Hoppily….a little bit of beer tasting!

October 24, 2017 by Foodie Rich

Hoppily….a little bit of beer tasting!

I like beer, I’m pretty certain most of you do too? Men, women, young and old it has a wide appeal. Long gone are the days of ‘beer for the men and wine for the ladies’! Lou for one can’t get enough of good craft beer. I’ve done a little research this week, and the results are shocking. Did you know the top 10 bestselling beer brands in the UK include such names as Budweiser, Carling, Heineken, Carlsberg, and other insipid, flavourless, cold fizzy piss water. FFS people, wake up! There’s a wonderful world of beer out there just waiting to be discovered.

It always pleases me when I’m in a pub, and they are pouring interesting local brews. That local brewer has spent many hours tending and caring for that beer, it’s his baby. He Keeps it free from infection and makes sure he’s infant is kept warm at night to ensure perfect fermentation. And for what? These masters of their craft aren’t in for the money. Not at all, they have a passion and a mission in life to bring us good, tasty beer, and I respect them for that. However, what really grinds my gears is that guy standing next to me. The one who orders a pint of Fosters and a Pinot for his bird! I take offence to this, it’s almost like this guy has stuck two fingers up to that local brewing hero. I mutter expletives under my breath! Yeah you carry on mate, drink that crap, all the more wonderful ale for me!

And another thing, why do pubs insist on serving so many boring lagers on tap. Why do you need to have Fosters, Carling, Heineken and Budweiser all lined up? Why not throw in a couple of craft beers? Let’s make it interesting! But going back to that guy who’s just ordered a pint of Fosters, is it his fault? I shouldn’t be so hard on him, maybe he’s just un-educated in the wonderful world of beer? He needs help. So instead of muttering to myself quietly, I should put my arm around this poor chap, and show him there’s more to life than that so called Amber nectar. I need to preach the craft beer gospel to the nation! But brothers and sisters this is gonna take time. After all, as I said earlier, the top ten best sellers in the UK make for sad reading, that’s a lot of re-educating to be done. I can’t do this alone, I’m gonna need a hand. Well, I think help has finally arrived. In the form of a kind of beer caped crusader. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to Hoppily!

The good people behind Hoppily have one sole purpose in life, to educate the masses about beer! Praise the Lord! These guys are speaking my language. The Hoppily beer geeks scour Essex and London, sipping and swilling all sorts of brews. But not for fun, oh no this is important stuff, they’re doing it for us. They want the likes of me and you to enjoy nothing but fine beer. Hoppily make It simple. All you do is jump on their website, and order a box of beer, that’s it! Either go for a classic box, which is tailored around more classic styles, or an Explorers box, which includes more modern and adventurous brews. Once the beer arrives, the fun begins. You get tasting! Just get stuck in, and review each beer within your online Hoppily account. Based on this review, Hoppily will tailor your future boxes around your likes and dislikes. Apparently, there’s some sort of algorithm behind this! But in simple terms, if you’re not a big fan of dark beers, you won’t receive any of that style and so on. You’ll never have another dull beer!

I need to get me involved with some of this. So yes, I ordered my first Explorer box. 8 carefully chosen beers arrived, and I wasted no time clawing my way in to the box to see what’s inside. Gosh! We had red ales, pale ales, golden ales IPA’s, porters and all sorts. A good cross section of beer styles to get me started I thought. And, nothing from any large corporate brewers, just good craft beer. Not only was I delivered 8 beers, a small envelope was in the box too. Inside I found ‘Hop Trumps’ cards. We all remember playing ‘Top Trumps’ as kid, right? Well Hoppily have put together the beer version! Now that’s my type of game! Each beer has its own card, which simply indicates, the beer, its style, who brews it and where. As the months pass by, and you receive more beer, you will receive more cards. The game is played in exactly the same way as traditional Top Trumps; a 6%abv beer will trump a 5%abv, or a darker beer will trump a lighter beer and so on. We all love a drinking game, don’t we?

Although I love beer, and always get overly excited when I visit Brewdog in Shoreditch for example, I do tend to stick the same style of beer; hoppy IPA’s. However, at Hoppily they choose the beer for you. Although they pay attention to your favoured style, you’ll never know what’s gonna be in the box from one month to the next. Often, they’ll throw in a little curve ball just to surprise you and throw you out of your comfort zone! In my first box, yes there were hoppy IPA’s, but other styles such as red ales. I wouldn’t normally go for this, but you just know this is gonna be something a little interesting. And that’s the whole point here, it’s about beer discovery and broadening your horizons, so why not let Hoppily educate us, it’s what they’re here to do after all. Why don’t you try and have even more fun with this adventure; try matching the beer with food! Its bang on trend at the moment, and there are now such people as beer sommeliers. Yeah that’s right, they do the same job as a wine sommelier, but with beer! A nice bit of strong cheese with a porter? Or how about one of those red ales with a bit of roast pork and crackling next Sunday?

Craft beer has got to be the fastest growing trend in the drinks industry by far. And its gonna get bigger. If you have yet to take the plunge and get involved I would urge you to. Hoppily are here to help. They are reaching out to each and every one of us with a wealth of knowledge, and will curate your very own magical craft beer journey. It will make you think twice next time you’re in the pub. Do I really want a boring pint of lager, or shall I go for something a little more interesting? Don’t get me wrong there are some great craft lagers out there, brewed with love and care. But the masses need to know about them, and that’s what Hoppily will do. They will bring you all sorts of beer, most will be unfamiliar, but believe me they will open your eyes to the wonderful world of Craft, and take it from me, a long term convert, you will not look back. All Hail to the Ale!!

Check out our exclusive offer with Hoppily, here.