Trouble Brewing, Trouble Selling

It is obvious these are difficult times for many small brewers and for many of those that try and sell the stuff. The press is full of tales of those who are giving up the trade and handing the keys back, overcome by high fuel prices, high rents and lack of customers.

This week, following the Jubilee celebrations, I was returning a container to a well-known and established local brewery, and stopped for a chat with the owner. "How's things?" I asked.  His face grimaced. "Bad, Peter, bad!" he replied.  He went on to describe the current situation.  Pubs which used to take two or three eighteens a week were now taking only one or two nines. Fuel to power the brewery has gone through the roof, the cost of diesel fuel to deliver the beer is frightening and loads are less than he'd like, making the overall trip less than economic. The cost of ingredients is also increasing to add to a difficult picture.  

Undercutting by other small brewers is also playing a part. When he rings regular customers, the phones are often not answered. Nobody likes saying no - so just don't answer the phone is the easy way out - especially if they are buying cheaper and poorer elsewhere. To add to the woes, those who owe him money - long-standing customers in many cases - who he doesn't want to press too hard - are very slow to pay for the beer. He is owed more money than he is comfortable with. All in all, things are not so good.

On the other side of the coin, I spoke a couple of weeks ago to the owner and operator of  a small chain of pubs in our area. He tells me that the number of customers has never really recovered from the lockdown. Many customers, he thinks, have simply got used to drinking at home and with cost of living rises bearing down, the discretionary few pints in the pub are simply pushed to the bottom of spending priorities.  Where customers do come, they come less often and drink fewer pints. An equally depressing picture.

In my own experience, pubs are less busy than they used to be, though of course this varies. My recent trips to London, for example, have seen pubs rather busy and while prices are higher than the most of the rest of the UK, with a bigger return to work, a tradition of after work drinking and predominant use of public transport, as well as bigger salaries are probably having an offset of sorts that you don't find elsewhere.  I know, for example, that my teatime visits to pubs in my area, seem a lot quieter than they used to.

Looking at the Morning Advertiser and other trade press, the horror stories are there for all to see. The cost of running pubs is ever-increasing and while the gouging of operators by pub companies is less conspicuously reported than it used to be, I do wonder how anyone makes money running a Heineken pub, for example. But they are not alone. Sadly, too, it isn't just those that are new to the trade that are suffering, with previously successful lessees giving up the ghost.

So what is to be done? Frankly, I don't know, but one thing is for sure. Use it or lose it just doesn't apply to pubs, but many of our beloved small brewers. Some have already turned their toes up, and more will surely follow. Get down the pub while you still can.

I also maintain that there are far too many breweries chasing too few accounts in a falling market. Sadly, though, it isn't always the worst breweries that take the knock. 

Oh, and prices. They have to go up due to increases elsewhere, but while that is almost certainly so, it will also put another nail in the coffin. A bit of a perfect storm, or more appropriately, a vicious circle.

 Image used  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

Sarajevski Pivare

Sarajevo had it bad during the last war. When they say "last war" in Bosnia, they don't mean World War 2, but the civil war which followed the break up of Yugoslavia. Sarajevo was besieged for 1425 days by the surrounding army of the breakaway Republika Srbska with over 10,000 killed.  The scars, faded though they are, can still be seen there today.

We had dinner in the Sarajevo Brewery Beer Hall one night. The brewery itself, also badly damaged in the siege is a big one dating back to 1864 and was the largest brewery in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, though extensively modernised in 1991. Sadly it was a victim of the war and it took until 2006 before it was restored in its mix of Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian styles. Frankly, looking at the outside and indeed in the Beer Hall, with its fin de siècle decor, you'd never know, though in fairness, we visited in the dark.  The building is large and current production capacity according to their website is around 400,000 hectolitres. As far as I can tell, the brewery is still locally owned. Its beers are everywhere in Bosnia-Hertzegovina, or rather, Sarajevsko Beer, a standard continental pilsner type was everywhere.  The only place I saw the dark was in the brewery. And trust me, I looked.

The Beer Hall is superb. On the ground floor is a large bar and lots of wood and wrought iron with a large upstairs gallery where we ate and drank.  there is a fine vaulted ceiling made of bricks and its dim lighting certainly made the place atmospheric. It was only opened in 2004, but to look at it and to experience it is to be transported back to grander times.  I really don't know if some of it is old or restored, or if it is all "new". Either way, it looks tremendous and looking down on the bar from above is quite a delight.

What of the beer though? I drank the dark beer which was really rather good, soft, sweetish and mild- like, but I didn't try the unfiltered  lager, though maybe I should have. I looked in vain for the Oettinger Weissbier which is brewed in the brewery under license, but there was no sign of it there, or, indeed, anywhere else.  The food was excellent and in the typical Bosnian way, substantial. You don't tend to need a bag of chips on the way home after dining out thereabouts.

If you visit Sarajevo, don't miss it.

Looking back at the photos on the website, it has a kind of Wetherspoon look. But only in the photos.  In real life that didn't occur to me.

I'd have gone back again if we'd had time. Maybe I could have found the weissbier. After unrelenting taste-alike pilsner upon pilsner, that would have been nice.

Too Many Breweries? Probably.

Before I was diverted from sitting on my arse doing sod all by Manchester Beer and Cider Festival (MBCF) - more of which soon - I put up a little poll about whether there are too many breweries in the UK.

Now I had a kind of idea that the answer would be "Yes" and indeed that proved the case with 57% of the respectable 103 respondents agreeing that there are. Only 28% thought that there aren't too many breweries with 14% undecided. most respondents have a pretty good interest in beer and pubs I imagine and likely a fair knowledge of the issues, so I'm reasonably confident that the result reflects a general feeling of unease about the seemingly unstoppable growth of new breweries in the UK.

While at MBCF I took the opportunity to ask brewers big and small what they thought. Tellingly they more or less all thought there are too many and a shake out is ahead. Not them of course though. It is hard to be sure, but with dog eat dog at the lower cask end, regional brewers as the squeezed middle and too many brewers chasing too few opportunities you can't help but think something must give. Whether you are big or small, one thing is for sure, if you have found a niche or market that suits you and makes you money, stick to it and nurture it.

And for those that aren't in such a happy place, better find one quickly or you might be heading for the rocks.

One thing though. Brewers are the most amazing optimists. They have a propensity to find a way round problems which is wholly impressive.

Oh. And you must make good beer. There is a feeling around that quality needs to be upped and the smart ones recognise that. 

Brewsmith Beers

Now I don't often give tips for the top, but when I do pin back your lugholes and listen, as I've quite a good track record in recommendations. Think Hawkshead, Weird  Beard and Buxton to name but three.  I don't see this latest tip in quite the same way, but if you want rather well made traditional beer, I'd give them a go. They are named above - Brewsmith - and funnily enough though, while  they are in Ramsbottom which is 95%+ in my CAMRA Branch area, they are situated in the 5% that isn't (Stubbins). A shame that but there you go.  Technically it is in East Lancashire.

I know James the brewer a little from before the plant (10 barrels of stainless steel) was even set up and while we still reckoned they were one of "ours". I've bumped into him a few times recently, including at IMBC a couple of weeks ago and last night in the Baum where he was doing a "Meet the Brewer" and I was attending a Rochdale Beer Festival organising meeting.  I've liked all the beers they have done so far - well the ones I've tasted anyway - and last night was no different. I drank the Pale, a distinct pale and bitter beer with a clean hop aroma and great drinkable bitterness. It was so good I ended up having four pints of it and only stopped when the beer ran out.A nine gone in just under three hours.  I switched to the meatier and stronger Stout which had oaty smoothness and a complex coffee and liquorice taste with some light fruit notes and a bitter finish. These are cask beers and trust me, they are good.  If you see some, buy the beer and see for yourself. As far as I know they don't do keg (yet) but bottles will be soon.

Have a look at the website here. It all looks rather shiny. I'm due a visit and must  get up there soon.

The picture above looks washed out, but since I didn't take one in the pub, it has come off the website. The beer with a CAMRA discount was a bargain £2.70

SIBA recognised Brewsmith too as they won three medals at the recent North West competition.

Brewing Velvet Pilsner Lager

I was brewing beer in London recently with Pilsner Urquell. Martyn Cornell has already set out the background and detail of why we were all gathered in the White Horse at Parson's Green here, so I urge you to read his blog first (good advice at any time - for example, his piece on supplying beer to the troops after D Day is superb).  He gives all the detail, so, keen on avoiding hard work as I am, I won't do it all again here.  Thanks Martyn.  I owe you a pint.

A quick recap though of the mission. In the upstairs room at the White Horse, six teams -  three a day over two days all to brew a lager beer based on the Pilsner Urquell recipe.  The aim is to tweak, or indeed utterly change the PU recipe and produce a beer to be judged later. The winning beer to be brewed commercially by Windsor and Eton Brewery.  So big stakes and a very serious brew-off punctuated by a lot of fun.  Throughout the day we had superb advice from Václav Berka PU Senior Brewmaster, Paddy Johnson of Windsor and Eton Brewery and from Greg Tucker, a taste psychologist, who was with us from the beginning and whose insight into tasting was for me one of the highlights of a day of highlights.  Think you know about taste? Think again.  He was brilliant both in content and delivery.

Now I'm no home brewer, but I like to think I know enough about the processes not to make a fool of myself, so our little team - thrust together absolutely randomly - first all determined that none of us were home brewers - or indeed any other kinds of brewers.  So we had an even non brewing playing field and hopefully not too many preconceptions. We had though all listened carefully to the pep talk by Václav and another by Paddy and fortunately all of us had taken the same main message out of it "Less is more."  We decided at that point that our recipe would be a tweak, not a complete re-write.

The water - brought from Pilsen was already being boiled - so we (Canadian Presenter and Filmmaker Nate Nolan, Norwegian writer Line Elise Svanevik from In a Pub Magazine (who incidentally sounded as Norwegian as I do), Neil Walker, Blogger and National Press Officer at CAMRA and me) started thinking about malt.  PU is brewed with 100% pilsner malt.  We decided that we wanted something with more mouthfeel, so we substituted some melanoidin malt and just a touch of Munich to again add richness and also to add a touch of colour which in PU is provided by triple decoction.  Not something we could do.  That decided, it was into the boil.  For those that like detail; 3.9kg Pilsner Malt, 325g Munich Malt and 75g Melanoidin Malt went in and a lot of hot and sticky stirring ensued.

The hops discussion was much livelier and longer lasting.  PU is hopped solely with Saaz, but after much sensual rubbing, sniffing, oohing and aahing, we decided on an all Czech hop bill.  Currying favour? Us? Certainly.  So we had 40g Saaz in the initial boil, 20g of Agnus five minutes from the end and 40g of Kazbek (which we all really loved) to provide aroma at flame out.  Sounds good?   We thought so.  We ended up more or less where we wanted to be with an OG of 1048.6.  21 litres in all.  The wort tasted good. Much as we'd hoped, with good bitterness under all the sweetness and distinct lemon and spice.  The worts were then chilled and the yeast pitched before being taken away to London Beer Labs for fermentation and lagering. 

Of course all breweries have to have a name and ours was Four Corners (as in the four different countries of the world our team hailed from) and the beer was named Velvet Pilsner after the Velvet Revolution that separated the Czech Republic from Slovakia. Everything had been thought of and we even had on hand a design artist who pulled together a remarkably good label from our very vague and unformed thoughts. Regrettably I didn't take a photo of that!

 The resulting beers will be bottled for judging in July.  I can't wait.  I'll be there biting my nails, but we are all quietly confident. 

 We were also treated to copious amounts of Tankovna unpasteurised Pilsner Urquell, poured mainly by Václav himself.  It is a cracking, complex beer.  My thanks to Pilsner Urquell UK and to Mark Dredge for the invitation to a fascinating day.

Saving the Best to First - The Bermondsey Beer Mile

The Bermonsey Beer Mile or rather, the Bermonsey Beer Mile and a Half and a Bit, but that hardly trips off the tongue. Bermondsey Beer Mile it is then.  The walk itself is quite interesting, particularly if you fancy seeing a council flat bit of London and quite what the locals make of the bearded hipsters wandering about, I don't know, but I didn't see any of them getting duffed up, so I suppose up with them, the locals must be putting.

We walked from our place for the mile and a half to get to the beginning, but as we wanted to end up back on our manor rather than in Millwall, we passed by the early topers kicking off at Anspach and Hobday/Bullfinch and wended our way past Brew by Numbers, Kernel and Partizan to our destination, the furthest point on this upmarket brewery crawl.  Fourpure is set in the furthest recess of an industrial estate and unlike the others not in a railway arch, but in a large industrial unit. 

Fourpure is a decent sized operation with gleaming stainless steel vessels and John Driebergen, a very personable American, as Head Brewer.  We kicked off with a rather excellent pilsner beer of 4.7%, all body and noble hops and chatted to John about about the place.  The conical vessels are Chinese and do the job required well, with mash tun and other vessels coming from Purity when they upsized, though they needed some minor re-engineering for conversion from cask to keg brewing. Apart from the pilsner, there was a very American line up of beers all served from wall taps directly from the cold room.  A Sierra Nevada like pale, though with less sweetness, an American Brown, dark and luscious, an Oatmalt Stout with deep flavours but to my palate hampered by lots of carbonic acid from the CO2 and a rather warming IPA, which at 6.5% drank its strength. The beers are all sensibly priced at £1.50 per third to £4.50 a pint irrespective of strength. John said "Anyone charging more than that in the brewery, even in London,  is ripping you off."  Are you listening others?

I enjoyed our chat with John who seemed a most sensible chap, particularly as we seemed to agree on things like murky beer being a bad idea, London is a poor place to drink cask and that sort of thing. Anyone that agrees with me on such matters can safely be regarded as a prince among men.  Surprisingly there was only around ten customers, so that made it even more enjoyable in chatting terms, but I suspect that won't last.

All good things must come to an end and despite the fact we could both have supped that gorgeous pilsner all day, we set off to complete the crawl, though (as it turned it unwisely) deciding to omit Partizan and Kernel as we'd been there a few times before.  But walking makes you thirsty, so we did call into Kernel, but beat a retreat from the mayhem in there. Jammed full and with a queue at least thirty long, we decided not to bother.  Retracing our steps to Partizan was ruled out, so we pressed on.  We quite liked our next stop, Brew by Numbers for the friendly and chatty crowd. E enjoyed her Golden Ale though my Saison with Nelson Sauvin was like fermented pineapple juice - way too sweet for me, despite a little farmyard funk.  Unfortunately the beer I really wanted to try, the stout, ran out as I queued - yes more of that - so we left and made our last call at Anspach and Hobday/Bullfinch where two breweries share kit and outlet in a very small railway arch absolutely crammed with people. Lots of the beers had run out here and E was most unhappy that what was left was all too strong for her.  I had a rather good bottle of porter, which was thick, oily, roasty and bitter. Oh and clear, as all the beers seemed to be looking around me.  A bit disappointing that for E there was nothing to drink, but we were promised a better range from keykeg from next week.

And that was that. Pick of the bunch by a Bermonsey Mile was Fourpure for really drinkable, clear, well made beers and sensible pricing.  An observation I'd also make is that this brewery crawling is becoming just too popular for the rather small premises and numbers wanting to get in on the act. Something has to give there surely?

Still, on a perfect day for a walk, it was a rather pleasant afternoon out.

Can anyone tell me how some of the breweries get away with illegally selling beer in 33cl draught measures?

Confidence in Cologne

Tyson has mentioned a few of the beery delights of Cologne and as I often do, I agree with his assessments, so I'd like to concentrate mainly on the pubs themselves and the attitudes and idiosyncrasies that govern them.  First of all if I had to choose between Cologne and Düsseldorf, it would almost certainly be Cologne.  If you could just move Zum Uerige to Cologne, then everything would be perfect.  Sacrilege I  know, but there you are.  Cologne for me is much buzzier and alive than its Rhine neighbour and has better places to drink.  Does it have better beer to drink?  Well, yes and no.  A matter of preference really.

Near the main railway station, PJ Fruh is one of my favourite places.  Mostly I'm hugging the wall in the schwemme or public bar, where one can watch the waiters fill their trays with beer freshly poured from a wooden barrel and of course, not wait more than a second or two for a another glass. We certainly needed a drink after severe train delays and standing all the way from Düsseldorf - Deutsche Bahn is going through a bad patch. Being mob handed, the schwemme was out of the question of course, so through many rooms we went, all huge and all full to the brim, until somewhere deep beneath,  there was a room that was busy but could still take the 14 or so people we had.  The place had hundreds outside on a beautiful Autumn day and even more hundreds inside.  Here is lesson number one.  Most of the good pubs in Cologne are big and boy are they busy.  The Germans like to eat lunch out.  And dinner it seems.  Service was brusque and business like.  When things are done on this scale, there is little time for chat.

Then a quick visit to old favourites Sion and round the corner Peter's Brauhaus, where one of our female tripsters was refused a glass of wine as the waiter had counted 12 of us and brought 12 glasses of beer.  (She could have wine the next time he patronised.) That's another thing common to both Cologne and Dusseldorf.  You'll have the devil's own job to get anything other than beer and one beer at that mostly.  Confidence or cheek? You decide.

Tyson, Eddie and I then went seeking different Kölsches.  As Tyson has pointed out, most are brewed in the same place and the Dom Brauerei Ausschank (Brewery Tap) did not, alas, include the brewery.  Outside as it is on the Rhine, beer terraces overflowed with customers.  Inside was as deserted as could be. Another little quirk you find in Germany emerged. We picked a table by the window among a sea of empty tables.  A waiter rushed over.  "You can't sit there."  He gestured to another row of identically empty tables and we went over. He didn't like the one we chose then either, but asserting ourselves, we just stayed put.  He wasn't happy.  That happens a lot too, but Old Grumpy was replaced by a cheery young lad who sorted our beer out.  German waiters want you to do it their way. Another German trait.

Again in the empty beer hall at Sünner, a lovely out of town  brewery that actually still brews, we had to plead with Herr Ober before we were allowed to have a drink.  We said we would be an hour and we were.  We were gone before any of the evening guests arrived and no tables had reserved signs at that point.  Just German intransigence? Probably.  Later that evening we were in no uncertain terms told we couldn't have a drink in Haus Töller, as it was fully booked with diners.  I'd particularly wanted my friends to see the inside of this remarkable survivor of bombing.  Fair enough I suppose, but there was a smugness that bordered on arrogance in this dismissal.

Of course, where there are downs, there are ups.  In most places, waiters couldn't have been kinder or more accommodating, but certainly later in the day, if you are not eating, or inside early, you may have to forgo your chosen watering hole.  It was nearly thus in the Reissdorf Brewery Tap, an old haunt, but fortunately the unseasonably warm weather allowed us to drink outside where a lovely young waitress cheerily kept our glasses filled. No mean task I assure you. I like Reissdorf, it's a bit more pokey than most examples of the kölsch genre. Less traditional was a place I'd always wanted to go to as we've sold their beer for years now at GBBF.  Braustelle do more than standard beer in a very busy pub, filled to bursting with a mixed crowd,  but mostly twenty plus.  Regrettably we'd just missed the pale ale, but the alt, yes alt in Cologne, was more like a porter and very moreish, so we had some more.

So what's going on?  Cologne if anything seemed to be booming more than Düsseldorf.  Pubs were going like a fair but we got the impression that this had allowed a touch of complacency to emerge in some quarters at least.  How easily are the seven lean years forgotten, when plenty is all around.

Nonetheless these are minor points.  We stayed in Cologne much later than planned, drinking good beer in busy friendly pubs.   It's that kind of place.

I've missed out visits to several more pubs that are positive gems.  Some other time eh?

Stick It Up Your Jumper

It seems that a fair chunk of London's new wave of brewing is concentrated in the east of the city. This is handy as when I am there, that's where I'm concentrated too. So, after a fairly civilised session at the London Drinker Beer Festival, it was time to up the octane trendiness wise. Unfortunately, there wasn't time to grow a neatly trimmed, but astonishingly bushy beard, but compromising by way of our tightest fitting clothes, we headed off up to and across Commercial Road, on to Whitechapel Road, then just before it becomes Mile End Road, left into Cambridge Heath Road, passing on the way, many interesting looking pubs of shall we say, a basic nature and a little portion of what appeared to be a market in Bangladesh after a typhoon. Nobody paid us the least bit of attention. It wasn't hard to find our destination thanks to Google and after a shimmy under a railway bridge, a sharp right and we were there.

Redchurch Brewery is in a a set of railway arches, so typical of London micro brewers.  The bar is upstairs and only open on a Thursday night, hence my determination to get there.  Showing what a small world the world of beer geekery is, I bumped into Mark of Beer, Birra. Bier on my way upstairs.  He was busy brewing on a small pilot kit with his home brewing pals.  Upstairs in the bar was Rich of Beercast, though that was less of a co-incidence as he'd told me earlier he'd be there. Seems he thought he'd be gone by then, but had been gripped by the demon drink (or was it the attractive lass he was talking to?) and was still giving it laldy.

The space is a modern, open one, with a small bar in a corner at one end, a few easy chairs, high tables and the like dotted about and a lot of thin beardy men.  Beer is keg and dispensed American style from taps in the wall, supplemented by bottles.  I decided to start with Shoreditch Blonde on draught, which I didn't like much, though according to the barman, is their biggest seller.  It was astonishingly highly carbonated, with a sherbet lemon nose, palate numbing cloves, though hoppy and bitter enough.  E was luckier with Bethnall Green Pale.  This had good pine resins, clean and bitter hoppiness throughout, but the body was made rather thin by excess carbonation.  As we sipped, we looked round at the gathered throng (not a big throng, but perfectly formed) and noted the high hipster content, including one bearded gent who, rather like a none too subtle shoplifter, had a (very well behaved) baby tucked up his jumper.  He cooed to it from time to time, while his lass chatted to her mates.  That was nice.

Things looked up with Brick Lane Lager in bottle.  This was the business though. Loads of C hops, a decent body and that elusive drinkability, was just what was required.  I finished with an impeccably good porter on draft, which was smooth, liquoricey and contained more resinous C hops and a hefty swipe of alcohol and an equally good Hoxton Stout, which certainly hit the spot body and hop wise.  They were very good indeed and I recommend them highly. So all in all,  I reckon these guys are on the right tracks.  It was well worth a visit, so why not make the journey?  Beers were (I think) £3 a bottle and around £2.50 a half.

The bus was our preferred journey home, straight to Aldgate, but of course after that sipping I fancied something to actually drink, so we called into our favourite local.  The barman called us both by our names despite not seeing us for several months, there was a sing song to Delilah (and many subsequent songs) on the go with the jukebox in full swing.  There was much merriment and a lock in. 

You probably don't get that kind of malarkey in Hipsterville, but room for both I'll happily say.  

More on the smallness of the geeky world in a subsequent post.

Two Beers - Two Breweries

When people rave about breweries, it is often about those that brew beers that are, shall we say, at the more exotic end of the spectrum. There are rarely glowing reports on ordinary supping strength beers, even from me and that is almost all that I drink. I of course rarely write about individual beers, so that's my excuse, but with the exception of say, Dark Star, Marble or the odd London brewery, there isn't much. Some yes, but not much, despite those kind of beers being what nearly everyone drinks.

So I'll redress the balance just a little. On Monday night, in Oldham, I had two different beers (though not just two beers) from two exceptional breweries. Both are, gratifyingly in my CAMRA branch area, and it was a CAMRA meeting that caused me, rarely, to be drinking beer on a Monday night. Both were 4.5%, which is just a touch above my normal drinking strength, but when the beers are from these two, you know not only that you can drink them with confidence, but indeed you must.

Funnily enough, one of the breweries, despite a great reputation is fairly hard to come by, though being brewed only 5 or 6 miles from where I live. (The other is even nearer.) The brewery brews at capacity, has no plans to expand and when I looked at its web site for my blog post, I realised I hadn't ever had the vast majority of their beers, such is their comparative rarity. The other brewery also brews to capacity most of the time and is much bigger. I have tried the vast majority of those beers many a time and always with great pleasure.

So who are they? Pictish and Phoenix of course. The beers on the night were Pictish Little Gem, a wonderfully tasty and hoppy, pale golden beer loaded with hops, this time in the unusual combination of Bramling Cross and Pacific Gem, giving a beer that was just sublime. In our meeting venue, we had Phoenix White Monk. An old favourite this and different in many ways to the Pictish offering, but wonderfully balanced between malt and hop. Don't ask me what hops, as I don't know and I bet if I asked the brewer, he wouldn't tell me.

So there you are. Two top tips. Phoenix and Pictish. Seek them out and don't forget the sparkler.

Pictured is Tony Allen of Phoenix with (possibly) a pint of White Monk.

Middleton's Other Brewery

After dropping Eileen off at the station this morning, I arrived home just after seven on a glorious morning. The air was fairly still, but I got a distinct whiff of Middleton's other commercial brewery - the one that isn't Lees. Anyone know its name?

As usual in any competition I run, there will be no prizes whatever, but I'll be impressed with you. Isn't that enough?  Oh and I'm excluding Tyson from this. He probably knows what it is.

Brew Dog to be Top Dog by 2015

In an effort to maintain links with my homeland which I left over 25 years ago, I buy Scotland on Sunday every week. I usually get round to reading it by Tuesday. This morning over my pot of tea, my eye was caught by this article here which among other things, tells me that in June, Brew Dog overtook the long established Harviestoun, as Scotland's largest independent brewer.

No point in repeating the article here, but their ambition doesn't stop there. Brew Dog aim to overtake InBev (of Tennent's Lager fame in this case) as Scotland's biggest brewer by 2015.
It's a tall order, as lager is so ingrained in the system in Scotland, with Tennent's holding an affection that to an outside eye at least, might seem unwarranted. Nonetheless it is a noble and brave ambition, one to sustain them and see them through good times and bad, as (hopefully) their quarry gets nearer and nearer.

Good for them I'd say and good for Scotland's drinkers, even if they don't know it yet!

Edinburgh

After our disappointment at the Old Dock Bar we went next door to the brilliant and sparkling Teuchter's Landing*, a bar and restaurant which was welcoming in every way. It was warm, spotless and indeed shining, had a decent range of ales for its size, a vast array of whiskies and for Edinburgh, was reasonably priced. It was a great place to be. The Ossian's Ale from Inveralmond Brewery was perfectly kept and perilously drinkable. We left with considerable reluctance and didn't even bother joining our colleagues, who were in the nearby and grubby Malt and Hops.



Edinburgh is such a good place to drink cask ale. It accounts for 75% of all cask ale drunk in Scotland. I'll mention a few old favourites and one or two new to me. The Bow Bar rarely disappoints with its air pressure dispense and good choice. Kelburn Goldihops was well worth supping. The Blue Blazer, changed beyond recognition from its grim days as a keg pub with "go-go dancers", is expensive but has immaculately kept beer and a great atmosphere. Have a look at the rare, old windows depicting Bernards and Youngers Ales. The Oxford Bar, so beloved of Inspector Rebus is if anything, better than Rankin tells it. Full of character and characters. The Cafe Royal is opulent and beloved of well heeled Scots and has a good range of cask beer and oysters by the dozen or half. The Abbotsford has a wonderful island bar and a good range from Scottish micros. The Dome is a restaurant until half past three, has no cask beer, but is the former HQ of the National Commercial Bank of Scotland. It drips granite and marble and is probably one of the most impressive drinking places anywhere in the world. The Cask and Barrel has wonderful beer - the Harviestoun Bitter and Twisted was in perfect nick - and a great display of mirrors from defunct Scottish Breweries as has Thomson's which again features Scottish micros. I could go on. There simply wasn't time to visit them all and I didn't get a bad pint once.

Edinburgh is great for beer and great for pubs and atmosphere. Go there.

* A Teuchter is a derogatory term for a Highlander. The Edinburgh - Aberdeen Steam Packet used to arrive near the pub, hence the name.

The first photo of beer pumps shows the Blue Blazer. The air founts are in the Bow Bar.

Dusanj Brothers Back at Helm at Cains

As widely predicted, not least of all here, it seems that the Dusanj brothers who took Cains to bankruptcy and receivership following their disastrous takeover of Honeycombe Leisure, have picked up Cains brewery and nine leasehold pubs from the administrators. They are also seeking to buy 26 more freehold pubs from the former Honeycombe estate. The amount paid was not disclosed.

In a week where the foundations of capitalism have been rocked to the core, the £30 million losses, now nothing to do with the "new" owners, pale into insignificance. Most of this money is owed to HBoS and HMG, who I suspect have other things on their mind at the moment.

Clever pair of buggers these two, but despite my misgivings about it all, I'm glad Cains is saved!

Independent Breweries at Last

It wasn't raining when we set off for Fussen and beyond, but it soon was. Our cycle ride took us in and out of Austria before returning to the Fatherland at Fussen where we found that Brauhaus Fussen had ceased to brew in the years since we had last been there. Prince Luitpold of Kaltenberg seemed to have it taped up now. At least it only came from just up the road, as, presumably, did the insect that bit my wrist causing a lot of discomfort and swelling!

Our ride took us way into the countryside in by then, glorious weather. There wasn't a pub to be seen until we came to a Hacker Pschorr outlet in a village whose name escapes me, but was welcome 20k in to my first cycle ride since Bamberg last summer. It had to be done and I must say I find HP Helles rather refreshing. Nearing "home" on our circular tour, around 5 k from base in a little village called Kohlgrub, at last we found something different in the shape of Aktienbrauerei Kaufbeuren, a largish regional whose beers we were to encounter again. The hefe weizen was bang in the middle of the style and the helles, dry and hoppy. Decent stuff.

Our luck held on our return to Pfronten when by following our directions back to base we encountered a neat little beer garden selling Zötler beers. The hefe weizen was a very full tasting, quenching beer and the bottled pils, hoppy, fresh and bitter. Zötler was founded in 1447 and has been in the same family since then so they ought to know a thing or two about beer, From the same town of Rettenburg, later we had a very decent dunkel and pils from Engelbräu though it has to be said the helles and Hefe weizen were both underwhelming! Despite my pleading I was dragged past a nearby Gasthof selling beers from Post Bräuerei Nesselwang, but I did notch them up later in the trip! The ball was rolling!

It does what it says on the tin!

I had a few hours out yesterday with my mate Mike. The star of the show (and there was a lot of contenders) was Lancaster Brewery Lancaster Blonde. The brewery describes it thus:

“Lancaster Blonde is a uniquely vivid golden bitter. This most stylish and contemporary beer is crafted from pale Maris Otter Malt and carefully combined with Germanic style Munich Malt giving a delicate biscuit overtone. The slightly citrus and delicate earthy aromas are created by a combination of First Gold and imported Saaz hops. The initial bitterness is followed by a delightful mouthfeel culminating with a long dry finish."

You know, I couldn't have put it better myself. It was a delightful beer, served at optimum temperature and condition in a great pub, the City Arms. It beat off strong challenges from Copper Dragon Golden Pippin, Phoenix Double Gold, Saltaire Bavaria Gold and maybe surprisingly to some, Hoegaarden, which although a mass produced beer is worth drinking again now that it is back in its home in Flanders.

Yes there is a blonde theme to my choices. Want to make something of it?

Cain's Still in Deep Trouble

Talking of Liverpool, Robert Cain, the brewer that occupies the former brewery of my beloved Higsons, is in deep shit. Despite optimistic noises written elsewhere, it seems the problem has deepened and the money it owes Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs is not its sole problem. The Morning Advertiser has the full story.

It seems that it's recent activities have been in breach of the brewer's covenant with its own bankers, the Bank of Scotland. It is now the Bank that will decide its future it appears. This may not be as straightforward as it seems. The Bank of Scotland is part of HBoS who recently failed to raise £4 billion on a rights issue. In these harder times, they may take a dim view of current events. Let's hope not. Liverpool needs Cain's.

The Southport Drinker mentions it here in alarmed terms. He is dead right. Losing one brewery would be careless, but to lose two would be a tragedy. My fingers are crossed for them.

A New Brewery and Not All Wetherspoons are the Same

It was raining yet again as we arrived in Richmond. We found a parking place on the very precipitous town square and had a wander. The inside market had a tourist map which revealed that the former station, now a tourist complex, had a new micro brewery. "That'll do" we thought. While deciding which way was what, we were accosted by the local nutter, this time the female of the species. She was hard to shake off and though she seemed harmless enough, someone had given her a fat lip. We beat a hasty retreat while she looked around for her next victim.

The Station was at the bottom of the hill in a valley and was a pleasant affair with a cafe and various craft stalls. A delicious smell of baking pervaded. Richmond Brewery was in a unit inside and we had a pleasant chat to the brewer, Andy. A Scot, he had done time with Tennents, Websters, John Smith's, Theakston, Newcastle and other breweries. He did one beer, Richmond Station Ale, which was on sale in the cafe and also in the local JDW, where a Yorkshire Ales Festival was going on. For those who like to know these sort of things, the brewery is a six barrel plant, commissioned on 2 June 2008. Continuing my theme of unhappy endings, the beer, a darkish, malty affair was bit hard to get down. Hopefully it will improve in time. We didn't go back and tell him. Should we have?

Returning up the hugely steep hill, we called in at the JDW, the Ralph Fitz Randal. The festival was in its dog days, but had all beer at £1.59 a pint, available in thirds. We set to. The chatty female manager was brilliant. She told us she had been there only a few weeks but has increased cask ale sales by several hundred percent. Her husband is an enthusiast. It showed. Superb beers from Outlaw, York Brewery, Hambleton, Clarks and Wentworth were supped. The Outlaw Yorkshire Pale Ale was stunningly good, with tropical fruit flavours, but was still pipped by York Pure Gold which was full bodied and grapefruity. I could have drunk a lot of either.

Our hostess happily discussed the usual Wetherspoon's issues with us. She firmly believes that Wetherspoons can be good pubs. She also believes in being "hands on", which she feels not enough JDW managers are. As she put it, "it's all down to the manager. Get a bad manager in any pub and the pub will be no good. Get a good one and the pub will be good." She has a free hand to get what beer she likes, though she must sell Pedigree and Directors. She gets a lot of micro stuff in as they attract interest and they sell well.

If all JDW managers were like her, the company would have a better reputation. She is a good 'un!

The House of Mitchell

Mitchell's Brewery was founded in 1880 and until 7th July 1999 this family firm supplied beer from its own brewery in the centre of Lancaster. I supped some of the last pints from the final brew and jolly good stuff it was too, though alas unappreciated in its own homeland where years of poor quality control had diminished its reputation beyond salvation. It is credited by some with coining the term Extra Special Bitter (ESB.)

Today the company, still a family owned business, runs a number of hotels and around 55 pubs in the Lancaster area, one of which is the GBG listed Fleece at Dolphinholme. This, like a lot of pubs in this area, is a former farmhouse, though you'd be hard pushed to recognise it as such now. Mitchell's pubs, previously criticised for their pedestrian ale range since the demise of the brewery, seem to be more ambitious now. In this case we plumped for Festivale from the Bowland Brewery. Having just supped the excellent Ice Maiden we were not expecting to be as impressed as we were. This outstanding beer at least equalled it and quite probably pipped it into second place. It is one to look out for if you like your beers pale and hoppy.

Alas this tale has no happy ending. As second pints were ordered and eagerly anticipated, the pump spluttered and the amber nectar ceased to flow. All good things come to an end. In this case all too soon!

Gastropub or not?

My travels took me on Wednesday to the Cartford Inn in Little Eccleston. This former farmhouse sits in an affluent Fylde village adjacent to the River Wyre with an unusual private toll bridge just around the corner. It also houses the Hart Brewery, which although on the same premises, is an entirely separate business. (Readers of this blog and Stonch's will recall some lively debate about the pumpclips issued by Hart Brewery, which are seen by some as controversial.)

The pub, for that is what it is despite six very well appointed letting rooms, is run by a Frenchman, Patrick, who, sensible fellow, is married to a Lancashire Lass. That'll keep his feet on the ground. It is bright, modern and airy with light streaming in from all sides and is spotless and well appointed. We had a nice chat with the owner who had his head screwed on. We were asked if we were lunching and if so, menus were on the bar for our perusal. There was no pressure to eat, though we did. Staff were cheerful and polite. On the bar were Theakston's bitter and two from the next door brewery. We settled on Ice Maiden which was pale, intensely hoppy and cut through a dull day like a ray of sunshine. It set an extremely high bar for our forthcoming two nights away. The food when we ate was well prepared, not cheap, but not off-puttingly expensive either. The menu was sensible and interesting without being too showy. We liked that too.

Over lunch, I outlined the recent gastropub debate to my companions who considered the matter. We all agreed the Cartford Inn had been immensely improved since our last visit maybe nine years ago. We all agreed too that it was a pub with rooms, not a hotel. Was it a gastropub though? Agreement abounded in one respect. We all detested the gastropub moniker. Malc who at three score years and ten, is the senior member of our annual get together summed it up. "This" he said "is a pub that has looked to the future and got it right.". We nodded agreement and set off for our next destination happy in our conclusion. Was it a gastropub? We didn't know and in this case, it didn't matter!

On the way out we bumped into the Hart Brewery owner who was loading up and had a nice chat with him. He remembered our visit to the brewery nine years ago and Ken who organised it. Not bad eh?

Interestingly the Hart Brewery site alleges the pub is a restaurant now. Maybe it is at night, but at lunchtime it was just a pub with good food. The pub's own web site says "Hotel, Bar and Restaurant". Take your pick!

Showers, Some Sunshine and Beer

We set off from home to walk the mile or so to our rendezvous point for our CAMRA trip to Derbyshire under leaden Manchester skies, which soon turned to a determined drizzle. The subsequent journey down to Thornbridge Hall was undertaken in pissing rain. It set the scene for what was to be a (mostly wet) experience. We knew what kind of day we were in for when we parked next to a coach disgorging Wigan Branch members. This event had attracted a lot of CAMRA types.

Making our way to the small brewery, we deferred to our pie eating colleagues, to allow them first look at the brewery and to present a certificate of some sort, before we presented ours. In a steady downpour, we lined up at the temporary bar erected just outside the brewery entrance. Three handpumps dispensed Wild Swan, Lord Marples and, of course, Jaipur IPA, in this case, the dry hopped version. Most of us started on the 3.5% White Swan which was aromatic and spicy, but its rather good taste was let down a little by its thin, tending to watery, body.

As we sheltered from the rain in a nearby greenhouse, we got the call to arms and assembled in the brewhouse amid the clutter of casks, bags of malt and various other paraphernalia. Posters for their own beers and Moravka lager adorned the walls. Awards were presented, speeches were given and reciprocated. A couple of interesting points emerged. First it was explained that Thornbridge beers will not always be clear, as they don't filter in any way. That was greeted with a little scepticism from some of those who heard it, me amongst them. There is no reason why the beer shouldn't be clear if it is treated right and fined. The second point was that they are commissioning two conical fermenters and will be doing extensive trials to ensure they can flavour match beers brewed in open vessels. Now I am no brewer, but I think matching in this way will be damned difficult, but good luck with it.

As the rain went off we had a second pint, this time for me of Lord Marples, a malty, dark brown beer of no great distinction and then taking the opportunity for a look round, we bumped into some more CAMRA types, this time some of my colleagues from BSF and we chatted amiably as it grew darker and more threatening. We had just finished a turn round the gardens, when the heavens opened again and we were driven headlong into the main beer tent as rain beat fiercely down on it from above. Now here was a disappointment. Only two beers on sale, the aforementioned Lord Marples and Jaipur IPA. We had hoped for more of the range and to add insult to injury, there was no Moravka Lager either, the lager being 33cl bottles of, of all things, Stella! So Jaipur IPA it was. The beer was fine however, served cool and went down well. As the sun came out again, we were able to see the surrounding countryside in all its glory. The Hall is magnificent and the setting, amid rolling and lush Derbyshire hills, just sublime. It really is a superb spot. We idled over even more Jaipur for a bit longer, then an hour or so earlier than planned, hopped on the coach and thence to Ashover and the Old Poet's Corner, though some of us (my fellow blogger Tyson included) tried the other two pubs, the Crispin Inn and the Black Swan as well. All had their merits and it would be a mean spirited drinker that would not find solace in this attractive village.*

In the Old Poet's Corner, a lively debate was had by a couple of us about non sparkler use, though an old fashioned slotted type was eventually produced for Taylor's Landlord. By then the effects of a long days boozing mainly on 5.9% beer were surely kicking in and it was good to get back on the coach for the relatively short trip home, which in the time honoured way of these things was spent, by most people, fast asleep.

*I'd relate the beers we drank in Ashover in full if I could remember what they were, though I do recall (without any great clarity) Spire's Land of Hop and Glory!