Sainsbury's Beer Hunt 2012 - Battle of the Beers

So I (eventually) found a Sainsbury's with this year's beer hunt selection. Its a shame Sainsbury's haven't put a little bit more effect into this year's hunt. For example, their websites www.sainsburysbeerhunt.co.uk  (and www.sainsburysbeerhunt.com) at time of writing point to the 2011 beer selection. I've suggested that the easiest way to fix this is to point these URLs to  this sainsburys link which, I guess, is at least fairly recent.

Visiting my 2 local Sainsbury's today also dissappointed. One didn't even have the hunt beer shelf up yet! Apparently the current refurb has got in the way. Up the road I found the beer but, embarrassingly, I had to ask where it was. It certainly wasn't next to the usual beer. It was at the front of the store hidden behind a rack of house plants! Pic:-

On to the tastings!  I'm pairing beers up, a little unfair, but adds a bit of fun.

Round 1.  Beers 1and2.

White Lady v. Prodigal Sun



The White Lady is described as a wheat beer.  Its not. At least not what I think of as a weissbier. Point deducted there.  But this is a really clean drinkable beer with a caramel malt taste.  No orange peel or coriander for me.  As the first beer hunt beer it gets a 5/10.

Prodigal Sun.  Pear drops! The Sainsbury's website (link above) says this is a blonde beer. No its not. The bottle accurately describes this as a "light amber beer". I am a fan of WilliamsBros. Their March of the Penguins (stout) is great and their Caesar Augustus was a winner of the hunt last year. Their Profanity Stout was also excellent but, alas, not many customers of Sainsbury drink stout.

I think this is a good bottled beer.  The ABV is 4.1% and at that level its quite a challenge to get a bottled beer with a bit of body and flavour. It may be a bit too fizzy (actually a character that Penguin has also picked up).  Its a shame. Point knocked off.  Citrus? No.  Pear drops I sware. 7/10

WINNER PRODIGAL SUN

Is Beer Glassware Important?

ThisIsLeicestershire has an article about women and younger drinkers getting a taste for real ale.

The main picture (above) is of a young lady drinking a pint from a good old-fashioned dimpled jug. My question is whether anybody cares about the glassware that is used today.

There are many designs of beer glassware around and with the increasing popularity of stronger craft kegged and real ales is it not time to provide punters with some attractive alternative glassware?

There are fluted glasses, goblets and chalices, tuplips and all sorts of different designs.

Please enter your poll selections in the main blog window.

Why Mafia II Nearly Killed Me

It was the monitor's fault - a massive 20inch hulking monster that nearly gave me a hernia. Ok, so I could probably buy a decent 22inch flat screen monitor for under £100 (can I? I haven't even looked) but is it worth it if my PC gaming life is coming to an end?

The original Mafia (screenshot left) had a really nice feel about it and the driving especially was great fun and SO much better (IMHO) than the arcadey driving style of the GTA games. And so I thought that Mafia II would be worth a look.

So a demo arrived the other day (screenshot to the left) and I eagerly downloaded it through the very competent Steam. As is fairly typical with PC games, it ran but my TV just displayed a black screen. The game was running (I could hear it in the background). So I guessed the TV (a new Panny) couldn't hack it. It was easier (so I thought) to move my old monitor to where my PC is now. And that's when I nearly got a hernia. But the game worked fine. In fact a very respectable 50fps for a lowly Pentium overclocked to 3GHz and with a 2 year old ATI HD4800 graphics card, all running through the ancient XP. (Note:- framerate was only 40fps through Vista).

So the game played great, with demo-time-hacked et al and with what looks like a great driving engine. But will I buy the full game? Probably not; unless I move my PC back to where it belongs (rather than being next to the TV) OR I shell out some dosh for a decent monitor...

GBBF Friday Competition - Name these 9 Bottled Beers

This competition is for 1 person to win the following 2 tickets for Friday (6th August) at the GBBF. The tickets are 1x FRIDAY NON-MEMBER and 1x FRIDAY 1:30 TASTING NON-MEMBER. Please read ALL of the rules.

Rules:-
1. Accurately name the breweries who make the 9 pictured beers.
2. Accurately name the 9 pictured beers. If the name is preceeded by the brewery name you don't have to include the brewery name. If a beer name is an abbreviation, I want the abbreviation.
3. As a tie breaker you must tell me the total (IE cumulative) ABV of the 9 pictured beers. I know some of these beers will have a varying ABV. The total I want is for the 9 beers that I have in my posession.
4. My decision is final; no correspondence will be entered into; if I die before the competition closes there is no prize...etc...etc...etc
5. Email your entry to musicrabbie@googlemail.com; please include name,address,telephone and/or mobile numbers (these details will be deleted from my computer after the winner has been selected and contacted)
6. One entry per person and no duplicate sender email addresses will be allowed (sorry!); if multiple entries are sent I will keep the first one and bin the rest
7. CLOSING DATE/TIME IS THURSDAY 5th AUGUST 08:59 BST. Any entries received after that time (as displayed by the "date" attribute of the received email) will be binned; no allowance will be made by me for slow email systems etc...etc...
8. Winner to be notified on Thursday when we will arrange prize handover; winner will also be identified in the blog.

Good luck!

England vs. Germany. The Fitness Factor.

I think there is one aspect of Sunday's game which will have a critical affect on the outcome. And its all about fitness. Here are the relevant facts:-

1. The ground is at Bloemfontein. This is 4,600 ft above sea level;
2. Bloemfontein average day-time temperature is 17degC; the forecast for Sunday is a sunny 21degC;
3. the average age of Germany's national team is 25 years with 12 players under the age of 25; the average age of England's national team is 28 with 5 players in the squad under 25.

There are some key players in the England team whose fitness is a big question for Sunday. First, James Milner, whose cross provided England's second goal of the campaign on Wednesday afternoon, is still recovering from a virus and is unlikely to last more than 60 minutes. Gareth Barry, whose defensive midfield duties will also be important, is also trying to attain match fitness. I suggest we won't see very much of him in the attacking half of the pitch on Sunday. Then there's the biggest question mark yet - Wayne Rooney. He just hasn't looked right in the last 3 games. Whether this is an injury, a lack of confidence, a lack of a willingness to get stuck in (due to the perceived risk of being sent off) or just a lack of general fitness, I have no idea. Rooney's lack of form is the most disappointing aspect of England's performances to date in South Africa.

Hence, whatever happens in the rest of the game, I envisage that the last quarter will belong to Germany purely because they will have a massive fitness advantage over England.

Not wishing to sound all doom-and-gloom, I believe England can beat Germany and the good news is that Germany knows this. Here's my "dream" scenario:-

1. England go all out for a first half lead; ideally 2-0;
2. Rooney is allowed off his leash; even if he is red-carded hopefully it will be after a goal and I'd rather see a Rooney who tears Germany apart for 30 minutes compared with his previous performances;
3. England under siege in the last quarter of the game; substitutes used MUST be able to either win and/or hold the ball in this last stage of the game
4. Final score 2-1 or 1-0

You will notice that I haven't mentioned penalties. That was deliberate. The less these are talked about the better. I don't want to see penalties. I want to see England go for a win in 90 minutes, or as I have suggested, in the first 45 minutes when they will be most able to match the fitness levels of the German team.

Copenhagen Carlsberg Free Zones - Part II

BrewPub was actually the first pub we went to (Mikkeller was shut unfortunately). It's just off the start of the main shopping drag (Stroget) and, in my view, definately a better place to be (that's compared to shopping, not Mikkeller). It was very quiet (lunchtime Monday) but we sat in the courtyard so we could catch the sun's rays (when they decided to shine). Despite nobody being there the barperson was of the stroppy variety and when we scanned the drinks menu she decided to wander off.

We tried the William Wallace "Skotsk" and the Cole Porter. The 80/- ale was just ok; at 4.5% it was quite light bodied with a low carbination. Seemed a bit dull to me. Taste was sweet and sour malt with a bit of fruit and smoke.
The Cole Porter was much more to my liking. At 5.2% is was nice and black, thinnish with a tan head. Malted and smokey and with some liquorice - reminded me of cough mixture. Strange how some things you hated as a kid can be so warm and nice when you're older.

We visited Norrebro Bryghus on a rather wet and windy day after a couple of hours in the National Gallery of Denmark. Cunningly this was about 10mins (ok 15) from Norrebro but we approached it with fingers crossed (that is was open). Again, on entry the place was pretty dead. No brewing was taking place so straight to the beer menu. We sampled the following over a rather extended lunch (well, the weather was poor):-

• Stuykman Wit. A 5.3% wheat beer. Usual refreshing fair - great after a museum slog;
• Pacific Summer Ale. A 5.6% golden/blond. Again great refreshing peach and elderflower;
• Catenillo (American) IPA (5.7%).
• Mocha Porter (5.5%). I'm not a great fan of coffee flavoured beers but, as they say, you've gotta give them a go. Toffee, chocolate and coffee, finishing with a cold coffee. Not my cup of tea;
• Imperial Porter (Cabernet barrel 9%). A nice rich porter with oaky wine overtones; a great end to a great lunch.

Copenhagen Carlsberg Free Zones - Part I

Let's get the money bit out of the way first. Copenhagen, like most of Scandinavia, is not a cheap place for us Brits. The average cost of a (small*) half pint is about £4. But we're not talking about your average Carlsberg swill here. Oh no, we're talking about the new wave of small craft brewers that have invaded Northern Europe in the last few years, and specifically in this blog, in Copenhagen.

We were travelling through Copenhagen and so hastily planned a visit to 3 establishments, Mikkeller Bar, BrewPub and Norrebro Bryghus

Right, on to the serious stuff. Mikkeller just happened to be a couple of minutes from our hotel (excellent planning Mike!) which itself is 5 minutes from the Central Station. It's in the red-light district which is supposed to be cleaning itself up. But it's still pretty grim. The strange thing to me is how ordinary people go about their normal lives with this around them. But safe enough provided you're not on your own. The bar itself can be easily missed as it's in a basement. But once inside you can relax. Nice and clean, if minimally decked out. This is a beer geek's paradise as was evidenced by the number of beards and laptops. There are 6 tables and seating around the bar and one wall. The only food on offer was, rather oddly, Tyrrell's crisps, but at £4 a packet I saved my money for the beer, of-course.Loads of beers on draft (how do they keep them?!*). Beer#1 was the Vesterbro Pilsner. Well you've got to start somewhere and rather than jump straight in at the heavy end I was in need of travelling refreshment and this hit the spot! Beer#2 My partner had the Vesterbro Wit (wheat beer) which, again, was extremely refreshing with a very (overwhelming?) lychee flavour. But she loved it.

Suitably refreshed, straight onto the big boys. Beer#3. Victoria. An 8.8% porter. Well, despite the pleasure of Beer#4, this was my favourite of the night. Not too sweet, coffee and chocolate and I also had fruit. Anne liked this (no coal-tar in this porter!) It's a shame she still prefers porters in Christmas puddings though!

Finally, Beer#4 - George. A 12.12% super-heavyweight imperial stout. I don't know if a dreamed this or not but the "George" is of the Foreman variety and 12.12% is equivalent to 12 stones and 12 pounds which was one of his starting fight weights. But I don't care and neither should you. Full-bodied, smooth and a cure for the common-cold (well, not quite, but it postponed mine for at least 24 hours). It had a very low carbination which I don't mind at all, velvet oil with a dark brown head. I struggled a bit with the taste (which is why I preferred Victoria) but the usual suspects applied, albeit with little fruitiness. Nectar.

So a great start, and I even managed to squeeze a second visit to Mikkeller the following day. A review of the other 2 "Carlsberg Free Zones" later...

Small. Half a pint is 28.4cl. A "half" in Europe is normally 25cl hence the "small" half. Note that some pubs chose to serve their beers in 20cl measures or "super-small" to you and me.

How do they keep them?! If any bright spark can summarise how these beers are different from cask-conditioned stuff I'd like to know. One obvious difference to me is that they are kept and served cooler than cask beer. Does that help keep them longer? Answers on a post card to...