My Series Here on A Short Walk off a Craft Beer

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this whole blog thing, and I'm making this up as I go along. In the interest of clarity, I thought I'd put a short description of the different series I do here, and I'll add to it as I go along, and maybe think of new things!

1. Craft Beer Reviews

I review craft beers. I realise that it's not the most inventive name for a series, but it does serve to describe what I'm trying to do. What is a craft beer[1]? Great question, and way too confusing. For me though, a craft beer is a beer made with real attention to flavour profile, mouth feel and quality, not just for mass consumption. They're a little harder to find, and often a bit more expensive.

I review these beers, but I'm not a sommelier, or even someone who's trained their palate to distinguish between every ester known to Earth creatures (I'm jealous of these people though). In fact, I try very hard not to take myself too seriously.

I just review beer from the perspective of someone who has drunk a lot of different beers, and is passionate about beer. I describe the look of the can/bottle (beer art can be amazing!), the smell of the beer, the tastes from start to lingering finish, and my overall experience with the beer. I also like to give a small history/description of the brewery too, and maybe any interesting facts about the beer.

Note that not all craft beers are good! I've had some absolute shockers in my time, so it's not just a glowing review of beers. Even good beers have bad qualities, and I'll describe those as best I can too.

2. Budget Beer Reviews

This series aims to do the exact same thing as my Craft Beer Reviews (in exactly the same format), except I reviews beers that aren't expensive, and can be easily found in a supermarket (not all supermarkets in the world are the same, so it'll probably be about German beers from near where I live).

I had a really good message about how I called it "Cheap Beer Reviews" at first, and how this implied the beer isn't good (before I've even tried it). I've changed the name because that is not my intention! Just like not all craft beers are necessarily good, not all inexpensive, supermarket beers are bad! 

I'm hoping to find some good beers, but by the very nature of mass-produced beer, I'm also likely to try some very average to poor beers. Hopefully I can steer you away from the bad ones, and we can all have a laugh at my expense along the way. But, I hope I can also encourage you to try some really good, under-appreciated beers too!

3. Brew State University

I'm actually a research statistician and mathematician, with a PhD in mathematical science, and I have been a maths lecturer too! I really love learning about things that I enjoy, and beer is no exception. I thought that it might be fun to not just learn as much as I can about the history, important moments and breweries and the production of beer, but to also try to explain it to you. So rather than you going to ten different sources to find out about something (the Reinheitsgebot for example), I'll try and explain it to you in one coherent story. If you want to listen!


[1] Well, some definitions state that it is a beer from a craft brewery. So, what's a craft brewery? Several definitions exist, such as: (a) a craft brewery is a small (produces less than 6 million barrels), independent (at most 25% of the brewery is owned by a beverage company that is not a craft brewery) traditional (at least 50% of the beer produced is all malted barley on the mash bill). But that's the US definition.




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