Craft Beer

Can anyone recommend a nice starter stout that's best served cold? Would quite like to get into Stouts but don't really know where to start, rattled off just about all commercial IPAs but fancy something different.
The only stouts best served cold are rubbish as it dulls the flavour. I find sweet/milk stouts are the best for getting into them but it'll differ for everyone. Maybe just go to a supermarket which has a half decent selection and grab a few and see what you like from there?
 


The only stouts best served cold are rubbish as it dulls the flavour. I find sweet/milk stouts are the best for getting into them but it'll differ for everyone. Maybe just go to a supermarket which has a half decent selection and grab a few and see what you like from there?
Will just pick some up and try a few and go through a process of elimination :lol:
 
Will just pick some up and try a few and go through a process of elimination :lol:

It took me a while to discover that some of the stronger ones in particular taste far better as they warm up. Refrigerate by all means but take out maybe 30 minutes before you drink it. Less of an issue with lower abv ones maybe but there's a reason Guinness drinkers mainly prefer the ordinary to the cold.

Good plain stouts are hard to come by in supermarkets, lots have adjuncts which you may or may not like.

Full Circle did a session stout recently which would be a good introduction to a plain roasty stout. Vaux Black Wave is another I'd recommend and depending on your location that may be easier to get hold of.
 
Can anyone recommend a nice starter stout that's best served cold? Would quite like to get into Stouts but don't really know where to start, rattled off just about all commercial IPAs but fancy something different.
Get yourself to Tesco & Morrison’s & try their stouts. The real basic ones like Black Sheep Milk Stout & Youngs Chocolate Stout aren’t bad. Then you can move onto a few of the craft ones that are £3-£4 a pop. Porter & stout are the same (I’m sure there is a technical difference in history) so don’t leave them out.
It took me a while to discover that some of the stronger ones in particular taste far better as they warm up. Refrigerate by all means but take out maybe 30 minutes before you drink it. Less of an issue with lower abv ones maybe but there's a reason Guinness drinkers mainly prefer the ordinary to the cold.

Good plain stouts are hard to come by in supermarkets, lots have adjuncts which you may or may not like.

Full Circle did a session stout recently which would be a good introduction to a plain roasty stout. Vaux Black Wave is another I'd recommend and depending on your location that may be easier to get hold of.
Aye, mine live in the fridge, but I’ve started getting the “line up” out of the fridge earlier.

As TEFG said, especially with the strong ones, as you drink it & it warns more, you might start to taste different things.
 
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Cask Black Wave.....drool.....

I'm away this weekend, might try and squeeze one in next Friday on the way over the town for the England game.

Food? Pizza van there this weekend I think, dunno if it's regular.
Cask Black Wave is what caught my eye as well, hoping that stays on for a couple of weeks!

I've fully gotten into cask since the pubs opened. Had a pint of Harvey's Sussex Best on Saturday and it was probably the best pint I've had this year, it was brilliantly kept. Had another pint of it in the next pub and it was shite. :lol: Was gutted.
 
Cask Black Wave.....drool.....

I'm away this weekend, might try and squeeze one in next Friday on the way over the town for the England game.

Food? Pizza van there this weekend I think, dunno if it's regular.
They've said it's ad hoc at the moment. Probably want to replicate something like full circle do. Taking the kids on father's Day so food would a handy bonus
 
Cask Black Wave is what caught my eye as well, hoping that stays on for a couple of weeks!

I've fully gotten into cask since the pubs opened. Had a pint of Harvey's Sussex Best on Saturday and it was probably the best pint I've had this year, it was brilliantly kept. Had another pint of it in the next pub and it was shite. :lol: Was gutted.
Same for me with cask, you just can’t reproduce it from a bottle/can so I’ve yearned for it.
 
They've said it's ad hoc at the moment. Probably want to replicate something like full circle do. Taking the kids on father's Day so food would a handy bonus
Full Circle have done away with vans. They’re back to having the Scream for Pizzas lads back on the pizza oven inside the taproom.

on another related note, the pizzas in the Isis are canny, but a bit pricy.
Same for me with cask, you just can’t reproduce it from a bottle/can so I’ve yearned for it.
The cask looper was something else last weekend like
 
Full Circle have done away with vans. They’re back to having the Scream for Pizzas lads back on the pizza oven inside the taproom.

on another related note, the pizzas in the Isis are canny, but a bit pricy.

The cask looper was something else last weekend like
I can well imagine, perfectly suited to cask that beer…same as Jakehead. We’ve struggled to get really good cask since lockdown but when you get a good un it’s worth the wait. We had one from GlassHouse which was ridiculous.
 
Just signed up to the Alumini Patrons society box with Northern monk , some of the OFS and Patrons Project they do is superb but always hard to get hold of and expensive in bottle shops , £44 a month for all them guaranteed ,8-12 beers a month for some of the best beers money can buy seems like good value to me.
 
Just signed up to the Alumini Patrons society box with Northern monk , some of the OFS and Patrons Project they do is superb but always hard to get hold of and expensive in bottle shops , £44 a month for all them guaranteed ,8-12 beers a month for some of the best beers money can buy seems like good value to me.

I looked at that a couple of weeks ago after I got an email off them, but decided if I'm spending £50ish on 10 cans I want to choose them myself. You're right though, there'll be some great beers you otherwise would struggle to get.

There's also the fact I will probably be buying a little less now we can go out again.
 
Just signed up to the Alumini Patrons society box with Northern monk , some of the OFS and Patrons Project they do is superb but always hard to get hold of and expensive in bottle shops , £44 a month for all them guaranteed ,8-12 beers a month for some of the best beers money can buy seems like good value to me.
I had the patrons subscription a while back and it was shite but the alumni one looks miles better, seen nothing but positive reviews for it.
 

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