Another year has passed since I planted my little hop cuttings and now my hop plants are well and truly established. Continue reading
Category Archives: Beer
Noble Pils @ THBF’s Spring Thing 2011
It’s been a while since I posted my brewday and recipe for my Noble Pils. A beer like this tends to be a bit of a long-term project for a few reasons, mainly because it is a lager and as well as taking longer on the day to brew, lagers also take about twice as long as ales to ferment. Add to this the so-called ‘lagering’ (cold storage) process whereby the beer conditions and clarifies at near-freezing temperatures and we’re up to a few months. If this wasn’t bad enough, this was a very hoppy beer and over-hopping takes some time to mellow out (bitterness and hop flavour diminishes with age). Continue reading
Leffe Lentebier / Bière de Printemps
Leffe 'Spring Beer'
I picked this up at Noel Cuvelier’s. I’d never seen it before, but at a mellow 6.6% ABV, I thought I’d give it a try.
‘Lente’ is the Dutch word for spring (in Afrikaans too, fwiw), so I was half-expecting a Belgian take on a Maibock. After tasting it, I’d like to call it a Belgian Blonde ale despite it being fairly dark in colour, although not nearly as much as the picture would suggest (the flash makes it look much darker – apologies for poor photography skills). Continue reading
Filed under Beer
Noel Cuvelier’s Beer Shop
This place is an absolute goldmine.
I stumbled upon this place online somewhere while doing research for my first trip to Belgium, three years ago. An old mate of mine and I decided to take a long weekend and drive across to the Abbey of St Sixtus in Westvleteren to get some of the famous beer that the monks there brew. I was looking for a good beer shop with a wide selection that we could stop at on our way back, before crossing back to England. Continue reading
You know you’re in Belgium when…
I consider myself extremely lucky to be in the somewhat envious position of having an old friend who actually lives in Holland, so I was able to pop over to Den Haag (The Hague) for a few days to visit him and enjoy the local fare whilst there. Even better, my other half, K, has a good friend who is currently studying in Leiden, so she was able to visit her old friend whilst I did the same.
If you didn’t know, Leiden and The Hague are only about 15 minutes apart, and are both about one tank of petrol away from Maldon, where we live together in England. That in mind, we decided to take the car and Europe for the long weekend (in the UK, Good Friday and Easter Monday are public / bank holidays).
Maldon, Folkestone, Calais, Gent, Antwerp, Rotterdam, The Hague.
ROAD TRIP!! Continue reading
Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA
Those of you into craft beer will know that America is now undoubtedly the forerunner, quite ironic when you think that a few years back all they had was BMC (Budweiser / Millers / Coors). All that has changed over the last decade or two, and now America boasts hundreds of craft breweries, some of them making truly excellent beers. One of the most well-known of these modern-day craft breweries is Dogfish Head. If you’re familiar with the Discovery channel’s Brew Masters show, then you will already know of them. Continue reading
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Angry Yank Pale Ale
My beer is finally available! For those who don’t know, I was lucky enough to have a beer I entered into the CBA National Homebrew Competition last year take first place out of a total of 216 entries. My beer, Angry Yank Pale Ale, originally a 5.2% American Pale Ale featuring Cascade and Amarillo hops, won 1st place in the ‘Specialty’ class of the competition (a kind of ‘catch-all’ category for those beers that don’t fit into the usual categories of Bitter, Best Bitter, Strong Bitter, IPA, etc, commonly found in British beer competitions) and went on to take the Judge’s Choice award for the Beer of the Festival. Continue reading
Staropramen
I love pilsner. I especially love Czech (Bohemian) pilsner, although I do enjoy a good German pilsner too. Day to day, it’s my ‘go-to beer’. For a long time, my favourite all-round beer was Stropramen, the pilsner from Prague (although nowadays I often find myself preferring Pilsner Urquell). It’s got a rich, full-bodied toasted malt flavour and golden brown colour, with a firm bitterness and hoppy Saaz finish. This is a great beer. If you haven’t tried it before, do yourself a favour.
Filed under Beer
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