Kommen sie bitte und listen to Kraftwerk

It is that Oktoberfest time of the year 'Lager! Lager! Lager!'
Now shouting out:
'IPA IPA IPA' with the continuing Hipster trend for the big hop profile American craft ales.
So let me get this straight from the offset, I know a bit about history, I know a little about beer and I know a tiny bit about brewing history.  I started off drinking bitter in the early nineties, was it my dad being a real ale fan? Was it me being into the alternative music scene and not wanting a beer as trendy and as vapid pop acts and boy bands? Was it I liked beer with some flavour?  So bitter was proper northerner, dark mild was proper granddad, lager was part poser part hooligan and IPA was a distant dream where American beer had flavour or proper great, great, great granddad's beer.

Just a second? Bitter must have come into being at the start of the twentieth century. Lager was being stored away in Germany from way before it made it to the UK in 1835. IPA was being sent over with the troops from 1840. However, dark mild must have been the new thing from beer pumps from about the nineteen thirties, so it was a granddad drink because our granddads were drinking it first.

There you have it, what's new is old, what's old isn't so old and I'm wanting some beer. It's Oktoberfest so I'm sampling lagers of varying price & origin and also looking at US craft style beer on a budget.

Let's start with US craft style. It's easy to hate on Hipsters, whilst musing on this social trend was working on the ideal that they were trying to ditch conformity whilst creating their own rigid set of what is acceptable, but isn't that any counter culture? What they have lost with a declining music industry they have gained with a golden era of beer brewing, however with austerity looking here at budget US craft style beverages with one top range for comparison.

Brains Craft Brewery's Black Mountain, £1.29 for a 330ml can from Lidl. The can promises a black IPA, a style that makes you ponder, where does that end and hoppy porter begin, well it isn't here. Luckily not a total wash out, just delivers more of an above average dark mild.

DE14's Fight Suit, £1.29 for a 330ml can from Morrisons. Owned by Marston's, their small brew set has made some good beers, this however is not one of them. It's aroma is of over used pencil eraser and tastes like flat unsweetened Tizer.

Bad Co Brewing's West Coast Pale, £1.29 for a 330ml can from Asda. West Coast? What like Blackpool? It's more North West Bitter, which is drinkable and better than average but it is like selling barm cakes as brioche rolls.

Crate's IPA, £1.80 for a 330ml can from Tesco. Actually a decent quality US style IPA, solid body giving a biscuit like malt base to highlight the classic grapefruit flavour.  Close, so close lets say B plus (The Session IPA pictured).

Torrside's Monster's Double Spartacus, around  £5 independent retailers. Thirteen percent abv, bottle conditioned, near perfect balance and flavour proving for genuinely authentic US craft, really, you need to buy top quality local (for hop freshness) or top quality American import.



Its also easy to be overly judgemental on lager drinkers. Drink what you enjoy even if that's big brand lager. What we have here is craft and import lagers, not all budget & not all from the UK. Do they give you more flavour than the big brand bland? Let's find out!

Bad Co Brewing's Perfect Pilsner, £1.29 for a 330ml can from Asda. Perfect, no. Drinkable, definitely. Enjoyable, slightly. However, it does bring to mind a near perfect pilsner, we'll discuss it later.

Frankfurter Brauhaus' Perlenbacher Hefeweissbier, 99p for a 500ml can from Lidl. Okay, stretching lager to include German bier so I get some variety. A decent bier for the price, I like it because there's wheat & clove but little banana. I'm with Kyle from South Park there, I hate banana.

Privatbrauerei Eichbaum's Festbier, 99p for a 500ml can from Lidl. Basically the flavour comes out like a malty strong best bitter. This I quite like it but will lager drinkers?

Fourpure's Treeline, £1.80 for a 330ml can from Tesco. An India pale lager, IPL Now regardless of top or bottom fermenting, yeasts and malts all of the India pale lagers that I've had up to now, when it comes to the actual drinking, with the higher hop profiles have been like session IPAs. I think the bigger five point nine percent abv takes us away from that. Like a lime cheesecake, not massively flavoured but not tasteless, cream, biscuit and citrus.

 

Cheshire Brewhouse's Dane'ish, £3ish, independent retailers. I'm not a big lager fan but the bottle conditioning and the quality ingredients shine through. Nice aroma with obviously malt led subtle flavours with some Saaz hops and bitterness but all very subtle and extremely refreshing and  near perfect mouthfeel. This is what I will expect from now on from lager. WOW!

So there you go, whatever the popular trend, when it comes to the actual supping, you can't beat genuine authenticity and quality ingredients.

Seven year itch satisfied by two thousand five hundred beers!

September 2011, there is a real ale fan, let's call him Bevis. He's given up smoking for a year, doesn't go to the pub often due to restraints and needs a distraction to give up the nicotine patches. Right, I can't do that awful third person anymore! I had grown dissatisfied of beer that isn't real ale and the only bottle conditioned beers, well I was fed up with Worthington White Shield, couldn't find Moorland's Hen's Tooth anymore and Guinness Original had stopped being bottle conditioned.

So I'm doing the usual shop in Tesco and have accidentally wandered into the beer aisle. I see Anchor Steam, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale & Coopers Original for the first time. I laugh, American beer, that sickly watery flavourless joke. Australia? Like Fosters? I buy a bottle of each along with Brewdog Punk and Alice Porter with the intention of proving my prejudgement of them being bland beverages with no place to call themselves ales or with Brewdog associating with the word Punk. I'm gonna mercilessly rip the piss out of them on social media too.

How wrong I was!  Anchor Steam was so much better than Newquay Steam from nearly twenty years ago. Cooper's Original Pale Ale was like a good pint of real ale from a good pub. Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale blew me away with subtle hops, solid malt base & round body.  Yes I did go onto social media but it was to sing the praises of bottled beer from a supermarket shelf. The Brewdog beers were decent enough too but the other bottles had stolen my heart.

So the journey went from there, discovering microbrewers with smaller batches, better ingredients and superior bottle conditioning. First I found from Timperley Corks Out, an independent wine shop, Wincle, a brewer that bridged from real ale to the new craft beer movement. Then the Beeradvocate website. Then the Beers Manchester blog including so many great obscure alternative music references that it grabbed me and got me involved in the Independent Salford Beerfest. That brought me in contact with the Manchester Aleman (that now runs Heaton Hops) and that the North West had more than just Marble brewpub. My locale had Cheshire Brewhouse, Rammycraft, Torrside, Beer Nouveau and Vocation beers ontap. Occasional visits to Port Street Bar hilighting cask as among the best beer.

I really have to recommend that you get to a proper bottle shop and try out one of Cheshire Brewhouse's Govinda IPAs or Torrside's Monsters (strong ales from the dark side).  Or get down to Beer Nouvea's brewtap for proper real ale from a wooden cask. It's a treat that I wholeheartedly believe makes life a little less weary.

For my number 2500 unique recorded beer, I chose Weird Beard's Hello Grisette Me You’re Looking For, a spirited refreshing beer and I wanted something from Beermoth or The Epicurean for that significant numbered beer. There may be local brewers nearer that might be a little closer to my heart but Weird Beard brews have been accessible and innovative. I also love them for their support of Salford Beer Festival.

But let's get back to the practicalities of beer from the here and now, heading back to the shelve's of Tesco. There are ramping up their craft range and offering 3 for £5.25. Fruity brews seeming to be the main thrust.
Brewdog's Quench Quake, Grapefruit and Tangerine Sour that tastes somewhere between sour jelly sweets & citrus fruit wine. Nice but 'In Bed with Madonna' nice.

Thornbridge's Fresa, brewed in collaboration with Fourpure and my first strawberry milkshake IPA. Some strawberry ice cream flavour but it's battling the grapefruit IPA. Interesting.

Innis & Gunn's Mangoes on the Run, aside from the punny name, is I&G a Macrobrewer? A limited edition, so limited it's been around for four months in a variety of can sizes. The end result is like John Smith's Smooth with a splash of cordial.

Hop Stuff's Juicy Fruit, a 440ml can brewed in collaboration with North Brewing Co. Promising, Guava & passionfruit, which is there in a real fruit juice tasting beer but the aroma, it's like a day old fried egg. I had to drink it from a shot glass to overcome the smell.

So where do we go from here, is it down to a lake of beer? I'd like to get 750 unique breweries, cover every available style of beer. Five thousand different beers? I don't know but it goes on, so, never mind the cheering, get the fucking beer in!

Beer Sitrep, a small supermarket selection

So another week has slip passed us, with myself unsurprisingly having drank some beers and ales that I had previously not tried, mainly due to my better half Julie's run to Asda with a reminder of their four for £6 offer.
So leaving Asda's 'Something Special Range', presumably brewed by Mr. Tumble, I instructed her to grab four 330ml offerings from mid sized brewers wares.

Boss Brewing's Boss Blonde, refreshing, easy drinking, subtly flavoured and okay. 
The only real detractor is that you could get four cans of Boss Brewing Boss Boss, a US Double IPA, for the six quid deal. Which is a lot of candy grapefruit tasting fun and almost a massive ten alcohol units!

Brewgooder's Clean Water Lager, it may cut down your carbon footprint but it's not going to kick you in the gob with flavour, tastes like beer made from cornflakes, organic cornflakes though.

Brooklyn Brewery's Naranjito, enough orange to be citrusy but not so much to put off someone that isn't a massive fan of orange, after all it's not the only fruit. The above average quality you expect from this brewer.
Bad Co. Brewing's Boston Tea Party, a green tea IPA with a big 5.8% with flavours of a good US IPA with decent green tea dumped in it. Nothing wrong with either but the sum of its parts are greater then the overall combined effect leaving an okay brew.




Six of your pounds sterling will also purchase from Tesco, two slightly larger 440ml cans of
Vocation Brewery's Breakfast club, an ale that not only have I described as the UK's first full on supermarket craft 'craft' beer (ie a genuinely unusual style- waffle and blueberry breakfast stout)
but gives such a breakfast waffle flavour that you will be trying to wipe icing sugar off your lips after the first mouthful. The fruit also conveys well, only thing is, especially with the bigger than its shelf mates price tag, feels thin and it's 6.9% feels a bit under powered too.

So those Asda beers work out at £1.50 each but at Aldi £1.29 will get you a five hundred mil bottle of seasonal special ale.

Bootleg Brewing Co.'s Urban Fox, a rye beer from a brewery that I've tried not to comment too much on as I've only sampled poorly kept cask from them. Here we have a decent enough bitter with distinctive rye edge.
Wadworth's Treacle Treat, a beer that is presumably Aldi's Halloween seasonal that with it containing treacle will cover Guy Fawkes. The end result is so close to a good cask mild I’m actually quite impressed so much it has spooked away any of my regret of no Dunkel Fester as a Halloween special beer.

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All that has left me with 2497 different beers tried over seven years. so the next time we talk, I should hopefully have gone over that milestone two thousand five hundred threshold and I shall be addressing you as an entry level ale connoisseur, I thank you very much.

Budget Supermarket craft beer special

Lidl & Aldi claim to offer craft beer for as little as 99p!
What I've found is Aldi has the best individual beer but
Lidl has the overall better range providing a line that...
Let's say Real Ale is Coca Cola & Craft is Regular Pepsi,
is as good as Pepsi Max but with a Rola Cola price.
It's quite good, it may take a moment to discern but if you know your beverages you can taste the difference and you are not going to turn your back on locally made, small batch, bottle conditioned, genuinely artisan ale if that's your poison.
No stout, is the big G to big too challenge or is it too costly to sell for so little? Though both stores have Porters in their ranges that are among the more enjoyable offerings.

Both supermarkets have a similar set up 330ml 'craft' bottles & cans at 99p
& more traditional 500ml bottled ales at around £1.20 & with those bigger bottles being generally better at Lidl helping them gain a better overall collection of beers.
The beers are obviously brewed by other (not necessarily genuine craft) brewers.
Aldi subbing Marston's, Robinson's & Saddler's
Lidl have Wychwood, Hogs Back but are presumably redeemed by Stewart.

So let's start with:

Aldi

500ml bottle

 Medusa, named after the mythical creature say, like a sprite fairy or hobgoblin *winking* now, let's say that there was a 'legendary' ruby ale this would have some of it's flavour but would be let down by a lack of body.
Wild Bill's IPA, is this steamPUNK or a DOG eared BREW hmmmm...big citra aroma, there's lime  sherbert and caramel, more a UK IPA flavour though. It's pedestrian but it's still walking,
North Bridge Brown Ale, there's no point winking or dropping hints this is broon dog, neither is brewed in Newcastle, both are in clear glass bottles, this will give you more of the ale you remember.
Golden Crown, it's brewed by Marston's to probably emulate their own original Pedigree, there might be a decent pale in there somewhere but the clear glass bottle has left the beer more skunked than a sleeping cat that's been dry humped by Pepe le Pew.
Amber Stone, now wasn't Bass pale ale one of the first patents? Never mind! The flavour is a brown sugary mess with a light damaged finish.  Has this even been fermented?  More importantly has it been discontinued?

330ml bottles 

Citrus Wave Lager, it has some flavour, like battery acid lemonade, you know, effervescent vitamin C, not terrible by any means & much better than the All 4 One Lager that was in the range but now I think has gone like...
Red Rye IPA, I'm not sure if this is still going out to stores, shame because with its red liquorice flavour and full body it was a tasty little brew however, it could have been reduced in quality like....
Land of Liberty IPA, which was an entry level US IPA that has all life drained out of it, I first tried it two years ago it was okay, a year ago I grabbed a bottle which was slightly sub par & a bottle a couple of weeks ago was just bland.
Spill the Beans, a coffee Porter that has a good flavour equivalent to top quality instant that my only criticism was a tiny bit too thin & of sufficient worth that despite having its quality slightly reduced is still a good ale and

 wins my approval of best beer from Aldi & Lidl.

Sunny Dayz, a golden beer which excels in it's dullness & mediocrity, an achievement considering the number of dull golden ales.
Bee's Kneez, naff honey beer that comes across more of an average supermarket bitter.

Lidl

500ml bottles

Ruby Rooster, a smooth slightly fruity bitter that isn't going to set the world on fire but might calm a cough from barbecue smoke.
Green Gecko IPA, has some noticeable citra hops & if it wasn't for New World Pedigree would be the best IPA Marston's brew.
Golden Goose, soapy & bitter, a competent beer that's worth a try.
Amber Adder, again, a better than average bitter & higher quality than most of Marston's own labels.
Gnarly Fox, oh dear, this would convince most people to ban hunting, look how this poor fox lager has been gnarled, bad, even for a supermarket label lager.
Winter Warmer, no, no, no on all counts you can't do a winter warmer on a budget, it should be thick, sweet, maybe spiced but at the very least six percent. This is five percent, thin & tastes of Pimms. No.
Purple Panther, once again one of the top beers is a dark one, here there is cola, liquorice and a little cocoa.

330ml cans & bottles

Bitter Iron IPA(can), a UK IPA that just doesn't hit the spot, don't just don't.
Hop Hunter Session IPA(bottle), hoppy, not too light and with some malt backbone (which a lot of sesh IPAs lack) definitely worth a try.
Shipwreck Lager(bottle), like a lot of these craft lagers, especially the supermarket ones, tastes like Grolsch and lime, not terrible I guess.
Plunged Orange(can) like a beer mixed with Swizzels orange fizzy powders, fun I suppose (yes I can do fun).
Twisted Knots American IPA (can), a decent large scale brew of Yank IPA better than any other macro (Hobgoblin/Marston's/Theakston) on a supermarket shelf,
Red Rye Captain (bottle) again, rye is providing the runner up to the best beer in a budget supermarket, with the Aldi one not available it might be worth popping to Lidl to try this slightly sweet, slightly barley flavoured bargain beer.

So, lets's talk brass tacks.
This week about £7 got me from Lidl the above six 330ml beers and a 500ml of genuine German Patronus Hefeweizen wheat beer (that was okay) and a few pence more got me a 330ml Northern Whisper's Rumour Monger Dunkelweizen & 330ml of De Dolle Brouwer's Special Extra Export Stout, both with almost as much flavour as all seven of the Lidl & just such a far superior body/mouthfeel.

Now I'm neither at the command of a large disposable income nor a snob but if you were to offer to bring to me either of those purchases, I'd go for the smaller amount of genuine craft.
Now with the Dolle Extra being nine percent there probably isnae much difference in the levels of intoxication from both sets of beer.
With the bigger productions, demographics, sales and profit margins you aren't going to get budget supermarket Saisons and more obscure styles, so it's not as an enthralling adventure into the world of beer, but hey, you've got to manage those expectations.
Also I'm going to be scaling back the new brews & won't be ticking as much.
So perhaps being able to pick up a half decent ale for a quid on my way home isn't bad.
I've got a feeling I'll be keeping the continuing quality of these Lidl brews under tabs.