Beer - Alan on beer

About Us – A little about Real Ale Reviews  - twitter.com/realalereviews

Real Ale Reviewers - Meet our regular beer reviewers: Alan, Mark & Sam

Links - Other beer sites that we like (and some non-beer ones!)

Beer

My first experiences of drinking beer came at my Dad’s barbecues. Sneaking a a cheeky little green bottle of Biere D’Alsace that came back to the UK with hundreds of other little green soldiers in the back of ‘Dodgy’ Dave’s Astra estate. At that age being allowed any alcohol was a treat but I soon learned to drink my bottle quickly as the first rule of enjoying beer tattooed itself into my psyche… 1. Good beer tastes better when it is still cool and fresh. Sure, warm flat beer can be downed quickly and if you’re sat in the middle of a rugby circle then that’s fine but you’ll be too busy throwing up down yourself to read this blog.

Now that I’ve grown up I’m able to spend a little bit more than the £1.20 a pint I hunted out at uni and so more weekends and evenings are spent drinking quality beers in nice bars with good food. This leads me on to the second rule of enjoying beer… 2. Never drink good beer from a can. Higher volumes of beer can be acquired more cheaply in a can but you get one Penelope Cruz for the price of two Cheeky Girls, and it’s worth spending the extra cash so that your beer doesn’t taste of tin.

By Alan

About Us

Set up my Mark and Alan, two young professionals entering our late twenties, Real Ale Reviews aims to be an independent source of a wide range of reviews of a huge range of beers (that is ale, lager, pilsner, stout, cider, anything similar!).

We write about as much beer as we can and intend to review some of our favorite beers from the UK and beyond. Alongside this we will be reviewing the best places to eat and drink around West Yorkshire and everywhere else we end up on the weekend. We are not as committed as the chap that Mark met on the train one day who spent every weekend travelling the country attempting to visit every single Wetherspoons, but we are committed. We will also therefore be bringing reviews on brewery’s, beer festivals and the best bottled beer outlets in Britain.

We want as much contribution from you as possible, and welcome reviews, opinion and articles on anything beer related! We talk about beer on twitter, so follow us for our up-to-the-minute beer talk! twitter.com/realalereviews

Real Ale Reviewers (so far!)

Mark Fletcher – working for a leading digital agency in Leeds, Mark (aka FletchtheMonkey) writes about beer & digital marketing and tweets more than any other simian in West Yorkshire. Plays 5 a side, takes his camera everywhere he goes, and is about to waste a silly amount of money on a season ticket at Elland Road. Loves Grand Designs a little bit too much…

Alan Walsh – Oxfordshire born and bred, Alan is very good at hockey and works in the finance sector. Has a degree in History and History of Art and is an oracle of (potentially not very) useful information

Sam Lanes – Rothwell born and bred, Sam is also wasting a silly amount of money watching Leeds United in the 3rd division. Passionate about music, photography and home-brewing we hope to sample some of Lanesy’s ale in the very near future!

We want your reviews! We are working on making this as easy as ordering a pint, but in the meantime please email or tweet us your news, comment and reviews that you’d like to see published! If you run another beer blog then we’d love to share content, links and hopefully meet up for a beer!

Other beer sites that we like (and some non-beer ones!)

Real Ale Hunter – find, share and hopefully sample ale in the best real ale pubs in your area – www.realalehunter.co.uk

The Beer Boy - beer writer supreme Zak Avery blogs about all things beer  - www.thebeerboy.co.uk

Mashable – social media news and information from  mashable.com (useful tweets!)

Pencil & Spoon – beer opinons and great information from http://Twitter.com/MarkDredge

Think Vitamin – excellent blog by the team at Carsonified (for great digital tips and discussion, follow Ryan Carson) – carsonified.blog.com

CAMRA – the Campaign for Real Ale

Michael Jackson’s Blogspot – My Dad’s copy of “Beer” has a lot to answer for! Had his critics but his books are excellent, a true legend in the beer world. Enjoying an ale in the sky we hope.

Shut Up About Barclays Perkins – a little technical for us sometimes, but a bloomin’ detailed beer blog, meticulously researched and enlightening

The Good Stuff - Fellow Leeds blogger Leigh writes about food and beer and a variety of very good stuff

UK Beer review blog – beer and ale tastings and review written by our friends Dan Cave and Andy Mogg. Not only do they write about beers in a way that won’t scare off your average man in the pub, they have myriad hobbies ranging from cars and photography to growing chillies and long distance walking