Our first foray into beer came with an Internet radio show called 'The Beer Crate'. This was broadcast regularly between 2009 and 2011. What follows are the archive records from those shows.
After my international experiences, we're back to the traditional magazine format this week, with discussions (and reviews) of the supermarket "own" brand beers that are available, along with discussions of the relative merits of summer vs winter beers. (And which summer beers to look out for at the moment.)
An exploratory look at the beers made in China! My recent trip as a sommelier to the peoples republic resulted in lots of recognizable beers (Tsing Tao), along with many that you will probably never see in this continent. More's the pity, because there's more to Asia than rice wine and lager beers!
I left my heart in San Francisco! This time we have a report from my recent beer-seeking trip to SF, Calinfornia. We discuss the beers, the breweries, and the brewpubs in this famous area, including 21st Amendment, Gorden Biersch, and that US-staple, Anchor Steam.
A show of contrary: we have a feature on English-brewed beers (that taste Czech, American and Bavarian), tastings on a gueze (that should be a cider), and a try before you die featuring cider that is fizz, has no sediment, and doesn't come from Somerset. Oh - and the recession is over!
A show of contrary: we have a feature on English-brewed beers (that taste Czech, American and Bavarian), tastings on a gueze (that should be a cider), and a try before you die featuring cider that is fizz, has no sediment, and doesn't come from Somerset. Oh - and the recession is over!
We're off to Denmark (again), with 4 more Danish beers in the quick tastings, and one winning 'Try Before You Die' - all thanks to Kent Mosbech, the CEO / Export & Business Developer for Danish Beers. We also learn about the Meantime Brewery and have an interview the delightful Nils from the Rise Brewery... also in Denmark.
We're off the Denmark, with 4 Danish beers in the quick tastings, and one winning 'Try Before You Die' - all thanks to Kent Mosbech, the CEO / Export & Business Developer for Danish Beers. We also discover how to run a tasting session, and what's happening at Brewdog.
A very British show this week - with just one exception - with news on LOBI, the bank holiday beer festivals, and our first mentioned of the Jersery Brewery.
It's Christmas! So it's beers with funny ingredients, and silly names, and the second part of our interview with Mike Knight, of the Freedom Brewery.
The "unconventional" and "preconceptions" episode - we have stout (in a can), an interview with a brewer (or lager), and a Try before you Die (of keg beer).
Part 5 of 5, covering the Great British Beer Festival at Earl's Court. Our last day at the festival, Saturday, and we reflect on the beers we casually bumped into over the course of the festival, and look at the campaigns being run by Camra, the festivals organisers.
Part 4 of 5, covering the Great British Beer Festival at Earl's Court. This week we take up residence at the cider and perry stand, and try five brand new drinks - one of which is a 'try before you die'. Also, I have a quiet moan about cider farms who - for obvious reasons - will remain nameless.
Part 3 of 5, covering the Great British Beer Festival at Earl's Court. Following on from our big video show last week, we return to minutae this week. Literally - as we look at the role of independent brewers with our coverage of SIBA, and discuss what makes a microbrewery... a microbrewery.
Part 2 of 5, covering the Great British Beer Festival at Earl's Court. This week we look at the history of the festival, the winners of the 'Champion Beer of Britain' award, and details some of the other (non-beer) activities.
Part 1 of 5, covering the Great British Beer Festival at Earl's Court. This week we look at festival procedure, and taste some of the award-winning beers from this years 'Champion Beer of Britain' award.
We talking about the town of Pilsen, and continue our interview with Jan Lichota (star of Beer Crate TV).
The star of Beer Crate TV, Jan Lichota, gives us a run down on his job in The Brewers of Europe while we talk about that most important of all beer ingredients... water!
Do you always enjoy The Beer Crate responsibly? If not, take heed, as we cover the role of the UK's Drink Aware programme, and continue our discussion with Rodolphe de Looz-Corswarem about the role of beer in society.
50th anniversary - making them old! But not as old a wheat beer, which is probably the first beer in the world. Which is a roundabout way of saying we discuss the history of wheat beer, and have the first part of our exclusive with the head of the Brewers of Europe, Rodolphe de Looz-Corswarem.
Episode 19 has a technically bias. We start with the technicalities of pouring a beer from the tap, and follow-up with more tech-talk on beer with John Brauer. This, and a full complement of quick tastings, and our regular 'try before you die', make this a full-packed show.
What a mixed bag episode 18 is! There's the first part of our technical interview with Mr John Brauer, a commentary on european pub culture, English beer comes under our quick tastings radar, and a world beating "try before you die" that's won far too many "beer of the world" awards.
Traditional is the keyword this week, with the original lager beer, Pilsener, coming into the spotlight along with an exclusive interview with the ever-pleasant Jack Verhoek of the CBK - the Central Brewery Office - in the Netherlands. Our quick tastings are traditional English ales. And our "try before you die" is a traditional family micro brewery from Hartlepool.
For mobile phone users, there's a special applet for your phone containing all of the beers we've reviewed on the show, up until Christmas. Download The Beer Crate Cellar (JAR) and it's associated JAD file. Transfer to your phone in the usual way and keep your fingers crossed!
A brand new year, and brand new beer, as we welcome the return of the worlds favourite beer podcast!
We start the year gently, with a new set of beer festivals, a selection of lighter ales in quick tastings, a look at the rather pleasant Timothy Talyor's brewery, and cover the health benefits of stouts. (Yes, really!) As always, there's news, drinker diary, and "Try Before You Die".
A bumper festival edition! More news! More articles! More beer! We explain why beer is better than wine, discuss Black Sheep Brewery, have an exclusive interview with John Grogan MP. There's a seasonal quick tastings, and a very festival "Try Before You Die" section.
Apologies for the audio fidelity in this episode, I had to record and mix everything on my reserve PC (and in record time). For conspiracy theorists, the only edits I made to the interview were to join the sections together, and remove a couple of idle mutterings of my own.
The news is really hotting up at the moment, with rants and accusations about the price of beer in supermarkets. (We try to sit on the fence!) The winner of BII NITA are announced. We put some traditional english ales under the microscope in quick tastings, and find a beer that's like London Pride, but turned up to 11, in our now famous "Try Before You Die" section.
We head north of the border for a look at the Caledonian brewery, the last remaining brewery in Edinburgh. There's also a description of malt. All the tasting beers this week come from Wye Valley. It's not a paid advert, although it might seem that way. I also make a satirical point about Gordon Brown, and a bad joke about tasting...
The big news this week is that there is no news - or rather, there is no news about beer festivals, as we've reached year end. Nevermind, at least you can still learn about it! We explain bright beer, and the process of bright dropping, learn the history of the Adnams brewery, and have a chocolate indulgent "try before you die".
There are two big secrets revealed this week - Samuel Smiths brewery, and the life of hops. But don't worry - we still have our usual secrets of quick tastings, and divulge the best kept secret in the beer world - what is this weeks "try before you die".
Having had four left over beers from Portugal, we'll taste those these week. With that, the start of our series on hops, coverage of the Shepherd Neame brewery, and a typically wonderful "try before you die" this is show you won't want to miss!
This week we explain the difference between top-fermented and bottom-fermented beers, discover how many pints in a firkin, and quickly taste four different beers from Portugal. This is all rounded up with a long-awaited "try before you die".
Our eighth episode focusing on cider. We explain the process behind it, taste some ciders and perries, look at where it is made in our "Out of Somerset" feature, and introduce you to sublime drink in our "try before you die".
We return to more tradition English-ness this week. All our quick tastings are about ale, we cover the differences between a pub and an inn, and answer the question of "what is a free house." There's also our usual round of quick tastings and "try before you die".
This week, we focus on fruit beers, with our last (for the time being) look at Belgian beers focusing on lambic and fruit beers. We discover magic numbers, such as 2043, as well our usual round of quick tastings and "try before you die".
This week, we have a distinctive Belgium flavour, as we continue our look at Belgian beers, and award our "try before you die" to one of Belgiums strongests bers. There's also a report from the Bedford beer festival, a rant about certain beer-oriented web sites, and quick tastings.
One month on, and we're still talking about beer! After the usual preliminaries we have a follow-on from last weeks news article about the connection between a beer's ABV, and the number of units it contains. Plus, we begin our long overdue series covering the definitions of Belgian beer.
Third time lucky! We feature the usual selection of news, drinkers diary, quick tastings, an d try before you die. Additionally we discuss Cask Maques, and the history of Fu llers brewery.
This is our second episode, with our first section of feedback, some news, a discussion of the German Purity Law, the history of Youngs brewery, and a (potentially controversial) 'Try Before You Die'.
Our first episode is very Belgian-centric, thanks to the review of the Brussels Beer Weekend, the beers covered in 'Quick Tastings', and the masterpiece of Belgium brewing in 'Try Before You Die'.