Lovely weather so had another BBQ. Had a lot of beers but the highlight was Tzatziki Sour by Mad Hatter. I do love a good sour but a beer with cucumber and mint sounded really wrong, it was amazing though!
The other highlight was Arzachel by Omnipollo, only 3.5% but hopped like a big IPA, lovely stuff.
I'm very drunk and need sleep! Good night!

Had some nice stuff last night. In the order I drank them.

Siren Craft - Tidal Wave. A big 10% DIPA version of their standard IPA Soundwave. Good, but not up to the standard of some of the other DIPAs that have come out this year.
Siren Craft - Extra Shot Broken Dream. A version of their normal stout but with extra coffee. Massive coffee hit and it added a slight sourness which I liked.
To Øl - Roses Are Brett. Mentioned before in the thread, not my favourite saison, not my favourite Brett beer but does everything well enough and I enjoyed it.
Brewdog - Restorative Beverage For Invalids and Convalescents. Hands down the best named beer I've had all year and a nice little historical story behind the name. Very good DIPA too, plus a great can design!
Wiper and True - All The Colours of The Dark. This was lovely and quite unusual. A sour black IPA. I love sours and I love black IPAs so it's no surprise that I loved this. Great stuff.

I then followed them up with a couple from Tyne Bank which currently seem to be the bane of my existence! I ended up with a load of free ones due to an error and they're by far the most average stuff I've had in ages (in bottles at home). I'm gradually plowing through them though although I'm sure they're not going down!

Off to the bottle shop this afternoon to pick up Cloudwater DIPA V6 and V7 which I'll have tonight. Got a couple more things saved but no doubt I'll end up coming back with about 12 different bottles as I have zero will power.

I love the name of the Brew Dog beer. Sounds perfect for me.

Another night of great beer.

Had the Cloudwater DIPA V6 and V7, both were amazing, very hard to choose between them, Cloudwater just can't put a foot wrong at the moment.

Then had a couple of local brews from Lost Industry. A rhubarb pie saison which was lovely and a coconut milk stout which was nice but the coconut was a bit too subtle, I'd have preferred more.

A new brewery to me next. Time and Tide, had a can of Spratwaffler, a 3.7% pale which was packed with flavour for the ABV. Will definitely check out some of their other stuff.

Then To Øl Mochaccino Messiah, a coffee brown ale, up to their usual standard, very nice indeed.

Finally I had a Watermelon Wheat from Crate. Very refreshing, slightly bizarre that it initially tastes like a regular wheat beer but as soon as you swallow the watermelon hits and it's a massive hit!

The man at your beer shop must love you. He sees you coming and thinks, yes I can feed the kids this week lol.

His local GP – probably not as much.

Haha, everyone needs a hobby! I do only drink on a Friday and Saturday though (unless I'm off work when I might have the occasional weeknight beer).

I don't buy the obscure ones you buy, but I used to just neck beer. Now I have a mouthful and savour it, swill it and really taste it.
How do you drink yours?

I do tend to take my time with them and savour it. I can make a bottle last an hour. I certainly wouldn't want to be downing 9% DIPAs or big imperial stouts!

Oooh I don't know about an hour. 15 minutes max.

Just listened to a programme on radio 4, the food programme Roger Protz: A life through beer.
All about CAMRA and real ales v fizzy lager/ keg beer etc.
An interesting listen.

It's the weekend which can only mean one thing! Time for beer!
Had more good stuff.

Salopian Slipstream - A very nice pale with blood orange.

Beerbliotek Bibok Citra #5 - Probably the best of the night, a lovely pale.

Mikkeller Spontandryhop Simcoe - A very nice single hopped sour.

Hawkshead Tonka - A bit disappointed with this. An imperial porter with Tonka beans and cacao nibs. Sounded great as I've had Tonka in desserts and enjoyed it. It was a bit odd though, too much going on. Drinkable but disappointing.

Emmanuales By the Rivers of Rhubarbabylon - A saison with rhubarb, ginger and coriander. Not the best, got the ginger and coriander but it'd have been great with a big hit of rhubarb tartness.

Vibrant Forest Session IPA - Really enjoyed this, only 3.5% but hoppy and very tasty.

By The Horns Samba King - Not a huge fan of rye beers but the guy in the bottle shop persuaded me to get this and I'm glad I did. A rye blonde beer with lemongrass and lime. A nice citrussy hit but then you get a whack of Sorachi Ace which comes through as coconut here which compliments it really well.

Some more nice stuff last night.

Northern Monk 822 - A pretty nice DIPA. Not on a par with some of the others that have come out this year but good none the less.

Wild Beer Co Modus Operandi - The highlight of the night, a barrel aged sour old ale. Lovely, very complex and really smooth.

Lost Industry Vanilla Milk Stout - A fairly bog standard milk stout with vanilla. Nice.

Time and Tide All in Jim APA - A nice hoppy pale.

Rogue 7 Hop IPA - Not bad but nothing special. Prefer the 4 Hop version.

Northern Alchemy Lemon and Vanilla Stout - Decent enough stout but couldn't really get the lemon or vanilla.

Mad Hatter Te Punga - A very nice pale using new world hops.

Had a St.Peter's brewery (Suffolk) grapefruit ale last night. Lovely aftertaste of the dry bitter grapefruit.
And a Marshall rock and roll craft beer. Now that was nice.

I can't describe them like you can Jambo.

Just been reading about this years Rainbow Project. It's now in it's third year but it's a project where 7 leading UK breweries (Siren, Magic Rock, Beavertown, Hawkshead, Burning Sky, Wild Beer Co and Partizan) are randomly paired with 7 breweries from another country (this year is New Zealand), they then get allocated a colour of the rainbow each and they have to make a collaboration beer inspired by or reflecting that colour. The 7 beers tend to be quite limited amounts although a few of them get produced for a while after.
They release 1500 boxes which contain one of each beer and a Rainbow Project glass. I'm quite excited about it as the ones that I've had from previous years have been good.
The release isn't until 17th September but I really hope I can get hold of a box.

Hmmm..... I haven't seen that one. I like St Peter's beers and I like grapefruit but I'm not sure about having them together.

It does work very well.

I've not had the St Peters one but I've had a few others, Magic Rock's High Wire Grapefruit and Brewdog's Elvis Juice are two great examples.

Had a couple of bottles of Marston's strong pale ale, 6.something %. Really smooth and I could have drunk a few more of them but have to drive this morning.

Picked up some great American cans at a food festival yesterday. Had Anchor Summer Wheat and Snake Dog IPA last night. The Snake Dog was 7.1% and my head feels like it today.

You mean like most of the beers being mentioned on this thread?

Very few are Real Ales...

Aaaaw you poor little lamb. Has somebody bought something you don't like.
It's says ale on the bloody bottle, which is good enough for.
Stop being so snobbish!!

I wouldn't mind all this complaining so much from the anti-keg/craft brigade if they actually talked about Real Ales. Yet instead these types just seem to spend time posting to take potshots at others.

I'd rather hear someone give an opinion on beers, whether it be real ale, craft or a can of bleeding Carlsberg than constantly have to read all these snippy comments about definitions of beers. It's dull as dishwater.

In case you both missed it, the title of this thread is...


If people want to talk about keg beer, why not start another tread?

Real Ale has a definition because it describes a specific way of brewing a beer, a process involving secondary fermentation within the cask or bottle to develop the final flavour meaning the beer is a living product. A keg beer, which is pasteurised and sterile when it leaves the brewery, and is not Real Ale.

I'm not being snobbish at all, I couldn't care less what people choose to drink, it isn't my problem. However surely the point of a Real Ale thread is to talk about Real Ale?

I haven't missed anything. All I am saying is that those people complaining about people going off topic never actually seem to contribute to the topic anyway, so it seems that if you got your wish and the craft beer/keg beer chat moved to a new thread, this thread would probably die a slow death.

Oh God, I thought we'd got past all this?