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Because you've been good
A special festive One-Shot Wednesday for you today. It is Wednesday, isn't it? I think it is anyway. I was surprised to discover that although St Bernardus Christmas Ale has been around as long as...
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Christmas in California (or Carolina)
Some end-of-year seasonals for your Twixt-mas reading, courtesy of the good folk at Sierra Nevada.Ho ho ho, it's Holiday Haze first, a 6.5% ABV IPA that's a translucent yellow colour with a dusting of...
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Year-end pints
This month makes it ten years since Mark Dredge and Andy Mogg suggested categories that beer bloggers might like to use for an annual run-down of the best in beer. I've stuck with it steadfastly since,...
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Everywhere and nowhere
Huh. Looks like it's January again. Time to pick over the remnants of the holiday period and check the back of the sofa for beer money. Me, I've been to Aldi. They added a new eurolager knock-off to...
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Jokers in the pack
UnderDog ran a series of Jester King beers through the taps on successive Thursdays in October. Well it doesn't seem like that long ago. Shut up.Week one was Cerveza de Mezquite, described by the...
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Back to Black's
No sooner had I finished my giant Twelve Brewers of Christmas run-down (see last month's posts) than I came across this pair, just too late to put them in. Therefore Black's of Kinsale becomes the...
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Rhu the day
Before the whole Jester King thing, UnderDog went through a kegged Cantillon phase. The one of particular interest to this ticker was Nath, a lambic with added rhubarb.It's a pale pinkish copper colour...
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The red dot
I'm always up for some tomato-based beer fun so was delighted to receive this can of Asahi Red Eye from top beer writer Aran. Lager with tomato has a proud history in North America so why not start one...
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The beagle has landed
BrewDog Outpost Dublin opened its doors in December. This long-anticipated addition to the Dublin beer landscape has chosen a daring location, at the very far eastern end of the south quays, where the...
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If it's brown, drink it down
Huh. I bought this bottle of Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale in the belief that it's a packaged version of their Dark Mild. Everyone knows that's how English breweries work. But no: while the Mild is a...
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Das Wochenende
It's a while since I had any And Union beers on here. They haven't gone away, though, and now that their Irish distributor Noreast is dominating the shelves in my local supermarket they're more in my...
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Shropshire, lads
Christmas took me to rural Shropshire once again. The local pub is under new ownership but retains its three beer engines, one of them tied to the thoroughly decent Hobsons Twisted Spire.The first...
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Hague intentions
Christmas in England was followed swiftly by New Year in the Netherlands. On arrival, the first forage in my local Albert Heijn landed a new one from the never-not-funny Dutch brewery Hoop. They've...
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Beer, Bosch and beyond
A bit of pub crawling from my New Year Dutch excursion for you today, starting in downtown The Hague. I paid a couple of visits to The Beer Garden, and there I got to try Finale, a high-end limited...
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New year, same Brussels
The coda on my New Year trip to the low countries was a couple of days in Brussels. I won't be telling you much about the pub that was top of my to-do list because Joran specialises in cider. It's well...
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Three witches
Not many Irish breweries have given me three new beers to review in January but White Hag managed it. I don't even mind that at least two are altered versions of existing core beers.I was thoroughly...
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Prague hazy
I bought this bottle of Staropramen Unfiltered in the possibly mistaken belief it was a lager. Czech brewers often release unfiltered versions of their core lagers and I assumed that's what the...
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Pastry club
Amazing! Mikkeller's Beer Geek Food Thing series is still running. They're imperial stouts, built sweet, with lots of adjuncts and pastry-type ingredients. I've consumed the ones I've had too far apart...
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New, but improved?
Another Radical Drinks promotional event for one of their American breweries took place in Urban Brewing last month. This time it was New Belgium's turn, with Export Manager Casey Kjolhede in...
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White out
De Bocq's Blanche de Namur is one of the world's standard witbiers but I realised recently that I had never tasted it. When the opportunity to buy it came my way in an Italian supermarket last summer I...
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