I have a regular craft beer sampling buddy. There is no concoction so foul sounding so as to to deter us. He loathes Tiny Rebel, I can't get enough. Make of that what you will.
Tiny Rebel make umpteen different beers, it's like saying you don't like Twinings because they make peppermint tea.
The sours can get in the sink.
Clwb Tropica is one of my favourites in the IPA style
Their stouts are well worth trying if you like stout.
I’m with your wife
🤨
Fully agree with the stout comment Jim! Although they did have a 'glazed ham stout' a few years ago that was GRIM - but yeah, I love some of the TR beers, hate others, but I like what they're doing - loads of fun and wonderful flavoured beers so if you go to the Brewery bar (which is great!) then you can have loads and loads of halves with everything being a bit different
Most of their stuff I've tried tastes and smells synthetic but my wife likes it. The only two I've had that were actually nice were a hazy ipa and an imperial stout.
This is my favourite beer<br />
jimmy748
Full Member
Tbut Vocation Life & Death is my go to.
hadn't seen them until recently - really good, especially for a 6.5% beer
Now there's a surprise ^^^
Yes - Zesty aromatic and citrus - just like me 😉
This is my favourite beer
Good call. Supposedly named after a staff members long, bitter and twisted divorce came through...
Arguably not as nice as some of their other beers...
Cwtch is really tasty and I quite like Clb Tropica as well, mostly because it tastes a bit like Lilt and I used to love lilt. Not a fan of the pastry or weird flavoured beers but I just choose not to drink em. Mostly drink stuff from my locals (Arundel Brewery, Little Monster and Staggeringly Good) but i'm a broad church when it comes to beer! Had an amazing Burning Sky Saison recently.
And god I hate the word ‘ale’. Don’t get me wrong, I like the drink, but the word just brings to mind bearded blowhards drinking Scrumptons Old Cockflap out of their own pewter tankard whilst their leather waistcoat and faded Runrig t-shirt is stretched to the point of rupture across their distended belly.
I know what you mean but those fellas are just having a nice time, drinking what they enjoy, wearing what they want and bothering no one. Why the hate and judgement? Live and let live (he says balancing a pint of Scruttocks old dirigible on top of his mahoosive paunch).
Vocation Life & Death is my go to.
Too strong to live off. Divide & Conquer at 5% was my lockdown survival ration (and canned beer perfection) but it’s dropped out of the core range…
I agree about Tiny Rebel too - never liked any of it.
Never heard of it but I suspect that it is a trendy micro brewery thing.* If so, it will be excessively expensive and thus I doubt your judgement in any respect let alone beer.
*so, do we have a mega brewery, a nearly micro brewery and a medium brewery as well? Just one more thing that gets on my tits.
Never heard of Tint rebel, but not really sure why someone has to be wrong. Surely it's an excuse to try more beers until you find one you agree is the best. Which hopefully never actually happens....
Tint rebel?
Is that a new brewery?
Cwmbran? How dare you, sir?! They're in Rogerstone (Tydu). Perfectly placed for a swift one on the way home after a ride up towards Cwmcarn or Sirhowey. 🙂
I like Cwtch, and Stay Puffed (the latter in smaller quantities, as it's so rich!) but I'm with the group who dislike fruity beers so tend to stick to those two when I pop in. If only they'd bring back Imperial Stay Puffed...
They also do great firework displays. 🙂
Tenuous link to the OP, but very sad news. Ringwood brewery to close. Love a drop of old thumper or forty niner. Too many breweries closing recently. Woods brewery near me in Shropshire went not so long ago. These two are well established, decent sized breweries, not pop up microbreweries or newbies riding the craft beer fashion.
I'm a Tiny Rebel fan, and I've had their beer advent calendar a few times too. I'd put the hit/miss ratio in the positive, but I'd be lying if I said I liked everything. Club Tropica and Electric Boogaloo are certainly favourites and if I weren't totally skint at the moment I'd be filling the fridge with Sleigh Puft and other delicious sounding beers
and bothering no one.
If only that part were true, eh? Beer/lager favourites are so subjective though. At the minute I'm enjoying Alhambra Especial (I like Spanish beer for my sins) and a Majorcan beer - Rosa Blanca. Hard to get though.
I’d put the hit/miss ratio in the positive, but I’d be lying if I said I liked everything.
They definitely errr on the when in doubt try something approach.
Their "normal" beers are good and so are some of the more weird stuff. Bonus is since they make it clear what the weird stuff is you can always tell if its going to be a gamble.
The owner of our local pub has been educating us recently on what is involved with producing a good beer from the cask. There is a lot less work for the publican to do than there used to be as the breweries strive for a standard taste, but (at least for the gravity fed ones) it's fascinating to see what goes into it and to taste the difference between a beer on the first day it is ready compared with, say, the third. Or even the first hour compared with a few hours later hic.
All of which is a long winded way of saying that it is not just the beer but how it is kept. Unless you are drinking it out of a bottle/can of course in which case you only have yourself to blame 🙂
Tiny Rebel tend to be a bit funky for my taste, but I've had some interesting festive offerings from the Fat Cat in Norwich if you ever find yourself in that neck of the woods.
Tint rebel?<br />Is that a new brewery?
Yeah, they do a lovely beer called fat fingers can't type!
Am I the only person who laments the loss of traditional bitters, especially session bitters, and their replacement with over-hopped IPAs that taste like gone off squash?
No, I love a bitter and on the rare occasion these days there is a bitter on draught in a pub, I will always choose it. I quite like a mild too. It's not just IPAs, it's the proliferation of 'golden ales' which are invariably thin and tasteless or have an overpowering 'floral' flavour which is gipping. I don't mind a hoppy IPA, but it's been done to death with a thousand (slight) variations. One issue I think, is drinking at home. IPAs taste OK in cans and bottles, but I don't think bitters do. A good best bitter from a local brewery on draught from a well kept cellar is sublime, and always first choice. But in the supermarket I'll be grabbing Vocation et al because they work better in cans.
As a long term devotee of IPAs and then subsequently NEPA / APA type beers with Cascade / Mosaic / Citra type hops you would imagine a lot of these premium can type drinks would be right up my street. But i find them all far too thin. I've concluded that anything in a can or a keg has a synthetic, fizzy element to it that i just cant get on with. But if its in a cask (pub) or bottle (home) its much more enjoyable.
#makecraftcaskagain 😉
I don’t mind a hoppy IPA, but it’s been done to death with a thousand (slight) variations.
Yes agreed, very bored of the trend now.
I'm looking at relocating back to the North West and spent a bit of time around Hebden Bridge.....anyway, i went in one of the pubs (The Albion i think) and they had Black Sheep on tap and it was the best Bitter i have ever had!! Especially having lived in the South East far so long! <br /><br /><br />
Will keep an eye out for Tiny Rebel!
not just the beer but how it is kept
And also if the landlord has annoyed the drayman! They have a habit of shaking beer casks in the cellar when annoyed at delivery time.
Am I the only person who laments the loss of traditional bitters, especially session bitters
They still get done but since they are less popular they dont tend to be core range.
Tiny Rebel for example have done some pretty nice ones but arent currently available in cans/bottles. Think they do have them as casks for pubs more frequently.
Think they do have them as casks for pubs more frequently.
Pub down the road (sunny Twickenham) had a TR beer I hadn’t seen before on cask. Forget the name but it was good.
Got this waiting for me for Xmas week
https://www.tinyrebel.co.uk/beer/stay-puft-xmas-pack
so that will be nice (for me, ymmv 🙂 )
Cwtch is nice, quite like the marshmallow stout as a morning pint on international day in the Tiny Rebel pub opposite the Millennium Stadium. The hoppy IPAs are all fine, not sure I could tell them apart from any of the other craft cans, other than they taste a bit different depending on how strong they are. The Glazed Ham stout someone mentioned is genuinely one of the worst drinks I've ever had, had to tip it down the sink.
Generally a thumbs up, Vocation edge it on consistency, don't think I've had anything from there I don't like
Bitter and Twisted is a lovely beer especially on tap. But my favourite Harvistoun beer is Old Engine Oil. It's hard to find and only comes in small bottles and is quite expensive but it is incredible.
I’ve drank a few beers from Tiny Rebel, they’re OK, but none stood out as being anything special.
There are lots of ‘craft’ brewers, big and small, making great beers of all kinds, in the UK right now.
For those seeking a decent bitter, you won’t go wrong with a pint of Fullers HSB (originally by Gales brewery, before Fullers took over). Unfortunately they don’t sell it in bottles now, but it’s always a treat when it’s on tap in a pub.
I’ve concluded that anything in a can or a keg has a synthetic, fizzy element to it that i just cant get on with. But if its in a cask (pub) or bottle (home) its much more enjoyable.
My dyed in the wool weirdy beardy CAMRA buddy was of the same view but he's now a convert to keg, especially some of the fruit flavoured ones.
We should be celebrating what a great range of beers there are for every taste and even for my niche of gluten free beers I'm blown away by how much choice there is. Spitting Feathers brewery just outside Chester do 100% GF beers and also have one of the best pubs in Chester to showcase their work at The Brewery Tap
Am I the only person who laments the loss of traditional bitters, especially session bitters, and their replacement with over-hopped IPAs that taste like gone off squash?
Nope.
I love a bitter and on the rare occasion these days there is a bitter on draught in a pub, I will always choose it. I quite like a mild too. It’s not just IPAs, it’s the proliferation of ‘golden ales’ which are invariably thin and tasteless or have an overpowering ‘floral’ flavour which is gipping. I don’t mind a hoppy IPA, but it’s been done to death with a thousand (slight) variations.
Couldn't agree more.
We should be celebrating what a great range of beers there are for every taste
But that's the problem. Bitter has been crowded out by (often) three or four variations of IPA, all tasting the same, and all ridiculously strong to prove what a good brewer the brewer is.
I don't object to an IPA being available. I do object to nothing but IPA and lager being available.
I’ve had the Club Tropicana. It’s extremely fruity, but quite watery, and lacks any body at all. It’s strange also in that, at 5.5% abv, you’d expect a significant inebriation effect, but this acts more like a 3.5% session ale.
I've just seen in the shop that it is now 5%abv
I can only assume they read my post, retested and found it was weaker than advertised
To completely ignore the thread title...my elder son is Sam so, several years ago, I started giving him Samichlaus - claimed to be brewed only on December 6th - and branded glasses to match.
For the avoidance of doubt, he was >18 when I started.
Both he and I got a bit bored with that so...I then moved to the seasonal Elf beers from Ridgeway - Elf beer (2 versions), very bad Elf, seriously bad Elf, criminally bad Elf; accompanied by Lump of Coal, Santa's Butt, Reindeer Droppings, Reindeer's Revolt and Warm Welcome. Insanely bad Elf seems to have disappeared from the line-up.
Have now stopped that because it's not good for your 'ealth.
Thinking about moving to 'flights' of wine but that could become horribly expensve.
And going off at another tangent, Raging Bitch - if only for the Ralph Steadman label.
I run a monthly beer tasting where we sample 8 quality beers and vote for our favourite. December session sees us take the favourite beers of the year and choose the beer of the year.
Here’s this Saturday’s lineup. The format lends itself to some whoppers, but this year has some surprisingly sedate offerings. My money is on the Straffe Hendrik Quadruple winning. Phwoooooaaaarrrr.
