Month: April 2013

By Posted on Posted in beer trips, breweries, homebrew No Comments

(The first part of this article can be found here: The Norway Trip – Nøgne Ø, Part 1) My days in Norway involved actually working at the brewery – tagging along with whatever was happening that day and trying to help without getting in the way too much. This included loading the mill, weighing hops, running transfers, helping with gravity measurements (with mandatory sample tasting – GPA, Quadrupel, Half a World Away) and yeast dumping. During my days at the brewery there was a lot of brewing of IPA – 3 batches over the first 2 days added to another …

The Norway Trip – Nøgne Ø, Part 2 Read more »

By Posted on Posted in beer trips, breweries, homebrew No Comments

Back in September 2012, I had a good showing in the UK NHC – I’d previously done well in this competition, and this time round went one better and took my first Best of Show award with a Schwarzbier I’d brewed back in February. This was a hotly contested competition (460 entries) with some great beer being put in, influenced in no small way by the first prize offered up by Kjetil Jikiun, Head Brewer at Nøgne Ø – a trip to Norway to work in the Nøgne Ø brewery for the week. And so, at an early hour on …

The Norway Trip – Nøgne Ø, Part 1 Read more »

By Posted on Posted in oxford, pubs

I’ve started to add short details on the pubs of Oxford. To follow are photos, and potentially a Google map with detailed pubs shown. This isn’t a comprehensive pub guide (try www.oxfordpubguide.co.uk), nor is it the GBG and the details may relate to limited visits, or a visit some time ago, but it probably gives a clue as to which pubs I’d recommend in Oxford. Interestingly, there are virtually no pubs or bars that advertise themselves as “craft beer bars” (along the lines of say the Craft Beer Co. or Cask in London) – you will generally get virtually nothing …

Pubs of Oxford – Mini Guide Read more »