Real Ale Reviews

British Guild of Beer Writers Dinner

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The last few days have been fantastic. Despite a lot of travel kafuffle and too much time spent on my feet, I managed to get to the British Guild of Beer Writers dinner in London. I could write for hours about the adventures I’ve had, a sojourn around London with my camera, beers in the legendary Rake, a day rambling around London pubs with fellow bloggers and a huge and unsuccessful rush from the Pigs Ear beer festival to get home, but I’d be here all day.

So just a few words on the event we all went down for, and what was a great celebration of beer, food and the writing that so much passion goes into… Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: beer awards, Beer Events, british guild of beer writers, flying dog, Fuller's, goats cheese, gonzo, jeff evans, mark dredge, Meantime, old thumper, pete brissenden, pete brown, pilsner, venison, vintage, woolpack dave, zak avery

Victory Prima Pils

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I should have taken more note of the hop image that dominates the label of Prima Pils. It’s not exactly inconspicuous!

Thinking this would be a typical pils with an American influence I wasn’t expecting the almost overpowering hop aroma that exudes from this beer.

Hops rule supreme throughout the taste as well, bold, floral, fruity with an abundance of resin punching over everything. The lupulin is strong in this one!

You can see (well, taste) the similarities with Victory’s Hop Devil, a monstrous and complex ale. Here too they are to put it lightly ‘on the strong side’.

This could be a great pils beer, as Hop Devil is a great (if unbalanced) pale ale. But the hops here are too much for me. Turned down a few notches this would still be hugely challenging to those that like there IBUs turned up high, but a bit more drinkable and actually more interesting than.

The trouble is that you don’t become attuned to the hops here, they get deeper as you drink.

I’d recommend this beer to any hop head, you have to try it, it’s an interesting and experimental addition to the pilsner style. But this ain’t a pilsner for those that like their Budvars or Urquells, and one that might just take you by surprise.

Tags: hops, lupulin, pils, pilsner, prima, victory

Sweden

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Last night was the Eurovision Song Contest so a few of us gathered in homage to Euro-pop ready to sing, dance and generally make merry. The plan for the night was simple – everyone had been assigned a country and was instructed to bring traditional food and drink from their adopted nation. Lucky enough to draw Sweden as my new domicile, I headed eagerly to Ikea to see what I could find…

Spendrups Old Gold Pale Pilsner – 5,0%abv – A crisp, sharp pilsner costing only £1,05 a bottle. Well worth a look to refresh you when you’re next trying to put together a flat packed wardrobe. |Be careful though, the 5% abv is subtle and not at all gassy meaning it slips down all too easily – too many bottles will probably have you putting the doors on that wardrobe upside down.

Reindeer Salami ‘Ren’ – This Salami was a very nice Swedish gimmick to stick on the table. Not really sure how to review it except to say that it made a nice little sandwich with the Swedish cheese that I picked up at the same time.

Kopparberg Premium Pear Cider – 4,5% abv – Couldn’t leave this one off the review although I’m pretty sure everyone has come into contact with it at one point or another. This cider is absolutely delicious. It’s so light and sweet you don’t actually even notice that it’s alcohol which isn’t really what I look for in a drink but I know some people will like that.

Something this sweet can’t all be good news though and I’m quite sure that too much of this would leave you with rotten teeth, feeling very sick and possibly suffering from diabetes.

Norrlands Guld Export – 4,5%abv – First and foremost this lager came out of a can and it had the tinny flavour that comes along with that. To quote our host for the evening, Sarah Frost, it seems like ‘a bit of a nothing lager’. You could equally be drinking any number of other canned lagers in terms of taste although I would say that, like the Old Gold above, it is flatter (in a good way) than the likes of Fosters or Carlsberg meaning that it is not bloating.

Billar – little car shaped sweets that are frankly odd. They seem to have the Marmite effect as I, and about half of the people at the party, loved them and everyone else thought they were rubbish.

Mini Elk & Venison Salamis – these were really good nibbles. A bit like mini Pepperamis but slightly chewier.

That my friends, is Sweden in a nutshell.

Tags: 5-6%, ikea, lager, pear cider, pilsner, Swedish