Beer Review: Newcastle Werewolf

I'm a freak for the fall. If you are a regular reader of this blog you already know that. There is just something about it. Perhaps it's a nostalgia thing. Growing up in Northern Virginia the fall was always a special time for me. Football, Halloween, beautiful fall weather and the color change of the leaves. Living in New Orleans you don't really have the change in temperature(no seasons here, just hot and cold) or even the leaves changing like in Virginia. You'd think I'd be used to it by now having lived here since 1995.

Of course, I still look forward to football, Halloween and the somewhat cooler temperatures but the one thing I really look forward too is fall seasonal beers!! The fall seasonals always tend to be maltier, use lots of spices and go quickly since, just like Christmas decorations in Walmart, they tend to get pushed out of the way for "holiday" beers. In my opinion the maltier brews work well with the colder temperatures. And I just don't think a pumpkin beer would work in the summer. Just my opinion.

I was recently contacted by Elizabeth from Formula PR which handles the marketing for Newcastle and she said that Newcastle would be releasing a fall seasonal and asked if I would interested in reviewing it. I said of course and it arrived the next day via our friends at FedEx.

I was going to try and put off the review a bit since it was July but it appeared that in other states they already have this on the shelf so I figured it was time. Here is my review:

Brewery: The Caledonian Brewery Company Limited

Beer: Newcastle Werewolf

ABV: 5.0%

Style: English Brown Ale

Louisiana Availability: No

Price Range: Unknown

Appearance: Beer poured a ruby red with a huge, frothy off white head. Lacing present throughout the life of the beer.

Smell: Nice malty aroma with the sweet hint of berries and a nice slight grassiness. Dominate aroma of bread and yeast.

Taste: Strong malty flavor with hints of berry, bread and yeast. Slight metallic hint which disappears as the beer warms up. Slight bitterness in the finish.

Mouthfeel: Medium body with medium high carbonation.

Overall: Not a bad brew. Great for those crisp falls. It was supposed to have been released in September but seems to have been released in July. I wish we would see it here in New Orleans but I don't think we will.

Score: 3.5 out of 5 Buddhas

Cheers!

The Beer Buddha

Newcastle Walk the Dog Tshirt Giveaway Winners

OK so as I write this it's five minutes past twelve and all entries needed to be in by noon. First I want to thank everyone for entering and second thanks for taking the time to check out my blog even if it was to win something.

For those of you that didn't win don't be discouraged because I plan on doing a bunch of contests this year. The next one is going to be for tickets to Top of the Hops and I may have one for tickets to the Miller Light Balcony for Mardi Gras. Nothing definite on that last one but I'm working on it. Yeah, yeah I know it's not craft beer but come on who wouldn't want to check out Bourbon St from up there? I know I would!

Anyways here are your winners. Congrats!

1) LC Keene Womens L
2) Eric Ducote Mens XL
3) John Coker Mens XL
4) D. Pops Horan Mens L
5) Becki Chall Mens XL
6) Scott Wood Womens L

Alright there you have it. Congrats to all the winners and maybe next time to those who didn't win. Stay tuned for more contests!

Cheers!

The Beer Buddha

Newcastle Walk the Dog TShirt Giveaway Update

UPDATE

Sorry folks but I forgot to add that all entries need to be in by today(February 11, 2011) at 12:00pm noon.

Cheers!

The Beer Buddha

Newcastle Walk the Dog T-shirt Giveaway

Walk the Dog with Newcastle Brown Ale
Uploaded by multivu. - Full seasons and entire episodes online.


I recently received a great press kit from the folks over at Newcastle Brown Ale to promote their "new" Walk the Dog promo. It had a cool Geordie Schooner, Walk the Dog t-shirt, Newcastle keychain which turned into a flashdrive, t-shirt, dog tags and a pen. According to their website(which is awesome by the way) Walking the Dog is a euphemism originating from Newcastle, UK which means "going down to the local pub for a pint or two of Newcastle." This phrase was so prevalent that Newcastle Brown Ale's nickname eventually became "The Dog" and there is even a pub in England called "The Dog".

I'm a big fan of Newcastle as it was one of my "starter" beers into the better beer world and it continues to be one of my go-to beers so I asked Newcastle if they could send me some t-shirts to do a giveaway with and spread the Newcastle love.

So here is what I have: I have three mens size XL and 1 womens M and 1 womens L.

In order to win you need to sign up on The Beer Buddha blog(you can also "follow" me using Google Connect) and shoot me an email at thebeerbuddha@gmail.com with Newcastle Contest in the subject line of the email and your name and size shirt you want in the body of the email. I'll put your name in a hat and will announce the winners at some point tomorrow night(02/10/2011). Please read the contest rules before you enter the contest.

CONTEST RULES:

1) Winner must be in the lower 48 states only. I'm not shipping all over Gods green earth.

2) Please see the sizes I have. Whatever sizes I have is all I have. So please don't ask for a size I don't have.

3) If you're local to New Orleans I may just have you meet me at Avenue Pub to pick up your shirt. Easier for everyone and you can get a pint while you're there!

4) Winners must be 21 or older.

5) These t-shirts are new shirts and you will be getting them in the same condition that I received them in. If the postal guy trashes the package I'm not at fault.

6) Limit one entry by email per promotion. Do not abuse this rule. If I get tons of emails from the same address that email address will be blocked from all future www.thebeerbuddha.com giveaways.

7) Wear the shirt with pride!

8) Void where prohibited. Just sounded good to say.


Cheers and good luck!

The Beer Buddha

Free Beer Bitches! Yeah!

So, awhile back I received an email from Leah Dukes who works for a public relations company called formula. Working with Newcastle beer they have a marketing campaign called the MAN-ual and wanted to send me some free Newcastle. I emailed her back and said that The Beerbuddha would never fall prey to free beer and slick marketing campaigns and I would only judge a beer based on its qualities as a product. HA! Yeah right I got me some free beer bitches!

Along with the free beer I received a press release for the MAN-ual holiday promotion. I was going to write about it and explain it but received instructions to not write about it as it "contained some erroneous information". So I guess I have to wait until they send me some more info on this promotion. Oh well, at least I got some free beer!!!

Cheers!

The Beerbuddha