Those of you who follow me on twitter (@mrdavidj if you don't and would like to) will probably be aware that I am currently in the USA. I've drunk a fair amount of Dogfish Head, and had a rather good afternoon at Erie Brewing Company yesterday, but those will be covered in another post. For this is The Friday Pint post, and although my netbook tells me it's 1:11 on Saturday Morning back home, here it's only 20:11, and so the night is still young.

The weather today in Cleveland was hot, at least to me it was hot. It was the kind of heat where just walking a few minutes makes that entire pint of water you just downed seem worthless. This probably wasn't the best weather for me to enjoy beer in, but I made a good go at it.

This week's Friday Pint came from the Great Lakes Brewing Company, and was an Amber Lager, called Elliot Ness. It was one of those beers that served it's purpose, but failed to provoke any kind of notes in my notebook.

The pulled pork sandwich that I had with it however was gloriously tasty, with some of the best chip seasoning I've ever had on chips. I followed this with some of their homemade chocolate chunk ice cream, made with their porter. Whilst it was rather tasty, I felt it didn't quite seem exciting as the description.

After food and beers, we went on the tour. The things of note that I felt worthy of mentioning are the fact that some of the waste malt is used in the resturant for baking pretzels and bread, and that the beer served in the resturant comes straight from the tanks in the brewery, completely bypassing the kegging process, meaning fresher beer.

I liked Great Lakes. After the tour I popped back in to use their toilet before the drive back and discovered the pub downstairs. It seemed like a good place to drink in, and if it wasn't for the fact that I was feeling perpetually dehydrated, I probably would have stayed for one more.

Late on Saturday Night, Jonny Bright posted this tweet...

I'm guessing he was rather drunk at this point, though this tweet still put the idea into my head, and so earlier this evening, once I had got back from Leeds and dropped my suitcase off, I headed up to Brewdog Camden.

I've had both Tactical Nuclear Penguin and Sink The Bismarck! on their own before. I find of them to be a bit harsh, especially when it comes to the aroma. It's difficult to distinguish anything underneath the burning alcohol that wafts up from the glass.

Combine the two though, and it actually becomes a lot more drinkable. Everything about it mellows, and the taste becomes a chocolate followed by burning followed by a lingering sweetness, that ultimately satisfies.

Quick research tells me that I'm not the first person mad enough to actually try this. At least one other person has tried it, and noted this fact on the internet. There are references to A TNP/STB Black and Tan here and here. It's not clear if these are two seperate people, or the same insane beer drinker.

It's not something I'd reccomend having on a regular basis, but it's something I reccomend trying, even if you didn't like the component beers.

 

This portly fellow stands in Leeds, surrounded by a CEX, a shopping centre, and a Sainsburys. He is about a five minute walk in either direction from Mr. Foleys or North Bar, and was about 10 minutes walk from The Met, where around 100 beer bloggers met to talk beer, listen to people talk beer, and drink beer. When I saw him, I knew I had to take his photo for this post, and so here he is. He certainly seems more apt than the structure below, which I'm still not entirely sure what it's supposed to be.

Okay, so a summary of my weekend. Thursday, I arrived and drank some beer. Friday, I drank some more beer. Saturday, I drank more beer. Sunday, I drank more beer, but not as much as Friday or Saturday. By mid-afternoon Sunday, I had effectively been beered out.

There was a lot more to the weekend than just drinking though, with several talks and panels on different aspects of the beer industry and blogging taking place over the two days.One of the talks on Saturday morning, was a talk on Social Media.

I like social media, though as a fellow blogger commented, it's rather anti-social. An often occuring amusing sight over the weekend was that of many people on their phones, tablets and laptops, tweeting or posting facebook statuses about the event. I was one of them, and was even using the time during the Social Media talk to add another aspect to this blog.

Every time I make a post on Posterous, it automatically posts to various other locations around the internet. Over the weekend I added Tumblr to that list, and at some point I'll be trying to work out how to get it to autopost to the Good Morning Facebook page.

Over the course of that one hour though, I began to dislike the internet and social media. Some of the points were apt, and if I was actually taking notes I'd probably be looking at some of the websites and services that were mentioned. As it is though, I found myself wondering how something that should be enjoyable could be made quite dull.

I'm not concerned with numbers. I'm not concerned with where my readers come from. Maybe I should be. Maybe I should take this more seriously and load up on analytical tools and stratagies. I could do that, but in my mind it would be losing touch with why I started this blog in the first place.

Before Good Morning... became mostly about beer it served a purpose as an outlet for my thoughts, and a place where I could write and keep my creative brain active. In early 2010 I started writing about my beer drinking. I didn't intend for Good Morning.. to become a beer blog, yet it soon became apparent that is what it was becoming.

This year I've already started two strands within the blog, "The Friday Pint" and "Black and Tan Experiments". One of these was started to further improve my writing, whilst the other was started because doing this blog has made me more adventurous as a beer drinker.

I also think it's made me more passionate. I could talk for an age about beer, and would happily do so to (or for) anyone who asked me to. Once that talk becomes about selling a beer though, it doesn't seem as fun. I can wax lyrical about some beers (just ask anyone who's heard me talk about Sadler's Mud City Stout), but if it was my job to sell these beers, there would be something that wouldn't quite sit right with me.

I'd love to work within the beer industry. I've met some great people in bars, brewerys, and on twitter. If all industries were made up of people like this, I think the world would be a much better place. I am aware though that saturation can kill passion. If I had to talk about a beer I loved, and drink it every day as part of that work, would I still love it, or would I become tired of it?

I'd be a terrible sales person. Not just because I hate the whole world of marketing, but because I'd also not be believing anything I said. When some one seems to believe in what they say, I feel much more inclined to want to listen to them. When it seems more like a sales pitch, I'll switch off. Maybe this knowledge would make me a better salesperson, who knows.

I should probably just enjoy the beer.

A few weeks ago, I tried a black and tan using Magic Rock's Human Cannonball and Bearded Lady. Yesterday, as part of the European Beer Bloggers conference, I got the chance to try this mix using the new barrel aged version of Bearded Lady, of which there are just 8 kegs in existence.

The barrel ageing has made Bearded Lady a lot smoother, and as such, it drinks a lot easier than a 10.5% beer should do. It's full of bourbon hints in the aroma, but they're not overpowering like some barrel aged beers can have. When it becomes mixed with Human Cannonball, it's very similar to the standard mix, with slight hints of bourbon taste coming through, which presently surprised me as I was expecting this to be drowned out by the hops in the Human Cannonball.

 

Okay, so this isn't "live". I'm writing it whilst drinking the beers I'll be talking about in this post, but I've opted to not try and actually tweet anything about the beers, as the wifi in the room we're drinking in is horribly unreliable.

The first brewery at our table is Marble Brewery from Manchester. They've bought with them a beer made in collaboration with Emilisse Brewery from Holland, an Earl Grey IPA. It's been made using earl grey tea, and has a lot of citric bitterness.

Second to pimp their beer is Roosters Brewery, with a single hop IPA called Baby-Faced Assassin.  It's a Citra IPA, made with a single variety of malt. As with most Citra hopped beers, it's not really my thing, but it does seem to be at the more likeable end of the range for me. Now I've had a few sips, it actually tastes more like grapefruit juice than it does a beer.

Next to the table is Great Heck Brewery, serving us Stormin' Norman, an American Style IPA, hopped with Cascade and Columbus.  I don't seem to be getting much hop aroma from this, and to be honest, the taste isn't really doing much for me either.

Brewer number four is Slater's Ales with Top Totty (queue Parliament jokes and pump clip taste debates).  To me, it's a nice, lager like ale. There's not much aroma, but it's clean, crisp and very refreshing. I'm not a fan of pale ales, but this I enjoy

Next to our table is Mark Dredge, representing Camden Town Brewery with a bottle of US Hells. I've had one bottle of this that I've "got". The others haven't quite met expectations, and this is the same. It's nice, but it doesn't quite match that bottle that made me "get" US Hells

Half way through and Adnams are serving us with Ghost Ship, a "Ghostly Pale Ale". It contains a combination of Moteuka and Citra hops. These combine to create an aroma and taste that I quite like. It's still not my style as a pale ale, but in the right circumstances, it's a beer I'd enjoy.

Seventh to the table is Innis and Gunn, showcasing their Scottish Pale Ale, which will be available to buy soon. As with all Innis and Gunn beers, it's aged in oak barrels, in this case, Bourbon Barrels. It has a sweet, whisky like aroma, with a hint of vanilla in the aroma and the taste. It's a good beer, but the fact it is sold in clear bottles does put me off

The Leeds Brewery are the eight people to the table, bringing with them Hellfire, a "Fiery Pale Bitter".  It had a subtle aroma of grapefruit, and a bitter taste. After several pale ales I'm starting to get tired of them now. Variety is a good thing. Thankfully, I know Otley have bought Oxymoron with them

Talking of which, Nick Otley is at the table now. Oxymoron is a Black IPA. Aromawise it's one of those annoying bastards of a beer which I can recognise the aroma, but can't quite place what it is. It seems to be a mix of coffee, chocolate, liquorice and aniseed, with something else as well.

Finally, we end with Brains and Brains' Dark, the brewery's Mild. It's full of rich, chocolates and burnt malt flavours. This is the sort of beer I enjoy, and I'm pleased to finish on this.

I'm writing this to test autoposting to tumblr

If all is well, this post should autopost to the following places:-

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Right now, the attendees of the European Beer Bloggers Conference are enjoying beers from all around Europe. Beers from the Netherlands, Sweden, Italy and Bulgaria are all present.

I tried a few myself. There's some good beers there, but I found myself struggling to appreciate them. I needed to sit down, and relax with a good beer. This is what has bought me to North Bar.

It's incredibly antisocial of me, but you know what, I don't care. I enjoy beer best when I can relax, just me and a beer, which is exactly what I have right now. There are other people here, but at this table it's just me and a bottle of Mikkeller 19. From what I understand it's brewed with 19 hops. I can't say I'd know that if I hadn't been told, but I can say I rather like it.

Anti-social beer drinking. Try it some time, you might enjoy it.

With the EBBC registration and trade show in an hour and a half's time, choosing to come up to North Bar and drink my 20th Friday Pint probably isn't the best of ideas. Here I am though, with a pint of Raw Brewing Company's Grey Ghost IPA.

I'm impressed. It's pale, and bitter and seems like a very good start to the day. It's not really inspiring any extravagant descriptive hyperbole from me, but it is a rather good IPA.

So, 20 weeks on from when I started this strand, with no real plan in mind other than to improve my writing and descriptive skills, what have I acheived? Well, I'm still not entirely sure if there is a plan or structure. I'm trying to stick to my original idea of trying something new, though this hasn't always been possible, or appropriate. Some of the pints have been responsible for a stream of writing about themselves, whilst others have merely been sipping matter as I jot down what's in my head.

I'll be honest and say this one isn't really doing either, despite it being one of the best Friday Pints in recent weeks.

Kind of disappointing this post really, isn't it?

So, I am now in Leeds, and after failing to find a comic book shop to buy this weeks issues of Batman, I find myself in North Bar.

I like it. It's how a bar should be in my mind. A bar is long, it can get busy, and conversations often merge into one murmuring noise. A pub in comparison is more square, it will often have separate areas for different purposes. A pub is very different from a bar.

I look at what's on. Behind the bar on the blackboard I see the words "Black and Tan", in this case a mix of Magic Rock's Dark Arts, and Brooklyn Lager. On the bar though is Brooklyn's Soriachi Ace. I order a half only to find it's run out.

And so here I am, Black and Tan #12 in front of me. It's my first beer since reaching Leeds. It's not overly impressive. The lager mellows the stout in a way that isn't really noticeable, but makes it a lot more quaffable. Dark Arts on its own I tend to sip. This I appear to be swigging.

I have half a glass left. The question is, with the pre conference pub crawl looming, do I stay for another?