[teaston]

I have to share with you all a little indulgence of mine that I discovered a few months ago, it should be of interest to any craft beer or real ale lovers.

You subscribe, but can cancel at any time, for £24pm for 8 beers or £29pm for 10, and they are different craft beers from around the world each month, plus you get a snack and a magazine, but the real deal is the beer, there’s so many amazing ones and just so different to what is available in the supermarkets!

Some of the beers are just very nice, but a lot of them are incredible and make you go wow when you taste them. Also I’ve discovered different types of beer that I’ve never experienced before, like Sours, Milkshakes and Saisons, it really is a taste discovery each month.

Also I’ve found that if you go into your account and click that you want to cancel they instantly offer you £5 off your next case, not sure if it will work every month yet. And you can get free cases for people you introduce to them, so I added my Dad and got the free case, then just cancelled!

It may seem fairly expensive at around £2.40 for mainly 330ml bottles/cans, but this kind of craft beer would probably cost around 3x that in a pub, so really not bad value for money imo.

https://www.beer52.com/

[Chas325]

Similar to https://www.flavourly.com/ which is also very good - similar pricing.

[Wills2]

What kind of pubs are there in Norfolk where they charge £7 for a small bottle of beer? Mental.

[teaston]

Originally Posted by Wills2

What kind of pubs are there in Norfolk where they charge £7 for a small bottle of beer? Mental.

Craft beers mate, easily over £5 for half pint of some of them!

[Wills2]

Originally Posted by teaston

Craft beers mate, easily over £5 for half pint of some of them!

That sounds like a piss take to me.

[teaston]

Originally Posted by Wills2

That sounds like a piss take to me.

It's usually 7-8%, so it gets you pished!

The Belgian Monk in Norwich has a "Dubble" beer that's 13% and costs £13 for a half!!

[teaston]

Originally Posted by Chasdrury

Similar to https://www.flavourly.com/ which is also very good - similar pricing.

Looks good, and it's £4 cheaper than Beer52, so I've signed up to it as well!

[Wills2]

Originally Posted by teaston

It's usually 7-8%, so it gets you pished!

The Belgian Monk in Norwich has a "Dubble" beer that's 13% and costs £13 for a half!!

Yeah I'm not keen on beer that's over 5% I've tried the mainstream ones like leffe and duvel but they are too much for me. But I get it's quite interesting to drink different ones as you say.

I like wine as a stronger drink, pints of.

[Malone]

Originally Posted by Chasdrury

Similar to https://www.flavourly.com/ which is also very good - similar pricing.

These 👍. Non subscription too

[teaston]

Originally Posted by Wills2

Yeah I'm not keen on beer that's over 5% I've tried the mainstream ones like leffe and duvel but they are too much for me. But I get it's quite interesting to drink different ones as you say.

I like wine as a stronger drink, pints of.

To be honest anything over 8% isn't great, and that 13% on is a very acquired taste! But a lot of the best ones are 6-7%

[G50]

I'm a big fan of Belgian beer, especially the 7% and up stuff. A lot of the craft beers these websites above sell are really nice, and some of the flavours are pretty adventurous, however there are a lot that are just Hipster marketing in my opinion, and just don't compare to a lot of the Belgian offerings.

They are however much more accessible, and FYI Tesco now has a decent range of this type of stuff, with a lot of the ones on Beer52, at the same or cheaper prices, with "3 for ..." promotions also.

If you come across anywhere that has a decent range of Belgian stuff you should definitely try :
Trappist Roquefort 8
Trappist Roquefort 10
Geuze Boon (proper sour ale that just can't be replicated over here due to the airbourne yeast in that part of Belgian that give it it's unique taste.
Anything with Geuze in the name
Duchess de Bourgogne
Rodenbach Grand Cru
Gueze Marriage Parfait
Straffe Hendrik Quadrupel
Lindemans Faro
oude Kriek Boon
la Trappe Quadrupel
Gouden Carolus Cuve van de Keizer
Chimay Blue
Chimay Red
Bourgogne Des Flanders

If you've only tried Leffe and Duvel, you've not really given this type of beer style a fair chance. However the above can be fairly pricey over here, but can all be had for under 2euro in a supermarket in Belgium, or somewhere like Pidou in France.

You also need to drink them more like you drink wine, and not like you would drink a pint of pisswater like Carlsberg!

[RobUK]

I was given a gift similar to this last Christmas. It's with bestofbritishbeer.co.uk but you get twelve bottles a quarter rather than 8-10 a month. I must say though that my friend chose the 'Random' selection for me as opposed to the 'Strong & Dark' and of the twenty four bottles I've had so far, twenty three of them have been middle of the road golden ales. They're not unpleasant, just not nearly as random or interesting as I expected.

Your Beer52 looks a bit more varied (and cheaper), so maybe I'll hint at a change when the time comes

Incidentally, was at the Holler Brewery taproom in Brighton last Friday, quaffing a few ales with mates while behind us they were making the stuff. The explosion of microbreweries of the past few years together with the enormous variety of ales available is something I'll drink to!

[doncarlyon]

Do yourself a favour and find a decent local craft beer bottle shop. These subscription ones are ok now and again but from my experience (gifts) they aren't a very good selection of breweries at all.

Also, Tesco have a decent selection these days. Magic Rock, Vocation, Fourpure, etc.

[teaston]

Originally Posted by RobUK

I was given a gift similar to this last Christmas. It's with bestofbritishbeer.co.uk but you get twelve bottles a quarter rather than 8-10 a month. I must say though that my friend chose the 'Random' selection for me as opposed to the 'Strong & Dark' and of the twenty four bottles I've had so far, twenty three of them have been middle of the road golden ales. They're not unpleasant, just not nearly as random or interesting as I expected.

Your Beer52 looks a bit more varied (and cheaper), so maybe I'll hint at a change when the time comes

Incidentally, was at the Holler Brewery taproom in Brighton last Friday, quaffing a few ales with mates while behind us they were making the stuff. The explosion of microbreweries of the past few years together with the enormous variety of ales available is something I'll drink to!

Originally Posted by doncarlyon

Do yourself a favour and find a decent local craft beer bottle shop. These subscription ones are ok now and again but from my experience (gifts) they aren't a very good selection of breweries at all.

Also, Tesco have a decent selection these days. Magic Rock, Vocation, Fourpure, etc.

Beer52’s beers definitely aren’t run of the mill, so many other make you really go wow when you taste them! There’s so many different ones from all over the world, and they change the theme every month.

[teaston]

These are a couple of my favourite Beer52 beers, one I just necked, and the other I am now necking in the sunshine!

If you’ve never tried a Milkshake or a Sour ale, you really need to!

[RobUK]

I was quaffing a sour earlier today 'Beach Towels In Paradise' by Red Cat Brewing. Yep, Tiny Rebel is an interesting brewery too - if you ever see their 'Cherry Bomb' it's definitely worth trying. Had it a few months back at a local beer festival, and it's certainly not a shy beer

[teaston]

Originally Posted by RobUK

I was quaffing a sour earlier today 'Beach Towels In Paradise' by Red Cat Brewing. Yep, Tiny Rebel is an interesting brewery too - if you ever see their 'Cherry Bomb' it's definitely worth trying. Had it a few months back at a local beer festival, and it's certainly not a shy beer

I see that first one is a "Gose" beer, never heard of or tried one of those before!