Travels With Nate

So day 5 now, and my second day at Redwell Brewery as Marketing Manager and it's a beer from a strange land since David Jones is back. This is a beer he has been brewing at Helsingborg Brewery in Sweden. Brewery:  Helsingborgs Beer:  Kaffestout ABV:  8.5% Style:  Coffee Stout Country:  Sweden Where I drank it:  Redwell Brewery Look:  Pitch black with a large tan head that sticks around for a while. Aroma:  Coffee, coffee and more coffee! Woah. Flavour:  Sweet black coffee with a handful of spiky hops. Mouthfeel:  Silky smooth, so drinkable. Overall:  I absolutely love this beer. It's ridiculously drinkable and delicious and I want more! Cheers, Nate

As I've mentioned before, Adnams are one of my favourite British breweries. They may be fairly traditional with Southwold Bitter and Broadside, but head brewer Fergus proves that he can use lashings of hops and brew new world style beers time and time again. To be honest though, i rarely buy their bottled or canned beers (other than Ghost Ship) because here in Norwich I'm guaranteed to find their beers on cask and keg everywhere. They did, however, contact me a couple of weeks ago asking if I wanted to try their two new beers to write about and here's the first one... Brewery: Adnams Beer: Wild Hop ABV:  4.8% Style:  Amber Beer Country:  England Where I drank it:  At home Wild Hop Amber Beer is a very awesome idea. What Adnams did was put feelers out into the internet to essentially crowd source wild hops, as well as ones that people had been growing in their gardens. Due to this, it's rather interesting as the hops used are basically unspecified - they ...

"I don't like lager. I only really drink ale but this is awesome" says Jim as he slams his empty glass that used to contain Redwell Hells Lager on the table. This is why I do the beer thing, for reactions like this. I introduce people to beers they wouldn't usually drink. Last night I had the pleasure of meeting up with British Heavy Metal band Raging Speedhorn before the first night of their first UK tour in 6 years, at Norwich Waterfront. You'll know from my history that I don't do regular band interviews. They're boring. The guys from Raging Speedhorn agree "Why have you reformed? Who are your influences?" Jay tells me they get asked all of the time. So I took the guys to Norwich Taphouse and figured I'd introduce them to our beers from Redwell Brewery, just to put an awesome spin on things. We started off with Hells, which was loved all around the table. Guys, like Jim, who don't drink lager, loved it. They say they could...

Woop, day two! That means two blogs in one day. Poor you. Anyway, I'm sure y'all know what the deal is. Brewery: Thornbridge Beer: Sequoia ABV: 4.5% Style: American Amber Ale Country: UK Where I drank it: Mash Tun, Norwich Thornbridge are, without a doubt, one of the best breweries in the UK. Again, it's a brewery that nails everything they do and I've been drinking their beers for as long as I remember. Sequoia is an American Amber Ale... it's a style that's not brewed so often over here, with many breweries favouring American IPAs or even Red Ales. I'm probably cheating a bit here as it's a beer I know and love already, but still. Looks: Dark Amber, slightly hazy (cask was fresh on & I don't mind a bit of haze) with a lovely fluffy white head. Aroma : On the nose you get chewy toffee sweets along with some pine and citrus fruit. Flavour: Citrus fruits leading into light toffee with a lovely marmalade covered digesti...