Bass in the Sun

You don't encounter Draught Bass that often these days in my experience. I know of a couple of places where it is sold, but I wouldn't go there just to seek the beer out as such. It wasn't always so. I used to make many a pilgrimage to the White Star in Liverpool in the early eighties, where the Bass, from Burton Union  sets was worth seeking out. The pub also sold Worthington and Bass Brew X as I recall, but I digress.

On a gorgeous summer's day last week, I was meeting a friend in Helensburgh, a town I know well from my youth in the West of Scotland. The Commodore Hotel is an imposing white building at the far end of this  neat little riverside town. It has a magnificent beer garden and wonderful views across the Clyde to Greenock one one side and the Gareloch on the other. It has changed considerably since the days when me and my plooky chums from Dumbarton used to infest it on a Sunday night in the vain hope of attracting girls. It certainly didn't sell real ale then, but it does now and is considerably more tarted up. Cask Marque accredited too, so I ordered a pint of Harviestoun's Bitter and Twisted with confidence and took it outside to savour the view.  It was cloudy - not the weather - but the beer. I knew it shouldn't be and sipped it cautiously. It tasted fine. Hmm. It was too good a day to bother taking it up with the barstaff, so I just got on with it.  A few minutes later, on entering the bar once more to purchase a glass of wine for my companion, the barman who had been friendly and chatty, asked me what I thought of the beer. "It's a touch cloudy" I said, "but tastes fine". His face clouded like my beer. "It shouldn't be. Have something else". I demurred, he insisted,  I chose Draught Bass and he went off to check the cask.
 
Outside it was hot and my half finished pint was starting to clear a bit. It had been a chill haze, albeit a quite severe one. Ah well.  The barman had done the right thing and I had a free pint. That's the way it goes sometimes.  As we sat chatting and watching a submarine, surrounded by escort vessels, slowly enter the navigation channel and make its way at snail's pace to HM Naval Base Faslane, I sipped my Bass. It was rich and malty, but really rather good. Oddly it seemed to suit the hot weather and as the afternoon slipped by, more Bass slipped down nicely.

It was pleasing to me that a beer with such a great past could still show its class and compete with a modern golden ale. Who'd have thought it?  Not me I admit, but it did.

The photo shows my pint before it cleared, which it did, though it took some time.  I also wrote about Draught Bass here.

This Is Lager?

It isn't often that I disagree with the Beer Nut when he describes and recommends a beer, above all because I rate his beer tasting notes as second to none and therefore his recommendations as ones to be taken very seriously indeed. As I neither have his dedication nor inclination, I'm generally happy to enjoy his tastings vicariously and of course, being a lazy git I'd rather sup beer than write tasting notes. So very unusually and with a caveat, I'm going to tentatively disagree with the Beer Nut over this post about BrewDog's This. Is. Lager. (TIL).  The caveat is that the Beer Nut describes the bottled version in his post and I have been drinking the draught version.

Now given my poor views of the state of cask beer in London,  I tend to drink a heck of a lot more lager there. And a lot more gin too.  Drinking cask beer in London (an aside in this post) is far to often the triumph of hope over experience, with its attendant coming down to earth with a bump.  This brings me back to TIL. I was very pleased when BrewDog introduced it and looked forward to it when I heard it was coming to JDW. But it is so variable.  All too few times the beer is clean, hoppy, full bodied, mouthfilling and refreshing and all too many times,  metallic, ridiculously over-carbonated, brasso like and weedy.  I asked E whose palate is excellent and who likes lager nearly as much as I do, to describe it. She summed it up thus: "It's usually too harsh. I used to like it, but I don't now". How can this be?

I offer two explanations. First the old BrewDog problem of inconsistency of product is one possibility and this may or may not be the case. I just don't know. The second and possibly more likely one, is that I'm drinking it in the wrong place. I drink it in Wetherspoons. Why should that be an issue I wondered?  I turned to a friend of mine who manages a leading JDW for his thoughts.  "It doesn't turn over as quickly as it needs to to be fresh and consistent" he said.  "And most people just don't like it."  So is that the explanation?  One piece of evidence for this, in this neck of the woods, came on Saturday in the Art Picture House in Bury.  This Is Lager was being offered (or was it remaindered?) at £2 a pint. E had a half and didn't have any more. She didn't like it.  I tasted it and found it thin and unappealing. Going back to the Beer Nut, I'm not quite so tentative when I say I am somewhat taken aback when he says "Put it in a grown-up serving size and you'd have a rival for Pilsner Urquell"

I disagree. On draught at least, for me and in my opinion, This. Is.Lager doesn't have the same complexity and consistency as PU. Moreover, to me, it just hasn't got the sheer quality of PU. Maybe though I'll have to find a bottle one day to see how that stands up.

Perhaps someone that regularly drinks it in BD pub could give their views? On the plus side, and thinking on, at £1.99 a pint, it is most certainly "Craft Beer for the People"!

I note too that BN had a few eyebrow raised comments about his views and some support.  That's interesting.  Maybe he just got a very good bottle of it?

Manchester Brew Expo

I haven't read much about this event in blogs and was expecting the Manchester bloggerati to save me a job, but looks like I'll need to help shoulder that burden.

What is it I hear you ask? Well it's a collaboration between some of the newer and maybe trendier Manchester brewers to "celebrate our brewing community". And why not? While London is getting many of the plaudits, up here in Manchester we have been getting on with it for years and produce, dare I say it, beers that are the equal of the best London breweries and in fact, much better in many, many cases. There were two events - one for breweries near Piccadilly Station and one for those in what was called the Green Quarter - a term I have never heard of - but turns out to be the area near Victoria Station. So that's all good. I bought into the Saturday one which was the Piccadilly gig. A tenner got you a drink at five breweries, a map of brewery locations, a badge to wear and a fetching pint glass to add to the too many I already have. Still, even if it did mean lugging it about, it meant drinking out of a decent glass. That's good too.  The price was excellent value as it included, should you wish, brewery tours, tastings and the like which had to be pre-booked. Well done on that front.

I started at the new Cloudwater Brewery which I was keen to see. Now I've been to countless breweries and they can pall after a bit, but I am a sucker for stainless steel and I'd seen the photos of this bespoke plant.  In a very large warehouse type unit it certainly looked the part and I joined a party that was being given the spiel by one of the brewers, Paul Jones and enjoyed what was an informative and interesting discussion which included sampling some beers straight from conditioning tanks.  Quite a novel feature and while I liked some beers, I wasn't so keen on others. In particular the sours didn't do too much for me, but maybe with age in a bit of oak that might well change.  I did really enjoy the Märzen, brewed in collaboration with Camden, which had the mouthfeel and colour of the style with a very clever touch of hopping to lift it to a much higher level. I really appreciated too the chance to talk with Paul afterwards. As well as being a thoroughly nice fellow. He has some fine ideas about brewing.  The whole place exudes professionalism and it is done with charm and appeal. I liked it.

After a few (too many) more Märzens and a chat to Manchester Beer Royalty in the form of Beer4John, I was joined by E and we set off on the fairly long trek to Ardwick and Squawk Brewery. We liked it there - oddly homely - with an unusual assortment of mismatched second hand sofas and chairs, it was a comfortable (if very quiet setting) in which to enjoy our beer. Cask and keg on offer here and the beer was very good.  Breweries came thick and fast then with Privateer where I enjoyed cask Dark Revenge, a railway related discussion with the brewer and a loll outside in the sun with its shades of Bermondsey Beer Mile -  but again very quiet in terms of customers, Alphabet which was much busier with Expo Explorers awaiting the "Meet the Brewer" and tasting event.  Keg only these I recall and not really to my taste, though I did enjoy the atmosphere here, with plenty of room and street food.   Finally and very near Piccadilly Station was Track (cask and keg here) where we again bumped into Mr Clarke propping up the bar. I can't tell you which beers I had in the the last two as when I'm enjoying myself, my notebook, as usual, didn't leave my pocket - one of the many reasons I am one of the least reliable reporters of beery events around.  Also, I may or may not have had one too many by then. I'm not saying


All in all a good day out. Superb value for money especially if you signed up for tours and tastings and if they do it again, count me in. I'll be sure to fire up my notebook too.

Oddly apart from a few CAMRA types, mainly at the first and last breweries, I met hardly anyone I know. It was though a pleasure to see so many enjoying the beers and talking and learning about the process.

As you see from the photo London Murky is present in Manchester too. Fortunately only in one brewery.

Big Brother is Watching Everyone

We often see the Health Lobby (whoever they may be) producing blood curdling statistics about alcohol and how it is killing us all.  The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have been at it too. This time the target is Germany who as we know have had an economy blighted by alcohol from time immemorial and are an economic basket case. Oh. Wait a minute. They aren't. 

Seems though that while Germans have cut down in the last few years  to a figure of 11 litres of alcohol per head – 1980's figure was 16.5 litres of pure alcohol – they're still exposing themselves to a lot of health risks by overindulging.  So a pattern emerges that we are all familiar with.  The trend is down but there is still a call to do something about it. In this case the recommendation is to put the price up as there is "a lot of slack in Germany's tax and regulatory framework". The report goes on to talk about mythical potential lives saved (45,000 in Germany), but we all know these kind of stats have to be taken with a very large pinch of salt. There is an admission that to increase prices and restrict availability would affect the innocent as well as the guilty (and this is a worldwide recommendation) and that "This is not a question that economics can answer, each country will have to weigh the evidence in their own circumstances.” 

Well forgive me, but this is an economic question as well as a social one.  It seems though that there is a problem in Germany. Intervention by doctors at an early stage would cost $228 million dollars more than continuing with existing policies which have seen the large reductions in consumption.

Pick the bones out of that.

If you really feel depressed you can read the full report here.  It is only 240 pages long.

Down the Hatch

Among the stuff kindly sent to me last night and referred to here, I was sent this poster of the Saddleworth Beer Festival.1985  Hand designed and quite nice really. Notice the drain on the left hand side of the road. I quote my benefactor about this particular festival.

"The Saddleworth poster has a drawing of the front of the building as you approach up the street, however the significant part of the drawing  for those in the know, was the grid at the side of the pavement on the left. This related to an incident after the Sunday lunch time drinking up session the previous year when a young lady had got rather drunk in the two hour session and instead of using the toilets at the entrance/exit had decided to sit down on the pavement outside and have a piss in the grid. As there is a panoramic view from the window in the hall, this was witnessed by several of the members who were clearing up."

Things weren't always easy in the old days you know.

I have loads more of this old toffee. It'll serve you right if I post it.

Real Lager Back in the Day

Boak and Bailey have an interesting article on the issue of the CAMRA view of lager many years ago. They are right to point out at the start of it that it is more than one of simply regarding lager as "fizzy piss."

Last night I received the attached scan from our Regional Treasurer who was involved with Bury Beer Festival back in 1980.  The list of beers is interesting and it is is gratifying to see that of the 12 breweries (an amazingly modest number by today's standards) no less than 5 remain in production.  That however is not the main point of me reproducing the original programme.  If you look down to Lees there is a lager offered for sale. With an explanation.

Mudgie is always banging on about the poor quality of the lagers produced by regional breweries and he is, in the main right. These were really ales - Kolsch like - in that they were warm fermented by top fermenting (ale) yeast and then cold conditioned before pasteurisation and kegging.  Some were truly awful.  Lees had Tulip Lager and while now, in a modern lager brewery, they produce excellent lagers, it wasn't always the case.

My contact does not say if the thirsty hordes, no doubt including CAMRA members, in a fit of nihilistic doctrinal purity, refused to drink it, though somehow I doubt it. Beer Festivals were still a bit rare in those days.

Click on the image to enlarge. I was also sent an amusing tale which I'll publish soon.

Fight

We are always being told by the anti drink lobby of  "alcohol fuelled violence", but I have remarked here and in comments hither and thither that I can't remember the last time I saw a fight in a pub.  Well I can now. Sort of.

On my usual Wednesday out at the Regal Moon in Rochdale last week I was vaguely aware of a young woman sitting with an older man in shorts. I was waiting for the rest of the lads and, as you do, I scanned round to see what's what. They were chatting amiably and I wondered for a second if he was her father.  Then when my friends arrived, I forgot all about her and everyone else in the pub, but did notice her and the older guy moving tables as they joined another two men at a table in front of us.  That was that until an hour or so later.  I hadn't noticed them moving yet again, but a sudden shout arose to our right and I turned to see aforementioned guy falling backwards to measure his length on the floor.  The Duty Manager rushed over and within seconds the guy was heading for the door.  It transpires that when a row arose, he and the girl stood up and the girl laid him out with a single punch. She left through the other door.

An unusual incident I think you'll agree. I'm still guessing though that it will be a long time before I "see" a fight in a pub again.

No. I have no idea what this was all about and I didn't see the actual punch or know why she felt it necessary.  I'm passing no judgements here at all. 

Cantillon Brewery

Despite having been to Brussels quite a few times, I've never been to Cantillon, mostly because E hadn't fancied going. She doesn't like sour beer.  This time we are with others who are well up for it, so off we go.  We arrive reasonably early when there is just a handful of people inside the brewery which looks pretty damn unassuming from the outside. Inside we pay a modest €7, have our nationalities noted in a ledger and are given an informative leaflet and a family member takes the three of us (the rest arrive later) round the lower reaches of the brewery. Now I have read elsewhere that is is fusty, dusty and cobwebby, which I have always doubted.  It isn't. It is spotless as any brewery should be, but just rather old, dimly lit and made largely of wood.  It is intensely atmospheric.

We are shown a very elderly mash tun which wasn't the original, being acquired in 1936. I ask my intelligent question "Did the Germans not steal any of the copper during the war?"  Now this isn't as daft as it seems, as they were a light fingered lot the Germans, during occupation. They didn't it seems, though our guide doesn't know why not.  Maybe the sense of tradition fazed the occupier? Or the almost church-like reverence the place exudes? Who knows, especially as there is a fair bit of copper to be had.

After that we are left to wander around. We look at the cool ship, empty and gleaming. This is key to the whole business and where the wild yeasts do their stuff. I remember my second intelligent question and ask it when I have the chance "Does the fermentation vary by much in its quality and taste?"  Surprisingly it is very consistent I'm told. These wild yeasts seemingly know what is expected of them. We wander round, following directional signs, looking at huge oak casks and return to the bar and shop.  Our €7 entitles us to two samples  of around 15cl.  First up is a cask 18 month old (young) lambic which is flat as a witch's tit with quite a few jaggy edges. E hates it, so I have two. It needs more age and frankly I prefer gueze anyway for its more refined character.  The shop, by now boosted by quite an influx of new customers, is going like a fair. I reckon it makes more money than the €7 admission. The prices for the beer are very fair but I didn't intend to lug bottles back, so passed, which I kind of regret now.  Our main group arrives and swells the shop's coffers further - well the clothing part of it. I'd always wanted a Cantillon T shirt, but in my size they only have two types of brown and green in stock. E, not so subtly puts me off both.  Apparently neither would suit me. I must go back and get one sometime.

Next we sample a bottled kriek which is a tremendous beer, with the cherries and natural carbonation lifting the beer and giving a very satisfying and balanced taste. Again I get E's.  As we wait for the other, I buy some more kriek by the glass. This is a mere €2.50 and the glass is filled to the brim by a smiling gent who explains "When you pay, you get a glass as full as I can fill it."  An excellent policy.  I also have a taste of cask Iris which unusually has no wheat within, just barley.  Not a great experience really. It may well be lifted by carbonation, but it was just flat and to me, Sarson's like.

Cantillon is an experience not to be missed if you are a serious beer drinker. Even if you aren't it is living history.  Go there if you can.

It seems that 70% of the visitors to Cantillon are not Belgian. That's why the collect this info.

Ça Me Goûte

I was in Belgium at the weekend. Brussels to be precise. Belgium is a nice place with nice Belgian people. They speak better French in Brussels than the French do - well more slowly at least - so you can actually make out the words that one vaguely recollects from that Higher Exam paper (I got a B) around forty five years ago. They also appreciate you conversing in French which is more than the French do. They don't tut at your linguistic attempts.  Nor do they charge you around €10 for 25cl of brassoesque beer in an empty cafe that is empty because nobody in their right mind will pay their prices.  The Belgians au contraire brew jolly nice beer at very reasonable prices in bustling pubs and bars. I like Belgium and I like the Belgians. (Actually in truth I quite like France - it's just the French I have a down on, probably caused by the two weeks of non stop rain I had cycling there many years ago and being grotesquely overcharged by a rugby playing bar owner on my last and most recent visit.)

Oh and back to my slightly xenophobic theme, I was nearly pick-pocketed by one of the Moroccan guests of Belgium who, under the guise of asking directions (ho ho), tried to dip my back pocket.  As I was expecting such a ploy, he got nothing but some invective. It crossed my mind to give the little shit a smack, but I dismissed it instantly on the assumption that many of his chums would be, shall we say, watching the outcome of his felony with interest. (And of course because I is very old and would certainly have come off second best.) That aside, we had a great time. I renewed my love of Orval, drank lots of gueze and lambic, ate some bunny rabbits, had a very peculiar Eritrean meal (don't ask) had the opportunity (which I didn't take up) to have profiteroles and chocolate sauce with (or as) my breakfast, walked bloody miles and generally enjoyed myself immensely in some great pubs with great company.

And Eurostar is just brilliant. Far better than flying and you can take your own booze, though I only did 50% of the time.

The title phrase is Belgian French for I like it. It only really refers to food, but hey. It's my blog. 

Next, Cantillon  Brewery and more.

Winner

Like my good friend Jeff, I've been busy lately, hence the silence.  I'm off to London in a few minutes, but I just thought I'd let you know that Oldham Beer Festival was a success and the Mayor will make lots of money for his charities.  I met him too and a nice fella he is.  I also got my photo in the Oldham Chronicle (not for the first time) and was complimented several times on my beer quality.  That's all good.

The winner of the popular vote for beer of the festival was Flaori Maori from Ramsbottom Craft - well deserved too as it was good.  I also enjoyed from the same brewery, my own Chocolate Chilli Stout which did well in the voting.  I believe the runner up was Roosters Baby Faced Assassin.

The beers went down well and most were pretty good. I enjoyed the majority of them but will mention a few that I thought really good. Both Hardknott beers, Infra Red and Lux Borealis were excellent.  I think Lux may have been third in the voting, but don't quote me on that.  Portobello Northern Line Stout was good and Redemption Pale Ale was quite enjoyable, as was Track Mazuma.  I drank a fair bit of Lees MPA too and that stood up well.

Sorry this is a bit rushed, but tomorrow I'm off to Brussels and will no doubt report back.

I drank a fair bit of left over perry on Sunday at a family party. Good stuff and no hangover.  And we cleared the hall in two hours on Sunday. Many hands do make light work!

Photo shows my sample of Chocolate Chilli Stout from Ramsbottom Craft Brewery

Oldham Beer Festival

It's nearly that time of year again where we present some beers to the general public at the 27th Oldham Beer Festival. I've been involved in most of them and will be curating the beer for your delectation.

The list is awesome, featuring some of the best and most progressive breweries in the UK. Fancy any Arbor? We have it. Hardknott? You betcha. Redemption? "Certainly Sir." "Blackjack Madam? Of course." "A pint? Just as you wish." Something beginning with "P"? "Easy peasy. We have Pictish, Portobello and Privateer." "What about local breweries? Well we have the fantastic Wilson Potter Brewing a special ruby beer to celebrate CAMRA Rochdale, Oldham and Bury's 40th Anniversary or Seven Brothers, Tickety Brew, Track and Millstone." New breweries? Yep. What about Martland Mill from Wigan? or Revolutions from West Yorkshire?" "What? You just fancy a pint of John Willies? Of course. The new seasonal will be on and we have the Champion Winter Strong Ale, Moonraker on cask."

From further afield come Saltaire and Roosters from West and North Yorkshire respectively and even XT from Buckinghamshire.  We musn't forget our own local stars, Outstanding, Silver St, Deeply Vale, Irwell Works, Greenfield, Brightside and Hay Rake.  While hopefully none of the beers will disappoint and there should be something for everyone, I'll pick out a few I'm looking forward to.  Hardknott's Lux Borealis and Infra Red, Saltaire Triple Chocoholic, Arbor Blue Sky Drinking all appeal and of course one brewery and beer I haven't mention is the one I brewed with Ramsbottom Craft, Chocolate Chilli Stout, which will certainly be on. We'll also have the wonderful Flaori Maori.  Rooster's Baby Faced Assassin is also likely to charm.

If you fancy Cider and Perry, ours is, chosen by the former Cider Manager of GBBF who will also present them and answer all your apple and pear based drink questions.  Oh and foreign beer. We'll have that too in a well chosen bottle selection.  We even have fruit wines which are a great seller at this little do.

The info is all in the poster within this article. It will be a great do for good causes and there is plenty of seating.  So come along, sup some beer, cider or perry and do say hello to me.

There are two tongue in cheek words contained within this blog post. See if you can spot them.

Nott At All Bad

One last post about Nottingham and the CAMRA Members Weekend, this time about that often overlooked subject beer and pubs.

Nottingham is a bit of a throwback.  Only its greatest fans would call it beautiful, as it seems an odd mixture of old and tatty and new and nondescript.  But it is a throwback in another way. It has a pub on nearly every corner it seems, even in the centre. That moves it up a notch in my esteem.  Our Nottingham CAMRA colleagues had produced a very comprehensive guide to the pubs and while as always some were better than others, they were a pretty good lot really.

Hot off the train we started at two of the best.  Fellows, Morton and Clayton, near the railway station, is the kind of pub you really like to start off in when you are in an unfamiliar city. Several distinct drinking areas, a lovely atrium cascading light into the rear and a good feel to it. A rather mainstream choice of beers - think Doom Bar, London Pride,Landlord and Black Sheep is augmented by a local beer or two. We enjoyed sparkled pints of Nottingham Extra Pale Ale and banter from the very chatty barmaid.  Almost next door is the Canal House, which features, somewhat uniquely I'll hazard, a full size canal boat within, which you can gaze down on as you sup your pint. Converted from a large warehouse, it was strikingly good and as owned by Castle Rock Brewery, we had excellent beer and as always in this group, excellent service from the cheery staff.  A great start.  Beer was properly sparkled as God intended, more of which later.

Around our hotel clustered another fine bunch of pubs. We liked all of them to varying degrees with a special mention going to the Crafty Crow - modern and studenty, but not grungey - the Roebuck which showed off how Wetherspoons can make the most of a building and perhaps most stunning of all, the Malt Cross, a former Victorian Music Hall with a high arched roof, a gallery and lots of wrought iron. On a Saturday night it was busy with youngsters on their way to a club (judging by the skimpiness of their attire).  It had a great atmosphere and friendly staff,  but the beer could have been better looked after. Too warm and not well enough conditioned, it was served without a sparkler, but crashed into the glass to create a head. Minus points for that.

Near the Conference Hall was another fine clutch of pubs.  The Hand and Heart impressed with a great range of well kept local beers (we avoided those on a stillage) and excellent service, the Ropewalk didn't impress though,  showing the tatty side of student drinking.  The wonderfully named Sir John Borlaise Warren had excellent beer, lovely cheese rolls and the kind of barmaid that truly enhanced the drinking experience by great charm and a wonderful knowledge of the names given to bread rolls in different parts of the country (cobs in Nottingham don't you know).  The Falcon and Blue Monkey  both also gave great pleasure, but the Blue Monkey had that bad habit of removing the sparkler to (allegedly) speed up service. This was one of the few pubs that didn't really give that warm a welcome, but the Blue Monkey Brewery Beer was very good indeed. We finished off on Sunday by repeating our visit to Fellows, Morton and Clayton and that was Nottingham done.  The pubs had put on a great show.

Looking back, the pubs invariably had good beer, were plentiful, varied in type and close together. But really it was the great service and charming bar-staff that really shone.  It was noticeably good nearly everywhere and it does make a difference.

I wasn't asked by barstaff "You alright there?" once. That helped too.  I wonder where Nottingham sits in my sparkler map. Just in I reckon.

We also had quite impressive stops in the Sheffield Tap and the Piccadilly Tap on the way home.

Charlie Bamforth

By way of either a little light relief or as education, the guest speaker spot at the CAMRA's Annual Conference is eagerly awaited by most of us that attend this august gathering. This year I was particularly thrilled when I found it to be Charles Bamforth, Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Malting and Brewing Sciences at UC Davis University of California.  He is also  British and has much experience of brewing here, mostly as a Senior Quality Assurance Manager at Bass Brewing.

Now I have known of Charlie for many years and was in fact given a book of his by a good American friend of mine as long ago as 1999.  That book, Tap Into The Art and Science of Brewing is my technical bible. I know from industry sources and my friend (Jaime Jurado, Director of Brewing Operations at Abita Brewing Co and formerly a brewer at Truman's in Brick Lane, London) that Charlie is one of the leading experts in CO2 in beer and in what bubbles do and don't do. He knows his stuff.  I rarely if ever get too involved in any technical debates in my blog or elsewhere, as you tend to be a hostage to fortune in such things and I sometimes at least don't feel secure enough to go into technical matter too deeply, but if I do, I check out the "bible" before doing so.  You can imagine then I was delighted to have the chance to hear Charlie speak.

He obviously has a practised act, honed to a very sharp point by use and his very funny and amusing speech was delivered with timing that a professional comedian would have been proud of.  He took the mickey out of wine and its pretentiousness,  had a very positive view of cask beer which he declared to be without equal when done well and generally anecdoted his way through a very entertaining half hour. He also (to my surprise in some ways) expressed a dislike for nitrogenated beer. It was an interesting speech as well as a very entertaining one. There was time for questions at the end before he whizzed off and I was lucky enough to catch the Chairman's eye and be allowed to ask one.  My chosen subject was about deliberate turbidity in beer. London Murky in other words.  Essentially his answer was that while a little haziness might be forgiven, there is no excuse for beers that look like "chicken soup."

Good enough for me. If Charlie is agin it, I'm on his side. If you dispute this, write to Charlie, not me. He'll put a(kindly) flea in your ear I'm sure.

Jaime is a bit of a whizz at the old dispense too. I remember being invited to Porterhouse in London by him when he had sorted out some fobbing issues for them.

Regretfully Charlie was gone immediately after his speech, so I didn't get a chance to talk to him.  Great shame that.

Not Such Dinosaurs After All?

Well that was a more interesting weekend than I thought.  The recent CAMRA Members Weekend was much more far reaching than I predicted it might be, with a decided nod to the future and a much more forward look for CAMRA's involvement in the beer world.

First of all we can say with certainty that the backward facing motions were defeated, while progressive motions were passed, but underneath it all and underpinning it, was a noticeable mood change. CAMRA is looking to the future again and that can only be good. Let's look at some detail.  Motions to remove our involvement from generic beer campaigns and concentrate solely on real ale and to leave the Cyclops scheme were roundly defeated. Cyclops is an easy-to-use set of descriptors to explain what a beer will look, smell and taste like.  The motion specifically was unhappy of its extension to non real ales and frankly, that's what doomed it, despite the speaker identifying many faults with it. As for generic beer campaigns, it is pretty fair to say the antis got quite a kicking. The conference wasn't at all in the mood to go along with isolating CAMRA from the wider beer movement.

Our new Chief Executive Tim Page also spoke well and gave us a "heads up" that as an outsider so to speak, he was looking at what CAMRA does a lot more neutrally and had a few ideas so far. He didn't expand too much, pointing out rightly, that he was still learning, but one thing that interested me and will likely interest many readers, is that he was particularly keen to look at CAMRA Democracy. That can only be good. On the last day we also passed a motion to allow the addition of fruits, vegetables and spices to cider and that is among the cider drinkers quite a fundamental change. So fundamental in fact that I wonder if we might see a call for a separate organisation to continue the purist line on this one. I spoke on a number of motions, particularly on motions 11 and 12 (against) and like to think I played my part in putting the positive case for the future. 

Lastly and not leastly, we agreed that where it meets CAMRA criteria for real ale, that keykegs are an acceptable container for cask beer. This might not be as far reaching as some may think, as there is a long way to go in identifying and labelling beers that will be acceptable, but the onus is now on firmly brewers to meet this challenge and rely less on gassing the beers up on filling.

I'll talk more about the meeting and Nottingham pubs in subsequent posts, but I reckon that's enough to go on for now.   What do you reckon?

I did also have a couple of chats about beer with the Festival Cellarman I fell out with. We settled our differences amicably though I think I possibly have a more progressive view of cask dispense than him.  He did all right though in a difficult venue.

I should add that the National Chairman rightly pointed out that the application of external gas that is in contact with the beer is still a no-no as far as dispense is concerned.

CAMRA AGM

Tomorrow I'm off to Nottingham for the CAMRA Members Weekend and AGM.  I'm quite looking forward to it, especially as I've laid off the demon drink in preparation for it. Nottingham may not be the bonniest city in the world, but it doesn't lack pubs, so while the motions for debate don't hugely excite, I'm looking forward to it.

@NottinghamCAMRA @CAMRA_AGM @CAMRA_Official I'd set it to 11C personally. Still I'll see on Friday.
— Tandleman (@tandleman) April 15, 2015

Mind you, I didn't get off to the best of starts on Wednesday when I managed to offend the Cellar Manager of the AGM Beerex on Twitter with what I thought was a fairly innocent remark, but with a bit of turning the other cheek, I think I'll survive.  Back to the main event, I'll be looking to speak on one or two motions, particularly the following:

Motion 5

This Conference recognises that the Campaign for Real Ale believes in choice and that denigrating whatever people choose to drink is counterproductive and can alienate existing and potential members. Therefore, it instructs all branches to desist from “anti campaigns” against other drinks.
Proposed by Marketing and Communications Committee

Motion 11

This Conference instructs the National Executive not to enter into any promotions or campaigns that promote all beers and not real ale specifically.
Proposed by Steve Bury, Seconded by Phil Defriez

Motion 12

This Conference instructs the National Executive to withdraw CAMRA from the Cyclops scheme as it has expanded to all beers and is not fit for purpose.
Proposed by South Hertfordshire Branch

Motion 15

This Conference instructs the National Executive to investigate a labelling scheme for naturally conditioned Key Keg beer, which would allow customers to identify which beers, at the point of sale, conform with the CAMRA criteria for real ale.

Proposed by Melissa Reed, Seconded by Allan Conner

There's one or two others, but as these are about internal CAMRA stuff, I won't mention them here. Just to avoid doubt, I'll be hoping to speak for Motion 5, against Motions11 and 12 and will wait and see what Motion 15 is driving at. It's more fun when you get up and speak, so should make life a bit more interesting.

I'll let you know how it all goes.

The best bit will be seeing old friends of course. It usually is, but I'll enjoy the beer too. I think Nottingham is sparkler territory.