We're kicking off 2021 in Lockdown #3, and we're gutted of course. We've been lucky through the pandemic that we've kept our head above water with the help of lots of amazing suppliers and customers. However, a huge part of our customer base are independent hospitality businesses. If they're not ordering, we're quiet, and it's devastating to see those vibrant characterful businesses struggling and hibernating. The impending downtime made us reflect a little and we've decided we wanted to do something to hopefully lighten the mood. So we thought it would be lovely to introduce the Euroboozer team to you all properly through a series of weekly blogs. Each week we'll introduce a different member of the team, they'll also be sharing a few beers from their stash with us and we'll be asking people to vote for which one they'd like to see reviewed in 60 seconds or less in our #BeerStashBeerDash
We're starting of course with a few beer related questions for founder Martyn (you can read about how Euroboozer started in another recent blog). Martyn has suggested the following four beers from his stash, you can vote on twitter which one you'd like to see reviewed in 60 seconds on Friday afternoon's #beerstashbeerdash. After he's done the review we'll post a link here...
Brooklyn Wild Streak (Belgian Brett Golden Ale)
Great Divide Smoked Baltic Porter 2010 (Smoked Porter)
Stiegl Sonnenkönig IV 2017 Muskatell Barrel Aged (Double IPA)
Mikkeller Baghaven I Would Not Feel So Alone 2019 (Peach & Apricot Wild Ale)
EDIT You voted and The Stiegl Sonnenkönig IV 2017 Muskatell Barrel Aged (Double IPA) won
Meet The Team
Martyn Railton Owner, Director (& until recently cleaner)
t: @euroboozermart / i: @euroboozermart
What do you do at Euroboozer?
Whistle and annoy people!
I would say everything from cleaning the toilets to devising marketing strategies to managing the finances etc. Many others would say not much apart from the former though.
What age did your “beer journey” start & how?
2 ½ when my parents collected my first beer glass. A beautiful thing from a small Franconian brewery called Martinsbräu. My Dad broke it a couple of years ago … after I asked him to stop using it! I still haven’t got over it. There are now somewhere between 150 & 200 glasses in the collection (as long as Dad hasn't smashed any more!).
What the best NEW beer you discovered in 2020?
Stiegl Hell, Mikkeller Iskold Vienna Lager, Deya Saturated in Mosaic DIPA
What’s your favourite comfort beer, the one you always go back to?
Ooof, I have too many so it depends on the time of year and where I’m drinking but:
Stiegl Goldbräu
Augustiner Helles
Cvikov Klíč 12°(Unfiltered)
Schremser Keller Pils
Harvey’s Sussex Best (CASK)
Deya Steady Rollin Man
Mikkeller Evergreen
Mikkeller Iskold
Stiegl Grapefruit Radler.
What’s your favourite pub, the one you’re most looking forward to getting to post lockdown #3?
Easy, The Bell at the end of my road with my pals in the village.
What’s the most memorable beer and food pairing you’ve tried?
Apart from any beer with any crisp?
15 month dry and air cured ham with Schremser Doppelmalz! The first beer and food pairing event I ran was with a friend who imported Austrian Charcuterie back in about 2010 and this pairing still sticks in the memory.
We’ve also done some amazing #BeeryBrunch events after the Beer Writers Guid Awards each year. Baked Scallops with Alsace Bacon Gremolata and Stiegl Sonnenkönig II Tequila Barrel Double Wit was truly memorable. Most of those brunch pairings are to be honest.
An Austrian style Sunday Roast or Schweinsbraten and Ayinger Celebrator made me make all sorts of noises when I had it in Gmoakeller in Vienna a few years ago.
And for desert, Chocolate Mousse with Andechs Doppelbok was divine when we had it as part of a vertical tasting at Klostergasthof Andechs a couple of years ago. Mitch and I were just tasting the beer and the owner said we had to try it with a dark chocolate mousse. It blew us away.
I think that would be a pretty good dinner!
What do you enjoy drinking the most when you’re not drinking beer?
Water! My body is a temple!
I’ve also been known to enjoy Grüner Veltliner, Riesling, Zweigelt and Blaufränkisch.
If you weren’t running Euroboozer what would you do?
Apart from earning and spending more money? Probably cleaning toilets, I think I’ve got that down! Or an Architect.
Finally, tell us something that you don't think many people will know about you...
You may have figured this out from the multiple beers posted above, or seen the tweets about choosing the BeerStashBeerDash tweets, but if not, you may be surprised to hear a sucessfull businessman like Mart occasionally suffers from analysis paralysis ;)
Martyn did the Full Monty on stage for his 21st Birthday... We won't share the pictures :)