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El Sid

@elsid.bsky.social
125 followers 150 following 655 posts

The state of the world has driven me to drink.... Trying to stick more to beer here, but we'll see how that goes. @El__Sid in that other place, @ElSid@mastodon.beer

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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 17h
To be fair, it's often the best option for them. It's even more depressing when what should be a beacon for beer tourism like the George in London is a Greene King pub that keeps their cask.... indifferently at best.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 20h
Some of it is taking it for granted and lacking the global perspective of just how weird it is to have cask beer as a mainstream thing. But there's so much more touristy pubs in particular could do to promote and explain cask to non-regular customers.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 20h
You are allowed to share with a couple of friends.... Probably about time I went back, the only W12 I have is unlabeled from a pre-Covid trip.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 22h
Yeah, that whole sense of place + experience + drink is something that wine is generally so much better at than beer. And perhaps the biggest culprit in that is the cask beer industry, the one kind of beer that is 99% restricted to specific locations in one country!
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 22h
I'd say R10, W12 and Abt are probably the pick of the Trappist-ish quads for me. But you find new things in the W12/Abt by having an 'outgroup' to compare them to, our taste buds work on differences.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 22h
You should throw in Rochefort 10 next time you do the comparison - I know it's a minority opinion but I consistently prefer it. Always fascinates me the difference in pronunciation of the 'vlet' over quite a small area, very different between Poperinge, Bruges and Ghent
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 23h
Perhaps the most shocking bit of this piece on deliberately breeding rice to optimise it for brewing is that a sensory panel of Germans preferred a N/A beer made with 70% rice, a US panel preferred one with 30% rice. Presumably Reinheitsgebot doesn't apply to 0% products - give 🇩🇪 what they want!
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Classic example of a decision that should not be made in Whitehall, UK is way too centralised.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
It also is a bit cute using this year as a benchmark for the true state of cask, given that people just drink less cask when it's as stupidly hot as it's been.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Just to complicate things further, a completely different species, Chlamydozyma reukaufii was merged into Metschnikowia pulcherrima in 1968. Taxonomists - be more original with your species names for similar taxa, it gets really confusing otherwise! 😁
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
(Just to be clear, this study doesn't include the WLP4650 Metschnikowia reukaufii sold by the Yeast Bay in their Wild Capture range, which is a nectar specialist fka Anthomyces reukaufii and a close relative but not part of M. pulcherrima which lives on fruit) www.whitelabs.com/yeast-single...
whitelabs.com
WLP4650 Metschnikowia reukaufii | White Labs | The Yeast Bay
Metschnikowia reukaufii is a nectar specialist that was isolated from flowers in the Berkeley Hills of California.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
INRA sequence genomes of several Metschnikowia species (used in wine and rarely as secondary 'flavour' yeast in beer, Yeast Bay sell one) to find they're all part of the M. pulcherrima family, but M. leonuri and chrysopulae appear to be triploid hybrids with an unknown relative of M. citrensis
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I've been enjoying piel de sapo lately, but no idea of how the agronomy compares to other melons.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Bell peppers then? Or try the more difficult cucurbits like cucumbers, even melons. Looks like next summer will be similar to this one, given El Nino timing.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I've certainly seen a paper that had more than that, maybe 5-6 including England and NZ. My experience with a friend's homegrown UK Cascade was that it gave a definite elderflower note to a SNPA-ish APA, although the grapefruit was still in the background.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
In any case, Juliet would have been ~14,999,963°C too cold for thermonuclear fusion; Shakespeare was obviously ill-versed in quantum physics.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
"...all the men and women merely players" with no mention of the players' agents, VAR officials, prawn-sandwich-makers and FIFA presidents; Shakespeare was obviously ill-versed in football.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Hmm - shall we try to limit the damage to our brand by quietly dissociating ourselves from a high-profile scandal, or shall we LOUDLY POSITION OURSELVES AS THE AIRLINE THAT SUPPORTS CHEATING AT FOOTBALL? It's like the Streisand effect, only more stupid.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Not sure there's any underreporting of income from a tax POV. Taxman cares about total £££ not (-ish) its source, whereas football very much cares about difference between £100m from sponsor vs £20m sponsor topped up with £80m from owner. If anything offloading costs will have increased tax paid...
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Catering supply companies, maybe ask your institution's canteen if you can buy some via their account? Eg www.brake.co.uk/dairy/butter...
brake.co.uk
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I think it could be argued that closing Caley was a good thing for UK cask, if you take the view that the biggest problem is pubs tied to companies like Heineken/Star that owned a cask brewery but weren't into cask. Means they're more likely to release tie on cask lines, allowing more cask guests
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Presumably a low-stakes opportunity to test different messages ahead of the new political year. This one does come across as a bit Clarkson.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
But in German so you're not an object, you're a genitive relic.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Quite the opposite, they are creatures of damp, so have had a tough time this year hiding away desperately trying to keep themselves moist. So not much chance for mating etc. And wet concrete is great for them - nice for sliding across, warmer than the surroundings, and covered in tasty biofilm.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
bsky.app/profile/harr...
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Aside from the Duke's ones, there's a good avenue at Benmore botanic gardens in Argyll which might be sort of on your way some time, and if you have more trips to Bristol-ish then UK's biggest are at Longleat in Wiltshire.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Years ago I took the slow route from Seattle to SF & the redwoods were bucketlist-highlights for this biologist, from memory the best ones were some random place in southern Oregon but the official Redwood National Park was also good. Don't know how they've fared with wildfires since but recommended
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Perhaps the most impressive use of them in an avenue is a public road of ~3/4 mile in Berkshire between the school and Finchampstead, if you ever find yourself visiting Siren and/or Elusive. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welling...
en.wikipedia.org
Wellingtonia Avenue - Wikipedia
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Wellingtonia gigantea was actually the original "official" botanical name before they realised the genus name had already been used for another plant - the trees first came to Britain in 1853, the year after the duke died, so are very associated with his memorials like Wellington school.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
www.thetimes.com/uk/london/ar...
thetimes.com
The right to enjoy a pint while standing is sacrosanct, council insists
Westminster had been accused of trying to clamp down on ‘vertical drinking’ in Soho, but now says it just needed to improve its communication
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
You need a Bruff.
Bruff hop picking machine control panel
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Reposted by El Sid
Stan Hieronymus @stanhieronymus.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Climate change, anybody? How about some Saaz* with only 1.8% alpha acids? *Full disclosure. Not Saaz in photo. hopqueries.com/very-bad-new...
hopqueries.com
Very bad news from European hop fields - HOP QUERIES
For the second time in five years, hop production across Europe has tumbled as a result of an intense heat wave and below average rainfall. – The Association of German Hop Growers estimates they will ...
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
static.klipy.com
Sharon Stone Basic Instinct
Alt: Sharon Stone Basic Instinct
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Means something very different in the UK versus US....
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
...meh?
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I knew you were trubble - Swift Purple Grain - Prince Anything by Crystal Waters Golding Brown - the Stranglers get a duff batch of English hops He Who Would Valiant Be (aka To Be A Pilgrim)
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Reposted by El Sid
Brian Gibson @briangibsontub.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
reveev.com/a-black-fung...
reveev.com
A black fungus is thriving in the midst of Ireland’s whiskey boom – we need to know more about it
The fungus appears to feed on the airborne alcohol vapours produced during whiskey maturation....
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Or 9g of sake? Or a sake solera, I assume Japan discovered a form of solera system at some point?
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Can be both - the original shell can be made of calcite, or of unstable forms of calcium carbonate like aragonite that recrystallise into calcite, or the fossil can be infused after death with mineral rich water that deposits calcite. All pretty normal.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Hard to say but the first one looks like an ammonite, you can see the characteristic spiral starting in the middle of it, second one could be anything but assuming it's not massive then probably some kind of cross section through a bivalve shell (think oyster or mega-cockle)
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
The only mistake made by someone I know on their citizenship test, was thinking Arthur burnt the cakes...
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
"Anywhere but Sunderland"....
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
This BBC article is a nice introduction to medlars. [minor language warning, they were named for their sphincter resemblance!] A friend has a tree, so I've had them. They're...OK. Maybe they were more exciting to the sugar-starved medievals than to modern tastebuds. www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...
bbc.co.uk
The forgotten medieval fruit with a vulgar name
Medieval Europeans were fanatical about a strange fruit that could only be eaten rotten. Then it was forgotten altogether. Why did they love it so much? And why did it disappear?
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
But genuinely wild crab apples are not apples, they're closer to big haws - and taxonomists debate whether medlar should be placed in the hawthorn genus or stand separately. Either way, they're all very closely related. Most hedgerow crabs are hybrids with dessert apples, so different to Neolithic.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
According to the OED, its use in English was coined by John Lindley, in his Introduction to Botany (1835), based on the French word. I am a sucker for these words that apply in very specific circumstances, like morgonner - the ageing of wine from one particular village in Beaujolais.
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Reposted by El Sid
Earth BioGenome Project 🌍 @ebpgenome.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
🧬 The VGP Phase I preprint is out! 🎉 The Vertebrate Genomes Project has completed Phase I, delivering 816 of the highest-quality vertebrate reference genomes ever produced. Explore this major new resource for vertebrate genomics: 📄 tinyurl.com/VGPphase1 @vertebrategenomes.bsky.social #Genomics
Graphic featuring a collage of diverse vertebrates, including a chameleon, sea turtle, frog, whale, bat, duck, axolotl, shark, echidna, salamander, bird, tropical fish, leopard, crocodile, cassowary, clownfish, Komodo dragon, snake and deep-sea fish. Text reads: “A New Milestone for Vertebrate Genomics.” The Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP) has completed Phase I, delivering 816 high-quality reference genomes spanning 95% of vertebrate orders.Underwater photograph of a humpback whale swimming beneath the ocean surface. Text reads: “Why Vertebrates? More than 70,000 vertebrate species inhabit our planet.” High-quality reference genomes help researchers understand evolution, biodiversity, conservation and adaptation.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Yes, stress can cause hops to question their sexuality and get a bit confused. The male/female thing in hops is always a bit fluid even in the best of conditions - also it does vary quite a bit with variety.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
In modern times, people put some crab apples into the blend when making cider with dessert apples, as a hack to introduce acidity/tannin that the dessert apples lack. Your 2015 paper seems to be talking about doing the equivalent to crabs, as the bletting of medlars, persimmons etc?
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Just wait until you tell people to take additional furniture for sitting, from the seat cave. Or the catering in the nearby church, the meat nave. Or the surge in new weissbieren, the wheat wave.
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El Sid @elsid.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Showoff.🥵
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