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bottled beer Brew Britannia

Win Brew Britannia Beers

Mixed case of Brew Britannia beers from Beer Hawk.

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED. (06/06/2014, 17:00)

WINNERS TO BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY

How do you fancy winning a mixed case of 15 beers and copy of Brew Britannia?

When Beer Hawk told us they wanted to stock Brew Britannia, we asked if we could suggest (ahem — ‘curate’) a mixed case of beer to go with it, and they said, “Yes!”

Bearing in mind that we had to choose (more or less) from their catalogue, we’re pretty pleased with the selection, which includes influential Belgian and American beers, historical homages, and beers which have played a significant part in the last 50 years of British brewing.

We’ve written a short guide to go with it, which also suggests (no joke) which chapter of the book to ‘pair’ each beer with.

Now, Beer Hawk are offering two people chance to win one of these packs.

To enter, simply comment below, telling us, in no more than 100 words, about the single most memorable beer you’ve ever tasted.

Entries received after 5pm BST on Friday 6 June won’t be valid, so get your comment in before then, and make sure to use a valid email address so we can let you know if you’ve won.

We’ll contact the two winners by email on Saturday 7 June and announce their names in another blog post once we’ve confirmed their acceptance of the prize, probably (hopefully) on Sunday 8 June.

This is just a bit of fun, but…

Terms and conditions and rules and regulations and health and safety

  • This competition is only open to residents of mainland UK and Northern Ireland.
  • Entries received after 5pm on Friday 6 June will be invalid.
  • We reserve the right to disqualify entries for suspected cheating, or any other reason whatsoever.
  • There is no right of appeal; we won’t debate terms and conditions; and any misunderstandings are the fault of the contestant.
  • We’ll choose the two winners at random.
  • Once we’ve emailed the winners to get their postal addresses for despatch, they’ll have 48 hours to respond or the prize will default to another randomly chosen winner.
  • If you don’t like those terms, don’t enter.

45 replies on “Win Brew Britannia Beers”

As I am visiting Scotland this summer, can I enter and use my cousins address for delivery if I win? I also hold UK right of abode.

[Note: this is a test of your steely will power as new contest holders.]

Mikkeller/Anchorage Farmhouse IPA (£18, 750ml).

Having drunk that, I no longer look at those yellow & blue chunks in urinals and think “I wonder what they taste like”.

3 bottles into our first evening in t’Brugs Beertje, I pluck up courage to ask for a Drei Fontainen Oude Geuze, my first ever Geuze. The waiter smiles ‘It’s a little sharp you know, are you sure?’. I am. Gaahhhh! Crab apples and Cava! The waiter is watching me from the bar. I tough it out, each sip a challenge. The proffered glass is refused by an amused partner. I eventually finish it with relief. But the next day and for weeks after I think about it, yearning for a hot day and a cold Gueuze kick in the cheeks.

It tasted cool and pleasantly fizzy, and even more refreshing than that. It tasted a bit like cold tea; it tasted a bit like malt extract. It tasted like nothing other than itself, and it tasted more like it the more I drank. As the sun blazed and time gently slowed down, it tasted like something I could drink for the rest of my life, and probably would. I was sixteen, it was Buckley’s Bitter and I never looked back.

Chimay Grande Réserve at the Belgian Beer Café in Sydney circa 2003. I’d recently graduated, had a good income, felt rich, splashed out on a fancy and very expensive beer to share with friends. Beer with a cork! It was fantastic.

A few years later I moved to Europe to discover it was dead common and pretty cheap. It is still fantastic.

The Kernal – IPA (no idea which!)
I tried it at IMBC and thought it was excellent. However, I drank my first way quickly and then had another without noticing that it was over 7% and 11am. All I have to remember the rest of the day are my random notes on the other beers I tried, these include ‘alright’ and ‘tastes a bit like floor cleaner’. I promptly threw up as soon as I got home. Great beer though.

La chouffe, enjoyed with a very good friend at the excellent Head of Steam, Durham as one of my last night’s drinking before leaving uni. A beautiful beer, served in a great bar with the best of company – not much better in life!

My most memorable beer was a bottle of Three Floyds Dark Lord shared among friends at an outdoor concert with Garrison Keillor. The beer was dark and evil with engine oil consistency that means it has never quite left my throat though I finished it many years ago.

The last beer book I bought was Mark Dredge’s Craft Beer World and I decided to try some of the beers recommended therein. Described as one of the best beers in the world I tried Orval. Didn’t think it could be that different from the run of the mill beers I’d been drinking, but it was; stunning.

Tuatara Pilsner – from a warm bottle out the back of my campervan when travelling NZ. Can’t get the stuff over here so I have to make do with my memory of just how good it was. It had a hop flavour I’ve not come across since, absolutely divine. I might have to go back…

Timmy Taylor Landlord in the Turf Tavern, Oxford, as a fresher being taught by my newfound Northern friends about ‘proper beer’!

Timothy Taylor’s Landlord at the George & Dragon, Wentworth in S. Yorkshire. It was a new brew then.
Best thing I’d ever tasted!
Unfortunately I was sat underneath a stuffed foxes head on the wall and for whatever reason, the plaster of paris tongue chose that moment to detach itself fromt the fox and drop into me beer!
Took the pint back to explain and was promptly barred by the landlady as I must have been “mucking about!”
Still love Landlord though!

I remember my first taste of Anchor Liberty Ale. It was the spring of 2003. I was out with friends in Glasgow, and was trying new things at the Beer Café in Merchants Square. It hit my senses with hints of rose – the first time I had detected anything other than ‘beer’. It was a game-changer, a beer that opened up a whole new world. Every time I drink one, I’m right back there again.

Moor Nor Hop
I was drawn in by the ‘unfined’ description oh how it did not let me down! The aroma reminded me of the smell of cannabis,and as soon as it hit my tounge a burst of grapefruity citrus hop brought out the biggest smile about!

I now urge every pub/bar/shop to stock this beer, and have threw up many a time getting over excited by it. Oh yeah and my new nickname is The Nor Hop Hunter!

just beginning to dabble in ale I took a trip to Henley and stumbled apon lovibonds. Had a pint of the 69 IPA, my first ever American style IPA. Mind blown by the massive hoppiness, it opened up my world to the sheer possibilities of beer. I know look back at that pint as a turning point. 4 years later I Am now the manager of a specialist beer shop and an all round beer geek.

Evil Twin’s Even More Jesus (Port Barrel): Poured and tasted like liquid decadence. So dark and dense I’m surprised it didn’t just collapse into a black hole in the glass. I suddenly felt that everything around me should either be upholstered in leather or paneled with mahogany . I want to forget I had it so I can have it for that first time all over again.

My first ever homebrew, a single hop Amarillo IPA that made me realise the magic of brewing my own beer.

My first bottle of BrewDog Tokyo was truly one of my favorite nights of drinking. I was fortunate to get a bottle where there was some great, noticeable whiskey barrel influence going on. I absolutely loved it and one of those experiences where I couldn’t get that beer out of my head for months.

A stag do isn’t a stag do without beer, but when the stag do in question is a three-man hiking trip around North Wales, carrying a slab of lager or a crate of session ales doesn’t seem like such a great idea. Which is how we came to be stood around at a bivi site in a remote cwm at the south end of the Nantile Ridge, drinking Brewdog’s Tokyo* from enamel mugs. Treacle, chocolate, and dark fruit. Rain, wind and cold. Jokes and reminiscences. Not a bad send-off.

My most memorable pint? My first. Tanglefoot by Badger. Being used to quaffing watery pish, I soon learned that abv does not equate between mass produced lager and finely crafted ale. Never was a beer more aptly named.

After I discovered ale I tended to sneer at lager, till one day my eye was drawn to the Schiehallion pump clip at the Charles Lamb in Islington. Maybe out of a misguided sense of patriotism I thought I’d give it a go and I’m glad I did. It totally re-defined lager for me and I now preach the gospel, even converting my future father-in-law, a previously staunch Stella drinker. Most pleasingly, after several pints that night my friend fell off his barstool, and forever more when I drink Schiehallion I remember that and smile.

Of the many, many memorable beers I’ve had, I think it has to be Janet’s Brown Ale poured by the homebrewer Mike “Tasty” McDole. This is a great beer, named after his late wife and one which I have brewed (the recipe is published, and I have his blessings to brew it commercially in the UK). The beer is fantastic, but what made it so memorable was Tasty and his obvious passion for the beer, and the story that lies behind the name.

When I was in Australia there was a bar the served a beer called Brass Monkey. I had just started drinking and the pump was adorned with an amazing brass monkey figure on the pump.
Was a pretty good beer with a honey flavour only saw it in this one bar so couldn’t try it again.

Birra Del Borgo/Dogfish Head Etrusca.

I got into beer after watching the Brew Masters TV series following Sam Calagione of Dogfish and was fascinated with their experiments with ancient ales. On my first trip to that London and first foray into the big city’s scary craft beer bars, I stumbled upon this odd bulbous bottle in BrewDog Camden. Took it home and nearly cried – one of the most delightful, bemusing, surprising, confusing beer experiences I have ever had. Million pound wine cellars should be emptied and packed to the rafters with this gorgeous stuff. It didn’t taste of beer at all – minimal hops, lots of honey, African spices and a wild yeast. Mind bogglingly beautiful and unlike anything I imagined a beer could be.

Standing at the bar in an anonymous drinking warehouse somewhere in North Wales, I took a sip of the beer I’d ordered because I’d never seen it before. In an instant I was transported to an island, bountiful with oranges and grapefruits hanging from the trees. My mouth, filled with tastes we rarely get on this rainy isle. What on earth is the nectar I was drinking? Beer shouldn’t taste like this! I snapped back, gathered my composure and looked at the clip again. Oakham JHB. I knew life would never be the same again. It certainly wasn’t.

My most memorable beer was a pint of Ind Coope Burton Ale in The Claremont in West Byfleet. It was nothing to do with the venue or the company, which was a bog standard Friday night in a grotty boozer – it was just the beer was delicious. In fact I wished my mates would shut up so I could concentrate on the drinking and not have to waste any time talking. I’ve never had a better pint since.

It has to be when I first tried Rogue Ales Dry Hopped St Rogue Red from my local bottle shop – my first experience of a dry hopped US beer, and a real revelation! This red ale with a big hoppy, piney aroma accompanied with flavours of spicy forest fruits, caramel, and citrus combined with rich oily resins really ignited my taste buds. And a few weeks later, I was enjoying it on tap in the state where it is brewed, Oregon 🙂 A great beer from a fantastic US brewery, and an all-time favourite.

Jester single hopped pale ale brewed by a friend of mine. He’s been brewing for just under a year. Having brewed beer myself and tasted some of his and others previous offerings I did not have high hopes (he even said himself it wasn’t anything special). I was pleasantly amazed at just how good this beer is. It’s packed full of grapefruit tartness with a solid malt body. I have never tasted homebrew this good. Since he continues to brew great beer. Look out for him a master brewer in the making.

Pints of Fuller’s Discovery outside a pub on a sunny afternoon in Portsmouth. Eight good friends who don’t see each other often enough, beautiful weather and a perfect stag do.

Not so much a single beer, this, more of an event. I was in Scotland in 2012 with my Family, when my lovely wife spotted the FyneFest event. It was an really interesting experience to be bitten by midges and listen to the local bands whilst trying Fyne Ales experimental beers. I’d also not tried all of the established beers that they produced, only really seeing them at festival. Marvelous Brewery!

Brewdog Cocoa psycho was the first really memorable beer that I tasted and just said “wow” big bold coffee and chocolate hit and at 10% can blow your socks off!

My most memorable beer is the Austrian brewed Samichlauss Classic. A 14% doppelbock brewed annually and aged for 10 months, the taste almost blew my mind. Sweet and syruppy, it’s almost like a dessert wine and so far outside my frame of reference for beer that I struggle to describe it any further.

As a student on Industrial placement in Peterborough in 1969 I found my nearest Pub to be The Boys Head just a few minutes walk from the digs I stayed in. On the first night I ventured there with my new roommate, ‘two pints of bitter’ were ordered and the barman flipped a lever and we watched as a diaphragm moved in a clear plastic block to deliver an exact half pint measure into the glass. Flipped back and repeated and we were handed two wonderfully clear pints of Barnsley Bitter. The original Barnsley Bitter, and it was glorious. Beautifully balanced and so moreish, a pure amber-golden brew with sweet malts and aromatic hops. Needless to say we became regulars, both at lunch time and the evenings. Truly outstanding beer, it was probably when I realised how good beer could be.

One? It is liking choosing your favourite song. If it is one that has a lot of happy memories then Stones Best Bitter – Uni standard beer. One that was spectacular? Brodies’ Sake IPA is just amazing – liquid stilton

My first: A Kronenbourg stubbie, drunk in sunny France in my tender youth. I hated it. Really hated it. The bitterness shocked my childish palette, more used to Refresher bars than hops. I tried to impress older people with my maturity by walking around holding it; my Super Mario Bros. bumbag sadly undermined my efforts. Most of the bottle was secretly poured into the toilet. Luckily the whole beer experience got better after that.

I recall drinking at the GBBF on a Thursday a few years ago at Earls Court. Waking up groggy on the Friday morning, I set out with my friend Fraser to seek out the Southampton Arms for a first visit. Weary from a day of drinking all sorts (mainly cask), we surprised each other by both ordering half of Camden Lager, something we’d not ordinarily consider. Sat out the back, in the sun, the pub to ourselves, this was fresh as anything and really hit the spot and we went back for more and more.

My first Real Ale will never be beaten. I was an inexperienced lad trying to fit in with my peers, drinking lager and pretending to enjoy it. A chance meeting in a pub brought my underage self (only just but nonetheless) face to face with my old Dad. Instead of ordering me home he ordered me a ‘proper pint’, explaining the difference between ‘Drinking for the drink’ and ‘Drinking for the Drunk’! On that occasion it was Bass – still a favourite if treated right. That was the first lesson of an education i’m still recieving.

What with an Irish fiancé, I had drank my fair share of stouts. The one everyone knows, and a range of undistinguishable and forgettable ‘others’ . But the day I tried The Kernel’s 1890 export stout, my eyes were opened. Never before had I experienced so much flavour crammed into one glass. A drink that was as black as tar and smacked just smacked you in the face with it’s taste and aroma.

Maybe the traditionalists were right, and our future is in looking backwards, or maybe we were wrong to ever doubt out brewing past.

A Westvleteren Gold Top lived up to the hype after finally trying one in De Verde. Still got a couple of bottles ageing for momentous occasions.

I couldn’t believe it if I closed my eyes and breathed in it had the nose of an expensive Cognac but it was beer. This was my first but not last encounter with Brewdogs AB:15. I could of drank it all night if it wasn’t so strong a sipping beer so complex and so much more than the Salt Caramel Popcorn description it was given. I’d had less complex whiskeys than this and it just blew me away, the taste just changed so dramatically as it slowly warmed the hard alcohol edge and caramel malt giving way to a sweetness and a salty aftertaste. It could have easily been several different beers during the half hour it was in the glass.

Sierra Nevada pale ale. At my now favourite gastro pub. I just never new beer could taste that way and have so much flavour. A memory ill never forget, my beery eureka moment. Ive got so much to thank that beer for it really has changed my life thank you sierra nevada.

Matuška Speciální Světlé 13° on my last visit to my homeland. I’m not quick to label things “best ever” but I do think this might be the most satisfying pint I’ve had since I started drinking beer some 20 years ago. Wonderfully refreshing and easy-drinking, yet full of flavour and character. I could drink this beer every day and never tire of it. Lagers are boring? Hahahahaha. Make the effort and find one by somebody who actually knows how to brew one.

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