May Recap & June Announcement

Our last bottle share was at The Norwich Taphouse and it was one of the biggest yet! Obviously there was the usual lot but we had newcomers and almost newcomers!

Highlights of the last one were Stone’s collaboration with a couple of Japanese breweries called Japanese Green Tea IPA… It was everything you’d expect with the hops and herbal green tea working really well together! Then there was Foothills Hoppyum, an IPA from North Carolina that I’ve heard good things about. Bloed, Zweet & Tranen peated stout was very interesting too!

The next bottle share is this coming Thursday, 4th June at The Mash Tun! If you remember, our April share was meant to be there but there was a slight error in communication on my part meaning we had to move it at last minute!

So Thursday 4th June at Mash Tun, starting around 6:30-7pm!

Nate

April Bottle Share announcement

Hello there!

We’ve been really slack recently… not been writing things up or keeping you all updated and we’re sorry.

So next Thursday, 2nd April, will be our next bottle share and it’s going to be in a new venue… The Mash Tun! This is a wonderful pub on the site of the old Hog in Armour. They have 16 keg taps, a hop infuser and 4 hand pulled real ales as well as delicious Harbercue food.

I’m not going to set a theme because all the styles of beer are good styles of beer, so just bring what you like and get involved.

If you’ve not been before, take a look at our guidelines about how the event is run and let’s have an awesome night!

It’ll start between 6:30-7pm and will run until we’ve drunk all of the beers we’ve brought along.

Nate

February Recap/March Announcement

Jesus, February is almost over which only means that Bottle Share Thursday is right round the corner.

First up, a quick recap.

Thank you to everyone who attended our last event, we had another good night with new faces and great beers.

Now, I’m not going to write about all the beers as time is of the essence however some of our highlights are:

Evil Cousin by Heretic Brewing Co. Hailing from California and clocking in at 8% ABV, this west coast double IPA was very malt driven with a mixed aroma of dank, juicy citrus hops and light piney hops.

Next up is The Tickle Monster by Siren & To Ol. Wow, just wow. All of the mangoes, all up in your grill. The triple IPA Tickle Monster tickled it’s way down our taste buds. Incredibly drinkable for a 12% Monster.

No stranger to our bottle shares is Struise and this time round we were treated with Black Damnation IV – Coffee Club. Take the excellent Black Albert, aged for 6 months in rum casks and this beast of a beer was born. Massive flavours of rum and raisin with a deep coffee background. I had dreams about this beast.

Now, let’s talk March!

Our next event will be held March 5th, where we’ll be returning to The Plasterers for another open ended bottle share. We could of done with a theme for this one, however I (Jay) left the announcement a bit late. My bad.

Anyway, 6:30pm, Plasterers Arms, see you there.

February Bottle Share

Good morning bottle fans, first off happy 2015 to you all and we hope your festive period was plenty festive. Only 329 days till we get to do it all over again.

We’re back and recovered from our Christmas and New Years festivities to bring you our next event but before that we at Norwich Bottle Share would like to thank everyone who attended last time for our December event, and everyone who joined/hosted/retweeted etc last year – you guys are the best, cheers.

Now, moving on… it’s nearly bottle share time, Thursday 5th of Feb, and to kick things off we will be playing a visit to the  wonderful Tap House on Redwell Street, who are kindly hosting our first event of the year.

To get back into the swing of things this event won’t have a theme, so bring whatever you’d like – you know the rules by now.

Also that’s not all, the guys at the Tap House will be throwing an additional event that evening – a Helsingborgs Bryggeri Tap Takeover. Excited? I know I am.

Hopefully we’ll see all you hop heads next Thursday at 6:30pm.

Much love,

Jay

Christmas Bottle Share 2014 Announcement

Hello there!

I know this post is a bit late, probably by a week, but busy business sometimes always gets in the way sadly.

Anyway, it’s December, as most of you will know by the fact that there are loads of flashing lights all over the city centre and people’s houses, as well as the fact that you’re likely to spend your entire lunchtime queuing just to buy a metre of tinsel.

So the obvious thing to do was to put a Christmas theme on it, but to be honest, we’re not so bothered about that really. Christmas beers, as we’ve found, are largely the same regardless of who brews it – spices and stuff in some form of Ruby Ale.

Just basically bring some delicious beer to The Plasterers Arms in Norwich for around 6:30/7pm on Thursday 4th December.

Bonus points for wearing a Christmas jumper.

Nate

November Bottle Share Recap!

Yes, it is true, we returned and a bloody good night it was too! Gently does it with our regular crew of Nate, Jay, Alec, Tracy, Mark & Jim (with a brief appearance from Ben)… we shared some beers (and pizzas).

As you would have read, due to Thanksgiving coming up, we decided to put an American spin on it!

We slowly got started with Left Hand Stranger Pale Ale (5%) which Nate brought along, it was lovely and citrusy like you’d expect from a pale ale hailing from America, but had a very strong malty base like an English Pale Ale. Loved it!

Next was a bottle from Tracy’s not-so-recent trip to the USA… French Broad Rye Hopper Ale (5.9%). Lashings of spicy rye but with a nice citrusy edge to balance it out.

Brooklyn East India Pale Ale (6.9%) from Bateman’s Jim came next… it’s a beer I’ve not always liked, but I enjoyed it on Thursday. It’s brewed with all English hops so you get a nice floral earthiness as well as a rich tea biscuit base.

We then had another of Mark’s homebrews, which I believe this time was a saison but for some reason my notes for that are missing sadly.

It was at this point that Ben arrived and after much faffing around in the cellar, he managed to hook a keykeg of Rogue Shakespeare Stout (6.1%) up to a hand pump… not even joking! It was brilliantly chocolatey and heavy!

Next was another of Tracey’s beers… Sixpoint Righteous Ale (6.3%). I think this is actually the first canned beer we’ve ever had at bottle share, which is awesome! It’s a brilliantly spicy beer with a nice handful of hops.

Alec’s Dark Horse 4 Elf Winter Warmer (8.7%) literally tasted like Christmas in a glass – cinnamon, nutmeg, fruitcake… but it wasn’t too much to handle like many Winter/Christmas beers.

Of course, with Halloween a recent memory, there had to be a pumpkin beer on the table. Jay bought this in the form of Flying Dog The Fear (9%). Pumpkin pie with a big whack in the chops full of booze, yet rather delicate at the same time. Want more.

We finished up with Mark’s American treat… Stone 18^th Anniversary IPA. It was very brown, a little hoppy and very earthy. Everyone enjoyed it but me.

Many thanks to everyone who came to the rebirth of Norwich Bottle Share. Special thanks to The Plasterers for allowing us to host it there again, and to Voodoo Daddy’s for cooking some amazing pizzas for us!

Our next bottle share is going to be on Thursday 4^th December at The Plasterers with a decidedly Christmas theme… full announcement soon!

Cheers!

We Are Returning – Thursday 6th November

Yes, I know it’s been a while and I apologise greatly but there’s been a lot going on. I’ve been off doing various freelance beer related contracts demanding that I be in 57 different places at once, and Jay has been a mixture of on holiday & suffering from dreaded work commitments which have got in the way due to having to drive miles the next day.

So yes, we’ve not been able to do Bottle Share but WE ARE BACK!

I did originally think I was going to make it easy for you, and just suggest that we do an “Anything Goes” Bottle Share, but where’s the fun in that? Besides, my girlfriend Emily is pretty much forcing me to pick a theme.

So, as it’s right between Halloween and Thanksgiving there’s really only one option…

American beers. Yeah, we celebrate Halloween here, in a way, but the Americans do it big. The Americans LOVE THAT STUFF. They really can’t get enough of it. And of course, Thanksgiving is one of those American holidays that’s apparently much more important than Christmas, despite the fact that nobody gets presents on Thanksgiving. Puzzling.

So… Thursday 6th November at 6:30pm, you should come to The Plasterers Arms in Norwich armed with your finest American beer (OK, it can be American Style and British or whatever, but please try to buy American).

We’re really excited to be back and can’t wait to see you there!

Nate

August Bottle Share – The Sensible Edition

Oh dear, I’ve been bad again… I’ve been so busy that I’ve neglected Norwich Bottle Share blog and I’m sorry.

With just over a week to go until the next edition, I figure I best announce it…

The next edition, for the first time ever is going to be at The Reindeer on Dereham Road in Norwich from around 7pm next Thursday (7th August). The Reindeer is yet another of our favourite Norwich pubs as it has a brilliant selection of beers on cask and keg (probably the only place in Norwich to always have a Magic Rock beer) as well as the fact that it has a beer garden!

That’s right, that’s another first… with a bit of luck that the weather stays amazing we’ll be having our first ever Open Air Norwich Bottle Share!

For this bottle share we have decided that you must bring a beer that has an ABV of 5% OR BELOW!

We decided upon this because last time at our Belgian Bottle Share we didn’t have a single beer under 6.5% so we figured it’d be fun to see what interesting beers we can get that have a fairly modest ABV.

So on Thursday 7th August at around 6:30pm bring a bottle or two to The Reindeer and let’s have a very sensible edition of Norwich Bottle Share for a change!

Nate

July Bottle Share Recap – Belgium

Well the July Bottle Share has been and gone, and although it was a small gathering it was a good one as always!

We chose the theme of Belgian beers, which is something we hadn’t done before. We’ve had Belgian beers appear many times, but this was the first dedicated Belgian Share.

We started out with Bristol Beer Factory Belgian Rye (7%) which was delicious… plenty of sweet maltiness, with the rye spice and a handful of citrusy hops.

Next up was Brouwerij De Ryke Arend Blond (6.5%), a Belgian Pale ale which was floral, citrusy and sweet. Very well balanced.

Brasserie Fantome Brise-BonBons (8%) was a saison and was perfect considering the weather was unbelievably hot! It was like strawberries and cream, peppery and funky. So amazing.

Leffe Brune (6.5%) came next, with all of it’s caramel & brown sugar coated toasted bananas. It’s nice, but I do prefer the Blond.

Fifth beer of the evening was Abbaye de St Martin Blonde (7%) and it follows most other Belgian Blonde beers. That kind of malty, slightly fruity and yeasty merge.

Next was Bristol Beer Factory Belgian Conspiracy (7.5%) which was an explosion of hops along with some spiciness and an awesome Belgian yeast finish.

Our penultimate beer was De Struise/Bridge Road Imperialist (8%). It’s an Imperial Pilsner meaning it’s hot alcohol all over, but you do get the galaxy hops through too. It was nice for a small glass, but I wouldn’t have been able to handle a 750ml bottle to myself!

Final beer of the night was another of Mark’s brilliant homebrews… Clamberskull Brewing Good Shit (11.3%), it’s a Belgian style Dark Ale with plums and wild yeast… funky, acidic, fruity from the plums. Brilliant!

So that was our July Belgian Bottle Share, and what a success it was! I mean, it’s mad but there were no beers under 6.5%, which is ridiculous… which leads on to the theme I’ve decided for August…

Our August Bottle Share is banning all beers above 5%… yup, it’s going to be a slightly more civilised affair as you have to bring something that’s 5% or under!

Full announcement coming soon…

Cheers,

Nate

July Bottle Share – The Belgian Edition

Apologies for the lack of updates recently, but I (Nate) wasn’t at part two of our City of Ale Bottle Share due to not drinking for a week (shocking I know) so obviously I couldn’t write about it, and Jay has been incredibly busy so hasn’t had a chance to either.

I figured I’d announce our next Bottle Share which is going to be at The Plasterers in Norwich at 6:30pm on Thursday 3^rd July and will focus on Belgian Beers.

Belgium is such a wonderful and diverse country for beer. They brew every from crisp and refreshing pilsners, to dark and decadent dubbels, to lip puckeringly sour lambics and gueuzes. I think it’s fair to say that the Belgians have a beer to suit everyone’s palate.

While we’ve previously featured Belgian beers at various bottle shares, this is the first time we’ve dedicated a whole night to them. It’s about time, really, considering Belgian beers are so easy to get hold of in Norwich.

The best place in Norwich to go to buy Belgian beers to bring to our bottle share is Get A Round on Dereham Road in Norwich, right near KFC. They have a rather large range of old favourites and ones you may not have heard of!

So, on Thursday 3^rd July, bring a couple of bottles of the same beer to The Plasterers from around 6:30pm (don’t worry if you’re a bit late – we’re useless and never start on time) and get involved… discover something new!

See you there!

Nate