Pencil and Spoon

Open It! 24-26 February

2012-01-27T07:30:00.000Z

Dustoff the fancy bottles, it’s time to Open It!

It’sa reason and an excuse to open those bottles you’ve been saving. The bottleswhich you really want to drink but also really want to hold onto until aspecial occasion. The thing is, not all beer gets better if you leave it andthe worst beer-thing ever is opening that bottle which you thought would beincredible only to realise that it’s now dead. Don’t let that happen. Don’tsave it for that unknown special occasion; make this that special occasion.

Doit alone, do it with friends, do it in the pub, whatever, just open that bottle(beer, wine, whisky, hot sauce, it doesn’t matter what!) you’ve been saving andenjoy it and share it with others online using the #openit hashtag.

Ifyou are in Leeds or fancy a day out, then Rick Furzer and some of the greatbeer venues up there are planning some cool Open It! events with beer and foodand then more beer.

Let’shijack the weekend of 24-26 February. A three-day excuse to drink the beststuff you’ve got. Go on, just Open It!

OpenIt! is something that Andy Mogg from Beer Reviews and I have run a few timesnow. Anyone and everyone can get involved and it can be any bottle you like.What bottle have you got in mind...?

The best beer in the cupboard

2012-01-26T07:03:00.000Z

Itwas waiting for a special moment. A life moment. A time when I wanted tocelebrate. I’d already passed a few chances up and didn’t know when the nextone was coming. Could I wait another year? Two years? Will the beer wait for mebefore succumbing to the horrors of oxygen? That was the biggest fear: what ifI opened the bottle and it tasted shit. What a waste. What a disappointment. Ididn’t want the disappointment because this was the prize in the beercollection, something which excited me as much the day I bought it as it doestoday, the beer I’d been holding onto for the longest, waiting for that moment. But the moment wasn’tcoming or I kept passing it. And I had to open it. I had to know. I had to knowif I’d waited too long. I feared I had. Friends were coming over to drink beer.If it was brilliant then we’d share that moment; if not then we’d drink a lotmore and I’d try to quickly forget about it, wishing I’d done it sooner,learning the lesson...

Takingit from the box - disturbing its long, cold sleep - was exciting. I was goingto open Zephyr. The most beautiful bottle, the one I held in my head as thebest thing in my collection. Unwinding the cork cage was like fumbling the braof the girl I’ve always wanted to get into bed. And what would happen, whatwould I find, when I dropped what was in my hands?

It’sthe colour of blushing skin, a beautiful peach with rose tint. Pouring it feelsbad and brilliant. Could I have waited? Should I have done this a year ago? Twoyears? Did it peak fresh? It’s got lifeand foam for just a moment, then it drops to a fine lace. Cheers everyone. Theglasses slide around the table. It’s not just a beer now. It’s been with mesince the beginning of this. It’s always been at the back of the cupboard, thatflash of white and pink label and the memory of how it tasted the first time. It’smore than just a beer. First sniff: I expected the worst and it comes first – someoxidisation. But that’s fine, it’s ok, it’s expected, it’s old now. Then therest starts coming out: strawberries, vanilla, oak and the coconut I rememberso vividly from the first bottle, then a boozy background, the ghost-likespirit of the barrel it was in. Sips and sighs and wows and oh my gods. I lookup from my glass and everyone is doing the same as me: swirling, sniffing,chasing those elusive, incredible aromas, taking the biggest sips we dare so wecan drink it properly but not finish it too soon. Complex, insane, brilliant. Thosestrawberries promise sharpness but it’s not there. Instead it’s like under-ripefresh berries and strawberry chewy sweets, all so subtle, wonderful. Thebitterness is clawing to the inside of the bottle and going nowhere. The barrelis still there, still giving oak, nuts, sweetness and spirit. It’s dry, fruity,lively and so interesting in the best of ways. Amazing. It tastes better than Ihoped for. I was prepared for the worst. I was ready to take the hit, to sufferthe woes of the beer hoarded too long. A beer to share and talk about andinstantly fall in love with and have that bittersweet feeling that we’ll neverdrink it again. But now was the right time to open it. It’s hard to imagine itbeing better. I don’t need to imagine it being better. The last line I wrote inmy notebook says ‘Just about the best beer I’ve tasted.’ I’ve probablyunderstated that.

I also loved it the first time I drank it...

St Peter’s Whisky Beers

2012-01-22T17:48:00.003Z

Ilove it when a beer makes you stop and completely rethink what you’d alreadyassumed. I love it. That moment of ‘wait a minute...’ or that ‘holy shit’reaction that just gets you excited. That’s what happened with these St Peter’sbeers – The Saints and Suffolk Smokey.

Theyarrived in the post way before Christmas. It was probably October. It got bundledup in starting a new job and trying to move house and it got added to the listof beers to be drunk when I got the chance (even if they did look great andincluded peated malt and whisky. I love the peaty flavour in whisky – I can’tget enough of it, I want it to be pungent and intense and to sear through mysinuses).

Theyare both a modest 4.8% and both are deep gold in colour, so not your usualblack beer with whisky. The Saints includes ‘a measure of whisky’ from theEnglish Whisky Co while the Suffolk Smokey is made with peated distilling malt.

TheSaints has that background and edge of whisky and smoke. There’s a big applenote, and stone fruit, some tutti fruity cheekiness, then a wisp of smokethrough it all adding a brilliant depth and interest to it. As it warms thewhisky gets more intense, more in your face, and I love that – it gets rougher,peatier, less fruity. It surprised me in the best of ways.

SuffolkSmokey is all about the smoke and peat – bonfires and earth. It’s more smoke inthe nose than in the flavour, but it adds that back-of-the-mouth roughness ofpeat, an earthiness that mixes with the bitterness. It’s fantastic – the onlyproblem was the lack of carbonation in the bottle (it didn’t pffft when the capcame off and felt flat, which dulled the flavours for me).

Icouldn’t get enough of these. I love how the whisky in put was pungent yet still refined, I love what the peated malt added to it, love howthe glug of whisky in The Saints gave a fruit depth you’d never get in beeralone and love how the beers were pale which allowed the whisky to play thestarring role without the charry, dark notes of roasted malt. Whisky and beer done well.

Hop Extract and Oils

2012-01-17T07:27:00.000Z

Whenwe think of brewing, flowers and pellets come to mind first. Those littlepale-green buds with papery, oily skins or little military green pellets whichbreak open when pressed between thumb and finger. But what about adding hopbitterness, aroma and flavour from a jar?

Hopscan be added into beer as flowers, pellets, extract or oil. The Oxford Companion to Beer says that‘more than 50% of all hops used by the brewing industry worldwide are processedinto extracts.’ CO2 extract contains all of the good stuff you want from thehop – alpha acids, beta acids and oils – in a concentrated form. Hop Unionexplains that ‘the brewing characteristics of the original hops aremaintained,’ so equivalent flower or pellet additions for bitterness or aromawill be the same with extract.

It’spossible to get a general extract which adds bitterness and aroma, as well asvariety-specific oils. It’s also possible to get isomerized hop extract whichis for the bittering addition and can be added instead of the bittering hops orto bolster an under-hopped beer. Then there are products such as Tetra-hopextract, which will give bitterness and flavour but have been treated toprevent lightstrike. This is, I think, slightly different to the CO2 extract inthat it is further processed and intended to eradicate a fault.

Theefficiency of extract means that it’s used to reach the big levels ofbitterness wanted in a lot of IPAs and other high-IBU brews. It’s also good foran extra lift of aroma. Russian River’s Pliny the Elder and Younger famouslyuse hop extract in their production, Lagunitas use it in Hop Stoopid, Mikkelleruses it in the 1000 IBU beers. And there’s a nice, short overview from MitchSteele of Stone Brewing on the use of extract here, where he explains the cleanbitterness and less wasted wort through the trub of spent, soggy hop.

Afew years ago, I think hop extract would’ve been a dirty word in craftbreweries, some kind of cheat which doesn’t use the most natural of ingredients.Now it seems that it’s slipped into the smaller-scale of brewing without toomuch alarm, even if most breweries still favour the silver sacks of packed hopsand won’t even consider extract - some brewers will also only ever use whole flower hops.

Partof me think it’s a bit strange to use extract but the other part doesn’t mind ifit’s done to be able to give the best flavour or bitterness possible – extract seemsto give a cleaner type of bitterness than flowers or pellets. It’s no differentto adding chilli extract instead of chopping up fresh peppers – you just get adifferent type of flavour which you will struggle to match with freshingredients. Plus, when you taste a beer like Pliny, you don’t care how thehell it’s made because it’s so damn good.

Ishop extract one of those things which doesn’t bother you or is it somehow‘cheating’? If you found out that one of your favourite beers used extract,would you think differently of it?

Dry Days

2012-01-14T10:02:00.000Z

Thisweek, the government said that we should have two dry days a week. This meansno booze.

Ialways have a few dry days a week. I try to get three dry days between Sundayand Thursday, if I can. I will get home on time and then also do some exercise.It’s for balance. It’s easy to drink too much, to do damaging things to preciousparts of the body. Dry days also make me feel better – I don’t wake up with afoggy head and I don’t go to bed late or have a restless sleep which means Ican get up early and do stuff, like write this or go for a run. It’s likehaving days when I’ll have green food from the fridge instead of orange foodfrom the freezer. Balance.

However,by having the booze-free days the drinking days seem to get heavier to make upfor it. I won’t have one bottle while watching TV, I’ll have three or four orfive, notebook open by my side ready to write anything which the beer stirs inme. The after work pint turns into three. The glass of wine becomes a bottle. Thebalance tips too far. It’s not a deliberate or spiteful ‘I’d better make up forthe dry days’ decision to drink more, it just happens that way. This is Fridayand Saturday drinking. So two dry days and two drunk days. The others will be abottle of beer, rarely more. So for a couple of days I’m doing good, but foranother couple I’m bingeing, which is less good.

Ineed the dry days to feel balance. If I drink every day of the week then I feelrough.

Are dry days part of your week or do you drink rightthrough? When you do drink, is one beer where you start and finish or do you havea few (or a few too many)?

Thoughts for 2012

2012-01-08T16:35:00.000Z

Everyyear I write one of these posts. I never get anything right, but it’s worth apunt...

Kegbeer will not rocket in general. A few breweries will expand into using kegs,and others will expand current keg ranges, and they will sell these to thedestination beer bars around the UK. A 6.5-7.4% IPA on keg will become core tosome brewery ranges. Only about 10-15 breweries will do this properly and dothis well.

Assome breweries make beers to satisfy the geek end of the market, and see successfrom doing it (whether cask, keg or bottle), so all breweries will need to lookhyper-locally and nail their nearby market with whatever beers will sell bestthere, probably a sub-4% pale cask session beer. Given the massive competitionof breweries in the UK now, these beers need to be really good for a brewery tosurvive.

Caskbeer is very important to British beer and always will be. Kegs add to that andare not some kind of crazy, cask-killing beast. The cask vs. keg debate istiresome now. The two need to co-exist because they do different things. With900 cask breweries in the UK, why fear 10-15 breweries who want to use kegs todispense some or all of their beers?

TheOlympics are the big thing in 2012. I hope we don’t get a load of gold orbronze Olympic-themed ales released for the summer. I hate tacky ‘occasion’beers – are any of them ever any good?

Becauseof the Olympics, plus Euro 2012, bottles will be important as more people wantto drink at home. This summer will be the summer of home drinking. Brewerieshad better get filling those bottles.

Thisis an interesting one: big breweries taking a craft focus. Sharp’s are underMolsonCoors and I expect some good things from Sharp’s in 2012. As well asthis, Brains and Thwaites are both opening smaller plants to brew beers outsideof their core ranges. Shepherd Neame did this a few years ago but I rarely hearabout it anymore, which is a shame. This approach from the regionals andnationals is good to see. I hope the beers are good.

Micro-beerfestivals. The 400-cask beer festival is always fun but I love the idea ofsmaller-scale, better-quality festivals. The Snowdrop Inn showed how it’spossible. I also think themed beer festivals, or events based around certainbeer styles, will work well, as was seen with IPA Day in 2011. Breweryshowcases and tap takeovers are an extension of this – and they are events toget people to the pub.

Foodand beer will make it big in 2012! I hope. It’s been a long time coming butwe’re getting closer and closer to people really taking it seriously. If beeris going to be taken seriously in the mainstream then it’ll be alongside foodto begin, in the same way that wine attached itself to the dinner table in the1980s. To get beer to that point it will need a TV programme and majornewspaper columns but there are people around who can do those things.

Now for the beers... We’ve had IPAs,we’ve had Black IPAs. Some breweries have veered towards Belgium or played withBelgian yeasts. We’ve had more IPAs, red IPAs, Belgian IPAs and double IPAs.But what beers will come in 2012?

I think straight-up 6.5-7.4% US IPAswill be big still. I’m certainly not done drinking them. I just hope they gointo kegs and not casks (or at least go into both).

I think forward-thinking brewers willlook backwards at old recipes and styles. Fuller’s do a great job with thisalready, The Kernel is doing it, Thornbridge and Otley have done some – it’seither taking old brewing records and bringing them back to life or it’srejuvenating old beer styles like Burtons and old ales.

American hops are still hot but theirsupply is tight in 2012. This might see some more beers made with English hops.I think by the end of the year there’ll be a beer or two (probably IPAs) thatare hopped with just English varieties that are getting us all talking. Thismight also connect with the previous point of rejuvenated recipes...

I’m personally going to try and drinkmore Belgian beer in 2012. I’ve let it slip out of my sight in the last twoyears but I want to drink more. As for British breweries playing with Belgianinspiration... maybe. I don’t think we’ll see a Saison explosion but I expect somebrewers will experiment with styles like tripels and Belgian blondes.

Best bitters will get lighter andhoppier.

Whatdo you think will happen in 2012? What beer styles will we see more of? Whatbreweries do we expect to taste good things from?

The BrewDog Prototypes 2011

2012-01-03T19:30:00.000Z

The first time I ever bought beeronline was to buy three BrewDog prototypes. I’d only just started this blog. I’donly just discovered BrewDog via a couple of bottles bought from Utobeer. Thedeal was: three bottles each of three new beers; you buy them, drink them, votefor the best and they make it. Those bottles cost about £6. I ordered them anda few days later a case of beer arrived at the door. Beer being delivered to myhouse was revolutionary in itself – I can sit at home and beer comes to me –but so were the flavours in those bottles.

Those three beers were Zeitgeist, BadPixie and Chaos Theory. The best two eventually got made. When I first hadChaos Theory I ‘discovered’ hops. It was rasping, bold, bitter and so full ofaroma that it irrevocably changed my drinking. Those three beers and the factthat they’d made them and were asking people to vote for them – that I had somekind of input into the choices made – were exciting. Different. Cool.

I love BrewDog. They’re at theforefront of a change in British beer. I look out for the new beers withexcitement, wondering what’ll come next and how it’ll taste. That excitement iswhat I love. They also do stupid stuff which I don’t love. Sadly, the stupidhas overtaken the exciting. Of all the beers they released in 2011, only onereally excited me (apart from Avery Brown Dredge, of course): Sunk Punk. It hadstory, it was fun, it wasn’t just a beer made for column inches and it wasn’t amiddle finger rammed into someone else’s face.

We have this awkward relationship nowwhere I love them but feel constantly disappointed by them. It’s just a breweryso it’s irrational to feel this way but it’s like a first-love kind of thing,and like a lover hooked I still follow them around waiting, hoping, for thegood moments to return.

And so when they announced the 2011 prototype challenge I had to get the four beers. It was the thing which got mehooked in the first place. This was a chance to bring it all back again. I getto drink four new beers, I get to taste what 2012 might bring, I get to vote.

Blitz! Is 2.8%, made with just caramaltand then lavished with West Coast hops. It’s a dark caramel colour and it’s gotthis mad, brain-teaser of an aroma which keeps you puzzled throughout: it’slike walking into a cake shop with a sack of open C-hops in the corner -marshmallows, sweet caramel, candy and toast, then tangy American hops, pineyand pithy. The bitterness is nicely done, it’s balanced and it’s easy drinkingand the body is really good. A 2.8% triumph.

Prototype 17 (4.9%) is a pale ale(Trashy Blonde?) plus Belgian yeast and raspberries. BrewDog like raspberries, don’tthey. It smells slightly funky with cloves and berry fruit. There’s not toomuch going on, which is a shame. The raspberries aren’t big, the yeast detractsrather adds, the hops seem to have disappeared. Disappointing.

Scotch Ale (7.5%) looks incredible inthe glass: a deep red-brown, like embers just about to burn to black. Take amouthful and it shocks: sweetness, caramel, an over-powering aniseed andliquorice, as if some bastard mate tipped Sambuca into your other-wisedelicious beer, then some peat, a medicinal twang and something floral waftingin the background. The body is full which makes it really satisfying to drinkbut it feels discordant with loads of stuff going on and none of it really comingtogether.

Hops Kill Nazis (7.8%) is like 5amSaint’s badass bigger brother. Deep red in colour, toffee, flowers, red berriesin the nose and a bitterness which builds in the background. It doesn’t tastesuper-fresh but that’s probably because it isn’t. It’s a fine beer but I expectmore from BrewDog when they add lots of hops to things – it’s just a littleinelegant.

None of the beers made me jump up andshout wow, which is what I want from BrewDog now. Blitz! is the best and itsurprised and teased me in a good way and I like that (so I voted for it), but the other threearen’t beers I’d buy again. But that’s almost not the point. It’s not what Iwent into it looking for. I went to see if we could work things out.

And we can. These beers are whatBrewDog thinks are potentials to add to their range for 2012 and that’s interesting.One is low-ABV, one is all about the malt, one is about the hops and one isabout experimenting with what they already have. That’s four beers coveringfour very different areas and all of them are approachable. They are allprobably first-time brews; if brewed again then they’d no doubt improve.

I always look forward to what BrewDogdo. With a bar 10 minutes from work, it’s where I’ll drink most in 2012, I’msure. And in 2012 I’ll be looking at what BrewDog do: how they grow, develop,deal with the challenges they faced this year. With over 6,000 Equity for Punkmembers they’ve got to think about more than just themselves now. I also hopethey make a few new beers which make me go wow and which get me excited. I’mpretty sure they will.

Top 11 Beers of 2011

2011-12-31T11:00:00.000Z

I’ve drunka lot of beer this year. I’ve been to Rome, New York and the Czech Republictwice, plus travelled around the UK a bit. Here are the best 11 beers I've had in2011.

UnfilteredBudvar Dark in the cellars at the brewery. It's usually the pale 12-degreeBudvar which you taste in the cold cellars, but this time we also got the Dark.Rich, roasty, deep in flavour but with more body and texture than the packagedversion. Incredible.

UnfilteredPU at Bloggers Conference and unfiltered PU in Pilsen. It was on the list lastyear and hopefully (somehow, anyhow) it'll be on the list next year: I lovethis beer. I love the story the brewery attaches to it, I love how a mug of itlooks when poured with a huge head, I love the elegant body of the beer, thebite of Saaz hops. Most of all, I love the rounded, smoothness of theunfiltered version.

Avery Maharajah in Rattle n Hum. It was late and we had drunk lots already but ashared 4oz sample of this convinced Matt and I to order a pint each. It's a10.5% DIPA with balance in it's strength, like a body building ballerina. Sofruity, so juicy, such amazing hop flavour.

Ithaca Flower Power. All the fruit juice in the world seems to make this beer.Incredible hop flavours, such clarity to them rather than the beer equivalentof five people shouting at you simultaneously.

Sam Adams Lager at Burger Joint. A moment of perfection when the beer in your hand couldn’ttaste any fresher. Cold and crisp and a lip-smacking hop flavour, plus a killerburger on the side.

This yearI've had three different jobs. The third of them is thanks to Camden Hells Lager,Camden Pale and Camden Wheat - the beers are fantastic and they've given me theopportunity to work in the beer industry. They are now the beers I drink mostoften and that's definitely a good thing.

Being askedto make a beer with BrewDog is a highlight of the year. I remember reading theemail proposing it and bursting with excitement. Avery Brown Dredge is theresult. An imperious pilsner, bold, different and brilliant, if I do say somyself.

TroubadourMagma showed me the best of Belgium and America in one glass and I love it. Iveered away from Belgian beer for a year or two but I might head back that wayin 2012.

Rhubarblambic made from a deliberately funked-up APA, brewed by Chunk. We shared onebottle; if we'd shared a gallon we still probably would've wanted more.

Dark StarTripel, a year-old, at the Beer Bloggers Conference. Just amazing. Such awell-developed beer which still had that big hop bite and an incredible flavourof peaches and apricots. Mind-blowing stuff.

Toccalmatto Stray Dog with a pizza in Bir & Fud, Rome. Amazing, fresh beer; crisp andlight pizza. Bir & Fud rocks.

The thing with all thesebeers is that I remember the moment I drank them as much as the taste; fewflavours return to me as I think about them, but the experiences are stillclear and bright. The beers were all great but the moment, the memory or theexperience, is what matters most.

It’s been a great 2011 and Ihope 2012 is even better!

Nightmares from my notebook

2011-12-28T19:30:00.000Z

I keep a notebook for writing beernotes for the bottles I drink at home. Not all the beers I drink are good. Hereare some of the outtakes...

“...sugary sweetness, little chocolate,cigarette ash. Like weak, shit coffee with too much sugar.”

“Minty, herby but a little like damptowels. Slightly odd, sicky, damp taste. Sweetness but it’s sugary. Floral,lemony, bit cheesy?”

“Light struck. Caramel, ice cream.Shockingly sweet then a woody dryness to it, a lasting mismatched finish ofsweetness and dry/bitter/oak/whisky. It’s not very nice.”

“Cheesy yogurt aroma. Little butter,little burnt, little dry at the end. Lifeless.”

“Blackberries, like fruit pastillesweets. Lasting roasted bitterness and dry hops. Little funky sourness? Or justblackcurranty hops? Port-like, winey, barnyard, like odd, cheap red wine.Something isn’t right.”

I won’t ask for guesses (one might be recogniseable) but I’m sure you’veall had a few bad beers this year to go alongside the good ones. Do you sufferthrough them or chuck them in the drain? I’m a thrower.

Christmas Day Drinking 2011

2011-12-27T19:59:00.000Z

Iwasn’t prepared for Christmas this year; it jumped out of nowhere from behindboxes left unpacked from moving house. Suddenly it was Christmas Eve and I hadn’teven decided what beers to drink on Christmas Day, the most important eatingand drinking day of the year. In the end I pulled myself together and pulledbottles from boxes stacked up in the garage.

ChristmasDay obviously started with strong, dark beer. It’s usually a coffee imperialstout with breakfast but this year was a Thornbridge Bracia because it’s one ofthe best beers made in Britain, I think. A thick, oily pour. Black. It’s richand dark, there’s chocolate, coffee, toasted nuts, booze, a berry sweetness, afloral flourish. A year old and it’s still brilliant. Gooood morning.

ACamden Hells Lager came next. I wanted something light and crisp to follow thebeastly Bracia and lead up to dinner. This nailed the job as I sat and flickedthrough a pile of new books.

BrewDogAB:03 came before the food. AB:03 is Zephyr plus raspberries and more barreltime. It’s a deep copper colour and the sharp raspberry aroma that burst fromthe glass when this beer was first released is now subdued and subtle, mixingwith strawberries and toasty oak. It’s full on, the bitterness is still there,the barrel is still giving flavour, it threatens sharpness but isn’t sour -it’s just a trick of the tongue - and there’s also some oxidation, although itadds interest rather than spoiling it. A spritzy and jammy raspberry flavour flows through the whole thing. It’sunusual and fantastic. If you’ve got a bottle then drink it soon because I’mnot sure it’s getting better (Note to self: that bottle of Zephyr you have isalso not getting any better. DRINK IT!).

Withthe turkey came Marble and DarkStar’s Saison. As happened last year (withMonsieur Rock), I announce my beers of the year and then I open something whichshould be on the list. This beer is sensational. It’s the juiciest, fruitiest Britishbeer I’ve ever had. Pineapple, mango, mandarin, all in the aroma and theflavour, like fruit juice with attitude. At 9% it’s a big beer. Normally Idon’t like the mix of US hops and phenolic Belgian yeast but here it works sowell: the spiciness of the Saison yeast adds spike to the fruit, adds pepperand tannin, but also brings bubble gum and then mint – it could be a cocktailit has the balance of fruit, booze, sweetness, spice and bitterness. Andthere’s a lot of bitterness. It’s an amazing beer. It didn’t work with turkeyand the trimmings but I didn’t care because it was such a joy to drink. I atedinner and then finished the bottle off afterwards (it was surprisingly goodwith Christmas pudding!).

Thatwas Christmas morning and lunch. There was a booze break for a few hours afterto try and recover, then I got back on the beer with a Fuller’s Vintage 1999 togo with cheese.

Avery good day of Christmas drinking. How was your day? Any brilliant beers withthe turkey?

The Golden Pints 2011

2011-12-21T18:19:00.002Z

It’s the annual beer blogger awards! Thisis the best of my drinking from 2011 and it’s taken me weeks to put thistogether as the whole year has passed in a beery haze...

Best UK Draught Beer

Dark Star Tripel, aged a year, servedat the Beer Bloggers Conference. Just a stunning, beautiful beer. Dark Star’sSix Hop at the Planet Thanet beer festival takes second. Dark Star are doinggood things – Saison on keg is also a winner.

Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer

Fuller’s Vintage. Somewhere between2000 and 2002. Second place goes to Avery Brown Dredge, of course.

Best Overseas Draught Beer
Avery Maharajah IPA with Ithaca FlowerPower a close second. Pilsner Urquell gets an honourable mention because Ican’t help but love it and I’ve had a few great glasses of it in 2011.

Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer

For the moment: drinking a can of 21^stAmendment Bitter American on the roof of a New York hotel looking over the stunningskyline.

Best Overall Beer

Avery Maharajah. We’d been drinking allday in New York. We stopped in Rattle n Hum and ordered four samples. Maharajahwas so good that Matt and I both ordered a pint of it, even though it was10.5%. I can still taste it now.

Best Pumpclip or Label

I’m obsessed with Oh Beautiful Beer tothe point that I lose hours a week looking on there. The world of beerpackaging can be sexy and exciting and really beautiful (as opposed tohorrific, as shown here). Some favourites are the 21^st Amendment’scans, Uinta’s rebrand and Fullsteam.

Best UK Brewery

For innovation, quality and consistencyI’m going for two: Adnams and Fuller’s. For kicking off and kicking on it’sMagic Rock and Kernel. And for what I know is coming in 2012 and for what I’vespent most of the last four months drinking, it’s Camden Town.

Best Overseas Brewery

I don’t drink consistently from manyoverseas breweries, but I’ve always had good beer from Odell.

Pub/Bar of the Year

If I could go and drink anywhere rightnow then it’d be Barcade in Brooklyn or Bir & Fud in Rome. Closer to homethen I’m going for Craft Beer Co for all the times I’ve realised that if Idon’t leave immediately then I’ll miss the last train home (it’s happened fartoo often).

Beer Festival of the Year

The Snowdrop Inn’s festival in Leweswhich Mark Tranter from Dark Star chose the beers for.

Supermarket of the Year

Waitrose

Independent Retailer of the Year

The Bottle Shop in Canterbury – greatplace!

Online Retailer of the Year

I spent most money at myBreweryTap soit goes to them.

Best Beer Book or Magazine

Adrian Tierney-Jones’ Great BritishPubs is superb. Anyone drinking in London should definitely have Des de Moor’sbook which is also excellent. CAMRA’s BEER magazine is always a great read.

Best Beer Blog or Website

Oh Beautiful Beer for the website but alot of blogs have been great to read this year and the ones I never miss are Beer.Birra.Bier,The Good Stuff and Boak and Bailey.

Best Beer Twitterer

@Simonhjohnson. Just to see how muchhe’s drunk and where he’s drunk it. @caskcrusade is also a great read fromItaly (again to see how much he’s drunk or where he’s drinking it).

Best Online Brewery Presence

Adnams do a brilliant job all round.

Food and Beer Pairing of the Year

Pizzarium pizza and a bottle ofBrewfist’s Milk Chocolate Stout. An amazing, surprising pairing while sittingon a Rome backstreet with the most delicious pizza I’ve ever had. Second placegoes to Toccalmatto’s Stray Dog with pizza in Bir & Fud. Pizza and beer didwell this year.

In 2012 I’d most like to...

Start homebrewing (I now have a garageso I can!), travel more, write more things for print and drink in more pubs (Idon’t drink in enough different pubs).

In 2012 I’m most looking forward to...

Going to the World Beer Cup!

Best beer I’ve drunk in a brewery in 2011

Unfiltered Budvar Dark straight fromthe tank. Incredible.

Top of the Hops in 2012

2011-12-20T20:00:00.000Z

The UK currently grows 16 hops forcommercial use. The current acreage for UK hops is around 2,500 which is just2% of the world hop-growing market. At one point in history, the UK grew 77,000acres worth of hops. What went wrong?

M&B are releasing a new beer acrosstheir pubs call Top of the Hops, brewed by The Great Yorkshire Brewery at Cropton.It uses 2012 different hop varieties and all of those hops were grown inBritain. The majority of these are varieties not ready for commercial use yet,bolstered by the ones which are available.

Using 2012 different hops is a bit of astatement. Personally, I think it’s a brilliant idea, not for the story ofusing so many varieties, but because it’s highlighting the British hop industryat a time when American and New World hops are getting all the attention. Thefact that only 16 British hop varieties (Charles Faram currently stock 35different US varieties) are available for commercial use is a bit sad, but thatthere are almost 2000 which aren’t yet ready, but might be one day, is veryexciting.

The last few years has seen theAmericanization of British beer but I hope that 2012, alongside the delicious US-inspired stuff, could see moreBritish hops from the more prominent British brewers, showing the great flavours they can give. It’s also interestingto know that new UK hops are being developed specifically to have similarcitrus and fruity flavours to American varieties.

Top of the Hops is available inDecember, January and February from M&B pubs. I haven’t tried it yet but insupport of the British hop industry I want to and I will. In a few years wecould be seeing a lot more variety in British hops and that’s exciting. British hops used well is a great thing, right?

The Man of Kent, Rochester

2011-12-20T09:39:00.003Z

The Man of Kent, in Rochester, is oneof my favourite pubs. Since I first drank a pint there, probably eight yearsago, I’ve loved it.

Away from the Dickens-themed highstreet lined with antique shops and restaurants, where tourists go to visit thecathedral and castle, the Man of Kent stands on a corner, ornately fronted, inthe sort of housing area you’d usually hope not to visit but often findyourself in search of a good beer.

Inside, when it’s cold outside, a firewarms. The chairs are worn but comfier for it; it feels lived in, homely whilehaving a rock music edge thanks to the staff and landlord. It's dark and better for it. There’s a vacantslot waiting to be filled by a live band who somehow manage to fit inside thesmall interior. Things hang from the bar and the walls, all sorts of MoKcuriosities: t-shirts, flags, blackboards, photos. To the back of the pub is anextra seating area and a selection of battered old board games, no doubtmissing most of the pieces. Beyond that is a garden, decked above and below. Insummer the landlord hushes the drinker because his kids are asleep in the roomsabove.

The bar takes up most of the space,reaching around the corner almost uncomfortably and inefficiently. There’s nineor ten handpulls and all of them are for beers made in Kent. Goachers ispermanent, Gadds, Hopdaemon, Old Dairy, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Whitstable,Abigale and all the rest. The fridge is filled with Belgian and Germaneccentricities. There’s imposing lager fonts – Kuppers Kolsch and two others (afriend once asked for Foster’s here and was told to fuck off) – a Fruli tap, atrio of Meantime and a couple of lines for cider. There’s also a huge Jagerdispenser and a wide selection of wine and spirits.

Busy, great beer, Kent-centric(which as a Man of Kent myself is appealing) good atmosphere and just a littlebit different. I’ve always liked it. I especially liked it when mates weretold, brashly, to go to Wetherspoons if they wanted a fucking Fosters. It's not pretty or nice, it's a backstreet boozer which does great beer. The Manof Kent has always been one of my favourite pubs and I wish I drank there morethan I do.

Founder's KBS and moving house

2011-12-17T22:22:00.000Z

I've spent two days moving house. Moving sucks balls. I've packed boxes badly; I've lifted badly packed boxes; carried furniture in ways which can only be bad for me; lugged a sofa down three flights of stairs; loaded and unloaded the car far too many times; driven far too many miles; spent hours dismantling and chopping and dumping crap furniture; I've even been to Ikea. Now I don't know where anything is and I can't move without falling over a box, so it's time for beer. The one thing I had foresight to do was put some bottles in the fridge; technically, that's the only thing that's been put away so far.

I also need food but there is none in the house except cereal. Breakfast was Subway, lunch was KFC and because dinner won't follow the first two it's cereal in a Tupperware container (because I can't find any bowls). Founder's KBS is in the fridge. About to eat muesli, the pairing is obvious.

The match is irrelevant. It's also not great. It's probably good that it doesn't work or every morning I'd be wanting to open a beer with breakfast. The important thing is both food and beer do their job: one fills me up, one lifts me up.

The beer is special. Imperial stout with chocolate and coffee and aged in bourbon barrels. Blacker and thicker than any beer I can remember. Bourbon hits first then mellows and the whole thing relaxes and opens up - hot then round then elegant. The chocolate and coffee add fullness and depth plus that dark bitterness which is so good with the coconut and vanilla from the oak. The barrel gives a lot, almost too much, but only almost; you know this beer has been around bourbon and that's a good thing. By the end of the glass I'm left wanting more.

It's the diversion I need. It's the lying on the floor, ignoring the boxes, ignoring the mess, ignoring the fact that tomorrow there's so much to do, just lying there with a beer and a note book and feeling the stress and aches and demands of the day going away.

British Guild of Beer Writers Annual Awards Dinner 2011: The Video

2011-12-12T09:14:00.001Z

Nathan Nolan, aka MrDrinknEat, has put together a video of the British Guild of Beer Writers Annual Awards Dinner. Here it is:

BrewDog Camden

2011-12-09T20:31:00.001Z

BrewDog Camden is open.

A corner bar, on a Camden side street by the tube and away from the over-crowded market (Bayham Street - less than a minute walk from the underground), it's industrial, simple and smart and bright light shines out onto the passing street, above which the familiar blue shield glows. There's a bar upstairs and one down. It has the potential for 26 different draught lines, though most of the time it'll be a little less (26 is the reserve for special events, of which a few are already planned). As for beer, there's all the BrewDog range, amazing draught imports (when I went the Port Brewing's Wipeout was superb, as was Stone's Sublimely Self Righteous) and fridges filled with some of the best beers in the world (bombers of Racer 5!). Want more? The kitchen does burgers and pizza. And the sound system is cool. And the staff are great.

Draught BrewDog is from £3.50 a pint (Punk is £3.95); draught imports can be double that but will mostly be drunk by the half; samples are freely given (my advice: exploit this); bottles peak just under £20 but most give change from a tenner. It's not cheap but it's not unusually expensive for London, especially considering that some beers are only available in the UK at the BrewDog bars (and more great beer from around the world is in various states of transit BrewDog-bound).

With The Black Heart just around the corner (and Camden Town Brewery 10 minutes away...), Camden just got a whole lot cooler for great beer.

Will it immediately become the go-to beer bar in London alongside Craft Beer Co? I definitely expect so.

An alternative origin of porter

2011-12-08T13:45:00.000Z

I like stories about the history of beers. For me, the interesting sideof it comes when there’s a human element: why a brewer decided to do this orthat; how the drinkers liked the beer; where they drank it; processes whichbrewers went through.

So when looking through The Curiosities of Ale and Beer by John Bickerdyke, first published in 1889, Iwas excited to read that an alternative origin for porter is written (thanks toMark from Real Ale Reviews who found it). It’s probably the most unusual andoutrageous origin of a beer I’ve heard…

It first points back to Ralph Harwood in 1730. As he “brooded over theinconvenience and waste occasioned by the calls for the ‘three threads’, whichbecome more and more frequent, he conceived the idea of making a liquor whichwould combine in itself the several virtues of ale, beer, and twopenny.” So hebrewed a drink called Entire or Entire Butts which was tasted and approved and “becamethe fruitful parent of a mighty offspring.”

So far nothing unusual, a perfectly acceptable beginning for London’sfamous dark beer. But it continues, a little off-piste:

Visitors to the great brewery in Brick Lane are shown a hole from whichsteam issues to the accompaniment of awful rumbling noises. ‘In there once fella man,’ they are told – ‘a negro. Nothing but his bones were found when thecopper was emptied, and it is said that the beer drawn off was an extraordinarydark colour. Some say this was the first brew of porter.

Yes. It actually says this.

Asked the obvious question, the brewery guide replied: “Oh yes… we soonlearnt how to make it without the negro.” Which is of some relief, no doubt.

The author adds his thoughts, although the tone is a little wishy-washyand unconvinced (italics are mine): “We must confess that we have some doubts as to this account of theorigin of porter. We do not believe thatbrew could have been much darker on account of the accident, though nodoubt, under the circumstances, it contained plenty of ‘body.’”

Two pages later is a versed legend called Patent Brown Stout. You must read it.

Not your usual beer history lesson…

Image from here.

Beer and Food and the Best of British Beer Writing

2011-12-04T10:52:00.001Z

Thisweek I was awarded the prize for best beer and food writing at the BritishGuild of Beer Writers annual dinner.

Iwrite about beer and food because I think that if anything is able to changethe way people think about beer then it’ll be because it’s linked to the dinnertable; it gives a point of reference to something familiar to try something whichthey are unfamiliar with. I also like to have fun with beer and food and mykitchen adventures were part of what got me the gong: shoving a can of Punk IPAup a chicken’s arse; cooking sausage, chips and beans and drinking nine beerswith it to see which works best; making ketchup from beer to go with chickencrusted in malt; ‘mashing in’ pale malt with double cream and milk to makecustard for ice cream and creme brulee; pale malt cookies; beer jelly and ice cream; imperial stout chilli; working on a beer list for Byron Hamburgers; and, of course, a fewFABPOWs, including one with a Big Mac.

Theaward ceremony, as ever, was brilliant, but this year was the best I’ve been toin the last three years. The venue, the food, the beer, the timing, all workedso well. It was also good that I helped out with the beer and food pairings forthe meal this year. And while they weren’t all perfect, the point is that thebeers and the food were individually excellent and they bring out conversationabout whether they work or not and why and what would be better. That’s whatmakes pairing beer and food more fun.

Congratulationsto all the other winners: Evin O’Riordain from The Kernel for Brewer of the Year;Des de Moor for Travel Writing for his excellent book on London; Pete Brown forCorporate Communications; Martyn Cornell and Mark Charlwood for Online Media;Marverine Cole and Gavin Aitchinson for Regional writing; Ben McFarland andGlynn Davis for Trade; and Adrian Tierney-Jones and Will Hawkes for NationalMedia. Ben McFarland got the big one and was Beer Writer of the Year for thethird time. Ben’s writing is brilliant and always inspires me to write better.

Here’sto the best of beer writing!

AsSteve points out, London did pretty well this year.

No-Beer Bar Crawl

2011-11-29T06:20:00.001Z

Formonths my mates and I have been meaning to do a bar crawl around London whichinvolved no beer. As we always go from bar to bar drinking beer after beer, itseemed like a fun idea to try something different and see what the city hadwhen we weren’t chasing hops.

Itdidn’t start off entirely successfully. We met in The Ship, a Fuller’s pub inBorough. The front row was on cask: Chiswick, London Pride, Bengal Lancer, ESBand Black Cab. A concession was made that the first drink could be a beer. Itwas Friday night and everyone had come straight from work, so we were thirstyand only a beer could slake that thirst. Besides, it was still early...

Westarted proper on cocktails at The Hide on Bermondsey Street, a piece of Londonwhich feels lifted from the backstreets of Brooklyn. A cool place, a bar linedwith spirits and a thick menu to choose from. Mine was an Old Fashioned in achunky tumbler. Others sipped from martini glasses, something virtuallyimpossible to drink from without looking like a twat or an extra from Sex andthe City. All tasted great but at £8 a glass it’s not something I’m drinkingall night.

Nextwas gin. We decided to walk across Tower Bridge and get the tube from there –we were going to Barbican. This took longer than expected and was probably amistake: we were very thirsty. Getting to The Larder, aka (to us, at least) ‘The Gin Bar’, Idrank a great G&T in about 12 seconds and my thirst only increased. “Wherenext?” Wine? Whisky?

Weended up at The Old Red Cow. It was only around the corner. They don’t just dobeer, someone said. Only the third stop and all six of us ordered a beer. Weneeded a DRINK. Some chased it down with whisky but most just had a pint whilewe battled it out over Connect 4. We’d started over two hours earlier and onlyhad about a small volume of liquid. This was not what we’re used to.

Nextit was The Lexington. A wall of 50 bourbons plus good beer. We order the bourbonbut Sierra Nevada Celebration was also on tap and no one can resist that, canthey? Another bourbon followed while we play foosball, plus a few mint-infusedbourbon shooters. The bourbon and the beer are both excellent. And it’s a coolvenue.

Otherswent on to a sherry bar before last orders while I jumped on a tube for thelast train home feeling somehow like I’d failed as I’d ultimately not managedto last a night of drinking around town without going to beer.

Thenight wasn’t what I expected. I had a classic cocktail, a London-made gin,fantastic American bourbon and all were excellent and I got to see a few differentbars, but such small measures were so different from what I’m used to whendrinking with mates. And while everything tasted great, it just didn’t do thejob that a pint does of being something uniquely satisfying to drink in volume.That’s what makes us able to drink beer all night long; it’s low ABV, it’sthirst-quenching but also thirst-inducing, and there’s also a more socialaspect around it – a pint lasts a while and it just feels more friendly, more 'let's sit and talk shit' than ashot of vodka.

Sittingat home or at dinner with a bottle of wine is fine, sipping it through anevening, but out in the pub or in bars was a different experience. Maybe it wasjust that I was with my beer drinking buddies but it just felt weird. And whileI love a wide range of drinks, it’s the variety which makes it most interestingand I think we’ve all learnt our lesson and that when wandering around Londondrinking it’s probably best to focus on beer and choose the others as extras.

Where shall we eat?

2011-11-27T12:18:00.001Z

Wemeet straight from work. Pints all round. How’s work? How was your day? Whereshall we eat? All I’ve had today is a sandwich. Where shall we go next?

Tothe next pub. Pints all round. This is good. How’s yours. What you up totomorrow? Did you see... have you heard...? I’m hungry, where shall we getfood? Fancy a decent burger somewhere? Maybe that new place everyone’s talkingabout.

Tothe next pub. A couple of halves each. Try this one, it’s great. This isn’t sogood. What did you order? What are the girls up to? How’s things with you two?Did you see the game last night? I need to eat something – where shall we go?

Tothe next pub. Just grab a half and go. They got any crisps? The barmaid was fitbut the beer here is shit. No hanging around. Where next?

Tothe next pub. Pints all round. Fuck that. What the shit. She did what? Oh mygod. I’m fucking starving. Need food.

Tothe next pub. Final pints all round. Stumble out, look around. Sandwich at thestation or take away on the train?

Great British Pubs by Adrian Tierney-Jones

2011-11-24T07:47:00.000Z

Iread books because I want to go places and do things I’ve never been before, tolearn new things or to see the things I know in a new way via the words ofsomeone else. I love travel books, recipes books, history books, referencebooks, picture books, fiction and non-fiction. The best books make you feelpart of the action or they make you want to be involved in it and experience it.A good recipe book makes you go to the kitchen, a great story makes you want tolive a fuller, more exciting life. And a great book about pubs makes you wantto sit in pubs and enjoy each of them for how unique it is.

Great British Pubs by Adrian Tierney-Jones, more than any other beer book I’ve read,has made me want to get up off the sofa and go places and see and do things. Abook like this will list the familiar pubs which always get listed but whatmakes it different is that you see the places in a new way, you appreciate themdifferently. Adrian didn’t look to simply list 200 pubs, he looked for what makes the pub a great place.

It’sa book about what happens in pubs. It includes what the places are actuallylike in a physical sense but it goes beyond that and it tells you what makes itdifferent, it tells of the things that happen inside, it paints the scene inthe surrounding area, it’s about the local beers drunk at particular moments, itshows off the enormous variety of places to drink and a narrative runs throughit which forms a patchwork story of the life of the pub: conversationsoverheard, stories told, pints poured, barmaids, landlords, tourists, localcommunities in action. And that’s what makes this so interesting and separates it from other pub books - it's a travel book as much as a reference guide.

Readingthis book makes me want to go to every pub in it. It makes me want to sit atthe bar and sip a pint of local beer while listening to what’s going on aroundme. It makes me want to understand for myself why the pub is such an importantplace.

GreatBritish Pubs is definitely one for the Christmas list.

Troubadour Magma

2011-11-22T08:41:00.001Z

Ifirst had Troubadour Magma at the Snowdrop Inn beer festival, one of the bestbeer events I’ve been to in a long time. It was the last beer of my day, downedas we were walking out the door. The first mouthful made me stop, take anothergulp, then sit down. I immediately wanted to finish the glass and orderanother. It was incredible. Why had I never had this beer before? It’s a strongBelgian beer dry-hopped with American hops. Imagine a Tripel meets an American IPA.

ButI was drinking it as I was leaving. Lauren had hold of my empty hand and waspulling me out the door. She’d already sat and watched me drink beer for toomany hours and it was time to go. With one hand in hers, the other was rootedin the pub through the grip I had on my pint glass. Lauren versus a 9% beer,with me stuck in the middle. Both had the potential to knock me out but one wasabout to do it before the other had the chance...

Thenfor my birthday last week Lauren puts a big box in front of me. Ripping off thebeery wrapping paper, it contained all of the best beers from the Snowdrop –Saison Dupont, Anchor Bigfoot, Odells IPA and Troubadour Magma (it also hadsome Mikkellers and more Anchor – Lauren did good).

Magma (9% ABV) had two days in the fridge before I busted it out. Tropical fruit, fruit saladsweets, vanilla ice cream with raspberry sauce, a perfumy fragrance, mango,roasted pineapple... Not many beers smell like this. The body has a sweetnessto it but that balances the bitterness at the end. The hop flavour rocks,there’s a dry finish to it all, and each mouthful is different and interestingand exciting. A brilliant beer. It’s the best Belgian beer I’ve drunk all year,in fact.

WhenBelgians do American hops well, they reallydo them well. This, Vivan Imperial IPA, IV Saison, Chouffe Houblon. Delicious.

Wasting hops

2011-11-20T09:27:00.001Z

The day has come.

I didn't think it ever would.

I definitely didn't think it would be so soon...

I now think there is such a thing as using too many hops ina beer.

And there are breweries out there wasting perfectly good hopsin search of loopy lupulin levels.

I love hops. I love it when a beer uses lots of them. Butsome beers just use too many. These beers, otherwise perfectly excellent, arethick and tangy and overpowered with hops. They sting the tastebuds, blunt theenjoyment and they bring a wow that is on the shocked side of the reactionrather than the pleased side.

Hops are incredible little things. They make beer excitingwhether used liberally or with balance. And I want to be able to taste thehops. I want that hit of aroma, that quench at the end of the gulp, thatclinging bitter feeling that makes me want to drink more, but I don't want tofeel like I've just licked a hop sack or sucked on a handful of pellets. Thething is, when you use too many hops it just tastes too intense, too muddy,unclear. That’s what I don’t like. It’s great to use lots of hops but I want aclarity of flavour from them, not just an upper cut to the uvula.

Hops are aggressive in a way that malt can’t be. Malt can bebig and soft and cuddly whereas hops can be fighty and screamy. Skill from abrewer is finding a balance, even if that balance is weighed down on one sideor the other. Getting that balance right means I’ll drink more than half a pintof it or order another bottle of it.

I love hops but recently I've tasted too many beers whichuse too many hops.

Am I alone in thinking that hops are being wastedunnecessarily or have others find beers that are just too bitter to enjoy?

Hop photo from here.

Beer with a view

2011-11-13T13:26:00.001Z

The insides of pubs arefascinating places. Each unique with their own quirks of personalitywhether from the people or the way it's decorated. It makes pub goinginteresting and varied. The outside of pubs are interesting too:crusty old buildings with a big back story, new bars which shineunder illuminating lights, pubs that look wonderful or horrible andthen deliver the opposite inside. But what about the view you getwhen facing away from the bar and at the things around it.

Yesterday we went tothe Free Trade Inn in Newcastle and the view was as amazing as thebeer list. A flat stretch of the Tyne, bridges, big old buildings, asetting sun. A fantastic city centre view. Other pubs, The Bull inHorton Kirby or The Thatchers Arms in Mount Bures, have views ofunending countryside. Some hang into the sea like Whistable Brewery Bar or, just along the beach, the Old Neptune. Some sit at the footof mountains, some at the top of big hills, some show the city offwhile others are surrounded by green.

What better than a great pint with a stunning view. There must be so manyother pubs with incredible views, backdrops and surroundings. Whereare the best?

Trust in the pub

2011-11-10T06:56:00.000Z

Thereare over 800 breweries in the UK – how many would you like to try a beer from?

Myanswer is over 800. I’d love to drink a beer from every brewery in the UK. Evenbetter would be a couple of beers to see the range of what they make.

I’mguessing that some of it will be incredibly good, surprising, interesting andbeers that I’d like to drink again and again. That’s why I’d like to try themall. But there will be a lot of beer made which isn’t delicious. Some will be badlybrewed and should never be sold while others will be boring or lacking quality.And some beers will inevitably suffer at the hands of the pub serving it.

It’sa lottery of whether that pint you order is going to be good, which is whydrinking in pubs you trust is a good start.

Thereare three London pubs I drink in more than any others: Southampton Arms, Craftand The Rake (there are others I trust but go to less often - I guess I'm too busy chasing hops in the beer bars). I trust these pubs to not put crap beer on the bar: they orderbeer from breweries which they know are good, they look after the beer and theysell it fast which is good for tap turnover. I know that I can go into one ofthese places and always get good beer. It’s not about the number of tapseither: if these bars only had one keg line and one cask handpull then I’dstill be confident that I’d get a good beer. And the selection isn’t just aboutfinding new and over-hopped beers to drink, if a pub will always look aftertheir beers and serve them in perfect condition then that’s as good as anythingelse. Finding places like that make me want to return regularly.

It’shard to know if you can trust a new brewery or not (branding is a good start –if care and attention has gone to that then there’s more confidence in the beer)but by finding a good pub who you know chooses the best beer, there’s thesafety net against a bad pint. It’s good to be able to walk into a pub and knowthere’ll be too many beers on that you’d like to drink.

Atthe same time, one of the great things about drinking in different pubs is theunexpected: the unexpected great pint, the unexpected great pub or theunexpected which happens inside them. Sometimes you have to take a hit with abad or boring pint but there’s always another pub around the corner and younever know what you’ll find there.

Doyou return to the pubs you trust for good beer more than searching out newpubs? Where are you most likely to drink beers from new breweries?

Beer at Weddings

2011-11-08T10:49:00.001Z

Lastweekend I went to my third wedding of the year. There were three casks of beerthere (the groom loves beer – that’s how we met); two from Kent Brewery and onefrom Brodies. That’s a great thing to arrive and see because weddings so oftenhave rubbish beer (the other two weddings this year were pretty good, too – Iguess I’ve been lucky).

Itdid leave me thinking something that often rolls around my mind: what beerswould I want at my wedding?

Thething is: when I’m at a wedding I don’t want anything crazy or complicated.It’s a wedding so it’s not about the beer, even if I do want to still drinknice bottles. That means the beers need to be simple.

I’dlike to brew a special beer for it, either commercially or on a homebrew kit.It’d be something which could age for a few years – a Tripel or barley wine.This would just be available in big bottles for sharing and just for thewedding speeches (if I couldn’t get my own beer then the speeches would need afavourite, probably Orval).

I’d alsowant bottles for everything else. I like drinking from bottles and think they’reeasier to carry than pint glasses, especially when jumping around on the dancefloor. I’d want a good lager. Something for everyone to drink (because not allmy friends are beer geeks) and something cold that I can gulp all night –Camden Hells would be it. Then I’d want something pale and hoppy because I lovehops. It needs to be fresh and super fruity, so a good pale ale or IPA – Racer5, Odell IPA, Sculpin IPA, Blind Pig IPA (I’d pay a small fortune to get myfavourite beers there). I wouldn’t pair anything with the dinner but might havea couple of cases of something big and strong with dessert just because it’s mybig day and I can.

Movingaway from the beer as the night ends, I’d want some spirits – a bottle ofbourbon (Maker’s Mark works) and a whisky (something smoky like Laphroig orArdbeg). And then I’m done and the late-night fish finger sandwiches and pizza arrivefor everyone to eat.

Laurendoesn’t drink booze so she’d want Coke Zero. She’ll be in charge of organisingeverything else while I make sure the bar is fully stocked. Sounds like a gooddeal to me.

Atthe brewery we get regular requests for beer for weddings so it’s somethingthat people want, and why not? I don’t want to drink crap beer on my weddingday – I want the best beer I can get and the beers which mean something to me;they aren’t the centre piece but it’s good to have a nice beer in one hand andyour bride in the other.

What beer did you have at your wedding? Or whatwould you want at yours?

The Session #57: Guilty Pleasures

2011-11-04T09:46:00.000Z

Guilty pleasuresare wonderful things. There's a simplicity to them which makes you feel likeyou've misbehaved at the back of the classroom or stolen a biscuit while yourmum isn't looking. It's a big bowl of pink Bird's trifle, fish fingers and ovenchips on a Friday night, a bag of pick n mix at the cinema. It's being a kidwhilst being an adult.

With beer it'sdifferent. It requires a grown up approach because there's no link tochildhood. It’s then about doing the things you probably shouldn't and taking alot of simple pleasure out of it.

For me that meansone thing: drinking a beer straight from the bottle. Cold from the fridge, thecrown cap is flicked off and the glass middle-man is left out, favouring thedirect route. It makes beer feel different, feel naughty, like I'm a poorlybehaved beer geek.

It’s not for everybottle and every beer. 500ml handfuls are not cool, bombers or 750s just makeyou look like a desperate alcoholic, bottle-conditioned beers get a bit roughedup and strong beer just feels like driving too fast in the opposite direction, but330s of lager or pale ale are perfect. Forget the glass, the swirls and thesniffs, take it straight from the fridge, a kiss of the bottle opener and thenone on the lips.

And even betterthan bottles? Beer straight from the can. What's your guilty beer pleasure?

This month'sSession is hosted by Steve at Beers I've Known.

Time well spent in search of a story

2011-10-30T20:15:00.000Z

Itravel three hours every day to get to and from work. Commuting sucks. Beingsurrounded by sleepy city workers who smell of coffee, perfume, mint andmake-up (that’s on the way there; coming home it’s replaced with stale coffee breath, fast food lunches, cigarettes and sweat – the smell of hard work),who snooze through the stations until they get to theirs, who all read the samepapers or look at the bright screen of an iPad or Kindle. There’s businessmenwho furiously answer emails on their Blackberry, interns who tap and slidetheir finger over the Facebook app on their iPhones or those who just shut outthe world and listen to music, probably dreaming of more sleep. When theNational Rail ends and the Underground journey begins then the same thinghappens just in a smaller space and with those not staring into a paper, bookor Kindle staring at their shoes to avoid eye contact. The journeys are silent.Everyone too tired to talk yet, to disturb the sleepy silence, disturb theextra hour of rest we get before we work.

Despite this, the journeys are interesting. There's theoccasional pretty girl, the guy dressed in an odd outfit or who sings aloud,someone reading a book you love or someone smiling as they read which makes mewant to share the story, there's a familiar face, a quirky character, a rainbowof people, some dressed in pinstripe suits and others in the three stripes of atracksuit. Who are these people? Where are they going? What job will they do atthe other end? What will their day be like? How will we all combine to make surethe city keeps moving forward?

There’s also the reading time. Two hours a day set aside forreading is my idea of a well-planned day. The fact that it’s on an over-crowdedcarriage and costing me £400 a month is not ideal, but as long as I get that readingtime then I don’t mind. I also don’t mind because I’ve just finished the bestbook I’ve ever read.

Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold had me gasping,laughing, breathless and speechless. Most of the time I had no idea what wasgoing on around me because I was so absorbed in the 560 pages in my hands and Icould’ve ridden the train to its final destination and back just so I didn’thave to stop reading. The book is a magic trick from beginning to end and thatfinal page turn, late a few nights ago, kept me awake with excitement.

It was like the moment I sat in the plush velvet comfort ofthe cinema chair after the final frame of Inglourious Basterds snapped toblack. I agreed with the final line: it was a masterpiece. Then I thought to 20minutes earlier when I was open-eyed and open-mouthed as I stared in excitementas the on-screen cinema burned down. This is a film made to be watched here, Ithought. An ode to how good cinema and storytelling can be. I wanted to watchit again, straight away, I wanted to be excited and moved, to feel the tension,to fall in love with the beautiful blondes, to be entertained and forgeteverything else around me.

I love beer because of the thrill of the chase, because Inever know what’s coming next. It might be something new or it might be an oldfavourite. It might be something so good I have to order another pint of it. Imight be alone in the pub or with friends. I might be at home. And whateverbeer I drink it might just be the best beer I’ve ever tasted. Or a great beer.Or a good one. Or one so bad it makes me laugh.

I can now say the names of my favourite book and favouritefilm. Mr Brightside is my favourite song because it brings back so manymemories and makes me want to jump around with no cares. The exciting thing isthat I want to carry on reading, watching films and listening to music to havesimilar experiences, to be removed from the moment and absorbed in something;to be entertained, pleased, excited.

If I find that perfect beer then, like books or films,the search won’t stop because every beer has a different story that I want toknow. And we make our own stories around them by where we drink them and whowe’re with. The fact that we are characters in that story is the exciting part.The three hour commute is worthwhile when I’m transported to other places andtimes and emotions through the story. With beer the joy comes in the moment andthe way we make that beer part of our story.

Show Boat Brown Ale - 26 October

2011-10-25T18:03:00.000+01:00

This won’t happen often but I’m promoting the day job while I work onbuilding a blog for the brewery… The thing is, Camden Town Brewery are tappinga new beer for the first time tomorrow (26 October) and I’d like lots of people to be thereto drink it with us.

It’s at Joe’s in Camden and we’ll be there from 6.30pm – the beers are onus (and some hot dogs, too). If you are free and would like a few beers then it’d be great to see youthere. There’s more details on the Facebook page including how we decided onthe name Show Boat and how it’s made.

Cooking with Beer: Spicy Scotch Ale Pork

2011-10-19T06:53:00.000+01:00

Thecurrent stretch to my cooking skills is sandwiches. I’m always too late to makebreakfast in the morning and I get home needing to lie down and sleep not standaround and cook. Sunday is now the day I get to spend in the kitchen. Needingto flex my over-relaxed culinary muscles, I wanted to cook something new. Asusual, I didn’t know what.

Itwas cold outside and I wanted something rich and filling but at the same time Iwanted it to be sweet and spicy. It also had to be a cure for a week ofdrinking far too much. I looked to see if I had any beers which I didn’t mindemptying into a saucepan – Founder’s Dirty Bastard was dusted off and putbeside the oven. The inspiration came somewhere between a meat and ale stew andjerk pork: all the spices and flavours of jerk plus onions, stock and beer,slow-cooked so that it reduces into a sticky, spicy bowl of gut-warming dinner.

Takesome pork, preferably a fatty cut which can handle a few hours at 200C. Seasonsome flour with salt, pepper, paprika, thyme, cayenne pepper and all spice.Dust the pork in flour and then seal in a hot pan. Remove and then add thicklycut onions or shallots. Soften with some sugar. Add garlic and scotch bonnetchilli then a few sprigs of fresh thyme, more seasoning, paprika and a pinch ofall spice. I added some mushrooms here. Then some tomato puree. Cook for a fewminutes then return the pork. Add some beef stock (about 400ml) and then pourin the beer – I used the whole bottle (minus a few sips for the chef, ofcourse). I added some little carrots to up my veg intake, plus a few shakes ofWorcestershire sauce and a teaspoon of marmite. Put the pot in the oven,covered, for 45 minutes and then uncover for up to an hour (until it’s thethickness you want it to be), stirring every 30 minutes or so. Serve withwhatever you want – rice, mash potato, green vegetables, roasted sweetpotatoes.

Thefinished bowl of food is exactly what I wanted: deeply spicy but still a littlefruity from the scotch bonnet, richly savoury from the stock and marmite, sweetand a little bitter from the beer. One of those dinners that you have in a bigbowl and it leaves you feeling full and warm.

Nobeer needed on the side – this was about recovery from beer, recovering from a busy week.

Fuller’s Vintage Ale: A 15-year vertical tasting

2011-10-17T06:49:00.000+01:00

Everyyear I buy four or five bottles of Fuller’s Vintage Ale when it’s released. There’sone to drink fresh and the others to snuggle together at the back of the beercupboard. I’ve got no plan for when I’m going to open them but going to theFuller’s 15-year flight of Vintage Ales will probably push back theto-be-opened-on dates that aren’t-yet stuck to those claret boxes in mycupboard.

Therecipe for Vintage Ale changes a bit each year – different hops, different malt– but they remain similar in colour, bitterness and ABV. I love about theVintage Ales is how each one tastes different each time you try it; it makesthem always interesting as sometimes they taste amazing while other times theyseem reluctant to give away much, going through peaks and troughs. It alsomeans from bottle to bottle things are different. Here’s how the bottles I hadwere tasting last week...

2011.Three months off the bottling line. Cointreau, pepper, peach. Fresh hops andburnt sugar. Sweet first, dry bitterness to end. Love the freshness in this.

2010.Dried cherry plus orange and marmalade. Noticeably reduced bitterness from2011. Little sherry, marzipan and almond.

2009.Bitter orange, vanilla, almond. Brown sugar adds a sweet taste. Subtlecarbonation is nice. Feels in a transition between new and old; it’s gettingthere.

2008.Blackberry, cherry and a fragrant spiciness which is like rooty, orangyturmeric and coriander. Really nice complexity to it (‘what is that flavour?’) whichmakes you go back for more.

2007. Nothing jumps out the glass in aroma orflavour – it’s shy and not forthcoming. Seems to be asleep right now. Give itsome time.

2006.Rich, crackery body which is going savoury. There’s a marmalade bitterness butit’s not very orangey. Like 2007, not much is going on at the moment. Try againlater.

2005.Smells older suddenly. Sherried raisins and dried cherry. A definite sweetnesswhich seems to lift everything. The finish remains dry. This is more like it –time is having its impact.

2004.Cherry brandy. The bitterness is more perceptible and the carbonation is lower.Not overwhelming in any flavour but it’s tasting excellent for its age.

2003.Two takes at this one as the first bottle was a little musty like second-handshirts. Second bottle was like Christmas pudding – figs and brandy. Shows howdifferent it can be from bottle to bottle.

2002.One of the best we had; one of the most interesting. Immediately it smells likefresh grain sacks. Then there’s some perfume which is backed up with a floralflavour. Cakey, fruity and still tasting so fresh – the perfumy hops are reallypervasive. Complex and wonderful.

2001.Ribena and raspberry pips burst out the glass. This was probably my favouriteof the flight with no signs of oxidation, a simple sweetness, a dry finish andthat gorgeous fruitiness.

2000.Oaky aroma, some raspberries, vanilla and sponge cake – a little like arcticroll. So complex, so interesting. The last three bottles have all beenstunning.

1999.Less aroma than the last two bottles but loads of flavour: full bodied, smoothsweetness, bitter tea, some sherry. Loads going on but restrained andinteresting.

1998.You’d never know this was 14 years old as it’s aged so well. Complex but notchallenging, smooth and clean but bitter and dry. Incredible depth of flavourto it.

1997.The original Vintage Ale. Lots of fruit still comes through and there’s littlesign of oxidation. It’s rich and big and the bitterness lingers but it lacks thepunch of those a little younger.

Aflight of 15 Vintage Ales and all so different yet so clearly from the samefamily. Some of these have aged wonderfully, some less so. It’s hard to thinkthat some could ever taste better while it’s exciting to think that others willdefinitely taste better soon (2006 and 2007 need to wake up). The best of thesestood out as some of the best beers I’ve ever tasted; the fact that some were10 years old is even more amazing.

Ilove to taste how these beers develop and change over time and I’m fascinatedby that process. Before the tasting Fuller’s showed us some numbers on how thebeers went into bottle compared to how they are now. For me, the mostinteresting thing on these lists was how the bitterness changed: they alldropped by around 25% and this occurs within the first 12 months. But wheredoes the bitterness go? It doesn’t just jump out of the bottle... The sugarsalso change with complex sugars turning into less complex sugars which causesflavour change. These simple, fermentable sugars then kick on further action inthe bottle.

Thistasting was the last time that all the Vintage Ales made will be openedtogether. If you’ve got any 1998 and 2002 stashed away somewhere then there arevery few of these left anywhere, so you’ve got some seriously rare bottles. Thebest I tasted were from 2000, 2001 and 2002. They are perfect examples of howwell beer can age. NowI just need to work out how long to let the ones I’ve collected last...

London Brewers Alliance Showcase 2011

2011-10-13T08:12:00.001+01:00

Thisyear has seen a boom in London breweries and there are more coming next year. That’spretty exciting. What’s more exciting is that all of the current ones will be pouringtheir beers at BrewWharf on Saturday 22 October for their annual Showcase event.

Tickets are £20. That gets you inside and it gets you eight half pints (you can buyextra if that doesn’t quench your thirst and everyone will be pouring samples, I'm sure). One of those half pints is forthe special collaboration beer that all the breweries made at Windsor &Eton. It’s a big IPA with all kinds of different hops and hop additions inthere, including a big sack of fresh green hops.

It’sthe only chance all year you’ll get to try all the London brewery beers in oneplace and it’s a real celebration of London brewing. Last year it was abrilliant event and this year will be no different.

I’llbe there working on the Camden Town Brewery bar so if you go you’ll get to seemy pint-pouring skillz.

Cheers to three years

2011-10-12T06:52:00.003+01:00

TodayPencil&Spoon is three years old! Happy birthday blog!

Tocelebrate being three, and in the abridged style of High Fidelity, here aresome top three lists:

Top three thingsI’ve done because of writing this blog that I wouldn’t have done if I didn’twrite this blog

1. Travellingto lots of different places – New York, San Francisco, Boulder, Rome, Prague,Belgium. I may have gone to these places but I saw a different side

2. Brewinga beer with BrewDog

3. Craftbeer list with Byron Hamburgers

Top three momentsthanks to blogging about beer

1. Anytime someone sees me in a pub, or sends me an email, and says they read theblog and enjoy it – it makes it all worthwhile

2. Winningtwo awards from the British Guild of Beer Writers (I was asked the other day ifI think it made a difference to me and it absolutely has – it gave meopportunities to write properly, to write for print, and it gave me the guts tokeep on going)

3. Seeingmy writing in print for the first time (and seeing the cheque I got with it)

Top three beersI’ve drunk while writing this blog

1. Racer5 in many different places – The Rake, my house, the brewery, The Toad in theHole in Santa Rosa

2. PilsnerUrquell in the cellars under the brewery

3. Plinythe Elder, Toronado, San Francisco – first beer of my first beer trip

Top three places(excluding pubs and breweries) I’ve drunk beer while writing this blog

1. Abeach on a little Greek island as the sun’s setting. Icy Mythos and a plate oflittle fried fish. Perfection.

2. Ona hotel rooftop in NYC, having climbed up the fire stairway. We opened a can of21^st Amendment and watched the skyline in the distance

3. CitiField. A cold lager, a hot dog and baseball

Top threebreweries I’ve had a beer in

1. Cantillon.Magical

2. PilsnerUrquell. Incredible

3. RussianRiver. Mind-blowing

Honorable mention: Oskar Blues. Awesome

Top three pubsor bars I’ve had a beer in

1. Toronado,San Francisco

2. Barcade,Brooklyn

3. Bir+ Fud, Rome

Honorable mention: Moeder Lambic,Brussels

Top threestrangest – what am I doing here? – moments thanks to blogging about beer

1. A beer bath in Czech Republic

2. Climbing into my first mash tun. It was at the old Thornbridge Brewery. My fear of heights peaked as I ungracefully tried to climb into the tank while fighting a fierce battle with my fear of falling

3. ElizabethStreet Brewery. A home-brewery in San Francisco, a party for the Superbowl,lots of food, lots of people, lots of home-brewed beers on tap and the biggestTV I’ve ever seen. Not a strange place, just a brilliant thing to find myselfat – a unique experience

Top three blogs– page views

1. CraftBeer Co

2. BeerStyle: Does It Matter?

3. ChallengingBeer at Tesco

Top threefavourite blogs I’ve posted

1. ChodovarBeer Baths

2. Themost incredible drinking experience (so far)

3. Whybeer matters

Here’s somerandom facts:

Blogsposted: 530 (this is blog 531)

Wordswritten in three years: Over 250,000

Totalnumber of comments on all posts: 5,061

Hoursspent every day writing this blog or reading other blogs: 1-3

ArgumentsI’ve had with Lauren because I’ve been on twitter/reading or writing blogs/outdrinking beer/reading a beer book when I should’ve been spending time with her:Approximately 638. Sorry Lauren.

Cheersfor reading this. If you didn’t read it and add comments then it wouldn’t bewhat it is. Most days for three years I’ve got up at 5am to write this, I’vespent my weekends chasing beers and going to new pubs, I’ve spent all my sparemoney travelling or buying bottles or books or another bookshelf because I’vebought so many (or buying Lauren presents because I’ve just put in anotherorder with myBrewerytap/Amazon/Expedia). I do it all because I love doing it.And because beer is brilliant.

Cake pic from here.

The Session #56: Thanks to the big boys

2011-10-09T10:18:00.000+01:00

Nogeekery. No snobbery. No preciousness. Just beer. Beer with a name up in brightlights. Beer which is available around the world. Which always tastes the same.Consistent. Identical. Good. Not awesome. Not incredible. Just good. If itwasn’t good then how would it sell so much? Marketing might make you buy it oncebut taste makes you buy it again. Good means it makes you want another. I’llhave another Bud. I like Bud. It’s got a story. History. They pioneeredpasteurisation and transporting beer; the first national beer brand. And as alight beer when most people drank dark beer. It’s a brewery which has grown, through family ties, expanded nationally then internationally. Beer Wars had them buying brands;ownership of the market was what they wanted. Buy-outs and mergers later,brands coming and going and changing. But Bud stayed the same. It doesn’tchange. Wherever you drink it, wherever it’s made, it tastes the same. That’san incredible achievement. It makes you trust, it makes it reliable. Thepresent presence, overbearing for some, is a lifestyle for others. I’ll have aBud.

Bit late on this one as it should’ve gone up onFriday... It’s been a busy week. This Session is hosted by Reuben at Tale of the Ale.

Are dimpled beer mugs cool?

2011-10-04T07:02:00.000+01:00

Athome I drink most of my beer in a 12oz shaker glass. In the pub I like the pintversion of the same shape. It’s the straight edges which I like about it. It’suncomplicated. At home I also alternate between two other shapes – a pint, a snifterand a flute. Those four glasses cover every beer I could possibly want todrink. One glass I never use at home is the dimpled mug.

Asreported in this year’s Cask Report, there’s a retro-chic attached to real aleright now and the dimpled mug is a part of that (every other picture on theReport also shows a pint in a mug). Visually I agree that they look good (aslong as there’s still a good head on it – nothing looks worse that a pintpulled square to the top of the glass with no head) but as something to drinkout of I’m less convinced: I find them too big to wrap my hand aroundcomfortably, the handle makes me clumsy (especially after a few) and they arehardly great for swirling and sniffing, are they?

Thedimpled mug stands apart from the other glasses. Only real ale is ever pouredinto the mug, so it says that this drink is different to your mate’s lager. Butdoes it make them cool or does it just make you stand out and look like an oldman? And given a choice in a pub, would you go for the straight up pint glassor the dimpled mug?

New duty rates on beer and a new glass size

2011-09-30T07:22:00.001+01:00

From 1 October, beersover 7.5% ABV have to pay High Strength Beer Duty (HSBD) on top of the generalbeer duty. This goes for beers made in the UK and also those imported into theUK. It’ll be an additional 25% onto what the brewery already pays in duty.

Aimed to attacksuper-strength lagers and quell binging on park benches, the reality is thatHSBD won’t affect its audience, but instead will hit the experimental brewers,the imported bottles we see in beer shops and more importantly, those of us wholike to drink them.

Is Fuller’s GoldenPride the same as Tennants Super? Is BrewDog Paradox like Special Brew? Whatabout Thornbridge Bracia or Robinson’s Old Tom? The elephant in the room isthat these quality strong beers are lumped with the super-strength beers. Whycan’t someone just be ballsy enough to say ‘these are the beers which are aproblem and those ones are different’?

Anyone who relied onSpecial Brew to get bang for their buck will just step over to cheap cider orwine, whereas brewers who want to be innovative or experimental, or who alreadyhave stronger beers in their core range, now have a bigger price to pay just tobe able to do so. And that price will have to hit us drinkers in the pocket. Whoknows what’ll happen to the import duty paid on these bottles but I hope itdoesn’t mean that some beers will no longer be available here.

The reality for theconsumer is that the prices of these beers will rise around 25p for eachbottle, can or pint.

At the same time asHSDB comes in, beers between 1.2% ABV and 2.8% ABV will have a 50% reduction inthe duty rate, again this is for those made in the UK and imported.

As for this lower dutyrate... If a brewery can make a great tasting 2.8% beer that’s got lots of bodyand flavour then I’m sure I’ll drink a pint or two, but not much more thanthat. I love the idea of low-ABV beers but in reality I wouldn’t drink themoften. But at least this is a step in the right direction. If it’s supported bybreweries then perhaps soon it could be raised to a more appealing 3.4%, but ifno breweries make these low ABV beers then it won’t happen.

Also coming in on 1October is the two-third glass, which will then be a legal measure. I like thisintroduction a lot and I hope pubs get on board with it. The two-third glasswill be perfect for drinking beers over 7.5%, if you are wealthy enough to beable to afford to buy one...

Does anyone know anybreweries making low ABV beers to get the low duty rate? Any pubs bringing intwo-third glasses?

And what will be theconsequences of HSBD on some of the stronger beers we see in the UK?

The thrill of the chase

2011-09-29T07:40:00.000+01:00

I hope, and expect, with every beer I drink, that it’ll bethe best beer I’ve ever tasted.

Every new bottle cap flicked off, every new pint poured, everynew ring pull crunched through with the thumb, there’s a deep-down desire thatI’ll have never tasted anything as good as this, whatever it is, wherever Idrink it.

The thrill of the chase, the hope and the expectation, iswhat I love about beer. And food. And books and films and places. I want to beamazed, to be filled with wonder and excitement and joy over things. It keepsme interested, it keeps me moving forward and stops me getting stuck orcomplacent or, even worse, bored. What if it’s the best thing ever? What if Ihave an unforgettable experience?

I don’t care that almost no beer hits the high hopes that Ihave. It doesn’t matter because there’s always something else, an old favouriteor something new in the fridge. And there’s always something to love in a beer.A story, an ingredient, the way it looks or the story I attach as I drink it –where I am, who I’m with, what we’re doing. And then there’s the next beer.

The next beer. What will it be? Where will it be? How willit taste? It’s the thought of that one perfect moment and a perfect pint. Oreven the imperfect moment with the unexpected pint. It’s the moment you liftthe glass to your lips and you stop and say wow. When a gulp has you excited,surprised, amazed; makes you want to never drink anything else ever again,makes you want to tell anyone and everyone who’ll listen; makes you see thatsometimes beer is more than just liquid in a glass and reminds you why youspend so much time and money chasing it, thinking about it, drinking it.

I always have hope. It’s the continual search for thebest beer I’ve ever tasted. And I hope I never find it because I love theexpectation. I love the thrill of the chase.

Sky Sports Shown Here

2011-09-26T19:30:00.000+01:00

I walk past a pub and it’s got an enormous blue and red canopy flapping in the wind. The banner announces that this pub shows Sky Sports live.Outside the pub across the street they’ve got an A-board chalked to tell methat they show all major sporting events live. A board beside it says NottsCounty vs Hartlepool 12.45 LIVE (‘all major sporting events’). Through thewindows of both I see bright green squares glowing over the blank stares of thepub-goers.

Seeing a ‘Football shown here’ sign is one of the best waysfor me to know whether or not to avoid a pub; if it’s there then I don’t wantto go in. For me, that sign says it’s going to be filled with people shoutingat the screen while throwing lager down their throats. They will also probablyhave karaoke on in the evening. And they won’t serve any decent beer. Two pubsnear me are exactly like this. In two years I’ve drunk the total volume of twopints between the two pubs (admittedly this was watching the first half of anEngland World Cup game – we left at half time to watch it in Wetherspoonsbecause it had a better atmosphere).

I like live sport in pubs, especially if it’s a major eventand England are playing. What I don’t like are pubs where the football is theonly draw. And these pubs are often the ones with the big banners hangingoutside. These banners might as well read ‘Drink somewhere else’.

Sport adds to the social lubricant ofthe beer – the banter that comes and goes, the way every drinker knows betterthan the team’s manager, the collective cheers or groans – but for me the TV ispart of the background, not the foreground, where you can watch if you want butavoid it if you don’t.

Where do you stand on football in pubs? Do many really greatpubs show games or do you have to go off-piste to see sport?

Williams Bros Profanity Stout: Buy it now

2011-09-25T18:19:00.000+01:00

I’m not the first to blog about this, but it’s worth the extrawords: Williams Bros Profanity Stout, currently available in the Sainsbury’sGreat British Beer Hunt, is really very good.

A beautiful looking bottle, it pours a near-opaque blackwith a ‘fuck yeah, that looks good’ head. The dry hops hit first with a waft ofhop sack freshness; not fruity, not floral, it just smells like hops and that’ssomething often lost in stouts but which makes this stand out. It’s full andsmooth like a 7% stout should be, there’s chocolate, and it’s the good stuffnot the cheap low cocoa bars, a little booze pokes through and it’s roasty butnever astringent (or as Reluctant Scooper calls it ‘no ruined toast notes’).

The recipe was developed on Heriot-Watt’s degree course. Theguys behind it can be pretty pleased with it. The best I managed was a breadand butter pudding made with a bag of stale jam doughnuts, and while it wasphenomenally delicious, it just wasn’t quite as good as the Profanity Stout.

You can buy three bottles of this for £5 right now. I boughtone yesterday and went back and bought more today.

Things I’ve learnt about beer and breweries in the last few weeks

2011-09-22T09:55:00.000+01:00

This is my third weekof working in a brewery and already I’ve learnt a lot of stuff which I didn’tknow before....

Making beer is a lotmore than filling a mash tun, transferring it to the kettle, then thefermentation tanks and then filling some containers a few days later. I’ve gota whole new respect for the work that brewers do, the stuff you don’t get shownor told about on the brewery tours; the hidden work that goes into making beer.

Duty is a real bastardfor the brewing industry. Seeing how much the brewery pays in a month is justshocking. To work hard to make great beer to then have to pay the government alarge wad of money before you can sell it is annoying.

I also didn’tpreviously realise that just 0.1% ABV makes a difference so it’s no wonderthere are so many low ABV beers around and no surprise that big brewers keepshrinking the ABVs on some of their flagship brands.

Tankmanagement, especially if you’ve got more than two tanks and most of themcontains lager which is in tank for over four weeks, is something I don’t thinkI’ll ever have the organisational skills to manage. When new tanks arrive, as pictured above, it takes even more organisation. In November we've got five more tanks coming.

Likewisethe organisation of deliveries. Beer goes here, things get picked up fromthere, and so on. It hurts my brain thinking about it. I’ll happily stick todrawing pictures of beer mats and ‘researching’ other brewery websites.

Beerbranding is hard to get right and easy to get wrong. There are many bad onesout there but also lots of great ones.

Brewerslisten to strange music. I’m going to spend a day or two in the brewery soonand I’ll be bringing my McFly tapes so we can listen to something good.

There’slots of things going on all day in a brewery. Most of it is still new to me soI get easily distracted and like watching it. My favourite thing at the momentis either standing in the hop store or watching the Camden Wheat ferment – it bubblesferociously and I watch it giggling like a one year old saying, ‘look, bubbles!’

Beeron tap in the office is dangerous...

Anhour and a half commute each way sucks balls. What sucks even more is that itcosts me £400 a month to do it and I end up standing half the way. This alsoimpacts upon blogging time until I move flat nearer to work.

Working in a brewery is every bit as hard, fun andexciting as I thought it’d be.

The Snowdrop Beer Festival (or, the perfect beer list)

2011-09-20T06:51:00.000+01:00

I’vejust got back from the Czech Republic. It was a tour around a few brewerieswhich ended at Slunce ve Skle craft beer festival. Mark Tranter from Dark Starwas also on the trip and was talking about the beer list for the upcoming festivalwhich he’s organising at The Snowdrop in Lewes, taking place on 7-9^thOctober. The list is based on the beers which have inspired him and continue toinspire him; a dream, Desert Island choice of cask, keg and bottle. The beer list is here. I think it’s just about a perfect beer list for a pub beerfestival because I want to drink everything there. The festival will also havea scotch egg cook-off, beer and book matching with Pete Brown and beer and foodmatching with Melissa Cole.

Spendinga few too many hours on a minibus over the weekend left me thinking about myown dream pub beer festival and the beers I’d want there; beers which haveinspired or changed my way of thinking and drinking. Limiting myself to fivefrom each of cask, keg and bottle (The Snowdrop will have about double that), andalso thinking about the ability to actually get them, I’d have the following,with each having special significance:

Cask

FyneJarl

MarblePint

DarkStar Saison

DarkStar Six Hop

GaddsDogbolter

Keg

PilsnerUrquell

CamdenTown Wheat

BrewDogPunk IPA

Jandrain-JandrenouilleSaison IV

OdellIPA or Bear Republic Racer 5

Bottle

ThornbridgeBracia

MariageParfait

BirrificioItaliano Tipopils (even better on keg – it’d replace PU)

AnchorOld Foghorn

Fuller’sVintage (about 5 years old)

Mark’slist for The Snowdrop is brilliant and is reality opposed to my fantasy list. I’llbe there if I can persuade Lauren to drive me...

What's your perfect pub festival beer list?

Purkmistr and Slunce ve Skle festival

2011-09-18T09:17:00.001+01:00

Purkmistr: a brewery, a bar, a restaurant, a hotel and a three-lane bowling alley, just outside one of the greatest brewing cities in the world, Pilsen.

Once a year at Purkmistr is Slunce ve Skle. A Czech craft beer festival with hundreds of different beers in a wide spectrum of styles: pilsners, pale ales, porters. It shows the other side of Czech beer away from just the golden pints of lager. Beers brightly hopped with US varieties, full bodied stouts, estery wheatbeers, small-scale pilsners, bacony rauchbier. A fantastic variety of beers in a brilliant location: a courtyard with bars at the perimeter, open air, sausages sizzling in two corners, a young and impressed crowd sipping from either tiny sampling glasses or handled half pints.

If you want to see where Czech beer is going then visit Slunce ve Skle. Stay in the Purkmistr hotel, try their house beers (really good dark lager and American Pale), have a game of bowling. But also go into Pilsen, visit Pilsner Urquell, see and taste the history.

Czech craft beer is really interesting right now. Look at the brews that the Sheffield/Euston/York Taps have to see some of the best available in the UK: Kocour, Matuska (these are two of the best I tried) and more to come. Prague and Pilsen should be on every beer lover's list of places to go for a pint. Purkmistr is the perfect base in Pilsen, just a short taxi from the centre. And if you can coincide your stay with the beer festival then you'll be very pleased you did.

Hooray for the Sainsbury’s Great British Beer Hunt 2011!

2011-09-11T15:08:00.001+01:00

Afterthe atrocities of Tesco’s in-store marketing, comes Sainsbury’s brilliant GreatBritish Beer Hunt.

It’sa battle between 16 British beers which will see two given a minimum of asix-month listing in Sainsbury’s. It’s something they’ve done before and Ithink it’s a great idea: with people routinely buying the same things eachweek, this shows that there’s more out there than the usual beer choices,especially when they position it differently, make a showcase of it and make abig deal out of it.

Andwhat’s even better? The way they describe the beers. It’s superb. Simple,evocative, informed and inviting tasting notes plus a food suggestion. Add tothis that the bottles they’ve got look good on the shelf and they are 3 for £5and Sainsbury’s deserve a rousing round of applause. Here’s four examples ofthe promotion:

Ihope Tesco are taking note of what effective in-store beer promotion should looklike.

NowI just need to start working my way through the beers. The 16 bottles are: Wild Hop IPA from Harviestoun; CaesarAugustus and Profanity Stout from Williams Brothers; Bishop’s Farewell from Oakham Ales; Wye Not from Wye Valley Brewery; FlyingDutchman Wit Bier from Caledonian; Ivanhoe and Bad King John from RidgewayBrewing; Stronghart from McMullen & Sons; ChurchillAle from Oxfordshire Ales; Golden Seahawk from Cotleigh Brewery; FullBore from Hunter’s Brewery; Two Hoots Golden Ale from JosephHolt; Golden Summer from Wold Top Brewery; Frederic’s Great British Ginger Beer;and Worcester Sorcerer from Sadler’s Ales.

What’s not to bemissed from this list?

Exciting times ahead!

2011-09-08T21:21:00.002+01:00

What's your dream job? Like half the other cohort on thefirst day of the first lecture on a Media Arts degree, I wanted to be a filmdirector. I have no idea why. I guess it was just the glamorous, gloriousoption and I knew no better. About 15 minutes into the lecture, as the tutor forDirecting talked about his side of the curriculum, he told us to dream on andthat none of us would-be movie makers would ever actually be movie makers.Welcome to your future.

The next few years didn't point me in a clear direction ofwhere I wanted to go. Then a couple of years of working still didn't show mewhere I was going. All I knew was that I wanted to be known and respected forwhat I did; I wanted to be at the top of whatever profession I chose. Bigambitions for someone with no path.

Writing this blog is a way of being creative. I rememberwhen I started, when no one read anything I wrote, I dreamed of the day someonewould comment on it, of a day when maybe I had regular readers who felt aboutmy blog the way I felt about Stonch's blog or The Beer Nut's or Tandleman's orPete Brown's or some of the good food blogs. The blog was never a way for me toearn money. Over time it developed into a launching pad for me to writefreelance while doing the day job. I like that because it means I can justpitch the stories which I really want to write and am really passionate about,rather than having to worry about where I can publish my next words in order toeat my next dinner. That doesn't appeal to me at all. I love to write. Earningmoney to do it is brilliant. Doing it full time is too worrying. Next I want towrite books. But that’s for the future.

At the same time, I never really wanted to work in the beerindustry; there wasn't anything or anywhere which was right for me, so ploddingalong in communications, marketing and social media was fine for me as long asI could write about beer.

That was until the Beer Bloggers Conference in May. Thatmade me realise that I've got things to offer, that I love the industry, thepeople, the products, and that I could make a difference. It made me realisethat I somehow wanted to earn my salary from beer; not just being a commentatoron it, but being a part of it.

But what and where? There's 800 breweries in the UK. Lookingaround at them, how many would I like to work for? How many could I work forwithout moving? How many could I make a real impact upon? How many would have aposition relevant for me where I'd fit in? There was only one but it wasn'tright at the time, so it was back on with the day job.

You can probably guess where this is going... This week Istarted working in the beer industry. I'm incredibly excited about it becauseit's a brilliant opportunity for me. A perfect opportunity.

I now work at Camden Town Brewery. That's the one placewhere I saw that I could fit in, where I saw that they had ambitions andattitudes similar to mine.

My job is to manage social media, to develop and build thebrand, to create the website, to run tastings and training, to manage events, towork with pubs and bars, internal comms, and develop anything that you canphysically hold with a Camden Town Brewery logo on it. With just a logo and nobrand, a website which goes no further than a holding page, and no social mediaactivity (there's a Facebook and Twitter page but little else, yet), it's a blank page to begin with, which makes it very exciting. Andall for a brewery which is doubling capacity between now and November withplans to grow further already in place.

Now I get my chance to make a difference in the industry Ilove (plus you should see the view from my office now and smell the aroma offresh wort and hops which greets me when I arrive for work). Camden isambitious and so am I. I'm coming into this with a lot at stake (longer hours,I need to move flat or pay a stupid amount for the train, working hard) but I know the sort of brilliantthings we can achieve. My aim is for Camden to be one of the top breweries inthe UK and I know that it'll happen.

The blog isn't changing and it isn't going anywhere. Camdenstarting talking to me because Jasper reads my blog (I suggested that I helpedthem get started with social media and we soon realised that I could do a lotmore than just that). I love writing this blog so wouldn't have taken a jobwhich would prevent me from doing this or meant that I had to do somethingdifferent to what I already do. This blog post is me being excited about whatI'm doing next but also for transparency; I now work full time for a brewery. Ialso think that now I’ll have a far better understanding of breweries, brewingand the beer industry.

I now know what my dream job is and tomorrow is my third daydoing it. Here's to new beginnings and challenges. I can't wait to get properlystuck in!

If anyone wants to say hi to me at work, wants to talk about the beers or the brewery or come for a look around, or whatever, then my emailaddress is mark@camdentownbrewery.com.

Adnams mini casks on the campsite

2011-09-04T08:51:00.001+01:00

I'm not here this weekend. I'm in the New Forest in a lodge on a campsite. It's a present for my mum and dad, for their 30th wedding anniversary. It's like those holidays we went on when we were little kids, staying in a caravan, eating BBQs, playing cards. Here is me and Lauren, my sister and her boyfriend, their little boy, and my mum and dad. It's been lots of fun.

Sitting outside the lodge, staying cool, are two mini casks of Adnams beer. A Green Bullet Pale Ale and a New Zealand Pale Ale. For a weekend away in the country, what more could I want than 18 pints of fresh beer which are poured at the turn of a little red tap?

Green Bullet is typically fruity for the hop with a range of tropical fruit and then a quenching finish of bitterness - very nice. The NZ Pale Ale is even better: mango, passion fruit, gooseberry, mandarin; juicy and fresh, light and lively and a fantastically gluggable 4%.

I like mini kegs a lot, especially if I go away somewhere or I'm at a party, where they are better than bottles. Or imagine a fridge which comfortably fitted a mini keg so you could always have draught beer. Do you buy mini kegs from breweries? I know Adnams and Thornbridge do them, but who else is there?

Natural Selection: Becoming a Brewery

2011-08-31T07:30:00.001+01:00

Heriot-Watt University runs one of the most famous brewing courses in the world. This year the MSc postgraduate course in Brewing and Distilling saw four guys – Kevin Emms (team leader), Damon Scott (brewer), Steven Kersley (sales and marketing) and Colin Lymer (brand development and design) – setting up their own temporary brewery, producing, marketing and selling a new beer.

They called the brewery Natural Selection and they released the beer, Finch, a couple of months ago. It’s a 6.5% hoppy red ale: nutty, chocolatey, caramel and vanilla body with a fruity and floral flourish from the Chinook and Amarillo hops which lead to a dry, go-back-for-more finish.

I love the idea of having a condensed project like this and I’m fascinated by what led them into the course, what challenges they faced during and what they all intend to do next. I spoke to Steven Kersley about the dissertation project.

Kevin, Damon, Steven and Colin

“When the project was put to us we only had about two months to get everything in shape before the launch and this included the recipe, so our brewer (Damon Scott) had to work quickly. We only did two test batches at the university pilot brewery before brewing the final batch at Stewart Brewing. Firstly we experimented with two different strains of yeast (Scotch Ale and Nottingham) and for the second brew the focus was purely on the hops.”

Would they change anything in the brew? “Given more time in the pilot brewery Damon has said that ideally he would have added more aroma hops (Amarillo) in order to balance out the malty characters in the beer. However that being said we feel we've produced a good beer and the experience of entering the industry for even such a short space of time has been invaluable.”

What’s the course like at Heriot-Watt? “The good thing about the undergraduate course is that it is full of young folk who know exactly where they want to take their career. It's a very specialised degree so you have to be sure that the brewing and distilling industry is for you but the undergraduate degree equips the students with the tools they'll need to succeed in the industry.”

“I would certainly recommend the MSc to anyone who is passionate about brewing or distilling as it is a very insightful and interesting degree which gives you a great opportunity to move into the industry.”

The team had some experience of brewing, with Damon working at Durango in Colorado, while Colin and Kevin are homebrewers. What none of them had experienced was launching a new beer from scratch, which was made even harder by the short time-scales involved.

“Colin was the champ in charge of brand development so his job was to decide how he wanted the brand to be portrayed, this would usually involve a lot of research and perception testing but he had to work quickly to make sure the labels were ready to print only a month after undertaking the role of brand developer. He achieved this with very little experience of launching a brand.”

“Sales and Marketing was my gig and I was fortunate in that I had a little more time than the other boys to work out a strategy for selling and marketing the beer because sales didn't have to be confirmed before the brew date. However the marketing did need to be in place so that there was a fair bit of buzz about the beer before it came out. On a very small budget I made use of the social media, setting up Facebook and Twitter accounts whilst Kevin (project manager) set up the Natural Selection Brewing blog. I also tried to get the press onside so fired out a few press releases, managing to get us a spot in the evening news.”

“I think the two biggest learnings we took on board were that you must stick to a time line and have a detailed plan of what you want to achieve. Kevin was responsible for delivering the project on time and made a point of having certain milestones that needed to be reached on certain dates and then each of us would formulate a plan individually so that these goals could be achieved. We were fortunate that we took this approach and the project benefited for it and I think each of us learnt as hell of a lot in our individual roles whilst getting a solid grasp of how a brewery operates.”

What’s next for the Natural Selection Brewery guys? “Colin has a brewers position at BrewDog beginning in September; Damon is going back home to Colorado and is hoping to secure a brewers position there; Kevin is going back to Vancouver and is also keen to secure a brewing role in the city; whilst I'm hoping to stay in Scotland and move into the industry myself. We're all going our separate ways but we're all certain that this project has given us great insight to the brewing industry and the experience we've gained will stand us in good stead in the future.”

Building a brand from nothing to being on the bar in a couple of months is a massive achievement. To get everything into place and to have the look and taste of the product to a high standard is great. Drinkers don’t often get to experience the back stage action of brewing and preparing a brand for market, so it’s good to get that insight.

Finch is a good beer and it might still be available in a few Scottish off-licenses. If you wanted to learn to be a brewer, to learn how to open your own brewery, then this seems like a great way of doing it.

Challenging Beer at Tesco

2011-08-28T20:59:00.001+01:00

I am punching myself in the face.

After last week’s post about Tesco’s in-store beer marketing, there’s more this week, again sent over by Rob Marshall. This time it’s for dark beer. I’ll copy verbatim again:

Typically perceived as darker, more intense, fuller bodied, complex and challenging flavours.
i.e. porters, stouts and mild’s.

The beers pictured are Old Peculiar, Black Sheep and Directors.

I’m now punching myself in the face with both fists.

I’m just incredulous that it could get through to the shop floor. I didn’t rip last week’s apart but this one is getting the full treatment.

1. It doesn’t make sense. Literally no sense. Read it again: Typically perceived as darker, more intense, fuller bodied, complex and challenging flavours. How can anyone think that that makes sense, whether you know the content or not?

2. It’s very poorly written. It’s not a sentence. And what the hell is that i.e. doing there?

3. It’s milds, not mild’s. I have no idea how that wasn’t picked up by someone?! Fair enough if you don’t know about beer but at least have someone check the copy for errors.

4. ‘Typically perceived as darker…’ it’s dark fucking beer. That’s what the title says. It’s actually dark, not just perceived as it. And what does dark taste like?

5. ‘…more intense, fuller bodied, complex and challenging flavours.’ Are they trying to sell it or scare people away?! Intense and challenging are not good tasting notes for someone who has never tasted dark beer before.

6. Here’s a picture of Black Sheep (it's from Real Ale Reviews. Also check out Black Sheep's website image).

Guess what? Black Sheep and Directors AREN’T DARK BEERS. They are darker than your lager but they aren’t dark. (Old Peculier is dark. Well done).

But wait. There's more. Here's three other images of their in-store promotion. I'm now typing this with the toes on my left foot as I knee myself in the chin with my right leg.

Speciality beers which are creamy, refreshing and warm. The fruity and exotic beers are 'typically unusual'. The 'fuller flavour' beers include three of the blandest beers on the market and they are described as malty, spicy or slightly fruity. What does that even mean?!

You wouldn’t see Tesco labelling a rose wine as a red wine; you wouldn't see any error like this in the wine aisle. Or describe it as ‘challenging’ to drink. They are poorly put together, badly written, they don't make sense and they don't do beer any favours at all. There are many beer experts in the UK who would gladly help Tesco put together promotional materials. They will explain products to the marketing team. They’ll write it. They’ll copy read proofs for glaring, stupid errors. Why don’t they make use of people who know what they are doing? Why don't they take the beer promotion seriously? Below is last week's image again to complete the set. Well done Britain's biggest retailer...

Beer and Pubs in Bath (via Twitter)

2011-08-26T17:05:00.000+01:00

Whenever I go somewhere new and want a pint, the first thing I do is send a tweet and ask for suggestions of where to go and what to drink. No longer is the Good Beer Guide enough on its own, nor a simple search on Google; I want a personal recommendation from someone because I feel I can trust that better than any other resource – it’s word of mouth at its online fastest.

Yesterday I was in Bath for the day on a Twitter Trip with VisitBath, the tourist board. The idea was for a group of us, each focusing on something different, to go to Bath and explore via the suggestions we received from Twitter. So we ask a question like ‘where’s the best place to get a bacon sandwich?’ and we use the responses we get to make our decision. There were no other requirements, no rules; just follow the tweets and be a tourist in Bath. Being the beer blogger, I focused on pubs and local beer.

The Raven was suggested to me by lots of people. Just off the main shopping street, it’s long and thin, a bookcase lined with many well-read paperbacks catches my eye first, there’s little stools pushed around tables, a bar lined with cask taps, small blackboards listing the beers and a big blackboard chalked with pie names. I had a half of the house ale, Raven Gold, from Blindman’s Brewery, which was a good sighter for the day of drinking ahead. Later, looking unsuccessfully for cider, I returned for a half of the Raven dark, the other house beer, and sat quietly reading – it’s the perfect sort of pub for wasting away a few afternoon hours, though I imagine it fills up quickly from five o’clock (Travels with Beer, as ever, has great pictures of The Raven).

Seeing that I was only about 20 steps from the Salamander, the Bath Ales pub, my next choice was easy, especially as this had also be recommended many times. A shabby-smart pub serving the full Bath range, the Salamander is a must-visit pub in Bath, I think. The beers are good (I like the Bath Ales ales – well made and tasty), the food is perfect pub grub (great scotch eggs and triple cooked chips!) and there’s a friendly atmosphere.

The Old Green Tree is a pub I’ve been to before but it got lots of suggestions and I couldn’t resist. It’s a small two-room pub with a bar between serving around six real ales. It’s made cosy by the feeling that it hasn’t changed much in many years, the sort of place with old carpet and photos from the fifties. A RCH East Street Cream was a showcase of British malt while I listened to the soundtrack of the barmaid’s moany domestic woes punctuated by many ‘fuck’s spat with a West Country drawl.

In search of beer brewed in Bath (Bath Ales is just outside), I wanted some Abbey Ales. I tried the Star Inn but it’s one of those places on the edge of the city which closes for a few hours in the afternoon. Instead it was the Coeur du Lion, a tiny one-room pub down a busy street which feels like walking into someone's badly-dated living room. The bar has four real ales, with two from Abbey Ales. Bellringer, as recommended by Boak and Bailey, was a decent beer, as was Box Steam’s Piston Broke. The pub’s busy walls, good beers and slightly eccentric customers make for a good city centre pint stop (more images here from Travels with Beer).

Looking for cider I found the Garrick’s Head but opted for a ‘lager ale’ called Chesil from Dorset Brewing. The beer wasn’t great (fairly bland and in bad condition) but the pub was nice. That’s all I’ve got for the Garrick’s Head.

I also wandered around some museums and bookshops because it’s nice to be cultural occasionally. I saw the Postal Museum and the Museum of Bath at Work. Both were oddly interesting in their own ways and definitely unusual, which was the request I made. Bath has some beautiful book shops, notably Mr B’s Emporium, George Bayntun and Topping and Company.

The day was fascinating because I was at the whim of what people on Twitter suggested to me, unsure what I’d find when I arrived at my destination. Usually when I go to a new city I plan carefully and have maps printed with circles highlighting where each bar or brewery is, but this way allowed me to be more flexible and spontaneous in my search for good beer.

Untouched by the beer bars of Leeds or London, Bath is a great place for local beers in nice pubs where there’s a slow, ambling pace to the drinking. Don’t go looking for double IPAs and C-hopped saisons, but do go for a parochial pride at their products and do go for the pubs with lots of character, whether it’s the building itself or the people inside.

Do you let Twitter guide your drinking when somewhere new or do you prefer the Good Beer Guide or a Google search?

This trip was something I worked on as part of my day at a digital and social media agency. We worked with Visit Bath, the tourist board, to arrange the trip. When we were looking for bloggers and journalists to attend my boss suggested I did it. I wasn’t going to say no, was I? So while I may have had some input in the project, I took part on the day just like all the others – as a Twitter explorer. We also got filmed on TV doing it. Here I am with Tim Anderson, this year’s mighty Masterchef winner, in the Salamander. I got the train to and from Bath with Tim. He’s a great guy.

Beer Can Chicken (aka Punk Ass Chicken) with Roasted Garlic IPA Mash

2011-08-22T21:27:00.000+01:00

Chicken cooked with a can of beer up its bottom. Also known as beer butt chicken or, in this case, Punk Ass Chicken.

I think people cook Beer Can Chicken for one reason: it looks awesome. Seeing that bird perched on the can, legs and wings akimbo, almost human, as if you’ve stitched up your mate big time and tied him to a bin, naked, cannot fail to impress the inner school boy (just look at the image above!), while the machismo of grilling a bird whole appeals to the manly man’s manliness. Who doesn’t look at a Beer Can Chicken and think ‘I need to cook that’?

So Beer Can Chicken was a dish I needed to cook. It’s a BBQ dish but I don’t have a BBQ (third floor flat, no outside space; disposable BBQ in the park not up to the job) so I used the oven. I decided on Punk IPA because it gave me an excuse to buy a four-pack and because I could call it Punk Ass Chicken. It wasn’t a difficult decision.

The first job is the best one: drink half a can of beer. You need the can open and half full. Then you need to get the chicken ready. I gave it a luxurious massage in oil, salt, pepper, paprika, fresh thyme, sugar, cloves of garlic and a little Punk before leaving it for an hour or so. When ready, heat the oven to 200C and empty it from all shelves except the lowest one.

Inserting the beer can is not the easiest job, especially with a heavy bird rubbed in slippery oil. Thankfully, like a nostril and a forefinger, a chicken’s back cavity appears to be the exact same size as a beer can, so once you’ve got hold of the bird it goes in with a satisfying push. At this point it looks a bit sorry for itself, all pink and cold with a can up its arse, but don’t feel remorse as it’s time to get it in the oven (do this very carefully – the bird is top heavy and mine fell after about 15 minutes in the oven and I need to go on an awkward recovery mission).

Around 90 minutes later (more for a bigger bird) and it’s done and looking resplendent and wonderful and crispy (I think there are few finer food sights than a roasted chicken). The only issue comes when trying to get the can out of the chicken at the end; the bird is heavy and hot and the can is filled with boiling beer. Place your hands on either side of the chicken and lift and wiggle until the can slides out.

To go with it I cooked a recipe which I’ve read many times but never dared cook: the brilliant Homebrew Chef’s roasted garlic IPA mash potato. Roast garlic until soft, heat milk or cream with butter, thyme and seasoning, make a paste with the roasted garlic cloves and add to the milk mix, add a little IPA (I used Punk) and then mix it all together with mashed potatoes. Creamy, garlicky, rich and then a little fruity from the IPA, the hop bitterness is covered by the butter while the roast garlic brings its own bitterness. It’s fantastic and a great side for the chicken.

The question I was most interested in when cooking this was how much impact does the beer have on the taste? By using a strongly scented beer I hoped to get something fragrant in the meat which I could then adapt in the future by using different beers and birds. When hot I couldn’t taste the Punk (I got a little on the skin as it’d been marinated and basted in it) but when it cooled and I was picking my way through the rest of the carcass I could definitely taste a Punk-like fruitiness through it.

One of my favourite things in the whole world to eat is a just-roasted chicken with crispy, salty skin. Add a beer can into that and things get even better. Served with the IPA mash, some cooking juices and a Goose Island IPA on the side and it was a feast of wonderful hops. Beer Can Chicken (or Punk Ass Chicken) was a great success. If you’ve never made it then what are you waiting for?

‘Fuller Flavoured Lagers’ in Tesco

2011-08-21T12:33:00.002+01:00

Oh dear. This image was just posted on Twitter by Robert Marshall. It’s from Tesco. I’ll repeat the words again purely because I can’t understand how something this poor could make it onto the shelf of Tesco, Britain’s biggest retailer:

Fuller Flavoured Lagers carefully selected for their complex fuller flavours from a variety of different hops which deliver a smooth creamy taste

That’s copied verbatim (I talked about spelling, punctuation and grammar a few weeks ago, so I won’t go there again, but I can only guess it was written by someone with a reading age of seven). As you can see above, it also contains two very well-known lagers – Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (the clue’s in the name on that one) and Innis & Gunn.

Also this weekend is a piece in the Guardian which talks about the new beers on the Tesco shelves and explains how US craft lagers are cashing in. The lagers they are talking about? Blue Moon, Goose Island IPA, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Brooklyn Lager.

I went to Tesco yesterday just to buy Goose Island IPA. Good on them for increasing their beer selection and trying to tell people about it, but this sort of thing does serious beer understanding and appreciation no favours. My guess is that Tesco want people to think that these new beers are lagers (sexy, cool and what most of their customers buy) and not ales (not sexy, not cool and not what most of their customers buy), but that’s just ridiculous.

Surely Tesco can do better than this? I'd just like to know what 'smooth creamy taste' is coming from the hops...

Great British Lagers

2011-08-19T07:25:00.000+01:00

A good pint of lager gets me excited. A proper pint of Czech- or German-style lager, brewed in Britain, is something I want to see more of.

I think there’s a massive potential market for great lager – just look at how much of it is sold in pubs. Imagine if a craft brand could tap into those sales. Things are happening in the UK with craft lager and I really hope it continues; breweries like Meantime, Freedom, Moravka, Camden, Black Isle, Thornbridge, and more, are making lagers now. I also think more will try them. I’d love to see DarkStar have a go at a proper Czech pils, Adnams and Fuller’s, too, Magic Rock, Fyne, Moor.

There’s also Windsor and Eton’s Republika. A 4.8% lager made with pilsner malt from Moravia, Saaz hops from Zatec, Czech lager yeast and water treated to soften it. It’s been conditioned for six weeks. And it’s very good. Soft and clean, biscuits and popcorn, dry and bitter and sprightly with Saaz. It’s what a good lager should taste like and I could drink a lot of it. I'd love to see it in keg to see how it gets on.

I want to see more great British lagers. Not ones hopped with Amarillo or Simcoe or Citra and not those almost-lagers which are made with ale yeast or which just get a two-week condition in tank. Good, classic lager with lots of flavour while still being subtle. But it is a big commitment for a brewery to make a lager as it needs extra tank time. When you get a really good one that time is totally worth it. That’s pretty much what I’m trying to say in the video above.

Beer Epiphanies

2011-08-18T07:42:00.000+01:00

When I first started drinking real ale I don’t think I liked it very much. I struggled through it, though. It was better than lager and far less emasculating than Malibu and Coke. It was probably two months after I started drinking it (I was at university so I was drinking a lot of it) that I had a beer epiphany...

The ‘I love dark beer’ Epiphany

Medway Beer Festival 2004. Me, my mates Matt and Nick and my Dad. Step up Sarah Hughes Dark Mild and Nethergate Old Growler. Dark, full-bodied, sweet, chocolatey-rich beers. These were not lager. These weren’t bitter pale beers which I didn’t like. These were delicious and suddenly dark beer was my thing and my drinking changed into a search for more of it. A Theakston’s Old Peculiar drank in Reading a few weeks later joined Sarah Hughes and Old Growler as the beers I always looked out for.

The ‘I Bloody LOVE hops!’ Epiphany

New Years Eve 2008 (I think). A big bottle of Stone Ruination IPA at a family party. It smelled like the best smelling beer in the whole wide world and tasted amazing. I remember my tongue felt like it’d been ripped in half, I remember the lupulin head-rush, I remember giving some to my little cousin to try to see the look on his face (I don’t remember the look on his face). This beer had come a few weeks after discovering Punk IPA and Chaos Theory. From then on it was a desperate scramble to find as many hops as I possibly could, addicted to the sweet kiss of malt followed by a punch of bitterness.

The ‘Sour Beer is Good’ Epiphany

It’s the summer of 2009. Sour beer tasted like vinegar to me. Why would anyone drink it? My first experience was a bad one and that was followed by many more attempts to suffer down a glass of lambic. That was until a Boon Geuze drunk in the garden in the sun. Cleanly sharp, lemony, peppery, but – and this is the thing which grabbed me most – had a depth of woody complexity from the oak, something like cheesy wotsits but not so cheesy. It was refreshing, exciting, complex and storied. No drinking session was now complete without something sour. It still isn’t.

The ‘Pale and hoppy beers are the best!’ Epiphany

The Bull, Horton Kirby. Late 2009. A pint of Marble Pint. Wow. Before this British session beer bored me and I didn’t drink much of it; I didn’t want another pale beer hopped with Goldings or Fuggles. Then came the pale and hoppies made with US hops. Light, packed with tropical and citrus fruit, beautiful aromas, bold bitterness. British beer became exciting. It’s easy to make a 9% beer with shit-loads of hops in but to make a 3.9% beer taste this good... I wanted more. I still do.

The 'Lager is amazing!’ Epiphany

Czech Republic 2010. Before this lager was the enemy of my drinking. It was what the others drank. The ones who didn’t know better. Then it changed. A frothing glass of Pilsner Urquell at the brewery and a weekend drinking incredible lagers in the Czech Republic, lively with Saaz hops, floral and fruity and herbal, so smooth to drink, so handsome in the handled mugs. Lager became different, it became exciting, it became something I wanted more and more of. My drinking shifted: I wanted great lagers, subtle but packed with flavour, cool and refreshing but something I wanted to drink all night long. I crave a really good lager more than I crave any other beer.

Five moments – five beers – which have redirected my drinking. Have you had any similar epiphanies when suddenly beer changes?

Opening a few new bottles

2011-08-16T09:22:00.000+01:00

I’ve bought a lot of beer recently. A weekend in Prague, a couple of days at GBBF, a few deliveries and a peek at myBrewerytap’s website which left me unable to click away without getting my credit card out have seen the fridge over-flowing with bottles. This weekend I put a big dent in the stash.

Thornbridge’s Kill Your Darlings, a Vienna lager hopped with Tettnager and Amarillo, is a deep red brew which is all about the malt – coffee, toffee, toffee apples. The Amarillo gives a floral, fruity flavour which is nice twist on the style. It’s good and the flavour evokes an autumn that I hope is far away. I really like the label design for this one, done by Kid Acne.

Mallinsons Brewery is one that everybody should be aware of in Britain. They make some fantastic beers and aren’t hop-shy, which I like. When I saw a beer called Danger: Hops! there was no way I wasn’t buying it. It’s 5.1% and the aroma is like every tropical fruit in the world stuffed into a beer glass, plus some peaches and grapefruit. It’s so smooth and gluggable and has a dry, peppery bitterness which hangs around. Bloody good beer.

More big hops followed with Odell’s Myrcenary DIPA. I love Odell’s IPA so this was irresistible. It’s a big beer (9.3%) and that starts in the aroma which tastes like you’ve faceplanted a bowl of mandarins, oranges and mango (that’s a good thing). It’s sweet and full-bodied which threatens to go sticky but is saved by a perfumy, clingy bitterness which leaves your tongue begging for more sweetness. It’s good but I’ll take the regular IPA any day.

With those two hoptastic brews drunk I didn’t think things could get better... but they did. Magic Rock’s Cannonball (7.4%) is one of the best British beers I’ve had this year. So good it had me texting and emailing people immediately to tell them to order some. The aroma is great, peaches, mango, pineapple, the body is light but it carries the strength and the hops with ease and it’s not sticky sweet which some US equivalents are. The only thing I’d like is a little more bitterness but this was the first brew of it and it’s pretty damn awesome already. I want more. (This beer also left me playing the ‘cannonball’ scene from Anchorman over and over in my head).

Some darker beers too: Brains’ Original Stout. At 4.1% I feared it’d be thin and flabby (and I hate thin and flabby stouts) but it was very nice – coffee, chocolate, toasted nuts; a full body, dry and roasty, some berry fruitiness and an earthy, coffee bitterness. Good beer and it looks great too.

And finally the BrewDog, Mikkeller and Nogne O collaboration for Black Tokyo Horizon. A 17.2% black hole which sucks in light from all around. It smells great, like dark chocolate covered berries, marzipan and roasted nuts, but it’s very sweet and there’s a huge, dry and herby bitterness which makes it a bit disjointed. Maybe it’ll calm down given some time but it’s pretty wild right now. I prefer the three originals (especially the Islay-barrel-aged Black – that’s insane! BrewDog need to get some Tokyo* in Islay barrels).

That’s some of my recent drinking. Anyone had these? Anyone had anything really good recently?

Tank beer: Pilsner Urquell Mliko and Snyt

2011-08-14T09:50:00.000+01:00

“Here the beer is packaged into bottle, can, keg and tank.”

It’s now that I lose focus on what Pavel is saying as he shows us the packaging plant at the Pilsner Urquell brewery.

The idea of giant army tanks filled with beer is stuck in my head. An image of a great fountain of pilsner powering out of the barrel of the tank’s gun is just far too exciting to take my concentration back to the unending grind and tinkle of the bottling line.

Tanks filled with beer.

Perhaps the PU tank would be deployed to fight this beer-stealing T-Rex...

It’s only later, once I’ve passed through the schoolboy thoughts that bring a new meaning to ‘Beer Wars’, that I discover that these tanks aren’t the military sort. In fact, it takes much longer than it should for this to sink in. Happy in my naivety, I walked through Prague hoping to see one of these tanks charge through the city, a Pilsner Urquell green with the red seal of approval. I kept my camera in my pocket ready for the photo opportunity.

It’s in Lokal that it finally makes sense. Walking in, the first thing we see is a bar made from glass with two stainless steel tanks beneath and a barman pouring pint after pint of golden beer with that gorgeous thick foam on top. Tank beer.

Picture from here, plus Evan Rail explaining tank beer

While most Pilsner Urquell is pasteurised and filtered, it is possible to get the unpasteurised beer in around 500 pubs within a four hour drive of the brewery (if you’re in a four minute walk of the brewery you can also get the unfiltered stuff). This unpasteurised beer is packaged in ‘replaceable, polyester-film sacks’ which then go into ‘sealed, steel tanks’ (see Evan Rail’s Good Beer Guide Prague for more – most of this paragraph is nicked from that great book) where the beer is drawn from. It’s pumped from increased air pressure within the tank, so doesn’t come into contact with oxygen. If you see tankovna then you are getting tank beer.

Tank beer is generally a sign of a decent bar because Pilsner Urquell are strict on where the tanks of unpasteurised beer goes. The bar need a fast turnover of beer, very regular line cleaning and they are taught the perfect way to pour. So in tank pubs you are getting fresher beer, served better – the drinking difference between the pasteurised and unpasteurised is that the tank stuff has a bolder, better aroma and a fuller body.

In Lokal the tanks are visible and the distance between the tank and the tap is one of the shortest around. Here they also serve the beer in a few different styles, which is why it was recommended to us that we visit. You can get it normal or you can order it Snyt or Mliko.

Snyt on the left, Mliko on the right

Snyt is half foam and Mliko is full-foam. Normal is just normal (but you still get a massive head of thick, handsome foam*). Served in a pint glass, you pay for a half, but you don’t order it this way because you want the beer, you order it this way for the creamy, aromatic, gorgeous foam which has trapped all that Saaz hop brilliance within it. It’s so soft on the tongue but you still get the full taste of the beer as you speedily suck it down before the foam falls away. Mliko was the one we preferred – it’s so light to taste yet so deliciously different. It’s not called Milk for no reason.

Tank Pilsner Urquell is good. Having it poured Snyt or Mliko is strange and wonderful and it’s definitely a beer to experience if you get the chance. But just imagine the look on the locals’ faces if you poured a pint like that in Britain...

*One of the greatest joys of a pint of Pilsner Urquell is the way it looks. Those first few seconds after it arrives in front of you are beer perfection as that golden pilsner sits below a pillow of thick white foam. As Mark from Beer. Birra. Bier. said while we were drinking it, one gulp and you ruin it and just want to order another to get the full, crowning pint. It means you end up drinking a lot more of it.

Top tank picture from here.

Fast Selling Fruit and Chocolate Beer

2011-08-09T07:37:00.001+01:00

The first beers to sell out at beer festivals often contain fruit or have the word chocolate in them. Has anyone else noticed this? Walking around GBBF on Thursday evening and seeing stuck-on sold out signs over lots of different beer names it became more obvious: Cherry Blonde, Chocolate and Vanilla Stout, Grapefruit Beer, Blueberry Bitter, Chocolate Cherry Mild (a double-whammy right there), Raspberry Wheat and Triple Chocoholic.

While some people at beer festivals (any beer festival, anywhere) know the difference between a UK and US IPA, know their brown ales from their porters, the wheats from the wits, I think many beer festival goers are just there because they couldn’t resist the big sign outside that says ‘Beer Festival’ and it’s an excuse to drink a lot. Most of them probably don’t even drink real ale as their everyday pint. They probably don’t even like it.

Seeing 100 different beers around a room is therefore pretty daunting. What shall we order first? Having beers with cherry, chocolate, blueberry or blackcurrant in them gives drinkers a point of reference which they know and understand and so feel more comfortable ordering them. There’s also an assumption that it’ll be sweet and fruity rather than dry and bitter, which is an attraction to someone new.

I know when I first went to beer festivals I’d scoop up these beers first and never did a beer with cherry in its name get by me; I didn’t enjoy bitter beers much so these fruity options suited me well. We would also always work up to the strongest beer there, though we’d often get there too late and miss out. So along with fruit and chocolate, the strong ones also empty quickly. Is this so that people can tell their mates on Monday that “I drank I pint of beer that was 8%!”?

I hardly ever order beers with fruit in their name anymore (usually because if it doesn’t say IPA or Hops in the name then I don’t order it), probably because the idea of an extract or syrup puts me off, though I definitely see the appeal and if I had a brewery then a cherry chocolate mild (rich and silky and chocolatey and just livened with a kiss of cherry extract – gorgeous!) would be high up the to-brew list.

Fruit, chocolate and the strongest beers usually sell quickly at beer festivals. They are approachable starter beers or bragable big ones. If these beers attract new drinkers then that’s a good thing because hopefully after their fruity fill they will try a few other beers at the festival or on the bar and maybe find that one beer that changes their drinking direction forever.

Are there any really good beers made with fruit in the UK? What are the top chocolate brews? (Saltaire’s Triple Chocoholic is good but I can only manage a half). Do you order them or stay clear of them?

Did you know that Wells & Young’s Banana Bread Beer actually contains fresh bananas? How about that. I’ve also just read Patrick McGovern’s Uncorking the Past and there is such a thing as banana wine. Banana wine! If I remember rightly it was mentioned on the same page as a sausage tree. A sausage tree! Imagine my excitement when I read that.

The Session #54: Sour Beer

2011-08-05T12:49:00.000+01:00

The first sour beer I drank was one of the worst drinking experiences I’ve ever had.

We’d gone to Croydon for the day. It had become some kind of mythical beer wonderland in our young estimations, but I have no idea why (I think it was just one of those places that we often spoke of going to but never thought we actually ever would). The reason we wanted to go was the Beer Circus.

The Beer Circus is now closed and I only went there once. It was a bar lifted from the pavement of Brussels and dropped on the edge of Croydon’s greyest area. I was only just getting into decent beer when we went so to see a list of bottles with so many different pages, and to see each beer coming in a unique glass, was a great experience. After a few bottles (including a Kwak so we could get the cool glass), we ordered something at random from the list. I have no idea what the beer was. All I know is the warning the barman gave us:

“Have you had that before?” he asked.

We hadn’t.

“It’s a flat as a witches tit and as sour as fuck.”

I think this was meant to put us off, to warn us onto something else. Obviously it didn’t. We ordered it. When it arrived I don’t remember it being flat because I was so, so shocked by how sour it was. It was as sour as fuck, as warned.

And I hated it and couldn’t drink it.

I didn’t drink another beer like it for a few years until I tried a Cantillon lambic. But Cantillon isn’t really a starter beer of its style as is particularly puckering. Why did people drink these things that suspended your forehead in a pained frown?

But then things changed.

It was Boon Geuze which did it. So bright in the glass it could’ve illuminated a dark night, so full of flavour, peppery, dry, sharp but not aggressive, a depth of woody, savoury oak; I drank it in my back garden on a hot day while reading a good book. I suddenly got it.

Now I love it. I went to Belgium to the Weekend of Spontaneous Fermentation, a beer festival like nothing else, serving just lambic and gueuze and varieties with fruit. There I saw how different and spectacular these beers could really be – quenching and full-flavoured but still delicate with a stunning depth to them, a tickle of sweetness, a tongue-smacking sharpness and, the thing which I love the most, the flavour from the wood, savoury and dry and woody. Then we went to Cantillon. The most handsome and magical brewery I’ve been to, oak casks lined up in dark, cool cellars, waiting. In America I couldn’t resist the sour selection at Russian River, with Temptation being the one I’ll always go back to first. And then Lovibonds’s Sour Grapes, drunk dry at the Rake in minutes. A stunning British sour beer. Then this week at GBBF the Revelation Cat Laphroig lambic; an insanely brilliant mix of sour and smoke.

What I like most about these beers is the story behind them. Beers brewed and deliberately left open to airborne wild yeast or beers which have those funky yeasts added to them. Beers which aren’t ready in three weeks or three months but need years to mature, hanging out in great oak casks, pulling complexity from the wood, depth of flavour, and then either served as a single vintage as lambic or blended for gueuze. Or with cherries for kriek. Or other fruit for something different – blueberries, strawberries, rhubarb.

Sour as fuck? Fuck yeah!

This month’s Session is hosted by The Brew Site. I should add that I don’t like all sour beers. I love the lemon sharpness of lambic and gueuze, but I can’t stand the vinegar sourness of beers like Rodenbach and Duchesse de Bourgogne. It catches my throat and burns. No thanks.

GBBF so far...

2011-08-04T08:00:00.000+01:00

Have you been yet? If so, what’s been good?

My highlights from Tuesday’s session were Thornbridge Kipling (I don’t think there are many better cask beers brewed in Britain...), Brewsters Hophead, Arbor's Yakima Valley, an unspellable (lots of funny words and accents) Czech beer which contained coriander which was really good, Matuska Golden Rocket IPA and a lambic aged in Laphroig casks which was insane and brilliant (but only if you love sour beer and Islay whisky). The worst beer was Ballast Point’s Habanero Sculpin IPA. The normal Sculpin IPA is a fantastic beer but this was like drinking a combination of fire and hot sauce and in an already over-heating Earls Court it wasn’t a fun taste.

I’m going back again today and hoping to see more US and Czech beers on the bar (there are some really good Czech beers there) to be mixed with random choices of British beers to try and find some new breweries I’ve not tried before.

Cheers for GBBF 2011!

2011-08-02T08:59:00.000+01:00

It’s here! I couldn’t sleep last night because I was so excited and then when I did sleep I had weird dreams about beer. The Great British Beer Festival is the best beery British week of the year.

Last year I wrote a post about The Cheer. I’m re-posting it again because I like it a lot.

A rainbow of people, colours and sounds, all holding glasses filled with golds, blacks and browns. A chatter purrs happily, an ebb and flow of conversation, laughing, rising and falling as you pass through the groups. “Have you tried this one?!” Someone excitedly bursts out thrusting a half of something under his mate’s nose. “What do you want next?” Around a corner drinkers are three deep at the bar, stretched all along, looking up and down, all around, a constant passing back and forth of glasses, money and beer; an empty here, a pint of stout there, a half of pale ale, a fiver, another empty, another half, a couple of quid change. Another corner and the smell of food strikes. Another corner and it opens into a line of bars and a huge seating area, so big you can barely see the other end, a rock star stage in between. People everywhere drink their beers, they talk about their day, their week, the weekends ahead; they gossip, talk about the news, cinema, sport; they talk about what they drank earlier, what they’ve got now, what they’ll order next; they say this is good, this isn’t, this is great, this is incredible, this is insane, this is… All around are the interested eyes of friends in conversation; the glazed-eyes of seven hours of being there; the eager eyes of the newly arrived; the crosshair focus of the poacher eyes of the ticker. And then it starts. It begins later in the day, five hours in, maybe six. The grip loosens, the excitement fails the hand. We don’t hear the shattering tink of glass on hard floor, what we hear is the cheer. The ‘whay’ which grows and spreads throughout, getting louder, building like a wave as everyone joins in, passing it on, the growing smiles and whoops and then the laughter and then back to where we left off, talking about this or that. Then later, nearer the end, it happens more, a constant flow of crash and cheer breaks conversations for a moment to join in - a second to drop everything and shout with the crowd.

That cheer is the uplifting soundtrack to the beer festival. It’s more than laughing at the loose fingers of someone unknown and unseen, it’s about having a chance and a reason to stand up and just cheer and let it all out, to call out because you are having a great time, to express the joy and belonging and spirit of carefree drinking fun that we are all feeling, and to do it in the simplest, most primal of ways. It’s a shared, united ‘cheers’ to our fellow drinkers, a way of chinking your glass with a thousand other merry men. The cheer is not for the broken glass, it’s for the full ones about to be emptied and then refilled - it’s for us. I’ll drop my glass to that.

Last year I also wrote a survival kit for GBBF and this year’s is almost exactly the same (this is a fairly lazy blog post, as you’ve probably noticed already...).

1 x beer list (so I make sure I try everything I want to)

1 x notebook (to remind me what I drank and how it tasted)

4 x freshly-sharpened pencils (to write in the aforementioned notebook)

1 x pencil sharpener (in case I write a lot, which never happens because I’m too busy drinking)

1 x Blackberry (to tell twitter what I’m up to and to take pictures)

1 x bottle of water (stay hydrated!)

1 x lots of bubble wrap (safety first for bottle purchases)

1 x pack of milk thistle (look after your liver)

1 x pack of paracetamol (the morning after)

Lots x bananas (potassium, magnesium, vitamin B6, energy and hangover relief)

1 x isotonic sports drink (to replace sugars and salts; to give energy; to help the hangover)

1 x pack of bacon (essential)

I’m all prepared so bring it on! I’ll be there all day Tuesday and then Thursday from late-afternoon. If you are there then say hi.

Here’s to GBBF and may it be an awesome week!

GBBF: A Week of Events?

2011-07-29T07:45:00.004+01:00

When Denver is over-run by beer drinkers for GABF each year, the city’s beer bars all put on events to coincide with it. Because of this, the peripheral events are as much as a draw as the festival itself, with beer dinners and tastings taking place for the time of the festival.

The Great British Beer Festival is next week but London doesn’t have the same external focus on events as GABF, but could or should it?

CASK is putting on two excellent meet the brewers: Odell and Kernel (11 Kernel beers on cask and keg. ELEVEN!) will be there on Saturday 30^th and Monday 1^st respectively. The White Horse has shifted their US beer festival back a month so that it’s now in line with GBBF. The Dean Swift are holding a beer and food event for #IPADay. But is there anything else?

I think it’s a great time to go all-out on beer. GBBF gets in the news, lots of people talk about it and lots of people will want to drink it. People come into London for the festival and also want to take the time to visit other pubs in London. What if places did meet the brewers (who are also in London for the festival)? What if there were beer dinners? Special tastings? Brewery tours? Even an alternative after-party (keg?!) festival?

GBBF is a different set-up to GABF, where you go in for an allotted slot and drink 1oz samples of as many beers as you can/like, but I think there’s definitely space for a few more events around the week of GBBF to really promote beer to more people.

What do you think? Would you go to events after going to the festival or are you beered-out by then?

Thornbridge and Nicholson’s Home Brew Challenge 2011

2011-07-28T12:58:00.001+01:00

Fancy a brew?

I got a press release through from Thornbridge today which might be of interest to quite a few people… As the blog title suggests, Thornbridge Brewery and Nicholson’s pubs are launching The Great British Home Brew Challenge 2011.

It launches on 1 September and the website will be www.gbhomebrew.co.uk (it’s not live yet). The aim is to find the best of British homebrewing and the winner will have their recipe transformed into a production brew by Thornbridge and will be made available in Nicholson’s 100 pubs across the UK.

Sounds good and I think it’s a great contest with a fantastic prize for the winner. There aren’t any more details yet but look out for the launch on 1 September.

Beer Labels: Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar

2011-07-27T21:38:00.001+01:00

This is a follow-up to yesterday’s blog about the type of beer branding which I really dislike. Seeing this post by Boak & Bailey reminded me of the label shown above from Watermill Inn and Brewing Co. Take a closer look and read it through.

I spot a couple of mistakes straight away – a missing apostrophe in ‘lovers’, an extra apostrophe in an ‘it’s’ and premises spelt wrong. I’m hyphen-happy so I’d add some hyphens into this, too – between award and winning, beer and lovers [sic] and hand and crafted. I would also question the use of ‘real pub’ (one assumes that this is opposed to a fake pub). And in the address I’d like a space between the comma and ‘near’. I will overlook the comma after ‘real pub’. The good news is that 'accommodation' is spelt correctly.

What makes these mistakes especially frustrating is that the front of the label has obviously been well-designed and lots of effort has gone into it (see here for more of them - you probably can't tell from the picture but it's very smart with graphics jumping off the label as if it was a 3D model). Even the paper it’s printed on is of a high quality. For this level of design and detail it must have passed by a few people and for none of them to spot those errors is just not good. As the front - even if it’s not a design I personally like (a dog dressed as Darth Vader?!) - looks bold and well designed, I feel some confidence that the beer will also have had the same effort put into it. The shoddy spelling on the back makes me think again.

The beer is actually really, really good. It pours an almost-opaque black-red with a thick, smooth head. The aroma is what grabs me: treacle sponge, raisins, chocolate, figs and a little milk. It’s rich and roasty, smooth and fruity with dried fruit and a cakey depth. I liked it a lot. Not sure if I’d like a few pints of it but by the bottle I enjoyed every gulp.

I know some people aren’t good with spelling and grammar, I understand that, but there’s always someone around to take a look at it and check it. If you aren’t sure then I’ll even take a look at it for you – just email it over to me.

Breweries: please try not to make spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes on your beer labels. As Boak & Bailey say in their post: “Even a small typo can send the message that you are sloppy and careless. Avoid exclamation marks, too: they will make you look hysterical.” Amen to that!

I’ve read my post through a few times to try and make sure everything is spelt and written correctly. I’m sure someone will tell me if not!

Branding: My Biggest Beer Annoyance

2011-07-26T07:11:00.000+01:00

I buy wine by the look of the label and the cue of a few key words which I recognise. For me to look into every single wine I want to buy would see me never looking away from the beer aisle. When I do go for the grape it’s the way the bottle looks which sways my decision because I simply don’t know the flavour differences between a French Bordeaux and an Australian Merlot. Marry that to the price tag (if it looks good but costs £3.50 then I probably won’t buy it) and I make my purchase.

Buying this way means that what I see has to look really good and jump off the shelf into my basket. But what about beer? Over a few years of drinking beers - which I’m sure could be replicated in wine if I drank more of it - I’ve learnt what to expect from a bottle of Belgian dubbel, from a Czech pilsner, a New Zealand pale ale, a British best bitter. So when it comes to a new beer for me to try, it’s the branding which really grabs me.

The bottle label or pumpclip is the beer’s opportunity to catch my attention, draw me in and make me want to buy it, whether it’s on a supermarket shelf or the bar. Some breweries do a very good job, making me want their beers immediately, but others make me frown with disappointment. Take a look at Pump Clip Parade for an example of these beers. Would you order any of them?!

Image is a big thing when it comes to buying something. Some people might like to buy the smutty named pint of ale (“I’ll have a Drew Peacock, love!” 'Drink too much of it and you will!' she replies and Oh! how everyone around the bar lets out a big belly laugh) in the same way that they might wear a fading Fat Willy’s t-shirt with one of those knowing, cheeky grins which says ‘yeah, my t-shirt says willy’. But I don’t like them at all.

It may be a personal choice but a pumpclip or bottle which evokes a farm or steam trains or animals or uses smut or innuendo or cartoons or anything made in Microsoft Word with clip art makes me move on to something else without even trying it. They say to me ‘I’m boring’, ‘I’m not taking this seriously’ and/or ‘I probably won’t taste very good’. I rarely find out if they are good beers or not because I don’t order them.

That's more like it! I love Bristol Beer Factory's labels

Branding is difficult to get right and costs money but it’s also what sells beers to those who don’t know what they are looking for. It’s able to promote the beer but also promote the brewery and give an idea as to what they are like. My tastes might be different to others’, but I like a clean and modern design, something smart but also practical.

Clean and simple and eye-catching. Great beers too.

Compare Magic Rock with Toad Brewery (toad-themed), Marble with Skinners (tossers and knockers), Moor with Nortumberland Ales (some of the worst beer branding in the whole world), Bristol Beer Factory with Fallen Angel (erotic art labels), Kernel with Cotleigh (birds?!). I know which I’m choosing out of these (hint: the first of each comparison is the good one). And is it any coincidence that the better regarded breweries in Britain have the most appealing branding? (And has anyone ever had a really good pint of beer that’s got a terrible, wannabe-funny pumpclip?)

I love the Moor labels.

I judge things I want to consume by their appearance. I’m sure a lot of others do that, too. For new drinkers, if they went into a pub and just saw a line-up of smutty pumpclips then what does that say about real ale? If the pumpclip is bright-coloured and has a cartoon dog licking himself, then what does that say? And will it make them order a beer or not? Faced with a line-up of cleanly designed, smart lager fonts or a few old-looking or pun-laden pumpclips then I know where my money would go. What the good examples I’ve put above do is make me want to order their beers. They look simple and smart and bold, they tell me everything I need to know (style, strength – compare that to the Cupid Stunt clip at the top and I have no idea what the beer is) and they are confident that the beer will do all the hard work once the customer’s attention has been caught.

What do you think are the best branded beers in the UK and what are the worst?

Magic Rock nailed it!

The ‘bad’ examples are just ones I’ve noticed while drinking or looking on PCP. There are many more than just the ones I’ve listed. The hit-list of should-be-banned pumpclip items are: cartoons, animals, smut, farms, clip art/word art, innuendo. Anything more to add? This post could have a quick word-swapping edit run over it and it would easily apply to websites as well. Why are there so many bad brewery websites?