Had a few Hop Devils last night and am about to have a dip into the tickle trunk after giving a world class bottle of Splatlese (sorry, can't find the umlaut botton for the 'a') a good beating. What's your story?
A damn fine meal at the Goat's Head in Abbots Bromley. Two pints of St Austell Tribute, a steak and a slab of homemade sticky toffee washed down with a Drambuie. The more Tribute I drink, the more I want to drink Tribute.
A can of Sainsbury's Basics Bitter exploded whilst on a shelf. Soaked half my room. Haven't drank any though.
I'm nursing a solitary bottle of York Brewery Centurion's Ghost. Really good brew but rubbished here on the reviews due three or four reviews taken from bottles about ten/fifteen years past their sell by dates, c'mon seriously how can a bottle like that tell you F all about the beer.
drinking some fine beer from Magic Rock. Had a Rapture and now onto an 8 ball. On deck is a Human Cannonball. Lovely stuff so far.
I've had a Pilsner Urquell so far and have just moved on to a Viven Imperial IPA. Tasty! Too right - it's a damn good beer when consumed in good condition....
Just had a look at those reviews !!! WTF !!! Why are our friends from across the pond ageing 5% beers for 12/13 years !?!?!?!?
I've read those before as well - it simply doesn't do the beer justice. It might not be the greatest brew on the planet, but that doesn't mean bottles in crappy condition should be reviewed....
I'm beginning to hate alot of American reviews. Either they're like that and the beer is crap 100% from their own doing, a bit like eating a 12 year old banana and saying "i don't like bananas", or the beer isn't a hop bomb/mocha-espresso-double-imperial-super-breakfast-stout, and they call it crap because the flavours are subtle.
finishing off with an Orval and one of the pint bottles of M&S Diamond Jubilee beer from Elgoods- actually rather good!
I've seen some rather unfair and incredibly silly reviews by some Americans that go along the lines of.. 'Marble arch Manchester Bitter, well I don't like English bitter, it tastes like Fred Flinstone's ass, Though this one tastes more like Barney Rubbles socks, I give it one out of five for everything and would highly recommend it to anyone that enjoys this style..'
You forgot bourbon barrel aged. And possibly bacon. Despite what they think of the beer scene here, it's actually not a fun time if you are a fan of subtle. As for me, a homebrewed Yeti approximation.
I still can't get over the Centurians Ghost reviews The guy even says he never expected it to age well, he just bought some out of date bottles. I mean wouldn't you use common sense and not review them? There are Rogue beers i've had that have tasted like crap but they had high average scores so I put them down to being out of date or a bad batch and didn't review them. *anger*
Absolutely. Proof that there are assholes on the loose.... In the past when I've come across beers that I felt were old/flawed and probably didn't reflect that beer's character properly, I didn't review them. In other news, I'm currently on a Southern Tier IPA. To be followed by a Chimay Red to round out the evening.
Just a few pints of Bass by gravity straight from a cask behind the bar. A totally different animal from the canned or bottled variety.
Lots of my local pubs serve it like this, or from the jug. A pint of Bass in the Coopers Arms is still one of my beery highlights.
There's a very small quantity of Bourbon Barrelled Bearded Lady making its way into the trade. Keykeg only. It's got a smooth sweetness rather than the usual US sledgehammer approach as referenced above.
Busy weekends drinking for me. Southampton Arms to kick off on Friday, had beers from 'By the Horns', 'London Fields', 'Moor and Co' and 'Thornbridge'. The 2 new London breweries both the highlights here, BTH - Lambeth Walk Porter was excellent 5.1% and a great body and flavour, I'm finding too many porters from the newer breweries to be rather formulaic, 4.1-4.4%, watery and no bite. I doff my cap to BTH for this one! The London Fields - Gold was a most excellent hoppy bitter with lots of flavour at 4.3%. I already mentioned my trip to Duke and Que in another post (Beaverstown Brewery tap) Saturday was the last Quinns home game and once more we lost to the bastard crowd stealers (that's Leicester Tigers to most folks!) That aside, beers in the Sussex from Dark Star, Thornbridge, Binghams and Castle Rock served up a tasty treat. At the Stoop there is a real ale only bar in our stand, unfortunately sponsored and limited to GK products! However they were showcasing a couple of variations of their dull IPA yesterday, both a marked improvement. IPA Gold @ 4.3 and IPA reserve @ 5.4 which I had a couple of pints of, you could almost forget it was GK ! Back to the local in the village to round off with a couple of pints of Windsor & Eton - Guardsman. Quiet week now, give the liver a rest, then off to Franconia on Friday morning for a 3 day drink up largely in Forccheim and Bamburg Prost!
I have to confess I've never yet tried Bass (in any format). One of these days.... Currently sampling Daleside's Crack Shot - a lovely local brew.
I'm about to dip into a High Tide Fresh Hop IPA. Unbelievable sediment in the bottle. Like a mini sand dune.
Same, i've only ever heard people say how crap it is! I'll definitely try some if I see it on cask though.
Last I had it was in November 2010 and it was sincerely forgettable. But it wasn't sampled in a trusted place so I'm willing to give it another go. In the late 80s it was quite a beautiful thing from what I remember.
The liver's had enough of a break so i'm going with a Thwaites Strong Brown Ale (brewed for the co-op) to round off the weekend. Recently had their "Champion Dark Mild" so i'm not expecting much. Every mild i've drank has been better than that one...
Had a number of Berkshire Steel Rail pale ales........then started to tap my Karmeliet Triple homebrew clone..... Just got back from the pub and had a mug of de ranke xx bitter and a green flash IPA.......having a red wine at the moment......mouton cadet 2009 bordeaux.....its pasta night!
Right, the final beer of the evening - Baird's Teikoku IPA. Not sure if the label image is supposed to be some sort of samurai....
This evening I have imbibed a hombrew wheat that was brewed with a lager yeast, it's getting there but needs a few weeks to mature Also a Duvel, a Rochefort 8 and a whisky and ice.
I had it on cask a few times in Wolverhampton and Burton when I lived in / near those parts It was OK, just a.n.other bitter and nowt to get excited about!
