What are you drinking right now?

[Marco Stefano]

Not drinking quite right now, but off to the Norwich Beer Fest tomorrow for lunchtime with Mrs Marco. Have not been for some years, so looking forward to it.

[interzen]

Green tea with peach.

[pcolbeck]

Sainsburys Fair Trade sun dried Tanzanian Fairtrade Peaberry coffee. Its really nice.

[Ewan Houzami]

Wychwood King Goblin. Malt forward followed by a buttery middle and ending with zingy Cascade. Covers lots of bases. 8/10

Must admit, I'm intrigued by this Butty Bach stuff. Will keep a lookout (and a welcome in the hillside) for it.

[Basil]

Hey.  I'm drinking Butty Bach right now.
It's for those (me) who don't like hoppy ales.
Ymmv

[Ewan Houzami]

Hey.  I'm drinking Butty Bach right now.
It's for those (me) who don't like hoppy ales.
Ymmv

Bloody Americans, discovering IPA, overhopping it, and making it trendy...   I hope tastes eventually come full circle and people (especially youngsters) will rediscover how delicious, smooth, and more balanced traditional British ales can be.

[Jaded]

Rioja instead of swimming.

[ian]

Geranium gin. But I'm supposed to leave it alone till the weekend. Bah.

[Mrs Pingu]

Geranium gin. But I'm supposed to leave it alone till the weekend. Bah.

Explain plz?

[tiermat]

Hey.  I'm drinking Butty Bach right now.
It's for those (me) who don't like hoppy ales.
Ymmv

Bloody Americans, discovering IPA, overhopping it, and making it trendy...   I hope tastes eventually come full circle and people (especially youngsters) will rediscover how delicious, smooth, and more balanced traditional British ales can be.

I am sorry, but you are wrong, an IPA SHOULD be strong and hoppy.

IPA comes from the days of the Raj, where the troops stationed over there could do without their beer, and were unable to get the materials locally to make their own.  A brew was invented that could withstand the long trip from UK to India on a tea clipper.  To make it able to survive it needed to have a high alcohol content and lots of hops to prevent it going sour.

The stuff you get these days is a pale imitation.  IPA should be, at least, 5%, not 3.4% FFS!

[billplumtree]

Geranium gin. But I'm supposed to leave it alone till the weekend. Bah.

Explain plz?

Ooh!  I couldn't wait, so googled: http://www.theginblog.co.uk/home/2011/09/geranium-gin/

What's the verdict, ian?

[Ewan Houzami]

I am sorry, but you are wrong, an IPA SHOULD be strong and hoppy.

IPA comes from the days of the Raj, where the troops stationed over there could do without their beer, and were unable to get the materials locally to make their own.  A brew was invented that could withstand the long trip from UK to India on a tea clipper.  To make it able to survive it needed to have a high alcohol content and lots of hops to prevent it going sour.

The stuff you get these days is a pale imitation.  IPA should be, at least, 5%, not 3.4% FFS!

Tiermat. There are other types of British ale apart from IPA - that was the point of my post.  Americans took IPA and redesigned it using fairly high alpha-acid, new-world citrussy hops, e.g., Galaxy, Cascade, Amarillo, from the start of the boil to flame-out. Building up a culture of their own, they call them quite rightly A(merican)PAs. We latched onto this American micro-brewing revolution, imported  them and now highly hopped citrussy beers have become the new norm (Black IPAs for example). some of which just don't work and taste awful. Even Marston's Old Empire IPA adds american Cascade at the end and hops like these didn't exist at the time of the Raj. But thanks for telling us the story about how the Victorians used to whack in a ton of hops to keep the beer stable over long journeys (in the field it was watered down for the men - of course, the officers got the good stuff)!

I've made a couple of batches of IPA, but the novelty has worn off somewhat. Don't get me wrong - they're very refreshing on a hot day, but can be too in-yer-face and one-dimensional.  Hence the brews I'm into at the moment tend to have more of a malt profile and a bit more colour and body - classic balanced British ales, you might call them. I go for beers using crystal malts in the mash as these give more body and sweetness to the end product (providing this sweetness isn't obliterated with a high-attenuating yeast of course!), using old-skool hops like good old Fuggles and EKG(oldings). Which is pretty much what Butty Bach is.

[tiermat]

I am sorry if I came across a little "you don't know what you are on about" Goldilocks.  I didn't intend it to come out that way, and obviously you do know you (beer) onions!

I had, also, mis-read what you said previously.

The whole IPA which tastes only slightly better than a lager thing irks me (as you might have noticed), it ranks up alongside Porters that are really stouts, milds that really are nothing of the sort and bitters that, well, just aren't.

Unfortunately we have a lot of this sort of thing in the UK, and yes, I think you are right, a lot of it comes from the leftpondians taking our brews, adjusting them to their market then the recipes being brought back over here.

For my money I enjoy beers by Daleside, Roosters and Copper Dragon.  I despise Sam Smiths (but then I always have), John Smiths is bitter for lager drinkers and the S&N brews are not even worth considering, now.

I think I need to go and visit my weekday "local" The White Swan in Quy, to see what they have on tap at the moment

[Ewan Houzami]

Cheers T. Perhaps the common theme between us is cynicism with beer fashions?  To me, you're coming at things from a 'let's call this lager an IPA, this stout a porter etc' angle, which irks because giving any old brew trendy 'heritage' names like these shifts units by creating the impression that the drinker is re-engaging with tradition, conjouring up images of leathery old artisans using skills handed down through generations, as opposed to the reality being some clean-cut young bloke with a brewing degree from Heriot-Watt in charge of an array of enormous stainless steel tanks and associated processes. My take is the fact that too many beers are over-hopped or are too citrussy these days (and calling them IPAs), perhaps trying to capture a new generation of beer-drinkers brought up on a diet of Europiss and alcopops.

[ian]

Geranium gin. But I'm supposed to leave it alone till the weekend. Bah.

Explain plz?

Ooh!  I couldn't wait, so googled: http://www.theginblog.co.uk/home/2011/09/geranium-gin/

What's the verdict, ian?

Weekend, fools. My wife predicts a precipitous slide into alcoholism if I deviate from path of red wine during the week. She's probably right. I am curator of a rather large collection of gins.

[Mrs Pingu]

Geranium gin. But Iw'm supposed to leave it alone till the weekend. Bah.

Explain plz?

Ooh!  I couldn't wait, so googled: http://www.theginblog.co.uk/home/2011/09/geranium-gin/

What's the verdict, ian?

Weekend, fools. My wife predicts a precipitous slide into alcoholism if I deviate from path of red wine during the week. She's probably right. I am curator of a rather large collection of gins.

Does red wine not count as alcohol then? *prepares to install wine rack under desk at work*

[ian]

Red wine is good for you. I read it on the internet. People who drink as much red wine as me regularly live forever.

Trust me, I'm a doctor™

[Rhys W]

I quite like the American "double hopped" IPAs - Sierra Nevada Torpedo and some Goose something from Chicago I get from Tesco. I have a couple of bottles of Deuchars IPA waiting in the fridge for me tonight though.

[ian]

I quite like the American "double hopped" IPAs - Sierra Nevada Torpedo and some Goose something from Chicago I get from Tesco. I have a couple of bottles of Deuchars IPA waiting in the fridge for me tonight though.

The Goose Island IPA is very good – probably my favourite IPA. I like IPAs but, indeed, some of the hopping is a tad overly enthusiastic at times (and I'm a big fan of hops and US craft beers). Sadly, this weekend saw my last bottle of Great Divide Colette Saison quaffed.

Geranium gin was nice. The geranium is quite subtle but still noticeable, so doesn't overpower, and it complements the juniper well. It could have perhaps used a bit more complexity on the back-end, but I'll reserve judgement till I've tasted more.

[Ewan Houzami]

My home-made dandelion wine. Six months in and it still burns like whisky! Down the sink it goes.

[Oaky]

Water, with just the tiniest, almost homeopathic-concentration, hint of blackcurrant squash.

[Basil]

Salentein.  An Argentinian Malbec.

Hmm, just another glass before bed. <repeat>

[Wowbagger]

Adnams Broadside. Wonderful stuff.

[RW]

BrauStar ZerO^%.  As beer free beers go it's ok.  I bought quite a bit of it at Noz, a French end of line shop that makes Trago Mills look classy.  Six 500 ml cans at 79 euro cents works out prettycheap.  Most of the writing on it is in Chinese.

[markcc]

Not now of course, but last night. Pannepot Reserva and Black Albert from De Struise. Both excellent ales.