Travels With Nate

I'm a big fan of supporting local pubs. I go to independent local pubs all the time, more frequently than chain pubs, because they're clearly better, but I've been doing some thinking. You see, the question is... who can you trust to get the beer right? So you've got a Wetherspoons which guarantees to have a decent selection of cask ales, and in my experience, it's always kept well. I mean, the two I frequent in Norwich I can't fault. They always have a selection of beer that's better than 80% of pubs in Norwich (in my opinion) and they both keep their beers very well. On the rare occasion that I've ordered a pint and I've found it be off, they've taken it off sale. They don't know who I am but because of the amount of times I've been in there drinking their beer, they know that I know what I'm talking about. Generally though, the beer is good, and cheap. It's somewhere you can always trust. And then you've got Freehouse...

Today was an awesome day. I got to visit The Liberty Belle, a new Micro Pub in Ely. It was my first ever visit to a micro pub. I'd heard they exist, and other people seem to enjoy them but I hadn't experienced it... until today. Wow, what an experience it was. The Liberty Belle isn't like a regular pub. It's a shopfront that looks like an antique shop, and when you walk in, you feel like you're in somebody's living room... it's odd, but really cool. There are comfortable sofas and chairs with tables arranged nicely, antique lamps everywhere and all kinds of interesting things. To the right you have a blackboard with today's beers (I had Elgood's Black Eagle Imperial Stout & Tydd Steam Piston Bob. Jade just had a Fentiman's Victorian Lemonade as she was driving) and the prices. You walk through to the back and there's not even a proper bar, just what looks like some kind of counter with a guy casually sitting behind it. The counter...

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 Ding and (I think) it’s about the differences between America’s and Britain’s beer culture… Let’s pretend, just for a moment, that this is actually a guest blog by two people. One of them is an American who knows a little about American craft beer and that’s generally what he buys, and the other is a British chap who just goes down the pub. These guys want to tell you about beer culture in the other person’s country but they’re not very well educated in it… American: “British beer? I...

Walk up the stairs. Turn the corner. A corridor lined with tables and white drapes. I hear chattering a clinking glasses but I see no beer. Turn right. Ah, a table full of glassware but still no beer. I walk directly to the table and purchase my pint glass. I turn around. Ahh… tables with keg fonts and bottles. I instantly walk towards Brewdog ’s bar as I see my buddy Joe working behind there. He takes my glass and pours me a half of Libertine Black Ale, a beer I already know and love. We take a walk around the room to find more kegs, bottles and familiar faces from twitter. We have a Steen Brugge Wit Blanche from the Palm Breweries and chat to the guy behind the stall who I know only as @SpyRight . The Wit is refreshing. It has the right balance of orange and coriander with a lovely creaminess. Next stop is Curious Drinks to catch up with Pat . I try the IPA and it’s nice but I wasn’t too thrilled with the earthiness of it. I then decide to drink an old love, Curious Brew, ...

Woo! Craft beer! But not just craft beer. Woo! Music! And Woo! Street Food! That’s probably not the most professional start to a festival preview ever but who cares for professionalism these days? Especially when next Friday and Saturday (22 nd & 23 rd of February for those of you who aren’t staring at a calendar right now) is the first ever Craft Beer Rising trade show & consumer beer festival. Set in the grounds of the historic Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane in London, Craft Beer Rising is set to be the next big independent beer festivals where the breweries and food producers run their own bars and stalls, serving their beer precisely how that want it to be served and of course there will be music throughout the two days. So, what are the details?

Lately, and I have been committing a terrible crime. This happens in every new drinking establishment in go in, and and even old favourites.

Norwich Beer Festival is always good fun and really well organised although sometimes I find that the beer list lacks what I want. Maybe that’s because I’m a beer snob. I don’t fucking know. This year, however, the list fucking rocked. I thought it would be a good idea to drink (mostly) in thirds because I wouldn’t get so drunk. What a fool I am because I drink the same amount, just more different beers. I went to a few different sessions... I didn't drink all of these in one! I sadly forgot to take photographs.

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 months session is hosted by Jorge at Brew Beer and Drink It and he wants to know what we'd like to see change in order to bring us closer to a perfect beer world. Honestly, I forgot about The Session until I saw someone share their post on twitter. I was meant to post something entirely different and music related today but I guess that'll have to wait because, living in the UK there's certainly a lot to be said.

Image taken from here: http://gbbf.org.uk/ I went to The Great British BeerFestival last year (2011), all alone because I have no friends. It’s hardly surprising, is it? I am joking; of course, I have lots of friends but none who like beer so much that they’ll travel 120 miles to drink it. Even though I went alone, I had a bloody good day out. I drank some wonderful beers (don’t ask me which although I was wearing my Dark Star ‘Don’t Drink Hophead’ t-shirt that I won through a twitter campaign but I drank Hophead anyway, being the rebel that I am) and met some awesome new people who I’m still in contact with through the wonderful world of twitter. I also got to show off my awesome shoes that @BeeryMatt loved a lot (I may have to break them out for this year’s affair, actually).

I like beer . I like real ale. I like macro-lagers. I like craft beer. I like keg beer. I like cask ale. I like bottled beer. I like canned beer. I like beer . The issue I have is that craft beer is full of shit. Here are some of my feelings towards craft beer: 1)       Barrel Ageing   Don’t get me wrong I like some barrel aged beers but now it seems that every fucker is doing it and it’s no longer niche. Brewdog Paradox is great. I’ve had paradox poured from a wooden barrel, it’s beautiful but the issue is that everyone’s copying that kind of thing and making it so limited that nobody will ever get to fucking drink it anyway. Another thing is the price of them. I appreciate that it can’t be cheap to buy old whisk(e)y casks but Brewdog just released Tokyo* Rising Sun which is a barrel aged version of the first ever batch of Tokyo*. Sounds cool, right? Well my issue is that this is beer that they apparently literally forgot they had sittin...

So, the past weekend saw Dragon Hall Beer Festival 2 and it was a massive success. We had pretty much the whole crew of volunteers back plus some new additions which was great. We’re a great team. We had about 30 cask ales and bottled beers from Norfolk as well as 4 kegged beers and 9 bottled beers from Ghent in Belgium. Basically, if you missed it you’re an absolute fool. My two favourite beers of the weekend: Van Steenberge Gulden Draak 9000 Quadrupel – A wonderful example of a quadruple. 10.5% but definitely doesn’t taste it. Got nice caramel and malty aromas. Flavours are caramel, bananas & custard, light yeast and spice. Norwich Bear Platinum Blonde – A premium bitter. Pours a lovely golden orange colour with a bubbly off-white head. Biscuity malt aromas with some citrus. Tastes citrusy (possibly lemon) with that same buscuity malt flavour. Definitely my favourite cask ale of the weekend. See Dawn ’s impression of me here: https://twitter.com/#!/Nat...

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...