Category: Beer

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Beer

Brains IPA too little for too much

I had a pint of the Brains IPA cask earlier in the week at the always a pleasure to go in pub, Goat Major.

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A light, copper colour ale with a fresh, hoppy taste and a clean, bitter finish. Brewed with two varieties of hops, combined with pale and crystal malts.

I liked it – as a session beer it would be fine as its a very weak 3.4% (what we seem to get from Brains anyway :))

I was a bit like Crown IPA (CPA?),which of course was taken over my Brains many years a go

I used to drink with my grandfather in his valleys club, it was more easy drinking than their not nice at all keg IPA Smooth.

When we are seeing barn (or shed) storming hoppy IPAs from the like of brewdog, it’s a disappointed that Brains could not gives us more flavour and show us that they are still a brewer of note and not just a pub/restaurant/hotel chain that brews half decent but predictably beer.

Iam not saying it was not a good pint, but it’s in a range of very similar beers from the Welsh brewery, they could have blown our red socks (with dragons on) off.

of course I will be having it again (once my tablets have worn off) but the price point will not win any fans (£2.60ish) when you can get a decent guest ale in other city centre pubs.

It will be a winner with the valley rugby fans coming down to the smoke, mind you.. but if in doubt have a pint of Brains Dark.

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Beer

The best beers are made in a shed!

The gurdian has this piece on home brew, I really have to get my shed in gear and get my shedbeer set up.

Slug stopper in shed window

If someone says they brew their own beer in their garage, what crosses your mind? If you drew a caricature would it involve a bearded, bulging stereotype, sitting in a shed with buckets and bottles and a speech bubble declaring it only costs tuppence a pint? Well, home-brewing has seen big changes in recent years, changes which are having an effect on the beers we see and drink in pubs and bars.

The people behind BrewDog started at home. As founder James Watt says, “there’s no better way to bedazzle friends than with an IPA that you brewed just for them.” For James Farran, now at Summer Wine Brewery, it was the enthusiastic feedback he received from friends that made him decide to go professional. James Kemp at Thornbridge Brewery brewed at home for 20 years before making the step up, and many new independent British breweries have made the move from dwelling house to brewhouse, including Kernel and Redemption, two recently opened London breweries.

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Beer

Photomarathon and tapas style snacks in the Wellington pub Cardiff

On Friday myself and my son were going to the Photomarathon exhibition at the old library in the Hayes in Cardiff as we were two of the numbers!

But on the way we decided to get some food and popped into the newly refurbished Duke of Wellington, not normally my cup of tea a posh new pub.. but we were hungry and I fancied a pint.

Duke of Wellington

From Brains website : Situated in the Hayes, in Cardiff city centre the Duke of Wellington is an ideal location for a relaxing drink and bite to eat whilst taking a break from the hustle & bustle of the city. A combination of traditional British inn and contemporary style, the Duke of Wellington offers a great selection of food for quick lunches and light bites including sharing platters and tapas. We have a great range of cask ales as well as continental beers and a variety of wines, soft drinks and coffees.

They have spent a bit of money doing it up they have a the full range of Brains Beers and for the moment a Guest Ale the lovely Everards Sunchaser Blonde (which hopefully they will continue with some great regional beers)- the prices were not that cheap for drinks (over £2.50 a pint I think but not sure :()

Duke of Wellington

But they had a great snack menu with Six Items for £12 (from 5pm) which for two of us was just enough.

The selection from the menu we had was

Calamari (in thick batter) X 2
Blanche Bait (yes that’s white bait) very big and juicy
Prawns with a wonderful Garlic butter sauce to dip in X 2
Lamb Kofta with a great sauce

They have other more meaty items on the menu as well.

Duke of Wellington

The staff were a bit over clinging, but suppose they want to make a good impression on a new pub , I forgot how many times I was asked “everything ok Guys” – yes it was thanks.

There were not that many people in the pub as most where making use of the “alfresco” area out the front – we are not the continent how ever much the marketing people try and tell us 🙂 and I am sure the whiff from Caroline street which the pub is on the corner may affect the punters outside.

anyway I will be visiting again as the mini toad in the hole and mini pies look good as well.

Duke of Wellington

Duke of Wellington

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Beer

Have brewdog gone to far this time? Stuffed animal beer

I love brewdog beers and have a few in my collection waiting for the log fire and dark winter days to drink the stronger ones where as their lower ABV are a joy to drink anytime of the year.

But they have produced the last of their line of extra strong beers at 55% ok thats strong but the thing that will get them a lot of press (which is their goal I assume) is that the limited edition one off run of 11 bottles is that each is stuffed within some stuffed roadkill, I can see the headlines now…..”Over the border and over the top, brewers kill animals to serve their beer from”, “BrewSquirrel, roadkill beer” you will come up with better.

Of course most of us will ever taste it as its £500.00 for the Stoat bottle and £700.00 for the Squirrel bottle.

Unless its a big ruse from the cheeky Scots. anyway good luck to them with their latest ploy to make beer more exiting for us non vegetarians

The End of History from BrewDog on Vimeo.

The End of History: The name derives from the famous work of philosopher Francis Fukuyama, this is to beer what democracy is to history. Fukuyama defined history as the evolution of the political system and traced this through the ages until we got the Western Democratic paradigm. For Fukuyama this was the end point of man’s political evolution and consequently the end of history. The beer is the last high abv beer we are going to brew, the end point of our research into how far the can push the boundaries of extreme brewing, the end of beer.

The End of History, at 55%, is the final instalment of our efforts to redefine the limits of contemporary brewing.

This blond Belgian ale is infused with nettles from the Scottish Highlands and Fresh juniper berries. Only 12 bottles have been made and each comes with its own certificate and is presented in a stuffed stoat or grey squirrel. The striking packaging was created by a very talented taxidermist and all the animals used were road kill. This release is a limited run of 11 bottles, 7 stoats and 4 grey squirrels. Each ones comes with its own certificate of authenticity.

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Beer

This time last year I was taking photos of this

This time last year on the 18th of July 2009 or thereabouts I was taking photos of The Liver building in Liverpool and the great mersey tunnel air duct, as was spending a nice post shed week break with Mrsunclewilco and we also visted the wonderful Philharmonic Pub

I like them but still need a wider lens.

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Beer

Thinkgeek does it again – A tshirt that opens Beer bottles

I am not sure this this will get past security but very handy when you forgot your own bottle opener, maybe.

Because you can quit anytime you want

* Black t-shirt with a bottle opening robot attached
* Stolen prototype from the year 2998
* For responsible meatbags aged 21+

anyway if are still drunk and think it’s a great idea then you can buy them here

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Beer

Don’t have a shed to convert to a pub in your garden? go Inflatable

As you know my other site, loves a great pub shed but if you have the room in your garden but are mad enough not to own a shed to convert then the next best option is to spend the money (which you may have more than sense) on an Inflatable pub.

I can see if you hire it out you could get the money back but I would stick to a few bottles of ale in my shed.

They come in various sizes from the largest and most expensive

The Hogshead Inflatable Pub
for £27,815.00!

Fully inflatable with graphic panels for roof, walls and gables
• High quality PVC materials
• Requires support frame
• Can be erected in less than 10 minutes by 4 adults
• Can be installed on any flat surface
• Features 2 fire places
• Internal artwork includes dart board
• Holds 20-50 people

to something more manageable but still a lot of cash

The Barrel Inflatable Pub £12,580.00

Ideal for any occasion from a large private party to a small event, it can be quickly set up, set down and transported. Featuring artistic brick walls, tiled roof, chimney pots and fire place, this has been designed to create an authentic pub, just don’t lean on the walls!

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Beer Food

Cardiff Food & Drink festival 2010 – Cake you say

I managed to only get an hour down the Cardiff bay food & drink festival on the Saturday, but luckily went back with the mrs on the Sunday for the whole afternoon and got home in time for the Football.

cardiff bay food festival 2010

Some great food and drink to be had, we managed a glass of one of the new Neath brewery ales – Green Bullet which was a 6% IPA that was very drinkable on a hot day.

Otley were there in force again this year & I really enjoyed their new O7 Weissen style beer, was lucky to have half on the saturday, as it had sold out by the my return on the Sunday..

cardiff bay food festival 2010

The other beer I had from the Ponty brwer was the O5 which I have not had before, but seen it all over the shop and the O-garden went down well with my better half, hopefully they will have more of the Weissen at their Golden Ale festival this weekend.

I also had a taste of new brewers Untapped and their lovely Eclipse which I may get a few bottles in to add to my Dark collection.

Also had some tasters of the excellent Gwatkin Cider (and bought a bottle of Norman to take home) but not sure about their bar staff 😉 anyway ArfurD has a more in depth review of the beer and brewers that were in attendance.

of course the day was not just about Drinking (boo) but we had plenty of free samples of food and managed to spend a bomb on things such as a Wensleydale & cranberry Scotch Eggs

cardiff bay food festival 2010

Cockles from penclawdd and other seafood

cardiff bay food festival 2010

some great value Venison sausages and the best pastry on any pie I have had in a long time and two massive cakes.

cardiff bay food festival 2010

The atmosphere was great and of course this was helped by the brilliant weather, some great music (which I can’t remember what they were called)

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Beer

Cardiff Brains Brewery to put IPA in bottles

On that Twitter ,Brand Manager for S.A Brain & Co Ltd, Ian Beattie tweeted about the labels for the new Brains IPA in bottles.

Brains do an IPA smooth which is not the first on my list to drink when I pop into one of their pubs, back in the day I used to drink Crown Brewery CPA (Club Pale Ale) with my grandfather I wonder if it’s based on that recipe 😉

Hopefully Brains will do well with this IPA as most people like a light but hoppy brew Iam looking forward to tasting a few, wonder if I can get an invite to the launch 😉

At the moment they do the following Bottles, SA, SA Gold, the wonderful Dark & Rev James, so this is a good fit in the inventory.

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Beer

Amazon.co.uk now selling Bottled Beer – including the wonderful Otley Brewing Company O8 Beer

Amazon today I think starting selling grocery’s but more importantly they are selling Bottled beer & Cider

some great ones as well, including great Welsh Beers & Cider from Otley Gwynt-y-Ddraig, Breconshire Brewery,Kingstone Brewery , Vale of Glamorgan Brewery , Tomos Watkins and RCH Brewery to name a few.

the Otley ones are being sold by their offshoot REALBEERBOX and also offer 10 & 20 Litre boxes of beer as well, great to see them selling on a big selling wossname as Amazon

good luck to the otley’s and other local suppliers i hope the delivery price is the same if you buy in bulk as the 20 Litre of 08 has my name on it