Three years ago, we were in Bilbao for the Challenge Cup final. What a difference a pandemic makes. Also, the sun was shining, at least in Spain.
Regarding the Little Cup, Flair99 says: “To find Montpellier there is quite stunning, they’re fighting to avoid relegation, and they’re certainly not pleasant to watch. How about Leicester?”
Same, Flair, same.
La Rochelle v Toulouse will undoubtedly be a more interesting match. I’m calling it for La Rochelle, because I would like them to win.
Onna telly this week
Friday 21st May
| Leicester v Montpellier | 20:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 22nd May
| Sharks v Stormers | 12:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Lions v Bulls | 14:30 | Premier Sports 2 |
| La Rochelle v Toulouse | 16:45 | BT Sport 2 |
Sunday 23rd May
| Nada |
Ovally Balls 
Him, Redpath and Tom de Glanville all sons of.
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I’ve barely had a brewdog beer. No real interest in trying to either, plenty of other good options
They do seem somewhat over-marketed. have a friend who’s bought into the cult though, got shares and everything.
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Just back from wedding anniversary lunch. Bottle of wine could have been better but hey, it had to be finished.
To work!
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‘work’
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Dan Kelly – ex Ireland U20 included.
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thieving SouthernGibbons
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Chimpie – best* thing you can do for him is get him drunk and keep him in a dungeon for a few years. Tell his family he’s died so they get any life insurance. Maybe let him out for a walk in the garden. Then release him back into the wild on a desert island somewhere.
* other options exist but this remains my favourite route out.
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I’m going with the snarky comment route. It’s fairly low effort.
your option sounds good craigs but the outlay in time and cash could be prohibitive
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Especially given my fundamental idleness.
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Chimpie – that’s why early on in my life I invested in a good dungeon. You never know when it becomes useful. Christmas for example.
The island thing is more difficult I’ll grant you.
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Brew Dog, meh.
They have a lager that is okay, and their alcohol-free beer is one of the better ones, but other than that…
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Elvis Juice is a top top warm weather beer.
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I missed out the dungeon investment and went furra melbury.
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Leone NOT now joining Ulster. Failed a fitness test. TBH I’m not surprised.
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English squad excludes any potential recruits from Bristol, Exeter, Sale and Quins. Just as well ‘cos there a players named who ‘have risen without trace’……………………….
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I like Umaga – class player.
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I would be very wary of going in the local Brewdog place given what the prices were like even before any of the lockdowns. Nothing really wrong with the beer, but nothing that right with it either. I struggle with the ‘craft beer’ thing anyway, not convinced it isn’t just beer that might be made any old way just by smaller companies, perhaps someone can give me a proper explanation.
I have dozens of pubs to choose from here, not that I’ve been to any recently, that sell proper beer and (like anyone) can buy good stuff from the supermarket or even corner shop that is much cheaper than Brewdog.
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@Thaum
I agree with you there – a good lad with an old head on his shoulders
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Slade – looks about 14, but as you say….
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Fully expect to be boo-hissing him before too long when he plays for Engerland. ;-)
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Cmw – ‘craft’ just means it’s brewed by a smallish brewery. The peeps in the US didn’t have ‘real ale’ or the Reinheitsgebot to distinguish their beers from the mega breweries so they came up with that. It doesn’t really mean much now as many breweries were bought out but furra while it was a proper thing. There’s some amazing beer to be had in the states.
Most real ales are craft ales too. I like pointing the out to camra people because they go redder than usual and try to argue but then realise it’s true.
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Also, it was started by people who home brewed and then essentially made breweries. The story behind Sierra Nevada is great. The guy took welding and other courses to diy his tanks and other equipment, from scratch. In the early days every expansion in capacity was a project he did himself. Fucking legend.
Dogfish Head is similar but smaller and puts out beers that BrewDog could only dream of.
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@Craigs – So why do we need it over here as a ‘label’? We already have ‘Real Ale’ which has some tie in to how the beer is made. If the truth is that “most real ales are craft ales too”, but it is not true (or not necessarily true) that ‘most craft ales are real ales too’ then there is still obviously a distinction so it seems strange to me that the first bit would get under the CAMRA lot’s skin.
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Cmw – we don’t really. Other than to identify American beers. Which tended to be hoppier and more alcoholic. There are also no rules around how the beer is made. Real ale has to have live yeast in a cask with no artificial carbonation. And can’t have an aerator on the cask to prolong the life of beer in the pub*. Craft beer isn’t restricted in that way. Lager isn’t even ale but it can be craft beer from a small brewery as can any beer with other ingredients (chilli, smoke, cherry etc). I should probably have said real ale is a sub set of craft beer.
When it came over here the camra lot became threatened because it was competition to real ale (in their view) and even worse, American.
* it’s silly rules like this that put me off camra.
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Real ale = malt, water, yeast, hops in a cask. Tends to be milder and less boozy.
Craft beer = any beer in from a small enough brewery. Tends to be hoppier but can include the above or anything really.
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Craigs CAMRAman
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Ot – haha. Although, weirdly I was looking at all the beers they had on tap.
Need to go to the pub more.
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I get the impression that Craft Beer is used as a label to appeal to a younger crowd than CAMRA does
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Craigs, I like that story about Sierra Nebada.
There is a Swedish distillery called Macmyra, it was started asby a group of friends who wondered, over several bottles of single malt, why Sweden didn’t produce its own whisky.
Their second distillery is a really tall building and uses gravity for many of its processes – whisky production is a very energy-hungry process.
We had a presentation by two of their sales people and I was interested in the legal side of things, they said it was an absolute (no pun etc) nightmare to get set up due to alcohol legislation in Sweden.
The bottom line, though, is that their whisky is really good.
New Zealand has a good small whisky producing scene, too.
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Nebada.
deary me.
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I’m with ticht on this. Craft beer always seemed to be more a marketing move than anything else. The beer’s pretty good from what I’ve had of it, especially compared to the muck that used to be offered by the megacorps that produced beer. I do like IPA but everything seemed to be IPA and there appeared to be a cultish insider way of talking about it a few years ago that pushed it as young and hip and different. It’s a close relative of “artisan” foods.
In the Czech Republic, the beer market I’ve explored with most vim recently, there are mikropivovar – small breweries – and the products are generally very good. However, the big boys like Plzen and Budvar also do consistently good beer and the medium-sized breweries are often excellent too.
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Ticht – I’ve always wanted to try distilling but because I am an upstanding citizen (and due to lack of garage space) I haven’t been able to. I will check out that whiskey if I get the chance.
NZ has the right idea in that area.
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Sierra Nevada – I’m always highly amused by the tag on the cans “Family owned, operated and argued over”
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Trisk/Tomp – it is now. It’s trying to appeal to a younger more diverse (I.e. women) crowd. In the 90s in the US it was a different thing.
I went to a camra event once and there were over a hundred people there. Only 2 women. One worked for the venue on the ticket stand and the other worked for a cider producer invited to attend. So not because they liked the beer then.
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Tomp – I really need to do a beer tour of the Czech Republic at some point.
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“Family owned, operated and argued over”
Can’t recall if there’s an Oxford comma after “operated” – and I’m not rummaging in the recycling bin at this time of the day….
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I’ll admit to being a fan of ‘craft’ beer – though labels are deterring. I’m old enough to recall why CAMRA kicked off in the 1970s …. wall to wall marketing for Watney’s Red (as Red Barrel got re-badged) (Probably a master’s thesis on how a dominant brand declined and became a source of disdain – up there with Ratners)
I’d imagine (as memory is hazy) that I first got into drinking “ale” as opposed to the big lager brands via Fuller’s London Pride – my preference now veers between IPAs and stouts – nothing much in the middle.
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If you started drinking in the 90s then you had to put up with the monstrosity that was keg bitter.
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That should have been in response to Ticht also.
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Trisk – it’s interesting because I also get why people are put off real ale labels too (with beers like Dizzy blonde, Village bike, Leg spreader). To be fair camra have recently tried to address this but it’s a massive image problem.
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Ticht, in SA we have a very small domestic whisky scene – a handful of producers of generally quite light whiskies, but pleasant enough. The market here is changing rapidly too. It used to be dominated by Scotch, with Jack Daniels and a couple of other bourbons on the wilder side and Jamieson’s bravely fronting up for Ireland. I reckon roughly 35% to 40% of shelf space in major outlets is now Irish whiskies of varying quality from absolute shit (just as their are ‘Scotch’ whiskies of the same quality) to some wonderful beasts. Have also seen a couple of Japanese brands but under lock and key and out of my price range.
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Tomp – actually I’m reminded of an anecdote I read about a camra rep going to Plzen and telling a group of Czech brewers that they should focus on using natural ingredients and brewing practices. They were not amused.
Apparently the response was along the lines of something something arrogant English man something something.
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Surprisingly enough Bradford CAMRA’s cricket team field women more often (almost always at least one, sometimes two or three) than any of our other opposition.
Most of the above seems to be confirming what I suspected i.e. that the craft beer thing at least in this country is just a marketing thing. And perhaps a way of getting round the rules for real ale, maybe partly to have more stuff on the electrics(?). By contrast the CAMRA lot (nerdy etc as they often are) were performing something of a public service that has achieved quite a lot. The boom in proper beer pubs here certainly predates the term ‘craft beer’ by a long way and was a big deal though York is/was perhaps a bit special on this front.
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Craft beer (AKA warm beer) has been a thing since roman times according to that historical document Asterix in Britain.
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Chimpie – something something piss weak plzen knock off chilled to mask the flavour something something
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Also why the small cans? Only beer I’d ever had in a small can prior to craft beer becoming a thing was some dreadful piss in Malta about 25 years ago. Can’t help thinking about it whenever I’m confronted with one of the new ones.
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Something something. In response to something.
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Cmw – pour I into a glass heathen!
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Not me. Pour it into a glass.
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Craigs being poured into a glass sounds like something that would happen in bloodborne
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