Hops and the awld waccy baccy are very closely related you know!? My freezer had a right pong of it when I went through a homebrew stage and had a few types of hop stored.
Got the lads round for some Stella. Only 6 of us mind! Wonder how many grows get busted without warrants as want to check not more than 6 people there
A while back my brother got me a packet of ***s from his holiday in Morocco, was a weird looking packet daubed in Arabic patterns. Anyhoo, months later I found myself in a situation without any tabs, tried the Moroccan ones, don't know what was in them but I was off my fcuking box, was invincible on the xbox. Still got more than half of that packet, keep them for special occasions now, roll on the takeover so I can spark up. Lol.
On the subject of Stella. Never been that fond of it myself, it being a bit on the strong side when I first tried it in the long ago. But from back in time a bit lies this story about it's brewing. A lad I know, an instrument tech from Lancashire used to work in a brewery near Preston, the name of which escapes me for now. Anyway, this brewery were among a small number awarded the contract to brew Stella under licence in this country. It took six weeks to brew it - much longer than other beers they would brew apparently - was subject to a sacred and immutable list of ingredients and they were obliged to receive random visits from a Stella rep to make sure they were doing everything just so. They were, and all was well. It was a lucrative contract and Stella were happy. But brewing beer is a funny business it seems. It doesn't always " work", so to speak. It is a complex chemical process and to get exactly the same result every time is extremely challenging and it doesn't take much for it to slightly awry. This meant that sometimes , during the course of these six weeks, some change would occur that meant that it would not be an acceptable Stella product by the end of the process, so they would start again. ( This "flawed" beer by the way would often be sold under another name with less exacting standards such as a supermarket own brand and so on). Stella had no problem with that as the quality of their product was a holy matter to them, and of course this is why it cost so much. Enter INBEV, the giant brewing conglomerate who bought Stella around 2008. After a year or so, during which nothing changed they were asked by a visiting INBEV rep - told really - to reduce the brewing time by a week. Much protestation about why it took so long got them nowhere, and it was five weeks or somewhere else. This time was eventually reduced in many stages to three weeks. There were also instructions to buy sugar cane instead of sugar if it was cheaper at the time, and though the hops were always the same other small changes would be made from time to time if it reduced the cost enough. It is fair to say though according to the same lad, that Stella still did have standards higher than most. Well, as I say it was always a bit on the rich side for me. But if anyone hears someone who might have enjoyed Stella when it first arrived here saying, "That Stella mind, it's not as good a it used to be", he might not be imagining it!
I used to visit Netto to buy imported Stella years ago. Was far superior to the UK brewed stuff. Had to search through the pile of Stella to find it as they generally mixed it all up.
He has organised a few talkins with Riedy, and ex players etc.. and the current owners at the Roker/poetic license and the Vic ,some clubs and supporters associations.. Makes a few quid selling tables and so on. Yes, he might be thrown some bread crumbs by players and staff but not the info he has been.,
The Stella on the perfect draft is the proper gear. From Belgium. Tastes very different from the UK stuff. Juliper is quality too. Brewed in the same factory as Stella.
I was based at Liege and lived there for a few years , years ago, and I'll concur, Stella from Belgium is far superior to the ****e served here.
Very interesting and informative mate. A good side-topic as we await further developments on the takeover. I am an Ale man myself but Stella is definitely not what it used to be. It used to have a nice continental type taste back in the 90s. For UK tax purposes the ABV has also reduced over time down to 4.8%. It used to be 5.2%. Now Mythos / Keo on the other hand. Lovely lagers to drink in hot holiday Sun. UK versions (brewed under licence also) are 4.5% compared to 5% for their Greek / Cypriot equivalents. I live in enemy territory in Gosforth and can recommend a great ale shop (with taps for takeaway) called Coppers on Brunton Park.
