I'm not here this weekend. I'm in the New Forest in a lodge on a campsite. It's a present for my mum and dad, for their 30th wedding anniversary. It's like those holidays we went on when we were little kids, staying in a caravan, eating BBQs, playing cards. Here is me and Lauren, my sister and her boyfriend, their little boy, and my mum and dad. It's been lots of fun.
Sitting outside the lodge, staying cool, are two mini casks of Adnams beer. A Green Bullet Pale Ale and a New Zealand Pale Ale. For a weekend away in the country, what more could I want than 18 pints of fresh beer which are poured at the turn of a little red tap?
Green Bullet is typically fruity for the hop with a range of tropical fruit and then a quenching finish of bitterness - very nice. The NZ Pale Ale is even better: mango, passion fruit, gooseberry, mandarin; juicy and fresh, light and lively and a fantastically gluggable 4%.
I like mini kegs a lot, especially if I go away somewhere or I'm at a party, where they are better than bottles. Or imagine a fridge which comfortably fitted a mini keg so you could always have draught beer. Do you buy mini kegs from breweries? I know Adnams and Thornbridge do them, but who else is there?
http://www.bristolbeerfactory.co.uk/section.php?xSec=9 and TripleFFF
ReplyDeletewas there supposed to be a picture of your family there? Whereabouts are you stayed?
In Ireland, Franciscan Well used to do them but it turned out, as with other mini keg providers here that the cost is more than the equivalent volume of beer in cans or bottles so people were not buying them.
ReplyDeleteNow it seems that the only place to get mini kegs are in Lidl every now and again.
I used to actually use them for my brewing until I switched to Cornies.
Both Durham brewery and Hill Island brewery (also in Durham) do them. Just waiting for them to put temptation stout into a mini keg.
ReplyDeleteHawkshead do them as well. I've never brought one when camping because there are numerous pubs in walking distance :)
ReplyDeleteThere's a couple of off licences round this neck of the woods which do Thornbridge & Bradfield mini-kegs.
ReplyDeleteM&S also do a few minikegs
ReplyDeleteA couple local breweries do them, Hopping Mad and Concrete Cow, but I don't buy them too often. Mainly because I'd usually rather try 9 different pints! I don't really have anywhere to keep them cool either.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wolfbrewery.com/Brewery_Shop.html
ReplyDeleteWolf from Norfolk sell mini kegs online. The beer is excellent - I recommend Golden Jackal.
Minis are great! I use them to cask-condition small batch brews. I can drink one before the beer goes off. I'd never be able to do that with a full 5 gallon batch, even with the help of friends!
ReplyDeleteI've never seen minis with handles—those are great!
i just got home from hols to find some of these waiting for me, well chuffed...big fan of mini casks, the durham ones are great as are the coniston ones
ReplyDeleteoh you can get hop back beers in them too...fantastic for bbq's
ReplyDeleteI used to buy quite a lot of them, so much i thought about getting one of the dispensers that chills them etc but they were a bit £££
there was a place I used to get them from that also sold polypins which were fab for christmas, will dig out the link
Would these fit into a Chambre keg dispenser?
ReplyDeleteStewarts in Edinburgh do a range of mini casks, available locally at Waitrose and direct from the brewery.
ReplyDeleteSearch 'Beer Minikegs' on Facebook and you will find a range of brewers who have them custom printed as well.
ReplyDeleteZero Degrees Micro Breweries (reading, bristol, blackheath, cardiff) sell them but not online yet.
adnams broadside is yummy and can be bought online.
Dark Star are my local for minicasks to take to the cricket/hockey clubhouse at the weekends!:-)