Same here, been to five and never felt that way. Although I'm not really bothered about the decor of a pub, as long as the beer's good I don't really care. My local one is quite nice though, has some comfy little booths and there's a bunch of board games to play too which is quite good.
Did you manage to get down there and try the Fruit Bat? I hear they serve it in a milk bottle with a straw!
Did you manage to get down there and try the Fruit Bat? I hear they serve it in a milk bottle with a straw!
Yeah, I was at a gig in town that night so popped in beforehand. The Flat Pack Fruitbat was great, it did come in a milk bottle but I didn't get a straw. It did make me wonder what they'd do with the bottles after as it's a limited edition so when it's gone they'll have no use for the bottles. Lovely beer though, I'm a huge Omnipollo fan too so I was looking forward to it. Thought the bottle was a bit gimicky but the beer was great so it didn't really bother me.
I also tried a couple that they'd got on from the Collabfest, a chocolate orange stout that was quite nice and a marmalade saison which was lovely.
While I like their pubs they are styled to within an inch of their life. Think they need to try a little less hard.
I think that's the problem. I quite like their Camden pub but the others are too much of indentikit copies of each other. There are other craft beer chains which manage to instill a lot more individual character into their pubs.
I think that's the problem. I quite like their Camden pub but the others are too much of indentikit copies of each other. There are other craft beer chains which manage to instill a lot more individual character into their pubs.
It's getting towards the turn of the year and that's the time when beer writers and bloggers produce their "Golden Pints" lists. I thought it might be quite good to do it on here if anyone fancies it.
I'm not going to be doing mine until the new year as I'm sure I'll be drinking a fair few over the next two weeks! Anyway, it's just a bit of fun and I thought it'd maybe interest some people in this thread.
You just have to pick the best beers you've had this year in each of these categories:
It's getting towards the turn of the year and that's the time when beer writers and bloggers produce their "Golden Pints" lists. I thought it might be quite good to do it on here if anyone fancies it.
I'm not going to be doing mine until the new year as I'm sure I'll be drinking a fair few over the next two weeks! Anyway, it's just a bit of fun and I thought it'd maybe interest some people in this thread.
You just have to pick the best beers you've had this year in each of these categories:
Best UK cask beer
1)
2)
3)
Best UK Keg beer
1)
2)
3)
Best UK Bottled beer
1)
2)
3)
Best UK Canned beer
1)
2)
3)
Best Overseas Draught beer
1)
2)
3)
Best Overseas Bottled beer
1)
2)
3)
Best Overseas Canned beer
1)
2)
3)
Best Collaboration beer
1)
2)
3)
Best Overall beer
1)
2)
3)
Best UK Brewery
1)
2)
3)
Best Overseas Brewery
1)
2)
3)
Best new brewery
1)
Best Branding
1)
Best Label/pump clip
1)
If I could answer that I'd be too pissed to answer that.
Rev James (Original)
Cottage Inn
Cardiff
11/10
Thought I'd do this now, no worries if nobody else is bothered but thought it might be fun. The beers don't have to have been released this year, you just have to have drunk them this year.
Best UK cask beer
Due to the breweries that tend to interest and excite me I generally end up drinking keg, bottles or cans. Most cask I've had has been pretty average, looking at it, it's very rare I go 4 stars or over on Untappd for cask where most other things in this list are 5 star (or 4.75) These three definitely stood out though.
1) Siren - Broken Dream. A lovely smooth coffee breakfast stout.
2) Dark Star - Crème Brulee. Exactly what it says, a lovely sweet dessert stout.
3) Torrside - Late To The Party. A pretty good black IPA.
Best UK Keg beer
1) Buxton & Omnipollo - Lemon Meringue Pie Ice Cream Pale. Exactly what it says, just a stunning beer.
2) Brewdog - Born To Die 4/11/16. A great DIPA from Brewdog.
3) Abbeydale - Wet Yer Whiskers. A really good white stout.
Best UK Bottled beer
1) Cloudwater - DIPA V3. They're up to V10 now, all have been good but none have matched this. Just perfect hoppy, juiciness.
2) Buxton & Omnipollo - Yellow Belly. This could easily have been top, a stunning imperial stout.
3) Cloudwater, Magic Rock & JW Lees - Three's Company. A cracking collaboration between two new breweries and an old traditional one. A great DIPA.
Best UK Canned beer
1) Magic Rock - Bearded Lady (Grand Marnier barrel aged edition). An awesome Imperial stout aged in Grand Marnier barrels, like a liquid, alcoholic, chocolate orange.
2) Beavertown - Double Chin. A DIPA version of Neck Oil, basically Neck Oil but amplified, great stuff.
3) Magic Rock - Human Cannonball. Their annual DIPA version of Cannonball.
1) Omnipollo & Dugges - Anagram Blueberry Cheesecake Imperial Stout.
2) Omnipollo & Siren - Lorelei. A Toasted coconut and maple syrup imperial stout.
3) Omnipollo - Noa (Double barrel edition). Their standard Noa imperial stout but aged twice, once in Cognac barrels and then in Islay whiskey barrels.
3 was going to be Fatamorgana, a juicy DIPA by Omnipollo until I had the Lorelei on xmas day.
Best Overseas Canned beer
1) Evil Twin - Imperial Biscotti Break. A lovely imperial stout with some nice almond sweetness.
2) Oskar Blues - Death By Coconut. Coconut beers can often be too subtle but this absolutely nails it.
3) To Ol - Sur Citra. I love sour beers and this is a cracker, with great fruitiness from the citra hops.
Best Collaboration beer
1) Omnipollo & Dugges - Anagram Blueberry Cheesecake Imperial Stout.
2) Buxton & Omnipollo - Yellow Belly.
3) Burning Sky & Liberty Brewing - Descent Into The Maelstrom. A pale aged in white burgundy barrels with grapefruit and orange zest.
Best Overall beer
1) Omnipollo & Dugges - Anagram Blueberry Cheesecake Imperial Stout. Simply a stunning beer and one of the best things I've ever drank. I'm convinced they must use some kind of witchcraft to make a beer taste this good. It genuinely smells like cheesecake and has so many different flavours, the longer you keep it in your mouth different flavours appear, it's like Willy Wonka stuff!
2) Cloudwater DIPA V3.
3) Buxton & Omnipollo - Yellow Belly.
Best UK Brewery
1) Buxton. Hard to choose between these and Cloudwater, both just make consistently great beers. I went with Buxton in the end because they seem to do a greater variety of styles and do them all well. From traditional bitters through to their experimental stuff such as their Ice Cream series with Omnipollo, they even produced a fantastic Belgian range this year and nailed that. I've never had a bad beer from them.
2) Cloudwater. Their IPAs and DIPAs are just simply stunning and I like the fact that they produce their beers seasonally so nothing is ever repeated and they're always fresh.
3) Beavertown. Their core range is great but the limited editions they make such as the Tropigamma, Bloody Notorious and 'Spresso are always spot on.
Best Overseas Brewery
1) Omnipollo. As you can probably tell I'm a bit of an Omnipollo fanboy but simply put, they've made some of the greatest beers I've ever tasted and seem to be always trying new things. Whenever I see that the bottleshop is getting something new in from them I'm always quite excited.
2) To Ol. I'm a big fan of sours and these do some great sours, they're other stuff is generally always pretty good too.
3) Mikkeller. This was a choice between these or an American such as Evil Twin or Stone. I ended up going with these as I've simply had more of their beers and they're generally pretty consistent.
Best new brewery
1) Verdant.
Up until this month this was going to be Fierce Brewing and then I had Pulp, a DIPA by Verdant. I'd never had anything by them before and it was beautiful, I sought out a few others of theirs and they were all good. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do next year.
Best Branding
1) Beavertown. The Beavertown cans quite literally are a work of art, I'm always tempted to keep them.
I'm also a big fan of the Omnipollo and To Ol branding too.
Best Label/pump clip
1) Beavertown Tropigamma or Beavertown Peacherman just had lovely cans.
So that's that. Quite a hard list to come up with, so many great things I left off.
I needed a serious restock of my beer stash after the Christmas holiday so placed an order with Box Beers on Sunday night, I got the beer yesterday which I think is pretty good considering it was shipped from Denmark. Looking forward to trying a few tonight!
I'm going up to Leeds in June for a few days to see a gig. I was toying with the possibility of going across to Huddersfield for a day to check out the Magic Rock Tap Room. At weekends they lay on some street food carts, changing week to week.
They just announced the beers are becoming vegan, which is fine, but they also announced on twitter that in June, all the street food will be vegan to celebrate this.
I posted my disappointment and got a bit of a ribbing back. I don't think it's unreasonable of me to want a bit of meat. Most of the best street food places I've tried in London and elsewhere tend to be meat based. I'm unashamedly a meat lover.
I'm sure there is some tasty vegan food out there, but for me, this is the difference between going and not going. If I'm going to 'treat' myself to some junk food, I'm going to want some meat involved, either a juicy burger, some succulent BBQ meat, maybe a great hotdog.
I jokingly threatened to boycott their beers and pour any I have in my fridge down the sink (I'm not actually going to). I felt their response, which although may also have been in jest, was a little harsh, making me out to be the bad guy.
I know this isn't really directly related to the thread, but what does anyone else think? I have nothing against vegan food becoming more accessible and varied, but not at the expense of meat. I think this idea of having a vegan month is farcical and I can't be the only one who thinks so. Surely they will miss out. I guess eating there is perhaps the secondary reason for going, they are a brewery after all, but as a fan of craft beer and street food, I viewed this as an opportunity to combine two passions in one experience. Now, I'm not so sure.
What are people's thoughts on the difference in real ale quality between the north and south?
When I started Uni in York I was mainly a cider drinker, but I started to drink the ale up there and developed a taste for it. It was always a nice smooth, tasty and really drinkable. So imagine my surprise when I moved back down south and started ordering the same drinks only to find that I hated them. They just seemed to have a completely different consistency. I tried drinking John Smith Smooth for a while as that was the only thing that came close but it really wasn't a substitute.
I really don't know why this is the case. I've got lots of Camra mates who love their Real Ale and i'll still have the odd pint but it's just not the same as it is up north.
I'm going up to Leeds in June for a few days to see a gig. I was toying with the possibility of going across to Huddersfield for a day to check out the Magic Rock Tap Room. At weekends they lay on some street food carts, changing week to week.
They just announced the beers are becoming vegan, which is fine, but they also announced on twitter that in June, all the street food will be vegan to celebrate this.
I posted my disappointment and got a bit of a ribbing back. I don't think it's unreasonable of me to want a bit of meat. Most of the best street food places I've tried in London and elsewhere tend to be meat based. I'm unashamedly a meat lover.
I'm sure there is some tasty vegan food out there, but for me, this is the difference between going and not going. If I'm going to 'treat' myself to some junk food, I'm going to want some meat involved, either a juicy burger, some succulent BBQ meat, maybe a great hotdog.
I jokingly threatened to boycott their beers and pour any I have in my fridge down the sink (I'm not actually going to). I felt their response, which although may also have been in jest, was a little harsh, making me out to be the bad guy.
I know this isn't really directly related to the thread, but what does anyone else think? I have nothing against vegan food becoming more accessible and varied, but not at the expense of meat. I think this idea of having a vegan month is farcical and I can't be the only one who thinks so. Surely they will miss out. I guess eating there is perhaps the secondary reason for going, they are a brewery after all, but as a fan of craft beer and street food, I viewed this as an opportunity to combine two passions in one experience. Now, I'm not so sure.
That does seem a bit silly to make all the food vegan and to have no other options and I definitely get your point. I'm a huge meat lover too, I rarely have a meal that doesn't involve meat but I'm not sure it'd put me off going, I'd probably put a positive spin on it and view it as an opportunity to have something different. I'd guess that the food would probably be decent, you'll probably get some good sweet potato curry and that kind of thing. Essentially I'd be going for the beer anyway. I guess what I'm saying is that whilst I see your point and I agree that it's a bit strange and don't really agree with the concept, it wouldn't stop me going for some tasty beer!
Talking of events, have you seen the thing that Beavertown are doing in September? It looks amazing. The brewery list is incredible, top UK breweries as you'd expect but the ones that are coming over from the US and Scandinavia are brilliant. It pretty much looks like a UK based version of the Copenhagen Beer Celebration. I'm trying to figure out some kind of way that I can go as it'd mean a trip down to London.
That does seem a bit silly to make all the food vegan and to have no other options and I definitely get your point. I'm a huge meat lover too, I rarely have a meal that doesn't involve meat but I'm not sure it'd put me off going, I'd probably put a positive spin on it and view it as an opportunity to have something different. I'd guess that the food would probably be decent, you'll probably get some good sweet potato curry and that kind of thing. Essentially I'd be going for the beer anyway. I guess what I'm saying is that whilst I see your point and I agree that it's a bit strange and don't really agree with the concept, it wouldn't stop me going for some tasty beer!
Talking of events, have you seen the thing that Beavertown are doing in September? It looks amazing. The brewery list is incredible, top UK breweries as you'd expect but the ones that are coming over from the US and Scandinavia are brilliant. It pretty much looks like a UK based version of the Copenhagen Beer Celebration. I'm trying to figure out some kind of way that I can go as it'd mean a trip down to London.
I'll say it again:
Brain's Reverend James @ £3.05 a pint.
Had "several" today in the best kept pub in Cardiff.
Hard to beat when kept well - and The Cottage keeps it very well👍
I'm struggling to narrow it down to three in most categories.
I name my best loved ale and you conclude I've only had one good beer all year?
There's an argument brewing here and we've not even had a drink.
It could lead to an online drunken brawl!!
👊👊👊
I name my best loved ale and you conclude I've only had one good beer all year?
There's an argument brewing here and we've not even had a drink.
It could lead to an online drunken brawl!!
👊👊👊
You quoted the entire post, made a random comment and then listed one beer.
I'm actually quite excited about the weekend just because last weekend I had a bit of a cold and could hardly taste anything so stuck to stuff that had been lurking in the fridge a while. Looking forward to cracking open some good stuff this weekend.
I name my best loved ale and you conclude I've only had one good beer all year?
There's an argument brewing here and we've not even had a drink.
It could lead to an online drunken brawl!!
👊👊👊
Well, you quoted my post, implied that you couldn't make a list like that and then named one beer so yeah, I think that I came to a pretty logical conclusion.
Has everybody become teetotal? No posts for 2 months.
In fairness, I haven't had much of late but had a great beer on Saturday, Siren Hop Candy.
Nope, still been partaking, the thread just kind of fell away and there wasn't a great amount of activity anyway.
I also had Hop Candy on Saturday! Very nice it was too, the best DIPA I had last weekend was Omnipollo Amun though. I've had some nice imperial stouts from Lervig and Omnipollo recently (3 Bean Stout, Sippin' Into Darkness and Selassie) and I've been really impressed with all the Cloudwater releases since they've moved over to cans. DIPA V12 was great and the collab with Against The Grain called Make Apple Pie Great Again was lovely. I'm not normally a fan of beers with spices like cinnamon and nutmeg but this was lovely, just the right amount and then some real juiciness from the apple. It really did give off an apple pie vibe.
Has everybody become teetotal? No posts for 2 months.
In fairness, I haven't had much of late but had a great beer on Saturday, Siren Hop Candy.
I had a Siren on Saturday as well, Ryesing Tide. I had it at OPM in Birmingham which is a burger place that I discovered is also a joint venture with Siren! Even more reason to go there again.
Has everybody become teetotal? No posts for 2 months.
In fairness, I haven't had much of late but had a great beer on Saturday, Siren Hop Candy.
Nope, still been partaking, the thread just kind of fell away and there wasn't a great amount of activity anyway.
I also had Hop Candy on Saturday! Very nice it was too, the best DIPA I had last weekend was Omnipollo Amun though. I've had some nice imperial stouts from Lervig and Omnipollo recently (3 Bean Stout, Sippin' Into Darkness and Selassie) and I've been really impressed with all the Cloudwater releases since they've moved over to cans. DIPA V12 was great and the collab with Against The Grain called Make Apple Pie Great Again was lovely. I'm not normally a fan of beers with spices like cinnamon and nutmeg but this was lovely, just the right amount and then some real juiciness from the apple. It really did give off an apple pie vibe.
I really want to try the Apple Pie beer. I've seen it at a couple of places online, but you'd need to order a fair stash of beers to justify the postage.
Maybe if I have a big winner at Cheltenham, I can treat myself to a nice little haul.
I really want to try the Apple Pie beer. I've seen it at a couple of places online, but you'd need to order a fair stash of beers to justify the postage.
Maybe if I have a big winner at Cheltenham, I can treat myself to a nice little haul.
It depends where you order from, the Brewdog shop is only £5 delivery and Honest Brew is £5.99. I don't think that's too bad. I don't think they've got the Cloudwater though which doesn't help! I've been lucky that my local shop has been getting some fantastic stuff in, although when he emails me his new deliveries I end up saying yes to almost everything and last Friday I went to pick my box up and I spent £80!
What are people's thoughts on the difference in real ale quality between the north and south?
When I started Uni in York I was mainly a cider drinker, but I started to drink the ale up there and developed a taste for it. It was always a nice smooth, tasty and really drinkable. So imagine my surprise when I moved back down south and started ordering the same drinks only to find that I hated them. They just seemed to have a completely different consistency. I tried drinking John Smith Smooth for a while as that was the only thing that came close but it really wasn't a substitute.
I really don't know why this is the case. I've got lots of Camra mates who love their Real Ale and i'll still have the odd pint but it's just not the same as it is up north.
I'm exactly the opposite. I hate beer decorated with a load of froth and if John Smith Smooth is the closest you can find to the beer 'up north' they can damned well keep it.
p.s. I'm not averse to northern beer as I can drink York Centurion any day of the week and I don't find that frothy. Also, Roosters is a long-time favourite of mine. I also quite like Abbeydale Absolution, but it doesn't seem to strike the same chord with me as it used to. Perhaps because there are many other beers (particularly Oakham) which do the same kind of thing at least as good, if not better.
Comments
Did you manage to get down there and try the Fruit Bat? I hear they serve it in a milk bottle with a straw!
Yeah, I was at a gig in town that night so popped in beforehand. The Flat Pack Fruitbat was great, it did come in a milk bottle but I didn't get a straw. It did make me wonder what they'd do with the bottles after as it's a limited edition so when it's gone they'll have no use for the bottles. Lovely beer though, I'm a huge Omnipollo fan too so I was looking forward to it. Thought the bottle was a bit gimicky but the beer was great so it didn't really bother me.
I also tried a couple that they'd got on from the Collabfest, a chocolate orange stout that was quite nice and a marmalade saison which was lovely.
I think that's the problem. I quite like their Camden pub but the others are too much of indentikit copies of each other. There are other craft beer chains which manage to instill a lot more individual character into their pubs.
In London I really like the Craft Beer Co pubs (http://www.thecraftbeerco.com/), the City Pub Company do some excellent pubs (http://citypubcompany.com/#ourpubs) and Bloomsbury Leisure (http://bloomsburyleisuregroup.com/) the group behind the Euston Tap and Piccadilly Tap amongst others are great too.
Weird, I didn't really like the Camden branch, too many tall chairs/tables that are not comfortable. I much prefer the Soho and Shoreditch branches.
I'm not going to be doing mine until the new year as I'm sure I'll be drinking a fair few over the next two weeks! Anyway, it's just a bit of fun and I thought it'd maybe interest some people in this thread.
You just have to pick the best beers you've had this year in each of these categories:
Best UK cask beer
1)
2)
3)
Best UK Keg beer
1)
2)
3)
Best UK Bottled beer
1)
2)
3)
Best UK Canned beer
1)
2)
3)
Best Overseas Draught beer
1)
2)
3)
Best Overseas Bottled beer
1)
2)
3)
Best Overseas Canned beer
1)
2)
3)
Best Collaboration beer
1)
2)
3)
Best Overall beer
1)
2)
3)
Best UK Brewery
1)
2)
3)
Best Overseas Brewery
1)
2)
3)
Best new brewery
1)
Best Branding
1)
Best Label/pump clip
1)
If I could answer that I'd be too pissed to answer that.
Rev James (Original)
Cottage Inn
Cardiff
11/10
You've only had one good beer all year?
I'm struggling to narrow it down to three in most categories.
Best UK cask beer
Due to the breweries that tend to interest and excite me I generally end up drinking keg, bottles or cans. Most cask I've had has been pretty average, looking at it, it's very rare I go 4 stars or over on Untappd for cask where most other things in this list are 5 star (or 4.75) These three definitely stood out though.
1) Siren - Broken Dream. A lovely smooth coffee breakfast stout.
2) Dark Star - Crème Brulee. Exactly what it says, a lovely sweet dessert stout.
3) Torrside - Late To The Party. A pretty good black IPA.
Best UK Keg beer
1) Buxton & Omnipollo - Lemon Meringue Pie Ice Cream Pale. Exactly what it says, just a stunning beer.
2) Brewdog - Born To Die 4/11/16. A great DIPA from Brewdog.
3) Abbeydale - Wet Yer Whiskers. A really good white stout.
Best UK Bottled beer
1) Cloudwater - DIPA V3. They're up to V10 now, all have been good but none have matched this. Just perfect hoppy, juiciness.
2) Buxton & Omnipollo - Yellow Belly. This could easily have been top, a stunning imperial stout.
3) Cloudwater, Magic Rock & JW Lees - Three's Company. A cracking collaboration between two new breweries and an old traditional one. A great DIPA.
Best UK Canned beer
1) Magic Rock - Bearded Lady (Grand Marnier barrel aged edition). An awesome Imperial stout aged in Grand Marnier barrels, like a liquid, alcoholic, chocolate orange.
2) Beavertown - Double Chin. A DIPA version of Neck Oil, basically Neck Oil but amplified, great stuff.
3) Magic Rock - Human Cannonball. Their annual DIPA version of Cannonball.
Best Overseas Draught beer
1) Warpigs - Baltic Conspiracy
2) Omnipollo - Mazarin
3) Omnipollo - Zodiak
Best Overseas Bottled beer
1) Omnipollo & Dugges - Anagram Blueberry Cheesecake Imperial Stout.
2) Omnipollo & Siren - Lorelei. A Toasted coconut and maple syrup imperial stout.
3) Omnipollo - Noa (Double barrel edition). Their standard Noa imperial stout but aged twice, once in Cognac barrels and then in Islay whiskey barrels.
3 was going to be Fatamorgana, a juicy DIPA by Omnipollo until I had the Lorelei on xmas day.
Best Overseas Canned beer
1) Evil Twin - Imperial Biscotti Break. A lovely imperial stout with some nice almond sweetness.
2) Oskar Blues - Death By Coconut. Coconut beers can often be too subtle but this absolutely nails it.
3) To Ol - Sur Citra. I love sour beers and this is a cracker, with great fruitiness from the citra hops.
Best Collaboration beer
1) Omnipollo & Dugges - Anagram Blueberry Cheesecake Imperial Stout.
2) Buxton & Omnipollo - Yellow Belly.
3) Burning Sky & Liberty Brewing - Descent Into The Maelstrom. A pale aged in white burgundy barrels with grapefruit and orange zest.
Best Overall beer
1) Omnipollo & Dugges - Anagram Blueberry Cheesecake Imperial Stout. Simply a stunning beer and one of the best things I've ever drank. I'm convinced they must use some kind of witchcraft to make a beer taste this good. It genuinely smells like cheesecake and has so many different flavours, the longer you keep it in your mouth different flavours appear, it's like Willy Wonka stuff!
2) Cloudwater DIPA V3.
3) Buxton & Omnipollo - Yellow Belly.
Best UK Brewery
1) Buxton. Hard to choose between these and Cloudwater, both just make consistently great beers. I went with Buxton in the end because they seem to do a greater variety of styles and do them all well. From traditional bitters through to their experimental stuff such as their Ice Cream series with Omnipollo, they even produced a fantastic Belgian range this year and nailed that. I've never had a bad beer from them.
2) Cloudwater. Their IPAs and DIPAs are just simply stunning and I like the fact that they produce their beers seasonally so nothing is ever repeated and they're always fresh.
3) Beavertown. Their core range is great but the limited editions they make such as the Tropigamma, Bloody Notorious and 'Spresso are always spot on.
Best Overseas Brewery
1) Omnipollo. As you can probably tell I'm a bit of an Omnipollo fanboy but simply put, they've made some of the greatest beers I've ever tasted and seem to be always trying new things. Whenever I see that the bottleshop is getting something new in from them I'm always quite excited.
2) To Ol. I'm a big fan of sours and these do some great sours, they're other stuff is generally always pretty good too.
3) Mikkeller. This was a choice between these or an American such as Evil Twin or Stone. I ended up going with these as I've simply had more of their beers and they're generally pretty consistent.
Best new brewery
1) Verdant.
Up until this month this was going to be Fierce Brewing and then I had Pulp, a DIPA by Verdant. I'd never had anything by them before and it was beautiful, I sought out a few others of theirs and they were all good. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do next year.
Best Branding
1) Beavertown. The Beavertown cans quite literally are a work of art, I'm always tempted to keep them.
I'm also a big fan of the Omnipollo and To Ol branding too.
Best Label/pump clip
1) Beavertown Tropigamma or Beavertown Peacherman just had lovely cans.
So that's that. Quite a hard list to come up with, so many great things I left off.
Best UK cask beer
1) Rudi In Orbit by Hopcraft Brewing
2) Manchester Bitter by Marble
3) Deception by Abbeydale
Best Overall beer
1) Rudi in Orbit - Hopcraft
2) Manchester Bitter - Marble
3) Deception - Abbeydale
Best UK Brewery
1) Marble
2) Abbeydale
3) Salopian
Best Label/pump clip
1) Clever Girl by Errant
(I couldn't work out how to post a pic on this forum, so... it's the 3rd one down on the brewery's page)
http://www.errantbrewery.com/beers/
They just announced the beers are becoming vegan, which is fine, but they also announced on twitter that in June, all the street food will be vegan to celebrate this.
I posted my disappointment and got a bit of a ribbing back. I don't think it's unreasonable of me to want a bit of meat. Most of the best street food places I've tried in London and elsewhere tend to be meat based. I'm unashamedly a meat lover.
I'm sure there is some tasty vegan food out there, but for me, this is the difference between going and not going. If I'm going to 'treat' myself to some junk food, I'm going to want some meat involved, either a juicy burger, some succulent BBQ meat, maybe a great hotdog.
I jokingly threatened to boycott their beers and pour any I have in my fridge down the sink (I'm not actually going to). I felt their response, which although may also have been in jest, was a little harsh, making me out to be the bad guy.
I know this isn't really directly related to the thread, but what does anyone else think? I have nothing against vegan food becoming more accessible and varied, but not at the expense of meat. I think this idea of having a vegan month is farcical and I can't be the only one who thinks so. Surely they will miss out. I guess eating there is perhaps the secondary reason for going, they are a brewery after all, but as a fan of craft beer and street food, I viewed this as an opportunity to combine two passions in one experience. Now, I'm not so sure.
What are people's thoughts on the difference in real ale quality between the north and south?
When I started Uni in York I was mainly a cider drinker, but I started to drink the ale up there and developed a taste for it. It was always a nice smooth, tasty and really drinkable. So imagine my surprise when I moved back down south and started ordering the same drinks only to find that I hated them. They just seemed to have a completely different consistency. I tried drinking John Smith Smooth for a while as that was the only thing that came close but it really wasn't a substitute.
I really don't know why this is the case. I've got lots of Camra mates who love their Real Ale and i'll still have the odd pint but it's just not the same as it is up north.
That does seem a bit silly to make all the food vegan and to have no other options and I definitely get your point. I'm a huge meat lover too, I rarely have a meal that doesn't involve meat but I'm not sure it'd put me off going, I'd probably put a positive spin on it and view it as an opportunity to have something different. I'd guess that the food would probably be decent, you'll probably get some good sweet potato curry and that kind of thing. Essentially I'd be going for the beer anyway. I guess what I'm saying is that whilst I see your point and I agree that it's a bit strange and don't really agree with the concept, it wouldn't stop me going for some tasty beer!
Talking of events, have you seen the thing that Beavertown are doing in September? It looks amazing. The brewery list is incredible, top UK breweries as you'd expect but the ones that are coming over from the US and Scandinavia are brilliant. It pretty much looks like a UK based version of the Copenhagen Beer Celebration. I'm trying to figure out some kind of way that I can go as it'd mean a trip down to London.
http://www.beavertownbrewery.co.uk/the-beavertown-extravaganza-is-here/
Me too Jambo. The missus pulled a bit of a face when I asked her if she wanted to go!
Brain's Reverend James @ £3.05 a pint.
Had "several" today in the best kept pub in Cardiff.
Hard to beat when kept well - and The Cottage keeps it very well👍
I name my best loved ale and you conclude I've only had one good beer all year?
There's an argument brewing here and we've not even had a drink.
It could lead to an online drunken brawl!!
👊👊👊
You quoted the entire post, made a random comment and then listed one beer.
It seems a fair conclusion to come to.
Well, you quoted my post, implied that you couldn't make a list like that and then named one beer so yeah, I think that I came to a pretty logical conclusion.
In fairness, I haven't had much of late but had a great beer on Saturday, Siren Hop Candy.
Nope, still been partaking, the thread just kind of fell away and there wasn't a great amount of activity anyway.
I also had Hop Candy on Saturday! Very nice it was too, the best DIPA I had last weekend was Omnipollo Amun though. I've had some nice imperial stouts from Lervig and Omnipollo recently (3 Bean Stout, Sippin' Into Darkness and Selassie) and I've been really impressed with all the Cloudwater releases since they've moved over to cans. DIPA V12 was great and the collab with Against The Grain called Make Apple Pie Great Again was lovely. I'm not normally a fan of beers with spices like cinnamon and nutmeg but this was lovely, just the right amount and then some real juiciness from the apple. It really did give off an apple pie vibe.
I had a Siren on Saturday as well, Ryesing Tide. I had it at OPM in Birmingham which is a burger place that I discovered is also a joint venture with Siren! Even more reason to go there again.
I really want to try the Apple Pie beer. I've seen it at a couple of places online, but you'd need to order a fair stash of beers to justify the postage.
Maybe if I have a big winner at Cheltenham, I can treat myself to a nice little haul.
It depends where you order from, the Brewdog shop is only £5 delivery and Honest Brew is £5.99. I don't think that's too bad. I don't think they've got the Cloudwater though which doesn't help! I've been lucky that my local shop has been getting some fantastic stuff in, although when he emails me his new deliveries I end up saying yes to almost everything and last Friday I went to pick my box up and I spent £80!
I'm exactly the opposite. I hate beer decorated with a load of froth and if John Smith Smooth is the closest you can find to the beer 'up north' they can damned well keep it.
p.s. I'm not averse to northern beer as I can drink York Centurion any day of the week and I don't find that frothy. Also, Roosters is a long-time favourite of mine. I also quite like Abbeydale Absolution, but it doesn't seem to strike the same chord with me as it used to. Perhaps because there are many other beers (particularly Oakham) which do the same kind of thing at least as good, if not better.