Skip to main content

Great British Beer Festival: Day 2

Day two is done, and more excellent beers consumed.

1. Krausened Lager, Budweiser Budvar 4%

After the Tankove Pivo being my beer of the day yesterday,  hopes were high for the Krausened. An unfiltered and unpasteurised lager. Not quite up there with the tank beer, but still very refreshing. A slight aftertaste that wasn't there on the Tankove, and overall I preferred the temperature controlled option. A good start though.

2. Cinnamon Porter, Boulder Beer Company 5.9%

A lovely Porter, the cinnamon being very subtle. Sweet and smooth, I'd happily return to this.

3. Kölsch, Cölner Hofbräu Früh 4.8%

Clean, crisp and clear with a softness on the tongue that surprises. Could easily go a few pints of this on a hot summer's day.

4. Make America Juicy Again, Heretic Brewing Company 6.5%

A New England IPA, hazy and fruity as you'd expect from this style, but more tart and lacking the rich smoothness of other NEIPAs I've had.

5. Salted Caramel Lucaria, Thornbridge 4.5%

Now here is a beer to make you pay attention. One of my favourite UK brewers, and again they do not disappoint. Described as an ice cream porter, it smells just as you'd imagine a salted caramel ice cream beer would. So sweet and smooth, I concede this would not be to everyone's taste, but it certainly is to mine. My beer of the day.

6. Brigadeiro, Springdale 7.5%

Another rich and smooth beer, this breakfast stout has all the body and mouth feel you'd expect,  with a coffee bitterness that made a nice change after the extreme sweetness of the Lucaria.

7. Utopian Limited Edition Stout, Lacada 8%

My fourth dark, strong beer and a good way to finish. A rich, full bodied dessert stout. Very quaffable.

Over the two days, the Thornbridge Lucaria and Budvar Tankove Pivo stand out as the real surprises. Only the LOC breakfast stout disappointed,  so a 13/14 hit rate seems very reasonable 

If you've never been then I'd heartily recommend a visit. If you do, then make sure you're there in good time as it gets much busier as the day goes on.

Labels:

Comments

  1. Anonymous9 August 2018 at 23:51

    Sounds like a load of pretentious bullshit to me, it's piss.... get over it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Steven Routledge12 August 2018 at 21:41

      As I say in the blog introduction, this is my journey. I enjoy beer and talking about it. It won't change the world, but it's not trying to. As written above "your mileage may differ".

      Delete
  2. stephenpbrowne@gmail.com10 August 2018 at 11:28

    Hi Steven,
    Appalled at the comment above! Obviously a totally insensitive moron with a totally insensitive palate and no regard for the brewers craft whatsoever! Ignore!
    Very interesting descriptions of all the beers, only wish I had been there to sample them with you.
    Perhaps next year, I’ll keep an eye out for it.
    Keep up the good drinking!
    Hamish McBroone

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Eraserland by Strand Of Oaks - Album Review

A new album from Tim Showalter which, barring a final misstep, hits all the Americana, (and more), marks. This album is heartfelt, sleazy, uplifting, classic and referential all at the same time whilst still pointing forwards.

The beginning is inauspicious. "Weird Ways" starts out like a standard Ryan Adams ballad, but takes off halfway through in a way that reveals the pedigree of the other musicians on the album. After hearing this track I thought it sounded like the aforementioned Mr Adams playing with My Morning Jacket(MMJ). The reverb drenched sound kept rearing its head and a little research revealed that, minus main man Jim James, they were the backing musicians on the album . No wonder I kept hearing them! As a band who has produced much that I like this was a good thing. 

After "Weird Ways" heads for the stars we stay there with "Hyperspace Blues" which is one for fans of Jason Pierce's Spiritualized, and sounds just as a song with that title s…
Post a Comment
Read more

On The Line by Jenny Lewis - Album Review

Arriving with positive notices and an all-star supporting cast that includes a former Beatle in Ringo Starr, a former Heartbreaker in Benmont Tench along with renowned players like Jim Keltner, Don Was and produced by Ryan Adams it would be easy to dismiss such a description as too good to be true.
However, sometimes it is okay to believe the hype..
The 4th solo album from Jenny Lewis is an example of the old adage that misery makes for great art, and is another entry into the canon of great break-up albums.
It is crammed with catchy melodies, expert playing and excellent, if sometimes just a little too cool for school, songwriting. Right from the very start with "Heads Gonna Roll" the sweetness of the melodies is leavened with a perfectly judged dose of underlying menace and bitterness.
Mention has to be given to the Hammond solo from Benmont Tench on this track. The tone is deliciously fat and filthy in the best possible way.
"Wasted Youth" continues with a ridiculous…
Post a Comment
Read more

Tuscaloosa by Neil Young & The Stray Gators - Album Review

Shakey's live archive releases continue apace, coming after the excellent "Songs For Judy", (full review here) and the even better "Roxy: Tonight's The Night Live", (full review here). 

This time Neil treats us to excerpts from an Alabama show, (hence the title), from the 1973 tour previously documented on "Time Fades Away". Whilst a commercial success, the tour was fraught due to Young's grief over the drug-induced death of Danny Whitten that led to his masterpieces "Tonight's The Night" and "On The Beach", and his discomfort in translating his sound to the big arenas his success now found him playing. Neil has previously stated that "Time Fades Away" is his worst album. Those of us who have endured "Everybody's Rockin'" or "Landing On Water" might beg to differ....

Anyway another snapshot of that tour emerges here, and an altogether more lighter mood prevails. The autobiographical &…
Post a Comment
Read more

Songs To Die To - Part 3

Continuing a series about songs death and dying. These are not necessarily songs that talk about the process of dying, rather as the title suggests, songs that I could imagine listening to on my death bed, or taking as consolation during or after a funeral. 

Morbid? I think not, as death is part of life. If we all talked about it a little more, maybe we'd cope with it better.

No 1: featuring "Land Of Hope & Dreams" by Bruce Springsteen here

No 2: featuring "Look On Down From The Bridge" by Mazzy Star here


With that said here's my next choice.


No 3: Gonna Be A Darkness - The Jayhawks

From their superb collection of songs that main man Gary Louris wrote with other artists, (full review here), comes this gem co-written with Jakob Dylan.


I love the extended musical introduction, starting with the mandolin, building with the bass and piano.It sets a lovely relaxed groove that hints at the sadness to come.
Louris and drummer Tim O'Reagan blend their voices beauti…
Post a Comment
Read more

Songs To Die To - Part 4

Continuing a series about songs death and dying. These are not necessarily songs that talk about the process of dying, rather as the title suggests, songs that I could imagine listening to on my death bed, or taking as consolation during or after a funeral. 

Morbid? I think not, as death is part of life. If we all talked about it a little more, maybe we'd cope with it better.

No 1: featuring "Land Of Hope & Dreams" by Bruce Springsteen here

No 2: featuring "Look On Down From The Bridge" by Mazzy Star here

No3: featuring "Gonna Be A Darkness" by The Jayhawks here

With that said here's my next choice.

No 4: Everything Flows - Teenage Fanclub

This song is here less for it's explicit subject matter rather than the way it makes me feel.
Certainly the lyrics, "I'll never know which way to flow, set a course that I don't know" talk about journeying, searching and convey an ambiguity that could apply to a passage beyond this life.

This so…
Post a Comment
Read more

Teenage Fanclub - at Kelvingrove Summer Nights Live Review

For my fifteenth time seeings Bellshill's finest live, a different venue. The restored Victorian bandstand in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow. Given that any outdoor event in the West of Scotland is at risk of rain, it was unsurprising that the heavens opened as the support act, (one Nile Marr, son of Johnny, who was pretty good) and it was proper rods bouncing off the floor. Fortunately it dried up for when the Fannies took to the stage. Starting off with "I Can't Find My Home" from "Howdy!" before a welcome deep cut in early single "God Knows It's True", it was quite sedate for the first seven songs, the crowd all being pretty wet no doubt contributing to that. However once they launched into "Alcoholiday" the crowd surged forward and from then until the end it was business as usual for Teenage Fanclub in Glasgow; that being bouncing. We got a few new songs including the pretty decent new single "Everything Is Falling Apart", but…
Post a Comment
Read more

Best Of A Bad Bunch - "Under The God"

It is pretty rare for an artist to have a sustained career without at least one barren period with a lack of commercial success, critical or fan acclaim. Some may only have one golden moment, and then struggle to hit the heights ever again. That doesn't mean that all they produce in those "lost" years is without merit.

Go here for part one featuring Neil Young.

I'm going to look at some of my favourite songs from these lesser known or ill regarded periods, continuing with a man who has had more than one period of both acclaimed and berated music, David Bowie.

Bowie had one of the greatest, in my opinion, runs of combined commercial and critical success from "Hunky Dory" in 1971 to "Let's Dance" in 1983. I'd accept the argument that you could include "The Man Who Sold The World"  at the start of the list, but for me it is with Hunky Dory that Bowie's golden run started. In that run, only stop gap covers collection, "Pin Ups&…
Post a Comment
Read more