Wychwood Brewery

Lately I've been kind of obsessed with Wychwood Brewery's Hobgoblin beer. I find myself craving one just about every night, and as much as that makes me sound like I have some sort of drinking problem, its just that its been a while since I discovered a beer as delicious and satisfying that's readily available in Britain.

I miss being out on the road in Europe and being able to order just about any beer in any country, confident that it would beat the hell out of the piss-poor selection of tasteless carbonated lager available in most British pubs. One day I'll get around to compiling some sort of Top Ten list of my favourite beers from the continent that no-one will care about.

Anyway, after a good few bottles of Hobgoblin, I decided to see what else Wychwood have to offer. Luckily they made that very easy for me by selling these mini-crates of their four main beers!

I've drunk enough of the Hobgoblin that I can't really recall what my first impressions were when I first tasted it, except to say that I immediately loved it's strong, robust flavour, without the slightly sour mustiness of a lot of ales. I'm glad it's the most readily available of this range.

I was really looking forward to trying the Wychcraft as I love blonde beers, especially the crispy blonde from De Koningshoeven Brewery in the Netherlands, an authentic Trappist brewery. The Wychcraft blonde has a slightly sweeter, smoother kick, it's almost banana-y. It goes down easier than what I can remember of the blondes I had on the continent (and no, that's not a double entendre). I'd definitely demolish a few of these if I can get my hands on them!

I tried the Goliath next, cracking it open and immediately digging the aroma wafting out of the bottleneck, but it was a little light in terms of taste, at least compared to the previous 2 beers of the evening, then I noticed it only packs a 4.2% punch. This beer needs an accompaniment, and it definitely works well as a thirst-slayer when you're demolishing some food on the side.

Last up was the Scarecrow, an 'organic pale ale'. If this is the organic beer, what goes into the others? Are they brewed by robots using old battery acid and genetically engineered hops? [I apologise for the terrible attempts at humour, I was slightly (very) drunk when I scrawled out the notes for this review]
It sure tastes good n' wholesome, a perfect smooth, flavourful way to end the evening.

Blurriness provides accurate portrayal of my vision by the end of the four beers.

I still make no pretense that I actually know anything about beer in a technical sense, but I know what I like, and that's beer and ale with character, which is exactly what Wychwood Brewery offers!

Check out the brewery's awesome website for information about all their beers, as well as pretty good competitions and other stuff here:
http://www.wychwood.co.uk/#/home//hobgoblin/home

You can order all these beers as well as t-shirts, glasses and tankards from Wychwood's online shop:
http://www.wychwood-shop.co.uk/

Beerislava

Coming to you live from Bratislava, Slovakia, it's the completely unhyped and unmissed return of beer reviews that tell you nothing about anything! I don't know how long the internet in this hotel room will hold up, so I'm just gonna get right into it.

But first you should read this article that explains a little about Slovak beer http://travel.spectator.sme.sk/articles/1231/how_to_read_a_slovak_beer_label

I picked up the Kozel because it has a picture of a happy goat holding a big jug of beer, and it just doesn't get any better than that does it?I say this about most beers I like, but the smell when I crack it open is an awesome smokey pungeance. High hopes! The first swig is pretty average, but it's not bad, and I'll doubtless drink a couple more of these during my stay here. I'm okay with that.
This is 10 Plato things, so it's a relatively weak beer, alcohol content-wise, but it's still full of flavour, dry and wheaty. Damn good first beer, hope the others are as tasty!

Next is the weird smiling monk beer, Smadny Mnich. Soon as I pop the top the smell fills the hotel room. Whoah. The taste isn't as overpowering as the smell. In fact, there ain't a lot of taste, just fizziness. I'll give it a few more sips...Nah, it just ain't happening, too bland. Ah well.

Last beer of the evening is Kelt, which has a cool-as-fuck label, sporting a Viking helmet. Badass. Let's hope it tastes it.It has a meaty odour, though my girl reckons it smells like stem ginger cookies. Huh. Well, here's hoping it tastes like neither of those!
Phew, this is the strongest yet, despite being another only 10% Plato units (4.2% actual alcohol), a real robust flavour. Quite bitter aftertaste too, though I'm undecided as to wether that's a good thing or not yet. A couple more swallows and I decide it's a not-bad thing.

Though I probably wouldn't get any of these beers again, I enjoy trying new varieties every day while I'm on the road. If anyone has any suggestions for good Hungarian beers, I'll be there for a week starting tomorrow, so get at me!
designosaur at live dot com
Cheers!

Beer-ache Wreck-ords

I am either the best or the worst person to go food shopping with. I'm like the hyperactive, sugar-ridden child who walks along every aisle screaming "MUUUUUM, CANWEGETTHISCEREALLOOKITHASADRACULAONIT!!!", except I am like this with EVERYTHING!

Go to the spice aisle, I'll get over-excited and pick up like 5 jars of things you've never heard of it and proclaim them to be the best thing ever.
Go to the dairy aisle and I'll pick up like 16 different types of spreadable cheese that I'm guaranteed to eat right outta the tub.
Go to the booze aisle, or any decent liquor store, and I am the definition of Kid In A Candy Shop. Apart from vodka and sambuca, I will drink ANYTHING, especially if someone else is buying/driving me home.
So it was with this in mind that today I figured I should expand my favourite drinks repertoire even further, and buy a few different beers I'd never tried before, or if I had, I was too drunk to remember trying. I settled on these four sexy specimens:

Bacchus Cherry beer: the most expensive, yet the smallest of the 4, I have high hopes for this as it's wrapped in paper. yeah, my criteria are that weird.
Budvar 'Czech Original Budweiser': I got this as I'd seen it around at venues and pubs, but never asked for it incase they gave me ordinary Budweiser, which I fucking hate with a passion. Can't be worse than American Bud, that's for sure.
Asahi 'Super Dry' Japanese beer: I chose this based on my massive beerboner for other Oriental boozes such as Tiger beer and Tsing Tao, I figured if it's even half as good as those then I'm in for a treat.
Crabbie's Alchoholic Ginger Beer: I'd first heard of this due to the TV ad featuring some '50s housewife-style stone-cold fox. Ever since I saw that and calmed myself down, I've been dying to neck on of these beauties. I freakin' love ginger beer.

For the purposes of amusing blogging, I'll type out my reviews as I drink each beer, and with any luck I'll get progressively less coherent, and progressively more riled up and beer-crazy.

First up, the Asahi.
This is a pretty smooth beer, it's going down incredibly easy since I warmed up my drinking muscles with a Corona with dinner. It's real smooth, but the word zesty keeps springing to mind, so I guess it's 'zesty' too. Really light, in the way that you could imagine gettin a 6-pack of these 500ml badboys and having a damn good night as a result. Not in any way bitter, or overly 'european' tasting. this would RULE accompanying a meal.

Next up is the Crabbies.
Wow, this went down like a sack of potatoes. I seriously rattled through this in under 10 minutes, and I'm reasonably sure it's a 500ml-er as well. tastes just like regular ginger beer, except with a weird aroma, maybe? like it reminds me of something but fuck knows what. I could easily drink a few of these in work and no-one would notice. n fact, fuck it, that's what I'll do when i go back, as an experiment. I have a major sweet-tooth, as anyone who actually knows me can attest to. I'm guessing the reason I keep having to go in for fillings and tooth removals is because I put away about 3 cans of (non-alchoholic) ginger beer a day. you can FEEL that shit rotting your enamal. but goddamn do I love it.

3rd up, the Budvar.
this comes in a green glass bottle, which worries me. I fucking hate booze outta a green bottle. I have my reasons. on first sip, it's easily the most beer-y beer of the night. like, it has much more of a TANG to it, more of a slightly yeasty sour kick. or something, I know nothing about the technicalities of beer. strangely, it's going down easier than any beer from a green bottle has any right to. this pisses me the fuck off. i WANT to hate this beer, but I just can't bring myself to it. it's from the czech republic, which makes me soften to it, because I wanna hang in prague like nothin else, and this beer might be a good... thing. these bottles are all 500ml. fuck.

final boss! Bacchus, you motherfucker.
ok, by now I'm preeeeetty pretty buzzed. not drunk, by any stretch of the imagination (although it did take some fuckineffort to type imagination), but nicely buzzed.
usually, at this point in my blood-alchohol level I'll call up a friend to take me into the city so I can play roullette and poker (badly) til 7am. but not tonight, because there's fuckin work to do, goddamnit. the world needs to know how sweet these beers are, and by god, I'm gonna tell em. you motherfuckers, keeping me a way from my gambling habit.
uh, right, so, the beer! I'm on the firsst sip, and I already feel the same way you do when you're in love, or you just really wanna get laid. I can say with confidence that this bottle is gonna rule, despite being the smalllest of the lot. glug. I can imagine lying in a grassy park, slugging down a few of these beautys and shouting abuse at families. shit. this is a beautiful beer. I kinda don;t want it to end. because I have no more booze in my house, except for some sewrious fuckin bourbon, and I don;t think I'll survive another night. if I have international readers, you better hope and pray that your nearest liqquor store in whatever-the-fuck-country stocks BACCHUS CHERRY BEER, because it's beautiful. like an alchoholic dessert. mmmmm.

oh yeah, here's that ad that gives me a serious chub:


FREE THINKER, BEER DRINKER.