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Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: September 14th, 2018, 11:24 am
by redsturgeon
GrandOiseau wrote:He and his message not necessarily welcome round here but a review of non-alcoholic lagers.

Might give that Sainsburys Czeck lager a whirl. As I've mentioned here the Franziskaner wheat is good.

And on Saturday I saw that Wetherspoons were selling non-alcholic Adnams Ghost Ship and reading up they are using some high-tech equipment that retains it's original flavours and aromas. Will give it a go when I can.

Raised an interesting question. If they could largely remove all the alcohol from beer whilst largely retaining all the aroma, flavour - would you make the switch?

And does that mean I can drink it in the office!!


They sometimes sell a locally brewed beer of around 2.8% in my local and it is really good. I think there would be a big market for a decent session beer of that strength. I usually stay with the 3.6% local craft brew on my Tuesday night poker sessions...four pints of that being less alcoholic than three pints of the lagers my friends are drinking.

John

Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: September 14th, 2018, 12:12 pm
by UncleIan
Nice pint of Timothy Taylor's Landlord. I assumed as I was in a Green King pub that TT's had been taken over, but apparently not as far as I can work out. Good beer that. Then looking at the website to see who owned it, turns out it's a Yorkshire brew. Quite surprised it seems to sit in quite a fair few pubs in leafy Surrey. Surprised, but not upset at all.

In sad news I hear that another pub in our town has gone to the wall, unknown if it's temporary or permanent. In the facebook group I was reading it on, some bemoaned the rates, while interestingly another landlord claimed sometimes pubs are better off not doing food and running a good wet pub, as it means your overheads and wastage were much lower. I.e. you only need a bar staff or two, and don't have to spend a fortune on a stainless steel kitchen, pay for chefs, waiting staff, etc etc. Interesting point of view, but I guess it depends very much on the pub, the location, the food offering. I was at a really nice pub at the weekend that did really lovely food, we had to sit outside as inside was full, but like he said, they must have had probably 5-6 more staff just to cover the food offering and only 2-3 on drinks. So maybe he's got a point, on the other hand, we'd have gone somewhere else and not had anything to drink there if it didn't do food.

Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: September 14th, 2018, 5:21 pm
by DiamondEcho
GrandOiseau wrote:Raised an interesting question. If they could largely remove all the alcohol from beer whilst largely retaining all the aroma, flavour - would you make the switch?


That's a parallel of asking why people still smoke tobacco when they could be using NRT pills or vaping; it's not quite the same, it's half-in/half out. I suspect many people who drink for the effect of alcohol flatter themselves instead by imagining they're fans or afficionados of what they drink.

IME if you want dry out whilst keeping the habit of having a glass around in the pm, go for low-cal tonic with a few shakes of Angostura bitters in it. The bitterness is quite persuasive on the palate IME/O. I last '-de-toxed' for a month by having a couple of pints of that a night i/o beer.

Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: September 16th, 2018, 5:06 pm
by stewamax
low-cal tonic with a few shakes of Angostura bitters in it

Gracious - I'd completely forgotten about that tipple. I rarely drink booze at lunchtime and for ages this was my lunchtime lubrication (full-cal tonic though!)

Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: September 16th, 2018, 6:25 pm
by DiamondEcho
stewamax wrote:
low-cal tonic with a few shakes of Angostura bitters in it

Gracious - I'd completely forgotten about that tipple. I rarely drink booze at lunchtime and for ages this was my lunchtime lubrication (full-cal tonic though!)


Yep, full-cal would be rather more fulfilling, I was off drink as part of a diet so... and it worked for me.
Another variation for 'distracting the palate' is lime juice* + tonic. Pretty brutal, but at least you can't drink it too fast.


* That said, SE Asian 'kalimansi limes' that we used to grow on the balcony, they are highly perfumed/aromatic, rather than outright bitter/acidic. Might be closer using ornage juice in the UK.

Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: September 17th, 2018, 10:00 am
by GrandOiseau
DiamondEcho wrote:
GrandOiseau wrote:Raised an interesting question. If they could largely remove all the alcohol from beer whilst largely retaining all the aroma, flavour - would you make the switch?

it's not quite the same.

Well, indeed, that is the question? Could you elaborate though on what precisey isn't the same?

DiamondEcho wrote:
GrandOiseau wrote:Raised an interesting question. If they could largely remove all the alcohol from beer whilst largely retaining all the aroma, flavour - would you make the switch?

I suspect many people who drink for the effect of alcohol flatter themselves instead by imagining they're fans or afficionados of what they drink.

Well, again, that's the question. I am not saying you are wrong. I once knew a guy who rarely drank but when he did he drank whisky with large quantities of coke, because he didn't like whisky but wanted/liked the effect of getting drunk occasionally. But I always felt that was extreme. I find that just a cup of alcohilic drinks get me to an optimal state and then after that I could live without it. But I am wondering if I didn't drink alcohol at all would it ruin my evening. I definitely like the tast of [good] beer but just the same as food I know some people who will drink any old rubbish. Plus it would be nice to be able to not take in more alcohol but still be able to drink nice beer.

Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: October 6th, 2018, 7:14 pm
by AleisterCrowley
Wild Weather 'False sense of security'
In the Alehouse (Hobgoblin) Reading.
Pop in before 8pm and I will buy you a pint*
AC

*terms and conditions apply

Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: October 6th, 2018, 8:24 pm
by swill453
Shankar IPA at Monty's in Edinburgh last night. From Great Heck in Yorkshire. Both malty and citrus flavours, a strong distinctive pint, I liked it.

Scott.

Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: October 7th, 2018, 6:45 pm
by AleisterCrowley
My mum got me a selection of Great Heck beers when she visited Holmfirth. Pretty good, although I suspect they lose something when bottled. Never seen them on anywhere.
Round these parts it's Wadworths, with welcome relief provided by Loddon, West Berks, and Bingham's

Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: October 7th, 2018, 6:52 pm
by vrdiver
This thread has reminded me of an early beer we used to drink when sneaking out of (boarding) school to the local hostelries: King and Barnes Pompey Royal. It's long gone now, but I was wondering if anybody else remembers it and whether they know of a modern equivalent?

VRD

Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: October 7th, 2018, 6:58 pm
by DiamondEcho
What has gone wrong with British beer? Is it just me? :?
The last two 'new' beers I've had:

The London Beer Factory - 'Berliner Heist'

[I rated is as >] 1.24/5 rDev -60.1% [ ie WAAAAY lower than my average across c150 different beers]
look: 1.5 | smell: 1.25 | taste: 1.25 | feel: 1 | overall: 1.25 [Each scored out of 5]
Look- Bright pink. Pours with a 3mm white head that fast clears to lacing.
Smell- Very strange. A sort of broad mustiness, like walking into 'granny's bedroom that never gets aired'. I'm being honest here! It has a kind of meaty odour to me.
Taste- Like a glass of watered down citrus juice. I am unable to detect anything beer-like in this 'beer'.
Feel- Highly acidic, really sharp on the tongue, not nice at all.
Overall- I don't get it, and I can't imagine who could enjoy this apart from maybe a young teen girl having their first surreptitious beer who wants something that doesn't look or taste anything like beer. I have only had one or two other beers that I have disliked as much as this one.

------------------------------------------------
'Pride & Joy' - Vocation Brewery
1.74/5 rDev -53.6%
look: 2.25 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 1.25 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 1.75
L- Cloudy, I can't see through the glass. Mid yellow, pours with thin white head that rapidly clears to lacing.
S- Prominent citrus smell that was clear from 2 foot away on opening the can. Up close I get strong grapefruit, and I don't think anything else manages to get past that.
T- O-M-G. It is as if someone has handed me a glass of 1/2 lager + 1/2 grapefruit juice. It is that sharp and pungent.
F- Palate stripping.
O- I've never had a beer with *this* extreme of citrus flavour, it's completely OTT and unbalanced to me. There's not much point me trying to taste/rate any other beers this evening. What an unexpected taste it has, I'm curious what kind of person might positively enjoy such a beer.
BB is unclear, likely 06/19. Bought from a Tesco in London

Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: October 8th, 2018, 8:53 am
by Imbiber
A pint of Burning Sky Aurora in my favourite pub yesterday evening. Stunning, well balanced and dangerously drinkable at 5.6%

Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: October 9th, 2018, 12:08 pm
by UncleIan
DiamondEcho wrote:What has gone wrong with British beer? Is it just me? :?
The last two 'new' beers I've had:


Maybe it's the "new"ness of them, breweries trying too hard to stand out from the crowd?

Meanwhile recently I had a bottle of Farnham White from the Hogs Back Brewery. That's a lovely beer. As was the Gardener's Tipple.

Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: October 18th, 2018, 3:29 pm
by GrandOiseau
Had a couple of pints of Mauldons Blackberry Porter last night in a spoons. Not as good as Titanic Plum Porter but very drinkable.

Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: October 18th, 2018, 3:55 pm
by AleisterCrowley
My local (Reading) M&S now stock a few Mikkeller cans (4 different from memory)
Not cheap at £2-50 for 330ml* but they have a 3 for 4 offer
I've so far tried the "Stick a finger.." and the rest of the range are waiting in the fridge. Very nice it was too!

They have a good general range at M&S- noticed Tiny Rebel Cwtch in cans.
For anything more exotic I can go to the Grumpy Goat
http://www.thegrumpygoat.co.uk/
cheers

AC


*actually per pint it's not that bad, works out about £4-30(?) which is about the top end of normal for a pint in a pub locally
- the 3 for 4 brings it down to a splendid £3-23/pt

Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: October 18th, 2018, 3:57 pm
by redsturgeon
AleisterCrowley wrote:My local (Reading) M&S now stock a few Mikkeller cans (4 different from memory)
Not cheap at £2-50 for 330ml* but they have a 3 for 4 offer
I've so far tried the "Stick a finger.." and the rest of the range are waiting in the fridge. Very nice it was too!

They have a good general range at M&S- noticed Tiny Rebel Cwtch in cans.
For anything more exotic I can go to the Grumpy Goat
http://www.thegrumpygoat.co.uk/
cheers

AC


*actually per pint it's not that bad, works out about £4-30(?) which is about the top end of normal for a pint in a pub locally
- the 3 for 4 brings it down to a splendid £3-23/pt


They also do a number of Siren brews at M&S...always good!

John

Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: October 18th, 2018, 4:02 pm
by AleisterCrowley
yes, from memory they had Soundwave and Yu Lu - which is good, as I no longer have a Waitrose within walking distance

Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: October 18th, 2018, 4:08 pm
by Skotch
Scarlet Macaw from Oakham Ales - https://www.ratebeer.com/beer/oakham-sc ... aw/146284/

Really nice pint, but the first one poured using a sparkler was very 'aerated' and required a lot of topping up to fill the glass. The second and subsequent pints poured without a sparkler and were much nicer and more mellow. Definitely recommend if you come across it, though I would say its more of a summer ale that would be great supped outdoors on a warm evening

Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: October 18th, 2018, 4:39 pm
by AleisterCrowley
AleisterCrowley wrote:My local (Reading) M&S now stock a few Mikkeller cans (4 different from memory)
Not cheap at £2-50 for 330ml* but they have a 3 for 4 offer


Well 4 for the price of 3 - you knew what I meant...
Pay for 3, get 4...

Re: The Beer You Are Drinking Right Now

Posted: October 18th, 2018, 6:35 pm
by vrdiver
AleisterCrowley wrote:
AleisterCrowley wrote:My local (Reading) M&S now stock a few Mikkeller cans (4 different from memory)
Not cheap at £2-50 for 330ml* but they have a 3 for 4 offer


Well 4 for the price of 3 - you knew what I meant...
Pay for 3, get 4...

I thought the typo was "M&S" - should have been "Waitrose" with that offer!

VRD