This Is Camden
"I'll explain how the process works as I prepare your order" shouts Ahrash over the buzz of the crowds and the whirrrrr of the industrial food mixers. And donning a thick gauntlet, and dropping plastic safety glasses, he turns to the cannister containing nitrogen oxide and casually turns the latch, releasing a gushing of colder-than-ice-cold steam into the pureed ice cream mixture. This is Camden. This is England. Eating nitro ice cream in the 2010's and drinking ...
Build A Rocket Boys! by Elbow & Robinsons
Elbow are the kings of soaring melancholy, masters of poetic northern introspection. Let Elbow's albums flow over you and you can be mesmerised by their beauty alone. Put in the time to listen, to soak up the poignancy, the humour, the extraordinary manifestations of the ordinary and their albums become life affirming tributes to the everyday. Conversely, it's quite easy to stick an Elbow album on and realise thirty lethargic minutes later that time - and ...
The humble pint
So the pint is done with we're told! Well what would they say in Prague, where refreshing pilsners stand proud in tall half litre glasses, quenching thirsts almost with their looks and frothy gusto alone. Tell the football fans sinking a pint of bitter before the well trodden march to the ground that their beer will be served in flutes or tulips or whisky tumblers. "Like hell" they cry! The ugliness of a nonik pint glass aside (does ...
York Tap
It's a drinking hole essentially, underneath it all. For all the domed skylights and stained glass, people come here to let off steam, to pass the time, to forget the day. To drink. But to say that is to do York Tap a disservice as it stands resplendent next to the revived station complex. Like its Sheffield counterpart it was born in an old resting room, and the 104 year old building suits its new life ...
Meantime Union Vienna Style Lager
Deep in a basement bar not far from Bohemia, the cerny pilsners of the brewery up the road changed my perception of lager. Sweet and rich but surprisingly light, they distributed refreshment and nutrition as if feeding me and five thousand other thirsty drinkers. Meantime Union shares a similar contradiction. Broody and brown, this is is no pale bodied pushover. Lagered it is, and a tad metallic to boot, coupled with a dark caramel composition and ...
Roosters Pumpkin Beer
Roosters Brewery, whose beers are the staple diet of many a Yorkshire pub, marked this Hallowe'en with a pumpkin beer. No ordinary pumpkin beer though, a pumpkin beer served in nothing less than a giant pumpkin. A really, really giant pumpkin. Pumpkin 5 Spice Ale was tapped at North Bar in Leeds, in front of Calendar news and a small selection of excitable beer lovers. Arguably a more delicate task than tapping a cask, the job ...
Killer jerk chicken with killer ginger beer
Jerk chicken isn't just tasty to eat, it's a joy to make. The honey and coriander marinade is messy and sticky, the chicken succulent with a crispy skin - lots of kitchen mess and fun. Juices of bird and salad mean this a meal best served sans cutlery but with plenty of, well, Plenty. For a ginger beer Robinson's Ginger (brewed for M&S) is a dark and syrupy affair, quite different from a can of Barr's ...
House of the Trembling Madness
The goofy moose head gazes down aloofly from his lofty perch below the rafters, and we sit cradling a kriek and a pilsner in a building that has almost a millenniums worth of years on us. House of the Trembling Madness sits above the cobbled shopping street of Stonegate, York. The city walls skirt their circular path near here, the famous minster is but a Viking throw away. Students from the continent order coffee and thirds of ...
North By North Orval
Orval is the sort of beer spoken about with reverence. I like to think the same goes for North Bar. It should have been me and my friend Tom sat there, dissecting Leeds United's yo-yoing fortunes, laughing at the Howson Is Now blog and deliberating the creaminess of the Orval cheese whilst sat on the classroom chairs and the well leaned on tables. But it's my brother partnering this trip due to Tom's tight schedule as a relatively ...
Moorhouse's Pendle Witches Brew
From Pendle Hill you've more chance of seeing Ian Holloway celebrating at Bloomfield Road than coming across any broomsticks or clandestine hurlyburly. And that's on a cloudy day. The sandstone plateau does have a slightly spooky aura about it though. Standing proud from the undulating hillside you can imagine a cackling coven of witches peering over the landscape and plotting the demise of their rivals. Especially if you visit during thunder and lightning... Moorhouse's Pendle Witches Brew is inherently ...
Sainsbury's Great British Beer Hunt 2011
Over the last few months the Sainsbury's Great British Beer Hunt has been taking place providing a welcome opportunity to try some different beers from the familiar supermarket shelves. And in October Bad King John from Ridgeside Brewing was crowned winner of a six month national listing in 300 Sainsbury's stores. Bad King John beat beers from around the UK to the throne via four regional heats (120 beers), a three week stint in Sainsbury's stores (16 ...
M&S London Porter
Smoky as hell to smell and like a burnt caramel bar to taste, M&S's London Porter is a sweet beer to devour with masses of chocolate or marshmallows over a camp fire. If you don't fancy the great outdoors then no worries, the lingering smoky presence hangs around for a long time in your mouth and may invoke daydreams of sitting under the stars and gazing at the heavens. It's packed with malt variety: you can settle ...
Lakeland IPA
Tuesday night, two bottled bitters sunk and the quenches for thirst and flavour continue to itch away unabated. Cue Lakeland IPA, a beer that for one moment in time justifies the beatification of hops single-handedly. The perfect hiss released as metal hits glass and twists plastic; an aroma eager to reach a nose and knock on the door of the senses. Soft-fleshed fruit says hello - mangoes might not be typical of Cumbria unless visiting a certain kitchenware ...
Moor JJJ IPA
This not, I repeat NOT, an IPA. Punchy, citrus hops? Nil. Alcohol? Deep, stewed and sweet beyond believe. Apple skins & fruit pudding? Yes, yes, YES! None of which gives Moor JJJ IPA much credence as an IPA. But then again this isn't an IPA nor a double IPA. It's only a bleedin' triple IPA(!!!). This couldn't be further from Green King's bland and monotonous flagship brand of ale and is similar in nothing but colour. By their own admission Moor didn't ...-
August 31st, 2009Continental LagerAnother quick post about my holiday (sorry!).
In an effort to do something more than laze in the sunshine in our small, quiet resort of Kriopigi in Halkidiki, we explored a little further around the Kassandra Peninsula on two evenings, once to the bustling resort of Hanioti, and the other a little less further, to the the last remaining plate smashing restaurant in our area.
Me and the mammoth Mythos
Now, the whole evening was lots of fun, although the plate smashing was reserved mostly for the children. The waiters were crazy, everyone danced on the tables and we finished by drowning (literally!) in Metaxa from the largest bottle of spirits I’ve ever seen sprayed over grown adults (thanks to a very enthusiastic proprietor and a bottle of liquor with a tap on it!)
But it wasn’t the scariest large drink of the night, as I found myself trying to defeat a gigantic 2L glass of my favourite Greek tipple, Mythos. I’m not quite sure I’d read the menu probably because I was not expecting this!!!
I’ve had beers larger than a pint before, most notably the formidables of Lourdes in France (1L glasses) and once, when I was much younger and much, much more immature, a yard of ‘snakebite and black’ topped with gin and other ill-mannered liquids on a night out with some rugby lads (I’ve never ever played rugby!).
But I wasn’t quite prepared for the embarassment of been the only person in the restaurant to be sitting at his table with a whopping 4 pint glass that was about as wide as my torso! The embarrassment didn’t last long, as other, older and more mature fellows soon followed, and received considerably more abuse from their better halves than I did (in fact you’ll see Sarah had quite a sip herself!)
But as I was loosening my collar and slowly, very slowly, draining my gargantuam thirst quencher, and with the furore and fuss around BrewDog’s Tokyo still ringing in my ears, I wondered about responsible drinking. Read the rest of this entry »
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June 7th, 2009Continental Lager
I picked up a bottle of Oranjeboom Premium Lager (5% abv) completely by chance from a local Aldi for 99p. I’d never tried this lager before and chose it because it was one of the few in Aldi’s range that I had actually heard of.
This is the first full ‘non-ale’ review to go onto the blog and was therefore a bit of a gamble, but, even if I do say so myself, I think it can ultimately be seen as a success. Hoppy and full flavoured this lager certainly sits in ‘real drinks’ category. It is neither one of the flatter, flavourless Corona/Brama type lagers and nor is it one of the gassy, bloating Fosters/Carlsberg type lagers, in fact it is frothy and lively without being at all gassy. Coupling this with the great price I have to say I wouldn’t be at all embarrassed to serve this up with pizza and pro evo when the boys come round.
Tags: 4-5% ABV, Dutch, lager, Oranjeboom, Pizza, Pro Evo -
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