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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?)

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.

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!

A Scottish Odyssey

This year at Glastonbury I made a pledge, ostensibly to the Somerest Wildlife Trust but mainly to myself, to drink more local ales. By this I intended to mean drinking ale bought as near as possible to where it was made. So when a long-awaited trip to Scotland came around at the end of July, it seemed the perfect opportunity to put my pledge into some serious action.

So, day 1 and a brief stay at a Premier Inn at Dumfries. Not the perfect start, as the only ale on offer was Belhaven, an Edinburgh beer. I'd had this before, but only in my local when we had a Scottish landlord. He also used to stock Deuchars, which was teasingly present on the pumps in the Premier Inn but not in the pipes. Belhaven it was then, and what I would come to consider as the John Smiths of Scottish beers - ubiquitous, creamy and cold. It would do for now, but it would soon become the beer of last resort.

Arriving at Arran for a two-night stay, Belhaven was the only ale on offer in our hotel. However, brighter times were ahead at our friend's party, which had bottles of Arran Brewery ales. We'd sampled these on the ferry en route and been impressed with the Blonde and Arran Ale - both fine, light beers for a sunny trip on deck. At the party there was darker fare - the appropriately nutty Red Squirrel, sales of which also help with funding the preservation of this beautiful animal.

Back on the mainland (after a brief stop to buy some Arran single malt whisky, a splendid smooth and smoky taste) and on to Loch Fyne, and the discovery of the Fyne Ales brewery shop. Here we were greeted by a friendly lady who gave us generous samples to taste. Impressed enough to buy a 12-bottle crate of mixed ales, including the light, grapefruit tinged Avalanche and dark, zingy Vital Spark. Happily the George Hotel in Inverary served Fyne ales too, to accompany the evening meal.

Over to Pitlochry and a visit to the Moulin Hotel and micro-brewery. The brewery here mainly serves in their own hotel and selected venues in Pitlochry, so is a rare treat. Four ales were on offer, the highlight being a smokey, chocolatey Old Remedial, though the Braveheart and Moulin Light were also good, hoppy drinks. A nice little three-bottle presentation case was of course purchased as a souvenir.

In the evening we ate at the Auld Smiddy, which served up the gloriously named Thrappledouser from the Inveralmond Brewery of Perth. The Auld Smiddy usually has one of the Inveralmond ales on, so is worth a visit if you're in the area - the pork belly is delicious too, and a perfect accompaniment to the light, fruity Thrappledouser.

Finally we stayed over in the Lake District to break up the journey home. While at Buttermere we sampled Yates Bitter and Hawkshead Cumberland Gold. The Yates is a CAMRA prize winner, though I found it a little bland compared to the punchier Hawkshead. However, Yates was the more local ale of the two so I was happy enough to support them.

Of course, it wasn't just a beer tour, though the pleasure of discovering and tasting a range of interesting, locally produced ales brought an extra dimension to a highly enjoyable week's holiday. My pledge is well on track.

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.

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.

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