Travels With Nate

Awake slightly later than planned, with a slight hangover we eventually made it to the 9:30am train to Ceske Budjovice. Train tickets are cheap in the Czech Republic - we each bought an unlimited all day ticket on the entire Czech rail network which cost around £18 each. Trains in CZ are clean, spacious and efficient; in fact I believe we got to Ceske Budjovice early. We arrived and Google Maps wasn't being much help with public transport so we just decided to take the half hour walk to the brewery on the outskirts of the city. We arrived and met Jan who has been working for the brewery for 42 years; he used to work in the lab but he's retired now and just does tours, which seems like a nice job. Now, a little bit of disclosure here - We didn't pay for our tour; we got a private tour for blogging purposes after I started chatting to the Budvar UK twitter account. The scale of the Budvar Brewery was incredible and I've never really seen anything like it aside f...

As a beer geek I've been on many brewery tours... from London Fields back when it was tiny, all the way to Adnams which is not so small. I think it's fair to say that from a combination of this and my love of beer, that I know a fair bit about the stuff. I remember when Redwell Brewery first opened, it was much smaller than it is now and I was given a kind of informal tour of the brewery... this was two years ago. Two years on I'm working at Redwell, it's much bigger and now I'm doing the tours. I am actually hosting brewery tours. I've done two so far and coming into the brewery on a Saturday to educate people about craft beer and most importantly our beer, brewery and future plans excites me. Seeing people have their first taste of Steam Lager, their eyes lighting up, the 'woah, I didn't know lager could taste like this' factor, to me is exciting and it's what I live for. Then comes even more excitement when I tell people that we ...

I'm not well versed in Canadian beer as it doesn't seem to make it to the UK often. Sure, I've drank a lot of Carling which originates from there and I remember spending a day in London years ago in the Maple Leaf pub in Covent Garden drinking multiple pints of Sleeman's IPA and Honey Brown lager, but I'd never had anything from Canada's oldest independent brewery. What's interesting about Moosehead is that it was founded by a woman, Susannah Oland back in 1867 and is still operated by the same family. The fact that it was founded by a woman all of the way back then is great but people generally don't know this. People quite rightly celebrate the female brewers of today, but Moosehead is quite an important brewery, in Canada at least, so she deserves some recognition. They've had quite a rocky history, changing names a couple of times and unfortunately two fires within 8 years but each time they recovered and got stronger. Also, its success in th...

Alright, I know, I'm starting to look like I'm sponsored by Harviestoun... I'm not, for the record but luckily they seem to like me and send me beers to try which is awesome! Yeah, I'm a massive Harviestoun fanboy but when I first read about their whisky barrel aged lager Orach Slie I wasn't convinced. I'd never had a BA lager before. I'd read about them but I've always thought the idea was a bit odd and gimmicky and didn't understand how it would work so I avoided them. Maybe out of fear. I don't know. Anyway, last night I got home to find 3 bottles of Orach Sile waiting for me and couldn't wait to crack one open. Can Harviestoun change my opinion of spirit barrel aged lagers? This is what Harviestoun say about the beer: "Our brewers specially selected a high abv (6%), lightly-hopped version of our craft lager, Schiehallion, to complement the classic, honeyed-sherry notes of Glenfarclas single malt whisky." So what do...

I hate Mark Landells with a passion. He's one of my favourite tweeters because, well, he's a funny guy mostly because you can never tell whether or not he's being serious. Tonight I am taking him seriously. He suggested mixing Innis & Gunn Lager with Tesco Value Lager so I'm doing it and I'm going to hate myself and him for it. Mainly him though. So, I've got a lined pint glass and filled it exactly 50/50. How bad is it? Look: BRIGHT YELLOW WITH BUBBLES. Aroma: Canned sweetcorn, fizzy water and cardboard. Taste: Fizzy water, sweetcorn and pennies (Pennies, not penis you fucking perverts) Mouthfeel: Fizzy but flat at the same time. Verdict: There is no god. MAKING THE BEST OUT OF A BAD SITUATION ADDITION: MANGO JUICE AND ORANGE JUICE! Taste: LIKE FANTA WITH MANGOES! Verdict: FUCK YES! Nate

A while ago I wrote a rather angry post about how Suffolk council are trying to ban beers that have an ABV of 6.5% and above. Today I discovered that this is soon to spread to Norfolk. Instead of repeating my angry post (Read:  http://www.boozebeatsbites.com/2013/01/booze-65-is-magic-number.html ) I thought I'd do a protest post and review a very low ABV beer. Now, how did this come into my possession? I didn't buy it. A few weeks ago I was at Brodies Bunny Basher at the King William IV Pub in London drinking ridiculously cheap but tasty high abv beers with a bunch of friends, James then disappears for a while before coming back and presenting me with a Tesco bag containing 4 cans of this much to everyone's amusement. For context, if you don't know me already, I am a beer geek but I also have a love for Carling so that is the joke. I was originally asked to do a video review because I did a couple of dreadful ones before whilst drunk but I refused. I still have 2 c...

Straight off the bat, dear readers, I've not really enjoyed anything I've had from the Scottish brewery Innis & Gunn. Got a message a couple of weeks ago on twitter from Adam who worked for Innis & Gunn (He doesn't now, he fled to Cornwall. Good luck bro) asking if I fancy trying the new Innis & Gunn Lager. It'd be rude not to really. So yes, lovely chap sent me 6 cans of it. It's not available in cans, only on keg but then a can is just a mini keg so it's the best way to send samples out. So, what's it like? Brewery:  Innis & Gunn (Scotland) Beer:  Lager ABV:  4.6% I had to make my own label Look: It looks really yellow and carbonated but with no head. Aroma: Smells like the juice of canned sweetcorn. Taste: Firstly sweetcorn, then oats, then syrup and more sweetcorn with a bit of oil on the end. Mouthfeel: Feels really oily and a bit sticky. Verdict: Not enjoyable at all. It's fucking horrible to be hones...

Pistonhead beers are produced in the 'Brutal Brewery Workshop' by Spendrups, Sweden's largest brewery. Just from looking at the can, the image you get is of rock music and that is the correct image to see. Pistonhead Laget was first launched in Sweden in 2010 before making it over to British shores last year via Proof Drinks. Since the launch, Pistonhead has developed quite a following by supporting touring bands, club nights and effective usage of social media as well as being on sale in some well respected music venues. I really like the branding and the idea that it is a rock 'n' roll live music beer. The sugar skull on the can is incredibly eye catching and ties in well with the image of heavy metal so there is no doubt that it will appeal. But what's it like?

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...

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 ...

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 ...

It is a little known fact that I like beer. I like a good cask ale or a keg craft beer but I also like what you’d only describe as crap beer. All of the other beer geeks I know tut and shake their heads disapprovingly at me for drinking crap beer. I say screw you. Drinking good beer costs a lot of money and sometimes I don’t have the funds to warrant buying 5 or 6 decent beers at £2-3 a bottle. Sometimes I just want a few ice cold, inoffensive lagers that cost £4.50 for a 4 pack. What? Fair enough, said beers are cheaply made, highly processed and are from faceless corporations who don’t care about the consumer but you know what? I’m cheap, faceless and don’t care about the corporations. There are some cheapies I don’t drink, like Stella Artois for instance. It’s pointless drinking a beer nicknamed “wifebeater” when you’ve got no wife to beat! Absolutely pointless! I also won’t drink Sol or Corona because I’m not in Mexico and I certainly don’t want to have to add a slice of ...