The Beer Nation

It's all gone meta in episode 15 as we revisit the digital beer world. This time we're talking podcasts and it's Sam's chance to persuade Sophie that beer podcasts are the future. Podcasts we love Serial This American Life The Beer o'clock show and Hopinions The Irish Beer Snob We Broadcast Beer Original Gravity Podcast The Ormskirk Baron Steve and Roland's Beer Podcast  

We are back. Here is a taster episode and a quick catch-up!

A few weeks ago Sophie and Sam got together with the Steve and Mark from the Beer O'Clock show, Daniel from Original Gravity and Roland from Steve and Roland's Beer Podcast to record a special review of 2015 which we are calling Beer Nation.  We review our beers, breweries and beer festivals of the year as well as discussing some of the biggest topics that have come along in 2015.

Soph and Sam continue ranting and raving about the impact of Web 2.0 on the world of beer. We talk about a lot of beer apps including, Untappd, the popular beer review and recording app.     In part two of the show Sam samples Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale  and Sophie tastes the Kernel's London Sour (3.2%) made with cherries. Also in part two we have A Pint With Bob Pease, CEO of the Brewers Association - the US organisation which represents and promotes craft brewers.

Beer in the digital age   Would we have a beer revolution without the internet? What do social media and sites depending on user generated content do for the beer world? Are beer blogs the digital answer to fanzines? And are there any beer apps really worth the candle?   These are just some of the questions we consider across a show of two halves - in which Sam and Sophie rant their way through their digital loves and hates and Sam expresses his dislike for ring necked parakeets.     In part one of the show Sophie samples BrewDog Electric India (6.5%), a hoppy saison and Sam samples Adnams Mosaic Pale Ale (4.2%) a single hopped beer brewed for Marks & Spencer.

There was a time when drinking Barley Wine was considered a British patriotic duty! Sadly the style has fallen out of fashion somewhat since then. We believe it deserves more recognition and celebration and in this episode we look at the history of barley wine, what you can expect a typical example to taste like and we ponder what's stopping us all quaffing more of it.   We sample: Coniston Brewing Co - No. 9 Barley Wine (8.5%)   We have 'A Pint With' James Watt and Martin Dickie of BrewDog... that frankly almost descends into anarchy.   We also mention some of our other favourite barley wines:   Sambrooks - No. 5   Fullers Vintage Ale   Adnams - Tally Ho (7.2%)   Woodforde's - Headcracker (7%)   The cheese selection served with Headcracker at the British Guild of Beer Writers dinner was from Alsop & Walker of Mayfield in East Sussex and included: Mayfield, Sussex Camembert and Sussex Blue.     We also briefly discussed Thomas Hardy's Ale - which you can read more about here. The original brewer of the beer, Eldridge Pope apparently went out of business in 1996 after failing to make a go of becoming a pub company as well as a brewery.

Episode 11 Beer Styles Part 3: Stout   The long, dark shadow of Guinness has skewed people's perceptions of stout for far too long. In this episode we hope to broaden (make more stout?!) your taste horizons by looking at how stout can be everything from roasty, hoppy and bitter to silky, smooth and chocolatey with stacks of variety in between.   We sample   Saugatuck Brewing Co. Neopolitan Milk Stout (6%)   Guinness Original (4.4%)   Williams Bros Profanity Stout (7%)   You can find some pictures of The Sir George Robey pub Sophie talks about as the scene of the first terrible time she had Guinness on this website about derelict London.   We mention some of our other favourite stouts but two we don't mention but that are well worth trying are Fuller's Black Cab Stout (4.5%) and Moor Beer Stout (5%).     Coming soon... The Barley Wine Special!

Does bitter still exist? Is it the same thing as pale ale? Has 'ale' has replaced 'bitter' in meaning the beer which isn't lager? These are a few of the questions we try to tackle in a post-Christmas meander which makes up the second Beertalkers beer styles special.   We sampled Timothy Taylor's Landlord (4.3%) - once a bitter and now a pale ale; Gadds' No 3 pale ale (5%); Gadds' No.5 Best Bitter (4.4%) and Cheshire Brewhouse Cheshire Gap pale ale (3.7%).   Cheshire Gap features East Kent Goldings and Boadeica which are both varieties of British hop. Find out more about Cheshire Brewhouse beers here and about Gadds' beers here.   We have A Pint With the legendary Dr Peter Darby of Wye Hops Ltd, part of the British Hop Association. He's great company, loves beer and is a walking hop encyclopedia - what more could one want from a drinking buddy?   Sophie referred to both Michael Jackson's Companion to Beer and Martyn Cornell's Amber, Gold and Black.  

  We may be living in a new age of all things brewed but CAMRA's Great British Beer Festival (aka GBBF) is a traditional highlight in the beer calendar that is still a 'must do'.   We make our annual pilgrimage to the temporary cask ale cathedral of Olympia and sample a few brews to whet your appetite.   The beers we tried were:   Burning Sky Plateau (3.5%) - from bar B4.   Moor Beer Revival (3.8%) - from bar B15   Ilkley Brewery The Trader (4.8%) - from Bar B18.   We were too slow to get a taste of the Champion Beer of Britain: Timothy Taylor Boltmaker (4%) but we're told more casks are expected to be delivered to Bar B18 during the rest of the Festival so you might be luckier than we were!    Search through the hundreds of beers available using the GBBF online Beer Selector.Tweet us your thoughts - @TheBeertalkers - if you get to try it or if you want to tell us what you think of any other beers you try at GBBF.    The Great British Beer Festival continues at London Olympia until Saturday 16th August. Tickets are £10 or £8 for CAMRA members if you buy online. The Festival is open from 12 noon - 10.30pm Weds, Thurs and Fri. 11am - 7pm on Saturday.

This programme is the first of three focusing on British beer styles - and looking at what beer styles mean. We start by looking at British IPAs and taste Fuller's Bengal Lancer as a classic example of the style.   Later in the show we also hear from renowned brewer Derek Prentice (British Guild of Beer Writers Brewer of the Year)  who recently retired from Fuller's Brewery and he reminded us of of another classic IPA you might want to try: Worthington White Shield    We discuss the difference between American IPAs and British IPAs, the impact of the style on the craft beer scene and its importance for brands.   We have 'A Pint With' Paul Nunny, Director (and founder) of Cask Marque  - the organisation which accredits pubs serving cask ale in tip top condition. (Apologies for some of the odd noises in the background of the interview!)   Then we jump ahead (as a result of some beer availability issues) to look at porter and its London roots and we taste an example from the Isle of Man, Okell's Aile.     The blended beer we mention while discussing porters is Greene King 5X and if you can't make it to the Great British Beer Festival to join the huge queue you will find some 5X blended into Greene King's Strong Suffolk Dark Ale. In this episode we cover the styles.   Tune in next month for part 2 where we'll be covering two more British styles