52 Week Drink Along - Summer Schedule

Here's the Drink Along schedule for the summer 52 Weeks beer case. If you're wondering what the hell a Drink Along is, check this out.

Friday 08th July - Bitterend Brewery Lakeland IPA
Friday 15th July - Meantime Brewery Wheat
Friday 22nd July - Lymestone Brewery Foundation Stone
Friday 29th July - Darkstar Brewery Sunburst

Friday 05th August - Hawkshead Brewery Red
Friday 12th August - Hewitt's Brewery Unhung Hero
Friday 19th August - Ossett Brewery Yorkshire Blonde
Friday 26th August - Ilkley Brewery Mary Jane

Friday 02nd September - Williams Brothers Seven Giraffes
Friday 09th September - Moorhouse's Brewery Blond Witch
Friday 16th September - Oakham Ales Inferno
Friday 23rd September - Cotleigh Brewery Barn Owl
Friday 30th September - York Brewery York Minster Ale

52 Week Drink Along

I love to share good beer with other people. Cracking open that beer you’ve been saving is one thing if you’re drinking it alone, but if you’re sharing it around with two or three other people, it’s always more fun. Share it around and pull it apart. What can you taste in the glass, what can the person next to you taste? What food would you drink it with? What would they drink it with? It’s a great way to take the drinking experience beyond the actual drinking, and it’s a great way to expand your vocabulary for taste. They’ll be times when a flavour is on the tip of your tongue, but you just can’t put your finger on what it is, then suddenly your mate says “coffee grounds” and all you can do is face-palm with how obvious it is! Every time you then taste that flavour, you’ll instantly be able to describe it.

If you’re a member of the MyBreweryTap 52 Week Beer Club, then I’m willing to bet that you’re a lover of good beer. And, as a lover of good beer, I’m also willing to bet that you’re interested in expanding your appreciation for beer, for learning more about it and for becoming better at appraising beer flavour. At the heart of all that is a simple question: “do I like it or not?”, but beyond that is an appreciation for brewing technique, for beer style and history, for a whole new vocabulary of flavour descriptors and for beer ingredients and the roles they play in what you taste in your glass.

Many of us find it hard to regularly get together with friends and drink beer; geography gets in the way, work and family commitments have to take priority or maybe you’re just someone whose friends are all content with drinking cans of any-old-lager. Well, the 52 Weeks Beer Club gives us a chance to avoid all those problems. How about a drink along where each week we take one of those 52 beers and we all drink it at the same time? We then use the MyBreweryTapBlog as a place to discuss the beer, what we taste in it, what we like and dislike about it, what food we’d like to eat with it and so on. It’s your chance to share a beer with a houseful of like-minded people, without ever having to open your front door! Sound cool?

Let’s start with the summer case. If you’re already part of the club then you’ll be receiving yours through the post very soon - hold on to those bottles (or at least make some notes so you can join in when we get to those that you can’t help but drink)! If you haven’t signed up but would like to, don’t worry it’s not too late, have a look here. The summer case runs from July through to the end of September, so I’ll post a running list of bottles by week at the end of June and then the first bottle post will happen in the first week of July. My post will have some thoughts and opinions on the chosen bottle, and then it’s over to you guys to tell me how wrong you all think I am in the blog comments section.

If you’ve got any ideas or comments in the meantime, post them below or drop me an email at beerbirrabier at gmail dot com.

Cheers,
Mark

Allow Me To Introduce ... Me!

Starting up a brewery takes time and dedication you know. Time enough that you aren’t really left with a chance to write blog posts anymore. And so, with a face-full of malt dust and hands covered in hop resin, @magicRockRich hangs up his keyboard and his mouse and draws a line under his blogging days. Well, for the time being at least …

Which I guess means I should introduce myself. Most likely you don’t know me at all, but if you do, it’s probably through such blog posts as “Beer Festival. This Time It’s Personal”, “Colin Valentine on Beer Bloggers” or “Dry Hopping Bottled Macro Lager”. My name is Mark and I often go by the alias beerbirrabier; I write a blog at beerbirrabier.com and I tweet about stuff here. With Rich dedicated to making great beer at Magic Rock, I’ve been given the opportunity to write content for the MyBreweryTap blog - and it all starts with this post here.

My aim is to carry on the great job that Rich was doing, and I’ve got some cool ideas for posts over the next few months. We’ll start with a “Drink Along” idea that I’ve got for members of the 52 Week Beer Club (more details on that in the next entry) and we’ll build on things from there. There’s no reason why we can’t build a real community of MyBreweryTap customers, of beer lovers, taking your interaction with MyBreweryTap beyond the checkout, all the way up to the beer in your glass.

By way of a disclaimer, I’d like to say from the outset that I’m writing blog content here for free. I’m doing it because I think it’ll be fun, I think it’ll improve and further my appreciation for beer and because I genuinely am a fan of MyBreweryTap. Lack of payment also means that I have no ulterior motives or any obligation to say that I think something’s great if I actually think it’s a bit crap. What you’ll read on this blog is my honest opinion and the opinion of me alone; but that being said, I think this should be a blog for anyone that buys good beer from MyBreweryTap, so please get in touch with me (beerbirrabier at gmail dot com) with any comments, ideas or views.

So let’s do this then! Let’s talk beer.

Mark.

Guest Blog #11 - Danny Gazzi on Spring 52wbc

10. Oakham Ales, Citra

I’d been looking forward to this one, because Oakham’s JHB had been my favourite beer in the 52WBC so far. On the label, Oakham claim to have been the first in the UK to use Citra hops, way back in 2009.

It pours light golden, with little head but some lacing down the sides of the glass. Good, fruity aroma. At first sip it has a lemony aftertaste. Very smooth and well-balanced with a refreshing bitterness.

The glass was empty before I could finish making mental notes – always a sign that I enjoyed it. 4.5/5.

I must try the rest of their range. It’s a pity that more of them aren’t available as a Pick & Mix.

11.Stroud Brewery, Budding Organic Pale Ale

Pours light brown with a small white head. Pleasant, fruity aroma.

It starts off quite sweet, but then becomes more well-balanced. I’d call it pleasant and inoffensive. 3/5.

And now on to the two bottle conditioned beers in the case. Normally I would keep BC beers in the cellar longer than this before drinking them, up to their best before date, or even beyond, as I think that they develop more flavour with time. In fact I haven’t yet touched most of the BC beers from my three previous 52WBC cases. However, I realise that many of you are logging on daily, anxious to read my latest review, so I can’t keep you in suspense any longer.

12. Breconshire Brewery, Rescue Brew

Pours mid brown. I poured it very carefully, so as not to disturb the sediment and get a clear beer; perhaps too carefully, as it’s now got no head. The bottle has broad shoulders to help retain the sediment. An appetizing, yeasty aroma that couldn’t be mistaken for a pasteurised beer.

With the first taste, bitterness grasps your tongue. Then a maltiness follows, and these seem to alternate in grabbing your attention. Very enjoyable.

I always used to leave the sediment in BC beers, but the Belgians usually drink theirs “for the vitamins”. Now I usually pour even British sediment into the glass after I’ve drunk most of it. It doesn’t taste any better than the clear beer, but it’s not bad, and waste not, want not. 4.5/5.

The Breconshire brewery was put up for sale earlier this year. Whatever its fate, I hope that they keep up the quality of beers like this.

13. Three Castles Brewery, Longbarrow

Pours dark brown with some brownish head. A yeasty and fruity aroma. It tastes richer than I was expecting, and stronger than its 4.5%. There’s also quite a strong spice in there that I can’t place (possibly nutmeg?), but not unpleasant.

So, a brown ale rather than a bitter. 4/5.

That’s the end of my reviews of this case. Thanks again to Richard for providing it and for running the 52WBC. It’s all down to opinions, and if you enjoy a particular beer, don’t worry what anyone else says. If you look at http://www.theormskirkbaron.com/ you’ll see that he and I have some very different opinions about this case. In fact, the only one that we appear to really agree about is the Oakham Citra, which was my particular favourite from this case.

A big thanks to Danny for his excellent reviews... If you'd like to guest blog one of our 52wbc mixed cases in future please get in touch: richard@mybrewerytap.com

You can sign up to the 52 Week Beer Club here, we still have a number of mixed cases of the same selection available here.

Guest Blog #10 - Danny Gazzi on Spring 52wbc

Here’s Part 2 of Danny Gazzi's review of the spring 52WBC case.

5. Fynes Ales, Jarl

Jarl arrives with a very high reputation.

It pours very pale gold, practically a lager colour, with a large, white head. Pleasant, hoppy aroma. A clean, bitter taste, it’s very similar to the Stringers in Part 1. Apart from the colour, I’m not sure I could tell them apart. On paper, they’re very different though, the Stringers being a 5.5% IPA made with Amarillo hops, and this being 3.8% and described as a golden/blond ale made with Citra. Baron Orm says he can taste loads of marmalade in the Stringers, which I couldn’t. I haven’t retried that one yet, but I did drink my second bottle of Jarl to see if I could detect the claimed “full-on citrus experience”, but I still failed to do so. Maybe my taste buds aren’t up to this beer reviewing. Nobody tell Richard, please. 4/5

6. York Brewery, Centurions Ghost Ale

This was the only beer I’d had before, but on draught. I remember it as being quite rich and malty, and good.

It pours very dark indeed, with little head. A malty aroma, with some roasted barley.

The taste is similar, with also a hint of liquorice.

I feel that strong, dark beers usually do better in bottle than others, and this is no exception. Tasty and enjoyable. It could do with a touch more bitterness to stop it becoming a bit cloying. 3.5/5

7. Brentwood Brewery, Gold

Pours golden brown, with a small head which soon vanishes.

A sweetish, fruity aroma. Tastes of boiled sweets (acetates?).

Golden ales aren’t my favourite beer style, as they usually have less flavour than a bitter or an IPA, but this one isn’t my thing at all. The brewer’s notes describe it as “heavily hopped with fruity Cascade hops which come through at the end to provide a great finish”. Whoever wrote that must have a very sweet tooth.

Another organic beer that disappoints. 1.5/5

8. Tring Brewery, Side Pocket For A Toad

Pours mid brown, with a small head which soon vanishes. My wife, Maggie, informs me that the presence of protein would be one cause of a larger head and longer head retention. I have noticed that beers with a bigger head are normally higher quality, and perhaps more protein is the reason.

A floral/malty aroma, and the taste is quite similar. It’s well-balanced, although I can detect that bottle, pasteurised taste coming through with the bitter finish.

According to the list of ingredients it contains wheat as well as barley. 2.5/5

9. Bays Brewery, Gold

I chose this to drink next because I’ve just come back from a few days in the West Country, and it’s from Torbay.

Pours pale gold with practically no head. As I mentioned above, I’m beginning to see this as a bad sign. A faint, slightly fruity aroma, and a neutral taste. Few golden ales excite me, and this is no exception. 2/5

Thanks again to Danny for more honest unbiased reviews, more to follow... If you'd like to guest blog one of our 52wbc mixed cases in future please get in touch: richard@mybrewerytap.com

You can sign up to the 52 Week Beer Club here, we still have a number of mixed cases of the same selection available here.

Pick and Mix Functionality Now Live!

Its taken a little while longer than we would have liked but we're happy to announce some important functionality additions to myBrewerytap.com.

Firstly we're pleased to announce that individual Pick and Mix functionality is now live on the site. You can now select up to 16 individual bottles per case from the beers we hold in physical stock.

The pick and mix section of the site contains many rarer UK beers and imports from the US craft brewing scene which we enjoy sourcing and drinking ourselves, have a look here to see if there are any beers you've been wanting to get hold off. The section will expand and be ever changing as exciting new beers become available to us so please keep checking back to see what stock we have in.

Secondly we are now able to offer Multi-Case Shipping Discount on orders of more than one case from the same brewery (or Pick and Mix). Our standard shipping rate is £5.99 per case, but subsequent cases will now be charged at the lower rate of £3.20 per case.

Lastly we are now able to offer International Shipping to the EU countries listed below.

Channel Islands / Scilly Isles, Southern Ireland
Belgium, Luxembourg & Netherlands
Denmark, France, Germany & Monaco
Corsica
Italy
Spain
Greece & Portugal
Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden & Switzerland
Estonia, Latvia, Malta, Romania & Turkey
Bulgaria, Canary Islands & Gibraltar

A full list of areas and rates is displayed here.

Unfortunately due to different US State legislation we are still unable to post to the US for the time being. We are however investigating the possibility of adding more international destinations including the US to the site in future.

We hope you'll agree that these changes are a welcome addition to the functionality of the site, we're constantly looking for ways to improve the shopping experience for customers and are always happy to receive feedback. If you have any comments good or bad, please let us know: sales@myBrewerytap.com

Keep up to date with all our latest news via Twitter and Facebook .

US 52 Week Beer Club Final (4th) Quarter

The selection for the Final Quarter of our US 52 week beer club is now finalised. As with the last release we've decided to bring the shipping date forward, once again partly due to the beers available to us but also as we are keen to start planning and sourcing the beers for next years US 52wbc.

The final case once again contains some excellent US beers, as well as some great seasonal brews from well known US breweries there are two great beers from Great Divide Brewing from Denver, Colorado. We've also been able to include two big bad US barley wines in Flying Dog's "Horn Dog" and Sierra Nevada's revered "BigFoot".

We hope you have been happy with the quality and range of beers we have included in our first ever US52wbc and and very much hope you will renew your subscription for 2011/2012.

As before it will be a fixed subscription club, which due to demand we've increased to a cap of 100 members. Please be aware that we intend to re-visit a few of the classic US beers you have received in your first subscription (such as Goose Island IPA) as we feel these are too good to leave out for any new members.

We expect to be opening subscriptions to the club in May/June time but keep checking our Twitter and Facebook pages for official news on the launch of next years club.

The fourth quarter tasting notes are below, the beers will ship next week after the bank holiday.