Time and Tide (and beer) wait for no man!!

When you are looking for the most exciting up and coming breweries in the UK, you have to look to the East…. Almost as far East as you can in the UK to the small village of Eastry in Kent. There you will find Time and Tide Brewing.

Founded on the idea of creating unique beers and experimenting with flavours that you wouldn’t think would ever work (A beetroot Hefeweizen anyone??!!), Time and Tide have managed to do what so many other smaller breweries have struggled with, creating a consistent and solid line up of beers that create all the hype for themselves and leave everyone talking about them.

Not content with just pushing out great beer, they are constantly engaging with their customers, getting and taking feedback to improve or just to engage in chatter about all things beer and it’s this presence that has enamoured them to so many in the craft community.

Below are my thoughts on the beers I’ve had so far and even a sneak peek at an as yet unreleased beer that I was very lucky to sample…….

The Kraken Coffee stout – 7.4%

'What a Kraken grasps, it does not lose, be it a longship or a leviathan'..... George R.R. Martin could not have been more right because once this this deliciously dark denizen of the deep has you he's never letting go!!! One of my all time favourite coffee stouts, The Kraken is one of those beers I can just go to over and over again.

This pours a thick, deep black with a dense beige head. Big aromas of black coffee and dark chocolate with a vanilla sweetness. Taste is pure coffee and chocolate goodness with some essence of toasted malts and molasses. There's a small amount of carbonation and a medium body. I know there have been a few tweaks to the recipe since I first had this and they've only made it better!!

The great beer dad rating - 9/10

All in Jim IPA – 5.4%

That's right..... I'm going All In....Jim!!

This is a great IPA brewed with citra, cascade, sorachi and herkules hops with an ABV of 5.4%

This pours gold with a light haze and has some nice aromas of peach, passionfruit and pine. Taste is fairly sweet with a lasting bitterness at the back but it's not overpowering. In the middle of all of that there's stone fruits and grapefruit.

This is a really good, sessionable IPA that I could easily fill the fridge with

The great beer dad rating - 8.5/10

Double stout – 9%

Lots of chocolate, coffee and roasted malt on the nose as soon as the ring was pulled. Silky smooth pour with a thick off-white head. Taste is coffee and chocolate with a good smokiness. This doesn't feel like a 9% beer and I could happily drink this through the day

The great beer dad rating - 9/10

Papa Midnight black IPL – 6.5%

This is a real enigma of a beer, as the name suggests it pours a deep black with aromas of roasted malts, herbs and grass. Taste is a delightful blend of roasted grains with citrusy hops and pine with a nice warmth at the finish. Time to embrace the darkness and let it take me.....

The great beer dad rating - 8.5/10

Domino white stout – 8.6%

We end with a very special sneak preview of Time and Tide’s 8.6% imperial white stout, Domino. This is a big beer, no doubt about it. As the name suggests it pours a very pale amber colour but the aromas are all impy stout, roasted malts, chocolate and smoke with a little sweetness. The taste follows nicely, with the same deep roasty flavours and a hoppy bitterness at the end. Lighter mouthfeel than a traditional impy stout but in no way detracts from what is a fantastic beer. Personally, I can't wait until this is released so I can get some more and especially see if ageing adds anything to the flavour

The great beer dad rating - 9/10

Us Brits… all we do is talk about the (Wild) weather….

Come rain or shine, there’s only one weather I want to talk about… hold on to your hats as it’s gonna get wild!!

Based in Silchester, just outside Reading, Wild Weather ales is now in its fifth year producing excellent beer. Named as such by owner Mike Tempest, as a play on his surname, Wild Weather ales draws its inspiration from new world hops, German malts and all manner of styles from all over the globe.

A quick look at their current line-up will show just how many different influences there are in their brewing. From their Earl grey IPA, ‘Storm in a teacup’, to two awesome sours, ‘Damn Dead Strawberry’ and ‘Peach of a Weekend’, and to the frankly absurd yet equally brilliant collaboration with Weird Beard brew co., ‘Such a Bohr’, a kaffir lime saison/coconut stout blend.

The first thing you will notice about a Wild weather beer is the eye-catching label on the can. All the work of a local artist and punk musician known to the brewery called Mark Bell. His artwork really makes the cans stand out on the shelf and adds a touch of irreverence and fun.

Not content with producing their own stand out brews, they have branched out and collaborated with some of the UK’s other fine breweries, including the aforementioned Weird Beard Brew Co, Elusive Brewing and Bad SeedBrewery. Such collaborations have only helped Wild Weather to grow as a brewery, expand their knowledge and allowed them to experiment with new techniques and flavour combinations that might not seem so obvious.

For Wild Weather, the future is certainly bright. Expanding their brewing capacity as and when it’s needed and putting plans in place to hit the export market can only mean more great beer being available to more people… and that’s really the end game of every brewery.

Now, on to some reviews… As I’ve had the fortune to sample a good number of the current line up I’ll stick to the brews that have really stood out for me.

Such a Bohr is a kaffir lime saison coconut stout blend brewed in collaboration with Weird Beard Brew Co. and is as awesome as it sounds. This pours a thick, gooey black with a fair bit of carbonation and has so much aroma it's ridiculous, big hits of lime and coconut on the nose with some dark chocolate. The taste is incredibly complex, it starts with a citrusy bite from the lime and follows to a smooth chocolate-coconut blend with some bready malt at the back. If this had been a little less carbonated it would have been almost perfect. Even so, for a weird concept this is incredibly good!

The great beer dad rating - 8.5/10

When you need some funk in your life I can't recommend this Kwantum State kaffir lime saison enough. Another collaboration with Weird Beard Brew Co., this pours a clear golden colour with a good amount of sweetness floral notes and funk on the nose. Taste is medium sweet, quite bitter at the back with a little zestiness. Finishes with a doughy malt taste and more floral notes. I was expecting more of a citrusy vibe but the balance here is pretty spot on 

The great beer dad rating - 8/10

Damn Dead Strawberry, their strawberry lactose sour was the first of Wild Weather’s sours I had (Followed shortly by Peach of a weekend, their peach sour) and it was damn dead delicious!! First off, and the Brits among us will know, it has the aroma of a strawberry mivvi ice lolly, so much strawberry going on! Taste is as you'd expect.... strawberry but it's the very soon following sourness that really makes this. After that initial sweetness the gentle sourness just takes over and really lingers! Fantastic!!

The great beer dad rating - 8/10

Storm in a teacup earl grey IPA. This was the genesis for me, the first Wild Weather ale I had and the one that made me stand up and take notice. This Pours a deliciously hazy golden colour, aroma is full of tropical fruits and citrus. Taste is orange and lemon with just a hint of the earl grey which isn't overpowering as it can, and has been. Very nice indeed

The great beer dad rating – 9/10