Slothrop

Tight but Polite
TBH I can't really be arsed heading down to London and then paying to get into a beer festival when I can get loads of beers locally that I haven't tried or even heard of before.
Speaking of which, I've just had a bottle of Poppyland's On The Edge Saison (the Hallertau Hersbrucker / Cascade version rather than the Bobek version, FWIW) from our Local Specialist Beer Shop That's Round The Corner From Our House. It's fairly great - sort of halfway between a lambic and a hoppy pale ale, with wild yeast graunchyness balanced by bitter-fruity hops. Straight outta Cromer.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Update - I'm being increasingly impressed by Poppyland. If they were from East London rather than North Norfolk then craft wankers would be having a collective nerdgasm over them, as it is they still seem to be too underground for the underground. But yeah, I've had some excellent hoppy saisons from them, a good American style IPA and a fairly mega Austrian Imperial Stout - I've had 6.6% of the world's total supply of the latter.

https://pintsandpubs.wordpress.com/2013/07/03/poppyland-brewery-ales-gas-n-lager/
 

luka

Well-known member
the festival was a bit shit. most beers were pretty foul. siren and weird beard probably the worst but had a lot of competition. had one extraordinary beer which was the kernels London sour. otherwise average to poor.
 

mrfaucet

The Ideas Train
I'm going to Canada soon, Vancouver to be specific, and was wondering if anyone had any Canadian beer recommendations? I'm relishing the chance to drink something that's not Suntory, Qingdao or Tiger, so I want to try and have as much good beer as I possibly can. From searching about Vancouver on here previously I found this list, from Nomos I think, but are there any others I should be looking out for?

St Ambroise, Creemore, KLB, Sleemans, Kokanee, Muskoka, McAuslan, Muskoka, Wellington, Brick, Big Rock. Then there are the Quebec ones like Blanche de Chambly and the ones with the weird label art and names like Fin du Monde, Maudite

Anyone had any experience of Granville Island Brewing? Seems to be the main microbrewery there.
 

comelately

Wild Horses
the festival was a bit shit. most beers were pretty foul. siren and weird beard probably the worst but had a lot of competition. had one extraordinary beer which was the kernels London sour. otherwise average to poor.

The Kernel's London Sour isn't sour enough for me, having tasted a lot of the Brodie's Sours.

Weird Beard brew in Hanwell, where I grew up, so I cannot help having some affection for them. Their Black IPA, Fade to Black, is pretty win and their Coffee Milk stout, Black Perle, is good too. Not had anything foul from them, though their pale numbers don't particularly stand out from the pack - wouldn't call them foul though. I'd like to see them do a proper stout, as Hanwell is still very Irish.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Just had Mikkeller 1000 IBU - turns out it's quite bitter.

The Beer Geek Brunch Weasel was good, though.
 

luka

Well-known member
i been into the lambics for ages and the london sour has a cleaner taste but i think its not about making a supersour gobstopper flavour necessarily. thats fun, but not the point of the exercise.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Some great beers at the Oxford CAMRA fest last Friday. Drank mostly porters and stouts to be honest, there are so many good ones at the moment. I've got the beer programme at home, will post some names if I can remember which ones I had.

One thing that was interesting was that >50% of the breweries were set up in the last three or four years, with a good 10% or 20% set up this year. The price of a pub pint these days in the SE of England is a pain in the arse but in terms of quality and choice I think there's a good argument that there's never been a better time to be a beer drinker.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Someone was talking about Buxton a way back up the thread.

I had their new(ish) Stronge Extra Stout last night, and it was great. Strong and rich but a bit clever, proper attention-grabbing stuff.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
st peter's best bitter (massive picture so wont post)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nRV7w6DUWZY/TTWXjBGAPhI/AAAAAAAAAKo/RdvMTb-BSW4/s1600/DSC09268.JPG

ill be honest i was mainly enticed by the shape of the bottle, but it tastes nice, not too rich but a good depth of flavour

Love St. Peter's and their bitter isn't even their best beer, by a margin. They pull off the rare feat of doing just about every beer style imaginable, and doing them all really well. Their golden ale is about £1.50 in Waitrose at the moment, which is great as most of their ('trose's, I mean) beers are heading towards or have surpassed two squid a bottle. Look out for their wheat beer, their wheat-based grapefruit and ginger/lemon beers (if that's your bag), their phenomenal winter ale and honey porter, their IPA and...well just about anything really. I'm not a huge mild fan but scottdisco (who needs to make a comeback, big time) was very impressed by theirs when we paid a visit to the Jerusalem Tavern, I recall.
 

slowtrain

Well-known member
I was pretty unimpressed by st peters red ale

i hate beer atm - living in wellington is meant to be good for beer likers but really it just means we have to put up with a hundred stupid gimmicks and jerks with beards thinking theyre cooler than u cos they put a chili in a beer even though it tastes like shit
 

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
This is a nice, sweetish stout. (Siren Brewery)
75922805.jpg
 
Top