What's the best beer then?

http://brouwerij-t-ij.tmfweb.nl/columbus01.jpg

Recommended: Columbus, from independent Amsterdam brewers 't IJ , strong Belgian-type ale, fruity, doesn't taste like a 9% beer.

the best beers:

http://my.tele2.ee/imrev/olu/olupildid/youngbitter.jpg

http://www.bunitedint.com/Pictures/einbecker-5.jpg

http://www.principals.com.au/_images/JamesSquire_pack4.jpg

mmm. all highly, highly recommended.

oops. the first of those should be a. a smaller picture and b. pulled from the barrel.

A friend is responsible for the Leffe ads in the Benelux (Belgium/Netherland/Luxem.) if I recall correctly. One night he showed us the ads of the last couple of years.

Spaten Optimator!

Liefmans Kriek is too sweet. The sourness of Drij Fontienen is far superior.

I can get enough of this stuff at the moment:

http://www.badgerdirect.com/images/products/gc_bottle_big.jpg

A fine beer, top notch, beautiful summer drink.

This is actually great.

http://www.sinisterpenguin.com/hebrew.gif

I pretty much refuse to drink American beer unless I absolutely have to.

i like rickards red.

Lager: Pilsner Urquell/Budvar/Krucovive Imperial, Shehalion

Ale: Bitter & Twisted, Deuchars IPA

Stout: Guiness (what else?)

>Stout: Guiness (what else?)

Almost anything else. (St. Ambroise, Rogue, etc.)

Hey Dave B, have you moved to Brighton yet?

If so, you MUST go to The Evening Star on Surrey Street (Near Brighton station) and sample the Dark Star beers, they are superb.

I will definitively be able to tell you on Monday as i have been selected as a judge for the CAMRA Champion Bottled Beer of Britain competition.

Really? Doesn't sound like a bad job!

If so, you MUST go to The Evening Star on Surrey Street (Near Brighton station) and sample the Dark Star beers, they are superb.

Matt, WE must go to the Evening Star on Surrey Street to sample the Dark Star beers soonish, methinks.

(Where is the love for Fursty Ferret?)

wow ed, how?

i'm quite into judas at the moment. also i just realised that i didn't have any beer in the fridge, and to my horror found that i only have one bottle in the whole house. this must be rectified.

Prefer Badger Golden Glory.

I emailed in response for a request for judges in saturday's guardian.

I have only one beer left in the fridge, and it is something CHERRY FLAVOURED bought for me as a gift. Mmmm, not sure I'm in a rush to open that one...

I am so enviou of Ed, my extremities have gone green.

BADGER GOLDEN GLORY! another fan? i thought i was the only one!

Some lo-carb Michelob is left in my fridge after having people over a few weeks ago. *screws up nose*

Ha ha, and ILX scoffs at the Guardian, but it has its uses!

Gareth, I *love* the Badger Golden Glory. I've been drinking it all summer - that slight taste of peaches... yum! (My bandmates reckon it sounds like a Final Fantasy song title, but it is indeed glorious.)

Talking of Badger stuff, Blandford Fly (the gingerish one) is lovely for the first bottle or so, after that, errrr...

Badger beer reminds me of Southbourne beach and milkshakes at the Castle Cafe in Highcliffe and Tucktonia.

As FreakyTrigger are in a CAMRA baiting mood, this is great to watch how the insiders do it. You must spill all Ed.
(Not the beer. Don't spill the beer).

Yes Nick, we must - possibly sometime this weekend - like Saturday - or is that too soon?

Would any other ILXors care to come too?

Oh my god, all this talk has made me order a Fursty Ferret t-shirt. Or maybe it was the fact that it was only six quid. O evil internet thingy, I curse you. Beer clothes... my sartorial stock has plumbed woeful new depths, even for me.

oops x-post: Saturday... maybe! Will have to check what's what with her what knows.

You've got my number!

It's also my birthday next weekend (7th August) so I may be spening a good proportion of my time in The Evening Star, amongst other things (such as Pride)

I can't let you in on the result till tomorrow, but I have tasted some very nice beers.

we've still got some Morrison's Best-Buy lagers in the fridge that we're too scared to drink.

bah, suzy left herself logged in.

i have a real soft spot for VB (Victoria Bitter), even though it tastes like cat pee, because this girl i had a straight girl crush on at uni used to wear a VB tshirt to school. she looked hot in green.

i was surprised to see suzy writing that...

did you get to drink loads? were there spitoons? etc?

I have become a fan of Smuttynose IPA, although no doubt that's not considered "beer" in you guys' upside-down world

i like how victoria bitter isn't a bitter but is in fact a lager! (and like it)

No spittoons no.

The form was that we were tasting bottle conditioned beers rather than bottled beers. there were two panels of five people tasting 6 beers scoring them out of Appearance, Aroma, Taste and After-taste; with weighting given to the taste score of course. The first panels consisted of two guardian readers and 3 CAMRA volunteers each. My team had three dark beers of differing types, mild, porter and darker styles, 1 classic red bitter and 2 lighter style beers. About a 3rd of a pint of each. Held up to the light for appearance, swirled and sniffed for aroma and then tasted. Beer was brought out in unlabled jugs. 1 beer of the first round stood out as a beer I would like to drink a good deal more of and one stood out as dark, interesting, and chocolatey but too sweet for my liking, probably a malt stout.

We tasted and filled in our forms discussing each beer in turn but keeping our scores private.

After the first round they needed a 4th guardian reader for the final panel, I was picked after a little typical British 'no you' session. The final panel of 1 CAMRA type, Roger Protz and 4 guardian readers, although of these 4, 1 was a chemist/brewer who formerly worked for Badger and apparently the man who came up with the idea of putting elderflower in beer to make golden champion. Again tasting 6 beers with the favourite from our first round coming through as the eventual winner.

I learnt some new things, including scientific grounding for Hopkin's no drinking outside rule. Apparently a true real ale drinker will not expose his beer to sunlight as 'lightstrike' can ruin a beer in 20 seconds.

As for the competition; I was suitably impressed with the winner, however the competition wasn't as strong as i had hoped. There seems to be a slight problem with bottled conditioned beer (as opposed to bottled beer) in britain, it doesn't seem to be an art that has been honed to perfection. The beers fell into three categories: 1) Beers that are sold as cask beer and have been bottled conditioned as an afterthought; 2) Beer of types that are too weird to be generally sold in cask quantities; 3) Beers brewed for the bottle because the brewery is too small to get a wide distribution of it's products in casks.

Across all types there seems to be an over egging of the bottle conditioning process with over gassiness, presumably in search of a head, being a common trait although in the better cases this eased off if the beer was left to stand a little. Flavours were good but in a lot of cases you couldn't help wondering if the draught beer would have been better. All in all British bottle conditioned beer seems to lag behind Belgian bottle conditioned beer.

The winner is a lovely beer none the less, a lovely sparkling ruby bitter from the north east, hoppy with a nice lingering bitterness and just the right amount of malty body. It did need to stand a little to let the gas off.

I'll let you know what it is tomorrow.

thanks ed, v interesting!

this "lightstrike" warrants further investigation, i think.

I don't believe it. I think it is pasty English who will be struck by light, not the lovely beer.

SWEET SCIENCE REIGNS.

Ed, it's tomorrow. Spill.

I never spill my beer.

Durham Brewery Evensong

Wow.

It did need to stand a little to let the gas off

Like the CAMRades at GBBF, no doubt.

In Pinefoxian stylee:

Blandford fly was...not as good as I'd hoped. I had a load of St Peter's Lemon and Ginger Bitter at the Jerusalem last week, so was expecting good things but it's not a patch on St Peter's stuff.

Golden Glory is on tap in Holborn. Can't remember the pub; either the Enterprise or the Old Nick (I think). Not a patch on Golden Champion, which I have now staretd ordering crates of.

Tomorrow, I will get hold of some Westvleteren which will be grebt.

it seems i'll be drinking in a bierodrome this evening - any suggestions of more unusual belgian beers i should be sampling?

Drij Fonteinen Oude Geuze
Drij Fonteinen Kriek

I have developed a near addiction to Dark Star Hophead. So Chewsabadoo - if you are going to be in the Evening Star doing birthday stuff this Sunday it's very probable I will see you there!

Summit EPA. But you've really got to like hops.