All Things Beer!

Glasgow Real Ale Festival starts tomorrow... the first CAMRA fest in Glasgow for almost 20 years!  We've been working hard on it, and learning a lot from our more seasoned fest organisers from Renfrewshire CAMRA.  Beer list looks really good, but our draught German beer supplier has let us down and is now only supplying bottles, which has been a huge disappointment, as we've been advertising German biers vom fass. 

http://www.glasgowrealalefestival.co.uk/

The first in 20 years? Wow!
Looks like a great festival, maybe next year I'll come, lots of "new" breweries there for me to try. I like Williams and I had Cairngorm Wild Cat in Edinburgh a couple of years ago - absolutely delicious, hope to be able to try it again sometime as well as others of theirs.

How was the festival albatross?


I've got to make my way to the Caringorm Brewery this month, as they've got some good stuff going in flagons/party kegs - I am especially looking forward to their new Highland IPA, which is very limited.


Heading down to the Durham area for a few days next week - any recommendations for good beers down that way? 

How was the festival albatross?

It was hard work, but it went really well...everyone loved the venue, we were almost full to capacity each night, and were in profit by the end of the 2nd night, so looks like we might be able to make this an annual event!

Heading down to the Durham area for a few days next week - any recommendations for good beers down that way? 

First thing that comes to mind is Durham White Stout... I had it about 2 years ago... very strong, but lovely.  They also do one called White Amarillo, which I liked, and remember it as having a really clean taste to it.

I don't know of any other local breweries in that area, apart from Big Lamp in Newcastle... they have a really good one called Prince Bishop that you might find in and around Durham as well.

Tykeman can probably advise more...
Have a great trip!

It was hard work, but it went really well...everyone loved the venue, we were almost full to capacity each night, and were in profit by the end of the 2nd night, so looks like we might be able to make this an annual event!

Cool - maybe I'll come down next year if it's a goer! 

First thing that comes to mind is Durham White Stout...

Ooh, just looked that one up. Looks right up my alley.

Thanks for the tips, I shall keep an eye out for interesting stuff and report back what I find too!! 

I don't know of any other local breweries in that area, apart from Big Lamp in Newcastle... they have a really good one called Prince Bishop that you might find in and around Durham as well.

Tykeman can probably advise more...
Have a great trip!

Only just seen this and I guess Phat's trip has already been and gone! I was up in Northumberland 2 weekends ago, to help celebrate Mrs Robinson's birthday, can't really comment too much on what breweries there, did have one day in the Ship at Seahouses where there was a good selection of beers, some from localish breweries. There is Durham brewery, Mordue amongst others. There was a Seahouses brewery as well.

On another note, this past weekend I worked my first beer festival. Just a small one run by Barnsley Camra for a local church about 10 mins from my house. There were 21 ales on and 7 or 8 ciders. I throughly enjoyed working behind the bar, chatting about beer with the other volunteers as well as the punters, great feeling when someone asks for a recommendation based on what they would normally drink and they like the beer you suggest!
I ended up staying longer than the time I'd volunteered for - the free beer helped!
My favourite beers on offer were Ossett Revolution IPA, Saltaire Cascadian Black IPA, Two Roses brewery Full Nelson and Acorn Sovereign.

I've mostly retired from this forum but I had to come here to say that my favorite beer ever ever EVER is coming to the UK in its most recent incarnation! Stone Brewing Company's Enjoy By IPA is a amazing double IPA meant to be drank while incredibly fresh. It's only considered in-date for 5 weeks after bottling and they only send each batch to selected markets. The current one isn't coming to NY (boo!) but it IS coming to the UK! It will be available in bottles at Brew Dog bars from July 23rd. It's worth going out of your way to try it, especially if you like American, particularly West Coast, style IPAs. It's even better than most IPAs because the hops are added at the end and you get great citrusy/floral notes. Be careful, though, and don't have too many because it's a dangerous 9.4% ABV!

http://www.brewdog.com/blog-article/stone-enjoy-by-816-hits-brewdog

I meant to come back and report on what I drank - I was actually much closer to Northallerton than Durham  -in nice farm country and nice country pubs.
 
Pubs mostly had the usual tat on, but each one at least had one cask on, so ended up drinking these-

Northallerton gun dog bitter
Peloton Pale Ale
Roosters Wild Mule

All were OK, nothing I'd probably rush back for, but happy enough to drink for the night  

Your beer festival sounds nice TykeMan!  I've been to the Ship before, thought it was a decent selection.

Been enjoying flagons of Carignorm Highland IPA too. Everytime I go there, they love to ply us with very large free samples. I won't complain!  

Aimlesstraveler, I am a big fan of west coast IPAs, but I am not a fan of Brewdog, unforunately. And no Brewdog pubs near me anyways.

I've never tried a BrewDog beer--I had never heard of them until I saw they were carrying the Enjoy By. What don't you like about them?


Too bad, maybe they'll send it over to other distributors some other time if this test goes well.

I've never tried a BrewDog beer--I had never heard of them until I saw they were carrying the Enjoy By. What don't you like about them?

I dislike BrewDog because they started out brewing some really nice cask ales... one in particular we liked was Punk IPA.  But at some stage they changed the recipe and the ABV, but still called it Punk IPA.  In my opinion (and that of most of my ale-guzzling friends), if you change the recipe, you need to change the name too, because it is NOT the same beer.  We talked to the brewers about this when they were in our local, but they couldnt give a sane explanation.

Soon after, they stopped brewing cask beer altogether, and now only brew keg & bottled, which I don't drink.  So now we cry them SpewDog! 

Cool - maybe I'll come down next year if it's a goer! 

The planning has already started for next year!
And i have already decided that I am going to drastically cut back on the shifts I'll be working because... I don't like working that hard!

We are going to GBBF next month, and I saw the beer list today:  WOW!!
First thing i did was scan through to see if my favourite, Ossett Excelsior, was in the list... YAY... it's there!!   

I've never tried a BrewDog beer--I had never heard of them until I saw they were carrying the Enjoy By. What don't you like about them?


Too bad, maybe they'll send it over to other distributors some other time if this test goes well.

Just not a big fan of Brewdog beer taste. But I would like to try this beer you posted about. Hmmm... I will be out in CA sometime this autumn, so I may actually find it there 

Fuller's Tour booked for September 23. Let the sampling and drinking after the tour begin. 

Just not a big fan of Brewdog beer taste. But I would like to try this beer you posted about. Hmmm... I will be out in CA sometime this autumn, so I may actually find it there 

You should try! Haha. It's better on draft, anyway--which you can't get in the UK (this time, at least).

It has been a LONG few weeks, so hubby and I decided to stop in and get a 6 pack each on the way home from work today. As I walked in, I noticed pumpkin beer and Octoberfest beer season is upon us! Maybe I should say it has exploded, because there were so many options available, and it is still (barely, but still) July.   They also had Newcastle Werewolf. I had a horrible time deciding on one, but went with Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin.

Just a reminder that the Great British Beer Festival is next week, at the Olympia in London, if anyone is interested!

http://gbbf.org.uk/