Old Dairy Brewery - Tasting Selection

I normally say that these items have been donated but this was actually a gift from my girlfriend's parents (Thank you!) I really try and make myself easy to buy for by broadcasting the fact that I only really like 2 things and they're comics (freakin' love comics) and beer (I write this blog and I drink an absolute ton of the stuff.)

My previous dealings with the Old Dairy Brewery have been near universally positive, they started out a bit slowly for me but now I'm just starting to think that I picked a bad bottle because everything I've had since then has been brilliant. In this tasting selection we have their Copper Top, a premium bitter, Silver top, a luscious looking cream stout, and an absolute beast of a brew, the 10% Tsar Top, an imperial Russian stout. If this tasting selection proves to be positive then you can expect more reviews of the Old Dairy Brewery in the future... I've been eyeing up Czech Mate, their pilsner... I'm eyeing it like a cheetah eyes a crippled gazelle.


Copper Top - 4.1%

I'm not sure whether it's entirely intentional or not but everything I've had so far from Old Dairy Brewery has either looked or tasted extremely creamy, taking on characteristics from the history of the brewery. With Copper Top, premium bitter, it is the milky white head that froths like fresh milk being poured from a great height and sticks around like that guy at parties who just can't take a hint and keeps talking to you when your hand is up some girls blouse. The colour is a rich, dark, hazel and the aroma as a beautifully indulgent mix of malt and hops, the kind of smell that brings back memories of old pubs where old men smoked pipes and drank out of dimpled mugs.

As predicted, the texture is somewhat creamy and, therefore, the whole thing goes down very easily. The bitterness is sharp and there is a hint of the darker fruits at the finish. Many supermarkets sell bottles of stuff that claims to be REAL ale and REAL beer for the REAL beer fan. THIS is REAL beer, this stuff will put hairs on your chest and fill you with so many outdated clichés that the stick you'll be using to shake at them will become limp out of frustration.

This beer, like many others from Old Dairy Brewery, don't tend to last too long in the glass. Fresh Hop lasted about 3 minutes and this isn't too far behind it, I'm already eyeing the dregs and contemplating what to have next. Copper Top is an excellent mood setter, as long as that mood is DRINKING!

Food Suggestion: Old school pub fare, anything from a ploughmans to chicken and chips in a basket. I, personally, would just stuff my face with pork scratchings and hook this up to my veins.

Drink this if you like: It's hard to compare it to things that describe themselves as "bitter" in the shops because they mostly come in cans, which instantly makes them crap, or they're made by Marstons, which instantly makes them... Sub par. Drink this if you like Pedigree I guess... Drink this if you like Pedigree and you're sick of not being able to taste much of anything.


Silver Top - 4.5%

It's odd but this beer smells like it's going to taste creamy... I know there are other subtle hints like the undeniable fact that it's a cream stout and that it says so quite prominently on the label but my point remains. You get the regular stout smells: rich mocha and dark chocolate, that come through a head as thick as two planks and as light as bubbles a child would blow through a straw into strawberry milk, except this sticks around a lot longer and what lies beneath, I'm sure, is a hell of a lot more fun.

This is very smooth with hints of bitterness but it is the texture of it that's bowling me over once again, it's just such a superb gateway for all those rich coffee and chocolate flavours that expand on your palate, accompanied by a light fizz at the end. This is not a stodgy stout, it is not thick, it is more like single cream than it is like clotted and all's for the better! Some stouts can be too watery and, therefore, end up being somewhat unsatisfying as a stout and others can be too thick and cloying but this, with its fizz and creamy texture, has hit somewhere in and around the sweet spot for my personal preference in stout which, as far as this review goes, is all that is and will ever matter.

This seems to be a drink that changes with your mood and can either be an indulgent treat with smooth chocolate and coffee flavours or it can be a refreshing pint to chuck down your neck if you are so inclined. Sterling effort chaps!

Food Suggestion: I'd love to have this with a cinnamon swirl, one of those really thick doughy ones that come apart like fresh bread and are covered in rich, sticky, icing. I see stout very much as a dessert drink and this is definitely in that camp.

Drink this if you like: Any cream or milk stout, this is an excellent example of that creed.


Tsar Top - 10%

With a punch somewhat like putting too much vinegar on your chips and a rich burnt coffee taste that is both challenging and deeply addictive, Tsar Top is the cherry on top of the cake on top of the crown that rests gently on Gertrude, the favoured milking cow of the Dairy Queen. I didn't mess around with checking to see what it poured like because it poured a bit like fizzy syrup that some prankster had infected with Marmite... Speaking of which! That's the after taste here! A rich burnt coffee with very light chocolate tones with an after taste of marmite on toast that just tingles at the back of your throat, waiting for you to take another gulp of delicious booze. In so many ways this beer reminds me of every single breakfast I had at university.

I didn't even take a whiff before I started drinking, as was my desire to crack this little beauty open. Maybe it was the cows wearing hats on the front that got me in the mood for greedily mauling a beer with my general face area or, more likely (though, cows wearing hats? Come on. Totally badass, right?) It was because this is a locally made, craft, imperial Russian stout that tallies in at a whopping 10% and there are few things that motivate me more than booze greed and extremely selective patriotism. Though now that I do have a smell it does smell a little woody, which is intriguing and more than enough to make up for the lack of head (though what you do get is a delicious subversive rusty brown colour) as well as the thin body.

However! Let that not detract from what all those elements create! The thin, drinkable, smooth, body acts as a vehicle to quickly drink (originally written as drinkly quick, hence proving my point,) a beer that is 10%, which is enough to knock most people senseless. Tsar Top is a little like the old Russian royal family for which it is named, it is decadent with savoury elements lingering in the shadows and then BOOM! A bloody and violent end as you down your drink and fall off your chair...

And so ends "Drew's Brew retells the Bolshevik Revolution."

Food suggestion: Thick brown bread and big chunks of extremely strong cheddar, I'm talking about a 7 or 8, higher if you can get it. Enjoy a night of punishing your taste buds with the sheer strength of the two combined.

Drink this if you like: I haven't enjoyed a stout like this for a long time but the last time I did was when I had Ashtray Heart by Evil Twin, which is considerably more smoked than this is and Big Mofo Stout by Brodie's, which was built like a brick... House of effluence, and could knock you out cold in 30 seconds flat. This, maybe, isn't quite as good as those but I see those as elite level stouts, but this has one significant advantage as far as I can see, this works out to just less than £4 a bottle if you get it delivered and, I imagine, less if you can find it in a shop, which is half the price you'll pay for any beer that's potentially only half as good as this one.