Friday 29 April 2011

Badger Brewery's Firkin Fox

4.3% ABV

We have been in Dorset for the last week, it has been a lovely break. Not much to do apart from seeing places, long walks and gorgeous pub lunches.

The Fox is the newest seasonal beer from Hall & Woodhouse, a foxy auburn beer with a fluffy foamy head which lasts to the bottom of the glass. Well named, as it does remind me of Mr Tod from Beatrix Potter books in beer form although it would have been more perfect if the pub had been serving bunny pie as well.

It is has a biscuityness to balance the bitter flavour and goes well with food. Lovely smooth drinking pint and I hope to see more of it should it make it to London.

Thursday 14 April 2011

London Marathon

It's nearly here, this Sunday is the Virgin London Marathon.

Hopefully it will be nice weather but not the boiling temperatures that last Sunday's Brighton Marathon had. It is a great race to cheer folks on and watch the bizarre and unusual costumes that some mad people are running in.

Like last year Fullers' London Pride is supporting the VLM and will have places along the route for folks to try a sample of this stunning beer. Click here for details:

http://www.fullers.co.uk/rte.asp?id=151

If you are running then Good Luck and I hope you have a great experience on the day, all your training will now pay off especially when you pass the finish line and get that prized finishers medal.

In a related note you can buy the London Pride running vests from Foska.com or in my case I have brought the ESB one for my running. I'm going to imagine in my head that one day I will be running this great race!

Friday 8 April 2011

Royal Wedding Beers

Brewer’s love a wedding as much as the rest of us and so with the upcoming nuptials they have been busy bees in the brewery. Surprisingly given some of the weird and dodgy names that brewers come up with so far the ones I have found advertised on the internet have been quite tasteful and refined, so far so good! Here are a the few I have found;

Windsor & Eton Brewery’s Windsor Knot 4%
Adnam’s Royal Wedding Ale 4.1%
McMullen Brewery’s Royal Celebration Ale 4%
Wadworth Brewery’s Better Half 4%
Castle Rock Brewery’s Kiss Me Kate 5%
Wold Top Brewery’s I Will 4.8%
Same name as Chiltern Brewery’s I Will 3.6% although Chiltern’s beer will be in numbered bottles.

I hope to see if I can try a couple of these although I will be travelling that day so I doubt I will see the wedding it’s self unless the train happens to develop TVs and license.

Some folks have mocked the breweries for producing these beers saying that people won’t want to celebrate with beer, personally I would rather have a beer at a outdoor celebration than wine which is normally served too warm and it’s too much. Whereas beer is more easily drinkable.

Any others people would like to mention or any thoughts on have wedding beers in this day and age?

Thursday 7 April 2011

Grrr

For some reason Blogger won't let me put in paragraphs and lumps them together. My last post is a tad difficult to read because of this. Sorry.

Wednesday 6 April 2011

Beer & Running Folks

Surprisingly I have kept on running since last year and it has been a great way to get to know the youth in my area, if by know we mean having abuse yelled at you and the highly amusing 'Run Fatty' which they seem to enjoy yelling to any female out for a run. Still it is easy to ignore the buggers especially as any attempt for them to run means they are bend double hacking a lung out after two minutes. I have no excuse not to run as I have paid my hard earned money for a place in a half marathon, I will be up to the running of 13.1 miles by October by hook or crook!


One thing I have realised is by and large runners are a friendly bunch who are more than happy to smile or give a thumbs up as you pass on the pavement but like the world of beer you get ones who don't. Mainly as I shockingly discovered overhearing a conversation between two blokes at the bus stop because they view those who don't spend their weeks clocking up miles you would expect a rep in a car then you aren't a runner. If you walk for a couple of minutes in a long run then some get get snotty about you labelling yourself a runner as well. You get folks like this at beer festivals as well, if you don't go miles for a pint of the rare beer or etc. You get my point, there are folks who have funny ideas about almost anything.


For me running has allowed me to so far get beyond thirty minutes of running without collapsing on the floor screaming and to enjoy the first sip of a pint after a race with a smug glow of achievement. Not bad for someone who as a child would find any excuse to avoid PE at school!