Travels With Nate

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.

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...

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).

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...