Giving The People What They Want?

BrewDog is asking their customers to give them it straight about their pubs. Oops. Bars.  Force of habit that. I is old.

That's a very good idea and doing it publicly is also good.  It is to be commended.  I don't know how long the consultation will last, but some of the comments have been very enlightening to this outside observer.  They (BD) are almost universally praised under "What do we rock at?" for their customer service and product knowledge.  Well ten out of ten for that I say.  My readers will know that I have yakked on about the lack of customer service in British pubs for years and it is heartening to see that one company takes it so seriously, that in a feedback survey, that's what shines through as being praiseworthy. If only more followed that example.

When it comes to the question "What could we be better at?" perhaps unsurprisingly there's a lot of complaints about high prices, lack of a decent food offering (or it running out) and importantly lack of a good BD brewed lager and critically for those that like a pint or two, lack of sessionable beers.  Food can be excused to some extent, because few of their bars are that large and kitchen space must be a problem.  I notice in any event that they have a new guy looking at this, so doubtless improvements are on the way here, so I think we can set this aside as it were.  A good lager though I'd have thought, is essential in any craft bar and I believe I recall James Watt agreeing it was a bit of a weakness when I visited the brewery a couple of months ago. Fake Lager may have an ironic name, but it seemingly isn't cutting the mustard with some customers at least.

The fact that there are complaints about so few sessionable beers being available can be combined with another recurring comment.  Quite a few respondents complained about the lack of cask beer, citing how good it was - a point I have made myself many times.  Trashy Blonde is remembered fondly by a few respondents. I remember others fondly too and have written about them in the past. No  sessionable beers and no cask is seen as a problem by many of BD's own customers - or at least those that can be bothered to comment.  I think we all know what the solution should be, but I somehow doubt if we'll see cask returning.  It doesn't suit the image.


Let's hope customer demand proves me wrong.

Funnily enough soft drink range and the non beer ranges in general were panned.  I haven't even noticed that.  My bad probably.

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?

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?

Empire Building for Punks

Scotland on Sunday has a good piece on you know who.  I like these two quotes:  "a style bar is where they spend £6m on the fit-out and serve the same shit as they serve next door".  And " CAMRA is staid, it's tacky, it's conservative, it's old fashioned, it would put your grandparents to sleep.  I'd gladly line up the lot of them and fire cans of Punk off their heads."

I work out from the article which isn't yet on line, their production is around 18,300 barrels a year.  The proposed new brewery will allow five times more production.

I think I must be virally infected or God forbid, I'm coming round to them.

The title above is the SoS article title should you wish to browse for it in the future.

Let's Just Have a Good Time

Last Tuesday I read a comment (by someone called String)on Mark Dredge's blog which made me a little annoyed. Well maybe not annoyed - exasperated would be a better description. This is what the commentator said with regard to the  Brew Dog and the Great British Beer Festival "issue". "I think the main issue is that the Great British BEER Festival is festival celebrating BEER. Personally I wonder whether that means that the GBBF is outgrowing CAMRA & their approach. Is it time someone else organised this countries flagship beer festival? I think so."

The comments about CAMRA and  Brew Dog were equally odd and one has to wonder why Brew Dog inspire such loyalty in some limited quarters and why their supporters use anything they can as a stick to beat CAMRA with.  Continuing with that metaphor, I reckon though that CAMRA undoubtedly made a rod for their own back in trying to accommodate Brew Dog in the way they did.  It would have been far simpler and less open to manipulation or interpretation, just to say to Brew Dog "of course we'd love you to come under the same conditions as everyone else.  Supply cask beer in 18s (as you do to the pub trade) and we'll sell it accordingly."  In my view, given Brew Dog's reputation, anything else was leaving CAMRA as a hostage to fortune. And so it came to pass, despite claim and counter claim.

Given that the Great British Beer Festival is coming up next week, let's have a look at the title.  It is short and to the point. It is well known and it describes I believe, the fact that is a festival and a big one, with beer. "Great" seems reasonably OK in that context.  What about "beer" then?  Well there will be beer - well over 1000 different ones - and while you can argue about whether the term encompasses all beer, it would still seem reasonable that as it is CAMRA's Festival, CAMRA can call it what they want and sell what they want. I am willing to bet that apart from a few geeks and disappointed brewers, nobody else gives a hoot. Everyone else will just be there enjoying themselves and will have in their hand, a beer that they are very happy with. Beer is after all of the moment.

So back to the comment above.  Firstly it may well be the leading beer festival in the country, but it isn't the country's beer festival; it is CAMRA's.  That means that CAMRA runs it as it sees fit and does what CAMRA wants to do to promote its aims.  The idea that this could be handed over to anyone else to run is ludicrous, would make a cat laugh and is just plain daft.  Any commercially run beer festival on a similar scale would likely be prohibitively expensive to attend and to buy beer.  Does anyone doubt the immense subsidy CAMRA volunteers provide by their free labour and expertise?  Not that this means it can't be improved. Each year changes are made to many things to try and make it better, but there will always be some that feel it should have this or that beer, or that some aspect could be changed for the better, but at the final reckoning, very few will leave disappointed by what is on offer to them.  There will be something for everyone.  And despite Brew Dog claiming that CAMRA festivals are  “stuffy, boring or misguided” I rather doubt that they will be missed, or that anyone there won't have just as good a time without them.

So let's look forward to next week. So many beers to try, so much good fun and good company. There will be a great atmosphere and a fine old time to be had is far more important than worrying about areas of contention that are of limited interest to the vast majority of attendees.

Let's just all go and have a good time.

And dammit I have ended up talking about you know who again. It still works for them.
Nor am I saying that a large non CAMRA run festival couldn't be organised, but don't doubt the difficulties in doing so.

Been Here Before?

Two old stories, made new again, are jumping around the web. The first is our old friends Brew Dog are on the earhole again. Having found only £750,000 out of a hoped for £2.3 million in its first go at Equity for Punks, they have whipped up £500,000 in two days in a new scheme. As the last lot was achieved over 5 months, I can only conclude that either the new offer is much better than the last one, or there are a lot of people out there that are prepared to take a punt for a discount on beer and other incentives. Not that I think this kind of fund raising is necessarily a bad thing. I know of one pub company that wanted to borrow a large sum from the bank to refurbish a new acquisition. The bank either hummed and hawed too much, or refused - I can't remember which - and the PubCo went straight to various associates and friends and raised the dosh overnight. Alternative means of raising money aren't new and aren't bad. The respective arguments for and against in the case of Brew Dog are put by Dave Bailey here and Allgates Brewery here. I must say that Allgates make the more persuasive arguments to my mind, but you must make your own up.

The other old story - I say old, because this kind of thing has been tried before I think - is that Carlsberg and Molson Coors are both releasing beers aimed at women. This has set off the old arguments about whether this is patronising or not and whether most women are perfectly happy to like beer or not on their own terms. As a fanatical believer in equality, I tend to believe women are quite capable of making their own minds up and women who don't drink beer are just people who don't drink beer and therefore a blank canvas in terms of what they might or might not like, but either way, there is certainly an untapped market and we should be attracting more women to try different beers. Makes the pub a nicer place for a start.  So, in short, I empathise with the aim, but it just seems to me that this is unlikely to be the best way to achieve the outcome.  The industry would be far better starting with environment, cleanliness and glassware, than inventing "special" beers for women I'd venture.

So what of the beers? I don't know what they taste like, but there does seem a little stereotyping going on here. That's hard to avoid when you do this kind of thing frankly. Carlsberg say "Many young people aren’t keen on the bitter aftertaste of beer. Here our surveys show that with Copenhagen we have created a highly drinkable beer with a balanced taste — a real alternative to white wine and champagne."  Hmm. Forget the champers, get the Carlsberg out. I don't think so.  I'm guessing too that it will be bland.  Molson Coors has gone for a mixed approach, but seems only marginally less patronising. Animee, from the French word for motivated, is billed as “bloat-resistant” - less gassy and lighter tasting than most beers. It will be available in 275ml bottles in three varieties; standard, rose and citrus.

Whether patronising, or well meaning, will these initiatives fail? In Molson Coors case, despite good intentions, if the internet reaction is anything to go by, likely I fear .  As for Carlsberg? Probably!

"The number of UK women drinking beer in the UK is almost the lowest in the world - we won't change that by just doing what we've always done" Kristy McCready - Molson Coors."   I have a lot of sympathy with this statement.

Singing from the Same Hymn Sheet

Back in the days when I was an IT Project Manager, delivering multi million pound projects (on time of course) we used to have a lot of jargon and management speak. It was the culture of projects, though personally I liked to bring people on board without resorting to that sort of thing.

While the phrase that heads this piece is kind of clichéd, it does describe in a way most people can understand, that when working together to deliver something, everyone needs to understand exactly how it all is meant to fit together, in order to reach a common and defined goal.

I was drawn to look at BrewDog's site, simply as it headed up the list on Zak's blog, which I use as a reference point as he subscribes to lots of blogs I don't and it makes things quicker. Seems they've employed a new Brewery Manager.  I was struck by what he is expected to do. It seemed reasonable, being to "to orchestrate the planning, production and packaging of countless gallons of BrewDog from the raw materials to finished product, every day." Quite a responsibility I'd say. There followed an interview with the putative manager "what sort of tasks does Nikola foresee filling up the rest of his day?"

“As a newcomer to the BrewDog brewery, I’m going to presume how my days are going to run but I think, in general, it’s going to be a heady mix of brewing, planning, tasting, meeting, some more brewing, deliveries, maybe a bit more tasting, driving the BrewDog-mobile and then some more brewing. All in all, a pretty cool number.”

Well I'm glad he remembered the planning, but otherwise more or less a complete mismatch. Better get the hymn sheets dusted off in Fraserburgh! Unless it was all tongue in cheek of course. With BrewDog, you just don't know.

Come and Join Us

Well, that great CAMRA basher BrewDog is at it again in an odd kind of way. The prolific proclaimers of keg are taking a stall at the GBBF to peddle their cask wares.

Is this a case of a sinner repented? Have they seen the cask ale light? Unlikely. Is this a case of not wishing to miss the exposure to 80,000 beer drinkers? Likely. Is it a good thing? Yes, as their cask beers - oh yes they brew them all right - are in my opinion a lot better than their keg products, though you are welcome to disagree.

Whatever way you look at it, it seems that CAMRA aren't quite so irrelevant as some people think, if the great Gods of keg come to worship at our altar.

Thornbridge will have a stand too. Excellent.

Save the Best Till Last

A pleasant little pub crawl yesterday took us eventually to the Port St Beer House and a nice talk with the Manager William. He is a bit of a keg beer fan it seems, though oddly he drank cask with us. Maybe it was out of sympathy more than solidarity, but he's a splendid fellow nonetheless. I enjoyed BrewDog Trashy Blonde a lot less than usual. It seemed off form and it had seemed off form earlier in another pub too, but that happens. I felt I turned a corner on Thornbridge Hopton though, which I have never been that sure of, but last night I really liked it.

On the way home, as it is on the 17 bus route, I called in the Marble Arch intending to have a pint of Manchester Bitter to send me home rejoicing. Alas it went as I was having my pint poured, so that plan was scuppered. My replcement choice was Best, a beer again that I haven't really got into for some unknown reason, but which was in such good form I had two.

So there you are. You can teach an old dog new tricks, every beer deserves at least a second chance and there's no harm at all in changing your mind.

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!

CAMRA At It Again?

It doesn't do to go rubbishing other people's choice of drinks does it? We are all more or less agreed on that one I think. Accentuate the positive we are urged.

Why then do we get this?: "We want the public to realise that the fizzy, yellow so-called ‘beers’ pushed on the unsuspecting public by big breweries should be treated as a crime..... Crap beer’s days are numbered. The time for revolution is now......to prove to beer drinkers that have previously put up with these tasteless, insipid mainstream lagers that things have changed."

Hang on though. It isn't CAMRA that say this, but Brew Dog in announcing " a crap beer amnesty" this month for drinkers to trade in big brand cans for their about to be nationally released canned Punk IPA.

Of course if CAMRA had said this, the CAMRA bashers would have been out in force condemning them as out of touch, etc. etc. But it wasn't CAMRA, so that's all right then isn't it?

And yes, I've fallen into the Brew Dog trap once more. But at least I resisted illustrating this with a Brew Dog can!

Bloggers Turn on Brew Dog

Blog commentator John Clarke, wrote some time ago - on my blog I think - that "I get the sense they (Brew Dog) may be starting to believe their own publicity. "

Following their latest foray into self publicity, reported brilliantly and with passion by Pete Brown here, they have been furiously back pedalling to try and regain support - or as they would have it, explain their position. I am not going to say much more about it, as it is all said on Pete's blog and even on the ultra loyal Pencil and Spoon blog, that they have overstepped the mark.

Maybe the old adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity is being heartily disproved here, but will lessons be learned? Somehow I doubt it.

Back to beer, I'd also like to hear James of BD say something somewhere about his cask ale policies.

Brew Dog At It Again?

I read with dreary, fatalistic resignation that James Watt, the High Priest of  Brew Dog, claims that CAMRA is the devil incarnate - "I blame CAMRA for single-handedly holding back innovation in British brewing says he in an American on line magazine, Full Pint. Com. 

Knocking CAMRA in this way was only a matter of time.  (His relationship with CAMRA in Scotland is one of mutual distrust as I understand it, with not all the wrong coming from CAMRA.) Putting that aside there is a little context within his comments which softens these remarks somewhat, in that he mentions CAMRA's emphasis on "focusing on too few beer styles". Fair point maybe, but really when you stand this on its head, too few beer styles originate from British Brewers. If you don't have innovation in brewing, you can't really pick up on these styles and comment or support them can you?  So really if you think about it logically, Mr Watt is actually complaining about the lack of imagination and vision, not of CAMRA, but of British brewing - of  his fellow British brewers really, though no doubt he'd argue that CAMRA encourages their staidness.  Rather more strikingly, James is complaining about the very gap in the market he is exploiting so successfully and on which he bases his future expansion plans.  Like his brewing, his reasoning is rather innovative when you examine it more closely. 

Now it has to be said that sometimes CAMRA doesn't help itself.  Image has always been a problem as we all know and CAMRA sometimes seems to tread the wrong line. Roger Protz recently wrote about how golden ales shouldn't be pushing "traditional" brown beers out, both on the bar and in competitions, but to my mind, the main innovation in British brewing is at that "pale"end of the spectrum, not in the brown session market. I doubt if Roger meant to come across as a stick in the mud - and reading his excellently favourable article in "Beer"about oak aged beers, he gave no such impression - but it allowed the anti CAMRA brigade to have another swipe. Another point and one I have made before, is that basically Brew Dog are a bottled beer brewer who do the odd cask (and do the odd cask very well). CAMRA members are pub goers by and large, so James is blaming an orange for not looking like an apple, to some extent at least. It would be nice to see James pushing the cask aspect of his business a little more come to think of it.

Going back to innovation, British brewers by and large are the most staid and conservative bunch you could ever meet - with of course, honourable exceptions.  (Try persuading a Regional Brewer to do anything different and you'll be met with hostility and usually condescension).  Even micro brewers, on the whole are brewing incredibly dull mainstream beers, again with honourable exceptions.  The real need for innovation comes at brewing level and one thing I think CAMRA should do much more of is to campaign seriously for that.  

CAMRA has been a bit too easy on traditional ale brewers in this country and at both local and national level, we should try and correct that. There is indeed too much emphasis on "boring 4% beers, with boring hops".  So come on brewers. Give the public 4% beers, but please give us choice too. Innovation isn't and shouldn't be the sole domain of  smart young things.  The market is changing and needs to be grabbed and reshaped.  CAMRA needs to embrace and promote both tradition and innovation.

And finally Brew Dog is establishing its niche and I doubt really if James wants too many other brewers to steal his clothes by out innovating him.  He wouldn't want to become mainstream, so maybe he should be careful that what he wishes for doesn't become "too" true.


See? I'm caught up in BrewDog whether I aim to be or not. Their stuff works on me too. They are part of the brewing and blogging scene now.

The Slosberg Connection

I've been following the Brew Dog "share float" stuff with great interest and not a little incomprehension. I haven't coughed up £230 for what seems to be a  chimera; no not the fire eating monster, or the antibody, but the "fanciful mental illusion or fabrication."

There is much to admire about Brew Dog. The cocking of snooks at the authorities, the viral advertising, the excellent attitude to beer and what it should be like and most importantly what it shouldn't be like and, of course, their cutting edge beers. And they are Scottish; not from the posh part of Edinburgh, or Glasgow wide boys, but from Fraserburgh  for God's sake. What's not to like? Nothing of course.

What is ground breaking, (some may say odd) is the way they are using their viral advertising to lure supporters in to buy their share issue, "Equity for Punks". It is clever, it is interesting, it isn't sold as an investment, more a sort of "give us some money now and we'll be nice to you and maybe give it back to you sometime in an unspecified future" kind of way. It is open, it doesn't make false promises and all is therefore well. Or is it?

The reaction of some bloggers and followers of blogs is along the lines of mass - well not mass - maybe "selective" would be better - hysteria. Sort of "You are nice guys, I love your beer, here's my money". It is either noble or foolhardy, but maybe tilting at windmills in such cynical times isn't such a bad thing, though it seems to this writer that these shy Scots have the chutzpah of Del Boy. In an unassuming way of course.

Has anyone asked the obvious question which is " Why does the brewery need to be ten times bigger? Will that make the beer better? Will it increase innovation? I have an analogy. Anyone remember Pete's Wicked Ale? Pete Slosberg was the Brew Dog of his day in the US. He broke moulds, he innovated, he became the second biggest craft brewer in the US, then in 1998 he sold the lot to the giant Gambrinus Company who make his beer in a non innovative way, in whatever brewery they care to. I dare say its still pretty good beer, but you take my point. It isn't innovative or cutting edge anymore. It is though big and Pete has presumably got lots of money out of it.

Not that this need apply to Brew Dog of course, but I'm just saying, that's all.  Strangely though even I'm slightly infected. There is a tiny bit of me that wants to chip in too. Seems I've also been touched by the virus, but I'll resist.


Much is made by Brew Dog of their new shareholders, but I've never heard of Skyy Vodka and if they've got a billion from selling it..............?

A Small Comparison

I had the chance to compare three widely spoken about beers last week, though not all at the same time.  First was Marble Dobber which I have already mentioned was voted Champion Beer of Greater Manchester last Friday.  This is a terrific beer for the hophead. It is intensely, resinously, bitter, but by no means one dimensionally so. I guess it has a progressive and complex hopping regime. given that it grows in hoppiness throughout, to a lip smackingly resinous and lasting finish.  It drinks all too easily for its 5.9% strength and deserves the often used, but easily understandable descriptor, "dangerously drinkable". 

I was advised in advance the the Waterhouse had Jaipur IPA - also 5.9%, coming on, as one of my co-workers at MFDF had supplied a pumpclip for it. I took Eileen with me on Saturday and after fighting our way through good natured cider and lager drinking Rugby League fans from Leeds and St Helens, in town for the big match, a pint and a half was procured.  As always this beer wasn't clear. I have come to the conclusion that this must be deliberate. I have never had a clear pint of it, not even at Thornbridge Hall.  "You don't drink with your eyes" I hear some cry. Well, effectively you do.  Appearance is most certainly part of a beer's appeal - ask anyone who has judged beer - and to me this just doesn't look the part.  I have to say it didn't live up to its hype and again, with the exception of a few good pints, to me it rarely does.  Sure it had bitterness, but this fought against the sheer underlying sweetness of the beer. There was some citrus from the C hops, but overall it underwhelmed.  The finish was sweet too and faded almost immediately.

A new discovery for me is the M&B run Wellington, which along with its companion pub, Sam Smith's Sinclair's Oyster Bar, has peripatetically shuffled round Manchester City Centre. I say new, as I haven't been in it since its second move from Shambles Square.  A tip from a fellow CAMRA member took me in there in Thursday. I was impressed by the beer quality, so took the discerning E for a visit.  On the bar was the 4.9% Brew Dog 77 Lager.  It had to be ordered, as I see cask Brew Dog all too rarely.  Firstly it was a much darker beer than I expected. It was well conditioned, full bodied and rather malty with developing bitterness, through to a decent bitter finish. It didn't seem to me to have many lager characteristics at all and I wonder if there are slightly - or even completely - different versions brewed for cask and bottle?

So conclusions? Well none of this is scientific, but my feeling is that in their quiet understated way, Marble are producing spectacularly good beers and while keeping a low profile, are going from strength to strength.  That's fine as it's local to me. The others? Well, on this showing, Jaipur didn't come out too well, but so many people rate it so highly, I keep trying it whenever I see it, in the hope of being converted.  I'd like to try another somewhere else, as I would with Brew Dog, though I have to say the 77 was very drinkable. Let's see more of their cask in the North West please. In cask I have rarely been disappointed with their beers.

Disgracefully Sinclair's has had cask removed and I bet they sold more than an eighteen a day. Is Sam's becoming more or less a totally keg brewery?  If so, a pity, as they have some really fine pubs.

First and Second Chances

I had my first bottle of Brew Dog Zeitgiest yesterday and have to report that it was absolutely excellent, fully living up to the praise heaped on it by various bloggers. Like a hoppy version of Kostritzer Schwarzbier agreed my drinking companion, friend and commentator on this blog and others, Erlangernick.

We had earlier started the day with a brilliant 3.5% beer from Hawkshead Brewery, which shows what a skilful brewer can do with a relatively weak beer. Windermere Pale was straw coloured, crisply hoppy, and thirst quenching with a lasting hoppy finish. The aforementioned Nick and his wife Becky both loved it, as did I. Well done Hawkshead. I also had two excellent halves of Meantime London Pale Ale, which was smoothly hoppy and full bodied, with a bitter resinous finish. Much more like it, worlds apart from my previous experience, and well worth that second chance.

This was a flying visit from Nick who was heading off for a few days holiday in Lancaster and the Southern Lakes, but I'll see him again on Sunday and next week in Bamberg. Did I mention I'm going to Bamberg next week? Well I have now.

I had a couple of fly pints of Pint in the Marble Arch on the way home. This beer is in knock-out form and must be one of the best cask beers in the UK at the moment.

Photo is Nick and Becki in Micro Bar

Not Part of the Problem

I see our old friends Brewdog are featuring in the newspapers again. Scotland on Sunday has a nice little feature, which you can read here.

It is an interesting and thoughtful piece which doesn't take sides, though I have the feeling that the author doesn't "get" them. One interesting point to me at least is their attitude to CAMRA. They say "that the Campaign For Real Ale holds back beer innovation by their emphasis on a few traditional styles and ABVs ranging from 3.5 to 4.5%. They also claim, huffily, that CAMRA has made it so difficult for them to present their products at festivals they've decide not to bother trying to attend any. "We've got better things to do with our time than worry about whether 200 fat idiots are drinking our beer or not."

Umm. Quite.

As a matter of interest we had one of their beers at our recent Bury Fest. It wasn't difficult.

Brew Dog to be Top Dog by 2015

In an effort to maintain links with my homeland which I left over 25 years ago, I buy Scotland on Sunday every week. I usually get round to reading it by Tuesday. This morning over my pot of tea, my eye was caught by this article here which among other things, tells me that in June, Brew Dog overtook the long established Harviestoun, as Scotland's largest independent brewer.

No point in repeating the article here, but their ambition doesn't stop there. Brew Dog aim to overtake InBev (of Tennent's Lager fame in this case) as Scotland's biggest brewer by 2015.
It's a tall order, as lager is so ingrained in the system in Scotland, with Tennent's holding an affection that to an outside eye at least, might seem unwarranted. Nonetheless it is a noble and brave ambition, one to sustain them and see them through good times and bad, as (hopefully) their quarry gets nearer and nearer.

Good for them I'd say and good for Scotland's drinkers, even if they don't know it yet!

Brew Dog Punk IPA

Readers of this blog will know I have had mixed fortunes with Brew Dog Beers, but when they get it right, boy do they get it right.

Brew Dog Punk IPA (6% abv) is the best bottled beer I have tasted this year and following after Morrisey Fox Blonde Ale (see previous post) that isn't an insignificant thing to say. Damn, it is one of the best beers I have drunk this year in any format! I can't wait to try it in cask form. The beer is pale gold in colour with a hoppy, fruity, pine resin nose. It opens fairly sweet and has an explosion of tropical fruit flavours before a distinct piney bitterness kicks in. The carbonation is perfect and the malt base easily holds up against the alcohol, through to a deep, fresh, lasting pine and resin finish. Make no mistake about it, this is class in a glass. It has the structure and elegance to stand up against any Yankee IPA as it is less one dimensional, presumably from the use of Motueka New Zealand hops as well as Chinooks.

I was blown away by this beer. Any complaints? Yes. Put it in a bigger 500ml bottle Guys. I wanted more!