Merry Christmas one and all. Hopefully a good time is being had by everyone and New Year is being eagerly looked forward to. This is just a quick entry to say that the blog isn't dead, but there will be a period of inactivity over the Christmas break.
Looking forward to writing more in the New Year and hopefully having some good discussion with anyone following.
Cheers!
Monday, 28 December 2009
Merry Christmas
Posted by Mark at 12:51 2 comments
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
Nanny State
By way of a recap for anyone that missed it, some weeks back Brewdog released a beer called "Nanny State". Think IPA, super hoppy, super bitter and you're not too far off. The only difference being the ABV. Where you might be expecting an alcohol content anywhere up to 6 or 7 percent, this little number only weighs in at 1.1 percent.
Many beer writers, better than I, have written about the reasons behind the production of this beer and the events that lead to its creation. However, what interested me personally, as a home brewer, was a unique chance to a taste a "proper" beer with one of the key components missing. That component, of course, being malt and therefore alcohol. By tasting something like this you can better understand the role each component part plays in a finished beer, meaning you can better adjust that part in future beers you make. Hopefully allowing you to get both a better end result and an end result closer to that which you were aiming for.

Labels: beer review, brewdog, homebrew, nanny state
Posted by Mark at 09:24 9 comments
Monday, 21 December 2009
Münchner Helles and Brezen
Helles is a beer style from Bavaria Germany. Pale in colour with a malty, crisp, clean flavour, it can be compared to lager and has a typical ABV of 4 to 5 percent.
"Brezen" in German. "Pretzel" in English. Not the small, dehydrated, cracker style pretzels we get in England. These are big with a leathery outside and doughy centre. Studded with sea salt, they're sold by street vendors and in beer houses.
This pairing works because the salty pretzel leaves your mouth dry and thirsty whilst the crisp, clean Helles provides great refreshment. The slight yeastiness in the pretzel echoes the slight yeastiness in the beer and the sour dough compliments the tangy bitterness in the beer's finish.
I really don't understand why these Brezen haven't made the leap over to the UK. Beer drinkers in this country would love them, they really are the prefect bar snack.
Labels: beer and food, brezen, food pairing, german beer, helles, pretzels
Posted by Mark at 00:09 6 comments
Friday, 18 December 2009
Thirty Pence Beer
I'm just back from a holiday in Germany. Munich and Nurnberg to be precise. Germany is the third heaviest drinking country in the world, so naturally there are a few beer related blog topics I've brought back with me.
The first is about a beer I found in a supermarket that cost thirty pence (€0.33 or 29.8p to be exact). It's called Grafenwalder Hefeweiss and has an ABV of 5.5 percent. The bottle I bought weighed in at 0.5L. Thirty pence for, near enough, a pint of beer. This is insane.
So what does it taste like? Well, I assumed it would be terrible. Cheap as chips and in a plastic bottle ... "this will taste flat, dull and synthetic" I thought. Well, not at all. Banana and clove on the nose, sweet and yeasty on the palate. Not bad at all. Not as well rounded as the Erdingers, Paulaners and Hofbraus that I was drinking, but not bad at all.
So there you have it, a beer in a plastic bottle that's cheaper than water and doesn't taste half bad.
Labels: beer review, germany, thirty pence, wheat beer
Posted by Mark at 08:59 2 comments
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Fruit Beer & Big Macs
Last night I was introduced to a whole new type of beer, and by total chance. I've drunk Kriek before, quite a few beers that have very fruity notes, but I've not had a straight up fruit beer. On many occasions I've passed them by on supermarket and beer shop shelves, always with the opinion that they'd be overly sweet and just a bit naff.
With a couple of guys from work, for no real reason, we ordered several Mongozos at a local Belgian beer pub. I'm pleased to say that I was right. They are naff, overly sweet and in your face. There's no real complexity to the flavour, no depth, they don't even taste like beer. Despite this however, they're delicious! What starts with a sweet and fruity nose, begins with a sweet and fruity taste and then ends with a (you guessed it) sweet and fruity finish. The thing is, if you're in the mood for sweet and fruity, they're just so damn tasty. At 3.5 percent and served chilled they're also mightily refreshing.This reminds me of McDonald's. Take the humble Big Mac. It doesn't try to be craft or artisan, nobody's going to spend time dissecting it and analysing it's flavour profile. But there are certain times when there's nothing I fancy more than a Big Mac and fries. It's beef in bread with a tangy sauce. It's honest and, when you're in that frame of mind, it's delicious. For me there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Fruit beers. The Big Mac of the brewing world. Perfect for those few occasions when you know exactly what you want. Summer evenings that follow roasting hot days, when you want something cold, refreshing, sweet and fruity.
For completeness, the flavours we had were: banana, honey, mango, passion fruit and coconut. Something else that struck when drinking these was the potential appeal for non beer drinkers. My other half hates beer but loves fruit ciders. I'm willing to stake my bottle of Tokyo* that she'll love these ...
Labels: beer, fruit, fruit beer, opinion
Posted by Mark at 20:59 1 comments
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
Beer Blogger Awards 2009
In response to Mark Dredge's beer awards post at Pencil and Spoon, my picks are:
Best UK Draught Beer: Shepherd Neame Late Red
Best UK Bottled Beer: Brewdog Bashah
Best Overseas Bottled Beer: Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter
Best UK Brewery: Brewdog
Pub/Bar of the Year: The Rake
Beer Festival of the Year: Great British Beer Festival
Supermarket of the Year: Tesco
Independent Retailer of the Year: Utobeer
Best Beer Book: Brew your own British real ale - Graham Wheeler
Best Beer Blog: Pencil and spoon
Next Year I’d Most Like To: Attend more beer festivals
Posted by Mark at 12:47 4 comments
Monday, 14 December 2009
Beer Roundup - 14/12




To be honest, when I had the Flying Dog Classic Pale Ale, I think I was in a bit of an IPA groove and was unfairly comparing it with other big American IPA's subconsciously. When you're in that kind of mood, anything that doesn't have huge hop flavour will always disappoint.
Labels: beer review, roundup
Posted by Mark at 22:39 3 comments
This Blog
I appreciate craft beer and craft brewing. I appreciate the work, knowledge and effort that goes into a craft beer and I find the knowledge and skill surrounding the art to be interesting. An extension of this is that I enjoy learning about and tasting craft beer, refining my palate and applying these things in the beer I make myself.
For these reasons, I think its safe to call me a craft beer enthusiast/fan/geek and I want to use this blog as an outlet for my enthusiasm.
Hopefully I'll achieve that, producing a record of things I come across along the way. A record that I can look back on in times to come. Maybe a few other people will even read it!
Anyway, on to the content. My plan is to write about anything beer related that I come across: good pubs, good beers, bad beers, tastings, general goings on in the world of craft beer. I don't think I'll write too many tasting notes because they tend to be very subjective and, to be honest, quite boring to read. I also really like to brew my own beer, so I'm sure some home brew related stuff will make its way in too.
Let's see how this goes then ... cheers!
Labels: beer, beer and food, beer blog, bier, birra, blog, home brewing
Posted by Mark at 19:11 4 comments