Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog

Every Saturday we round-up the best writing about beer and pubs from the past week. This time we’ve got Landlord, Norwich, and more.

First, some news. Thomas Hardy Ale is one of those renowned, revered beers that is nonetheless not in regular production. It comes and goes every few years, under new stewardship. The latest vintage is available in the UK as a partnership between Italian outfit Interbrau S.P.A. and distributor James Clay.

Rachel Hendry has written a long, thoughtful piece about the cult cask ale Landlord from Keighley brewery Timothy Taylor:

Landlord requires at least 48 hours of cellaring before it can be served—Tim even suggests leaving it a week. Once begun, the cask is only good to pour for about three days, time becomes the fifth ingredient… The cellar has a choice, it can become a place of transformation, or a place of ruin. Casks put on too quick, or served for too long, can leave a sour taste in a person’s mouth. The name Timothy Taylor becomes forever associated with a bad pint. It is a supply chain of trust, the production of real ale. A brewery reaches out to a pub and asks: will all my work be for nothing at your hands?

For Bon Appétit Kate Bernot has written about the decline in draught beer drinking in the wake of the pandemic:

For Gen Zers who turned 21 during the pandemic’s shutdowns, staying home became the default social mode… The decline in draft beer is a decades-long story, though COVID-19’s temporary closure of bars and restaurants accelerated the pace of those losses. On a national scale, data company Draftline Technologies estimates between 7 and 13% of all draft lines are empty—installed and ready, but not dispensing any beer. If trends continue, draft beer could become a novelty, or perhaps, a relic.

(We were able to read the story the first time we clicked through, but then it disappeared behind a paywall. Here’s an alternate link via MSN.)

Chris Dyson has shared more notes from his pub crawling around northern towns, this time reporting from Bradford, which is another place we’ve had on our to-visit list for years:

The Lord Clyde is situated on the corner with Tetley Street, which is somewhat appropriate as it became a Tetleys pub in 1959 when the Leeds brewery took over the local William Whitakers brewery, who’d actually stopped brewing in 1928 and had subsequently sold Tetleys’ beers in their pub estate.  The pub is named after Field Marshal Colin Campbell, 1st Baron Clyde, a British Army officer born in 1792, who was a key figure in the 19th century Opium wars and became a hero of the Indian mutiny when he commanded the British forces in India. There is no evidence to suggest he ever had any connections with Bradford, but as was the way in Victorian times many pubs were named in honour of famous military figures. And elsewhere in the country there are other pubs called Lord Clyde, or Sir Colin Campbell, as he was before he was given his peerage in 1858… I liked the Lord Clyde too; it was fun, it was friendly, a happy place.

Irish blogger The Beer Nut has provided another of his detailed observations of the English scene, reporting from Norwich, where he enjoyed, or at least encountered, a lot of cask ale:

It was CAMRA’s turn to host the autumn meeting of the European Beer Consumers Union this year, and the powers that be in that august institution picked Norfolk as the destination. It’s famous for its barley, you know. The county town of Norwich also has plenty of beery attractions, including lots of very pleasant pubs. Why, you’d nearly think you were up north… Reuben and I didn’t have to stray too far from our Premier Inn to find our first one: The Rumsey Wells, owned by the Adnams brewery. I’m a longtime fan, and this was my first time drinking on their home turf. On cask, unusually, was a Landbier that Adnams has brewed in collaboration with Londoners Five Points, called Distant Fields. It’s copper coloured and has what is for me the signature Adnams taste: dry tannins with immense thirst-quenching power. There’s a little noble-hop character alongside this; some dried grass and aromatic herbs, but it didn’t do much else to convince me it’s a German-style beer. The flavour, a full body, and low-level cask carbonation made it seem far more like a high quality bitter to me. That’s fine. It’s what I’d want in an Adnams pub.

Ron Pattinson has also been on the ground in England, drinking in pubs in Kent and is worried about the health of the English pub:

First night there, Thursday, we went to the Royal Cheriton on Cheriton High Street. Three customers. A mother and her ten-year-old daughter, dressed for Halloween, and an old chav in a corner nursing a pint. When we left after a couple of pints, we were the last customers. I’ve never seen the pub that quiet at any time of day… Next day, Friday, we’re in Dover for some shopping. (At Iceland, don’t judge me.) A new shopping centre close to the docks. I notice a pub right next to it and think “That’s a bit of luck for that boozer, having a load of shops built right next to it.”… Mikey has something to do, so I think what I always think when I have a free moment and there’s a pub nearby: “Let’s give that pub a try.”… Totally deserted…

(Chav, Ron says, is a traditional alternative for ‘bloke’ in Newark on Trent where he grew up, rather than a pejorative term.)

It’s worth saying that we, and others, have observed a realignment: pubs in town are often busier on Thursday than Friday, because people choose to work from home, in the suburbs, on Fridays. But, yes, we’ve also seen some very quiet pubs in the past year or two.

Finally, from social media, a worrying update that suggests things are not changing where they need to change:

Just heard about two brewers being very inappropriate with women at a beer festival recently (one incident is definitely sexual assault). I wonder why I haven't attended a single beer festival this year. Disgusting.

— Anaïs Lecoq  (@anahlcq.bsky.social) November 15, 2024 at 7:11 PM

For more good reading check out Stan Hieronymus’s round-up from Monday and Alan McLeod’s from Thursday.

Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time we’ve got Berliner Weisse, suburban pubs and jugs of Bass.

We usually start these round-ups with a single piece of beer-related news but this state of the industry read-out from Jessica Mason at The Drinks Business is all the news, effectively, synthesised and summarised:

If brewers had a crystal ball, they’d have thrown it in the mill by now: 2024 was meant to be the year when beer regained ground, not a time of closure and brand resale… But the issues have been complicated, and not only because rising costs are clearly in direct opposition to developing prosperous businesses, but also because survival has now become a bit of a game of predicting how the beer world is changing. And then doing what is necessary by leaning into it…

The phrase we heard earlier in the year was “Survive ‘til 25” summarising the attitude of many brewers. Fingers crossed.

When we see that Dermot Kennedy has published another of his heavily-illustrated pub history posts, we clap our hands in delight. The third part of his series on Art Deco pubs arrived this week with a focus on suburban pubs:

Nottingham has no fewer than 7 art deco pubs and in the Crown Hotel includes one that was possibly the first to be built in the moderne style anywhere in the UK. W.B. Starr & E.B.H. Hall had established themselves as the city’s main pub architects and had built or rebuilt twenty or so in the 1920s and early 1930s. None had been art deco, but in 1933 they designed the Crown Hotel for Home Brewery in a striking moderne style. The style was already common in cinemas, and was starting to make an impact on factories, housing and hotels but until now had not been applied to pubs.

Let the rejoicing continue! All About Beer has published an actual article, with actual text, instead of expecting us to listen to podcast episodes. Adrian Tierney-Jones went to Berlin in search of Berliner Weisse and… didn’t find much, actually:

It was reminiscent of a travel assignment to Leipzig when I excitedly told a hotel receptionist that I wanted to try Gose. His reaction was a quizzical smile and the word ‘Why?’… “Why” is a good word to describe the predicament of Berliner Weisse. Why is it such a minority style in its home city, especially as independent brewers around the world, including the United Kingdom, United States, Italy and even Taiwan, have made one?… For Oli Lemke, who started the eponymous brewery in 1999, it is almost obligatory for a Berlin brewer to produce a Berliner Weisse. There are more than 100 breweries in the city but it seems like Lemke is only one of three producing the style. The other two are Schneeeule and Berliner Berg, who according to their website have brought in a ‘newly brewed’ version of the style.

Blimey, Wigan looks like a good day out! Chris Dyson has written about his crawl around the pubs of the Greater Manchester (formerly Lancashire) town which was nearly scuppered by the first pub being too good:

Just around the corner, occupying a couple of arches in the railway bridge on which sits part of Wigan’s other railway station, North Western, is the suitably railway-themed Wigan Central. I had called in here last time before getting the train home and remembered a good bar with a good atmosphere, then run by the former Prospect Brewery who were based in the town and a number of their beers had been available alongside a few guest ales. This time, with the house beer now brewed by Bank Top, several guests on hand pump on tap were augmented by several more as this current Wigan CAMRA Pub of the Year was hosting an Autumn Beer Festival! A second bar featuring hand pumps with a wall of keg beers was set up in the far room, I ordered a pint of the 3.4% It Belongs In A Museum on hand pump, a predictably very good pale ale from Sureshot (NBSS 3.5). I surveyed the festival beer list; there were some very good beers included on both cask and keg. This was not what I needed…

Our 2017 book 20th Century Pub has a chapter about community-owned pubs. We were, and are, fascinated by what motivates people to invest in, or play a part in running, their local pub. So the latest post on Paul Bailey’s blog (no relation) grabbed our attention with the title ‘We bought a pub’:

Even without the house-brewed beers the Swan [at West Peckham] is a destination pub in its own right, given its attractive location on the village green, at the crossroads of the Weald and Greensand ways… Despite this illustrious trading record, and in spite of the Swan remaining a successful pub and popular restaurant, the decision taken, just over a year ago by the current owner and licensee Gordon Milligan, to sell up and leave the trade after 24 years at the helm, sent shock waves through the tight-knit local community. Fortunately, rather than seek to convert it into housing, Mr Milligan approached the villagers and asked if they wanted to take the pub on. Their answer was a resounding “yes”, so a steering group was set up with the aim of purchasing the building collectively for the village… I’m now the proud owner of 250 shares in the Swan Community Project Ltd.

Martin Taylor has been in Bath and makes a passionate case for The Star Inn as one of the wonders of the world:

Now, let it be said I always speak the truth. On first sip, this flat Bass wasn’t as softly stunning as 2 years ago, when I rated it in my Top 5 pints of all time (only 26 in that)… But the Star itself just felt otherworldly… The symphony in brown and red played out around us… Folks, there are people who profess to like pubs and beer who have never been here!

It’s interesting that one of the commenters refers to it as a “tourist trap”. It isn’t. For one thing, it’s not especially friendly towards tourists, and is quite a way from the bits of town where tourists hang out. We also insist on the distinction between tourist attraction (a thing you should see, that has a purpose and existence outside tourism, like the Hofbräuhaus) versus a tourist trap – something that only exists for the purpose of fleecing rubes, like Madame Tussaud’s.

Finally, from BlueSky, a very pretty glass of beer indeed…

Draft Stille Nacht 2019 at 't Brugs Beertje. Absolutely sensational, and far better than when fresh five years ago. Cheers! 🍻 🇧🇪

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— Jezza (@bonsvoeux1.bsky.social) November 8, 2024 at 5:10 PM

For more good reading check out Stan Hieronymus’s round-up from Monday and Alan McLeod’s from Thursday.