Official middle-aged man's Craft Beer thread

pishhead · Nov 6, 2018

Cloak and dagger are opening their own venue in Kemptown.

Herr Tubthumper · Nov 6, 2018

SI 4 BHA said:
Not posted on this thread before, but having spent a long afternoon in Holler last Friday, thought I'd chip in.

Went with a group of about a dozen, mostly not committed beer drinkers, unlike myself, and they were knocked out by the venue, we loved the fact it was semi industrial and totally unlike any other pub/bar in town. We tried Bunko, which my mate who is a lager drinker said was fab, Loot, Mr Best, Um-Bunko, Brass Hand and Heavy Lifting, and all were in excellent condition and tasted lovely and all my group found beers they really enjoyed, without them being too challenging, although for the dedicated craft beer connoisseur like some of you posting on this threat, I guess that you could say the beers aren't terribly adventurous. There were 6 keg and 5 cask beers, so quite a good selection.

The fact that they really don't serve wine other than one red and one white could have been a problem, but with the help of the staff we found suitable beers for the wine drinkers in my party and we ended up staying there for about four hours! It is a brewery tap, after all, so why bother with wine!

As the afternoon wore on the bar filled up so that by about 7pm the bar was rammed with young and old, male and female, all happily tucking into their pints.
The staff couldn't have been more helpful and we discovered that they were all trained to have some knowledge about the products they were selling, which was impressive.

In my opinion, a great addition to the Brighton bar scene and we will definitely be back soon. Well worth a visit.

You make very good and totally valid points here. It might not be adventurous enough for some, but the beer community covers a broad spectrum and if it makes people happy, and maybe provides a gateway to others (which you’re suggesting) then this is surely a good thing. You’ve made me re-think my opinion.

Herr Tubthumper · Nov 6, 2018

pishhead said:
Cloak and dagger are opening their own venue in Kemptown.

Great news. Do you know where?

pishhead · Nov 6, 2018

Herr Tubthumper said:
Great news. Do you know where?

Yes on St James street. It was last an Italian place. On the corner by the aids memorial. As far as I know they are going to take it for 6 months and see how they get on.

Herr Tubthumper · Nov 6, 2018

pishhead said:
Yes on St James street. It was last an Italian place. On the corner by the aids memorial. As far as I know they are going to take it for 6 months and see how they get on.

Thanks. I’ll check it out.

Springal · Dec 14, 2018

Between Trafalgar Wines & Beer No Evil managed 2 bottles of each beer in Sirens excellent Chocolate Cake series.

Barrel Aged Caribbean Chocolate Cake
Death by Caribbean Chocolate Cake
Caribbean Chocolate Orange Cake

Saving them for Xmas day.

Anyone else got anything interesting for Xmas ?

thedonkeycentrehalf · Dec 15, 2018

Springal said:
Between Trafalgar Wines & Beer No Evil managed 2 bottles of each beer in Sirens excellent Chocolate Cake series.

Barrel Aged Caribbean Chocolate Cake
Death by Caribbean Chocolate Cake
Caribbean Chocolate Orange Cake

Saving them for Xmas day.

Anyone else got anything interesting for Xmas ?

My son tried the Barrel aged on last night. He is only just starting out in the stouts and found it a bit rich for his tastes but very nice.

Siren have just released a dark cherry spiced sour that I fancy trying.

Herr Tubthumper · Dec 23, 2018

I revisited Enid Street, Bermondsey, where BBnO, Moor and Cloudwater have tap-rooms side by side last Friday at 3pm. Thankfully it was devoid of the large groups of pissed up and rude males making arses of themselves and which ruined my visit last week. My favourite was Moor who had some truly excellent beers on, had cask ales as well as keg, three huge blocks of cheese which you could buy slices by the weigh and Monster Munch. Oh, and I noticed a number of beers had subtle music references....I was told I was the first person to get one reference in all the time they’ve been open...which resulted in a lengthy and enjoyable chat with the bar man about craft breweries and music. What more do you need eh?

Cloudwater was also excellent and had some stunning DIPAs which they were testing.

I’m glad I went again.

big nuts · Dec 23, 2018

Herr Tubthumper said:
I revisited Enid Street, Bermondsey, where BBnO, Moor and Cloudwater have tap-rooms side by side last Friday at 3pm. Thankfully it was devoid of the large groups of pissed up and rude males making arses of themselves and which ruined my visit last week. My favourite was Moor who had some truly excellent beers on, had cask ales as well as keg, three huge blocks of cheese which you could buy slices by the weigh and Monster Munch. Oh, and I noticed a number of beers had subtle music references....I was told I was the first person to get one reference in all the time they’ve been open...which resulted in a lengthy and enjoyable chat with the bar man about craft breweries and music. What more do you need eh?

Cloudwater was also excellent and had some stunning DIPAs which they were testing.

I’m glad I went again.

I had the Cloudwater DIPA at Bison Beer Wednesday evening. Delicious but £5 for 2/3 meant I only had three of them.

Springal · Jan 18, 2019

thedonkeycentrehalf said:
My son tried the Barrel aged on last night. He is only just starting out in the stouts and found it a bit rich for his tastes but very nice.

Siren have just released a dark cherry spiced sour that I fancy trying.

Tried out Beer No Evil flagon fill system. Very good, enjoying a Litre of Gipsy Hill Momotaro , a White IPA. Very reasonable £10 for a litre too. Nice to have really fresh beer to take home as well as excellent cab selection

Springal · Jan 25, 2019

RIP Dark Star.

Fullers inc Dark Star have sold their brewing operation to Asahi for £250M

PILTDOWN MAN · Jan 25, 2019

Springal said:
RIP Dark Star.

Fullers inc Dark Star have sold their brewing operation to Asahi for £250M

Nothing will happen to Dark Star. Asahi believe in allowing each Brewery they own to stay doing what they know best, brewing.

How do I know? I'm the beer quality manager for them.

Springal · Jan 25, 2019

PILTDOWN MAN said:
Nothing will happen to Dark Star. Asahi believe in allowing each Brewery they own to stay doing what they know best, brewing.

How do I know? I'm the beer quality manager for them.

Rubbish. Macro brewery which dubious sales practices squeezing out craft & independent breweries from pubs. Granted not the worst but still part of the problem

Questions · Jan 25, 2019

If Fullers pubs and restaurants account for 87% of their turnover and as they state they want to concentrate on this area of the business I cannot see that the brewing side is worth 250 million. Do Asahi get part of the hotel,pub and restaurant side. Let’s face it you really only ever see Fullers beer in Fullers pubs and here in Sussex they can’t sell that much. It’s probably different in London though is it ?

vegster · Jan 25, 2019

Springal said:
RIP Dark Star.

Fullers inc Dark Star have sold their brewing operation to Asahi for £250M

I doubt it has been bought to be closed down. Brand names and products change hands quite frequently and you would be surprised who owns what when you follow the trail of company ownership.

Springal · Jan 25, 2019

vegster said:
I doubt it has been bought to be closed down. Brand names and products change hands quite frequently and you would be surprised who owns what when you follow the trail of company ownership.

You are right, but different cultures and strategy. Macro breweries are all about volume and reducing cost. Fullers potentially have different views on profit margins etc. I.e higher quality hops, malts etc

PILTDOWN MAN · Jan 25, 2019

Springal said:
Rubbish. Macro brewery which dubious sales practices squeezing out craft & independent breweries from pubs. Granted not the worst but still part of the problem

Interesting wrong but interesting.

Where has dubious sales practices been used?

thedonkeycentrehalf · Jan 25, 2019

Couple of interesting events coming up in Worthing. Vibrant Forest doing a meet the brewer event at Brooksteed next week while Beer No Evil follow up their Abyss tasting event by having Burning Sky coming to the shop on February 5th for a Technical Talk on saisons and mixed fermentation (ticketed event)

Yes Chef · Feb 7, 2019

A heads up for anyone out on the western frontier, The Hornet in Chichester is having a winter beer festival this week, I think they've got about 18 beers on, including a couple of Cloudwaters, of which I'm going to get stuck into in about half an hours time, cheers!

Herr Tubthumper · Feb 7, 2019

Yes Chef said:
A heads up for anyone out on the western frontier, The Hornet in Chichester is having a winter beer festival this week, I think they've got about 18 beers on, including a couple of Cloudwaters, of which I'm going to get stuck into in about half an hours time, cheers!

Be interested to hear your thoughts, and the names, of the Cloudwaters.

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Official middle-aged man's Craft Beer thread