Whatcha drinking (2018-2022)?

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We've got a couple of minikegs from Abbeydale Brewery in Sheffield. It began in 1996, so these days that counts as quite an old one. In a couple of hours, we shall try the first beer, a 3.8% pale ale called Hopback Bobek. Bobek is the type of hop they use in it.

If you think that's a slightly odd name, the other one we've got is...Dr Morton's Mandarin Claw of Death. Despite the lethal sounding name, it's only 4.1% and uses Bavarian Mandarina hops, which at least explains part of the name. Who Dr Morton is, I know not.

Seriously, though, how could you not buy a beer with a name like that?
 
Duck59 said:
Seriously, though, how could you not buy a beer with a name like that?
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See, that's where I'm a little different. Yes, I'd buy it if I like the style and wanted to try the beer, but I get thoroughly annoyed at "creative" beer names. It's as if they're trying too hard.

I like beer names to follow this template:

<Brewer> <Beer Style> as in "Samuel Smith Chocolate Stout." - these days, old Sam couldn't get a start unless he named his beer "Crazy Sam's Chocolate Hell Lava!"

I like a good, old-fashioned boring beer name. :)
 
TastyReuben said:
See, that's where I'm a little different. Yes, I'd buy it if I like the style and wanted to try the beer, but I get thoroughly annoyed at "creative" beer names. It's as if they're trying too hard.

I like beer names to follow this template:

<Brewer> <Beer Style> as in "Samuel Smith Chocolate Stout." - these days, old Sam couldn't get a start unless he named his beer "Crazy Sam's Chocolate Hell Lava!"

I like a good, old-fashioned boring beer name. :)
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I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek. In fact, when I first saw that one on their website, I assumed it was a loony juice that would be about 8.5%. Having read the description, it sounded like a beer I'd like.

We have a brewery in Scotland called BrewDog, who like to think of themselves as some kind of hardcore punk outfit. Actually, I look upon them as tedious, attention seeking jerks. And their beer isn't that great, either.
 
Duck59 said:
I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek. In fact, when I first saw that one on their website, I assumed it was a loony juice that would be about 8.5%. Having read the description, it sounded like a beer I'd like.

We have a brewery in Scotland called BrewDog, who like to think of themselves as some kind of hardcore punk outfit. Actually, I look upon them as tedious, attention seeking jerks. And their beer isn't that great, either.
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I visited the BrewDog pub in Camden a few years ago. Nice people...they gave me a bag of Brew Dog drink coasters (about 50 of them). I like their beer, but I realize that a lot of it is hype. They have done a great job marketing themselves (and they had a TV series that is also entertaining).
 
Duck59 said:
We've got a couple of minikegs from Abbeydale Brewery in Sheffield. It began in 1996, so these days that counts as quite an old one. In a couple of hours, we shall try the first beer, a 3.8% pale ale called Hopback Bobek. Bobek is the type of hop they use in it.

If you think that's a slightly odd name, the other one we've got is...Dr Morton's Mandarin Claw of Death. Despite the lethal sounding name, it's only 4.1% and uses Bavarian Mandarina hops, which at least explains part of the name. Who Dr Morton is, I know not.

Seriously, though, how could you not buy a beer with a name like that?
Click to expand...

Dr. Morton also has a "Demon Drink" that is a massive 4.2% ABV. Entertaining in an 1800s snake oil salesman sort of way. This is good marketing, since I now want to try it. :laugh:

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The Hopback Bobek from Abbeydale (see above) is a nice quaffing pale ale with a good bitterness. We finished the evening with a Lancaster IPA, which is even hoppier. Lancaster Brewery is fairly new (2005) and is a welcome addition in that city after the demise of the old Mitchell's brewery there at the end of the last century. I recall a very pleasant evening back in the 1980s - a couple of productive hours of wader watching around Morecambe Bay and then a few pints at a nearby Mitchell's pub. It's good to see a decent brewery re-established there.
 
Dr Morton's Mandarin Claw of Death was out yesterday evening. As mentioned above, it's not the lunatic powerbrew that its name suggests, but a 4.1% pale ale. The mandarina hops give it, unsurprisingly, an orange tang. It's not overpowering, more a kind of gentle bitter orange flavour. There is quite a good bitterness and I found it refreshing. Silly name, but a very decent beer.
 
We've been having the odd bottle from the cases of Hobson's and Lancaster beers we bought a couple of weeks ago. One of those that we tried was Lancaster Red. It didn't strike me as a red ale - the colour and taste was more like a brown ale. Brown ales can sometimes be a bit on the sweet side, but this wasn't, so I quite liked it. I still wouldn't describe it as a red ale, though.
 
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Detroit was founded in 1701 by settlers who built houses out of the hops that were used to make this IPA. This is a very crunchy, sturdy hop bomb. I like it, because it’s not just outright hop abuse. There’s an artistry to how it delivers the hops. But, it’s potent.
 
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We have acquired a little batch of minikegs from the Chiltern Brewery, which is based in Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. I am intrigued, because the only time I have had their beer was back in 1983/4, when I lived in Oxford. That wasn't in a pub, either - it was in a shop run by an old work colleague.

In many ways, my old colleague Tony was a man ahead of his time. He opened a shop selling cask beer (as well as some interesting bottled ales). You could get yourself a plastic four-pint container, which was shaped rather like a cider flagon and fill up there. When he first opened the shop, I lived very near to it and I would pop in to see what he had. Tony, being a sociable type, was happy to invite me to his side of the counter so that I could have a taste of the produce. Obviously, it would have been rude to refuse...

And so it was that I tasted Chiltern's Beechwood Bitter. They still brew it, though it wasn't available in minikeg. The brewery began life in 1980, so was pretty new when I came across it. Funny to think it's almost thirty years since I tasted their beer.
 
Duck59 said:
which is based in Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire.
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You ever have something trigger an instant memory? Well, your mention of Aylesbury did just that.

When I was stationed at RAF Upper Heyford, there was a Mexican-style restaurant in Aylesbury, can't remember the name for the life of me, but they used to do monthly "American Night" specials, where they took dollars in place of pounds, meaning if a meal normally cost £10, it would be $10.

Clever way to drive in patrons, and on American Night, it was always packed to overflowing.
 
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