Travels With Nate

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 ...

I am a member of a Facebook group called CAMRA. Y'know, the Campaign for Real Ale? It's not an official group but a lot of the people who use it are official CAMRA types. Well, stereotypes anyway. See, some people are alright and they'll post photos of bottled beers which you'd expect in beer groups but then there's the rest of them. "Bottled beer? Why are you not in your local pub?"  they cry. Alright, we all love the pub and we know that pubs are closing every day but it shouldn't be a a problem that we drink at home too as it's supporting the industry all the same. See, CAMRA was never meant to be about pubs. It was meant to be about the beer. It's great that they're helping the fight in protecting out pubs but the issue is that a lot of members are missing the point. The point isn't that we're not drinking in pubs because I can assure you that we are. The point is that we're supporting the beer industry, and we're ...