Some Bottle!

Some months ago, - not that many - honest, I was given a bottle of Kernel Black IPA by Glyn of Rake fame. He'd brewed it with the Kernel lot and bummed about it being pretty good. It sat in my London fridge for a few weeks then was given a new home in my Manchester one. When I moaned the other day about my lack of free beer, my benefactor rightly enquired along the lines of  "Oi Bollocks. What happened to the free beer I gave you then?"

Well as mentioned above, it was safe and sound and yesterday I promised I'd drink it this weekend. Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, as my favourite poet once said, so last night in a rare bout of Saturday night Match of the Day watching, rather than my usual Sunday morning one, as E had gone to bed, I thought, I know, I'll have a couple of beers. So first up to warm up the old taste buds was Hopback Summer Lightning. Now this isn't the greatest cask beer in the world, but it translates into BCA form rather well. It was a good beer and one I'd drink again when the sun shines. Then I opened the Kernel Black IPA. As soon as it went "hiss" I knew I was in for something special. The fresh hop aroma just jumped out. The taste was sublime, the body, mouthfeel and carbonation perfect, the head retention good and the complex, balanced roast and hop flavours a marriage made in heaven. It was also a masterclass in how to use hops well.  I was brassed off big style that I only had one. I won't mess you about. This is simply one of the best bottled beers I have ever tasted and I don't give such praise lightly. Oh and if you want full tasting notes - see the Kernel chaps. I was just drinking it.

Naturally this morning I let Glyn know I'd drank and enjoyed it and asked if it was still available. He confirmed it is now a permanent addition to the Kernel range. Now maybe I just touched lucky with this bottle and the length of time I kept it. I don't even know if it is bottle conditioned, but who cares. Next time I'm in that there London, I'm going to Kernel to buy some.

You should too.  Trust me on this one.

Life's a Gas

And so was Odell's 5 Barrel last night in the Port St Ale House. Boy was it fizzy. I'd guess at least 2.5 volumes, but quite possibly a fair bit more. Once I'd knocked half the CO2 out of it, there was a decent but thin beer underneath, with some piney hops edging into soapiness. Nothing particularly classic about it. E asked me the very pertinent question as to why the beer we drink in Germany doesn't feel as gassy.  They don't seem quite so fizzy in the US either and certainly not in Belgium, so I am a bit at a loss, as I've yet to find a UK served "craft beer" that doesn't seem well over gassed. The search continues, but it is a dear do doing so.

I couldn't provide a definitive answer to E's question. Of course it could just be us, so used to cask, that the beer seems more gassed than it is. Are these beers served entirely by CO2? It seems like it, but surely not? Perhaps some are served with a touch of nitrogen via an in cellar gas blender, or more doubtfully through pre-mix standard gas bottles, though I suspect not.

Anyone know the full SP on this? I am genuinely puzzled and it isn't a pop at keg. Frankly it is a gap in my knowledge.

Best moment of last night was the look of incredulity (and rebellion) on the barman's face when a customer asked for a pint of Bacchus Kriek with a lemonade top.

Lovely Free Beer

I rarely get sent free beer despite my extremely educated palate and my record of beer tasting going back donkey's years, as well as my leading blog status. I think I protest too much about not drinking at home. However the nice people that do the UK PR for Duvel-Moortgat kindly sent me a couple of bottles of Vedett and I've gone and drunked them.

I remember visiting Duvel many years ago and the hospitality was mighty. They brewed a pilsner then too I recall, so whether this is the same one or not, I have no idea. I do though remember, distinctly, the feeling of impending doom when they let us loose in the hospitality suite and our concerns amid a sea of Duvel, Duvel Green Label (it goes back years folks) and Maredsous, that by the time we got to De Koninck later that day we'd be pissed. I needn't have fretted. By the time we got to De Koninck we were indeed completely pissed, but happily, no longer worrying about it.

Back to Vedett then. Not the most complex beer ever, but I doubt if it is meant to be. Crisp, a bit of hop, very highly carbonated and would be great in the sunshine, or just as I did as a thirst quencher. It feels far cleaner than a lot of pils type beers and I like clean in a beer. You don't need to know any more really.

So there you are. Send me beer and you'll get history, provenance and usually an anecdote. Oh and possibly a nice mention too. Get sending then.

German News

According to the Federal Statistical Office, Germany sold 20.8 million hectolitres of beer in the first quarter of 2011. That was a decrease of 0.1 million hectolitres (–0.4%) from the corresponding period of the previous year. So gloom there too.

It seems too that the Germans are getting round their somewhat loophole filled smoking ban with comparative ease. Despite widespread smoking bans across Germany, more than four out of five corner pubs and bars still have patrons smoking inside, a study released on Tuesday has found. A survey of nearly 3,000 eating and drinking venues in 10 major cities found that complex and numerous exemptions are being widely exploited to allow smoking to continue.

Since August 2007, laws have been gradually introduced in all German states to protect people against passive smoke. However many exemptions exist. Düsseldorf had the most smoking bars and also the most breaches of the law with 41% of all hospitality venues still allowing smoking, but failing to warn their patrons that they do. Munich came out on top. A general smoking ban has been in force there since August 2010. Yet even here, 17 percent of bars make use of the single exception that is still possible in Bavaria – that smoking is permitted in private clubs or associations.

Meanwhile the German Brewers Association revealed that Germany has 1,325 breweries currently though warning at the same time that this number is likely to fall due to takeovers.

Finally, I'll leave you with this quote from a contributor to a discussion on the beer purity laws. "lots of countries in Europe allow brewers to use chemicals ,the lager in the U.K. has no natural things in it at all."

Oh well. But if you look at the photo, perhaps their beer is just too natural?

My thanks to The Local

Jaipur

I read somewhere over the holiday period - Twitter probably - that cask Jaipur has been "flabby" recently and bottles were much better. Last night in the Regal Moon in Rochdale, it was superb. Tremendous in fact. For anyone tempted to buy bottles rather than cask, this information is brought to you as a public service.

End of message.

Follow Up

No sooner had I written my piece on bar snacks than the good old Morning Advertiser - sorry - The Publican's Morning Advertiser, jumped in with a story on the same theme.  Of course they have to go a bit too far with some rather exotic suggestions and please note publicans  - not all bar snacks need to to be fried - but nonetheless it is good that the trade paper is latching on to this obvious gap in the market.

All is not sweetness and light though. While it is good that the message is being picked up and while exotic tapas and the like are fine and dandy, don't forget, keeping it simple will work too."We don't necessarily want a full meal" though is a great message which should be heeded. Sadly there is no mention of pork pies, filled rolls, sandwiches or scotch eggs, which kind of makes me think that the wish to over complicate and subsequently over price and then extrapolate that to "no demand"  is alive and well.

Let's keep asking in the pubs for what we really want.

Lees Please

The lovely E has been home from London for nearly two weeks and despite great intentions to get out and about, we have largely not done so. With the exception of a trip to see the Landlady in the depths of Delph and a quick foray into Rochdale, beer wise it has been an unmitigated parade of Lees, either in bitter format, or as Middleton's, their Royal Wedding Ale.

While I enjoyed Thwaites Wainwrights (not nearly as hoppy as usual) chez Landlady and more challenging beers at the Railway, Baum and the Regal Moon, it was good old fashioned malty Lees Bitter that I supped most of.  Simple, unchallenging and straight down the neck stuff. Most of that was in my local with our friends and I'm not doing much by way of being insightful to say that's what appealed most. In great company, beer slides down very well indeed and Lees Bitter slides down better than most.

Of course my Lees interests range wider than just swigging the bitter. Talking to two different  Lees Landlords gave the same comments about their seasonal range. Three months is too long for each beer. The novelty has worn off before the new guest appears, making it harder to shift. This isn't helped by the fact that Lees drinkers are a conservative lot and very loyal to the bitter. Another gripe is that already, the scheduled non appearance (well you know what I mean), of the Christmas special Plum Pudding this year is already causing wailing and gnashing of teeth from publicans and customers alike. It's a great beer and the feeling is that cask Manchester Star, a recreation of an 1884 Lees beer hitherto exported to the US in bottle only, is likely to be too strong at 6.5% to appeal. Beer geeks of course would no doubt disagree and ought to make their plans for a trip north now and I do hope Lees drinkers give it a fair chance.

Still onwards and upwards. I have a CAMRA meeting tonight and I dare say it will be back to hops.

De Ranke Kriek

I don't tend to get involved with The Session or Open It, as they feel a bit too contrived for my liking, so you can regard this blog entry as either chutzpah or co-incidence. On Friday I opened a long kept beer which I bought in Belgium many years ago. So many years ago that I can't really remember, but as it was best before July 2007, it must have been a fair few.  The fact that it has not been opened stems from the fact I have never got round to it and that I rarely drink anything at home. Why then did I buy it? Then, I suppose,  I was probably much more nerdy than I am now and did indeed drink a fair bit of beer at home, a lot of it for tasting note purposes.  Thankfully I am cured of the tasting note affliction and now I can't be arsed carrying heavy bottles back from abroad.  So the good news for those cursed with either of these distressing diseases is that they are likely to wear off given time.

What about the beer I hear you scream. Well I can't really be arsed about that either, so this is what it says on Beer Advocate: "Based on an extinct yet favorite tipple of the De Ranke owners, Nino Bacelle and Guido Devos, De Ranke Kriek emulates the famed Oud Kriekenbier from the defunct Crombé brewery in Zottegem. De Ranke Kriek is a mixture of two blended soured pale ales and Girardin lambic, all steeped in whole fresh cherries from Poland and then aged for six months. A unique and much sought after Kriekenbier."

Despite its age, it was in great shape. I had wondered if the subdued cherry was due to age, but seemingly not if you read some of the comments. I found it pleasant and enjoyed the red wine vinegar like sour lambic element pretty much, would have preferred a stronger cherry presence and  a bit more body. I  found little by the way of brett.  It was all a bit tame really and drank well below its 7% strength.  You wonder sometimes if those on Beer Advocate have much better imaginations than palates.

As Tyson would put it: "One for your Beer Geek Friend."

I've an idea I've been to the Crombé  Brewery many years ago. But then again, maybe not.

A Duty of Care

Being a CAMRA Chairman is a mixed bag; some pleasant, some mundane and some downright like drudgery. But its my "job" - a labour of love - a calling if you like and therefore not one that I expect great plaudits for. Of course small things mean a lot when they do occur.

There is a lot of talk about how the trade resent CAMRA to varying degrees. That may be so in some places, but as my branch has never been swayed by freebies (rarely even offered any) and seems to have good relationships with our publicans, maybe we are doing something right. Those publicans that actually care about beer and what they do with it and want to keep their businesses vibrant seem to like us. I am struck particularly by the number of requests I am getting lately for advice. It seems that real ale, cask conditioned beer, is a must have to drive business for a lot of publicans and equally there are a lot of good pubs that have fallen from grace by a series of bad luck or incompetence, or more often, due to the greedy Pub Companies that are now ending up in the hands of people with some nous and less debt round their necks.  I have two such cases on my books at present.

Thus it was yesterday I went to a pub beer festival that I had given some advice on. The pub landlady had thought it through too, choosing the Royal Wedding Day to launch it and then with beer to sell, had worked out in advance that the local home team would fill the pub today and live football would help tomorrow. Coupled with good advertising, banners outside, local press coverage and CAMRA advice and with Bank Holiday Monday to finish it all off, Bob should be your parents sibling.  I certainly hope so, as she has done all the right things.  It was also good to talk about the future and her determination to get the pub back to its glory days. She saw CAMRA to be key in this, which is the gratifying bit I referred to earlier. It is always good to work with people that actually care about what they do and of course, to be appreciated.

Another interesting snippet I picked up was how supportive Punch Taverns had been. They had allowed her to buy out of the tie to get interesting local beers in for the festival and would work with her to make things better in the future. A light at the end of the tunnel perhaps? Let's hope so.

So, a good day "work" wise.  Nice when that happens.

A neat touch was the open cellar where you could view the cask beers being prepared and see how clean it all is.  Great call that.

Double Bubble

For those Wetherspoon haters out there - you know who you are - there is both bad news and very bad news. The bad news is that JDW has just opened its 800th pub and the very bad news? Tim Martin, the founder, aims to keep going until he has 1600 of them.

This was revealed last week, but in an excellent interview in the London Standard he talks about it in some detail and includes the following scathing words about the PubCos "Two extraordinary groups of fools conspired to make them possible. The brewers to give them the pubs in the first place and the banks to lend them the money." Exactly so and he could have gone on to say that the error was repeated and compounded, until a largely debt free pub trade became so debt laden that the present state of affairs occurs. When people bang on about prices and smoking bans, look to the PubCo model to see where things were made far worse, to the point of unsurvivability for many.

A word of caution emerges too.  JDW is a good employer, preferring to build growth and pay and treat staff remarkably well compared to much of the industry. The City and asset strippers don't like that and would possibly like the more short term strategy.  As the article says: "For a long time, the City couldn't get 'Spoons at all. Its way of doing things - invest for the long term, treat people well - is anathema to the Square Mile's whole way of being.Analysts still can't understand why Martin doesn't just cut staff benefits and shove up prices to take profits higher in the short term."

So back to the Wetherspoon haters. Be glad that Timbo is in charge or we'd have an entirely less diverse JDW on our High Streets and a lot less quality real ale available.  Be thankful for the choice that JDW offers and hang on to nurse at all costs. There is plenty worse out there slavering in the wings.

Tim, at least, is a Beer Man. And that counts. A lot.

How Come?

It was remarked from the top table no less, at the CAMRA AGM in Sheffield,  that in addition to having one of the most vibrant and enjoyable pub scenes in the UK for good beer, how reasonably priced it all was in our temporary home.  It seemed most pints were around the £2.30 to £2.60 range with a few exceptions.

I wonder too. These prices weren't just for local beers, but seemed to also apply in the free houses, where the beers came from near and far. Now Sheffield is very competitive and there are plenty good and varied free houses to choose from. Is it as simple as that? I really don't know, but we were all wondering how they do it given the upward price pressure on pubs that we all know about.

Equally some were wondering why others elsewhere in the country can't.  Or don't.

Beer Blotters

When we are asked by the venue management of the home of the National Winter Ales Festival what sort of food we want for the event, my mate Graham, the Organiser, always chirrups " beer blotters" - "something to soak up the ale"; or as I alternatively say and add, "something to put you on, not fill you up."

On Saturday, at the landlady's pub, which offers excellent grub, a punter said to her after perusing the menu, "I'd just like a plain simple roast beef sandwich - no salad, no garnish, no chips". This was produced, the landlady being an obliging sort. It set me thinking that the good old fashioned bar snack - the something to put you on - is pretty much an endangered species. If I'm in a pub, I often fancy a simple filled roll, or the like, but rarely is such a beast available. If the beer is good, or just if  I'm peckish, I want something that will stop me getting pissed, but not stop me dead in my tracks and prevent a few more pints. Isn't that something that the pub ought to want too?

In the West Midlands and some parts of the country, this tradition is safe. Filled rolls are common in the Black Country and in the West Midlands, the hot roast pork sandwich is widely available, reasonably priced and welcome. In Sheffield at the CAMRA AGM, the adjacent Thornbridge badged pub had an excellent roast pork bap (with a few chunky chips) for just under four quid. Perfect.
 
Are a lot of pubs missing a trick here in not providing reasonably priced snacks as well as full meals? I'd say so, but what do others think?

The photo was taken two years ago in the Black Country and the cob is the size of a baby's head!  That's a pint next to it.

Back to the Pub

It's been a quiet week beer wise really. Another trip to Scotland with brief flurries into a couple of JDWs between stations and a reminder that in the pub game, things can quickly change.  I have mentioned the very grand Counting House more than once, the first time back in 2008, but to me it has slipped badly, with a range of beers chosen it seems from the arse end of Scottish brewing and very little leavening of decent ales from elsewhere. The quality isn't brilliant either, though the splendour of this former banking hall remains undiminished. I always look into the Drum and Monkey and recently praised them, but on Tuesday it was Caledonian beers all the way.  On my return to Central Station on Thursday it was the same.  If you don't like Caledonian beers you are knocked out of the game. Bad move I'd say and hopefully a one off.

So today I am off to see the landlady in Delph. We'll need two buses and can stop off in the various Pennine villages too. It should be a nice day out in the far reaches of my CAMRA Branch area and as the pubs will all be Good Beer Guide or Good Beer Guide designate, I'm expecting great beer.

With me, I have the lovely E,  whose palate, like many women beer drinkers,  is impeccable. If you think I can be critical about beer you ought to see her in action. I'll let you know.

The photo is of Delph. Nice innit?

The Camra AGM

Nice place Sheffield, but somewhat hilly. Lots of good pubs and beer and a great tram system taking you to the door of many of said pubs.  Trams are the biz.  There's also a chance to meet old friends and drink a few beers too and to listen to the great and good of CAMRA speak on what many regarded as a somewhat boring agenda.  Somehow this turned into a close run thing with tellers called a few times as votes were so close, though not you'll be glad to know, on the two nuttier resolutions mentioned by Jeff Pickthall in his blog.  These were unequivocally thrown out.

The Strategy Review document which I was involved in, was expertly presented by our committee Chairman, ex MP John Grogan and seemed to meet with a fair bit of approval and even the most sceptical agreed it was a good piece of work, though we the members need to ensure it is driven through into action.  Lively debates on JDW vouchers and non real beers at festivals were good to listen to and the guest speaker, Chris Holmes, who runs a chain of pubs and a brewery, was both entertaining and thought provoking.  Far from being a bigoted bunch of old duffers, there was much passion and thought in what was said, though of course the odd unreconstructed type was there too.

The Bloggerati even got a mention by the National Chairman along the lines of "drink what you like, but we campaign for real ale" which some readers may find inconvenient, though surely not surprising and with a very positive Campaigns Report from Mike Benner, our CEO, it was pretty reaffirming for those there, actually enjoyable and a reminder that being part of something is really rather satisfying.

So for CAMRA, it is business as usual, but with the Strategy Review feeding into the next Strategic plan, we'll have more focus and I believe, undiminished enthusiasm. We campaign for real ale. No apologies for that!

Good Show Chaps

I had a bottle of Avery Brown Dredge last night. We were in the Port St Beer House (freezing as usual) and Tyson insisted. And he paid, such was his insistence. I was expecting not to like it that much, as I thought somehow it might be a bit sweet and sticky given its strength, but I was delightfully surprised to find it just the opposite, being astonishingly clean (I like clean in a beer) and certainly drinking more like a five and a half percenter rather than the 7.5% it is. The hops come shining through after each sip and really showcase the Saaz hop; the malt balance was excellent and the finish had just the right length and hop flourish.  It is a lovely beer with a great deal of elegance and sophistication.

So what else is there to say except, buy* it. It is really good.
 
*Better still, have it bought for you!