Beer And Beer Drinking

[luka]

it reeks of amateurism and hobby buisnessness and trust funds and 'internet based learning'

 

[Slothrop]

It's like anything fashionable - plenty of shite getting lifted on the rising tide but lots of good stuff too if you can be bothered finding it. I tend not to bother with Brewdog because there's a lot of equally good beer being made by people with less twattish marketing.

comelately - I'm kind of surprised that it all started kicking off that recently, actually! I must have been more on the ball than I thought. Thornbridge 2005 as well. Oakham have been doing stuff a bit longer, though, haven't they?

 

[viktorvaughn]

I hate brewdogs marketing and actively avoid all their beers, it's so juvenile and annoying.

Doubtless there will be some dross but there are some delicious beers around from some of these new places no doubt.

Kernel, Brodies, Pressure Drop, Magic Rock, Beavertown.

The price is sometimes galling for the bottles tho - £3 for 330ml of a beer made a few miles away..

 

[comelately]

Yeah, I had a Thornbridge Bracia once. Cost quite a lot, but it was yum.

I remember buying my first punk ipa a few years ipso, read the label and thought 'wankers'. Then I drank it and I felt differently. I agree that they're annoying and their latest premium 'more art than beer' range is Nathan as fuck, but I still respect them for paving the way.

 

[Slothrop]

If it was just the shite on the labels I'd put up with it, like I'll put up with crap innuendo and awful pumpclips from more "traditional" brewers if the beer's any good.

But what really winds me up is their secondary thing of deliberately trying to play up the idea of an unbridgeable gulf between (exciting, diverse, youthful) craft beer scene and (boring, samey, CAMRA-approved) traditional real ale scene thereby promoting their own importance and rebelliousness, like teenagers deliberately trying to find ways of provoking a reaction from their liberal parents so that they've got something to complain about. And I think that in the long run this is detrimental to pretty much everyone.

 

[Immryr]

brewdog are most definitely cynical corporate cunts. they still make some nice beers, though. i'm 99% certain that brewdogs decision to start only making keg (and bottle) beers, and only have keg beers in their bars, was 100% based on profit margin. it seems to me they used to be happy enough making cask beers too, then around the time they started opening bars they must have been looking into things and quickly realised that only having keg beers was a great way to standardise quality, prolong beer shelf life, limit loss and ramp up the price, all at once.

i'm not against kegged beers, in fact i like them, but it annoys me that brewdog are so evangelical about what is essentially a practical / business decision.

 

[viktorvaughn]

On the American influence and marketing tip this article is quite good.

http://thebeercast.com/2013/05/annual-releases.html

 

[Mr. Tea]

I looked up the Brew Dog website the other day and on the front page, in large, wackily-angled text, there is the word "motherfucker". Except, it's not, it's actually "motherf*cker".

So, affectedly bad-ass enough to go for one of the WORST SWEARS EVER, but sufficiently aware of the limits of mainstream commercial taste to censor themselves.

Cunts.

 

[luka]

Danny Dyer
9 May via Mobile
Brewdog. Bethnal Green Rd. get involved. Hardcore. 9.3%. Love it.

 

[craner]

Beer is for slow people.

 

[luka]

yeah cos all the beautiful people in your cardiff social circle mince about drinking cocktails in a louche manner

 

[viktorvaughn]

Beer and cheese festival
Strongroom 5 - 9 June, Shoreditch

 

[Slothrop]

This is rather excellent:

It's sort of an awkward, moody non-sequitur of coffee / vanilla / chocolate / damp wood flavours, but strangely satisfying. Sort like of a Beckett play in beer format.

 

[comelately]

This is rather excellent:

It's sort of an awkward, moody non-sequitur of coffee / vanilla / chocolate / damp wood flavours, but strangely satisfying. Sort like of a Beckett play in beer format.

Agreed - very, very tasty; have had a few of those.

Silly, but tasty.

 

[viktorvaughn]

London Drinkers

Redchurch Brewery has opened a little taproom thing above their brewery where you can go and have a few of their beers. Pretty cool place if you are in Bethanl Green, you get the fat waft of the malt and all their beers to choose from as well as one experimental one that seems to change from time to time. Just open Thursday 6.30-11ish a the mo but shortly Fri and Sat also.

 

[luka]

just discovered my local off license kris wines
https://twitter.com/KRISWINESLTD
i like the pub called the queen's head on acton street. i endorse it. do some nice cheese.

 

[luka]

http://www.londoncraftbeerfestival.co.uk/home/

 

[luka]

have to admit to really enjoying some kernel pale ales and ipas. this one is motueka centennial sauvin zeus and its fantastic. no rank fruit there at all. im going to visit their brewery. who here has go into home brewing?

 

[comelately]

Kernel make good beer, no two ways. Enjoyed their 2.9% Table Beer immensely.

Magic Rock's 'Salty Kiss' is the perfect Summer beer - a little fruity, a little salty. Just unbelievably good.

 

[Slothrop]

I can never get excited by Kernel. Their beers go from alright to really quite nice, but the stylishly minimalist packaging / naming strategy means I can never remember which one's which, and frequently don't bother.