Saturday, 30 June 2012

Meet the Blogger - NateDawg27

Awesome personified?
So, I've been thinking that I should do some proper writing. You know, hard hitting journalism that really gets down to the nitty gritty of the subject. This now being the case, I've interviewed one of the 'New Kids on the Blog' Nathaniel Southwood, AKA @NateDawg27 in the Twitterverse, he writes the blog Booze, Beats and Bites and he is more awesome than you....apparently.

RBF: What made you start blogging?
ND27: I started blogging because I like beer, music and food. I just wanted somewhere to talk about beer music and food. I don't give a shit if people read it or not (surprisingly they do actually read it). I just wanted to write.

RBF: Who's your inspiration when it comes to blogging?
ND27: Brewers, food producers and musical artists. Bloggers who make me want to write, however, are purely beery ones - Mark Dredge, Zak Avery and Pete Brown always have interesting blogs. They were the first beer bloggers whom I really paid attention to.

RBF: What do you want to be when you grow up?
ND27: When I grow up? Bitch please. Nate Dawg is already grown up. I would like to work in the beer or music industry though. Someone told me the other day that I could be a lawyer because I'm a bit of an arsehole, so there's always that.

RBF: What does 'craft beer' mean to you?
ND27: Craft beer is something I drink. It is almost always highly priced, barrel aged and limited to 50 bottles.

RBF: Booze, beat and bite. If you could only drink one beer, eat one meal and listen to one song for the rest of eternity, what would they be?
ND27: Carling, McDonalds Double Cheeseburgers and Rick Astley - Never gonna give you up.

RBF: Tell us a secret...
ND27: I enjoy listening to Lady Gaga.

RBF: Carling or Brewdog, rain or shine, glass half empty or glass half full?
ND27: Brewdog. Shine. It depends whether you've poured water into an empty glass or poured half a full glass out...

RBF: Star Trek or Star Wars?
ND27: Neither, I fucking hate sci-fi. Why aren't wizards cool anymore?

RBF: Favourite beer moment, ever.
ND27: Wacken Open Air 2008. It was my 4th time seeing Iron Maiden. I was sick of drinking litres of Becks all day. I found that there was something different on draft, Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier. I paid for my drink and sat at a table with some other English folk. Then it started. Videos of fighter jets from WWII on the screens, so haunting. Then it progressed. Churchill's speech...

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; We shall never surrender...

I mouthed the words to Churchill's speech. As soon as I heard "never surrender", I heard the opening riff to Aces High and took a sip. That sip was glory. That was what the British fought for. To drink German beer. In a field in Germany while watching a British band live with people from all around the world - Brits, Germans, Swedes, Danes, Russians, Americans, Aussies and Spaniards; I was drinking beer with people from all backgrounds, religions and races; I was watching my favourite band and drinking beer with like-minded people. We fought for the music and the beer. We fought so the world could be united. We fought so that I could have that beer moment. That is my favourite beer beer moment ever. The Fat Cat in Norwich has Franziskaner on draft permanently and every time I buy a pint I almost have a tear in my eye for that awesome moment. Absolutely phenomenal. You probably can't feel how I felt right then, but here's a recorded example - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37UPhgEqwN8.

That last question seemed to be the hardest. It's hard to write about something so special as it wasn't just about the beer. It was a truly emotional moment for me.


I'd like to thank Nate for taking the time to answer such hard hitting, personal questions, I think we've all learned something today and hopefully you'll go away and take a long hard look at yourselves... ;)

You can follow Nate on Twitter : @NateDawg27. He's well worth it.



Wednesday, 20 June 2012

Olympic Qualification



Glyn was unsurprised when Tom Daley beat him in Olympic Qulaifying...

Tuesday, 19 June 2012

No Krusovice Fanfare

I got home last night and found this on my doorstep...



Now, ordinarily beery invites don't come in rolled up scrolls so well done to Krusovice for making the effort.

But rather than having the postie dump it on my doorstep, why not go the whole hog and get a traditional messenger on horseback to deliver and read it to my court...

In the old days....


pic borrowed from masterfile.com

No one takes any pride in their work any more, take note Royal Mail/Consignia or whatever you're branded as now!

Friday, 15 June 2012

Diary Dates!

Usually I wouldn't post work stuff on here but we've got a couple of events coming up at The Rake which I'm pretty excited about so I'm going to share them here too!

Firstly in a 10 days time - Sunday 24th we have the Tiny Rebel Tap Takeover. You're probably aware that I went and brewed with Newport's only microbrewery about a month ago and true to form/unsurprisingly we brewed a 7.4% IPA which was named Hadouken.
On the 24th you will be able to try the Hadouken from keg or cask dispense and decide which of the two you prefer!
Being a Tap Takeover there will of course be 4 other beers on for us  to sample as well, I say us becuase there are a couple that I still haven't tried myself! Exciting!
Full list
Hadouken - keg & cask
Cwtch - cask
Full Nelson - cask
Chocaholic - keg
Kraftwork - keg.

Imbibing of these awesome Welsh Beers starts at Noon on Sunday 24th June. See you there!

The other exciting event is approximately three weeks later on Monday 16th July when The Rake hosts the post grad Heriot-Watt students launching the beer they have brewed at the Natural Selection Brewery at Heriot-Watt Uni.
I got a phone call from Shane O'Bierne at the beginning of the week asking very nicely if they could do their London Launch (The Edinburgh launch is on 11th at the Stockbridge Tap at 7pm ) at one of the best beer bars in London, well flattery getting you everywhere I said yes almost instantly and we're now gearing up to get a massive hit of students and beer geeks in on a Monday night! *gulps*
Personally I find the fact that these are brewing students launching a beer commercially extremely interesting and exciting but then being an AFC Wimbledon fan I'm a bit of a sucker for the underdog and I really want this beer launch to be a huge success. 
The beer? A 4.8% Wheat Beer with low bitterness but enough citrussy zing to make it perfect for those long British summers we're all so fond of!!
Proceedings start at 7pm on Monday 16th July and if you want a taste get here early before all those students drink it all!