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 endea...

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 ...

Very happy to support this Kickstarter project & can't wait for the book to drop.  The site officially landed in  the UK a few weeks ago (is that technically right?!?); I've been funding projects from all over the world though. I couldn't resist this one in particular as I'm a vinyl lover.  Eilon's book is going to be a corker! I thought I would share his update, featured below.  Kickstarter link WEST COAST TRIP: I have just recently came back from a very productive visit to LA. Been working hard on photographing more collectors and spreading the gospel of Dust & Grooves on the west coast. Here are a few of the new collectors profiled: Cut Chemist (needs no introduction): http://66.147.244.126/~dustandg/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Dust_and_Grooves_2658.jpg Egon (Now-Again records): http://66.147.244.126/~dustandg/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Dust_and_Grooves_1.jpg Mario Caldato jr. (Music producer for The Beastie Boys): htt...

Exposed Magazine new feature Beer Revere by me!

Thursday: New for 2012 and in conjunction with Jane Peyton from The School of Booze we have 4 beer tasting workshops throughout the day. The focus will be on LocAle and Brewster beer.  The new Project Venus brew from Waen brewery will be exclusively sampled in these sessions. There will be a limited number of places kept available on the day so arrive early if you’re interested and ask at the membership stall; priority will be reserved for new Camra members joining on the day.  Thursday’s headline act, The Trevor Burton Band , is fronted by a living legend from one of the formative bands of the 60s called The Move. Trevor’s contemporaries, friends and musical allegiances were Denny Laine of the Moody Blues and Steve Winwood. Not only that but pick up the Jimi Hendrix Experience LP ‘Axis: Bold as Love’ and you’ll find Trevor in the vocal credits. It’s a real honour to have him closing the first night of the beer festival and shows how much musical heritage Birmin...

At the end of October a swathe of people head, backs turned to the Bullring, towards Digbeth or Deritend, or the dirty end depending on your localisms. Whispers of eager sounding voices can be heard discussing imbibes of dark roasted malts and whether to go local brewery with Two Towers’ ‘Jewellery Porter’ or regional with Marble’s ‘Ginger Ale’ as the first drink of the day. With over 160 beers on offer to beer enthusiasts to sample over 3 days and worthy of note a good proportion are local beers; those within a 40 mile radius, it’s no wonder beer has replaced custard as Digbeth’s malty attraction. Over 4,000 people made this journey last year to Birmingham Beer festival and in the course Digbeth cemented its reputation as an epi-beer centre. In a city of such size you see the big beer boys all too often as the main drink offering but a collection of pubs are bucking the beer supermarkets in favour of an indie alternative and there are a number of Digbeth pubs championing thi...

The Independent Manchester Beer Convention   (IMBC) will happen for the first time at the beginning of October in celebration of beer, food, beery discussions and beery good times.  After the   Leeds International Beer festival   which happened a few weeks ago, this has much of the same essence (beer - kegged & cask) & a whole lot more in the form of practical demos & talks with head brewers. Interesting to see that both festivals are organised by completely different groups - but both have sprung up as a response to the demand from consumers & brewers to have a platform for quality beer (no matter what it's stored in).  A quick rundown of key pointers taken from their site includes these features over the 2 days: - Over 30 keg lines, hosted by the brewers themselves. - 30 cask lines curated by Port Street Beer House and others. - The Portable Street Beer House presenting craft beers from here there and everywhere. ...