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LACK OF ACTIVITY

Dear beery comrades.

Apologies for the lack of posting over the last couple of days or so.
It is due to us slowly moving over to our bespoke website.

Take a look!

Shortly all of this blog will live over there as well as all new posts.
Shouldn't take long.

In the meantime here's the flag of our Republic Of Really Good Beer to raise a toast to.

Maybe we need a National Anthem?
Any ideas?

(Milk And Alcohol by Dr. Feelgood perhaps?)

Thwaites Old Dan (7.4%)

Is it just me or is the supermarket big shop much more rewarding if you treat yourself to a couple of ales in the trolley?  (N.B wait until you get home to enjoy them responsibly - drinking and shopping is still frowned upon in some regions of the United Kingdom). Well I always take a look at the beer aisle and on this occasion spotted a name that I had recently read in another blog (Ghost Drinker).  I don't choose all of my beers based on other peoples experiences as this can be a sure-fire way to miss out on great beer, but on this occasion I was happy to take Ghosty's word for it.

This bottle conditioned ale is described by Thwaites as a delicious mellow beer with chestnut hues and a smooth finish.  Its all English malt bill consists of Maris Otter, Pearl and Crystal with the hops keeping to this trend with Fuggles and WGV.  It pours a a deep amber/copper colour as suggested and smells sweet and chewy... that is if a smell can be chewy?  Upon my first taste I found it hard to place the specific flavour I was getting and found it difficult not to accept the 'boozy fruit cake' description on the bottle.  But as the beer warmed a little in the glass I found the flavour easier to place as a sweet muscat pudding wine.  No real bitterness comes through but I'm sure this is true to the style.

Much the same as the Naylor's Premium Brew 1000, Thwaites suggest that this ale will improve over time.  So, if rich sweet and fruity beers are your bag, then you can't go wrong for £1.60 (in Morrisons) and for this price you can get a few for now and a few for the beer cupboard.

The Hogs Back Brewery Shop

In an attempt to discover a viable alternative to buying beer from supermarkets we paid a visit to the Hogs Back Brewery shop in Tongham, part way between Farnham and Guildford in Surrey. And it didn't disappoint. They have an impressive range of own brews, and whatever brews they currently have on the go can be sampled - by dint of the chap disappearing off into an anteroom to fill a small cup. I tasted TEA (Traditional English Ale) and BSA (Burma Star Ale), and there are many other fine brews, some of which aren't even TLAs. Needless to say we bought a gift pack of mixed ales for future tasting.

What was equally impressive was the range of other local, national and international ales on offer. This is where the Hogs Back shop will undoubtedly come into its own as a future beer shopping experience - I was particularly pleased to see both Arran and Fyne ales in stock from our Scottish expedition,along with a grand selection of

European and American beers including Brooklyn Lager, a particular fave from previous visits to the Big Apple.

Some other nice touches included the viewing gallery where you can see part of the brewing process in action (they do brewery tours too, which is surely a pencil-in for a free Saturday afternoon), and a "tasting notes" sheet expounding on what sorts of beers are recommended to go with various meals. I'm much in favour of promoting beers as an accompaniment to meals in the same way that wines are matched - there must be an untapped market for beer somelliers!

All in all a good find, and generous

opening hours too. As a bonus we also popped in to the Shepherd and Flock, located in the middle of a huge roundabout on the edge of Farnham, and opposite the self-proclaimed "best shed display in Britain". They had Hogs Back Summer Ale on tap, so it couldn't be passed up - and it was surprisingly potent for an ostensibly light ale. To use my new favourite interjection, Giddles.

Thornbridge Versa (5%)

As summertime didn't bother to show up I find myself with more than a couple of beers sat solemnly in the fridge waiting for their moment in the sunshine. Thornbridge Versa is no exception to this rule, and by rule I obviously mean drink it when you please, but I love a cold weisse beer after a hard days work.  This 5% abv weisse is every bit the classic and is a new beer in the impressive Thornbridge range.

Bavarian yeast strain with Tettnanger hops
& Bavarian wheat, pale, cara and crystal malts.

The bottle tells you all you need to know, and while not everyone would agree, I for one like it when the brewer helps you out with a few tasting notes.  It's not always easy to pick out the hints and hits of flavour that they intend for you to enjoy - go ahead connoisseurs and seasoned beer geeks, roll your eyes if you will, but if we are all honest here, it's not always possible to describe every beer we try. Also and rather importantly, Thornbridge have recently started selling their beers through Waitrose and surely its a good thing to help the punters choose their beer, as they would their wine?  When I am selecting an unfamiliar bottle of beer or wine, I often want to know what I'm in for, especially if there isn't a beer sommelier on hand to see you right. Well, in this case even my cardboard palate enjoyed the banana, clove spiciness and pleasant bubblegum after-taste.  It poured a hazy orange colour and the abv was spot on which made it easy to drink and very refreshing. Weisse beer may not be everyone's tipple of choice but if you see this on tap or while doing your weekly shopping, then I'd say try this at least once and then make your mind up.

Hardknott Infra Red (6.5%)

Hoppy as a bucketful of frogs!

I've been aware of Hardknott for about six months, roughly the time I have been exploring the world of beer. Sure, I'm new to this game but I'm also susceptible to influence and I was told that I should be drinking Hardknott beer, so I have.  "Hardly a ringing endorsement!" I hear you say, but in fact it's quite the opposite.  If you're being advised by those 'in the know', that is to say; people who have absorbed enough malt and hops to be in danger of  spontaneous fermentation, then you can be confident that they will know a thing or two about beer.

To date I have tried Hardknott's Queboid (Belgian Style Double IPA), Dark Energy (Stout) and Granite (Barley Wine), [check out Beersay for some notes on these], as well as some Æther Blæc in the cupboard, but for some reason I had bypassed the Infra Red....an IPA!  Now, I like an IPA but this one is out of the ordinary, it pours a deep ruby red, far from pale, but hey black IPA is all the rage so what's the problem here? none!  So, if the colour is an issue to you, then close your eyes and you are smelling and tasting an IPA, with berry fruits aplenty.  It's malty mouth-feel is down to the crystal malt and the Cascade and Centennial hops deliver the satisfying bitterness you would expect from the style.  This may not be the strongest of Hardknotts beers, but it's just as loud as the brewer!  In short, this is a really good beer.

The 1st CAMRGB AGM Minutes

Last night saw the inaugural CAMRGB AGM.
Or, to describe it another way, a nice evening in a good pub having a natter and a few beers.

We met in my favourite pub, The Wrekin Tap (mentioned previously in this blog and probably to be mentioned again in the future) sits on the Holyhead Road in the heart of Shropshire.
The evening opened with an extraordinary pint of 3 Tuns Clerics Cure (5%). The high ABV really works with this well malted, crisp hoppy golden ale.
And it certainly got our heads in the right place to begin CAMRGB business.

Firstly we talked in general about what CAMRGB is all about and drew up a shortlist of important points:

1. Good beer is something to be enjoyed.
2. CAMRGB must maintain a lightheartedness and not become overly serious about itself.
3. Everyone is welcome as long as they a) enjoy a good pint and, b) are willing to have a bit of fun.
4. Brewers are like modern day magicians who should be celebrated and supported.
5. Mmmm....beer (we may have moved a few pints in by this point).

Paolo (pictured right) is CAMRGB Member Number 2 and as such has taken it upon himself to create a CAMRGB Twitter Group. We'll direct you to it once it's up and running.
Then he went to the bar.
He came back with a pint of Sadlers Thin Ice (4.5%) for himself and a pint of Cotleigh Owlzatt (4.4%) for me.
The Cotleigh was well kept (as all the beer is in this pub), had a lovely citrus aroma and a sharp crisp bite. Needless to say it didn't last long.
The Thin Ice I'm told was equally good.

Talk moved from CAMRGB business to music, family, and various amusing anecdotes before it was time to return to the bar.
While having our drinks poured I got talking to the landlord who, as the patron of CAMRA's Shropshire pub of the year for about the last million years, loved the idea of CAMRGB and agreed wholeheartedly with many of the now slightly slurred points we touched on.


Then he took my money and handed me two pints of Hobson's Town Crier (4.5%).
Hobson's are a local brewer who are the only constant in The Wrekin Tap's ever changing range.
Town Crier was long and deep, with a decent malt and a hop that reminded both myself and Paolo of a good cup of tea.
Yum.
Towards the end of the evening while waiting for Paolo's taxi I wanted to end with a stout.
I'd noticed on the board that Gertie Sweet Dusky Maiden was on.
Now, I love a dusky maiden and went to the bar to order one.
Sadly it had just come to the end and the Wrekin Tap's beery boffins were busy cleaning pipes so there would be no stout for me.
Instead I returned to our opening beer. Another pint of Cleric's Cure was a powerful way to end the night and a wonderful bookend to a very constructive and fun evening.
Our final decision for CAMRGB?
No more AGM's.
Instead we will be holding Bi Monthly General Meetings (CAMRGB Bi-MGM).
We'll let you know where and when the next one will be.
You're all welcome.
Cheers.

Beer Hunter on The Wrekin Tap.
The Wrekin Tap at The Cock Hotel.

The CAMRGB Mini Interview #2: The Revolutions Brewing Co.

A little nepotistic maybe, but Revolutions Brewing Co. are tremendous beer-makers as well as friends in the real world.
I'll let them introduce themselves.

Hello, could you please introduce yourselves.
We are Andrew Helm and Mark Seaman and tonight, Matthew, we're going to be The Revolutions Brewing Company.

What was the moment that made you think, "I know what we'll do. We'll brew beer."?
Andrew: I've been homebrewing for over 20 years and moved on to all-grain brewing about 4 years ago. Put myself through the 3-day BrewLab course in Sunderland (birthplace of my father so there must be something fatalistic about it) in 2007 to find out more about the commercial side of micro-brewing and to learn how to improve my homebrew. Put things on the back-burner until last summer when a combination of push (consultancy business squeezed) and pull (light-bulb moment about how to theme a brewery around my other passion - music) kicked things off. Hooked up with Mark, who I'd met in 2009 at a business seminar and we developed the ideas through the late summer and early autumn of 2010 to a launch in November 2010.

Mark: I lived and worked in Bahrain for 14 years, with a distinct lack of access to decent beer – I’ve had my share of Heineken, Amstel, Singha and Kingfisher! On returning in 2008 I was toying with the idea of a microbrewery independently. After I met Andrew, a few other issues conspired to remind me that life is short and that you regret the things you don’t do, rather than those you do, so I did not take much persuading to dive headlong into it.

You're making beers that accompany music or are influenced by music you like. How different are your musical tastes and is there any arm-wrestling that goes on when one of you has an idea? I mean, what would happen if one of you said, "Let's do a Yes style concept beer that has to be enjoyed over several pints"?
Andrew: Interestingly our historical tastes are subtly different but with quite a bit of overlap. The music I was really into in the post-punk/new-wave era was electronic and synth-pop (Heaven 17/Thomas Dolby/OMD etc) but I also liked the more guitar-based stuff around that time. I think now our contemporary music tastes are quite different! Can probably be summarised as me liking stuff in minor-keys and Mark liking major-keys!! A Yes concept beer ain't gonna happen - our year zero is 1978. We've started referencing albums from 33 years ago i.e. 1978 and it's a pretty fertile period for music. We've so far done a Parallel Lines beer and have just launched an Elvis Costello special called This Year's Model. We have one, maybe two, classic album brews coming before the end of the year.

Mark: I’m just a few years older than Andrew (old enough to have bought Yes albums with my paper round money!) – Back in ’78, “year zero”, I was heading for college with ears full of The Clash, The Stranglers and my favourite band then or since probably, Siouxsie and the Banshees. Fortunately I haven’t got stuck in any era and enjoy contemporary music. As Andrew says, our contemporary tastes are a little different, though there is plenty we both appreciate – hurrah for Interpol, Richard Hawley and The XX!

With regard to ideas / beer names etc. it has to be consensus, luckily we’ve found plenty of common ground, so no problems so far. We’re actually very happy with our core range names, I mean “Clash London Porter”, what’s not to like?

Hopefully people will enjoy seeing what new ideas we come up with, we’re excited about the 33rd anniversary stuff, This Year’s Model is just being delivered to pubs. The next one in a couple of months will be fun too – look at 1978 album lists for clues as to what it will be!

Where are you brewing? How big is the operation now?
Andrew: We've recently commissioned a 8BBL plant near Castleford, West Yorkshire. We're brewing once a week at the moment but expect to have doubled that before the end of our first year. We have 5 core beers at the moment with plans for a couple more. With those on rotation in the brew cycle we will probably do a special around 8 times a year and we'd expect those to be references to classic albums, brews to tie in with album launches or whatever collaborations we come across along the way. We have a very exciting collaboration in October which I'm not yet at liberty to divulge but keep an eye on our blog pages and website for more details.

http://revolutionsbrewing.blogspot.com/
http://www.revolutionsbrewing.co.uk

We're inviting people (via our Facebook page) to name one of our fermenting vessels after an 80s Leeds band. I hope your readers will visit our page and vote!

https://www.facebook.com/questions/236829866347853/?qa_ref=qd


Mark: Why did we pick Castleford? Competitive rents, no existing brewery, one of the country’s finest maltsters is there, excellent transport links, it’s about halfway between our homes in Leeds and Selby – all those things are relevant. We also became attached to Castleford after our first serious meetings on the brewery idea were held in the town’s Shoulder of Mutton, a place for anyone who appreciates what a traditional pub could and should be.

You recently did your first bottled beer for an album launch. Will there be more bottled beers coming our way?
Andrew: The bottled beer we did for Sarandon's Age of Reason album launch was a good experience for us to understand the economics of bottling. We do want to have a permanent bottled product and the two future core beers we have in mind probably lend themselves to bottling more so than the existing five beers so watch this space.

Mark: We definitely want to offer a bottled range and continue to research the best way to go about it to ensure commercial viability. This is likely to be a project for early next year.

How do you see the future shaping up for Revolutions Brewing Co.?
Andrew: Ultimately we will be judged on the quality of our beer. If we get that right then I think we will attract people to us who share our love of beer and music and then who knows what will happen. There are so many doors that might open that it makes the whole business really exciting.

Mark: Absolutely, it has to be about the beer. So far, so good on that count. But realistically we have only done 6 brews on the Castleford plant. When we achieve consistent quality over 60 or even 600 brews we can be happy. The music tie-ins are the fun part – fun for us and fun for our customers – but it is all under-pinned by tasty beer. Hopefully the readers will seek our beers out at pubs, clubs and beer festivals – if you do, let us know what you think!

The CAMRGB Mini Interview #1: Brouwerij de Molen

So here we go with the first in CAMRGB's series of mini interviews with Brewers that we love.

First up it's the astonishingly great Brouwerij de Molen of The Netherlands.

Please introduce yourselves.
We are Brouwerij de Molen. Owned by Menno Olivier and John Brus (that's me).

When did the brewery begin?
The brewery was founded in 2004 by Menno Olivier, moved to a historic mill from 1697 in 2004 and since early this year we have a second location. Just 100 meters from the old mill we have a larger and more modern brewhouse and warehouse. The old brewhouse is still in production.

Have you always been brewers or did you do different jobs before this?
We have always been into beer. From the age of 15 or 16 year old both have been trying different beers and later on we started home brewing. Menno was way more productive in homebrewing. And more successful as well. Next to his regular day job he started brewing at real breweries in both Holland and Belgium. After 12 years of experience he decided to start on his own. John never brewed professionally but joined Menno in early 2010.


You have a restaurant too - Did this exist before the brewery?
The restaurant was founded shorly after the brewery. So no, it wasn't there yet.

Do your beers fit into a tradition of Dutch beer or are the flavours you are creating something brand new?
The beers we make couldn't be less traditionally Dutch. We brew many styles but none of them could be called Dutch. Even our Bockbeer isn't a traditional Dutch Bock (which is different from German Bock). We make beers from English and German origin but more aggressive, more complex in flavour and aroma. Our beers are more like the Danish new micro scene or even American. Although most of the American craft brewer are going really extreme or not at all. We tend to be in between.

I love the idea of small runs of beer in numbered bottles, but what made you decide to do this?
We thought it was cool :-)

What are your plans for the future?
We have so many plans for the future. But none of them is concrete enough to reveal it right now. Right now we have more than our hands full with the new brewhouse and bottling line. It's running but we still need to tweak it and learn to use it perfectly. But we are so happy with the beers flowing from the new tanks since June this year. Same quality or even better but more consistent in carbonation, yeast in the bottles, et cetera.


I cannot urge you enough to track down some of the beers these chaps are making.
Take a closer look here.

Brouwerij De Molen Sladek Hopburst (6.2%)

Another extraordinary beer from this wonderful Dutch brewery.
Boiled sweets, black pepper & ultra intense hop.
The malting is sublime - caramel & hazelnuts, rich and viscous.

The beers from this brewery are very special indeed - they do very small bottled runs with hand-numbered labels.
Like drinking heaven.

We have an interview with these guys coming soon.

Magic.

Visit them here.

Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA (7.1%)

Today is IPA day so last night to celebrate the eve of this momentous day I had a few bottles.
Best by far was this one.
Flying Dog isn't the easiest beer to find here in the UK. For a while Tesco stocked a little but since then it's just specialist ships at specialist prices.
It's definitely worth the extra pennies though.

Snake Dog is a quite brilliant American IPA.
It has an orange rind zing, sweet sherbet notes and a thoroughly mouth watering resinous woody malt backbone.
Then there's the hops.
This beer appears to have been hopped forever.
The finish is loooooooong and dry and bitter and...and...well, the best.

Wrapped in a label drawn by the immaculately mental Ralph Steadman, this is a beer I wish I could have in my fridge every day.

We have an interview coming soon with Flying Dog's Brewmaster Matt Brophy - I can't wait to talk to him.

For more info go here.

Adnams Spindrift (5%)

Whoever is doing the purchasing for Sainsburys at the moment is doing a pretty good job of it.
Lovely deals with Meantime and Brew Dog, some decent American bottled beers and now a special Adnams 330ml bottle called Spindrift.


Generally I like Adnams - They make no fuss, flavoursome if unadventurous beers (that said Broadside is a belter, a beer I love to drink).
Spindrfit claims to be a dry amber ale with a touch of wheat for extra sparkle (whatever that means).
In actual fact the wheat doesn't add much to this beer at all.
Spindrift gives you fresh green hops and a fine malt backbone.
It's a good summer drink in a bluebottle, but be careful as it's lightness of touch masks the over average ABV.

Visit Adnams.

The Dog And Gun, Syston. A Steaming Billy Brewing Company House.

The first thing to drop onto my virtual doormat this-weekend was a membership card (virtual) for the CAMRGB.
I must say that I do like the notion of celebrating beer simply because of its gorgeousness, regardless of whether or not it ticks all the boxes of the hardened beer-buffs. I am myself usually too sozzled to remember anything of the provenance of a beer and the only detail that really interests me is the all-important ABV. And I do attempt to remember the names of those which particularly please me.

I quickly decided that it would be appropriate to mark this most auspicious of occasions by conducting some serious *ahem* research with a mind to contributing to the blog which serves as a mouthpiece to this most worthy of causes.

I love summer, and being English, I spend at least 11 months of every year longing for hot lazy days, during which I become more saurian than human. Perversely, though, there is nothing which I enjoy more than wasting one of these gloriously rare afternoons by sitting inside a dark pub drinking, well, too much.

It didn’t take too long for a plan to emerge (about 2 seconds) and after an agonisingly long wait for opening time to come around I found myself installed into the Dog And Gun, Syston, a small town to the north of Leicester. This fine old building has been a pub for centuries and has recently been converted to a ‘Real Ale’ pub by the Steaming Billy Brewing Company. This was a brave decision by the brewery considering that, due to its location, they will rely, to a large extent, on the existing local drinking population for much of its trade. They clearly believe that there is a desire for quality beer out there; Carling boys simply aren’t catered for at-all here.

Steaming Billy operate 6 pubs in which they showcase their own excellent beers as well as many others, although they do tend to favour local producers. The food on offer is locally produced too, and is sensible beer-drinker’s food; crisps, ploughman's, pies and the like. They describe themselves as a ‘Classic Alehouse’ with a decor that is both ‘snazzy’ and olde-world in a well balanced way. I spent the first hour or so of my tenure sat in a winged armchair. Very pleasant.

The beer here speaks for itself and was being quaffed greedily and appreciatively by its many customers. I get the impression that Steaming Billy are keen to attract those of us who like a Bloody-Good-Pint but might be a little reluctant to venture into one of the sometimes slightly intimidating bastions of card-carrying CAMRA members. I heard a regular state that whilst he was ‘not really a real-ale drinker, the beer here is really nice.’ It seems to me that good beer is losing its image of fustiness and that the small breweries finally look set to shake the brewing giants’ grip on our pubs.

As I sampled my final pint of the afternoon the landlord said to me, ‘Its like a mini beer festival coming into here.’ I had to agree with him and burped happily as I tried to find the door and thus started on my long journey home.

All of the beers sampled were well kept, fresh-tasting and served with a smile. What’s more, I felt as fresh as a daisy the following day; another sign of a good pint. Highly recommended.

The Grainstore Brewery Gold 4.5%
Wood Farm Brewing Co. Victorious 4.3%
The Grainstore Brewery Rutland Panther 3.4% (Best of the day, and a Mild too!)
Wood Farm Best Bitter 4.2%
Steaming Billy Bitter 4.3%
Steaming Billy Tipsy Fisherman 3.6% (Accompanied by Huntsman Pie and pickles)
Steaming Billy Skydiver 5.0%

Our position - An open letter to CAMRA-ites

Dear beer lovers.
We love beer as much as you do.
We don't want a war - of words or otherwise.
We want more people to think about the beer they drink and become more adventurous in this world of watery bland lager.
We have enormous respect for much of the work that CAMRA does and many of the battles CAMRA has fought.
However, we believe that many of those battles were won some time ago and that imposing such stringent rules on what is a Real British Ale alienates not only many of the small artisan brewers in the UK but also many of the people who enjoy the beer made by them.

This country of ours makes an extraordinary range of craft beers and we should celebrate them by supporting them.
That means buying their beers and telling everyone else about them too.

We are uncomfortable with the stranglehold that CAMRA and its rules has over British brewing.
The imposing of rules about kegs and casks, yeast quotients etc. are holding back the world of modern brewing in the UK and is definitely alienating many many people in the UK who would otherwise start drinking the products of our small brewers and enjoying them.
There's a whole generation of younger people who look at the archetypal CAMRA member as a beard wearing, sandal sporting beer geek.
That is a great shame.

Drinking and enjoying beer, sitting in pubs and talking / discussing / arguing.
Meeting new people.
Getting slightly tipsy and giggling.
These are all wonderful and fun and important things to do.
Let's not hold people back anymore by imposing draconian measures on what is and is not the "real" pursuit of good beer.
Let's enjoy good beer for good beer's sake.
Let's thank all our amazing brewers for the astonishing range of drinks they provide.


Let's sit down and discuss the parameters of getting people involved.

Thanks and cheers.
CAMRGB