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Thread: Champion Beer of Britain 2014

  1. #11
    This Space For Hire Aqualung's Avatar
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    I was in a Taylor's pub yesterday and went through the card of Taylor's beers. Boltmaker's is a decent best bitter but not really CBOB material IMO. I don't think Landlord is as good as it used to be. It seemed rather thin to me. I enjoyed the Dark Mild as much as anything, but it was the first one of the day. The Ram Tam was much better than I remembered it.

    TT seem to have a habit of getting a cask of their beer in top form for these events. I still think they are a top brewer, it's just the competition is so much stronger nowadays.
    The tied house I visited gets a 10 from me.

  2. #12
    This Space For Hire aleandhearty's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aqualung View Post
    Boltmaker's is a decent best bitter but not really CBOB material IMO. I don't think Landlord is as good as it used to be.
    Yes and yes! I keep promising myself a pilgrimage to The Boltmaker's Arms, Keighley (the de facto brewery tap), to be absolutely sure, but I suspect it will only confirm what most of us already know.
    'And where he supped the past lived still. And where he sipped the glass brimmed full' John Barleycorn, Carol Ann Duffy.

  3. #13
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    As far as Landlord goes I wonder if the answer may be dry hopping. I get the impression that this is something that brewers have stopped doing. I do know that Landlord used to be well and truly dry hopped as were Brakspear beers.

  4. #14
    Still about Mobyduck's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aqualung View Post
    I was in a Taylor's pub yesterday and went through the card of Taylor's beers. Boltmaker's is a decent best bitter but not really CBOB material IMO. I don't think Landlord is as good as it used to be. It seemed rather thin to me. I enjoyed the Dark Mild as much as anything, but it was the first one of the day. The Ram Tam was much better than I remembered it.

    TT seem to have a habit of getting a cask of their beer in top form for these events. I still think they are a top brewer, it's just the competition is so much stronger nowadays.
    The tied house I visited gets a 10 from me.
    I had the best pint of landlord I've had for a good few years the week before last in of all places Salisbury! It did cost me £4.00 for the pleasure but I agree not what I remember it once was, Ram Tam has been my recent TT favourite but now no longer available in Putney as it once was cant find it down South anymore.
    "Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
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  5. #15
    This Space For Hire Aqualung's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mobyduck View Post
    I had the best pint of landlord I've had for a good few years the week before last in of all places Salisbury! It did cost me £4.00 for the pleasure but I agree not what I remember it once was, Ram Tam has been my recent TT favourite but now no longer available in Putney as it once was cant find it down South anymore.
    It was £3.15 high on the windswept Pennines and I thought that was a bit excessive! I couldn't believe how good the Ram Tam was as my recollection of it from many many years ago was that it was rather sweet and cloying.
    I wonder if the huge growth of microbreweries has affected the likes of TT. They produce no seasonal or one-off beers, although Ram Tam was originally their winter brew. Somehow I can't see them ever doing an American Red IPA infused with rosemary.
    Their tied estate is a lot smaller than in the seventies down from 28 to 18 and I'm sure I remember going round more than five of their houses in Keighley last time I was there.

  6. #16
    Roving RAT ROBCamra's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aqualung View Post
    I was in a Taylor's pub yesterday and went through the card of Taylor's beers. Boltmaker's is a decent best bitter but not really CBOB material IMO. I don't think Landlord is as good as it used to be. It seemed rather thin to me. I enjoyed the Dark Mild as much as anything, but it was the first one of the day. The Ram Tam was much better than I remembered it.

    TT seem to have a habit of getting a cask of their beer in top form for these events. I still think they are a top brewer, it's just the competition is so much stronger nowadays.
    The tied house I visited gets a 10 from me.
    TT Dark Mild is simply Golden Best with caramel added, Ram Tam is Landlord with caramel added, so they brew even fewer different recipes than you'd think.
    A pub is for life not just for Christmas

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    Quote Originally Posted by ROBCamra View Post
    TT Dark Mild is simply Golden Best with caramel added, Ram Tam is Landlord with caramel added, so they brew even fewer different recipes than you'd think.
    I have heard that as well and find all the Taylors beers a bit sweet and under hopped.

  8. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by ROBCamra View Post
    TT Dark Mild is simply Golden Best with caramel added, Ram Tam is Landlord with caramel added, so they brew even fewer different recipes than you'd think.
    I wasn't aware of this but thinking about it , it makes sense, it seems a bit Micky Mouse to me.
    "Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
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  9. #19
    Old & Bitter oldboots's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ROBCamra View Post
    TT Dark Mild is simply Golden Best with caramel added, Ram Tam is Landlord with caramel added, so they brew even fewer different recipes than you'd think.
    Quote Originally Posted by Mobyduck View Post
    I wasn't aware of this but thinking about it , it makes sense, it seems a bit Micky Mouse to me.
    It is a perfectly respectable brewing technique, it comes under parti-gyling. Brakspears used to add caramel to make a second beer as well and it's pretty widespread amongst the old family brewers afaik. The new boys just use a different hop and call it something different. Some just change the name and pump clip.

    For Taylors a quick look at the ABV would confirm what's occuring,

    Golden Best 3.5 Dark Mild 3.5
    Landlord 4.3 Ramtam 4.3

    of course Caramel is sugar so the ABV ought to be a touch higher in the dark beers

  10. #20
    This Space For Hire Aqualung's Avatar
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    Yes, I've heard of this happening decades ago. It would have been Brakspear's Old that was made from the Special and Marston's Merry Monk (so called) Mild was famously produced by adding Caramel to Pedigree.
    When I went on a trip to Fullers brewery years ago they openly admitted that they produced one mash which got watered down in various batches and then processing further to produce Golden Pride, ESB, London Pride and Chiswick. I'm fairly sure Marston's must do the same as all their bitters have a similar taste.

    Brodie's produced a one-off beer earlier in the year by mixing Shoreditch Sunshine and London Fields and called it London Sunshine. At least there was no deceit as they openly admitted what they had done and I think the clip had the word blend on it. I wondered at the time if this would have counted as a "new" beer for the tickers?

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