Travels With Nate

For years and years my beer geek friends and I have dreamt of this day; the day that anarchic Scottish brewery Brewdog open a bar in Norwich. We called for it, we crawled the streets trying to find a suitable venue for them to move into, alas no luck but finally, about 9 months ago we got the news that we were waiting for, the news that Brewdog would open up in the former Hideout/Knowhere nightclub on Queens Street in Norwich. Friday 15th April, at Midday, Brewdog Norwich is finally opened to the public with craft beer, food and a bottledog shop. I mean, as if the need for Brewdog Norwich wasn't enough, it has a goddamn shop with around 200 bottles... something the centre of Norwich has been crying out for, for a long time too. I was lucky enough to be invited to a secret friends and family opening on Wednesday night, by my good friend and Brewdog barman Jay, as well as the EFP/Press Launch on Thursday night. Walking through the door, it's the same yet different as othe...

So last week I posted a blog about the fact that I had a pint of Brewdog This. Is. Lager, a beer that I like, after having two pints of Pilsner Urquell thus rendering BD TIL pretty shit. See, Brewdog and I, we’ve had our differences in the past but they were pretty cool about it and offered to send me a few bottles which was awfully nice of them! A couple of days later, before the bottles arrived, I had a spare hour or so on my hands so I decided to pop into The Bell Hotel Wetherspoons in Norwich and have a pint on an untainted palate, and it was the beer I remember having pre-Urquell. It was great – it had that solid biscuity malt backbone, that hop bite and a crisp and clean refreshing finish. Somehow it was warming, even on a cold evening. I loved it! Then, last Thursday, three bottles arrived at my house. Sadly I was suffering from a really horrific cold so I couldn’t crack one open there and then, I shoved them in the fridge and decided to come back to them ...

Yesterday Alec and I had a Christmas dinner in Wetherspoons and as part of the deal for £8.99 you can get a beer… luckily, these days, it’s not restricted to Carling or Ruddles. These days you can get any of the craft cans, any real ale or either of the craft beers on keg. I got Brewdog This. Is. Lager with mine, which I have had many pints of before but last night I realised I don’t like it as much as I thought I did. Last night, I just found it all wrong, so unbalanced. Too sweet yet too bitter, too carbonated yet too dry, when previously I had proclaimed that it’s everything I want in a Pilsner. And then I realised what the problem was. Pilsner Urquell. Yes, the problem was that earlier in the evening I’d had two pints of Pilsner Urquell, the classic, the original, the legendary Czech pilsner. So beautifully crisp, floral and creamy; a beer you can drink pint after pint of without getting bored. A pilsner that ruins all other pilsners because of its perf...

Fuck you. Yeah you, the one sitting there nursing your 23% sour barrel aged stout that’s so loaded with hops that you’re gonna shit hops for a week. Oh, it’s a ‘craft beer’ is it? Of course, that word ‘craft’ makes it so much different and better than other beers that don’t have the word ‘craft’ affixed, doesn’t it? No, I thought not. Y’know what? You can take your craft and shove it up your arse, because I just like beer. Fuck that word and fuck you. I’m fucking sick of it, really. Everywhere I look there’s some kind of debate about what’s ‘craft’ and what’s not. Fuck you. I mean, I thought we’d gotten over this at least a year ago and now accept beer for what it is but evidently not. We’ve got Brewdog banging on about the fact that craft needs an actual definition, which it doesn’t. The reason they give is that it’s basically for the drinkers but it’s not, it’s for them because they’re self-important arseholes. Now I’m not from the national office of statistics or an...

The Session is a monthly event for the beer blogging community which was started by Stan Hieronymus at  Appellation Beer . On the first Friday of each month, all participating bloggers write about a predetermined topic. Each month a different blog is chosen to host The Session, choose the topic, and post a roundup of all the responses received. For more info on The Session, check out the Brookston Beer Bulletin’s  nice archive page . This month’s session is hosted by Justin of Justin’s Brew Review , which is entitled “IPA: What’s the big deal?” and it’s a question I once asked. Once upon a time, in my early days of beer geekdom, I had a beer called Punk IPA from a brewery called Brewdog . I’d had IPAs in the past, but they were pretty lifeless so when IPAs got popular I thought “Why? They’re not that good. And then I had Punk. I chanced upon a bottle at Norwich Beer Festival – I forget the year – and it blew my tits off. I actually recall shouting “HOLY SHIT” as I go...

As you probably now know, Brewdog have exclusive UK importation and distribution rights for Mikkeller beers. A few of us on Twitter noticed that a fair few online shops are no longer stocking Mikkeller beers as now that Brewdog are importing the price has been hiked up in comparison to when they were able to buy and import direct from Mikkeller. Now I was a bit hasty on slagging Brewdog off, as I always am because I like ranting. I really should’ve gotten all of the facts first but I’m bloody useless. Rob from Hopzine was also very hasty in blogging about it so the response is targeted at him too. My buddy Luke now runs Brewdog’s online shop and he told me to contact Martin Dempster to get more of an insight so I thought I’d share my email and his response. What I said: “Basically, Brewdog now has exclusive rights to import and distribute Mikkeller beers in the UK and we've noticed that since you've taken control, the prices of Mikkeller beers on your online sho...

LOOK AT THE LOVELY TAPS. THERE ARE 20 OF THEM. If you follow me on twitter, y'all would've seen me obsess over when the fuck this place was opening. FOR MONTHS. Well it's open and it's bitchin'. 20 draft beers and a lot of bottles. I'M NOT GOING TO FUCKING COUNT.

As soon as I posted my first ever Booze guest blog from Rich and announced my first ever Beats guest blog from Mr Barfly , I had literally hundreds of requests to do a guest blog for me. Literally hundreds. I finally managed to narrow it down to one. Then this guy, Martyn from the twittersphere approached me with the idea of completing the Booze, Beats & Bites circle with a Bites guest blog as I don't do many bites posts and I couldn't help but oblige. This also makes me think that I need to write about food more. Note to self. Anyway, Martyn has come up with a wonderfully bizarre and awesome sounding recipe that I need to try out...

Now, this may come as a shock to you but I like a few drinks every once in a while. Ok, more than a few and more nights than not. When I first read that the government were considering minimum pricing per unit on alcoho l I was outraged. Then they decided that it was definitely occurring. I was angry for a few reasons: Firstly, I like alcohol a lot. Secondly, the beer duty escalator pushes the price of beer up enough as it is. And thirdly, this gives the government yet another way to sting us each budget. Yes, I’m aware that it’s not actually a tax and apparently doesn’t benefit the government but minimum pricing is set at 40p (50p in Scotland soon) a unit now but what about next year when they decide that 40p isn’t enough and sticks another 3p on, then another 2p the next year and so on whilst at the same time raising beer duty, yet again. What I don’t get and I’ve seen that others don’t get either ( including a beer retailer ) is who actually gets the money ...

A bit of a double blog post... I'm going to show you my beers and review a beer! Yeah, so I ordered some badass beers. Full list: Beer Merchants: Evil Twin Before, During and After Christmas (Denmark) Camden Town Helles (United Kingdom) Mikkeller American Dream (Denmark) Mikkeller / Revelation Cat Cream Ale (Denmark/Italy) Mikkeller Czechet Pilsner (Denmark) Beer Here Karma Citra (Denmark) Port Brewing Wipeout IPA (United States of America) Beers of Europe: Nils Oscar Ctrl Alt Delete (Sweden) Nils Oscar God Lager (Sweden) Nils Oscar Hop Yard IPA (Sweden) To Øl First Frontier IPA (Denmark) To Øl Final Frontier DIPA (Denmark) Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA (United States of America) Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA (United States of America) Boags Premium (Australia) Einstök Icelandic Pale Ale (Iceland) Banks Caribbean Lager (Barbados) Mikkeller Citra Single Hop IPA (Denmark) Oh and naturally I was drinking a Brewdog Hardcore IPA tha...

27 th January 2012. I decided to take a trip to London. Wendy and I were meant to go on a pub crawl but he had a heavy one the night before so he bailed on me. That left me with a few hours before going to stay on the coldest sofa in the history of sofas to drink awesome beer. I had quite a few beers on the train which probably wasn’t for the best considering I hadn’t eaten since lunch. Euston tap had an IPA festival on so naturally I had to stop there. Beers: Williams Brothers Joker IPA on keg; I’d had it in bottles but justice was not done. Kegged it is absolutely brilliant. Hoppy, quite sweet and citrusy. My first beer by Summer Wine Brewery , Diablo (IPA); again on keg, bloody amazing. Massive tropical flavours... I’m pretty sure I got mango and papaya... and that finishing pine flavour we all love in an IPA. I then had Summer Wine Diablo on cask. I wish I didn’t. Yeah, it was great but I much preferred it on keg. Oh and I was sitting across the ...

At some point in time I would like to own a bar and lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what it would be like so I thought I’d share my dream with you (Don’t steal my dream). Appearance: I want it to be in a glass fronted modern looking building. I want white walls with a chrome bar. I’m going for the American style taps on the back wall thing with tap handles to match each beer. For seating there needs to be leather sofas in a coffee shop style placement with chrome coffee tables. Various other seating around the middle will be like American style booths. Beer: Craft Keg beer: I’ll have Brewdog , Magic Rock , Lovibonds , Black Isle and Meantime for the British selection. There will be a couple of German beers; Franziskaner Weissbier and Jever Pilsner are personal favourites so they’ll do. From Belgium comes Gulden Draak 9000 Quadruple and Bacchus Kriek (The ladies love the fruity ting). From America I have to have Brooklyn Lager , Stone Brewing Co (Specifica...

In my first blogpost I told you what my three favourite beers are and after I posted it I read it again and realised that there was something missing. A cask ale. Shocking, I know. Okay, Brewdog Punk IPA used to be available on cask and it is my favourite beer ever but I’m not going to use it here. Wychwood Hobgoblin was the first real ale I got into, I love their branding of "What's the matter, lagerboy? Afraid you might taste something?" and, of course, the beer. A dark and rich ruby ale. Caramel, fruity and malty nose. Heavy dark malt, sweet caramel and toffee flavours. It drinks well with a nice rich chocolate cake. Another favourite is Thornbridge Jaipur IPA - A medium sized IPA at 5.9%. Hopped to hell and back... It has big citrus flavours and aromas like Grapefruit and pineapple and is quite sweet with a bitter finish, just what you need from an IPA. It pairs well with spicy food as the sweetness is actually quite mellowing. As I got older and was able to...