The P & B Beer, Lager, Ale, Stout and Cider Guide

[vikingTON]

Given that it's a positively balmy summer's day today (22C) I've gone to a pub on the south side and had a few Leinenkugels' Summer Shandy, from the aforementioned brewery in Wisconsin. It's not the very best in their range (which is the blackberry wheat) but they're all of a very high standard. Uncommon to find outside of the Upper Midwest though. Switched to a Stone IPA which is excellent. All beers today are $3 a pint with an extensive range available so I may be here for a while.

[vikingTON]

Now on Rogue's Double Chocolate Stout (Oregon), which is a smooth, very tasty offering at a hearty 9%. Immensely pleasing.

[carpetmonster]

Now on Rogue's Double Chocolate Stout (Oregon), which is a smooth, very tasty offering at a hearty 9%. Immensely pleasing.

If you can get your paws on their hazelnut brown, it's the shiznit. Tastes like Nutella ice cream.

[throbber]

I hope you guys aren't drinking too much of the stuff as apparently 12% of Scots go over their weekly recommendation in one daily sitting at least once a month.

[vikingTON]

Can't go to Cleveland without visiting the Great Lakes Brewery on the west side of the city, brewing since 1989. Mostly stuck with their Dortmunder Gold lager, a very well balanced beer that's up there with Pilsner Urquell in the complex lager stakes. Their Edmund Fitzgerald porter was also very good. Finished with a Lawnseat Kolsch which was met. American efforts at Kolsch seem in general to be too hoppy for the original style.

Kentucky Kolsch (not so hoppy), and Rasputin Russian imperial stout from a brewery in California. The latter is excellent.

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

330ml, 7% a tasty brew, not a session drink though.

 

[D.A.F.C]

Bought a crate of IPA from Marks & Spencer's. Had no idea they even did beer as I just popped in now and again for a lunch deal or ready meals.

Citra IPA, Staffordshire IPA and Cornish IPA. Have tried the Citra and Cornish so far. Both excellent and similar to Deuchars. The Cornish is slightly better. They have a huge selection of stuff online but it's a bit pricey, £30 for a crate of 12 with delivery.

Excellent session beers, well worth checking out. They have loads of craft beers and ciders, hopefully they might reduce prices sometime.

Edit, also tried some Brooklyn lager last night. It's more like an IPA. You can get it in supermarkets now.

Edited March 19, 2016 by D.A.F.C

[Hillonearth]

Just tried Drygate Outaspace Apple Ale for the first time...

 

[D.A.F.C]

Make it so.

[Mr Rational]

Will be about the closest I will get to a holiday this year...

[centralTon]

Can't go to Cleveland without visiting the Great Lakes Brewery on the west side of the city, brewing since 1989. Mostly stuck with their Dortmunder Gold lager, a very well balanced beer that's up there with Pilsner Urquell in the complex lager stakes. Their Edmund Fitzgerald porter was also very good. Finished with a Lawnseat Kolsch which was met. American efforts at Kolsch seem in general to be too hoppy for the original style.

Kentucky Kolsch (not so hoppy), and Rasputin Russian imperial stout from a brewery in California. The latter is excellent.

Been enjoying your beer tour of America, keep posting.

 

Off to Copenhagen/Malmo next week, really looking forward to trying Mikkeller beers at source/on tap. Better to pay £9 for a pint instead of £9 a bottle from the likes of Drygate, Valhalla's Goat or Hippo Beers.

[mrcat1990]

Been enjoying your beer tour of America, keep posting.

Off to Copenhagen/Malmo next week, really looking forward to trying Mikkeller beers at source/on tap. Better to pay £9 for a pint instead of £9 a bottle from the likes of Drygate, Valhalla's Goat or Hippo Beers.

Mikkelar beers are shit hot. Check out War Pigs when in Copenhagen. Some pints are around the £5 mark and are excellent.

[centralTon]

Mikkelar beers are shit hot. Check out War Pigs when in Copenhagen. Some pints are around the £5 mark and are excellent.

Yeah, got Warpigs, Mikkeller, Ol & Brod and Koelschip on our to do list.

[Hillonearth]

Crossed my mind a bit earlier on - I wonder how the first generation of CAMRA types feel about how the way things have panned out? It used to seem to be the preserve of middle aged guys with woolly jumpers and odd facial hair like refugees from the Time Team who'd bore you rigid about some godawful bitter with twigs in it that only they knew about.

 

Now that real ale's firmly in the mainstream and more pubs sell it than ever before, I wonder if the old-stagers are getting hipstery about it loudly proclaiming they liked it before it was popular and they're only into REAL real ale...

Edited March 27, 2016 by Hillonearth

[vikingTON]

There's a lengthy article on The Guardian online about Brewdog, which discusses the CAMRA/'craft' tension at length. Don't have a link but it won't take too long to find.

Recent beers in Cleveland:

Victory Brewing Company (Pennsylvania) Golden Monkey. Brewed as a Belgian-style trippel, all I can say is that it was surprisingly drinkable for a) bottled and b) 9.5%. Also had a pint of the Great Lakes' Commodore Perry IPA, which was good but not outstanding. The two picks from that brewery are still their Dortmunder lager and porter varieties.

[invergowrie arab]

Crossed my mind a bit earlier on - I wonder how the first generation of CAMRA types feel about how the way things have panned out? It used to seem to be the preserve of middle aged guys with woolly jumpers and odd facial hair like refugees from the Time Team who'd bore you rigid about some godawful bitter with twigs in it that only they knew about.

Now that real ale's firmly in the mainstream and more pubs sell it than ever before, I wonder if the old-stagers are getting hipstery about it loudly proclaiming they liked it before it was popular and they're only into REAL real ale...

Craft beer =/= real ale.

Of course it is only CAMRA who give a f**k about this.

[TheLip69]

Crossed my mind a bit earlier on - I wonder how the first generation of CAMRA types feel about how the way things have panned out? It used to seem to be the preserve of middle aged guys with woolly jumpers and odd facial hair like refugees from the Time Team who'd bore you rigid about some godawful bitter with twigs in it that only they knew about.

 

Now that real ale's firmly in the mainstream and more pubs sell it than ever before, I wonder if the old-stagers are getting hipstery about it loudly proclaiming they liked it before it was popular and they're only into REAL real ale...

 

Having ran pubs in Manchester for years that generalisation of Camra members is utter nonsense 

One of my pubs used to get a few of them in fairly regularly, depending on which guest ales I had on.

Contrary to what you would expect they are fairly delighted at the upsurge in Craft/Real Ales and embrace it wholeheartedly. They will tell you that only a few years ago they used to get together and arrange outings to pubs which had decent ales. Now there are so many on their doorstep that outings have become a rarity. Manchester is brilliant for the craft ale scene, micro breweries all over the place and small bars cropping up everywhere. I cant remember the last time I was in a pub belonging to one of the major chains. I haven't seen a Fosters pump in months.

[Monster]

Crossed my mind a bit earlier on - I wonder how the first generation of CAMRA types feel about how the way things have panned out? It used to seem to be the preserve of middle aged guys with woolly jumpers and odd facial hair like refugees from the Time Team who'd bore you rigid about some godawful bitter with twigs in it that only they knew about.

 

Now that real ale's firmly in the mainstream and more pubs sell it than ever before, I wonder if the old-stagers are getting hipstery about it loudly proclaiming they liked it before it was popular and they're only into REAL real ale...

 

Have to back TheLip on this one. I'm an enthusiastic Camra member and it's certainly changing. There's plenty of the old guard who purse their lips and tut at craft brewers, but most wholeheartedly embrace beer in real or craft form.

 

I have to admit I've tried a few of the real ales I like in the keg form that seems to be prevalent locally and I reckon the co2 just ruins them. It might be subconscious beer snobbery to be fair. 

[Hillonearth]

Admittedly I was making a generalisation, but I was specifically referring to the hardcore oldtimers rather than the rank and file members and, as is the case with many generalisations, there's probably a grain of truth in there. 

 

I saw the chairman of CAMRA on breakfast TV this morning - apparently they're looking at refocusing their aims more towards pub preservation and so on - being quite dismissive of recent developments. I'm paraphrasing, but it was along the lines of "Craft beer - it doesn't exist. It's just clever marketing" which at a stroke seems to be creating a siege mentality with them as sole self-appointed arbiters and also to perhaps alienate potential new members.

 

I imagine it must be hard for some of them to have most of their aims come to fruition, but in such a diametrically different fashion to the vision they had and in many cases completely independent of them.

[vikingTON]

I imagine that it would be quite annoying after decades trying to see the market scoured of generic, not even credible 'lagers', only for it to be filled with an overload of pointlessly hop-stacked IPAs instead.