Tuesday 31 March 2009

If you had to...

Right, I’m feeling mischievous so time for another ‘If you had to…’ This week it’s partly inspired by the BrewDog showcase which is happening at The Bull in Horton Kirby, Kent (I am so flipping excited about this that I’m considering leaving now and arriving early so that I don’t miss it!). From Thursday 2nd April until it runs out - probably Sunday 5th, at the latest - they will have the following on cask or stillage: Trashy Blonde, Zeitgeist, Punk IPA, Chaos Theory, RipTide, Paradox Isle of Arran and Divine Rebel. That’s mega cool!

I haven’t had Divine Rebel yet (it’s a 12.5% barley wine brewed with the gypsy beer warrior that is Mikkeller) but all the others I am very familiar with and some are among the best beers I’ve tried in the last few months (RipTide and Isle of Arran in particular, and I can’t wait to compare cask Punk to cask Jaipur). But I have only ever had BrewDog from the bottle so getting them from the cask is going to be a wicked new experience for me.

So, I’ve had these beers but I’m eager to drink them again (I’ve got a Punk open right now and it's goooood). I’ve got bottles of all of them in the house and whenever they run out they get topped up quickly. BrewDog have also got a few new beers on the way which I am really looking forward to - Zephyr, the Atlantic IPA, a collaboration with Stone and Cambridge and a Black IPA. All of these I will buy and try as soon as they are released. But the question is, in a round-a-bout way relevant to everything I’ve written…

If you had too… would you choose to never again have a beer which you’ve already had, or, never have a new beer again, only being allowed to drink what you’ve already drunk before? (and if you choose to go with only having new beers from now on then once you've had it you can have it again and again, if you wish)

In other words, are you happy to choose from what you’ve already had or do you want to try new things? But if you choose the new only then you have to give up all the beers which you've had before! This is a really tough one, I think!

I got a load of these but if you’ve got any you want to suggest then feel free and I’ll add it to the list! And if you want to come to the showcase then get the train to Farningham Road and use google maps to get there, it's pretty easy, about a 15 minute walk. I'll be there on Thursday (with the chaps from Ale Affinity) and Friday evenings I hope. Email me if you want directions.

10 comments:

  1. Such a hard one... There are so many beers that I've never had before but that I desperately want, yet there are so many that I'd miss too much!

    I figure (and I hope!) that I've got 50 years of beer drinking ahead of me so I'm going to have to choose the NEW ones only, however much it pains me to know that I'll never have another London Pride, another Jaipur IPA, another Ruination or Stone IPA, another Desperados(hehe!).

    What will it be for you?!

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  2. Liam, you're going on mystic all of sudden. Are you goth?

    To answer your question, I'd be more than happy drinking what I've already had in my life. In saying that, I'd be screwed in tasting the Proper Real Keg explosion that's coming out of England at the moment.
    Oh, and on mentioning that, I'm thinking of APRK, which stands for Army for Proper Real Keg. The logo will be a hoot!

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  3. You'll miss the revolution your starting in choosing that!

    APRK is good, militant and conformist and unafraid. A gushing keg and a perfect head need to be in the logo.

    I got my CAMRA paper through today btw (yeah I'm a member!), Roger Protz writes about black lager! The tides are changing Wurst...

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  4. It would be a wrench but, i'm going to have to be conservative on this one and stick with what I know. There are just too many things I would miss.

    That showcase looks good, i'll see what the trains do from this part of the world to get there and back!

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  5. Just the stuff I know and love. Always Scoop Reluctantly...

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  6. I think I would have to stick with what I have already had - and I am sure teh wife would be more than pleased at me no longer having a random selection of bottles floating around simply because it is something untried.

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  7. So far people are happy with what they've had. Maybe I'm just chasing that perfect beer...!

    Pete - you should check it out! It's 25 mins from Chatham and I think it comes up from Faversham and the coast before.

    Brad - Come on, play along!! I'll get an answer from you tomorrow night!

    Al - I think my girlfriend would appreciate not having to drive me around in search of new beers if I went for the old, although it'd change as I searched for the rarer ones that I'm *allowed* to have!

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  8. This IS a good one. I'm going to warp the curve and say ... I'm going NEW ... then I will get to try evrything that is yet to come and hope that one day the Breweries Of The Future will 're-invent' my old favourites under different names.

    Is that cheating?

    Prof. Pilsner

    PS The showcase sounds great. If I take Eastlink to Melbourne Airport, then a plane to England ... where do I go from there? :)

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  9. Yo Professor! I had the same idea when I chose the NEW ones. Plus I don't want to miss out on what these Breweries of the Future will be able to do (which will incled recreate my old faves)!

    Directions: get off plane, navigate baggage claim, leave airport and turn right heading for Kent (the 'Garden of England'!), it's about an hour away. Easy! And don't forget to bring a few decent Aussie beers over with you! See you there :)

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