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 ...-
October 5th, 2009Beer Reviews, IPAThe beauty of Twitter, indeed the internet in general, is the connections that it enables you to make. The same wonder also its most concerning feature, when it is used for negative purposes.
Digital technologies allow you to tap into niche audiences that are difficult and ultimately expensive to reach, and to tap into the power of the long tail, those customers, stakeholders or peers that would likewise be more difficult to communicate with.Through the world wide web, and in particular Twitter, the world of beer has joined together with beer writers, breweries, beer lovers and just other interested folk able to communicate together in immediacy, in earnest and inexpensively. 6 months ago I would not have expected myself to be sat on the 51A into Leeds, typing on a mini laptop and posting my thoughts to a potential global audience. Ok, so globals pushing it in reality, but the [italic] potential is there. Get this page in the right place and these words [italic] could be read by millions.It’s the great connected world of Twitter that led me to the beer in question. Crownbrewerstu, aka Stuart from the Hillsborough Hotel a=in Sheffield is Head Brewer at the ajoining Crown Brewery. By adjoining I mean operating from the same plot as the hotel, using the out buildings and cellar of this Victorian hotel to brew exciting and bold beers.Stuart is a Twitfriend or whatever moniker that mutual relationship now has, and through his conversations with me and other Twitterati I found out about his concoctions. This, the very pronouncably named Unprounceable IPA was the first that I managed to pick up (from Beer Ritz of course). And so the internet comes good again.And the beer. A resiny, medicinal aroma, hops aplenty and lupulin galore. The slighlty medicinal flavour might be a bit aniseedy, and followed by a bitterness that I really like but is not completely balanced. It’s sweet (and sweeter the longer it sits in your glass), maturing from tree bark hops to trifle infusedA typical India Pale Ale? No, one based on more modern, experimental IPAs I’d say. Worth a drink? Without question.This is the sort of beer that the world needs more of. It’s raw, it doesn’t have the refined elegance or balance of world class beers, but this should be celebrated for turning up in a different suit, being something out of the ordinary and being something new and unadulteratedly nunique.The beauty of the Twittersphere, indeed the internet in general, is the connections that it enables you to make. The same wonder also its most concerning feature, when it is used for negative purposes.
For marketers, digital technologies allows you to open dialogue with niche audiences that are difficult and ultimately expensive to reach, and to tap into the power of the long tail, those customers, stakeholders or peers that would likewise be more difficult to communicate with and might only make a small proportion of your overall returns. These people are opened up to cost effective communications by the internet and, especially in times where pennies are tight, can be vital to improving your bottom line.
Unpronounceable IPA - something different and well worth grabbing a bottle or two off
Through the world wide web, and in particular Twitter, the world of beer has joined together, making connections that were previously much more diluted suddenly very direct and personal. Beer writers, breweries, ale lovers and just other interested folk are able to communicate together in immediacy, in earnest and inexpensively. 6 months ago I would not have expected myself to be sat on the 51A into Leeds (which I am right now), typing on a mini laptop and posting my thoughts to a potential global audience. Ok, so globals pushing it in reality, but the potential is there. Get this page in the right place and these words could be read by millions.
It’s the great connected world of Twitter that led me to the beer in question. Crownbrewerstu, aka Stuart Ross from the Hillsborough Hotel in Sheffield is Head Brewer at the ajoining Crown Brewery. By adjoining I mean operating from the same plot as the hotel, using the out buildings and cellar of this Victorian hotel to brew exciting and bold beers.
Stuart is a Twitfriend or whatever portmanteau that relationship now has, and through his conversations with me and other twitterati I found out about his concoctions. This, the very pronouncably named Unpronounceable IPA was the first that I managed to pick up (from Beer Ritz of course). And so the internet comes good again.
And the beer. A resiny, medicinal aroma, hops aplenty and lupulin galore. The slightly medicinal flavour might be a bit aniseedy, and followed by a bitterness that I really like but is not completely balanced. It’s sweet (and sweeter the longer it sits in your glass), maturing from tree bark hops to trifle infused glory at the end.
A typical India Pale Ale? No, one based on more modern, experimental IPAs I’d say. Worth a drink? Without question.
This is the sort of beer that the world needs more of. It’s raw, it doesn’t have the refined elegance or balance of world class beers, but this should be celebrated for turning up in a different suit, being something out of the ordinary and being something new and unadulterated-ly unique.
Tags: crown brewery, unpronounceable ipa -
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