Camra

[Ish]

We will expect full beer reports tomorrow! Have fun

[prinnysquad]

Running list so far:

Broughton Old Jock Ale - 6.7% - a brutal yet tasty starter. Not as hardcore as the abv suggests. Story on the back - 'For centuries the fighting men of the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland have been familiarly referred to as the Jocks...' The label has an auld man with a ginger beard. 8/10
Morrisons The Best - 6% - Not bad for a supeymarket beer. Rather tasty. Would defo drink again. 8.5/10
Broughton The Ghillie - 4.5% - more tasty goodness. A great story on the back about standard bearers. 8/10
Elgood's Double Swan Premium Pale Ale. 4.5% The label has some guff about supporting a local wildfowl trust, wtf? A really light and breezy ale, very different to the harder boys so far tonight. 8.5/10, in part perhaps due to change of pace it provides. Somewhat similar to Usher's White Ale Table Beer, drank in Nov 2003 (9/10)

2 more to drink, then the big Goliath each (Wychwood, 4.2%, 660ml, 29.07.02 - 8/10)

[Paulos G]

As someone who has only started indulging in Ales in the last 12/13 months or so I was wondering if you have a detailed description of how you come by your ratings. Why is one beer an 8 and another 8.5 for instance?

[prinnysquad]

Right.

This is VP and I's ratings system:

We judge ours in the entire context of alcohol. For example, a **** mainstream lager would be 3 or 4/10. A cider would be 4 or 5/10. John Smiths would be 5, at the absolute max, 6/10, because its mass produced (and relatively tasteless) crap. So a tasty yet standard real ale might get 7.5/8 out of 10. A very tasty one, with slight uniqueness would get 8.5. A Mega tasty and unique taste would get 9, and an absolute classic 9.5. No 10s awarded yet, probably because the criteria is so stringent (unique, ultra tasty, very very moreish, drinkable and a beer that maybes retains its special qualities with repeated tastings. The closest to this has been Firestoker, at 9.5(+) - but I've got doubts over it's ability to maintain its special qualities if it was welched nightly. it may be that a ten is unattainable, which would make our system as pointless as an Edge rating system. But, hey, we enjoy it, and maybe one day we'll re-assess Firestoker as a 10 and re-align the system appropriately.

You have to be majorly impressed to award a 9. An 8.5 is a beer that stands out, but isn't massively different. An 8 is a very solid, tasty, drinkable real ale.

Or, you could take the Team Juans/Plough Boy Derivative, and compare and contrast beers. He awards real ales an A to E rating. C being distinctly average, A being sublime, B very very good, D being quite dull and E being poor. He awards a special U to those he hates (Innes and Gunn).

Both systems have their virtues and are a riff on a theme, with, obviously, VP and I's system being superior. Because we'd rate a poor real ale higher than a tacky lager any day E seems just so harsh, dontchathink?

To complete tonight's session:

The fifth beer... VP fill in the blanks... was very nice indeed. Lots of body and quite unique from the rest of the night, but not unique in the grand scheme of things. Whatever its called, it got 8.5. Finished the newbies with Marston's Six Pedigree, a Limited Edition Pedigree that rolls in at 6%, and is a cricket beer, paying due courtesy to the ECB on the lid. 8/10.

Goliath each at the end will cause probs tmrw morning I bet...

A quality night. I hope you appreciate the effort this post has took. I have had to concentrate more than a Grand Master to a) hit the correct keys, b) delete incorrectly fumbled keys and c) proof read this post before posting.

And I bet it still reads like drunken ramblings when I look at it tmrw!

[vanpeebles]

hhuurrrrggggg

[Ish]

No no no man. It makes perfect sense. And your rating system: spot on.

[prinnysquad]

Urgh a headache.

That's the Goliath kicking back.

[Extra Terrestrial]

prinny, what happened to:



Guess what I did last night?

No ale whatsoever as I went out with a four girls from work (I was the only man!) and had eight Bacardi Breezer?s.

Yup, you?ve guessed it:

Of the four I had, I got a straw; put the long end in the bottle and the short end out of the bottles and drunk the whole thing in less than four seconds.

Hate the taste but the fun values were high. I?m actually alright this morning, no headaches to speak of at all.

[prinnysquad]

lol you know its a bad night drinks wise when you feel fine the next morning and you don't unleash a satanic turd.

Plough Boy must be out of action. Probably spewing into a gutter still. I bet he comes back with a po-faced reaction to Regatta.
"OK, nothing mega, grade C"

I forgot to see what VP and I rated it all those years ago.

[Extra Terrestrial]

I bet he comes back with a po-faced reaction to Regatta.
"OK, nothing mega, grade C"

He had better think twice before giving the Regatta his final rating!

[Plough Boy]

No vomiting - a bit of a fuzzy head tho' .

Here's the list:
Magus - Durham Brewery.
Regatta - Adnams. Which I too enjoyed (so screw you prinny!)
Stairway to Heaven - Burton Bridge.
Devil's Water - Hexhamshire.
Westoe IPA - Jarrow.
A'l Wheat Pet - Mordue.
Summer Tyne - Mordue.
The Red MacGregor - Orkney.
Well Blathered - Rudgate.
Gold Tankard - Wylam.

The Westoe and the Well Blathered were an absolute treat. Stairway to Heaven and REGATTA scored highly too. Fairs fair tho' the only one I had which I had wasn't over fond of was the Devil's Water and that's because the rest were so good. I'll edit this post with my drunken notes when I find the programme.
A superb night - roll on the Durham Festival!

[prinnysquad]

Did you drink pints?

[Paulos G]

Thanks for the detailed rating post prinny. I thought VP would've marked using percentages to three decimal places though.

[prinnysquad]

Yeah he tried, but I resisted. He rated one beer the other week an 8.2.

[Extra Terrestrial]

He rated one beer the other week an 8.2.

Nice to see some Regatta lovin'!