I've been meaning to post about my collection of beer bottles for a while, just haven't got round to it. Today I saw a few posts about #beersaturday being three years old. Sounds like the perfect opportunity to write about my beer collection! And before I forget, happy belated birthday #beersaturday.
So this is my beer bottle collection. I didn't intentionally start to collect beer bottles, and it's certainly not going to be a permanent collection. Some of you may know I'm living in temporary accommodation whilst I'm back in UK, and apart from basic furniture there isn't much here. Hubby bought a few bottles of craft beer from the supermarkets when we first moved in, they were doing a £5 for 3 bottles promotion. We put the bottles aside afterwards to be recycled, then I noticed the bottles and the labels actually looked very pretty. My flat is pretty bare and bland, I figured rather than to throw the bottles away, they would be perfect to used them as a display. I put them by the landing, and it grew from there.
Talking of beer promotion, did you know that since lockdown started in UK, we bought more beer from the supermarket than we did during Christmas? £472m compared to £415m to be precise (source). In the week of Easter alone, we spent £138m on beer, that's 16% more than the week running up to Christmas where we only spent £119m.
Back to my beer bottle collection. I don't drink a lot, so I'm not going to do any beer review. If I made notes as I tasted them I could have written a beer review post, but honestly, I'm not that sad!!!! Making notes, not writing a beer review that is!!! I do remember some were nicer than others, that's about it. What I'm really interested in, is the aesthetic side of things.
The supermarket promotion is still ongoing, so now we always buy different ones so we hubby can try them all and I can expand my collection. Here are a few of my favourite bottles.
Porthleven is a small seaside town in Cornwall, the south west of England. This bottle holds a soft spot in my heart as I went there years ago. See the photo below? It's so beautiful there. I can't remember if I ever wrote about that trip, maybe I should. Anyway, when I saw this bottle, it bought back so many nice memories of that trip. The label is designed by an underground artist called Stevie Gee and pays homage to Cornwall’s iconic surfing break (source).
We had this Mena Dhu Stout only a few days so I still remember what it tastes like. It was quite light, and had a chocolatey flavour, complex and flavoursome as it says on the bottle. I remember liking it. The other thing I like about this, is the name of the brewery imprinted on the bottle neck. It's these little features that I think makes the whole difference to the packaging.
We got a second craft beer from the same brewery, and that's also got the brewery name imprinted on the bottle. We haven't got round to this one yet. I got a feeling this is going to be a strong one.
I've started to play splinterlands recently, and this King Goblin reminds me of the many monster cards. I wonder if there is a monster card call King Goblin? Anyway this is a 6.6% ABV one, normally not my cup of tea (beer?) and I have no recollection of what it tasted like. This beer is described as "a beer for the connoisseur of the finer things" though I don't think the label really screams fine to me!!
Otter Ale's bottle isn't actually very beery, if you know what I mean. Save the word ale, this could have been a wine bottle label. I think its contemporary design is due to this being a relatively young brewery, established in 1990. We had this only last night, and you know what, I couldn't remember much about it. I had to ask hubby, and he said I said it was a bit mild 🙃 One thing I do like is the otter on the cap, that's why I've saved it.
The green cap in the above photo belongs to this bottle of Wild Hare pale ale. We haven't drunk it yet. Again, the label is very contemporary and could be a wine label. The thing that I find interesting about this ale, is that it's gluten-free. It's the first time I've seen this. Also, this is a local brewery, so once I can go out I'm going to check them out as they have a country pub which looks very nice
It seems like I'm going to be staying here for a few more months, so I reckon I will be growing my beer bottle collection quite a bit. Will be interested to see how many more bottles I will add, and hopefully, I will find a beer that I like and write a reveiw about. Cheers!!!
