Britbike forum Forums General discussion The Rod and Tappet I thought I had turned into a lightweight!

Now, I like Beer. Thats a difficult thing living in N/Z where " Speights Gold Medal " is considered the height of sophistication. However having mostly given up drinking one of my pleasures is the occasional good bottle of Stout. So having woke up to some nice rain I took the TR6 for a ride to work and on the way home picked up a N/Z Stout to sample. Sat down on the deck once the Bin Lids were a-kip and supped my way to the bottom. After laying back and having a short snooze I realised I had quite a shine on so I squinted at the bottle.

I think two would have seen me sleeping the night on the deck!

That looks fantastic. I love Imperial Stouts! I wonder if they export it to the US...

I once visited a friend whose Polish-born wife handed me a bottle of Zywiec "dark" beer, a rich, malty delight.
When I finished it, she handed me another.

WOW! Was that ever GOOD!

But after two of those, I had difficulty getting out of the chair!

Alcohol content was probably over 10 percent.

One entire pint down, alcoholic content over 10%! That is why I am not too fond of "imperial" style ales. I like the act of having a beer, or perhaps 2. Maybe 3 if I get on a roll. In a bar an imperial ale will come in a 6 ounce snifter. If I'm drinking anything that strong it's gonna be a spirit of some sort.

where i live all i can get is export guinness. if i drive 120 miles, sometimes i can get hold of this stuff, which in my opinion is as good as it gets

Someone mentioned Norton Lager.
And has a motorcycle on the label.
https://media.danmurphys.com.au/dmo/product/477457-2.png

Now its only 4.3% and a 330 ml bottle,
So you can still walk away ...
I won't say ride, that would be irresponsible.
hic...

They are sold here, but a tad expensive for just a beer.

I used to live downstairs from a guy when I was in Syracuse. He had a small keg refrigerator and liked high-alcohol beers. Our favorite was called Kilt Tilter Ale, about 12% alcohol. Really tasty but you end up wasted by halftime in the football game.
They sell high-alcohol beers, but in Tennessee you get anything over 6% in a liquor store.

It was a fantastic bottle of Stout, I will say though that it crept up on me like a good Brownie, by the time I went to bed I had a proper wobble on.

I was all but raised on Guinness, as a lad I would sit with my Grandad watching Star Trek while he smoked King Edwards and supped a few pints, quite often I would finish the glass. In a bar I can drink Guinness faster than an Aussie can neck a Fosters but thats not really the point of a good Stout. When you crack a proper Stout you have the pleasure of tipping your glass over the neck of the bottle and watching that beautiful pour ( Kevin, Mate, I need to show you how to pour a Beer ) as you balance the head bringing the glass back to vertical and finally a slow twist of the bottle to save any drips. Then once poured you can sit down, raise the glass to your lip and breath in those wonderful complex flavours. You can enjoy a good Stout before you drink it.

As for Spirits, I used to enjoy a drop of Mount Gay or Captain Morgans but I kept waking up in unfamiliar places.

My father worked for guess who's brewery in Park Royal NW London........ They closed it some years ago now.
As a kid i never liked it but now i enjoy both the draft and the bottled stout.

Dude you must live WAY out in the boonies. Like I didn't know Ohio is that far removed from modern reality. I find it tough to believe there's not a micro brewery within a reasonable distance from your home.

Then again, there's trend currently in micros where people add chocolate or peanut butter or vanilla or coconut or some kinda sh*t to stouts & porters. I personally find that not to my own taste. Milk or cream stout, "regular" (read: not imperial) stouts & a plain ol porter are darn good when you can get your hands on one. Guinness is the original "lite" beer, at only 3.2% ABV and not bad for a commercial, mass produced beer. The fresher (and/or cleaner the beer lines from keg to tap at the bar) the better.

All that aside, I did pick up a sixer of a "whisky barrel stout" - another trend, aging all manner of beverages in old oaken whisky barrels. I gotta say, it adds a certain something. Not bad, but gimme a plain ol non flavored stout any day.

R Moulding lad, the stuff Speights produce had me squirting out of the Rusty Sheriff's badge like there was no tomorrow, don't know how anyone could drink that muck...

Tell me dude, did the Twisted Hop in Christchurch survive the quake would you know...? NOW in there I had me some mighty fine Ales, good quality quaffing and supping ales in there lad....

Two places I hanker after, Fleurs Palce in Moreaki and the Twisted Hop in Christchurch and eating me fill of mussels in Havelock, ok that's THREE things, but who's counting...

The whole issue of alcohol percentage is an interesting one to me. As a result of surgery a while back, I don't enjoy a relaxing beer or ale much anymore. I do enjoy spirits however. I like a high proof in my whiskey because it gives a longer finish. On the other hand, I like a lower proof in my gin drinks because it doesn't (with an occasional exception of an extremely dry martini with Plymouth Navy Strength!).

Ed from NJ

And I used to love tequila, but I can't remember why.
These days I only drink liquor when I'm already where I plan to sleep. Generally I have a glass of Jameson, maybe two, before bed. This Christmas I'll have Guinness with dinner, eggnog with Bacardi until I pass out in my recliner.
Happy Christmas!

Shaun, I used to visit the Hop every Friday after work and several times over most weekends. I had a real thing for Twisted Ankle and would almost always require the auto pilot on the TR6 to get me home, I still yearn for a hand pulled pint. The Hop survived but not its location, as far as I remember the two brewers started a stand alone brewery but went their seperate ways in terms of location. The Twisted Hop is still in town but in Woolston, and a new bar was opened in Lincoln called " The Laboratory ". I have been to The Lab and honestly was underwhelmed, a new building built to look old and filled with, out of place brick a brack, the beer was good but the proper old pub atmosphere was missing and the place had no soul. I'll leave you to try the Hop next time you are here and you can let me know.

Speights is almost a currency in my workplace and the fridge always has a crate or two. I've worked up a tolerance for it but it needs to be cold enough to disguise the taste and I have never been able to drink it at home. More than one and it turns my gut into something resembling a soda stream. First time I tried it was in my local, a young Kiwi fella was riding me for drinking a jug ( or several ) of Montieths Black Beer. I told him I could neck the jug of maidens water he supping far quicker than he could mine, that soda stream effect cost me a jug of beer, however it wasn't me that ran outside chucking up my lunch.

There's a local brewery called Purple Moose in North Wales. They sometimes do anniversary ales, I picked some bottles up a few years ago, *very* nice but 1 small bottle lasted me 2 nights - it was more like a sipping whiskey than a normal dark ale.
Turned out it was 10% and aged in old whiskey casks. Absolutely lovely!