The Beer Nut: Given lemons
These two arrived into my local supermarket at the same time recently, a little late for high summer but very welcome on a warm day in early...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
As mentioned in Tuesday's report from the Warsaw Beer Festival, there were a handful of non-Polish beers available at the event. A couple of mixed fermentation Belgian options piqued my interest, ones I had never seen for sale in Belgium, so was willing to shell out the €10-odd requested for a taster from the bottles.| The Beer Nut
The 2025 Warszawski Festiwal Piwa wasn't my first Polish beer festival in a football stadium: readers may remember my extolling of one in Wrocław back in 2019. This one, though impressive, wasn't as much fun, and I think a lot of that has to do with holding it in October rather than June. Sitting in the shady stands on a warm afternoon is pleasant in a way that shivering in them on a chilly evening just isn't; and while Wrocław spreads the brewery stands across the concourse outside the gro...| The Beer Nut
A beautiful country with a thriving beer scene, Poland is one of my favourite places to go drinking. I was delighted when the European Beer Consumers Union, to which I am a delegate, chose Warsaw as the venue for its regular autumn meeting this year. I had never been to the capital city and here was an opportunity to get that ticked off. On the downside, I didn't get to see much of it, for reasons I'll get into, but it's high on my list for a return visit and some proper exploration.| The Beer Nut
It would not do to be still drinking Oktoberfest lager in November, so I'm getting this one under the wire before the clocks change. Third Barrel Fest Bier was co-created with TwoSides, presumably mainly for the Oktoberfest celebrations at the TwoSides pub, Brickyard. But they've canned it too, saving me a trip to Dundrum. On the label we get AI's smudgey rendition of an old-timey Oktoberfest. I detect a certain old-timeyness about the beer too, which is amber coloured and a little hazy. Th...| The Beer Nut
My coverage of this year's JD Wetherspoon autumn beer festival is a two-parter, beginning with Monday's post. Today's concerns the event's second week.| The Beer Nut
The latest twice-annual JD Wetherspoon Beer Festival ended just over a week ago. Performance always varies among the Dublin branches, and exactly which of the 30 festival beers are on in any pub at any given time is difficult to follow, despite the company having a well-designed system that should make this easy. But that's all part of the game. I will give both central Dublin branches credit for keeping the beers turning over sufficiently that I didn't have to look further afield. | The Beer Nut
Collaborating with other breweries is like so 2015. Wicklow Wolf has recruited partners from alternative industries for two recent additions to their Crossbreeds series.| The Beer Nut
These two arrived into my local supermarket at the same time recently, a little late for high summer but very welcome on a warm day in early...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
Stuff your summertime hoppy pale ales. The Open Gate Brewery went full harvest mode as soon as the leaves began to turn brown. Here's what I found when visiting recently. | The Beer Nut
As always, attendance at the Borefts Beer Festival in Bodegraven meant a certain amount of participation in the outside world of Dutch beer. Arriving into Leiden a couple of days early, I dropped by Stadsbrouwhuis, which tends to have the city's most diverse beer list. From the menu I chose Summer Breeze, a Berliner weisse by Spanish brewery Oso. Though 6% ABV, this looked thin, a translucent hazy squash of a beer. It was hard to shake that notion on tasting it too as it's much more watery th...| The Beer Nut
And so we come to wrap up this week's posts on the last ever Borefts Beer Festival. I've reserved this one for the Dutch breweries present, and of course the host which made it all possible, De Molen.| The Beer Nut
It wasn't all imperial stouts, quadrupels and barley wines at the Borefts Beer Festival, even if my reporting makes it seem that way. The festival's final outing last month had a particularly good showing from breweries operating in the wild fermentation space, and I put in a bit of effort to try as much of that as I could, especially from the unfamiliar outfits.| The Beer Nut
Two brewery stands at the 2025 Borefts Beer Festival seemed to have almost continuous queues. One of them I could understand: the New England legend Hill Farmstead. Early on day one I tried the barrel-aged coffee porter they brought, The Birth of Tragedy. The enticing whisky aroma gets this 9%-er off to a good start. When that gets added to the coffee and the bonus addition of honey, it creates a beautiful Irish coffee effect, all smooth, rich and warming. When the coffee middle fades, the s...| The Beer Nut
Last month saw the final Borefts Beer Festival at the De Molen brewery in Bodegraven. I first visited here in 2007 and attended the festival most years since 2011. The brewery was sold to Dutch brewing giant Swinkels in 2019, its founder Menno Olivier departed subsequently, and earlier this year, the owners decided the site needed more investment than they were willing to give it, and the brand isn't selling in the quantities they want it to, so this is the end of the line. It was a surprise ...| The Beer Nut
The last part of my beery explorations of western Germany covers the beers that aren't from western Germany. With its powerful brewing and hospitality culture, Bavaria dominates, of course.| The Beer Nut
Monday's post was about Bonn and Wuppertal; today it's the neighbouring cities of Düsseldorf and Cologne. I've been to both before, some years ago, and you can read my incomplete account of their beers at that time here and here. I was keen to revisit some of the places, though I won't be repeating myself on the beers. In fact, how about an Alt-free tour of Düsseldorf, exploring the other option that most Alt houses have available?| The Beer Nut
I spent my summer holiday this year in western Germany, the Nord-Rhein-Westphalia region. Although Cologne and Düsseldorf are the big cities...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
Why is that man photographing his pint?| thebeernut.blogspot.com
It was finally time to put my 2020 travel plan into action! Latvia, a country I'd never visited, had been top of my list back then, and in S...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
Not for the first time, Melissa Cole said it best: "Are you here for the nonsense?" The nonsense in question is the Belgian Beer Weekend, a ...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
Last year I went to Brussels in the hope of attending the BXLBeerFest only to find it postponed for a further year. It was back on for 2022...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
Why is that man photographing his pint?| thebeernut.blogspot.com
Why is that man photographing his pint?| thebeernut.blogspot.com
Everyone copies Belgian ales, while the Belgians try and do more interesting things with their brewing legacy. Here are some beers straddling the boundaries of tradition and innovation, Belgian-style.| The Beer Nut
I like a bit of cedar spice in a beer when I can get it, so was attracted on sight to this cedar-aged American-style barley wine from Czech brewer Sibeeria. I don't know why they decided to call it Nostalgie 70s but that's what we're stuck with. It's 10.7% ABV.| The Beer Nut
When I was a kid they played lame music for middle aged people in the supermarket but this morning at Whole Foods it’s now all amazing bangers from my youth.| The Beer Nut
Can you feel the evenings drawing in, and the lure of dark and wholesome beers? Today's three don't have anything much to connect them, other than arriving into my eyeline at around the same time last July.| The Beer Nut
It's bad form that the Traunstein beers have been in circulation here for some time and I haven't yet ticked off the main core lagers. A sunny Sunday afternoon last month provided the opportunity.| The Beer Nut
Blimey. It's been a year since I last called by Urban Brewing. Shameful altogether. As a brewpub with no core range, beers turn over regularly, but there are themes, and regular re-ups of styles they've done before.| The Beer Nut
Sour beer with unusual ingredients is one of my regular hobby horses. Nothing's too outré to dissolve in a properly acidic beer solution for...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
For years, Kinnegar Brewing carried the strapline "Farmhouse beers from Donegal" -- it's gone from their beers but you can still see it on my pint glass. It was always a bit odd, because "farmhouse style" (howsoever you wish to interpret that) was never really a big thing for the brewery, which has tended to prefer making very clean pale ales and lagers. Its Phunk Pharm wild fermentation facility has been very quiet of late, unless I missed something. The latest additions to the Brewers At Pl...| The Beer Nut
They've fairly been cranking the beers out at Diageo's tourist-focussed 10 hectolitre microbrewery in the St James's Gate complex, and I've ...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
After a one-year hiatus by the festival, and ten years by me, I was back at The Great British Beer Festival last week, for the Tuesday after...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
Why is that man photographing his pint?| thebeernut.blogspot.com
Today's random exotic picks from the off licence are all by the Helsinki brewery CoolHead. They wear their hearts on their sleeves with an I...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
I'm not unfamiliar with Dutch beer and brewing, but had never heard of Rotterdam's Stadshaven Brouwerij, until I found six of its beers in t...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
Continuing from yesterday , my run-down of the beers I drank at the Belgian Beer Weekend festival in Brussels last month. Early on, I spotte...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
The thing that stopped me from doing something sensible with my Toer de Geuze weekend, like getting the train to Boon and staying there, was...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
The final ever iteration of The Session happens today , and I'm seeing it out the way I'd like to be remembered: scooping furiously. The occ...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
L-R: Wit, Saison, Dubbel, Tripel, Lambic & Stout Well this was a surprise. Though maybe it shouldn't have been. Both Diageo and John Mar...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
Hagstravaganza sits like a neutron star in Irish beer discourse this summer, bending all conversations towards it, both before and after th...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
Beer blogging's big brother Alan is attempting to revive The Session, a cross-platform themed event last seen in these parts in 2018 . His ...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
On Monday I mentioned drinking at Asterix, a beer bar and restaurant in central São Paulo. While the draft selection is modest, the stock o...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
It's hard to beat a bit of sunshine and warmth in the midst of the winter gloom. Last month's New Year jaunt certainly provided that, with a...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
As chairman of Beoir , I get first call on where the AGM should be. This year, the place that had been niggling my need-to-visit sense, was ...| thebeernut.blogspot.com
