Camden Pale Ale Review

The background

Camden pale ale, where do I even start with this beer? It’s a funny one, In one way it’s everything a pale ale ‘is’ but in another way it’s also incredibly tasteless and incredibly just ‘blah’.

Camden PA is a 4% Pilsner which almost pushes it into the session bracket but it’s not marketed that way so hey what do I know (ps. It’s definitely a session) It’s really incredibly pale gold, like insanely pale gold, almost like staring straight through gold coloured waterfall.

The smell

Ah the smell, well there is literally none. By none I mean it is actually odorless, bare in mind I was drinking this out of a can so getting a big old concentrated sniff was pretty easy and still nothing. This is really odd considering the hops that that are included-:  Perle, citra and simcoe so we have some pretty big hitters in there! Most notably simcoe which seems to be the new kid on the block and brewers are chucking it at everything. Simoce is an American hop (I’ve almost definitely covered it before) but it’s the Hop that kicks off a lot of IPA styles as it’s the hop that gives a beer that really grounded earthy raw smell and taste (used in right quantities) yet somehow in this beer they’ve taken one of the most incredible taste provoking hops and effectively watered it down into a dull mess, should be punishable really. Perle is a bizarre hop that generally isn’t found in a lot of beers and I actually feel a little sad that my first experience of perle was with this beer as I can only imagine the actual taste of it could be something quite special and unique. It’s a floral hop which is spicy and gives a bit of a tangy taste which is what it makes it interesting, coupled with some good quality hops it could be a real big hitter, even a single hop brew would be interesting, maybe not nice but definitely unique. Last but not least there is citra a bog standard hop found in a lot of beers, usually found more in sessions and sassions but IPA dabble with it as well as given away by the name it’s what gives beer the fruity flavour that really distinguishes usually session ales, gives it a kind of cider taste. Pretty standard but nice and has it’s place nonetheless.

The pour

Now this is relatively hard to comment on as It was can based so not a whole lot of pouring actually happened and I wasn’t offered a glass to enjoy my beverage so a can it is, disgraceful I know. But what I can touch upon is the new ‘softer’ type aluminium can which beer is now served in. ‘Tinnies’ used to be the standard within the beer industry, nice, easy, convenient to produce and drink from until the new age beer drinker came about and realised how unbelievably stale it made beer taste so glass bottles were the way forward into making people continue to drink beer for a good few years until the can was redesigned, with this new softer aluminium they’ve effectively scaled down the aluminium content meaning tinnies don’t taste as metal,stale and sour. Low and behold tinnies are back in the market.

The taste

Obviously the interesting part for someone who doesn’t care about hops, but as you can probably guess from the rest of this review it’s not going to be pretty. The hops, the appearance, the colour all pointed towards a good beer coming other end and it’s just not sadly, it’s just insanely boring. It’s not horrible, spit it out, follow with a chaser disgusting but I wouldn’t actively go to a bar and say yes a Camden pale ale is the one for me. It has all the ingredients of a great beer just put together shoddily in poor quantities, what appears to be the main issue to me is they’ve tried to please too many people with this beer. It’s neither here nor there, it neither tastes like a pilsner or an IPA. It’s sad because Pilsner is an incredibly good rich beer style but generally it’s produced in Germany, Prague or Belgium and it should probably be left to them as they do an incredible job of it like Pikeland Pils.

Conclusion

Is this a beer to actively purchase? Not at all.

Is this a beer that is refreshing, different and unique? Nope.

BUT

Is this a beer that you could get a hoppy flavour? No actually not.

Would I drink this beer instead of other beers? Nope definitely not.

All in all it’s not good, it’s really not good, but as mentioned it’s not repulsive, I wouldn’t spit it out, But dear me I wouldn’t order it again. 1/5

Would recommend for:

• Someone that likes pretty colours? It's a nice colour...
• Probably no one in all honesty, it's bland and I can think of numerous different beers to recommend before this one. 

But hey, this a beer journey and it's another one to chalk of the list, I continue to stumble about in the search for good beer.

Hop House 13 Review

The background

So it was only an amount of time before big multi conglomerate mass producing company attempted to bully the little guy out the way with it’s own take on something ‘crafty’. Guinness are the culprits of this, the most heinous of crimes, taking something beautiful, something powered by the little guy, something standing for higher price better quality and reproducing it to see what happens. The saddest fact of them all, they’ve done mildly okay.

Hop house 13 is a 5% deep golden in colour ‘larger’ (although I very much question the likening to this claim) Price varies - they've taken the high price small volume thing but tried to undercut the original crafters (of course) generally 4 for £4.

The smell

The smell of it is something straight out of craft beer 101, almost as if it’s superficially enhanced it’s that ‘traditional’ which probably raises a good few questions. It’s hoppy (probably no surprise given the name..or is it?) Well being from Guinness naturally they used their own yeast, but actually have numerous hops in Galaxy, Topaz and Mosiac an international selection from USA and AUS. Now Galaxy from AUS is what makes it incredibly fruity smelling (and slightly tasting) but that’s not the main smell you get. Topaz again from AUS is incredibly fruity hop which has undertones of floral aroma again not the main smell. Now Mosiac is where the real smell comes from, it’s earthy and well kind of groundy, what you would typically associate with a ‘hoppy’ smell, Mosaic is that much of a powerhouse in the hop world you can actually make a strong IPA from using a single hop, Mosaic.

The pour

The pour is incredibly good, a lot of beer especially traditional ‘old man’ ales and Guinness feel like from pour to mouth is about 4 hours waiting for it to settle then pouring the next half. But Hop house got it right, a nice straight pour which musters the smallest of head, now I must admit I’ve poured a lot of beer in my time so I’m probably not the sloppiest poorer, so to test this good pouring I borrowed the Mrs and said ‘pour this see what happens’. After the glum look of ‘Sam what are you even doing’ she agreed and poured a straight pint with minimal head, much like mine. Ready to drink in seconds, just what you want from a beer especially a refreshing cold one.

The taste

Let's be honest did we expect much? No not really, a mass produced attempt at a knock off craft ‘lager’ but surprisingly, no actually it’s pretty stale initially but inoffensive. It’s pretty boring in nature, much like most mass produced lagers, little flavour, little anything really. Considering it has the king of Hops in it, some how they’ve got all the smell from Mosaic and none of the taste, which makes me think the smell is enhanced somehow, no way can there be noticeable amounts of Mosaic in this and it taste so bland. Despite it being so bland, the after taste is incredibly soothing and all in all it's very refreshing, the kind of beer garden drink alternative for the summer.

Conclusion

Is this a beer to crack open to enjoy? Probably not.

Is this a beer to really sit back and lose yourself in the beer world? Not at all.

BUT

Is this a beer that is refreshing? Definitely

Is this a beer that I could see myself drinking a lot of? Probably on a hot day.

It’s not the best beer you’re ever gonna have but it’s okay, it’s not a bad effort from a big company trying it’s hand a craft approach. Overall I would give it a 2.5/5.

Would recommend for:

• The lager drinker who wants a dabble in the craft world but probably not too much.
• Someone who is very hot and thirsty.
• Someone who likes to pour beer for the satisfaction of good manageable head...giggity.

The great beer disaster of October

The big day had arrived, the day I've been building up to for a good few months now, the brewing day. So the scene is set - the books have been read, the tutorials have been watched, the beginners knowledge has been gathered, the equipment all laid out and sterilised, the ingredients all accounted for and checked off, let's get cracking!

I’m stood there in the kitchen with equipment and ingredients surrounding me like some sort of beer enthused Mary Berry and I take the big first step, to loosen the brewing mixture by submerging the can in in warm water upside down, easy, I’m there, I’m away. Brimming with confidence from my already highly successful step one masterclass I get cracking with step 2 - fill the brewing bucket with “x” amount of water (X being the variable dependant on how much beer is being brewed)  So I knew my ingredients were in quantities to brew 40 pints so I fill up the water accordingly and all seems to be going well still.

By the time step 3 comes round I’m exuding so much confidence from the highly successful step 1 and 2 that you would think I’m James Watt - (Co-Founder of Brewdog). Step 3 is where it starts to get some what trickier and the mixing begins. There are 4 core ingredients at this point - Water, Brewing mix, brewing sugar and a little sachet of Yeast. - so as you can imagine this isn’t the most complicated of place to begin for anyone. My brewing mixture is already loosened from my masterclass of step 1 so step 3 is basically chuck it all together in the right order, this actually wasn’t far from what the instructions said so my prior reading was beginning to come in handy.

So I chuck the sugar in, mixing as I go, and the water now has an appearance of a lumpy mess which doesn’t fill me with much confidence as all I’ve done so far is add sugar, in hindsight this was the first sign it was all going to go wrong. I plow on hoping that it’s meant to look like that and it’s more about taste after a month anyway so we’ve got a long way to go. Next I get my softened brewing mixture which I can only describe as a mixture between melted caramel and some sort of sticky adhesive both in appearance and consistency. I begin to chuck it all in again giving it a good mix as i go and now the lumpy water has turned into lumpy goopy brown water but unphased i just keep mixing until it seems to be as mixed and settled as it can be. I’m mindful of the temperature of the brew as if that’s not correct then it all goes to pot and the taste will be unbelievably bad and stick with you for weeks, with this in mind it’s a little low so I put a bit more warm water in it to bring it up. Much to my amazement this worked and now I have a happily warm gooey pot of brown water. All that’s left it to sprinkle the yeast over the top chuck the lid on and leave it to get fermenting!

All this time that I’ve been merrily mixing away like some mad beery scientist the side has been getting wetter and wetter, I assume this is just myself being heavy handed spilling water all over the place and I’ll give it a clean when I'm finished (This is the second sign). The bucket is hanging slightly off the edge so there’s drips on the floor so I decide now is the time to mop all this unwanted water up, now at this point the bucket has a lot of liquid in and isn’t the lightest thing I’ve ever lifted especially considering it’s above waist height and has no handles at all. So I shuffle it over the edge more and pick it up somehow - now I'm precariously balancing the brew whilst simultaneously attempting to mop up the bottom of the bucket and the side, I pop the bucket back down and all seems well and I continue to mop up the rest of the side and clear up the bombsite that I’ve made of the kitchen. The floor is being dripped on again so I stomp over the bucket to wipe everything up, I analyse and inspect the bucket to see what one earth is going on, thinking the worst I’m just hoping everything is fine. When there was just water in the bucket it didn’t appear to be leaking so all is okay surely? This was a very bad presumption to make and also the third sign.  

Now is the point I realise that all of the dripping seems to be coming from around the tap area of the bucket so I start fiddling with the tap assuming that it’s just been knocked and loosen a little bit, the liquid isn’t pouring out so it’s not a major issue at this point. After about 10 minutes of fiddling and nothing is working still just this little drip which at this point has been dripping for long enough to make a small puddle on the floor beneath it so starting to really need to fix this issue. Residing myself to google must have the answer of how to waterproof something using household items (And not waste all the brew inside by leaving the bucket non air tight) I walk away to get the Ipad and this is when the disaster happens.

A loud “bang” rattles around the kitchen, the sound of a gunshot, I turn around to see what on earth could have made that noise and this is the moment the whole of the tap from the bucket rolls to my feet. At this point it dawns on me what has happened and I’m staring at the floor still, hoping it opens up and I can just leave and go to the pub and ignore it ever happened (I’m sure my Girlfriend wouldn’t mind at all). I summon the courage to look up and yep, there it is, clear as day, hours of work, months of preparation, months of reading, all literally sloshing its way down the drain, over the kitchen side, over the floor, seeping under the appliances. Of course at this point it was a brew so not only water sloshing everywhere it’s this deep dark brown lumpy bubbly sludge covering and engulfing anything it touched.

So there I am - Sat in the middle of the kitchen at the dining room table head in hands not with 40 pints of beer brewing on the side but a kitchen which is cleverly disguised as a swimming pool and a bucket with brown sludge dripping into the sink which looks a violated toilet bowl.The swimming pool at this point had a slightly hoppy aroma which wasn’t the worst thing in the world but it was a painful reminder of my failure, if this is how good it smells how good will it have tasted, we will never know.

On the bright side there are lessons learnt (somewhere) and hopefully next time my brew actually gets a chance to start brewing. Never forget to meticulously check the equipment before commencing the brew.  

The very begining

It always feels a tad odd to say 'I've loved beer for many years ' considering I'm only 22 but for many people that know me they understand the obsession I have and frequently mention it. But it is true, coming from a heavily influenced rugby background beer has always been a big part of, well - basically everything. Having said that it is only recently I've stumbled blindly into the world of craft beer, prior to this being part of the mass production filled world of tasteless lagers and poorly poured pints of anything cheap and cheerful. (Not to say that this world doesn't have its place in society as I regularly dabble in this, mostly towards the end of the month with payday beckoning).

With lagers growing ever tasteless I grew increasingly frustrated with the lack of variety around lagers so I decided a good old fashioned Ale might be the way forward the aroma had me intrigued from the off. But again the taste seemed to grow stale after a while and I was back to square one, then there it was my introduction to the brand that is 'brewdog'. Wandering into a dingy whetherspoons wondering 'do I want a tasteless lager or a possibly flat Ale?' Then there it was a gleaming silver and gold tap with the words 'This.Is.Lager' sprawled across the top (at this point brewdog was unknown to me and I basically chose it because it was an attractive tap and different to the rest (yes, I am a weak and feeble marketing mug).

I took a massive gulp and it was like my tastebuds had found a new best friend, little did I know this was just the tip of the craft beer iceberg and I was about to open up a world of beer that I'd had dreamed of for years. From brewdog to flying dog, from SixPoint to Thornbridge, from Stone brewing to Lagunitas, I had just blindly stumbled into the proverbial heaven of beer.

A couple of years later and I am ready to start my very own brewing journey into the pearly gates of the beer heaven. Here we go.