Out of the Loop

I'm stuck in less than optimum beery climes. The West of Scotland can clearly be deemed as such - no bloody arguments please - unless you have easy access to a small part of Glasgow. I am marooned thus by a family death and while it may seem insensitive to complain about the lack of beer, good or otherwise, (though as I type this, my Asda bought bottle of Pivovar Herold, tastes pretty damn good), it clearly doesn't compensate for missing out on the JDW Fest, or pleasant pints with my mates in the Regal Moon tonight.

They do other things differently here. The wake was tea, sandwiches and cakes. I am pretty well caked out in fact. Empire Biscuit anyone? No maudlin piss up and probably better for that. This separation from good beer makes me realise how lucky I am beer wise. The fact that I helped carry the coffin, rather than being carried in it, also makes me feel lucky.

I could still murder a decent beer and for me, hopefully, there is always tomorrow.

Empire Biscuits - What a great treat!

Last Week

I've been busy with this and that including family illness, but of course beer has featured. A trip to Glasgow brought two bonuses. Firstly the beer revolution (a real one) that has been sweeping through the Nicolson's chain has reached the immensely handy for Glasgow Central Station, Drum and Monkey.   Pints of Jaipur on the way to and from my Mum's were both excellent and reasonably priced. Now up to six cask beers are offered which is good news. Nearby,  I used to like the huge and imposing former Bank of Scotland building that is now the JDW Counting House, but the beer range has failed to impress on my last few visits. It seems stuck in a dark, sweet, Scottish  beer groove, chosen from a select band of breweries, most of which need a kick up the arse. On my last visit a few weeks ago, I noticed that a new JDW was being worked on a mere 20 yards or so from the Counting House.  Camperdown Place is now open and offers a very decent selection of beer in a pub that is most unJDW-like. A very fine spot for a quick pint before descending (or ascending depending on destination) into Queen St station. Acorn IPA did not suck at all.

Back on home ground, I introduced the lovely E to the Port St Beer House. On Friday night it was healthily busy and while unable to paint  a surreal picture of it for you, I was, not for the first time, slightly underwhelmed by the cask beers on offer. Not the condition mind you which was and has been on every visit, excellent, but am I alone in thinking that Prospect and Boggart are less than inspiring choices? That and  Lord Marples, the runt of the Thornbridge litter made my beer selection easy.  I was completely impressed by Hardknott Dave's Interstellar Matter, a porter of considerable complexity and poise, which deserved more than just a second half, but I was limited severely by driving.  E was less than taken with the keg Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, that she thought tasteless and gassy and as she remarked, not a patch on the bottled version.  She also  remarked on the almost complete absence of beards among the fairly affluent customers and then wryly added that "you can't say that about the bar staff".  Indeed all four men sported beards of which Jim Morrison or indeed Ulysses S Grant would have been proud and were as hairy as their customers were not. Not sure what that does to those who like to stereotype. All offered fantastic service though and I must put on record that unfailing good service has been noticeable on my visits so far. We will keep coming back, so another winner, albeit qualified by a niggling concern about cask selection, though of course I accept fully that I may just have been unlucky.

On Saturday a trip by coach to Hawkshead Brewery to their new Beer Hall. Well ,extended Beer Hall.  I was unable to take up the opening day invitation, by my wish to have E accompany me, so ironic it was, that after all, she had to stay at home with her unwell mother. Still with Tyson and his coterie, John Clarke, a clutch or Marble and ex Marble brewers and many others I know, it was still a fine place to be.  The investment here is tremendous and the beers were, as Tyson reports, unfailingly good and served to perfection.  I want to proclaim Hawkwshead as one of the most underrated breweries in the UK. Their range is superb, their attention to detail second to none and the presentation of the beers absolutely spot on. "Quality in everything" could be their motto. Seek them out.  I worked my way through the hard to move away from Windermere Pale (3.5%) dominated by Citra and drinking like a 4% beer, to the wonderful, full bodied and bitter Lakeland Gold and then to Citrilla with its cunning and stunning blend of Citra and Amarillo hops.*

So to copy Tyson.  Beer of the week: Hawkshead Citrilla.  Pub chain of the week, Nicolsons.

*I missed out on Stringers Yellow Lorry and Fyne Ales Jarl. Rumour has it that Tyson supped the last of both.

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!

All in the Same Boat*

Pete Brown wrote an emotional and excellent piece pleading for unity in all things beery a couple of days ago. It attracted quite a bit of comment and the usual "black spot" for CAMRA. Pete is concerned that "factionalism and blind prejudice – on various sides – is threatening to kill, or at least stall, the beer revolution."

Well OK. Let's accept there is a beer revolution, though Pete doesn't define it for us and many would say it isn't actually a given. But let's just say there is. He calls for more tolerance, which is a good thing and gives us something to chew on. He doesn't like people slagging off other people's choices of beer. Now I agree with this and like him I dare say I have to plead guilty for doing so from time to time, though trawling my blog, I couldn't actually find any examples where I've done that. I can find a few complaining about a landlord's choice of beer, or about the quality of a beer at a given time or place, but that is surely legitimate? I'm a consumer and blogger after all. His concerns are presumably mainly directed at the industry at large which is legitimate. Slagging off shouldn't apply there either.

Pete is also concerned about squabbling. Squabbling kids in fact. He doesn't say who the squabblers are though.  If he means bloggers, even if it is so, which I rather think it isn't, who'd give a monkey's chuff? I doubt if we count for that much.  Each of us may well disagree with some of what other people write, but I don't think we slag each other off as much as we maybe should even, nor do I believe we feel particularly  alienated by those that disagree with us. We are pretty well behaved for a passionate lot really, so though he doesn't say, I think he is looking wider.

As Ed says in a very good piece in his blog, there are wider concerns within the industry. The policy disagreements between the BBPA and SIBA make the differences between keg beer brewers and CAMRA absolutely pale into insignificance in scale. The role of the PubCos and their stranglehold on pubs and the BBPA doesn't get a mention in Pete's blog, though clearly they have had a dramatic effect on beer, pubs and industry over the last 20 years or so. The attitude of the BBPA, who are trying to look many ways at once, while totally failing to take the industry lead, is to say the least, worrying. Disagreement on policy is rife between on and off trade, the minimum pricers and more. It doesn't paint a pretty picture.

So what should we be positive about? Well supporting British beer of course as Pete says and if your tipple is generic lager or John Smith's Smooth, well that is entirely up to you and fine by me. If you want to drink "Gales Seafarers, Adnams Bitter and London Pride" that's also just fine and dandy. I actually drink more "brown boring beer" by way of Lees Bitter than anything else, so on a personal level,  I'm already doing my bit.  I most certainly understand that these beers are still what most drinkers actually recognise, identify with and yes, like. I also welcome the new brewers of keg as they provide choice and choice is always good.  It's a CAMRA aim is choice. (Mind you I'm still entitled to remark that if you are the publican, I'd like some greater variety please.)  If you want to drink imported beers (though I'm not sure how that helps British beer)or keg beer, that's up to you too. I do wish you'd do more of it in the pub though, as I like pubs and want there to be plenty of them, so I can go to them, but if you don't, well that's up to you too. I like to think though that I passionately  support British Beer and British pubs and if there is a call for unity around that, I'll sign up now.

Oh yes. CAMRA. Of course aren't they always the problem?  Stick in the muds who want to continue to support in their own way, a cause that they were founded for and have always believed in.  I emphatically agree that CAMRA members should not slag off other kinds of beer in a generic and offhand way. That should be actively discouraged.  People that do so are no friends of British beer and in fact no friend of the Campaign. They should grow up. As for changing though, when "new keg" has gained its foothold and has enough support to sustain itself, then CAMRA members might be convinced that definitions should be changed. (Old CAMRA,(to use Pete's term,) members will mostly be dead or inactive by then, so that should make that much easier!) Until then what would be in it for CAMRA? A major split probably.

It seems to me that the very small amount of "new keg" beer that is around at the moment is still looking for consistency, quality, distribution and most of all, legitimacy. I'd guess that's what they really want from CAMRA. Legitimacy.( I'd also venture that in purely beer terms, the new keg beer movement doesn't actually need CAMRA, so goodness knows why they are so obsessed with the subject. People in CAMRA aren't obsessed with them for sure.) None of that should matter though.  You don't have to agree on everything, or change your basic views, to work together and I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing for a coalition of all aspects of the beer industry to fight for common interests.  In fact I have actively advocated such in the CAMRA review.

Finally far more worrying to my mind, isn't CAMRA's views of beer conditioning and dispense, but how it handles its status as a consumer champion. That's where the real issues are and where power lies.  It is there that CAMRA could best be influenced and persuaded in the cause of British beer and beer drinkers. The bigger picture mentioned by Pete can be served best by helping CAMRA tread the right path as a super complainant and for the industry side to sort itself out and start speaking with one strong voice. That is a much bigger task. There is far more danger in getting that aspect wrong and giving all the help possible and working with CAMRA to get it right, would be a far more productive path to follow than the normal (uninformed)  CAMRA bashing.

So maybe we can't always be "cheery beery", but at least let's all work together to support British Beer and Pubs.


CAMRA has a policy on keg beer. Keg is not precluded in the Memorandum and Articles of Association. So it would be policy that would have to change, not CAMRA. 

*Having read through Pete's comments since this was written, I don't think he and I are a million miles apart. 

Cartoon with the help of Stringers Beer.

The Governor

Yesterday I went along to the Northern Food and Bar show at Manchester Central (though I still find it easier to call it GMex). My local brewer JW Lees had a stand, so I went along to chat to those present and watch the official launch of the new beer Lees have brewed for top chef Marco Pierre White. The great man was there himself and was rather a hit with the ladies who were falling over themselves to have their photo taken with him.

This was the first time the new all-malt beer had been served outside of the brewery and I was lucky enough to be given a sample by the MD himself (William Lees-Jones) and though I didn't meet Marco, I enjoyed the spectacle very much. It has to be said he has incredible presence. The beer, named after a champion greyhound owned by the chef's father,  was rather good. Firmly malty in the Lees house style, but with a very good hop finish, it will be widely available from April.

Another beer hit was Holts IPA. Only 3.8% but a delightful hoppy number that you could swoop a lot of pints of. It is a permanent addition to the range.

Apart from being a handsome bugger, Marco also looked as though he'd be pretty useful if a ruck started.

Getting Better

What is? London is. There is a step change in what is happening in the capital. More choice and better choice, new bars opening, new breweries appearing and getting space on bars because they are local. (Not yet because they are universally good.) Better awareness of beer all round it seems too and it is happening fast. Very fast. Publicans and pub chains are thinking about beer and how they can make something more of it and that is fantastic and overdue.  London has great pubs and now we are on the way to great beer. Brilliant.

There are still problems, though most can be easily eradicated. First range and choice. Too much samey brown beer. The golden, hoppy, quaffing beer is still hard to find and when you do it is likely to be Dark Star Hophead. No bad thing in itself, but there are others out there. Variety is important and if like me you are unattracted to a certain style of beer, you will have lost a customer if there isn't a bit of real choice, rather than just a variation on a single theme. When choosing beers, spread the choice and broaden the appeal.

The second is temperature and condition. There is still too much tired, flabby and overvented beer being sold at over 16C- and sold for top dollar too. That's easily sorted and it is instructive that you are at least as likely to get a properly conditioned pint, served at cellar temperature in a JDW or a Nicolsons (haven't they improved?) than you are in some of the the new fancy beer emporia. Particularly disappointing as you would hope that the new specialist beer bars, appealing to younger drinkers and beer enthusiasts as they do,  would be leading the way on this.

So with a few caveats, great stuff and huge potential for more, but the old mantra of quality, quality, quality, can never be repeated enough. While it may be needed more in London, it should be the watchword of every publican in the land, particularly in these difficult times.

Norf

Kentish Town and its environs are pretty much unknown territory to me, but not so to E who worked there for a bit. Looking at the ads in North London CAMRA's newsletter, revealed a pretty easy looking pub crawl taking in three decent looking boozers, the Southampton Arms, the Pineapple and the Junction. The latter had the advantage of being the local CAMRA Pub of the Year.

The 214 from Finsbury Square drops you at the door of the Southampton Arms - and I mean at the door - literally. Inside there is a long narrow, basic, old fashioned pub, with benches and a few chairs and tables and a long wooden bar. It's the sort of place that reminds me how many pubs used to be and it is none the worse for that. It was bustling with an eclectic mix of locals and a great choice of beer, fantastic pork pies and hot pork rolls; no telly, no intrusive music either and friendly bar staff. A pub for people. What's not to like? We both loved it. The beers were on top form too. I particularly enjoyed the Windsor and Eaton Conqueror Black IPA, while E purred happily over Hophead. All the beers tried were in tip top form, cool and bursting with condition. Someone knows their cellar business here. The staff were great, the landlord, Peter a fine fellow, the pork pie as good as any I've had. Any complaints? Only the barrel glasses, but that's a personal thing. We left with great reluctance. This is a stand out pub.

A short walk takes you to the Junction, a large, imposing ex Courage pub.  This is mainly food oriented, but a wonderful place inside. Large windows, lots of interesting features and a good atmosphere and friendly staff.  The beer was boringly brown though, with three identikit beers on offer - Black Sheep Bitter, Betty Stoggs and the ubiquitous Sambrook Wandle.  The beer was served in excellent condition, but the similarity and ordinariness was not what we were after, so it was a short visit. Still, it was a smashing place and perhaps on another day, we'd have had a more inspiring choice.

Next was the Pineapple which E had visited before when she worked in the area.  I've read that this is cliquey, but it just seemed to me to be a smashing locals pub which had a lot going for it. The beer range was again a bit brown (this is a recurring London theme) but again in very good condition. The locals at the bar made conversation and were proud of their pub. Rightly so. We enjoyed our visit, but frankly, the Southampton Arms had spoiled us, so our top tip would be to do this crawl in reverse order.

Back in Central London, we made for the Harp, but such was the throng inside that it would not have been comfortable.  Maybe not possible in fact, so we retreated to the Chandos to reflect on an interesting day.  The Old Brewery Bitter made a malty change and was in great form. This isn't a bad pub at all and it was nice to get change from a fiver!

The beer in the Pineapple was Camden Bitter which didn't impress I'm afraid. Sorry Jasper.

Ker-ching!

Here's a question. Anyone care to explain to me why (British) craft keg beer is nearly always sold at a more expensive price than cask, even when the gravities are roughly the same?

Just wondering.

Mason and Taylor

The day started promisingly, but late. I took a stroll back to the Dean Swift for another drop of Kernel Citra. The same friendly barman greeted me and asked what I thought of the temperature, explaining that there had been cellar problems. It was just still that touch too warm, but tasty. The pub was busy with lunchtime drinkers and was very jolly, though why the music was quite so deafening is a mystery, though in fairness the mostly young customers seemed quite content to yell above it, which made for a livelier atmosphere than one might otherwise have anticipated at a quarter to two in the afternoon.

Then a walk to the Rake for a couple of quick halves and a quick chat to Glyn the manager,who was preparing for his Welsh Beer Festival. No problems with temperature or condition here, but I wasn't taken with the over sweet Williams Brothers Tayberry, nor with Dark Star M&M, which had rather too much peated malt for my taste, though if you like smoked beer, you'd have lapped this up.

I have heard good things about the improved beer range at the nearby Horniman at Heys, which is rather a nice place to have a drink.  Modern, but with plenty of distinct drinking areas and the happy buzz of a dozen languages, I was greeted by a veritable array of handpumps, but was immediately attracted to two. Thornbridge Jaipur needs no further introduction and my half was fine, as was my White Shield, though unusually I'd say the beers complexity is shown off better in bottle.  The cask version to my palate seems just a touch yeasty.

I like going to a new pub. That sense of mystery and anticipation never leaves me. I love looking at the dynamics of a place, at how it operates and what makes it tick.  Thus I looked forward to our visit to Mason and Taylor, just a touch off Brick Lane and again, an easy walk from our gaff. Set on a busy corner on Bethnall Green Road, this offers a somewhat Janus like appearance, with a rather sophisticated looking exterior and a far more modern and eclectic interior.  Inside it is rather narrow and fairly dimly lit, with large picture windows looking out on the street, a decent sized bar and a downstairs area which we didn't visit - the place was too busy for wandering about. The customers were mostly young - think mid twenties - and trendy. Not as trendy looking as the staff though, who were at first, until you worked out who was waiting on and who was a customer, pretty indistinguishable from the customers, but absolutely brilliant in their friendliness and helpfulness. The place was busy, busy when we walked in around 8 p.m., with a good mix of diners and drinkers, but a table was immediately found for us, we were asked if we were eating and if we wanted table service, or just wanted to order at the bar.  We were attentively asked from time to time if we needed more drinks and generally made to feel welcome. Fantastic.

What of the beer? Plenty to go at and a good mix of keg and cask. Keg features Brooklyn Brewery, Camden, Westmalle, Chimay and more, all at pretty hefty prices. Cask offerings were Dark Star Hophead and (astonishingly) Pictish Little Gem on handpump, with Brodie's Citra on a cask on the bar - never a wise thing in my view and all the less so for a 3.1% beer. Bottles abound, with something for everyone and not too badly priced in the main. It was hard to discern what the favoured drinks were given the crowd at the bar.   We tried the Hophead and the Pictish which were average and lacked the edge that perfect cask conditioning gives and were, predictably, slightly too warm.

Overall, even though we bumped up the average age of the crowd by quite a bit, we'll be back. We liked it. but will visit a bit earlier in the day and week to get a different perspective on the place.

London Drinker

That's me most of this week and this weekend, so I hope to get round a few of  the new wave of boozers, some of which I've been to before and some which I haven't. Now regular readers will know I have what might be termed as a healthy pessimism about drinking in London. Some in fact, might call it downright predjudice, but I do remind readers that this caution is from bitter experience, pun most definitely intended. But things are improving, so maybe that will change?

The Dean Swift is a mere 15 minutes walk over the river from our London abode and nestles behind some of the new stuff that is Shad Thames. It's a neat little boozer that crams a lot into what isn't a big space. I liked it straight away. Various posh keg beers are offered along with three (on this occasion) cask ales. I had the rare Kernel Citra which was good, though maybe a touch warm and slightly over vented. We ate there too and thoroughly enjoyed it. The place buzzes, has excellent staff - very chatty and extremely welcoming - and is well worth another go.In fact I'll be very surprised if I'm not in there again over the weekend. Next up was an old haunt, the JDW Pommeler's Rest. I quite like the bar here which is very pubby and usually has a good range. Tonight was no different with beers from Westerham, Sambrooks and Thornbridge.  The Jaipur was on form and at cellar temperature, but the old JDW fault of agonisingly slow service is very evident here. 

Next a mistake. Against E's advice I insisted we walk the 50 yards to the Draft House. This is a very likeable modern place with a great feel to it.  The food looked marvellous too, the barman was helpful and willing, but sadly the cask beer was poor and expensive. That's the third time that's happened and I am giving up on it, which is a shame as I can walk there in no time at all. If they don't want to put the effort into cask, then don't sell it. The  "I told you so" from E was fair enough in the circumstances.

Yesterday I went to see Jeff Bell at his gaff. I warmed up with a quick visit to the JDW Crosse Keys. I like the sheer grandeur of this place, it's great for people watching and 18 handpumps would give enough choice for most you'd think.  Not if your bag is pale and hoppy it wouldn't.  Next the Castle in Furnival St, which I also like, though the beer choice was again unremittingly brown and black.  Milestone Lion's Pride was decent enough, but uninspiring. Then, glory be, a new discovery. It has been noted elsewhere that Nicolsons are upping their game. The Sir Christpher Hatton had a nice feel to it despite being just below pavement level and had a barmaid who didn't bat an eyelid when I asked for my Jaipur to be sparkled. "I've been trained in that" quoth she. Well done indeed and a fine pint to boot.  Training eh? Who'd a thunk it?

In the Gunmakers Jeff was ebullient as ever and the time flew by, sustained by excellent pints of Purity Mad Goose. This is a perfect supping beer, with biscuity Maris Otter malt, lifted by spicy wheat and a gentle touch of noble hop, finishing with a good degree of bitterness from the Willamettes and Cascade hops. I love this pub and this is in no small part down to Jeff. The beer is always spot on too.

So a mixed couple of days, good and bad, but mostly rather good. Things are indeed looking up. Today I was thinking of a walk to Mason and Taylor on Bethnal Green Rd or a bus to the Jolly Butchers, but neither are open until four!

Jeff did tell me one very interesting thing. The Purity ales will now always be served with a sparkler. The brewery like it that way. Good.

World's Best Lager

You can forget all your fancy continental lagers, your carefully brewed to exacting spec rheinheitsgebot German pilsners and helles, put the leading UK lager Carling firmly back in its can and reach for the best. That is if you live in Greater Manchester. So what is this wonderful specimen of the brewer's art? Why none other than Holt's Crystal Lager.

Yes Joey's finest fizz beat off strong challenges from all over the world to take the gold gong in the international keg lager 2.9 to 4.7 abv category at the prestigious Brewing Industry International Awards. Holt's Chief Executive Richard Kershaw said (cuttingly) "Our Crystal lager won over the judges in a blind tasting and beat off competition from beers around the world, including Carling, Fosters and Carlsberg. The gold medal proves that taste and quality are more important than brand advertising.

So there you have it. The world's best lout. Official. Mind you, you'll have to find a Joey Holt's pub to sup it in.

Sorry about the shitty photo, but that's Holt's for you.

As You Were at JDW?

A little bird tells me that Greene King IPA will shortly replace Ruddles Best on their bars, presumably with the happy agreement of GK.

I know most of you, like me won't be bothered either way, but I just thought I'd let you know.

Hard Work - In More Ways than One

Yesterday morning I spent several hours doing some work for CAMRA. Not at all unusual that, for me and countless others. In my case it was starting to write our members mail-out, which I do at least once a month. It keeps us all in touch and hopefully motivates members to get more involved. (We'd like that.) I also spent some time considering our next branch newsletter, which goes out to the public at large and then I filled in the first of four pub surveys for next years Good Beer Guide, having driven (at my own expense) the 12 or so miles to the pub concerned the previous day. That day I had also met a local newspaper editor to offer support to a "Save Our Pubs" campaign he is running. Then I sent off some updates to HQ about breweries in my area. Afterwards I got the bus to Rochdale to do another pub survey (£4.10 fare if you are interested) and after the survey spent some time discussing with a local landlord, a Real Ale Pub Trail he is planning, before having a few well deserved pints.

I do this, like countless others, because it is a hobby, a labour of love, a mission for good beer if you like. It is often a thankless task, but usually you feel it worthwhile until you read comments like this. Then you feel flattened. Knowing a fair bit about what goes into the choosing of the CAMRA National Pub of the Year and the effort the branch officials and members will have put in to ensure that their selection is truly one that is a genuine Pub of the Year contender, it is a tad galling to see that their efforts aren't only unappreciated, but are casually denigrated, though I'm sure they'll just laugh it off. (We all know we aren't the most photogenic creatures in the world.) It is is particularly annoying though, when in this case, the local CAMRA branch whose pictures were found to be so repellent, had clearly had done their work well, as their nomination, the Harp, was met with universal approval as a deserved winner. I have to add that this includes praise from the person that wrote the piece.* Truly a case of the messenger being thought more important than the message.

The thing is that CAMRA does need young people to be active and to present the fresh and appealing pictures that are so desired by some, but more importantly to replace us tired old codgers as we drop off the perch. We all know this and we do try hard to attract young people with varying degrees of success, but the truth of it is that it is quite difficult as there are so many other exciting things for them to do these days. Certainly far more than when I first joined CAMRA. Nonetheless, as all voluntary organisations know, you still need people with experience and as importantly, with time to do the thankless tasks that ensure we have a Good Beer Guide, beer festivals, interesting local newsletters and so on. People like me that are retired and still have a bit to offer, have that time, so surely it isn't that odd that we should be doing most of the work? Do most people really expect something that different?

I brooded on this off and on throughout the day yesterday and was still feeling disgruntled when I returned home full of beer, but you know what? I read this piece here by a different young blogger with the title "Giving something back" describing how she as a young female CAMRA member is helping lighten the load of us old folks by doing her bit. Quite a lot of bits actually. So well done Shea and those like you. You have restored my faith and I will have a much lighter step today when I survey my final two pubs.

Giving something back eh? My beer hero(ine) of the week. I owe her a drink. In fact you all do.

I hope Shea won't mind me illustrating this with a photo nicked from her blog.

* This isn't a pop at any individual either. The writer of the original piece represents a genuine school of thought and a major concern about CAMRA and how it appears. This is a counter to it.

Different Quality - Same Problem

There is much talked these days about the "new wave" of craft brewing and brewers and how keg beer isn't like the bad old days when CAMRA was formed in response to its pervasiveness. This new wave of beers we are assured hasn't got the old faults of the keg of yore, where cheap and nasty ingredients were thrown together and pasteurised to within in inch of their existence and zombie like, brought back to life with copious amounts of CO2 and served cold to disguise their sheer nastiness. "Oh no" we are advised, "it's all different now", with carefully brewed, unpasteurised beer, lovingly dispensed without the previous faults. Well I have news Folks. Not exactly so.

When the keg of the sixties and 70's was served, it was undoubtedly vile, but rarely ice cold. Refrigerated dispense has come a long way since then though and now, it seems that there is little being done to serve these beers other than very cold indeed. CO2 dispense for ale also came very discredited along the way, being replaced by mixed gases and sold as smoothflow.The new wave though is proudly dispensed it seems by CO2. Lots of C02 if my recent experiences have been anything to go by.

On Friday in Glasgow in pissing rain I trekked to the Blackfriars. After a pint of (well kept but indifferent) cask I thought I'd try Brew Dog 5 am Saint. Here's what I tweeted "5 am Saint freezing cold and hugely gassy but the hops are there under a massive carbonic bite". My previous experience of Kipling in the Euston Tap was similar. People argue that CAMRA should move on, but you know, the same old problems exist in a new format. Too cold and too gassy. It is instructive to this writer at least, that the siren calls for more keg come mostly from young bottled beer drinkers who grab chilled exotics from their fridge and from some brewers that push them not as an alternative, but a replacement for the same cask product for reasons best known to themselves. ( I can speculate but that's for another post.) Now that's fine and dandy if you want your beer chilled to around 4C and gassed to three atmospheres, but don't promote it as a fantastic new development. They are there for the same old reasons as brewery conditioned beer (keg) has always been. Longevity and ease of "handling".

Don't get me wrong. Choice is good and I for one am happy to see "decent" British keg beer on a bar as an extension of choice and if it gets young people into pubs. Call it entry level beer for bottled beer drinkers if you like. If people enjoy them and it suits certain (mostly young) drinkers better, well and good and good luck to those that produce them, but please don't try and tell me for example, that keg Jaipur is better than cask . I'll stick to cask wherever possible and promote that. At its best, with all its subtleties and faults, it's just a better way to drink beer.

And one other thing I will continue to bang on about and highlight, is bad beer, bad serving practice, bad service and poor cellarmanship. These more than anything are the enemy of good beer and pubs, not a few fizzy kegs on the bar.

The little quote at the top of this posting is from Brew Dog whose cask beer is actually rather better than their keg.

Leeds and the Ark Royal

I was let loose in Leeds City Centre for three hours on Saturday while E had her hair done, so of course I used the time usefully to view the cultural sights. If you know Leeds like I do, that doesn't take at all long. Is Marks and Spencer cultural? I don't know, but passing it made me able to pop in and sort out our tea (supper for Southern Jessies), though I did supplement that with some purchases from Leeds Market, which is certainly both historic and cultural.

Pre M&S and on the way to Mr Foley's, I saw a crowd down a side street and heard military music. Deflected from my liquid intentions, I walked down in time to see a Marines Band setting off, pursued by a hundred and odd Royal Navy sailors with bayonets fixed. A quick spring ahead to check their caps revealed HMS Ark Royal thereon. It seems the Ark Royal has a major connection with Leeds, but in any event I was gratified to be able to applaud our lads and lasses on their last official outing as a ship's company. The good people of Leeds were similarly and very enthusiastically inclined.

But man does not live by naval nostalgia alone, so into nearby Mr Foley's I sped. Two halves were procured. The excellent Summer Wine Gambit had so much poise and elegance built into it and a smack of hops that demanded more. So I had another half. Regrettably Offbeat Scrumptious wasn't. It may well be, to quote the pumpclip, "Brewed by a Chick" but it was chock full of phenols and good only for the sink.

Much better was Brew Dog Trashy Blonde in Whitelocks, a former haunt of mine, though there was a slightly tense moment as I declined to have it placed in a Bulmer's Cider glass. That sorted, it perhaps wasn't as hoppy as I recall, but nonetheless a good drink, which in my humble opinion would have gained nothing from kegging and lost a lot. After my market trip, it had to be the nearby Duck and Drake. This used to be my local in Leeds until replaced by the Palace due to it going downhill so much. I had read on the interweb it was better now, but it seemed to me - and I'm not that fussy frankly - a bit of a dump. I didn't have a drink. So to my meeting place with E, the Palace. A bit of a dark selection here with Family Brewers dominating. I went for the only pale beer on the bar, Rooster's Special. Now I used to love Roosters, but I have had the feeling that they have slid downhill somewhat. Certainly little doubt about it on this lacklustre showing. Not for the first time I'm sorry to say. I tried two others, halves of course and enjoyed Elgoods Copper Feelgood which was excellently old fashioned and bitter. Hook Norton Jackpot though was bland to the point of tastelessness.

On that note I slipped out to be waiting patiently outside when the newly coiffured E appeared to whisk me back over the Pennines. It does give the right impression and impressions count for a lot, though I doubt if E was fooled.