Craft Beer

[JLC]

Any craft beer fans here? Whether its Brewdog, Beavertown, Soundwave or one of the many other breweries producing top quality brews here's the place to chat about them & share recommendations.

[Rara Avis]

I'm not a massive fan of craft beers but I have been known to sink (quite) a few of these:

http://the5lampsbrewery.com/#latest-work

http://www.fourcorners.ie/beer/wicklow-wolf/easy-lover/

http://www.eightdegrees.ie/barefoot-bohemian-pilsner/

[Dandontdare]

I'm currently enjoying various beers from a couple of local breweries, Shindigger (who do some lovely IPAs) and RedWillow, whose beers all end in ~less (Wreckless, aimless, thoughtless etc)

[JayzusB.Christ]

It is a continuing source of joy for me that Ireland has finally escaped the Diageo / Heineken monopoly and pretty much every new pub has to have craft beers now if it wants to compete.  The off-licences too are now a treasure trove of weird and exotic brands.

Cantillon gueuze wins the offie award for me. In the pub, it's usually a red ale or stout of some kind - Chilli stout was a particular favourite but I can't find anywhere that does it any more. 

[Rara Avis]

Weren't Diageo repacking Fosters and trying to sell it as their craft beer? I'm sure I read something about that in The Sunday Times but I can't find a link online.

I also read that Robert Plant's son is the man behind the Beaverton Brewery and the wonderfully named Neck Oil.

http://www.beavertownbrewery.co.uk/beer/neck-oil/

[SpongeJosh]

Phoenix Brewery - Wobbly Bob
Dunham Massey - Gold
Titanic Brewery - Plum Porter

Just a few of my favourites. Off to the Roundhouse at Derby this Saturday for the Winter Beer Festival. 300+ beers, so Sunday could be interesting.

[JLC]

I've been working my way through a few of Siren Crafts beers. Broken Dream is lovely.

[Pegasus P Artichoke]

Enjoying Inveralmonds Ossain, Thrappledowser and Lia Fail

Plus Williams Brothers 7 Giraffes

Wytchwood Hobgoblin and Hobgoblin Gold are nice

I think it's a Williams Brothers one but Joker IPA is also really nice if you enjoy a more hoppy taste

[JLC]

Tried Brighton Bier's Feshman Vermont IPA last night. Very nice.

[CalHab]

Enjoyed 6 Degrees North's Biere de Table last night. I need to find something for tonight now!

[radiator]

I live in Portland, which is pretty much beer heaven. There are 70+ breweries in the city alone, with many more in nearby cities like Astoria, Seattle, Bend etc. There are five I can think of within a ten minute walk of where I live.

Pretty much every bar and restaurant - even down to the level of pokey pizza shops - offers a full complement of local taps, with every kind of beer represented, and you should see the beer aisles in the local supermarkets. I'm a bit spoiled, really.

The only catch is that there's a definite bias towards pacific pale ales and IPAs (breweries in the PNW seem locked in perpetual competition for who can brew the most face-meltingly hoppy and powerful IPA in existence). It's definitely an acquired taste - took me a while to get into it, and they're so strong (hard to find one below 6.5%) you can only really drink a couple in a night. So I tend to stick to the milder pale ales and session IPAs. Love pretty much everything from the Deschutes and Fort George breweries, and my favourite IPA is probably one called Boneyard by a brewery called RPM.

I still love British beer, but it's a weird adjustment coming back these days - it's a cliche but everything tastes so warm and flat!

[Mardroid]

I remember that not so long ago (well might be 15-20 years ago, now that I think of it. I went for a long time period without drinking much at all so I'm not sure when the change occurred, so it might be less time than that,) beer in England was nearly always served room temperature.

Every beer I've had nowadays has been chilled though. I remember when they had an option of Guinness at room temperature (just called 'Guinness') and Guiness chilled. Now it's just Guiness... but it's chilled. Default.

I'm not complaining mind, as I like beer cold. I just mean that British beer being warm is no longer true, at least down here in the South.* I don't know if the Northerners are still supping on the luke-warm stuff...

Or maybe American beer is generally even colder? It's not icy cold here, for sure, but it's nice and cool.

*Whether that's true for the whole South, I don't know. I live in the South East, but I visit a friend in Swindon a few times a year and their beer is cold too.

[Jim_Campbell]

Since I realised that most lagers (my drink of choice during my demolition drinking days} made me blow up like that henchman from whichever Roger Moore Bond movie it is where he stuffs a gas capsule down the poor bastard's neck, I've come to favour an IPA. Nottingham's local Flipside Brewery make Clippings IPA, which weighs in at a slightly mental 8% ABV, but is deceptively easy to drink…

[Dandontdare]

Every beer I've had nowadays has been chilled though. I remember when they had an option of Guinness at room temperature (just called 'Guinness') and Guiness chilled. Now it's just Guiness... but it's chilled. Default.

I heard about a working mens club in the NE whose brwrewy forced them to replace their guiness tap with an "ice-cold" guinesss tap - Locals were not happy , so they  put a microwave on the end of the bar, and gave every pint a couple of seconds to "take the  chill off"

[Albion]

Depends how you define craft beer, it's a tricky one.
Some people see it as only keg beers, rather than real ale, and view it as a threat to that style like the keg beers of the 1970's were. There are some amazing keg beers these days, brewing technology and knowledge is way beyond the keg brews of years ago. (Admittedly I missed out on those as I was a kid in the 70's but I've heard the tales).

Some see it as beer made on a smaller scale than the industrial beer producing giants yet some craft breweries can be rather large, such as Sierra Nevada and Brewdog (who will be opening a Brewery in the U.S too.)
Also some ale producers use the term craft now so they can capture that market and appear to be rather trendy.

Personally I just like good beer however it's made. If it tastes good I'll drink it. I attend quite a few beer festivals throughout the year and try to find good pubs wherever I am.

I brew my own all grain beers so I guess that could be craft beer too.