UK beer in the new era

New Bristol Brewery have done some things with cinder toffee and stout that shouldn't be legal. Now I am about to go on a hike and I'm drunk! Hurray

Happy birthday imago!

Ty I'm about to do the THORNBRIDGE BREWERY TOUR BITCHES

^which ruled

Anyway, props to Little Earth Project for not only being the first brewery I've seen to name a beer after a Half Man Half Biscuit song, but to have said beer, In A Suffolk Ditch, be a fully credible and very barnyardy fruited wild red ale

Think Pomona Island had a HMHB beer but I can't remember what it was called. Their Songs About Fucking beer was their peak I think.

Lmao, someone at Pomona Island has very ILXy tastes, I was very impressed that they recently named a beer after a bit from Severance ("This Music Dance Experience Is Officially Cancelled"), although it was a drab-looking IPA so I didn't actually get it

enjoy your sourpatch kefir porters

observation based on being in glasgow for 1 day

scotland is way less obsessed with IPAs than england is

Where have you been beer-wise, for the purposes of this thread?

Drygate Brewery and West Brewery - so, two craft ale taprooms (although this one is def going for 'beerhall', shame Oktober isn't until tomorrow)

(my 'guess the city' was Cumbernauld btw. fuck me that central building is something eh)

I know this won't go down well on this thread, but I'm quite addicted to Brewdog "Lost Lager" in Blood Orange. It's on a three 8-packs for £23 offer at Morrisons and say no more!

they probably just add whatever chemical additive goes into vimto orange, yet it works.

to be fair there is probably a brewdog beer out there I'd enjoy, but it will always be a mystery which one

a Dill Pickle Gose at Pretty Decent Brewery/Taproom in Forest Gate.

they added dill and cucumbers to the brew apparently.

wasn't bad, but then again I had to psyche myself up before I took each sip.

that's increasingly the way with flavoured craft beer IMO.

Birmingham pubs in the new era:

"Do you have a hoegaarden or anything like that?"
"Sorry, no"
"No wheat beers or anything?"
"Sorry, you'll have to explain what a wheat beer is"

(We do have more knowledgeable establishments including an excellent european style bar with a wide ranging selection of lambics, trappist ales etc)

I guess wheat beers have gone out of fashion in the UK. I haven't seen Hoegaarden for years - is it still widely available?

leffe can be found but that's pretty rare these days. we live in ipa times

xxp Cherry Red's on John Bright St is somewhere I always visit when in Brum, what's the one you would recommend?

Blue Moon can sometimes be sighted

oh that's true

xxp Houblon down in King's Heath (& Hop & Scotch their sister bar with more regular UK/US offerings next door but one).

thanks, looks good, I'm going to the cricket at Edgbaston later this year so will keep that one in mind post-match

What's that European one called ledge? Had a few nice beers in Stirchley weekend before last, though they kind of blurred together sadly.

Hop and Scotch is great, I grew up two street away from there

I really love wheat beers, they do seem a little out of time now.

Sad times for people selling slices of orange to pubs, etc

What's that European one called ledge?

That's Houblon, next door but one to Hop & Scotch.

I had no idea about this wheat beer fall off, I'll take a look next time in the two godawful chain pubs my parents force me to go to lunch in.

blue moon is terrible

istr sam smith’s do a wheat beer

hefe weizen! that was always my pick.

"This beer is no longer being produced by the brewery." :((( - now there's an 'organic wheat beer', probably much the same.

Cherry Red's on John Bright St is somewhere I always visit when in Brum, what's the one you would recommend?

― Critique of the Goth Programme (Neil S)

Are you not better off going up Hill Street into the Post Office Vaults?

Other dead central options would be Tilt on Union Passage or the Head of Steam on Temple Street. I also don't mind Purecraft on Waterloo Street but last time I was in the selection wasn't as good as before. I think there's a Bundobust on Bennett's Hill these days but I've only been in the Manchester one (which is very good).

birmingham fap!

The Wellington is good unless you're allergic to cats or CAMRA members.

Schöfferhofer or Franziskaner are often hiding in the fridges in pubs.

Our local has Schneider Weisse permanently on tap, which is a blessing. We are the only two punters who like it with half a slice of lemon (we’ve tried and failed to popularise it), so the order has long been “Schneider with gay lemon”.

Haha. Blue Moon does unfortunately seem to have become quite popular, probably because it's always served with a slice of orange so meets the hip criteria or whatever it is that youngsters look for in a beer these days

went out to two pubs in Cambridge last week and had a "ruby ale" and a porter, both absolutely foul, could not finish either. A Blue Moon would have at least been drinkable.

not that I was looking for another reason to hate brewdog but

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/jun/27/brewdog-sacks-asian-woman-over-reaction-to-edl-members-meeting-in-bar

Oh it’s that kind of punk

I've been sort of appreciating lambics and gueuzes recently, just the odd one on a summer evening (if we ever get any of those). I went to my not quite local offy and asked if they had any sours and got pointed to a whole shelf full of multicoloured cans ranging from simple fruit sours to raspberry & banana bread and cocktail sours. Ok not my grandad's sours then. I'll try anything once, I bought a vault city singapore sling. It was fine, maybe it would have a belgian brewer up in arms idk I'm not a connoisseur. The next time the guy persuaded me to try an azvex mana tropical smoothie sour. Perhaps this time I should have known better. Absolutely no exaggeration it was the colour and texture of an actual fruit smoothie. I couldn't finish it. I could barely start it.

In better news, the UK's only trappist brewery Tynt Meadow now do a blond and it is v good.

Vault City sours are exactly the sort of buzzy mediocre 'mild fruit sour' that I'm really turned off by these days (snob alert!) - if you want the proper stuff, head to the Barrel Project on the Bermondsey beer mile, they seem to have picked up the 'kicks you in the head' sour baton from the Wild Beer Co (RIP), had some brilliant sours when I went there recently

Holy Goat are superb in the fruited Belgian market, also all their Flanders are banging.

omg YES, had some of their stuff recently, was incredible

I was an early adopter and have been aging their first year's beers (including the 4 that were <150 bottles) but the time has come. I'm donating them as a 3 night vertical at the local bottle shop next month.

fucking HELL Holy Goat's Wrath Of The Tyrant Norwegian Imperial is incredible. there's one of their Flanders Reds here, might have to get it

We indulged in the big Blender Maelstrom bottle last night. Really excellent but absolutely not something one should do often, for health and cost reasons

got a supermarket delivery substitution - a 10-pack of Faith pale ale by Northern Monk. These cans often explode with a very powerfully loud bang when you open them, with such force that you can be left with a very sore finger as well as a puddle of beer to mop up. This has happened to me numerous times with this brand now. The only safe way to open them is to place them in the sink and stab the can on the opening with a screwdriver. Absolutely fucking lux if you can manage to get 3/4 of the can into a glass.

keeping well stocked for the visit of mad nathan's antifootball crew

if you're fucking with a northern monk, don't forget to carry a screwdriver, got it.

they've been ready to kick off since the last viking raid

that priceless "haha - got you there, ya dickhead" moment when a can blows up in a psycho-thug's hand and completely soaks his clothes and his dignity, that's the point when you run!

can't be doing with this drawn out tension every time I open one. PTSD is one of the key reasons I'm drinking again ffs!