Winterfest 8 By Brewers of Indiana Guild another great success

You could almost leave your jacket in your car at Winterfest on Saturday, January 30, 2016, the 8th annual. We counted at least 86 Indiana Breweries plus plenty of guests pouring a huge variety of beers. We knew Burn Em Brewing of Michigan City had decided a dozen varieties of beer was not enough and brought 16, but that was nothing compared to the 40 different beers from Bare Hands Brewery of Granger, IN. Looks like those from northern Indiana took this very seriously -- and each had some unusual beers. We'll have a report on some of the beers we enjoyed as we renew our notes. Here are a few photos that recap Winterfest!

The crowds were steady but lines moved quickly. There were real bathrooms plus porta-potties.

Dribs and Drams

Let's get ready to Winterfest

Jan 30	Indianapolis	Brewers of Indiana Guild Winterfest at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. 101 breweries. 3-6:45pm. $40.
Jan 30	Dayton OH	Brew Ha-Ha. $35-$50. 6-10pm.

Early bird Winterfest tickets are sold out. General admission $40 tickets are available at the website. There also a list of represented breweries there. Oh heck, lets copy it here

18th Street Brewery 450 North Brewing Co. Back Road Brewery Bare Hands Brewery Basket Case Brewing Company Bier Brewery Big Lug Canteen Black Acre Brewing Company Black Swan Brewpub Blind Owl Brewery Bloomington Brewing Company Books & Brews Brew Link Brewing Broad Ripple Brewpub Brugge Brasserie Bulldog Brewing Co Burn 'Em Brewing Carson's Brewery Cedar Creek Brew Co Chapman's Brewing Chilly Water Brewing Co. Crown Brewing Danny Boy Beer Works Daredevil Brewing Co Deer Creek Brewery Deviate Brewing Evil Czech Brewery Figure Eight Brewing Flat12 Bierwerks Flix Brewhouse Fountain Square Brewing Co. Four Fathers Brewing Function Brewing Goshen Brewing Co. Grand Junction Brewing Co. Half Moon Restaurant & Brewery Heady Hollow Brewing Hoosier Brewing Co. Iechyd Da Brewing Company Indiana City Brewing Co. Ironwood brewing co Lafayette Brewing Co

Mad Anthony Brewing Company Man Cave Brewing Co. MashCraft Brewing Metazoa Brewing Company New Boswell Brewery & Tap Room New Corner Brewing Company Noble Order Norris English Pub and Brewery Oaken Barrel Brewing Company Outliers People's Brewing Company Planetary Brewing Co. Power House Brewing Co. Quaff ON! Brewing Co Ram Restaurant & Brewery Redemption Alewerks Rock Bottom Route 2 Brews LLC Saint Joseph Brewery Salt Creek Brewery Scarlet Lane Brewing Company Schnitz Brewery & Pub Shoreline Brewery St John Malt Brothers Brewing Sun King Brewing Co. Taxman Brewing Co. Tell City Brewing Company The Devil's Trumpet Brewing Co. The Guardian Brewing Company The New Albanian Brewing Co. The Tap Brewery Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Co. Three Floyds Brewing Co. Tin Man Brewing Co. Tow Yard Brewing Company Triton Brewing Co. Turoni's Main Street Brewery TwoDEEP Brewing Co. Union Brewing Company Upland Brewing Co. Wabash Brewing Wildrose Brewing Company Wooden Bear Brewing Company ZwanzigZ Brewing

Rita's columns lately have been

• Centerpoint opens, Three Pints closes plus anniversaries and much more news.
• Winterfest, beyond the beer.
• Winterfest preview: Big beers and big expectations which notes beer that will be served this Saturday.
• Craft beer and costumes at Winterfest.  
• Winterfest newcomers The new breweries you shouldn't miss.

She's blogger faster than we can post. OK Rita, you win.

The Brewers Guild's drinkin.beer web site has an app with maps of Indiana breweries, events, and probably basically their newsletter.


The Indy Star gives us 8 ways to get alcohol on Sundays. and Indiana bill would bring back happy hour (video)

Northewt Times — A House committee is expected to approve legislation Thursday that could enable alcohol sales at the Indiana Dunes State Park pavilion, regardless of consent by local authorities.

WTHI - New senate bill would help Indiana beer producers. Tax relief to Hoosier farmers of hops and barley and to the brewery's that use them.

Or on the negative side that's being used politically: "Local businesses can testify to the negative impact it’s had on the state’s reputation in the global marketplace. Doug Dayhoff, president of Upland Brewing Co. said that he’s experienced a downturn in interstate exports. At a big festival in North Carolina, some beer enthusiasts told Dayhoff that they didn’t want to buy his beer because they didn’t like “what Indiana stands for.”"

NE Indiana & Fort Wayne News - Sylvan Cellars Barn Opens Craft Beer & Cocktail Tasting Room. Rome City.

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Keep Track of the Brews You've Sipped With This Scratch-Off Beer Poster. Printable image but note that Pop Chart Lab makes all sorts of neat products. A real browse brews eyefeast.

27 craft beer labels that are intoxicating to the eye

We hate to not completely respect a giant when they do good but this picture is just too good to pass up. AB has always had a good history of helping people during emergencies and natural disasters. In all, they've donated over 74 million cans of drinking water since 1988 (Scripps Media) They have already sent 51,000 cans to Flint. (Question? Does that bottled water going there from many groups including governments do any good when taking a bath or shower? How long can families live on sponge baths? Am I a pervert for asking that question?)

Dribs and Drams

Here

Bloomington: Where to eat and drink. Featuring Function Brewing.

Deviate Brewing gets love in Beeradvocate. (Thanks Rita)

Rita looks at Flat 12's 5-year anniversary.

Tow Yard and Denver's Factotum are collaborating on a Peyton Manning beer.

HopCat is going to open a Louisville location to add to their Lexington taps.

Cold sales in groceries and gas stations has been shot down again.

But there's another move afoot to allow to-go sales on Sundays. A bill has now been filed - HB 1399. Last year it was so confused by amendments the author withdrew it.

Sale of alcoholic beverages. Provides that a holder of an alcoholic beverage permit who is authorized by law to sell alcoholic beverages for carryout may sell alcoholic beverages for carryout on Sunday from 7 a.m., prevailing local time, until 3 a.m., prevailing local time, the following day. Requires a sales clerk who: (1) rings up; or (2) assists customers in accessing; alcoholic beverages in a grocery store or drug store to hold an employee's permit and have alcohol server training. Provides that the provision that allows individuals who are at least 19 but less than 21 years of age to ring a sale of alcoholic beverages in the course of the individual's employment does not apply to dealer establishments. Establishes alcoholic beverage display requirements for liquor dealers of grocery stores and drug stores. Requires video surveillance in stores, other than package liquor stores, where customers have access to alcoholic beverages without assistance. Makes it unlawful for: (1) the holder of a liquor dealer's permit, other than a package liquor store, to sell or distribute mini bottles through a self-service display; and (2) a person who is the proprietor of a package liquor store, drug store, or grocery store to allow a purchaser, or any other person who is not a sales clerk, to ring up or otherwise record an alcoholic beverage sale.

The mainstream media is all agog that someone may have said that carryout growlers are illegal. Friend of beer, Indiana Senator Ron Alting plans to fix it with SB 169. WISHTV, Oh, it's just in special Economic Development Zones.

The AP has a story about Eli Lilly's in-house bar.

The Star talks about Monarch Distributing's "fight to sell hard liquor".

The 18th Street Brewing Co. is now in Oklahoma.


There

Hoosier Hopped Coffee.

Patoka Like Winery gets love in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.

Elsewhere

Remember that 100-year old beer found off the coast in Nova Scotia? Well it's been tested and tasted. "Pretty good . . . tree fruits, cherry, sulphur, rotten eggs".

Remember the London Beer Flood of 1814?

Martyn Cornell's choice of 20 beer quotes. (Thanks Roger)

British health says people shouldn't drink more than 6 beers per week. Good luck with that.

Military Times laments the French Navy can drink beer on board. Not to be confused with baby on board.

Naked Capitalism posits that beer is under siege by global warming. Hop crops are already smaller.

Where?

Dribs and Drams

Jan 14	Indianapolis	Bicentennial Pours & Pints at Deviate Brewing. 4-8pm. Free.
Jan 16	Indianapolis	Flat 12 fifth anniversary Beer Festival. 11am-8pm. Free.
Jan 16-23	Kalamazoo	Beer Week. There will be a bus trip from Goshen Brewing.
Jan 17	Fort Wayne	Winter Warmer. J K O'Donnell's. 1-6pm. $25 advance.
Jan 23	Hobart	Big Barn Beer Fest. $50 County Line Orchard. 2-6pm.
Jan 23	South Bend	South Bend Brew Fest. $45.
Jan 30	Indianapolis	Brewers of Indiana Guild Winterfest at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. 101 breweries.
Jan 30	Dayton OH	Brew Ha-Ha. $35-$50. 6-10pm.

Senate Bill 127: Authored by Sen. Jon Ford.
Beer excise tax. Lowers the beer excise tax rates to: (1) $0.035 for the first 500,000 gallons of beer or flavored malt beverage sold in Indiana; and (2) $0.075 for the next 14.5 million gallons of beer or malt beverage sold in Indiana; if certain percentages of the hops and barley in the beer or malt beverage are grown in Indiana. Adjusts the distributions of the beer excise tax.

Rita tells us about making Bloomington Brewing pickles.
Also about Bier's 5th anniversary. New brews from Indiana City, Half Moon, Bloominton, Upland and Scarlet Lane.

Headline: Court hears appeal from beer distributor

Headline: Indianapolis #20 Among Best Cities for Beer Drinkers
Spoiler alert. The other 19 are Portland ME, Asheville, Portland OR, Billings, Denver, Seattle, Wilmington, Missoula (really?), Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Austin, Grand Rapids, Rochester, Columbus, Omaha, Bend, San Francisco, Cleveland and Kalamazoo. Notice that Indy beat  Spokane, Madison WI and Boulder!

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Here's a bit about the new 3rd Turn Brewing in Louisville.

Mathew Muncy of Indiana On Tap looks at the Cider Act which affects tax on, you guessed it, apple (and now pear) cider. it lowers the various taxes including a surcharge on carbonated cider.

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A pub crawl team from England's Black Country have been to 18,000 pubs in 32 years. This year they plan to visit every pub in Nottinghamshire, making 300,000 miles traveled.

 Snow Beer is the world's best seller. It's from SABMiller and a Chinese company. 61, 626,620,000 gallons. Yep, that's Billion.
11 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Bartenders. Sorta dumb but fun.

10 Foods That May Disappear Thanks to Climate Change. Guacamole, Apples, Beer (BEER!?!), Rice, Seafood, Chocolate, Coffee, Peanut Butter, Wind and French Fries. That's a scary list - could we live without these?

Dribs and Drabs Pen-Ultimate 2015 edition

At the end of 2015 Indiana has 50 breweries, 66 brewpubs and one brew on premise. In planning are 20 more breweries and 6 brewpubs. It's great that so many are setting up nano-breweries since the law allows them to make a living for one or two families by selling on-site and bringing in tasters with rudimentary food or food trucks.

Only one brewery went out of business - Cutters in Avon which couldn't pay their $77k sewage bill.

I gave a talk last month to the Indiana Legislature education program concerned mainly with the prohibition laws we have had in the Hoosier state over the last 200 years. I also made a big deal of thanking the 50-or-so officepeople for helping make brewing a going and thriving business.

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Girls Pint Out is five years old. Rita tells us what GPO is. Bonus picture of seven, SEVEN, Hoosier brewsters. Plus a bit about Omar, late of Alcatraz.

Last week she passed on that Bloomington Brewing's Ruby Bloom can now drink itself. It was Floyd Rosenbaum's initial beer at the new brewery. And I feel old.

Plus a recipe for Bad Elmer's Chocolate Cake.


Tyranena's well-reviewed The Devil Made Me Do It (28% ABV) will be coming to Indiana according to USA Today. It's banned in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Mississipi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont and Washington. Could it be just random that most of these states think government should keep off our backs? Our poor, poor, inebriated backs.

Neal passes on the UKeg 64 Copper-plated pressurized growler. 64oz, $149. Sold out until February. Retro cool. Do hipsters drink slowly?

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Beer Advocate reviews their beer cocktails from 2012. Not sure I'm enthralled about Pomegranate Fizz.

Brokkston Beer Bulletin has a new Periodic Table of Beer. The full-sized one online is suitable for printing. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any organization to the table.

A-B InBev looks to buy Arizona's Four Peaks Brewing. They bought Breckenridge of Colorado and Camden Town of England last week. Here's Roger's take.

You know about the rice and the Budvar dispute but what don't you know about Bud? Look here.

Headline: Top 10% of Americans enjoy and average of 74 alcoholic drinks per week.

Climate change impact: Beer. Per Naked Capitalism:

It’s sad, but true. Beer is already a victim of a changing climate, with brewers increasingly finding it more difficult to secure stable water supplies. According to a 2010 report commissioned by the National Resources Defense Council, about a third of counties in the United States “will face higher risks of water shortages by mid-century as the result of global warming.” Between 2030 and 2050, the difficulty in accessing freshwater is “anticipated to be significant in the major agricultural and urban areas throughout the nation.”

Some specialty hops used by craft brewers have already become harder to source, since warming winters are producing earlier and smaller yields. “This is not a problem that’s going to happen someday,” said Jenn Orgolini of Colorado’s New Belgium Brewery. “If you drink beer now, the issue of climate change is impacting you right now.” She said that in 2011, the hops her brewery normally uses weren’t available due to Pacific Northwest weather conditions.

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Salt Creek has a perfect put-down of Bud. Brad on a Bud.

Dribs and Drams

Rita talk about Grand Junction, Thr3e Wise Men's latest restaurant, Cedar Creek, and Oaken Barrel. Bier gets 6-packs. And I'm not even going to mention the Star Wars-themed beers.

Indiana's cold beer rules gets upheld in court and gets an appeal. FLASH. The Court of Appeals upheld the lower court ruling.

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Really? I didn't know Foster's is brewed in Fort Worth. If you didn't either - and actually bought an oil-can recently - you can join the class action suit.

WSJ: How to Understand a Beer Geek.

Want to try some Stone beer next time you're in Berlin? Here's some details (and pictures of what will become an elegant brewery.

Want to try Charles Mingus' (a great jazz bass player and my hero in high school) egg nog? Here's the recipe.

Want to spend $900 or $49,000 on a bottle of champagne for New Years? Here's some choices.

Guest Post - Bud Miller's Favorite Brewery - Salt Creek

A new writer, Bud Miller, has moved to Indiana. He sent this along for your enjoyment.

Salt Creek Brewery

Bedford Indiana, located in Lawrence Limestone Capital of the world. Once known 1800’s into the 1900’s for the production of Limestone, and in later years laying claim to producing 3 Astronauts, the most known being Gus Grissom’s and his prelaunch fatality in Apollo 1

 

In the late 1980’s and 1990’s Bedford claimed to be the Basketball capital of the world. After a championship winning girls team in the 1980’s, and in later 80’s with the Damion Bailey years of basketball, best Known for being scouted by Bob Knight in JR. high school, and later playing for Bob at I.U.

A city or county struggling with living in the current day and age, seem not to acknowledge their best asset, their “Local Brewery”. With the Beer Brewing industry growing in numbers each Year, The U.S. will have 4,100 + breweries in operation in 2016

 

This will be the RECORD amount of Breweries since before Prohibition. There were only a handful of breweries that survived the years of prohibition and the ones who did were instantly huge when the ban on alcohol was lifted. It is only in the last ten years that the Brewpubs have started coming back to now take the lead over the number of wineries and in the numbers of visitors or tourist that they bring. Breweries today are one of the Top tourist activities in the U.S. today.

Salt Creek Brewery is producing some of the best Beers I have tasted in my U.S. and World travels. Including Germany and England, who are known for producing some of the best beers ever?

Salt Creek is in the top 20 Beers I have tasted in my lifetime; while visiting 5 different Countries and tasting well over 400 different beers, these guys are something to talk about. The Brewery is 3 ½ years old. And has just started distribution in Indianapolis as of July this year, by November they have 30 Taps across Indy, ranging from private owned companies like Ember and Twenty Taps to corporate accounts like Hooters and BJ’s.

Their newest distribution area being Jeffersonville IN, landing taps at Buckhead Mountain Grille and Rocky’s sub pub both sitting on the river front of the Ohio River. They still maintain Tap space in Washington and Orange County, like Paoli Peaks Sky Lodge being one of their earliest accounts, and the French Lick Hotel and Casino being the newest one in Orange Co. The Brown County Inn in Brown County carries 6 of Salt Creek Brewery’s Beers, and what would be more fitting since we sit on the banks of north Salt Creek.

Salt Creek does not only produce great beers. It has a great history tied to the building. They converted an old Service Garage that had been in this location since the 1940’s sitting on what once was the main Hwy connecting Bedford to Indianapolis. Now the Highway dead end’s ½ mile south of the Brewery. Sold back to the limestone industry in the 1970’s, the Highway was closed and the stone below it was quarried - thus destroying the historic value of the highway forever and threatening one of the most Historic Quarry hole in the State.

This is where the stone for the Empire State Building was quarried. So while visiting the Brewery for one of their great beers and great preservation of the service garage, tourist has been known to visit the cemetery to sneak a view of the Empire quarry hole.

So make plans to visit the Brewery, to try one of their sixteen different Beers. 6 of which are Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal Beers. Make sure you walk up to the ½ wall by the bar and view the fermenting beers bubbling away in the former alignment pit of the old service garage, you can almost touch the Fermenter from where you are standing. Fill a Growler and take one of the award winning beers back home with you, even on Sunday.

Dribs and Drams

Rita tells us about anniversary celebrations at breweries. Bare Hands, Daredevil, Tin Man 18th Street. She also passes on that Greenwood's Planetary Brewing has been named to Food & Wine Magazine's 50 picks for nano breweries; Sun King is expanding distribution again (to the south and west); and a list of holiday beers from all over the state.

Indiana on Tap has quite a few stories freshly posted.
Sugar Creek Malt Co. of Lebanon is looking for an assistant maltster.
St. John Malt Brothers is going to provide a tasting at the Capitol (Washington DC).
A review of Goose Island Bourbon County Stout.

Inside Indiana Business reports that Thr3e Wise Men will open a new restaurant in the Courtyard Motel in downtown Muncie. They will also serve room service and can deliver within a 5-mile radius.

The calendar for the rest of 2015

Dec 12	Indianapolis	12 Chefs and Flat 12. Indianapolis City Market. 7-10pm.
Dec 16-18	Indianapolis	Beer Wars at Flat 12.
Dec 17	Greenwood	Fireside Brewhouse Ugly Christmas Sweater Party (and Karaoke). Reservations: 317-859-9505.

And here's a surprise. Beer, wine on tap for 9 Indy-area Starbucks. Given Starbucks prices, how much will beer be?

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Anheuser-Bush/InBev is reportedly trying a new push to get their distributors to add more shelf space. In short, AB had 49% of the market in 2008 and this has dropped to 45%. MillerCoors now has another 31%. American craft beers have about 11% (including Sierra Nevada, Stone and the like). 9% is taken by imports.

AB's idea is to spend $150m in 2016 in "advertising benefits" to distributors. Maybe $200,000 each. The hitch is they can only carry craft beers that make less than 15,000 bbl or that don't distribute out of state.

The St. Louis AB distributor has already taken steps to rid itself of the likes of Deschutes. Will Zink, Lafayette Beverage, Terrance & Smith, Little Beverage, Craig, Dekalb, Best Beers, Bartholomew County Beverates, Working, Aalco, Orange City, Greenfield, Calumet, Hedinger, Mid America, Boone Beverage, Nadorff, North Vernon, Miami, Jay County Beverage, United of South Bend, Dever, Nelson and Tippecanoe follow suit? If you are using one or more of these for local distribution and are 3 Floyds, Upland, Sun King, or anyone moderately big you should be worried.

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Meanwhile the AB InBev / SABMillerMolsonCoors merger is stalled in congress while the CEOs testify that the 80% of the beer market they jointly control isn't a monopoly. The Brewers Association took the opposite view. Report, report.

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A Brief History of Moonshine
11 Surprising Products Made With Beer

15 Cities to Visit for Their Famous Beer Styles - Short notes about Bamberg, Dusseldorf, Brussels, Pilsen, Cologne, Tourpes, Buttenheim, Deisenhofen, Oudenaarde, Mexico City, Burton-Upon-Trent, Kulmbach, Dortmund, Leipzig and Berlin.

The BA says 1,800 US breweries are in planning. and 4,144 are operating. In 1873 4,131 were operating and very few sent their products outside of their hometown. The largest brewery at that time made 138,449 bbl.

Not sure if this is a joke or political BS but supposedly the Stedji Brewery in Iceland makes a beer brewed with whale testicles.

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Years Past - England part 4

The last post about our 2005 European year. This covers Feb 23-Mar 20, 2006. Thanks for following.

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Found still more new beers to try - mostly in London. The CAMRA Good Beer Guide lists over 4500 pubs in England and more than 500 breweries making real ale. We've just scratched the surface.

• 1648 Winter Warrant - From the 1648 Brewery. Fairly thick dark winter warmer with a touch of plum. On the edge of grainy. Hops are quite subdued. Still, only 4.8%.
• Abbeydale Moonshine - Perfect middle-of-the-range bitter. Maris Otter and Willamette. 4.3% (R).
• Arundel Hard Willie - 4.7%.
• Bartram's Jester Quick One - Not as dark as it could be for that much caramel. Sweetness is too strong. 4.4%.
• Bateman's Jester.
• Beartown Polar Eclipse - Rich oatmeal stout with roast chocolate and sweet coffee notes. Quite good. 4.8% (R).
• Belhaven 6 Nations - For the rugby series.
• Blindman's Icarus.
• Brecon County Bitter.
• Coach House Innkeepers. Darkish, fruity. Strong bitter finish. 4.5%.
• Dark Star Nut Brown Ale. 4.5%.
• Eastwood & Sanders Maximum Darkness - Oatmeal stout with plenty of chocolate taste but a bit light in the body. 4.3% (R).
• Enfield Ale - Golden with honey notes.
• Frankton Bagby Barnstormer - lightish session ale.
• Freeminer Slaughter Porter - Dark cordovan red. Maybe a bit thin on the mouthfeel. Perfect balance. Lingering dry grainy bitter aftertaste. Some dark chocolate. 5.0%. (W)
• Fullers Jack Frost.
• Fullers London Porter - Chocolate and chickory. Rich.
• Hanby Golden Honey. Light colored pale ale. Hone comes through strong but not overly sweet. A+.
• Harviestoun Lager - Yes, cask conditioned. A bit bland. Still working with noticeable carbonation. Warmish temperature doesn't suit.
• Harveys Armada - Fuggles earthiness. 4.5%.
• Harveys Best - Ditto. 4.0%.
• Harveys Mild - Ditto. Dark color. Possibly the least alcoholic mild but still not weak. A bit sweet. 3.0%.
• Harveys Pale - Ditto the Fuggles. Makes you wonder that Harvey's measures ABV in .5% intervals. 3.5%.
• Harveys 1859 Porter - Quite dark and quite restrained. Elegant. 4.8%.
• Hidden Hidden Depths. Black dry stout. 4.6%.
• Hidden Old Sarum - Dark. Bitter. Malty. Seems stronger than the 4.5%.
• Hobden's Naughty Ferret.
• Hydes Heavenly Draught - Reddish amber bitter with lots of Fuggles and Goldings. 4.2% (R).
• Inveralmond Independence.
• Jennings Cockerhoop - Hoppy Golden Ale with Goldings hops.
• Malvern Hills Black Pearl Premium Bitter - Modern Golden Ale in all it's bitter glory.
• Marston Sweet Chariot Carry Me Home.
• McEwans Champion - Scottish Ale. Strong, edgy. Fruit background. 7.3%.
• Meantime Porter - Served on CO2 so some carbonation on the upper lip. Slides down. Nice but otherwise not notable, maybe because it was served too cold. Belies the 6.5%. (W)
• Nick Staffords Hambletons Gold Fleet.
• North Cotswalds Cockles.
• O'Hanlon's Port Stout. (W)
• Outlaw Roosters Oyster Stout - Rich, thick. Black. Black malt with no sweetness evident anywhere. No hops either so balance is good. 4.7% (W)
• Porterhouse Chocolate Truffle. (W)
• Ridley Prospect - Golden Ale. 4.1%.
• Salopian Shropshire Gold - Bland. Creamy. Dark oak color.
• Sharp's Will's Resolve.
• Shepard Neame Master Brew.
• Skinners Betty Boogs.
• Smiles Old Tosser - "Traditional dark ale". Really too sweet. 4.5%.
• Stonehenge Sign of Spring - Drinkable but greenish. 4.6% (R).
• Tring Jack O'Legs. Wonderfully strong, wonderfully simple, wonderfully balanced. 4.2% A+.
• Thwaites Bomber.
• Uley Old Spot - Strong bitterness. 5.0%.
• West Berkshire Good Old Boy - 4.0%.
• Westoe IPA.
• Wizard White Wizard - Golden or light pale ale, tough to tell which. New Zealand Green Bullit hops.
• Wold Top Mars Magic - Progress hops. Amber hue. Light body. 4.6% (R).
• Wye Valley Victory Ale - 4.8%.

Also:

• Cotswold Brewing Lager - A brewery in Witney that opened in May, 2005 with vessels bought from New York. Their lager is the only offering and it's gaining popularity in the west Oxfordshire area. Uses Maris Otter with Liberty and Hershbrucken hops.
• Leffe Radieuse - Nose: caramel, toffee, pear? Taste: Something darker. Red grape, sloe? Low carbonation. Mild belch. On tap.
   
• Inch's Harvest Dry Cider - 6.1%.
• Demon Crisis Cider locally made at the Red Lion, Isleworth.
• Rum Cask Cider also locally made - The rum aging doesn't come through as rum, rather as a sweet spiciness. Excellent.

(W) - At the White Horse on Parson's Green Porter and Stout Festival.
(R) - At the Red Lion, Isleworth, Spring Equinox Beer Festival

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My son and daughter-in-law joined us for a couple of weeks. Jon and I toured lots of CAMRA-listed and other recommended pubs in London. In the downtown area every pub is elbow-to-elbow with suits after work as people spend a couple of hours bracing themselves for or avoiding the butt-to-butt ride home on the Underground. This affected our drinking schedule.

• Elephant and Castle - Royal Oak* - Harvey's only London pub. 5 beers on. Classic 2-bar with a busy public side and a sedate reading room on the saloon side.
• Holborn - Cittie of York - Cavernous high-ceilinged old pub with big vats over the bar. Tiny 4-seat snugs with armchairs along one wall. Odd triangular burner stove in the middle of the floor that has no chimney.
• Holborn - Princess Louise - Elegant Victorian interior. Sam Smith's pub. Met a very friendly local drunk who recommended several other pubs we'd already been to.
• Holborn - Shakespeare's Head - A JD Wetherspoons we wandered into by mistake.
• Isleworth - Red Lion* - Local's pub that was CAMRA's regional pub of the year many times. Also "One of the top 50 boozers in London". Apt description.
• Lambeth - 3 Stags - Local with very comfortable couches. Just outside the Imperial War Museum.
• London Bridge Station - Shipwrights Arms.
• Moorgate - Globe Bar - Ehhh.
• Moorgate - Red Lion - Have to get out of this area to find a better pub.
• Tower Hill - Hung Drawn and Quartered - Fullers pub. Inexpensive food.
• Waterloo - Hole-in-the-Wall* - 2-bar pub just outside the north door of the station. Good meeting place. Front bar was un-manned in the early afternoon but back bar was excellent.
• Westminster - Buckingham Arms* - It has been in every edition of the Good Beer Guide. Very busy and still very friendly. Met a couple of people who recognized my Gravity Head T-shirt and gave us some recommendations.
• Westminster - Red Lion* - Tiny and disorganized pub right around the corner from Parliament on Whitehall.
• Westminster - Sanctuary Hotel* - Elegant place near the Abbey.

And a couple more outside of London:

• Steeple Aston - Red Lion
• Gloucester - Severn Bore Inn - Highway roadhouse that packs with people when the bore is running.

* - In the CAMRA Good Beer Guide.

Inside the Princess Louise.

Inside the Westminster Arms after a hard day at the office.

Red Lion in Avebury. What a goldmine.

The Red Lion is dead center of the circle above - the largest ancient stone ring in the world.
Tourist trade is massive every day of the year.

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Found a London brewpub. The Bunker in a basement location in Earlham Street in the west end theatre area. It's changed hands a few times since being built in 1994 by Freedom Brewery. They still make Freedom Bier. Yep, a "German" pub. All wood, silver paint, and long tables at least.
The beers are a Pilsner, Organic Lager, and an Amber which wasn't on tap. Both that we tried were decent but carbonated and cold, a bit bready with plenty of hops. Very light color.

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Finally found a homebrew shop. They are really quite rare and Pops Home Brew in Cheltenham is one of only two in the county of Gloucestershire. Had a nice hour chat about the business. Their place would fit right in to the US.

Owner Steve and full-time business partner, his wife, sorry, forgot your name.

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The proper British beer glass is called a Nonik.

Best beer names (tie): Quick One and The Usual.

Shepherd Neame is England's oldest brewery - from 1696.

Met a guy who says two pints of nitro-beer gives him a nosebleed. Thinks it's like the bends.

Europe Totals (subject to final audit):

Country	Bars	Breweries/ Brewpubs	Beers	Beer Festivals	Beer Museums
Austria		5	23		1
Belgium	20	4	82		3
Canary Islands	3		5
England	234	9	365	11	1
France	2	7	28
Germany	15	71	225	2	5
Gibraltar	4		4
Hungary	1	2	7
Luxembourg	1		2		1
Maderia	2		2
Netherlands	3		23
Portgual	1		1
Slovakia	4		7
Spain	8		7
Switzerland		7	44	1
Total	298	98	825	14	11