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Congrats to the otley brewing company they won the Champion beer of Wales 2008 with their excellant but strong 08

Overall Winner – Otley O8

Runner Up – Brains SA Gold
Third place Brains Dark

Arfur Daley has a video of them hearing they won.

Category Winners
Mild
Winner - Brains Dark
Runner up – Bryncelyn Buddy Marvellous

Bitter
Winner – Purple Moose Snowdonia
Runner up – Bryncelyn Holly Hop

Best Bitter
Winner – Evan Evans Cwrw
Runner Up – Bryncelyn Oh Boy

Golden Ale
Winner – Brains SA Gold
Runner Up – Tomos Watkin Cwrw Haf

Strong Bitter
Winner - Rhymney Export
Runner Up - Otley OG

Old Ale
Winner – Breconshire Ramblers Ruin
Runner Up – Purple Moose Dark Side of the Moose

Stout/Porter
Winner – Bullmastiff Welsh Black
Runner up Cwmbran Stout

Barley Wine
Winner – Otley O8

Speciality Beer
Winner – Otley O Garden
Runner Up – Conwy Cwrw Mel

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This is my 801st post on this here blog…

The beer first - as you know I like my real ale, but yesteday I went along to a new pub in the centre of Cardiff, called zero degrees, its pub that brew’s it’s own beer or as they say

ZERODEGREES is a pioneering drinking and dining concept at the forefront of the emerging trend towards fresh, handcrafted beers brewed by microbreweries.

anyway it’s was not real ale in the sense of what I normally drink, but “hand crafted beers on tap” I only tried a few of them, the Pale Ale 4.6% was the only one that could be seen to be like a normal bitter.

.

The Black Lager 4.8% was like a beer I had in prague (and you can get it in weatherspoons - Kozel), very nice and malty.

The star of the show was a Speciality fruit beer, a mango wheat beer

I know this seen as more a ladies drink ;), but on a warm day it was perfect.

The good thing about zero degrees is that they provide take outs, in 5l party packs or 50L packs!!

Well worth a visit but not this weekend as Munster are playing in the heineken cup and it will be packed as it’s just next to the Millenium Staduim

The photos now! they deserve a post of their own, so thats now 802 posts on this blog!

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o’hanlons’ port stout, originally uploaded by unclewilco.

So good and it’s only Tueasday and I have had two pints of it..

Smooth and tasty everything a porter should be if I gave stars it would get ********* out of 10.

wonderful

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“Beer O’clock” in Britain is 6.14pm, new research revealed today.

That’s the time the average drinker makes it to the bar after work, according to a survey.
The research also found Britons spend longer in the pub than their continental neighbours.
The survey of drinking habits across Europe found drinkers in this country spent an average of four hours 27 minutes in the pub.

On average British drinkers leave the pub around 10.30pm.

Spanish drinkers have their first drink at 5.45pm, and the French start drinking around 6pm.
In France they spend an average of around two hours 35 minutes drinking and in Holland three hours 30 minutes.

In Denmark, drinkers arrive in the pub at 4.40pm and don’t leave until 10.45pm - an average of more than six hours.

The research, by SAB Miller, also found Brits were more likely to go to the pub on Friday than on any other day.

And it revealed one in ten workers in Britain have a pint at lunchtime, compared to more than 20% of Danes and 18% of Spaniards.

It found around half the alcohol consumed in the UK was drunk in beer. The French drink only 15% of their alcohol in beer, and the Czechs nearly 65%.

:: SAB Miller surveyed 7,500 people in 15 countries.

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Adnams has launched what it claims is the UK’s first carbon-neutral beer.

Adnams says the bitter, East Green, has less than 1p worth of carbon emissions per bottle, which it has pledged to offset.

The beer is produced at a new “eco-friendly” brewery in Southwold, Suffolk, which recycles steam created during the brewing process and uses it to heat 90% of the following brew, a spokeswoman said.

But they don’t mention the strength or anything… if you see if around sheddies take a photo of the clip and add it to the Beer of the Week Group on Flickr.

Anyway my beer of the Week is Bass!

It’s an old favorite and was a lovely pint Ralph says “most of the time ” which I will agree with most of the time you will be lucky to get a good pint of it.

I had it at the Fox & Hounds in St. Brides Major, South Wales, a great little pub I have not been to for years.

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There is no beer of the week, there are lots of beers

The Wetherspoons Real Ale festival is still on but alas i am off to foreign wossnames, so will miss the last week

I have added the past few weeks worth of Beer from the festival that I have drunk, to the Flickr group Beer of the Week, if you have any great beers then please feel free to add them.

These two were my favorites so far.

this post was sheduled to appear at this time and date.

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Well as it’s St paddy’s had to have a pint of Guinness, but shocking how much it costs in a Local Orish Pub…£2.85 a pint (you would have thought Brains would have made enough money on the weekend!) when you could go across the road to a wetherspoons and get it for £1.99 a pint today, as it’s Monday club as well…

Anyway I know St paddy’s was supposed to be Saturday this year, but I had to stay off the beer then, even though Wales won the Grand Slam..

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A lovely brew from the people that brought you Shropshire Lad.

It’s a blonde beer and a nice session strength of 4.1%

She’s blonde, well flavoured and very tasty!

Combining fine English pale malts together with Fuggles and Cascade hops to create a tasty “bitter stuff!”

very nice I may have another pint today.

conversationally I had a bottle of beer last night, which was great

Lovely Wye valley beer that my mother bought me for Xmas

Alc 4.4% Vol. 500ml. A classic brown ale with a sweet nutty flavour balanced with a resinous hop character.

The Best 4 x 4 has been brewed to celebrate the diamond jubilee of Land Rover. Since 1948, Land Rover has represented all that’s best about British ingenuity and engineering excellence. To celebrate the company’s diamond jubilee, Wye Valley Brewery in conjunction with Land Rover Owner International magazine has produced this commemorative bottled beer and there will be a donation from every case of bottles sold to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

This beer is not bottle conditioned.

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Blimey two posts in a week about Beer, either the Beer is too good or I’m drinking too much.

This was a wonderful porter (a theme I think) was well received 4/5 …

Old Growler
Porter 5.0 % abv

Our famous porter has won at the CAMRA winter festival twice, the only brewery to do so, first in 1998 and again in 2003, also winning the highest accolade Supreme Champion in 2003. Also Supreme Champion at the Chicago International Beer Festival in 2004, in the porter category. A complex, satisfying porter, smooth and distinctive. Roast malt and fruit feature in the palate. The finish is powerfully hoppy with a hint of liquorice.
Sometimes available as Growler Extra, at 5.5 % abv.

But I would also like to make this post an introduction the Beer of the Week Flickr group, please feel free to add your Beer clips or Pints of beer to the group and it may feature here.

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I can’t believe this has not made my Beer of the Week so far, as i tend to get it if its on, normally thats at the POW as the other beers are sometimes not up to grade but the Rhymney is always good, but today it was at the gatekeeper, which was great accompaniment to my Chili & Chips!

The 5% Ale is according to the brewery

“Our strongest ale to date. A heady flavour from a combination of six malts, carefully and skilfully mixed by hand, which we believe provides an ale of exceptional character. Full bodied yet rounded, serious but eminently quaffable”.

Rhymney are a great Welsh brewery that produce wonderful consistent beers unlike a certain bigger brewery in Cardiff.

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I have been eying this up for a few days, but only took the plunge when a “collude” was having it with his group of reprobates.

Herold Black Chalice 4.8% abv

This dark, almost black, stout-like beer is characterised by a dense creamy head and rich flavours reminiscent of plain chocolate.

I would easily drink this agian and agian its brewed by Pivovar Herold the Czech brewer.

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A pub named after a breed of pig was today named the best in Britain.

The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) praised the Old Spot Inn, calling it a well-run community pub.

100-year-old free house in Dursley on the Cotswold Way is named after the Gloucestershire Old Spot pig.

It beat other contenders in the Camra competition when assessed for its beer, atmosphere, decor, customer service and value for money.

Why not read my Beer of the Week posts.

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