Kingfisher

There are two good curry places in Oxford: Star of Asia and Uddins Manzil. Some people will try to convince you about e.g. Aziz and I indeed bought a half year discount in there only to discover that it is not very nice at all. Either way, eating curry in England usually involves drinking either Cobra or Kingfisher. The former is not very good and the latter is not very good either. It is however much better than the former. :) It is really Indian and although supposedly a lager it is very cloudy, one cannot see through (unfiltered?). Tastewise it reminds me a little bit about wheat beers. So, although watery it is still quite refreshing and goes well with hot Indian food. So, remember Kingfisher, not Cobra!

Old Peculier

(When you are in a different country, builders come and disconnect your server. Oh, well...)
First, note that it is not Old Peculiar. Instead, it is Old Peculier. It is a strong beer by Theakston, claims to be legenedary on the bottle. I remember being uber fan of Old Peculiar a few years ago, it was my favourite in the local pub (King Street Run!), when they discontinued Flowers... Anyway, I bought 4 bottles this time and the beer is just not as nice as I rember it. Maybe it is just the difference between bottled and draught beer... Maybe my tastes have just changed.
(BTW - speaking of bottled vs draught: only very recently did I realise that the bottled Guinnes original is actually a different beer to Guinnes draught, not just bottled version of the other. One can also get Guinnes original on tap and Draught Guinnes in a can. There are always new learning opportunities...)

Hop

This Greene King's Hop, formerly known as The beer to dine for. It now has a new name and a different label, but unique bottle style is still there. Greene King is known for its IPA, Abbot ale and to some extend the Old Speckled Hen. The bottle is tall, resembling the wine bottle and as its former name suggests it also tries to compete with wine as a drink to be drank with a dinner. As such it is extremely mild, but very aromatic, mostly due to use of funny hops from Oregon, they call them Tettnang hops. I shared a bottle tonight with Maja and whatever the idiots on the internet say, it is actually an ideal kind of beer to have with Italian or similar food (but no, don't have it with German sausages and sauerkraut, oh no! :) ) Plus, the 750ml bottle is ideal to share between two without either party getting overly drunk (which you inevitably do on a bottle of wine)...

Guinness

I was dreading this moment for a long time. The truth is that I am still pretty much undecided about Guinness, but it is such as big name and I still drink it often enough that I need to include it in my beer blog. So, I used to hate it. But then, on NAM 2003, we went to Dublin, my entire PhD class and I had time of my life crawling between Dublin pubs getting wasted on Guinness. Plus, we visited the Guinness brewery cum museum: it is a place of perfect marketing, same as all Guinness adds, where you go through 5 floors of history and making of Guinness and you can smell hops and touch malt and learn about a small dose of copyrighted yeast that the director keeps in his safe in case the brewery yeast receives a deadly infection and so on and so on and at the end of this journey, one ends up at the top of the building, in the bar with magnificent views over Dublin. And then they serve you a complimentary pint of Guinness and by then there is now way anybody wouldn't be convinced that Guinness is indeed drink of angels... And so I still like it, but not sure whether I appreciate it as a beer of simply because I connect it to NAM 2003... At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter.

Spitfire

On my way to inebriation last Friday I drank Spitfire just after Bishops Fingers and I immediately liked it. A malty, sharp taste that just makes you thirsty and longing for more. Coming from Kent and not too strong at 4.5%. And, it is a beer with a wikipedia page! Huhoh! Named after legendary aircraft that was used in Battle of Britain which was fought in the skies above Kent. Now we need a beer named after a hang-glider, that would be something for me...

Bishops Finger

What can I say? Not bad, a well balanced ale with great name. But no extra points for originality as far as taste in concerned.

Bulmers' cider (on ice)

Ok, it is a cider, not beer, I know. But there is this new cider craze in the UK. Cider used to be drank by lowly winos and teenages, but now they managed to rebrand it into a hip drink. Along with super-chilled beers comes Bulmers on Ice, i.e. you are supposed to sip this with your best friends and not be even a little bit ashamed... So, I couldn't resist and produced some ice and bought (three for the price of two, mind you!) Bulmers. It actually does work, cider is a somewhat refreshing drink and if you make it colder, it is even better. I think it will take some time to get used to, but now I consider it an option. Never underestimate marketing monkeys....