Ale, Beer, Stout appreciation

Lots of good places round there now, Waterloo Tap, Hop Locker and The Understudy are great

Fountain & Ink usually has a few Beavertown choices and does great sourdough pizza

LOLz

except when it says 'Leffe' on the label

intergalactic and sticky sweet it was, but no more than 16.5:

I grabbed it because I don't think I've had their triple before.

That's different.

The one I had was their earlier 18.2%
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16315/52204/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/8392807.stm

There was also another version which was soome kind of collab.

Black Tokyo Horizon it was...

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16315/72775/

"combination of signature stouts; Nogne’s Dark Horizon, Mikkeller’s Black and our Tokyo*"

Anyone done the Brewdog Mystery Box? just ordered one, hoping for some specials.

https://www.brewdog.com/item/1923/BrewDog/BrewDog-Mystery-Box.html

no shipping to Europe, alas

Thats a shame. Ordered at 4pm yesterday, arrived this morning, when I get back tomorrow will list any of note.

Nice! Meanwhile, I haz contacted my beer loving friends across the Channel, might find a solution

I can I ask a few beer questions? I've read a few things online but I don't really trust what I've read (from brewer's websites) and I know there are v knowledgeable people in here (eg @Kat_Balou ).

1. Is this essentially true? http://www.titletownbrewing.com/bgk-why-are-hoppy-beers-so-strong - that hoppy beers are stronger because's brewers use more malt to balance out hop bitterness?

2. If so, then is the progression towards higher strength beers down to brewers willing to endure higher strengths as a way to 'explore' different hops? But if so - and apologies for taking a card from the top of the deck - how are brewdog's nanny state and dead pony club so hoppy but either pretty weak or totally cleaned of alcohol?

It is not strictly true.

IPA's came about as they needed to be strong in alcohol to survive the journey to India back when we colonised it, hops also have anti-bacterial qualities so this added to the preservation of the beer.

You can make a low abv beer hoppy, as you point out that Brewdog have. It all depends on when you put the hops in the boil, early they give you bitterness, late in the boil/dry hopping you get more of the aromas.

Higher strength beers such as DIPA are just the current trend, I've found most are very imbalanced and too sugary/malty for my tastes.

In other words, it's bollocks

AFAIK the hoppy beers originate from IPA

http://www.economist.com/news/christmas-specials/21712029-lagers-may-be-ubiquitous-india-pale-ales-are-beers-backstory-history

Having a high hop content to preserve the beer for long journeys to India.

Also the high hop content would mask a variety of sins of the brewer :)

I find session ales like Simpleton etc, really hoppy, for me it tastes like they are super strong and most people conflate hoppiness with strength of alcohol

Hope this helps.

^^ Sorry not quick enough.

all this while my beer gurus advise to drink any IPA as fresh as possible... ;-)

there's a whole encyclopeadia on IPA's here

Thanks @Kat_Balou and @maveco !

These questions were borne from my surprise by randomly picking three "craft" cans from the shelf in Tesco and two of them were way off I thought, I didn't think they had a nice balance at all, whereas one was a world away from the other two despite it being 7% (and I really liked it - Snake Dog IPA btw and I will probably be called a dumpster fire for liking it haha). I won't get caught up in the alcohol numbers game and I know I have my own tolerances for alcohol levels in beer, but I'm unconvinced by the high alcohol content level. I can now see why people hold lots of belgian beers in high regard.

I would imagine IPA in a can would last longer due to having no exposure to sunlight. I assume this is why most craft beer companies are making a lot in cans rather than bottles

That's because some brewers have tried to get on the 'craft' band wagon by just adding loads of hops to a bland base, meaning you buy something in a fancy bottle and it just tastes of sweat. I'm over the whole 'hoppy' thing, it's shit, back to bitter and stout.

I think a lot of the hoppy thing is trying to emulate the idea of the American East Coast craft brewing scene from a few years back. It came over here and the small brewers started doing over-hopped IPAs and they took off so everyone then jumped on the bandwagon.

Which, although they may be fine for a summer evening in San Francisco, don't necessarily suit the the atmosphere here.

On some of the menus over in the US the beers also have an IBU rating for the hoppiness as well as the strength and I think too much of that view has come over here.

Hop flavour does die off so check the date on your Tesco cans, they may just be old. But yeah, also some brewers such as Greene King masquerading as "craft" breweries.

If it were up to me there would be a nice mild in every pub

Thanks for the Brewdog Mystery Box tip ^

We tried a can of the Tailgate Watermelon Wheat beer last night, I didn't like it but Mrs did, its very strongly flavoured, quite sour and too fruity for me.

A can of their peanut stout tonight, much more my thing and not too overpowering.

The Beavertown beers launching this weekend sound interesting, tequila & bourbon.

The labels look awesome

Drank a 7 year old Kernel Imperial Stout tonight it was fucking marvellous. Thanks @Cupcakes for picking it up for me.