Thornbridge - Halcyon

From the artists that brought us Jaipur and Wild Swan comes Halcyon a 7.4% Imperial IPA that is big on character and comes with a pedigree. The guys at Thornbridge, who strike me as a group of potentially mad scientists who I can imagine owning the best moustaches in history, do things properly, they don't mess around with piddling little pieces of nonsense like pasteurisation or filtration, that kind of thing, I imagine, is for handicapped people and little baby boys who will one day grow up to have an odd obsession with My Little Pony.

You are instantly greeted with a strong, heady, hoppy aroma that says, in plain English, "welcome to big boy beer, try not to spill any ya big Jessie!" The taste is deliciously malty and bitter with hints of berries and the slightest whiff of dried mango, which precedes a bitter tang that persists in the front of the pallet after a big, satisfying swig. The sensation is truly intriguing, I've never had a beer where you can only taste it at the front of your mouth, it's like all the flavour goes nuts the moment you drink it and you're just left to gulp down all that lovely alcoholic water, as if the booze itself was just a delivery system for the bitter, hoppy, flavour as opposed to it being the other way around.

Jaipur and Wild Swan were epically sessionable beers that were simple, no nonsense and tasty. You would have to be an old timey gent with a moustache the length and breadth of South Yorkshire to think it would be a good idea to session this because, at 7.4%, it has the gumption to put you on the floor quicker than Vladimir Putin Judo throwing a grizzly bear. Halcyon seems to be one of several efforts on the part of Thornbridge, though I'm sure no actual effort is necessary since they consistently make such good beer, to make beer for the real beer drinker, not a beer for the kids who occasionally try something in a bottle between binges on snake bite or old gits in grotty pubs who still think that Bass is the best beer is ever going to get, no, Halcyon (as well as a few others by Thornbridge) is a beer for the beer drinker with the golden pallet and a taste for exploration.

Everything about this beer is satisfying, though each bit is satisfying to a different degree. The colour isn't far off what a wheat bear should look like, it has a cloudy body that reminds me of the kind of honey that you have to buy in farm shops. It has a head that clings to the glass like a child clings to a parents leg and the overall texture and feel is smooth and easy going but not smooth enough that you would become complacent. The bitterness takes some of that away but it brings in a new level that just lingers and makes it as moreish as pressing a big red button that is attached to the pleasure centre of your brain. Thornbridge are one of the reasons I rate English beer so highly and it's because where other countries have a trademark, a specialty, we have companies who can do all of those things to a similar level. Thornbridge have so many strings to their bow that the bow can no longer really be considered a bow... More a harp.

Halcyon is definitely worth your time and money if you are a fan of strong bitter things. I remember this being under a fiver at The Bottle Shop, a place I constantly plug because they manage to find me lots of beer that I like.

Food Suggestion: I remember having a blueberry crème brulee at a restaurant in either Folkestone or Tenterden, I can't remember which but that would go perfectly with this. Something creamy and slightly sour just to kick things up a notch.

Drink this if you like: Jaipur, Wild Swan or any other Thornbridge tipple, though if you've never tried anything by Thornbridge then you would like this if you're a fan of St. Peters or the Bath Ales.