Richard's Blog: beer

Showing posts with label beer. Show all posts

Beer fest list

Best beer is the portland black by welbeck abbey brewery. At the Mallard.

Pours an amber colour with a lasting white head. Aroma of malt, caramel and a little citrus hops. Tastes of sweet toasty malt, toffee, bitter tea-like spices, and citrus hops at the back. Good bitterness. 5,9% Strength.

Rating: Great.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Complex, but damn is it well balanced.

Last orders for Guinness? What! Wait! Hang on

I managed to miss 25 minutes of the money program (the horror, a show about business and finance). I noticed the word 'Guinness', which I have a talent for, in the sky TV guide. Curious why the program was called 'Last orders for Guinness?' I pressed to view.

Interestingly it was pointing out that Ireland and the UK Guinness sales have dropped over the years. So their introduction the much talked about Guinness Red.

From the BBC article:

Guinness is one of Britain's best loved brands, yet sales of the famous black stout have been falling year after year both in the UK and Ireland.
But with nearly 250 years of history behind it, Guinness is not about to go quietly.
It has launched a fight back with a new lighter, sweeter version, Guinness Red, and a much hyped multi-million pound advertising campaign.
Will it be enough to reverse the decline?

Aimed at lager and bitter drinkers, it's a sort of cross between bitter and stout (or maybe a Irish Red cream ale?). Claiming to be somehow more smoother, which is hard to believe since Guinness is smooth as hell compared to most commercial drinks. I'm looking forward to trying the Red. Guinness is my favorite beer and it always has been (I think Guinness Original was my first real beer) so I don't think ill drop the black for the red.

In the UK you can find a pub with the pub finder on the Guinness Red website
www.guinness.com/gb_en/guinness_red/home.htm

Beer after sport is good

A beer after playing a game of football, a long run, or a strenuous round of golf can be good for the body, scientists say.

In a rare piece of good news for those who like a pint, Spanish researchers say beer can help someone who is dehydrated retain liquid better than water.

Prof Manuel Garzon, of Granada University, also claimed the bubbles in beer help to quench the thirst and that its carbohydrate content can help to replace lost calories.

Prof Garzon asked a group of students to do strenuous exercise in temperatures of around 40ºC (104ºF). Half were given a pint of beer, while the others received the same volume of water.

Full story at telegraph.co.uk

All hail the 'Spanish researchers'. To the track! Or maybe run (or at least get a taxi and say I did) to the pub!

The Alaskan bootlegger's bible

edit 23 nov 2007
Iv changed my mind about this book. Yes it isn't fancy. But if you like to read about brewing in Alaska or the home brew beers during American probation you might enjoy it. I keep picking it up to read. Although its full of simple extract recipes (for beer brewing) it does offer some great stories and simple practical advice.

I don't really know if you want to learn how to make 'booze' using everyday items with bakers yeast. Hmm I think not. Do not bother getting this book if you want to brew beer or wine. It wont explain anything to you other than there was 2 cave men, yeah, and they put some fruit together, left the fruit to rot, till it fermented. Then they drank the fermented juice and got drunk.

I'm not a book reviewer yet I do like books, plus I am interested if the subject is brewing. I don't think the advice in the book is going to make good beer. The book tends to not go into taste, it values strength and simplicity. I have read the 'joy of home brewing' by Charlie Papazian. As far as I am concerned that is the beginners brew bible. Buy it if you’re interested in brewing.
So anyway why did I get a book that I am hardly going to get anything out off?. Well, one word, Whiskey! It shows you how to make stills (yes, it is illegal. But it doesn’t hurt to know). I've read on a book review site that it warns of poising. Not really seen much of that. Something I find interesting is that it mentions for at least a page of apple jack. Which requires hard cider being frozen and water being separated from the unfrozen alcohol. Ill make a guess and say that’s illegal too. In fact most of this book is describing illegal stuff.

The book has a few English problems. Spelling mistakes, which I don't mind, but the sentences are not clear and generally hard to follow. Sometimes you will be reading along the lines and strangely words appear where they shouldn’t. I don’t think it has seen an editor. An editor wouldn't know where to start.

Saying that though there are a few positives, a few wine recipes, interesting stories, whiskey distilling, apple jacking (freeze distillation) and improvised brewing on the cheap. Don’t buy it if your looking for a easy to read DIY brewing guide.

Ill post something on apple jack sometime. Someone will have to remind me though.

I love this beer

Loved it so much in the pub. I bought some IPA from tescos. Pack of 4, unfortunately I love it to much and I empted all 4 on the same day as buying it.

Tastes slightly more crisp in the can than on tap.
I think its my second favourite beer. I say I think.

Beer making tool: Qbrew

Qbrew is an open source homebrewer's recipe calculator. A pretty neat tool. I have seen a few of these recipe calculators before under freeware/shareware trials ect.
You input your recipe , select a few options like mashing ect and it tells you what's its going to be like.

Runs on Linux/BSD/Unix, Macintosh and windows. It would be a good idea for anyone who uses it to GPL (general public licence) their recipes to share with the world.

You can download it from here www.usermode.org/code.html