Bonny Dundee

When I was very young my grandfather lived in Glamis - where the old Queen Mum came from - and where he used to be Station Master - the treat when we didn't go to the nearest real town, Kirriemuir, was to go to Dundee for afternoon tea. I have vague recollections too of visiting the frigate HMS Unicorn, a preserved sailing ship, when I was about ten, but I haven't been back since then, apart from a couple of nights knocking doors as a Social Security investigator in dodgy housing schemes on the outskirts late at night.  Oh and one night at Dens Park watching a dire game against Kilmarnock I think. It was thus, with considerable pleasure to me, that CAMRA decided to hold its AGM and Annual Conference in that fair city.

It's a lovely place. A delightful setting on the Tay, handsome old buildings and streets including the excellent Caird Hall where CAMRA held its business.  We stayed in the really rather good Holiday Inn Express on the front opposite the Tay Road Bridge and handy for everything.  Our nearest pub was the St Andrews Brewing Company outlet which was rather a fine place with lovely interested staff, but no real ale. Still, you can't have everything and the keg offerings were fine in small doses.

As always is the case there was a Beer Exhibition inside the Caird Hall for members and the beer, all Scottish and Irish apart from one, was all in very good nick, though we didn't spend too much time drinking there.  We did though try a few of Dundee's pubs, both real and not and have to say again the warm welcome was an object lesson for many whose failure in this area is noticeable.  I particularly liked the Pillars, a pub with the warmest of warm welcomes, excellent regulars and a free juke box when we were in. With serve yourself (yes) handpumped ale on two handpumps just outside the bar, it was hard to tear yourself away.  A stones throw from there was the excellent Phoenix, another great bar with excellent real ales and plenty CAMRA types therein. 

The conference itself was somewhat dull if truth be told.  I did attend the whole thing and spoke (ineffectively) against the daft motion (which was passed) putting CAMRA on the wrong side of the minimum pricing debate.  Still, it was good to see old friends and maybe that's the real point?

Broughty Ferry was our Sunday destination though by then it had turned a bit drizzly and dreich. The pubs were fine though with the Fisherman's Tavern being the pick of the bunch, though an honourable mention has to be given to Jolly's Hotel, a Wetherspoon with an astonishingly eclectic mixture of drunks and ne'er do wells. It kind of reminded me of Middleton, which was touchingly rather homely.

So Dundee. I didn't see as much as I'd have liked, but I'll be back. Do go there. I recommend it.

I didn't get a chance to visit any of the many bakeries in Dundee, but I did have oysters and fancy fish as well as a very good, but not Punjabi curry.

Oh and I did see statues of Oor Wullie, Mini the Minx and of course Desparate Dan as well as the home of DC Thompson (left), so overall, I was content.

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.

Clouding the Issue

I mentioned here my preview of the CAMRA AGM and Member's Weekend. It turned out pretty uncontroversial really and even the Great Leader remarked that the number of motions that formed debate this year was small, though he didn't mention the quality, perhaps allowing that to speak for itself.  The standard of debate nonetheless was high, with many talented speakers.  I didn't like Scarborough much the last two times I've been and didn't like it any better this time either. Torrential rain on Friday got us off to a wet start and the pubs were just a bit too ordinary on the whole.  The weather did improve though and I did have a superb curry and a lovely breakfast one day, but on the whole, I won't be looking back on it that fondly.  I can't recommend the Travelodge for the comfort of its beds, but can highly recommend the staff.  There's a tip for you.

My worries about Motion 11 were groundless.  It was misguided in a somewhat obscure way, but was otherwise well meant.  My Motion 9 was at least an interesting debate, despite it being defeated by almost 100 votes.  To say I was misrepresented is an understatement.  Despite making it clear that my concern was, that for cask beer,  lack of information about whether a beer on sale should or should not be cloudy or hazy, could lead to both confusion and malpractice.  I urged that the matter should be investigated to see if it was so and report back with findings and proposals.  I made it clear - no pun intended - that it was entirely up to the brewer if he or she wished to produce beers that were intentionally cloudy or hazy, but that confusion was not in the interest of real ale and could be detrimental.

Opposition came from Brass Castle Brewery who spoke almost entirely about themselves and their preference for unfined beer.  It was an impassioned piece of self advertisement, but nothing to do with the motion at all.   Roger Protz further muddied the waters - pun firmly intended - and gave a rousing speech about innovation being stifled and listed a load of stuff going into beers that make make them cloudy and how British brewing was at the cutting edge with young brewers leading the charge.  What I didn't pick up in my right of reply, but should have, is that almost certainly none of these beers he mentioned would be real ales or affected by what I proposed.  I did refute most of it in my second speech, but did not win out.  If you fail to get your arguments across, you lose.  That's democracy. I'll keep my eye on this subject though.

So what do we make of this?  I take the positive view that  CAMRA diehards attending the conference were convinced that my motion was an attack on innovation and "craft" beer.  They didn't want that.  Those that think CAMRA is stuck in the mud should take heart.  

I understand the Brass Castle only produce vegetarian (or maybe vegan) beers.  I also noted that some of the beers served at the CAMRA AGM were served with the warning "Hazy". Make of both what you will.

CAMRA AGM

The CAMRA Member's Weekend and AGM is in Scarborough this year and I'll be off there later this morning. Let's hope for decent beer and sunny weather. This being the UK, neither is guaranteed of course. This year there is little to excite on the agenda, with only oblique references to craft beer and the rest seeming a bit stodgy really. This is a pity, though perhaps Motion 11 might throw up some controversy depending on the approach that is taken.  We'll see.

MOTION 11

This Conference amends the key campaigns as recommended by the Policy Discussion Group on Campaigning Focus as they are not focused enough on the strengths of real ale, cider and perry over their non-real counterparts. These key campaigns must be updated by replacing generic references to beer with real ale, or adding suitable wording to encompass real ale, cider, and perry.

Proposed by Chelmsford & Mid-Essex Branch

If this is anti craft I'll likely be firmly opposing it. If it is just pro real ale I likely won't be.  We'll have to see.

Preceding this is one decent motion that might get things going a bit and which seems to me to make eminent sense. That's Motion 9.

MOTION 9

This Conference is concerned about the increasing tendency for some cask ales to be brewed to be served hazy or cloudy and the potential for both confusion at the point of sale and the undermining of customer confidence in real ale. It therefore instructs the National Executive to examine the matter and report back to next year’s Conference with its findings and, if necessary, proposals to remedy or ameliorate the situation.

Proposed by Peter Alexander, seconded by Graham Donning  

These seem like a couple of sensible guys. I wonder what they'll say?  I'll let you know.

Sadly we'll be saying goodbye to our Chief Exec Mike Benner.  He is off to boss SIBA, so at least he is still in beer.  That's good.

Why Can't They All Keep the Beer Properly?

Paul Bailey mentioned in his blog recently about cask beer cellarmanship. His thoughts are worth reading.  Despite what some would have you believe, it isn't that difficult, though like most things, it requires a bit of basic understanding of what goes, or should go on, a lot of attention to detail and a temperature controlled cellar - turned to the correct temperature obviously.  Thus I had my worries when we arrived in Norwich.  This is in the domain of Southern beer keeping practices, where the beer has a bias to warmness and flatness.  Would it be so in this lovely city?  Well the picture was mixed, with highs and lows as you'd expect. though in fairness, I didn't try that every recommended pub.  Probably around a dozen or so.

In the main I won't be naming and shaming either, not because I've turned over a new leaf, but because I didn't take a single note of where we were, so it would not be fair to rely on a memory which could at times have been afflicted by alcohol.  Suffice to say there were some stinkers and some highlights.   I'll name the highlights later, because they have stuck in my mind.  And in fairness many pubs didn't get a visit as I and my friends applied the principle of having found the silk purse, no point of risking a sow's ear elsewhere.  So what did I find?

• Over-vented beer on the point of oxidisation -some.
•  Flat beer - that is beer with almost no condition - not so much
• Warm beer - that is beer above around 14C - lots
• Headless beer - beer that either had no head or lost it pronto - lots
• Undrinkable beer - one horror - infected
• Acceptable beer - mostly
• Great beer - three pubs 
• Surprisingly good beer - one venue

I did miss out quite a few Good Beer Guide (GBG) pubs.  Only one GBG pub sold what I'd call "Not up to GBG standard."  Most pubs weren't in the current issue, but were chosen for convenience.  Two of the pubs with the best beer weren't in the GBG either.

There is probably little surprise to learn that the best beer and best pub by a country mile was the Fat Cat, which has won numerous awards and boy can you see how.  Apart from being a great boozer - clean, warm and welcoming,  with lots of distinct drinking areas, it made great use of limited space, but still felt roomy, despite being bursting at the seams. Great old stuff from defunct breweries on the walls added atmosphere and a fantastic local clientèle occupied their usual spots.  It kept its beers superbly, had a great "feel "about it and tremendous staff.  Hardly a difficult formula when you think about it  Get these basics right and you have a business.

Others of note that I do remember for great beer quality were the Reindeer (owned by Elgoods) and the Ribs of Beef.  I may be biased here though.  The Ribs sold Oakham Scarlet Macaw as our last Norwich beer, which was strikingly good.  The Reindeer provided us with excellent pints of something golden, hoppy, bitter and delicious, which I think was either from Oakham again, or somewhere else in my circle of trust - possibly Crouch Vale.  Or was that the Fat Cat?  See what I mean? In one pub, our beer was so flat, we complained and the smashing manager not only replaced it with a fresh cask, but showed me, unbidded, her immaculate cellar and how she looked after the beer.  (The cellar was also on CCTV for all to see).  She was spot on.  The beer wasn't and therein lies a tale.  Her hands are pretty well tied in getting better stuff in.  A lovely lass though, a great manager and a good pub with a warm welcome and customer first ethos.  Impressive.

What about the surprise venue I hear you ask?  Well, it was the CAMRA AGM Beer Festival.. All the beers, were properly cooled using CAMRA kit and were tip top until the end.  The festival was drunk dry.  Quality does count.

CAMRA - Walking the Walk.  Pure dead brilliant.

Norwich has some smashing pubs.  The city is a friendly delight too.  It is recommended strongly.   Next.  The proceedings.