Europe to Get Stoned?

Well, somehow before Christmas I missed the announcement that Stone was contemplating opening a brewery in Europe, so I thought rather than just re-hashing the news (given that most of you have probably already heard) I thought I'd leverage the fact that Greg Koch (right) didn't stand his round at the Falling Rock when I was at the GABF* to duff him up for some further information.

Just to precis this, basically Stone has announced that it is thinking about opening a European brewery, something probably a bit smaller than they have now (which is perhaps why my suggestion of retrofitting the Leeds Tetley brewery wasn't even acknowledged) and are looking for thoughts and proposals on this.

But I wanted to know a little more about why they were thinking about this. Are they looking for super-universal domination, are they being super-green or is Greg just wanting to show off his multi-lingual talents?

Read on to find out what he had to say:

Me: What’s driving this decision? Is it economic? Environmental? Both?

Greg: Actually, the challenge and adventure is the #1 driver. Yes, we feel it is a good environmental and (will eventually be) a good economic decision, but ultimately we want to have fun.

Me: What’s you largest European market?
Greg: No good answer to this as we only export anecdotally. We only currently export to Sweden and the UK, both are minimal. We won't ship meaningful amounts of our "fresh" year-round beers due to Europe's bothersome ideas that beers need to have a 12-month date code on them. We refuse to do this since we only approve them to be 3-months old before we don't want them sold any more.

Me: You mention that the beer would be more regional, does that mean you are thinking about making different beers at this new brewery for the market?
Greg: We would brew to our style. There's already plenty of beers being brewed "for the market." If you look at the UK, for instance, that means fizzy yellow beer (based on volume). We don't make fizzy yellow beer.
We won't make fizzy yellow beer. We don't make boring beer. We make Stone beer. I would say that the majority of Brits would be disappointed in the beers we will be making if we go forward with this project, based upon the beers that the majority of the Brits drink. But on the other hand, I don't expect the majority to even know we exist as the majority of Europeans don't seek out the unique and special, they just do what what the telly tells them...just like the majority of Americans. Our beer isn't, and never will be, for them.
Me: Would it be the Stone brand or a spin-off a la He’Brew/Coney Island?
Greg: We intend to make Stone beers.

*In fairness, I probably owe about 20 people beers from various events but I have to take a shot at Greg when he's not in the room because he's too damn smart to try and take the mickey out of any other time!

Bitterest Pill

Oh dear lord, just as the Americans are beginning to get over their obsession with making stupidly hoppy beers for the sake of it and I thought the more US-inspired UK brewers doing the same without balance had called themselves to heel too, someone comes along and markets a beer as the bitterest in the world!

I'm sorry but YAWN! It's all very well saying that this beer is the most bitter in the world but perceptually you're never going to know it.

Realistically it's actually the ratio of bittering units to ABV (or OG depending on your technical bent) that's the player in how bitter a beer is percevied i.e. tastes - for example a standard British bitter of 4.2%ABV might technically have around 40IBUS but you could then put exactly the same IBUS in a barley wine and you'd barely register any bitterness.

Besides, I'm pretty sure that it's generally accepted that once you get above 60IBUs it's irrelevant anyway because all you taste is bitter itself, you can't discern different levels - I can't find my notes on the sensory training I did right now but will dig them out for verification, if anyone knows better please do contradict me.

Sorry to sound like a misery guts, particularly because I like other PitStop beers that I've tried and the owner seems like a stand-up guy.

It's just that I panic a bit when I see this kind of thing because it makes me worry that we're going to start getting into a ridiculous arms-style race around how many IBUs brewers can pack into beer because a)we're going to see a lot of the new generation of real ale fans flocking back to bog-standard lager because it will alienate too many of them and b) I'll get stuck drinking them all the time and be miserable!!

Howe Makes You Strong!

Well, these should be an interesting experiment - if you think BrewDog were a little mental, check out what Stuart Howe is planning for his homebrew kit!

To be honest, adore & respect the man as I do, I'm a little worried at the concept of an offal beer - although it could finally give me the answer to a question I've long wondered about.

You know how, wherever you go in the world, you get given a drink that is (invariably) some sort of local firewater with something gross in it like snake's blood, butterfly saliva or beetle's gonad and the bartender & locals always go into fits of laughter if it's ordered, make lots of rude gestures and follow this with a variation of the phrase 'makes you strong!'?

All right, it's normally aimed at blokes but, given that nearly all my travelling is done with fellas, (it's the job people, get your mind out of the gutter for this bit) I've heard it in about eight different countries and read about a lot more.

So, my point is, perhaps this has just enough disgusting ingredients for the UK to finally have something that falls into that cateogry - or perhaps that'll be the shellfish stout?

Well, there's only going to be one way to find out!

Pubs U'll Like

The Brown Dog in Barnes has earned a lot of accolades over the years, so I'm sure they're not that bothered about my penn'th worth but I do feel you should give praise where praise is due, and it's a lovely pub.

We spent New Year's Eve in there having a couple of quiet pints of excellently kept Twickenham Original (4.2%) - an excellent supping bitter with a lovely nutty Amontillado end to it - and Winter Cheer (4.5%), a warming, dark, slightly spicy pruney flavour, with a fresh bitter end.

The food is always good value and top quality, the service is always friendly and they always have two handpulls on, which I've only ever had to ask for a replacement due to it having gone, once.

I've also got high hopes for Citizen Smith in Putney from the people who bought you Lost Society and Lost Angel in the Clapham/Battersea area.

It's got a good beer selection (although they do seem to be trying to hide their cask selection at every available opportunity behind an array of napkin/straw holders and cocktail menus) and you can choose from Sierra Nevada, various Meantime and Aspall's on draught, amongst others, and although they only had Sharp's Nadelik when I was last in (in top nick in their defence), I usually see an array of different guest cask beers on offer and I've not had a bad pint yet.

They've also got a nice idea about table service where possible; the only problem with this is that a) they don't seem to have enough staff on to do that until about 6-7pm in the evening and b) if you want to be a predominantly beer-led bar, encouraging people to sit down and wait for their drinks whilst you slice lemons for the cocktail menu tends to annoy beer drinkers - and given that when I have been in the last four times it's been 99% beer drinkers I'd suggest that judicious decisions on immediate service would be more advisable.

However, those are the low points, the pizzas are good with some standard and truly bonkers toppings strewn throughout the menu and it's a significant improvement on any of the premises' previous incarnations and the beer is very well priced, so if they can get the service element right then I've got high hopes for them indeed.

That's all for now folks, stay warm out there!

DUCK! I'm Throwing Some Beery Cheer Out There

Afternoon all, hope your Christmas festivities were all you hoped they would be, our ale-roast duck was marvellous - the very simple recipe is below as I think it's also eminently suitable for a bit of New Year's Day comfort food as it can be prepared the day before and served with a potato dauphinoise and curly kale.

Anyway, if you're looking for some beer inspiration over the New Year celebrations then let me first recommend a couple of belter session brews from Lancaster Brewery.

Whilst I've known one of the owners of the brewery, the super-cheery Matt Jackson, for a while as he has the most excellent Sun Inn in Lancaster, I've only tried a couple of his beers on cask and really liked them but I often think the mark of the technical consistency of a small brewery is how well their products translate to bottle - and as he kindly dropped off some Christmas pressies to the father-in-laws pub for the family I've finally got to try a couple.

The Lancaster Blonde is the lightest drinking of the bunch but is a deceptive 4.1% clean, light, lemony and bright but with just enough body to let it stand up to Winter drinking.

But it's the Amber that really blew me away, it's a mere 3.7% and punches well above its weight - it's frankly like watching one of those wiry South American boxers winning a bout in the heavyweight category. Deliciously aromatic, with a great deep spice and crushed nettle on the nose, it follows through to a gingery chocolate flavour and a satisfyingly clean bitter finish and lingering mineral freshness.

We were also lucky enough to have a pin of the special Rederrer, which is very reminiscent of Golden Pride for me, rich, cherry and very luscious - but I'm not sure of its availibility as yet as I'm not particularly keen to harass people for small bits of info like that at this time of year, whether old mates or not! I will let you know though and if you see it, grab a half and savour as it's pretty poky stuff!

Anyway, whatever you end up doing - as usual I have no clue and no immediate plans - have a very beery New Year and may 2010 bring you happiness, health & a wealth of great drinking.

Ale Roast Duck - serves 3-4
One large duck
One bottle of inexpensive smokey beer (whether Rauchbier or something like Okells Aile)
One can of Mackeson Stout
One tbsp soft brown sugar
One each of onion, carrot, garlic clove (latter choped horizontally in half)
Two celery sticks
GOOD chicken stock (can't stress the importance of this enough - cubes just don't cut it)

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to highest heat
2. Boil your kettle full of water
3. Pierce the duck skin all over
4. Warm the two beers in a pan and add the sugar
5. Put your duck on a trivet and put it in the sink and pour the kettle of water over it
6. Roughly chop the onion, celery and carrot in the base of the pan and then put the duck on this and pour the beer/sugar over it so that it part fills the tray but coats the duck
7. After 20 minutes turn the oven down to 170 fan, add about 250ml of stock to the tray and turn your duck every half hour for three or so hours or until the leg bone is literally falling away and you've got crisp skin
8. Take out of oven and remove from pan (DON'T THROW THE JUICES AWAY!) and leave to rest
9. Put juices from resting back in pan, and put the duck in the fridge
10. Warm up your roasting pan on the hob and add the rest of the chicken stock and scrape the bits off the bottom, sieve into another pan, press hard on the veg to extract all flavour before discarding, and then simmer until reduced to a gravy consistency, put in a jug and put in the freezer overnight
11. On the day you want it, heat oven to 180 and put duck in for 40 minutes or so, rest in a warm place for 20 minutes
12. Whilst duck is resting take your gravy out of the freezer, lift off the glorious layer of duck fat and retain for roast potatoes (or use on the day if you're having them instead of dauphinoise) and warm your gravy back up
13. Serve with whatever you want and enjoy!

Beer Suggestion - there is very little fat left in this dish as it's pretty much all slow-roasted out but something with a good bitter end or lemon sharpness is perfect to counteract the richness, the aforementioned Lancaster Blonde, an Aspall Premier Cru, Dark Star Sunburst or an old classic like Summer Lightning would all go nicely. ADDENDUM: other beers I just thought of - Harviestoun B&T, Brasserie de la Senne's Taras Boulba or Goose Island IPA.

Festive Foodie Fun

Good afternoon all!

Well, as we all wait for that snow to fall let me just give you something to look forward to, my festive food & beer tasting at Borough on Sunday.

Rather than rushing around a dull supermarket, the market is open on Sunday so why not enjoy some artisan food & drink charms and then wind-down with one of my tasting sessions.

An absolute bargain at just £25, for beers like Gale's Prize Old Ale '07 Vintage, Fuller's 2009 Vintage, Bateman's Rosey Nosey, O, Ho, Ho from Otley and a special Santa surprise of very rare proportions!

These will be matched with such delights as Mrs King's award-winning pies, cheese from Neal's Yard, some superb smoked salmon and seriously indulgent choccy delights - all sourced from the market.

So, if you fancy coming along then you can get tickets at the Rake or the Utobeer stand on Borough Market, or if you email melissa@love-beer.co.uk with a phone number we'll call for a card payment.

Cheers!

* this post is for my beer tasting business*

Totally Off Topic

I'm sorry to do this to you but has anyone else seen this appalling travesty from Joss Stone? Apparently it was directed by her brother!

I can only assume that he's a 15-year-old media studies student with various unfortunate conditions that prevent him from having a) any sense of artistic merit b) to get a wardrobe that wasn't last used by various bad 80s acts and c) to realise that the song is a boring, faux-soul dirge in the first place and will hopefully never even cross the airwaves!!!

First time I've ever felt sorry for a record company, allegedly EMI tried to bury this so deep they hit molten lava!

M-Otley Brew

Oh how I wish I could take credit for that headline but it was the name Glyn Roberts, manager of the Rake, christened a collaborative brew he did with Welsh beer wizards, Otley, which he will be pulling the first pint of in half an hour (it's now 15.30pm).

It's a BIIIIIIIGGGG IPA apparently, so I look forward to trying it a bit later - see you there if you fancy it.

The Rake, 14 Winchester Walk, London, SE1 9AG - nearest tube/train London Bridge.

UPDATE
M-Otley Brew, 7.5%ABV
Rich peachy/pineapple/pear nose leads through to an almost fruit cocktail flavour up front that then transmogrifies into dark chocolate and then liquorice - very moorish, very drinkable, very dangerous! Well done all.

99 Beer Followers on the Wall

Just a random post to say I've got 99 followers on this blog - who's going to be 100?!

I may send them a bottle of special beer, now there's a shameless bit of bribery, should I censor censure myself given my previous comments about ethics?!

Discuss... : )

Beer & Chocolate Matches

Here's something fun that I did the other week at Bibulous (a new consumer show at Vinopolis), beer & chocolate matches.

I had a few beers to choose from and a very short time in which to knock this together after the organisers mentioned that there were some demo theatre gaps, so I just did three and they, overall, got a good to great reception.

In first place came Left Hand Ginger JuJu matched with Belgian milk chocolate truffles.

In second was He'Brew Origin Pomegranate Beer with dark chocolate-covered cranberries (my personal favourite).

And in third, but not in a bad way, was BrewDog Punk IPA with white chocolate.

All in all it was a fun demo to do, it got a lot of people thinking about chocolate in a totally different way and I'm looking forward to doing some more - if anyone would like to see a specific beer & chocolate matching event drop me a comment and I'll see what I can rustle up!

BTW - it wasn't just chocolate, it was M&S chocolate (all right, give me a break, it was the only place open within walking distance!!!)

Back with a Budget Bang

Well, I apologise for being missing, I'm not going to lie I've been alternately busy and utterly uninspired - but I've decided to give myself a boot up the bum and am going to pay a lot more attention to my blog.

I'm kicking off my reinvigorated campaign of rants with the Budget - what a surprise, no reprieve on beer duty.

There were a couple of measures that may help the industry overall but the kick in the teeth of VAT returning to its 17.5% state and no breaks on beer duty means it's going to be yet another expensive year for the beer industry and pub trade.

Here are some stark facts for you; the Government currently makes five times more profit than brewers or pubs from beer, according to a report from Oxford Economics. What this means in real terms is that the total UK beer market generates £19bn, from which the Government takes 84%, which amounts to £8.6bn total tax and profit generated by beer sales for the coffers.

Seems a little unequal right? But if only we had trade & industry bodies that were designed to represent the interests of beer makers, purveyors and drinkers to do this something about this gross imbalance - oh, wait! We do!

But do you know what? There's just too bloody many of them and they all seem far more interested in protecting their own corners, running each other down and infighting than they do actually securing a better deal for all those involved.

As Pete Brown, in his acceptance speech for Beer Writer of the Year (congrats matey), so eloquently put it, this internicine war has to stop.

We now have, to the best of my knowledge (and I'm sure I've missed a few): the British Beer & Pub Association, the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers, the British Institute of Innkeeping, Society of Independent Brewers, Fair Pint, the National Association of Licensed House Managers, the GMB, Campaign for Real Ale, Justice for Licensees, Independent Family Brewers of Britain, the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group (and the cider one) and a handful of smaller campaigning groups.

And all of them have roughly the same aims - to deliver a fairer structure to all levels of the British brewing and pub system and gain a better deal for the average drinker, yet they are consistently failing to do so!

I firmly believe that (as I think the above list illustrates) there are too many voices with too many agendas and that will merely give any administration a way to wriggle out of making any changes other than those it wishes to make - because that many voices will always offer the opportunity to twist any given argument to the administration's own end.

There's a lack of focus; if only these bodies could agree to get together on three issues a year to co-campaign on and invest in then I firmly believe that we would begin to see a genuine difference in the attitude of the Government towards the pub & brewing sectors.

Now I'm not saying that I've got all the answers here, I don't, but what I do believe is that a focused and adult approach to working together by all these groups is the only answer.

If the wine and whisky lobbies can do it, why can't we?

Listen Again!

Hi there,
I was on Radio 4 today, I've got no idea what it sounds like as I haven't had a chance to listen so please be kind if you get a chance!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ny8fz#synopsis

BrewDog Meet the Brewer - extra session announced

Good morning,

For those of you who haven’t been able to get your hands on tickets for the BrewDog Meet the Brewer event tomorrow we are now a running a third session at 5pm due to massive demand!

All the info on the beers is as below; but what it doesn’t tell you is that the boys have decided to surprise us by bringing with them the collaborative brew that they did with Mikeller, which has now been aging for a whole year in cask – it’s gonna be good, you know it is!

So, if you would like a ticket for the 5pm tasting, please could you call the office on 020 7378 9461 you’ll be able to purchase them over the phone, alternatively you can pop into the Rake and buy them there.

Cheers,

Melissa

After a year of courting controversy, those bad boys from BrewDog have actually found time to make some seriously top-quality beers, and they’re coming back to Borough to showcase them!

lovebeer@borough is once again playing host to Scotland’s least tamed brewing duo, James Watt & Martin Dickie from BrewDog.

The pair will be bringing a pack of seriously wild beers with them too, offering you the chance to try the very limited edition Christmas beer Shark, of which only 50 will be available, and a very, very special beer that they haven’t even told us about yet!

• 77 Lager – A lager that actually tastes of something? You have to be kidding, right? 77 lager is made with 100% malt and whole leaf hops. It contains no preservatives, additives, cheap substitutes or any other junk

• Trashy Blonde - you just cant get the compulsive malt body and gorgeous dirty blonde colour out of your head. The seductive lure of the sassy passion fruit hop proves too much to resist. All that is even before we get onto the fact that there are no additives preservatives, pasteurization or strings attached

• 5am Saint – an amber red ale with low bitterness but an insanely hoppy aroma, this will really play with your perceptions and then offer up a prayer of thanks to the gods of hops!

• Bashah – when you put iconic American brewers Stone and the BrewDog boys in the same room, all mayhem was bound to break loose, which is exactly what happened with this incredible Double Black Belgian IPA

• Paradox Isle of Arran – another joint venture where we use the casks from the small but perfectly formed Isle of Arran distillery’s casks, which have mostly been previously used to age sherry lending this edition of Paradox a little more sweetness which is balanced by hints of cinnamon and ginger with lovely aromatic, zesty fruit flavours

• Shark Beer – this is the brewery’s special edition Christmas beer, of which only 30 bottles will be released, just think how rare this beer is, worth the price of admission alone!

• Zephyr - after exactly 600 days of maturation, micro-oxidation, dedication, deliberation and celebration, Zephyr, the strawberry refermented double IPA matured in a 1965 InverGordon grain whisky cask is bottled and then undergoes a second bottle conditioning – it’s an utterly sublime and unique offering

The award-winning Rake, above which lovebeer@borough is based, will also be showcasing BrewDog’s beers on handpull and in bottle, for more information on this visit the Rake’s Facebook group.

*this post is for my beer tasting business*

Stout Competition

Here's an interesting one, am at a European Beer Consumers Union event and I've just heard this top bit of gossip; apparently somewhere in Dublin tonight there's going to be a 'taste-off' of all the major stout brands: Guinness, Beamish, Murphy's, O'Hara's and Molly's Chocolate Stout, with the blessing of all the big breweries!

Can't wait to see the results later this evening, will keep you up to date as and when I get the results!

Read the full results on Beer Nut's website Irish Craft Brewer.

Apologies

I've been rubbish recently, but a combination of travelling and (as a result) a bad back (soooo getting old!) have left me bereft of time!

However, coming up is some interesting news & an offer from BrewDog, NYC reviews, a couple of recipes, a full report on the Stella Draught Masters and undoubtedly the odd rant or two!

Chin, chin!

Melissa