Real Ale Thread

[bear]

I'm really not a fan of beers with an alcohol percentage above the 10% mark. The alcohol generally overpowers the beer I find.

Duvel is one of the few beers I've bought that I poured down the sink.

[Errkal]

Depends on the beer, if it is properly made then it wont be harsh. There are a few breweries that just make it strong for the sake of being strong and they do tend to suck. Also getting the right temperature for the beer is extremely important too, you can make a great beer seems like total gooseberry fool just by it being too cold or too warm.

[Floex]

Just stopped off at Brewdogs to pick up a selection of ales. Best birthday gift idea ever

[smurphy]

Duvel is one of the few beers I've bought that I poured down the sink.

Doombar is just a weak Innis and Gunn. Rubbish.

[darksideby182]

Timothy Taylor’s Boltmaker was crowned top beer at the Great British beer festival at Olympia this week very nice too shame you could only get half a pint.

[Cyburn2]

Bought some Leffe Radieuse today at Drink of Fulham, orangey taste.

[Errkal]

Bought some Leffe Radieuse today at Drink of Fulham, orangey taste.

Nice stuff that!

[mrspax]

Got the house to myself tonight, so this is my company for the evening:

West Berkshire Brewery beers are lovely - good old boy in particular. The only good thing to come out of reading!

If you see it on tap, go for it!

Also, Doom Bar because, well.. Doom Bar

As a fellow Readingite (well Woodley actually) I really recommend Loddon's beers - in particular hulaballoo.
A lot of the beardy pubs in town have it on tap and it's great.

PS As Smurphy says, Doombar is overrated. And hangovertastic.

PPS Reading ain't so bad. Great facilties and transport links. All the negative stereotypes come from the pre Oracle revamp and Uni expansion times of the 70/80/early 90s. The economy is booming here too.

[Johnny Ryall]

My mate lives near a place that sells some nice beer. Forgot that I gave him £20 a couple of months ago to buy me some.

Shows up today with a haul that was definitely more than £20 in price considering the premiums some of these get marked up.

Flying Dog Woody Creek Belgian White
Flying Dog Easy IPA
Beavertown Gamma Ray APA
Brewdog Jackhammer
Brewdog Zeitgeist
6 degrees north Hopocrisy
Windswept Wolf
Fyne Ales Scotland Highlander
Fyne Ales Scotland Nice White IPA
Fyne Ales Scotland Naughty Black Ale

And a Spey Valley Brewery glass



I'm going to have to get him drunk tonight now.

I was going to tone down the rampant alcoholism in January as well.

[Errkal]

Nice stash! Jackhammer is one of my all time favourites it is amazing!

[Johnny Ryall]

I've had jackhammer a few times before. It's a dangerous one for getting you pissed I find.

[Errkal]

I drink it a fair bit so I'm sort of used to it. Plus as with all Craft Beer you only have a couple, otherwise you stop enjoying them properly.

[Ironhide]

Anyone tried Crafty Dan beers?

I got a box of three for christmas containing 1 each of:

13 guns
Big Ben
Triple C

Also got bottles of:

Spitfire
Firkin Fox
Hobgoblin
Jennings Red Breast
Bah Humbug

[Errkal]

I've had the 13 Guns, it wasn't bad. Nothing monumentally special from what I remember but it wasn't a bad beer.

Thing I didn't like most was the fake "we are a micro brewery spiel". Technically they are but they are but they are owned and run by Thwaites so it doesn't count it is just another big brewery trying to cash in on Craft Beer by making an OK beer under a new "craft" name.

[darksideby182]

Having tried a fair few (craft lagers or stream lagers) over the past month have got to say that they all have a similar yet watered down taste will be keeping to ales i think , although the new lager weatherspoons are pushing (believe its there own american lager) is quite nice.

[Errkal]

New lager? do you mean the BrewDog This. Is. Lager?

The other one is Devils Backbone that is a (kind rubbish) American IPA.

They have some epic stuff in the bottles, the Laguntis IPA from california (I think) is fantastic.

[darksideby182]

Yea it was devils backbone which I found nice think I got it muddled up with Fuller's new stream lager (which is like the others I tried not all that).
Will give the brewdog stuff ago when I see it oddly I drive past there pub in shepherds bush most weeks.

[darksideby182]

Also if your in London around holbon the princess Louise and the ye old Cheshire cheese do some nice drinks at NOT London prices

[Errkal]

Went to the cheese not too long ago, me and a couple of mates did a trip where we set out to go from London Bridge to Camden walking and find as many good pubs as we could. The Cheese was one we came across. I was more impressed by the pub itself that the beers. It was a cool pub but the beers were all pretty average.

There was one not too far from there called the Pelt Trader, that place was epic.

[darksideby182]

Pelt trader is similar to a bar by tower bridge called dean swifts which has a nice selection of brews (rotates weekly). Gonna be out for another trip in the next couple of months for a pub crawl around london has become a good day out always end up in a cocktail bar if the misses comes though lol.
Any other bars/pubs you know of let us know as I'm gonna put a together.