Beer for Punks - no, beer for everyone

BrewDog - boys you rock.

Your brews show the world what a diverse, exciting and wonderful world beer is.

Thank you, and I'm going to watch the v-blog right now.

More to follow....

BEER BITES BACK AT BOROUGH

lovebeer@borough and top Scottish beer producer BrewDog have joined forces for a day of tastings on November 29 to herald the start of BrewDog week at the Rake bar and sister market stall Utobeer.

Beers will include such incredible concoctions as Zephyr - a 13% India Pale Ale (IPA) that has been in a grain whisky cask for 18 months with 30kgs of fresh strawberries - and the specially name Rake Raspberry Imperial Stout created from a 10% imperial stout aged in a Smokehead whisky cask with 25kgs of fresh raspberries.

But, don’t be scared, we’ll only be serving them in sensible tasting measures – alongside a selection of other BrewDog beers such as the much-loved Punk IPA, Hop Rocker, The Physics and Rip Tide.

Tickets are 30 quid and available from the Rake and Utobeer on Borough Market or by emailing me melissa@love-beer.co.uk

This post promotes a tasting at lovebeer@borough, which I am a partner in.

Diving Straight In

I'm coming to you live from the Thornbridge brewhouse with the breaking news that I've just made my very first beer (with a little bit of help from my friends admittedly).

The reason I'm here is that I've decided that, for the next year, I'm going to try and brew at a different brewery every month - and head brewer Stefano very bravely offered his help for my first effort.

Called Heron, it will be a 3.8%ABV pale golden ale with four different types of hops - including two I've never come across before - and I can't tell you how excited I am!

The guys had already settled on a grist mix of low colour Maris Otter & Munich malts and it was my job to choose the hops to create a sessionable ale with interesting, but very drinkable, characteristics and, my god, did I have fun doing that.

Seriously, the Thornbridge hop store is like a beer-nerd's candy shop - and they gave me the key! (Possibly a bit like giving a monkey the key to the banana plantation but, hell, I wasn't complaining).

Early in boil we added equal measures of Bodicea and Vanguard and then later on we added Susan, which has a lovely fresh apple characteristic, and a smaller amount of Glacier, which has an amazing curly leaf parsley aroma with a real minerally/minty finish - which is a pretty exciting flavour combination to play around with.

We also added a tiny amount of the bittering hops after the boil had gone off just for an added extra bit of smooth bitterness and aroma which, if the green beer is anything to go by, will make for a really smooth, refreshing bitterness that doesn't linger at the back of the throat - fingers crossed anyway!

Much to everyone's amusement, except possibly mine by the time I'd finished cleaning the copper, I insisted on doing all donkey work as well as the sexy stuff - because it's just not brewing if there's not some blood, sweat and tears involved!

All right, no blood was involved but as you can see from the above photo there was a hell of a lot sweat, some tears and have I got some bruises in funny places from climbing in and out of the mash tun and copper?!

But, bruises on my bum aside, I've had an exceptional time at Thornbridge, the hospitality I've been shown has been outstanding and the team here are, quite simply, lovely to work with and it was also a momentous day to be brewing as I was there when the deal for the new brewhouse was signed - so congratulations guys.

And finally, special thanks go to hugely entertaining Kelly & his lovely girlfriend Cat who beered and dined me on my first night at the delightful Coach & Horses pub in Dronfield.

To Matt (pictured below right trying the hopped wort of our beer) - thanks for putting up with me getting over-enthusiastic with the shovel and throwing hot malt in your face and then adding insult to injury by spraying you with very hot water! But most of all thanks for sharing my novice's enthusiasm for the whole process and for looking after me all day.

And to Stefano - thanks for putting up with multiple date changes, allowing me to invade your brewery and for stopping the car to show me the herons on the lake, thus providing the inspiration for the beer's name.

I'm quite serious when I say it's been a remarkably fulfilling, and incredibly educational, experience, I can't wait for the next stop on my brewery tour - and if you get a chance to try the beer please do let me know what you think.

The gang's all here: Kelly, Dave, Matt, Stefano & me (just in case all the long hair fooled you!).

Pleasant Surprises

Well, it's been a year of pleasant surprises from the beer world so far, and I'm aware I haven't blogged about all of them, so I thought I'd create a whole entry from little mini ones!

1. Brewer's Reserve - Finally, after 507 days, Fuller's whisky-aged beer has been launched; lovely soft vanilla & spirit nose and then fabulous sticky fruit flavours (quince jelly & orange marmalade for my money) in the mouth, with a spicy bitter finish that reminds me of Green & Black's Maya Gold chocolate. Be warned, there are going to be different wood ages every year so make sure you lay your hands on some of the first one quickly!
   
2. Zywiec - the lager's very quaffable but the porter (pretty much only available at Utobeer on Borough Market as far as I'm aware) is absolutely awesome; at 9.5%ABV it's rich, dark, coffee & liquorice-dry and delightful.
   
3. Moravka & Cotswold lagers - both very, very nice and very, very drinkable; more pubs should be stocking these products, if you live in the vicinity of either brewery start pressuring your local licensees now!
   
4. Morrisey Fox Blonde Ale - went to the launch of this; Neil Morrisey is a very nice bloke (already knew Richard Fox was a sound chap) who is genuinely, almost intensely, passionate about his ale and the cask beer was jolly drinkable indeed - in fact I was pleasantly surprised that it was as bitter as it is, was expected a much more dumbed down product, good work lads.
   
5. Harviestoun Ola Dubh - get a bottle of this ramped up version of Old Engine Oil that's been aged in 30-year-old Highland Park casks, pour it into a brandy balloon, sit in front of an open fire if possible and... relax!
   
6. The launch of the Sainsbury's & Asda Beer Competitions - the winners of the Sainsbury's beer competition are two big favourites of mine; Dr Okell's IPA & Bath Ales Barnstormer, good work the rest of the judges for a good shortlist and the beer-buying public who had the final say. Asda's got big shoes to fill here and I shall report back in November on what went on at the judging.
   
7. Young's new bottle conditioned beers - back to Wandsworth standards, if not (dare I say it) better in my eyes. The Bitter in particular is extremely drinkable, haven't had the chance to try the cask recently but would be interested to hear what you guys think.
   

That's all for now folks! More to follow soon.

Priceless

I'm hugely amused by this sign, sent to me by the lovely Glenn Payne.

I can't figure out whether it's trying to challenge perceptions over women and beer or whether it should be said in the voice of a startled major-general-type figure spluttering the phrase out!

Women & Beer? Whatever next?

Go Green

Had Duvel Green for the first time last night, whilst my team of fellow hacks were wooping the arse of the 'beer expert' panel - ha ha ha!

It was held at the All Bar One on New Oxford Street, which is somewhere that doesn't normally register on my radar, but the range of beers is excellent and their dedication to glorious glassware is admirable.

Anyway, back to the Duvel Green, it's a 6.8%ABV beer which has a bag-load of flavours similar but not as complex the original. It still packs a punch though, as my head will attest to this morning!

Clarification on Portman Group Nonsense

For those of you who have read the below post about the Portman Group's nonsense shennanigans over Brew Dog and are getting a bit confused (as was I) over the Orkney Skull Splitter issue here's some clarification.

The Portman Group, clearly having more funding than sense, hired a management consultancy to 'carry out an independent audit to measure compliance of drinks packaging with the Code'.

Okay, before I go on to explain how Orkney got dragged into this, I first have to say WHAT?!

The drinks industry watchdog has to hire someone else to 'watch' drinks labelling to see if it complies with its own Code that it (the Portman Group) is mandated to uphold - does anyone else see something wrong with this picture?

Anyway, apparently Orkney was one of the sample drinks that were looked at and it was deemed 'potentially' in breach of Code rule 3.2b for the following reason:

"The name 'Skull Splitter' implies both violence and also the impact that the strength may have on the drinker. Additionally there is a picture which could be seen to reinforce the aggressive theme."

But, and here's the thing, the Portman Group itself recently upheld a complaint against a pre-mixed vodka drink because it wasn't clear that it contained alcohol!

I'm pretty sure you can see where I'm going with this point but I'm going to make it anyway, so how does this sit with the assertion that Skull Splitter advertises 'the impact the alcohol strength will have on the drinker' - surely that's a good thing?

But, all the other issues aside, my major issue with this 'independent audit' is that it has been undertaken in a codified vacuum, without reference to reality.

The isolated way in which the sample drinks names have been assessed completely fails to take them in any form of context, which means the whole report is effectively null and void as an analytical tool.

I will give the Portman Group the benefit of the doubt that they undertook this report as a genuine attempt to assess whether or not they were proving effective in their role as labelling watchdog, but I really wish they'd admit that the whole thing is fundamentally flawed and abandon this scaremongering approach amongst producers who are already under enormous amounts of financial pressure as it is.