St Cuthbert Special India Pale Ale 6.5% From The Durham Brewery - Beer Review

I procrastinate far more than I write blog posts, which is why I first started this beer review in May 2015, and now it's August.......
I can hardly remember how this Pale Ale tasted because it was so long ago that Mr.R and me visited the Durham Brewery where we purchased several of their brews - which was many many months before May 2015.
So, this will be brief, which will make a change from my usual long-winded rambling nonsense. Ha-ha-ha!

St Cuthbert Special India Pale Ale has a lovely light floral aroma with hints of sweet citrus.
On the palate it was pleasantly rich and spicy, big hoppy taste, with flavours of caramel, apple, peach and orangey-nectarine, and a hint of mace.
A complex beer with a nice dry bitter aftertaste.
I think this Pale Ale has Maris Otter and Crystal malts; Challenger, Target, Columbus, Golding and Saaz hops, but I'm not positive as the bottle label doesn't say.

I liked this beer, but as I'm not usually a fan of Pale Ales, so I didn't enjoy it as much as Mr.R. He loved it - he is the Pale Ale lover in our family.

From the label -

Specially brewed to celebrate Durham's 1000 years history.

St Cuthbert is a modern strong and aromatic India Pale Ale with pronounced citrus and orange notes.
Not too bitter with a golden colour, a mixture of English, American and Czech hops develop into a clean peachy bitterness.

This ale is bottle-conditioned.
There is a live sediment which continues to mature and develop the flavour and character. 

Store upright and pour gently to avoid disturbing the sediment.

Natural; not filtered.

Store at cool room temperature and serve at 10 degrees C.
This beer may be lively so have a glass to hand when opening.

Food match: Rich cheese and biscuits.

Contains water, barley, wheat, hops, and yeast.

Suitable for vegans.
3.25 UK units.

The Durham Brewery make good beer, of which this is one.
Have you tried St Cuthbert Special India Pale Ale 6.5%?
What did you think of it?

Apple Crumble Recipe

Got apples?

Make apple crumble. 

This morning I cooked. 

It's a rare event in our house because Mr.R is the King of the kitchen. :) 

Mr.R had recently purchased lots of apples, of which we hadn't even had so much as one bite, so I'd decided to make us an apple crumble. 

I never follow recipes, or weigh things, I usually judge everything by whatever makes my tastebuds tingle, and as apple crumble is seriously easy it doesn't really require a recipe. 

But as I wanted to write a blog post. and take photos of each stage of my crumble creation, I thought I'd better measure the ingredients and try to follow a proper recipe. 

The recipe I chose to follow, loosely, is below. I have written exactly what the recipe said, although I realise I pretty much ignored most of it. Haha! :o

Crumble Ingredients ~

300g/10½oz plain flour. 

I used organic, obviously you can use whatever takes your fancy.

175g/6oz brown sugar. 

I used fair-trade Demerara unrefined raw cane sugar.

Actually I'm a bit pissed off with myself, because we don't like to eat a lot of sugar, which is why I always use less than half the typical amount in dishes like this, but because I was following a recipe I automatically weighed and added the amount it said. Grrr! 

200g/7oz un slated butter. 

I used lightly salted goats butter. We don't use unsalted butter in our house. ;) 

I didn't use much butter, about 50g, and then I used seriously delicious coconut oil to make it up to the 200g, or 210g to be exact. :) 

We love coconut oil, and it's very good for health

A knob of butter to grease your crumble dish. 

Crumble Filling ~

450g/1lb apples, peeled, cored, and cut in to 1cm/½in pieces. 

I used about 900g of apples, I think apple crumble is all about the apples. 

50g/2oz unrefined brown sugar.

I didn't add any sugar to my apples, they're sweet enough already. 

I didn't add my apples in their raw state either, I very lightly sautéed them with cider, and raisins. Raisins which has been soaking in cider and raw ginger overnight. Yummy!

1 tbsp plain flour. 

I didn't add the flour to my apples either. I don't think it's needed. 

1 pinch of ground cinnamon. 

Hmm, I obviously not good at being told what to do because I didn't add 1 pinch of cinnamon, I added a couple of heaped teaspoons. Much better idea. Cinnamon is good for health, why skimp on it. 

Method ~

1. Preheat oven to 180c/350f/Gas mark 4. 

2. Place the flour and sugar in a bowl, and mix together. 

Take a few cubes of butter at a time and gently rub in to the flour and sugar mixture. 

Keep rubbing in the butter until you've used it all and have a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs. 

3. Place the fruit in a large bowl and sprinkle over the sugar, flour, and cinnamon. 

Stir well, but gently, being careful not to break up the fruit. 

4. Butter an ovenproof dish, 24cm/9in. Spoon the fruit mixture in to the dish, then sprinkle the crumble mixture over the top. 

5. Bake your apple crumble in the oven for about 40/45 minutes. 

When it's browned and the fruit mixture is bubbling, it's cooked. 

6. Serve! 

Apple crumble is good on its own, or with custard, or ice-cream, or whatever you fancy. Cheese is good too. ;) 

We had custard with our apple crumble. 

It was seriously delicious! 

How do you like to eat your apple crumble?