Desert Island Beers #1

Since I failed to do a blog entry yesterday, I'm doing two today.

I frequently get into conversations about favourite beers, favourite pubs and stuff like that.  My desert island beer list changes about once a week, of course, and anyway half the fun is of trying new beers...but I'll list some of my favourites today...it'll be different tomorrow, I'll wager.

S tells me you have to have a mix of styles in the desert island list because you'd get bored of the same thing.  He's probably right, so I'll try and stick to that rule too.

1. Dark Star Hophead a beer I'm happy to drink wherever, and whenever.  Light and relatively low in alcohol so I don't fall over too quickly on it.  Best drunk in The Evening Star, I find.
2. Bristol Beer Factory Sunrise similar in style to Hophead.  Discovered on The Grain Barge and I continue to drink it at my Bristol local, The Barleymow - although it seems slightly less frequently available than it used to be. Again, this is a really easy drink.  A little stronger than the ideal session pint, maybe, but nothing disabling.
3. These days I have an uneasy relationship with brown bitters - it's not that I don't like them, exactly, but they don't usually excite me.  However, the list has to have at least one and we learned on a recent Cornwall trip that the Penzance Brewery brews architypes...so what better Best Bitter could I ask for than theirs ?
4. Another brown beer I almost always try if it's available is Timothy Taylor Landlord.  Well kept it's a cracking pint. It's listed as a Pale Ale not a bitter and, to be honest, I'm not sure I really understand the distinction, but hey.
5. Another Bristol brewery I'm very fond of is Arbor Ales. I don't I've ever tried a beer of theirs I didn't like even though the hoppiness of them is distinctly unsubtle on some occasions.  Top of the tree for me has to be Black Eyed PA, though.
6. A couple more strongish beers need to go on the list - first is Jaipur by Thornbridge.  I've had it in cask, bottled and kegged form but from the cask, straight off a fresh barrel, at the Bristol Beer Festival was the best.  It has been known to make me an extremely cheap date...one pint and...
7. ...and ashamed as I am to include a second beer from a brewery, I think that I'd want Dark Star American Pale Ale available too.  It tastes a little stronger than it really is but it's got that oomph you want sometimes, especially if you're only stopping for one pint.
8. The last beer in the list is a little from left-field if you know me.  It's not the beer I'd save from the waves, for sure, but drinking it would bring back fab memories of a damp weekend of beer drinking in Brussels when S was trying to show me that there would be Belgian beers I'd like in spite of my assertions to the contrary.  It's a kriek but it has to be a draught kriek from Morte Subite. Brilliantly cherry flavoured but also dry and bitter.

As for my book to go with the bible and the complete works of Shakespeare...well Good Beer Guide, obviously.  Mind you, my pal Dr C calls it "the bible" so maybe I could trade the King James for the CAMRA versions and have a book on cellar management...?

Post Script...
...now here's a thing.  I told you the list would change by tomorrow...actually, I've just realised the error of my ways in not including an Oakham Ales beer.  Yet I've liked every pint of their beer I've ever had and adore their brewery tap in Peterborough...

That means APA at no7 might have to go and be replaced with something from Oakham...and since we're talking about a stronger beer here then possibly Dream Catcher which is a a beer-flavoured cosh...but brilliant.

OK - I'm really stopping now...probably.