[John_D]

Re: Watered down Budweiser? : Thu Feb 28, 2013 3:19 pm  

El Barbudo wrote:

I don't know how far your career in rum drinking has progressed...

Quite far, to be truthful. You know me - never one to do things by halves

Re: Watered down Budweiser? : Thu Feb 28, 2013 4:31 pm  

El Barbudo wrote:

Brother dotcom, over on Southstander, is also a convert to the cause.

I don't know how far your career in rum drinking has progressed but a rough rule of thumb is that if it's made on a French-speaking island, it's probably made from fresh cane juice rather than molasses.
Imparts a slight "grassy" flavour to the finish.
My favourites are from Martinique ( I have visited (or peered through the gates to see if I could visit) every distillery on that beautiul island), Guadaloupe or Marie Galante.
They call cane-juice rum "Rhum Agricole", and it's usually (maybe always) a single-estate bottling and as close to a "single-malt" in the rum world as you're going to get.
It's even got Apellation Controllee status ... unique outside the French mainland.
Molasses rum gets the moniker "Rhum industrielle".

During my sojourns to Barbados when I had a contract out there I grew accustomed to popping into the roadside run shacks that exist there, especially away from the west coast, or rather the chap who owned the hotel that I worked at got into the habit of taking his contractors out on sightseeing trips in his car which were really his excuse to visit as many rum shacks in an afternoon as was humanly possible.

When I say "rum shack" I really do mean something that looks like an old garden shed at the side of a dirt road with a Bajun asleep on a stool outside, one side of the shack hinged down into a counter affair - you just ask for rum, you get given a decent sized slug from a bottle that is unmarked and you haven't a clue what it is you're drinking other than the fact that its virtually guaranteed not to be Mount Gay Rum - I don't know how we got back some days but god bless the Bajun police who live up to the folklore that if you see a police car parked at the side of a road then the police officer will be in the rum shack around the corner.

Re: Watered down Budweiser? : Thu Feb 28, 2013 4:34 pm  

El Barbudo wrote:

Brother dotcom, over on Southstander, is also a convert to the cause.

I don't know how far your career in rum drinking has progressed but a rough rule of thumb is that if it's made on a French-speaking island, it's probably made from fresh cane juice rather than molasses.
Imparts a slight "grassy" flavour to the finish.
My favourites are from Martinique ( I have visited (or peered through the gates to see if I could visit) every distillery on that beautiul island), Guadaloupe or Marie Galante.
They call cane-juice rum "Rhum Agricole", and it's usually (maybe always) a single-estate bottling and as close to a "single-malt" in the rum world as you're going to get.
It's even got Apellation Controllee status ... unique outside the French mainland.
Molasses rum gets the moniker "Rhum industrielle".

I recently discovered "Masters of Malt" online.
They do tiny sample-size bottles of rum (as well as the usual Scotch whisky), it's a bit expensive per cubic centimetre ... but a way of trying a larger number.

You should pay a visit to "the Twice Brewed Inn" near Hexham. A selection of over 50 rums of varying prices plus some very nice real ale. I had several glasses of something very nice - I can't remember the name because I can't remember much of anything! I do know the barman said it should be drunk with half a lime squeezed into it which as far as I can remember worked very well.

I had a bottle of Ron Palma Mulata de Cuba Anejo Gran Reserva at Christmas - very nice. I'm a big fan of malt whiskey but from now on I'll sample some rum too.

Re: Watered down Budweiser? : Thu Feb 28, 2013 5:19 pm  

Maybe they should consider using this type of "water"]

Maybe they should consider using this type of "water"]

Re: Watered down Budweiser? : Thu Feb 28, 2013 8:15 pm  

John_D wrote:

Served as cold as possible to reduce the risk of tasting anything.
Got more into my stouts and porters lately. A whole world of fun to be had, even if it's goes against JerryChicken's mantra of "never drink owt you can't see through".

I've just discovered Fullers Black Cab stout. Not quite Marstons Oyster Stout, or even Titanic, but very nice indeed... Coffee with a hint of toffee.

Tonight though, I am drinking lager. A Czech Pilsner from the Flat Cap Brewery.
And rather nice it is too.

Re: Watered down Budweiser? : Thu Feb 28, 2013 8:32 pm  

Good ale is a fast growing market in Aus, still miles behind Europe though.

If anyone's in sydney check The Lord Nelson out.

Re: Watered down Budweiser? : Thu Feb 28, 2013 10:42 pm  

I forgot to give the story behind the Flatcap beer, but as I love companies that go above and beyond the call of duty...

On Monday (Tuesday afternoon? Whatever) FCB posted on Facebook that they'd won a contract to supply the Booths supermarket chain. Now, living in Scunthorpe, you may be surprised to hear we don't have this somewhat upmarket chain, but I'd been beer hunting in one in Clitheroe on the Friday and hadn't noticed their beers there.
I commented this and got an immediate question as to where I was living, followed by one for my precise address.

This morning a courier firm brought me the beer and a branded glass... Free and for nowt.

And it was comfortably one of the best two or three lagers I've ever had, if you see it - It's called 'Otto' - give it a go.

Very impressed with their beer, but even more with their customer service.

Re: Watered down Budweiser? : Thu Feb 28, 2013 10:57 pm  

John_D wrote:

Also, I'm fed up of the current trend to very light, over-hopped beers which everyone seems to be making. Whatever happened to a nut-brown ale?

I've noticed that too, not a fan of them tbh.

Me and my mates would often go to a pub in St. Helens that's well known for real ale at the start of a night out a couple of years ago. Trouble is we'd be drinking various beers as if they were Tetleys and pretty much necking them. By the time we'd got out of there to hit the main bars we were p1ssed. Then we'd only be able to get your usual Greenalls/Tetleys/Boddies nitrokeg stuff so there didn't really seem much point in starting on the proper stuff in the first place.

[John_D]

Re: Watered down Budweiser? : Fri Mar 01, 2013 9:03 am  

Scooter Nik wrote:

I've just discovered Fullers Black Cab stout. Not quite Marstons Oyster Stout, or even Titanic, but very nice indeed... Coffee with a hint of toffee.

One of the relatively large number of real ale pubs in Huddersfield has a festival every season and, naturally, winter sees a lot of the dark beers. I can't quite remember which breweries they were, but someone did a Black Forest stout (might have been Mallinson's, that, which is odd as I'm not generally a fan of their stuff) and someone else a blueberry porter. Both were utterly sensational.

Re: Watered down Budweiser? : Fri Mar 01, 2013 10:17 am  

wigan_rlfc wrote:

I've noticed that too, not a fan of them tbh.

Me and my mates would often go to a pub in St. Helens that's well known for real ale at the start of a night out a couple of years ago. Trouble is we'd be drinking various beers as if they were Tetleys and pretty much necking them. By the time we'd got out of there to hit the main bars we were p1ssed. Then we'd only be able to get your usual Greenalls/Tetleys/Boddies nitrokeg stuff so there didn't really seem much point in starting on the proper stuff in the first place.

You left to go "hit the main bars" ... that is where you went wrong.