking about what Santa is going to bring you). Christmas time is a great period for dark beers as the flavours we associate with Christmas - spices such cinnamon, cloves, oranges and such like are actually used in brewing these dark beers. These flavours all give that lovely warm aroma and make us feel all cuddly. They are also normally pretty high in alcohol - so there's that glow to your cheeks. It's the one time of year where I actually look forward to Saku or A Le Coq's new seasonal introduction. Last years A Le Coq's Christmas porter was excellent - full of aromatic spices and hints of vanilla. Saku's too.
Now we've established that one of the things that can dictate what sort of beer you drink is the weather, I've looked out of the window and decided to open a bottle of Belhavens McCallums Stout.
Here's the review:
(Ratebeer.com Rating: 44). It's a Scottish stout coming in at 4.1% abv. Not that strong in alcohol, so will have to drink a few to get the "glow". Pours a very dark ruby red brown. Creamy head with a good malt aroma and sweetish sugary afternotes.
The sugar is in the taste also. A much sweeter type of stout/porter than you'd normally find. Very litle taste of hops of roasted malt. But that doesn't make it bad. In fact, it makes it very drinkable. It's soft with a little salty taste to it. Mouthfeel is ok, maybe a little thin and oily with not much lacing on the glass.
Not bad. Don't drink this expecting a Guinness or a Czech dark lager. It is an ale, but it's a very mild one. In fact, this could be indentified more as a traditional English mild rather than a Scottish stout. If you compare it next to what we've got in Drink Bar: Entire Stout (UK), X-Porter (FIN), Krusovice dark (CZ), Budvar dark (CZ), Meantime Coffee Porter (UK), then although it doesn't compete on flavour, it does compete on drinkability - and offers something a bit milder than the others. I'd drink this during a rainy spell rather than when it's snowing and -21 degrees. And looking out of the window now, I think I'm going to have another one.
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