Travels With Nate

Me in the Black Heart. Credit to Matt Curtis for the pic! Ever since I first read about Californian brewery Russian River ’s beer Pliny The Elder I wanted to try it. I didn’t think I’d ever get the chance unless I were to go to California where even it its home state, it can be hard to come across. And then yesterday happened. I took a day trip to London to hang out and drink beer with Matt & Karen who run the Evening Star pub in Brighton. They have recently returned from a holiday in America and told me that they had a bottle of beer for me. I was hoping it was Pliny but I thought “No, surely it can’t be...” and it was. When Karen handed me the bottle, I had to contain my girly screams as we were in a public place. It’s possibly the best present you can give a beer geek!

Keg beer… Alternatively known as craft beer… ·         Is consistently good… it doesn’t need to be conditioned in the cellar of a pub. ·          Aren’t filtered or pasteurised making for a naturally awesome beer. ·          Isn’t flat and warm. ·          It doesn’t look like you're wanking someone off as you pour a pint. ·          Doesn’t take much effort to look after kegs. ·          Is flavoursome, refreshing and cold. Cask ales like best bitters and milds are different from keg beers. They: - ·          Are all cask conditioned meaning if a pub doesn’t condition it for long enough it’s shit. This happens a lot of the time. ·          Contain finings. That’s fish guts. Disgusting. ·          Are ‘naturally’ carbonated so they’re flat. ·          Can be identified by a large phallic shaped object on the bar or a big, warm cask in the back room of the pub. ·          Are usually served at room temperature or higher.

Williams Brothers is a brewery based in Alloa, Scotland. I first had Joker IPA a couple of years ago and loved it. They’ve become one of my favourite U.K. breweries and I get excited whenever I see one of their beers in a pub or shop. Tonight, I am playing roul ette with The Williams Brothers; will red win, or will black?

Trollfest describe themselves as a True Norwegian Balkan Metal band, which, on listening is folk metal . I think they’re just taking the piss out of the utterly ridiculous sub-genres that bands seem to create these days which is completely cool with me because some of these new-fangled genre names are quite absurd. Hell, I can imagine the first time someone released a folk metal album they got quite a reaction! Anyway, Trollfest are a folk metal band that doesn’t take themselves too seriously. The lyrics of each album are centered around a troll universe and the new album continues this theme by introducing a new character whose name is that of the album title. Brumblebassen is the village beekeeper who gathers honey for the mead.

It has come to my attention that CAMRA are being twats (again). It’s even worse this time as they’re being twats about a friend’s brewery. It’s great news that Ketts Tavern which is run by owners of Norwich Bear Brewing Co , Dawn and Kev, is in the good beer guide. I mean really good news. Both Ketts Tavern and The Rose are wonderful pubs that you should definitely go to if you ever visit Norwich. They’re run by friendly people who are passionate about beer and have great bar staff too. They have pool tables and show Norwich games which are always good features. Oh and they have beer from Norwich Bear Brewing Co. So yeah, about the beer… which is the topic of this post and why I am angry at CAMRA.

It’s been a while but last night I had the opportunity to speak with Jonny Davy from a death metal band called Job For A Cowboy. This is the first face to face interview I’ve done in my own format since I’ve had Booze, Beats & Bites! Enjoy... BOOZE: What are you currently drinking? Whiskey. Jameson. What was your first ever alcoholic drink? How'd that go for you? My uncle gave me a taste of peppermint schnapps when I was a kid because I was curious to try it. It was disgusting! One beer. One Spirit. One Non-Alcoholic drink. Go: Blue moon; Yeah, I know it’s a pretty standard answer but it’s really refreshing and the slice of orange on the edge of the glass is a nice touch. Whiskey, Jameson. Water is pretty much it. What's the most absurd thing you've done while drunk? We were on tour with Behemoth, and I was sleeping above their guitar tech. Woke up, blacked out and started peeing on his curtain. He was asleep, woke up, opened

Right, my good man Phil over at Beersay has written a blogpost about the role of the landlord/landlady/gatekeeper of drinking establishments and comments are encouraged but when commenting, I kind of went off on one so instead of clogging up Phil’s blog with a 50 billion word comment I decided to write my own post which I’m sure is appreciated.

If you follow me on twitter or read my ramblings on this here blog, you would’ve seen that I did a Beer of the Month post. It was a difficult decision to make. You may also notice if you follow me on twitter that I listen to A LOT of different music; I think I got something like 30 new albums in August alone which is ridiculous. You’d think with that much new music, picking an album of the month would be difficult, right? Wrong. This was a simple choice. So, which band wins the almighty honour of Booze, Beats & Bites’ first ever album of the month? The award goes to…

When I first saw the name Mutiny On The Bounty, I was expecting some kind of Pirate Metal band; naturally, but reading the press release informs me that Mutiny On The Bounty are in fact a progressive metal band so I got quite excited. You all know by now how much I am in love with prog right now. Later on in the press release, however, I am told that it is in fact Technical Rock so i wasn't sure... I don't think I know of any bands that class themselves as technical rock. It intrigued me so I decided to download the attached press pack, after all, it would be rude not to...

So, I decided it would be fun to do a beer of the month and album of the month blogpost every month. The issue is that I’ve found it incredibly fucking difficult because I drink so many beers and listen to so much music. So, who wins the honour of Booze, Beats & Bites’ first ever beer of the month? The award goes to...