Beer recommendations

[jameshk]

Im quite tempted to try this. But £35...

http://www.brewdog.com/tactical_nuclear_penguin

Anyone had it?

[mks]

Im quite tempted to try this. But £35...

http://www.brewdog.com/tactical_nuclear_penguin

Anyone had it?

32%



The highest ABV I've had in a beer has been 14 or 15%.

[firky]

Im quite tempted to try this. But £35...

http://www.brewdog.com/tactical_nuclear_penguin

Anyone had it?

Nope and I wouldn't your buying into a brand rather than a quality beer. Plus Scottish beer is shite, the further north you get the worse the beer seems to get. The southerners know how to make beer, they've been doing it far longer than a bunch of hipsters from Scotland who decieded to try and turn their beer into the beverage of Nathan Barley.

Why spend all that money on one bottle of beer when you can get a dozern good beers, beers that have remained the same for centuries because they're perfection? Beers that people make for the love of beer and not because they want to be rich. Seriously, get some Old Tom or some of the beers on this thread and do yourself a favour

[drokkr]

Dragon Stout and Fruli!!! - Have you been in my fridge Friky? We'll have to go on the piss sometime...

[bass_culture]

Nope and I wouldn't your buying into a brand rather than a quality beer. Plus Scottish beer is shite,

I would usually agree with you about Scottish beer, they brew with fewer hops and I have always found their beers to be somewhat bland. However Brewdog is an exception (the post-modern tagline and the blurbs on the back of their bottles are very tongue-in-cheek btw) Brewdog are probably the most talented brewers in Britain at the moment, and don't just make novelty strength brews but are probably also the best at getting the most out of low abv. beers, their Edge mild at 2.7% being a prime example, just stunning.

the further north you get the worse the beer seems to get. The southerners know how to make beer, they've been doing it far longer than a bunch of hipsters from Scotland who decieded to try and turn their beer into the beverage of Nathan Barley.

This is rubbish sorry. Of course it's personal taste, but for example you can't just dismiss say the whole of Yorkshire, probably the best brewing county in England

Why spend all that money on one bottle of beer when you can get a dozern good beers, beers that have remained the same for centuries because they're perfection? Beers that people make for the love of beer and not because they want to be rich. Seriously, get some Old Tom or some of the beers on this thread and do yourself a favour

Again, the brewery is still independently owned, and from what I've read the two lads who run it just want to carry on making beer which is that little bit different. I will only concede to your argument once they have sold out to InBev for £3trillion or something.

And Finally, from personal experience. The majority of "spotty faced students" are not interested in this type of beer in the slightest.

EDIT: I've also just noticed you're post about Fruli. You sound like you'd fit right into what you see as the Brewdog drinking crowd!

Anyone had Fruli? It's Belgian fruit beer, doesn't taste of fruit or such (or beer really) but is really nice. Can only be described as um... fruit beer?! Anyway, only ever seen it on draught in Oxford though (Oxford is the bomb for good beer!), and never seen it in the supermarkets, even Waitrose or Selfridges.

(God! I love Selfridges food and wine hall... pity the prices are astronomical.)

Nothing personal btw, I just have strong views on beer, I can see you do too!

[knell]

Im quite tempted to try this. But £35...

http://www.brewdog.com/tactical_nuclear_penguin

Anyone had it?

Nope and I wouldn't your buying into a brand rather than a quality beer. Plus Scottish beer is shite, the further north you get the worse the beer seems to get. The southerners know how to make beer, they've been doing it far longer than a bunch of hipsters from Scotland who decieded to try and turn their beer into the beverage of Nathan Barley.

Why spend all that money on one bottle of beer when you can get a dozern good beers, beers that have remained the same for centuries because they're perfection? Beers that people make for the love of beer and not because they want to be rich. Seriously, get some Old Tom or some of the beers on this thread and do yourself a favour

seems like all of brew-dogs' high alcohol beers are just for competitive's sake rather than being a quality brew...

i mean, just look at their squirrel carcass brew:
http://www.brewdog.com/blog-article/341

if that tastes awesome i'll eat my foot... but a 55% abv beer isn't really a beer imo

[bass_culture]

Im quite tempted to try this. But £35...

http://www.brewdog.com/tactical_nuclear_penguin

Anyone had it?

Nope and I wouldn't your buying into a brand rather than a quality beer. Plus Scottish beer is shite, the further north you get the worse the beer seems to get. The southerners know how to make beer, they've been doing it far longer than a bunch of hipsters from Scotland who decieded to try and turn their beer into the beverage of Nathan Barley.

Why spend all that money on one bottle of beer when you can get a dozern good beers, beers that have remained the same for centuries because they're perfection? Beers that people make for the love of beer and not because they want to be rich. Seriously, get some Old Tom or some of the beers on this thread and do yourself a favour

seems like all of brew-dogs' high alcohol beers are just for competitive's sake rather than being a quality brew...

i mean, just look at their squirrel carcass brew:
http://www.brewdog.com/blog-article/341

if that tastes awesome i'll eat my foot... but a 55% abv beer isn't really a beer imo

My brother had a 25ml measure of the Tactical Nuclear Penguin (32%) a couple of weeks ago and he said it was delicious. I trust his judgement on such matters.

[LA_Boxers]

I recommend drinking it!

[knell]

My brother had a 25ml measure of the Tactical Nuclear Penguin (32%) a couple of weeks ago and he said it was delicious. I trust his judgement on such matters.

i'll have to try it out then! it'll be strange feeling, trying out a beer that gives rum/vodka abv a run for its money

[bass_culture]

My brother had a 25ml measure of the Tactical Nuclear Penguin (32%) a couple of weeks ago and he said it was delicious. I trust his judgement on such matters.

i'll have to try it out then! it'll be strange feeling, trying out a beer that gives rum/vodka abv a run for its money

Yep, definitely a sipper! A good halfway house might be the Tokyo (18.2%) I had some of that a while ago and was suitably impressed!

[slothrop]

Plus Scottish beer is shite, the further north you get the worse the beer seems to get. The southerners know how to make beer, they've been doing it far longer than a bunch of hipsters from Scotland who decieded to try and turn their beer into the beverage of Nathan Barley.

Balls. I'm not mad for Brew Dog - their basic stuff is alright if you like that kind of thing and I can't really be arsed with the novelty strong ones - but Black Isle Brewery is fantastic, Isle of Skye, Orkney Brewery, Caingorm Brewery and whatever that one at Kinlochleven is called all do good stuff too.

And yeah, despite mainly living in the south, the best beer I've had by far has been from Cumbria or Yorkshire or at least the east midlands...

Autobot - others have listed specific things to try but the best option by far is to just go to a good pub with a range of stuff that you'll never have seen before and probably won't see again and asking the staff for tips. A lot of places will let you have a few tasters before you buy a pint if they aren't busy. If you're in london, try (OTTOMH) the Rake, the Market Porter, the Bree Louise, the Harp, the Edgar Wallace, the Wenlock Arms, the Southampton Arms...

[horsefeather]

i bether start sporting more if i wanne try those beers

[firky]

Nothing personal btw, I just have strong views on beer, I can see you do too!

I have very strong opinions on beer. The Brewdog lot are just a bunch of idiots out to make some money from beer bottles with contemporary names and funky graphic design with a bit of pretentious branding. I've been to their trade stands, I've even had free samples sent to me! I wouldn't stock it in the pub, largely because the, what I call 'good beer', is the more traditional ales from down south, such as Speckled Hen etc.

Oh and Yorkshire's beers aren't a patch on the ones in the South of England. Go to any CAMRA festival or beer festival, and you'll see how the beers from the south nearly always walk away with awards. There are good beers in the north but if you like crap like Worthingtons are Boddingtons, and even some of the shite that Jennings put out, then you've never had a good beer

The only good Scottish beer :p



Besides which, I am considerably older than most of you lot and everyone knows real taste comes with age :p

[firky]

I don't even know where to begin with this.

Beer... flavour... taste... healthy... natural... GAS MASK?! Oh that's right, it's a Nathan Barley Beer (please get the iteration this time!!! hah)

[2manynoobs]

[firky]

Dragon Stout and Fruli!!! - Have you been in my fridge Friky? We'll have to go on the piss sometime...

I am a BIG beer lover. I can't drink to get pissed anymore so instead I drink for the taste and pleasure of it, got myself a CAMRA certificate in cellar and ale management, and each month I get a crate of beer from the Real Ale Club:

http://www.realbeerbox.com/real-ale-club.asp

£100 for three months, not bad!

As someone already said, beer is largely down to taste and opinion. I like people who have very strong and somewhat arrogant opinions, it shows passion for what they like, and that's always a good sign.

My old man said I should start a real ale blog but, nah, I am far too opinionated

[bass_culture]

Nothing personal btw, I just have strong views on beer, I can see you do too!

I have very strong opinions on beer. The Brewdog lot are just a bunch of idiots out to make some money from beer bottles with contemporary names and funky graphic design with a bit of pretentious branding. I've been to their trade stands, I've even had free samples sent to me! I wouldn't stock it in the pub, largely because the, what I call 'good beer', is the more traditional ales from down south, such as Speckled Hen etc.

Oh and Yorkshire's beers aren't a patch on the ones in the South of England. Go to any CAMRA festival or beer festival, and you'll see how the beers from the south nearly always walk away with awards. There are good beers in the north but if you like crap like Worthingtons are Boddingtons, and even some of the shite that Jennings put out, then you've never had a good beer

Besides which, I am considerably older than most of you lot and everyone knows real taste comes with age

Sorry, but the thing about awards is utter rubbish. I mean for example, just look at the winners of CAMRAs Champion beer of Britain award since 2000, a pretty even split between North and South wouldn't you say?

2000 Moorhouse's Black Cat (Yorkshire)
2001 Oakham Jeffrey Hudson Bitter (Cambridgeshire)
2002 Caledonian Deuchars IPA (Scotland)
2003 Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted (Scotland)
2004 Kelham Island Pale Rider (Yorkshire)
2005 Crouch Vale Brewers Gold (Essex)
2006 Crouch Vale Brewers Gold (Essex)
2007 Hobsons Mild (Wiltshire)
2008 Triple fff Alton's Pride (Hampshire)
2009 Rudgate Ruby Mild (Yorkshire)
2010 Castle Rock Harvest Pale (Nottinghamshire)

Also, everyone knows that the winners of awards at local beer festivals are usually beers fairly local to that particular area. So if you mostly attend festivals in the south, that's probably the reason southern beers are winning all the awards!

And in regards to Brew Dog, you can call it Nathan Barley beer all you want, but in doing so your just making yourself sound like one of those miserable oldskool CAMRA nobs who moans about how pubs and beer aren't what they once were, and still wish it was 1964. I'll take a beautifully crafted pint of microbrewed Brew Dog any day over your (supposedly "real") mass produced Old Speckled Hen, which frankly tastes like piss these days anyway! And actually, your taste buds get weaker with age, sense of smell remains the strongest, which is why whisky experts can go on a lot longer than beer experts, as more of the flavour is in the nose.

[AxeD]

Brew Dog markets a beer with more alcohol as a beer for dedicated drinkers which seems odd. Maybe I'm getting a wrong
impression though.

[slothrop]

I'll take a beautifully crafted pint of microbrewed Brew Dog any day over your (supposedly "real") mass produced Old Speckled Hen, which frankly tastes like piss these days anyway!

Agreed, using Old Speckled Hen as an example of 'proper beer' is like using Skrillex as an example of 'proper dubstep'. Greene King are the Tesco of the beer world.

[slothrop]

Oh and Yorkshire's beers aren't a patch on the ones in the South of England. Go to any CAMRA festival or beer festival, and you'll see how the beers from the south nearly always walk away with awards. There are good beers in the north but if you like crap like Worthingtons are Boddingtons, and even some of the shite that Jennings put out, then you've never had a good beer

Right, yeah, Boddingtons is clearly what people are talking about rather than eg Dent Brewery or Kelham Island or Hawkshead Brewery or York Brewery or Black Sheep or Bradfield or Barngates or Moorhouses or Castle Rock... I( mean seriously, have you ever actually been outside the M25?