Friday 6 May 2011

Beer Tasting

Last night we went to a beer tasing at our local beer shop 'Favorite Beers' in Cheltenham. The guy doing the tastings was Jeff Evans, he's written a number of beery books such as  'Good Bottled Beer Guide' and 'A Beer a Day' so certainly knows his stuff although he perhaps waffled a bit much at times when his audience seemed keen to move onto the next bottle.

There were eight beers to try through the evening, all British, although a few were styled after international beers. My personal faves were O-Garden from Otley Breweries, a Hoegarden'esq beer (see what they did with the name...) that had a lovely citrusy spicy flavour and an IPA from Ridgeway that seemed pleasently closer to the hop'tastic American IPA's than you normaly get from British brewers. M on the other hand prefers darker beer and fell in love with Dorothy Goodbody's Stout from Wye Valley

We enjoy nights like this, neither of us are real beer geeks but it's nice to hear an expert talk you through a few beers as you learn to appreciate and distinguish the multitude of flavours good beer can provide.

The same shop has a Belgian beer tasting night coming up in June which sounds good so I think we'll be picking up tickets for that soon.

6 comments:

Mark N said...

Belgian beers are not really my thing but last nights tastings sound great!

john bain said...

All I know about beer is that it makes my head buzz nicely.

Jo said...

I don't drink beer but it sounds like an evening my hubby would have enjoyed.

Paul and Melanie said...

Thanks guys, it was indeed fun, and there was a fair bit of head buzzing going on 'Unplug' ;)

William said...

I'm a chemical engineer too its a great job taking great beer and turning it into urine. oh what a feeling.

William said...

great time. I enjoy a good beer. here in the states micro brews are turning up everywhere with some exceptional beers. many breweries will have a pub for tasting.