UK beer in the new era

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.

Fruit beer rockism!

the fact that puritanism extends to griping about sweet beer proves that the northern predilection for puritanism runs deeper than religion. i blame the winter

sleeping lemons is the least impressive WBC I've had

had a To Øl blueberry sour yesterday, was very nice

the fact that puritanism extends to griping about sweet beer proves that the northern predilection for puritanism runs deeper than religion. i blame the winter

runs deeper than anything

Fruit beer rockism!

i'd say i'm trying to distance myself from fruit beer rather than create a canon!

I'm about as Southern as they come and fruit beer as an abomination in the eyes of the Lord.

yeah but like an ale with some notes of fruit in it is not "fruit beer". fruit beer is like fruhli or something.

i mean i get the need for puritan pejoratives, eg "sherbet" etc etc so people can define themselves in the way they choose to but that doesn't mean they're accurate.

fruit lambics would have you very confused then

pecheresse and chill tbh

both lindemans and timmermans (and also boon) make fruit lambics that could convert a john smith's advert, and some british breweries are catching on

by northern here I mean northern european, i.e. most beer drinking cultures

this seems a good day to remind you all that "Turkey, heresy, hops, and beer came into England all in one year"

1526 to be precise

did the turks bring the hops too?

Legitimate concerns.

Back in the boring world of IPA, Stone cali-belgique is consistently impressing me even more than lupuloid. "A california style IPA with a belgian twist" fine ok whatever,

.

where i buy??

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CyCy8ylWgAAYCJt.jpg

never drinking their beers again

where i buy??

Greensmiths on lower marsh nr Waterloo, er the internet?

have just obtained the motherlode

Brewed in Berlin so hopefully available in offies in countries more European than this one. Xp.

Sitting with a can of Tropigamma just now and it mellows the sharper characteristics of Gamma Ray noted above by changing the fruit bias to more mango/guava.

the motherlode is being held over. we may begin it tonight.

for now we're drinking an Alechemy (they're Scottish) - Bring Out The Imp, a very powerful and liquoricy imperial stout with a slight Belgian buzz. very good

oof though it's a killer