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


Zizou-5

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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.

Camra's chairman didnt make himself too popular with some of his members after his performance. Camra have always been about preserving pubs and pub culture but refusing to recognise, or give credence to, craft beer was a shot in the foot as far as some people were concerned. Honestly,my twitter feed is full of blogs from brewers and breweries and quite a few are a bit pissed with his performance.

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Home from my trip to Copenhagen and Malmo, beer highlights were...

 

Warpigs - Youfuckedmeupandimfurious Coffee Stout, 

Brewpub - Coltraine Imperial Stout,

Prairie Artisan - Spaghetti Western Imperial Stout,

Brewpub - DIPA,

De Dolle - Boskeun Belgian Strong Pale,

Brewpub - Vester Weisse,

Munkebo - Alstark Scotch Ale...and many more that were good, but not as good as these ones.

 

Not a cheap holiday destination for beer or indeed food,  The Warpigs Coffee Stout was just over £10 for 2/3rds of a pint and the Coltraine Imperial Stout was about £8.50 for 400ml.

Edited by centralTon
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Home from my trip to Copenhagen and Malmo, beer highlights were...

Warpigs - Youfuckedmeupandimfurious Coffee Stout,

Brewpub - Coltraine Imperial Stout,

Prairie Artisan - Spaghetti Western Imperial Stout,

Brewpub - DIPA,

De Dolle - Boskeun Belgian Strong Pale,

Brewpub - Vester Weisse,

Munkebo - Alstark Scotch Ale...and many more that were good, but not as good as these ones.

Not a cheap holiday destination for beer or indeed food, The Warpigs Coffee Stout was just over £10 for 2/3rds of a pint and the Coltraine Imperial Stout was about £8.50 for 400ml.

Best head back to Bratislava then.

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Best head back to Bratislava then.

We might head back there, somewhere in Poland or Budapest for the October school hols. Got 10 days in Italy in July first.

 

Like mrcat 1990, I almost bought a bottle of Westvleteren 12 in Warpigs, but realised it was over £25 a bottle...didn't bother.

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Been sampling a fair range of local brewed beers in Michigan recently, including the town's own brewery which does an excellent raspberry wheat beer and pretty good for everything else. The Wisconsin-based Leinenkugels' brewery also stocks its wares over here which is always a good choice. I'm working through a couple from the variety pack from which the bock is probably the best. Their blackberry wheat and vanilla porter bottles are probably still their best efforts though.

 

The chief drink of note though is that the local pub has been stocking 'cyser' - a cider/mead combination. It's a very, very good pint with a fairly sour, cloudy apple juice taste, cut with the honey flavour of the mead and some spices as well. One pint at around 6% is great but after that you need to try something else or risk diabetes. Perhaps something to look out for though as these weird efforts tend to make their way over to the UK after a few years, and there's a much larger potential market for cider in the UK as well, relatively speaking. Mead is also now commercially available here in shops etc. whereas a few years ago it was limited to the likes of the Czech Republic, where they had never stopped brewing it. I suspect that could develop into a new fad in the near future.

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I'm surprised Mead is not a bigger drink than it is. Did it not used to be a really popular drink in Britain many moons ago? An old restaurant near me thats long gone now used to do a weekly Medieval night where you mostly ate the food with your hands and jugs of mead were kept topped up on the tables. It was a very popular night apparently.

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I'm not sure how big it actually was as opposed to just sounding like a very medieval thing to drink, but it was definitely widespread and is good enough that it shouldn't have disappeared altogether. The online material makes it seem piss-easy to brew as well with just decent honey, water and yeast needed, so the micro-brewing fad could be all over it soon; it's certainly seems less complicated to produce than a decent beer.

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Liking the sound of the Leinenkugels' Blackberry Wheat and Vanilla Porter and also the Cyser. Last time I tried Mead was in Olde Hansa, a medieval bar in Tallinn and it was fantastic.

 

Recently had...

 

To Ol - Gose to Hollywood. Strange combo of sour and salty, actually quite liked it, 

Brewdog - Jet Black Heart Milk Stout. Really nice coffee flavour with a creamy mouthfeel,

Brewdog - Arcade Nation. Black IPA with a bitter finish,

Lomaland - Modern Times. Belgian style Wit/Tripel combo, lovely,

Ayinger - Celebrator Dopplebock. Dark roast malts and slight smokiness, excellent.

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