just ordered from beer merchants (mixed Põhjala case) and they made a right pigs ear of it. Very unimpressed compared to experience of U.K. breweries which I think we might have kept going during lockdown! and if anyone can find t’ij wit.... do let me know, don’t think I’ve seen it anywhere other than in Utrecht.
As mentioned above Rochefort 6, 8 or 10 are fantastic (the 10 especially so, if you like darker beers) plus Gouden Carolus. There is a UK trappist beer called Tynt Meadow that’s pretty nice too
I was wracking my brain overnight for belgian blondes and tripels for you that might be a bit leffe like and decided to scan through city break pics for you. The sacrifice eh? ;-) I don't know if you'll be able to get them all, but some time googling may turn up a success for you. Tongerlo Blonde Omer Charles/Kaizer Karl (i doubt you'll find that, but its a very good tripel on a par with Gouden Carolus) Gouden Carolus do a lighter very drinkable beer called Manneblusser. Or you could try Bruges Zot from de halvemaan. One option you might like, its a honey beer from uk, called Hiver. It has a blonde and a red. Its not leffe, but its certainly gettable and all the honey is from parks in London (well, it used to be unless theyve scaled up massively). Good luck finding a good substitute. ;-)
I found a little German bar in Ibiza during the last World Cup and I use to always call in for an erdinger or 2, it was always served in a erdinger frosted glass styled on the jules rimet, at the end of the holiday we called in for the last one and they gave me the glass with a limited edition wristband and pendant tucked inside.
No new additions to the recommendation list (but +1 for Karemeliet), but just to say you can pick up all of these at Maison du Biere in Elsecar heritage centre
Hiver is my friend’s creation/brain child. We were housemates when she quit her sales job and I remember trying prototype’s one, two and three, doing blind tastings, giving feedback on the marketing, branding, etc. I think 5% of profits go towards supporting independent bee keeping. You can also do the ‘Hiver Experience’ in Kennington Park - an hour of bee keeping and a beer tasting afterwards. Great fun being all suited up!
I've got one of these, been absolutely mint during lockdown. Lots of different beers on it, about 6 different Leffe's & now got the Octoberfest Lowenbrau & Spaten as seasonal ones. Highly recommend!!
Troubadour Magma is decent but Luddite Brewery at Horbury Wakefield do a Belgian Summer Pale with a distinct Leffe taste which is nice
Agree, did it a few years ago before it seemed to appear more around here and hit the supermarkets. The park is only 15 mins away from me on the bus just before the Oval, so a really good couple of hours. Sadly, I think my tastes have changed a good deal. I really enjoyed it first few times I had it (first came across it in the globe tavern in Borough Market after its makeover), but we got some on a supermarket delivery a few months ago and it didn't go down as well as i remembered. Having said that the smaller brewers as a whole have massively upped their game in the last 3 years. I really hope the pandemic don't take too many of them away from us. Just a generic question, and obviously brewdog are one of the bigger independents, what sort of capacity are you now running at, and was there a point you ceased (i recall your guys making hand gels early doors)? We've shifted our drinking from taprooms and craft pubs to home deliveries from small independents, but thats not always been easy and having spoken to the guys at Canopy (as they did deliveries themselves), they had limited capacity to just a couple of beers at any given time but were hoping to take on the next door arch and double/triple up in the coming months. I can't imagine how hard it is out there at the minute, and thats without the latest changes announced this week.
Definitely the case. People are quick to say certain beers ‘aren’t what they used to be’ but in most cases it’s just that their taste buds have moved on. Go back ten years and people thought Jaipur was one of the most bitter drinks in the country as we just weren’t used to it. We lost 75% of our revenue overnight with the first lockdown announcement. 104 of our own bars globally closed and all the pubs we sell to. However, supermarket and online volume rocketed. We sold more online in May than the whole of 2019. That has now slowed right down but expecting it to be boosted by the stupid announcements this week. Excluding our own bars and export, production was actually up because of the above. We launched so many positive initiatives during lockdown that popularity just continued to grow - however not having the bars open means it’s still been damaging and overall wasn’t up. Despite being the biggest fish in the small pond of independents, because we’re independent we were genuinely at risk. Something like 4% redundancies and one of the first companies to put people on furlough. I had eight weeks of it.
Well glad its not been too negative and hopefully it can tick over even if we face another lockdown (which i suspect is pretty likely). I did think of brewdog with the opening of the huge bar at tower hill. Been in a couple of times, last time was the omnipollo takeover (that was an expensive night!) and it was heaving, so considering the costs of that huge prime space and it being closed completely, thats a huge hit. We've tried to avoid getting things from supermarkets, but its literally meant scouring about 50 brewers websites every week or two! And we've found some good new ones. Two Tribes. Vocation. BrewYork and Fierce, and leaning pretty heavily on places like London Beer Factory which have been one of the few ones with a regular flow and a bit of a mix. Not amazing, but solid and keeping a local business ticking over. On the flip side, places like BBNO and Brick have hardly had anything out at all once they'd sold off existing stock, and I think Brick have only just fired up again in the last few weeks.
Tower Hill was the busiest BrewDog Bar in the UK. Completely decimated with the closure and then reopening but without any nearby offices returning. Took about an 80% hit initially. It was just starting to come back, slowly, and doing ok. Busier than most pubs/bars overall to be honest. But we’re finding people are in the office, suggest going for a beer after work, and then realise there’s more than six of them so can’t go.
I must admit, i have sympathy from all aspects, though I really don't understand how closing early really makes that much of a difference. If someone wants to get slaughtered and be irresponsible, they absolutely can just by drinking high alcohol beer very quickly. But I can also see that 6 different people who have been at work mixing with different people and travelling on public transport, getting together in a bar environment at all has more risk to it than not. As much as I'd love to be going in bars and pubs, until this thing has just about gone, I know we won't be. It's a very heavy weight to carry that one single slip or taking of an increased risk could well lead to the death of the one you love.
