Author Topic: Beer!  (Read 87341 times)

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Beer!
« Reply #50 on: 25 October, 2016, 11:32:59 am »
American beer enthusiasts get so uptight about their definitions of beer styles and whether or not something deserves to be considered a 'craft beer' that they make CAMRA look entirely reasonable and well-adjusted members of society.

I've never tried Blue Moon, but Lagunitas IPA is quite drinkable, even if it is just a pseudo-craft brand of Heineken.

"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

tiermat

  • According to Jane, I'm a Unisex SpaceAdmin
Re: Beer!
« Reply #51 on: 25 October, 2016, 11:33:49 am »
I'm all for innovation.
 
My approach is this: I try something. If I like it I continue to use/drink/eat it. If I don't like it I don't.

But I certainly don't preclude trying anything, on the grounds of bigotry or narrow-minded dedicated views on what something 'should' be.

I've just stocked up on Blue Moon.  :P

Well done, you. You must be so proud of yourself :P

Seriously, though, I wouldn't call what I was saying bigotry, nor narrow mindedness, I know what I like. How do I know what I like? Simple, I try something new and, if I like it I will keep on drinking it, if I don't, I won't. Oh, hang on that is exactly what you said....
I feel like Captain Kirk, on a brand new planet every day, a little like King Kong on top of the Empire State

tiermat

  • According to Jane, I'm a Unisex SpaceAdmin
Re: Beer!
« Reply #52 on: 25 October, 2016, 11:35:23 am »
Hmmm, yes, the American definition of a craft beer, it is bonkers!

A craft brewer is one that produces <6 million barrels per annum! WTF?
I feel like Captain Kirk, on a brand new planet every day, a little like King Kong on top of the Empire State

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Beer!
« Reply #53 on: 25 October, 2016, 11:40:07 am »
A new micropub opened in Queenborough the other day so I popped in on the way home this evening. Totally unsurprised to find a bunch of acquaintances in there. Managed a couple (Gadds Seaside and Kent Brewery Session Pale)before being dragged home by Mrs n for Strictly. A carry out of Hopdaemon's Incubus softened the blow though. I'm definitely liking this idea of opening a pub any old where.

Hmmm. Queenborough is a nice kind of distance from home for a bike ride... what's the pub called?

Gadd's Seasider would be worth the trip even if it were a lot further away.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: Beer!
« Reply #54 on: 25 October, 2016, 11:46:58 am »
I'm all for innovation.
 
My approach is this: I try something. If I like it I continue to use/drink/eat it. If I don't like it I don't.

But I certainly don't preclude trying anything, on the grounds of bigotry or narrow-minded dedicated views on what something 'should' be.

I've just stocked up on Blue Moon.  :P

Well done, you. You must be so proud of yourself :P

Seriously, though, I wouldn't call what I was saying bigotry, nor narrow mindedness, I know what I like. How do I know what I like? Simple, I try something new and, if I like it I will keep on drinking it, if I don't, I won't. Oh, hang on that is exactly what you said....

Nope. You were telling other people what they should drink. What is good and what isn't. What beer is, and what it isn't.

I expect there is a word for that.

Re: Beer!
« Reply #55 on: 25 October, 2016, 11:50:32 am »

I've never tried Blue Moon, but Lagunitas IPA is quite drinkable, even if it is just a pseudo-craft brand of Heineken.

It's mass-produced. That probably is enough for it not to be called craft. But I'm not going to let that alter my opinion on it. It tastes as good as many 'craft' beers I've tasted.

Others are better, to my taste, but they can't be found for £1.50 in my local supermarket in a tiny town/village.

Oaky

  • ACME Fire Safety Officer
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Re: Beer!
« Reply #56 on: 25 October, 2016, 11:52:04 am »
The best name I can remember was "Comrade Bill Bartrams Egalitarian Anti Imperialist Soviet Stout", which I tried at a local beer festival a few years back.  Sadly this pre-dates my usage of the app, and was the first or second beer tasted during a fairly hefty session, so I have no idea whether I liked it or not.

You liked it, I was there.  But I don't remember exactly where.

Interestingly, I can remember where:  Chappel Beer Festival (the one with the ferrets).
You are in a maze of twisty flat droves, all alike.

85.4 miles from Marsh Gibbon

Audax Club Mid-Essex Fire Safety Officer
http://acme.bike

Re: Beer!
« Reply #57 on: 25 October, 2016, 11:52:54 am »
Whatever happened to BEER tasting like, well, BEER ???
I've been thinking while reading some of the descriptions that they sound like beer for people who don't like the taste of beer. Ale-pops?
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: Beer!
« Reply #58 on: 25 October, 2016, 11:55:31 am »
The best name I can remember was "Comrade Bill Bartrams Egalitarian Anti Imperialist Soviet Stout", which I tried at a local beer festival a few years back.  Sadly this pre-dates my usage of the app, and was the first or second beer tasted during a fairly hefty session, so I have no idea whether I liked it or not.

You liked it, I was there.  But I don't remember exactly where.

Interestingly, I can remember where:  Chappel Beer Festival (the one with the ferrets).

My 50th birthday!   :thumbsup:

Re: Beer!
« Reply #59 on: 25 October, 2016, 11:58:03 am »
There is nothing new in putting fruit in beer. Belgians have been doing it for a long time. Never had kriek?

tiermat

  • According to Jane, I'm a Unisex SpaceAdmin
Re: Beer!
« Reply #60 on: 25 October, 2016, 12:10:07 pm »
I'm all for innovation.
 
My approach is this: I try something. If I like it I continue to use/drink/eat it. If I don't like it I don't.

But I certainly don't preclude trying anything, on the grounds of bigotry or narrow-minded dedicated views on what something 'should' be.

I've just stocked up on Blue Moon.  :P

Well done, you. You must be so proud of yourself :P

Seriously, though, I wouldn't call what I was saying bigotry, nor narrow mindedness, I know what I like. How do I know what I like? Simple, I try something new and, if I like it I will keep on drinking it, if I don't, I won't. Oh, hang on that is exactly what you said....

Nope. You were telling other people what they should drink. What is good and what isn't. What beer is, and what it isn't.

I expect there is a word for that.

Whatever, you read how you want to read it, I don't, honestly, expect _anyone_ to take my view on food and drink seriously.

As for your views, I expect there is a word for that. Several in fact, some not repeatable in polite company.
I feel like Captain Kirk, on a brand new planet every day, a little like King Kong on top of the Empire State

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: Beer!
« Reply #61 on: 25 October, 2016, 12:16:01 pm »
I recommend drinking beer as opposed to pontificating about it.  A low stress approach.

ian

Re: Beer!
« Reply #62 on: 25 October, 2016, 12:17:00 pm »
All the beers I mentioned taste like beers. They're all malt, yeast, water, and hops. Yeah, they might throw some other stuff in. But it's all done by people who are enthusiastic about drinking and brewing beer. Had no one bothered to tip sour cherries into lambic, we'd not have some of the fabulous tart krieks. Someone at some point had to decide to start throwing hops into the mix. I expect there were anti-hop purists. Sours, lambics, saisons, etc. are now readily available. Compared to how grim the UK beer situation used to be, it's heaven. Just strolling through a market in Sheffield the other day and hey, look, a beer stall. Hundreds of different beers. It's possible to walk into a small brewery tap room and drink a half-dozen different styles, from basic pales through to funky sours. Good god, you can even get a pint of mild again. My grand-dad is probably clawing his way out of his grave right now.

What makes me a bit sad is watching people chug the nasties like Stella, which tastes pretty much like I'd expect toilet cleaner to taste like, or Carling/Fosters, which taste like nothing. Or those nasty sweet cider concoctions. I like the occasional pint of cider. I had a sip of Magners the other day. O jaysus. Other than a too vivid flashback to drinking two litre bottles of Woodpeckers behind the garages as a youth misspending his time, that was horrid. And people who think Guinness is a nice stout. I think they're just serving the water they've washed out the beer garden ashtrays in. A stout is supposed to have some body to it, Guinness just tastes like water with nasty bitter, burnt edge. No comparison to a pint of cherry-tinged breakfast stout.

Re: Beer!
« Reply #63 on: 25 October, 2016, 01:15:12 pm »
My approach is this: I try something. If I like it I continue to use/drink/eat it. If I don't like it I don't.
These days there are far too many beers appearing all the time to try tasting them all, and at a certain point you have to be guided by previous experience.
Mine is that what I call gimmick beers (i.e. flavoured) are OK for the first half pint or so, but that's enough. That does include Belgian Kriek or German Rauchbier, usually, though it does depend on my mood at the time.

These days, I'm drinking a lot more cider than I used to, any time the beer's a bit boring (17 ciders & perries on at the local on Sunday, not counting the fizzy stuff).

Re: Beer!
« Reply #64 on: 25 October, 2016, 01:35:17 pm »
There is nothing new in putting fruit in beer. Belgians have been doing it for a long time. Never had kriek?
Yeah - thoroughly fermented, & all things that you can grow alongside yer barley - just like hops. And y'know - kriek & even framboise are still recognisably beery.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Re: Beer!
« Reply #65 on: 25 October, 2016, 01:40:32 pm »
Got my ticket for http://www.revolutioncraftbeer.com/
No sign of blue moon or lagunitas.

Re: Beer!
« Reply #66 on: 25 October, 2016, 02:42:43 pm »
Hmmm, yes, the American definition of a craft beer, it is bonkers!

A craft brewer is one that produces <6 million barrels per annum! WTF?

AIUI this limit is essentially set by the requirement for Sam Adams to still be able to call themselves craft brewers...

You see the same thing in the UK; as independent brewers grow, the production limits on beer duty relief start to look more onerous...

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Beer!
« Reply #67 on: 25 October, 2016, 02:55:55 pm »
It's mass-produced. That probably is enough for it not to be called craft. But I'm not going to let that alter my opinion on it. It tastes as good as many 'craft' beers I've tasted.

A lot of so-called craft beers are shite. I blame fucking hipsters getting into brewing. It seems they have got bored with beer and have now moved on to gin though, so maybe the beer market will start to calm down a bit.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Beer!
« Reply #68 on: 25 October, 2016, 02:59:14 pm »
I'm rather partial to St Austell Proper Job, which is an authentic bottle-conditioned British IPA from a medium-sized independent British brewer and priced at four 500ml bottles for six quid from Tesco. It's not exciting, it doesn't contain fruit, it won't blow your head off with its ridiculous alchohol content, it isn't made with 16 varieties of New World hops or single estate malts, it's just decent beer. Fuller's Bengal Lancer is good too, for much the same reasons.

I like the more wilfully esoteric stuff as well, but the great thing about beer is that it covers such a wide variety of styles and you're not obliged to limit yourself to a small section of the market.

I've been thinking while reading some of the descriptions that they sound like beer for people who don't like the taste of beer. Ale-pops?

Brewdog Punk IPA fits that description for me. Pleasantly citrussy but about as complex as orange Fanta. If only Brewdog's beers lived up to their marketing spiel.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: Beer!
« Reply #69 on: 25 October, 2016, 03:03:29 pm »
I'm rather partial to St Austell Proper Job, which is an authentic bottle-conditioned British IPA ...

 >:( Oh no, now you've done it  >:(

Don't get me started on Cornish beer.  It's fine in Cornwall but then Beer Miles start making the whole thing frankly ridiculous.  I shall be in the bad mood for the rest of the day - thanks!

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Beer!
« Reply #70 on: 25 October, 2016, 03:07:52 pm »
It's fine in Cornwall but then Beer Miles start making the whole thing frankly ridiculous.

I'm broadly in agreement with you on that subject. When I'm in the pub, I'll always choose a local beer if I can help it. Buying from the supermarket... well, the beer hasn't travelled nearly as far as a lot of the other stuff in my trolley. And at least Cornish beers have spent fewer miles on the road than American beers.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: Beer!
« Reply #71 on: 25 October, 2016, 03:25:28 pm »
The whole Beer Miles thing started for me some years ago when huggy OTP and I were on our bikes in deepest, darkest Suffolk and fancied some lunch plus beer.  The pub (which was a freehouse) we stumbled across only did Black Sheep beer ... from Yorkshire ... which is a lovely drop ... in Yorkshire.

Given that Suffolk, or indeed East Anglia, is knee deep in breweries both of the micro and grown up size, it struck me as ridiculous that rather than beer be transported from miles away the local breweries couldn't supply beer agreeable to the locals at a sensible price.  Once my consciousness was pricked I became aware of the amount of long distance beer you can buy in East Anglian pubs, Cornish stuff (often Doombar) being the most blatantly bonkers.  And I have been ranting ever since  ;D 

Re: Beer!
« Reply #72 on: 25 October, 2016, 03:57:28 pm »
If you buy Doombar in bottle, it probably hasn't travelled that far, having been brewed in Burton-on-Trent:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-33175395

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: Beer!
« Reply #73 on: 25 October, 2016, 04:01:20 pm »
If you buy Doombar in bottle, it probably hasn't travelled that far, having been brewed in Burton-on-Trent:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-33175395

Which I think simply makes matters worse  ::-)

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Beer!
« Reply #74 on: 25 October, 2016, 04:02:15 pm »
The whole Beer Miles thing started for me some years ago when huggy OTP and I were on our bikes in deepest, darkest Suffolk and fancied some lunch plus beer.  The pub (which was a freehouse) we stumbled across only did Black Sheep beer ... from Yorkshire ... which is a lovely drop ... in Yorkshire.

Given that Suffolk, or indeed East Anglia, is knee deep in breweries both of the micro and grown up size, it struck me as ridiculous that rather than beer be transported from miles away the local breweries couldn't supply beer agreeable to the locals at a sensible price.  Once my consciousness was pricked I became aware of the amount of long distance beer you can buy in East Anglian pubs, Cornish stuff (often Doombar) being the most blatantly bonkers.  And I have been ranting ever since  ;D

In January, Carnardly and I partook of the Settle-Carlisle railway and had lunch in Weatherspoons, in Carlisle. There were four real ales on offer: Doom Bar, Youngs, Greene King Abbott and (IIRC) Harvey's. That's Cornwall, Suffolk, London and Sussex. Bonkers.
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