Thursday 1 September 2011

Day 130, Beer 130 - Liverpool Organic's "William Roscoe"

Today's Beer




Name – William Roscoe


Classification – Bitter

Strength – 4.5% ABV



Verdict - At A Glance

On the eye – Rich, antique gold.

On the nose – Vivid fresh citrus and gently nutty malt. Lovely.

On the tongue – A vibrant and dynamic beer, with ultra-crisp citrus, super solid dry bitterness, and perfectly pitched nut foundations.

On the subject – This brewery has now officially brought The Bottled Beer Year to a crisis point. (Read on...)

On the market – Growing availability, but I urge you not to wait for it to come to you – go right now to the brewery's own web store.

On the
whole9/10



Full Review

I delayed the posting of this review after it was identified as being lethally toxic.

This post, in addition to the other Liverpool Organic reviews already online here, threatens to poison my entire website and send it to an early grave.

Quite simply – I cannot keep reviewing beers from this brewery.

Not without making huge changes to the way I operate. It's really just a question of whether I make those huge changes or elect not to review any more of these titles.

The reason for all of this is fairly straightforward.

Liverpool Organic's beers are too good.

And I'm not being all cutesy here. I'm deadly serious.

If I don't stop reviewing this consignment of beers, it's very possible that the top twenty slots on my chart will include ten products from the same company, and that's not a scenario I'm getting all giddy with excitement about.

This website would begin to look like a poorly disguised promotional stunt. My readers (even the most open-minded ones) would start participating in games of 'Spot The Brown Envelope' and 'Pin The Tail On The Corrupt Beer Reviewer' – and this is something I'm obviously keen to prevent. (Although they do sound like pretty excellent games...)

My chief problem is deciding what changes to make to deal with this problem. I really don't think it's morally justifiable to effectively 'ban' or 'blacklist' a brewery for sending too many high qualities ales. That would be a bit like banning Colonel Sanders from opening any more restaurants because he was making too many people lick their fingers.

(KFC played no part in the making of this poorly disguised promotional stunt. Other fried chicken outlets are available. But their food is like raw sewage in comparison. All Bargain Buckets (18 Pieces only) should be delivered via the usual Bottled Beer Year address. Dark meat only, with Diet Coke and sweetcorn sides. Don't rely too heavily on the doorbell – knock loudly as well. And step lively, time's getting on! Thanks.)

Where was I?

Oh yes, beer.

In the interests of fairness, I'm going to press ahead with a review of today's beer, but then I'm going to have a good think about how to proceed with this brewery in the future – any suggestions would be appreciated because I'm finding this whole situation a lot more sticky than I'd anticipated. 

Okay, so...

Another beer from their Heroes Of Liverpool range, William Roscoe has the deep gold visual appeal of a fine antique, and indeed there are'traditional' elements to this beer, but in true Liverpool Organic style – only the most 'modern-feeling' elements of a traditional ale have been selected, and the rest of the drink is distinctly contemporary.

Grapefruit, watermelon, gooseberry, ultra-peppery celery and the sharpest white grapes all swirl and glide around a central core of roast nuts and savoury biscuit. It's all massively immediate and dynamic, and the freshness is once again the key. It seems to me that this company's strict use of Organic ingredients, and it's consistent output of uncommonly vivid and fresh tasting beers – cannot be dismissed as mere coincidence. Organic produce appears to lend itself to beer production in the most astonishingly beneficial way.

The Liverpool Organic bottle-conditioning is as brilliantly executed as ever, meaning almost every drop can be consumed and enjoyed without grief.

Every aspect of this beer, every feature, element and component part is exemplary.

This brewery is either run by Martians or exceptionally gifted Earthlings. I wouldn't be surprised either way. Whoever they are, they're currently bottling beer every bit as well or manifestly better than any other outfit I know of.

I've got six more of their beers waiting in line, and I don't yet have the slightest idea what I'm going to do with them.


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