Some of the BeerViking’s had the pleasure in being part of the first social media British Beer community Beer Swap (#beerswap on Twitter).  Doc D has already filed his report on his beers and this is mine.

I was matched to receive beers from Sam Lanes from Real Ale Reviews.  Being Leeds-based, he chose to send through the following choice Yorkshire beers:

• Copper Dragon Orange Pippin
• Leeds Brewery Pale
• Leeds Brewery Best
• Saltaire Brewery Cascade Pale

Copper Dragon Golden Pippin

What they say:

A light refreshing blonde ale brewed using a specially selected hop to create a citrus fruit flavour.  This golden coloured favourite is equally appealing to real ale and lager drinkers alike – ABV 4.2%

My Review:

White head, that goes but leaves some lacing.  Old gold colour, looks quite effervescent.  Nothing particular on the nose, some slight greeness of hops and with that floral but nothing too much.  Thin mouthfeel.  Quite sweet, with some bitterness coming through.  A brewrank of 12.

Leeds Pale Session Bitter

What they say:

An easy drinking pale ale. Light and hoppy with delicate floral notes and a well balanced finish.  ABV 3.8%

My review:

Slight head, yellow gold colour.  Slight bitterness on the nose, with perhaps some perceived (wished for) yeast smell from the Yorkshire yeast.  Nice mouthfeel, a decent amount of hops to bring some citrus through, with some faint fudge chewiness.  Would definitely have again.  A brewrank of 13.

Leeds Best

What they say:

A classic Yorkshire Bitter. Finest English hops blend perfectly with our unique Yorkshire yeast to create a full flavoured beer with a superb hoppy finish.  ABV 4.3%

My review:

Good head, again quite bubbly to look at. Russetmuscat colour.  Not getting a particular nose.  Fresh mouthfeel. A taint of bitterness, an easy drinker…I would almost say lagerish.  Might have again and a brewrank of 12.

Saltaire Brewery Cascade Pale

What they say:

American style pale ale with the floral aromas and strong bitterness of Cascade and Centennial hops.  4.8% ABV.

My review:

Nice tight head that lasts, very bubbly. Maybe as dark as burnished.  A resinous, nutty nose.  A creamy mouthfeel, with a nice warmth from the malt gives way to a joyous astringency of the hops with a great length (as in I’m hungry but don’t want that taste to go away soon).  A brewrank of 14

Overall

I thoroughly enjoyed my #beerswap experience.  The thought into what beers to send Darren from Blog ‘o Beer, Harvey’s Imperial, Dark Star Imperial, Dark Star Sunburst (collect+ blew this one out) and Ascot Alligator, was perhaps as much fun as getting them (but being obvious as no comparison to drinking them.)

It was a great idea from the guys (Mark and Andy) and I’m sure has helped pull the beer community together a little more and I’m sure that real world friendships will be formed a beer festivals around the countryside soon.

My only question is, when’s the next one!

Well its been almost 3 weeks since the BeerViking crew raided the La Gothique pub for the Wandsworth Common Halloween Beer Festival. Better late than never – here’s our report…

Over 2000 people attended this excellent beer fest – which ran for 3 days. We ran into Steve from Beer Justice and some of the Shepherd Neame team as well… We guestimate that over 125 casks were consumed. The ratio of girls to guys was high with over 40% of the attendees being female. This is a sweet great result for the 2nd beer festival at this venue – a younger, hipper and more female crowd than your average beer fest. This may also have been the 1st festival to have Meantime London Pale Ale on Cask (at a beer festival that is, its on tap at many fine pub around London) – Meantime were one of the event sponsors, btw… Be sure to follow BeerViking on Twitter as there will be more beer and maybe even wine related events on Wandsworth Common coming up soon.

Here’s what we drank…

1. Shepherd Neame Faversham, Kent: Tipping the Admiral 4.0%, October
brew to celebrate Nelsons victory in 1805. Brewrank 10 – not so nice,
but drinkable.

2. Buffy’s Brewery of Tivetshall St.Mary’s, Norfolk: Norwich Terrier
3.6%, Amber coloured with grapefruit notes. Styrian, Mount Hood hops.
Brewrank 12 – reasonable brew.

3. Dark Star Haywards Heath, Sussex: Ocktoberfest 5.2%, Using German
malts and hopped three times. Brewrank 15 – NICE! Dark Star rock.

4. Downton Salisbury, Wiltshire: Pumpkin Ale 4.4%, Special dark version
of Downtons Halloween Brew for this festival. Brewrank 13 – nice
stew like taste of pumpkin.

5. Twickenham Fine Ales Twickenham, London: Strange Brew 4.1%, Dark
golden ale. Hint of spice. Five different hops. Brewrank 15 – golden
syrup with a hint of lime.

6. Wolf Attleborough, Norfolk: Werewolf 4.5%, Red-brown with
pronounced malty bouquet. Brewrank 6 – yuck!

Beers 7+ (maybe it was 12 in total?)… After this the rating notes seemed to have vanished. Well it was Halloween. But I know we drank some Downton Quadhop, Moorhouse Black Cat, More Dark Star Octoberfest (nice!), Japanese Asahi Ale (smooth) and Triple fff Stairway to Heaven (tasty).

Beyond this it did get a bit crazy and we mainly drank dark beers as I recall… Below is our random photostream of people enjoying the Halloween WCBF on Friday Oct 30th. Video of the winner of the Meantime case coming out next.

Halloween WCBF on Friday Oct 30th:

photo credit: 123 look at me

Updated original post with scores and notes on the Red River Belgians (See Beers)

Some of the BeerViking ( mostly Doc D but Hunter as well) crew are heading to Northern California on a serious pillage mission.

They will be filing field reports via Twitter and at HQ we’ll try to pull these together into semi-coherent summaries.

First up, some hippy music with the Grateful Dead. Key lines here are:

California, I’ll be knocking on the golden door

Which when it comes to craft beer, most people have to agree that California is exactly that.

Breweries/Pubs

Stop 1:  Beach Chalet

17 @pubrank for the Beach Chalet in San Francisco, CA. http://www.beachchalet.com/

Stop 2:  Marin Brewing Company

http://twitpic.com/aq8xo – NorCal Micro Brewery Raid – stop No 2: Marin BrewCo, Larkspur. Tasty!

Stop 3:  Russian River

http://twitpic.com/aq998 – Russian River – beer menu. So many and so good. Like ‘wine; and fine women.

View Nor Cal in a larger map

The Beers

All of these have been brewranked, here’s a Search on Twitter where you can find more details.

The Belgian Style Brews @ Russian River

Doc D filed the following update into HQ.

• Perdition – Biere de Sanoma: very lgith, sublte hints of dry white
  wine, good summer or session beer. 12
• Damnation – Strong Golden Ale: Fuck amazing want more. 17
• Salvation – Dark Strong Ale: fine for winter wrong time of year. Not
  going to finish it. 14
• Temptation: this reminds me of Orval but even more refined. Super
  graphfruity notes. 15
• Sanctification – 100% Brettanomyces, 6.25%ABV: ‘lambic’ style to my
  taste. Really smooth. 17
• Consercration – dark sour aged in oak barrels. 10% abv: ouch can’t
  rate too complex. like a whisky.
• Publication – Saison 8% abv best of the belgians in this line up today. 18!

Summary

By hitting Russian River and knocking back Pliney the Elder, arguably the prototype American Pale Ale, the guys have started the raid with impeccable standards.  As I’m living a vicarious dream from HQ, I for one can’t wait to see what the next couple of days holds.

One of the best things is also the worst things about Twitter and that is the brevity of being held to only 140 characters for a post.

Therefore, we have realised that it’s time to create a standard, a codex if you will, for one and all to be able to decipher this short bursts.

There is some heated debate about to match to ratebeer vs. BeerAdvocate vs. CAMRA’s cyclops and I don’t believe we’ve quite finished the discussion…

Actually, I’m not sure we ever will.

Brewery Name Beer Name|Region|Style|ABV|IBU|Key Ingredients|Tap, Cask, Bottle or Other|Appearance notes, including colour|Nosing notes|Tasting notes|Overall Vibe|Score out of 20

Initial tests from mobile have proved the above unworkable.

Brewery Name Beer Name;Region;StyleABV;Tap, Cask, Bottle or Other;Appearance notes, including colour;Nosing notes;Tasting notes;Overall Vibe;Score out of 20;Optional details like interesting ingredients, IBU, etc.

So, re-writing a recent Twitter rating:

Dark Star Critical Mass|Sussex|Christmas|7.8%|C|Min Head-Very Dark, Treacle clr||Slight bitter, sweet upfront, goes v. dry|Firesider!! 17

Note the || this is because my nose was impaired, so I’m thinking better to leave in the || to denote a section has been skipped.

I’m also not sure if we don’t want to allow scores in the Appearance, Nosing and Tasting or just give an overall score and if that’s out of 20 or not?

Feedback is welcome and we’ll see if this is a system we can live with our not.