So Much For 4p A Pint

I had a couple of sneaky halves this lunch time whilst shopping for squid, which by the way I couldn't find any of in three separate supermarkets begging the question if there's a World shortage or if it's a traditional Easter thing. Anyway back to the beer. My real ale appeared to be priced as it has been the last few months but a punter who ordered some dodgy lager or other noticed that what he paid £2.65 for last night cost him £2.90 today. He queried it, but it was confirmed to be correct and a result of the recent budget.

So, so much for the 4p a pint, Mr Darling promised us. This drinking malarkey is beginning to become expensive.

Dobbies - A Taste Of Scottish Beer

I am indebted to Hughie from RateBeer for a heads up about Dobbies Garden Centre on the outskirts of Milton Keynes.

Garden Centres are not your normal haunt for decent beers although the one within a mile from my house has a small range including Cusqueña Malta from Peru, but Dobbies has a more than respectable choice of bottled beer.

Being a Scottish company the beer is all from north of the border, with examples from Arran, Atlas, Belhaven, Black Isle, Bridge Of Allan, Broughton, Cairngorm, Caledonian, Fyne, Hebridean, Inveralmond, Islay, Isle Of Skye, Orkney, Traquair, Valhalla and Williams Bros. Sadly there is no BrewDog, but hopefully in time there may be. I have not seen such a vast range of Scottish beers under one roof before and added to the fact that the food hall has some great produce including local free range meat,a visit is well worth while.

Although mostly in Scotland there are a fair few branches in England so hopefully you will be able to show support to a store new you.

Less And Less Liefmans

There's been plenty blogged about the financial difficulties affecting Liefmans, and the will-they-won't-they bankruptcy takeover saga. I wrote just before Christmas of finding Bacchus beers in my local Sainsbury's in their stead, and those two beers remain on the shelf today.

I have though regularly spotted Liefmans beers around, both bottled and draught since then, but it appears supplies are definitely on a downward spiral.

My local has sold both the Kriek and Frambozen on draught throughout these turbulent times, but now they have disappeared. The fruit beer drinkers now have a choice of Bacchus Kriek or Timmermans Strawberry, which coincidentally I can find no reference to anywhere on the web.

Liefmans loss is definitely other breweries' gain, especially Van Honsebrouck and the risk is even if Liefmans beers come back on a larger scale than they are currently available (and in my opinion they are superior products to their replacements), that the contracts with wholesalers will not be resurrected and drinkers will have to settle for a lesser product.

Time will tell obviously, but I really hope Leifmans beers come back as strong as ever.

When's The Best Time To Go To A Beer Festival?

I was inspired to write this post by a comment left on my article about Leicester BF by the young CAMRA collectiv. It appears from their comments that the festival was very, very busy on Friday night and that entry to the venue was on a one out, one in basis. I cannot imagine how unbearable this is for the queuing punters, the seemingly crushed drinkers already inside, or the volunteer staff who must be run off their feet.

Now I know not everybody is as dedicated as me and books time off work to visit beer festivals during the quieter times, but I really cannot see the enjoyment in drinking in these conditions. Beer festivals rarely have an excess of staff on, which is of course due to the fact that everybody is a volunteer, and people getting off their backsides and helping are few and far between, so obviously the wait for beer is going to be pretty long.

I think an overly crowded festival must present a negative image to the customer who cannot enjoy the long wait for his beer. Will they come back next year for more queuing, or will they be turned off festivals forever? Alternatively of course maybe they will actually book a day off work next time and go in the quieter lunch or afternoon sessions.

I don't know the answer to these questions, but I do wonder whether festivals are becoming a victim of their own success. Many festivals actually run out of beer before the advertized closing time. So I ask amidst all this waffling drivel I'm typing: Do you enjoy the busy evening sessions or are they a real turn off? Do you flatly refuse to go in the evenings? Are you like me a lunchtime customer? Or am I missing out on a better atmosphere and camaraderie amongst the more hip evening crowd?

Drinking Blind - An Interesting Experience

Whilst at Leicester Beer Festival last week I had a few surprises. By that I meant that I asked Simon to buy beers and not tell me what they were until I'd drank them and made notes and impressions of them.

It made for a really interesting experience. The six beers I tasted blind are listed below with some information on my findings:

1. Caythorpe Dark Gem - We'd talked about this beer ealrier, so I had an idea it was this when I tasted that it was clearly a mild. It was OK, and a typical mild, but fell short of some of the really good milds out there at the moment such as those from Great Oakley and Potbelly. Simon enjoyed it more than I did.

2. Church End Tekuté Zlato - This is supposedly a Slovakian styled lager. I marked it down as a light bitter with some fruity hops, more of the pineapple type flavour than citric fruits. It was pretty decent.

3. Everards Hazy Daze - I guessed this straight away, as it truly was a hazy wheat beer, and actually very good. Pretty authentic fruity flavours and good spices make this a superior British take on a Belgian Wit and is as good a beer as I've had from Everards in years.

4. Tunnel Munich Style Lager - another supposed lager style beer; this time German rather than Eastern European. I had this down as a golden ale with good citric flavours from the hops. Nothing like a Munich styled lager in my opinion. I did enjoy it though.

5. Thornbridge Gildas - I guessed this as soon as I smelled it. Simon knew I wanted to try this, and its aroma was so very very good. You could tell this was a superior British hoppy beer and the 6.5% alcohol was noticeable in the nose, which I could have sniffed at for a long time, but there was drinking to be done. It drank just as well as it smelled. Wonderful full on flavours from both the hops and the malts. A lovely beer.

6. Milestone Raspberry Wheat - Simon was being mischeivous now as he knows I'm not a huge fan of Milestone beers as a rule. I could tell this was a fruit beer from the aroma, although I got the wrong fruit. I liked it, I dare say more than I would if I'd known what I was drinking. The fruit was pretty decent rather than appearing to be just a little syrup added to a bland base beer.

This was a worthwhile experiment, and one I would like to repeat again. I was pleased that I got two beers spot on pretty easily; raised doubts in the declared style of the two 'lagers', and enjoyed a Milestone beer more than I expected. Try drinking blind sometime yourself, you may be really surprised at the outcomes.

Leicester Beer Festival 2008

So I went to Leicester Beer Festival on Thursday as promised. A lift to town, a £5.80 single bus ticket and a short walk over the flyover and past the churchyard and there I was at the Charotar Patidar Samaj, the exotically named venue for what is always a great fesival. I walked in shortly before noon to an already busy hall full of all sorts of beer lovers from the most well known tickers, down to locals who probably only drink real ale once a year.

The Reluctant Scooper and two of his pals from Derby were tactically positioned near the cob and pork pie counter so I joined them for jolly japes and one live rating on RateBeer. Naturally after all the postings here my first job was to seek out the two Cherwell Valley beers, which despite my pessimistic doubts, had turned up and were ready for consumption. They were both decent enough if unspectacular but at least now that I've drank them I probably won't bore you so much with news of this Brackley based brewery. After meeting that challenge I concentrated on new breweries and stuff from breweries I regard highly. As I was sharing halves with Simon I got through 20 beers. I would have had a few more but my lift home arrived unexpectedly early, but I was happy with my lot in any case.

Stand out beer on the day was without a doubt Thornbridge Hall Gildas, a wonderfully hoppy robust American styled beer. I've come to expect great things from Thornbridge and this was high quality even for them. Close behind was Fugelestou Sledgehammer Stout an 8% very tasty Imperial Stout.

Other beer highlights were an unexpectedly good wheat beer from Everards called Hazy Daze and Ribble Bitter; my first beer from Grindleton Brewery. I did have some poor beer but the good ones were in the majority.

Other highlights were the fantastic local pork pies from Lanes Butchers; peeing in the dark during a power cut which lasted twenty or so minutes; and meeting one of the Young CAMRA collectiv who are readers of this blog.

Leicester is a good beer city at any time, yet the organisers of this festival go out of their way to complement the city pubs with a superb beer list. In my opinion it's a must visit festival, and I'll be back next year without a doubt.

I remembered to take my camera and didn't hesitate to bring you evidence of the fact that my search for a new Northants brewery came to an end.

Birthday Beers With Nobby

It was my birthday yesterday. I don't believe in working on my birthday, not that I'm that keen on other days, but at least it's an excuse to formally have a day off.

Calling on my wife's good nature in driving me to a decent pub, we went to The Ward Arms in Guilsborough which is owned by Nobby of Nobby's Brewery. This 17th Century pub is the only one remaining in the village and it is clear that it is the hub of the community even if on this Tuesday lunchtime we were the only customers from 2pm. It is a lovely looking building from the outside, and is homely and welcoming on the inside. There are essentially two drinking areas; sofas and seats around the bar; and a raised games area with pool, darts and a plasma television. There is also a dining area which is completely separate. A garden completes the available drinking locations.

At weekends there are apparently eight real ales available, and sensibly in midweek there are less. On my visit there were four; three from Nobbys and one from Steamin Billy, brewed at Tower. I had two of the Nobbys beers which although unspectacular were nice enough session beers. I have given Nobby's beers Beer Of The Month awards before such is the quality of some of his stuff.

Nobby's intention is to install a brewhouse on the premises and builders and structural engineers have been consulted so plans are moving forward, albeit not as fast as he would like. In the meantime beers are still being brewed at Kettering in the cellar of the award winning Alexandra Arms.

I will be paying the pub return visits; hopefully it will be busier next time!

Warm Glasses - Schoolboy Error

My grandparents ran a pub until they retired in the late 1970s. Although they lived quite far from us I was still lucky enough to go visit them a few times a year, and was allowed access to all areas which shouldn't really have been the case for one so young.

One of the things I actually helped with was washing the glasses. Everything was done by hand back then, so in the corner of the bar area was a sink and draining board for that very function. Things have, of course, moved on from then, and time spent hand washing glasses is wasted time, so it's all done by machine now. Basically a glass washing machine works in a similar way to a domestic dishwasher, but unlike at home, when we would empty the dishwasher at our leisure, the urgent need for clean glasses often leads to the machine being emptied immediately upon the cleaning cycle being completed.

And what does this lead to? Warm glasses! or in some cases, even pretty hot glasses. Beer should not be served in warm glasses; the heat can transfer to the beer at an unwanted rate. I was served a beer yesterday in a glass which had clearly not been allowed to cool properly. It put me off. I'm sure you've experienced this once or twice, and actually it's not good enough. Should I have rejected my beer and asked for a more temperate glass? What would you have done?

Watching Old Sport Is Good For The Beer

I was watching some old cricket on television yesterday. My wife is aghast at how I can enjoy sport from before she was born, but that's another story. The match I was watching was The Fourth Test of The Ashes of 1975 played at The Oval.

I was drawn to one of the advertizing boards around the ground, which was for Tooth Lager. It would appear that this Australian beer has not been brewed for quite some time, which is a shame because it's a better name than Fosters or Castlemaine, and sounds much more manly!. I wonder if any of you have any experiences of drinking this beer, or can tell me why it was discontinued.

I think I'll be watching more old sport just to look for defunct beer adverts. I know that's gonna go down a treat in this household!

Leicester Beer Festival Next Week

I'm going to the Leicester Beer Festival a week today. It's a great beer festival in a good venue with plenty of seating and decent food. It's made all the better by the fact that I can get there for less than a tenner by public transport. The beer list is here, and I'm promised two beers from Cherwell Valley which regular readers will know is my current obsession. I'm not holding my breath on that score though. Mind you the beer list is so good that there's plenty of other good stuff to drink. It's good to see some emphasis on local brewers as well as stuff from further afield.

This will be my fourth straight year at the festival, and it is one which I have fond regard for, being the first beer festival my eldest daughter went to, at the grand old age of 17 days!

If any readers are going, give me a shout.

Beer Of The Month - February 2008

Another fairly quiet month saw me drink just 42 new beers in February. Even with the extra day that's well below average! The majority of these beers were on either The Oxford Pub Crawl, or at The Merton Beer Festival.

I've already reported on the better beers I drank on these two ocassions, and to be honest, the rest of the beers I drank during the month were fairly disappointing. The one bottled beer of note was Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale which has been for sale in Oddbins. This is a hoppy beer as you would expect but somehow it seems more British in taste than American. I put that down to the body being less chewy than a lot of American IPAs although its ABV is lower than is usual. There were no other candidates for Bottle Beer Of The Month.

As far as cask conditioned goes I cannot look beyond the four outstanding beers I had at Merton. The complexity of the spicy chocolatey Milton Mammon; the roasty slightly sweet Imperial Stout Marcus Aurelius from the same brewery; the wonderfully hoppy yet superbly full bodied Oakham Oblivion, and the sensational Old Chimneys Good King Henry are all beers I would happily revisit time after time, and helped make Merton a fantastic beer festival not just for the comapny of good friends but also for the beer quality.

Good King Henry is Beer Of The Month, and comes so close to matching the bottled and aged Reserve which was the third best beer I drank in 2006. It's a rare beast on cask and special props go to the Merton organisers for puliing it off. It's a worthy winner and if I taste a better cask beer all year I will be laughing.

I can't find an image of the beer anywhere so you'll have to make do with a picture of Henry VIII, who probably wasn't a good king at all (and yes I know the beer isn't anything to do with any historical kings, but rather an extinct animal or something)

Sunday Mirror Readers Taste Jacobsen Vintage 1

For those of you not familiar with British newspapers, you should probably be made aware that The Sunday Mirror is one of our tackiest tabloids. Not quite in the same league as The Sun or News Of The World, but getting there. That they have gotten their hands on a bottle of Jacobsen Vintage1, and allowed morons to sample it is a kick in the teeth to true beer lovers and rare beer seekers throughout the country.

Oh how I wished they'd invited me to the sampling of this £204 a bottle Danish 10.5% Barley Wine rather than people who state it "tastes just like Becks" or who claim that "even if it was only £2.50 I'd prefer John Smith's." Still that's the standard of beer reporting we've come to expect; it really would have been a more credible article to have spoken to people who appreciate such things.

I'm aghast at the idea that even with the individual label of each bottle that this beer comes even close to its price tag, but I know a few beer lovers in Denmark who will pool their money to buy a bottle or two. You never know, I might go to a sampling where it is present one day. I'll be sure to report on it, but don't hold your breath.

What Wales Is Best At

Today is St David's Day, the national day of Wales. Being part of the British Isles it has a tradition of brewing real ales. In fact two breweries still exist which started production in the 1800's. Brains, and Felinfoel, both from the more industrial Southern half of the country.

Brains flagship mild has won silver once and bronze twice in the Champion Beer Of Britain Competition while Felinfoel has its place in British beer folklore, being the first brewery from these isles to sell beer from a can; a dispense method which people were very sceptical would take on.

Some decent microbreweries have started up in the last few years; notable ones being Jolly, Otley, Kingstone and the sadly short lived Bryn Cyf. However for me the best drink being produced in Wales at the minute is fruit based.

Both cider and perry is enjoying a real revival in Wales. The Welsh Cider and Perry Society has its own website which is in the throws of being replaced, but on which at the moment a good deal of information about the many outstanding producers can be found. We are lucky in that Welsh cider and perry is quite common at our better beer festivals so you don't have to dig out your Welsh/English dictionary to find somewhere to drink it.

Producers I would particularly recommend are Gwynt y Ddraig who do a large range of ciders most of which are bottled, but whose perry is without question the nicest perry I have ever tasted, Troggi another excellent perry producer, and Seidr Dai who have a prolific range of both ciders and perries.

Don't forget to drink Welsh real ale, but do not overlook the ciders and perries; there's some great stuff out there.

Oakham Brewery Tap - Go While You Can

Oakham is one of England's finest breweries producing predominantly pale hoppy beers but no slouch with dark beers as anybody who has tasted Hawse Buckler should testify to. It started life in 1993 in the town of that name. The largest town in the smallest county: Rutland, but six years later outgrew those premises and moved to Peterborough where it already owned an awarding winning pub named Charters; a Dutch barge on the River Nene.

The brewery set up shop in an old jobcentre, naming the venue The Brewery Tap, which was reckoned to be the biggest brewpub in Europe, although there are many doubters to that claim. The brewery's reputation grew and grew, culminating in a Champion Beer Of Britain overall title for Jeffrey Hudson Bitter (JHB) in 2001, two years after it won overall silver. The pub is sprawling and modernistic with huge glass panels allowing a perfect view into the brewing area. Lovely Thai food is served also.

It seems to have been the case since day one though that the pub was living on borrowed time. Redevelopment has been threatened in that area, and with some foresight Oakham opened a new brewery in another part of the city two years ago, although brewing is still done at The Brewery Tap. Now, however the redevelopment plans are running at full kilter and the pub's days really do seem numbered. As would be expected locals are up in arms, and the brewery has started a campaign to stop the pub's impending demolishment. The purpose of this blog entry is twofold: first join in the campaign - personally I feel it may turn out fruitless but you never know - and second if you've not been, make it there before you lose the chance. There are enough decent pubs in Peterborough to do a damn good crawl, so make a day of it. It really is a must do before you die issue.

Brooklyn Lager - It's Lovely

I first drank Brooklyn Lager in early 2004. I was underwhelmed, finding it a little too sweet and cloying for my palate at that time. I hadn't really discovered American beers and hops at that time, and should probably admit to not understanding the hops and even being put off a little by the word "lager".

However recently I've read a few comments from people whose taste in beer is similar to mine stating how much they enjoy the beer and at £1 a bottle in Sainsbury's, what a great 'go-to' beer it is.

So I parted with my quid and tried a bottle on Sunday. What joy! It's actually a beautiful little beer. The aroma is so subtly hopped, you can smell the cascades but it's far more delicate and welcoming than some beers with that hop are. I guess that's the hallertauer mitelfruh talking. The taste too is beautifully balanced. It's still got that sweet edge I noticed before but it's a bitter sweetness with really pleasant hop notes coming through. It doesn't even taste like it's bottom fermented to me. I would have said it's a pale ale if I'd tasted it blind, albeit it with a lack of any agressive hopping.

I drank a bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Sierra Nevada Celebration straight after and easily enjoyed the Brooklyn more.

And all that for just 100pence. I think I'll get me a few more bottles.

Faitrade Fortnight

Fairtrade fortnight starts on Monday and runs, rather predictably, for a fortnight.

According to the Fairtrade website there are only four Fairtrade beers produced in the UK. That comes as a bit of a surprise to me although admittedly I cannot think of any that aren't on that list.

Additionally the Mongozo beers from Huyghe in Belgium are readily available over here, if you like that sort of thing.

Faitrade is a cause well worth supporting and there's no better excuse to support than during this fortnight.

I've still got my bottle of Freeminer's latest Fairtrade beer which I will get round to drinking and reviewing during the next couple of weeks.

Old Speckled Hen The Ale Of Choice?

Apparently Old Speckled Hen is the ale of choice for premium lager drinkers. So proud are they of this that Greene King are spending £1.5 million advertizing the beer is publications which appear to appeal to lager drinkers.

Confirms what I've thought all along. It doesn't really taste of much at all like the majority of premium lagers available in this country.

Note however that the image above is the days when the beer was brewed by Morland and was 5.2% as opposed to the mere shadow it is now.

Sarah Hughes Kicks Out Old Man

A 90 year old widower who has been drinking at the famous Sarah Hughes brewpub, The Beacon Hotel in the West Midlands has been barred for raising his walking stick to another customer.

It is alleged the oher party was taking the rise out of his mobility issues - a pretty shameful thing to do to a man of his age - and took a wave of his walking aid in the face, although he was not struck by it.

The pub's landlord who appears to be a descendant of the original brewster Sarah, and who wasn't there at the time, has decided to bar him for life based on the reports of his staff.

All seems a little harsh to me, although of course there's two sides to every story, and our intrepid nonagenarian may be more guilty than he's letting on. I'll still continue to seek out Sarah Hughes beers; this isn't worthy of a boycott.

Naked In Northants - Cancelled!

I reported on Wednesday that a Silverstone pub was planning a nudist's corner for Valentine's Day.

Well surprise, surprise the local constabulary stepped in and had the event cancelled. Apparently it may have broken certain laws under the Sexual Offences Act.

So Health & Safety had already made the event cold food only, and now the law had it cancelled entirely. Local naturists are going to complain to police so it will be interesting to see if the event goes ahead in 2009. Mind you, I still won't be attending!

Merton Winter Beer Festival 2008

Merton is a small village about five miles from Bicester. It doesn't have a pub but it has plenty of residents who appreciate a good pub and good beer. Therefore twice a year its village hall is home to a beer festival.

Yesterday I visited the Winter Festival an event which runs from 6pm to 11pm on the Friday, and then all day Saturday from noon. In spite of the rural location and lack of suitable public transport it gets very busy, and with good reason: the beer choice and condition is superb. Added to that the prices are low and the staff and locals are welcoming to the extreme. Nothing was too much for anyone; kettles were boiled to heat my baby's bottles; newspapers were laid out for those who like to read with their pint, and popcorn was on all tables and frequently replenished.

Mind you, for me it's all about the beer and Fin and crowd did a wonderful job with the selection. Eighteen real ales and half a dozen ciders and perries is about right for a festival of this size, and because the range is suitably small, it might be easy to choose ordinary beers. But no, there were some rare finds, some brand new beers and some very, very highly rated beers. Out of the ten beers I had the lowest score I gave on the RateBeer scale was 3.3, and the highest was 4.5. The stand out beer was Old Chimneys Good King Henry, a delicious Imperial Stout, but very honourable mention needs to go to Oakham Oblivion a superbly hoppy full bodied beer, and Milton Marcus Aurelius, another Imperial Stout.

The Summer Festival is on 18 and 19 July. I cannot recommend more heartily that you should make every effort to attend.

Still Searching For Cherwell Valley

My quest to sample the first beer from the new Cherwell Valley Brewery in Northants should have reached fruition today as I went to a small beer festival at The Old Grammarians Club in Wellingborough.

I was promised twenty local beers to include Cropredy Bridge 1644, the first output from the brewery. Alas it was not to be; I was told "they couldn't deliver". So presumably their vehicle caught a puncture (or other stupid excuse). Still there were beers there from Great Oakley, Hoggleys, Nobbys and Potbelly as well as a few non-Northants beers so I shouldn't complain too much.

Plus tomorrow I'm off to the Merton Winter Beer Festival where I'm promised some superb beers (sadly no Cherwell Valley though). I'll report back later.

Naked In Northants

If nudism is your thing and you are in the Northamptonshire area this Valentine's Day, then feel free to get your kit off at The White Horse in Silverstone.

This is the second year that nude dining is allowed on the day for lovers. Last year though only one man turned up!

You may feel it's my duty to go along tomorrow and get a blogger's eye perspective of the occasion, but I'm washing my hair.

Eiken Artois Replaces Artois Bock

I was pretty shocked to be truthful when it was recently announced that Artois Bock was being discontinued. I didn't think much to it, but it seemed to sell pretty well in my local Sainsbury's, and colleagues of mine sung its praises more than once. However, gone it will soon be.

In its place we will find Eiken Artois an oak-aged lager, described as "fruity, hoppy lager with subtle floral notes and hints of vanilla". I'll give it a whirl when I see it; it's got to be better than regular Stella.

One thing intrigues me though. Can anyone translate Steve McAllister's quote?: "It will drive the frequency of purchase by ensuring more occasions can be met by premium lager and will also drive shopper interest and penetration by encouraging more consumers from other categories to buy into it".

WTF?

RateBeer Does An Oxford Pub Crawl

Saturday February 9th saw 20 RateBeerians, partners and friends do a tour of Oxford pubs. The event has been long in the planning, but was clearly worth the wait, as a superb day of good beer, good pubs, great company and unseasonally nice weather was enjoyed by all.

To be fair the start of the day was a little inauspicious as the early starters arrived at St Aldates Tavern at around 11:30 to realise that it wasn't opening until noon. A short walk to the nearby art deco delights of Three Goats Heads found that closed too, so we trekked back to our original starting point desparate for sustinence.

Finally the doors opened and in we traipsed and sat ourselves down to await the rest of our party. The pub is fairly unremarkable but the beer condition was good although even well conditioned Brakspear beers are not that special. The White Horse beers were nice though; the Bitter was on particularly good form.

Next pub was The Bear which featured in an episode of Inspector Morse and proudly displays the ties that were an integral part of that episode. Beer range was three Fullers beers, and Hook Norton Bitter. The vast majority of us drank the Hooky which we enjoyed outside on the benches as the inside was pretty packed, including people presumably breaking from a wedding. The bloke in the purple hat was particularly fetching! The beer was nice although I am not as enamoured by Hook Norton as some Oxfordshire based drinkers I know ;-)

Onwards to The Turf Tavern, a sprawling pub with tons of outside drinking area. This pub has won numerous awards over the years and has been the scene of various historical events, such as alleged presidential drug taking. It also had more real ales on than any other pub we visited. But I just don't like it. There are not enough staff and some of those who do work there are pretty surly. Beer quality was unspectacular too, although it wasn't their fault that the Guinness Red some of our party bought was crap! The braziers in the yards are recommended though.

Next stop was Far From The Madding Crowd. This is a converted shop in an alleyway by Borders bookshop. The pub reminded me a little of an estate pub but with a classy beer range. A lot of people ate here but I did that before the pubs opened so I enjoyed a number of different beers, with the best being Hadrian & Border Tall Ships. The beer range and condition here was arguably the best of the pubs I managed to get to on the day.

Next we visited Eagle & Child, a pub famous for being the hangout of Tolkein, Lewis and some of their contemporaries. The pub is bigger than expected, and the beer range poorer. Most of us ordered Cains Dragon Heart, although we didn't all get it, as it ran out after just a few halves being poured.

Our next pub was just over the busy St Giles road. Lamb & Flag is a nice clean pub, appearing more modern inside than you would expect. Rare for this area are beers from Palmers and Skinners. Although unspectacular these beers were in reasonable form and the pub was spacious enough and quiet enough for most of us to sit together.

Sadly though, this was to be my last pub as the last bus home was calling me. Some of the others were lucky enough to do another few pubs and make plans for a further meet up later in the year. Looking forward to that one already!

I thoroughly enjoyed the day. It's always nice to meet up with old friends and make new ones. As I said a couple of times during the day: "beer people are nice people", and even though no beers were great that didn't seem to matter.

Stone Brewery Come To Kent, England

JD Wetherspoons are shipping Mitch Steele from Stone and Toshi Ishii from Yo-Ho Brewing Company to Shepherd Neame, and Marstons respectively to brew a beer each for their festival in March and April.

This is a pretty exciting venture. It will be good for those who have sampled these beers already brewed at source to see if they work as well with British water at British facilities, and with British kit. It will also be interesting to see how a cask conditioned IIPA goes down with Wetherspoon festival goers.

I'm certainly looking forward to the event, which as can be seen here will have some decent British beers available as well.

Northants Pub Event Forced Outdoors

A traditional event which has taken place in a Northamptonshire pub was forced outside yesterday after more than 100 years taking part inside by the warmth of the fireside. The Bull in Harpole holds an annual pipe smoking competition with the aim being to smoke one pipeload of tobacco in the longest time possible.

Of course with the English smoking ban now in force, the event was forced outside under a temporarily erected gazebo. And with tradition stating the event occurs on Shrove Tuesday, the weather is not exactly friendly either.

I must admit that the smell of a pipe is a damn site more pleasant than cigarettes, and if I remember I may try to get there next year to give a first hand account on these pages. I shan't be entering though.

Beer Of The Month - January 2008

In January I drank 48 new beers and revisited a few old favourites as promised. However for the purposes of these Beer Of The Month posts I will only consider new beers. Of these 48 I have drank 33 in pubs, most of which were cask conditioned ales, but there's been some bottled or keg stuff mixed in.

The cask ales this month have been just about average on the whole. I've had some decent stuff, but haven't seen enough strong Wintery ales to warm the cockles on these cold January days. The best three cask ales were: Castle Rock Black Gold, a very tasty mild with some interesting hop notes which was easily the best beer I had on my Nottingham Pub Crawl; Milton Sparta, a very hoppy beer with good grapefruit notes. Most Milton beers are well worth sampling. I have a good chance of trying both Mammon and Marcus Aurelius this month which is exciting; and Nobbys Winter Ale, a fascinating old ale, with a dandelion and burdock and licquorice thing going on. I admit a bit of Northamptonshire bias in giving Nobbys the cask beer of the month.

From the bottle, I enjoyed Harpoon IPA which I has at The Criterion's American Bottlefest. This is not the best IPA in the World of course, but it was decent, and it's always nice to see a new US beer in this country. I also enjoyed Hobsons Postmans Knock, a strong mild from the CBOB winning Shropshire brewery. This is like a big brother to the Champion, and is an old fashioned mild with some good coffee notes. The best bottled beer of the month was a Czech Dunkel which was part of a pretty large box of beers my parents bought over from France. Primátor Tmavé Lezák from Pivovar Náchod is a sweet full flavoured dunkel with some smokiness and lots of dark fruits. I have never understood the passion around Czech pilsners, but really do enjoy a lot of the darker beers.

Of the two winners Nobbys just shades it, and thus wins overall beer of the month.

Fancy A Pint Of Cider For 26p?

Well you are too late and will now have to pay the astronomical 34p a pint. Supermarket chain Sainsburys have been forced to withdraw their cheapest cider brand from the offer of buy three bottles and get a fourth one free. The cider has the most basic of packaging and presumably the most basic of flavours, but it will still get you drunk.

To me 34p a pint is far too cheap anyway, but is not as bad as the 44 pence for a litre of lager I reported on in November.

Selling alcohol this cheaply does promote drunkenness, or at least bring it closer to people's level of affordability, but more importantly it is another nail in the coffin of the pub trade which is losing establishments at a fast rate of knots.

It's worrying that Sainsbury's feel the need to do this at a time when they are announcing their own beer awards. Clearly they have a schizophrenic outlook on alcohol sales.

Northampton - The Fourth Best Place To Drink Good Beer In The UK

According to a Cask Marque Press Release, Huddersfield is the best town in Britain to get a decent pint of real ale.

The criteria used to determine if a beer passed their quality standards was temperature, appearance, aroma and taste, although of course all of these are in the eye of the beholder and I have no evidence that the inspectors are any more skilled at beer tasting than you or me. Huddersfield 's beer scored higher on average than anywhere else.

Sheffield and Derby are recognised as meccas for the real ale afficianado, but both fail to make the top ten. I can of course hear cries from the back saying that tickers who drink in these two places don't care what their beer tastes like so long as it's new, and that is an argument I have made before. I must say though that I have very rarely had a bad beer in a ticker's pub. Of course inspectors visited far more than just recognised real ale haunts anyway.

What is pleasing is that the two places I do most of my drinking: Northampton and Leicester are both in the top ten so based on that fact there's a really good chance I'm drinking better beer than you!!

Talking Beer With The 'Third Group'

I go drinking with three disparate groups. Group One is my family and friends. These people all know about my obsession with beer and fuel it with gifts from trips abroad, sometimes bringing me gems and sometimes pretty dull stuff. To them I am the authority on all things beer and what I say goes. They are happy to trust that I am right and will look to me for opinions and facts.

Group Two is my beer friends. Guys I have met from RateBeer. We love nothing more than meeting up, drinking beer, talking beer and generally sharing beer anecdotes. To most people we must sound boring; but you'd love to join us wouldn't you! We all enjoy hearing each others opinions, and even though I know that some of my friends' beer knowledge is far greater than mine, I am still treated as an equal. All of our opinions matter, and we all have something to offer.

Group Three are the hardest group to drink with. These are people I know for other reasons, yet we may still end up in the pub at some point during the day. Being in the pub, drinking beer, the topic of conversation is often about what we are drinking, and people may give their opinion on the merits of their drink, and often incorrect beery facts are recounted. I really struggle with these conversations. These people are not aware of my beer life. They don't know I've sampled more than 5000 beers; they don't have the first inkling that I write a beer blog. They just think I'm one of them: a casual beer fan. Sometimes I corect them; sometimes I'll talk about a beer I've had. I'm not sure whether they think what I'm saying has any credence at all. They may think I'm just spouting nonsense. They may wish I kept my opinions and comments to myself. Actually I may think that too. It's not easy being bothered enough about beer that I want to correct peoples errors, but perhaps I should just stay silent.

I'm interested in your experiences with the third group. Do you just go along with the flow, or do you thrust your vastly superior knowledge on them? Or are you actually lucky enough to not have this problem?

Sainsburys Introduce Beer Awards

Major UK supermarket Sainsburys yesterday announced a new beer competition. On the face of it this looks very similar to the Tesco Beer Awards, but somehow I trust Sainsburys to give much greater consideration to beers from smaller brewers than Tescos ever have.

It seems uncanny how often Badger Brewery have won awards with Tescos, but far be it from me to suggest any sort of shenanigans!

The sentence which does confuse me though is: "They will be looking for great tasting beer presented in a way that will encourage our customers to buy it." This does seem to suggest that packaging or image may become as important as taste, which really should be the be all and end all, except perhaps for cost.

Time will tell of course where these awards go, but let's hope for some interesting innovative beers on our supermarket shelves later this year.

I Challenge Wetherspoons To Improve Their Beer Range

JDWetherspoons have announced that they sold 25% more cask beer during the fortnight they had their real ale festival than in the previous fortnight.

Now what does this actually say? On face value you might think that it stands to reason because there was more real ale on offer, but of course it's not as simple as that. If a usual JDW customer wants six pints of real ale, they will order their six pints of Greene King IPA, Marstons Pedigree of whatever dross is available on a normal night, and when it comes to festival time they may choose something different, but they'll still drink their six pints.

The truth is that there are two groups of different people drinking real ale at festival time. Group one is the regular JDW customer who normally drinks something else, but seeing all those interesting ales 'gives it a go'. Group two is the real ale fan (maybe even the ticker) who has gone to their JDW pub purely for the festival and thus appreciates the chance to try different ales. These people usually drink elsewhere.

So, safe in the knowledge that selling an interesting range of ales is a good selling point and increases cash over the bar, why is the beer list at so many JDWs so boring?

My local JDW and most of those I see in the East Midlands appear fairly disinterested in real ale when a festival is not on. They have a dull range, and the ridiculous sight of "Sorry Not Available" on a pump is all too common.

There are of course exceptions; The Babington Arms in Derby is like a permanent beer festival, but it really is an oasis in a sea of mediocrity.

I challenge Tim Martin to give real ale drinkers a better choice 52 weeks a year, not just when there's a festival on. After all it appears more money passes over his understaffed bar counters.

Cherwell Valley Brewery

According to Quaffale, a new microbrewery has sprung up in the South of my home county of Northamptonshire.

This brings the number of micros in Northants to eight, and we have the Carlsberg megakeggery as well (lucky old us).

Cherwell Valley Brewery is situated in the pleasant market town of Brackley, and is the first brewery in the town since the 1970s when there was a very short lived brewery called Old Mill. Previously to that Hopcraft and Norris ceased brewing in 1959, having commenced production in 1843.

I have yet to see any Cherwell Valley beers in pubs, and they sadly do not have a website to link to. So, on the off chance that anyone spots their beers please let me know. And if the guys at the brewery are reading this (after all if I owned a brewery I would google it!), then please get in touch.

US Bottled Beer Festival In Leicester

The Criterion in Leicester has had an American bottled beer festival on this weekend. It has ran from Thursday to Sunday, and I nipped in on Friday lunchtime. Unfortunately I had my car so could only have a couple but it was still fun.

The beers available were:

Anchor Our Special Ale 2007
Anchor Liberty
Anchor Porter
Anchor Steam
Brooklyn East India Pale Ale
Brooklyn Lager
Flying Dog Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale
Flying Dog Old Scratch Amber
Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA
Goose Island Honkers Ale
Goose Island India Pale Ale
Goose Island Summertime
Great Divide Titan IPA
Harpoon UFO Raspberry Hefeweizen
Harpoon Winter Warmer
Harpoon IPA
Left Hand Juju Ginger
Rogue American Amber
Rogue Chocolate Stout
Rogue Dead Guy Ale
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

Although all of these beers are available elsewhere in the UK it is still unheard of to see this many US beers in a pub at any one time, and for that The Criterion has to be commended.

They only have 24 or 48 bottles of each so the amount they've ordered for the festival won't last forever; but hopefully it's been successful enough that I will be seeing more US microbrews in this excellent pub in the future.

Wickwar Station Porter - Champion Winter Beer Of Britain

Despite being a voracious ticker I have never tried Wickwar Station Porter, which has today been crowned Champion Winter Beer Of Britain. I have tried the second and third placed beers Robinsons Old Tom and Hop Back Entire Stout and these are fine brews.

I have no doubt then that the Wickwar beer is well worth seeking out, and I shall do so at the earliest possible opportunity.

Wickwar is a fairly small brewery in Cotswold country in Gloucestershire. They started production in 1990, and this is without doubt their greatest accolade to date. I wish them luck keeping up with all the orders which will no doubt start flooding in imminently.

The Truth About Guinness And Heineken?

There's a good article on the satirical website The Spoof today. There's not really a lot to add to what they've said.

Having said that though, the disclaimer at the bottom: " The story above is a satire or parody. It is entirely fictitious" is maybe the biggest lie on the whole page!

Acorn And American Hops

Acorn Brewery of Barnsley are releasing a series of single hop beers for 2008.

Each of these beers features an American variety, and if Acorn's success with their single varietal British hop beers is to be replicated then these should be worth seeking out.

I have a lot of time for Acorn; their beers are consistently good tasty brews. I also have a lot of time for American hops, even in the relatively moderate amounts that British brewers use them.

Acorn beers are regular visitors to Leicester pubs where I am fortunate enough to go fairly regularly, so I'll hopefully see a fair few of these beers. If you taste them before I do then let me know how you get on.

A Nottingham Pub Crawl

I had a few hours to kill around Nottingham last Tuesday so that obviously lead to a pub crawl. I thought it would be different to go to some of the pubs I don't often get to go in, so The Vat and Fiddle near the station was avoided in favour of a good deal of walking around. My journey started on Maid Marian Way, and I set off first on a pretty long and mostly uphill walk to The Lincolnshire Poacher.

This is another pub owned by what is now The Castle Rock pub group, but formally known as Tynemill. It is my favourite of their chain in Nottingham, and always serves its beer in great condition alongside superb food, and all at reasonable prices. It is multi-roomed having stools in the bar area; a lounge; a snug and seats in the indoor courtyard area near the toilets. As well as Castle Rock beers you can always find Batemans products as well as a handful of guests. Some pretty decent foreign bottles can be spotted also.

After here I walked almost to the other end of town to The Newshouse. I have written about here before, and today it was just as good as ever. I sat in the left hand room which I guess is the bar as opposed to the lounge but it's comfortable as has a good collection of old prints of all types on the walls, if people watching is not your thing.

From here I wandered back to the heart of the city and the 15th Century Bell Inn. This labyrinthine pub has a superb exterior with old Hardys and Hansons adverts, and has an interesting interior too. This is another multi-roomed pub and has 12th Century cellars which can be visited on Tuesday evenings. Beer is pricier here than in most Nottingham pubs, but that's what places that attract tourists are like. Having said that, the beer is always in good condition.

From here I went to a pub which is probably even older than The Bell. The Salutation inn is back on Maid Marian Way where I started, but I like the roundabout route. The beer selection on my visit was not excellent and to be fair the pub was feeling tatty also. The Christmas tree was still twinkling in spite of 12th night having passed. I had a swift half, and moved on.

Next was The Canal House, another Castle Rock pub, but possibly their most disappointing in town from a beer perspective. Only two were available today and I ended up drinking cider. The pub is large and spacious, with a very long walk to the facilities, but is worth a visit if only for the fact that the canal and a couple of barges are actually inside the pub, and you have to cross a little footbridge when inside.

Next door is my final watering hole of the day. Fellows, Morton and Clayton is a brew pub, but it doesn't feel like the kind of place which is particularly bothered about its beers,and probably rightly so as they are a bit ropey, but there's usually an interesting guest or two and it is fairly near to the station so doesn't make for a detour.

As good as Nottingham is, and there are other good places I didn't get to today, it does seem to be acity where the sparkler is king, and the beers on the day were spoiled by large heads and creamy textures. No beers were awful, but only Castle Rock Black Gold in The Newshouse stood out as a beer I would have had another of. It's nice to see plenty of local beers in the pubs; half of those I sampled were brewed in Nottinghamshire and there were others I didn't try.

Nottingham is one of a triumverate of great beer cities in the East Midlands, along with Leicester and Derby. And with Sheffield only a short train trip away, there's plenty of good beer to be had in this part of the World.

Brand Loyalty Or Just Crazy Kids?

I bought a bottle of Coors Light yesterday. I know, I know, I'm a crazy fool, but it was knocked down to 50pence and the ticker in me made me do it as I've never drank it before.

Being curious, I then looked at the reviews at RateBeer to see how bad people whose opinion I trust think of the beer. I noticed that a fair few people have signed up for the site and rated Coors Light 5 out of 5 yet then gave Bud Light 0.5 out of 5; which is the lowest possible score.

Now I've not had Bud Light either, but I'm pretty sure these beers are not chalk and cheese, yet people clearly feel such a loyalty toward the one brand that they have a hatred of the other, and score them accordingly.

Having a ticker mentality I have never been bitten by the loyalty bug, but if I did, would I really hate a different beer which is to all intents and purposes the same thing (i.e. a bog standard flavourless lager)? I'm quite sure I wouldn't and I sure you, dear reader wouldn't either, so what makes these whippersnappers do so?

I would like to hear your thoughts. Saying that they should be sectioned is acceptable!

The Roughest Pub On TV

Shame on you if you live in the UK and don't watch Shameless. This tale of socially inept residents of a Manchester council estate is now in its fifth series, and unlike most series of its kind, is not showing any signs of getting tired and lacking longevity.

Like a lot of British television series much of the action takes place in the local pub. In this case it's The Jockey which is without doubt the roughest pub in British television. It's almost unheard of not to buy drugs with each pint; the pub is currently run by a murderer and his wife who previously slept with the man who later became her step-father; and all out brawls are par for the course.

Yet in spite of all this, the bar is adorned with three handpumps. I have never seen anybody drink beer though from these engines which are currently serving Adnams Old Ale (two pumps), and Wells & Young Bombardier. I am not sure why the otherwise accurate depiction of a rough estate pub has these beers (and there is no way Adnams Old would be on), but I can forgive it as it's such wonderful entertainment.

Buckle Up Your Beer

I had to chuckle at the story of a Californian driver who crashed his car earlier this week yet wasn't wearing his seatbelt. Obviously that in itself is no laughing matter, but the fact that he had belted up his twelve pack of beer is pretty ironic.

Mind you being clearly of below average intelligence it was probably Busch Light or something similar.

My Type Of Pub

Rothwell is a rather unremarkable town in the shire county of Northants, and for most of the 1990s I called it home. I was as keen on beer then as I am now, probably more so where cask ale is concerned, but I rarely set foot in any of its five pubs because, frankly, they were all pretty crap and the beer range was pedestrian and dull.

However the 2008 Good Beer Guide includes an entry for The Woolpack which of the five was probably the pub I did prefer the most, probably because I saw it as being the 'old man's pub' in town. It didn't though have any decent beer so I still probably averaged less than one visit per year.

The entry in the GBG though prompted me to pay it a visit today. The guide promised me local guest beers and in the light of one of my resolutions being to drink more local ales, I saw this as a plus point.

The exterior of the pub has not changed since I was last there, but the inside, if anything, is now even more suited to the older male customer than previously; I was the youngest customer by a good twenty years. The small room off the bar area is akin to someone's lounge cum dining room with comfy chairs, rickety wooden tables and a fire trying its damnedest to be roaring. The widescreen TV looked a little out of place but hey ho! It's a throwback to the 50s but so so the type of room I love to drink in.

To the beer: four handpumps adorned the bar, enough for a pub of its type. Three local guest beers accompanied the ugly Marstons Pedigree. These guest beers were Best brewed by Potbelly, Winter Ale brewed by Nobbys, and Parsons Nose brewed at the Nobbys plant by J Church. The beers were on good form and cheap; just £2.20 for a pint of the 4.7% Winter Ale.

Killing an hour in a pub like this with beers brewed less than five miles away at such good value is a real treat we beer lovers don't experience often enough, and is certainly the way I'd like to spend more Monday afternoons.

Reading Beer Blogs Makes Me Thirsty

It's a typical Sunday afternoon in my house. That means I'm not allowed to watch the football because daughter number one is hogging the television and throws an almighty paddy if I suggest that watching the same Wiggles DVD three times back to back might be a bit much for my sanity.

So after some important filing work in my office (beer festival programmes etc) I catch up with my beer blog reading. And it's thirsty work! It's amazing how reading about beer makes me want to drink some. Nothing special on this occasion; just a bottle of Tusker. After all the ways things are in Kenya at the moment it may be my last chance to drink this paricular beer (even if it's not very good).

So I wonder if I'm alone in grabbing a beer while blog reading? Perhaps you're grabbing a beer as we speak, I hope it's something better than what's in my glass. If so Cheers!

By the way my good friend Simon has updated his blog with a story about a day in Leicester we had recently. It's a good read. Leave him a comment; it might humble him into keeping it updated more regularly.

Beers Of 2007

I've added some information in the left side bar stating my favorite beers from certain countries or in certain styles from 2007.

Special mention must be made of the year's outstanding beer Struise Earthmonk which I blogged about here. It truly is a thing of beauty. I know it was another blogger's favourite beer of the year also.

Beer Of The Month - December 2007

In December I had 80 new beers and there were a fair few crackers amongst them. I do try and treat myself to some better bottled beers around Christmas but the beers I had during the rest of the month were also of a very good standard generally.

I started the month by going to Pigs Ear. I had a great time and sampled some superb bottled beers. The best of these was 3 Fonteinen Doesjel, an excellent new gueuze from this producer which never fails to excite. Other good bottles were Equinox Winter Beer from de Zenne Brouwerij; Ølfabrikken Brown Ale and Night On Mare Street 2, a slightly stronger follow up from last year's festival special brewed by Pitfield. The cask stuff wasn't as good but I did enjoy beers from Alcazar and Twickenham.

Other cask ales which were worthy of a mention during December were Nethergate Umbel Magna a spiced porter which was my last cask ale of the year, drank in The Malt Shovel in Northampton, where I had previously had two great beers in one evening: Great Oakley Wobbly Santa and Milton Nero; both strongish dark beers which are perfect for this time of year. However the best cask ale of the month was not seasonal at all, in spite of its name. I had Buntingford Silent Night in The Wig & Pen Northampton. It was packed with delicious grapefruity hops, and tasted so fresh and citrussy.

I had a higher number of good bottled beers though throughout the month. Ridgeway Foreign Export Stout from Hepworth brewery is a strong roasty stout with good licquorice flavours; Isle Of Skye Cuillin Beast is a beast of a Scotch Ale with nice fruity malty notes and a good caramel and alcohol buzz, and my second beer from Emersons of New Zealand: Pilsner is almost as hoppy as the IPA.

Later in the month I went to a family party and for obvious reasons took my own beer (on offer from mine hosts by the way was a French wine labelled "good French wine" which says it all really). I thoroughly enjoyed the funky Nøgne Ø Saison and the wonderfully full bodied and flavoursome Left Hand Imperial Stout which had lovely chocolate notes to go with the roasty malts and soy flavours. This was the best beer of the month.

On New Year's Eve I treated myself to two excellent beers. First was the subtle BrewDog Paradox Speyside which was delicious and had far less whiskey flavours than the frankly impossible Islay Cask. This beautiful stout was followed by Fullers Vintage Ale 2005 which was not as good as some previous vintages but is still a great strong hoppy English beer. It was a more than decent last tipple of 2007.

First Beer Of 2008

Actually it's not my first beer drank of 2008, but my first beer gift. We went family visiting today, as you do at this time of year. My wife's Pap (a quaint Northamptonshire name for Grandfather) whom we called on, likes his beer and knows I do also. He gave me a bottle of Wadworth Bishops Tipple. I accepeted it gracefully without having the heart to tell him that Wadworth is high on my list of "British brewers whose beers are really not very good", and that even though this is an above average Wadworth product I still think it's poor.

I've always said every beer is worth drinking once, but I'm not sure that some beers are worth drinking twice. I sense a beef and ale stew in the offing!