The Great and the Good

No, not a run-down of bloggers and their foibles- I'll save that until another time - but a visit, on Saturday evening,  to my Branch area by the CAMRA National Executive and Regional Directors, who are collectively known as the NERDS. See? Even at the top, CAMRA does tongue in cheek.  Sortof.
 
After (a dry*) meeting in the Lancashire Fusiliers Museum in Bury they'd hot coached it to Rochdale where the National Chairman no less was going to assist me in presenting two Pub of the Year Awards to the Baum.  I don't exactly need help after 20 odd years of doing this and saying a few words, but hey, when the Great Chief is in town it would be rude not to. Besides Colin is a splendid fellow. It was also a chance for the NERDS to visit this recently former National Pub of the Year, which many hadn't been to.

They leapt or limped off the bus like a broad section of Viz stereotypes and sweeping all before them hit the bar and ordered pints. It was a mixed scene. Not so many beards, in fact hardly any and there was even a fair sprinkling of women amongst them.  They were a cheery bunch and added to the general buzz on what was a sunny early evening in Rochdale - in itself worth putting out the flags for.  We went outside for the presentation and photos. The Baum has a large and very nice beer garden.  I said a few words, Colin said a few words, Simon from the Baum said a few words and returned to his duties inside.

The NERDS left for their next engagement and we returned to the serious business of supping. It had all been very pleasant really, like most CAMRA events.

 *When I say dry, I mean they drank no alcohol during the meeting. And yes it was dry too.  Apparently.   I'm off on my hols now. See you all in a couple of weeks and on Twitter.

CAMRA - Making Brewers and Publicans Happy

There's sometimes talk about how publicans, brewers and breweries hold CAMRA in contempt, though it isn't something I've come across much.  When this talk happens, it tends to be in snide comments on blogs or in asides between non CAMRA types. As I said, it isn't something I've had to deal with all that often and even then, it usually comes down to a remark about beer quality or whatever and it soon blows over.

Again despite rumours to the contrary, one thing brewers love, adore and can't get enough of is awards.  Pubs are the same. Awards mean some kind of recognition for effort and everyone likes to be recognised for what they do don't they?  So last night we (my local CAMRA Branch) had an awards ceremony.  First up was the Oldham Pub of the Year, the Ashton Arms, a comfortable and welcoming town centre pub with a great range of beer and then the awards for Oldham Beer Festival.  Gold and Silver to a local brewery, Greenfield for Silver Owl and Vanilla Stout and Bronze to Millstone, nearby in Mossley, for True Grit.  The brewers and owners were there.  We actually know all of our local brewers extremely well and they were absolutely delighted with the awards.  The pub was delighted. We were delighted that they were delighted and we all had a great night and brought extra trade into the Ashton.

CAMRA - Delighting the good in Pubs and Brewing.

Winning beer, Greenfield Silver Owl is a superbly clean pale, hoppy and bitter beer of around 4%.  I had a lovely couple of pints of it last night. All winning beers were chosen by the general public at the festival itself.

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.

The Beer Blogger Awards 2009

Mark Dredge asked on Pencil and Spoon for bloggers to name their "awards" under the following categories. I thought, despite my mumblings about such stuff, I'd not be a miserable old git and give it a go. So here we are:

Best UK Draught Beer: Marble Pint. Honourable mentions to: Phoenix Arizona and Lees Brewer's Dark.

Best UK Bottled Beer: No idea at all.

Best Overseas Draught Beer: Brauerei Roppelt, Stieberlimbach, Franconia; Keller Bier. Lager perfection.

Best Overseas Bottled Beer: Girardin Gueuze, but most gueuze would get my vote, as it is just such a change and contrast to my normal drinks

Best Overall Beer: Marble Pint. As good as it gets really. Bitter, hoppy, decent body, right colour, cask conditioned. What's not to like?

Best Bottle Label or Pump Clip: No idea.

Best UK Brewery: Marble. It just has to be. They are on blob at the moment; pale or dark, they can do it and do it really well. Honourable mentions to Phoenix for consistently great beers and Mallinsons for brewing excellent examples of my favourite beer style - pale and hoppy.

Best Overseas Brewery: Brauerei Roppelt. To experience their keller beer is to see how good and how drinkable bottom fermented beer can be.

Pub/Bar of the Year: The Baum Rochdale. Just a great and welcoming pub with fantastic staff and superbly kept and varied beer. Honourable mentions to the THT of course and Zum Uerige, Dusseldorf, the best pub in Germany in my humble opinion. I never tire of it. But in truth there are a lot of great pubs if you know where to look.

Beer Festival of the Year: GBBF. What could be better?

Supermarket of the Year: No idea at all.

Independent Retailer of the Year: As above.

Online Retailer of the Year: As above.

Best Beer Book: GBG 2009. Only as I use it a lot and I haven't got my mitts on Hops and Glory yet.

Best Beer Blog: Mine of course, but I do like Cooking Lager for a laugh. Best other "serious" beer blog has to be Pete Brown's. A proper beer man him (and that counts for a hell of a lot in my book) and it shows in his writing. Honourable mentions go to Impy Malting's deliciously observational blog. (Why can't I comment on it?) and Boak and Bailey''s thoughtful stuff, which always interests.

Best Beer Twitterer: It's all a bit silly really.

Best Online Interactive Brewery: Neither know nor care. Sorry.

Food and Beer Pairing of the Year: Lees Brewer's Dark and Smokey Bacon crisps.

Open Category: You Choose: Oddest Beer Moment: Visiting Brauerei Hebendanz in Forchheim. It is just utterly weird! See my blog entry for details. Biggest wish (1): that my fellow bloggers would get out into the pub more. Biggest wish (2): that the pound would start kicking the euro's arse. Fat chance of that one.

Next Year I’d Most Like To... Be around to drink good beer wherever I can find it

Sending Out the Wrong Signals

The Beautiful Beer Awards scheme was launched in March 2006, to recognise and reward pubs who deliver ‘excellence in beer’. To gain an award, pubs have to pass a thorough inspection of all aspects of beer service from cellar conditions to the beer in the glass. Successful pubs receive a Beautiful Beer plaque to display outside, as a guarantee to drinkers that the beer inside is of excellent quality. The aim of this campaign, owned by the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA), is to encourage more consumers to make beer their drink of choice on more occasions.

All fine and dandy you may well say. What a good thing you might say. So what has happened to this laudable scheme, primed with £600,000 of BBPA money? Well, they have axed both the founding director and the Public Relations Manager (who was the main contact and really ran the show) to concentrate funds on "political issues such as alcohol strategy and taxation." Don't know about you, but I rather like the idea of sorting out beer in pubs and spending a little on that. If they want to campaign on political issues, maybe they should find the funds out of another budget, rather than the beer quality one.

Awards have to have support and credibility to make them work and be seen to have value to the pub and the consumer. That means a proper structure, publicity and staffing. In a time when many pubs are empty, this move would seem to be taking an eye off the ball.


The awards scheme will continue it seems, but to me it has lost a bit of cred.

Things Change

When I was last down in London I noted that Shep's White Swan in Alie St has a cellarmanship award on its outside wall. The plaque has gone I observed as I strolled past today on my way to our flat.

I am not sure what conclusion I draw from it though.