Beer Posts

Bourgogne des Flandres Brune

When I had a dozen Belgian beers arrive on my doorstep a few weeks ago, it was clear that Fate wanted my Beers of Christmas to have a Belgian theme this year. I'll start with a beer from Brewery Timmermans, who have been brewing in Itterbeek, just outside Brussels, for more than 300 years. This ...

Golden Pints 2013

Another year, another roundup – thanks as always to Mark and Andy for hosting the annual celebration of all things beery. Best UK Draught Beer I know that this category has been split into Cask and Keg, but that just seems to be unnecessarily divisive. The fundamental thing, surely is that it's beer you've enjoyed out of ...

Buying Beer Online: Belgian Beerz

Although the brewing scene in the UK is exploding, it seems that the retail side of things has stagnated a little. Only a few years ago, the big supermarkets were falling over each other to expand their beer ranges, exploring new breweries and generally doing an excellent job. Lately I feel they've lost focus. ...

Weird Beard Holy Hoppin' Hell (batch 6)

Weird Beard are part of the growing hoard of London brewers. It was founded by a couple of homebrewers who are pretty much living the dream that a lot of us have, of making our hobby into the day job. Their marketing spiel is a bit heavy in superlatives, Brewdog-style – and the promise ...

Grand Kirin

Japan is a country that embraces canned beer - the majority of beer in the high street, and even in specialist beer shops, is sold in cans. As a traveler, this is a Good Thing, because even though I'm a beer lover, I don't always travel with a bottle opener and there are ...

Ginga Kogen Beer Silver Bottle

Ginga Kogen is based in Sawauchi village, in the Iwate prefecture of Japan. The village is apparently a "special snowfall area", with some of the heaviest snowfalls in the whole country - so obviously (!) they make a German-style hefeweizen. This is their Silver Bottle, and I admit, the packaging sold it to me. ...

Dojo Beer Alto

Dojo Beer is brewed in Matsuyama, in Southern Japan and is perhaps unique in bring brewed specifically to be enjoyed after a hot bath in the onsen (hot springs) there! They produce three different beers - a pale ale, a stout and an Alto, which is the one above. Sadly a lack of clear glass ...

Echigo Red Ale

Echigo Beer is based in northern Japan, in modern day Niigata Prefecture although it's named for the old Province name of Echigo. They were apparently Japan's first micro-brewery, although Google doesn't manage to translate much more from their website. Incidentally , of the little it did translate I most enjoyed the health warning at the ...

Sankt Gallen Yokohama XPA

Sankt Gallen is a Japanese brewery I'd not come across before, but I'm very happy to have found it now. Their Yokohama XPA recently won the World Beer Awards in the IPA category, so I can only assume it's something a bit special. It's a 6.0% ABV IPA, with a rich orange colour and ...

De Molen Heen & Weer

Brouwerij de Molen is a small Dutch brewery that produces a spectacular array of beers – their website lists nearly 60 different brews, although it concedes that "some are retired and some aren't mentioned yet". That list is actually quite interesting, because I've only ever come across bottles with the very distinctive, plain black and ...