Campaign for Real Ale

[Vich]

Well its been another year and on Wed 6th April 2016 the Newcastle upon Tyne 40th Beer and Cider Festival starts for 3 days. As a fully paid up CAMRA member I will be there on the first day only as I can not usually remember the next two days anyway. 

There will be literally hundreds of beers on offer and getting through the lot is not an achievable dream.  On paying for entry you are supplied with a half pint glass and usually you get tickets to start you off and you change these for half pints of the selected brew (but if it is a high alchol brew sometimes two tickets are required).  This is the only time in the year I mix my drinks (if you ignore the Jack or G&T at the end of a normal night out).  There will be representation from other countries as well as UK microbreweries, including a fair number from the USA (wish you were here Dbals)

I have to admit that whilst I have had some amazing brews there have been some that were revolting but thats part of the fun, you don't  know what you are going to get, though you can ask for a taster.  In my experience the extra strong beers more than 8% usually taste bad as the sugars used to increase the alchol content during fermentation leave a sweetness that has to be compensated for by over hopping which ends up crippling the palate.  I tend to stay away from them now sticking to 6% and under, the strongest I ever tried was 10.5% and it was not worth finishing, it was more of a curiousity, revolting and ended up in the slop bin.

If anyone is there I will be among my group of beer hardened mates, the baldy old fart staring at the top of my glass intently and wearing a battered leather Jacket and an old Helbros 21 Invincible on my wrist that I have finally got going nicely for the day.

Cheers,

Vic

[Geo]

I wish I could make it Vic, it sound like fun.  We have a beer festival usually in June here in Broughty Ferry, it's certainly nowhere near as large as your event, but fun all the same.  

Have one for me when you get there!

[Cad101]

Beer arggghhhh ( tries to sound like homer but didn't  really work ) it makes the world go round you know especially after 8 pints enjoy yourself .

[Blacklab]

....and there I am being led to believe that Newcastle + beer =

Enjoy yourself!

[Spandrel]

CAMRA member myself, but I sadly can't make Newcastle. Have a great time.

[WillFly]

My son (who works in the wine trade) brews his own beer when he can, and has about £2,000-worth of equipment in his house at the moment. He's trying various recipes out until he gets the one he can market.

He's very good at it, but he's another of the beer drinkers that have turned to very golden, hopped-up modern ales. I find them too lemony for my taste, preferring darker beers. I drink porter or old ale when I can get it, or traditional bitters otherwise.

And I always keep a stock of Leffe Brune in the garage... Those Belgian monks - bless them!

Will

[Geo]

14 minutes ago, WillFly said:

And I always keep a stock of Leffe Brune in the garage... Those Belgian monks - bless them!

Will

Mmmmmm Leffe Blond or Brune, I like both, the make me want to 

[Vich]

47 minutes ago, WillFly said:

My son (who works in the wine trade) brews his own beer when he can, and has about £2,000-worth of equipment in his house at the moment. He's trying various recipes out until he gets the one he can market.

He's very good at it, but he's another of the beer drinkers that have turned to very golden, hopped-up modern ales. I find them too lemony for my taste, preferring darker beers. I drink porter or old ale when I can get it, or traditional bitters otherwise.

And I always keep a stock of Leffe Brune in the garage... Those Belgian monks - bless them!

Will

I am a Guinness drinker when I can not get real ale and I share your distaste of the lemony and flowery ales and though I will try some at the fair, I gravitate towards the Porter style and Brown Beers.  Unfortunately Guinness makes me gain weight rather quickly and though it is refined by my system probably a bit too quickly (old age problems) it still leaves some weight behind (thats the only time I will mention Behind).  There are certain other by products at the real ale festivals and as per Blacklabs pic an oxygen mask would not come amiss either.  I tend not to venture towards the Ciders as I find the Cloudy stuff too easy to drink and rather potent for a session.  I do have a stock of light lagers for when I am trying to lose weight but they are for desperate circumstances - after weight watching curries etc (;-))

It is funny how some ales I tasted for the first time at the fair years ago are quite commonplace in the bars now, makes like Doom Bar, Directors and Hobgoblin.  A good thing but unfortunately the UK is still losing its Public Bar Heritage at the rate of two a week.

It is a good job that there are people like your son with a true appreciation that carry on a centuries old tradition and he is to be lauded for his work.

PS. I do resemble Blacklabs picture but without the hair !

Cheers,

Vic

Edited March 26, 2016 by Vich

[WillFly]

Brighton is very big on the craft beer scene - lots of specialist pubs selling it. I've just renewed my bus pass - so I can swan over there, swill a few ales - and swan back...

 

[Vich]

Buses are really easy to fall asleep on Will, surprisingly it is only on the return journey though, can never work that one out

Cheers, Vic

[WillFly]

[Blacklab]

3 hours ago, Vich said:

PS. I do resemble Blacklabs picture but without the hair !

Cheers,

Vic

So its true then. That's why I did the right thing & gave up reading newspapers years ago. I now get the real news & sophisticated cutting edge social commentary from Viz.

[oldhippy]

I don't drink very much these days perhaps 1 or two pints a month. Years ago I liked Royal Oak or Wadworths 6x then it would be 4 or 5 pints a night.

[WillFly]

6x is a lovely beer - not common down our way - but nice when you can get it. I drink comparatively little beer these days - the odd Leffe to share with Madame on a summer lunchtime on the patio. I have one pint when I'm out playing, which is about once or twice a week, and that suffices for the evening.

The government and medical health gurus are now saying that even a drop of alcohol increases the risk of cancer. Well, frankly, at my time of life I really don't care that the small amount I drink might be dangerous. We've all got to go sometime and a life without some small pleasures would be no life at all. I think smoking's a greater risk - a real killer - and I stopped that in 1971!

Anyway, I'm just off to smoke a pipe of opium and sniff some talcum powder up my nose. See you all later...

[Vich]

Hello,

I agree with you Will, I did jack in the Cigars (even though I still have some tubed Romeo's that I gaze at occasionally - probably knackered now.).  I am of an age that just about all my classmates smoked from secondary school age.  At the time it was supposed to calm the nerves but I eventually saw the light and the Medical folks have never recanted on the bad health results of smoking. 

However, to paraphrase Charlton Heston talking about firearms, they can prise the beer glass from "my cold dead hands".  I feel that there is a limit to self denial of whatever the medically trained currently disapprove of, that once breached removes the appreciation of life in general.  They keep on changing their minds anyway about Wine, Butter, Rapeseed oil (Canola to the cousins) and loads of other stuff.  The key is moderation with the occasional blip for special occasions - like the Beer Festival

Wadworths is always represented at the fair and 6x is lovely, well rounded brown and wholesome and has been around for about 80 years which proves something in my mind.  Most people in the North East have had a bit of Bishops Tipple since they started bottling it and it appeared in the supermarkets (I don't want to get into a purist argument about real ale not being real unless the fermentation is in the bottle and I know Guinness does not count as real ale etc. etc. etc.), St George appears on the bars every now and then and lets not forget the Dirty Rucker.

Cheeeeerrrrs

Vic

Edited March 31, 2016 by Vich

[mcass]

Love Guiness here....anything lighter shouldn't even be called a beer. Recently found a great appreciation for the flavor of Scotch though so haven't had much beer in the fridge in awhile.

[Geo]

I like a good Guiness too mcass, but unfortunately it doesn't qualify for this section.

[clockboy]

I used to attend a yearly beer fest at my local Rugby club. Wonderful stuff but the really strong ones I did not like the taste. A stagger home was the norm & sore head the next day. My favourite bitters are IPA followed by Spitfire .

[Vich]

Hello Clockboy,

I have ventured into the realms of homebrew and know a little (probably a bit dangerous) and maybe Will's son can confirm this but I think that to get the alcohol up they add more sugars and to compensate they over-hop the mix to get the sweetness down and that leads to some wierd tasting stuff, a battle of the tastebuds ensues.  Like you I tend to stay away from the really strong real ales, firstly as I don't like them in general, secondly it is a matter of self preservation as I like to see the whole night out. 

Oddly some bottled beers (as opposed to real ales) that are quite high in alcohol taste better - may be something to do with the way they are processed.

Cheers,

Vic

 

[clockboy]

16 minutes ago, Vich said:

Hello Clockboy,

I have ventured into the realms of homebrew and know a little (probably a bit dangerous) and maybe Will's son can confirm this but I think that to get the alcohol up they add more sugars and to compensate they over-hop the mix to get the sweetness down and that leads to some wierd tasting stuff, a battle of the tastebuds ensues.  Like you I tend to stay away from the really strong real ales, firstly as I don't like them in general, secondly it is a matter of self preservation as I like to see the whole night out. 

Oddly some bottled beers (as opposed to real ales) that are quite high in alcohol taste better - may be something to do with the way they are processed.

Cheers,

Vic

 

Myself & wife served in the main Bass social club in Burtion on Trent for a couple of years & as a consiqence was offered the opportunity to enter the pub trade but we declined when we realised how much hard work was  involved to run a really good pub with really good beer.
I also made home brews & a tip that one of Basses chemists gave me when bottling up place ONE grain of suger in the bottle & you will have sparkly beer when opened.

 

[WillFly]

My son's beer is very well made but, like many people of his generation (and older than him) in our part of the world, he likes the very hoppy, lemony, golden beers. I appreciate that they are well made - "Hophead", by the Dark Star Brewery in Partridge Green in Sussex - is made just down the road from me, and has set the trend in this area. But I'm old-fashioned and prefer darker beers. The local, and main, Sussex brew is Harveys - a nice medium ale - and that suits me.

Most of these modern, lemony beers are made with several varieties of mainly American hops. Harveys is made from hops grown in Kent and Sussex - and sells to those counties.

Cheers,

Will

[Alaskamick]

I only live a few miles from the Banks brewery and I'm a real fan of mild.

Sadly it's a rare commodity these days. Still one or two of the old pubs around that have it.

[Blacklab]

Same here Will. I think the trend for light coloured beers stems from the brewery's trying to wean people off Carling & suchlike. The only problem with many of the dark beers now is they tend to be in the rocket fuel category, it's getting harder to find something in the session area of 3.5% or thereabouts.