What beer are we drinking this week ?

Herb Powell

Seeing as it's Halloween, it's got to be a can of Hobgoblin

Ruben Remus

Schism wrote: »

Maybe it was to generate a bit of interest. Just imagine people walking up to the bar and trying to decide what they want, seeing this 'strange brew' and asking about it.

Perhaps that is the thinking behind it, but it has the opposite effect on me.

If I do not know what kind of beer it is, or what the ABV is, I am more inclined to order something else than to start interviewing the barman about it.

Seaneh

Ruben Remus wrote: »

Last week i saw on Twitter that the first keg of Galway Bay Brewery's new brown ale had been tapped at The Oslo, so when I was in the area I called in and sampled a pint. It tasted pretty good at first, though seemed to get a little heavy/cloying towards the end. I had eaten dinner just beforehand so I don't know if that affected my enjoyment of it or not.

My main quibble, however, is with way it was portrayed at the bar. As I said, I knew from a tweet by the brewery that it was on tap, but it was only through a process of elimination that I figured out it was in the tap labelled 'strange brew'. Now, the last time I had this 'strange brew' was months ago and at that stage the beer I was given was a pale ale.

I find it bizarre that punters are expected to order and pay for a beer without any description being displayed of the kind of beer they will be getting. Would people order and pay for a 'strange meal' in a restaurant, not knowing if they will receive a steak or a plate of fish fingers?

BaZmO* wrote: »

I'd say it's more a case of people that'd be willing to try a beer marked "Strange Brew" would be more inclined to ask what the beer was.

BeerNut wrote: »

It's utterly bizarre. I mean, how hard is it to think up a new name? Daft.

The "strange brew" tap is just a brewers choice and changes every few weeks or so.

The Amber they had a few weeks ago was also "strange brew".

I'm pretty sure it's advertised as brewers choice on the tap signs too.

The original strange brew is now full sale pale ale.

The brown was pretty, meh, I thought, tastes a bit like home brewed newcastle brown clone or something.


Chris (new brewer) is still getting used to the kit in the Oslo (and will have to get used to a brand new one soon enough as they are moving to a building out the back which will have a much bigger set up) and the strange brew idea is that he can mess about and do whatever he wants in small batches. That and the job of fixing the royal **** up that was the old brewers complete inability to produce the same beer twice means he's actually doing a pretty good the job. The new pale is better than anything the last brewer produced, the red is actually red now and the stormy port tastes the same now as it did two weeks ago, which is a first!

rubadub

Ruben Remus wrote: »

Would people order and pay for a 'strange meal' in a restaurant

I actually do, and know many who do. Not as extreme as steak vs fish fingers, but in Chinese takeaways who often have vague names and no descriptions.

I could ask or try looking online I suppose, but it is often spur of the moment and servers often have poor english. I often find myself a new regular dish, and have never hated anything I got. Which reminds me I have to try "champagne chicken" and "drinking chicken" in the Chinese next.

I think the "strange brew" is quite clever, I would guess they would not put in a really weird beer which 50% of people would be likely to hate. I am not particularly fussy.

Martyn1989

It takes very little effort to put some kind of label on the tap, nothing fancy, just something so we know its there.

Refering to your beer as 'Strange Brew' is one thing, Messrs calling theirs Homebrew is what gets me. Its house beer, not homebrew.

Ruben Remus

An update on the 'strange brew' labelling: I emailed my comments to Galway Bay Brewery in the hope that it would be taken as constructive criticism, which thankfully it was. I got the following reply today:

--
"You are right and we are currently re branding the brewery logo and taps .
This will give us a blank space on The Strange Brew Tap to give a description of the beer on offer
We have two batches of Brown Ale and after that a Sweet Choc Stout going on the Strange Brew Tap
It will be early in the new year when this happens, in the meantime I will speak to all concerned about passing on what's on the tap before it is purchased
The pale ale is now on the Full Sale Tap and will become an Indian Pale Ale shortly
Work in progress
Thanks for your feedback"
--

Fair play to them for responding. I look forward to trying their chocolate stout and IPA.

Son0vagun

Got some Porterhouse beers today in Tesco Drogheda. Got some Oyster Stout, Wrasslers XXXX znd the last bottle of Hop Head, all were E1.50 each!

stuchyg

Currently having a tomahawk Mikkeller Coffee IPa. Nice strong IPA similar in taste to Torpedo but neither I nor my coffee mad other half can detect any taste of coffee from it

matrim

stuchyg wrote: »

Currently having a tomahawk Mikkeller Coffee IPa. Nice strong IPA similar in taste to Torpedo but neither I nor my coffee mad other half can detect any taste of coffee from it

Had one of those last night too. Tasty but like you didn't get any coffee taste.

Also had a sam adams pumpkin ale. Ok but too sweet for my tastes.

GLaDOS

Last couple of weeks I've been going out of my way to try some new beers, having mostly stuck to mainstream lager before. My girlfriend lives beside a fantastic off licence that has a great selection of craft beers so I pick up a bottle or 2 when we're having a few drinks.

Last night tried Hobgoblin and Hen's Tooth. Really enjoyed the former, went down very easily. Hen's tooth not so much, but still enjoyed it.

ciaran76

Thanks to Beernut I went to the Prague beer museum. They have 30 beers on tap and the guys working there were very happy to show me the taps and the kegs. Some were very small like maybe 20 liters or maybe less.

So 1st thing I did was get 5 taster beers.

Kocour brewery :Višeň ležák / Cherry Lager - I in general do not like fruit beers so was almost preparing myself to not like this. In the end I was very surprised how nice this beer was and not too strong in flavour but reminded me of a drink I had in France years ago.
I'd say it would be a good summer beer to be honest and it kind of reminded me of a Ribena with a hint of malt.

Demon Polotmavý ležák/Amber Lager : A lovely amber beer reminded me of alot of American style beers. Quite a caramel taste and smelled really good almost like a sweet shop. Liked this beer and loved the little hop kick I got also.


Good Bulldog : Very American IPA in a Sierra Nevada mould. Good beer and did what it said on the label.

Bakalar Honey beer: Nice beer hint of honey and very malty.

Pivovar Broumov-Olivetín, Opat Grep (Grapefruit) : This reminded me of a Thornbridge beer called Kipling but without the same hoppy kick. I really liked this beer taste and if I had never tasted the Thornbridge beers I would have rated this quite high.

Rohozec Skalák Řezaný Ležák : Very sweet and carbonated exactly what I dont like in beer but my friend loved this beer. I said before I dont like sweet fruity beers and I failed again to be able to even finish the taster.


As you can see that's 6 beers as I ended up drinking the Demon and Good Bulldog.As the guys there realised I wasnt just drinking to drink so gave me tasters based on what I told them I liked.

I will make a trip again in a few days to try 5-6 more beers from the range.

BeerNut

Don't forget Zlý Časy! It's the pub Beer Museum would like to be

ciaran76

BeerNut wrote: »

Don't forget Zlý Časy! It's the pub Beer Museum would like to be

Oh I haven't forgot. I have also found a little place which has 20 beers on tap also not far from me(5 tram stops away) which I will visit soon. Its in a very residential area and was advised to me by Prague people from my job.

_blank_

Something happened to WJ Kavanagh's last night/early this morning.

Loads of police outside at about 7am, and the front window smashed in.

Hope everything is ok up there.

Colonel Sanders

ATG has Leann Follain on cask according to their Facebook page. Anyone tried it?

Also what's the damage on a pint of it?

Seaneh

Colonel Sanders wrote: »

ATG has Leann Follain on cask according to their Facebook page. Anyone tried it?

Also what's the damage on a pint of it?

I had it last year on cask and it was magic.

However, according to the brewer "it's not 6% abv, it's a lot closer to 10% than 6%" so not something you'd have more than one or two of, it doesn't taste more than 6% though, so you could easily have a few of them before you knew it was doing a job on you.

I'd imagine it's the same price as everything else on cask in there, so bout a fiver?

grenache

Got into this big time lately. Dunnes had it as part of their 5 for €10 World Beers offer last few weeks. Bloody gorgeous. Much nicer than any of that Brewdog muck.

BaZmO*

grenache wrote: »

Much nicer than any of that Brewdog muck.

:rolleyes:

Grayditch

Not all Brewdog is muck. It's not ALL nice either.

grenache

BaZmO* wrote: »

:rolleyes:

I am indeed sorry for giving my opinion on the topic. Clearly because it is a niche beer this automatically means it is of high quality and cannot be dissed by anyone for fear of critiscism. Once again i apologise

Grayditch wrote: »

Not all Brewdog is muck. It's not ALL nice either.

I think it is. They're all too heavy in alcohol. The brewers there forget that less is more.

Grayditch

5A.M Saint is a fairly inoffensive, nice tasting beer. It's all subjective I guess.

matrim

grenache wrote: »

I think it is. They're all too heavy in alcohol. The brewers there forget that less is more.

The 2 most popular / easy to get are 5am Saint and Punk IPA. 5AM is only 5% and Punk is 5.6%, neither overtly strong. The harviestoun you posted is 4.8% and the likes of Budvar, Staropramen are 5%

BaZmO*

grenache wrote: »

I am indeed sorry for giving my opinion on the topic. Clearly because it is a niche beer this automatically means it is of high quality and cannot be dissed by anyone for fear of critiscism. Once again i apologise

No need to be sorry, but you can't just dismiss a whole brewery as being "Muck" when it clearly isn't, and just because it's a niche beer give it a free pass from critique.

What exactly don't you like about Brewdog Beers? Which ones have you tried?

BaZmO*

matrim wrote: »

The 2 most popular / easy to get are 5am Saint and Punk IPA. 5AM is only 5% and Punk is 5.6%, neither overtly strong. The harviestoun you posted is 4.8% and the likes of Budvar, Staropramen are 5%

And their latest beer Dead Pony Club is only 3.8%

grenache

BaZmO* wrote: »

No need to be sorry, but you can't just dismiss a whole brewery as being "Muck" when it clearly isn't, and just because it's a niche beer give it a free pass from critique.

What exactly don't you like about Brewdog Beers? Which ones have you tried?

I was being sarcastic about giving it a free pass from criticism, obviously.

I don't like any of them, and i've tried almost all, except the dearer ones such as Sink The Bismarck. Even the likes of 5AM Saint and Hardcore IPA, i just find i'm tasting too much alcohol and not enough hops, barley, fruitiness, etc. And yes i know what percentage they are. They just taste too overtly alcholic.

Like i said, just my take on them. I'm not criticising them for the sake of it. I find much more character in Duvel or Leffe and they are both stronger than the above mentioned Brewdog beers.

BaZmO*

grenache wrote: »

Even the likes of 5AM Saint and Hardcore IPA, i just find i'm tasting too much alcohol and not enough hops, barley, fruitiness, etc. And yes i know what percentage they are. They just taste too overtly alcholic.

Really? If there's one thing that Brewdog beers can't be accused of it's not having enough hops, and as such it would affect the fruitiness too. Also, the increased alcohol content generally indicates lots of barley and therefore a sweeter beer. Fair enough on not liking the alcohol taste on the likes of Hardcore (I never used to like overtly alcoholic myself), but I'm surprised at your description of 5AM though.

Son0vagun

grenache wrote: »

I was being sarcastic about giving it a free pass from criticism, obviously.

I don't like any of them, and i've tried almost all, except the dearer ones such as Sink The Bismarck. Even the likes of 5AM Saint and Hardcore IPA, i just find i'm tasting too much alcohol and not enough hops, barley, fruitiness, etc. And yes i know what percentage they are. They just taste too overtly alcholic.

Like i said, just my take on them. I'm not criticising them for the sake of it. I find much more character in Duvel or Leffe and they are both stronger than the above mentioned Brewdog beers.

BrewDog is full of flavour. All you can taste is the hops. Nanny State is less then 1% and as full of flavour as a Punk/Hardcore IPA.

But yes Harviestoun make good beers too. I love their Bitter & Twisted.

Zebra3

Shephard Neame's Double Stout. :pac:

cormacjones

Having a few Porterhouse house beers tonight. My local off licence just got them in.

I'm a big stout/fan so I've tried each of those. My favourite was the Wrasslers, but I'm a fan of the other two as well.

Thought the Hop Head was ok and I'm trying the red tonight.

What are people's thoughts on them?

limnam

I picked up a couple of bottles of Beoir Chorca Dhuibhne porter, which I had with some manchego cheese. The porter itself is slightly on the pricey side at 3.99 for 500ml But I really enjoyed it I found it delicately smoky. One of the nicer porters I've tried.