Aldi - whats happened?

Over the last few years I've always found that Aldi, the discount supermarket, would on occasion stock some great deals and one off 'specials' when it came to beer.   

 
Often these would be linked to various international celebrations, like Samuel Adams Boston lager at July 4th/Thanksgiving. Oktoberfest would see some German beers, in fact given that Aldi is originally based in Germany you used to see beers such as Franziskaner Weissbier and Schofferhofer Hefeweizen at random times in the year also.

Arcobrau Weissbier Hell was another example of a great beer, they followed that with the same brewery's Winterbier which was a good example of it's style.
It was this time last year we saw the Schwaben Bräu brewery 'Das Helle' and 'Das Schwarze' which were okay to be fair.

But it is now a year since our branch, and another couple I have visited on occasion, have had anything interesting, the only 'special' on in the last few months is cans of Courage Best.

The regular stock on the beer shelves is the same boring unchanging line up, even Batemans do not seem to have supplied any celebration/sporting event/holiday seasonal beers that I noticed .

I was wondering if this is a regional or national thing, is your Aldi still stocking good beers or have they disappeared too?

Tiny Rebel - Urban Tap House - now open!

So two first's here yesterday in South Wales, Tiny Rebel opened their first bar/pub and I laid some lino.

Photo from the Tiny Rebel blog, mine was a bit blurry!

I was quickly decorating the utility room on my week off....

Oh, you don't want to hear about that?

More about Tiny Rebel then?
oh Okay.

Following on from the death of craft beer bar Fire Island it was quickly announced by Tiny Rebel that they were taking it over.
Phew! went a collective sigh in Cardiff.

And going from the announcement date quickly to opening night last night it was obvious that it interior was going to be largely unchanged, mostly cosmetic changes, pictures, furniture, logo's etc. And some spankingly large bottle fridges!! Filled with goodies from your dreams.

The bar is called the  Urban Tap House which thankfully was a good choice, esp. considering some of the others that were suggested on their blog. Externally the building is largely unable to be altered due to regulations.
Staffing wise they managed to pull of a coup, imagine Man Utd selling their most recognised player to Swansea, the young kids on the block playing a beautiful game. That's what happened as they hired Chris, formally of the Brains pub The Goat Major (well how many other Cardiff landlords can you name/would recognise).

I hopped on the train  yesterday and got there early evening, quite busy inside but not rammed with people. Loads of staff on, some obviously experienced but there were a few young guys with 'rabbit in the headlights' look in their eyes.
Eight cask lines and ten keg lines are on offer, plus some cider lines and a smaller fridge with a good range of bottled ciders including some US ones.
I started with one I knew would not disappoint, The Kernel's Pale Ale Cascade Citra Galaxy. 5.3%, keg, hazy yellow, well carbonated, lovely fruits, pineapple, grapefruit, lovely bitterness but not tongue stripping. Excellent start.




They have a separate line for experimental beers, with the Dogfish Head Brewery Randell 3.0 you can infuse hops and spices on the bar into the chosen beer. This was not on last night but stands prominently on the corner of the bar .

Arfur had already raved about the Camden Town Brewery USA Hells on untappd, which sat alongside their unfiltered version which I went for.
 Really good stuff, a golden haze, lovely hop and fruitiness to it with a great bready/cereal taste also. I really enjoyed this, wouldn't hesitate to have this again if it was on next time I visit. And look there's Arfur over the other-side of the bar.

Around the place is their beer menu, a list of over 100 bottled beer from around the world, many names you'd all expect to be there, prices from reasonable to insane for the sharing/rare/v.strong bottles, although I'm sure that's what you'd pay for those bottles in other craft bars.
What I was pleasantly surprised with was the bar prices for craft and keg, I was expecting to pay more really for the two mentioned beers above, both London based and on keg, but prices were competitively placed. Which means I can buy more then.

Look a man bun! although the only one I spotted. Top bloke, very helpful.

I'll have the IIkley Brewery Siberia, the Rhubarb Saison. Thin in the mouth, you certainly get the rhubarb, some malt, its a good palate cleanser, different but I liked this.
Unlike the Caveman Brewery's Neolithic, which was poor, a bitter but the hops seemed unpleasant, a bad soapy taste and I didn't finish this one.



So I thought I'd finish the night with one of the house beers, Tiny Rebel's Dirty Stop Out which is my favourite beer they make I think. Great condition, a little smoke, burnt malts, smooth, the best way to end a night definitely.


Overall a welcomed edition to the Cardiff beer scene, and a well deserved step forward for Tiny Rebel. I'm sure over the next few months they, with Chris and his team, will turn this place into a success and put their own stamp on the place.
It felt comfortable there, relaxed even though it was busy, and enough choice to keep your mind whirring.
It'll certainly be my first choice venue drinking in Cardiff going on last night.



For another photo and opinion read Craig's post here.

Bristol United Brewer's Colaboration 2012 Smoked Porter

Lots of people in the mix here, a who's who of the south west brewing scene really.

*intake of breath* Collaboration beer brewed by  Arbor Ales, Bath Ales, Bristol Beer Factory, Great Western Brewing, RCH & Zero Degrees, with the bottle coming from Bristol Beer Factory and the cask was from RCH. *phew*
This was brewed for the 2012 Bristol Beer Festival, so my bottle has been sitting around for a while obviously then, but I actually drank this back in June.

Pours so dark, lovely depth of inkiness with a great lingering head. Coffee, chocolate and cream aroma, and plenty in the mouth too.
Rich, almost a strong toffee, kinda burnt element, a little oily but the creamy part balances it. Its not as smokey as I was expecting, perhaps that has dissipated with age?

Brains Craft Brewery 'Weiss Weiss Baby'

From the Brains Craft Brewery department tucked in a corner of the Cardiff Mega Brewery is a bottle of 'Weiss Weiss Baby', their Weissbier.
I must admit I kinda like the name, being a nice gentle pun, enough to put a little smirk on the lips and acknowledgement of achieved amusement.

The bottled version is slightly weaker than the keg version, 4.9% vs 5.9% abv.
Slightly cloudy yellow, a fizz of a head briefly. A light yeasty aroma, it has a light mouth-feel, with some banana and yeast there but on the lighter scale of things.
Very refreshing, cold in the summer it would be perfect. It would struggle if put alongside some of the more recognised weissbiers out there but I certainly enjoyed it.

Otley Oxymoron

Oxymoron, a black IPA dry hopped to hell and delicious to boot!

When I first had this a few years ago at the Great Welsh festival it was my first BIPA, I wasn't totally sold on it but since then its a style I've enjoyed more and more, some great examples being from The Kernel brewery and Hardknott.
But I've also returned to the Oxymoron a few times since then, cask and bottle, and its become a real favourite of mine.

Excellent roasted malts but over the top pine and grapefruit burst out and up your nose tickling receptors.
Huge but balanced flavours.
The strong and dark sit beautifully with the bright, clean and striking hops.
Chocolate, roasted malts, grapefruit and pine singing, the bitterness has a great tartness to it.
5.5% abv.

Wooden Hand Brewery Cornish Gribben

Every year when we go to Cornwall I seem to end up drinking or bringing back some of Wooden Hand's beers, based in Truro they seem to have reasonable penetration of the south west market.

The only one I brought back this time was Cornish Gribben, a 4.1% bitter.
There was some lemon and orange aroma, but as I poured it the lack of carbonation was evident, this bottle was totally flat.
Shame really as the few mouthfuls I had were quite promising, with some toffee and citrus clearly there.


Oh well, there's always next year.

Keltek Brewery King

Another from the south west of England, this time its the Keltek Brewery, based in Redruth Cornwall.
King is a 5.1% ESB style of beer, 500ml bottle also purchased from Tesco like in the last post.

My photo makes it look a little darker than the amber it actually was, little aroma which was mostly of malt, toffee, and rich fruit.

Traditional in style, good body, strong flavours of malt, caramel, again some rich fruit alongside some spiciness.
Nothing complicated and a nice pint.

Clearwater Brewery Real Smiler

Clearwater brewery, based in Devon has been going since 1998 but a buyout in 2009 and the introduction of new personnel including a new head brewer all in the last few years has greatly increased their presence locally and now starting nationally as well.

Real Smiler is a 3.7% Golden ale I picked up in a Tesco on the way back from our Cornwall holiday back in May.
Well carbonated, golden orange with a small fluffy head that quickly dissipates.
A little perfume in the aroma with some sweetness too, wiff of honey.
Medium body, crisp, dry, apply, balanced caramel malt with a light hop character that give enough bitterness for the style, some toffee too.

Overall a very nice golden ale, crisp and hit the spot.

Hardknott Cool Fusion

After a few jobs the other weekend and with the lawn mower packed away in the shed it was time for some liquid refreshment.

Hardknott's Cool Fusion is a 4.4% abv beer that strongly features ginger. Whilst it was the prominent spice there was also lemon which made it seem incredibly fresh tasting.
Lovely white fluffy head, good body, unlike a lot of ginger beers this avoids being too dry, balanced well with its malts, citrus, and candy sugar sweetness.

Battle of the breweries - Boars Head 12-14th July

This weekend the Boars Head at Tyla Garw, South Wales, is holding a 'Battle of the Breweries' beer festival,  featuring Dark Star,  Oakham, Crouch Vale, Salopian and the Welsh Champion Brewers Tiny Rebel.
With the glorious sunny weekend ahead where else would i want to spend my birthday weekend!!
BBQ on Saturday.
Looking at the list today with Wayne behind the bar they have some cracking beers on, loads from Tiny Rebel.


Directions to the  Boars Head here.

Ayinger Urweisse

Yum Yum.
That's almost all you need to say about this comforting pillow head, yeasty and cereal malted aroma, smooth and gorgeous peach, banana and some subtle spices that swim through your mouth firmly cementing wheat beers as your favourite style of beer.
Just yum.

Brains Organ Morgan

Organ Morgan is a 4% abv golden ale, one of the beers that Brains name, along with Milkwood and Jack Black, with links to Dylan Thomas.

It has a light sweetish aroma, honey, and some light malt notes.
The taste is similar, light honey sweetness, some light fruit, orange, and some caramel. Light body, this golden ale falls into the  perfectly drinkable, but not terribly exciting category.

The Wild Beer co. 'Bliss'

(Entirely coincidentally I wrote this post yesterday with the children/pubs comments, before today's topic du jour)

After a cycle ride with the family we went into the excellent Boars Head (often mentioned here) at Tyla Garw. After having an excellent 'American Rye' from Buxton, 4.3% abv, my attention was brought to the fact that they were selling new bottles from the Wild Beer company. (Those interested, or not, in the craft vs camra yawn-a-rama might like to read their thoughts on it).

Whilst my kids were behaving well playing trumps and reading, disappointingly so to the 'children ruin pubs' brigade out there, I picked up two bottles.
'Epic Saison' 5% is a  "transcontinental fusion of Belgium’s eclectic beer culture and the feisty hops of North America brought to life with the aid of West Country artisanal brewing wizardry and judicious use of the US-grown Sorachi Ace hop".
First though tonight I'm trying 'Bliss' described on the website as Belgian-style saison into which they've added "a dash of funky Brettanomyces yeast plus roasted apricots and a hush-hush blend of spices".

Pours a murky light brown colour, very lively, needs a moment to settle to get it all in the glass. Aroma is lightly fruity, dry, and yes funky. Initial taste to me is quite spicy, a lot of pepper coming through alongside a dry fruitiness. As it went on I found the pepper/spiciness smoothing and the dry fruit of the added apricots does come out.

The bottle comes with a lot of information on it, regarding their brewing ethos and each individual beer, this one they also suggest food pairings of chicken jalfrezi or a lamb tagine.
Certainly it was interesting, I'm looking forward to the next one, and the chap at the bar who pointed the bottles out was very impressed with the 'Wildebeest' their Imperial Russian Stout.

Great Welsh Beer and Cider Festival 2013: Friday

For once it was sunny, warm, and shorts weather on the trip into Cardiff for the GWBCF 2013.

After catching the lunchtime train in I waited for one of my friends to catch his (slow) train in. As he was delayed I moved myself into the Prince of Wales, a Weatherspoons pub, and ordered a Celt Experience Bledynn 1075. One of the Breweries that I was keen to visit once at the festival, this is their excellent IPA which I've had in bottle many a time, but this was the first time on cask and wow it was a palate stripping hopped up pint, superb and juicy. I could only hope the rest of the day's beers will be this good.

I pick up my glass, programme and tokens and head in. As much as I was eyeing up the specials on offer I thought sensible to start lower down the abv scale, and so picked on Brains 'Touch. Paws. Engage.' their rugby themed golden ale and 4%. Light, moderately fruity and refreshing citrus edge, very good start.
Always an impressive stand, the Otley boys and girls had an huge array of pumps, I went for the 'Hop Angeles' 4.8% an American Red ale which uses 9 different hops apparently. It had a nice light citrus aroma, with a dry woody strong bitterness in the mouth. I'd certainly seek this out again.
Next came a tick. One from the '300 beers...' book that I'd planned to get was the 'Oscar Wilde Mild' from Mighty Oak and I was glad I did. Bags of flavour, a great example of what a mild can be.

My good start continued as I moved onto the Tiny Rebel stand. A busy stand soon to get busier. Standing proud nearby was a pimped up old ice cream van in their colours.



Flux, a black IPA at 4% which was fantastic, juicy, citrus, roasted malts, another great beer from them.
The time then was just before 3 pm and it was the announcement for the Champion Beer of Wales results.
Okay, lets remind ourselves of my prediction in my previous post "....it will be interesting to see how many gongs they pick up. Champion Beer of Wales for Tiny Rebel?? I wouldn't be surprised."
 Well, no not very surprised, (perhaps at the clean sweep though) and yes feeling a little smug, but hey I called it!
Frankly though anyone drinking in the capital this last year probably is also not that surprised, such is the quality and consistency of the Tiny Rebel beers. A quick chat with Gaz and congratulations followed.
I also managed to publish my first post then on my mobile successfully, announcing the result (previous mobile attempts never worked).

 Violet Cottage were listed as a Cardiff brewery, one I'd never heard of, so i thought I'd try their 'Zigzag', a 5% IPA, which was nice and light, uncomplicated, a little lighter with the hops compared to others but as nice as many other IPA's out there and reminded me of Wye's HPA. When reading the programme a bit later i realised that they are from the award winning Gwaelod-y-Garth pub.
Back to one of the main stands now for one from Celt experience, 'Cat Scratched Celt' 5.8% a big amber ale, with nice strong malt backbone, caramel, pineapple from the hops, another great beer from Celt.
A side step takes me back to Otley and '09', a clear wheat beer I've not had before, lovely and light with orange and very spicy, 4.8%.
Redstone Brewery , based in Brecon Beacons only started last year, had just the one beer, 'Gorsey' 4.2%  a pale ale, lots of lemon and woody.
Brains Craft Brewery Low Hanging Fruit 4.8% - this was really good, 4.8% dark/mild?, on untappd I posted "Good dry earthy, sour aroma, a real lactic bitterness. Cherry lingers"
The only beer I didn't enjoy unfortunately was from Artisan, 'Alt' 5% although I cannot remember what was putting me off it but I didn't drink much off it.

Back to Brains Craft, and 'Stars and Stripes', an American wheat 5%, hazy, light and easy to drink quickly, citrus but not to bitter, fruity too.
I thought I'd go strong for my last beer and went for one of the Tiny Rebel specials, their 'Grand Regal Stout' this one aged in an 'Ardbeg Barrel' 7%.
My god, this was thick, chewy, so strong, like chewing a cigar. I couldn't finish it, wrong choice for the last beer of the night. Another night with this being the only beer in front of me I think I could give it more time but that night at that point it was palate overload. Not saying its a bad beer at all, my friend who enjoys whiskey liked it but agreed that it was a monster mouthful!
Thus I high-tailed back to the champions stand and got a 'Full Nelson' 4.8% with buckets of Nelson Sauvin hops, which refreshed my mouth immediately.

Overall this was one of the best GWBCF I've been to in recent years, a great range of beers from the headlining breweries, and all but one beer were thoroughly enjoyed which was a greater return for me than last few years. Loads more tables/chairs - excellent!
Many thanks to Arfur and the rest of the CAMRA guys for putting on a top show. I also managed to have a quick word with Arfur, although poorly timed as it was five minutes before the awards were announced, his steely focus on the stage as he wafted the results under my nose with a wry smile.

Main disappointment was not meeting Craig (top post btw) despite our girlish untappd posts pinging back and forward!
In sober hindsight I realised that 1 - telling him I'm by the winners stand was not making it easier, and 2 - me trying to spot a man just by identifying his beard at a CAMRA festival is like <insert cliché here> A real shame as I fancied a good chat, which is something, as he says in his post we'll have to sort out soon.


Full results:

Champion Beer of Wales 2013
1. Tiny Rebel Dirty Stop Out
2. Tiny Rebel Fubar
3. Tiny Rebel Urban IPA
Category Winners
Mild
Rhymney Dark
Bitter
Purple Moose Madog's Ale
Best Bitter
Brain's Rev James
Strong Bitter
Tiny Rebel Urban IPA
Golden Ale
Tiny Rebel Fubar
Speciality
Bullmastiff Welsh Black
Porter
Facers North Star Porter
Stouts
Tiny Rebel Dirty Stop Out
Barley Wine
Tiny Rebel Hadouken
Old Ales/Strong Milds
Breconshire Ramblers Ruin

Tiny Rebel sweep Wales festival

Tiny Rebel sweep the board at the Great Welsh Beer and Cider festival, for the first time ever one brewery has taken all the top three places. Announced minutes ago, Fubar, Urban IPA took second and third, with Dirty Stop Out taking the Champion Beer of Wales.
Fittingly I'm currently supping their Flux, an excellent black pale ale, another top beer from the guys. Well done fella's