The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

[bungeejumper]

A half doz of Black Sheep that my local Sainsburys was flogging off yesterday at 80p a bottle. It'd almost be rude not to.

I also have a few Leffe Blonde in the cupboard for when the sun finally deigns to shine again. Puts me in a holiday mood, even though I'd rather be drinking Affligem, given the choice.

Late edit: Black Sheep @ £1 at Morrisons until 27th June. Apparently.

BJ

[Hallucigenia]

...but if you only know them through their DIPAs then it's not surprising that you think they do fruity and cloudy, 'cos that's what DIPAs are like.....

DIPAs traditionally in the US are robustly malty with resiny pine and firm hoppyness, with hops like Chinook and not like Mosaic and any Kiwi varieties.

But that's like trying to measure up Goose Island against traditional English IPAs. The two countries interpret the same word differently - British DIPAs tend to be more East Coast than West Coast in influence. Indeed Cloudwater now explicitly label one of their beers as a New England DIPA.

BTW if you're near somewhere that stocks Purity, keep an eye out for Pure Gold, best beer they do IMO even if it is "just" a session blonde.

Incidentally, a convenient way to look for supermarket deals is http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/shelves/ ... And_Lagers (use the dropdown on the left for other chains)

Not a huge amount on the beer front at the moment, Waitrose have 20% off Ghostship bottles (think I prefer cans) but it's the season for Pimms discounts (eg £12/l at Morrisons this month) and there seems to be a lot of malt on £10-12 off at the moment.

[JMN2]

DIPAs traditionally in the US are robustly malty with resiny pine and firm hoppyness, with hops like Chinook and not like Mosaic and any Kiwi varieties.

But that's like trying to measure up Goose Island against traditional English IPAs. The two countries interpret the same word differently - British DIPAs tend to be more East Coast than West Coast in influence. Indeed Cloudwater now explicitly label one of their beers as a New England DIPA.

BTW if you're near somewhere that stocks Purity, keep an eye out for Pure Gold, best beer they do IMO even if it is "just" a session blonde.

Incidentally, a convenient way to look for supermarket deals is http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/shelves/ ... And_Lagers (use the dropdown on the left for other chains)

Not a huge amount on the beer front at the moment, Waitrose have 20% off Ghostship bottles (think I prefer cans) but it's the season for Pimms discounts (eg £12/l at Morrisons this month) and there seems to be a lot of malt on £10-12 off at the moment.

Absolutely, you're right, I assumed Cloudwater was more DIPA than EIPA in their point of reference. When I think of EIPA I see Martyn Cornell's single hop EKG collab or Worthington's White Shield. I see 99% Maris Otter, 1% Crystal tops, then a hop forward bitterness, never mind the aroma hops.

[GrandOiseau]

Snuck in the Hop Pole in Aylesbury last week. Aswell as being a cracking boozer it also houses the Aylesbury Brewery Company. Another revival of an old name. The pub itself is splendid. It's an end of terrace towny place with a small front patio area. The centred front door takes you into a lovely bar area with a variety of seating. And to the rear is a much larger overspill/eating/function area.

The ales are a mixture of the breweries beers and a few from outside. None of your keg craft in this establishment. Dog and child friendly, they serve decent food from what I can gather. But the focus is on beer and good company. Seek it out should you ever be in the vicinity.

[JMN2]

On Saturday I bought both a bottle and a can of Adnams Ghostship, granted, I do like my beers at home a bit livelier, but definitely there was a marked difference. The can was softer, flatter, more tired, the bottle was livelier, crisper, hoppier. The brewery might carbonate these differently trying to give the can drinker a more cask/real ale experience.

[GrandOiseau]

On Saturday I bought both a bottle and a can of Adnams Ghostship, granted, I do like my beers at home a bit livelier, but definitely there was a marked difference. The can was softer, flatter, more tired, the bottle was livelier, crisper, hoppier. The brewery might carbonate these differently trying to give the can drinker a more cask/real ale experience.

In order I believe glass, aluminum, plastic retain the carbonation better. So if that perhaps with the age of the different products could make a significant difference. Got to admit I very rarely drink from a can these days.

[JMN2]

FYI, Morrison has started to stock "craft cans" from Lagunitas and Stone Brewing - chilling in the fridge at the moment. Can't be ar*ed to go for a run today, so moving straight to the good stuff!

[Skotch]

Last night was a very nice bottle (ok, make that 2) of Purity Mad Goose - a very nice refreshing tipple in the current climate

[JMN2]

Last night was a very nice bottle (ok, make that 2) of Purity Mad Goose - a very nice refreshing tipple in the current climate

That's in Morrisons range too and my choice when I want a bitter as in brown beer. But I went for Oakham Citra today. Mind you, Waitrose is having really good deals on some beers, prices like £1.43 a pop.

My local specialty beer shop has these craft cans from Stone etc priced at £3.20, perhaps £2.90-3 for Stone, half a pound more for Tiny Rebels, Cloudwaters, Great Hecks etc. Soon perhaps £1.80 at Morrisons. The local independent shop will have to specialise further.

[Hallucigenia]

Thing is, we're now at the stage where you see Norwegian saison in my local Tesco :
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/product ... =295220697

So where does that leave bottle shops? Admittedly, my feeling is that Tesco are pushing a bit too hard, they will end up with a lot of RTC stock in a few months time. But still, bottlle shops need people to be buying those bread and butter beers in order to survive to offer you the fun stuff. It's no surprise that they are increasingly turning into keg-led micropubs, I think the pure bottle shop model is looking pretty vulnerable.

You also have to think what it means for British breweries if people are buying beer brewed in Berlin by an American company instead of local brews. Personally I find there's more British beer I want to try than I can possibly drink, so I pretty much stick to British stuff except for the odd one-off. It's not like there's huge terroir differences between an industrial estate in the US and an industrial estate in the UK, and these days you can find pretty much every style you can imagine being brewed within a 50 mile radius of home.

[DiamondEcho]

Thing is, we're now at the stage where you see Norwegian saison in my local Tesco :
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/product ... =295220697

We visited Oslo last Autumn and enjoyed several Nogne-O beers. £2.20/bottle is ok, IIRC it cost us about £6 a bottle over there in a regular Tesco-like supermarket! We enjoyed several other local micro-brews too, like those from 'Helland og Hallan Bryggeri' (who FWIW have a Facebook page). Generally Oslo these days reminded me of the current Estonian craft-beer scene, both WAY more interesting than I might have expected.

[Though for a craft-beer centred weekend or long w/e away I'd perhaps suggest Estonia over Oslo, as the latter is so $$$ and the beer is the least of it]

[JMN2]

Please note Nogne was bought some time ago by a huge mega-swill brewery, not quite in Inbev category, but still, so they have the muscle to push Nogne into supermarkets. Same as Goose Island and AnheuserBusch Inbev.

[Hallucigenia]

In British terms Hansa would be considered a traditional regional brewer like Adnams, they only have 419 employees - a long way from ABInbev!

But that's not really the point, which is that Tesco are now stocking things like saisons and sours - they may be relatively mainstream examples, but it still makes things a lot harder for indie bottle shops to justify the premium that they inevitably must charge.

[redsturgeon]

Had a mixed case of beer delivered to me for Father's day, slowly working my way through but one beer of note that I really enjoyed is a Unity Brewing Congregate Table Beer.

Described thus:
Congregate is our everyday beer, brewed to be enjoyed with good company, good food and for good times. It’s equally inspired by the hoppy Pilsners of the Czech Republic and the ‘Patersbiers’ or ‘Fathers Beers’ brewed by Belgian Trappist monks to drink at mealtimes.

Very pleasant summertime drinking indeed, I have not come across Unity Brewing before so it was a pleasant surprise to find they are local to me based in Southampton. I will visit and get some more of this excellent brew.

https://www.ratebeer.com/beer/unity-bre ... er/467166/

John

[didds]

Had an Orval last night for the first time. It will also be my last.

No finish, not much front of the mouth eoitheer. for 6.2% it doesn't even have a "heavy" alcohol taste - as i opined to somebody in the pub "if you took a 4% pale ale and chilled it you couldn't tell the difference". Totally underwhelmed.

On the upside it was wet, cold and free (I was given it by somebody else).

didds

[JMN2]

Had an Orval last night for the first time. It will also be my last.

No finish, not much front of the mouth eoitheer. for 6.2% it doesn't even have a "heavy" alcohol taste - as i opined to somebody in the pub "if you took a 4% pale ale and chilled it you couldn't tell the difference". Totally underwhelmed.

On the upside it was wet, cold and free (I was given it by somebody else).

didds

You didn't get the peppery notes from the yeast or the sweaty horse blanket from Brettanomyces? Orval is a bit "funky".

[UncleIan]

and free (I was given it by somebody else).

Now you know why.

[didds]

You didn't get the peppery notes from the yeast or the sweaty horse blanket from Brettanomyces? Orval is a bit "funky".

Nope. i got "quite bland with no finish whatsoever".



didds

[redsturgeon]

Had an Orval last night for the first time. It will also be my last.

No finish, not much front of the mouth eoitheer. for 6.2% it doesn't even have a "heavy" alcohol taste - as i opined to somebody in the pub "if you took a 4% pale ale and chilled it you couldn't tell the difference". Totally underwhelmed.

On the upside it was wet, cold and free (I was given it by somebody else).

didds

I can only think you got a bad bottle. If it had been stored for a while in fluctuating temperatures or left outside to freeze then it could have affected the flavour. I usually find it a very pleasant drink and not at all bland.

John

[didds]

I can only think you got a bad bottle. If it had been stored for a while in fluctuating temperatures or left outside to freeze then it could have affected the flavour. I usually find it a very pleasant drink and not at all bland.

John

That's an interesting idea John.

Ive just spoken to my son who works in that estblishment. he did say that Orval doesn't shift that quickly there but they keep a very close eye on "best before" dates (they have a "After date" box where anything left after date gets sold for £1 a bottle - and there aren't very often bottles available in that box!). He does recall Orval being restocled as they had sold out within the last 6 months, and beers at that strength (6.2%) usually have a long BBE date.

Next time I'm in I shall check the BBE dates of the Orval they have left.

that of course still doesn't mean the bottle was off. But I'm not prepared to pay for one to find out!

didds