http://markdredge.hoppress.com Pencil and Spoon Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:45:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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 ... http://markdredge.hoppress.com/2010/03/14/london-drinker/ 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 ... http://markdredge.hoppress.com/2010/03/07/in-dispense/ 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 ... http://markdredge.hoppress.com/2010/02/21/something-sour-part-of-the-journey/ [caption id="attachment_68" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="A tasted tray at Bear Republic"][/caption] I’m back from the US. What a week that was – I had the best time! So, where do I begin...? Let’s refrain from a blow-by-blow re-cap of the week. I’m sure you don’t need to hear about the details of my ... http://markdredge.hoppress.com/2010/02/14/san-francisco-beers-of-my-week/ 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 ... http://markdredge.hoppress.com/2010/01/31/san-francisco-baby/ 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 ... http://markdredge.hoppress.com/2010/01/24/changing-expectations/ 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 ... http://markdredge.hoppress.com/2010/01/17/beers-to-talk-about/ 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, ... http://markdredge.hoppress.com/2010/01/10/beer-and-food-because-it%e2%80%99s-worth-it/ 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. For example, take a pint of hoppy, session pale ale in the pub. It was ... http://markdredge.hoppress.com/2010/01/03/what%e2%80%99s-outside-the-glass-is-important-too/ I’ve come to a decision, one that I’ve been thinking about for a while now… I’m starting to rate beer. Initially, I’m setting out on a one year rating mission to try and score every unique beer which I drink. But why start now? Well, I want to see exactly ... http://markdredge.hoppress.com/2009/12/27/i-rate-beer/