Latest news with #lager
Times
10-07-2025
- General
- Times
Six of the best barbecue beers — chosen by our expert
W hat makes a beautiful barbecue beverage? That's in the eye of the beer-holder. For me, nothing pairs better with barbecued food than beer — but which one? No one can say you've got beer wrong if you just want a few cold tinnies in the sunshine. And when the food comes out, the chilled, fizzy bite of a lager cuts through fatty sausages and burgers and refreshes the palate. But there are beers that can do much more, enhancing the occasion in different ways. Good barbecue beers transcend traditional categories and styles. Depending on how ambitious you're feeling, pretty much any beer could play a role. If it's hot, of course you'll want something cold and refreshing. But if you're starting early you may also want to go steady on the buzz. Few hangovers are worse than those that start while you're still in the full glare of the summer sun. So maybe choose something relatively low in alcohol, that's still crisp and satisfying.
Times
05-07-2025
- Business
- Times
The Clarkson review — the Land Rover Defender Octa is ‘the real deal'
When I was growing up, business was ever so simple. You decided you wanted to be a coal merchant, so you bought some coal for 20 shillings and sold it for 25 shillings. And then you used the 5 shillings you made on every transaction to heat your house and feed your family and buy tangerines, and coal, for your children at Christmas. Today, though, no one starts a business to take a weekly wage. Or pass it on to their kids. They start a business so they can sell it as fast as possible. They don't want a few shillings every week. They want a billion pounds tomorrow. So they don't necessarily want their business to be profitable. They want it to be valuable. And to me those are two very different things. The trouble is, I don't really know what I'm talking about. And to make sure I remain in the dark, businesspeople have invented a language that only they understand. You know how people in certain pubs in north Wales will switch to Welsh when an English person comes through the door. Well, that's what happens when I walk into a boardroom. I know that before I got there they were saying 'profit' and 'first quarter'. But when they see me coming, they switch to 'ebitda' and 'Q1'. As the biggest shareholder I sit on the board of Hawkstone, which is a company that turns my barley into lager. It's become quite successful and now turns lots of British farmers' barley into lager. This means it needs to be run by professional businesspeople, and that in turn means that when I'm sitting in a board meeting, I understand about one word in seventeen. Someone says 'cap X' and I have to quietly google that to find out what it means, and by then they're talking about 'PBT'. Often someone reads out a jumbled-up bit of the alphabet and there's a chorus of whoops and high-fives and it's like I'm watching American football. There's a sudden burst of excitement and I've no idea why. Another aspect of the business I don't understand is the range. We started with a beer that everyone liked. So we brought out another and then another, and then a stout. And occasionally I'd put my hand up in the meeting and ask why we were doing this. It just seemed to me like we were competing with ourselves. They would look at me with expressions of pity and reply, 'Because the Q3 forecast calls for a Tipte input of 14 and with IBT impacting on the Ewipt, we must act now.' All of which brings me on to Land Rover. If I was on the board and someone had suggested making a £150,000 Defender, I'd have interrupted and said, 'Why would we make a car that will pinch sales only from the Range Rover? That makes no sense.' It turns out, however, that actually it does. When the new Defender first came along six years ago, I was unimpressed. They'd aped the style and ethos of the original — a car I've never liked — but lost the substance. You only had to look at the fiddly little shopping bag hooks in the boot to know that if you ever used this car as an actual rough-and-tumble off-roader, they'd snap off in about one second. The car was, I concluded, a fake. Over time I had to admit that while it wasn't 'real', it was certainly a looker. I decided it was a cut-price urban understudy to the greatest off- road car of all: the Range Rover. But here's the thing. The new Range Rover, and I know this because Lisa has one, is not really an off-roader at all. Oh, I know that if you go on a shoot you'll see lots, with their summer tyres, slithering about on the wet grass. But here at Diddly Squat it feels wrong when you put a sheep in it. Or drive it through a wood. It's like going rambling in a pair of Jimmy Choos. It can go off-road, of course. It has the tech and the ground clearance. But mostly it's for going to the theatre in. And that's what brings us to the reason why Land Rover has just launched a £150,000 Defender. It's called the Octa, which means something that made sense in a marketing meeting but nowhere else. So let's get to the important stuff. Because this is emphatically not just a Defender with a supercharged 626bhp V8 under the bonnet. There's a lot more to it than that. First, it comes with bigger wheels than a normal Defender. Much bigger. They're so big that, to make them fit, Land Rover's engineers had to move both the front and rear axles. That's a huge job. They also replaced the antiroll bars with a hydraulic system, and fiddled with the control arms, links and knuckles. They also armour-plated the undersides and added the biggest brakes ever seen on any of their cars. I took it around the farm and it felt like it belonged. It also felt like it was never going to get stuck. So does this mean there are compromises on the road? Yes. The knobbly tyres are noisy. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. If you're going to drive a monster, you have to accept that from time to time it's going to be a bit roary. You might also expect it to be a bit bouncy. But it rides beautifully. It also feels meaty. Unlike the standard Defender, which feels like a stylish interpretation of the real deal, this is the real deal. And it's bloody fast as well. The top speed depends on the tyres you fit, but doing 0 to 62mph in four seconds in a 2.5-tonne car like this is hilarious. Drawbacks? I was amused to see that in the command and control system there's a facility for measuring your lap times. Which seems odd in a car with off-road tyres. And while we are on the subject of computer nerds being allowed to fit stuff just because they can, it has the same automatic headlamp dim/dip system you get in a Range Rover. It's very clever, I'm sure, except it doesn't work. It blinds everyone coming the other way and if you try to override it you only make everything worse. The fact is, the Octa is a brilliant car. You sense there's some proper engineering in the mix and, thanks to its new flared wheel arches, it looks better than ever. It's also a hoot to drive. Better than a Range Rover? Ooh, that's a tricky one. The Range Rover is quieter, more civilised and has that split folding tailgate that provides you with somewhere to sit in the West car park at Twickenham. Whereas the Octa feels like you're on the pitch, in the actual scrum. So, two cars that appear to be similar but aren't. Is that Land Rover competing with itself? Yes. But it's also Land Rover giving its customers a choice. Which is why we sell lots of versions of Hawkstone. I think.
Daily Mail
03-07-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
Best lagers in the US revealed ahead of 4th of July... and lower alcoholic beers are taking the top spots
There's nothing better than a crisp, refreshing lager on a hot summer's day - and now there's a definitive list of the best after the International Beer and Cider Awards released their official winners. The competition is run by the North American Brewers Association, a nonprofit that promotes craft beer and culture. While beer entries are accepted from all around the world, most of the lager gold medal categories were won by US breweries. Judges assessed 1,426 entries in Idaho Falls for this year's competition, breaking them down into different categories. The results found lower alcoholic and lighter beers have increased in popularity. According to Harvey Hembree, the competition coordinator, Latin American or Tropical-Style Lagers were stand-out categories for lager this year. 'We have noticed an overall trend towards lighter, more sessionable [low alcoholic content] beers across all categories and particularly lagers,' he told Forbes. He added that this year there was more dark lager and Asian lager submissions to the competition. 'The dark lager categories were very competitive, indicating to us that the market for sessionable dark beer is on the rise,' he said. Recently, scientists revealed why some people love beer - and say it starts when you're still in the womb. As part of a recent study, scientists at Swansea University quizzed more than 250 people on their drinking habits while measuring the length of their fingers. Finger length is thought to be a metric for how much testosterone we were exposed to in the womb – and therefore how 'masculine' we are. According to the findings, the more testosterone we're exposed to in the womb, the more alcohol we drink as an adult – although it's unclear why. 'Alcohol consumption is a major social and economic problem,' said study author John Manning, professor of evolutionary biology at Swansea University. 'Therefore, it is important to understand why alcohol use shows considerable differences across individuals. 'It is possible that differences in alcohol consumption are set in the womb.' And so, if you are someone who is planning to enjoy a beer on Fourth of July, take a look below at the award winners. The World's Best Lagers American-Style Light (Low-Calorie) Lager: Gold Clubhaus Lager, Von Ebert Brewing Portland, Oregon American-Style Standard or Premium Lager: 307, Black Tooth Brewing Co., Sheridan, Wyoming Latin American or Tropical-Style Lager or Ale: Helper Beer, Mexican Lager from Helper Beer, Helper, Utah Asian-Style Lager Saru Zen Japanese-style Rice Lager: Bozeman Brewing Co., Bozeman, Montana Helles Lager: Helles Good, Boxing Bear Brewing Co. Albuquerque, New Mexico American Black Lager: Templin Family Capenfluegan Templin Family Brewing Salt Lake City, Utah American-Style Amber Lager California Common Vienna Lager: Cardinal Craft Brewing, Burlington, Washington Vienna-Style Lager Prost Vienna Lager: Prost Brewing Co. Northglenn, Colorado Marzen Oktoberfest Oktoberfest: Idaho Brewing Co., Idaho Falls, Idaho Schwarzbier (Black Beer) Oh Black Lager: Discretion Brewing, Soquel, California Czech Dark Lager Stacks & Towers Czech Dark Lager: Wild Ride Brewing, Redmond, Oregon Helles Bock Maibock Traditional Bock Ammo Bocks: Bear Island Brewing, Boise, Idaho
Times
27-06-2025
- Business
- Times
Hawkstone
Rank 23Annual sales growth over three years 134.11%Brewery 'I did a beer,' Jeremy Clarkson announced in 2021 — and so Hawkstone was born. The 65-year-old TV star turned farmer had decided to use his spring barley to make his own lager in the second series of Clarkson's Farm, his TV show about his misadventures running Diddly Squat Farm in Gloucestershire. • How Jeremy Clarkson's Hawkstone beer is going global The brand, led by managing director Owen Jenkins, 44, nearly tripled sales to £21.3 million in the year to March as it expanded into more than 1,500 UK pubs and launched in Waitrose. The brewery's growing range of beers is also available at Clarkson's own Cotswolds pub, the Farmer's Dog. Explore the Sunday Times 100 — interviews, company profiles and more
Forbes
02-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Why You're Suddenly Seeing Beers That Are All Foam
A Mlíko pour is almost all foam, but that is what makes it delicious, according to enthusiasts. John Robson Emblazoned on the home page of Cohesion Beer's website are the words 'Foam is beautiful.' The Denver, Colorado brewery is focused on brewing Czech-style lagers, using traditional ingredients—their malt is custom-made for them by a local maltster to meet their unique needs—and methods, including fermenting in open vats and conditioning tanks that are horizontal, rather than vertical. Cohesion is just one of a new wave of craft breweries embracing lager styles. The craft beer industry was largely built on ales, most notably hoppy IPAs showcasing a seemingly unending variety of hops. But new craft breweries, and some of the older ones, are now responding to a renewed thirst for lager. In addition to making beers in various Czech styles—from Světlý Ležák (Pale Lager) to Speciální Tmavé Pivo (Special Dark Beer)—Cohesion serves all beers in three traditional Czech formats: 'From a sensory standpoint, the foam captures aromatics and keeps them available for the drinker,' said Eric Larkin, brewer and co-owner at Cohesion during a telephone interview. 'It helps the drinker use all of their olfactory senses and helps everything come together. And it looks beautiful.' Foam on top of any beer is a protective barrier, keeping the beer from oxygen, which harms the flavor of beer in subtle ways. But Czech beer foam is special. Unlike usual beer foam, which forms atop a beer as carbonation settles, foam created in the Czech fashion is wet—if allowed to settle, that foam will settle into much more liquid beer than regular beer foam does. Usual beer foam is a byproduct of pouring the beer, while in the Czech tradition, foam is the point. Because the foam is wet, it has flavor. In a Šnyt or Mlíko, drinking the foam is the point. 'Obviously, the foam comes from the beer,' said Larkin. 'But it is made up differently at a molecular level. It has more protein separated out of the beer which gives it texture like a milkshake, or milk, I guess, which is where the name comes from.' The side pull beer tap is designed to let the bartender change the flavor and texture of beer. Courtesy of LUKR CZ a.s. The taps used to create the foam are different. Commonly referred to as a 'side pull' tap, the lever swings side to side, rather than tipping forward as with the more ubiquitous draft tap. While there are now 'side pull' taps that swing up and down, rather than side to side, the mechanism inside is what allows the bartender to control the amount of foam. And in a Czech-style pour, the bartender always makes the foam first, throttling the tap differently to allow liquid beer to flow only when the perfect foam has already been created, and that beer is only allowed to flow under the foam, so it is never exposed to ambient air and does not disturb the foam. 'There are three, most important parts which make the magic,' said Jan Havránek, international sales manager of LUKR, which makes side pull taps, in a video interview. 'Inside, there is a compensator, which regulates the speed of flow of beer through the tap. The tap handle moves a ball valve inside. This is where the foam is created. A smaller opening results in more foam. And the third thing is a special screen in the nozzle of the tap.' Havránek says LUKR currently sells about 2,000 taps per year. Ten years ago, they sold about 25. Use of the special taps and knowledge of the Czech-pouring tradition, which includes ensuring the glassware is kept wet and at the same temperature as the beer that will eventually fill it, requires specific training. There are even certifications available in Czech pouring. 'It can make your beer taste and feel better in the hands of a trained tapster,' said Havránek. 'On a violin, you need to hear and feel the tone. It's not about set positions. In the hands of a skilled bartender, the tap creates wet and dense foam that is full of beer. It creates amazing mouthfeel; it is not just good taste.' 'We treat the foam and the different pouring styles the same way a barista creates different coffee drinks which all contain the same liquids, but in different proportions and formats to create drinks that taste different,' said Larkin.
