San Francisco baby!

I’m going to San Francisco! I’ll be there for most of Beer Week (which Ken is covering in his post this week). I’m also heading up to Santa Rosa where I’ll stay while visiting Russian River, Bear Republic and Lagunitas, amongst other places. Right now I’m excited to the point of exploding. This post is [...]

Changing Expectations

There is something which irrevocably shifts following great beers, especially when you go searching for them and drink them a lot. I drink more bottles at home than pints in the pub. I drink a lot of good beer. I drink some crap beer. What seems to have happened recently is that my expectations have [...]

Beers to Talk About

Some beers don’t elicit much response. You can drink and neither be inspired nor repulsed by what’s in your glass. If challenged you’d struggle to say much about it other than a loose description of colour and flavour. Then there are beers which really pull the right strings and tickle the right spots. If challenged, [...]

Beer and food: Because it’s worth it

There is something so effortlessly natural about the combination of beer and food. Yet sadly this often means a floppy slice of pizza in one hand and a bottle of lager in another. Or worse, a handful of peanuts. Or cheese coated nachos. Not that there’s anything wrong with pizza, peanuts or cheese covered nachos, [...]

What’s outside the glass is important too

When you rate a beer (whether ‘officially’ or just as a subconscious process of deciding how much you like what you are drinking), what’s outside the glass is just as important as what’s actually in it.

I rate beer

I’ve come to a decision, one that I’ve been thinking about for a while now… I’m starting to rate beer.

Opening the special bottles

It’s Christmas soon and inevitably you’ll be opening some special bottles. You know, those bottles which you are saving. The ones which grow in increasing numbers in the cellar/cupboard/garage/whatever. The ones which you pin imaginary labels on, such as ‘first child’, ‘when I get that promotion I deserve’, ‘wedding day’, ‘my next birthday’, ‘when I [...]

Fantasy Christmas Drinking

I’m betting there will be quite a few blogs about what beers people will be opening on Christmas Day this year (I’ve done one of my own for Pencil & Spoon that I’ll be posting soon). It’s my favourite day of the year, a day to celebrate and a brilliant excuse to open some good [...]

A pint of imperial stout, please

The UK drinking culture is built and based around sessionable, low ABV beers in the pub and they are drunk in pints. Of course, we have half pints too, but these are the reserve of the beer festival, or for the beer hunter who wants to drink lots of different ales or for the odd [...]

Trashy Beer

Loving beer isn’t just about drinking the one-offs, the famed rarities, the high-octane, super-stouts or insane IPAs. It’s not just about looking for the next tick, the next Top 50 beer, the latest hyped-release from your favourite brewery. Loving beer is more than that. And, sometimes, bad beers are good.