Stone of Escondido California Double IPA @8.5%.

I had a half of this after trying a taster from the nice Eastern European barmaid.

Got served by the top-heavy, fat blonde mentioned in a previous post. After overlooking me initially, she pulled a half and managed to break the glass and spill the beer. Obviously would not drink this stuff all night - but a glass was fine.

^ It is brewed for Wetherspoons. I tried it in their Cap in Hand pub on the Ace of Spades roundabout.

http://hoptripper.com/going-to-england-again/


Going to England (again)
We just made arrangements today for me to fly over to England in September with our Lead Brewer, Jeremy Moynier, to brew a beer with an English brewer for the Wetherspoons pub chain. Wetherspoons puts on an International Real Ale Festival twice each year, and has a program where they invite brewers from other countries to brew beer at select English breweries. All the beer is made as Real Ale, meaning it all goes in casks, is clarified to brilliant crystal clear without filtration, and is naturally carbonated, and served from the cask using a beer engine.

Stone Brewing Co. has participated in this program with Wetherspoons twice over the years. In fact, we were the first American Brewery to participate, back in early 2008, when Stone Brewing Co. cofounder, President and original Brewmaster Steve Wagner and I got to brew at the Shepherd-Neame Brewery in Faversham, which bills itself as the oldest operating brewery in England. That beer we brewed with the great brewers at Shepherd-Neame was an IPA, weoriginally wanted to do an 8-9% abv Double IPA, but the Wetherspoons folks balked at that because it was too high in alcohol. After some negotiation, we settled on a 7% West Coast style IPA.

Steve wanted to call this beer “California Mild” which still makes me laugh, but what I really found interesting is that when Stone cofounder and CEO Greg Koch and I went back for the release party at one of the Wetherspoons Pubs in London, there were many people, including some fellow brewers, who would not even try the beer because it was “so strong”. There were some I couldn’t persuade to even try a small taste. I learned then a bit of the real differences between the beer scene in England vs. the beer scene here in the United States, especially with regards to alcoholcontent. In the United States, many craft beer drinkers look for high alcohol, and are happy sticking to 1-2 pints over the course of an evening. In England, many of the beer drinkers want 3-4%, and that’s it. Anything above that teeters dangerously close to the dreaded “binge drinking” label. The pub drinking culture in England is totally different, and revolves around drinking many pints among friends, so the lower alcohol is an important consideration. And to be fair, there were many brewers, including David Holmes from Shepherd-Neame and John Bryan from Oakham Ales in Peterborough who really enjoyed our beer as well. It was during this trip that I gained a very deep appreciation for traditional English brewing and for good Real Ale. It was a fantastic experience, and I was really glad to be able to help set up some of my craft brewer friends to participate in the same program over the past few years. One of the nicest surprises that came out of this particular trip was that for a short while, the beer we brewed had the highest ranking of all British Beers on ratebeer.

Last edited by Kingston1an (2014-01-08 02:10:26)

Strong beers are not very sociable though - in the UK at least. 

3.8% heavily-hopped, straw-coloured beers are what I tend to stick to in a session. Or milds, if you can find them.

Ah yes. Boots's Yeast Feast Home Brew Kit - with a head like Fairy Liquid - guaranteed to unblock any choked-up drain.

Austrian:-

Almdudler - the local soft drink. An alternative to global cola brands - like drinking dandelion and burdock in Britain, but a different taste.

Kaiser Fasstyp 5% Linz

Pittinger Premium Schankbier 4.2% ( the cheap stuff )

Pittinger Hefe Weissbier 5.3%

Zipfer Urtyp 5.4%

Warsteiner (German) 4.8%

Ottakringer Helles 5.2% Vienna

Gosser Marzen 5.2% . This seemed popular. It was the one in the Spar chiller cabinet.

Stiegel (Salzburger) 4.9%

Very small bottle of Obstler

Very small bottle of Stroh 80  rum - lovely toffee nose, fine with a little water.

Could not get a decent cup of tea, no matter how many bags in the brew. I think the water was hot not boiling. High altitude did not help.

Blended mung bean sprouts and lentil sprouts with kelp water and blue green algae.

Thornbridge Jaipur. I used to get very excited when this appeared at beer festivals(and usually ran out before I had any).
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/thornbridge-jaipur/48795/

Now Wetherspoons have it and it seems less exotic. Two pints before I watch the FA Cup on ITV4.

Last edited by Kingston1an (2014-02-04 13:54:41)