UncleIan wrote:Tonight I'm off to a brewery tour, it's been open at least 20 years, and isn't far away, but somehow I've managed to contrive not to organise a piss up in a brewery, this shall be put right tonight.
Just to report back.
Hogs Back Brewery - they've done ok for themselves. Probably not really counting as a small brewery these days, though they're under some government threshold so they aren't *that* big. We all gathered upstairs in their shop. Downstairs is all Hogsback brews, upstairs is more interesting, with a wide variety of bottled (and canned) brews from all over the place. Easily spent a happy half hour browsing and nosing along the shelves.
We were led through each stage of the brewing process, and in each bit of the brewery had jugs full of a different ale in each part of the brewery. The tour was quite interesting, though the tour guide thought he was a stand up, and lets just say his style of humour didn't quite match what I enjoy, but other people thought it was funny. I guess lots of people like Mrs Brown's Boys, and I don't. Anyway, beer....
Started with HBB, Hogs Back Bitter. This was good. 3.7%. A satisfyingly bitter taste to it, if I saw this in a pub I'd probably struggle to look past it, a very good start.
Surrey Nirvana. 4%. A golden beer. More citrusy IPA type thing. That was alright too.
TEA. 4.2% - For years, I thought it was Tongham (where the brewery is based) English Ale, but apparently it's Traditional. This is another go to beer for me, though thanks to the other beers we'd already had, you really noticed its sweetness. If this and HBB were on the same bar, I'd probably go HBB.
Next was Hogswallop, 4.2%. This was another good one. They've bought some land opposite, and grown hops on it, Cascade went into this brew.
Then, the sinners served up a choice of lager or cider, now as the cider is actually brewed in the west country somewhere, Hazy Hog it's called, and the bottles just turn up, oh, and I don't like cider really, so I stuck to the lager. Hogstar. It's labelled a craft lager, I think that just means it's a beery lager. I.e. not bland like your fosters etc. It was alright actually. Apparently when they decided to start making a lager, M&S waltzed in, took 90% of it, rebadged it "Five Hop Lager" and put it in all their stores. Kerching!
Then we walked to a local scout hut and had a decent curry, and I left my half pint glass there. Probably for the best. Safe to say I've got more than enough logo half and pint glasses from beer festivals over the years to keep me going.