Drinking Beer Swap 2

It happened again. When the box arrived I was so jump-up-and-down excited to open it that I could barely contain myself. A box of surprise beers sent down to me in the spirit of sharing good beers. Ripping open the box the note on top told me my sender: Robbie (this is what he blogged about sending). A box from Scotland. Pawing through the packaging, the dry newspaper, the course card and the scratchy shredded paper, I found the cool touch of a bottle. Then another. Then a can. I pulled everything out, triple-checking I hadn’t left anything important inside, until I had six beers.

I’ve said it many times before, but I think Scotland have some fantastic breweries making some really excellent beers – Orkney, Cairngorm, Tryst, Highland Brewing, BrewDog, Harviestoun, Fyne Ales, Williams Bros – so this was an exciting box, especially as I hadn’t previously heard of a couple of the breweries.

Houston Crystal is made with ‘crystal clear Scottish water, crystal malt and crystal hops’. It pours an amber colour with aromas of bread, mango and peach. The mouthfeel is a winner and it’s rich and full without having that dry crystal malt bite. It’s fruity but that’s all peripheral and unobtrusive, then it finishes bitter and dry, quenching and encouraging you to drink more. Finely balanced and well brewed – I now have a new Scottish brewery to look out for. Anyone had any other Houston beers? If so, how are they?

Fyne Ales’ Avalanche is a zingy pale ale, light, a little biscuity malt beneath then the hops come through with lots of fruit – apricots, lemon, gooseberry. This is one of those beers to stock the fridge with for the summer, perfect to just pull out and drink on a warm afternoon or great with a Thai curry, as I've written here.

The Colonsay Brewery’s 80/- label stands out straight away; a sense of provenance, a burst of colour then a detailed description on the blurb explaining the local water. Bread and berries fill the glass to begin and it ends with a chalky, dry finish with  a distant wisp of smoke (I think, unless the mind is tricked by the blurb). The beer looks great in the glass throughout and a raspberry fruitiness pervades at the edges, mingling with the faint bonfire water. I liked it a lot – the terroir of the water really adds something different.

Traquair House Ale next, a ruddy-coloured, dried fruit-forward ale with a lingering almost-savoury earthiness at the end. It tastes really green (BBE Dec 2017?) and the bitterness wasn’t something I expected. The sweetness and bitterness seemed a little disengaged as if they hadn’t had enough time together to marry, but then this is one of those beers which will last handsomely in the cupboard for a few months and it’s a bit of a classic.

Next was South Side Mint, which, after searching for more details, I can only guess is one of Robbie’s homebrews? It’s a 4% pale ale brewed with mint ‘for added refreshment’. It pours a great golden colour, the aroma is immediately of hops but then lingering beneath is the herby mint - think the aftermath of a glass of Pimms. The beer has an excellent bitterness to it, quenching and calling you back to drink more, and it’s very well brewed, but the mint adds a flavour I’m not used to in beer - a smack of pungent herb and something deeply vegetal like nettles. It’s not toothpaste minty, it’s herb minty and maybe it needs a little more sweetness to balance it and make it something that you could drink lots of bottles of. If you like fresh mint then you’ll love this, if not then maybe it’s not your thing...

I’m fairly sure the can of Sweetheart Stout was a tongue-in-cheek wildcard, added thanks to my active championing of canned beer. I like the look of the can in a retro kind of way with the 50s pre-pin-up design, but I knew nothing about the beer except that it’s a 2% ABV stout (Robbie has written about it, or more precisely about, he's written about the babe on the can). It looks normal when you pour it out – a coca cola brown with the faint blush-coloured lacing of head. It’s sweet on the nose, like raisins soaked in water. Take a mouthful and it’s more like raisins soaked in glucose. It’s sweeter than any beer I’ve ever tasted - pure cane sugar which is powerful enough to hide the fact that it has no body or typical roast flavour. But at the same time it’s strangely interesting and I’d finished half the can without even thinking, just sitting there gulping and chuckling to myself about how sweet it is. Strangely drinkable.

Cheers for the beers Robbie – they’ve only gone to make me more interested in the Scottish brewing scene. I can now fly to Edinburgh from Manston airport and I see that the Scottish Real Ale festival is next week (and the beer list looks good)... 

Beer Swap Update

So we’ve (or more accurately I’ve) let this slip quietly on by with no action. The original closing date for Beer Swap was 28th March but we will extend that until Friday 9th (we will push the whole thing back a few weeks). We will then arrange who sends to who next weekend. So far we have 35 signed up and it’s looking good. If you still need to sign up then do it here (scroll to the bottom and fill in the box - the address needs to be the place you want it delivered to).

The next step is to start buying the beers you are going to send. Remember, it’s four bottles, as local as possible but still as good as possible. If you are a brewer then you can send your own beers, but only two. You can also only send a maximum of two beers from each brewery. You can send homebrew, if you want (if you are a homebrewer or a pro-brewer then you can send your beers as extras, if this is an option).

When you know who to send to (and keep this a secret, if you can!), and you’ve bought the beers, the next step is the packaging. We can't stress how important it is to pack your beer properly; if it breaks on its way to your recipient then they won’t get to try the beers you have chosen and you won't be entitled to any compensation. No carriers willingly ship beer, so we are responsible for what we send. To this end we must make sure everything is packed very carefully. Sturdy box, loads of bubble wrap, kitchen roll, old t-shirts, popcorn, socks, newspaper, those little foamy things, whatever, just wrap each individually and then also pack the box tightly shut. Don’t forget to put a little note in there to say hello and who sent it (so the recipient knows who to say thanks to!). You can put a fragile sticker on the box if you want to, but if it’s well packed then it should be fine.

Then it’s how you post it. Last year we used Collect+ which was pretty good but we had too many problems. This year it’s totally up to you who you send with. Here’s a few to look at:

Parcel Monkey  

myHermes

Parcel2go

Royal Mail

Royal Mail will be the most expensive. The top three work by submitting details online and they collect the package from your house/office/wherever and then send it on from there. It’s easy stuff. You just need to arrange a day when it can be picked up from you.

Once you have sent your parcel please email [email protected] to let us know. And then let us know again when you receive your box of beer.

Then drink, enjoy and blog and tweet about your beers. If you don't have anywhere to write then please let people know as someone will be happy to let you write a guest post on their blog. Remember the twitter account and the #beerswap hashtag. If you’ve signed up then buy the beers and wait until next weekend.

And remember… the Burton Twissup is May 15th! Get it booked in. We’ll bring more details soon!

Announcing: The Next Beer Swap and Twissup!

Beer Swap and Twissup are back!

First, Beer Swap. The ‘let’s send each other beers we can’t get near us and then use social media to talk about them’ game. The same rules apply as last year and if you blog or use twitter to talk about beer then you can enter (it is probably still GB only until we find cheap ways to ship outside of our little island). Here’s the deal:

• You need to find four local beers (use your discretion on ‘local’ but try and make them small breweries, also, choose good beers).

• No more than two beers from one brewery. Feel free to send homebrew, but only two bottles and then send local beers too. Or you can send homebrew as an extra.

• You will send them to another Beer Swapper and you will be sent four beers from someone else (it won’t be the person you send to).

• You then drink them and tweet and blog about them – send messages to @beerswap and use the #beerswap hashtag.

• The dates: The end date will be the 14th May. You have until the 28th March to join in and then Andy and I will sort out the sending. You will need to post out your beers by April 16th.

• To enter, go here and submit your details on the form (we need you to use the form to collect up all the names and details – your information will be kept secure, of course). We will sort them out and get them ready for the next stage.

Last time we had issues with postage and Collect+ didn’t really do it for us (the dreaded #collectplusfail). This time we need to do something different, so if anyone has any ideas then please let us know. We will advise on the best service when we announce the next steps after the 28th.

Who wants to swap some beer?!

And Twissup... Sheffield will be hard to beat but we’ll give it a damn good go! So, get the 15th May in the diary as we’re going to Burton-upon-Trent! (assuming the National Brewery Centre is all open and up and running). All the details will come soon but it will hopefully involve a brewery, a museum, maybe a maltings and definitely lots of pubs and beer! It’ll be a great follow-up to Sheffield! There's also a facebook group for #Twissup.

Now, there’s just two questions:

1) Beer Swap: Are you in? (If yes, remember to fill in this form!)

2) Burton Twissup: Are you in?

Drinking Beer Swap

After all the organising, the blogging, the tweeting, the hoping things would work out, the collect+ problems, the broken bottles, re-sending those broken bottles, the chasing people up and pushing them along, and then more chasing... after all of that I finally got around to the best part of Beer Swap: getting my bottles and drinking them.

Darren from Blog O’Beer (and @blogobeer) sent beers to me from Manchester. When I returned from the collect+ store I was ridiculously excited about opening the package to see what I had been sent. And it was real excitement, a great sense of fun, just like Christmas. I was delighted with what I unwrapped: Marble Ginger, Chocolate Marble, Outstanding Stout and an Outstanding Pushing Out – four brand new beers to me from two very exciting breweries from the North West.

I started with the Ginger (the 6% version this is – there’s also a 4.5%). The label says this is ‘fiery and intense’ and it certainly pours a colour that deserves that description. The nose is dominated by ginger and that goes straight through to the taste – candy sugar then in to fresh, sweet ginger and peppery spice, fragrantly earthy with a dry, bitter finish. I had the 4.5% Ginger Marble at The 2 Kents Beer Festival and I’ve grown to love it after initially not enjoying it. I had this with belly pork and spicy butternut squash (just like this one I had with Ruination) and it was perfect – a FABPOW! waiting to happen. This is an impressively different bottled beer.

Next was Chocolate Marble (5.5%), a near-opaque red-black pour with a tan head. A full roasty nose, chocolate, caramel, a lactic sweetness. It’s a great drinking stout, dark chocolate, a roasty richness, more of that caramel sweetness and a long, earthy finish. A lovely bottled stout, easy drinking and uncomplicated. And this was followed by the Outstanding Stout (also 5.5%). I was interested in the comparison between these two and it was immediately clear as I poured the Outstanding – it’s darker and fuller-bodied, the aroma was chocolate again but with smoke and liquorice this time, less sweetness and no lactic quality. The taste marked them apart too with this being fruity and ever-so-slightly sharp (in a fresh berries kind of way), full bodied, lots of liquorice and sweet smoke, smooth and with a long, dry, earthy-bitter finish. This had big flavour throughout and was very good. I think bottled stouts are very hit and miss. There’s often a whole middle section of the beer missing and it tastes thin or watery. These both got it just right.

I finished the evening with Outstanding’s Pushing Out, a strong golden ale (7.4%). It pours a great looking amber red with a fluffy head but then things get interesting... A big nose which is immediately like pick n mix, fruity and sweet, but then beneath this it’s earthy and peppery, minty with the slightest hint of Orval to it (this added a great depth and a little tang which mirrored the fizzy sweets in a pack n mix, although I’m not sure if it’s meant to be there). The taste was more of the same – a bag of chewy sweets and then in to a great bitter finish, not too strong but still assertive, and there was a lingering nudge of sour (again, I thought this was better for it!)... I liked this beer a lot. It made me smile and that’s good.

Thanks again to Darren for sending the beers down. It was great to be able to drink new beers from breweries that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to get. I didn’t know about Outstanding before this but now I want to know more. As for Marble, well I’ve got a real soft spot for them, thanks to enjoying them at The Bull, and I think they are just great. Now I just need to venture up to Manchester to drink them where they come from.

Beer swap rocks!

Swapping Beer

The intention for Beer Swap was to share beer and talk about it with others using social media, bringing people in the beer community together. It was about giving someone else a taste of what you can easily get hold of. It started as a blogger project but through the power of the internet it quickly and excitingly developed into more. But something really interesting has developed since everyone received the names of who they are sending to: we are all searching for local beers, we are trying them, we are enjoying them and then proudly talking about what we have found. I think that’s great and it’s something that I didn’t expect. In my own search I wanted to incorporate where I lived previously and where I live now. The two are only about 20 miles apart but they open up a lot more breweries to choose from. Where I am now allows me to reach into Sussex, where I was before allows me north and east Kent. Maybe this is stretching the 30-mile rule, but I think it’s okay… I wanted to send some bottles from Gadds as I think they are the best brewery around here, but as beermerchants stock them and as they are/were 40 miles away I chose not to. I ended up buying all of the beers in shops that I can walk to and shops which I go or weekly. To be sure I was sending the best stuff, I took the bottles off the shelves and I tried them again (research purposes) and suddenly those bottles which I automatically walked past come alive and knocked me on the head for not drinking them regularly. How could I have just walked past these so often? Ignoring them, looking for something more exotic. Silly me for looking elsewhere.

I eventually settled on sending Hopdaemon’s Skrimshander, Whitstable Brewery’s Raspberry Wheat, Westerham’s Little Scotney Pale Ale and Harvey’s Star of Eastbourne. I won’t tell you what they are like, that’s up to Sam Lanes from Real Ale Reviews. I also put a little bottle of Biddenden cider in for him to try as a bonus extra. My box arrived up north a few days ago (although sadly Skrimshander didn’t survive the journey, oops – I’ll send a replacement or two). I know a box is on its way to me – I can’t wait to receive it and drink them! There are still a few weeks left to send, receive, drink and write. I think Beer Swap has been great fun and I love seeing all the #beerswap hashtags coming in (I keep it constantly on my tweetdeck). I’m surprised at how well it’s been taken up and I’m sure there’ll be another in a few months time. For now, what it’s done is show me just how willing we are to share what we have and how eager we are to try new things. It’s also shown that I must look at what’s made on my doorstep as it’s really quite good.

Beer Swap: Buy, Send, Receive, Drink, Write!!

Alright then. We’ve done all the calling for swappers and now we have the final list. Instead of randomly drawing names we split the list into North and South and then further into bloggers and tweeters. We then hand-paired everyone up based on where you are from, what you do (blog/tweet) and where you want to drink from and in most cases it’s interweaving, so you won’t be doing a straight swap with just one other person (there are a couple of exceptions). We are keeping the draw secret for now (because it’s more fun that way!) and won’t publish it whole, instead you will each get an email in the next day with the details of who you send to and their address (you won’t know who is sending to you until you get the beer or unless they contact you). It looks like everyone can use Collect Plus, so this looks like the best option (it’s £4 compared to four-times that with Royal Mail) – details will follow on the email from anyone who might not be familiar with their service.

One idea which has come up (thanks to Tania) is using a beerswap blog to collect everything together at the end and allow everyone to post what they got and what it was like. This is a good idea so if we can work out a good way of doing that then we will. Existing bloggers could just copy and paste from their blog or add a link across.

Here’s the list of Beer Swappers, twitter name followed by a link to their website:

markdredge - Visit website
chilliupnorth - Visit website
edwards80 - Visit website
terryfen
steelrazor / HopZine - Visit website
RichardMackney - Visit website
reluctantscoop - Visit website
unclewilco - Visit website
tania_nexust
BGRTRob / HopZine - Visit website
petebrissenden - Visit website
SeanEClark - Visit website
woolpackdave - Visit website
WindsorBeerFest
ToonBeerFest - Visit website
the_beer_bear - Visit website
kristym809 - Visit website
danfgough
adamcroft - Visit website
mitcheladams / thatchersarms - Visit website
Loiscarter
fletchthemonkey / realalereviews Visit website
Samlanes /realalereviews - Visit website
Alan Walsh realalereviews - Visit website
AlexanderWright

awv / beerlens - Visit website
Simon beervikingrules - Visit website
Dylan beervikingrules - Visit website
beer_jomila
wine_scribbler - Visit website
terry_tibbs - or here
Darren blogobeer - Visit website
robsterowski - Visit website (thanks again for the awesome logo!)
Adam Bruderer
Neil Chantrell - Visit website

Phil Lowry - Visit website

Saintsandsinner - Visit website

Hasbean - Visit website

Pattiston

We’re delighted to have so many taking part and what better way to use social media than to swap a few beers around and then talk about them?! We’ve done our bit and now it’s over to you to buy and send and receive and drink. You all know the rules (if not then look here). You all know the 4th December deadline, which means it’ll be good to post your beer off in the next 2 weeks. In the meantime, keep twitter busy by using @beerswap and #beerswap so then we can all track the action. Hopefully you'll all enjoy some great beers in the next few weeks.

Go!

Any problems with any of the links then let me know and I'll fix them.

Beer Swap: Here It Comes!

We’ve already had some big news this week but this one could be even bigger: Beer Swap! We’ve had a couple of blog posts, there’s been lots of twittering, we’ve gained a hashtag and @beerswap, an email address and, most importantly, we’ve got a lot of interest, so much interest that we’re expanding beyond the blogosphere and into the tweetgalaxy. We’ve thought it all through and we’re ready to go (the only thing we can’t control is the bloody postal strike!).

The idea for this is to share beer. It’s about giving and receiving the best bottles which are local to you but which are not easy or possible to get further away. The aim is to drink some new beers and then to write about them, either in blogs or on twitter. It’s all about sharing.

And here are the important pieces you need to remember, one more time: Send four bottles of beers which are local to you. Local means within about 30 miles of where you live, if possible. They must come from at least two breweries. If you brew your own then you can send that, commercial or homebrew. They must be good beers – quality is more important than it being ‘the most local’. Don’t worry if someone in the same area as you wishes to send beer from the same brewery - it doesn’t matter because it’ll be going to a different recipient. Go for bottles which the recipient is unlikely to be able to get hold of in their area (just because you live near Badger’s doesn’t mean you should send one because they are in all the supermarkets). Please package them safely; no-one wants to open a box of broken glass and stale beer. And finally, when you receive the beer then say thank you and enjoy them and tell everyone else about them.

In order to pull it all together, this is the next step: email your name and the delivery address to [email protected]. Also, tell us your blog and twitter names if you use them. And, if there are any areas that you particularly want/don’t want to drink from, then add that too. If you wish to use Collect Plus to send/receive then indicate (check the website – but be warned that we send liquid/bottles at our own risk, and so on…). We are compiling the names and putting the draw together but we need to know exactly who is in. A lot of people have said yes, but we need a hard yes, a definite ‘I’m in for Beer Swap!’ And only come in if you can definitely do this – we don’t want someone to go without! The deadline is 6pm on Monday 26th October. We will then get details out of who you send to on Tuesday 27th October. Then we have four weeks and a few days to send/receive and drink.

One thing which has been looked into is postage. The strike could cause problems. Parcel Monkey and Collect Plus seem like decent alternatives and Andy and Mark from Real Ale Reviews had some success with Collect Plus (the deal with Collect Plus is that you post/pick-up from selected stores or centres and you can check where these are online – it’s £4 to post a box of beer).

We have also made a decision on the drawing of who sends to who as we have now opened out to everyone – bloggers will be paired with bloggers, tweeters with tweeters. This is important because we want to create interlinks on the blogs. I’m sure if some tweeters wish to write guest posts then there will be bloggers around who will oblige.

Use #beerswap and send tweets to @beerswap or @chilliupnorth and @markdredge. We have a posterous too so send pictures to the email/twitter and we will deal with that. But first of all, send us your name and address (and where you want/don’t want beers from and if you wish to use Collect Plus) to [email protected] so we know who wants to play (and don’t worry, we’ll keep your addresses safe).

On Tuesday (hopefully!) you’ll find out who you send to, so get buying the beers!

As this is a collaboration with Andy at beerreviews he will be posting the same blog this morning. Have a good weekend everyone, drink well!

Big Blogger Beer Swap: The Next Steps!

Awesome take up so far, reaching out to more than just beer bloggers and into brewers and pubs and non-blogging drinkers. This is good. Beer Swap is out there and I’m sure we can snare a few more in this week… Before we finalise the deal, here’s some more things to sort out between us.

1. The number of bottles? I’m going to say let’s do four. It’s probably better to go for a moderate number for a few reasons: cheaper postage, cheaper to buy the beers, quicker to drink them, shorter blog posts.

2. The type of beer you send is totally up to you, but I’d say make it the best local stuff you can find. Don’t just send any old crap because they brew down the road, get the good stuff. And try and go for a bit of variety, so send beer from at least two breweries. And if you brew your own then feel free to put that in too.

3. How the hell do we select who sends to who? This is the tricky thing logistically. I think the sensible starting point is to create as North/South divide and draw between them. I also think it’d be better if it’s all interlinked, so you don’t just send and receive with the same beer brother. I think randomly drawing names works, so maybe Andy (or here) and I could do a live draw over twitter.

4. Finishing dates. You need to send, receive, drink and blog by is the 4th December (blog it any time in the week before) and then we can do a little round-up for the 6th December. I think this works…

Anyone with any more ideas then throw them in. Anyone who hasn’t said so yet and wants in, then let me or Andy at Beer Reviews know. I will post next week about the next step, which will be drawing the names and sorting out who sends to who. Until then, buy the beer and use the #beerswap hashtag in twitter so we can keep track of everything!!

And a huge thank you to Barm/Robsterowski for the logo – it totally rocks! I’ve got another idea which needs a logo so I might drop you an email… I can only pay in beer though!

The Big Blogger Beer Swap!

…Because we haven’t got enough beer already!

This idea has been bouncing around for a few weeks now (thanks to the thirsts of Andy at Beer Reviews, nee Beer Blog, and Mark at Real Ale Reviews who inspired the initial discussion) and I thought I’d open it out to everyone… The Big Blogger Beer Swap!

Here’s the deal: I live down south and rarely get to drink local beers from other parts of the country, which is a terrible shame. If you live up north, or west, or east, wherever, then you might not have tried any of the beers which I can find any time I go to the supermarket or farmer’s market, so… why not just arrange a big swap, so that we can all try a few new beers!?

What do you think? Would you like to take part? If you are up for it then just let me know by commenting below, telling me the rough area that you are in, and I’ll sort it out. I think a box of 5-6 local beers (the best ones in your area, not just any old crap) would be perfect, just put them in there safely and send them to the other blogger, then receive your box sent from another blogger, drink and a few weeks later we can have a big, interweaving blog-up about it (plus the tweets in between, of course). Easy.

If you are in, then how should the swaps be chosen? Do you want it: secretly drawn (I’ll draw it, request addresses and then email the relevant details on), drawn at random (a lottery which I’ll record and post online and you can then contact the other person to arrange everything), drawn so the person you send to also sends back to you, or drawn with specific regional organisation (for example, I might fancy a box from the North East, so I’d choose someone from there; you might want a London/South East set, so you’d request someone down this way).

And let’s set some preliminary dates: Two weeks to organise the idea and get people together; two weeks to get the beers bought and sent; two weeks to drink them; a week to write and post and collate everything together. That leaves us around the first weekend in December, so a little pre-Christmas treat. How’s that for everyone?

Who’s in?!

I don’t know whether to open this out to include Ireland and Europe as the postage step-up would be a big increase. Any thoughts on that? I don’t want to exclude people... I guess if you’d be happy to ship outside of the UK, or happy to ship from from Europe in, then just say and we’ll see what we can do.

If, like Dave and Stu, or any other brewer (home or commercial), you want to send some of your own beers, then go for it, that’s cool.

And if anyone would like to come up with a logo then that’d be good – it doesn’t have to be anything special, just a beer bottle with the title in there, or something, I don’t know… then we can try and make it a yearly thing? Hell, this could even just become a general beer-swapping forum, for bloggers and drinkers, one and all!

Any other ideas for this? Just email or comment...