Marble Dobber of course. Of course? Well the panel I chaired put this through as our best beer by a fair old way. I was confident it would win and it did. Pale, bitter, hoppy, complex and at 5.9%, no pushover, it had a lot going for it.
Beer writer and top blogger Pete Brown was on the final panel. I had a couple of chats to him. He looked tired after all his booky events, but the book is selling well. I promised I'd buy one.
Second was Silver Tally from Prospect Brewery of Wigan and third was Special, a strong dark mild, from Green Mill of Rochdale.
12 comments:
Ooh, 5.9%! Careful you're not accused of promoting irresponsible drinking...
What I do enjoy about you Herr'man is you don't go for a paragraph of adjectives in your beer descriptions. Short and sweet, to the point is all that's necessary.
I could easily knock back 5 pints of Marble Dobber, as I'm quite sure you could as well. What's irresponsible drinking anyway? You could get just as wrecked on 10 pints of 4% beer. Irresponsible drinking has nothing to do with a beverage. It's down to the person being a &*^&%$ idiot or not. An idiot will drink 10 pints and get into a car. An intellectual like me will take a cab. Some people need a psychologist more than they need a pub.
You may have noticed my Sausage mate that I am slightly rebelling against pretentiousness. There is a bit of it about, mainly at the younger end of blogging. I will await developments and hope for substance, not flim flam.
TM: I like your tasting notes as I can relate to them, unlike many I read. I'm not good at writing tasting notes myself: "Bit hoppy that" or "Rather malty" isn't quite enough, I feel.
Tandleman, I suspect you're really just rebelling against youth itself, as opposed to the "younger end of blogging". Perhaps you're just mistaking the way in which younger, educated people write these days for pretentiousness? Just a thought. You do the gruff Northerner thing very well, and lots of people love that. Don't be hating on other people though.
Hey Bell, top of the early morning to ya! Isn't drinking beer out of an over-sized wine glass pretentious? Isn't riddling a bunch of bullshit adjectives describing flavor profiles pretentious? Yeah, I know, it keeps beer writers in business. It's the creative element of writing about beer, and I do mean creative. I just power drove 5 pints of my Proper Real Keg IPA and it was fucking delicious!! That kind of honesty needs to be used more. I'll pass on the eloquent malt profile, which was rather rich in nature. Nicely infused with powerful, resinous, West Coast hop varieties. Pineapple and passion fruit aromas indicate someone has studied the art of beautifully hopped beers.
Although it's at a premium these days, take some big time, total blessed care, with godspeed thrown in for good measure!
"Perhaps you're just mistaking the way in which younger, educated people write these days for pretentiousness?"
I might be Jeff, but each case on its merits. On a wider point, I see a jostling for position here. Jackson's gone, Protzy is 112 and can't go on for ever. Some of their contemporaries are failing to step up to the mark on leading for the British beer writing scene, so there are potential vacancies here.
That gap is being subtly and not so subtly exploited. Some do it well, some not so well. It's not a bad thing at all overall though. There is potential out there all right and observing how it develops is fascinating to this gruff old Northerner. No hate - all lurve and constructive criticism from me.
What a surprise.Biffo defending pretentiousness.There is a strong stench of bullshit about a lot of blogging,with Biffo having set the pace.Although to be fair,as he's taken his eye off the ball in recent times and just become plain boring,others have taken up the gauntlet.Trouble is that there is an increasing number of bloggers all writing more or less the same thing and some have developed grandiose notions.
Ha. I hope you're feeling suitably admonished. Get thee self an education, lad.
I am getting used to gentle tickings off from the South. I respond with lurve and (inferior) logic.
Peter, you can rest assured I am not jostling for position as you describe - I've no intention of entering what I've heard described memorably as a tallest dwarf competition. I've observed others doing so. Having read some of Michael Jackson's stuff, I'd say none of them come close.
Jeff - I wasn't meaning you. Clearly you aren't a jostler in the way I describe. I love your analogy too. No the others know who they are I'm sure, but for most, it'll be an uphill climb.
I'm not one either. I simply have neither the dedication, the wish to meet serious work deadlines ever again, or, in fact and more obviously, the talent.
I'll stick to gruff Northern blogging and hopefully, the odd insightful observation.
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