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Showing posts from 2016

GOLDEN PINTS 2016

It is that time of year again. The annual introduction has been reduced to an  outro this time. If you're here for the awards you are in luck as we're going straight in (please note I haven't included any of the awards I couldn't think of a deserving winner for.)  Best UK Cask Beer: Track Brewing Co . – Sonoma. Amongst the railway arches on the so-named Piccadilly Beer Mile, the production of the UK’s most consistent and delicious cask beer. The fact I will repeatedly go back to it amongst all the Imperial Stouts and Double IPAs available on the bar is the reason it is so deserving of any accolades.  Honourable Mention: Magic Rock Brewing - Inhaler .  When Stalybridge Buffet Bar told me they were getting this in on cask I was surprised, but not as surprised as I was to learn that it is far superior on cask than it is on keg or in can (where it is still very good.) With Rapture's sad cask demise this last year, cask Inhaler could save Magic Rock f

TESCO CRAFT: The Apocalyptic Levels of Beer Purchasing

This is going to be tough to write without going off tack and forwardly insulting people who hold different views to me. I'm also not discussing the morality of Tesco as a company. See the end of the post for arguments of that ilk. I had a strange memory come back to me the other morning. It was from when I lived in the Wakefield suburbs circa 2006. I always shopped at the Asda which was a ten minute walk from my lodgings and, like it was for most of us back then, this was where I was limited to buying beer to drink in the house. The beer selection wasn't so bad for that era. I'm still convinced to this day they sold Orval at a time when my dark beer palate wasn't suited to Brettanomyces. I used to buy my fair share of Erdinger Dunkel too. What they definitely did start to sell was bottled Ossett Brewery Treacle Stout that was a very solid beer at the time. In the period when bottled beer selection was limited, having this at the end of the

The End of the Beer Advent Calendar

It is time to officially end one of my favourite blogging experiences. For four years I have looked forward to having a blog in December more than any other month. I'm already a geek for Christmas and to be able to combine that with a love for beer was a joy. On a night in November 2012 the i dea of doing a Beer Advent Calendar came to me . It was my first year blogging and so I was naive to the fact that such posts already existed. And then some. In hindsight the idea that nobody would have thought of such a simple idea was foolish. Still, as mine was exclusively Christmas-themed beer focused I had a slight niche and persevered. At times it has almost been a chore. December is a very busy time for me so finding the time to drink a Christmas themed beer each day has been problematic. Finding the time to write about a Christmas themed beer every day proved nearly impossible, with most years culminating in a completion post long after Christmas was finished , m