All Things Beer!

A belated happy birthday!  I love Belgian beers!

Been to the Ossett 'Hop' in Leeds, but not yet to the one in Sheffield.  Haven't tried Hop Monster yet... but usually enjoy Ossett, particularly Excelsior and Silver King.

Where else did you go in Sheffield?  There are some fab pubs there!

Thanks....I brought a few bottles back from Belgium and glasses to match!

My friend works in Sheffield so goes out there quite a bit and it was supposed to be pubs I've not been in before.
But we started in one of my favourite pubs anywhere, The Devonshire Cat, so we could have lunch as they do excellent burgers. We did think of The Hop for lunch as they do a pie and mash deal (£5 including a pint) but my friend is veggie so would be risking that they had the cheese and onion pie available!
So, then we went to The Hop, The Grapes, Bath Hotel, Three Tuns (beautiful interior), and the Red Deer (which I had been to before)
All this without having to put my hand in my pocket all day! 

Jumping back in several days later in the conversation, but there are a few microbreweries in the area. We plan to check some out soon.

Also, as it was mentioned, it is almost pumpkin beer time, so my heart leaps with joy for that reason. (And pumpkin lattes, cakes, Pop Tarts and all other things joyfully pumpkin, but that is another topic.) I do adore a good pumpkin beer.

Had Keegan's Black Eye P.A. the other night and I loved it. I've been really on IPAs lately, and this was a really nice twist.

Black IPAs seem to be 'the thing' at the mo... quite a lot of breweries are doing them. 

Sunday night we were sitting in the Ally drinking bottled German beer when one of the group got a Twitter that Hawkshead NZPA was on in a little-used, normally pretty rubbish Wetherspoons in town.  So we drained our Tegernsee Spezial Hells and went to 'Spoons and polished off the rest of the 6% NZPA barrel.  It's not really a favourite of mine...a bit too sharp/citrusy for my taste, but you know how it is when you're in good company and trying to delay Monday morning for as long as possible...

Which particular little-used Wetherspoons are we referring to here?

Black IPAs seem to be 'the thing' at the mo... quite a lot of breweries are doing them. 

Sunday night we were sitting in the Ally drinking bottled German beer when one of the group got a Twitter that Hawkshead NZPA was on in a little-used, normally pretty rubbish Wetherspoons in town.  So we drained our Tegernsee Spezial Hells and went to 'Spoons and polished off the rest of the 6% NZPA barrel.  It's not really a favourite of mine...a bit too sharp/citrusy for my taste, but you know how it is when you're in good company and trying to delay Monday morning for as long as possible...

Which particular little-used Wetherspoons are we referring to here?

LOL... I just meant 'little-used' by my group of friends as they rarely have anything on that we want to drink.   That would be the Edward G Wylie... or as we call it, Edward G Robinson!

The management of some of the other Spoons in town are much more proactive about getting interesting ales in, so we go there... Henglers, Society Rooms, and now that the former manager from Henglers has moved to the Counting House, we go there too.

Also for my birthday my friends got me 3 cases of Hawkshead Brewery (Lake District) beers (3 different beers) plus a mixed case of various beers none of which I've had before. Those coupled with what I already have mean I've over 70 bottles of beer in the house.....no need to buy any for a while!

I got a few books on homebrewing yesterday from the library.   I can't wait to read up and see what I can do.  Also, hops are really easy to grow.
I think homebrewing suits my need to want to homestead! 

Also for my birthday my friends got me 3 cases of Hawkshead Brewery (Lake District) beers (3 different beers)

Mmmmm.... Windermere Pale!

Mmmmm.... Windermere Pale!

Hawkshead Red (which is one of my faves), Lakeland Gold and Brodies Prime.

Samuel Adams' Octoberfest is currently making me a happy girl. I could easily enjoy one of them every day until they are out of season again.

Samuel Adams' Octoberfest is currently making me a happy girl. I could easily enjoy one of them every day until they are out of season again.

Lucky you!

I've never been a beer drinker - really don't like hops. BUT, a few summers back (before I moved here) I started drinking Leiny's Summer Shandy. Loved it. Then the next year, my brother introduced me to Landshark which I LOVE. I also love wheat beers. BUT, my fav beer is still Landshark.

So, the reason I'm sharing this is because I don't know how to find a beer like my beloved Landshark. It's a lager but I've never met another lager that I like. I would love to figure out a way to describe what kind of beer I like or ask the right questions in a pub to determine if I should even try one. I typically just have a cider (if they don't have any wheat beers).

Anyone have any recommendations for me? Or a way I can explain what kind of beer I like?

TIA,
Shelly

Hi Shelly... I've never heard of Landshark, but in trying to find a beer that tastes like that, maybe you could contact the brewers and ask what type of hops they use in the beer... then try to find the same hops in a beer over here?  It's a pain, and it doesn't always work out, but it's worth a try.

I'm not a fan of wheat beers myself, but over here you could try looking out for German/Dutch/Belgian 'weissbier' or 'witbier' or 'hefeweizen'.    Have you tried Hoegaarden?  That's probably the biggest/easiest to find/most commercial of the wheat beers.  Others that come to mind are Oakham White Dwarf and... i think Fullers Discovery is a wheat beer that's filtered rather than cloudy.  Abbeydale do a wheat beer too, which is not-very-cleverly named 'Wheat Beer'. 

Good luck and have fun tasting them all to find the one you like best!

Friday:  Fyne Ales Fladda Rock 5.5%
Saturday:  Tempest Long White Cloud 5.6%
Sunday:  Andechs Bergbock Hell 6.9%

It was a pretty good beer weekend!
And we booked tickets to go to a fest at Fyne Ales (Cairndow in Argyll)... all you can eat barbecue, all you can drink beer, plus transport there and back for £30!