Mikkeller Nugget Single Hop IPA

330ml bottle from BeerMerchants.com I bought it on a whim, it's a plain label, no hype, no bullshit, just beer, in a bottle with one hop used, how refreshing.
Very herbal aromas as you might expect from a single hopped Nugget beer, the taste is amazing, it's clean, it's refreshing. The Nugget hop is usually one used for bittering only but this beer proves it's much more versatile than that.


I now wish I had bought more whilst I had the chance. Oh well, too skint for any of that now, saving for New York in January, I'll just have to hope you logt ain't bought it all in the meantime.
By the way if any of you are feeling generous I reckon this makes a great Christmas present, hint, hint!

Zombie Nation

Ever wondered how Zombie movies became so popular? After all they essentially involve brain-dead beings, moving stupidly slowly and eating people to spread the zombie ranks. In recent years films like 28 Days Later gave us a more chilling Zombie, one that runs and screams and is generally more frightening for the film going public. Totally unbelievable in my opinion. Why? Just look around you, they're everywhere, society has been full of them for some time now, you will notice it if you look up from your iphone 4 or Crackberry for one second, take a look in the mirror, have you grown jaundiced with the lack of light you're getting? do you have a diet that consists of reconstituted crap?

Protect your outer-Zombie

Honestly, how many people a day do you almost bump into because they are looking at their iphone screen or you are? Honestly now!
I think it's quite ridiculous that we have become so dependant on these gadgets, I'm sick of having to dodge the Zombie Generation that is infecting our society.
Any chance anyone wants to actually look up at the world, see where they're going and maybe have some appreciation of the world around them.

The other hand had his iphone in it.

I saw on the news that there was a recent study by Australian police had shown that the amount of accidents in three days involving people not paying attention to the road or the pavement etc...They're calling it 'ipod oblivion' it could just and well be iphone oblivion. In road accidents in the central business district of Melbourne, 90% were caused by pedestrians!
Now I'm not saying that the British are that stupid...well, actually I am but it's not undeserved. Now I don't own an iphone or ipod, I used to have a small ipod which was mugged off me in posh Dulwich Village when I worked there but I never felt at ease using it, you see it's a control thing, I feel a lot safer if I can hear everything going on around me.

God-Zombie

I'm not only blaming technology for the 'Zombie effect' look at the amount of free magazines and papers  that are handed out around our transport hubs, papers like The Metro, The Evening Standard, City AM etc...Time was when people used to buy their papers from the local corner shop and read them on the bus or the train etc.. on the way to work, now, instead of looking where they're going they keep reading it on foot!
I could probably forgive the producers of these rags a bit more if we knew that these so-called free papers were getting recycled but how many do you see just left lying around in the street or on buses and trains.

Lets also just take into account the lack of queueing that goes on at bus shelters. Instead of the old fashioned British queue people now try and get onto the bus as soon as possible but end up moving really slowly, like old fashioned Zombies. It's quite amusing really, next time you're at the bus stop or waiting for a tube or train during the rush hour, have a look around you.


Ok, not a beery post but something I've been noticing more and more recently and I wanted to have a rant.

London Brewers Love-In

The London Brewers Alliance is doing good things, nay great things. Years ago London was the hub of British brewing, in recent years it has given way for places like Sheffield, Manchester, Scotland and Wales. Not any more! a hardy group of brewers from various London breweries have come together, united one might say, to produce a new London Porter. They have banded together as the London Brewers Alliance and started shouting about the growing brewing scene in London. They've even made a cool video.
They have put aside sizes of breweries and bank accounts to put London Brewing on the map again.

This Friday, 6pm at Brew Wharf, they are showcasing some of the best beers Britain has to offer, and it's all from London!
It's a great venue to hold such an event as Borough has some of the best pubs and bars in London to explore and enjoy craft beer in general.
Best of all, it's a Friday night and you can sleep it off on Saturday! ;-)
I hope to see you there supporting the alliance,after all, without customers, there would be no reason to do any of this so, go along, enjoy the evening and pat yourselves on the back for supporting some of the finest brews in Britain.

I am a Craft Beer Drinker

Crikey, I feel like I haven't blogged in ages, other than for The Rake! It bugs me, needles at me like an itch in the middle of your back that you can't quite reach.
I have actually started looking for inspiration rather than letting it hit me like it usually does, I'm also wondering why inspiration seems to have lost me recently, is it too much work? I doubt it, usually my work stimulates my writing and gives me inspiration. I should really be going to bed soon but I'm just wide awake, which is ironic really because I've felt exhausted and a bit run down for the last few weeks(perhaps another reason for the lack of bloggage).
I saw on facebook a new video released by the beer bloggers conference, it was inspired by Greg Koch's 'I am a Craft Brewer' called 'I am a Craft Beer Drinker' it's short, snappy and made me want to write a blog post about craft beer.
As a drinker of craft beer, this evening I have drunk three and eaten a rather nice dinner that Mrs Rabidbarfly and I cooked together.
The beers this evening were :
Thornbridge Jaipur, Goose Island IPA and Kernel Export Stout.
The Food? Not chosen for the beer but rather experimentation was Lightly fried Water Buffalo fillet with roasted potatoes and veg. Very Nice it was too. In case you were wondering I got the Water Buffalo from the Gamston Wood Farm stall in Borough Market.
A few of my friends are over at the Great American Beer Festival and I'm very jealous, so much so that I may have to unfollow them on twitter for the duration of GABF! A bit extreme but I have now been to the USA and I know how much great beer my friends and colleagues are drinking and that untouchable itch on my back has returned! I might just get my own back at Christmas when Mrs RBF and I go to New York, I'm already looking up craft beer joints over there, thanks for the suggestions so far, keep 'em coming!
Anyway, I am actually tired now so I'm going to go, was nice to get the little grey cells working again!
until next time.

Best of the South West at The Rake

This is one of Ugly Fucker'sTom's better pictures

As part of my Deputy Manager's training, he has to organise a beer festival at The Rake and since he spent a couple of years in the west country he decided that his festival should be all about the south west.
The list of beers is pretty huge, probably bigger than I would have done but he's a glass half full kinda guy and thinks he'll sell it all in a week. Good luck to him, It's going be cool and I just pray there's no morris dancing involved! That's what they do down there isn't it?

What I want to know is can Tom erect the cask racking in the shape of Stonehenge? How cool would that be?
Anyway enough of poking fun at my Deputy Manager, there is a serious ask here and it's that you all come along to his South West Beer Fest at The Rake between 31st October and 6th November. If you do you'll not only be supporting Tom who is one of the nicest blokes you'll ever meet, but craft beer from one of the most beautiful places in our green and pleasant land.
Hope to see you at The Rake!

Texel Brewery coming to The Rake

No, we didn't find them lying on the beach!

Exciting beer launch for you lovely beery folks and you're ALL invited!

Texel Brewery from the Netherlands will be showcasing their beers on draught and in bottles for your enjoyment next Wednesday, 15th September, 6pm onwards.
This is the first time that this brewery have showcased in the UK and naturally we're very excited to be doing it!

You can find out whats on here.

We hope to see you at The Rake!

Dates for your diaries!

Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut!

Ernest Hemingway.

Wise words from Hemingway. How many times have you said something when you've been stupidly pissed and woken up feeling like a complete idiot?

I have been guilty of this many many times and nowadays it's usually work based and a massive idea that gets shot down in flames, quite rightly sometimes, and sometimes it's a massive idea that is cool, fun, innovative and make's work a lot more fun than it really should be!

I've had several of these ideas recently and one in particular has started forming very quickly and very excitingly!

I'm going to let the cat out of the bag slightly and say we are planning four beer festivals(at least) in the next 12 months and the fourth will be a celebration of our 5th birthday and it's going to be HUGE!

You basically need to save the following dates in your diary....

October 31st - November 6th 2010 - South West Beer Fest.

February 27th - March 5th 2011 - 3rd annual Welsh Beer Festival

May 28th - May 30th 2011 - Summer Ales Festival

The fourth festival has two provisional dates that I'm looking at : 

DATE ONE : July 24th - July 28th 2011 OR

DATE TWO : August 7th - August 10th 2011

So those are the dates, no excuses for not being there and I can tell you one thing for sure, it's going to be fun, there I go running my mouth again!