On Tuesday I got a call from my cousin who's one of the managers at a small but fantastic bar in York called Pivni (Formally "Pivo" until Greene king made them change it).
James Watt one of the founding brewers from Brewdog was doing a tasting in the bar and had turned up with loads of samples; Wednesday morning, was not a productive work day for me!
He went through the staples like Punk and 5AM saint, both Fantastic and then moved on to rather more extreme 18.2% Tokyo which was interesting but full on and I don't think I could get into it. And then the real surprise whisky-cask aged beers with only codes that had been bottled for the first time that morning and hadn't been named yet were coming out of corked bottles.
It was all starting to get a bit hazy at this point; the shear amount of Brewing techniques they are using to create these beers makes you realize why they can cost so much. The tasting was finished with a shot of the legendary "Sink the Bismarck" (usually about £8 a shot) 41% IPA brewed and concentrated using an Ice removal technique. I had fairly low expectations after the Tokyo, but the STB was truly fantastic; people keep asking me what did it taste like. It tastes just like a 42% IPA, Genius!
There really doesn't seen to be any secrets; James hung around all night talking about beer and answering any questions that were thrown at him.
I'm going to have to order some hops and Malt today and get going again!