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Any fans of Real Ale out there?


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Old 27-11-2016, 09:25
walterwhite
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I really like their beers but not too keen on their pubs which are a little too hipster-ish for my tastes.
While I like their pubs they are styled to within an inch of their life. Think they need to try a little less hard.
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Old 27-11-2016, 14:29
Paul1511
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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!
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Old 27-11-2016, 16:11
Jambo_c
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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.
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Old 27-11-2016, 20:16
LostFool
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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.

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.
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Old 27-11-2016, 20:22
Paul1511
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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 I(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.
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Old 19-12-2016, 17:34
Jambo_c
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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)
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Old 19-12-2016, 22:56
Toby LaRhone
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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
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Old 20-12-2016, 09:18
Jambo_c
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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.
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Old 20-12-2016, 09:22
walterwhite
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I'll have to wait as well. My delivery from Honestbrew is arriving today!
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Old 30-12-2016, 14:52
Jambo_c
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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.

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.
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Old 30-12-2016, 16:32
tbluexx
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Easy for me, because I only drink cask beer!

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/
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Unread Today, 09:45
Jambo_c
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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!
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