{"id":3130,"date":"2011-06-01T00:03:14","date_gmt":"2011-05-31T12:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=3130"},"modified":"2011-09-05T04:11:00","modified_gmt":"2011-09-04T16:11:00","slug":"renaissance-craftsman-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/06\/01\/renaissance-craftsman-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Renaissance ‘Craftsman’ 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Renaissance<\/a>
Renaissance 'Craftsman'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gawd, it has<\/em> been a while.<\/p>\n

But it all rounds out in an oddly-nice way as I sit here and write about an absurdly, magnificently, madly<\/em> chocolatey beer while eating some of the very-last (at last!) of my ultra-massive birthday cake — it seemed to be made of chocolate, chocolate, chocolate and some other kinds of chocolate. This whole week (since my actual birthday, last Tuesday; it’s late on September 4 as I write this) has put that whole “you can’t have your cake and eat it” clich\u00e9 in a bin and thoroughly given it a pounding with cricket bats. It turns out that if<\/em> some lovely-lovely people buy you a sufficiently massive<\/em> cake, you can have it all week and<\/em> eat it all week, too.<\/p>\n

‘Craftsman’ had its re-launch at work way<\/em> back in June — the value of t<\/em><\/a> isn’t quite<\/em> in the triple-digits, at least — shortly after it scooped the Champion Stout trophy at the Australian International Beer Awards. George and I were just recording a podcast<\/a> episode today in which we discussed the various oddnesses of beer awards in general, so it’s additionally-fitting that I finally get around to this one, now. Whatever their issues — and let’s, for a moment, leave aside a) the peculiar way in which beer-judging works and b) the traditional Miniturised Industrial-looking Piece of Thing theme that all the trophies seem to go for — it remains a lovely moment when a deserving beer picks up an award and gives you yet another opportunity to shake the hand of the people from the brewery and congratulate them on the goodness of what they do.<\/p>\n

I’d had a lovely<\/em> afternoon, and had forgotten entirely that this was making its return that night. But on seeing the tap badge, quickly grabbing a tasting glass, and having just the merest sniff of it, I was instantly transported into a state of giddy, child-like glee. The nose of it is just perfect<\/em> chocolate; like birthday cake, or a craving-ending snack, or an easter egg you found under the bed just when you were regretting having eaten them all already. The ultra-choc character comes from combining an oatmeal stout base with additional doses of cocoa nibs and vanilla. The latter was eased-off a little this year, and I think that was definitely the right move; last year’s edition had the same grin-inducing chocolatey loveliness, but got perhaps a little sticky by the time you’d made it most of the way through your pint. Here, everything’s in marvellous balance. That may be an odd-looking trophy, but it’s one damn well-earned.<\/p>\n

(And in one final piece of nice, spooky timing, I closed my Diary<\/em> entry with a mention of “The Barry White Joke”, a phrase that harks all the way back to Emerson’s sadly-retired Oatmeal Stout<\/a>, and which I last noted here while rambling about Emerson’s ‘Grace Jones’ Porter<\/a> — a ‘Brewers’ Reserve’ beer which has, itself, just been re-released. I had some tonight at Hop Garden, and it was tasting great.)<\/p>\n

Verbatim:<\/strong> Renaissance ‘Craftsman’ 2011 1\/6\/11 @ MH. Launch of the new edition, which did very well over at the AIBA. Always nice to have Brian in the house, too. Me and Haitch were both reduced to wordless joy with our tasters — me probably helped along by still being on a bit of a high from a lovely afternoon. It’s just gorgeous<\/span>. The vanilla is toned-back from last year, making it worryingly drinkable — I liked the 2010, but it did get a bit sticky. It’s liquid chocolate, dry and cocoa-y and dark. A worthy new target referent for my Barry White joke.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Renaissance<\/a>
Renaissance 'Craftsman', AIBA trophy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Renaissance<\/a>
Diary II entry #107.1, Renaissance 'Craftsman'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Renaissance<\/a>
Diary II entry #107.2, Renaissance 'Craftsman'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gawd, it has been a while. But it all rounds out in an oddly-nice way as I sit here and write about an absurdly, magnificently, madly chocolatey beer while eating some of the very-last (at last!) of my ultra-massive birthday cake — it seemed to be made of chocolate, chocolate, chocolate and some other kinds … Continue reading Renaissance ‘Craftsman’ 2011<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,14,11],"class_list":["post-3130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","tag-pages","tag-nz","tag-stout"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1427,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2009\/03\/25\/yeastie-boys-kid-chocolate\/","url_meta":{"origin":3130,"position":0},"title":"Yeastie Boys ‘Kid Chocolate’","author":"Phil","date":"March 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"After the Silage Debacle, this was an incredibly-welcome change. The third Yeastie Boys release was a charmingly un-fashionable mild -- great big hop-fueled high-booze things were very much in fashion, so the Yeasties staked their claim to being Plural-Tricked Ponies very early on. It is weird that we got to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Yeastie Boys 'Kid Chocolate'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-1084-Yeastie-Boys-Kid-Chocolate-300x188.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":649,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2009\/01\/10\/oharas-celebration-stout\/","url_meta":{"origin":3130,"position":1},"title":"O’Hara’s ‘Celebration’ Stout","author":"Phil","date":"January 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'd been meaning to have this for ages, and the occasion of KT's birthday -- her being a good friend and fellow stout drinker -- provided the perfect excuse, since it's one of those beers that the brewery made for their own birthday. As if I really need an excuse.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"O'Hara's 'Celebration' Stout","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/OHaras-Celebration-Stout-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":692,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2009\/01\/21\/renaissance-paradox-blonde\/","url_meta":{"origin":3130,"position":2},"title":"Renaissance ‘Paradox’ Blonde","author":"Phil","date":"January 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"By \"blonde\", here, they mean \"golden ale\". You can see I've developed an obsession. It's a great bright gold with lively racing bubbles that make a fine head which lasts all the way down the glass and make for an notably (but enjoyably) fizzy feel. It's perhaps not as aromatic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Renaissance 'Paradox' Blonde","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Renaissance-Paradox-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":938,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/10\/13\/brooklyn-black-chocolate-stout\/","url_meta":{"origin":3130,"position":3},"title":"Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout","author":"Phil","date":"October 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"We've struck censorship once before in these pages, but here I find myself doing some redaction before the paper was ever scanned. I'd had a very weird run-in with some misbehaving Police on my way home from Hashigo, so I stopped by Malthouse and raided the fridge's supply of abandoned\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brooklyn-Black-Chocolate-Stout-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":280,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2007\/05\/20\/hofbrau-munchner-weisse-et-al\/","url_meta":{"origin":3130,"position":4},"title":"Hofbrau Munchner Weisse (et. al.)","author":"Phil","date":"May 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Hofbr\u00e4u M\u00fcnchner Weisse. 500ml, 5.1%, 20\/8\/07. Reward for fixing the German flatmate's 'puter. Nice cloudy straw wheat. Not overfly fruity or flowery. Clean and smooth. Afterthoughts, October 2010: Oh yeah, in addition to being a Beer Nerd, I'm something of a Regular Nerd too. Sometimes, the two \"talents\" come\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Hofbrau Munchner Weisse","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-1037-Hofbrau-Munchner-Weisse-222x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":927,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/10\/13\/dieu-du-ciel-peche-mortel\/","url_meta":{"origin":3130,"position":5},"title":"Dieu du Ciel! ‘P\u00e9ch\u00e9 Mortel’","author":"Phil","date":"October 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"First, it must be said that a brewery which insists on ending their name with an exclamation point deserves a bucket of Awesome Points right out of the gate. Next, I'm delighted to have a second Canadian beer in my book so relatively-soon after my first. I'd enjoyed my Tall\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dieu du Ciel! 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