Categories
Blogging and writing Brew Britannia

Brew Britannia Update

cover_final_march_200Reviews have been coming in thick and fast this week:

  • Zak Avery — “It’s a fascinating tale of peculiarly British pluck and pioneering spirit, all washed down with lots of great beer. “
  • Jeff Evans (Inside Beer) — “…perhaps the greatest asset they bring to the project is a degree of objectivity. “
  • Leigh Linley — “Brew Britannia is an excellent book; investigative, frank, even-handed and, above all, vital to both the beer geek and the neophyte alike.”
  • Rowan Molyneux — “Brew Britannia doesn’t just fill in the gaps in the landscape, it gets out its felt tips, adds trees, houses, and little cartoon dogs, then colours everything in very carefully without going over the lines.”
  • Tandleman — “Those that are familiar with the story and those that are not and those that have even the most passing interest in British beer and brewing will equally find fascinating and educational.”
  • Adrian Tierney-Jones — “Brew Britannia is a fascinating odyssey through the last half-century of British beer and I would recommend this without a moment’s thought.” (Read his review for the ‘but’, though…)

Suffice to say, we’re delighted with the response so far.

Though the official launch isn’t until 19 June, we understand that Amazon are currently dispatching copies.

We’ve added a few London events to our tour calendar: do come and say hello at BrewDog Camden on Sunday 15 June, 1-3 pm; or at the King’s Arms, E2, on Friday 20 June, from 7-9 pm.

And, finally, the Amazon Kindle version is now available to pre-order at £6.17 (less than half the price of the paperback) and we are told that it will also be released in other e-book formats (e.g. Nook, Apple) fairly shortly.

Categories
Blogging and writing opinion pubs

Modern Pubmanship, Part 1: Smartphones

The first in a series of guest posts by our etiquette expert R.M. Banks.

Pint of Beer illustration.

Some questions require a prompt answer. Others are rhetorical. Some are neither.

At the end of the labouring day, you slide from the pneumatic swivel chair, into the patented rainproof, and around the corner into the White Hart or Red Lion. There you are greeted by the friendly scowls of your regular drinking college and promptly put the oesophagus to work on 568ml of the publican’s finest. After you have expressed your satisfaction — in my experience, a long “Aaaaaaaaaaaah!” is hard to beat — you are fair game to be drawn into conversation.

“What was the name of the bloke,” says the IT consultant from Cheam with a mouthful of dry-roasted, “who was in Logan’s Run? The blonde feller with the rubbery lips.”

“Ah-hah!” you ejaculate, and reach at once for the pocket on your Oxford bags where nests the smartphone. Wikipedia is bookmarked from the homepage — an answer is but seconds away.

But cease! You have gravely mistake your legume-chewing interrogator’s purpose, and are about to commit a faux pas.

Do you suppose that the inquisitive consumer of peanuts  is not aware of the existence of the internet? Is that not, indeed, lying in a pool of Strongbow cider on the bar before the questioner, a Samsung Galaxy S5 with all the trimmings?

The question, you ass, was intended to provoke something along the lines of a debate, only without any nutritional content.

Let me put it another way: as with hiking, reaching the destination is not the point, and, in fact, the terminus is to be given the swerve for as long as the feet hold out.

By all means suggest “Charlton Heston?” or perhaps “Simon MacCorkindale?”. Throw in a “Simon Ward?” if the mood flags. But, at all costs, avoid speaking Michael York’s name at least until last orders have been called.

And next time, leave your smartphone tied to a post outside.

Categories
Blogging and writing

The Month That Was: May 2014

Here’s a look back at what we posted in May, including a ‘long read’ about Boddington’s Bitter and a breakthrough on the Watney’s Red recipe front.

Watneys Red Barrel beer mat.

We found information on the make-up of Watney’s beers in an unexpected place .

Boddington's keg 'lens', Manchester.

We used our trip to Manchester to consider a great (sort of) ‘lost’ beer. (1500 words.)

Categories
Blogging and writing News

News, Nuggets and Longreads 31/05/2014

Pint of beer illustration.

We’ve seen things… you people wouldn’t believe… Sambucas on fire off the Old Street roundabout… We watched EPOS systems glitter in the dark near the Arndale Centre. All those… moments… will be lost in time, like *koff* tears… In… Rain. Time… to round-up…

→ Saved to Pocket this week, an interview with Martin Hayes, founder of the Craft Beer Company chain of pubs and bars. On ‘craft beer’: “I kind of hate the term now.”

→ We’ve also saved this 1200-word piece from the New York Times on White Labs and the farming of speciality brewing yeasts. (Yeast in the NYT! And not bloody beard or underpants yeast, either — proper yeast!)

→ There’s yet more coverage of beer on the BBC news website with this profile of Croydon’s The Cronx brewery. It’s a weirdly uncritical, rather pointless piece that seems to have escaped from the Morning Advertiser but, hey, it’s beer on the Beeb.

→ Thornbridge and Waitrose have launched a national home brewing challenge: submit three bottles of your home brew to Thornbridge by 31 July for a chance to have it brewed professionally.

→ A follow-up to our Boddington’s Bitter post, how about this shot of a very modern pub, from c.1978? (Note the two young men trying to work out if their beer is ‘straw-coloured’ or just light brown.)

There’s a bit of a brouhaha brewing at Shepherd Neame, which offers an interesting glimpse into the tensions behind the running of a British family brewery.

→ And, finally, if you’re out and about in Cornwall today, the St Ives beer festival is on until this evening.

Categories
Blogging and writing Brew Britannia

Reflections on our Northern Tour

Revitalisation beer pump clip.

Last week’s visit to the north of England (Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield) was actually as near as we’re getting to a holiday this year.

We figured that, even if we didn’t get chance to plug Brew Britannia, we’d at least have fun drinking decent beer in great pubs and bars, and seeing the sights. But, as it happened, we were invited to appear and/or speak at a few venues.

psbh

At Port Street Beer House on Sunday afternoon, we were in competition with blazing sunlight which had turned Manchester into a dead ringer for Barcelona. Nonetheless, several people turned up to share a beer with us and buy advance copies of the book.

It was great to meet everyone, but we have to admit that we were especially pleased to make the acquaintance of Len, a reader who usually ‘lurks’, and who settled our nerves with a few kind words in the first few minutes.

We also found ourselves thinking that someone — maybe us — ought to write a proper portrait piece about 6TownsMart, whose commitment to, and first-hand knowledge of, Belgian beer is awe-inspiring. ‘Brewers as rock stars’ is a well-worn angle, but dedicated drinkers deserve some attention too.

At North Bar in Leeds on Monday, we got to try the Kirkstall Brewery beer Revitalisation, thoughtfully developed by Matt Lovatt from some vague thoughts we put in an email. We drank lots of it, and it prompted plenty of conversation among the Leeds crafterati, as well as finding favour with a few of the locals with more conservative tastes. We’ll write more about it in a substantial post about Boddington’s to follow in the next week or so.

We did our best to give a reading, but our puny voices struggled a bit against the non-stop partying which characterises the venue. Someone made us drink tequila, and Ghost Drinker plied us with wonderful, wonderful gueuze. We signed and sold a lot of copies of the book, which saved us lugging any back to Manchester, though the 20 copies of The Grist we acquired were heavier and more awkwardly shaped.

We had two engagements in Sheffield. First, at the Thornbridge-owned Hallamshire House, on Wednesday night. This was the first actual ‘talk’ we gave. Forty or so people, many of them actually there for a German student’s birthday drinks, listened politely as we spoke about the origins of the term ‘craft beer’. Some sidled up with questions, including, to our delight, the German birthday boy, who wanted to know why porter was so hard to find: “Ah,” he said on hearing our off-the-cuff answer. “This is the same as with Dortmund Export.”

We were delighted to meet Jim Harrison, one of the founders of Thornbridge — he is a very charming man — but cringed as we watched he and his wife read what we’d written about them in the book from across the room. They didn’t take offence, but seemed perhaps a little hurt that we’d portrayed them as ‘lordly’: “I came on the bus tonight.”

As the crowd thinned, we were joined by Thornbridge brewers Rob Lovatt and Will Inman, who indulged our naive questions about processes and yeast, and politely disagreed with a couple of our thoughts on Thornbridge’s beer. Very civilised.

The cafe next door to the Hop Hideout.

We finished on a real high note with a ticketed talk at the Hop Hideout on Abbeydale Road in Sheffield. It is a tiny but lovingly-managed specialist beer shop in the corner of a larger unit selling vintage… stuff, so the talk actually took place in the cafe next door. With blinds drawn, it felt like a lock-in or speakeasy, and talking to a crowd who wanted to be there was a real treat.

Over the course of a couple of hours, we tasted:

  • John Smith’s Bitter — a ‘palate cleanser’ and reminder of the ‘bad old days’.
  • Chimay Rouge — the first ‘world beer’ to hit the UK, in 1974.
  • Sierra Nevada Pale Ale — highly influential on the use of hops in British brewing.
  • Marble Dobber — the kind of beer British brewers made once they’d ‘got’ New World hops, and with a tentative connection to Brendan Dobbin.
  • Camden Hells — exemplifying the post-1990s trend for ‘craft lager’, and exploring questions of provenance.
  • Wild Beer Co Ninkasi — exploring the ‘outer limits’ of diversity in British beer, and finishing on a showstopper.

Most people seemed to agree that Chimay was cruelly overlooked these days; that SNPA was still a really good beer; that Dobber was on fantastically good form; and that Ninkasi was extremely complex and interesting. Watching someone smell the Cascade aroma of SNPA for the first time was a treat, too.

We’ll be in London in the week commencing 16 June and will hopefully be able to announce a programme of appearances in the coming days. We’re also at Beer Wolf in Falmouth, Cornwall, on 28 June from 4pm. Come and see us somewhere, at some time!