Bits and Pieces

Its been over a week since I’ve written anything, and whilst a few things have happened to me over this time, no one thing was blog worthy. So this is a brief run down of what's happened or what's bothered me in the last while.

Anyone who follows me on the Twitter Machine, will know I was out at a bar in Belfast last week and had two glass related incidents. I had been supping Farmegeddons Golden Pale Ale since we arrived at the bar and each time the bar staff asked me if I wanted a glass, and when I said yes they would reach me a nondescript pint glass. No issue. One time a bar man opened my bottle and went to run off with my money without offering a glass. When I asked for one he looked as if id undervalued his first born daughter! He then handed me a steamed up, minging looking small drinks glass, the sort you would take a Vodka and Coke in, only really dirty. Anyone who has even worked in any bar will have at some point went to empty the glass washer only to discover it hasn't gone through the cycle, this is what this glass looked like. I challenged the barman, and again I must have insulted him in some ancient language but I got a clean Tennents glass for my pint. Regular readers will know how much I value customer service in the overall experience, and this occasion the bar did not score highly at all! Thankfully this was a one off and not the norm or I would have taken my custom elsewhere.

O'Haras Red, wonder how they got the name?

Later that night I switched to O'Haras Irish Red Ale, a different barman this time held hold on to my bottle while he searched high and low for a clean glass. He returned a short while later full of apologies and declared that he only had the “heverlee” glass and would that be OK? I’m not a snob, the glass was clean and a decent temperature so I took the glass and poured my bottle into it. Irish Red is so obviously a ruby red beer so imagine my surprise when I poured a dark brown beer with a frothy brown head, several of my party expressed humour that I had a pint of Guinness in a Heverlee glass. It got me thinking how important is glass selection for drinking beer? Ill be writing about that soon.

First batch bottled. 

I got to bottle my latest home brew, which was exciting for me but largely uneventful, but it lead me to...Sampling my latest home brew! I left the beer to condition for just one week before selecting a bottle for sample. I use the “Grolsch” style bottles, and when I popped it open an enthusiastic expression of gas escaping from the bottle really brought a smile to my face. The beer poured with a standard lager style head, unfortunately this didn’t last for the full pint, and neither did the carbonation. The beer was still very cloudy, but tasted much better than it looked, was definitely getting a smoky taste which lingered. I’m going to leave the next sample until July give the beer some time to condition a bit better. I was worried that I had over primed the batch prior to bottling, now I'm not sure I've primed it enough but time will tell.

Cloudy, but with a decent head.

Finally I got round to sampling a bottle from my care package, the first beer I took was Black Wolf Brewery, “Coulls” Lager. Beer52 say Coulls is a smooth contemporary, premium craft lager. Chill for a while and savour the crisp, fresh and peachy flavours. Citrus Fruit and peaches on the nose, and clean crisp and refreshing fruity taste. My experience, the lager poured straight into the glass with very little head, but with plenty of activity in the glass. Very pale golden colour, as pale as something like Budweiser or Corona. I got typical fresh lager aromas with little complexity. Taste wise I got a nice bitter taste that reminded me of Farmageddon GPA, despite not looking nor smelling anything like it. This is a very pleasant experience, definitely a summer beer, could easily buy a case of this for a house party after a BBQ this summer.

Well that’s you up to date, I'm off to colder climates this week, Majorca for a friends wedding, seems like a bit of a waste of money heading to the “Med” for a holiday at the moment. So until next time enjoy the summer sun and drink responsibly(ish)