Home brew ruined my enjoyment of beer!!!!

[dennisking]

CAMRA voted Green King IPA as a top beer a little while back

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

You have got to be joking!!!! :lol: :rofl:

No! fraid not, either last year or the year before

 

[jamesb]

2004 wasn't it?

 

[marshbrewer]

I can't take CAMRA seriously, ever since I went to one of their beer festivals in the early 2000's. Every beer had a 'try this if you like ...' then a commonly known beer (Pedigree, Guinness, etc). Except, hilarious wags that they were, they had 'lager' on every one. Ho ho.ho.

As someone who had just returned from a mini tour of eastern Europe, I couldn't help thinking what a load of arrogant, fat, un-washed, small minded tools. I was also ****** off that someone who actually liked a lighter beer, such as lager, who may well enjoy an English Pale, or whatnot, would get peed off being fobbed off with anything 'cos its better than that yellow p1ss, ho ho ho' by some 40 year old virgin with bad skin, and return home thinking that all British ale was stereotypical brown slop.

Combine that with their support of the smoking ban, minimum pricing, and default hatred of large pub chains (apart from Weatherspoons, even if they are souless, large trouble spots, cos they sell proper ale, innit?), rather than judging a pub by it's individual presentation, and.. well, as you can guess, I ain't a fan!

However, back on topic ~ I've only done a few brews, and even I'm finding that some of the expensive bottled stuff doesn't taste as good. Is it all over for me ~ am I destined to become a beer bore?

 

[Kyral210]

Well I support the smoking ban 100%, and some minimum pricing is ok, I mean it only hits **** Tesco cider rather than real drinks. But yeah. I don't want to upset anyone on this forum, but every time I see anything about CAMRA on the TV it is accompanied exclusively with upper middle aged men with bear bellies and beards. Now, I have nothing against upper middle aged men with bear bellies and beards, but surely it is possible to be under 50, clean shaven AND enjoy a good beer? I think the bastards at Fosters have a lot to account for, but seriously! Well, I dont think producing mediocre brews is the answer, and I dont think appealing to neche groups is the answer. I guess its all social.

 

[Ceejay]

Well, and this is the thing. Maybe it's time for the second round of the revolution in beer in this country. To be fair to CAMRA, they did some pretty good work in getting "real ale" back into the market place and paved the way for many craft brewers who's beer we now enjoy. There are many people on this forum and in the country who love properly crafted beer (not necessarily ale) who don't fit the stereotype, me included. There just needs to be a shift in the balance of power somewhere, so that the craft beer community is pushing the whole thing forward and not holding it back.

Buy the beer you like, and you're directly supporting that brewery and essentially buying into their future. And if any of us feel that passionately about it, why don't we do something?

Kyral, you're right, it is all social. And I think that's what they have done really successfully in the states - they've created a really good social network of craft beer drinkers, home brewers and craft brewers who are really well supported by some of the larger breweries. If we can somehow emulate that in this country we'll be on our way.

Maybe it's time for a blog... :rofl:

Cor. I got myself all fired up! :lol:

 

[topgear]

what beers did you buy moley ???? :whistle:
(got to keep up with the topguns boys) :party:

I'm not a topgun brewer, still a novice.
I've never yet tried to capture yeasts and don't even know if these are suitable. The only bottle conditioned beers I could find in Tesco were an SNPA and a Wye Valley, so it will be a bit of an experiment.

I've tried successfully to culture from SNPA before and was pleased with the taste. I've heard it's actually SO5 but I wouldn't know, I've never used anything but Nottingham and Windsor in packets. Lost the culture now but will try it again.

checked out my local supermarket giant but could only find Shepherd Neame 1698 and Thwaites Nutty Black!! i am the greenest of green newbies what do you think boys ??? which beers should i be looking for :wha:

 

[pjbiker]

checked out my local supermarket giant but could only find Shepherd Neame 1698 and Thwaites Nutty Black!! i am the greenest of green newbies what do you think boys ??? which beers should i be looking for :wha:

Just give it a go culturing them both up and see what happens. Nothing to lose, its all experimental. :thumb: If you like the results, keep it going.

 

[pjbiker]

Here you go, Duvel is one to try apparently

viewtopic.php?p=145125#p145125

 

[topgear]

You are having a friggin laugh pj i picked duvel up and put it back thinkin the boys wont use that one, it tastes like cock juice !!!!!!!!

 

[jamesb]

You are having a friggin laugh pj i picked duvel up and put it back thinkin the boys wont use that one, it tastes like cock juice !!!!!!!!

Remind me never to take a critique of beers from you seriously again.

 

[topgear]

so guys is it worth making a culture out of Shepherd Neame 1698 or Thwaites Nutty Black
or will it not be worth it??? and then i will have to drink them

 

[rickthebrew]

It`s great to see loads of passion from people about this whole debate It`s a tricky one the brewers (especially small ones) are up against the whole taxaxtion and government bullying around alcohol, whilst the big brewers pass out **** with loads of marketing that everyone seems to drink otherwise their business would fail. I love beer, my own beer and well made commercial beer - i`d love to own a brewery but the start up costs and running costs make it a hard area to make a living in i`m sure, i just want something different from breweries ( thats why i like brewdog) this country is in need of more but the government make it hard in every way.

:drink:

As a collective bunch of people with the same views anything is possible :hmm:

 

[Ceejay]

It`s great to see loads of passion from people about this whole debate It`s a tricky one the brewers (especially small ones) are up against the whole taxaxtion and government bullying around alcohol, whilst the big brewers pass out **** with loads of marketing that everyone seems to drink otherwise their business would fail. I love beer, my own beer and well made commercial beer - i`d love to own a brewery but the start up costs and running costs make it a hard area to make a living in i`m sure, i just want something different from breweries ( thats why i like brewdog) this country is in need of more but the government make it hard in every way.

:drink:

As a collective bunch of people with the same views anything is possible :hmm:

Well said mate. I'm certainly up for getting involved in some way and trying to make a difference. There's some great craft breweries around the country, and as home brewers we're probably the group of people most likely and most inclined to support them. They help us and we help them. First stop, CBA methinks and I'll be trying to vote with my cash as much as possible by buying craft, not commercial :hmm:

 

[pjbiker]

I think the problem we have with the widespread potentiation of 'real ale' is the serving from cask 'without extraneous gas' as Camra insist and is traditional. Many of us homebrewers make tasty ale and serve with gas, preserving it's life. In the US they serve 'craftbrewed ales' using gas, but they taste good. Here, if a primarily'keg' pub puts on the odd cask and it is not drunk within a few days, it goes sour. Keg beer/lager takes relatively no cellarmanship to keep, needs no settling period . Serving poor cask ale, especially to the uninitiated is likely to put them off the hand pull pump for good. Keg on the other hand keeps for months, and is consistent but bland. Serving 'real' ale with a cask breather or even under pressure may give it more of an appeal, like I have seen and tasted it across 'the pond. I like my 'real' ale but think it will take a radical shift in serving methods and tradition to make 'proper ale' as popular as the mass produced pasteurised filtered keg beer/lagers.

 

[seanipops]

I think the problem we have with the widespread potentiation of 'real ale' is the serving from cask 'without extraneous gas' as Camra insist and is traditional. Many of us homebrewers make tasty ale and serve with gas, preserving it's life. In the US they serve 'craftbrewed ales' using gas, but they taste good. Here, if a primarily'keg' pub puts on the odd cask and it is not drunk within a few days, it goes sour. Keg beer/lager takes relatively no cellarmanship to keep, needs no settling period . Serving poor cask ale, especially to the uninitiated is likely to put them off the hand pull pump for good. Keg on the other hand keeps for months, and is consistent but bland. Serving 'real' ale with a cask breather or even under pressure may give it more of an appeal, like I have seen and tasted it across 'the pond. I like my 'real' ale but think it will take a radical shift in serving methods and tradition to make 'proper ale' as popular as the mass produced pasteurised filtered keg beer/lagers.

I couldn't agree more and I can imagine, if pubs don't charge £6 a pint that kegged craft beer could quite catch on.

 

[crisparmour]

serving from cask 'without extraneous gas' as Camra insist

I was a member of CAMRA in the 1990s and I read with interest their manifesto and descriptions of the craft of the cellarman, nurturing ales for a week in the cellar until they were fit for the savvy pubgoer to sample.

Lately I hear of pubco deliveries of cask ale arriving in the morning to go on sale the same evening.

The tied house I visit regularly not too far from where I live has never supplied a bad pint of real ale despite struggling to attract customers. The last time I was there the barmaid apologised that the mild had gone off "because the gas had gone". I smiled, because they are in the Good Beer Guide and if CAMRA knew what I know they'd be scrubbed off the list.

It's definitely time to shift the focus: CAMRA call GKIPA "real ale" yet would deny my local tipple [much tastier] that accolade. I'm convinced that a lot of "cask conditioned" ale sold these days - especially the mass produced stuff via the pubcos - is really brewery conditioned with a shot of yeast in the cask for appearance's sake. It's time to let go of the old dinosaur brands and focus attention on beers with character, be it subtle like a Black Country bitter or in yer face like Brewdog. Those who really care about beer should celebrate diversity, encourage drinkers to taste their beer and give bland mass-produced beer the derision it deserves.

 

[Ceejay]

Exactly right. I'd much rather drink a well crafted pilsner than a "real ale" that tasted like it came from a badger's @rse. I recently went to a Wetherspoons where they were selling Hogsback T.E.A on tap; I thought I'd lucked out. It was flat and utterly uninspiring. This was my favourite beer a couple of years ago! :nono:

I've said this before, and you guys are right - we definitely need to start taking a leaf out of the Americans' book. I haven't tasted a cask beer recently that has rivalled a good bottled conditioned beer, and I think quite a lot of that is down to carbonation.

 

[Verb77]

"With every sip all I could think was 'my coffee stout kicks this into last week'."

I like the sound of this Coffee Stout. Is there a recipe??