The Beer Thread

[minstrels]

If anyone in this thread likes their beer and is price-conscious, the new IPA by Stewart Brewing in Lidl is tasty as fuck and only £1.49. Hell, the whole Lidl own brand range is actually pretty decent but this one is genuinely fantastic.

 

Yellow Belly fans, keep an eye out for Northern Monk beers. The head brewer from Buxton who is responsible for Yellow Belly is now there.

[Spacehost]

I have just been to Fynefest, and have tidings to report. Here are my hot takes:

 

Bellfield:

Bohemian Pilsner: Drinkable GF beer, mild flavour. 4.5% 3.5*

 

DEYA:

My Phone’s On Snooze: raspberry Berliner weisse, very morish 3.5% 4*

 

Fyne Ales:

Jarl: still a smooth cask pale ale classic. 3.8% 4*

Workbench Session/ 4th Draft: two takes on Fyne Ales’ new line, 4th Draft has more character but the Session variant is dangerously easy going. 4.2%/ 5.5%, 4*

North West: Veeeeery nice modern lager with a good hop note. 4.7%, 4*

New Ragnarok: Apocalypse perfected, supreme loopie juice. 7.4%, 5*

Shakers in Paris (Brewdog collab): A beer that tastes like a French Martini. Why. 6%, 2*

Superior IPA: A cask loopie juice to Ragnarok’s keg. Nice. 7.1%, 5*

Everyone Loves Pekko: Pekko is merely okay. 3.8%, 3*

Morning Light: East Coast IPA done well. 5.5%, 4*

 

Magic Rock: 

Bourbon BA Bearded Lady: Toasted Pecan Praline is as big a mouthful as its name. 11.5%, 5*

 

Northern Monk:

Eternal: Good sessionable pale ale. 4.1%, 4*

 

Thornbridge:

Passionfruit & Blueberry Tart: It’s clearly rhubarb juice made into bad cider. 6%, 2*

 

Tiny Rebel:

Urban IPA: Very hoppy, very tasty, very more. 5.5%, 4*

 

Honourary cider mention:

Farmer Jim’s Strawberry & Kiwi: it’s a liquid Push-Pop. 5%, 3.5*

[carred]

Saw this and felt it could be a forum sponsored beer 

 

[AngryH]

Straffe Hendrik Quadripel...stunning!

[Boothjan]

Yum! That was one of my favourites when I was in Bruges.  Had one at Den Halve Maan Brewery where it's made.  So tasty!

[AngryH]

2 hours ago, Boothjan said:

Yum! That was one of my favourites when I was in Bruges.  Had one at Den Halve Maan Brewery where it's made.  So tasty!

It’s fantastic isn’t it! I was in Bruges the other weekend and brought a load back. McChoufe, Barbar, Zot Dubbel, Trippel. All so tasty. 

[Boothjan]

Yeah it's awesome. The Trappistes Rochefort 10 was my personal favourite but the Straffe Hendrik Quadrupel was a close 2nd.

 

Absolutely loved some of the bars there - The Beer Wall and the Rose Cafe were unreal.

 

Beer Wall:

 

 

Rose Cafe:

 

 

Oh and this absolute gem that we just stumbled across.  Perfect.  

 

[AngryH]

1 minute ago, Boothjan said:

Yeah it's awesome. The Trappistes Rochefort 10 was my personal favourite but the Straffe Hendrik Quadrupel was a close 2nd.

 

Absolutely loved some of the bars there - The Beer Wall and the Rose Cafe were unreal.

 

Beer Wall:

 

 

Rose Cafe:

 

 

Oh and this absolute gem that we just stumbled across.  Perfect.  

 

We spent our last night is t brugs beertje. It’s my favourite pub in Bruges. Found this little beauty there.

 

[disperse and recoagulate]

Going away for a long weekend with a few other couples so will be taking a few cans/bottles (we almost had a 72 pint keg coming with us but decided against it considering we all have babies) and decided to go to a supermarket to stock up.

 

Went to Asda and they had quite a lot of choice and a lot in the 4 for £6 deal; then went to Morrisons and it was even better cos every beer was in the same priced deal. Ended up with 4 from Asda and 8 from Morrisons.

 

Go To IPA by Stone
Lagunitas 12th of Never by Lagunitas
Lawless by Purity
Fourpure Session IPA by Fourpure
Wild Gravity and Boston Tea Party by BAD Co.
All Day IPA by Founders
Little Rock IPA by Harbour
Flight Suit by DE14
Twisted Grapefruit IPA by Belhaven
Disco Forklift Truck by Drygate
Mangoes On The Run by Innis & Gunn

 

Roll on Friday.

 

A few of them were picked purely on @deKay's ratings on Untappd.  (Add me as a friend if you haven't already)

[Sirloin]

Working in Wilmington at the moment, which is a massive shithole, but there is a nice local chain of bars here called Ironhill Brewery which do their own beer. Very nice, if a little hoppy. They make them very strong over here though, 6% standard for their IPAs, but on the plus side it makes you flexible for dodging the bullets.

[Boothjan]

An outstanding twitter thread.  I hate Brewdog, but not as much as I hate people who think Brewdog is cool.  It really isn't.

 

 

[El Spatula]

I quite like Brewdog pubs. Better than the vast majority of bars. Usually a good selection of beers. Don't get the problem. 

[Plums]

They are full of wankers though. Loud wankers.

[El Spatula]

I've been to many bars more full of wankers than a Brew Dog one. Your average Weatherspoons or Tiger Tiger/insert popular local variants is typically worse.

[Lovelyman]

Yeah even the one in shoreditch is fine. Not hugely keen on their beer but the bars are decent especially if they have good guest beers. 

[p1nseeker]

It’s the tasting notes on the menus that wind me up. Taste: independent. Fuck oooooff

 

Punk IPA is garbage, I can see why they resorted to literally giving it away

[Plums]

1 hour ago, El Spatula said:

I've been to many bars more full of wankers than a Brew Dog one. Your average Weatherspoons or Tiger Tiger/insert popular local variants is typically worse.

 

Maybe it's just that the one here in Bristol seems perpetually rammed with young-ish loudmouth types. It's not good science, I'll admit.

 

I like their Dead Pony IPA.

[El Spatula]

I rarely if ever buy their own beers to be fair! The two in Glasgow and the one in Leeds are both great. 

[Magoo]

6 hours ago, Mrs Horribleman said:

Yeah even the one in shoreditch is fine. Not hugely keen on their beer but the bars are decent especially if they have good guest beers. 

 

That Twitter guy was in central Edinburgh during the festival, so for a brief spell each year can probably out-hipster everywhere on earth. Manchester/Liverpool ones are fine every time I've been in. Their Elvis Juice, black lager and Electric India saison are all a cut above and at least you can get half way decent beer in the corner shop thanks to Dead Pony and the IPA.

[Boothjan]

Nah I can't stand Brewdog bars.  Some of their beers aren't too bad (I do like Elvis Juice) but as a brand they're awful and the staff/clientele in pretty much every Brewdog bar I've been in just get on my nerves.

[Glasgowchivas]

I have been on a Yeastie Boys - Earl Grey IPA kick recently. Highly recommended.

[cowfields]

This is more of a "Pub" post than a beer post...

The Brewdog pubs often are full of wankers but as someone said that's a very real risk in 95% of pubs in London, so it's occasionally a preferable choice.

 

True Craft Tottenham just opened near where we live. There's not much in the way of nice pubs near us, so a new one that does nice pizza, good takeaway bottles and a good selection on tap was very welcome...

 

...Or so we thought. The Mikeller passionfruit Weiss was really nice. But why are you stocking Beavertown? Aren't people over that? Just because they're in Tottenham. I mean, the Gamma Ray was one of the most expensive things on tap, being served in 2/3rds for some inexplicable reason. 

 

Anyway, it was echoey thanks to there being no soft furnishing, a mess of tables, really busy and people sat at the bar so queuing for a drink was awkward.

 

The selection of beer was really good and the pizza was really good but it made us realise we've been spoilt a bit with good beer. There's just so much of it, it's so easy to get, that now it's not enough to just serve a good product, they could have done better with the vibe. It just felt like a cafe, and I think we are surely over that in craft beer land.  I mean, it's okay if it's an actual tap room where the beer is being made, because you can forgive that - they're a working brewery after all. 

 

We got a pizza, but as soon as that was done we walked to the Salisbury. It's dark in there, but it's cosy, it always feels friendlier and the beer selection is just as good, probably better. 

[Glasgowchivas]

I really like Beavertown stuff. Really want to try their Sapling IPA and the Dame Melba Phantom.

[cowfields]

I should have clarified, that it's a bit lame stocking Gamma Ray. And they've always had a problem with overpricing their beer. Gamma Ray is on Ocado in cans now. So why was a Tottenham pub, a mile or so from the brewery, charging £5 for 2/3 of it? It's their 'mass produced' one now so it just seemed a bit odd, I think they're doing it because it's the popular brand, maybe they're trying to clamour back some profit from importing a bunch of Mikeller.

 

I think Beavertown can make some really good beers though, but there is something about them that sort of irks me. I've often seen a lot of their beers inexplicably more expensive in pubs than they have any right to be.

[meatbin]

Beavertown is now owned by Heineiken, so I'd imagine prices could start to drop... Hopefully the quality remains.

 

It's a whole other conversation about costly craft beer.  Cloudwater really stoked the fire, and it's starting to become more widespread.  I really don't mind paying £5-£7 for a 440ml-500ml can of hoppy or higher strength beer... But it has to be good at that price, and that's what is making and breaking a lot of craft breweries right now.  Do it right, profit.  Do it wrong and you're fucked.

[meatbin]

A lot of the low-mid £3 - £4 breweries churning out average Pale Ales & Ipas, or different for the sake of it Milkshake Gose Stouts are the ones that will be culled first however, being average in the craft beer scene just won't do... It's amazing how much crap beer is out there but being sold as 'craft' and therefore costing a lot more than it should.

 

I really wish the 'craft' term could be dropped, and we just judge beers on being beers.  Again, a long conversation.... Real Ale, Premium Lager, Fine Wine, Artisan Gin, it's all the same marketing message, usually covering up a shed load of average product.

[Lovelyman]

Do you think cloud water are good or not?

[meatbin]

8 hours ago, Mrs Horribleman said:

Do you think cloud water are good or not?

 

Hit and miss. The consistency used to be a lot better, now it seems that you can spend quite a bit of cash in average beer. 

 

They need to establish a decent core range. 

[Lovelyman]

I think verdant are better. 

 

Gipsy hill is a pretty good brewery imo. 

[Boothjan]

I think Cloudwater are absolutely superb - went to a really good Craft Ale bar in Sutton Coldfield on Sunday night and had one of their beers in there.  It was unreal.  But I can't really justify a session on beer that costs £7 or so for a single can.

 

Nice for an occasional treat - VERY nice in fact - but I wouldn't have one very often. 

 

Personally, I'm a massive fan of Tiny Rebel.  I think their beers are consistently good and there's an excellent range of flavours/styles in their catalogue too.  Imperial Puft and Clwb Tropicana couldn't be more different but both are excellent.