Beer, class and snobbery

A lot of people have been blogging recently about whether enjoying exotic and rare beers is a form of snobbery. One that really struck my eye was the article from Curmudgeon here. In it he quotes a definition of artisanal from the dictionary:

"Artisanal. Adjective suggestive of handmade goods and old-fashioned craftsmanship. In the food world, a romantic epithet bestowed upon the cheesemaker, breadbaker, bacon-curer, etc., who labors in his or her integrity-steeped native locale, independent of the pressures and toxicities of Big Food, to produce exquisite high-end, SMALL-BATCH edibles available by mail-order."

In my opinion anyone who described anything as artisanal is both a snob and a fool! This notion that things are somehow better than others because they are made by small companies in sheds is absurd. The reason mass produced food and drink is generally of lower quality is because it is designed to be cheap and henceforth the quality of, and amount of care taken over, the ingredients is significatnly lower. It has nothing to do with the fact it is made in a high-tech factory with the latest production methods. I had an argument recently about artisanal bread and how if it were to be made in an industrial factory using exactly the same ingredients that it would clearly be better than if it was made in a shed in Hampshire.

My main problem with the drinking of rare and exotic beers though is that companies seem to be able to add a huge margin on their products simply because they are "hand crafted" and "artisanal" beer. Yes I know you use more and better quality ingredients but I often sometimes recoil at the price of beer in certain "craft beer bars". BrewDog's tagline is that they aim to revolutionise the beer world with new and interesting beers. Well I can tell you that most definitely won't happen by selling £4 pints of punk in an edgy and alternative bar in Camden.

A trip to BrewDog!

After months of anticipation I was overjoyed to see that the new BrewDog bar in Camden was officially open last week. Although not a huge fan of their marketing techniques I am an avid fan of their beers and so I clearly felt that a trip was warranted. The offer to meet an old flatmate, who shares my love of their beer, for drinks prompted the perfect chance for a trip. 

Upon arrival I was pleased to see that at least 8 of their own beers and a good number of foreign beers were available on draught and complimented by a staggering bottle list of again both their own and some rare foreign brews. We decided to start the evening with a half of the low strength, 2.8%, Blitz. As I ordered the barman asked if I'd tried it before and I told him I had not. He then decided to offer us a taster after telling us it had quite a strong flavour. Obviously people had tried it and complained after being misguided by it's strength. I have to say I was quite taken aback by this as I'd always thought I looked like someone who knew their beer. Maybe the lack of piercings and a tattoo, which appeared to categorise a large part of the clientèle, made him think that I hadn't tried BrewDog beers before. Anyway, I found the beer to be a delightfully light and extremely hoppy beer and one which will definitely lay down a challenge to other brewers to create excellent beers in the low strength tax bracket. On this note, on the same night I also had the chance to try Weltons' PridenJoy which although I didn't know it at the time is listed in Roger Protz's 300 Beer to Try Before You Die. This again was a lovely light beer; lacking the big hop profile of the Blitz but still an excellent brew.

Having tried 2 beers which now sit in the low strength tax bracket and found them to both be exquisite I implore other brewers to also try and create masterpieces that can be drunk all night without the fear of the dreaded morning tenderness.

It's Christmas! Bring on the naff sounding crap beers!

So it's less than 2 weeks until the big day and we're well an truly into what I like to call the season of excess. For most of us that means long nights in cuddled up on the sofa  with a hot beverage. For others it's the chance to try the pointless yearly ritual of ordering pint after pint of novelty Christmas beers "because it's nearly Christmas" and finding them to be generally disappointing at best and simply shoddy in the worst scenario. I always feel at this time of year that brewers get lazy and brew a relatively boring and uninspiring beer, whack a novelty name on it like Rudolph's Big Red Nose and expect it to sell.

In the worst case some of the names are simply crass and sometimes very distasteful. This year I've seen the Beachy Head Christmas Jumper which has caused quite a lot of controversy and also had the delight of tasting a pint of Santa's Bulging Red Sack whose pump clip was suitably distasteful as the name would suggest. Needless to say the I've had no Christmas beers this year I could classify as good or even reasonable.

What I can't really understand is why this idea seems to be limited to Christmas it's not like we regularly see beers called Halloween Honkers or Easter Bunny's Cum Filled Cheeks. If you've had any good Christmas beers  then let me know and I'll be sure to look them out for a tasting.

On a slightly contradictory note I think this is without a doubt one of the best beer names I've ever seen:

Boring Brown Ale

Let me start by apologising for the lack of writings recently. I’d love to tell you that it’s because of some huge interesting events happening in my life but that would be a flagrant lie. The truth of the matter is that there has been nothing that has really inspired me to write a piece for this blog. There’s been a relative abundance of real ale related things going on over the summer months but I just haven’t really sat down and spent the time to write about them.

So what have I been up to? Firstly, an update on my homebrewing situation.  This summer I decided to make the step up from making kits to creating my own beer from malt extract and hops. The first attempt, which I joyfully named Lord Nelson IPA, was a single hop brew using quite large amounts of Nelson Sauvin hops. I decided to do a smaller batch than usual just in case it went horribly wrong. After bottling and leaving to condition for a few weeks, the results were surprisingly impressive. The feedback from friends who have tried the beer were generally good and I feel it was the first brew I’d done that didn’t have the distinctive homebrew twang. I’m hoping to repeat the brew this week with the addition of some more malt to balance out the quite pronounced hop bitterness. Depending on how this next brew turns out I may or may not enter it into the national homebrew championships. I’ve also decided that I’m going to have a go at brewing some traditional style ginger beer and alcoholic lemonade. I found the recipes online and I have no idea how they’re going to turn out.

After a recent trip to Scotland to visit some family members I returned with an abundance of Scottish bottled ales which I was excited to try. The overwhelmingly malty character of these Scottish beers would make a nice change from the usual assortment of hop bombs and imperial stouts that seem to be taking the blogging world by storm. Other members of our little community sometimes deride a brewer for making a good, tasty, no nonsense session beer and to me this stance holds no real weight. Most of the beer I drink is what I guess some bloggers would call “boring brown ale” but I like “boring brown ale”. It may not rock in at 8%+ and a million IBUs but some of it a tasty beer nonetheless. While I often deride pubs in my local area for serving only a few of, mainly the same, standard ales I also think that some pubs occasionally go a bit far and end up putting many people from drinking real ale. This is a point which stood out especially to me from the 2011-2012 Cask Report. While I think specialist beer bars have their place, mainly involving a clientele of wealthy, young fashionable people, there is still room in the market for solid traditional bitters. It baffles me that many of the new bourgeois craft brewers, mainly based around London and Sheffield (2 of the real power houses in the craft beer revival), can claim to be the victim of CAMRA keg bashing but then also deride the hundreds of slightly more reserved brewers who brew mainly to the market. I’d like to see James and Martin from BrewDog try and convinvce a small country pub that keg Hardcore IPA would sell as well as the cask Boddingtons they’ve stocked for 50 years.

The real point I’m trying to make here is that deriding someone for the beer they drink is both pathetic and useless. The market will inevitably be the deciding factor in which beer styles survive and at the moment it would seem that both American Quadruple IPA’s and 3.8% nutty bitters are here to stay; long may that continue in my opinion.

Great British Beer Festival Is Finally Here

After a long wait the beer drinkers Christmas has finally arrived. Last night I was so excited I didn't get to sleep until 3am! With the trade session opening in a little under 10 minutes I'm sure the queue is already forming nicely. I'll be heading down later as a volunteer where I'll be all week both serving and sampling some of the massive range of beers available.

The GBBF really is a wonderful occasion. It's a time for beer drinkers to unite, have a pint and have a jolly good time. I love beer festivals. From the obsessive beer list tickers to the after work pint swillers there's something for everyone and I whole heartedly encourage anyone to head down to GBBF this week if they can.

Seeing as my beloved phone was stolen last week I won't be able to make live updates on twitter but I will be blogging each night (hopefully the beer won't have impaired me that much) about the days events so stay tuned for more from GBBF. I'll also try and post which beers are popular and which there seems to be a buzz about so that your visit can be most enjoyable.

American Bottled Beer Tasting Session

After realising that I was living less than half a mile away from a fantastic beer boutique, Dr. Ink of Fulham, I made the trip over with a friend in order to pick up some beers in order to get us in the mood for the upcoming beer festivals.

Upon arriving we were amazed at the selection not only of British bottle conditioned ales but there was also a fridge stocked up with American bottles and a whole cabinet of Belgian, Dutch and German beers. Needless to say some restraint was needed in order to avoid blowing off the purse strings. In the end we returned with 5 American bottled beers, a couple of British bottle conditioned beers and a flagon of Weston's Cider.

In this blog I'll be reviewing the American bottles which included:
1) Goose Island IPA A 5.9% IPA described as a "hop  lovers dream"
A lovely light, golden IPA with a mild fruity aroma. Taste is initially quite refreshing with a long dry, bitter aftertaste. Not overpowering with the hops.
2) Goose Island Honkers Ale A 4.2% English Style Ale
Nice copper coloured beer with a pleasant but not too strong aroma. Nice malty taste but no huge hop flavour. Very drinkable and overall quite a pleasant experience. Nothing too exciting but a nice beer nonetheless.
3) Brooklyn Brewery East India Pale Ale A 6.9% deep golden beer using a variety of old and new world hops
Nice and golden as they say with a reasonable hop aroma. On the palate it has a nice hop flavour with just a hint of citrus coming through towards the end before finishing off in a nice crisp flavour. A nice refreshing, thirst quenching beer. Very drinkable for a 6.9%.
4) Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA A 7.1% "hop monster"
A lovely light golden IPA with a rather pungent hop aroma. A heavy floral hit of hops is balanced out nicely with a little burst of lemon-pineapple citrus flavour. One of the nicest beers I've had today. Nice as something new but a bit too strong of flavour to have more than 1.
5) Odell IPA A 7% IPA which uses American hops to create a "distinctive bitterness profile and an incredible hop character"
Lovely light IPA. A big floral hoppy aroma is followed by a huge hit of those new world hops we love so much. Quite similar to BrewDog's Punk IPA but with a slightly more citrus flavour. I can't get enough of beers like this. Definitely one to buy again.

So there you go. A selection of reviews of some lovely American beers. One last thing, I realise there's now a few people who actually read this blog but none of you guys feel the need to comment. Comments really are the lifeblood of any blog and it allows me to see what you guys think of my musings. So even if it's just to say you think it's rubbish then I do appreciate any comments.


I'm off to the Windsor LocAle Beer Festival today so there'll be a review and hopefully some photos appearing on here soon.

Those Crazy Russians

Awful news for beer lovers in Russia: beer has now been classified as alcoholic! The article from the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14232970) explains the details.

Things to take from this:

1. How did it take so long for this to happen? Was there seriously no licensing restrictions on beer at all?
2. The beer tax in Russia underwent a hike of 200% last year! I think we should be glad this hasn't happened in the UK.
3. This is a fantasticly humorous story.

In other news I have now decided that I fully support a move to ban/ restrict alcohol advertising on television in the UK. The only adverts seem to come from the huge megabrewing conglomerates; mainly because they are the only ones who can afford it. While the free for all of advertising continues huge swathes of the British public will simply stay unaware of what exists within the beer world and will as a result stick to mass produced beers.