Our five favourite winter ales this year

In the run up to Christmas we started receiving a few gifts of beer. Mostly from PR companies hoping we’ll feature their clients’ booze on our website. It’s a simple beer-for-words tactic they’ve employed and, if we like the beer, it usually works.

So to help those nice PR people earn an extra star on their lapels, and to provide our readers with some suggestions of what’s worth loading into their fridges to keep the festivities rocking for a few weeks yet, here are the five best winter ales to have landed on our desks…

1 Goose Island Winter Ale, 5.3%

Craft ale pioneers Goose Island may be owned by corporate monsters AB InBev, but the brewing team still knock out some great booze. Their IPA featured in our ‘ten best IPAs’ list and it came up in our conversations with Danny Wallace and Sophie Atherton. This is our first sampling of their Winter Ale and it’s a lovely drop: dark brown with sweet caramel malts, nutty, roasty flavours and a mild bitterness.

2 FourPure, Northern Latitude, 7.4%

Nick has been a particular fan of FourPure for a while and gave their excellent Dry Hop Pils a beer of the week slot on this site and included Beartooth as one of his 10 best London Beers. So he was a bit miffed when cans of Northern Latitude AND a natty T-Shirt arrived on Rich’s door mat. “It’s an IPA with bells on, with rye bringing a slick mouthfeel and spicy twang” he crowed smugly, leaving Nick to re-check a fifty metre radius around the front door ‘just in case’. Nothing.

3 Leffe, Biere de Noel, 6.6%

Leffe is another brewery we’ve given plenty of coverage this year, having both praised their brune and blond in various media outlets, including one of our own coveted BOTW slots. They were the first Belgian beers we ever drank and have remained among our favourites ever since. This time it’s Nick that’s crowing having been the recipient of a huge bottle of their fruity and spicy Biere de Noel beer along with two Christmas puddings. It’s a smooth, creamy affair, slightly sweet and comes with festive feel good flavours. Negotiations of an exchange involving pudding and Northern Latitude are already under way…

4 Big Hug Brewing, Hibernation IPA, 5.2%

Although not a winter ale style, this white wheaty IPA is as crisp as a drift of snow with a refreshing citrus character that is worth snuggling up to of an evening. The can came courtesy of beer retailer Honest Brew, with an honest letter about their drive to help promote the little breweries against the corporate might of the big global businesses such as AB InBev. We think there’s room for all sizes of brewing machine, so long as the end product is good, but it’s working with these independents we find most rewarding and we’re especially looking forward to helping promote Honest Brew’s endeavours throughout 2017.

5 Marks & Spencer, Southwold Winter IPA, 6.7%

For the past few years the best beer retailer within walking distance of Nick’s home has been Marks & Spencer and many trips to buy expensive bread to go with dinner would be mere disguise for popping a new beer in his basket. If ever rumbled by the wife he would mumble ‘it’s work’, proving the point by loading up an article one of us has written about the beer online. This time, he doesn’t have to wander far because the friendly retailers sent us some of their winter beers to try. Our favourite is this Winter IPA, brewed by Adnams. Its high alcohol content carries a layer biscuity malt spread with sticky citrus fruits and an easy going pine bitterness which makes it a dangerously drinkable winter guzzle.

 

 

The post Our five favourite winter ales this year appeared first on Two Thirsty Gardeners.

from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2016/12/five-best-winter-ales-fourpure-leffe-bear-hug-goose-island-southwold/

How to build a log store and keep wood for winter

Three years ago I had a wood burner fitted in the living room. It has proved to be the best thing I’ve invested in for the house. There is now something to look forward to about winter.

For the first few years I kept my logs stored in the open shed at the back of the garden. Although it’s an ideal place to keep fire wood dry, it’s not the most practical location: loading the basket involves a trek up a sometimes slippery path, with an awkward gate to negotiate, and other items of shed clutter to clamber over in order to reach the wood. Disorganisation means I usually perform this task at night with a torch gripped between my teeth.

This winter, things will be different. I’ve got a small wood store close to the house providing me with easy access to dry wood just a few steps from the back door.

Putting up a log store is a fairly straightforward activity, so long as you follow a few simple rules, outlined below. To make matters even easier for me, the good folk at gardensite.co.uk have provided me with the perfect Rowlinson log store to demonstrate how it’s done – all I had to do was assemble it with a few nails and screws.

How to build a log store

Choose your site

When deciding on where to set up your wood store there are a few considerations to make. Not only is it preferable to have easy access, it should also be on level ground. If your new construction is going to sit on the lawn or bare earth then you’ll also want to make sure the base is raised off the ground to avoid damp seeping in to the bottom row of logs. Three narrow wood battens fixed beneath the base on my shed give it a suitable lift; a few well placed bricks make a good alternative.

It’s more than likely you’ll be putting your store against a wall or fence. If this is the case then make sure you leave a small gap between the back of your store and any other structure to allow air to pass between the two, again helping to ward off the damp.

Build the frame

For easy access, a log store with an open front is preferable, so you’ll be wanting to build a three-sided structure with a base and roof. It’s crucial that air is allowed circulate through the wood, so leave gaps between the slatted sides and back of your store. My Rowlinson store is made up of slats measuring 100mm x 18mm, with 35mm gaps between each one. These have created a good, solid and sturdy structure and keep all but the most persistently horizontal rain drops out while allowing for good air circulation. There’s no need to leave gaps in the roof, just make sure it slopes away from the front and overhangs the back and sides to allow water to run off. And as with all exterior timber structures, make sure the wood you use to build it has been treated for outdoor use.

Stacking the logs

With a three-sided structure, stacking the logs should be straightforward. It’s worth doing this with some tidiness in mind – lazily lobbing the logs in will likely cause jenga-style collapses when you come to remove them. But don’t be so thorough as to fill every last gap with perfectly shaped bits of wood as it’s important that the air can flow between the logs. My store has a handy shelf for kindling towards the roof. Again this has been slatted with gaps. Some of you may notice that my kindling shelf is sloping. This is entirely down to my slackness and is in no way a design feature.

Using the logs

It’s advisable that you bring your basket load of logs into the house 24 hours before burning them, just to give them a chance to thoroughly dry overnight. Any rain that does hit the logs will only cause the surface to be wet. Providing you’re using well-seasoned wood the core will be perfectly dry.

If you’ve managed to site your logs in a location where the wind and rain conspire to pummel against the open-fronted area of your store then you can protect it further with a tarp curtain. Pin this to the top of the wood store and weigh down the bottom with a timber batton or secure with hooks fixed to the base of the store (or tent pegs if it’s on grass). But do keep the curtain raised as often as possible – an open front is much preferable.

Tech specs of the Rowlinson Small Log Store

(borrow these if you wish to build your own store from scratch)

• Log capacity: 0.66 cubic metres
• Height: 1550mm (5ft 1in)
• Width: 1170mm (3ft 10ins)
• Depth: 560mm (1ft 10ins)
• Sides and back are each made from 11 pieces of 100mm x 18mm wood
• Made using pressure treated timber

 

To get the full lowdown of our Rowlinson Small Log Store visit gardensite.co.uk

The post How to build a log store and keep wood for winter appeared first on Two Thirsty Gardeners.

from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2016/12/how-to-build-rowlinson-log-store/

Five winter gardening tasks

Throughout most of winter we’re more than happy to ignore the garden in favour of a warm interior. Like a pub. There’s not much that needs doing outside, and there’s not much we want to do.

But sometimes a bright blue sky and crisp fresh air sets our gardening fingers twitching with pre-spring anticipation and we coil with shame that we’re not even slightly ready for the spring gardening onslaught. It’s at these moments we slip on our gardening boots, load up the thermos and tackle a few of these winter gardening tasks…

1 Clean pots

If you’re anything like us, plant pots and seed trays don’t get looked after during the growing season. They get filled; stuff may or may not grow; sometimes they get emptied and re-used; sometimes they get emptied and stuffed on a shelf; sometimes they get left lying around collecting whatever weed seeds drift onto their soily surface.

Now is the time to sort all that out.

Filled pots get emptied into the compost, damaged pots get discarded, and all the reusable pots get a brief scrub in hot water. Bits of lingering dirt may contain nasty things that can cause disease among new growth, so removing old compost will improve your chances of gardening success.

Finally, pots will be stacked in size order, new pots will be ordered to fill the gaps, and we’ll marvel at how much room has suddenly appeared on the shelf.

2 Audit canes, nets, etc

While we’re scrubbing the pots there’s every chance we’ll naturally move on to the plant labels scattered among them and give them a rub down ready for new plant names to be scrawled along their sides. We’ll then realise we’ve only recouped a small percentage of our labels from the allotment and begin a crusade to find more among the weeds that have taken over the brassica patch and beyond.

This in turn will lead us to uproot nets that cover nothing more than failed cauliflower and, in turn, wrestle canes from the netting’s unrelenting grip.

You see what’s happened here? One simple task of erasing ‘French Breakfast Radish’ from a 10cm long bit of plastic has turned into a whole root and branch clear out of gardening paraphernalia.

We’ll pretend we follow the kit collection by carefully auditing the items, throwing away anything too damaged, storing the rest neatly in its proper place, and ordering replacements. In reality we’ll probably chuck them all in the corner with the rake.

3 Tidy and mend raised beds

As with the pots, we’ll also routinely go round the raised beds prepping them ready for their new arrivals. This task includes removing any unwanted dead plants, clearing out slugs that have been hiding in the corners, and bashing in nails to secure any timbers that are loosening. All of our raised beds are fairly new, but give it a few more years and we might be assessing whether any need replacing.

They won’t get a full scrub and wood treatment like other timber built garden constructions for three reasons:

i) We don’t want the wood treatment leeching into the soil

ii) Raised beds are cheap to make, treatment is expensive

iii) We can’t be bothered

Beds that are lined up for early spring planting will be filled with suitable compost or manure, giving it a chance to settle nicely – but we don’t want to do this to early as rain can wash all the goodness away

4 Warm up the soil

There are some seeds we like to sow a little ahead of spring, taking a gamble they’ll see off the frosts and make an advanced bid for growing stardom. Root veg make up most of this category.

To give them the best chance of survival it’s a good practice to warm up the soil ahead of sowing, a task which can be done now.

All that’s required is covering the patch of soil with some sort of winter coat. Fleece will do the job, although it’s fairly costly; you could use black bin bags, but you’ll then need a protection that lets the light in when it comes to sowing; so our preferred method is with bubble wrap. We get too much of it through the post so it’s good to recycle it for extra use. The wrap acts like a toasty duvet, with the air-filled bubbles raising its Tog factor to cosy heights. It’s durable, lasts for years, and is easy to pin in place with pegs (or, until we find all the pegs, twigs).

5 Sort out seed packets

As you might be gathering, most things in the shed at this time of year are in a bit of a mess, and our collection of seed packets is similarly failing to conform to order. Thankfully, sorting through them can be a pleasantly relaxing task, which doesn’t even involve stepping outside.

First we discard anything too long beyond its use by date. Also into the bin go any parsnips and carrot seeds that have already been opened (they’re very unlikely to germinate), and any seeds that were so crap last year we won’t bother with again (I’m looking at you, pak choi).

Next we’ll put them in some sort of order. Alphabetical; seasonal; by veg type; by packet colour; by pack height; by feng shue principles – it doesn’t really matter so long as there’s some memorable logic to it. And the then best bit begins – ordering new seeds.

I have a habit of over-buying so I’ll try to restrict myself to just a few packets every other month or so, allowing room for multiple impulse buys throughout the year; Rich will likely do the opposite, under-buying then fretting about how he can quickly fill a late season patch of earth that has the council’s allotment police twitching.

And most excitingly of all, we’ll pick out a few new varieties to try over the coming year then blog about their progress.

 

This is a sponsored post

The post Five winter gardening tasks appeared first on Two Thirsty Gardeners.

from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2016/12/five-winter-gardening-tasks/

Home Burglar Alarms of the Future

The security industry is ever-changing, with new security solutions being constantly developed to combat intruders and to make your home as secure and protected as possible.

As technology becomes more and more advanced, home security has the opportunity to become even more sophisticated. While the systems we have in place right now seem comprehensive, robust and reliable, the future of home security looks to take things to another level, so take a peek into the future to see how your home burglary system might one day function.

Name and shame

Identification can be the trickiest part of any crime, but burglars may soon be forced to live with less anonymity. It is predicted that, by 2025, home burglar alarms will be able to identify intruders and address known criminals by their own name.

Thieves, especially opportunistic ones, aim to remain undetected and unidentifiable, but that is getting harder and harder to accomplish. Smart systems will be able to pick up on intruders and warn them verbally that they are being recorded and that authorities are on their way. This makes it much likelier that intruders will leave empty handed, and makes capture and identification more likely, as well.

Facial recognition

Known criminals and repeat offenders will find it tougher to carry out burglaries, with hidden cameras armed with facial recognition software to trigger an alarm when an intruder has been spotted. These cameras won’t just be limited to the home, either. With prevention being key to security, these cameras could be installed on the streets to catch a criminal’s presence before any crime has taken place. Soon, it won’t just be your home that’s protected, but the whole wider neighbourhood!

Chemical marking

With intruders having more reason to give up and flee during a burglary attempt, it’s important to have some way of identifying culprits so they can be caught and brought to justice before they try again elsewhere. Alarm systems of tomorrow may involve some form of chemical marking, where criminals are sprayed with an indelible chemical substance as they attempt a break-in.

These sprays could be hidden in the garden or on the property perimeter, and will spray the offender as they are trying to gain access to your property. These markers will be impossible to remove, making it much easier for the police – or passersby – to identify and apprehend suspects.

Drone assistance

Should an intruder manage to abscond with any of your belongings, that doesn’t mean they are home-free and clear of capture. Home security systems of the future could allow instant action through the use of roof-mounted drones.

These drones will become active when the alarm has sounded, and can be controlled remotely by your security company to give chase to the escaping criminal. These drones will help keep track of the thief, keeping them in sight until the police can take over, and may also be equipped with the same chemicals that we mentioned before. The pilot can spray the chemicals to keep the burglar marked, making it easier to find and identify later should they manage to evade.

While the drones will be low flying, they will be able to provide a more intimate view of the criminal’s escape route, allowing you to follow them into areas that may be much harder on foot. Keeping track of a suspect means being able to apprehend them quickly, and drones can keep criminals in sight in order to keep the police informed of the suspect’s whereabouts.

The future of deterrence

With home burglaries, prevention is always the best cure. Home security systems today act as effective deterrents, but this can only improve as future security systems are developed. The systems outlined in this article should make any home intrusion almost impossible to pull off successfully, and much of this will be down to the deterrence factor. Criminals will be aware of new technologies and techniques, and will definitely think twice before trying to gain access to any home protected by drones, marking spray and facial recognition.

Homes and neighbourhoods of the future will be more advanced and even more secure than they are today, and there’s even potential for home security systems to be linked, sharing information with each other in order to create a robust, linked system which can warn each other of potential threats, and share details of suspicious individuals to keep everyone informed and protected at all times.

The post Home Burglar Alarms of the Future appeared first on UK Home Improvement Blog.

from UK Home Improvement Blog http://www.ukhomeimprovement.co.uk/home-burglar-alarms-of-the-future/

An interview with… Christine Walkden

A campaign launched earlier this month is aiming to inspire people across the UK to become ‘Local Heroes’ by taking action to support community growing groups in their neighbourhoods, many of which face a struggle to make ends meet. One of the celebrity backers heading up this fine campaign is Christine Walkden, well-loved broadcaster, writer and champion of no-nonsense gardening. We sit down for a nice cup tea and talk potatoes, plums and prepping for winter.

Christine! Tell me a bit about the Local Heroes campaign, and why you wanted to get involved.
CW. Well, it really epitomises all that I strongly believe in, in relation to getting people growing and gardening and enjoying the outdoors. Most people think gardening and growing and all these sort of environmental things is difficult, it’s not – it’s just doing it and trying it, and if you do it and try it, you will realise you can do it. And there’s nothing like success to breed success. So the Local Heroes campaign for me is all about trying to engage people, and encouraging them to just go out and give it a go. And people think they need skills, they’ve got to come with something that they believe is import. It’s important that you flipping turn up! Just give it a try. Every single one of us has got skills that we don’t know, and that maybe just showing a youngster how to sow a seed, or show how to harvest a bit of fruit, it maybe just telling them what that flipping fruit is. That’s a skill. You may not think that it is, but that’s a skill. The old allotments where people came together and grew – they not only grew plants, but grew themselves.

I get plenty of advice from the old blokes down the allotment, who come wandering over and tell me what I’m doing wrong…
CW. And it’s not written in a book. And that personal advice and that personal contact… that’s where I got a lot of my stuff from as a kid. I had an allotment when I was ten. They just cultivated me. As much as I was cultivating the plants, they were growing me, and their advice, their help… coming over and saying “you don’t do it like that, try this!”

We’re not just talking about City farms are we? There’s community gardens, community orchards, school planting projects – all kinds of gardening schemes that people can get involved with…
CW. Absolutely! What is needed today is for people to just get back and get involved. I think a lot of people are getting isolated, just because of the speed of life and the way we function in life today. Barbara Streisand once sang “people who need people are the luckiest of people” It is true today as it was when it was first sung. And people forget that, and we can’t live in splendid isolation, we don’t function in society like that.

And what should I do if I wanted to get involved locally?
CW. You can go on to the Growing Together Local Heroes website You can look up local horticultural societies, look up your local council website for community projects. Search online for things like ‘community gardening’, ‘guerrilla gardening’, ‘gardening for people’, ‘city farms’. All of these searches will get you in touch with what you need to engage with.

We’re not talking just about the physical act of digging holes are we?
CW. No, no..it’s going and talking, it’s perhaps producing a poster, perhaps it’s going and showing somebody how to make something. How do you make a tied bouquet? There’s lots of people – WI ladies and all the other skilled flower arrangers that are out there and can show you how to make a tied bouquet in seconds. But, “oooh, a tied bouquet, what is that?” You know, you get a bunch of flowers, you wrap them together and hey presto you’ve got it. That’s a skill that can be passed on. We’ve all got skills to share – it can be taking along a camera and showing someone how they can take a better digital photograph. It doesn’t just have to be gardening, it’s society skills. It’s just chatting to somebody. An old person comes along and you chat to them and make them smile and they go away and they feel like they’ve benefited. It’s about growing people as much as growing plants.

OK, so in the spirit of sharing knowledge, I’ve got a top tip for you. I’ve got a banana tree in my back garden that has sprouted, creating a banana grove of trees. It’s aways a pain to protect it from frosts in the winter, but I’ve come up with this great trick. I’ve staked an old beach windbreak around it, and stuffed it with straw. No messing around with bean poles and chicken wire. Wrap it round, hammer in the stakes, cover with tarpaulin, job done!
CW.  Right… there you are. (sounding dubious )

You can have that one for free.
CW.  Thank you…

But… my dahlias. What do I do about my dahlias?
CW.  Once the frost has bitten them, cut the black stalk off, lift them, turn them upside down and allow the tubers to dry off. That normally takes around about two to three weeks, then I just put them up in trays and put some multi purpose compost around them. Keep them ticking over in a frost free greenhouse, then start them again in spring.

And what about bush salvia. Got any tips for those?
CW.  I actually cut the plants in half. I pot them up and put them in a cold frame that’s situated at the base of a south facing wall and they’ll survive all right.

Ah, right. That’s good to know. I’ll pass that on to my mum. That question came from her.

What kind of gardening do you prefer? Flowers or veg?
CW.  I’m both! If I was to be put up against a wall and someone said, veg or flowers, I would have to say veg because I like eating! It’ll have to be me veggies!

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been neglected the TTG  allotment, it has to be said. This is mostly down to the fact that the council stop their allotment inspections from November to March, so the pressure is off. I thought I’d put my feet up for a few weeks, without the threat of eviction. There are plenty of jobs I should be doing now though, aren’t there?
CW.  So there’s the general tidying up, the cutting down of raspberries, making sure the autumn digging, if you are on a heavy soil, needs to be done this time of year. PH testing is a good thing to be doing this time of year. In the flower garden it’s tidying it, cutting back all that stuff that’s likely to go manky, keeping stuff that’s got good seed heads on it so you’ve got good structure and you’ve got material there for your birds. Don’t clear everything away from under your hedges because you want your hedgehogs to be fine. There’s plenty of jobs. And if you are quick, there’s just enough time to plant some hardy annuals.

You’re from Lancashire, right? So Yorkshire has a rhubarb triangle… what have Lancashire got to offer? What can they bring to the table?
CW.  What? In terms of veggies? Potatoes. The Ormskirk area, historically, was big for growing potatoes.

So, how are Reggie’s plums*?
CW.  Sorry?

Reggies plums!
CW.  Ah! Unfortunately, Reggie’s plum tree is dead. As is Reg, sadly.

Apologies. What an unfortunate question to ask…
CW.  No no! Do you know, it’s not, because in many ways it’s a great tribute to him because it’s ten years since ‘Christine’s Garden‘ and people still ask me on a regular basis about Reg, and what a phenomenal tribute to him. It doesn’t bother me that people ask me about him because I think, how nice, and how kind.

How’s your diary looking next year? Are you nice and busy?
CW.  It’s fine, I’ve got loads of stuff on. I mean, touch wood, I get used and people like hearing me chat and going and doing things and the rest of it, so yes! I’m quite lucky! I’ve got about 40 dates booked for next year already.

If people wanted to go and see you at any events or talks or suchlike, they can check on your website?
CW.  Yes, they can go on there. It’s www.christinewalkden.com

Say you were on a desert island – a fertile desert island – what would be your three desert island veggies?
CW.  Oh, it’d have to be runner beans, sweetcorn and tomatoes.

Yep? What about blight? Wouldn’t you be worried about blight**?
CW.  Not on a desert island! Come on! It’s dry! Acquire your horticultural knowledge, sunshine! (Laughs)

And this is one of the reasons why I should be going to one of these garden groups, isn’t it?
CW.  (Still Laughing) Well, we all have things to learn…

And finally, after a hard days graft in the garden, what drink would you reach for?
CW.  Oh, whisky….yes.

Whisky? Any particular type?
CW.  MALT!

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To find out more about how to become a Local Hero, contact your local growing group, email localheroes@farmgarden.org.uk or visit www.growingtogether.community.

The campaign wants to inspire people to do something that benefits community growing projects by taking simple actions–such as buying produce or subscribing to a veg box scheme, taking their children to events or workshops, offering skills as a volunteer or getting local businesses involved through sponsorship, staff volunteer days or discounts on useful equipment.

You can visit Christine’s website here…
ChristineWalkden.com 

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*Reggie was Christine’s neighbour who frequently appeared on her 2012 BBC series, ‘Christine’s Garden’. He was a convivial old chap who used to pop round for chats and cups of tea.

** In my defence, I was imagining a tropical desert island – the type covered with mangrove swamps and snakes as thick as telegraph poles. I’d plant my veggie garden in the steamy interior, leaving any dry expanses of ground free to build a giant SOS sign out of bleached animal bones and conch shells.

The post An interview with… Christine Walkden appeared first on Two Thirsty Gardeners.

from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2016/12/interview-christine-walkden/

Rejoice! It’s our digging and swigging Christmas Gift Guide 2016!

Bought the Christmas wrapping paper yet? Well done. And plenty of tape, we hope. You don’t want to run out again and resort to string from the shed, calling it a ‘vintage look’ to hide your blushes. We assume you’ve got plenty labels left over from last year. And you’ve booked an evening off from your busy drinking schedule to take care of wrapping duties? You’re all set then…

…what’s that you say?

You’ve not bought the presents?

Don’t panic because, yet again, we’ve scoured the globe in search of the finest gifts suitable for anyone who likes guzzling booze or pottering in the garden. Get your orders in and start wrapping…

The London No. 1 Gin

Price: £33.90
With gin currently being the coolest drink around, why not treat your pals to a celebrated London gin from the heart of the capital. Craft distilled in small batches its distinctive blue hue comes from the gardenia flower, while other botanicals in the mix include angelica, iris root and bergamot. We found this gin to have a crisp and light touch with delicate floral, peppery and orange blossom notes and is at its best served as a simple G&T.
Available from Ocado

Personalised Slate Door Sign

Price: £12.95
If Christmas is a time to get personal, then send a message written in stone. Slate, to be precise. These welcome signs add a touch of class to even the tattiest shed door and with room for two lines of copy you can comfortably include all but the poshest double-barrel names. (Note: we use our sign for events only. There’s no way we’re revealing the true identity of our brewing shed)
Available from Personalise.co.uk

Scapa Glansa Single Malt Whisky

Price: £44.95
Every year we like to recommend a bottle-shaped gift for the whisky lover in your life, and this time around our taste buds have decided that Scapa Glansa gets the tinsel-wrapped treatment. It’s a single malt from Orkney that has been finished in casks previously used for peat whisky, adding a subtle smokiness that drifts by as if the caramel and vanilla notes have been visited by a peaty ghost. Enough intrigue for the adventurous drinker but nothing to scare those that prefer their malts smoke-free.
Available from Master of Malt

The Bitter Truth Cocktail Bitters, Bar Pack

Price: £14.65
Cocktail enthusiasts should be familiar with The Bitter Truth and their high quality mixing bitters. For this pack, they’ve gone a bit off piste, conjuring up a flavour assortment that will open up a whole new line of cocktail sorcery. Just this one natty tin will allow you to mix and muddle with the concentrated essences of chocolate bitters, tonic bitters, olive bitters, cucumber bitters and our favourite, peach bitters. Release the liquid a few drops at a time and let the magic happen…
Available from The Drink Shop

Ginger Beard’s Preserves Fig & Sour Cherry Christmas Chutney

Price: £4.50
If you’re wondering how a jar of chutney managed to spread itself all over our boozy Christmas guide then it’s because THIS ONE HAS BEER IN IT. And not just any old supermarket grog but a barley wine that has been aged in whisky barrels and lovingly crafted by the fantastic Moor Brewing Co. It’s a superb stocking filler for any gastronome, particularly if you know they’ll be munching on strong cheeses during the festive break, with which it makes the perfect match.
Available from Ginger Beard’s Preserves

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Don’t forget our book!

For the ultimate digging and swigging gift there’s our book, Brew it Yourself. Packed full with booze recipes, many of them using home grown ingredients, your grateful recipient will be fermenting, infusing and mixing boozy magic throughout 2017.

Available from Amazon

The post Rejoice! It’s our digging and swigging Christmas Gift Guide 2016! appeared first on Two Thirsty Gardeners.

from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2016/12/digging-swigging-christmas-gift-guide-alcohol-gardening-2016/

How to find the best Christmas tree

Step 1.

The most crucial step is to determine the area at home where you want to keep your Christmas tree. You should measure the ceiling height in the room and the thickness to be sure to have enough space to work with. You should ensure that you have enough room for decorations and for the presents that will be kept under the tree.

Step 2.

The place where your Christmas tree is so crucial because there are some flammable areas, you should avoid in your house. Ensure you don not place the tree near heaters, in direct sunlight and fireplace.

Step 3.

When you calculate the amount of space you have, you can go ahead and buy the kind of tree that you like. Before you bring your Christmas tree home, there are a few important tests you must do to ensure that you will get a tree that is healthy. The first thing you should do is to shake the tree a little. When some brown leaves fall, then the tree is okay. When green leaves fall, it means the tree is dry, and you should select another one. You should ensure that needles feel a snap and flexible when bent at a sharp angle. When the needle has started to color and become stiff, you should select another tree.

Step 4.

After you choose the right tree, you should ensure that you have the right equipment to carry the tree from the shop to your house. You should make sure you have a pair of gloves that will help you not to stick yourself with the branches all over your fingers. You will probably want the personnel at the tree lot to net the tree before you tie it down with rope or string to the roof of your vehicle.

Step 5.

When your tree is finally at home and decorated, you should take care of it and make it is ever fresh. You should put the tree into the water immediately when you bring it home. You should use plain water without any additives. You should ensure that the water does not go below the base of the tree because sometimes the trees may can take in a lot of water.

The post How to find the best Christmas tree appeared first on Subline Wind Chime.

from Subline Wind Chime http://www.sublimewindchime.com/2016/12/05/find-best-christmas-tree/

Kit yourself out this winter with Scruffs workwear

A few months ago we were contacted by someone from clothing retailer Scruffs, a workwear company specialising in stylish togs for hard working tradesfolk. They wanted to know if we would be interested in reviewing some of their gear the next time we had some hard work to do in the garden. 

We’re not shy of a bit of heavy duty labour on the allotment, and we’re not frightened of fashion. So we each picked an item to review and got stuck in.

Fast forward two months. We’ve braved the plunging temperatures and the Scruffs gear has been put through its paces. We’ve dug, chopped and sweated, and are ready to deliver our verdict. Here’s our reveal-all conversation in full…

Nick: “What item did you plunder, Rich?”

Rich “I’ve got a Classic Thermo Parka. I wanted one in red but my wife said it would make me look like John Craven, so I heeded her better judgement and went for a black one instead”

Nick: “I would’ve gone for red as well. The colour of champions. But black looks smart. Looks warm, too – have you tried it out in this recent blast of Arctic weather.”

Rich “I took it out for a trial on Bonfire Night, as it happens. A rigorous test for the coats thermal properties as – if you recall – it was FREEZING that evening. I took my youngest to a fireworks display at the local rugby club. A twenty minute walk, followed by an hour wait in the cold whilst they presumably looked for the matches. Incidentally, if anyone from BANES council is reading this, the safety procedures at this event consisted of a bloke holding a pint of lager, shoo-ing kids off the pitch before they lit the fireworks.

“Happy to report that I stayed toasty for the duration. What I would say is that the hood is absolutely voluminous. To stop it from falling over your eyes, you’d really need to wear a baseball cap. Unless, of course, you’ve got a head like ET. I liked the plethora of pockets (nine external and two internal) and the knitted cuffs are a nice comfy touch. What did you wrestle from the Scruffs shop, Nick?”

Parka. Feel the heat.

Nick: “I didn’t go out on Bonfire Night. Spent the evening doing the same as the previous and subsequent ten evenings – helping the dogs hide from the firework noise.

“I opted for some tough ‘Cheviot’ boots. Wellies are good for most gardening activities but sometimes, particularly this time of year when the path gets icy and there are serious wood chopping activities to negotiate, something sturdier and grippier is required. And these looked comfortable enough to extend their remit to muddy dog walking, now the fireworks have ceased.”

Rich: “I hope the boots live up to their name. I know from experience that the Cheviots is a formidable, uncompromising landscape. I was once sucked into a peat bog just below Windy Gyle. Did I ever tell you about that?”

Nick: “There’s nothing more I need to know about your windy gyle.

“The boots are great. They’ve got a reassuringly hefty aluminium toe but overall they’re remarkably light and flexible. I’ve been marching around the garden in them and haven’t really noticed I’m wearing them. Previous big-boot experiences have felt like I’ve been carrying the potato harvest on my feet but not these. They’ve also got an ‘S3 safety rating’ which I think means they’re pretty tough all over so I’ll be confidently putting them through their paces this winter.

“My wife is a bit more fashion-fussy than me and suggests I don’t wear them out and about, but I’ve got a woodland ramble with the dogs tomorrow and the forecast is for hard frost, so I’m ignoring her ‘advice’ and will be wearing them in public. Besides, I quite like the orange and black livery. You wouldn’t be ashamed if I turned up at a cider pressing in the Cheviots, would you?”

Rich “Nope, you’ve worn worse things. That red fleece hat, for instance…

“I’m not sure I’d wear my coat to a cider pressing – I’d get too hot I think. I’ll lend it to you. You tend to do a bit more sitting around, watching other people working.”

Nick: “Outrageous lies. Just you remember whose new boots have the reinforced metal toe cap…”

Boots. Feel the strength.

Rich reviewed the Classic Thermo Parka, 100% polyester with a waterproof rating of 4,500mm and a detachable hood. Price £84.95

Nick review the Cheviot Boots with heat resistant sole, nubuck uppers and an S3 safety rating. Price £51.96

For the full range of Scruffs clothing visit scruffs.com

 

*Prices correct at time of publication

The post Kit yourself out this winter with Scruffs workwear appeared first on Two Thirsty Gardeners.

from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2016/12/winter-clothes-review-scruffs-workwear-jacket-boots/

Beer of the week #100: Omnipollo, Noa Pecan Mud Cake, Double Barrel

Rejoice! We have reached our one hundredth beer of the week review. 100 beers studied, guzzled and written about without skipping a week (despite Rich’s best efforts at lateness*).

To celebrate this three-figure milestone we’ve popped open one of the most extraordinary beers on the planet – an imperial stout lovingly crafted by one of our favourite breweries, Sweden’s Omnipollo.

We started this series of features with another dark beer, Otley Porter, and have slurped and supped our way through numerous beers styles from old and new breweries all over the world. And each one of them has been great. Even the one we made ourselves from a kit, and even the one brewed by boffins.

Sometimes we’ve shared tasting duties with some of the beer industries most respected writers – such as Mark Dredge and Tim Hampson – and our mates Larry and Rory. We’ve opened bottles adorned with gun ostrichs, pipe smoking monkeys and apes wearing space suits.

We’ve found the best beers for Thai food, Japanese curries and plates of Belgian sausages, and we’ve tasted booze made with chillis, Scottish desserts and toast. And this week we’re drinking one that includes pecan nuts, has been aged in Islay and Cognac barrels and weighs in at a hair-curling 11%.

Thanks to this high alcohol content and luxurious texture, it tastes a bit like a beery cream liqueur. It’s thick and black, instantly producing a head of honeycomb which fizzes and slides around the surface before quickly departing to leave behind smoky, ghostly whisps.

From the first sip there’s a bust-up of flavours, with coffee, sweet cream, chocolate, toasted nuts and a burst of sour, stoned fruit being the main protagonists. It’s a boozy mash-up of stout, sherry, Belgian sour and whisky cream liqueur and, as a result, is sensationally unique.

You might think these descriptions make it sound like an unhinged mess. But it’s not. It’s a celebration of beer and the amazing diversity that contemporary brewers are able to achieve from a recipe starting point that is thousands of years old. As such, we think it makes and apt toast to the vast array of 100 beers we’ve described over the past few years. Cheers!

Whispy ghost-like head of beer

 

*Now that we’ve reached this century of beer reviews we’re going to change things a little. We will be less rigid about reviewing a beer ever week (much to Rich’s pleasure) and we’re going to add the occasional cider review to our repertoire (which we will call ‘cider of the week’ for obvious reasons)

Fact!

According to google analytics our most-read beer review is this Czech black lager

 

lowdown

Brewery: Omnipollo, Stockholm, Sweden
Beer name: Noa Pecan Mud Cake, Double Barrel
Strength: 11%

Treat yourself to a bottle of Noa Pecan Mud Stout Double Barrel by ordering one from our pals at Beer Gonzo

 

The post Beer of the week #100: Omnipollo, Noa Pecan Mud Cake, Double Barrel appeared first on Two Thirsty Gardeners.

from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2016/12/beer-review-100-omnipollo-noa-pecan-mud-cake-double-barrel-stout/