What is Cup of Good Hop?
It's a quest to source a beer for each nation competing in the World Cup, and pit them against each other to see which is the greatest combiner of hops, yeast, water and alcohol on the planet.Cup of
Good Hop is here to chart this process and hopefully give you some tips on how you can host your own Beer World Cup this summer.What stage of development are you at?
The idea is very new (in fact we had it this afternoon - Thurs 13th May 2010), and have one month to get hold of 32 beers, both familiar and wildly obscure. Then we have a further month to bring you our considered opinion of them.
Is there anything I can do to help?
Certainly. If anyone happens to have a bottle hard-to-get beer and have one to spare, drop us a line. For instance, we've yet to work out if North Korea has any breweries, or what the favourite tipple is in the Ivory Coast.
Other tricky ones - advice welcome... Algeria, Cameroon, Paraguay, Serbia, Slovenia and Slovakia.
In the meantime, enjoy the blog.
Cheers,
Peter & James...
Hi Pete there are plenty of beers in Australia, but only one you can drink, (and even then its really gassy and freezing cold as they like it here!??) its a brewery in South Australia called Coopers, still an independent company, and it never used to export but might do by now, there is also a small Brewery in Western Australian called the Matilda Bay Brewery. Just bored so I thought I'd post. I am of course assuming Australia is in the World Cup, I have no idea. Just remembered that Grolsch and Pilsner are both from what used to be pretty obscure Czech breweries too!
ReplyDeleteNorth Korea has a state-owned brewery, called Taedonggang. They use buildings and equipment that used to belong to the UK brewer Ushers and were dismantled and shipped lock, stock and, er... barrel to Pyongyang.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I have no idea where you can buy it.
thanks guys,
ReplyDeleteMatt, am aware of Taedonggang but have no idea how to get hold of a bottle.
On the Australian front, have had Coopers before (ironically during the 1998 World Cup when visiting family and friends in Adelaide). I think we've got the Aussie side covered, but will of course attempt to get hold of the nicest beer from each country whenever possible.
Thanks for your input - may your cup be of good hop!
"I think we've got the Aussie side covered" is like aying that the UK beer industry is covered by HARP lager, VB is just another commercial 4X beer! as is Carlton! It's the most commercial piss there is! All it's got going for it is availability and temperature
ReplyDeletei realise that, but we've got some serious challenges ahead. i promise we'll get the best quality Aussie Beer we can muster...
ReplyDeleteso far, start of Day 3 - four down, 28 to go...
I have to agree with the last comment, we really do have some shit beers down here. As a fond beer drinker myself, I would hate it if you represent the the Aussies with something woeful like VB, Fosters, XXXX, Carlton etc. Matilda Bay have some great beers, go with something fresh and new!
ReplyDeleteRegarding the North Korean brew, I wonder if they bring any over for the embassy?
ReplyDeleteI suspect Denmark might be a surprise tough one, as there are loads of Danish beers brewed in the UK under license, making the real deal absent.
hi Merrick, this is indeed true - but i think Denmark is the last of our troubles... having the day off today from COGH, well I cycled about 50 miles around London, which is preparation for the waistline at least...
ReplyDeleteWhat a bloody good idea lads.
ReplyDeleteIm in York next week and ill see if this place has anything to offer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPvTke6bpGs
Deacs
If you can't get and North Korean, how about a last-ditch second-best of filling a glass with a mixture of beers from the countries it borders?
ReplyDeleteThat'd be South Korea, China, and I think there's a sliver of Russian frontier too.
nice one Merrick, very Dave Gorman...
ReplyDeletecheers Deacs - any help very much welcome - glad you're enjoying COGH.
Peter
As an American with an affinity for beer and football who regularly drinks Budweiser, I would like to humbly beg on the name of all things holy that you not use Budweiser as your American entry. If the purpose of this exercise is to enjoy your beer, something like Yuengling (America's oldest brewery) or Fat Tire should be in order.
ReplyDeleteLet me throw out a brewery as an American suggestion: O'Dell brewing company in Colorado (Fort Collins I think) is easily my favorite brewery right now. Lots of great beers from Colorado right now — I believe (but may be wrong about this) that the O'Dell IPA won best IPA at the World Beet Cup a few years ago (but I couldn't find any proof of that).
ReplyDeletehi Joseph and Brent,
ReplyDeletewe will seriously look into replacing Budweiser - sorry it was a bit cheeky on our part. your suggestions have been noted.
however, we do have to find the 32 or we'll be screwed!!
hope you enjoy COGH as it unfolds.
best,
Peter.
Slovakia - Zlaty Bazant. Fine beer, literally translated it is Golden Pheasant. We have also had some beer sent to us by the main Serbian brewery.
ReplyDeleteWe have done something similar but only used beers that are relatively easily available in the UK so some are tenuous! www.beergenie.co.uk
hi David,
ReplyDeletewill put a link to you in our next dispatch - probably tomorrow.
have you any idea where to get Zlaty Bazant? it's been driving us mad.
enjoy the World Cup and he beers,
Peter
Even though Zimbabwe is not there, you can still try and find a Zambezi lager!
ReplyDeletethat would be great - haven't seen one in the UK. any ideas on how to get one?
ReplyDeleteenjoy the rest of COGH,
Peter