Ale, Beer, Stout appreciation

Having a nice time

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Oooh, yes...

I haven’t been able to go to the pub yet, but the Stella Artois campaign caught my eye.

Id since been thinking to myself, ‘I do kind of want a pint of Stella for old time’s sake’. So as a stop-gap, I picked up a couple of bottles along with some other stuff.

Imagine my surprise when, after having finished the first and wondering why it tasted so weak, I turned the bottle over to see it’s now 4.6%.

I remember back around 2000 when there was far less choice - often just between Stella and 1664 and Fosters and Carling, before Stella ‘Black’ and Becks Vier came along.

Pretty sure it was 5.2% then - can or draught. Vaguely remember there being a bit of a kerfuffle about it dropping to 5% long after it was a frequent drink of choice, but now it’s just lost any kind of character, for good or bad.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/14099167/fury-stella-artois-reduces-alcohol-percentage-lagers/

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UK brewed supermarket lagers from the big brands are all lower ABV and taste completely different from the originals, see San Miguel and Becks for same issue.

You can get the Spanish and German versions that are still >5% and don’t give you hangovers from hell in lots of corner shops.

Cloudwater heading into Tesco, although produced at BrewDog. 4 core beers and a mixed collaborations 4 pack.

Isn't that something Paul said he'd never do? I might be dreaming though?

I can’t find it with a very quick google.

Suppose it would be very hypocritical if I was against this given the discussion a page or so back. I think getting great beer to more people affordably is a good thing. Understand the implications for the indies but think it’ll play out in the same way as specialist wine shops, growing the base of craft beer consumers means a bigger pool of those willing to trade up for something special

The quote from the Tesco buyer is they are using Brewdog so Cloudwater production for indies is not affected.

I think @LukeG was referring to the fact that indies who stock brands like Cloudwater now have a new competitor in Tesco.

It means that indies have to step up their game and develop a point of difference eg my local beer shop now does growler fills and takeaway containers. And I’m getting fat as a result.

I am grateful that supermarkets are stocking a wider array of niche beers, purely because there are zero bottle shops in Laindon, or within light cycling distance.
(Although I tend to order online from beer merchants for the most part and just pick up the odd can in my weekly shop)

Is "near decent beer merchant" a filter on rightmove yet?

My lol / lbs has always dropped the Vocation and Beavertowns of the world once they went into supermarkets. Be interesting to see what they do with Cloudwater.

I appreciate the +ve for the smaller partners in the 4 colabs and that it's a standard cw range being offered. All very well described in their blog

https://cloudwaterbrew.co/blog/beer-with-big-ideas

Does this also mean Brewdog couldn't grow their own production capacity further easily?

Predictions:

Brewdog eventually buyout Cloudwater for ££££££ lots

Paul et al launch Murkliquid specialising in B.A.Stouts

I don’t think BrewDog struggle to raise funds for capex, sounds like they’ve got plans for new breweries in France etc in the pipeline

I worded my post badly, I meant they may be struggling to pre-sell enough volume to utilise their potential production volume, hence making beer for other brewers.

Ah I get you. Utilising spare capacity to contract brew is pretty common in the brewing world and usually pretty profitable. Tank space is usually the limiting factor and I bet Ellon has tons. I forget where (Redchurch possibly?) but Beavertown were contracting out Neck Oil when they maxed out their capacity in Tottenham.

Makes sense.

One of the collaborators is very happy about it:

https://twitter.com/LilyWaite_/status/1382417622415900674?s=19

That beer sounds good too.

Lily is a friend of mine and I'm well happy for her, it's pretty exciting

Birthday yesterday, so thought we'd make our first one back at Mikkeller and spend a few quid on some takeaway beers as well; they've also got a great new IPA (I believe) called Burst which is going to be alongside the rest of their supermarket line

Loads of Liquorice in this one. Supposed to be Maple & Blueberry

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Went to Goodness Brewery in Wood Green last night. Beers were ok, no real standouts, but was a nice place and very well set up. Pleasantly surprised to discover a load of toilets (including a baby change) rather than the standard brewery single toilet for the whole place.

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Wylam chucking out a few digs over craft beer in supermarkets.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNx9C0ulS0J/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

https://www.wylambrewery.co.uk/wylam-going-into-tesco-here-are-the-details/

Chilli!

These were flying off the shelf at Tesco today. It seems it’s only the bigger stores getting them at the moment

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I got two of the non-collab ones to try; the DDH and Session IPAs

Update, the DDH is delicious