A few weeks before Christmas, I managed to convince a mate to join me on a craft beer tour of Reading. His reaction was about what you'd expect.
"Reading? Why Reading?"
On the surface it's not exactly the first destination that springs to mind when planning a beer-focused weekend. However, after repeatedly hearing it mentioned on the This Week in Craft Beer podcast, I felt it warranted investigation.
As it turns out, Reading punches well above its weight.
The standout location was undoubtedly The Nag's Head, a pub that perfectly captures what I think a proper pub should be. A huge range of cask and keg beers, old blokes quietly enjoying a pint, a dartboard, shelves of books, and board games scattered around the place. Nothing forced. Nothing trendy. Just a genuinely excellent pub.
We also visited Double-Barrelled Brewery, which had a strong beer selection and some surprisingly good Aussie parmo being served by a pop-up food vendor. The only downside was that our visit coincided with their first-ever karaoke event. Whether that's a positive or a negative depends entirely on your tolerance for enthusiastic interpretations of classic songs.
We also stopped at Siren's city-centre taproom, which was well worth a visit, although sadly we ran out of time before making it to Phantom Brewery, which remains firmly on the list for next time.
Despite visiting several excellent venues, we never quite found the beer of the trip. Plenty of very good beers, but nothing that completely stole the show. Still, not every beer trip needs a winner. Sometimes it's enough that every stop is worth the journey.
The Cotswolds, Then Common Sense Left the Building
The day after Reading, we broke up the journey home with a hike around Broadway in the Cotswolds. When I originally described it as a "decent walk", I may have been underselling things slightly.
Fifteen miles. Three substantial hills. Plenty of mud. A thoroughly enjoyable day.
What makes this more ridiculous is the wider context.
The previous day had started with an eight-mile run, followed by an afternoon and evening drinking around Reading, followed by a hotel night interrupted by my arch-nemesis: calf cramp.
Despite all this, I somehow decided that the following morning was the perfect opportunity for an 18-mile trail run. Because apparently I occasionally confuse optimism with intelligence.
The Worcester Death March
The destination for this run was Worcester and, more specifically, the newly opened Copper Beech Taproom.
For those unfamiliar with Copper Beech, it's a local brewery largely run by one man with tremendous support from his wife. I'd become a fan of both their story and their beers through listening to the Daft About Craft podcast and regularly drinking their beer at Bayley's of Bromsgrove.
The plan seemed simple: Run 18 miles. Reach Worcester. Drink excellent beer.
Unfortunately, somewhere around mile ten my body finally submitted a formal complaint.
The energy simply disappeared.
I started feeling light-headed and very quickly realised that the combination of running, beer, poor sleep and a lengthy hike had caught up with me. The planned 18 miles became 15 miles, and the final stretch into Worcester involved a mixture of running, walking and negotiating with my own stubbornness.
Thankfully, I made it.
The taproom had only been open for a week when I arrived, and I suspect I wasn't the brewery's ideal customer profile—a soaking wet, exhausted man stumbling through the door looking like he'd escaped from a survival challenge.
Still, the beer was superb.
I only had time for a single pint before catching the train home, but I left with several cans for Christmas and every intention of returning. Perhaps by train next time. Probably not, though.
Christmas Beer Round-Up
Christmas, unsurprisingly, involved quite a lot of beer.
Alongside the collaborative festive beers I'd brewed with my mate, I picked up selections from Burning Sky, Duration, and Copper Beech.
On the homebrew side, I brewed three beers over the festive period.
Pale Ale. This was brewed for the beer engine and turned out exactly as I'd hoped. Balanced, drinkable and highly satisfying. A success.
Gamma Ray Clone. Possibly the standout of the three. Everything came together beautifully and it captured much of what makes the original beer so enjoyable. Another success.
West Coast Pilsner. This one was slightly frustrating. Brewed with Centennial, Citra, Simcoe and Cascade, it looked fantastic on paper. Instead, it developed a surprisingly harsh bitterness. My current theory is that the culprit may be the Après Ski yeast strain, which was new to me. Some yeasts have a tendency to emphasise bitterness and this certainly felt like one of those cases.
Thankfully, beer has a habit of improving with time, so I'm continuing to condition it in the hope that things mellow out.
Overall though, two successes from three brews isn't a bad strike rate.
Burning Sky vs Duration
I approached the Burning Sky order intentionally looking for something a little different. Several of the beers sat firmly on the funky, tart side of the spectrum.
Results were mixed.
Some were simply too challenging for my palate, but the fruit-forward beers were absolutely exceptional. I've still got several bottles waiting to be opened, including a porter I'm particularly excited about. Their Imperial Porter was comfortably one of my favourite beers of 2024, so expectations are high.
Duration was a slightly different story.
I still think they're an excellent brewery, but I found myself less excited than I expected. Partly that's because I've discovered breweries that suit my taste more closely. Their West Coast beers are very good, but after drinking a lot of Burnt Mill recently, it's hard not to make comparisons.
The second reason is that I suspect Duration have successfully developed a distinctive house yeast culture that runs through many of their beers. It creates a subtle farmhouse character that I'm sure is exactly what they're aiming for. The problem is simply that farmhouse flavours aren't really my thing. I can appreciate the craftsmanship without necessarily wanting another pint.
A Brief Deya Appreciation Section
One area that absolutely delivered was the advent and Christmas beer selection.
For my mate's birthday, I picked up some beers from DEYA, including Steady Rolling Strata and its DIPA counterpart.
Both were superb.
Some breweries just seem incapable of making bad beer. DEYA appears to be one of them.
Looking Ahead
I'm genuinely excited about brewing in 2025.
The biggest upgrade is an RO water system, which should allow much greater control over water chemistry and hopefully improve my pale beers and lagers significantly.
Living with naturally hard water has always favoured darker styles. Being able to build water profiles from scratch should open up a lot of possibilities.
The brewing to-do list currently includes:
A low-ABV session beer
A Baltic porter
Further West Coast IPA experimentation
Water chemistry optimisation
Continued pursuit of brewing perfection (or something close to it)
I've also renewed my Brewser subscription, entirely in the interests of research, and I'm making a conscious effort to visit more breweries, more taprooms and become more involved with the homebrew club.
Whether my workload agrees with those ambitions remains to be seen.
Until Next Time...
As I write this, it's time to head to bed.
Tomorrow's alarm is set for 4:30am and the forecast suggests a delightful -8°C wind chill for the morning run.
A fleece, trail shoes and questionable judgement should be enough.
Some traditions are worth maintaining.
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