Categories
Blogging and writing

Certifications and Beer Writing

Last week, American beer writer and blogger Chad Polenz contacted us to ask our views on beer certifications — the Cicerone programme and BJCP accreditation in particular.

It’s not something we have strong views on but we did our best to answer and he used what we gave him alongside responses from a slew of others to inform a blog post entitled ‘What do beer writers think of beer certifications?’ It’s more balanced than the tetchy reaction might suggest, and well worth a read.

We thought we ought to elaborate a bit on our position, insofar as we have one.

If we worked in the industry proper, as opposed to commentating on it from a deliberate distance, we might well consider getting ourselves certified. A scheduled programme of study with milestones and markers is no doubt helpful for many people embarking on careers in hospitality and brewing and, if nothing else, probably improves their confidence.

We also sometimes feel at a disadvantage when it comes to writing beer reviews because we can’t identify specific off-flavours or guess at hop varieties with complete confidence, and avoid claiming any kind of expertise as a result. Studying for certification, to a very great degree, seems to solve this problem.

And yet, as far as we know, few (if any) of our favourite beer writers are certified. In general, they gain their authority by consistently demonstrating their knowledge and experience in what they write, rather than by declaring it; and, in particular, by supporting their statements with evidence wherever possible. They are, perhaps, the kind of people who set their own programme of study.

This post is mostly about flagging Chad’s blog post so if you’ve got general comments, probably best to leave them there, but comments are open below if you prefer.

Categories
beer reviews london

Beers of Convenience in London

A weekend in London meant seven hours of trains and replacement buses, 48 hours of dashing about on DLR, tube and suburban services, and another seven hours back.

Running from one bit of family business to another, our beer choices were dictated largely by convenience. Nevertheless, at Tap East dropping off books, and then again for our signing event on Saturday afternoon, we managed to drink draught beers from Wild Beer Co, Rooster’s, Ilkley, Firebrand, Burning Sky, Pig & Porter and Tap East’s own on-site brewery.

We enjoyed some more than others (Pig & Porter Honey Wheat impressed us in particular) but, based on a single serving in most cases, wouldn’t want to say too much more than that.

There was one beer, however, that tempted us away from ticking and into repeat orders: the Tap East house American Pale Ale (cask, 4.4%). It was a faintly-hazy, pale orange, fresh fruit salad of a beer with none of the raw savouriness that we’ve found off-putting in similar products from other breweries. We’re not much good at guessing hop varieties but we thought, in this case, that we might be experiencing a face full of Amarillo. The website, though, suggests Citra and Chinook. At any rate, just as vanilla tricks the senses by association, something about the hops here made the beer smell sweet, like mango juice or boiling apricot jam. It was good value, too, at not much more than £3 a pint.

* * *

Heading from the book event to a birthday party, we stopped off to pick up some bottled beer at bloody Waitrose. We say bloody Waitrose because every time we mention supermarket beer on the blog, someone will say, ‘You should try Waitrose — their selection is excellent!’ and, every time, we reply, ‘Our nearest Waitrose is in Devon, two hours away by public transport.’ But, yes, based on this visit to the branch in Westfield Stratford, Waitrose is streets ahead of the competition: Oakham Citra and Scarlet Macaw, Thornbridge Wild Swan, Meantime Porter, Meantime IPA, Crouch Vale Amarillo, and, as they say in infomercials, many, many more. They weren’t especially expensive either — c.£2.10 for most 500ml bottles.

Disclosure: we paid for our drinks on the first trip to Tap East (Friday) but got most of them on the house during the signing event (Saturday); and Boak’s little brother works behind the bar there.

Categories
News

News, Nuggets & Longreads 22/11/2014

It’s Saturday, so here’s a gurt load of links for ‘ee.

→ Jack Highberger doesn’t hate pumpkin beers, and he tasted a lot of them to come up with his Pumpkin Beer Flavor Map. An interesting exercise we’re tempted to imitate with another niche style.

→ Saved to Pocket (that is, we haven’t read it yet) this week is Jim Vorel’s piece for Paste magazine on Anheuser-Busch’s pilot brewery. There is a judgement suggested in the title: ‘The Belly of the Beast’.

→ Martyn Cornell has published a transcript of a talk he gave in Copenhagen on ‘place-based beer‘. This is a topic we’ve been thinking about a lot recently — what would be in a really Cornish ale, as opposed to an English-style ale that just happens to be brewed in Cornwall?

→ And the opposite of beers from a place:

→ Stan Hieronymus knows about hops so his comments on the espresso-style Randall-esque hop infuser recently launched in the UK are especially interesting:

In addition, yeast becomes a key player in dry hopping, because of the biotransformations that occur when yeast and hop hang out together — another area where much more research is needed. Those aren’t going to occur in the seconds it takes beer to pass through the “Hoppier.”

→ We can’t possibly know whether the motives are cynical or pure, but Left Hand Brewing’s response to a trademark dispute is a great example of how to turn bad PR to your advantage.

→ The big news of the week has been the success of the Fair Deal 4 Your Local campaign in getting the government to make it compulsory for pub companies to offer tenants the right to pay a market rent for their pubs and thus remove themselves from the obligation to buy from a limited range of beer at an inflated price. Jeff ‘Stonch’ Bell wrote an off-the-cuff response which struck us as perceptive and balanced, and Pete Brown’s thoughts are also worth a read.

→ And if you’re in London, why not come and say hello at Tap East this afternoon? We’ll be signing books, having a few beers, and chatting from 2-4 pm.

Categories
Brew Britannia london News

Brew Britannia Signing, London, 22/11/2014

We’ll be at Tap East, the microbrewery and bar in the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, East London, from 2-4 pm this Saturday, 22 November.

We’ll have a few books to sign and sell  but we’ll also be delighted to sign copies people bring with them, whether well-read, or brand new and intended as Christmas gifts.

If you’re a reader of the blog, whether you want a book signing or not, we’d love the chance to say hello and chat over a pint, so please do drop by if you’re in the area.

Categories
Blogging and writing

Pondering Beers of the Year

As Golden Pints season draws near, we’ve found ourselves wondering how we go about choosing a ‘beer of the year’.

Should it be the one we’ve just declared the best beer in the world? Surely that must also be the best beer we’ve had this year?

Maybe it ought to be the beer that gave us the most profoundly thrilling single experience — the one that literally made us giggle with excitement and joy — even if subsequent experiences of the same beer were less euphoric?

Or how about our main squeeze — the draught beer of which we’ve drunk (quick calculation) more than 200 pints between us since January? (Flippin’ ‘eck — £700!) We must quite like that.

Then again, perhaps we should compensate for the kinds of biases which skew results on rating websites, to avoid more subtle, unassuming beers being overlooked — ones that are technically proficient, or good for their style, but totally boring in the grand scheme of things.

A lot of beers we’ve enjoyed this year weren’t consumed in anything like ideal conditions for achieving an objective view — should they be out of the running?

There are breweries out there trying really hard with limited funding, facilities and distribution — do we try to take into account ambition and intention? Indie Beer of the Year?

We could narrow the field by choosing a beer that’s new for 2014 (imagine if The Godfather just kept winning the Best Picture Oscar every year!) or perhaps even, given our interest in culture and history, the beer which best sums up 2014.

Mostly, we’re just pleased to have something else to over-think.