Beer Viking » Doc D

A Selection of Friday Beers at the Office

Doc D — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 14:58:03 +0000

Today it was the Beerviking crews turn to sponsor Friday Beer's at the office and in true viking style we have stocked the fridge with a nice selection from UK (Brewdog, Twickenham, Hogs Back), US (Dogfish, Anchor, Victory & Sierra Nevada), Australia (Coopers) and Germany (Andechser - brewed in a monastery! and others). We had to go heavy on the BrewDog brews in order to satisfy the "larger heads" in the office. Hoping this might help us convert these common folk from tasteless swill to real beer. Wish us luck! (Please Note: the Stella was already in the fridge.)

It’s Official – London Has a Thriving 21st Century Beer Scene!

Doc D — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 08:38:41 +0000

Yes, in case you’ve been living under a rock London has a dynamic, innovative and world class modern beer scene. The emergence of the London Brewers Alliance and their inaugural showcase event held last Friday night is more proof that London should be on every beer enthusiasts schedule. During the Friday festivities we tasted the following brews:

Ha’penny Brewing Co., Ruby Red, silky mild with hints of cinnamon. Brewrank:15/20
London Brewers Alliance Porter ~ 5% special one off brewed as a collaboration by all the brewers. Nice, hoppy. Brewrank: 17/20
Kernal IPA, Citra hops. Another great one from our favorite nano brewery. Brewrank: 16/20
Redemption Pale Ale, solid. Brewrank: 14/20
Windsor & Eton Brewery Best Bitter, smooth malty. Brewrank: 14/20
Brew Wharf Fire from the top of a monkey’s head, hoppy madness. Brewrank: 14/20
Camden Town Brewery Pale Ale. Brewrank:14/20

It is good to see both Fuller’s (the grand daddy of London brewing) and Meantime (the big innovator) supporting the LDN Brewers Alliance. The only reason we didn’t drink any of their brews on Friday is we have a cellar full of the stuff… Overall the Showcase event was a solid 7 out 10. Next time we hope to see an event guide of some sort and a food selection. Maybe even an entire week of events – are we going to see a London Beer Week in 2011?!

Here’s a good video by the London Brewers:

And here is the current list of all 13 London brewers that are either brewpubs, micros and local/family/regional brewers (sorry no bud or mass produce crud!):

Brew Wharf – brewpub
Brodie’s Beers – micro & brewpub
Camden Town Brewery – micro
The Florence – brewpub in Herne Hill
Fuller’s – regional, family run
Ha’penny Brewing Co. – micro
The Kernel Brewery – nano, look for the bottles at places like the Rake
Meantime Brewing Co. – regional, the innovator
Redemption Brewery – micro
Sambrooks Brewery – micro
Twickenham Fine Ales – micro/medium
Windsor & Eton Brewery – micro
ZeroDegrees (Blackheath) – brewpub

Who will be number 14?

In the meantime here is our first mini guide to other places to experience London’s Great Beer Scene… Including festivals, beer bars, food& beer events etc.

CAMRA Festivals:

GBBF (the mac daddy every August) – http://gbbf.camra.org.uk/home
Other CAMRA events (something every month) – http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=festivalseventsawards

Local & Independant Festivals (check Twitter, Ratebeer and other social outlets as well):

Wandsworth Common Beer Festivals (March & October) – http://wandsworthbeerfestival.eventbrite.com/
White Horse, in May look for 40/40 and July the American Beer Fest – http://www.whitehorsesw6.com/news-events.php

Great Beer Pubs/Bars that also do meet the brewer and other events:

Cask Pub & Kitchen, Victoria/Pimlico – http://www.caskpubandkitchen.com/
The Rake, Borough Market – can’t find the webiste?
Draft House/Westbridge – http://www.drafthouse.co.uk/
Lowlander, Covent Garden – http://www.lowlander.com/
Greenwich Union (Meantime’s flagship pub!) – http://www.greenwichunion.com/

Top Beer Stores:

Real Ale in Twickenham/Richmond – http://www.realale.com/
Utobeer at Borough Market only Thu/Fri/Sat (they need to update the website and join the 2st century) – http://www.utobeer.co.uk/

Brewery Tours

Fuller’s – not to be missed – http://www.fullers.co.uk/rte.asp?id=9
Sambrooks - http://www.sambrooksbrewery.co.uk/brewery.html
Plus I am sure Meantime an others all do tours if you ask…

London is also a great town for pub crawls – one of these days we will publish some suggestions but check any good beer guide. Happy drinking…

Update: below is a low quality (yes, its from a mobile phone) photo stream from the event.





www.flickr.com








mediaviking's London Brewers Showcase photoset

Salopian Brewery Darwins Origin (4.3%) – a great bottled beer

Doc D — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 15:37:09 +0000

We recently had the pleasure of drinking the Salopian Brewery Darwins Origin (4.3%) on cask at a small August bank holiday beer festival in Kent. From cask it rated a respectable 15/20 on the @brewrank scale. Here's how the Salopian website describes the brew:

Style: Darwin’s Origin is an eclectic mix of hops from across the world but this blend produces a beer that offers something to everyone. Crisp, tart, fruity and refreshing but also with a juicy malt background.

History:

The brainchild of Debbie here at the brewery, Darwin’s Origin is the most recent addition to the Salopian core range in both cask and bottle. It was brewed to celebrate Shrewsbury’s most famous son Charles Darwin. Like most additions to the permanent range of beers, Darwin’s started off as a monthly special and the reaction of our customers and staff saw it replacing Abbey Gates.

Then we were at Ales By Mail for a spot of manual labour and managed to grab a few spare bottles. Well… As bottle beer it's even a little bit better! A solid 16 out of 20. The appearance is a light copper colour. Aroma is sweet like flowers with a hint of vanilla. Taste is zesty and just enough hop to make you want more. We would call this a golden ale plus – by plus we mean it has pale ale and bitter tones. Finish is smooth. A solid session beer. We will continue to drink it.

To order yours check out the Ales By Mail Shropshire 6 Bottle Taster Case - a bargain and delivered right to your door.

Ales By Mail Tasting No 1 with Beerviking [Video]

Doc D — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:24:12 +0000

CAMRA Beer Magazine Summer '10 Review – Ales By Mail Tasting No 1 with Beerviking

The back story short version. Every issues of Beer the quarterly magazine of CAMRA has selection of bottled beers reviewed. We got an adavnce case and did our own tasting of sorts. In two parts pretty raw edit here… just the mash. We know these are a bit long and we need to ferment them next time… We are still learning and playing with the video format. We used the Ratebeer out of 50 and the Beerviking rating scales.

Part 1 – Video:

Tryst Brewery's "Blathan" 4.0%; score 35/50

Pen-lon Cottage Brewery's "Torwen" Dark Fruit Beer 4.5%; score 32/50

Mort Subite Oude Kriek 6.5%* (we actually taste the younger 4.5% un aged version in the video); score 38/50

Part 2 Video:

Atlantic Breweries "Discovery Golden Pale Ale" with Lime, Chili and Ginger 5.5%; score 31/50

Meantime Brewing Co's "Raspberry Grand Cru" 6.5%; score 37.5/50

Winner is the Belgian Mort Subite Oude Kriek.

Order this case here on Ales By Mail.

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American Beer Festival 2010 at the White Horse, SW6 in West London

Doc D — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:28:46 +0000

We know it shouldn't be a surprise but awesome to hear that the White Horse in West London will be doing their excellent American Beer Festival over 2nd-4th July. We'll be doing our usual and opening affairs on the Friday afternoon.

Based on our time there in 2008 and 2009, we can totally recommend this festival as a must-visit if you love American Beer and can get to London. Scratch that, if you love Beer in general and can get to London.

Here's some pictures from the American Beer Festival in 2009.

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The Question? A friend has a few spare hours in Zurich where can he get good beer?

Doc D — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:31:42 +0000

Simple… In the main train station in Zurich is Brasserie Federal with 200+ Swiss bottled beers and a few on tap.

Brasserie Federal

Bahnhofplatz 15, 8001 Zürich, Schweiz

Map: http://maps.google.com/places/ch/z%C3%BCrich/bahnhofplatz/15/-brasserie-federal?hl=en

Need to look for beers from:

Les bières Trois Dames (the IPA is 15/20 and the La Fraîcheur is 17/20!)

Brasserie des Franches Montagnes

Also worth trying one of the hemp beers which they still brew in Switzerland. Wild stuff.

And if he has more time try to find this brewpub Das Restaurant Steinfels (which I haven't been to yet but looks intersting): http://www.steinfels-zuerich.ch/

Full ratebeer Swiss list: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/country/switzerland/191/

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Beer Festival: 40 Ales from 40 Miles at the White Horse

Doc D — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:05:58 +0000

Tomorrow lunchtime, BeerViking will be raiding the White Horse 40 Ales from 40 Miles Beer Festival. It will be running all weekend but if you can make it down it would be great to meet you.

Previous years has seen this key London beer fan pub source it’s beers for this festival from a 25 mile radius but by going a little bit further they can now include Dark Star. Some of the other breweries who will have beer there this weekend are: Fuller’s, Meantime, Sambrook’s, Twickenham and Brodie’s to breweries further afield like Rebellion in Marlow Bottom, Ha’Penny Brewing in Ilford, Surrey Hills in Guildford or Buntingford in Royston. Pencil & Spoon also tipped us that new nano-brewery Kernel will have some beers there.

Regardless if you come or not, stay tuned for field reports (apologies in advance if the Hunter decides to show up and jack the proceedings) and also make sure this May Bank Holiday weekend you drink good beer – taking a turn of phrase from our friend Steve Leighton – Life is too short for bad beer.

The White Horse (or Sloaney Poney giving it it’s proper name) is located on Parsons Green, SW6 in West London (it also used to be one of the BeerViking crew local’s for 10 years). Here is a map to help you find it:

View Larger Map

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Garden Beers 2010: Dark Star Sunburst

Doc D — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 09:32:13 +0000

Oh, how I have missed you. Wonderful on a sunny spring day in a English country garden!

Dark Star – Please bottle more in your lovely new brewery

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Beer Caps

Doc D — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 18:51:26 +0000

Some beer caps from the last couple of days…probably should have a crushed can as well

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Mikkeller Big Worse Barley Wine

Doc D — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 20:56:20 +0000

This is one big beer – very complex and needs some time to enjoy.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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