TheNoiseThatWeMade

Golden Pint Awards 2012 As a devotee of a good list, especially one which compiles a ‘best of’ sentiment looking back over the year, remembering those good time memories and golden moment beers, I couldn’t resist this. It’s like putting a mixtape together for a friend of your favourite tracks of the year, hoping they’ll find the same bliss that you did in those tunes. Well here goes. The Golden Pint Awards was started a few years ago by a number of beery writers and if you’re a lover of beer and lists take a mosey over HERE . Side A Best UK Draught (Cask or Keg) Beer Kinver ‘Black Rammoth Stout’ brewed for Birmingham Beer Festival back in Oct as a tribute to Black Sabbath. As powerful as Ozzy’s vocals, circa Vertigo days. Honourable mention : Camden Town Brewery ‘Camden Ink’ 4.4 per cent. Highlight drink on a trip to London and a so called quick stop at the Euston Tap pub, the first time I’d heard of Camden Town Brewery and made me endeavour

Ingredients arrived from the Brew UK store and I’m ready to home brew. I’d put aside a full weekend, especially if it’s your first of a few brews. Start early, well before midday at least then it gives you some daylight hours to take your time. You will need to sterilise all the equipment you use on brew day and make sure you wash thoroughly after otherwise you could risk cleaning fluid taste in your brew and a very unpleasant flavour. It’s also an idea to download a few podcasts or pull together the longest playlist you can as you’ll need a few hours of music to keep you going. I’d been saving a load of Stones Throw Records and Bill Brewster’s DJ History podcasts that I’d downloaded, and then forgotten to listen to over the last few months. I decided to brew the extract version I had purchased of the honey porter first instead of the all grain method pack as I thought it would be a good idea to start with something simpler (as I hadn’t brewed for a few months). The good p

With brewing surging in popularity; Camra’s 2013 Good Beer Guide listing over 1,000 breweries, the most in its history and even Barrack Obama brewing his own  White House beer  only a few weeks ago I thought I’d go back to basics and home brew beer; inspired by Thornbridge Brewery and Nicholson’s pubs competition to find the best home brewed beer in the UK ‘The Great British Home Brew Challenge 2013’. There are six different beer categories to brew under ranging from milds to bitters, porters and speciality beer. Their website goes into depth about the parameters so I’d recommend you read through before buying your ingredients. If you’re thinking about entering that is! If you just fancy a go and it’s your first time I’d recommend to use an app like  BJCP  (it’s currently free) which covers all beer style descriptors and start from there to build up to your final choice. Taking a few steps back and being honest here, it’s only my third time brewing. But as good things norm