Inconvenient Truths

It is always instructive when a spat occurs in blogs, in which diametrically opposite views are aired. We have seen it over craft, over CAMRA, over sparklers (I must do another post on them soon - I need the ratings) and many other diverse subjects. Most of these sort of stick to the point and there is very little by way of personal insult, though, not always, as there are passionate points of view being aired  - sometimes by thin skinned and intemperate people. But on the whole it is all done in the best possible taste, though you'd have to be a pretty dumb cluck not to realise that under all the bonhomie, there is a lot that divides us in the so called "unifying world of of beer."

So back to the spat. No avoiding of personal insults here. This starts out as a blogged rebuttal by Melissa Cole about something unkind that our old friends BrewDog said about British Brewing being "closed and unfriendly". This seems to have annoyed Melissa more than a bit and she goes on to rebut this point of view in strong terms. Now you might think she'd just sigh and ignore it wouldn't you? But I bet she feels about her friends in the brewing industry, the way I feel about mine in CAMRA. When you see your friends attacked in a way you see as unfair,  you want to jump in on their side . I empathise with her in that respect, though recognising, like in CAMRA, everything in the British Beer Industry is far from perfect.  That does need to be said, though it would be far better perhaps, if it was said by others and not our bumptious friends from the North.

Like every good pub brawl, others start jumping in. It's worth a read, so I won't go too far in spoiling your fun, but it does seem to this writer at least, that far from being the confident know-alls that they portray, BrewDog are, underneath it all just a teeny bit insecure. They secretly want to be part of it all, but having burned their boats, they can't be, so just go around burning other peoples boats too. You see, to get help and to be liked, you have to be nice to other people - at least some of the time. I doubt that the lack of respect that they have shown to most British Beer makers, with the exception of a chosen few, has exactly endeared them, but they can hardly complain that having alienated everyone, that nobody likes them can they?

The British Brewing Industry is a broad church. It covers a lot of ground and the so-called "the liquid cardboard" produced by most, is the drink favoured by the majority of their customers, otherwise they wouldn't buy it surely?  It is also somewhat of an inconvenient truth.  Nonetheless, I too believe that there needs to be change. When talking about how  CAMRA should face the future with one National Executive member, I was struck by the observation that "CAMRA needs to be bolder. It needs to take a few risks."  I agree with that wholeheartedly.  The thing about all this is that there is more than a grain of truth behind the BrewDog assertion about the staidness of British brewing and yes, CAMRA has played a part in this. On the other hand, from my knowledge of brewers, there is little accuracy in comments about their "niceness."  They are unfailingly nice when you meet them. On that subject, BrewDog's own fallibility is pretty well proven too, but on the plus side, they do have a go at the different, even if they are wrong headed at times in not only what they do, but the way they go about it.

BrewDog talk about being "exciting and cool"  - though bumming about Ratebeer is neither.  They also overlook that there is a fine line between being cool and being naff.  Now I'm all for the "excitement "bit and  "cool"  is a part of their image and as mostly generationally inspired,  can be overlooked, but one thing is true.  As well as the "liquid cardboard", boldness and some more risk taking from a lot of British Brewing would not go amiss.

Does brewing fortune favour the bold? Is this another inconvenient truth?


Does anyone not think that as BrewDog gets bigger, they will fall into the same conventional trap as all bigger companies and compromise? Does anyone not think the gruesome twosome will not cash in sometime in the future?

The Quality Thing

So now that beer festivalitis has temporarily left me, I can return to the normal world of beer. Saturday saw a pub crawl of Manchester, though unfortunately I missed out on the start at the Port St Beer House, which I like. It was a change from the usual haunts and I was delighted to note excellent beer quality in the Crown and Kettle, the Castle, the Soup Kitchen, the Piccadilly and the Bank. Not every beer was to my taste, but I certainly couldn't complain about the condition or temperature of any. That's a good thing and I will return to this theme of quality much more in the future. Top beer of the day? Well a half of Old Tom was sublime in the Castle. I'm not a fan of Robinson's beers, as I consider the house yeast far too dominant, but a beer such as Old Tom can push that into the background readily enough. On cask and 8.5%, it was probably the pick of a decent day's supping and certainly debunked the myth that you can't put strong beers on cask.

One issue did come up. Jaipur was on in the Bank and once again it failed to hit the mark. Overly sweet and sticky, it just didn't appeal to me or any of my drinking companions and while it may be hitting the spot still for some, I'll be approaching it with much more scepticism than previously as I just don't seem to get a good pint of it and haven't for well over a year.

Returning to the issue of quality, I have become aware of - or rather, been reacquainted with - a fairly widespread problem of pubs that aren't thriving, buying beer in cash as they go along, with many resulting quality problems, such as green beer, hazy beer and beer that has dropped bright, but has not yet conditioned. This affects many pubs and I was advised at NWAF that Adnams are countering this problem by conditioning their beer for longer in the brewery before releasing it. Other brewers may be doing this too or thinking about it, but it is a widespread problem, often affecting tenanted pubs of small regional brewers and is a hidden but pernicious aspect to the doubtful viability of some pubs.  The brewery knows a pub is in trouble when the dray order is dropped and the beer is being bought for cash. Alarm bells clang loudly. 

Next time you get a duff pint in a brewery owned tenanted pub, consider if you can, that it may not have been presented as the brewer intends for reasons other than cellar incompetence.

Well Wasn't That Fun?

Bar the shouting (mostly internal) National Winter Ales Festival is over. It was stressful, but hopefully successful and dealing with the myriad problems thrown up by the venue, the public and the staff reminded me of work, but not in a good way. The public as we know are strangely fickle, but I have to say were mostly a delight. CAMRA members have many qualities and strengths, not all of them immediately apparent, but boy do they work hard. The ones that work at NWAF are dedicated and selfless, but nonetheless, it is all a bit like herding cats, bless 'em. But we got it all done after a fashion and hopefully everyone got something out of it.

Things don't stop though. Apart from the post mortem of NWAF which I'll chair, as the Organiser is buggering off to New Zealand for over a month, we'll have Oldham Beer Festival for my own CAMRA Branch at the end of April.

We must love it really.

My favourite beer? Hmm. Not sure but I doubt if Liverpool Organic's various efforts were surpassed by many.

National Winter Ales Festival

It starts today and runs until Saturday night. I'm very much involved, hence my radio silence.

Do come along. It will be great!

National Winter Ales Festival 2012
18-21 January 2012
Sheridan Suite, Manchester

Not Tasting Notes Exactly

While in Leeds on Christmas Eve, I took my wallet in my hands and nipped into Zak Avery's shop for a quick peruse. I bought four bottles and had a chat with Ghost Drinker, who seems a very nice chap. All the more so since he recognised me first, though fair enough, I did have an "I am Tandleman" T shirt on.

Two of the bottles remain undrunk and will be saved a for a couple of months, but since they are Schneider Hopfenweisse and are pretty strong, I have no fears for their subsequent drinkability. The other two were from Thornbridge. The first, their Koelsch tastealike, Tzara, described as a Koeln Style Beer and the second, the so very drinkable Kipling. Apart from a bottle of Jaipur when it first came out, I don't believe I've ever had a bottled Thornbridge beer before.  Now Koelsch is a beer style I like to think I know a little about, so how does Tzara measure up?  Pretty well actually. It has the appealing freshness and clarity of taste that singles good koelsch out, though perhaps, perversely,  it is a little bit too good, being what Koelsch ought to be rather than what it usually is. Nonetheless it is a great beer, not over carbonated, smooth and tasty, with just that hint of fruitiness and that noble German hop finish that should mark it out. And does.  Overall I wouldn't mind buying a few of these again if I could get them locally at a decent price.

What about Kipling.  Again it is the clarity of taste that appeals. Full of tropical flavours and each one pin sharp in a beer that translates brilliantly to bottle.  If you want to know more, buy a pint of Kipling, or purchase a bottle with confidence. Well worth the money spent I have to say.  Someone at Thornbridge has got this bottling game cracked. OK I only had two samples, but boy were they good.  They know their stuff there.  They have great brewing skills and technique, bring out some tremendous beers and just quietly get on with doing it, which makes me admire them even more.

Have they sorted out cask Jaipur yet though?

Congratulations too to Beer Ritz, for selling such lovely fresh bottles.

A Couple of Days Off

The latest advice on drinking now includes having a couple of alcohol free days a week. While not keen on much of the nanny stateism that comes from the likes of Ian Gilmour, this is a perfectly sensible suggestion I'd say and something I have been doing all my drinking life. In fact I aim (not always successfully) for three.  The term AFD (Alcohol Free Day) is weel kent in Tandleman Towers.

While nobody in their right mind believes the government's safe drinking limit, it seems an easily achievable and sensible precaution to me. The liver far from being evil, is kind of a necessity I believe.

Holidays and National Winter Ales Festival are excepted from the above of course.

I was also amazed to hear Gilmour say that having a couple of AFDs is a good indicator that you are not alcohol dependent. Well I never.

Tell Me What You Think

We talk a lot in these blogs of ours about this and that. Often though we return to old favourite topics like CAMRA and its role. I am often seen defending CAMRA, but I like to think I take a pragmatic view of the issues, though of course, for me at least, supporting quality real ale is a given.

A couple of days ago, I set a scene as to what I think motivates CAMRA in its dealings with Craft Keg and how I think CAMRA sees the subject contextually against its role in promoting and protecting real ale. I mentioned that for us, the battle to ensure real ale survival will never be won as such. We will just have good times and bad times - ups and downs. I also mentioned in the same blog piece, the new wave of keg beers and beer bars and the resurgence of London as a beery city.  These are important to bear in mind. There is change in the air and everyone in the UK beer industry needs to have a think about how they perceive that change, how it affects them and what opportunities it might bring.

We have talked here too,  and in other blogs,  about how all this fits together and tried, often unsuccessfully, to plot a road ahead. CAMRA, as an important component of the British beer scene is looking at it too and I'm part of a small working party reporting to the National Executive on the subject. We are in the process of formulating ideas and I'd like to hear your views against the background I have set out.  While we haven't fixed our remit in stone yet, it is along the lines of "How should CAMRA react to the growth of craft beer and specifically to the small but growing craft keg sector?"

So here's your chance to input to my contribution to the internal debate.  Constructive comments about where we are, where things might go and how you feel CAMRA should react will be very helpful to me in forming my input to the process. Views of definitions would be useful, (though trying to define "craft" may be a bit tricky.)  If you keep your feet on the ground too, that would be helpful. There is no point in unrealistic demands for change.  This is an examination of where we are and how the future might be shaped and not primarily a vehicle for change.  Please remember too that CAMRA is a member's organisation and that for any policy change to happen, one has to convince the membership.  Sorry, but there won't be much by way of feedback, as our NE will be the first to be informed of what we have come up with, but do let me know how you regard the future and CAMRA's role in it, with particular regard to craft keg beer. (Also,  please let me know if you are a CAMRA member or not when you comment and if you want to talk non publicly or off the record about it to me, particularly if you are trade, be it brewer or publican, do let me know.)

Bloggers have a genuine chance here to contribute to my input on the working party on a subject that has already caused a lot of debate within this blog. I hope that as many of you as possible take it up.

Remember too, it isn't just me you need to convince, so please think your arguments through.

Sam's Again!

For a man that shuns publicity, Humphrey Smith, Managing Director of Sam Smith's Tadcaster Brewery, doesn't half manage to attract it. Some will recall his spat over the use of the Yorkshire Rose with Cropton Brewery and others may remember another ding dong with a licensee who was locked in the accommodation part of his pub following a dispute with the brewery and had to hire scaffolding to exit and enter via his bedroom window. All great knockabout stuff.

I am grateful to one of my CAMRA members for alerting me to yet another exhibition of oddballery. It seems Humphrey himself, to quote the dear old Oldham Chronicle turned up at a local Royton pub on New Year's Eve and closed it down pronto. "Staff and customers were stunned when one of the multi-millionaire owners of Samuel Smith’s Brewery (Humphrey) walked in and shut down Royton’s Junction Inn at 8.30pm on New Year’s Eve." According to the Chron, this was the culmination of a row over full measure pints. That is serving them, not for not doing so.  Sam's, (as I observed last night by reading the brewery signs on the wall in a different Sam's pub,) have a policy of serving 95% liquid and a creamy head and offer requests for a top up only  if spillage over the glass can be avoided. Given that most Sam's pubs offer nitrokeg beer, that might be tricky. In my case I was given a pint of Dark Mild with an inch and a half of head and a half pint glass with a smidgin of beer which I could then use to top up at my leisure. I won't name the pub though, in case Humph takes the hump and knocks on their door too.

It seems though this is the nub of the problem in the Junction, though of course there may be more to it than meets the eye. Things aren't always what they seem. I can't put Sam's side of the story though. The Chron obligingly tells you why: "The Chronicle contacted Mr Smith yesterday who said “we have nothing to say” before hanging up.

The wonderful Oldham Chronicle has the story in full.

 My pint of 3% smooth mild cost me £1.19 last night. Yes. £1.19.  If that is being achieved though by causing ructions with licensees, I'd rather pay a few pence more. Just a thought. 

A Slow but Steady Decline?

is my blog starting to mirror the British Beer Industry's slow march downhill - in volume terms at least?

Here's the stats:

2012 (1)
▼ January (1)
A Popular Misconception

► 2011 (145)

► 2010 (173)

► 2009 (249)

► 2008 (262)

► 2007 (32)

A pattern is emerging and though like a strong keg beer drinker, I could claim quality over quantity, I won't. So loins girded, I better get my arse in gear this year.

Target? 200.

A Popular Misconception

As the Cask Report has amply illustrated, there are only two growth areas in the on trade beer market, the so called "craft sector" and good old real ale, or cask conditioned beer.  Real Ale is everywhere and the cask bandwagon eclipses by far the growing keg "revolution" (let's call it a keg "revolution", as by almost every definition, most craft beer in the UK is cask.)

The year just gone has seen an expansion - some call it an explosion of craft beer bars. Explosion would probably be pushing it. It isn't even an explosion in London given the size of it and the relatively small numbers, though London is at last awake and thinking of beer. This trend in London will continue, as that's where the numbers are and more importantly, that's where the money is and it is a good thing. It is too where the momentum is.  Craft beer bars will push the envelope in other places, as there is money to be made there too, but they will be limited by population and by lack of such well padded wallets. They will appear though and provide choice.  Choice, repeat, is good.

So, if it is such a good thing - and it is in my view - why all the fuss about CAMRA and its attitude to keg beer? Shouldn't CAMRA be praising and supporting it all? To some extent it does. Long since forgotten by many, but among CAMRA principles is the promoting of choice. So, to that extent, there can be little against what is happening now can there? Well, as always it isn't as simple as that. The reason why CAMRA campaigns for real ale - cack handedly at times admittedly - is because CAMRA fights to protect the availability of live beer in the UK. It doesn't, or maybe that would be better as "shouldn't" (and some members need to be reminded of this) fight against other beers or dispense methods, except where that limits choice. Hang onto that choice thing. It is important.

The better amongst these new bars (and sometimes pubs) the Port Street Beer Houses, Euston and Sheffield Taps and the Crafts of this world, mix easily the two genres of imported expensive bottles, keykeg versions of stronger British beers and well chosen and more reasonably priced cask, and are a delight to drink in. The arguments about which type of beer is better is not really relevant there and drinkers mix easily and happily and switch from one to the other as they see fit. Nothing at all wrong with that. In fact quite the reverse. It isn't all that new either, as bars like, say, Fringe in Manchester have been doing it unsung for years, though of course with imported keg products, the British alternative, simply being unavailable.

"But the fight for real ale is won" I hear you cry. Well no. Cask beer is a niche drink, albeit a pretty big niche, but to maintain it there needs eternal vigilance. While cask beer may have an ascendency and CAMRA have a large and growing membership, we must always recognise that like any niche product, real ale is under threat. It is a live and perishable product and that makes it vulnerable to quality issues and the convenience of keg. Also, most of us in the Campaign can remember when we didn't have hundreds of breweries, when choice was hugely limited, when keg and cask were sold through identical pumps, when cask beer took a huge downward turn after the beer orders. We don't want these times again and that's why we fight to protect our kind of beer. I'd hazard a guess that it is why CAMRA has both a growing membership and an increasing retention rate. Despite JDW vouchers (most of which are never used), it is that feeling of supporting something you intrinsically believe in, as you have a sneaking suspicion, that it might disappear if you don't, that results in retention being so high.

Boak and Bailey talk about "thin end of the wedge" in somewhat mocking tones, as if such a thing doesn't exist, or is an imagined bogey man. In the meantime, two producers of excellent cask conditioned beer have announced they will no longer do so. While you can disregard BrewDog and Camden as minnows, they are influential enough to some drinkers and very well thought of by others - well Camden is anyway. That alone should set alarm bells ringing. They are choosing, as is their right, to restrict what they produce, despite these products being beers that sell well and have a keen following across a broad spectrum. Is that the thin end of the wedge? Will Hardknott, SWB and others follow? Would that be the thin end of a wedge?  These two cases, small though they may be, illustrate why you can never take real ale for granted.

This isn't a peon of praise or support for CAMRA though some will think it. It is a genuine attempt to explain some of the rationale. Inevitably though some responses will be to attack CAMRA, but I'd like you to think more widely about this and watch my blog for a further posting in which you can help CAMRA's thinking on both keg and craft beer. Things are afoot and I'm a part of it, so rather than knee jerk anti CAMRA reactions, have a think about it all.

Remember what I said about choice and not taking things for granted? Of never assuming that fight for choice is won.  It is important to us in the Campaign  to protect our unique cask conditioned beer.  We believe in it and we don't and won't ever assume that it will always be there. It influences greatly how we think.
  
This, is as always just my thoughts on the subject and my take on CAMRA policy.

Too Many (Duff) Brewers?

I was reading the comments on Dave Bailey's blog about beer duty and one comment by Dave himself said "There is an argument that says there are too many very small brewers who aren't very good." Curmudgeon replied "that's because of the smoking ban". No he didn't actually, but what he did say was this: "Yes, while it has helped good brewers, it has also brought too many half-arsed brewers into the industry" Stringer's Beer sharply retorted "These half-arsed brewers pointed up by Curmudgeon - who's buying (and drinking) their beer? Would that be half-arsed publicans and their half-arsed customers?"

Now when we welcomed the explosion of micro brewers brought about by Progressive Beer Duty (PBD), did we imagine we'd end up with so many?  Did we imagine them all to be good? Is it though just PBD that has caused this, or is it the loosening of the tie that we have also seen, leading to an increase of outlets than can take a wider variety of beer? Is  the (apparent) view of free houses that you always need to have new beers on the bar a contributing factor and that some breweries,that many of us could name, exist solely it seems on the basis that they can get their beer in a pub, irrespective of quality, as long as it is cheap enough? For most small brewers - and I talk to quite a few of them - it is a dog eat dog situation of continual phoning of pubs, pleading with them to take beer, always at a discount.  There is probably getting to be as many breweries now as the market will absorb - at least until the tie loosens further and tied house beer lists expand.

Of course the other side of the coin is that there are small breweries making excellent beer that do not have to discount to a great extent, as their reputation is such that they can sell what they produce. Here we are talking the Dark Stars and Pictishes of this world, but for many it is a relentless slog of seeking customers against fellow strugglers trying to do the same.

Are there half arsed breweries about? Of course there are.  Why don't they go bust?  Probably because they sell their beer so cheaply, to the same "half-arsed publicans and their half-arsed customers" that buy and drink down to a price.

Dedicated pub goers like me and say, Tyson, have a list of breweries in our heads that screams "Avoid" when we see them. It isn't a small list.

Should I Change My Mind?

I named Hawkshead Windermere Pale as my best overall beer of 2011, but I wonder if that is so now. It is still the lovely easy quaffer with a complex hop bill that made me think so, but you know, last night I had a beer - not for the first time - that sent my senses reeling. Actually, if I'd had a couple more, it would have sent me reeling too.

The beer is of course the one illustrated on the left. (It would have been perverse for it to be otherwise, though I did think of putting something else on to throw you off the scent for a couple of lines.) Hawkshead New Zealand Pale Ale is wonderful. It bursts on the palate with a cornucopia of tropical fruits, is bitter and citric and so very, very drinkable for its 6% abv. One isn't enough and three may just be too many, as it commands respect strengthwise, though the alcohol is cunningly disguised.

If ever a beer could be described as dangerously drinkable, this it it. So will I change my mind? No. But you know, in a sneaking way I want to.

It knocks Jaipur, especially in its current sugar sweet, enfeebled state into a cocked hat. 

Is a List a Guide?

The Manchester Pub Guide produced by CAMRA in Greater Manchester is a handy book listing all of the pubs selling real ale in the City Centre and a couple of districts beyond. It is split up by area and there isn't a lot by way of editorial, rather, the reader - user if you like - is left to make up his or her mind from the pub descriptions. Typical CAMRA guide you might say. Give 'em the info and then let them get on with it. Fair enough? Certainly Rhys Jones, that doyen of many a CAMRA book review thinks so - and why not? In Stockport and South Manchester's Opening Times, he summarises by saying it is "an accomplished and professional volume with little to criticise".

The reviewer in Manchester Confidential toook a different tack. His thoughts are more along the lines that the book should provide recommendations rather than just descriptions. The reviewer, Charlie Butterworth says, "The authors should have been more discriminating. Some inclusions should have no place in this guide. For some places it's best to hire armed guards before venturing in......there's a lack of judgement in some of the choices that is worrying.It appears pubs and bars are included simply because they sell real ale not if they're any good as a pub." Well yes. There's the nub of it. Do you produce a comprehensive list and leave the reader to get on with it by exercising his judgemnent, or do you, as Manchester Confidential thinks, produce a book of recommended pubs with its attendant difficulties of what you put in and what you leave out?

There's a certain degree of missing the point in the Manchester Confidential article which one might think wilful until you read what Charlie has to say. I particularly liked this comment " For instance if I said to my Manchester ale-drinking mates, "Do you want to go for a few in the Lloyds in the Printworks?" they'd think I was already pissed."  It's great knockabout stuff, but there is a serious point.  Do you prefer a comprehensive list, or do you want to be guided?  Clearly Charlie prefers the latter.

Is"guide" the correct title?  What do you prefer?

The Manchester Pub Guide is already on a reprint and is available at a giveaway £4.99 from camragreatermanchester.org.uk

A Point of View

I was out delivering our CAMRA Branch magazine (which I edit) today. As always I try and have a quick word with the licensee, just to see how things are. Maybe its different elsewhere or maybe we just have a better relationship with ours, but I always find them keen to talk to CAMRA. At one pub the licensee was bemoaning his limited cask guest beer list - a common complaint. He was also denied for reasons of which he was unsure, to a more wide ranging list which the PubCo also runs. I cooed sympathetically and asked "Is it Enterprise?" - as it usually is in such cases. "No" quoth he, I wish it was. It's Heineken. Bastards!".

The licensee also tells me things have got a lot worse since they took over from Scottish and Newcastle. So there. Enterprise aren't, in some eyes at least, as bad as Heineken. That should cheer old Tough Ted Tuppen up.

For all PubCos say about how things are much better for their tenants, I can tell you that's not what they tell me.

At least the pub was busy when I called at lunchtime, so that's something.

Golden Pint Awards

It is Golden Pints time again where we choose under a number of categories our favourites and runners up. I'm at a disadvantage here though. I don't tick, I don't buy fancy beers, I don't visit independent retailers to purchase said exotics etc. etc. But you know, even though I may not be the best person to ask, I can give it a go. So here we are. Winners and runners up and maybe the odd honourable mention.

Best UK Draught (Cask or Keg) Beer:

Winner: Hawkshead Windermere Pale (Cask); Runner Up: Osset Citra (Cask)

What can you say about Windermere Pale? It has everything I want in a beer. Sheer swoopability, clean, great taste, loads of hops and you don't fall over after a few. Brilliant stuff. Osset Citra was by far the best of the Citras that dominated for a while. Well crafted beer from a great brewery and that lovely smack of Citra.

Best Overseas Draught Beer:

Winner:1516 Brewing Company, Vienna, Victory Hop Devil; Runner Up: Tegernsee Spezial

The 1516 version of Hop Devil was stunning, with booming C hops, great body and sheer beery enjoyment. It achieved rare drinkability for such a strong beer. Spezial is pale, blond, bitter, full bodied and at 5.6%, far too easy to drink. Both beers drunk at the brewery taps.

Best Overall Beer:

Hawkshead Windermere Pale

Best UK Brewery:

Hawkshead. Everything they do is brewed with such attention to detail and to being able to drink a few of them. None are sticky. All have that cleanliness that I just love in a beer . Runner Up: Buxton Brewery.  Clean, well crafted and seek out beers.  Honourable mentions: Pictish, Kernel, Thornbridge

Best Overseas Brewery:

1516 Brewing, Vienna. Runner Up: Augustiner, Munich. Again it is that drinkability thing, though it always reminds me of good times and that's worth a lot.

Pub/Bar of the Year:

Winner: The Southampton Arms London. Everything I want in a pub.Great beer, appropriate food, a wonderful atmosphere and my sort of customers. Runner Up: The Angel, Manchester. Great beer, great staff, great prices and it's on my bus route. Honourable mentions to The Regal Moon, the White Lion Delph and the Tavern. (My locals and my friends go there or are there.)

Beer Festival of the Year:

National Winter Ales, of course. Runner Up: GBBF of course.

Best Beer Book or Magazine:

Book: Great British Pubs, by Adrian Tierney-Jones Magazine: Beer - CAMRA

Best Beer Blog or Website:

I've thought long and hard about this. A blog to me has to be independent and personal. So all the band wagon jumpers and clones are out (you know who you are). So overall it has to be:

Winner: Pete Brown. Independent and personal boxes ticked and he writes so well, wears his heart on his sleeve and talks (mostly) sense.

Runner Up: (Joint) Boak and Bailey. They don't say much, but somehow you like them just the same and they are independent and personal. Reluctant Scooper: Independent, personal and so well written. Honourable mention: Stuart Howe. Brewing at the Sharp End. In case you didn't notice. I like independent and personal blogs. Blogs that reflect the likes and dislikes of the writer. And Boak and Bailey.

Best Beer Twitterer:

Simon Johnson of course. Nobody in the same league is there? Runner Up: Stringers Beer. Does he actually have time to brew?

In 2012 I’d Most Like To…

Get back to Belgium. It has been a couple of years. Or more. I fancy some lambic, or kriek or.....

Now it is time I went for a drink.

Sorted. Now Roll Up

I attended my last National Winter Ales Organising Committee Meeting on Saturday. Last this festival I mean. Almost everything is arranged. Last minute snags were identified and decisions were made and we are good to go - though of course there will be more last minute hitches and more decisions needed. I spent quite a lot of time last week doing a tortuous risk assessment for Greater Manchester Police and updating our internal stuff. Others have sweated over beer orders, cider orders, what we need from HQ stores, what we have to buy locally, how we will steward the event, advertise it, get sponsorship, print tickets, discuss and agree food availability, order glasses, design signs, design the programme, order transport for goods and staff, sign up staff to work, arrange duties and a million other less obvious things. It is a giant jigsaw that has to come together by the trade session on Wednesday 18th January. With Christmas and New Year, it doesn't leave a lot of time and plenty of us will be dedicating some of that holiday time to ensuring there are no last minute problems. I for instance will be pulling some stuff together for some of the legal requirements that we have to follow, but then forgetting about it for a week or two. Hopefully.

Those of you that are interested in the beer list can find it here, with foreign beers here and real ale in a bottle here.  As always, genuine beer bloggers are considered as trade, so if you'd like trade session tickets and are a blogger, please let me know and I will arrange for them to be sent to you.

This really is a cracking festival with a great choice of beer, a friendly outlook and of course it is held in Manchester, one of the finest beer cities in the UK.  What's stopping you? See you there then.


National Winter Ales Festival: The Sheridan Suite, Oldham Rd, Manchester from 18th to 21st January 2012

Cask Phased Out?

I read a tweet the other day from some geezer or other. It was re-tweeted by someone else, as these things are. It said in essence that BrewDog are going to phase out cask beer from next year. I asked the originator, copied to the others, including I think BrewDog James, if that was true, but in the time honoured Twitter "being of the moment" and therefore transient, nobody has replied.

This morning I read on Pencil and Spoon of the opening of BrewDog Camden, which like the others offers no cask beer. Mark praises its reasonable prices (apparently you get change from a tenner for most bottles, so that's  good) and compares it to Craft, which in my humble opinion is absolutely incongruous. Limiting itself to keg beer, served in uber trendy surroundings, to skinny twenty to thirty year olds can never be compared directly to Craft, which has a much broader appeal, a much wider range of beer and beer styles and is above all, a pub and has all the inclusiveness you go to a pub for. It sells cask beer too, in case no-one noticed.

As an aside, there is little doubt that some new bars (and Manchester is full of them) are great places to go and remarkably inclusive. A trip to Chorlton to see how it should be done is a must. Here in the Grim North, we do things differently it seems. Our trendy young people mix and match beers easily in the same bar and customers, while generally young, are leavened by the odd old git, happily enjoying the offer. Almost all of the really successful bars in Manchester serve excellent and well chosen cask to complement their keg offerings. That's good isn't it? I have wondered before and wonder again, just how successful the new BrewDog Manchester will be when it opens next year, offering keg only in such a cask bastion as Manchester?

Anyway, I have wandered a little from my original point. BrewDog bars are different. They are in effect tied houses, that choose as company policy, not to sell the company's cask products. Now I will happily say that I think BrewDog's cask beer offerings are generally superb. I remember some wonderful pints of Trashy Blonde and Alice Porter. I really think they should do more, not less of them. While I might speculate that more profitable keg to offset less profitable supermarket beer is one reason, the real point of this is, does anyone know if the rumour is actually true?

I certainly hope not.

Amazingly I got an invite to the formal opening of BrewDog Camdem. Cool or what?

Way Out East

Another day in London and another new beer bar. Both new to me and E and new(ish) overall. Fortunately, unlike some of the new bars which involve tortuous journeys across London by bus -  trying  but interesting - Tap East is relatively quick and easy for us. A quick stroll to Tower Gateway, a change at Canning Town to Stratford International DLR, pass the new Olympic Stadium and that odd piece of sculpture and you are dropped more or less at the door. Good old Docklands Light Railway, though the TFL site tried to send us by bus, ferry, pony express and camel train, and by an entirely different and wholly inappropriate route. But I digress.

The Westfield Shopping Centre (or is it Mall?) is the destination. Out there in Olympic Land. Hop off the DLR, pass the Olympic athlete's village, go through the airport like ticket hall, look right and there it is. All glass fronted, wide open to the shopping centre (more of that later) and looking like a cross between Costa Coffee and an American Brew pub is Tap East. An L shaped bar, tables and stools, nice chairs and sofas, big windows. It is roomier than you'd think too and pleasantly laid out. Of course beer is the attraction but not being a geek, I didn't count the fonts for keg beer,  nor the handpumps, but there was certainly enough to go at and my choice of cask beer included two from the brew pub, Thornbridge Kipling and Dark Star American Pale.  I started with the Tap East Pale Ale (I think). Deeply bitter, with a good malt backbone, this was am enjoyable beer which perhaps needs a lighter more floral or tropical finishing hop adding, but was very drinkable indeed.  Thornbridge Kipling followed and was in great nick. All it needed was a sparkler to make it perfect.  There was of course, being an Utobeer outlet, a large array of bottled delicacies too.

On a Saturday afternoon the pub was pleasantly busy. Being in a shopping centre, there is a natural degree of transience about the customers. People come and go, but that isn't an issue to me, as this aids people watching, a prime pub pastime.  Downsides?  Well yes. Being open to the shopping mall on one side, makes the bar feel more airport like than perhaps a dividing wall otherwise would.  Being a bit more separate would also aid its identity hugely in my view.  The other downside is the mall's musak, which is piped in at a volume that makes it impossible to tune out for long.  The usual Christmas songs (on a one hour loop) must drive the staff to the point of distraction and certainly provide a degree of irritation for the customer.

Service was quick and friendly and despite the fact that we sat with manager Glyn, looking around, it was just as good for everyone.  We ate too; a doorstep sandwich for E and a superb pork pie from Borough Market for me. Just the type of thing you need from a pub in my view, being something substantial enough to blot up some beer without being stuffed.  Glyn brought me a sample of the stout too, but this to my mind needed more work , being brown and not roasty at all.  Talking of the brewery, this is clearly visible from the inside of the pub and is satisfyingly shiny.

Overall Tap East is a pleasant place to be in, has a great choice of good quality beer (no warm, flabby cask here), is well run with pleasant staff and very handy for Waitrose and the DLR.  What's not to like?  Get along there and try it. We'll certainly be back.

Top Tip: Avoid Westfield Shopping Centre by using the DLR. It seems the tube involves hoofing through the mall.

A Word to the Weisse

I have written before about Schneider und Sonne, the renowned German wheat beer brewer. You can read my original article here, but I don't think I've ever drank any of their beers in the UK. Not until one night last week that was.

Much is written about the Port St Beer House and their beer tasting nights, but little of their older sister Common Bar, in the trendy Northern Quarter of Manchester. It was Common, an edgier, funkier, artier, music led type of place and haunt of pretty studenty young women and skinny, hairy, leery, gawky lads, that hosted a tasting of Schneider beers. This was held in what could be described as a back room, but since it looked out onto the street, plainly wasn't. In our room, the audience was mostly young by my standards, so think late twenties, early thirties, but no doubt regarded as a load of old crinklies by the eager young crew next door. They all looked pretty damned serious. Until the beer flowed that is. What a leveller beer is and what a leveller it should be.

This was billed as a "Beer and Cheese" evening and the cheesy part was hosted by a Swiss Cheese producer, but since there was no hand-out of what the cheeses were and the descriptions and names were rattled out at top speed, we'll pass on the cheese part for now and concentrate on the beer. Now Schneider only brew wheat beer, so all the beers were of that ilk. That's fine, because Schneider, unlike many other German producers have used their imagination more than a little, so subtle and not so subtle variations of the wheat theme were the order of the day. We started off, somewhat surprisingly, with their newest beer, a supposed "one off". Nelson Sauvin uses the hop of that name and is bottle conditioned in champagne style bottles. The beer is 7.3% and while some of the promised, flowers, kiwi and gooseberry could be detected, overall, I didn't think this worked that well. Still, interesting and more variations please.  The basic premise is a good one.

The beers came thick and fast. Next up was Mein Blonde, a traditional pale wheat beer that ticks all the boxes. Spicy, citrus, subdued clove and banana.  A bit of Bavarian summer in a cold and grey Manchester.  Kristall, is a filtered version.  Clear as a bell and refreshing enough. Maybe it is just preference, but it doesn't do it for me in the same way a cloudy wheat beer does.  Then my Schneider favourite and my drink of choice when I'm in The Weisses Bräuhaus in Munich. Original is said to be the recipe of the original wheat beer brewed by the founder. If so, it has been cleaned up in recent years and is now an outstanding wheat beer of great complexity. Bottle conditioned, it has the full banana, clove thing going without excessive sweetness, through to a bitter-sweet finish. A bit darker this one, but a cracker in every way for the wheat beer fan. I'm one in case you didn't guess!

An odd interlude then.  I don't believe I've ever ordered an alcohol free beer in Germany.  Mein Alkoholfreies is said to taste like "ripe corn fields, sparkling and malty-aromatic". Well, to me it tasted like unfermented wort, which is probably what it is. I wasn't alone. It was the only dumper on our table.   Back to normality then with Aventinus, a dark, luscious doppelbock; oh an somewhere in between (by now the beer was taking effect and the noise levels were a notch below cacophony) we had Mein Grünes, another fairly new beer. Organic and 6.2% this has delicious lemony citrus overtones and traditional wheat beer spice. Very easy going to drink and refreshing too. This is another great beer and one which I will be drinking next time I'm in Munich for sure.

Then the beer that knocked John Clarke's socks off.  Hopfenweisse is heavily hopped with American "C " hops.  It has a big booming taste to go with its big booming 8.2% alcohol.  It is wonderful and dangerously and deceptively drinkable. Schneider say "This extreme wheat beer shows how far wheat beer taste can go."  Indeed it does.

Oh yes. The cheese.  I said I'd come back to that. Delicious though they were, they came in such minuscule portions that you couldn't really taste them with the beers. A touch more would have been nice and really have made it a food and beer matching.  No such complaints about the beer though. A  great night ended with a second shared bottle of the Hopfenweisse and we left having experienced what a great brewer can do with a style that most others merely produce to a single repetitive standard. Well done Schneider.  Our experience was enhanced by our two charming table companions, whose attractiveness to us was enhanced in no small way by generous donations of beer to three old soaks.

Young people today aren't all bad.

Beer of the night?  For me and my companions, it had to be Hopfenweisse.  My thanks to James Clay for their kind invitation

A Quick Word of Praise and a Moan

After much nagging, led by me (I think) and supported by many others, the Dean Swift in SE1 sorted out their (lack of) cooling for its cask beers sometime back in what passed for summer. I called subsequently and the beer was much transformed and in a good way.

Yesterday we nipped in again and found the cask beer in perfect condition and temperature. Oakham JHB was the beer and after one, a second was needed just to be sure. It was great too. That's gratifying. Now could they have a word round the corner at another well known venue?

In the same area, both the Horniman at Hays and the Pommeler's Rest, both very reliable in the past, seem to have taken quantum leaps backward in cask beer quality. In the former, the hefty price should at least guarantee a tip top pint.

Both these pubs are Cask Marque. Hmmm.

Camden Capers

The Beer Writers Guild do was good, with decent company and some good beer. I liked the Orange Peel beer from Wadworth particularly, as did Eileen, but we could have done with a bit more of it. My pre dinner tipple was Thwaites Wainwright. Re-racked bright, but still in excellent nick and very drinkable. Thwaites are doing a lot of things right and will likely continue to do so I fancy.

The day after the do saw a nice invitation from Mark Dredge to visit him at Camden Town Brewery. Tyson and I set off in reasonably good time, but got lost and despite the good intentions of those that directed us onto various wrong buses, we made it, almost an hour later than intended. We declined Mark's kind advice to scale the fence to get in and were admitted more conventionally through a gate. The brewery is spread under a set of railway arches and is bright and shiny German made stainless steel and mostly automated, with its own small kegging and bottling line. It is all carefully fitted in to the tightest of spaces.

Beers on offer were the noted Camden Hell which was spritzy and refreshing. The Pale was lightly hopped and is apparently being tweaked at present. The two stars of the show for me however were the new stout, not yet released, so rather exclusive. Nitro kegged and very, very drinkable, with a clean, bitter taste, roasty malt and some sweetness. It should do well and of course, it knocks Guinness into a cocked hat. A German style hefe weizen, was deliciously bang in the middle of the style, while the Belgian witbier hit all the right notes. None of the beers are pasteurised, which certainly gets a tick in the box from me. The company was good too, with fellow bloggers Mark from Beer Birra,Beer making a late appearance and Fletch from Real Ale Reviews too, who seemed to materialise from nowhere, but as always was great fun to be with. They all were,  even if these lads make me feel even more geriatric than usual!

Camden are doing lots of things right. There is a dynamic enthusiasm there and most of all, the beers are bloody good. Drink them with confidence.

Thanks to Mark D for the tour and the hospitality.

To Swig or not Swig. That is the Question

I read a lot about the beer revolution that is sweeping through a (relatively small) number of beery establishments and its small but growing band of devotees and noting what Zak Avery says here, offer a few observations.

It seems to me, irrespective of a sterile and futile keg versus cask debate, that the main dichotomy in beer drinking is coming from the increasing divide between those that like to, for want of a better term, neck a few, and those that want to have something stronger and more complex (harder to drink) in much smaller measures. The other great divide that is emerging is that between the younger more experimental type of beer drinker and those more traditional types that drink mostly cask beer in volume. I am ignoring for the purposes of this argument, the vast majority of beer drinkers that do neither, preferring their tipple to be Carling, John Smith's or whatever. (It is instructive sometimes to remember that whatever we imagine about the beer scene, most people neither drink cask nor craft keg, so in one sense, whatever camp you mainly fall in, the so called discerning beer market, whether craft keg or cask, has more in common than we sometimes recognise.)

While stereotyping is lazy, in some ways it does serve a purpose when identifying trends. When I visit places like Craft or the Port Street Beer House (less so) , I'm concious of the fact that I am one of the oldest there. It doesn't mean that people like me don't drink beer any more, but they don't necessarily drink it in the same places as the new emerging beer enthusiast  that prefers to pay top dollar for something either exotic, from afar, or both.  There is also undoubtedly a snobbish element about this too. Just look at Twitter to see what such people are drinking. They boast about beers I have never heard of, not so much to tell you how wonderful they are, but how unusual they are.  And often, how strong they are.

Zak mentions the growth in this niche market in his blog - and he is right. It does have some legs yet, but I doubt if it will take over the British beer drinking scene to any great extent, though grow it will.  London will set this trend.  It has been the sleeping giant for far too long and now awakened, there is plenty room to both catch up and exploit a still affluent market further.  Other beer drinking cities will follow to a lesser extent. Further from the capital though,  there is only so much money to go round and those willing to pay nine pounds a pint, or whatever, are limited in number and will further be weakened as economic gloom continues. To that extent, going back to Zak's title, the revolution can indeed be economised.

There is of course an up side.  These new drinkers and new beers and brewers bring a vibrancy and enthusiasm which should be welcomed, but as the exotic beers get ever more expensive, most of them will inevitably be drunk at home too.  Zak and other retailers are already exploiting this demand, but all home drinking has a knock on effect on pub and bar drinking. It could not be otherwise.

I assume the reason for the expensiveness of such beer is initial cost, rarity, mark up and the need to keep a lot of relatively low turnover stock on hand to satisfy choice. Cask beer, with its limited shelf life is more immediate and is consumed quickly and with gusto.  Those that do best mix and match the two.  I have long thought that without CAMRA there would be no "craft" and now I imagine the volume drinking cask drinker plays a large part in the mixed economy of the pubs I mention.  Maybe we need each other a bit more than you'd think?  That's something BrewDog may find out when they open in England. It is all very well selling exclusively keg beer in their Scottish bars. Scotland to all intents and purposes is a keg bastion. Will that work just as well in England? We'll see.

As I said, these are just observations.  I am delighted to see such interest in beer generally, despite reservations about emerging snobbery.  (Of course the same charge can equally be levelled at some cask drinkers too.)  I would also guess that most of us reading this are pretty well attuned to drinking in volume sometimes, but sipping at others. There is no conclusion to offer you, except perhaps that whatever and wherever we drink,  we should remember that beer might well be the best long drink in the world, but at the end of the day it is is just malt, hops, yeast and water.  Sometimes these simple ingredients are in perfect juxtaposition and often they are not.  Drinking expensively does not guarantee drinking well - price does not necessarily equate to quality.  Sellers should also be aware that beer doesn't have an intrinsic value that can only go up, like gold in a depression. (To go back to why you pay much more for craft beer things, I leave you with a quote from the Economist.  " By selling more profitable “craft premium” beers, in the marketing lingo, they can thrive where other pubs have failed. As always - follow the money."  Of course cask beer, the volume drink in these places, is also expensive.

In the end, maybe the one rubs off the other, enabling both to have a place in these new beer bars and a new generation of open minded beer drinkers would be a good thing,  but new drinkers,  like traditional ones, should avoid painting themselves into a corner.


This piece draws on the Economist article that Zak mentions. I won't mention his photo, except for one thing.  Anyone watch Emmerdale?

Reinheitsgebot - Einheitsgebot

For those of us interested in the state of German brewing - me, Boak and Bailey and Robsterowski mainly - there is, in the Brewer's Guardian, a fascinating interview with American Brewer in Bavaria, gone not quite native, Eric Toft.

Eric argues that German brewers have in effect led themselves and their customers up a blind alley of sameness, by interpreting the beer purity law in a singular and unwise way. He says in effect that there has been a gaderene rush to produce identical beers, dictated not by the Reinheitsgebot, but a lack of vision. He points out that "the Reinheitsgebot says nothing about what hop varieties and barley varieties and yeast strains you should use" and that "the Reinheitsgebot should be an inspiration to try and create within these so-called ‘confines".  Like so many things in life, it isn't what you've got, but the way that you use it that counts.

He has put this into effect in the brewery where he is Head Brewer, Privat Landbrauerei Schönram, a 55,000hl rural Bavarian brewery, by producing porters and IPAs alongside the more usual helles and pils, pointing out that particularly, these small scale experiments are well liked by women. (A separate issue, but yet another pointer that silly spritzer style beers for women are doomed to failure).

It is good to see this streak of common sense and adventure, albeit on a tiny scale, so let's hope he can convince more of his brewing colleagues and the wider drinking public in Germany.

Anything that shakes the German brewing industry out of its lethargy cannot be a bad thing. I say more power to his elbow.

The full interview with Eric Toft can be downloaded here.

Family Brewers to Keep Tie

The Government ended uncertainty about the future of the tie as it pertains to the vertically integrated family brewers - that is - those family owned breweries such as Adnams, Robinsons, Bateman's Lees etc. that both  brew, and own pubs which are tied to their beer.

In a response to the House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Committee’s tenth report of session 2010-2012 into pub companies, the Consumer Minister Edward Davey recognised the importance of the tie to the longevity of breweries and success of tenant licensees. It is instructive to my mind at least, that "During this long enquiry, successive Select Committees received no complaints about brewery tenancies." This contrasts somewhat vividly with the complaints received about Pub Companies. Paul Wells speaking for the Independent Family Brewers of Britain (IFBB) was pleased saying (among other things) "In my view, many family brewers will now increase investment into their pubs because of the support the Government has announced for the traditional brewery tenancy agreement and the beer tie."

All well and good - and I welcome the decision - but maybe now that this uncertainty has been removed, IFBB members who have not woken up to the beer revolution around them, in addition to tarting up their pubs, can turn their attention to more vibrant brewing in this new stable environment.   It will be a hollow victory indeed if they have stability for their tenants and future business, only to see it diminished by moribund beer ranges, dull brewing and a "we know best" attitude. As the Government and commercial logic forces PubCos to concede more choice for their lessees and micros offer more and more beery options, IFBB members cannot allow themselves to fall (further) behind the curve.

The beer market is at its most volatile for years.  Innovation and experiment is all around. Beer drinkers are more and more discerning and demanding. This provides opportunity, but it also provides pitfalls. Let's see IFBB members rise to the challenge of the times.

A lot of my drinking is done in IFBB pubs, so I declare an interest. And I care about them.

Two Beers - Two Breweries

When people rave about breweries, it is often about those that brew beers that are, shall we say, at the more exotic end of the spectrum. There are rarely glowing reports on ordinary supping strength beers, even from me and that is almost all that I drink. I of course rarely write about individual beers, so that's my excuse, but with the exception of say, Dark Star, Marble or the odd London brewery, there isn't much. Some yes, but not much, despite those kind of beers being what nearly everyone drinks.

So I'll redress the balance just a little. On Monday night, in Oldham, I had two different beers (though not just two beers) from two exceptional breweries. Both are, gratifyingly in my CAMRA branch area, and it was a CAMRA meeting that caused me, rarely, to be drinking beer on a Monday night. Both were 4.5%, which is just a touch above my normal drinking strength, but when the beers are from these two, you know not only that you can drink them with confidence, but indeed you must.

Funnily enough, one of the breweries, despite a great reputation is fairly hard to come by, though being brewed only 5 or 6 miles from where I live. (The other is even nearer.) The brewery brews at capacity, has no plans to expand and when I looked at its web site for my blog post, I realised I hadn't ever had the vast majority of their beers, such is their comparative rarity. The other brewery also brews to capacity most of the time and is much bigger. I have tried the vast majority of those beers many a time and always with great pleasure.

So who are they? Pictish and Phoenix of course. The beers on the night were Pictish Little Gem, a wonderfully tasty and hoppy, pale golden beer loaded with hops, this time in the unusual combination of Bramling Cross and Pacific Gem, giving a beer that was just sublime. In our meeting venue, we had Phoenix White Monk. An old favourite this and different in many ways to the Pictish offering, but wonderfully balanced between malt and hop. Don't ask me what hops, as I don't know and I bet if I asked the brewer, he wouldn't tell me.

So there you are. Two top tips. Phoenix and Pictish. Seek them out and don't forget the sparkler.

Pictured is Tony Allen of Phoenix with (possibly) a pint of White Monk.

Handing on the Baton

Tyson has mentioned the Bury Beer Festival  and Darren Turpin here. This used to be run by CAMRA for many years - in fact I've organised it more than once - but is now run by the hall owners themselves, on a different basis. CAMRA did run a small membership stall this year though and I did my bit on Friday afternoon, by spending a few hours there with my "Ask me about CAMRA" badge on. Quite a few did and one of the questions I was asked more than once, was "Why isn't CAMRA doing it now?"

There is no one answer, though lack of willing local volunteers was a pretty big factor, but my personal feeling is that for us, the event had run its course. We had done ourselves proud over the years and could now bow out, especially as the hall owners had their own thoughts about how the festival could develop and change. Also, clearly, one of the biggest expenses is the hall hire and that is something owners don't have to pay for and through letting out concessions to sell beer, they don't have to worry about the cost of buying it, or staffing the stalls, to nearly the same extent. In short, they have many advantages and have an ability to run things slightly differently to appeal to a different audience - in this case combining it with frequent live musical acts, but it could be anything.

When we started doing the Bury Beer Festival umpteen years ago (well over 20), beer festivals were the sole domain of CAMRA. Now others do it and Bury has quite a few. We blazed the trail and now many others are copying it, adapting it and taking the strain, as well as promoting cask ale to others. Is this a bad thing? No, it isn't. We in CAMRA campaign for real ale and if our campaigning has inspired others take the baton up and promote the same kind of beers we do, in their own particular way, at their risk, then surely that's no bad thing?

One thing though. Most of these festivals have a commercial element to them (as CAMRA's) festivals do.) Many support worthy causes and some, like Bury are run purely for profit, (though keeping the Met Arts Centre going could certainly be described as worthy). Beer festivals aren't the intellectual property of CAMRA, but often we are asked for advice and kit to help run beer festivals and we do give general advice and guidance, based on national policy. When we are asked for kit, we hire it. It takes effort to get the stuff from store and to clean it afterwards and CAMRA and its branches do still need campaigning money.

Beer is increasingly expensive to buy, and venues, in these difficult times are expensive to hire. Beer festivals can be a risky business when money is tight and you have to charge a fair old whack just to cover hall rental. When you have a town like Bury, with a healthy real ale scene, that can be a big ask of customers, who can get great choice at no entry cost in the local pubs. In short, the figures just don't stack up sometimes, so don't be too surprised if the odd, small, local beer festival is no longer run by CAMRA. I must say, I enjoyed my few hours at Bury, not having to worry about staff and whether we were going to sell enough beer to pay for it all.

At the other end of the scale though, larger festivals on a well established basis, like GBBF, National Winter Ales, Peterborough and the like in big cities, will continue to be CAMRA run, as indeed will very many small festivals. But there is a  place for a different approach in certain circumstances and where it happens, there shouldn't be too many concerns about that*.

* You will no doubt understand that I am stating a personal point of view here.

CAMRA's Great British Pubs

There is a plethora of books about beer and fortunately there seems to be a fairly never ending set of customers for them. One of the first in the UK to take up this theme was, oddly enough, the Campaign for Real Ale, who have been producing beer related books for many years, as a follow on from their first effort, the Good Beer Guide. They are still doing it.

Well known beer writer Adrian Tierney-Jones has ducked under the CAMRA Books umbrella for his latest offering, CAMRA's Great British Pubs. However this is no grim list of back street dives, but a well chosen selection of some of the most characterful pubs in the UK, cleverly chopped into sections such as "The best riverside pubs", "the best heritage pubs", "the best family pubs", "the best pubs to take your pet monkey to" -OK I made that one up, but you get the drift. This is a shrewd move as it breaks the book up neatly into type, rather than location, which makes for a more interesting read, though wisely there is an index by region to pull the whole thing into some geographical context and increase its usability as a guide.

This is no dry volume. Neatly studded throughout, like gateposts to lean on as you take in the scene, are one page articles such as "Edinburgh pub walks", "How cider is made", or "Fictional pubs" and there are appendices of beer styles and "how beer is brewed" to ease you out of the book and provide a practical aide-memoire.  But what of the pubs? Like any list of pubs, there are those that would argue that such and such a pub should be included at the expense of some other. That is to miss the point. This is no complete guide to the best, but like beer itself is a snapshot.  The writing is direct, personal and can be as delicious as a favoured pint.  Take this about the Beacon in Sedgefield: "Come far?" asked a genial chap in the tap room as I sipped the Dark Ruby and looked about the equally genial surroundings. I replied yes, but I really wanted to say that distance is relative: a visit to the Beacon is a journey through time as much as space."

I know the pub and know what he means. Perhaps the test of this book is how it describes and brings to life pubs you already know. It does this in spades. Tierney-Jones has a great eye for a pub. No dry commission this, done for the shilling and little else. This is a labour of love and you can tell this was written by a pub man. The pubs are brought to life and perhaps best of all, it makes you want to visit the ones you haven't been to.  It can be used as a guide, or just to read for the sheer pleasure and envy of it all.  So many pubs - so little time.

Given that this is a snapshot of 200 or so pubs, the opportunity of a follow up second volume would be a possibility in due course, but if Adrian does it, he may need some time to recover first. Thoroughly recommended.

Published by CAMRA Books at £14.99 (or join CAMRA and get two quid off) Review copy provided by CAMRA Books.

Briefly in Glasgow

Visiting my old Mum involves going though Glasgow en route to the Clyde coast and Dumbarton. Shaking off the effects of the journey usually has me nipping in for a quick pint before catching the train from Queen St, a five minute walk from Central Station. I used to always go to the Drum and Monkey, but for a while it has been reduced to the ubiquitous Deuchar's IPA and the ridiculous Caley 80 bob, so I by-passed it for the cavernous Counting House and its many handpumps. There was a lot of unappealing dark stuff on, but my eye alighted on a Nelson Sauvin pumpclip. Such was the crush at the bar, I couldn't get to see much more, but it was from Tryst  brewery and a fine and distinctive quaffer, which hit the spot after my journey.

A quick visit to the nearby - well just over the road - Camperdown Place, saw a poor choice. I plumped for Goff's Jouster after a taste, but it was one of those beers that fools you.  The more you had of it, the more unpleasant it became. I ditched it and had a half of Abbot, my first in years and you know, I quite enjoyed it.

The next day saw me window shopping in Glasgow prior to taking Mum for a curry.  Back to the Counting House, with Mum remarking that she misses her odd outing to them, as "a pub is a much better to have a drink in than home". Indeed Mum.  Jaipur was a touch green and not clear, as often it seems to be. My twitter enquiries about other folks' experiences with this beer fell on deaf ears however. Is it just me then?  Our curry house was two doors up from BrewDog Glasgow.  We were between buses, so went in.  I liked the place a lot and though they were probably bemused by both me and Mum, they treated us well.  All keg of course and my half of 77 lager was unappealingly watery - that again - and the Zeitgeist had somehow mislaid its mojo on the long journey from Fraserburgh to Glasgow.  Still, it had to be done and it was.

I'll draw a line under our late lunch the next day and my pints of Draught Guinness and Tennents Lager.  Both awful, but suffice to say, Guinness particularly seems in rapid decline taste wise, with its over-cooked, stale cardboard flavour and its thinness. The Tennents just tasted watery and watered down, which it is.  A couple of days later, on the way back  to Manchester,  I had a quick pint of Harviestoun Natural Blonde which was pretty good, with a snappy, refreshing hop taste and a slight spicy wheatiness. The pumpclip may well offend some though.  Time for one more before my journey.  I popped into the Drum and Monkey and five beers were on. I opted for a half of Ilkley Lotus IPA. I had to ask for a sparkler, which caused the very personable East Coaster behind the bar to grimace, confiding in me that he disliked them. We agreed to differ and chatted amiably. He now looks after the beer and is a stickler for both choice and quality. He berated the previous regime, as is customary, but I surmised instantly that he'll be an asset to the pub.  As always in pubs, get the staffing and beer right and you are on a winner. The Lotus was splendid, so much so, that I had another quick half, before hot footing it round the corner to Trans Pennine Express and the railway line southwards.

So a mixed bag in very limiting circumstances in Glasgow, but overall, not so bad.

If you ever want a very decent curry, tapas style, Mother India Cafe can be combined with BrewDog Glasgow, right opposite the Kelvin Hall.

Can I Have a Taste of That?

We are told that one of the best ways of encouraging people to try cask beer, is to offer tasters. Indeed the principle can be stretched to all beer, but I'd guess that it is to cask beer that it most often applies, given the huge number of different beers available and the lack of information provided about what's on sale in most pubs. There is a touch of psychology involved here too. Perhaps it is a British thing particularly, but there is a degree of obligation then put on the drinker, in his or her mind at least, that having tried a beer, you must buy a beer. I can't recall many, if any times, where I or others having tried a sample or two, then said "No thanks" and left. It is you would say, a "win win" situation. The drinker gets a beer they are more or less content with and the pub makes a sale. Simples.

Stepping back from this a little and broadening things out, there is still a distinct lack of information about beers on sale in most pubs. Bar staff are often guilty of complete lack of knowledge of even colour, despite serving the stuff - even sometimes it has to be said - at the end of a shift. Boards rarely indicate style or colour and the Cyclops scheme of how a beer appears and should taste is yet to make much of an impression. At least, nobody has ever read the Cyclops tasting notes back to me.

Last week in Liverpool I came across something that has only happened on the odd occasion. In one pub, a request by my drinking companion for a taste was politely refused, citing company policy. In another the very helpful barmaid explained that third pint tasters (as a pint) were available, so that you could make up your own mind at your own cost, as the burden of paying for tasters had proved uneconomic to the pub, mostly due to abuse of the system. Interesting stuff.

Now it may be that they are just a mean lot in Liverpool, but I doubt that. Personally I'd rather the pub factored in the cost of tasters in their pricing, as I'm sure most do, but given the wide variety of beers and beer styles available and the huge lottery of buying the unknown blind, I'd say pubs are missing a trick if they don't offer free tasters and make more effort to tell folks what the beers available are like. On the subject of third pints and three for the price of a pint in particular, I've noticed this becoming more common. It is a good thing, but not as a replacement for a quick taste to see if I'd like it in the first place. For the record, I've never come across any pub that sells a third of a pint on its own. Does that happen anywhere?

Tasters can be misleading of course as most drinkers know, but at least they give you a fleeting impression of the beer, but more product information is never a bad thing. The customer not only deserves it, but with huge choice, actually needs it.

I have even heard of CAMRA run festivals where the third has replaced tasters. Bad form.

And the Winner Is.....

Hawkshead Windermere Pale. The Champion Beer of the Society of Independent Brewers Northen section and very well deserved it is too. I first alerted my readers about this beer way back in 2009. You can read about it here.  For those that don't know it, Windermere Pale is a very pale, highly hopped beer of a mere 3.5%.  When we read so much about hop monster triple IPAs or other such, weighing in at 9% plus, it is good to remember what we are, possibly uniquely, so great at brewing on these islands - very drinkable low gravity beer that you can just straightforwardly sup in volume.

I was able to congratulate both the brewer and owner after the result was announced at the Great Northern Beer Festival last week in Manchester. The beer is one of my favourites and though judging was blind, I was pretty sure that it was one of the beers I judged, but I'll never know for sure, as I'm not anal enough to write down the codes, thus enabling me to find out later.  I know it is a cracking beer though, as does Matt the brewer and Alex the owner. For those that don't know it, Windermere Pale is hoppy and refreshing, pale gold in colour with a long bitter finish with hints of grapefruit. The fruity hop flavours come from a medley of traditional and modern hops in which Citra - no surprises - features.  As Alex said " “Windermere Pale is a very popular beer, it has a lot of fans. It has become the best selling beer in The Beer Hall at the brewery. It is one of those beers that is winning converts to real ale. I’m so glad competition judges like it too.” 

If you come across it, seek it out and insist it is both cool and sparkled.  

You'll also wish to know that the festival was a great success too. More on that in due course.