Beer

ThePrettyDamned

Since going around Europe and sampling some of Croatia and Germany's best offerings, lagers and import lagers available here universally taste like piss.

The difference between peroni and carling and fosters is now just different levels of not tasting good.

As such, I've been rethinking my drinking. The nicest beer I'd tried was a zagreb brewed one, a dark one, followed by the wheat beer from the same brewery, closely followed by a Munich wheat beer. Maybe the English have some beer talents, but they lie elsewhere from lager?

Yes, they do. Ales, beers and bottles with funny names on pretty much all taste better than the urine I've gotten used to previously. At the moment, I'm loving the paler-golden-ambery ones in general, although I had a very nice ruby ale the other day too.

My favourites so far are brewed in Cambridge of all places, and have funny names such as the atom splitter. we also do some good ciders. European countries do not, at all - the ones I tried were all really nasty. The local market occasionally has local ciders and beers available - 2 quid a pint isn't so bad, cheaper than a pub and really delicious stuff.

I'd like to have a go at brewing my own again from a kit - I've done a cider and a lager, neither were great but not awful. I might try wherry next apparently, it's an easy one to get right.

Any other beer drinkers here? Any locally brewed recommendations?

monquixote

Beer: Adnams

Cyder: Aspalls 

Yes I'm partisan

chrispy108

Yup, I'll try anything off a cask/hand pump, preferring darker or wheaty if there is a choice.

Had a tour of Ossett Brewery recently, was pretty cool.

Lifes too short to drink shit beer.

Phil_aka_Pip

monquixote said:

Beer: Adnams

Cyder: Aspels 

Yes I'm partisan

worth a wis, mq, but the spelling is Aspall

robinbowes

Congratulations, you have achieved enlightenment.

Now that you've realised that there is more to life than lager, you must now drink as much as possible to learn more about beer! You could do worse than trying a largish beer festival where they will have many different brews.

I've just come back from a conference in Ghent, Belgium where I fortuitously won a basket of beer:

Arranged in order by ABV: 5.0, 6.5, 6.9, 7.0, 7.2, 7.2, 8.0, 8.0, 8.5, 10.5, 11.0

Seriously, drink more beer and make a note of what you like.

Proost!

R.

monquixote

Phil_aka_Pip said:

monquixote said:

Beer: Adnams

Cyder: Aspels 

Yes I'm partisan

worth a wis, mq, but the spelling is Aspall

Oh arse I always do that. 

I have no excuse my Pa does consultancy for them. 

Drew_TNBD

Doom Bar.

Can drink that shit like water!

Fretwired

Drew_fx said:

Doom Bar.

Can drink that shit like water!

I have three bottles of that left .. my local has it on draft. Lovely pint.

Axe_meister

I do like a Munich Larger. Then again I grew up in Munich. Weis Beer does give me really smelly farts the next day mind. They also do some really nice dark largers. Very strong though and still served by the litre.

WezV

Don't brew from a kit. I have brewed great beer but never from a kit.


generally i read a recipe for an extract brew and then do it my own way. Its working for me

Hertz32

I don't drink much beer, so my contribution to the thread will be a Reel Big Fish track:


I like cider.

Nitefly

I am fortunate to live in the home of the "Bent and Bongs Beer Bash", an annual festival held on the last weekend in January.

Every year there are at least 90 - 100 ales, 20 - 30 ciders, and 20 - 30 continental beers, over the weekend.  Live music at each session, good grub, and very reasonable prices make for a festival to which folks come from far and wide.  And the proceeds go to charity.

Beer FTW!

thisisguitar

Franziskaner, Erdinger and Hoegaarden are favourites of mine. The first is a little heavier than the others, but you do end up quite pissed quite quickly with any of them.

holnrew

I love european wheat beers. And dark lagers. Leffe ftw though.

DiscoStu

Yeah, forget your 'name' lagers.

Real ale is where it's at, bro.

I brew my own and like WezV I use malt extract rather than kit. I bottled a batch of Amarillo Single Hop last week (5.2%) and brewed a batch of Cascade today. Should be in the 5 - 5.5% ABV range when finished. I love my brewing days. Takes a few hours so I just crank the tunes, make brew and have a few drinks during the process. Such a satisfying hobby!

I'm away on a commercial brewing course in a week's time down in Bury. I am seriously considering jacking in my job and opening a brewery. People have gotten wise and craft beer is big business up my way. You just have to look at Brewdog's incredible success and mammoth expansion to show it works. It doesn't matter if you like their beer or not, it's clear that it works. I want a slice of that pie.

joneve

Hooky from Hook Norton brewery. Best session beer everrr!

mike_l

Doombar

Wherry

Timothy Taylor's Landlord

Adnams Broadside

Sharps Atlantic IPA (Not the Greene King IPA)

DiscoStu

Doom Bar is a great failsafe! Lovely pint and far more readily available than it was. Even up here in the north of Scotland!

For homebrew, Woodforde's Wherry kit is a good start. My starting point and although not as good as going malt extract it is leaps and bounds better than the kits me and my dad made back in the 80s/90s

dchwhite

DiscoStu;399924" said:

For homebrew, Woodforde's Wherry kit is a good start. My starting point and although not as good as going malt extract it is leaps and bounds better than the kits me and my dad made back in the 80s/90s

Agreed. My Dad really got into it at one time & was getting the grain as a starting point. I found the Woodforde's kits to be a good balance between something that tasted fine, and space/time considerations etc. The wherry kit has 20% off at Wilkos in their homebrew sale atm too.

Tone71

I love beer and also brew, for the same reason as you mentioned...shit tasting Fosters watery puss!

Not kits though (nothing against them they are generally good, Wherry is excellent) but from scratch i.e soaking the grain to get the sugary wort then boiling with the hops etc and its is excellent, you get to know exactly what is in the brew.

General favorites are IPA`s around 5% but the sky is the limit, my better half just got me this, loads of different recipes to try.

http://www.theworks.co.uk/p/drink-books/home-brew-beer/9781409331766

There are some decent German lager recipes in there which are on my list to have a crack at.

stimpsonslostson

I love microbrewery beer, but from commercially readily available beers I suggest.

Meantime Stout
Sierra Nevada Torpedo
Bath Ales Gem
Breakspear Triple

I generally like most things from Eden Brewery & The Borders Brewery.
Brew Dog has really taken off recently, but their beer is a bit hoppy & harsh for many- it's MILES better than 99% of the mass produced crap in the supermarket though.