A Beautiful Cloudiness

 

Our server deposits a flight of beers on our table: a bespoke wooden tray holding a number of small glasses filled with varying degrees of amber. I lean forwards in my seat, ever hopeful, lifting the first glass to my nose. I take a long sniff, followed by a couple of sips. Then I sigh; place the glass back in the tray and slump back in my seat. ‘I’d rather be drinking a Kernel IPA,’ I say and not for the first time on this trip.

The Best Double IPA in the UK

April has seen us drowning in double IPA. If you enjoy this style of strong, super hopped IPA then you’ve been spoiled for choice in the past few weeks. I’ve seen and heard a lot of beer nerds talking about which of them is 'the best DIPA'. Of course this is what beer lovers are into – discussion and friendly argument about beer. But I am surprised that people are still talking about this in terms of absolutes, as if one beer has to be awarded the title of ‘The Best’ and all the others must therefore be 'less good' beers. As if there isn’t a place for variation of expression within a style; as if context is irrelevant. By all means choose a favourite, choose one beer that you prefer above the others. But does one really have to be the best and the others all inferior to it as a result? I don’t think it’s that simple and I don’t really believe in absolutes.

Golden Pints 2014

Although Crema is a single entity and we are often in agreement (at least broadly) on beer-related matters for this post we each wrote our own answers. As you might expect there was a great deal of overlap in our responses. Chris wrote the post and Emma added thoughts where some clarification was required. Probably worth clarifying from the outset that Chris works part time at Weird Beard Brewery.

1. Best UK Cask Beer

Chris: I’ve not had that much cask beer this year that has blown me away but it’d be hard to beat Weird Beard Dark Hopfler, though Hit the Lights is always a solid choice.

Emma: I think Hit the Lights is a better cask beer than keg. The extra carbonation doesn’t do much for it. And even though it was slated to go on at IMBC, it just didn’t happen and I so never got to try Dark Hopfler on cask. :’(

2. Best UK Keg Beer

Chris & Emma: Magic Rock Cannonball for sheer drinkability and an almost sure choice anytime we find it on draught. An honourable mention goes to Brewdog’s Dead Pony Club as a beer that we go back to time and time again when we want something low ABV and refreshing.

3. Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer

Chris: Thornbridge Halcyon. Great to see more and more of this coming out of Thornbridge’s Riverside brewery and I’ve tried to get a case from every batch they’ve brewed this year. It’d be great to have it as a fridge staple at home in 2015.

Emma: Even though I’ll fight anyone who claims to be a bigger fan of Halcyon than me, if you say ‘best bottle or can of 2013’ to me then I only have one answer: Gamma Ray in #cans. How excited was I about that event? SUPER CRAZY EXCITED. I vividly recall going to Duke’s straight from work on a Monday afternoon and delightedly pouring Gamma Ray into my face straight from the can. So eye-wateringly dank and even though the beer was a super face-melting overkill on the hops, it was everything I had hoped it would be: a great example of something truly living up to the hype.  Since that day I’ve enjoyed cans of Gamma Ray as train beers (thank you, Sourced Market), and in bars where I’ve pointed them out to the staff because they didn’t even know they sold them, and as a staple in our beer fridge. 

4. Best Overseas Draught Beer

Chris & Emma: Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel!/The Alchemist Moralité. There’s been some of this about at Brewdog bars up and down the UK but nothing beats the night we both tried to drain an entire keg of it at the Brewdog Clapham Junction Meet The Brewer event. Can’t think of a better overseas draught beer we’ve had all year. However, we wouldn’t be surprised if an Italian brewery occupies this slot next year (see below).

5. Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer

Chris: Birra Del Borgo Rubus. Shared a bottle of this with friends at the Great British Beer Festival (frankly the overseas beers, especially the Italian and American beers, were better than the British offerings) and loved it so much we bought another bottle, which we shared this past Saturday. An absolutely stunning beer that shows where the Italians are heading.

Emma: Special mention for cans of The Alchemist Heady Topper because it was part of an interesting IPA tasting panel we did at home comparing UK and US beers and it was great to experience a super hoppy beer explicitly designed to be consumed direct from the can. If I had frequent access to this beer I’d drink a lot of it.

6. Best Collaboration Brew

Chris: Magic Rock/Lervig Farmhouse IPA. Perhaps not the most stunning beer of the year but certainly the most consistently enjoyable. However, an honourable mention goes out to Magic Rock/Siren/Beavertown Rule of Thirds, which I wasn’t sold on when I had it at the launch at Beavertown but from a bottle a few weeks later, it tasted incredible. More please.

Emma: On the day of Magic Rock’s Unhuman Cannonball release this April the beer people talked about the most afterwards was that Farmhouse IPA. I enjoyed how the character of this beer changes with age too, more bitter when it’s really fresh, then milder and sherberty, then later more, well, farmhousey – a marvellous mosaic of a beer. 

The Rule of Thirds has definitely grown on me. I was unsure how I felt about it on launch day, there was something muddled about the flavour... however, when we had it from a bottle on subsequent occasions there was more clarity and sharpness to it. I’m definitely a fan now. But if I had to choose a single collaboration beer of the year it would be the Weird Beard/IMBC black saison with Seville orange: Hacienda. So many black saisons are gimmicky and the darker malts don’t even add anything to the finished beer. Too many saisons that are ‘flavoured’ with fruits are either imperceptible or overwhelming. I love the darker roasty malts with the bittersweet orange underneath and in the finish the (subtle) yeast character. This beer, with a little time to settle and mature, became a highly drinkable, incredibly well-balanced beer.

(Some people ask, “but what does ‘well-balanced’ even mean when referring to a beer?” Well, to me it means nothing stands out or feels out of place or unbalanced; everything is in a happy equilibrium. It’s a bit like seasoning food - you know when you have seasoned a dish right. That’s how I think about a balanced beer. NB: Not all great beers are well balanced.) 

7. Best Overall Beer

Chris & Emma: Magic Rock Cannonball. The availability and consistency has increased rapidly and we look forward to the day we can have it at home more. An honourable mention goes to Summer Wine Brewery for their superb Mauna Kea Hawaiian IPA that just blew me (Chris) away with its fantastic tropical fruit aroma and flavour after a very long day in the brewery (on Emma’s recommendation).  

8. Best Branding, Pumpclip or Label

Chris & Emma: There are two winners. Firstly Magic Rock for their eye catching branding that always draws our eye when arrive at the bar. Secondly, Nick Dywer’s artwork is a defining style for Beavertown’s fantastic branding but the label for Bone King was on another level. Best thing we’ve seen all year (it helped that the beer was damn good too).  

Chris: A dishonourable mention goes to Brewdog for going backwards and switching to a bland, corporate branding that smacks of the breweries that they railed against in the past.

9. Best UK Brewery

Chris:  For a sheer explosion of creativity and range it’s a close run thing between Buxton and Siren, with the Derbyshire crew, led by bearded genius and all-round awesome guy Colin Stronge, just edging it. Notable highlights include Axe Edge, Ace Edge, Wyoming Sheep Ranch, Rainshadow and the superb Double Axe. 

Siren have produced a fantastic range of beers this year with their Discount series, Americano, Shattered Dream, the barrel aged Broken Dreams and the mango punch to the face that was the Tickle Monster.

Emma: We all lost out heads a little bit over Double Axe this summer but I was a fan of Buxton before that. One of my favourite beers at IMBC 13 was their white wine BA saison, but I struggle to think of any of their beers that I haven’t really enjoyed or at least liked between then and now.

I had an epiphany with Siren this year. Having found them hit and miss in 2013, we happened to stop into the Craft Beer Co. on Leather Lane for a drink one Saturday afternoon in spring. In the space of an hour I completely changed my mind after trying Shattered Dream, Americano and Ratchet. Then the Discount series consolidated that decision.

10. Best Overseas Brewery

Chris & Emma: It has to be To Øl. Some highlights from 2014 included Sur Mosiac, Hundelufter Bajer and Sort Maelk plus the countless collaborations with other breweries. We expect more greatness from these crazy Danes. However, an honourable mention goes to Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel! for producing stuff that goes blows our minds when we drink it.

11. Pub/Bar of the Year

Chris: Brewdog Shepherd’s Bush for sheer variety of beer available on both draught and in bottle, served in fantastic condition and with the textbook example of how customer service in pubs and bars should be done.

Emma: Same, for the best customer service in any beer outlet in London. Pretty much everywhere else that sells beer could learn from them.

12. Best New Pub/Bar Opening 2013

Chris & Emma: Mother Kelly’s in Bethnal Green. A relaxed atmosphere with tasty meat and cheese platters, and possibly the best range of bottled/canned beers in their fridges.  The only criticism would be allowing people to sit and drink along the entire length of the bar. When it gets busy it’s a pain in the arse having to lean over people to order, pay for and pick up your drinks. Take a look around town and see how many other bars allow people to occupy the entire length of the bar, thereby blocking access to people who want to buy drinks. Can’t think of anywhere off the top of our heads.

14. Beer Festival of the Year

Chris & Emma: No contest. It’s IMBC as we already described in our previous blog post.

15. Supermarket of the Year

Chris & Emma: Waitrose. We don’t buy much beer from supermarkets but when we do, it tends to be from Waitrose and their support of the Thornbridge home brewing competition this year showed their commitment to innovation and independent breweries. It is a shame the distribution of the award-winning beer wasn’t a bit wider.

16. Independent Retailer of the Year

Chris & Emma: Bottledog . It never disappoints with the range of beers available; there will always be something you love or something you want to try. Honourable mentions to Beermoth in Manchester on the basis of our single visit during IMBC for an eclectic range and engaging staff and to Sourced Market in St Pancras Station for supplying train beers on so many occasions.

17. Online Retailer of the Year

Chris & Emma: this has been a difficult one for us. Compared to 2013, when we ordered a lot online, we’ve significantly reduced our online beer ordering in preference to buying beer in person. Largely because we’ve found it’s been incredibly difficult to arrange delivery to our flat as delivery companies only want to deliver during the day - when we’re at work.

18. Best Beer Book or Magazine

Chris & Emma: hands down it goes to Boak and Bailey for their entertaining and educational Brew Britannia. Well researched and written in a compelling style of prose, we feel that our knowledge of British brewing history has been enriched by this book. An honourable mention to Michael Tonsmeire for his excellent book American Sour Beers, which I’m (Chris) currently reading and finding very, very useful.

19. Best Beer Blog or Website

Chris & Emma: For us, The Beer Diary/Chris Hall Beer has been the consistently best UK beer writing blog, it covers a wide range of topics related to beer and it pulls no punches. From a brewing perspective, Port 66 has quickly come through as the “go-to” resource for advice on a range of subjects although we often find ourselves going back time and time again to Michael Tonsmeire’s the Mad Fermentationist blog as we experiment more and more with different yeast and styles of beer. Honourable mentions to Total Ales for Matt’s bravery in tackling controversial subjects that often split beer fans, and for Richard Taylor’s superb journalistic piece on Brewmeister.

20. Best Beer App

Chris & Emma: Twitter, without which we wouldn’t be able to connect to the whole wonderful world of beer.

21. Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer

Chris & Emma: Chris ‘zero tolerance in 2014’ Hall (@ChrisHallBeer), with runners up Dave Bishop (@broadfordbrewer) for his Twatterdoodles, and Matt Curtis (@totalales) for his world class Vines.

22. Best Brewery Website/Social media

Chris & Emma: Brewdog, for showing everyone else how brewery social media should be done. Again.

23. Food and Beer Pairing of the Year

Chris: The Thornbridge Sunday Session at the Draft House on Charlotte Street. While both the Weird Beard and Lervig sessions were also good, every single beer and food match at the Thornbridge event were sensational with my favourite being the Raspberry Imperial Stout and the pigeon. Simply incredible. Kudos to that wizard, Max Chater, and his team for turning out such well considered and executed pairings on the day.

Emma: When I think of beer and food pairings I cannot see beyond the magic of the Draft House Sunday Sessions. Each one I’ve attended has been a fantastic, rewarding event which left me with a warm fuzzy afterglow. But I tend to agree with Chris that the Thornbridge event was just in the lead. Every course was great but my favourite was the dessert pairing of Otto (a weizenbock) with a banana cake, banana crisp and sugarwork PLUS a gin grattachecca (shaved ice and gin). Wow. I want it again right now. I had no idea that banana, caramel and gin would work so well together.

Beer as a food

The good stuff at Six Degrees North

It was a Sunday in June and we were nursing the faintest of hangovers from attending the BrewDog AGM the previous day. We needed a calm, peaceful atmosphere, comforting beer and restorative food. Luckily for us Six Degrees North was a short walk away.

This place is perfect in so many ways, from the wonders of its delicate and delicious in-house Belgian style beers to its soothing lighting and the absolutely ideal volume of the background music. But the most magical thing about Six Degrees North on this specific occasion was its beer and cheese soup, which arrives served in its own bread trencher. You need to eat this. Take my word for it. The word is amazing. Everyone should go there simply to try the soup, and that's before you even get round to their impressive beer list.

It may look good but actually it's poison

When we got home we were keen to make a version of this soup for ourselves. I trawled the internet looking for a suitable base recipe and settled on this one as a good starting place. Now here is my first pro-tip for you: select your beer very carefully. Over the years I've heard conflicting views on how to use wine in cooking. Some people say use any old thing because it doesn't matter and you don't waste the best stuff in food as you won't get to truly appreciate it. Other people say, don't put poor quality ingredients in if you want to make quality food. Personally, I have veered from one extreme to the other. For our first beer and cheese soup, I chose poorly. I figured it would be fine to use up some Dark Star Belgian IPA we had leftover from a case (which we'd been given as a prize in a brewing competition earlier this year). But, it wasn't fine. Not at all. Upon initial tasting of the soup all of the expected cheesy-herby-seasoning type flavours were there up front, followed by a slight bitterness (you just have time to wonder if this is from the beer), then WHAMMO! in the finish came the awful acetone tang across the tongue which poisoned the whole thing. That's right, I'd ruined my soup by using a beer that contributed an overwhelming taste of nail polish remover. It was an incredibly sad moment because it was clear that the soup would have been great if it had only been made with decent beer. Still, a vital lesson had been learned.

A few weeks later I came across this recipe (from Deschutes Brewery in Oregon) for Bacon and Beer Cheddar Cheese Soup and I needed to give it a try to exorcise the demons of the poisonous acetone soup. My second pro-tip for you: choose some fancy schmancy bacon. Those packets of luxury/wood-smoked/lovingly-somethinged-by-hand bacon that your eyes skim across in the supermarket before you pick up your usual pack: get that. Yes, that's right, you need craft bacon* for this recipe.

But which beer should you use? Well, it's up to you really. This particular recipe called for a golden ale but I used a pale (Adnams Ghost Ship) and it worked fine. Probably you could use whatever you like and you'll achieve mild variations in flavour depending on your choice of beer (in fact, it would be interesting to use a Belgian beer... but for me it's still too soon after the acetone soup). By all means experiment! However, please do not use out-of-date beer or, in fact, any beer which you would not happily drink a glass of; that road will lead to misery.

My third pro-tip concerns that all important element of the craft experience: blending. The original recipe doesn't call for any blending/liquidising of the ingredients. But again personal preference gives you the option of creating an ultra smooth soup or more chunky chowder - or anything in between. If you'd like it super smooth you could put the basic soup ingredients (onion, garlic, chilli, celery) into a food processor before frying them. If, like me, you prefer your soup to be generally smooth but a little on the rustic side then cook the vegetables, add the first portion of beer and the stock, then either give it a blitz with a hand-held blender, or if you don't have one, pour everything into a blender/liquidiser and give it a quick blast before returning it to the pan. Get it to the consistency you're happy with before adding your roux.

A couple of other handy hints - be careful about your conversions from US to UK measurements. The first time I used the Deschutes recipe I made a roux with 4oz of flour/4oz of butter. When I added this to the soup the entire thing insta-solidified, like a cheesy cement. Whether this is a positive or a negative depends on how thick you like your soup. With that much thickening power it's more like a chowder, which is nice if you like chowder. The next time I made it I used half as much for the roux (2oz flour/2oz butter) and it turned out much more like a soup.

Third time lucky - this batch came out just right

Finally, I know it's a cheese soup. I love cheese, I really do... however, I think the amount stated in the ingredients list is an epic overkill. I put the full 4oz of smoked cheddar** but only about 100-150g of standard grated cheddar - I wanted it to be a soup not a cheese fondue. But I think you should all experiment and find a version that makes you happy.

If you like cheese and bacon and beer then you should probably make this soup right now. If you're feeling like a bit of a show off then have a go at making your own bread bowl, we did it the first time round and it wasn't so difficult. But it's equally good from an actual bowl. :)

*probably it will be just as delicious with standard bacon, but why take the risk?
**I found I couldn't grate my smoked cheddar - no matter just slice it up small, it will all melt once it goes into the pot anyway

(post by Emma)

Beer Cocktails (yes, really)

My first experience of drinking beer cocktails was in BrewDog Glasgow in 2012. As soon as we arrived I spotted a board with a list of three beer cocktails and got a bit excited. I loved beer. I loved cocktails. Surely a beer cocktail could only be better than the sum of its parts, right? My drinking companions quickly talked me down and insisted that we have a couple of rounds of beer first to work our way up to the cocktails. Eventually I got my way though and we tried one of each cocktail. Now, I don’t recall exactly what they were called or precisely what was in them (I know mine was made with Punk) but one thing they all had in common was that they were decidedly less pleasant than any unadulterated BrewDog beers. My friend Vanessa described hers as tasting like ‘old ladies shoes that have been kept in a cupboard for a long time’. We didn’t want to finish them and went back to beer instead.

'It takes a certain ballsiness to go to a bar alone if you’re a woman'

At least it does according to this blog post which was published a year ago. Yes, that's right - in 2013. Until I began writing this post I had no idea that a person (male or female) going for a drink by themselves was such a big deal. But there are hundreds of websites, blogs and forum posts, where people ask for and give advice on the topic. But what is even more surprising to me is that the old-fashioned concept that 'women shouldn't go to pubs or bars by themselves and if they do it means they are only there for one reason*' is still being voiced today by women.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

The Evil Twin tap takeover held at Craft Beer Co in Clerkenwell back in January was probably the first time I've ever bought a round of three 1/2 pints and only got 50 pence change back from a twenty pound note. That was the moment that crystallized for me how ridiculous it is to sell (one-off or unusual) high ABV beers without offering them in 1/3 of a pint measures.

A Tale of Two Cities (feat. experimental beer)

We had such a good time at the Bristol Beer Festival last year we knew we had to go back to again this year. Only this time we thought, let’s take a look at (the beer in) Bath too while we’re down that way.

Saturday 15th March was a beautiful sunny day in Bristol and after checking into our hotel room we joined our friend, Slick, in the queue where he’d been waiting for an hour already. Impatient for beer I fidgeted for the next 10 minutes until they started letting people in. During that time our other friend Neil arrived with our tickets. Phew.  And then we were seated inside and enjoying our first beer. It was important to us to sample the local breweries so I kicked off with a tasty Wiper and True Winter Rye.

Which new beer is it?

Without listing every single beer we sampled, suffice it to say that overall we had some good beers, two of which were improved by the beauty of social media. Having spotted two Art Brew beers on the list I was determined to have at least one of them. Monkey IPA, we’ve had before, but what was this ‘New Beer’? I asked the brewers via Twitter. They swiftly replied that it could be their Seville Rye. EXCITE. I went to the bar to get one but it turned out that New Beer was actually a typo for Now Beer (a golden ale). It was a perfectly clear, bright golden beer and with a well balanced bitterness, the latter being absolutely essential for my enjoyment of this style.

One of my favourite beers of the day was Dr Hardwicke, an 8.5% DIPA from Sadlers. The reason I especially wanted to try this beer was because of its description in the beer list, ‘If you don’t like hops move on swiftly!’ Why would you go to a beer festival if you don’t even like hops? I don’t get it. Anyway, when I ordered one (one third, that is) the guy serving me said he’d been warned you could 'taste the alcohol straight away'. I don’t know about alcohol but I could certainly taste some delicious hops. But that’s ok, because I like hops. I enjoyed it so much I bought the brewery tweeted the brewers to ask which hops they used. The response was rapid: Amarillo, Citra, Cascade and Chinook. No wonder it tasted so nice. :)

And then sadly we experienced a couple of less than palatable beers.  Dark Alliance from Moor/Arbor is a beer we tried last year at a bottle share. On that occasion we found the predominant flavour was burnt coffee. It was too overwhelmingly roasty for us. Other people who tried it on that occasion liked it but it just wasn’t for us. So we wondered about giving it another go on cask at the festival. In the end we didn’t have to because Neil bought a third of it and promptly handed it over for us to try. Initial aroma was stale cigarette smoke, a bit like when a heavy smoker gets on the bus after you and the smell is so strong you need to open a window. Initial flavour was an ashtray filled with water or possibly beer. That second wash of aroma after just you swallow the beer? Even more ashtray. Not saying there was anything wrong with the beer. This is just personal taste, obviously. I personally don’t like drinking a beer that resembles an ashtray. I’m sure some people would like that kind of thing. Not that I don’t like smoked beers. I really do. I tried Camden’s Flue Faker last week and enjoyed its delicate smoked character. Plus I’m a huge admirer of Beavertown’s Smog Rocket/Lord Imperial Smog, neither of which are light on smoked malts.

But the prize for least enjoyable beer of the afternoon goes to Elephant from XT. Here's its full description:

‘This may be the first and last time that you can try this one-off brew from a very experimental brewery. It was brewed only once, in collaboration with Brentwood, and is described as a “black saison” – a new style to me. Uses Wakatu and Pacific Gem hops and special Belgian saison yeast.’

Well, I spent the festive season in a whirlwind romance with Dieu du Ciel!’s Isseki Nicho. In fact, we liked that beer so much that we bought the brewery brewed our own Imperial Saison Stout last month. And we’re in good company, Andy Parker fell for this style too and recently brewed his own take on it. So if I see the words ‘dark saison’, I am there.

To begin with, it all seems to be going to plan - it smells fruity and spicy as you’d expect from a beer fermented with a Belgian saison yeast. So far, so good. But what does it taste like? Well, not a saison (dark or otherwise), it’s not dry or refreshing. Doesn’t taste like a stout or a porter – because the malts are fighting with the hops and the yeast. Doesn’t taste like a Belgian black IPA either because it’s not hop forward enough. Pretty much running out of styles one could possibly attribute to this beer now, and it doesn’t fit any of them. It’s indistinct and confused. I don’t understand this beer. It’s not a dark saison. It doesn’t work. It tastes like someone mixed a number of different beers of different styles together. It’s unpleasant. I only bought a third and even after four people have tried a couple of mouthfuls there’s still over half of it left. Nobody wants it.

I took it back to the bar. Not for a refund, simply to get rid of this thing and get a pleasant tasting beer instead. Inevitably I got into a discussion about it with the person who served me. He’s sorry I don’t like it – 'it’s an experiment, just a one-off, they won’t brew it again...' I point out that just because it was brewed as an experiment that isn't an excuse for asking people to pay for a beer that tastes unpleasant and clearly didn’t work as the style they've assigned it. We’ve drainpoured whole batches of our own brews that tasted better than Elephant because they weren’t right. We are fussy about the beer we drink. If it doesn’t taste great then we don’t want to drink it (even if we brewed it ourselves!), we wouldn’t want any of our friends to drink it and we wouldn’t want to put our name to it. I understand that it’s far more costly for a commercial brewer to dump a whole batch than it is for us homebrewers. Maybe if you can’t afford to discard something that didn't work and tastes horrible then you shouldn’t be experimenting on a commercial scale? I had another Dr Hardwicke to take the taste away and by then it was last orders.

What was so great about those toilets?

We jumped in a cab and headed to The Grain Barge. Not sure I’ve ever visited a pub on boat before. It was nice to stare out at the water. Very relaxing and tranquil. There was some sort of animal-onesie-wearing-board-game-playing stag party taking place there, whether that provoked the in depth Watership Down discussion or whether it would have occurred regardless of grown men wearing tiger suits I couldn’t possibly say. After that we hit The Three Tuns for a swift Arbor and then found ourselves in The Royal Navy Volunteer, where most of the customers were shouting about the rugby, before finally pitching up in BrewDog. Whoops. Accident. Teensy bit hazy by this point. I recall (ok, the internet told me the next morning) that I got manically excited about the aroma of the Ladies toilets. There must have been some craft catnip in there because I was giddy.

Green Emperor

Sunday we travelled to Bath for an hour of cultural appreciation with Slick in the glorious spring sunshine before heading to The Raven to meet Neil. At the Bath Brewhouse we got into a discussion about why somewhere that has Craft stamped all over it still needs to serve mainstream keg lagers. We were sat by the window and looking out onto the deck almost everyone we saw was drinking wine or pints of Heineken. I guess that explains it. Shame. Looked like they did lovely food too. And almost as importantly: high quality toilets. No craft catnip here, just the essentials (functional hand dryers, sinks, mirrors). It’s not much to ask for yet so many pubs are not fussed about decent facilities. As this was the day before St Patrick's Day we had a green beer - the house IPA, Emperor, with some 'green' in it. They wouldn't tell us how it got there. It's a weird experience drinking a green beer as your brain is telling you it will taste like Fairy Liquid but your mouth is telling you it tastes like a hoppy pale ale. Odd.

After a swift call to Independent Spirit for some bottle shopping and it was off for a late lunch at Graze before catching the train home. Really, really nice roast dinner. Great views. Added amusement was provided with the meal, when staff explained that they couldn’t sell any draught beers that weren't made by Bath Ales as that would be a conflict of interest. But they sell Heineken though, plus other fizzy yellow keg stuff. Worth visiting for the food alone though - we highly recommend you eat there if you’re in town.

The Company of Strangers

Here is a blog post written in January 2013 which never saw the light of day - but it hasn't gotten any less relevant since I wrote it then...

A few weeks back I’m drinking with some mates in a Glasgow bar on a Friday evening. After a couple of halves the others indulge my burning need to try the beer cocktails. I’m at the bar waiting while the anxious girl serving me (“Nobody ever asks for these!”) cautiously creates the outlandish drinks when a middle-aged guy next to me starts asking me what I think about ‘all this fancy beer stuff’. What he’s referring to is that we are in a BrewDog bar. That’s right – a bar in Glasgow where they don’t serve Tennants*. Essentially he is asking me if I think craft beers are worth all the fuss.

Well, I could talk about that one for hours. And this guy is polite enough. He’s not being creepy or pushy or making me feel uncomfortable. I’m just a little, kind of, put on the spot because I’m only there in Scotland to visit my mates and I want to get back to my table. Plus I am stood in the way of other people getting served at the bar and it’s busy in there at 5pm. But I’m interested in the topic of conversation and I don’t want to be rude - so we’ve been chatting for a few minutes when I feel a tug at my elbow. Initially I thought it could be a friend of this guy and I was being tag-teamed. But in fact it was our friend Jamie. So luckily, I didn’t elbow him in the face first and ask questions later.

A couple of weeks later I am at a beer festival at a greater London pub, a few miles down the road from where we live, that’s renowned for its beers. A key point to note about the pub is that it’s community-owned - it was all set to close down but some locals clubbed together and funded its continued survival. Somebody must have done something right as it was CAMRA’s Greater London pub of the year for 2012. It’s 6pm on a Thursday night and I’m stood at the small bar out of the back of this pub where the festival is being held, with the beer list in hand. I’ve just asked the barman if all the beers listed are on. Between him, myself and Chris, we are just discussing the order we should tackle them in, when I become aware of this looming presence to my right. I turn and see this big guy, who is swaying slightly, leaning against the wall next to the bar and intently watching me. I’m thinking: go away, drunkard. Also please stop staring at me.

So I say: ‘Oh, would you like to go first? Because I might be a little while...’ I give him a big friendly smile, thinking: please buy your drink and move on.

He says: ‘No. I’m just watching!’ *creepy grin*

I smile and say: ‘OK then’ and turn away to continue my discussion with the barman.

Random interloper guy interrupts us: ‘I’ll tell you which beer you should try if you want a REALLY good beer!’

Hmmm.  I say: ‘Oh yes?’

He names a collaboration stout which we've already had twice in the past week and we have Every Single Intention of sampling it again that night. But we planned on starting with the light beers and working toward the dark ones, hence we’ll get to that one later. I explain this to him.

He says: ‘No! You should have it NOW!’

I smile and say: ‘No, it’s OK, we’ll have it later’ and turn away.

He says: ‘DON’T WAIT. HAVE IT NOW.’

I ignore him. We purchase our beers, sit down and start tasting them. We note that it’s 6pm on a Thursday evening, the beer festival only started at midday, and there are an awful lot of loud drunken people in there. Are these loud people local residents who have invested in this pub? Or are they just people who have come here for the festival (albeit, getting started six hours before us)? To be clear: we think this is a lovely pub which offers a fantastic range of beers. We really like it there. I guess their beer festivals are just very popular and attract a lot of custom.

At this point I begin to muse on the whole concept of talking to (or sometimes at) strangers in pubs. Ever since I first started visiting pubs and drinking beer (20-odd years ago) I’ve held a soft spot for that camaraderie you get with strangers in pubs sometimes. I wonder if it is more of a noticeable concept in the UK (compared to the US, for instance) because for the most part we try pretty hard not to interact with strangers over here. I’ve always had a certain level of respect for that particular species of social interaction and I’ve always tried to be polite to strangers who have tried to chat to me in pubs (to a point, obviously).  

While I was up in Scotland (visiting BrewDog Glasgow and so on) my friends and I were reminiscing about weekend away we had in Galway back in 2008 when we were in some grotty Irish pub where about 20-30 of us were sat in one long line of tables, like we were at Oktoberfest (except without any decent beer).  I always remember that day because of the trampy Catweazle guy who seemed really keen on chatting to some of us. My Scottish friend Fee wouldn’t have a bar of him and told him flat out to fuck off. But I felt a kind of empathy for the scruffy old bloke, like one day I might be a sad, old lonely drunk and be desperate for someone to talk to, and so I let him babble at me and hold my hand for a little while. It seemed to make him happy and it was a small cost to me... But it’s quite possible that Fee was right and I was just being a sap by tolerating the guy.

So all of these events have made me question the ‘right’ of a punter to accost strangers in pubs? Do you really have any more right to talk to someone and expect to get a response just because you’re in a pub and people are there to enjoy themselves? Or should people take even more care to leave you alone since you are ‘relaxing’ and are entitled to be left alone in your ‘leisure time’? Obviously there is a level where interacting with strangers becomes intrusive. Are we obliged to show ANY politeness to strangers when we are out having a drink? Is it different in your opinion to any other social setting, e.g. commuting to work or sitting in a park? Does it make a difference if you’re alone? Should it? Do you find this kind of ‘friendly’ social behaviour threatening? Does it annoy you? Or do you welcome it?

*please don’t be offended, Glasgow. I’ve visited quite a few of your bars and many of them do not serve Tennants or any ‘mainstream’ beers for that matter. In fact, Glasgow, I miss you and need to come back soon.

Craft Day Trip: A Visit to The Swan at Stratford St Mary

In that strange grey twilight between Christmas and New Year we met up with Nate at BrewDog Shepherd’s Bush for a few beers. As usual, whenever Nate’s in town, worshippers flock to the scene. We were joined by Jonny from The Craft Beer Channel and Ed, Beer Overlord manager at The Swan in Stratford St Mary (that’s in Suffolk in case you didn’t know). Ed kept showing off about his beer selection at The Swan and over the course of the afternoon, as the beer flowed, we all became convinced that we should take a day trip to Suffolk to witness these marvels for ourselves.

(image courtesy of Jonny Garrett)

Award-winning homebrewers

Just in case you managed to miss this yesterday: one of our beers won an award at the UK National Homebrew Competition.  Our Declassified NZ (a black IPA brewed solely with NZ hops) took third prize in the Specialty round. 

We were very pleased that something we brewed would be judged worthy of an award in a brewing competition. It provides some validation that we are doing the right things. Although, if anything, it makes us want to keep improving our beers rather than just sitting back and being content with what we've achieved.

However, we did have stop and think and say HANG ON A MINUTE, that award-winning beer was only the fourth beer we ever brewed. In fact, if not for the change in the hop profile (switching US Pacific North West hops for NZ hops) it is the same as the second beer we brewed (which was our first all-grain brew). So how did we manage to brew something so good (relatively speaking) so early on in our brewing history?

I was reminded of an article I read on the Brewdog blog about homebrewing a few months back. One quote really stuck in my mind:

Russell: "Do as many home brews as possible. After about 100 attempts the beer will start to taste good! There's a lot more control in modern breweries so don't beat yourself if your first few attempts don't even taste like beer; it's tricky! Be prepared for plenty of trial and error."

I remember thinking at the time, 'how bad could you be at home brewing that you would need to do 100 brews before producing something good?' I have to assume this figure is an exaggeration. But surely such statements would be more likely to put off potential home brewers than to encourage them to try it for themselves? It sat slightly oddly in an article that appeared, on the face of it, to be encouraging people to try home-brewing.

The first thing we ever brewed was an all extract pale ale. We fully expected it to be awful but actually it tasted nice. Our second brew was all grain, the original Declassified Black IPA. We thought it tasted pretty good, even if we say so ourselves... Two brews later we produced something that won an award.

So I guess what we're trying to say is, home brewing isn't rocket science but it is a scientific process. We're both scientists by training. So we approached brewing like a science project: we educated ourselves as much as possible beforehand, we documented as we went, we reflected after, and we learned from our mistakes. If you've never brewed before, you're not going to brew a good beer by accident. But if you're willing to learn and you try your best you should get something that tastes good in less than 100 attempts. ;)

However, if you're not of a scientific bent, please don't be put off. You can still make good beer without a detailed understanding of the science behind it. However, don't be surprised once the home-brewing bug bites, that you'll want to know more. Once you starting learning more about the science of beer, you're on the road to turning good beer into great beer. 

Thanks to everyone who has tried our beers and offered us feedback and constructive criticism. We have appreciated that and found it really useful.