Beer preference poll

If you want a good introduction to citrus ales, check out Grapefruit High Wire by Magic Rock, an awesome brewery from Huddersfield. Failing that, Elvis Juice by Brewdog is another absolutely belting grapefruit ale. You should be able to find it in any Tesco's. Chill it down to lager temperature, absolutely wonderful stuff.

 

Haha, my missus has just as much as I do, absolute beer monster she is! Though the fruit beers, in winter especially give her red cheeks! Actually in Belgium in a few weeks, a few nights in mechelen just north of Brussels and then into Mons in the south which should be interesting being so deep in the French speaking part. And don't forget the frites! Got to love the frites.

Look out for Thornbridge (brewed in bakewell), they do a few innovative ones, missus had a peach one on Saturday, think that may have been Thornbridge.

If I find anything citrus like i'll let you know. The best citrus one was something called limelight by a Bristol brewer called Arbor. Not started brewing it yet this year, but I reckon you might like that, chilled from the keg too.

 

One of our craft breweries here did a take on an Altbier and it was absolutely superb. It was a very limited run though and they haven't brewed it this year unfortunately. A couple of them have also done rauchbiers, which I thought were absolutely foul. One was like smoked bacon, the other was like drinking a fizzy ashtray. Not good.

 

Rauchbier is disgusting, in my humble opinion!

 

I find most Austrian beers taste weird, and not in a good way!

Although, I've always been tempted to go on a road trip to this small village in Austria to buy the beer named after them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/*******,_Austria

 

Don't bother. It's very bland lager. Even for somebody who's a massive lager fan it's definitely not worth making the effort. In fact, it's not worth crossing the road for.

 

I went to Belgium once Danny back in 1980, it was a Dover to Zebrugge crossing with Townsend Thoresen.
We had a long weekend there in a place called Blankenberg (or something like that), which I think wasn't too far from Brussels. I wasn't old enough for beer/lager at the time of course lol.
The locals there got on very well with us because we all shared a similar dislike... those pesky annoying Germans.

 

That is disappointing to hear! To be fair, it's on Amazon for about 8€ but after visiting Titz in Germany, F*cking was definitely next on my list

 

I really didn't like a Gueze that I tried recently - so sour that it gave me an outbreak of mouth ulcers. Not good! However, I have been getting into Gose recently - brewed with salt and sometimes fruit. Very weird, very refreshing. One of our local breweries does a hopped Gose, which I love, but my missus finds a bit too odd!

 

I do like sour as a taste though, first one I tried was a cantillon one in Brussels looking round their brewery (natural air born yeasts, god love them!) and always tried them since. Some of the krieks (cherry) are really sour. Actually, try a cherry sour hot! Jesus, that's sour!

Trying to think of the name of the brew I had a gose. think it was pineapple (on way to the oval, near Camberwell). May have been a London brewer or a brighton one even,

One brewer who is doing some really different things, Anspach and Hobday. Brew on the Bermondsey Beer Mile under the railway arches (done it once, very messy!) Different brews every week in small batches. Not seen it in any pub yet, other than their own tap room.

 

My home made cider, anything from 8 to 13% depending on how I brew it.
Made from local apples, no chemicals, sugar added at fermenting stage if required stronger, teaspoon of sugar in the bottles to give a sparkle/fizz if required.
Drink 3 of these in a row and you are definitely, definitely flat out senseless.
Should be ok for a drab game at oakwell.

 

I have to admit I'm out of touch with current pricing, but as I said before US hops were cheap, many of the bigger brewers were turning to them simply because of price, the big hitters a few years ago were Willamette, Mount Hood, Cascade, Nugget and Northern Brewer, at a guess I wouldn't be surprised if they were two thirds the price per bitterness unit of an EKG and certainly a Bohemian Saaz. The price difference gave british farmers a right hammering, the acreage is now a fraction of what it once was.
Having just had a look at current prices the market has changed quite dramatically...perhaps the loss of British acreage has given the US growers the opportunity to hike the price?