I'm on holiday in Spain at the moment. I was resigned to drinking average lager whilst here but I've managed to find a little bar that sells local craft bottles. He let me buy a bunch to take back to our apartment. Had a nice IPA and a nice DIPA from Malaqa Brewery and a couple of good ones from Cervesa Guineu and Califa too. Had a couple of ropey ones too though.


This is just pathetic and laughable now. People have been talking about bottled beers since the start of the thread and the OP actually asked people what their favourite bottled beers were. If it bothers people that much the sensible thing to do would be to change the thread title to "The Good Beer Thread" rather than there being about 6 different threads, if I go to the pub and drink a real ale, a keg beer, a can and a bottle I don't want to have to post in multiple threads, that's just silly. Then of course you've got things like key keg and the thing Brewdog are doing with their new "Live Dead Pony Club" which is keg but does actually have live yeast and secondary fermentation.
Quite frankly I couldn't give a crap about it, as long as a beer is well crafted and tastes good in my glass it doesn't interest me whether it's come from cask, keg, bottle or can. I've had amazing and poor beers from all mediums.

So you think the heading of the thread should be ignored purely for your own convenience? A thread about real ale should be about real ale – if you want to include keg and canned beer then yes, you should most definitely start your own thread so that people don't have to scroll through post after post about beers they didn't open the thread to read about!

No, I think common sense should prevail and we just have one thread to discuss all beer. What about beers that are available in all forms, where do they go?

Anyhow, by posting about bottles we're actually following the request of the OP who actually encouraged people to post about bottles, something they have been doing from page one.

So let's everyone stop crying like big babies and get back to the nice beer chat we'd been having. Some good stuff is being recommended, let's all enjoy it.

Or perhaps not.

If you care to read the whole of the first page not a single bottled beer is mentioned.

Someone who is unfamiliar with Real Ale but is interested might, on reading through the thread, assume all of the beers that have been mentioned are examples of Real Ale, I'm merely pointing out that isn't the case at all.

There is a great deal of ignorance about beer and cider in this country, an ignorance readily exploited by the vast multi-national brewery conglomerates. Craft keg is already following cider in that direction. Don't you think it is remarkable that after the best part 300 years of brewing one product Guinness have suddenly discovered a love of "craft keg", with those cosy little soft-focus adverts of how their brewer has "re-discovered" old recipes he is so excited about he thought they were too good to keep for himself?

The same with Magners Cider and the misty orchard images of the workers harvesting the apples that go in to their cider. An advert filmed in deepest... New Zealand!

The reality of how both are produced is very different, but a gullible public fall for it every time.

Nobody is talking about crap like "Guiness craft" though. Yes, Brewdog are pretty huge now but they still make bloody good beer. All the other breweries that have been mentioned are pretty small concerns. Many produce beer in all mediums.

I class myself as a beer lover, all I'm bothered about is the beer. It genuinely makes me sad to see people who obviously love beer but are so blinkered that they're missing out on some amazing beers because they won't drink bottle/can/keg. I absolutely guarantee that I could pick 5 bottled/canned/keg beers out and if you're a lover of beer and put your prejudices aside then you'd actually like them.

Recently Paul has been the best contributer to the thread, I've genuinely enjoyed reading his posts and he's recommended some things that I've tried and I've recommended some things he's tried. That's what this thread should be about, just sharing the love of good beer.


Sorry, I forgot how ultra pedantic you all were and said "the first couple of pages" when it was actually the third page where everyone started talking about bottles. Silly me.

Can someone just ask for the title to be changed? This petty childish arguing isn't doing anyone any good.

Where was this? There are lots of things I love about Spain but it's always hard to find decent beer so I usually turn into a wine drinker when I'm there. Spain do some great wines and it's usually cheaper than the beer.

We were in Nerja. I did a bit of Googling and as far as I could tell it was literally the only bar in the town that did craft beers. Lovely little bar though, 30 different beers on the menu and lovely food. Pretty cheap, the beers were on average about 3 euros a bottle, the most expensive was a 9.2% DIPA and a 9% imperial stout that were 5 euros, still pretty reasonable. Plus when I bought 12 bottles to take away he gave me a discount so it was even cheaper. I'm not really a fan of wine so when I wasn't there I was just drinking lager so I was glad to find this place.

Back home now and had 4 tonight.

Beerbliotek Hip Hops - A pretty standard but very nice American style IPA,
Fierce Cafe Racer - A nice coffee and vanilla porter, I've enjoyed everything I've had from Fierce so far, they seem to do some good stuff.
Wild Beer Co Witness - A bretted Belgian style pale. Quite nice but not one of my favourite Wild Beer Co beers. Was expecting more.
The Kernel Galaxy & Simcoe IPA - The Kernel rarely let me down and this was very nice indeed.

New to the thread, but a big fan of Real Ale both Cask and Bottled.

The thing is cask and bottled versions of the same beer taste so different. For instance Sharps Doombar is a fantastic cask ale in my book, but the bottled version i just cant stand. Ok, Doombar may be a silly example with the cask ale being brewed in Rock, Cornwall and the bottled version in Burton but the argument is still there.

My favourite beers would have to be

Thwaits Golden Ale
Timothy Taylor Landlord
Shepheard Neame Spitfire Gold
Sharps Doombar
Bath Ales Wild Hare
Old Dairy Snow Top
Old Dairy Gold Top
Old Speckled Hen
Harveys Best Bitter

I've never really understood the love of Doombar. It's OK when you are in a hotel and the alternatives are John Smiths or Boddingtons Smooth but I don't think there is anything interesting or special about it and I would never seek it out.

Landlord and Harveys Best are two of my Desert Island Beers, and I'm very partial to Doom Bar.

Harveys are my local brewery. If the wind is in the right direction when they're malting, I can smell it in my house! If you like the pale, hoppy summer beers, I can recommend Harveys Wild Hop.

I'd also recommend anything from the small, but no longer micro, Long Man brewery which is only a few miles from Harveys. Their bitter is lovely. Another Sussex brewery I rate is Hepworths of Horsham. Their Pullman bitter is a joy.

If you're ever in Dorset, try and get your mouth round Isle of Purbeck's Fossil Fuel: a lovely, well-hopped bitter.

One of my other all-time favourites is good old London Pride. Hard to beat, and very reliable. A cellarman would have to be truly incompetent to mess up a barrel of Pride.

Harveys Bitter is for me the best bitter out there by a country mile. It is the perfect bitter, it has all the right flavours and manages to be amazingly refreshing as well. Just a superb beer. Have to say i am quite envious about you being able to get the malting scents from the Harveys brewery. Speaking of bitters i had a Whitstable Brewery (not to be confused with Shepheard Neame's Whitstable Bay) Native Bitter and it was lovely, i really would recommend it.

I have had the Pullman bitter before, and yes that really is a great bitter, not quite Harveys for me but it is up there! I'll keep the Purbeck's Fossil Fuel in mind!

Afraid i would have to slightly disagree with your view on London Pride, i just cant seem to enjoy it. I dont know why that is as it is one of the most loved ales in the country but just not for me.

For me it is just an incredibly nice well balanced beer. When kept at the perfect temperature it really is lovely. I was fortunate to live near a pub that kept it perfectly. Never been able to find anywhere has else that kept it that well. It made it a changed beer.

Temperature really does make a difference to the taste of Ales

I've never got it either. Owned by Coors too. One of those beers that crap pubs that don't do real ale put on as their real ale option, the same as Bombardier, Old Speckled Hen and Greene King IPA.

Doombar is more Premium that Green King IPA, Bombardier or Abbot Ale. It is still a very similar beer to when Sharps were running independently just 5 years ago. I think it is slightly unfair to put it with those other ales. Or is that me being biased?

I don't mind Bombardier once in a while. Old Speckled Hen used to be good back in the day (especially in a bottle) but it's a totally different beer now. As for GK IPA, I live in East Anglia so it's ubiquitous around here but I'll only drink it the alternative is Fosters.

At least a lot of the Greene King pubs around here have improved their draught selection recently after jumping on the "craft" bandwagon. Some of them are quite interesting and make a change from the boring IPA and Abbott though you have to worry when pubs which previously specialised in lager, Sky Sports and Friday night fights start advertising a craft beer festival...

Lidl's Green Gecko ale is superb and it's only 1.25..

As it happens, I am in Brighton for a few days and I had a pint of Long Man ale earlier today, I think it was the IPA. It was pretty good, but the best beer I have had so far was a pint of Beaverton Neck Oil, which I know is finding its way into more pubs these days, but it was the first time I tried it and it really was pleasant. It was of course cask though.

Neck Oil is fantastic, such a good session beer and full of flavour. I don't think I've ever had a bad beer from Beavertown though, Bloody 'Ell, 'Spresso and Double Chin (which was basically double Neck Oil) were amazing. Yesterday I picked up a Peacher Man too which is a Peach Cobbler Witbier which I'm really looking forward to. They've just released a new core IPA called Lupuloid which I'm looking forward to trying. I had a few of their prototype "Attack of the Lupoloids" IPAs which were very good so I'm interested to see what the final product is like.

I believe Wiper and True are based in Brighton and they do some pretty nice stuff. I had a sour black IPA from them a while back that was lovely.

Make sure you check out the Evening Star near the station. It has been one of my favourites in Brighton for many years. Proper traditional non-pretentious pub that has been serving great ale long before the word "craft" was ever invented.

http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs..._Star/Brighton

If you're in Brighton then go to Lidl and try their excellent range. The Green Gecko is 1.25 and superb.

Are you on commission for them or something?

Presumably I could get it in any Lidl, not just specifically while in Brighton?

Had some very good ones tonight.

Beavertown, Magic Rock and Siren - Rule Of Thirds: A collaboration between three of the best breweries involved this was always going to be good and it is. A very good IPA, smells amazing and tastes just as good.

Beavertown and Heretic - PeacherMan: Another collaboration and a peach cobbler witbier, a lovely wit, with vanilla and lemon and a great peach twang. Very nice indeed.

To Øl - Dangerously Close to Stupid: A big 9.2% DIPA, very, very nice.

Lost Industry - Pina Colada Sour: Sour pineapply goodness. Couldn't get the coconut but a very tasty sour anyway.

Green Flash - Double Stout: A freebie as it was past it's date. OK but nothing special, had a couple of Green Flash before and never been overly impressed.

Vibrant Forest - Black Forest: A pretty tasty porter, a hint of chocolate and quite a bit of blackcurrant strangely (was expecting cherry from the name!).

Wylam - Nomi Sorachi: A nice single hopped pale. I've said it before but I bloody love Sorachi Ace hops, so distinctive and this has it in bucket loads.

De Molen - Vuur & Vlam (Fire & Flames) : Pretty standard and very drinkable IPA.

I like the sound of the pina colada sour.
The Øl beer is strong though. I find with strong ales the strength sort of overpowers the flavour.