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Any fans of Real Ale out there?


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Old 10-09-2016, 09:33
Jambo_c
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The Ĝl beer is strong though. I find with strong ales the strength sort of overpowers the flavour.
I used to think that, then I started buying more big ABV beers and realised that up to that point all the strong ones I'd had just simply weren't that good (I don't mean that to sound patronising but l had the same conversation with a guy at work last week). The good ones don't taste their strength at all. Most of my five star ratings on Untappd are imperial stouts and Double IPAs. A good imperial stout is thick, smooth and almost dessert like, I've had 12%-ers that have gone down like juice, the Magic Rock Grand Marnier barrel aged Bearded Lady for example was like drinking a chocolate orange! The same for DIPAs, a good DIPA is wonderful, so much flavour packed in but still easy drinking. A good brewer will use the ABV to pack the beer with flavour but be able to take away the harshness of the alcohol.

However, it's all subjective, I still can't get on with Barley Wines, the only one I've found that I've liked has been a US style one which was a bit more hoppy and even that wasn't brilliant. Standard ones just don't do it for me, I find the alcohol too pronounced and it just comes through as sweetness. I've tried Barley Wines that are meant to be great but I just can't "get" it.

I do recall having a couple of "strong ales" at a beer festival years ago and they were bloody awful, that scarred me for a good few years and when I had my first really good Imperial Stout it was a revelation.
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Old 11-09-2016, 00:50
Jambo_c
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Another Saturday, another nice selection of beers.

Mad Hatter - Absence of Jamon: The worst of the night, I normally like smoked beers but this just seemed to be missing something. Not bad but not good either.

Oskar Blues - Ten Fidy: As the name suggests, a 10.5% imperial stout. Didn't drink anywhere near its strength and went down very easily, a lovely beer.

Mad Hatter - Manchester Tart: Based on the dessert it takes its name from, full of raspberry and coconut, very tasty.

Firestone Walker - Luponic Distortion #1: A very good American IPA.

Beavertown - Holy Cowbell India Stout: A very nice stout, quite hoppy, treading the line between a stout and a black IPA. Very enjoyable.

Lost Industry - Margarita Sour: Another great sour from the little Sheffield brewery, they really know how to do a good sour and their cocktail range have all been superb so far. I can't wait to try the strawberry daquiri one!
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Old 12-09-2016, 09:14
clever3000
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Had a Moorhouse Stray Dog at the weekend. A fantastic golden ale, an excellent session beer on a hot day!
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Old 14-09-2016, 08:18
Jambo_c
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The Rainbow Project (that I mentioned a few posts back) is out on Saturday. They announced the beers last night, which I was glued to Twitter for and I'm even more excited about it. I'll be sat on the website at release time, I really hope I manage to get a box.

It's meant to be a celebration of innovation and collaboration and all the beers sounded good but three in particular sounded very interesting:

Beavertown & Parrot Dog - Universal Mind: An Adambier aged in Marsala barrels. A very old German style that has all but disappeared. Hopefully this might see the resurgence of a new style similar to how Goses have re-emerged. Hopefully it'll be a nice style too!

Hawkshead & Yeastie Boys - Kai Moana Gose: A very interesting sounding Gose made with oysters, mussels and gooseberries!

Wild Beer Co & 8 Wired - Black & Blue: Not a huge amount of info on this but what caught my eye was that it claimed to be "raw" and they say there was no boil in the brewing process. There's also a "charred" element, of what I don't know but I thought it sounded interesting.

The other 4 all sound pretty good too including a sour tropical wit hybrid, a beer aged in white burgundy barrels with orange and a stout with banana, molasses and aged coffee.
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Old 14-09-2016, 21:04
tbluexx
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We (me and the pals I drink with) call Doom Bar 'Gloom Tar'. Nasty stuff!

We like our beers pale, hoppy and preferably around 5% or more... current favourites are Oakham Green Devil, Oakham Scarlet Macaw, Oakham Citra, Salopian Kashmir, Salopian Hop Twister, Loch Lomond's Southern Summit, Marble Lagonda, Ossett Silver King, Rat Brewery's King Rat and White Rat, Abbeydale Moonshine, Deception and Absolution...)

Apologies for not reading all 22 pages of this thread... I started getting wound up after page 4, when people kept referring to the stuff in bottles or cans as real ale... hopefully in the pages I skipped over, someone has mentioned this? If it's in a bottle or can, it's almost definitely NOT real ale. (unless it's been bottle conditioned).

Last edited by tbluexx : 14-09-2016 at 21:13. Reason: adding more content
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Old 15-09-2016, 08:33
Jambo_c
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I'm on a course for a few days and it's near a very good pub. 10 really good beers on keg from the likes of Buxton, Omnipollo and Siren, unfortunately I've had 8 of them but they had an Omnipollo that I'd not had. If I see any Omnipollo that I've not had before I always have it, great brewery. This was called Leon and was a pretty good Belgian-style pale.
They also had 8 beers on cask of which I'd had 4, they were a bit more average apart from Siren Broken Dream. I'd had the "extra shot" version but not the original so I tried that, a very nice breakfast stout it was too.


Apologies for not reading all 22 pages of this thread... I started getting wound up after page 4, when people kept referring to the stuff in bottles or cans as real ale... hopefully in the pages I skipped over, someone has mentioned this? If it's in a bottle or can, it's almost definitely NOT real ale. (unless it's been bottle conditioned).
The OP did actually ask people what their favourite bottled beers are (on about page 3 or 4). Hopefully at some point a mod will rename the thread something like "The Good Beer Thread". Personally I don't care, I'm a beer lover and for me it's all about trying new things and variety, I've had 519 different beers so far this year, some cask, some keg, some bottled, some canned. I've had great and poor in all mediums, all I'm bothered about is that a beer is well made and tastes good. This thread should just be about recommending good beer.

Salopian Kashmir is very nice by the way. Have you tried Slipstream by them? A lovely 5.1% IPA with blood orange. Not a patch on Beavertown's Bloody 'ell but still a very nice beer.
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Old 15-09-2016, 09:18
walterwhite
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Jambo, I've just subscribed to the Brewdog Bottlebox. Don't get a delivery for a month but will let you know what it's like. The box this month had a beer that was 15% ABV in it!
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Old 15-09-2016, 11:00
Jambo_c
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Jambo, I've just subscribed to the Brewdog Bottlebox. Don't get a delivery for a month but will let you know what it's like. The box this month had a beer that was 15% ABV in it!
Is that the Paradox Islay? I've not tried that yet.

Is the Bottlebox just Brewdog beers or do you get stuff from their guest breweries too?
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Old 15-09-2016, 11:06
walterwhite
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Is that the Paradox Islay? I've not tried that yet.

Is the Bottlebox just Brewdog beers or do you get stuff from their guest breweries too?
Yes that's the one! I also believe it had a bottle of the Dog E in it which is about the same strength.

Just Brewdog beers so it might get a bit 'samey' but you can cancel at anytime or take a holiday so no real risk. £37 for 18 bottles which seemed pretty reasonable.
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Old 15-09-2016, 12:26
Jambo_c
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Yes that's the one! I also believe it had a bottle of the Dog E in it which is about the same strength.

Just Brewdog beers so it might get a bit 'samey' but you can cancel at anytime or take a holiday so no real risk. £37 for 18 bottles which seemed pretty reasonable.
The Dog E is 16.3% I believe! I've had that but I had it after I'd been at a wedding all day and in my infinite wisdom stumbled into Brewdog on my way home and ordered that as a nightcap! From what I recall it was nice, chocolate and chilli!

£37 isn't bad, I pay £33 for my monthly from Eebria, I get 12 bottles from a different brewery each month. You will probably get quite a few repeats with the Brewdog one though, although you'll guarantee that you'll get all the limited edition stuff and specials.

Hope you like Chilli beers as I bet you'll get the two new ones, Chilli Hammer and Neon Overlord. The Neon Overlord sounds great, a chilli mango IPA and the can looks awesome too! If you get a "Restorative Beverage for Invalids and Convalescents" that's very good too.
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Old 17-09-2016, 04:25
Jambo_c
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A few nice ones today, it's been a very pale kinda day though!

Buxton & Omnipollo - Lemon Merengue Ice Cream pale: Another great collaboration between these two, this was stunning.

To Ĝl - Say What!?: A really nice, refreshing IPA.

Northern Monk - Communion: A lovely session pale.

Lost Industry - Strawberry Daquiri Sour: Another quality cocktail sour, strawberry and lime, really good.

Evil Twin - Citra Sunshine Slacker: Pretty tasty American session pale.

Vibrant Forest - Chinook: A fairly standard single hopped pale.

I then decided I'd had too many pales but all the darker stuff I've got is pretty strong so I had a bottle of my homemade stout which went down quite nicely. Can't wait to brew the next one.

As an aside I just got a delivery from a new brewery to me, called 6 Degrees North, a bunch of beers along with a bit of literature about the brewery and beer. Every beer they produce is unfiltered, contains live yeast and is carbonated naturally through secondary fermentation. However, every single beer they produce is only available in bottles or keykeg, nothing is in cask. So I guess this craft beer in keg/bottles is real ale. The thing is a lot of breweries are doing this which makes the anti-keg brigade look even more ridiculous and stuck in the past.
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Old 17-09-2016, 14:52
Jambo_c
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Very happy that I managed to get a Rainbow Project box. Complete chaos though, the website just kept crashing, nobody could get on, took an hour and a half of refreshing the page to eventually get one. Easily the hardest thing I've ever bought online and I've bought lots of gig tickets.
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Old 18-09-2016, 07:39
chopsim
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I bought a couple of Hatherwood Green Gecko IPA from Lidl. I really liked it.
I know, go on, slate me.
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Old 18-09-2016, 09:56
Jambo_c
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I bought a couple of Hatherwood Green Gecko IPA from Lidl. I really liked it.
I know, go on, slate me.
Who is going to slate you? I've never had it so can't comment, got a mate who likes it though.

Had a couple of real standouts last night.

Beavertown & Boneyard - Bloody Notorious: A stunning DIPA with blood oranges. Very dangerous though, 9.1% but like drinking juice, so easy to drink.

Evil Twin - Imperial Biscotti Break: An outstanding 11.5% imperial stout, big coffee and chocolate notes with a really sweet vanilla and almond flavour. Absolutely lovely.
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Old 26-09-2016, 08:08
Jambo_c
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Had a fairly busy weekend, won't mention them all but had some very good beers. Had my first two out of the Rainbow box, both were great.

Beavertown & Parrotdog - Universal Mind: Red in the Rainbow Project. An "Adambier", a style I'd never had before, it was very good, smooth, peaty and smokey with a sweetness from masarla barrels.

Partizan - Royal Ale: Violet in the Rainbow Project. I normally dislike barley wines but this was made with Riesling grape juice and it worked really well, I enjoyed it.

Stone - Mocha IPA: This was fantastic, a DIPA with chocolate and coffee. Very good indeed.

Magic Rock - Rhubarbarella: A rhubarb braggot, smelt horrible but actually tasted great.

Cloudwater - Vic's Secret IPA: A very tasty IPA from Cloudwater.

Warpigs - Baltic Conspiracy: Heard a bit about this Danish brewery but never seen any of their beers here. Hopefully I'll see more though as this was absolutely fantastic.
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Old 04-10-2016, 09:00
Jambo_c
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Had a couple more out of the Rainbow Project box over the weekend and they were both nice, one was absolutely outstanding.

Burning Sky & Liberty Brewing - Descent Into The Maelstrom: The Orange beer, made using New Zealand hops with grapefruit and orange zest and aged in white burgundy barrels. This was amazing, lots of orange and hoppiness with a slight sourness and then a nice hint of white wine from the barrel ageing. A superb beer. 6.66% too which was a nice touch!

Wild Beer Co & 8 Wired - Black and Blue: A "raw" sour beer that contains no hops and hasn't been boiled and has been aged in charred barrels. Nice, but the worst Rainbow one so far. It was more like a Belgian lambic but with a hint of smoke. I enjoyed it.

The other two notable ones I had this weekend were Beavertown's new core IPA Lupuloid which was very good and came in a wonderful looking can and one from the US, Westbrook's Key Lime Pie Gose. I'm a big fan of Goses and I think Westbrook's normal gose might have been the first one I ever had and it's still one of the best. The lime version was fantastic, all the sourness and saltiness you'd expect but with a big hit of lime, incredibly refreshing!
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Old 14-10-2016, 09:53
walterwhite
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So my Brewdog Bottlebox arrived and it's a cracker. 18 beers for £37 which I think is already great value but it included a Paradox Islay and an Abstrakt 21 which are both £10 to buy separately. Started off with an Elvis Juice and a Jet Black Heart last night, loved them both.
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Old 14-10-2016, 11:35
Jambo_c
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So my Brewdog Bottlebox arrived and it's a cracker. 18 beers for £37 which I think is already great value but it included a Paradox Islay and an Abstrakt 21 which are both £10 to buy separately. Started off with an Elvis Juice and a Jet Black Heart last night, loved them both.
That is really good value. I ordered a third of the Abstrakt 21 last time I was in Brewdog but they'd run out. What else did you get in the box?

I'm picking some bottles from Odyssey Brewing up from the bottle shop on my way home from work, a new brewery to me but they're meant to be very good.
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Old 14-10-2016, 11:47
walterwhite
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That is really good value. I ordered a third of the Abstrakt 21 last time I was in Brewdog but they'd run out. What else did you get in the box?

I'm picking some bottles from Odyssey Brewing up from the bottle shop on my way home from work, a new brewery to me but they're meant to be very good.
Luckily i've got the tasting notes with me!

2 x Neon Overlord
2 x Chili Hammer
2 x Pumpkin King
1 x Abstrakt
1 x Paradox Islay
1 x Candy Kaiser
1 x Jet Black Heart
1 x Electric India
1 x Elvis Juice
1 x Kingpin
2 x 5am Saint
1 x Large Punk IPA
1 x Jack Hammer
1 x Vagabond
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Old 14-10-2016, 15:15
Jambo_c
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Luckily i've got the tasting notes with me!

2 x Neon Overlord
2 x Chili Hammer
2 x Pumpkin King
1 x Abstrakt
1 x Paradox Islay
1 x Candy Kaiser
1 x Jet Black Heart
1 x Electric India
1 x Elvis Juice
1 x Kingpin
2 x 5am Saint
1 x Large Punk IPA
1 x Jack Hammer
1 x Vagabond
That's not bad at all, not many duplicates either really. I haven't tried the Chili Hammer yet, I'm interested to see how it compares to the Neon Overlord.
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Old 14-10-2016, 15:18
walterwhite
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That's not bad at all, not many duplicates either really. I haven't tried the Chili Hammer yet, I'm interested to see how it compares to the Neon Overlord.
I suspect it may get a bit 'samey' but I like every Brewdog beer I've ever tasted so don't mind that much as long as they keep putting the small batch stuff in there.
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Old 14-10-2016, 15:32
Jambo_c
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I suspect it may get a bit 'samey' but I like every Brewdog beer I've ever tasted so don't mind that much as long as they keep putting the small batch stuff in there.
Yeah I'd imagine you'll get a few of the staples every time to pad it out but they do release new stuff pretty frequently. I like all their stuff too, apart from the 5AM Saint but red beers (and barley wines) are about the only style I don't normally like.

It'd be good if they did one with stuff from the guest breweries in the online shop as they have some good stuff on there.
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Old 14-10-2016, 15:38
walterwhite
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Yeah I'd imagine you'll get a few of the staples every time to pad it out but they do release new stuff pretty frequently. I like all their stuff too, apart from the 5AM Saint but red beers (and barley wines) are about the only style I don't normally like.

It'd be good if they did one with stuff from the guest breweries in the online shop as they have some good stuff on there.
They do one for the people who've signed up for Equity for Punks but that's closed now so you can't get in. Shame really.

I'm saving up for my trip to Cotteridge Wines by the way, reckon I need a couple of hundred to make it worthwhile!
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Old 20-10-2016, 18:20
tbluexx
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Salopian Kashmir is very nice by the way. Have you tried Slipstream by them? A lovely 5.1% IPA with blood orange.
No, I haven't seen that one yet... I'd definitely give it a try!
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Old 21-10-2016, 14:42
Jambo_c
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They do one for the people who've signed up for Equity for Punks but that's closed now so you can't get in. Shame really.

I'm saving up for my trip to Cotteridge Wines by the way, reckon I need a couple of hundred to make it worthwhile!
I saw that the other day. When it was open I debated with myself over and over about signing up but I figured I just wouldn't get value out of it. It'd be a right pain getting to the AGM and whilst I do go to the bars whenever I'm near it's probably not frequently enough to benefit.


No, I haven't seen that one yet... I'd definitely give it a try!
Blindspot isn't bad either, not the best DIPA I've ever had but I am a big fan of DIPAs and have had quite a few including some absolute stunners, but it was tasty enough.

Salopian are a bit of an odd brewery to me, I find a lot of their stuff very pedestrian and a bit boring and then they have the odd thing that is very good. Strangely you can usually tell by the branding, everything of theirs that I've liked has been in the dark bottles with white writing straight on the bottle, the average stuff has been in the bottles with the more "traditional" looking labels.
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