Bash Your Haggis

Now not much has inspired me to write of late, but this forthcoming event has got me excited, and those that know me will know just how big a "FanBoy" i am when it comes to Brodies.

In discussion James from Brodies said he wondered how he was going to make next years Bunny Basher better than last years, to which i quicky replied "Thats easy, just hold it in Edinburgh"

Not particularly funny or clever but i was more puzzled by his reply. "You might be closer than you think but cant say more just yet"  But less than TWO hours later it broke that Brodies were to hold a multi pub event in Edinburgh.

If i knew all James needed was 2 hours to arrange a Brodies Event in Edinburgh id have asked him years ago.

So first off, if you don't know anything about the Brodies home pub you should go read  this

But for those of you in the know, you will no doubt be as excited as i am over the thought of Brodies Haggis Basher.

From the Information ive gleamed from twitter (and i will update as i get more info) It would appear to be a multi pub event held in Edinburgh on the 10th of July 2013, with the Pubs looking to be "The Cask and Barrel Southside", "Brewdog Edinburgh" and "The Hanging Bat"

There will be a mixture of cask and keg with likly upwards of 20 NEW brodies beers, Top amonst these is a Blueberry Version of their Sour, Now all the Brodies sours have been pretty cool, but the small taste i had of the Blueberry was out of this world and  will clearly be, one not to be missed.

Also mentioned is the intriguing  White Chocolate, White pepper, White Stout but their are no real details on this one. While fans of the Big Mofo Stout and Red wine will no doubt be drooling over the Rioja barrel version of this collaboration.

So while details may be thin on the ground at this stage there is no doubt in my mind that this could well be the unmissable Edinburgh Beer event this year.

Has CAMRA Lost its Way

It broke today on Twitter that Cromarty  had a beer order cancelled from a CAMRA festival beacuse they sell the same beer in Cask in Keg.



Now many of my friends know im  an Ardent CAMRA Supporter.

But i was horrified to think that CAMRA’s policy might be to  not support or buy beer from Brewers that Produce the same beer in cask and keg (using the same name) and while not wanting to call Cromarty  liars i just couldnt believe this was policy so i phoned CAMRA HQ

And  bloody Hell it appears to be true, i was told

Policy is
"4.33 Beer festivals are not to stock or admit for any award, any beer brand which is produced in both cask and keg versions that mislead the drinker into believing that there is little or no difference between the versions."

The wording of the policy is such that beer festival organisers are able to determine whether or not drinkers are likely to be misled. If drinkers are not likely to be misled then the festival organisers may stock a beer that is brewed both in cask and keg versions.

Now maybe this one Beer festival is interpreting the rule very tightly but its ridiculous.

Sad to say but i cant see this causing anything but harm to CAMRA reputation, when even i (probably the most PRO CAMRA person i know find this to be nothing but stupid.

And i dont want to be the person answering people at the festival about why a brewery is missing from festival, there bound to get fed up of being laughed at.

In fact looking at
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champion_Beer_of_Scotland

All three top beers in Scotland last year were produced by Brewers who will be selling there produce in both Cask and Keg, and while i will always prefer to see them in cask rather than keg, thats my personal choice.
I dont think the Battle for Cask beer is won, and i think CAMRA has a cause still to fight for, for moves like this do more to harm there cause and make them look stupid. Sadly despite argueing for the Last 2 years that CAMRA are still relevant, it does in fact look like they have lost their way.

You can Read here more about why one of these 2 breweries has Chosen to go down the Keg and Cask route.

As last year looking at my Golden Half pints blog it was clear that I love Big Dark Beers. Ok this is nothing new to me or people who know me, But i dont just love these beers, so i thought i would cover the same ground with other styles, working with an arbitrary maximum abv of 5.5.  In  know ive had several good bottles and Cask(all of which id happily drink again) at under 5.5% but i have found this much more difficult to write than the original piece, on the whole these beers while good just dont WOW me, in the same way. Where there is no winner, that is because no beers meeting that criteria didnt make it into my Ratebeer top 100 of the year.

Best UK draught (Cask or Keg) beer(stout):
Winner:  Tinpot Game Spice Stout  
Runner Up: Adkin Alfred’s Jaypee’s Stout

Best UK draught (Cask or Keg) beer(other):
Winner:  Thornbridge Wye
Runner Up: Magic Rock High Wire NZ

Best UK bottle or canned beer (stout)
Winner:Buxton Dark Nights 

Best UK bottle or canned beer (other)
Winner: No winner This year
 
Best Overseas bottle or canned beer
Winner: Crombe Oud Kriekenbier


Best Overseas Draught beer
Winner: No winner this year


Best Overall beer
Winner:  Tinpot Game Spice Stout  

The Most interesting thing about this years results is to find a sour beer in my lists as i really am not a Lambic fan, but some of the Flemish red styles are nice and the Crombe was a stunner.

How ever this year brought about the nicest thing to ever pass my lips. Its not a beer (though it is on Ratebeer) hence does not feature in this post or my main post, So what is it i hear you ask... dont I,  i could have sworn i heard you ask. Oh well im going to tell you anyway, its an ice cider La Face Cachée de la Pomme Neige Recolte D’Hiver to be precise. It truely was stunning, very sweet but ive always been partial to the sweet end of beer. Never have i come closer to taste bud heaven. Now dont get me wrong i still love beer, and i could not drink ice cider all the time (especially given the price) but if your gonna offer me a beer or that ice cider chances are the beers not got a look in.
 

Golden Half Pints 2002

Still to come is my Bitters for 2012 but a Tweet from @BoakandBailey  made me think what would my Golden pints look like 10 years ago. So this is all very airy fairy based on roughly what my memory is saying i loved

Best UK draught (Cask or Keg) beer:
Winner:  Cairngorm Witches Cauldron

Best UK bottle or canned beer
Joint Winner:Manns Brown Ale    
 
Best Overseas bottle or canned beer
Winner: Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout

Best Overseas Draught beer
Winner: I doubt id tried anything, id get excited by

Best Overall beer
Winner:  Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout

Best UK brewery
Winner: Badger

Best Overseas Brewery
Winner: On the Strength of Black Chocolate, it would be Brooklyn
 
Pub/Bar of the Year
Winner: This is Tricky, i suspect it might be the Bow Bar, but maybe Holmes Bar in Leith

Beer Festival of the Year
Winner: I probably only knew Medowbank in Edinburgh

 

Best beer twitterer
Winner: Whats Twitter


In 2003, I'd most not have any beer aims as i wasnt as beer driven. But im most likly want to bo back diving in Micronesia

Golden Half Pints 2012

For sheer simplicity im gonna go with last years  format. 
So for each catagory im going to give this years answer and my Overall choice in brackets, noting if this has changed.

Best UK draught (Cask or Keg) beer:
Winner:  Magic Rock Bourbon Barrel Bearded Lady  (Highland Orkney Porter)
Runner Up: joint Thornbridge Bracia (Pedro Ximénez Aged)    (Magic Rock Bourbon Barrel Bearded Lady NEW)

Best UK bottle or canned beer
Joint Winner: Tempest Double Cresta Stout  and Buxton Imperial Black IPA  (Old Chimneys Good King Henry Special Reserve)
Runner Up: (Old Chimneys Good King Henry )
 
Best Overseas bottle or canned beer
Winner: Cigar City Campeador - Greaves  (Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout )
Runner Up:  Evil Twin Even More Jesus  (Struise Pannepot)

Best Overseas Draught beer
Winner: Fanø Chocolate Lava   (Mikkeller X Imperial Stout Calvados Barrel Aged)
Runner Up: De Molen Bommen & Granaten Cascade BA   (De Molen Hel & Verdoemenis 666)

Best Overall beer
Winner:   Fanø Chocolate Lava (Old Chimneys Good King Henry Special Reserve)
Runner Up: Magic Rock Bourbon Barrel Bearded Lady  (Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout )


Best UK brewery (based on new beers this year)
Winner: Highland (Hawkshead)
Runner Up: MagicRock (Tempest)

Best Overseas Brewery (based on new beers this year)
Winner: De Struise ( Cigar City)
Runner Up: Cigar City (Fano)
 

Pub/Bar of the Year
Winner: Cloisters (Edinburgh)
Runner Up: Hawkshead Brewery tap

Beer Festival of the Year
Winner: De Molen
Joint Runner Up: Brodies Bunny Bash and Egham


 
Supermarket of the Year
Winner :Waitrose
Runner Up: Booths

Best beer twitterer
Winner: Simon Johnson


In 2013 I'd most like to find time to Brew at Brodies (sadly chances are low)

Oddly once again i see a theme. Theyre mostly all Black and theyre all big beers, who would have guessed that :-) 

So like last year i will follow this up with a Golden Half pints of the lower abv beers

Brewdog Thank Their Shareholders

Now i've always had a love/hate relationship with the Bad Boys of Scottish brewing, They make some cracking beers, and they fair helped speed up the opening up of the wider beer market, But they have often gone too far in some of there marketing and i down right loathed their attitude to Cask beer (My preferred dispense method)

But never before have they shown such disdain to there biggest fans than with the Sale of the Limited Edition BA Tokyos.


As always this was offered first to their shareholders. You know those people who invested in the Company. It was explained that it was an expensive beer and very limited so it would cost a lot. In fact £24 pound a bottle.

Now thats a lot of money for a 330ml bottle, and as many say you can choose not to buy it. I However  choose otherwise and did indeed buy them, and you know what it turns out that i bought them at the 'Special' price of £24. Because they have been seen in shops for way less than this, rumour has it as low as £14 and  given that the shops will be making there own profit as well Brewdog must have been selling this for considerably lower.

Turns out Shareholders are now being rewarded for their contribution to the Company by being offered Beer at a higher price than can be picked up in some shops. Thanks for that Brewdog. Its nice to know you valued our contribution,



Update 24-08-2012 : Brewdog said today "This was a simple admin error. We invoiced trade customers at wrong price by mistake."  Well thats as maybe be but im still pissed. Shareholders still ended up paying well over the price other had the chance to purchase at.

Dont let me talk too much

but the temptation is definitly there to witter on about Witterfest.

Ryan Witter-Merithew  is an underknown American Brewer currently operating out of Denmark, He brews for Fano, but also under the brewery name Grassroot, but on top of all this he is trusted to brew for both Mikkeller and Evil Twin.

However one person who know the calibre of Ryans brewing is James of Brodies fame, and while i dont know how the event came about, it has come to pass that Brodies is hosting Witterfest. A showcase of Ryans beers on Cask and Keg. Now this could not be being held in a better place, and any one who does not know my LOVE of Brodies should go read this, and this could not be happening at a better time as Ryan has just announced that he is upping sticks and moving to London.

The event is Scheduled for Sunday the 19th of August. Start time i think is 11am (though pub usually opens at 12. So any one turning up early should confirm this)


The beer list is looking good (and Ryan will be there to talk to anyone not too smelly) and should be as below, subject to the normal conditions.

Fanø Oyster Stout - 3.7% - Dry Stout brewed with fresh harvested oysters

Fanø/Tired - Hands Tuff Ghost - 8% - American Wild ale aged 10 months in Brunello Red wine barrels with 3 different strains of Brett.

Fanø - Havgus 2.7% - Session strength IPA

Fanø/Hoppin Frog - Natasha Rocks Denmark - 7.5% - Hoppy American Stout

Fanø Dr.Owl - 3.7% - Grisette

Fanø/Cabinet Artisanal brewhouse - Bitter Amendment - 4.5% - Saison with Brett inspired by English Bitter

Fanø Batch 300 Imperial X-mas porter - 10% - Imperial Porter with Coffee, Vanilla, Cinnamon, and oak chips

Fanø - Gorm - 10% - Imperial Milk Stout with 3 different types of Chocolate. Nibs, Powder, Dark Chocolate Chunks, and Vanilla.

Fanø - Chocolate Lava - 10% - Imperial Chocolate Stout with Chilies - CASK

Fanø/Mikkeller/Stillwater - Barrel-aged Gypsy Tears - 8.5% - Stout fermented 100% with brett and aged 6 months in Brunello Barrels

Stillwater - Premium 45 - 8.5% - Belgian Malt Liquor. 50% Corn and Massive dry hops of Galaxy, Citra, Kohatu

Stillwater/Mikkeller Rauchstar - 10.8% - Imperial Smoked Red ale

Cigar City - R&B Smokeout Stout - 7.35% - Lightly Smoked Stout

Grassroots - Keep on cruising buddy - 3.2% - Berliner Weiss
Evil Twin - Sønderho Hipter ale - 5.7% - Pale ale aged in white wine barrels with Brett for 5 months and Dry hopped with Cascade

Evil Twin - Molotov Cocktail - 13% Triple IPA

Fanø/Brodies - Old Dog, New Tricks - 4% - Collab super hoppy Session ale.

Mikkeller -Cù’t Cà Phê Bia Brodies Edition - 11% Imperial Stout with Coffee, Coconut, Vanilla. CASK

I do hope i see you there, but as i need to rush off about 2pm to get the Kids home(as they have school the next day), dont expect me to say more that "hi" and "Yes i would like a beer. ive not tried .... yet"


Ps. I added the smelly proviso, not Ryan :-)