Are awesome, amazing choice of beers out there now, pressure drop bosko and beavertown gamma ray are my current favs, happy days for brewers and drinkers 🙂

Thankfully they’re also making it to Madrid 🙂

Yup the “trend” for “craft’ish” Brewers has been here for about 6 years or so, so not a new thing.
We do have a lot more single Brewers though, sticking to one or two beers only and supplying one or two pubs only. Once you find them it’s nice to seek them out but they’re only producing a couple of barrels each time then move onto a different brew, once it’s gone it’s gone.

Danger is of course that “craft’ish” Brewers will be encouraged to produce more and more then become a small conglomorate and turn into trashy output and saturate the market then sell out to a major Lager producer off the A52 at Burton on Trent and it’ll all turn to syrup.

However choice is a good thing, if they stick to the model of only producing a few barrels and selling to select few I’ll be a much happier Bouy cos’ it’s good seeking them out.

Current trend is for Brewers over here (East – Shorditch & Hoxton, North East and North London – Islington/Angel way)

Meantimes good in Greenwich but it’s stuck to producing too many variations and it’s saturated the market.

Glad you’ve found them.

Indeed, have been around in the shops for sometime but only the last couple of years really where they seem to be well distributed within the pub network. It is very refreshing to be able to walk into a pub and have a good choice of tasty lager style beers rather than the generic Fosters, Carling, Stella crap.

beavertown gamma ray

Beavertown Black Betty is fantastic too. You might not be particularly keen on the style, but it’s one of the best examples of a black IPA i’ve come across.

Yes of course, craft beer is nowt new, I was really referring to the new-ish breweries: Pressure Drop, 5 Point, Brew by Numbers, Partizan, Cronx etc, good to see.

It’s just like real ale but with trendier graphic design and higher prices. 😉

Of course in Yorkshire good beer never went away…

Real ale for Londoners as far as I could see when I was down there with work last, served up in sparsely furnished railway arches by 30-somethings with skinny jeans and thick black rimmed specs.

That said, it was better than the bar next to the hotel which served up continental filth for £8 a glass.

It’s just like real ale but with trendier graphic design and higher prices.

And, perhaps most importantly, a better class of beard.

grum – Member
It’s just like real ale but with trendier graphic design and higher prices.

Actually quite a few trendy beers are keg. Some are pretty good.

There is also a huge number of small brewers up and down the country producing some superb real cask ales who probably wouldn’t thank you for calling them craft or boutique. We really are spoiled for choice these days.

Kernel brewery.
That’s all you need.

Kernel brewery.
That’s all you need.

+1

Really, really impressive. Can’t remember the last time I worked my way through all the beers a brewery produces and thought so highly of all of them.

What’s even more impressive is how he does it. Many breweries spend years developing their own unique yeast strains. He uses Safale US05, a dry yeast which pretty much any home brewer can use. I also like how he just takes whatever hops he can get his hands on and brew with them, constantly producing the same quality.

Sadly for those of us who have always enjoyed beer this means that the prices will just go up further due to it being popular with the hipsters.

What wheat beers should I be looking out for?

I disagree bigyinn.

Hipsters will continue to buy their beer from overpriced places so that they can feel special, so the prices of beer from everywhere else is unlikely to be affected.

In addition, the fact that “craft” beer is appealing to a wider audience means that it’s being picked up be larger retailers who are now offering it for a lower price. go into Tesco and look at the offering compared to even just 10 years ago. It’s brilliant and MUCH cheaper than you’d pay in a **** bar somewhere in shoreditch.

I’ve drank ale all my adult life (never liked lager), but the choices available to average joe in the 90’s and early 2000’s were much much more limited than they are now.

True peterfile. I’m not against ‘craft’ beer by any means – just find it funny how trendy it is currently.

I do like a nice American-style hoppy pale ale or IPA.

Still, Timmy Taylor’s has been making fine Pale Ale for quite some time.

aye grum, I have this conversation with my friends all the time, who mocked me for years for drinking “old man beer”, yet now it’s become a bit more trendy they’re all drinking it and telling me how good it is! As if it’s somehow a new type of beer! 🙂

As much as it frustrates me, i’m excited at how big a market it is appealing to these days. It can only mean more good quality beer will be produced! I doubt we’d ever have had many of the new, quality breweries opening if there hadn’t been such a resurgence of quality beer being bought by people who would have generally avoided it in the past.

I do like a nice American-style hoppy pale ale or IPA.

Me too, Adnams are now importing Lagunitas IPA. Racer 5 and Rogue Brutal IPA is worth tracking down too. Still can’t beat a good old pint of best from Harvey’s of Lewes.

I went into Aldi (or maybe Lidl) on holiday in a desperate attempt to get some proper beers instead of the Budvar the in-laws had brought with them. Ended up getting some own-brand stuff for 99p a bottle which was labelled up as craft beer and to be fair, it was very, very good.

+1

Really, really impressive. Can’t remember the last time I worked my way through all the beers a brewery produces and thought so highly of all of them.

and the great thing about kernel is you will never try all of them as they change the range constantly and even the always present beers change slightly in alcohol content and taste with each batch. i really like their low ABV table beers, had a really nice saison matured in burgundy cask with a little london sour added at the weekend, think it was 2.9% but way more flavour than a vest n tat fighting lager

its not just ‘real ale for hipsters’ either, real beer has always been available you just have to go to the right pubs/shop it’s just the new wave dont just focus on ‘brown beer’ with citrusy southern hemisphere hops IPA’s and continental style bocks/saison etc.

after years of brewery consolidation and pubs closing the trend is reversing. i dont care if it’s £5 a pint or £3 a bottle if it tastes divine.

The provinces have real ale too, nice to see the Londoners catching up

Bermondsey’s ‘beer mile’ is 5 minutes from my flat and if I have to be in the city for a weekend, I usually end up there. Kernel are good across the board and I like Partizan’s saisons (their labels are the best too). That said, I’ve yet to have a London craft beer that matches the best of the American-style pale ales from Australia and the US, to my taste. Maybe they just taste better in the sun.

The provinces have real ale too, nice to see the Londoners catching up

the whole of the country has great beer and shite mass produced gassy liquid in equal measure, its not a question of ‘catching up’, regional bias or point scoring.

for me a great beer pub will have beer from all over the country and of various styles, just like the ones in London i have gone to for the last 20 years, much to my surprise when forced to leave the golden paved streets of the capital i have managed to find similar hostelries in the provinces purveying ales of similar quality 🙄

DaveyBoyWonder – Member
Real ale for Londoners as far as I could see when I was down there with work last, served up in sparsely furnished railway arches by 30-somethings with skinny jeans and thick black rimmed specs.

This is the case, welcome to London 😆

lemonysam – Member

It’s just like real ale but with trendier graphic design and higher prices.

And, perhaps most importantly, a better class of beard.

This too, however none beardies can take a quaff or two, too. Don’t let beardies stop your enjoyment 😆

bigyinn – Member
Sadly for those of us who have always enjoyed beer this means that the prices will just go up further due to it being popular with the hipsters.

This is true to some extent, but we’ve been supplimenting cost constraints for you lot in the regions haven’t we now 😉

rOcKeTdOg – Member
The provinces have real ale too, nice to see the Londoners catching up

😆

Indeed, Hampshire has some most excellent brewers yet I’d not like to see them sell any of thier beers in Town, I want to keep them all to myself and those that visit Hampshire, I guess you’d be of similar thought, no?

Be fair, beer in London has been the punch line to jokes for years. It’s nice to see the deep south types getting some drinkable stuff – just don’t go making shandy with it boys.

oh my sides ache! 🙄

I’ve never had a ‘craft’ beer I liked, they usually taste stale and old, or just have loads of hops chucked in for the hell of it, but don’t actually taste nice.

At least with Fosters or Carling you EXPECT it to be shite, but don’t get charged 3 quid for a half.

Tried a black IPA the other day and it was foul. Maybe not foul, but wrong. There’s a reason why Guiness haven’t started brewing Guiness Original with a ton of American hops in it. Coz it’ll turn out even shiter than it already is.

I’ve never had a ‘craft’ beer I liked, they usually taste stale and old,

Interestingly, they are sometimes the only beers you get to drink when they are truly fresh.

What sort of beers do you like botany? Might be able to suggest some which are similar. Going from drinking something like John Smiths to a huge american IPA will never end well! 🙂

Tried a black IPA the other day and it was foul.

black IPAs are indeed a weird one. I like them, mainly because I love dark beers anyway and I love hoppy IPAs. Odd at first but quite enjoyable for me!

Yes Bikebuoy, Bowman brewery just up the hill from me 😉

Yep great beer all over UK, some dreadful stuff too, it’s a shame some beer festivals are cask only, some of the keg beers are leading the way in my view.

Fresh doesn’t necessarily mean good though. There never seems to be any quality to the beers I’ve tried, no subtlety, no depth.

I run my own brewery, and haven’t had a pint of John Smiths for 20 odd years!

That’s interesting, I’d have thought that running a brewery would have made you appreciate a much wider range of styles than most.

When you say you’ve never drank a craft beer that you liked, can you recall any of the ones you’ve tried? I’d definitely recommend seeking out the likes of Kernel and working your way through its range. Not a bad beer in there and definitely couldn’t be classed as stale and old (IMO obviously).

I run my own brewery, and haven’t had a pint of John Smiths for 20 odd years!

Really? You sound a bit bitter 😉

Go on then, let’s check out your brew.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I love all styles of beers, from Russian Imperial Stouts, to IPA’s, milds, anything.

It’s just that most craft beers seem like souped up mass produced beers, all mouth and no trousers if you know what I mean.

Each to their own though! I’ll try those Kernal ones you’ve mentioned, cheers.

If you like beer, you’ll no doubt have enjoyed one of my award winning brews, rewski, but unlike certain people on here, I don’t use Internet forums to promote business. 8)

Oh look, they’ve let the chippy northerners have access to the interwebz again. 😐

The big thing here is that there’s great beer being brewed everywhere. Call it “craft” if you like, but the thing to really focus on is that we’re now pretty much at pre-WWII numbers of breweries. For the most part, they’re turning out interesting, local beer. That’s how it should be!

It’s just that most craft beers seem like souped up mass produced beers, all mouth and no trousers if you know what I mean.

I do know what you mean. Sorry, I read your original post as meaning you preferred to drink carling etc even though it was bad and you just hated craft beer styles generally.

There are quite a few breweries that are churning out average beers with nice labels and calling it craft beer in an attempt to get a piece of the action. If you want a great example and some shocking reading…check out Brewmeister. People genuinely thought they were some sort of marketing stunt/parody!

Yep great beer all over UK, some dreadful stuff too, it’s a shame some beer festivals are cask only, some of the keg beers are leading the way in my view.

I always enjoy a beer festival. The last one I attended I approached the beers in a much more critical fashion though, since I’ve been brewing my own beers recently and have a (basic) understanding of the process/science.

I’ve got to say the vast majority were poor to mediocre. The rest were good and a few (about 3 I think) were really very good.

This is in comparison to a local place which is a small stand selling exclusively bottled craft beers at the local farmers market where I’ve never had a bad beer and most are excellent – or at the very least different/unusual (like the sour beers!)

botanybay – Member

Fresh doesn’t necessarily mean good though. There never seems to be any quality to the beers I’ve tried, no subtlety, no depth.I like the Americanised IPA style that influences a lot of the new breweries, but have to agree with you that it lacks a certain quality. Many craft breweries seem stuck in a juvenile hop-the-fk-out-of-it stage of development. .

OTOH, you’ve got well-established breweries boring the pants off everyone with bland cask ale (e.g. Robinsons, Hydes around where I live). There’s a happy medium to be found.

I like the Americanised IPA style that influences a lot of the new breweries, but have to agree with you that it lacks a certain quality. Many craft breweries seem stuck in a juvenile hop-the-fk-out-of-it stage of development. .

That + many.

I think this sums up one of my issues with a lot of craft brewers quite well: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/drink/2013/05/hoppy_beer_is_awful_or_at_least_its_bitterness_is_ruining_craft_beer_s_reputation.html