Was in Costco this week, saw a plainish brown box in the booze section labeled "winter craft beer selection" at a ludicrous price of something under £2:50 a litre.
So i thought "why not"
Cracked the box open tonight
There is a bottle of
st nicks blizzard brew
goose honkers
big bang IPA
2 x bowman yumi
bowman ipa
Andwel red IPA
Mojo pale ale
samuel adams boston lager
bowman pukka porter
youngs light ale
But weirdly, its familiar red top winking at me, a bottle of Manns Brown Ale.
WOW, not seen Manns for years, it was my first illegal drinking experience, Pint of Brown and Mild at the Carpenters Arms or the Quart Pot, with Manns Brown always the one of choice (being a local brewery in Romford/Gidea park/Ilford way)
None of the other stuff in this box (only have experience of honkers and youngs) could be classed as a mild to mix with the Manns,
never mind, this is a ludicrously priced box of 12 interesting ales, get down your local Costco now.
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I think a few places sell manns, I'm sure I've seen it in morrisons and (possibly) asda, never had it before. Any good?
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Very sweet I remember, quite malty
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I'd say my first proper drinking sessions were on pints of light and bitter. In a pub which is now housing, somewhere near my school.
Of course, that was in the days of the Watneys Party Four and Party Seven, which naturally were our party fodder. www.thedrinksbusiness.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/12PageIMG92-5.jpg
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I really can't get into ales and beers.
When i was in my late teens I made homebrew from kits I got at Boots. I had all the eqpt, the heaters , the gas thing etc etc.
The stuff tasted horrible but my mates and I would convince ourselves that it was top quality with it being home made and strong.
It took a while, but eventually we all admitted it was horrible.
Now any time I taste any of these craft ales, even brewdog stuff, I just think back to my homebrew. Market it well and folk will drink it but in reality, its not very nice!
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I do tend to avoid some of the craft beers as for me they are usually over-priced, and I also don't like IPA, but there are some great bitters out there. In no particular order, Ruddles, the Hen range (esp Crafty Hen from Tesco - 6.6%), Hob and King Goblin. There are also other less widely available beers like TEA, Timothy Taylor and the Breakspears stuff.
I met a bloke in Arizona a year back whose home brew was virtually indistiguishable from "proper" beer.
What's your tipple then? Guess you're a Peroni type?
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>What's your tipple then? Guess you're a Peroni type?
Thinking back, my tastes have changed.
After homebrew, I went on to lager. And after a few months of that realised I didn't like it. Went on to what we Scots call "heavy", which is beer, 80/- type stuff. I liked that.
Nowadays I drink lagers like Peroni, Tennents, Heverlee; Guiness, Belhaven best, even Boddington type stuff when I am down south.
So quite varied taste!
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>>When i was in my late teens I made homebrew
I tried that as well, it seemed to be a right of passage to brew the strongest possible, but they didn't taste very good. I learned to tone things back and brew weaker stuff and lo and behold, it tasted better.
I now find the lower strength ales (less than 4% ABV) have the best flavour. I particularly like the paler, hoppy brews.
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>> I really can't get into ales and beers.
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>> When i was in my late teens I made homebrew from kits I got at
>> Boots. I had all the eqpt, the heaters , the gas thing etc etc.
We did both beer and wine making at home before children. Beer was bitter from a kit brand called Kwoffit. Made in 40 pint patches we did secondary fermentation in a 'beer sphere' topping up with CO2 from a cylinder like those used in Sodastream. Cleared well and tasted OK.
Wine was mostly from 'Larsen' kits which made about 20 litres which we stored in re-useable heavy duty 'bag in box' type containers. Quite palatable but we drank it too fast - I'd have had chronic cirhossis by now if we'd carried on drinking at that rate.
Enjoy French/Belgian beers like Affligem, Leffe, Grimbergen and Pelforth. Marston's Old Empire IPA is an English standard, usually cheap in Aldi. Chocolate or coffee beers go down well too.
Sierra Nevada Tempest is a favourite from my visits to US but only their ordinary brew makes it over here.
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Back largely unscathed from my Asian adventure ! We overnighted in Uxbridge and stayed at the Red Lion there on the way out. Flowers beer at over £4.00 a pint (!) was superb. I sank a few !. Full update on 'Nam shortly.
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>> There's no bad BEER.
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I think gueuze/lambic beers just about qualify.....
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Beers of your youth - sooty123
