Beer recommendations outside Thailand

[Bamboo Grove]

Espoo's (Finland) annual real ale beer festival is in two weeks time. As for the last four years, I will be heading there. This year, I'm planning to do it both on Friday and Saturday. Can any of you give opinions on any of these on the list?

http://www.gallowsbird.fi/RAF14_products.htm

[caller]

Sorry, can't help. I don't know any of those beers.

But it does demonstrate the widely diverse range of real ale / beers now available in the UK through the ever expanding micro-brewery. In the last year alone, 2 pubs near me, one about 4 miles away, the other about 7, have started brewing their own ale and an already established micro-brewery has taken over 2 pubs!

[J.J.B.]

Ooh you lucky man! I've had Twitchells and Hopspur before and can't say I remember them specifically, for various reasons(!) but as caller says, the number of new ales being introduced is remarkable. Everyone's at it these days and I'm looking forward to starting my own brewing journey this weekend with the home-brew kit Mrs JJB treated me to for Christmas!

[oakdale160]

Boots chemist in theUK used to have a whole section in their bigger stores devoted to all the equipment and materials for home brewing, I had friends who did it all the time. Produce 5 gallons at a time, which of course, with no preservatives had to be drunk pretty quickly.

[PeteC]

Espoo's (Finland) annual real ale beer festival is in two weeks time. As for the last four years, I will be heading there. This year, I'm planning to do it both on Friday and Saturday. Can any of you give opinions on any of these on the list?

http://www.gallowsbird.fi/RAF14_products.htm

You're getting too old for two day beer binges Bamboo. Make sure the wife comes along with all the needed resuscitation supplies. Pete

[Bamboo Grove]

You're getting too old for two day beer binges Bamboo. Make sure the wife comes along with all the needed resuscitation supplies. Pete

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This is for rejuvenation. I'll take two different sets of friends with me, one on Friday (collegues) and one on Saturday (old friends).

[Bamboo Grove]

The old man's favourites

[Bamboo Grove]

Right then, day 1/2 of this fine festival is behind and 2/2 lurking around the corner. Here's how my taste buds felt yesterday.

Cask Conditioned

Stiff Upper Lip (Pale ale, Horns, Wandsworth, London) - a very pleasing pale ale, a good way to start the evening. I could easily enjoy more of this.

Twitchell (Bitter, Buntingdorf, Hertfordshire) - Quite typical bitter, didn't make a great impression but it was ok.

Old Freddy Walker - (Old Ale, Moor, Pitney, Somerset) - The name Old Ale was strange to me and it appeared that it's another name used for porter. The first two sips were nice but then the sweetness came out too stronly for me and in the end I gave the rest to my neighbour. I know, I know, I am a Finn and supposed to drink everything that contains alcohol put in front of me.

Hopspur - (Best Bitter, Redemption, Haringey, London) Despite the brewery's location (near Shite Fart Lane) and the name reminding me of a team calling themselves a football team only less than a mile from the brewery, I braved and sampled this one. Actually it was on of the best of the amber liquids I had last night, which might explaing the results of this aforementioned club. This brewery is where the players must spend their time, instead of their training ground.

Pumphouse (Pale Ale, Sambrooks, Wandsworth, London) Quite mild in taste, a hint towards bitter rather than an ale, not bad though, the name reminded me of a place called Pump Station in one seaside resort.

Mariana Trench (American Pale Ale, Weird Beard, Ealing, London) Light, good and pleasing, the after taste was good, too. There was a hint of mango and passion fruit in the taste. Would love to sample more.

Craft Beer

Hit the Lights (Indian Pale Ale, brewery unknown) A nice way to finish the evening, tasted nice but as it was the 7th of the night, can't say if my buds where still working properly.

Oh well, onwards to day two.

[migrant]

So to summarise Old Freddy Walker went to the Pumphouse to exercise. When he was on the Cask Conditioned he Twitchelled and got a Hopspur. Freddy put up a Stiff Upper Lip, went and got Mariana Trench and Hit the Lights!!

[Bamboo Grove]

migrant wrote:

So to summarise Old Freddy Walker went to the Pumphouse to exercise. When he was on the Cask Conditioned he Twitchelled and got a Hopspur. Freddy put up a Stiff Upper Lip, went and got Mariana Trench and Hit the Lights!!

More or less. Now just back from my second round. Will report more once my head stops spinning.

[dtaai-maai]

On behalf of the forum, I would like to thank Bamboo Grove for the selfless dedication he is demonstrating in order to bring us a detailed report on these various beers, regardless of the cost and the potential risk of hangovers.

BG, there is a wine & spirits trade fair in Helsinki in March - can I assume you will be there representing the forum? http://www.foodreference.com/html/finla ... ivals.html

[Bamboo Grove]

dtaai-maai wrote

BG, there is a wine & spirits trade fair in Helsinki in March - can I assume you will be there representing the forum?

How i wish I could do that. However, I'm not in the business anymore. They should add primary school teachers to the list.

Wine and spirits trade fair for the Finnish hotel, restaurant, and catering sector.

Anyway, there's Helsinki Beer Festival in April/May.

Here's what I sampled yesterday:

Diamond Geezer (Red Ale, By The Horns, Wandsworth, London)
Polar Star (Golden Ale, Buntingford, Royston, Herefordshire)
Big Chief (IPA, Redemption, Haringey, London)
Trinity (Golden Ale, Redemption)
Foreign Export Stout (Imperial Russian Stout, Hidgeway, Reading)
Junction Ale (Bitter, Sambrooks, Wandsworth, London)
Wandle (Best Bitter, Sambrooks)
Fade to Black (Black IPA, Weird Beard, Ealing, London)


Overall most of the samples I had on the second day were quite average, not bad but they pretty much tasted alike. The best ones were Polar Star and Foreign Export Stout, which was not sweet and although, it is 8 %, it still tastes pleasant.

Migrant, would the story have gone something like this?

The wandle Diamond Geezer went to see the Big Chief . They met under the Polar Star near the Trinity Junction and talked about Foreign Export. Talks failed and they both faded to black.

Anyways, I enjoyed the festival. These kind of things are a great opportunity to try different kinds of new drinks and let your taste buds enjoy something else than the everyday largers one usually has.

[Big Boy]

A true martyr

[Bamboo Grove]

A true martyr

Yes, this is my holy war against tastless drinks.

[Big Boy]

I admire the way you continued, regardless.