Red-Nosed Reinbeer

Onward! Now that we have finished the season 6 boxset of Game of Thrones (that didn't take long) we are moving onto other films such as the Harry Potter franchise. No, I haven't ever seen them in the cinema - well, okay, I went to see the first one and was so underwhelmed that I didn't go back. I saw the second one on a video whilst training as a teacher and have only just seen the third this holiday (and I did spend rather a lot of time playing on my phone).

I digress, the purpose of this post is to continue the trend of drinking all my Christmas ales in the yuletide season so that I'm not still reviewing Christmas ale deep into March. Also, I may be enjoying the novelty of having so many ales so close together. I know, but for me this is a thing. Anyway, the ale of choice this time, before a blazing fire and with the Christmas tree still looming in the corner despite the twinkling lights, is Cotleigh Brewery's Red-Nosed Reinbeer and I am rather looking forward to it.

Will the ale be like the nefarious artificial tree, all happy looking and slightly garish but still evil lurking beneath like some atavism of the year? Or will it be more benign like the personalised number-plate I saw today: "B9 DAD"? You be the judge! Well, okay, no, I'll be the judge. Would you like to know more?

Cwrw-istmas

When you get twelve ales for Christmas and they're all themed there's not much else you can do but drink them quickly. If, like me, you are boring and enjoy blogging the ales then you also need to get yourself into the blogging sharpish too. Thus it is that I find myself on the second ale of many this Christmas-tide: Cwrw-istmas by Brecon Brewing Company and I find myself quite looking forward to it!

It has been a good couple of days, and it looks like it shall be a good few more with Game of Thrones season 6 on DVD and a good ale on hand... Yes, that is a toilet roll off to the left, we ran out of tissues, what of it? Would you like to know more?

London Nights

I may not have mentioned this much before now, but last week we took our first family holiday since about 2010 and we took it to London. Staying in a, frankly, rather nice hotel at the Walthamstow Central tube station and taking our meals from local supermarkets meant that it was a budget buster and a very pleasant few days. Our young children showed me how utopian my thinking was on visiting such things as the Natural History Museum (no, we didn't see any dinosaurs) and the Science Museum (looking really quite tired in places) as well as sojourns to the National Gallery (no, didn't get to see the Impressionist stuff) and tourist-y sites.

On one such outing, this time around Parliament Square (I know how to live) I noticed a Shepherd Neame pub and joked about getting a half there. Anna agreed and suggested that I do exactly that one day. That night, after checking and finding no shows on, Anna suggested that I go and do a half there and some other pubs too. I, of course, did not need asking twice. And so it came to pass that I spent a very nice evening, the night of the fire in Holborn, gadding about in London sampling ales and public houses.

Does this sound like your cup of tea? It doesn't? Oh, what about your pint of ale? Ah, well then, time to read more...

Beer Review: Steam Beer

I have been accused that I buy too many of my ales from B&M and that is probably true. But, you know, sometimes I go to other supermarkets to buy my ale. You may have noticed this one peeking out from behind other ales in my pictures and then suddenly disappearing, this is where it went! I have a review of a pub crawl... walk that I did in London last week that I want to get posted but it has a lot of images and it's taking a while to get it in order - that'll be a Sunday job then. In the meantime, enjoy this review of Steam Beer from the Revisionist brewery. In this case, Marstons.

So, this is a good little tipple for an evening and one that you may wish to know more about. Would you like to know more?

Easter Ales: Robin Hood

It's Easter Sunday, this is cause for celebration (being Christian-flavoured) and so I decided that I would mark the occasion like any other and have an ale. Inkeeping, I hope, with my own vision of what Christ is supposed to be (social-justice and pro-human) I thought it fitting to try Robin Hood from Springhead as Robin Hood was supposed to embody the same values and ideals as Christ Himself when he took from the rich to give to the poor (in some versions of the myth) as well as having a lovely band of merrie men to help him enact his deeds, kinda like disciples (and with the same smattering of human failings too, if memory serves).

And there's Disney too. I do rather enjoy, guiltily it has to be said, that film. And so there's also that link. It also forms a lovely pair with the last review on here of Maid Marian (link) though I lacked the wherewithal to have two ales on a single night. Which is ridiculous seeing how many I can get through on a night out! See this link and this link for evidence of the insanity. Anyway, one ale it is and one ale it shall be.

Would you like to know more?

Works' Do!

This is a first for the new epoch that this blog represents. This was the weekend of a works' do, a night foraging through multitudinous drinking establishments along a pre-arranged route with colleagues from the current place of work in search of some nice ales and some decent conversation. Naturally, I spoke much but the search continued - I think there's a lesson lurking there somewhere about the efficacy of my conversation but I'll be blown down by a feather if I can work it out.

Basically, there was a barcrawl around a locale with some lovely cask ale, real ale and people on its route through the afternoon, the fields and into the late evening. It was capped off by a decent clutch of pizzas and Drop Dead Fred, though not a complete viewing due to the lateness of the hour - we are all, still, at heart consummate professionals.

It was a good evening, and I, being me, did aim to take a snapshot of each of the ales sampled and a quick review. Would you like to know more?

Beer Review: Scottish Ale

Tonight is a bad night to be posting anything like this as it is the day that Sir Pratchett died. I enjoyed his work, recognised what he was doing with it, didn't always see what he saw. But I did get his jokes. I did see his humanity. I did concede that he often had better arguments than I did, or do. He was important in a way that few people can claim to be and humble in a way that few important people truly are. Greatest respect to the man, condolences to the family in a place no one connected to them will ever read. Here.

But I never knew Pratchett personally. I do not know anyone who knew him. So this blog will continue as it always has, because... well, that's the point isn't it?

I'll be honest, I got this ale because I hadn't had it before, it was cheap (on offer) and it was in a small bottle. At the time I was looking for brews that were cheap and cheerful, good for an evening after a long day at work. So it is that, tonight, I find myself having Belhaven Scottish Ale. But why the delay? I got this in months ago! It's stronger than I thought, is the answer, and I have to confess that I found it worthy of a review.

Without further ado, then, it's time to begin. Would you like to know more?

Beer Review: Nanny State

Not sure if this counts as a beer review in one sense, but it is by Brewdog and they are usually anything but normal and expected and so I feel that it is fine to be reviewing it as an ale. Besides, the Christmas season was full of heavy ales and big sessions so it is perhaps more fitting that I try something a little less heavy in order to recover. You never know, as we pootle about this New Year in which we find ourselves, you may find yourself needing a slow down.

So it is that I am reviewing Nanny State for lunch. Hence the odd picture of my DVD collection below (they are stacked next to my chair). Actually, some of those... most of those are Anna's.

Would you like to know more?

Christmas Review: Beers!

After the morning of frenetic unwrapping and playing on a carousel system (the Boy) or manically changing the dresses on magic clip dolls over and over and over (and over), that would be the Girlie, the wife (Willow) and I sat down to watch an old DVD (Dylan Moran, Monster) and snuggle up. I got out my Christmas ale (yes, I have only the two) and decided to imbibe them during the showing. Originally in scrawled notes and now written up to post online!

Thrill!

I have had Yule Love It (again) by Thwaites and Snowman's Revenge by Wentworth, though this may be a bad batch, we'll see.

Would you like to build a snowman? No? Okay, then read my reviews instead!

Beer Review: Black Pepper Ale

Right! Back on track. Something a little different, certainly, but I feel that the lateness of the hour combined with the lateness of the year calls for something of that nature to be imbibed. I've had a Batemans on draught at a lovely inn in Belper with colleagues before and Victory Ale was a nice enough brew chosen for me by my daughter, so when I saw this little number sitting on offer locally I had to try. Tonight I shall be attempting to describe to to you the sensation of drinking Black Pepper Ale or BPA as it advertised.

It is, as you would expect, an ale that is sold on the gimmick of adding a small amount of black pepper to it, from a small pouch secreted in a specially made cardboard jacket effort about the neck. The reason I say all of this is because, in order to pour it and use the pepper, I had to rip the jacket-y thing off and so the below image is not representative of the appearance in a shop.

Because you all buy beer on my recommendations and seek out what I drink out of sheer jealousy, I know, it's a hard life being a trend-setter and an all-round beer-savant. Which is why, being lazy, I'm very glad that I am neither.

Would you like to come further below the depths into the madness?

Beer Review: Bishop's Finger

It's been a while since I declared, perhaps rather rashly, that my favourite brewery was Shepherd Neame and nary a beer from their stable has made me sit up and shout about them since Dragonfire (link) in June! Indeed, it's been a while since I reviewed anything of them, the last being the rugby themed Up and Under (link) in July. In partial rectification of this, and also to see if they withstand the onslaught of locally brewed beer since I've moved.

Tonight, then, it is the time to have Bishop's Finger and see how we go. Mind how you go, sir, it is a strong ale, sir. And yes, I just said the last sentence in the Cockney accent I remember from things like On the Buses or Up Pompeii.

Would you like to know more?

Beer Review: Mr. Trotter's

Something a bit special tonight, as the nights draw in, a gift from a friend of mine from University from a brewery that is local to him, Lancaster Brewery in, well, Lancaster. He actually gifted a brace and this, a chestnut ale, is the first to be reviewed.

It is, oddly enough, called Mr. Trotter's Great British Chestnut Ale but the blurb makes the shortening to Mr. Trotter's which is how I shall refer to it from here on in.

Would you like to read more?

Cultural Exchange - A Night in Leeds

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have ventured north once more to the fine and fair city of Leeds, there to meet with two erstwhile colleagues who remain good friends. I was shown the pinnacle of hospitality (and I'm not randomly exaggerating that at all!) and had a really good night. I managed to play the hand I was dealt rather poorly but we still had some fantastic beer, good conversation and a reet good night. Also, Leeds happened.

And it goes a little something like this...

In the process I was treated to not one but TWO home brews by my host and, the following day, a much needed romp in the woods. through an old and almost unknown POW camp from the Second World War. His girls were much enamoured of the toilet block (what remained of it) and I loved the references to 1996 that were spray painted on listing the X-Files that may have happened there. All in all, a great weekend (albeit last weekend) and one that deserves a blog post. So, here it is.

For the faint of heart and those with medical conditions, there is a line break here as a salve and shield for your sanity. Would you like to know more?