Thursday 6 August 2009

GBBF Day Two

It was busy. A lot busier than Tuesday and on BSF we were like British soldiers at Rorke's Drift. Wave upon wave of thirsty punters swamped us. We saw them off and the next wave appeared. Unlike Rorke's Drift, there was a happy ending for us though. We sat down stunned and satisfied. The customers seemed happy too, or was it just pissed?

Given the stick GBBF gets in some quarters I looked carefully at the dynamics of it all. There were very few beardy weirdies, though of course you could seek them out. There is a LOT of women. I wouldn't like to say exactly how big a percentage, but knocking on for 40% I'd guess. Believe me few were roly poly types - serving a lot of them is very distracting even to a dedicated bar professional like me. And know what? They all seemed to be having a very good time and were drinking beer of a standard and variety that they will rarely see elsewhere. Isn't that a good thing?

"Talk about beer" Tandleman I hear you say. Well in the interests of you my dear readers, I did some serious American tasting. I liked the beers from Cricket Hill a lot, thought Deschutes Twilight Ale, a good solidly balanced beer, felt rather better about Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA than Zak Avery did - a lot better in fact - disliked Gritty MacDuff's beers, disliked Sly Fox, The Tap's Berliner Weisse take off was only fit for putting on your chips and I didn't care for the plasticine nose in Victory beers, but underneath the beers were good. Tuckerman's Headwall Alt, was far too grainy for the style and just didn't capture the essence of alt at all. Opa Opa Pale was a bit dry, but otherwise good and Redhook Sun Rye was a excellent beer using a malt that can overcome everything in a beer. It deserves great credit to it's brewers and only3.8% too. I also had various tastes of some of the monster beers. A lot suffered from too much alcohol burn and too much crystal malt. The dark beers fared better and though most were drinkable in a sort of "force it down" sort of way, you can tell they don't ring my bell that much.

Moving on, I tried some Irish beers. Galway Hooker was my first target and I liked it's hoppiness and general feel, though perhaps it slightly thin. I'd guess though in a pub cellar it wuld be a grand beer. Franciscan Well Blarney Blonde was all talk and no action, being rather thin and tasteless. Two stouts from Carlow were both appealing, with Celtic Stout getting a big tick from me. I think the other earthier stout was just called "Stout". I must try more of these beers today if there are any left.

So what's ahead today? More hard work and a litle light schmoozing. And maybe some beer?

Two or three subnotes. I picked up a bottle of Nigerian Guinness and a couple of Yankee bottles - both stouts - Stone Imperial Russian and Rogue Shakespeare. Do you see a theme here? I had a lovely Italian beer whose name I can't remember, but was part of a Woodcraft Series, poured some Belarus Olivaria Beloe Zoloto wheat beer down the sink - don't give up the day job boys - and lastly for Erlanger Nick, Greiff Annafest was a mess that nobody behind the bar liked.

12 comments:

Neville Grundy said...

There seem to be more women at beer festivals generally, with the exception of Liverpool with its advance tickets only policy.

Whorst said...

Being that we're sort of colleagues now, a question is in order. What is your staple pint when you go out? Do you subscribe to something pale and hoppy? I'm just trying to determine how much of a hop head you are.

Gazza Prescott said...

"too much alcohol burn and too much crystal malt"

Just what I've been saying for quite a while now!

The fault with 75% of American IPA's is too much crystal, and almost every IIPA I've had was way too boozy which ruins the hop flavour.

Green Flash's WCIPA has a very English malt bill allied to superb hopping, far better than the toffeeish mess a lot of IPA's seem to be.

Whorst said...

Prescotti, apparently you've never been to the West Coast. All that crystal malt is East Coast.

Redeem yourself in arts before I start your album.

Erlangernick said...

Your palates were probably in better shape than mine was as I had the Greif last week.

When you say "Hop Devil's beers", do you mean HopDevil from Victory, or is there some brewery called Hop Devil?

In the US, bigger is better. Shakespeare is a classic US innovation though.

Maybe there is something to this GBBF after all.

Tandleman said...

Nick My bad. Amended/

Erlangernick said...

Wot--your palate was bad, or mine's been ammended? Or the HopDevil? I've never liked the HopDevil "IPA", if that's what you mean.

And what are you doing on the internet at 11 PM GBBF time?

[refreshes blog] Victory. Some are great, but others...a matter of taste.

Gazza Prescott said...

Prescotti, apparently you've never been to the West Coast. All that crystal malt is East Coast.


No, NYC only thus far, but seemingly unlike you my tastebuds work and I can taste crystal in almost every IPA. Are you telling me that it's not there, because if so you're talking complete and utter shit as usual.



Redeem yourself in arts before I start your album.

I don't pretend to know what this means but, then again, no-one cares what you say so why bother thinking about it?

Anonymous said...

Isn't Berliner Weisse supposed to be sour?

Whorst said...

I'm not saying it's not there, I'm saying generally West Coast Brewers don't use huge amounts of crystal which provides that cloying malt flavor you despise.

Perhaps no one does care what I say, but they read it. They apparently enjoyed the last album, which is still available for your listening pleasure. A whopping 77% of the no one's believe I schooled your back side in the arts. Remember your little tirade against my person? You clearly started this little skirmish with your foul language and general hostility towards me.
I just defended myself the best way I could. Redeem yourself and come clean. Stop hiding behind your 50,000 beers!

Tandleman said...

John - It is indeed and I've had Berliner Weisse and believe me, this was no Berliner Weisse. IMO of course.

johng said...

had berliner weisse yesterday in strangely enough berlin.a beer for cider drinkers maybe?