It's Not All Good

Is anyone else getting fed up of the cask versus keg debate or is it just me? Thought not. I am pretty cheesed off with it, but will have to gird my loins to speak against one or two anti craft motions at the CAMRA AGM, not because I'm a big proponent of craft keg. Most of it - at least at the supping rather than sipping end of it - is pretty dull in my view - just like most cask is a bit samey. My drinking experience tells me that kissing lots of frogs is a bad idea percentage wise. You rarely find a princess. Better by far at my time of life, to eliminate that onerous task by drinking what you know to be good, or what is recommended by people you trust. I've done the beer hunting bit to death and now, though the experimentation and hunting rears its head from time to time, by and large, I just prefer to drink beer for enjoyment and with my friends.

Mind you, I say that as a personal thing. I have done plenty of beer exploration and experimenting in my time, but I'm well again, though I really do recommend it to our younger beer drinkers, as you need to go through that pain to get to, if not nirvana, equilibrium. But then again, I am a beer drinker - side swipe following - not a fan boy. Drinking beer to learn and discover is one thing.  Doing it because it is fashionable, quite another, though as in most things in life, one thing leads to another, so maybe even that isn't all bad.

Reading the AGM motions and looking at the election address one of the CAMRA National Executive contenders, I get the feeling that there is a bit of unease at best and hostility at worst, to our new cohort of keg devotees.  I've thought about it and while there is no need for CAMRA to change its priority of real ale,  there is no need for a dog in the manger approach either.  Keg beer appeals to a certain kind of drinker that associates it with experimentation, cutting edge and hip.  Why not? I feel pretty relaxed about it overall.  Where there is a mixed approach to cask and keg, it works well and as most of the keg stuff is strong, it gives more choice when a similar cask wouldn't be finished before going flat or off. (By the way - if you could polish off a cask of strong beer in the first couple of hours, it is usually superior in developed flavours). But I digress.

Choice is good, keg bashing is bad, CAMRA bashing is bad, beer drinking is good.  Not all beer is good and the idea we should all just drink beer and not care how it is dispensed doesn't work for me.  I'm a real ale man and always will be.  When kept well it beats the keg equivalent into a cocked hat.  It has drinkability in a way that keg doesn't.  But modern keg beer isn't always a bad thing.  It's that choice thing again and especially where there is a mixed offer, it gives the chance for drinkers to compare and contrast.  I don't think there are that many ale drinkers that never drink cask, just as there aren't so many CAMRA members that never drink keg.  There is of course a need to protect live beer, as there is a thin end of the wedge and it would be bad if it disappeared, but the way to do it is by continually promoting real ale and always pressing for better quality at the point of dispense.

I'd be happier if we were discussing beer quality more at the AGM.  It doesn't seem to be mentioned this year, though I will try and do so.  Quality is always cask's Achilles heel.  We should give a lot more attention to that. 

I'm off to the launch of a new Lees beer tonight.  I'll know people.  That's as much of  a draw to me as the new beer. 

One That Got Away

Have I mentioned that Berlin is a big bugger? I think I have, but to emphasise, it is big, wide and very spread out. They don't seem to have been worried about space there when throwing up the odd building, street or avenue. The centre itself is big enough - not surprising really as it is two centres knocked into one - but pretty walkable. When it comes to moving out a little though, maps can be a bit misleading. What looks like an easy walk turns into a long trek down never ending streets. That's tip number one for you.

We decided that we'd go to Friedrichshain, to a brewpub that is gaining a reputation for moving off the mainstream a bit. In theory Friedrichshain is one area up from our hotel in Mitte and the pub, Hops and Barley, looked an easy walk from the Ostbanhof. Outside, on impulse, I flagged down a cab. It was a lovely evening and I was thirsty. Boy am I glad I did. I wouldn't have fancied the walk at all, dragging my thirst behind me. Thus we found ourselves deposited right outside the pub on Wühlischstrasse by our very friendly taxi driver. Now this is an area I like. Big tenement buildings, both new and renovated, lots of jumping studenty bars and restaurants and loads going on. It was one of the most damaged parts of Berlin during WW2, depressed during the DDR days, but now has  recovered its vitality and is a pulsing part of Berlin social life.

We sat outside and ordered our beers. A dunkel for me and a pils for E. Served in non cheaty half litre glasses.  The dunkel was dark - always a good sign - and its dark, chewy malt and light hopping were an excellent thirst quencher. E's pils was a cut above the usual brewpub stuff, though still a bit dull.  I asked what the special was.  "A Cascade Pale Ale."  Alas though it was competently enough made, it showed little trace of cascades, except in the aroma.  A disappointment, though probably better overall than I'd anticipated.  I've a long record of visiting German brewpubs and almost every one is an outright disappointment.


I'll come to our next beery port of call in a moment, but leaving the pub and heading towards Karl Marx Allee, on the same street, on a corner we noticed a pizza place.  Large open windows, graffitti decoration, candled tables and waitresses and waiters bawling at each other in Italian - what's not to like?  We hadn't eaten, so in we went and were squeezed into a table in the middle of the throng.  The pizzas were thin, crispy and superb.  The place was rightly going like a fair.   Second top tip.  And now, hot on its heels, the third.  If you are going to look for the new Tilsiter Brauerei as first revealed by Knut Albert, the easiest way is to walk along KMA to the Kosmos Kino (direction Frankfurter Tor), go behind it and follow the path onto Richard Sorge Strasse. Walk five minutes and it is on your right. This is much better than the roundabout way we went.  I'll now hand you over to Knut for the history and to tell you about the beer. I can't, as it wasn't on!  We settled for the full bodied, bitter and moreish Wernesgruner Pils instead and a chat with the barman about the cinema, which was showing West is West when we called.  The pub, converted out of the former cinema foyer, is stunning and charmingly old fashioned.  One little anecdote.  We were given a tour of the projection room.  No real electronics here, but old fashioned reel to reel from two giant metal projectors. Our host told us he bought them for a song.  They used to show films in the old Stasi HQ! Films of what, he didn't know.  The other titbit is they are maintained by the guy that does the brewing, which is off the premises in Mitte.  He was between brews and is apparently a kind of mad professor type. Needless to say, he built the brewery himself and produces 1000l at a time.  Two beers are produced; an unfiltered pils and helles and the odd special. When and if he gets round to it.

We returned along KMA to Frankfurter Tor U Bahn station. The beer festival was packing up, with vans and drays being loaded, while the odd reluctant drunk was still spinning out his last beer.  A good and different night out.

Sorry about the chopped off photo. It was dark in there and without the flash, which bounces back off the photo, I couldn't see a thing.