Camra

[prinnysquad]

Seven Giraffes - 9/10
Durham Light - 8/10
Alnwick IPA - 8/10
River Cottage (Badger) Stinger - 8.5/10
Young's Winter Warmer - 8/10
Hook Norton Haymaker - 8/10

And after much thought we've decided to upgrade Firestoker to a 10. Best bottled beer we've tasted. No point having a system where you can't reach the top mark

[Plough Boy]

Seven Giraffes - 9/10
Durham Light - 8/10
Alnwick IPA - 8/10
River Cottage (Badger) Stinger - 8.5/10
Young's Winter Warmer - 8/10
Hook Norton Haymaker - 8/10

And after much thought we've decided to upgrade Firestoker to a 10. Best bottled beer we've tasted. No point having a system where you can't reach the top mark

Ooooof - the Holy Grail by your ranking system.
No arguments here though - a absolute cracker.

I bet VP gave it 9.987699!

[vanpeebles]

HUMPH! We both agreed on 10

[Ish]

I shared the glorious Seven Giraffes with a few friends tonights. All were suitably impressed. Really like this one.

[Plough Boy]

What a superb trip!
The Norwich Beer Festival was brilliant - by far the biggest festival I've ever been to - an excellent selection of ales to choose from both local and national.

Driving down from Durham the same day was, in hindsight, not such a great idea and both prinny and I were a bit tired when we arrived. 8 beers sorted that out tho'!

I partook in:
Trick Or Treat? Caledonian 4.5% Yarmouth Bitter Blackfriars 3.8% Where's The Cat? Fat Cat 4.2% Santa's Nuts Fox 4.8% Otter Bright Otter Brewery 4.3% 80/- Belhaven 4.2% Clipper IPA Broughton 4.2% Festival Special Wissey Valley 5.3%


The Trick or Treat was my favourite of those (roasted nuts and spice) getting a 9 as did Where's the Cat. Yarmouth, 80/- and Clipper were solid 8s with Otter bright being a 7. The most disappointing was Santa's Nuts - despite a comedy name it was far too smokey and I struggled really badly with it finding it almost undrinkable (not Innis & Gunn undrinkable tho'). Other people have said this was a really nice nutty beer so maybe it was a bad batch?

Today on our way back we went to a local Tescos where prinny bagged 5/6 newbies and then Beers of Europe. I can't big it up enough. We spent about an hour there like - well like 2 lads in a beer shop - I had to drag the boy away in the end as otherwise he might well have bought every beer there. In the end he settled for 24 and I 11.

Before we'd even got to BoE prinny said it was an 8/10 day just for getting the new beers in Tescos so what it must have been after that I daren't guess.

Even the 5 1/2 hour traffic jam delayed trip back couldn't put a dampener on things.
Tremendous

[prinnysquad]

OOf those beers are all lined up like a platoon ready to march into battle. China has the terracotta army, I have my swarm of beers.

Best of all for me thought, was the purchase of the St Peter's Glass (see the very bottom of this link) http://www.beersofeurope.co.uk/acata...ml#aUKSP50579G

which is glorious to drink out of.

Last two nights, had Wells Banana Bread Beer (10/10 - yes, another one. It's so unique and damn tasty every time you have it)



Young's Double chocolate stout - 9/10


Samuel Smith's The Celebrated Oatmeal Stout - 8.5/10

[Ish]

I love Youngs Double Chocolate Stout. It was my introduction to "proper" stout. Beautiful.

Can't agree with you on the Banana Bread though. Its ok but didn't really do it for me. 6/10 I would say. Though I might have scored it higher a few pages back... what can I say... I'm fickle

[Ajay1986]

On the topic of Stout has anyone tried Wychwood's BlackWych? Ive been wanting to try some for a while but haven't been able to find somewhere that sells it around York.

[fuse]

I'm not mad on the banana bread one either - that being said though, I'm not a big fan of bananas either, and I could definitely feel it was that putting me off it.

Got some Camra gubbins in the post yesterday, got all excited when I saw there was an ale festival going on in the Heathrow area. Then I saw that the dates were the 26th and 27th of this month. Cheers for the notice :|

[prinnysquad]

Oof. I'm going to have to organise an angry mob with pitchforks and burning torches to visit the Banana Bread naysayers.



Although I can totally understand where you're coming from. It's so unique and bananery that it'll either be a big hit or a big miss. The same goes for Badger Golden Glory - I love it but Plough Boy can take it or leave it. He recognises that it's a very individual and special beer, but the taste is such that it's not a fave of his.

I'd imagine a lot of the Belgian fruit beers are like this. The don't play it safe, so you run the risk of hating them.

Stuff like Banana Bread are 'cult' beers, totally different from the mega-tasty session beers that everyone seems to like. It has to be a truly superb session beer to nail a 10 for me, because so many of them taste all alike. It's indicative that the two tens we've awarded so far stand out as unique beers, though I can't see that lasting. We've made the decision that session beers should be awarded a 10 also on the basis of taste and drinkability.

On the Double Chocolate Stout note - I particularly enjoyed shoving my snout in the glass and breathing in the chocolately smell between gulps. Superb!

Ajay - this is notoriously hard to track down. I've had it before (had all the Wychwood boys, except England's Ale) and it's very canny. 8/10 I think we gave it. Beers of Europe didn't have it the other day, but it's listed on their website as temporarily out of stock, so keep an eye on it (1.75 per bottle; not bad!).

Just checked on the wychwood website. It says: "We brew Black Wych as a beer of the month for Sainsbury's so it's only in stores for a limited time. We do sell Black Wych from our brewery shop all year round if you are able to visit. This is also the case with some of our other beers such as Bah Humbug, England's Ale and White Wych." They do a mixed selection case for 30 quid on their website, Black Wych seems to be in that. http://www.wychwood-shop.co.uk/products.asp?category=Wychwood%20Beers&subcategory =Wychwood%20Selection%20Cases

I'm sure I saw White Wych during the summer. Here's hoping Black Wych is the Autumn Ale! I'm hoping and praying that Wychwood release Bah Humbug for Christmas again. That may get re-awarded a ten.

Fuse - yeah my CAMRA stuff took ages to get here too. Maybe they got skanked by Royal Mail, or maybe theyre just lazy

[prinnysquad]

heh two more boys grabbed at Asda.

I saw Shepherd Neame: Golden Premium Ale straight away, brewed under Asda's Extra Special range.

I scanned the shelves for another few minutes before almost giving up hope of another newbie, then I saw a bottle standing on its own with its back turned to me. Spinning it round, I beheld Theakston's Black Bull Bitter. Then I noticed the huge label underneath with 'Guest Beer: Black Bull Bitter' emblazoned across it in red and white lettering.

Good form to get the last bottle of the guest beer range

[prinnysquad]

Just saw an advert in the CAMRA beer newspaper for Booth's supermarket in Cumbria. Bottles of Bah Humbug and Jennings Redbreast for 99p each.

The missus' mother is going to the Lakes next week.

With a huge order from me

[Kieran76]

Decided to have a few beers tonight, got a Fullers London Porter, a Fullers Golden Pride (8.5%) and an old favourite - Deuchars IPA.

[Ish]

Dark Star Brewery - Espresso Coffee Ale
Yum yum. Quite coffee-ish and dark. Strong taste but only 4.5%. 8/10.

[prinnysquad]

Yeah I think I saw that in Norwich but was put off by Plough Boy blubbing on about not liking coffee.

half-dozen new boys from Fenwicks, Magland today.