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Mersea Island Brewery, Essex

Oct31st
2012 Written by admin

Mersea Island is a small island just off the coast of Essex near to the old Roman mersea islandtown of Colchester.  It’s been many years since a boat was required to reach Mersea but if you’re going to visit you should know that every day at high tide, the seas covers the causeway that leads between the island and the mainland.  Check your tide times in advance.

Once you reach this small town and island there are plenty of coastal walks to be had and pubs to visit but for the beer purists there’s a very small vineyard and brewery a few miles to the east of the town itself.  To get there just cross the causeway and take the left turn at the end, follow the road for a couple of miles and watch out for the turn off to the brewery and vineyard on the right.

While we appreciate an occasional glass wine we’re really here for the beer and the Mersea Island brewery doesn’t disappoint; we’ve visited many larger breweries with only a fraction of the selection available here and this is what’s available:

Bottled Beers

  • Island Pale Ale (3.9%) – a light bitter ale with a hoppy flavour.
  • Island Gold (4.5%) – a personal favourite and lighter, summery flavour.
  • Island Skippers (4.8%) – a dark, malty bitter brewed with Fruggles hops.
  • Island Monkeys (4.5%) – a liquorice flavoured stout with a bitter after taste.
  • Island Oyster (5.1%) – the strongest bottled beer, it’s a mixture of light and dark malts and includes Mersea Island’s very own oysters.

Cask Conditioned Beers

  • Yo Boy (3.8%) – a combination of the following hops: Fuggles, Phoenix, Challenger and Cascade, it’s a bitter with a long-lasting aftertaste.
  • Skippers (4.8%) – this is a ‘best’ bitter and a dark one at that; malty flavoured from five different malts plus the Fuggles hops.
  • Lion Bitter (3.9%) – an interesting pale bitter flavoured with nut and caramel, and six malts.
  • Gold (4.4%) – if you like Island Gold you’ll like this brew; a summery taste made with Lager Malt and Hops.
  • Oyster (5.0%) – another brew containing Mersea’s legendary oysters plus oats and a mixture of light and dark malts.
Breweries    , , ,

A Casino/Brewery – The Perfect Combination

May2nd
2012 Written by admin

Some time ago we wrote about the concept of the casino brewery in an article about a few of Las Vegas’ best breweries.  On might imagine that a city with a history of entertainment and gambling such as Las Vegas would also have a rich heritage of brewing its own beer but surprisingly that is not the case.  There are some breweries here now but these are relatively recent additions – perhaps the feeling was that the casino atmosphere was more suited to cocktails and mixers rather than the amber nectar.

Things change of course and now it is quite normal to sit down at a game of poker or take a seat at the roulette table with a glass of beer.  Even better, there are a number of local breweries that offer casinos the chance to sell a beer that is a cut above the usual corporate offerings.  You can read about them in this article but today we’re going to concentrate on one that appears to be the perfect marriage for beer drinkers – Barley’s Casino and Brewing Company.  It’s not actually in Las Vegas but is situated in Henderson, Nevada, not far from Vegas and as far as we can tell appears to be the only one of its kind.

Barley's casino and brewery

Barley's Casino and Brewery

Barley’s Casino and Brewing Company opened about 15 years ago, just predating some of the other breweries that began to open a few years later.  It seems like such an obvious solution now – open up a huge slots-based casino and produce the refreshments yourself.  It will prove more profitable in the long run, especially if your brews get a good name for themselves and perhaps new and returning customers will come and play your slot machines and video poker purely because they know they can get a good beer there.  If you don’t sell your beer outside the casino, beer aficionados will head to your venue just to try them out.

The casino itself is not gigantic but it’s not small either.  Slots and video poker are the main focus here (more than 200), there’s no poker or blackjack and you can’t test out your roulette skills here, but you can also use the sport betting facility if that’s your thing.  Or why not order yourself beer while at the Brewer’s Cafe.

The beer has always been decently reviewed and includes brews such as Boulder Cold, Black Mountain, Red Rock and Blue Diamond.  Slots fans and beer fans – give it a try.

 

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Las Vegas Breweries

May2nd
2012 Written by admin

What’s the first thing you think of when Las Vegas is mentioned?  It’s probably not beer or breweries.  Casinos are why tourists flock to the city in the desert in their millions and for good reason.  The area surrounding the world famous Las Vegas strip contains a multitude of casinos of all shapes and sizes from the smallest one-room slot machine venues to the enormous mega-casino resorts which can accommodate thousands.

Of course many of those poker players, roulette wheel spinners and blackjack aficionados also want to enjoy a beer with their favourite pastime and not all of them are happy with the standard low quality, bottled beverages served up by the big companies.

Help is at hand however; Las Vegas hosts a number of micro-breweries which produce some fantastic beers so the following selection are some of our favourites:

Barley’s Casino and Brewing Company

Now this place always counts as one of our all-time favourites as it combines two of our favourite pastimes – drinking and gambling.  While one should be careful about combining the two with too much enthusiasm, it seems appropriate here.  There’s a huge variety of slots, video poker and progressive machines here and a great variety of beers to refresh you, including Blue Diamond, Red Rock, Black Mountain and Boulder Gold.

Barleys casino and brewing company

Barley’s Casino & Brewing Company

 

Sin City Brewing Co.

Sin City Brewing Co. opened it’s doors in 2003 and local resident and proprietor Rich Johnson says it was the first to do so.  Johnson is a beer brewing fanatic who makes sure all his offerings adhere to the 1516 German beer purity law known as the Rheinheitsgebot.  Sin City’s beers include Sin City Weisse, Sin City Light, Sin City Amber and Sin City Stout so there’s something for everyone.

Tenaya Creek Brewery

Originally a restaurant and brewhouse which opened in 1999, Tenaya Creek made the decision to focus on brewing exclusively in 2008.  This proved to be a wise decision and the brewery expanded in 2010 to take advantage of a growing market for beer in this casino city.  It’s offerings are now sold in several U.S. states and even north of the border in Canada.

Tenaya Brewery produces a range of 11 beers of which some of our favourites are the Pilsner, the mega-strong Imperial Stout and the Calico Brown Ale.


 

 

Breweries    , , , , , ,

Shock! Real Ale Drinkers Like Poker Too

May2nd
2012 Written by admin

That may seem like an obvious statement but just because the more discerning imbibers among us also like an occasional visit to a casino, it doesn’t mean those casinos are set up to provide us with the tipple of our choice.

You might surmise that this slightly unusual topic is based on real life experience and you would indeed be correct.  On a recent visit to a northern (UK) location I was taken by some friends to a couple of the city centre casinos so we could spend a few hours spinning the roulette wheel, relaxing on the slots, playing some blackjack and cautiously bluffing at the poker table.

Of course, like everyone else, the first thing I do when I get inside a venue such as this is to head for the bar.  What am I looking for?  Nothing unusual – perhaps a guest ale from one of the local breweries of which there are many.  Wharfebank, Ridgeside and the Kirkstall Brewery Company are just three of the popular choices in the area.  What do I find?  The usual array of tasteless lager on tap and a range of expensive, bottled pop.  What do I end up with?  A mediocre brown drink in a pint glass that, when it was a small regional brew, tasted good, now it’s just average.  It’s from Manchester, you know the one I mean.

Real Ale Kegs

Too much to ask…..?

Anyway, after checking everything out the I get on with the poker. I enjoy my poker so the lack of any decent real ales is just a minor thing really.  As usual I break even at the table but lose a bit of money playing roulette (those systems just don’t work).  The slots just take my money with barely a nod of appreciation but that’s hardly unexpected either.

To get back on track though, would it really be that difficult to install a keg or two behind the bar to provide us real ale fans with something to drink.  It might even persuade us to stay a bit longer and lose a bit more money at the tables.

Opinion    , , , , , , , ,

Alcohol and Gambling

May2nd
2012 Written by admin

Don’t let the title confuse you here; this is not a warning about the twin vices of alcoholism and addictive gaming.  Instead this is a cautionary tale about what happens when you try to mix the two.  Obviously this is a website which enjoys and appreciates a drink, specifically a real ale, or perhaps a German weissbeer.   However we have among our number some poker players also; in fact we have regular casino goers of all types.  Some of us play Blackjack, some Roulette, some just enjoy the slots machines.

But this post is about poker and about how long you should play for proportional to the amount you are drinking.  Roulette players may disagree, but that pastime does not require any skill; the same goes for playing a slot machine – poker on the other hand is a tough mental workout and one that should not be attempted after too many beers.  It’s a recognised game of skill upon which real money is wagered – that’s a combination which, when added to an evening of alcohol consumption, can end in tears.

Alcohol and gambling

Be careful…

I can personally attest to this.  I’ve been playing poker a long time and I’ve also been drinking beer a long time.  Rarely do the two activities come together but read on to find out what happens when it does, with tragic and expensive consequences.

Being on holiday in Thailand probably had something to do with it – at home I know exactly how many pints to drink (two) before my ability to play poker begins to diminish.   Late at night in the south-east Asian heat and humidity, I just continued to down the small bottles of Singha beer until I’d had far more than the two pints I can cope with.

It was fine to start with – up to about four bottles my play was fine and I was hovering near the top of the chip lead.  That soon changed as my vision began to blur and I started to realise that I was calling and raising where I should not have been and folding where it was unnecessary.  My chip stack began to shrink accordingly.

Here’s the thing though – everyone else was drinking as well.  This meant that the final stages of the game degenerated into a crazy series of raises and all-ins, with no-one exhibiting any skill and luck becoming the key factor.  I lost my cash and have no idea who won.  When you’re playing poker, know you’re limits.

P.S.  Gambling is illegal in Thailand so this story may be fictitious.

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