Harviestoun / Gourmet Burger Kitchen Beer and Burger Afternoon

Welcome to my beer blog. Its new and very very white but don't worry I'm sure it will soon accumulate plenty of weird, dark and inexplicable stains. I'm still finding the tags on most things so bear with me till I can make it look brilliant. Its basically a 4-4-2 beer blog written by a guy who tastes, buys, sells and lives beer to earn his (liquid) bread.

This afternoon I managed to wangle an invite to a beer and burger event brought to fruition by the Gourmet Burger Kitchen and an excellent British (Okay, Scottish but lets make the most of it) brewer Harviestoun. In celebration of "Bitter and Twisted" - Harviestoun's flagship golden ale - being launched into GBK's nationwide, a bunch of lucky punters got to go along to the N1 Centre and fill their faces with fistfuls of meat and beer.

THE BEER

I was expecting good things. Having tried Old Engine Oil, Ola Dubh 12, 16 and 18 and The Beer Boutique favourite lager, Schiehallion, I know that Harviestoun are bloody good brewers. Bitter and Twisted isn't the most exciting of beers but it definitely didn't disappoint. Drinks more like a lager than a Golden Ale. The first bottle I was served was freezer cold which pretty much negated any flavour the beer might have had. Second bottle was much better though....

Looks: Golden
Smells: Lemon, Light toast and Light Marshmallow
Tastes: Dry, Bitter and slightly sweet with a lemony finish.
Mouthfeel: Fairly pronounced carbonation in the bottle, would be interested to try the cask. Sets off the lemony noted nicely though. Average duration.

THE BURGERS

....were actually sliders. Which was actually brilliant as it meant we got to try different varieties of burger alongside the beer and weigh up which combos worked best. An exact science you see. We tried the Classic, A Wild Boar, A Buffalo and another Classic at the end. I loved the Wild Boar burger but don't think it really works particularly well with the beer - ditto the Buffalo. WIld Boar has a very bold flavour and the beer just didn't quite stand up to it. Hopefully GBK will consider taking on more from the Harviestoun range to match up to some of the more robust flavours. Bitter and Twisted does just about stand up to most of the beef burgers on the menu though I suspect it was chosen for its appeal to a wider audience than the like of Old Engine Oil which pairs fantastically with Beef and would provide a nice alternative to the classic Burger/Pale Ale combo. 

Overall though, it was a tasty afternoon and kudos to Harviestoun and GBK for giving us another choice in craft beer in a high street chain. And of course, thanks to Harviestoun for the invite :-)

M