We arrive at the Weekend of Spontaneous Fermentation a couple of hours after it starts. Usually this means queuing or having to stand for the next few hours, but not here. There’s something very different about this beer festival, something unique.
I love big hops, I can’t resist them. I can exactly pin-point where my love of the hop began: New Years Eve 2008 and a bomber of Stone’s Ruination IPA. As a young drinker, unversed in the delights of West Coast Hop Bombs, I was excited just to be holding this bottle which announces it’s [...]
Easter weekend means a trip to Margate for the Planet Thanet Beer Festival. This is always at the top of my must-attend beer events – it’s got the great combination of place, people and beer selection which just makes it stand out above others.
This week Marston’s revealed what could be the next generation of cask ale: the Fast Cask. The hope is that this will revolutionise the quality and availability of cask ale.
I can’t resist a beer festival. Living near London means that throughout the year I have a good selection of them. The big one is the Great British Beer Festival in August, then there’s the Pigs Ear in December, Battersea in February and the London Drinker in March, plus a number of smaller ones taking [...]
I’m interested in the dispense of good beer. In the last few month I have had good beer from a hand-pulled cask, cask beer from gravity, beer from a keg, beer from various different bottles (some bottle conditioned, some not) and beer from a can. My question is, are some beers best suited to certain [...]
For the past year I’ve been on a massive hop bender. I have literally just wanted to drink as many hops as possible, stuffed as aggressively as possible into any beer I could find. It virtually got to the point where I had to refuse anything under 100 IBUs because it wasn’t bitter enough. But [...]
I’m back from the US. What a week that was – I had the best time! So, where do I begin…?
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 [...]
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 [...]
