Tag Archives: The Friday Pint

The Friday Pint #27 – The Joys of Sharing

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I’m currently on my way back to Southampton. In my bag are two bottles that I shall be sharing with my brother and my dad tomorrow evening. When I get home I’ll probably share a bottle from the collection I have there with my Dad.

This is a contrast to my usual beer drinking exploits whilst up in London. Whilst there are the occasional social drinking occasions (the next being at the Euston Taps on the 21st July if you want to join me), most of my drinking is done by myself. Whilst I enjoy this, and the lack of restrictions it has, there are times when being able to share a beer has its advantages.

For one thing, it can enable you to drink more different beers in a session. Tonight, if I opened one bottle on my own, I’ll have drunk one bottle. By sharing that bottle with my Dad, I’ll have only drunk half a bottle (or just over half, depending on what it is, and how generous I’m feeling).

There is also the aspect of different perspectives. One drinker’s “off” may be another beer drinker’s “perfectly drinkable”. Whilst several people can drink the exact same beer, it is likely that each of them will have a different opinion on how it affects each of the senses.

I’m not sure what I’ll be drinking tonight. I’m writing this on the train as a kind of companion piece to this month’s The Session post. I’m sure whatever it is, I’ll enjoy it knowing what the weekend has I’m store for me. (164)

The Friday Pint #26 – A Glassful of Clichés

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I’m going to start off with a warning. This weeks post contains what I consider to be a cliché in the world of describing drinks. It’s a term that I have long considered to be a full back term for people writing tasting notes when they have an okay beer, with not much else to say about it. I shall get to what it is in a while, but first, a little bit about Friday.

I yet again found myself in the Windsor Castle in Lye, home to the Sadler’s Brewery, makers of the rather good Mud City Stout. Unfortunately for me, it was yet again off (in terms of taste, I’ve been rather unlucky with this recently, and I wonder how many people have been put off it from drinking a bad pint. When it’s good, it’s a sublime stout, and dangerously tasty, yet when it’s off, it has a horrible taste, which I can best describe as what I’d imagine moldy socks to taste like.)

I was here to meet a couple of fellow drinkers, who I had first met at the Birmingham Twissup a few months previously. There are several write ups about the event, but this one from blogger Danny Brown is my favourite for the line “when a gathering happens in the name of something, then perhaps it means err something.” It has taken on somewhat of a meaning in recent months, with rather exciting developments happening. I’m sure as soon as I can, I’ll be promoting the hell out of those developments on here.

I arrived early, an hour earlier than the other drinkers (@ckdsaddlers, @robertoross and @midders57, for those of you who are curious) and used this time to get some drinking done for this post, and a potential Black and Tan Experiment involving Hop Bomb and Mud City Stout.

Now, as the Mud City Stout wasn’t on form, the Black and Tan was essentially rendered worthless, and so I’ll be waiting for another go before I write about that. As for this week’s pint, I had the monthly special, Solar Bear, which is easily the better of the Sadler’s monthly specials I’ve had this year. There was a nice citrusy, mostly grapefruit aroma initially, which faded slightly not long afterwards. The beer had a nice bitterness that seemed nicely offset by the slight sweetness of the malt. It was, in my eyes (cliche alert!) a well balanced beer.

It was the first time that those words have made any sort of sense to me. Most of the time, when I drink a beer described as “well balanced” I have found it to be anything but. Of course, one person’s “well balanced” maybe another persons “slightly skewed one way or the other”, but at least now, I do know that there are actually beers that can fit that description.

Saying that though, I’ll still view those words with some skepticism when reading tasting notes.

As for the rest of the day, we finished at the Windsor Castle with some Dr. Hardwicke’s, before moving onto the Waggon and Horses in Halesowen. Despite having passed through a number of times, this was actually the first time I had visited there. I took the opportunity to try Batham’s Mild, which I found to be okay, but not impressive enough for me to rush back for more, unlike the bitter. This was followed by a trip to Stirchley Wines and a final pint in the Post Office Vaults.

So, a little bit delayed, but that was this week’s Friday Pint. It shall be returning to the West Midlands in a few months time, probably.

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The Friday Pint #25 – Ethel’s Brew

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It would seem that choosing to move my blog from Posterous to a WordPress.org one was a good decision. I’ve already had two PR e-mails, and at least 10 spam comments, which at the moment are entertaining me with things like “i didn’t even see something like this before because of the scarcity of this type of information”.

The first PR e-mail was for a group of students in America (I think, I can’t remember exactly, and I think I deleted the e-mail), who had developed some beer opener sunglasses, and had a kickstarter project going to try and raise money to manufacture them. Whilst they seemed like a nice novelty idea, they clearly would have had little use in the UK, where we get 14 days of sunny weather each year.

The second PR e-mail came from a company called Ethel’s Brew. If you’re feeling brave, the website can be found at http://www.ethelsbrew.com/.

Since recieving the e-mail I’ve been intrigued. I’ve tried to do a search for more information, but aside from sites pretty much reporting the PR, I’ve found little else. I have a hunch (and the people behind the beer are more than welcome to prove me right or wrong) that Ethel is not real, and is in fact a character played by an actress, to sell a brand. I also have a feeling that Ethel’s Beer is made by a big company, who feel that if they openly associated themselves as being the makers of the brand, it would damage it’s potential sales, or ruin it’s reputation before it had even gone to market.

I don’t want to pre-judge a beer before I’ve tried it, but everything about the way the company have chosen to market their range of beers says “avoid” to me. I may very well have ruined the likelihood of recieving more unsolicited PR e-mails after this post, or I may end up getting a load more. Either way, I’m unlikely to write anything about any of them, unless I feel I can say something about it, rather than just say “These guys are doing something”.

I’m going to open a bottle of Samuel Smith’s Imperial Stout now. I’ve never had it before. Here’s to the rest of the night.

    Additional thoughts – 28th June 2012.

So, it turns out that I was right in my suspicions that Ethel wasn’t real. What I hadn’t expected though, was that this wasn’t the work of a larger brewery trying to get in on the craft beer craze, but an advertising agency trying to promote themselves. (Story at http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ddb-behind-ethels-brew-141498)

The question is, what is the ultimate result of a stunt like this. Boak and Bailey have already voiced their annoyance, and the fact that stunts like this make it harder to trust PR agencies on their twitter feed.

On the subject of the campaign itself, I think that DDB have misjudged the way the beer world is moving. Whilst there maybe the few who shout and annoy some people, most of the successful new breweries of the last few years have made their name through having a good product, which has gained popularity through word of mouth and reputation. It also helps that through social media, and blogs, news about good new breweries travels faster than it used to.

Would The Kernel be popular outside of London, or Magic Rock and Summer Wine Brewery popular outside of the North East if it weren’t for the Internet? I know there are many breweries that I’ve not heard of from parts of the country I’ve never been to. Some of these I’m probably better off not being aware of, whilst a few may very well be hidden gems waiting to be discovered.

Whilst there is seemingly still an audience for beers with questionable pump clips, and euphemistic/innuendo laden names, those beers will exist. Some of them may be good (though based on personal experience, that’s probably unlikely). I fully expect though, that these sorts of beers will eventually “die out”. How that will happen, or when it will I’m not sure, yet it seems inevitable, that over time, tastes and trends will change.

One thing I am sure of though, is that advertising agencies will reguarly misjudge things. This is one example. The campaign didn’t make me want to drink their beer. It made me want to know who was really behind it. Now we know, and that is where we shall leave it.

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The Friday Pint #24 – Fuller’s Wild River

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Once again, I’m back at The Mawson Arms for The Friday Pint. This week, I’m trying Wild River, this year’s summer seasonal from Fuller’s, that has been launched today.

The first noticeable thing about the beer in the Mawson Arms is the promotional campaign that has been built around the beer. Above the bar sits the usual posters, along with a yellow paw print t-shirt, and a bear cuddly toy. A quick bit of research on the Internet also revealed there to be some promotional materials that aren’t being used at the Mawson Arms. Clearly Fuller’s want to push this beer over the summer.

So, what is the beer actually like? Well, it’s somewhere around straw in colour, and catches the light well. In terms of the taste and aroma of the beer, it’s grapefruit that is the overpowering aspect, which leads to a bitter aftertaste. Halfway down the pint, the dominance of the grapefruit appears to subside, and hints of malt start to come through.

Wild River is a good example of a well hopped pale ale. It’s not among the best I’ve tried, but having drunk a fair number of weak flavoured pale ales, something with this much flavour is most welcome. If you’re in a Fuller’s pub this summer, look out for the bear…

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The Friday Pint #23 – Great Welsh Beer and Cider Festival

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It’s overcast, raining a lot, and there are weather warnings across the country. Yes, it’s June. Summer is here, and with it comes festivals. Later I’ll be covering the highlights of the Great Welsh Beer and Cider Festival (there’ll be no full pint today, far too many I want to try after last years “failure”). First though, a brief bit about last weeks Friday Pint, and the absence of a post.

I did manage to drink a pint last Friday. It was at Joe’s Crab Shack in Pittsburgh, which served one of the biggest portions of chocolate cake I’ve had the delight to feast on, ever. It was this cake that was the posts downfall. That combined with the other food I consumed enduced an epic food coma. As it was, the beer in question was Landshark Lager, which was okay, it had a slight lemony hint, but other than that, it was nothing exciting.

Onto this week’s drinking. Last year, my trip to Cardiff for GWBCF was a last minute decision, and as such cost me £64 for the return ticket from London. This time I planned in advance, and saved a considerable amount. I had planned last year to use my time there to try a lot of beers that I rarely see in London or Southampton. As it happened, I ended up mostly drinking beers from the Otley Brewing Company.

This year I had a similar plan. I had my eye on a couple of Otley’s, but there was also some research to be done. I’ll be holidaying in North Wales towards the end of the year, and so today seemed like a good time to see what there is in terms of beer in that area. Alas, despite my best intentions, my beers mostly came from the south, with two each from Otley and the recently opened Tiny Rebel Brewery.

From the former I had another half of Odessa, their collaborative Imperial Stout brewed with Pete Brown, and my first taste of O6, their porter. I’m not sure how I’d managed to not try it up to now, but now I have, I want to drink it again.

Today was also my first taste of Tiny Rebel beers, with Cwtch and Dirty Stop Out being sampled. Cwtch was nice, but not really my sort of beer. Dirty Stop Out on the other hand, was one of my favourite beers of the day.

Among the other beers I tried was one of the first releases from Brains Craft Brewery, All At Sea. It didn’t grab me in the same way that the Otley and Tiny Rebel brews did, but I still think its a project worth keeping an eye on.

Overall it’s been a good day, with good beers, and good people. (155)

The Friday Pint #20 – Raw Brewing Company Grey Ghost IPA

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With the EBBC registration and trade show in an hour and a half’s time, choosing to come up to North Bar and drink my 20th Friday Pint probably isn’t the best of ideas. Here I am though, with a pint of Raw Brewing Company’s Grey Ghost IPA.

I’m impressed. It’s pale, and bitter and seems like a very good start to the day. It’s not really inspiring any extravagant descriptive hyperbole from me, but it is a rather good IPA.

So, 20 weeks on from when I started this strand, with no real plan in mind other than to improve my writing and descriptive skills, what have I acheived? Well, I’m still not entirely sure if there is a plan or structure. I’m trying to stick to my original idea of trying something new, though this hasn’t always been possible, or appropriate. Some of the pints have been responsible for a stream of writing about themselves, whilst others have merely been sipping matter as I jot down what’s in my head.

I’ll be honest and say this one isn’t really doing either, despite it being one of the best Friday Pints in recent weeks.

Kind of disappointing this post really, isn’t it?

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The Friday Pint #19 – Otley O3 Boss

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With a week to go until the European Beer Bloggers Conference in Leeds, and a week and a half until I go to America, I’m back in Southampton, and I’ve stopped off at the South Western Arms, next to St Denys station, to try some of the beers at their festival.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to ignore the fact that they have Rochefort 8 and Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout in their fridge, both available for a rather reasonable price of £3.60 a bottle, and try some good beers.

There’s some breweries I recognise here, but a lot that are new to me.. For my Friday Pint this week, I have chosen one of those that I am already familiar with, Pontypridd’s Otley. The beer in question is O3, a chestnut red ale, with 4.4% alcohol. I think I may have had this before, but not being one for caring about ticking, or keeping meticulous records of what I’ve drunk, I can’t really be certain. Let’s ignore that though and just focus on the pint in front of me.

It’s the first of the day. It’s the only pint I’ll have today. After this it’s halfs all the ways as I attempt to try as many beers as I can before I start to feel either a) drunk, b) bloated or c) I can’t really taste the beers anymore. I highly expect though, that we’ll be leaving long before any of those occur. The beer is a light red in colour. It catches the light well, creating an amber glow on the table as it shines through. It’s the sort of image a marketing campaign could be built upon, a glowing amber pint, a shining beacon of relaxation and enjoyment.

Aroma wise (I have a slight cold again, perhaps unsurprisingly) it’s subtle. If there is anything distinguishable, I’m not experienced enough to distinguish it. Taste wise, well, I’m half way down the glass already. I keep going back for more. It coats the mouth with a lovely moreish taste with a hint of sweetness. This is what I want a beer to be like when I *need* a beer. I don’t want anything challenging or unusual, I want something I can drink and enjoy without thinking about it. London Pride is one of those beers, and now Otley O3 has been added to that list. I’m going to enjoy the rest of this pint, and then go for one of those Rochefort 8s. I might as well enjoy myself whilst I’m alive.

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The Friday Pint #18 – Hardknott Æther Blæc (2011 Epsilon)

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This week I was unable to get to a pub due to having to wait for a delivery which never came (try to avoid companies using Yodel if you can). As a substitute, I have decided to open one of the bottles that normally I’d put off opening, in this case, Hardknott’s Æther Blæc (2011 Epsilon).

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Æther Blæc (2011 Epsilon) is a “stout beer aged in a 28 year old Speyside whisky cask”. The bottle states that the cask was originally filled with Aultmore in 1982, and that the stout was aged in them for six months.

I’ll be honest and say I had hesitations about opening a bottle of which a) I only have one of and b) there are only 636 of in existence. I had planned on leaving them for a couple of years (I also bought a bottle of the Lambda) thinking that they would be better then. The only thing is, better than what? As I say, I only have one bottle of these beers. Unless I go out and track down some more the moment I drink them will be it. I’ll have no idea if they’ve improved or not.

As for now. This bottle that I have poured out. The aroma seems to be full of blackberries, somewhere between blackberry yoghurt and blackberry cheesecake, with each attempt to try and distinguish the aroma giving me different things. The blackberry element also seems present in the taste, and contributes to the beer seeming much less than the 8.5% that is stated on the bottle.

This beer is currently very easy to drink, though as a downside it seems to be lacking in flavour for a stout. Actually, that might be wrong. It’s more that the flavour is subtle, rather than the full on flavour that I was expecting.

If I come across another bottle I think I’ll buy it and put it away for a few years. If I don’t then I’m reasonably happy with this. It’s not a beer that has made me stream praise, but it’s good enough and after today, that’s just what’s needed.

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The Friday Pint #17 – Water, water everywhere…

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Yet again I’m having a week without an actual Friday Pint. This is though my last day on the current shift pattern of 11 – 11. After the weekend it’s all change again, and so next Friday I’ll be seeking out somewhere for a pre-work Friday Pint before starting the 1 – 1 shift.

So, what to write about in place of a pint? Well, this week I started reading one of the old books on beer that I’d downloaded from Project Gutenberg, “A Treatise on the Brewing of Beer” by E. Hughes. It’s the second edition of the book published in Uxbridge in 1796, and contains advice on all aspects of beer from ingredient choices, to “Some very useful and necessary directions to the Publican who retails Common Brewer’s Beer”.

I’ve yet to read to that last section, but of the sections of the book I have read so far, the bit that has stuck in my mind has been the first section on water. Within it, E. Hughes goes over three different types of water, Well water, Spring or River water, and Rain water.

Well Waters, the book says, should only be used when waters of a softer nature cannot be obtained. These being the Spring or River, and Rain Waters. The book claims rain water to be prefered to river and well water, due to it being of a “simple and soft nature”.

There is also a paragraph on “Many persons” prefering to use Pond Waters, though it points out that these are generally muddy, and these sediments can have a detrimental effect on the yeast and the beer in general.

Reading this segment of the book got me thinking. We are now used to water being treated for use as liquor in brewing. How much difference would it make if the water wasn’t treated. I’d quite like to see a brewer, or perhaps a collaboration of brewers from various parts of the country, using the same ingredients (from the same sources to maintain that the only difference is the water source), brewing the same beer, only with different waters.

It might turn out to be a failure, but it would be fun and interesting nonetheless. 

 

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Sadler’s Sprung – The Friday Pint #16

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I was unable to connect to the internet on Friday, and so was unable to post this on Friday. What is written below is what I would have posted Friday, and so certain times and facts are inaccurate (I don’t have several bottles of Mud City Stout in my suitcase for instance.

This weekend also saw the first Birmingham Twissup, which I joined in on, as I was in the area anyway for the Stourbridge Vs AFC Totton match (which Totton lost, 2-1). It was a good night, with good people, and if its on a weekend I’m off, I’ll be doing Twissup 2. The Birmingham Twissup was organised by Danny Brown, who blogs at Mediocre Beer Adventures.

Herein commences this weeks Friday Pint entry…

“Earlier this evening I was at The Windsor Castle in Lye, the home of Sadler’s Brewery. I was there with one thing in mind, Mud City Stout. Mud City Stout is one of my favourite beers. I’ll be leaving on Sunday with several bottles of it in my suitcase, a number of which have already been claimed by friends and family. Before that though, there was one beer on the bar that I hadn’t tried before, and so that was to be this week’s Friday Pint.

Called “Sprung” it was a 3.9% pale ale. The recent  changes in weather mean that yet again I find myself unable to smell anything, so if it has any aromas they are not strong enough to get past my blocked nasal passages.

The taste reminded me of the Bitter Lemon drink (can you still get that?) with a bit of grapefruit. It was okay, but the beer coated the mouth with a lingering bitter aftertaste that was rather unpleasant for me. Half way down the pint though, the taste of the beer began to change to a much more pleasant and enjoyable, more fruity and less bitter taste.

Overall I think this is the best of the Sadler’s monthly specials I’ve had so far this year, though it’s still not a patch on Mud City Stout.

As an aside, earlier this week I began looking into historical brewing methods, in particular those of the Egyptians and Mesopotanians. I’m hoping that after enough reading I’ll be able to replicate some sort of historical style beer. It’s either that or I’ll be making some cider.I’m sure you’ll be hearing more of whatever path I go down, and my reading in the meantime, over the coming weeks.”

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