The Ale Thread.

[Bizza]

Anything of note I should be looking out for in York this weekend?

If you're about when the shops are still open have a look in The Bottle, fantastic little shop with tons of bottled beers and mead

The Bottle
Stonegate, York, North Yorkshire YO1 8AS

[Noodle]

This weekend, my selection will be: Castle Rock's Preservation, Nottingham Brewery's Rock, something from Belvoir and something from Mallard. I plan to have more than one pint of each. Just for research purposes. May require repeat testing.

[Matty_the_Emo_Slayer]

Anything of note I should be looking out for in York this weekend?

If you're about when the shops are still open have a look in The Bottle, fantastic little shop with tons of bottled beers and mead

The Bottle
Stonegate, York, North Yorkshire YO1 8AS

That's about 2 minutes from where i'm sitting at the moment! I'll pop in and take a gander at prices, but may end up just going to the supermarket for cans for cheapness sake today. There's a good chance my student loan will come in early tomorrow so if that happens I can splash out a bit.

[Kaahl]

This weekend, I shall be resampling:
Joseph Holt's 1849
Badger's Blandford Flyer (didn't this used to be called Blandford Fly?)
Cameron's 6th Sense

And sampling for the first time:
BrewDog's Alice Porter
Theakston's Masham Glory

[Purple n Batty]

Apart from the selection mentioned by Noodle above I have a bottle of Oakham Ales Hawse Buckler to try. Described as 'a black beer bursting with chocolate, raisin and dark malt aromas. A short fuse of sweet fruit and roast malt is eclipsed by an explosion of complete spice and coffee malt flavours leading to an irreversible dry, spicy, bitter finish'.

Hawse Buckler is a nautical term that refers to an iron place that covers the "hawse hole". Such a need arose when a ship encountered a severe storm.

[peypea]

http://www.stonebrew.com/arrogantbastard/
Got a bottle of this. It's damn tasty, kind of mangoey which is a little odd. But yeah, it's really nice.

[Czech's Mate]

Just had a bottle of king goblin....very palatable ....think I might be forced to hav a second

[AnnihiSlateR]

This weekend made me realise, I don't like Hobgoblin. At least not in bottle. Thinking back I'm not sure I ever have.

[Matty_the_Emo_Slayer]

This weekend made me realise, I don't like Hobgoblin. At least not in bottle. Thinking back I'm not sure I ever have.

It's gotten steadily worse in its bottle form, all fizzy and rank.

[Womble]

Drinking Seven Giraffes, one of the Williams Bros beers. Definitely worth a shout, it's a very light-tasting ale with a hint of fruit. Very similar to a summer ale, but not quite all the way there.

[Turbo]

JS have started doing a load of new ales. Shall report back once I have time, cash and a week without work.



Next week.

[Turbo]

OK.



Beartown Brewery: Wojtek - 5,5%vol.


Picked it up thinking it was a Polish beer, though the label would suggest not as it doesn't have Polish dancers or distinct lack of vowels in the name. I would ramble on about this apparent well known bear that fought in World War II alongside a unit of Polish soldiers who thought it was a human, feeding it cigarettes and alcohol etc but I wont. Plenty of flavour here, very much an IPA in taste and appearance, quite light so it goes down smooth. Id imagine it would give you a banging head if you drink enough of them and does the trick alcohol wise. What more do you need? So far off to a good start.

[AnnihiSlateR]

I love Beartown.
I had a Bruins Ruin this evening, and have a Polar Eclipse in the fridge.

Black Bear has been my favourite of theirs that I've tried, and Bearskinful was also rather nice.

They are one of the few breweries I will try if they're on the pumps without seeing who else is on.

[Turbo]

Never heard of them. Never come across any of their ales down here. I do feel as if I am a bit inexperienced with this ale game. North of England ales don't venture down here at all, and I spend very little time in the north.



Shame, this ale is absolutely spot on.

[AnnihiSlateR]

I have to say, I feel quite lucky at times to have a number of rather good breweries within 50 miles (I think that's the distance for the camra accreditation they have) of my local 'spoons.

Does it have the story of why Congleton is known as Beartown on the bottle?