Posts

How I Became Earth Ambassador to Krrrghbräu (Part One)

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Tuesday 3rd December 2019 was a particularly cold day. I remember it clearly as it was during a particularly tough week. I was hungover from the night before and had no food in the house so I decided to pop to Aldi. Whilst I was there, I grabbed a bottle of Rheinbacher and a Cornish Pasty and decided to sit on a bench in the middle of Anderson's Meadow in Norwich to eat and drink. I mean, it started as a relatively normal day as that's the kind of routine I used to live by when I had no food in the house and nothing better to do, but little did I know how crazy my day would get. I sat down on the bench and I remember feeling absolutely bloody freezing and questioning why I didn't just go home to begin with. I rolled and lit a cigarette, took my bottle opener out of my coat pocket, popped the top off of my Rheinbacher, placed the opener and bottle cap in my pocket and took a swig as I would any normal day. Ah, delicious 11am Rheiny; refreshing. I was about to open m...

7 Completely REAL Yet Unknown Facts About Beer

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Beer is a wonderful thing; it comes in many different forms and there are at least 2,397 experts on the internet trying to feed you information about beer. There are books, too. Tons of them. Y'know those paper things we kind of forgot about back in 2015? Well, them. They feel funny, so I'm unsure as to why you'd want one when you can get all of your completely REAL yet unknown facts about beer right here on Booze, Beats & Bites! HERE ARE 7 COMPLETELY REAL YET UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUT BEER: 1) Beer was invented in 1764 in Ukraine  - A chap called Boris Krakovic first came up with the special recipe with beer whilst tripping on LSD. He combined a few things and it just worked. 2) Beer contains more than 4 ingredients  - Other sources will lead you to believe that beer is made with Malt, Water, Hops & Yeast but they are WRONG. There are actually 7 ingredients... the other three being real money, old gameboy cartridges and broken dreams. 3) Beer is better ...

The REAL Reason Keg Beers Are More Expensive Than Cask Beers

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Ever since the dawn of the craft beer movement there has been a single topic of conversation that never goes away. A topic that haunts every corner of the beer internet, whether it's a CAMRA forum, Twitter, craft beer Facebook groups or Reddit. It's a conversation I no longer get involved in as there are a thousand different answers but I can tell you right now, the bullshit you're being peddled are LIES. Those answers cannot be further from the truth. I feel bad as I've been hiding the answer for so long; I've been burying it deep within my soul and brain but I feel ready. I feel ready to tell you the truth, dear readers. Here it is, and it will shock you to your very core. You will never be able to look at a keg tap the same way again; the craft beers you're drinking will forever taste different. They'll taste more magical, maybe, or will it ruin the illusion. THE REAL REASON KEG BEERS ARE MORE EXPENSIVE THAN CASK: We are taught our whole live...

Nothing Toulouse - What I Loved About This French City

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I learned four years of French in school, and I was good at it according to my French teacher, who was actually French. She spent the best part of year 9 trying her hardest to convince me to continue with French into my GCSEs as she was confident I could be fluent one day but being a stubborn teenager, I didn't listen and continued with Spanish. I'd never really given much thought about visiting France until I went to Paris maybe 6 years ago and despite the actual trip being shite for various reasons, I loved the city and vowed to return one day. The problem is, however, that I ended up getting obsessed with visiting Germany and the Czech Republic and rarely would think about visiting elsewhere. That is until July last year when I saw £25 flights and thought "at that price, I have nothing Toulouse " (and no I won't stop with that pun). So I booked, along with a little apartment, not far from both canals and gave the city my best shot... It's a Walkable...

14 Reasons To Visit The Franconian Beer Festival in Nuremberg

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I recall once writing an article entitled "Why I'm Over Beer Festivals" which turned out to be one of my most popular blog posts, clocking up over 9,000 views after somehow going viral on Reddit and in several of those  Facebook groups. Even after I wrote it, I still kept going to beer festivals. I just get sucked in because people I know will be there, which is arguably the best part of them. The one beer festival I absolutely had to  visit being the lager lout that I am, was the Franconian Beer Festival in Nuremberg and here's why: 1) The Setting  - Imagine a beer festival in the moat of such a castle in a beautiful city as Nuremberg where you can look up at the large walls and high towers, shaded but still warm in the summer. That's how I can describe it. People talk about the IMBC venue being special, but I challenge you to visit The Franconian Beer Festival and not fall in love. 2) Free Entry  - Yup, you don't pay a single cent to get into th...

The Strange Phenomenon of a Charles Wells Pub in France (George & Dragon Toulouse)

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When I booked my trip to Toulouse for September I wasn't really sure what to expect from the city and its beer scene since very few people I know had spent time there so I did some googling, as you do. What I found surprised me as it was unlike any other city I've been to in that many of the pubs and bars seemed to be modelled from the British style of pub. I'd heard previously that Charles Wells had a chain of pubs in France and once I'd done some research I was determined I needed to check it out, and when I did it surprised me. The George and Dragon  is situated on the corner of an unassuming narrow residential street, at the foot of a cross road near a couple of cafes and could well be described as an estate pub had it been in Stockport and not Toulouse. There were a couple of tables out the front of the pub, with old chaps standing around chain smoking cigarettes, slowly drinking their dark amber coloured beer and occasionally engaging each other in convers...

Slow Cooker Chinese Pulled Pork Recipe

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I love Pulled Pork as it's a versatile food stuff that you can cook and get plenty of meals out of, whether you're going to eat some now and take some to work the next day or freeze it for a rainy day. I also love Chinese food, but I'd never thought about Chinese Pulled Pork until someone invited me to their house for lunch one day a little over a year ago, and fell in love with the Chinese Pulled Pork they cooked so I had to steal the recipe from him and make it myself. Since then, I've probably made it about 5 times and each time people tell me how delicious it is and how the want the recipe but y'all know me, I'm slack at getting on my blog sometimes but here it is... my recipe for Chinese Pulled Pork: Ingredients (some amounts may not be exact as that's how I roll): 1kg Pork Shoulder (rind trimmed off) 1 jar of Lee Kum Hoisin Sauce (from an Asian supermarket as I'm convinced it's better than the same brand you get in the supermarket) Ha...