homebrew opened my taste buds to real ale

Just thought I would share this, Im my youth I was a larger man through and through and would laugh at my mates if they ordered a Batemans xb (my local brewery being from lincs), however since I started home brewing I am now a convert to real ales, and I enjoy drinking them when Im out of my brews,
My favourite seems to change with every different ale I try currently my favourite is Timothy Taylor Landlord, I had a Doombar at the weekend and that was nice. oh I am 34 if your wondering
anyone one else been converted.

If I'm out and about the beers at the pubs/restaurants etc almost deffinatly influences if I stay there.

Can't stand the likes of Carlsberg etc now. Would rather drink water.

I've always drunk real ales but prior to brewing my own I had no idea what it was I would like about a particular beer. Making my own has taught me a) how to spot a beer I'm likely to enjoy and b) how to make one I'll likely enjoy.

And what I like most is hops and lots of them

I drank Guinness for years interspersed with blasts of Warsteiner draft but after joining the forum and reading about the ales, IPA's etc I was in Tesco one night and bought a spread of ales. The first I tried was a Marstons Pedigree and it was an epiphany and I've never looked back since. The only problem being, is that I very, very rarely find a pub ale that comes close to one of mine. Saying that though I don't travel, I have an Irish pub 2mins away and the fridge 1min away who needs the vomit comet out of Leicester Square at half twelve at night.

hornaldo said:

Just thought I would share this, Im my youth I was a larger man through and through and would laugh at my mates if they ordered a Batemans xb (my local brewery being from lincs), however since I started home brewing I am now a convert to real ales, and I enjoy drinking them when Im out of my brews,
My favourite seems to change with every different ale I try currently my favourite is Timothy Taylor Landlord, I had a Doombar at the weekend and that was nice. oh I am 34 if your wondering
anyone one else been converted.

Click to expand...

Same for me. When I did my first homebrew I was sitting there with the glass going "why the f* did no one tell me sooner!"

Yep, I was the same. I only first tried real ale properly a few years ago, before that I thought it was warm beer that middle aged blokes drank. Now I wouldn't drink a run of the mill lager unless I was forced to!

As Gareth said, homebrew has taught me what to look out for in terms of style and ingredients. It's also given me the ability to bore people with beer related knowledge that non brewers don't really give a monkeys about!

brumbrew said:

If I'm out and about the beers at the pubs/restaurants etc almost deffinatly influences if I stay there.

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I have become a beer snob too. There's a pub near by that was our local when I'd happily drink fosters, but their real ale is always off and they even managed to ruin an Adnams Dry Hopped Lager last time I was there. I try to make sure we only have the one pint in there now!

Starting with Bateman's from Wainfleet as a lad I was naive enough to believe that they were all made the same way!!

I was seduced by the price of Carlsberg lager in my early 20's (remember when we used to put lemonade or even lime-juice in it to make it drinkable?) and then by Watney's Red Barrel.

I was newly married with two kids at the time so I beg forgiveness for my sins.

However, it was the poverty of marriage with two kids that finally drove me to home-brewing so it wasn't all bad!!

The only kits on the market at the time were cr*p with a capital "K" so I used a workmate's recipe, bought some malt and East Kent Goldings from Boots (that was when they were a real chemists) and boiled up my own stuff on the kitchen stove.

Amazingly, I made the startling discovery that not only was my beer cheaper, it often tasted better; a lot better.

Then two things happened. The first was that two consecutive batches of beer turned to vinegar overnight and the second was that I moved to Scotland and away from a centrally heated house.

As a result I had over thirty "Wilderness Years" where I not only stopped brewing beer I also moved to drinking whisky because all the Scottish beers seemed much too sweet for my palate.

In thirty years the only decent Scottish beers I found locally was by Alford Brewery (that went bust within a year of discovering it) and Bellhaven Best which was stocked by only one local pub. "Local" being 'only' ten miles away!

Anyway, after all that time I returned to England and I am now happily brewing away and amazed at the huge variety of beers that can be brewed from what, to me, is a bewildering array of ingredients.

So many beers, so much time wasted and so little time left! :whistle:

Woe is me ... :drunk: :drunk: :drunk:

... quick, pass me a glass! :thumb: :nono:

I've always been a lager drinker, and I still am, but homebrew has opened my eyes to real ales.

I bought a load of interestingly names ales from tescos one night and enjoyed then so much I can't remember which ones I liked best!

I have to say though, I still like lager, its like an ultra clean, clear tasing beer, I like that as much as I do a hoppy IPA or a good stout

hornaldo said:

Just thought I would share this, Im my youth I was a larger man through and through and would laugh at my mates if they ordered a Batemans xb (my local brewery being from lincs), however since I started home brewing I am now a convert to real ales, and I enjoy drinking them when Im out of my brews,
My favourite seems to change with every different ale I try currently my favourite is Timothy Taylor Landlord, I had a Doombar at the weekend and that was nice. oh I am 34 if your wondering
anyone one else been converted.

Click to expand...

Landlord was one of 2 beers responsible for my transition from lager too. (The other being Jennings' Cockerhoop).

An a Landlord clone is the first non-kit beer I ever made. And its cracking :mrgreen:

hornaldo said:

Just thought I would share this, Im my youth I was a larger man through and through and would laugh at my mates if they ordered a Batemans xb (my local brewery being from lincs), however since I started home brewing I am now a convert to real ales, and I enjoy drinking them when Im out of my brews,
My favourite seems to change with every different ale I try currently my favourite is Timothy Taylor Landlord, I had a Doombar at the weekend and that was nice. oh I am 34 if your wondering
anyone one else been converted.

Click to expand...

Just saw the Doombar quote; which was my tipple of choice down in Exmouth last week.

If you liked Dombar then Batemans do a mild at their pub in Wainfleet called Black & White (I think 'cos it was a hazy afternoon) that you might like.

I've not seen it anywhere else though, despite many enquiries in the Skegness/Alford area!

I was a lager lad through my teenage years (30 years old now). Last couple of years I've slowly been trying different ales from Tesco and craft beer stalls at certain event. This has then led me to get into home brewing (still very new to it).

Not drank lager for a while now. Closest I've come to it is a kingfisher or Cobra while having a curry.

According to mates I'm old now as I drink ale and his brew haha!

Got to confess that I was a bit of a beer snob but since I started home brewing, my horizons have been extended and I drink some lagers, like Sam Adams Boston Lager, and a Japanese one that's in the local supermarket. It's written in Japanese so no idea what it's called.

Still wouldn't touch the usual suspects though.

Oh dear. Maybe I still am a beer snob, albeit a modern one.

I was never a big fan of the bog standard lagers (Tenants, Carlsberg etc), although Coors Light and Corona go down a treat in a hot day, and would only drink Continental lagers.

As far as real ales go it was only really once a year at the local real ale festival from the age of 17 (naughty naughty) til about 24 or 25, and it was only the pale ones. Then I started buying pale and golden ales from the supermarket. Then about 3 years ago I did a tour of Eden Brewery (now Eden Mill) just outside St Andrews and discovered that their Kilted Kittock red ale was actually my favourite of all the ones I sampled. I then started drinking more red ales, then darker ruby ales and I'll now drink just about anything although I still have a preference for red and golden ales.