The BeerCast

We hope everybody in the beer blogosphere had a great Christmas, and managed to partake of some winter warmers in the ale department where possible. We’re all off on an extended BeerCast new year break in sunny Sweden, so have a great NYE and we will return very soon into 2009 with our 27th podcast – the much awaited BeerCast Beer of the Year Show. Stay tuned, and until we post again have a great break. As you can see from the photo, we’re already packed for our Swedish trip…

We like to think of ourselves at the BeerCast as being beyond casual stereotyping – but when you deal with ‘real ale’ it can be very hard to avoid. Beer enthusiasts tend to be of a certain demographic, which is why beer festivals can be enlightening when the occasional non-beardy person wanders in. Admittedly, most of us on the panel have sported outrageous facial hair at some point or another*, but on the whole being the achingly cutting edge hipsters that we are, we try and differ from the usual real ale crowd.

But where does the non-real ale crowd hang out? Not in any of our usual locals, that’s for sure. Last weekend, this BeerCaster was forced to go decidedly upmarket and frequent that much loved of institutions – a ’boutique bar’. I’ll not name the particular venue, but readers who are familiar with George Street in Edinburgh will doubtless think of any one of a number of style bars that it could have been. I had a good time – don’t get me wrong – but when someone turned to me halfway through and asked if I like the place we were in…well…

One of the walls in the front bar was completely covered in mirror-ball squares, the other being silver flock wallpaper. You certainly don’t get that at the old men boozers, that’s for sure. And (real) flowers on the bar, something of change from sticky drip trays and yeasty branded barcloths. Getting change given back on a small silver tray is very New Town, rather than a jumble of coins hastily shoved back into the pocket, unchecked (which is how I end up with so many pound coins from Gibraltar).

The staff were glamorous and friendly though, from the striking woman with the clipboard at the door to the Aussie barman who kept referring to me as ‘Boss’. And the toilets…my word. Fresh-smelling, with actual soap and expensive paper towels (I was half expecting fluffy cotton ones). If you read this and think “Well, isn’t that the way toilets are?”, you obviously haven’t been to the ‘proper’ pub I visited afterwards (which I also won’t name), which had buckets under the urinals, blocked sinks, and an aroma that would bring tears to the eyes of a rat.

So would I change my ways, and forsake the humble corner public house for this new lifestyle? Not when I have to resort to Amstel at £3.80 a pint, no.

* I think I account for at least half of them

Over the last couple of years there’s been a growing interest, fuelled of course by the internet, in home brewing. This had led to people publishing their recipes for their brews under Creative Commons licenses that invite others to share and improve the recipes. Read more about this over at Slashdot

As those who have listened to the last podcast will know, I missed podcasting duties in favour of the snow in Austria. Never off duty, and having some time to kill in Salzberg before heading to Saalbach, I had to sample a local brew. To build up a thirst I wandered around, what has to be said, is the beautiful city of Salzberg; not since San Francisco have I been so instantly impressed with a place, the mild weather, blue skies and a Castle on a hill always help. My walk up to and past the castle revealed the stunning vista of the Austrian Alps and stirred thoughts about moving here, even better I stumbled upon a hillside bar/restaurant where I could sample a brew.

Weininger Dunkels Lagerbier was the most intriguing on the menu, a dark beer that went down a treat; it had a smooth malty taste that perfectly accompanied my frankfurter. I’d assumed it would be a local beer but sadly it’s brewed by Privatbrauerei MC Wieninger in Germany. They describe it as a beer with many nuances-well they do when I translate the description from German to English. They also brew 18 types of beer, 2 of which are varieties of shandy so I don’t think they count, but that has to be a brewery worth visiting.

The rest of the trip was not spent doing researching in the blogging style, more the I can’t remember the previous night style. I did sample an Austrian lager that went down a treat in the Hinterberg Alm, I believe it was a Stiegl brewed by the largest privately owned brewery in Austria-the Stieglbrauerei in Salzburg, but I wouldn’t quote me on that.

…not bad, I think you’ll agree. Thanks especially to Ian Bradley and the Coniston Brewery for the case of Bluebird – and there are some other great beers in there too – Stewart’s IPA and York’s Yorkshire Terrier particularly stand out. Everyone here at BeerCast Towers hopes all our readers had a great Christmas, and that you’re all looking forward to a suitably beery NYE party.

We’ll be back in January with the results of our spectacular Beer of the Year show (see below for contestants). Also in 2008 look out for the site to move to a shiny new website, and for more beer and pub reviews, with a suitable change in emphasis (more on which in later posts). Happy new year!

The BeerCast’s 1st Annual Beer of the Year entrants

Coniston Bluebird Bitter (UK)
Daleside IPA (UK)
Erdinger Weissbier Dunkel (Ger)
Anchor Special Ale 2006 (USA)