Some beer highlights:

- Epic Pale Ale (awesome flavours, majorly hoppy….what you would expect from Epic. Ive seen some Epic beers for sale in the UK – buy them).

- Epic Lager(one od the best, if not the best lager I have ever had! Hoppy flavour and perfect for just grabbing out the fridge and swigging, wish you could get this in the UK….Especially now that 77 lager is discontinued)

- Macs Brew Bars(cool bars with a great selection of class beers all brewed by Macs….Cool like Brewdog….but the chilled out version without the ridiculous beer).

- Ease of getting locally micro-brewed beers in the supermarket.

- Wanaka Beer Works(some award winning beers here…and Wanaka is so beautiful!).

- Boundary Bouncing Czech(Nice Pilsner from just outside Wellington).

- Plenty of hoppy pilsners available (Montieths Pilsner, Macs Hop Rocker, Bouncing Czech….the list could go on).

And thats just a taster!  Here is some pictures of some lovely NZ beers.

No prizes for the winner.

I know the definition of craft beer is up for debate at the moment so what happens when you let everybody on Facebook input into the outcome of a beer? Is it still craft beer? Will it taste any good? Or will it just result in a mediocre middle-of-the-road ale?

My input to the crowd-sourced craft beer.

I guess we will find out* as that’s what Samuel Adams are doing with a new beer specially brewed for SXSW Festival.

Their Facebook App lets you choose the following characteristics of the beer…

• Colour – Golden, Amber, Red, Brown or Black
• Clarity – Clear, Medium Haze or High Haze
• Body – Lighter, Medium or Full
• Malt – Biscuit, Toffee, Coffee, Chocolate or Smokey.
• Hops – Citrus, Herbal, Spicy, Piney or Earthy
• Yeast – Fruity to Spicy.

After you’ve created your ideal beer, it’s thrown into the mash tun with everyone elses and you get to see how the final beer is shaping up.

This is a great use of Facebook and social media by Samuel Adams. I love how a small digital act will influence the final product and if I was attending SxSW, I would certainly want to try it.

Voting closes on the 5th February so add your ’2 cents’ before then on their Facebook Page

*Chances are we’ll never taste it so we won’t find out.

No slippage on these beer pumps at the new Bath Ales bar, Beerd in Bristol. As it’s in the west country, I’m guessing they’re Charge grips.

Photo from Beer Lens

This made me laugh. Especially the bit about fluorescent lighting at beer festivals. But who’s responsible for it?

PS – Sorry for the lack of posts. It’s due to business / laziness – delete as appropriate

Based on a couple other beer marinades I found on the internet, used:

Half cup Harcore IPA, 1 tsp dark brown suger,  2 cloves garlic,  little bit of pepper,  fresh rosemary

Left for 12 hours. Tasty!

Following on from the Ale Fruit Loaf post and continuing the series in cooking/baking with beer I decided to make the Guinness Ale Cake for the work charity bake sale.  I followed Nigellas recipe pretty much to the letter:

INGREDIENTS FOR THE CAKE:

• 250ml Guinness
• 250g unsalted butter
• 75g cocoa
• 400g caster sugar
• 1 x 142ml pot sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
• 275g plain flour
• 2 1/2teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

FOR THE TOPPING:

• 300g Philadelphia cream cheese
• 150g icing sugar
• 125ml double or whipping cream

The result was a success and everyone liked it.  A black and moist cake which is very rich and probably couldnt be much more unhealthy!  You get a hint of Guinness in the taste, but its also very chocolaty.  If I were to do this one again I think it would be good to try with a really strong flouvoured stout, maybe an Imperial Stout even, if you can bare use a good one in a cake!

London Fields Brewery is hot on the heels of Camden Brewery in being the coolest Brewery in London.

As London Fields say on their website ‘All Set to Become East London Leading Brewery’

Ingredients

• 500g/1Ib 2oz small currants
• 140g/5oz raisins
• 140g/5oz mixed peel
• 500ml/17fl oz bottle McEwens Champion
• 180g/7oz soft dark brown sugar
• 150g/5½oz self-raising flour
• 180g/7oz wholemeal self-raising flour
• 3 tsp mixed spice
• 3 free-range eggs

Method

1.  Put the dried fruit into a large pan and cover with the bottled beer.

2.  Gently heat the fruit until the beer is hot, but not boiling. Remove from the heat, cover and leave overnight.

3.  When you are ready to cook the loaf, preheat the oven to 140C/275F/Gas 1.

4.  Add the sugar, flours, mixed spice and eggs to the fruit mixture. Stir well until all the ingredients are combined.

5.  Divide the mixture between two greased 500g/1Ib 2oz loaf tins.

6.  Bake for 1¼ hours until risen, pale brown and firm to the touch.

7.  Cover with a tea towel and leave on a wire rack to cool.

8.  Wrap the loaves tightly in cling film and keep in a cool, dry place for up to 6 weeks.

Took this recipe from the BBC Food site.  It really is yummy yummy!! Especially with a bit of butter,  nice when washed down with a beer (something like Brakespear Tripple or Fullers 1845 would be best I reckon).  Will be trying this again with a beer a little more interesting soon, something a little stronger and unusual now that I know this recipe works, maybe add a few walnuts in there as well.

Yes…that is two posts in two days by the way!