Brewdog Made Me Fatter!

Instead of doing my drunk diary this year I am trying to be a bit more healthy without telling you lot too much about it and boring you all senseless.

So me and Mrs Rabidbarfly got ourselves an exercise bike and I've used it pretty much every day since then. This week I've been going round a few breweries and helping them brew beer, nothing ground breaking or new about that I hear you say, well no and that's fine because it's hard work and it counts as exercise. I have also been using the bike.

Fatties beware!

So imagine my surprise then when I do my daily morning weigh-in yesterday to find I had gone from 80.1kg(12st, 8.6lb) to 80.6kg(12st, 9.7lb)! Shocking weight gain, so shocking I had to look over my diet for the day and I found one anomaly, a bottle of Brewdog Hardcore IPA! Not the McDonalds, the Hardcore IPA!!

It can be the only reason for such horrible obeseness! James Watt - you should be utterly ashamed of yourself, but then you probably already are, after all everybody can see behind that skinny, uber cool veneer is a self loathing chubster just screaming to get out. Half a kilo Damn You! Not the double helping of homemade Jerk chicken, The Brewdog!

So this is how you are trying to remain uber cool, by making the rest of us fatties?! Despicable!

If you keep on making such drinkable cheap(at the supermarket) beers then my diet will go to hell and I may have to bill you for a new liver.

Take Outs

So those crafty keg upstarts at Brewdog are going the way of Russian River and Lovibonds and have started producing Thermos flasks...sorry, Growlers!
I've always been one for take aways (Kebabs mainly) so I think they're an excellent idea and if I had the space at The Rake I'd probably stock Thermos's sorry....Growlers too!
Have a look.

very sleek looking thermos..sorry Growler!

They look not unlike the fonts that Brewdog have in their bars so the branding is at least consistent. I quite like these thermos flasks...sorry, growlers and might get myself one! I have to say that I do prefer the look of the Russian River and Lovibonds growlers though, I think they have a more classical look.

Call me old fashioned by this is my kind of growler!

Now the Brewdog Fan-Boys can take their favourite Brewdog tipples home for ageing/freeze distilling/worshipping!

Good on Brewdog though, finally they have their fingers on the pulse! Thermos...sorry, Growler of Tokyo anyone?

Sorry tickers but it beats a Panda Pop bottle hands down!

The Tramp Juice Trio

Been wanting to do this since we launched Brewdog's Avery, Brown, Dredge at The Rake. I'm going to be comparing the ABD with Tennants Super and Carslberg Special Brew!
The things I do to my liver.
I spot the blurb on the side of the can of Special Brew 'best shared well chilled' - Shared? When was the last time you saw a tramp sharing a can of Spesh? I can just see it now, one tramp pours into another tramps fluted tasting glass, tramp 2 swills it around, takes a sniff, and sips it back gently, savouring every intricate flavour profile in the glass! The substitution of the word served with shared is just cynical marketing bullshit, not fooling anyone methinks!

Avery celebrates buying Beer Ritz.

It must be noted that I'm not the first person to write about these beers, on Ratebeer both the Spesh and the Super T of these beers have over a hundred ratings even with someone rating the Spesh 3.1! Wtf!!!
We're going to start with the Brewdog because I'm fairly certain that my tastebuds may never recover from the shock of the trampagne!
Named after the three bigwigs that brewed this monster, Avery, Brown, Dredge is a 7.5% 'Imperious Pilsner' which is an homage to everything that inspires these three flowery wordsmiths!
On the nose there's caramel, slightly floral but hard to pin down, maybe rose? The look is a slightly darker than most lagers as you might expect for an 'Imperious' style.

Dredge working, we think he might have broken a nail,
 if you find it in your bottle you win a prize!

Now when we launched it at The Rake I felt it was slightly too sweet and I have to say, for me it still is although there's a lovely boozy after-glow going on in the throat after you swallow.
Not sure about the guff on the bottle though - aren't these guys supposed to be writers? If you like strong pilsners you'll love this stuff - I'm dubbing it Special Brew(Dog).
Which brings us nicely onto the next beer in this little tramp juice trio is Carlsberg's Special Brew....
For this part I go and get a bucket, I may vomit, I was thinking about videoing this post but I don't think you lot want to see me chunder!

We knew that Brown would get sick of IPA's
 one day.

Well, it's 9% abv and pours clear, same colour as the ABD, on the nose there's a bit of sulphur, this stuff is going to hurt me but at least I didn't need a bottle opener to get it open, hehe. Nowhere near any of the subtle aromas that the ABD has, getting scared. It's sickly sweet, all malt and no hops to speak of and I can feel my mouth being stripped away layer by layer with every sip. Foul. Nothing nice here, I have no idea how the tramps drink this stuff and it's time to move on to the final can of the evening, Tennent's Super.
This is such fine stuff that Tennent's advise that you serve it 'ice cold', probably to take away any taste you might be unfortunate enough to experience. Now before we start there's something I have to just have a chuckle at....'Please drink responsibly' on the can! Nice to see the people at Tennent's doing such stirling work with their customer profiling! For all you pedants out there yes I know it's a legal requirement but is anyone naive enough to believe this will ever happen?
To the notes! Same as the Special Brew on colour and aroma, sickly, eggy sulphur (same stuff in a blue can, anyone?). Bit sweeter than the SB and there's more booze on the mouth feel, I'm about to be arrested for crimes against tastebuds so I'll leave it there. Go for the Special Brew(Dog) folks, it's craft, innit!

Dean Swift : BrewDog IPA is Dead Dinner.

So, after spending the afternoon in The Harp(blog to follow, I promise!) I went off to the Dean Swift Local Beer House. After turning up too early I went to a couple of other bars to wait around and I have to say the Dean Swift is by far the best pub in the vicinity!

When I did finally get in, I went to the bar and got myself a pint of Dark Star Espresso, one of my current favourites, found my table and my table mates and waited for the usual BrewDog carnage to unfold....

What I got instead was a six course meal matched with some superbly tasty beers, here's how they came out and my impressions of the matchings...

Course One. Punk IPA (canned) with Seared Scallops and Cauliflower Veloute and a Madras Dressing.
Well, by the time the food got to me it was a tad to cold, it was still very tasty and the madras dressing went very nicely with the aromatic hops of the Punk IPA, a very nicely balanced starter to the evening.
BALANCED? BREWDOG?

Course Two. IPA is Dead (Citra) with Chicken & Wild Boar Roulade with an Apple, Pistachio & Marsala Wine Jus.
Citra is a 'new world' hop from Washington State that has recently become the 'hop de jour' and frankly the way some brewers have used it has been a little bit...shall we say uninspiring? Well, at BrewDog they're not like that, every beer has to be a poke in the eye, every beer has to stand up and shout and they generally do!
At a recent IPA is Dead tasting at the Euston Tap bar, the Citra was I think the last of the beers to be tried and it suffered because of that(on my over-indulged taste buds anyway). This time round it's the first of the series to be tried and as it's the subtlest of the four it gets somewhat overpowered by the food pairing which was quite spicy. The beer was still in top notch form and the food was excellent, I'm just not sure the two went together.

Course Three. IPA is Dead (Bramling Cross) with Braised Wild English Rabbit & Caramelised Pear.
This is my second favourite of the four beer series. There was a fifteen or so minute wait so Tom 'the cad' Cadden otherwise known as 'Magic Dog' trawled out a couple of BrewDog stories for the crowd. Now BrewDog aficionados will know these stories from tastings and meet the brewer events around the world no doubt, but they still make me chuckle, especially the 'I'm not Fucking Mother Teresa' one which went down well with the crowd last night.
The food came out pretty much bang on the ending on the story, it looked gooood, it tasted great. I've never had Rabbit before and this was a great if not bony introduction to Bugs Bunny stew! A bit about the beer...well I would describe it like a beery equivalent to Neapolitan ice cream, there's chocolate and strawberry there with hints of blackberry and pepper.
The pairing was superb, makes me want to go kill a wabbit!

Course Four. IPA is Dead (Nelson Sauvin) with Spicy Lamb Tagine.
I remember thinking, this is going to be a cracking pairing. I wasn't wrong. This is big, spicy food with Harissa added,  paired with big IPA full of gooseberry and grapefruit. This was the FABPOW of the evening and I'm in the corner as an official hater of that phrase. I'm just a sucker for spicy food and IPA's I guess. However! If it had been Hardcore IPA it would have been AWESOME!


Course Five. IPA is Dead (Sorachi Ace) with Kaffir Lime & Lemongrass Panna cotta and Ginger & Lemongrass Green Tea Jelly.
This, theoretically should be a great pairing. It was the brainchild of Max, manager of the Dean Swift and he knows his stuff. At this point I've got a bit of a moaner at the table and he's not getting the whole beer and food matching thing. The words 'I only drink beer or wine to get pissed' Save me.
The beer did thankfully. The Sorachi Ace hop is one of the most complex and interesting in the world, in some ways it's the Marmite of the beer world, people seem to either love it or hate it. I love it.
This single hopped IPA paired with the Lime and Lemongrass Panna cotta was superb, the Jelly, not so much, I just got nothing off it!

Course Six. Hardcore IPA with Neals Yard Dairy British Cheeses and Oat Crackers.
One was a nice big blue cheese and the other was nice strong cheddar, paired with Hardcore IPA it was good, personally I think it would have worked much better with Chaos Theory! Hear me BrewDog. Hear me!

So that was it, a good night, lots of excellent food and lots of excellent beer. I'd like to thank Max and his team at the Dean Swift and Tom and everyone at BrewDog for organising this event, I had a great time.
Now, I promised to do a write-up on the Harp...

Hear me BrewDog, Hear me....

Just for good measure though, I'll add this photo of Chaos Theory!

Don't Can That Idea!

So Brewdog will be canning Punk IPA from March next year. About time too, of all the breweries in Britain, they are probably the one that has enough of a following to be able to carry it off and their own unique style of branding works very well too!

Great Idea!

My last post was on 21st Amendment's Canned Back to Black IPA which also has very distinctive branding on the can so it 'can' be done well but I think that breweries will have to come up with a hip and trendy can to make it appealing rather than old hat or passe. Obviously the beer has to be good too otherwise you might as well be canning tramp juice!

Looking forward to it.

Other breweries that might benefit from canning their range? Otley? How about Harviestoun, Marble or Thornbridge?

Who do you think would be able to pull it off?

X-Factor For Punks

Louis Walsh was heard saying this week "Brewdog you remind me of a small Marstons".

Brewdog are coming to The Rake this Thursday to showcase a new version of the Punk IPA. Known only as Agent X  sorry...Punk X.

So nice they put kisses on front.

There will also be the old version of Punk IPA so that you can compare the two. Magic Dog will be keeping score and generally making the place look untidy(old habits die hard) and YOU can help decide whether or not Brewdog make the new Punk X version, the 2011 version of the beer.

It's X-Factor, you decide! Calls from mobiles may be considerably more expensive!

For more details you can go to the Brewdog Website.

Blog Noir #3

It was supposed to be hotter than hell but it was cold, wet and windy. What the fuck was that about?

Anyway it was chaos on the streets, least that's what the journo's are callin' it. It's happened before of course but never like this. The crowds had been howling for a change for a year and now it had come, they were about to get some good old fashioned payback! I cracked open a beer and watched the world turn itself inside out.


The dame was dressed all in blue when she waltzed into the joint, to my twisted, beer addled mind I'd have given her 7.1 but what a body! What folks would do to to get hold of that body is probably unspeakable and I wouldn't tell a soul as long as I could have my turn! She smells like heaven should smell. This strawberry blonde was like a godsend in the most evil part of town you could hope to find yourself, there wasn't anything you wouldn't do for this broad.


Gotta stay cool though, no need to blow the load so early but I need to join the chaos outside, I need to get my hands dirty, I need to join the party, taste the chaos, get an idea, get a theory...

Chaos Theory Returns!

After much nagging from the beer bods everywhere, Brewdog announced this morning that they are bringing Chaos Theory back for a one-off celebrity spot on their beer list today.
This is by far and away my favourite Brewdog beer and so I had to go online and buy 12 bottles as soon as I heard the news!
As Andy Mogg says 'if you like IPA's then beg, steal and borrow some money to buy a case of this wonderful beer' - I second that sentiment wholeheartedly!

I wrote about Chaos Theory here, I'll write about it again when I receive the beer!
Getting thirsty just thinking about it....nom nom nom....

I Hardcore You - The Side Effects

Ok, as good as the I Hardcore You is, it has some rather annoying side effects...

1) Random Mildly Drunken Tweeting.

2) Fucked up sleep pattern(i.e.I didn't get any!)

3) Hangover.

A Lot to Answer For!

Was it worth it? you bet your ass it was! I think I had 5 or 6 halves of this last night after work and enjoyed every single one of them!

I Hardcore You - Deadblogged.

A keykeg of I Hardcore You

So, Mr Dredge live blogged about the Brewdog/Mikkeller collaboration, I Hardcore You last night so I thought I'd give the draught version a plug. The dead blog, it started now 10.50am.
Into one of my 3rd of a pint glasses, I pour a dark amber liquid, I Hardcore You has already got me hooked, this looks good!
Tonnes of Citrus on the nose along with some peach, some raisin and a mango, this stuff smells like Lilt!
Initially you taste those same fruits in the mouth but they mostly give way to the bitterness that you would expect from something this strong(9.5% abv). There's also a metallic edge to the end of this which isn't too unpleasant but really shouldn't be there.
All in all this is a great beer and I'm ordering some bottles for when the draught runs out! By the way I expect to be mildly hungover tomorrow morning!

Transmission ends! 11.00am

PS  - It's only deadblogging because it's Monday morning and I'm drinking already!

Bored, No Really!

Just when you thought it was safe to buy beer from Brewdog again, they've gone and released a new beer called End of History(EOH).
EOH is a 55% abv beer that is presented in either a stoat £500 or a squirrel £700! Yes these prices are insane but Taxidermy is an expensive thing to produce!
If you work in the beer world, you knew that sooner or later something like this would happen, if not it's yet another marvellous stunt to promote this crazy craft brewery from Aberdeenshire. Or not. There has been much criticism of this latest release, some of it about the way these animals were killed/procured etc...some of it is about the strength of the beer and of course there's the arguments about the price. I put my own view to James Watt over Twitter, I've yet to have a response but I'd like to think he's intelligent enough to take it on board even though he has posted a response on beer advocate which is erm...less than eloquent?
Apparently EOH is already sold out, if this is the case they have done extremely well in selling this one to the beer geeks or roadkill enthusiasts. Even if I'd had the money lying about, I doubt I wouldn't have wasted it on this, frankly I'm a little tired of the Brewdog roller coaster and want them to get back to brewing fantastic beers such as Riptide, Chaos Theory, Paradox Smokehead etc..this(or at least a small part of it) was how Brewdog became so loved amongst the beer enthusiasts.
I'm not going to waste my breath saying stop it with the stunts because they won't listen to me but I would like them to start brewing the Chaos Theory again, in my opinion this is their best beer by a country mile.

Special Beer for a Special Occasion

As I said a couple of days ago, I've been ageing a bottle of Brewdog's Zephyr, an imperial ale that's been aged in 42 year old whiskey casks for 21 months and had fresh strawberries added to the cask.
I was going to save this bottle for my 40th birthday but convinced myself that there is no more special occasion that your wedding day to open it(didn't take much convincing!)
I had (I think) the only cask of this that was ever produced, on at The Rake in December 2008 and I remember it being about 11% abv in the cask and absolutely sublime, the bottle says the abv is 12.5% so it'll be a good one to share this morning after breakfast with my best men and almost father-in-law.
The Brewdog blurb you can read here says that the profits from each bottle of Zephyr went to the RNLI so it's the beer that just keeps on giving!
More than that, I won't drink a better beer all day.
The taste is fantastic, you get the hit of the Invergordon 1965 whisky cask then comes the sweetness of the strawberries, there is a pinkish type hue to the beer which comes from the strawberries and then there's the hops, I believe this was an IPA that's been made into the current beer that is in front of me.
That's enough from me, now I have to go and concentrate on keeping people entertained for the next couple of hours.
It's sunny, it's warm, perfect for getting married, now what was I doing today?

100th Post

My one hundreth post, so I thought I'd do a piece on IPA's.
I bottled some Motley Brew and brought it home yesterday, possibly the last time (this year) that i'll drink it. I say this year because I am delighted to say that Nick and his team at Otley Brewing decided to make it a permanent on their seasonal range, albeit with the slightly lower abv of 5.5%.
I bought a couple of bottles of Punk IPA from Sainsbury's on Sunday because Lucille and I had a couple of friends round for lunch and it was possibly the most inspiring choice in their beer range.
So why not compare the two? They are two of my favourite breweries after all and they are very similar beers too.
First of all Motley : it's now 5.5% abv but you wouldn't guess it, it does taste more like 6-6.5%. It was bottled by hand from the tap yesterday into a flip-top bottle to try and keep it as fresh as possible but it was still lacking in condition. The tasting notes are pretty much the same as they were in December when we launched it at The Rake, I wrote about the beer here, the only difference being the abv which I now believe makes it an IPA not a double IPA. There's less of the instant floral hit of the pacific gem hops but it's still there, there's slightly less of the Chinook hops that bittered it up but they're still there, it's the same beer made from the same recipe and it's still a fantastic beer in my lowly opinion.
The Punk IPA : It's 6% abv, it's a bottle and the carbonation really helps bring out the flavour, there's a bitterness that's unmistakeably Brewdog. Now I don't want to talk about this beer without first telling you about the Keg we had at The Rake recently, it's actually convinced me that Brewdog have changed the hops that they used in the brew, is this true? well only Brewdog can say I guess, but my taste buds were given a tropical treat that took me far away to an island where I could have laid in the sun sipping it all day long. There was pineapple and lychees coming through and it was immensely drinkable.
Back to the bottle, it's slightly harder work to drink because there's that Brewdog bitterness back again that ruthlessly attacks the taste buds, it's an agressive beer, it says so on the label, it must be true then!
Which is better? well, you know that's completely subjective and you good folks can make up your own minds.

Chaos Theory

I have a theory, it has several key factors for it to work too. Here are the factors, firstly, factor in a 15 hour shift. Secondly, factor in that 15 hour shift being a Friday. Next factor, the shift is at The Rake, one of the smallest, most cramped spaces in the country on a Friday night. Thirdly add the quality beggars you get around Borough Market who are always looking for that elusive pint that's been left lying around outside by someone needing a piss. Then sprinkle a bit of usual Friday night hilarity, oh yes, our customers are ALL hilarious, I'm constantly laughing at them.
Anyway for this theory to work you need all of those factors working in perfect harmony, this theory is Chaos Theory from Brewdog, I hate to sound like an advert but this beer was just what I needed after work today, it's going down a treat and next I may just have another big IPA.
The stats : IPA style, 7.1% abv. I won't tell you about the units because that's SO last month!
The taste : Hops, grass, there's also a deep peppery alcoholic warmth right at the back of the pallet that urges you think about the next sip.
Excuse me whilst I finish this remarkable beer and slip quietly into the weekend.

A Drunk Diary, Episode Twenty-Two

Started at around 6pm today. Best mate turned up at The Rake, rude not to really...

Drink : Brewdog 77 Lager 2 bottles
abv : 4.9%
Units : 3.22

Drink : Sierra Nevada Pale Ale 2 Bottles
abv : 5.6%
Units : 3.92

th th th that's all folks!

total units today : 7.14

Horrible day at work, time to sleep! #twissup tomorrow!

A Drunk Diary, Episode Ten

Day 10, Stargate SG-1 on telly, about to do my weekly CSI Sunday marathon. Time for some beer!
Time : 19.17

Beer : Martsons Burton Bitter
abv : 3.8%
Units : 1.9

Beer : Brewdog Riptide Bottle
abv : 8%
Units : 2.64

That's that for the day.

Total units today : 4.54

2010, the year that was...

Happy New Year all! so, what does 2010 hold for us? lets do a bit of 'grist'al ball gazing....
2010, the year that will see the Daily Mail use the little known 'responsible reporting' technique regarding all things (beer or otherwise).
2010, the year that violent computer games will become required homework material for the under 8's.
2010, the year that the government will recommend to parents that they give their teenage sons porn to keep them from joining gangs and stabbing each other.
2010, the year that Brewdog will decide to become the biggest pub co in the world and start brewing dull, brown, 4.1% ale and 3.7% pissy lager - Now THAT's changing the world guys!
2010, the year that ex-presidents George Dubbya and Tony Blair come out and decide to create their own country on a deserted moon somewhere.
2010, the year that Osama Bin Laden will release the terrorists guide to knitting.
2010, the year that people will rise up against the 'Nanny State' and decide to actually start living their lives again unafraid they might catch a cold or enjoy eating food.
2010, the year that I will cease to be a lardy bastard and start my much awaited see-food diet ;)
2010, the year that classical music will be outlawed as subversive and blamed for the gang culture.
2010, the year that all channels putting out shit reality TV shows will start repaying the general public' TV license fees.

Well, normal service resumes tomorrow when The Rake reopens after our Christmas break, should be a good year ;)

2009 a decent enough vintage

There seems to be a few pieces being written about the beer world in 2009, well I'm going to give my version of 2009. My reason for doing this is to try and spot things that I'm quite proud of and things that I hope to do better on in 2010, as I write I'm not entirely sure that I'm going to publish this post.
This isn't going to just be about beer & brewing, it's going to be a bit more personal so take from it what you will.
I guess the first real high point of 2009 came just after the first proper low point. The low point was having to get rid of one of the staff, for those of you that don't know about it, all you have to know is that despite my bravado, I don't enjoy sacking people, it's not nice and it only happens when a place has been reached that you can't come back from.
The high note came very soon after, almost exactly a month in fact, it was my first beer festival, one that I was given the idea for but was charged with the responsibility of organising and making sure it occurred smoothly. The Welsh Beer Festival at The Rake went off pretty much without a hitch, there were of course things that we learned but the beers we had on offer, the staff enthusiasm for something we'd never attempted before and the friends I've made since then have really stayed with me all year round. It was the first big event at The Rake, really the first time I'd got to gauge just how I was doing as a bar manager, just what sort of job was I doing? well...we had the busiest week since I joined on September 1st 2008 and the feedback was fantastic, I think it helped define me as a manager, proved to myself that I could do the job. Honourable mention for this has to go to the staff involved as well, they worked their arses off to help set it up and of course I couldn't have done it without them.
The next great thing to happen in my 2009 was my best mate getting married, totally personal thing but I was so proud to watch him get hitched.
Another personal highlight was the new Star Trek film - take it as you find it but I'm a Trek fan and I loved it.
Top 5 Beer highlights in no particular order...
1) Brewdog Tokyo* - Great launch at The Rake
2) Coney Island Albino Python
3) Motley Brew (beer tastes so much better when you brew it yourself).
4) Welsh beer Festival at The Rake
5) Rogue Imperial IPA
honourable mention goes to Tom's Lambic Festival at The Rake and surprisingly(for me anyway) St Peters Grapefruit beer (on cask) this beer is great I was truly shocked.

Top 5 beer lows, again, in no particular order...
1) Brewdog getting their own beer banned
2) Nanny State (Guys if you're going to make gimmick beers even McDonalds throw in a free toy!)
3) Almost constant blame on the beer trade for all health and social problems.
4) Once a year drinkers (again), I always look back and want to ask them why they feel it necessary to act like idiots.
5) Holsten Pils - read my last blog to find out why.
dishonourable discharge would have to go to (drum roll.....) do you know what? fuck it! it's Christmas, I didn't start blogging to bitch about people.

Business-wise, The Rake, like many pubs & bars has seen a huge increase in 'cask beer' sales, for most of the year the cask sales have outstripped my Veltins sales by about 2 pints to 1. I see this as a great sign for the industry, craft brewing in Britain is exploding and Brewers like Brewdog, Otley and Harviestoun are really leading the way with their innovation and I see my customers(and myself) relishing each new brew that these guys come up with and it makes me smile.
I introduced the 3rd of a pint as standard at The Rake, it's working well and I would encourage all pubs to at least have the option available.
The second festival we had at The Rake was Toms Lambic Festival in November, as far as we know it was the first time anywhere in the UK had done something like this, for a very challenging style the festival was successful and it's something he's going to do again.
One thing I really love about my job is the opportunities we get to showcase new beers we've had a few in the 16 months I've been at The Rake here are a few that have made their London debuts at The Rake...
Brewdog Rake Raspberry Imperial Stout
Brewdog Zephyr
Brewdog Tokyo*
Otley 06
Motley Brew
Otley 11/138
Yes there's only 2 breweries there and there are other beers on the list but frankly these are two of my favourite breweries and I've worked closely with both of them to make sure that their beers are presented to the public in the correct manner.
Another highlight has been working with my friend Melissa Cole on the Lovebeer side of the business, I've known Melissa since my days at the Jolly Gardners in Putney and she's someone I have a lot of time and respect for. The Lovebeer tastings have been, for me at least, eye opening, informative and a great way of gaining new friends and meeting various brewers from around the Britain and indeed the world!
There also has to be a mention for the Brewers wall, whenever we get a professional brewer come in, even for a quick beer, if they haven't signed the wall I give them a pen and tell them to write something.

So, looking forward to 2010 what can I see ahead and hope for? Well in the first week of March we once again have a Welsh Beer Festival, expect some really special brews. I'm hoping to get to the Extreme Beer Festival in Boston in February but not sure I'm going to make it now. On a personal note my other best mate is getting married on April 17th and May 22nd is the big date for Lucille and I.
I'm hoping to do more brewing in 2010 too, it was probably the hardest days work I've ever done but it was immensely enjoyable and I really want to 'keep my eye in'.
There is of course going to be the GBBF in august and the GABF in September, I know I'll be at the British one but I really want to go to the American version in Denver too. Couple more awards might be nice too! hehe!
I can't go into too much more detail about work but suffice to say it's going to be another great year for Utobeer, The Rake & Lovebeer, watch this space!

Tactical Nuclear Penguin

So the world's latest beer is aparently the worlds strongest beer, Tactical Nuclear Penguin from the boys and girls (and pooch's) at Brewdog.
I have to say I knew a little bit about this beer before today but was sworn to secrecy. They announced the beer at the Lovebeer Tastings above The Rake on Saturday and I have to say, I'm intrigued. Having tasted the Tokyo and enjoyed it immensely I look foward to having a wee nip of this one.
What do I expect? Something very complex and smooth, perhaps with a fiery edge at the back of it, we shall see.
At £30 a bottle it does not promote binge drinking and for once the slightly edgy blurb on the bottle has been tempered slightly to include a warning which they have managed to do in their own inimitable style, saying :

This is an extremely strong beer, it should be enjoyed in small servings and with an air of aristocratic nonchalance. In exactly the same manner that you would enjoy a fine whisky, a Frank Zappa album or a visit from a friendly yet anxious ghost.

Is this a sign that Brewdog are growing up? Do we need to start putting arthritis medicine in their doggy treats? If so, I hope they can do it remaining edgy and ground breaking and if not I'll just continue watching and waiting for the next installment of the Brewdog rollercoaster.

Brewdog Week

I've been working on my day off today, promoting the Lovebeer@Borough Brewdog tastings next Saturday and Brewdog Week at The Rake afterwards.
As far as the Lovebeer tastings go the following beers will be on show...

77 Lager
5am Saint
Punk IPA
Bashah
Paradox, Isle of Arran
Zephyr
Shark Beer, special 50 bottle release Christmas beer! aged for two years
Surprise special beer, and, no I haven't even been told about this one.

The 3pm tasting is sold out, the 1pm still has some tickets left and we may have to put in an extra tasting if demand is high enough!

We're also going to be going Brewdog Casks, Kegs & Bottles at The Rake the following week although there will be less 10% stuff on cask this time.
I personally have been waiting for this since last year when we did the first Brewdog Lovebeer tastings and Brewdog week at The Rake. I have a lot of time for these guys and applaud the innovation and daring that Martin Dickie and James Watt bring to the British brewing scene.
So, if you want to come along to The Rake between the 21st and 27th November to drink some Brewdog beer, then be my guest, literally!
Hope to see you there.