Categories
Blogging and writing london

Beer Books: Shakespeare’s Local

The George Inn, Southwark.
Illustration from Walks In London Vol. 1, c.1896.

Talking to publishers about beer books, you quickly learn that there’s one writer they think has really nailed it in commercial terms: Pete Brown. They like his ‘high concept’, ‘pitchable’ approach; they like his titles; and most of all, they love the fact that his books appeal to ‘normals’ as much as they do to beer geeks.

Shakespeare’s Local is yet another step towards the mainstreaming of both Brown and beer, though, in fact, beer is hardly mentioned at all and even the pub of the title isn’t always centre-stage so much as it’s used as a lens through which to view London at various periods in its history.

It tells the story of the George Inn, Southwark — these days a tourist attraction, tourist trap, after work City hangout and chain pub, but long associated with Olde London, Shakespeare and Dickens.

The opening is reminiscent of — bear with us — a ‘history episode’ of Hartnell-era Doctor Who; a Powell and Pressburger film; one of those nostalgic shorts from Roll Out the Barrel; and a nineteen-eighties text adventure we really want to play: “April the nineteenth in the Year of Our Lord 1737… You quickly scan the front page news of shipping list on its way to the colonies and elsewhere…”

> TAKE TANKARD
> DRINK BEER
> GO EAST

The portrayal of the relationship between Southwark and the City of London is excellent and, throughout, there’s a sense of virtual reality — of being there, in the time and place described with carefully chosen details in 3D, surround-sound, smell-o-vision. We came away with a list of places to visit, things to see and things to look out for.

It made us laugh out loud here and there, too — a quality not to be undervalued.

It’s not perfect. With our mortarboards and scholarly gowns on, we regret the lack of footnotes, and wouldn’t cite it as a source in a Phd paper; but, on the other hand, in holiday reading mode, we found a few passages where Brown has, in publishing parlance, ‘been too generous to his research’, and so caught ourselves skimming. (Yes, that’s right — he can’t win.)

On the whole, though, it is a great read and (with a few shopping days to go…) the perfect gift for anyone in your family with a passing interest in London, history, pubs, architecture, the heritage industry, highwaymen, public transport or lewd poetry.

The single pub micro-history could become an interesting sub-genre: here’s a nice piece on a pub in Croydon by Kake.

Categories
beer reviews

Strong, fruity, wrong and funky

Two beers: Shepherd Neame Christmas Ale and Bateman's Vintage Ale.

Last night, we got round to drinking a couple of strong beers we were sent by Shepherd Neame and Aldi respectively in the run up to Christmas.

In one sense, Shepherd Neame’s Christmas Ale (7%) is a cause for rejoicing: it comes in a proper brown bottle, rather than the clear glass they’ve been using to disastrous effect for the last decade or so. This is a huge turnaround and a ‘positive behaviour’ (thanks, Dr Tanya Byron) we definitely want to encourage.

It’s a shame, then, that the beer itself seemed to be… wrong. There was a whiff of elastic bands when we popped the cap, and it tasted waxy, rubbery and, finally, of slightly singed cardboard. An intriguing minty hop flavour we detected early on passed too quickly and, unfortunately, we only got half way through before giving up.

We’re not huge fans of SN’s beers in general (though we have a soft spot for their porter) but this particular bottle disagreed with us on a level beyond ‘house style’ — a technical issue, perhaps? We won’t write off the beer altogether, though we’d want to wait a few months before trying another from a different batch.

Bateman’s Vintage Ale (7.5%) comes in a cardboard box with a sticker sealing the lid — these apparently, thanks to Fuller’s, are the universal indicators of ‘vintagey-ness’.

On pouring, we were immediately reminded of Black Sheep Progress, another strong ‘special’ from a British regional brewer that we got to try at a tasting do run by Darren ‘Beer Today’ Norbury. Where Progress caused one of our fellow tasters to mention “armpits” in his notes, this beer’s aroma gave us (bear with us) old socks and white cheese rind. The taste was similarly odd, with some savoury vegetal character coming up against a tot of salty, coppery sherry-vinegar.

We didn’t love it, and, no, that doesn’t sound appetising, we admit, but the beer’s not wrong, just funky, in the same way Harvey’s or Adnam’s beers can be. If we drank enough Bateman’s, we could probably get to like it, and it certainly kept us interested, if not delighted, to the end.

Categories
Generalisations about beer culture opinion

The ideal market for beer

Market stall in Walthamstow, London.

What’s better — cask or keg? ‘Craft’ or industrial beer? National, regional or microbrewery beer? Balanced session beer or strong, hoppy stuff? Beer made by Heriot Watt graduates, or by homebrewers turned pro? Bottled or draught?

Isn’t the ideal to have a bit of everything, in proportion to demand?

As consumers, our most basic requirement is the mass availability of easy-drinking, good quality beer at a fair price — the stuff we consume most days and don’t blog about because, really, who wants to know every time we have a very nice pint of Tribute? (Mass availability = in every town or village within, say, a 20 minute walk, or near the workplace.)

We want a bit more choice as close to home as possible, but certainly within an hour’s train or bus ride. If we feel the urge to drink something a bit different (stout, mild, pale and hoppy) on a Wednesday night in November, we should be able to do so without too much bother.

But we also want the niche products we crave once in a while — Belgian beer, ‘craft keg’, rarities and oddities — to be readily available. (Ready availability = no more than a couple of hours on the train or bus.) We don’t mind if they cost a bit more to reflect the additional cost of production and distribution. This niche has room to grow a bit but will probably remain small, and that’s fine — not every town needs a craft beer bar, just every region.

We want to see new breweries opening, challenging established outfits to up their game. If they brew great beer, then that’s ideal; even if they don’t, and they can’t survive in the long term, they stop the pool from getting stagnant. They keep at bay monopolies where there’s only one beer on offer and it’s as bad and/or expensive as the breweries decide.

Finally, in the ideal marketplace, no-one should be made to feel like an arsehole whichever type of beer they choose to drink.

Categories
Beer history

Golden Pint ’76 Awards

Golden Pints 76

Yesterday, we offered our two penn’orth on 2012, but that got us thinking about how, with inflation in mind, the Golden Pint Awards might have looked several decades ago, just as the real ale craze was kicking off. With thanks to Barm aka @robsterowski for unearthing the original logo, here are some extracts from Boak and Bailey’s Beer Newsletter, December 1976, scanned from the tattered copy kept in a shoebox in the attic.

Scan of text from the December 1976 Boak and Bailey beer newsletter.

Categories
opinion

Golden Pints 2012

GoldenPint_2012

Our contribution to the annual blogging jamboree masterminded by Beer Reviews Andy and Mark Dredge.

Best UK Draught (Cask or Keg) Beer: St Austell 1913 Stout (version 1).

We prepared a shortlist of beers we’ve enjoyed so much we’ve drunk more than we meant to. St Austell Proper Job was on that list as was Penzance Brewing Co’s Potion 9, and Spingo Ben’s Stout. 1913 Stout has it, though, because (a) it was so delicious we drank too much two nights in a row and then (b) took what was left after the Dock Inn beer festival in a growler. (But note: version 2 was weaker and not quite as exciting.)

Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer: Oakham Green Devil IPA.

We had a very strong, positive gut-reaction to this beer which you might call ‘love at first sip’. We used it at our first talk at the Eden Project and the crowd loved it; by the time the second talk came round, it had all been stolen, which says it all. (Runners up: Sharp’s Connoisseur’s Choice Honey Triple; Brewdog Punk IPA, our go-to fridge beer.)

Best Overseas Draught Beer.

We haven’t had all that many this year (overseas draught beer doesn’t really get this far west) but we seem to remember enjoying Brewfist Spaceman IPA in London during the Olympics, so let’s say that.

Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer.

We’re boring: Achel Tripel. (It was Westmalle Tripel last year.)

Best Pumpclip or Label.

This one for Tap East Kellerman because that’s Boak’s little brother on it, as depicted by Philippe Fenner. (Aww…)

Best UK Brewery.

We don’t really feel equipped to say as there are several ‘hot’ breweries whose beer we’ve never tried but, what the Hell… the Blue Anchor/Spingo brewery at Helston. Spingo Middle is our regular drop at the Dock Inn in Penzance and (the occasional quality wobble aside) the beer at the brewery/pub/brewpub is generally excellent, not to mention increasingly adventurous. (Pale Rauchbier!)

Beer Festival of the Year.

The St Austell Celtic Beer Festival had an exciting beer list and a buzzing atmosphere, so let’s say that. (Disclosure!)

Supermarket of the Year.

Waitrose for the simple reasons that (a) we came back from a trip to Exeter with rucksacks stuffed with Thornbridge beer from one of their stores and (b) Sainsbury’s, Tesco, ASDA and Morrisons never actually have the beers we’re looking for, even if they’re supposed to be on their lists.

Online Retailer of the Year.

We keep coming back to Beer Merchants who seem to have what we’re looking for at the right prices and who have delivered everything promptly and (touch wood) intact. (But there’s no one retailer who’s website and stock list is perfect.)

Best Beer Book or Magazine.

Pete Brown’s Shakespeare’s Local. It’s not a list of beers we have to try; it’s not a beginners guide; and it made us laugh out loud more than once.

Best Beer Blog or Website.

Martyn ‘Zythophile’ Cornell’s blog has it — rigorous, compelling and readable. (To note, though: the first blogs we look at every day, in alphabetical order, are A Good Beer Blog, Tandleman and The Beer Nut.)

Best Beer Twitterer.

Joe Stange, aka The Thirsty Pilgrim. We retweet, or want to retweet, almost everything he has to say. He’s not prolific, but it’s all good stuff.

In 2013 We’d Most Like To…

Get ourselves up north on a grand beery tour, especially Sheffield.

Open category: best really old book.

Richard Boston’s Beer and Skittles (1976) should be on every beer geek’s bookshelf.