UK beer in the new era

Anspach & Hobday - The Sour Dry Hop - now this is MUCH more like it. feels like a hoppy sour beer with the two integrated rather than harshly juxtaposed. much subtler and smoother hoppy notes and a fuller body on the sour. thumbs up

Pressure Drop - Wu Gang Chops The Tree - it's ok. preferred the previous one. this gets a shout-out upthread i think, which surprises me a little - it's a bit too sweet and bland

sweet and bland is where i live, louis!

Beavertown knows what's up imo

The 'Lupuloids' can they've just come out with is maybe the best they've ever made. Not too unreasonable at 6.7% plus hey the top of the can is pink. Easily stands toe-to-toe with the best American IPAs from the Alchemist, Ballast Point, Dogfish Head etc

Otm although I've only just started, every time I pop a can of strong a/ipa I think "omg this is the best thing ever", which changes to "well that's enough of that" by the end. Will see how this one lasts.

Here goes #2. Must be good.

Yeah this is super drinkable for something so strong. A bit of astringency but not crazy hoppy, malty sweetness, maybe a bit of citrus. Sorry, my glossary of beer flavours is limited and predictable. No idea what the oats are meant to impart...

Had my first Lupuloid last night. Sturdy, very drinkable but also deliciousness enough that you want it to sluice around the mouth a few times before swallowing. The strength, for a man who, since parenthood, has mostly fallen on the wagon, ensured I was asleep by 10.30pm.

Yeah I was surprised I managed two cans without falling over, or being woken by the baby at the usual 7am with a thumping headache.

7am? LUXURY.

Well I didn't mention the 2am or 4am wakings. (I know, save it for the people making board. Fucking breeders with their children in bars and children in the beer thread.)

imago have you tried this time travel beer?

http://www.beergonzo.co.uk/buy/beer/mad-hatter-brewing-co-tzatziki-sour-p1463

I had a Siren Sea and Sky last week, suitably enough while on holiday in the Shetlands. If you like gueuze beer with a salty tang, I can recommend it highly.

I also sampled the local brews, Valhalla and Shetland are the two breweries up there. The former were more memorable, including a couple of smoky, light golden beers, which sounds like a contradiction but actually worked very well.

imago have you tried this time travel beer?

http://www.beergonzo.co.uk/buy/beer/mad-hatter-brewing-co-tzatziki-sour-p1463

― minimal hat spiritualism (seandalai), Wednesday, October 5, 2016 12:40 PM (twenty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this could be fun! although i'm usually much harder to impress when they're aping the berliner weisse rather than the belgian gueuze. if i find it i'll give it a try for sure

That tzatziki sour was... Not for me. Not even close.

btw let it be known that I had a few sips of Rodenbach Grand Cru again the other day, and yeah it's the greatest beer ever

dear sour beer upstarts, this is your target

Just been sampling the Beavertown 'Sour Power' farmhouse red (a collaboration with Arizona Wilderness and Mikkeller) and measuring it up against RGC for strongest test conditions - and I'm delighted to say it really holds up! A great effort, very nicely balanced with a strong sour kick powering through the initial bitterness. Not as perfectly integrated as its control, if we're splitting hairs, but I'm not sure it's trying to be. A very fine beer. Beavertown had been good for a functional if mostly dull IPA up until this point, feels like a bit of a gamechanger

i think beavertown gamma ray is pretty great. on tap it's really lively.

had a really nice estonian porter last night, by a brewery called pohjala. been drinking a lot more dark stuff - had a thornbridge raven on friday and on saturday i had an omnipollo imperial stout made with vanilla and marshmallow - not as wacky as that might sound, was very strong and coffee-like.

and a nice mikkeller pilsner with my dinner yesterday evening.

I don't know if Gamma Ray has changed or my expectation for beer, but the first time I had it, which I guess was 3 years ago, it was a revelation. It's still a decent option though.

the Beavertown brewery is worth a visit if you are in reach of Tottenham Hale, straight from the cask in 1/3 or 2/3 measures and pretty cheap with it.

Wild Beer Co's new lobster and cockle beer cannot be good, surely.

lol

Gorblimey.

I will be waiting for someone I trust* to taste that before I go anywhere near it.

*basically nobody anymore

I had a banging pint of gamma ray at the weekend, thinking about it is ruining my Tuesday

I have one of their weird new IPAs in the fridge that I probably shouldn't drink tonight

You should drink it

Drink the beer

Don't listen to Hand.

Unless you want to.

There's a £45 'rainbow' package of weird collaborations on offer at the local Oddbins, featuring some really enticing sours and goses (including Beavertown, I think, and also a slightly saner WBC effort). When we've dispatched the Danish sours we bought yesterday we'll probably grab the lot and report back

yeah I drank the "Beavertown Lupuloid IPA", it gets the thumbs up

It was very zingy

The one I had was fantastic.

Had a pint of Gamma Ray last night, it's fine and perfectly enjoyable but I don't really get why people like it so much compared to other similar beers.

This IPA arms race has jaded us all!

it is the best of the commonly available pale ales - like it's approaching meantime prevalence. there are others i prefer that are less commonly available.

i dunno if there's an issue of how it's kept either but i have really come to love it since moving to clapton, the windsor castle 5 mins from my flat always has it and drinking there has made me rate it really highly.

yeah I think I just don't really like pale ale any more

I must go to the Windsor Castle some time, it has been on my list for a while

does the windsor castle sell crisps these days?

Regarding all Beavertown beers, even when it is well kept, it is almost always much better from the can.

Gamma Ray tastes like Lilt with sherbet lemons dissolved in it to me

or are you thinking of this - https://www.magicrockbrewing.com/beer/high-wire-grapefruit/?age-verified=0c490bf0fc

Haha.

i'm not gonna lie i drank the whole can

I had an Engine Vein from the Cheshire Brewhouse last week, a genial experience, nothing fancy just a beer in a glass and a serene feeling, i take my hat off!

Ah "100% natural pink grapefruit flavour" the key ingredient of any great beer. I've never had a good British fruit beer; only the Belgians seem able to do it well. See also: chocolate, honey, coffee, vanilla, etc; I'm generally of the opinion that malt and hops are flavour enough for beer.

I would generally agree with that opinion but I am a great fan of Titanic's Plum Porter, better (I think) than the Wiper & True one which seems to have been getting some attention recently.

the fruity Leffes I've tried over here in France have each been cloying and terrible in their own ways. The Leffe "Des Vignes" for instance I think literally just contains a shot of sweetened grape juice in each bottle. It's less part of a beer continuum than the "sirop" culture that kids over here grow up with. The adults have their aperitif, which might be a glass of wine or a beer, and the kids have water with a spoonful of grenadine or mint or lemon syrup stirred in. Beer in France is seen as a continuation of this really, I think - it's not supposed to be complex, or "serious" or even high quality. It's like one step away from an alcopop.

Had a Wild Beer Co Sleeping Lemons last night - it was good but not mind-blowing, I think I'd built up my expectations a bit too much. Or maybe I'm just getting bored of gose.

The export version of Sleeping Lemons is far superior.

that magic rock beer is not a fruit beer. nor are really any of the beers discussed here.