richard mackney

Tournay Noire Stout 7.6%

I've fallen in love with a beer (again). This is a superb Belgian Stout that packs a mighty 7.6% but has a soft mouthfeel with amazing balance and a nice bitterness. Made with four malts and two hops.

(Sent from iPhone)

Liquid Treasure

My wife took the kids to a birthday party so I thought I'd take a walk to the local Farmers Market (Belper, Derbyshire) I said to myself I was going to be good and not buy a truck load of Ostrich meat ... after all, I'd have to cary it home.

The market was good - as usual and the que for the Ostrich burgers was long - as usual. So I thought I'd nip into Liquid Treasure - a specialist drink shop. To be honest, I wish I hadn't.

What a blooming amazing supply of all the specialist beers I've been longing to try. Not only do they stock all the local brewers like Thornbridge, Amber Ales, Titanic, Nutbrook, Burton Bridge but also a massive range of international stuff.

I now have a heavy bag to lug home with me! No doubt I'll be sending pics to Twitpic when I open them, but as a taster the loot contains beers from Sierra Nevada, Brooklyn, Brew Dog, Kwak, Tournay and Hook Norton!

It's a good job the Black Swan next door is open and they are serving Thornbridge Lord Marples to prepare me for the walk back.

I'm writing this, adding the photos and uploading on the iPhone but may have to break off to grab pint number two ;)

Visit Liquid Treasure on Gowalla: http://gowal.la/r/5bbx

Website: http://www.liquidtreasure.co.uk

Liquid Treasure
59 King Street
Belper
Derbyshire
DE56 1QA

Telephone: 01773-825754

(Sent from iPhone)

 

Related:

• His Masters Choice (of beer)
• Thornbridge Hall Garden Party
• Home pulled English beer
• The Real Ale Corner
• Brewing Beer at Nutbrook Brewery
• Wizard Ales Brewery
• The Talbot Taphouse

 

Beers from Marks and Spencer

It's not the usual place I would buy bottled beer from, but when you realise that the beer is actually brewed by some great breweries it made me wonder if this was just another white labelled product or have the breweries actually changed the recipe for M&S. Recently Chris McBride on twitter mentioned that he was doing a side by side taste test between the Marks and Spencer Cornish IPA and Proper Job IPA (both by St Austell) and seeing that I have recently had a amazing pint of Proper Job, I thought I would also pick up a bottle of M&S Cornish IPA for a test.

I think some will be instantly recognisable, like the Southwold Winter Beer from Adnams, the Staffordshire IPA by Marston’s and the London Porter by Meantime of Greenwich - even if they do have a slightly different ABV, a tweak in the recipe or not be bottle conditioned.

All we need now is for a popular beer blog to take up the challenge and do blind taste tests of the M&S beers next to the 'likely' brewery sourced bottles and let us have the results.

The other good thing about picking up the M&S beer was the price deal. They are currently running 'buy 6 for the price of 5' and to my surprise they also knocked off a further 10% under the 'buy 6 wines and get 10% off' deal ... strange but true, check out the receipt on twitpic ...

Related blog posts from richard.mackney.com:

• Brewing Beer at Nutbrook Brewery (video)
• Stout Cakes
• BEER from BEERmerchants.com (video)
• Twitter Taste Live

 

A Storms Brewing

(Sent from iPhone)

Stream media to your iPhone

If you want to watch live TV on your iPhone you can use TVCatchup or BBC iPlayer 

If you want to watch TV broadcast from your own home you would ideally buy a Slingbox (and their £17.99 iPhone app) ...

... but you can also use a software based service called Orb

I installed the Orb server on a machine with a full iTunes library of music and video and that also has two USB webcams and a USB TV tuner attached. Once logged in through any device with a web browser (Wii, PS3, iPhone, PDA, PSP, Windows Mobile, Laptop, iPad) you have access to stream the media direct to that device. It will convert video files on the fly to the target format of your choice (3GP, FLV. WMA etc) and it will access a live stream of each webcam, Live TV, music and even file browsing.

Here are a couple of screenshots from testing the free trial iPhone app. It had no problems streaming the video from (my wifes!) iTunes library. Unfortunately, although streaming your media to every other device is free, the full iPhone app is currently £5.99 (I suspect this helps pay for the ability to stream through their servers when you are on the road).

  

In theory you should be able to access all of your stored media and live TV from anywhere in the World with a data signal. When you are inside the same network (i.e. WiFi in the house) the stream stays local so you are not eating into any bandwidth limits while watching SKY TV in the bath!

Give it a try, it's free! http://orb.com/

 

Bank Holiday in North Devon

Travelogue: North Devon Spring Bank Holiday Weekend 2010.

Photoblog pictures taken and uploaded with the iPhone. Images get added over the course of the break using the PicPosterous iPhone app - depending on mobile data signal.

I hope you all have a nice Bank Holiday whatever you are doing :)

Saunton Sands on a Friday

This is why we enjoy visiting the area on a Thursday/Friday ... It sorta gets busy on a Bank Holiday weekend.

I sent this to the email address twitter+flickr@posterous.com so I can see where it ends up!

(Sent from iPhone)

The day they launched the iPad

I've just seen a twitvid of a heaving UK Apple store where hoards of techno geeks que and chant while they eagerly wait in line for their turn to hand over 500 odd quid for a new iPad.

What an amazing marketing machine in action. The hype, the anticipation, the geek status - all for something that we really don't 'need' but we just 'want'

Most of the geeks getting one will already have an iPhone, a netbook a laptop or all three and will probably argue that this 'will' fill a gap in their productivity or entertainment. I certainly don't 'need' one, but for some reason I do actually 'want' one and the marketing has worked it's magic on me.

Instead of queing, I'm writing this on my iPhone, sitting outside in a campsite in Devon, reading tweets and drinking coffee while my kids play on the park and push me on my very own swing with no other person in sight. Would an iPad enhance this experience? .... maybe.

Now, where is the nearest Apple store?

(Sent from iPhone)

VW Split Screen in Woolacombe

It's amazing the amount of envious looks this VW bus got today in Woolacombe. Sitting there, by the sea, it almost looked in it's natural habitat. A very nice and tidy example which I was later told cost the (City Banker) 37k to buy!

Most male friends I speak to say they want to get a splitty, maybe it's something that happens later in life when you possibly have more cash than when you were younger? I've always been into classic Mini's and still have my Cooper in the garage, but I can relate to the instant attraction of the classic styling and iconic design.

Being away 'a lot' with my family in a four berth touring caravan, I can't see how we would cope for more than a weekend in a camper as small as this, certainly a drive away awning would be required.

For couples who want a romantic get-away to multiple destinations, I can't think of anything better than cruising from beach to beach and stopping every now and then for a cuppa.

My business partner has been harping on about getting one for ages now, he's owned iconic VW's before and attends the shows every year. All I need to do now is work out how the business can buy one ;)

(Sent from iPhone)

Prince Igor Imperial Russian Stout

Prince Igor Imperial Russian Stout (8.5%) is made by Spire Brewery in Chesterfield.

I picked up this bottle at the Derbyshire food and drink festival from the breweries own stand. The tasting notes replicate the notes on the label:

"This Imperial Russian Stout is named after a 12th century Russian hero (and Borodin's subsequent opera). It is strong and full-bodied with complex malt flavours of chocolate, espresso coffee and hints of liquorice, balanced with a generous amount of northern brewer hops."

I tell you what, 275ml is all you need of this liquid gold!

(Sent from iPhone)