Another guest blog today, this time from a first time guest blogger Lee. Varieties of beers can be slim in certain parts but there are companies out there that dedicate in spreading beer knowledge by sending you a mixed box of beers on a semi regular basis that gives you an insight to the products, the style and the brewing process. They set up that you drink the same beer at the same time to create a beer club feel but sure we’ll let Lee tell you all about it!
D
Lastly the competition has been hugely popular so be sure you don’t miss out on this awesome prize more info here!
Beer Bods (http://www.beerbods.co.uk/)
I am sure some of you have heard about BeerBods, maybe in name alone, from fellow beer heads or through a random twitter post. For those who haven’t, here is a quick synopsis before I start to wax lyrical about the actual experience. The premise is simple: you purchase a 12 or 24 week subscription, you then receive 12 bottles in the post every 12 weeks. Every Thursday at 9pm you drink a predetermined beer, and then take to twitter to give opinions and read others. In tandem the website gives you a history of said beer and the brewery from which it came, along with tasting notes. Now this service isn’t available in Northern Ireland just yet, but after sending a few emails BeerBods way they agreed to let me be a guinea pig (or just wanted the emails to stop). Either way I am on my second 12 bottle case and enjoying the experience.
So what has been my experience?
Firstly with regards the idea of Beers Bods, I think they have had a stroke of genius with it. I know when I started getting into drinking proper beer, very few of my friends did, and BeersBods has that online community that you can share beer with. Collectively there are people, who like me, are just starting to get to grips with what is out there in terms of styles and breweries, but others who know beer inside out. You get an idea of what you smell and taste in a beer and see what others get out of the same beer. Tasting is something you do have to learn, I have been part of the Vineyard wine club for years and it is the same principle in wine tasting. You sometimes need to get people who know what they are talking about to explain what the notes are and why they taste the way they do. Different styles, ingredients, glassware, temperature… so many things can affect the taste.
Now being on Twitter there is a limit to the description you can give, so descriptions tend to be a bit generic, ‘bitter’, ‘hoppy’ etc. That end of things is complimented by the tasting notes on the web site. So we know it is hoppy, it has hops in it! But the type of hops and an explanation of what that does to the beer in terms of aroma and taste means you can shop for things you like by looking towards the ingredients. You also get an idea of what type of bitter taste it is; for example with respect to Stroud Brewery’s (https://twitter.com/StroudBrewery) Buddings, bitter marmalade was mentioned, and the penny dropped that was what I was tasting but hadn’t been able to put my finger on it. This info along with the history of the brewery is excellent, knowing the history of the brewery does give a sense of brewers putting their heart and soul into what is in the bottle.
The beer itself has been exceptional and there have only been a few that I have not really liked. There is a good spread, with only one or two that I’d tried before, although I think they could put a few more ‘out of the ordinary’ or limited release beers in amongst them. I understand that may affect the price point and put off the people who this is more aimed at, i.e. people new to beer. The range of beer also keeps you expanding your experience of what is out there. I know left to my own devices I would probably drink the world dry of stout and porter, it is my preferred style, so it is good to keep me in check and not let me get stuck in a stout rut!
In terms of the price, for customers in Northern Ireland you are looking £40, which is in line with the price from people like Ales By Mail so not going to complain about that. Using a courier service you are going to have to pay more living this side of the Irish Sea, but the beer does arrive fairly sharpish. As mentioned above, this service hasn’t been fully rolled out to Northern Ireland which is disappointing but if the demand is here then it is only a matter of time (get emailing).
All that being said you will never replace a proper beer club, where you can sit in a room full of beer heads having a yarn and tasting several beers in one sitting. BeerBods do this themselves occasionally by having live tastings from a pub, but this is restricted to people in the near vicinity. Tasting just one beer is alright, but even tasting two is better as you get a very clear illustration of how different beers can taste in comparison to one another. Hence my happiness at the arrival of Belfast Beer Club! (https://twitter.com/beerclubbelfast) So a possible change to improve this is if two beers were to be tasted instead of one, but it is what it is, and may not lend itself to expanding in this way. Also I have a suspicion that most folk have a couple of other beers waiting in the wings and don’t just stop at the one…
So all in all I have been enjoying BeerBods and will continue to do so, it is another great way to get to know the world of beer and the people in it.
Cheers Lee
Since posting the original blog Beer Bods have been in touch and have informed us of
“At the moment our site says we’re not delivering to Northern Ireland, but we are now taking on triallists – people just need to email me if interested –matt@beerbods.co.uk” So what are you waiting for?
Thanks again to Matt & the rest of Beer Bods for the information and prompt response!
D
The BelfastBeerBlog 
Sadly I was scammed by this company. In taking up the Beer52 Groupon offer we were automatically signing a Continuous Payment Order, for which you have to give the bank 1 month’s notice to cancel. This means of course, that by the time you pay the first £6 for the introductory offer, you are already committed to paying a further £24 for the next month.
The customer service numbers are either unobtainable, refer you to email customer support or result in a never-ending queue. They also replied to very few emails. I had 2 responses. The first was in response to me asking to cancel my order. The reply was “sad to see you go” and was ambiguous about whether the order was actually cancelled – it wasn’t. The second was equally meaningless, offering to send a returns ticket when I received the beer.
Of course no returns ticket arrived and they didn’t reply to the multiple emails I sent asking for it. It seems that these were just delaying tactics in order to drag me into a further month. Avoid.