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.

Goose Me!

I will add much, much more to this post shortly but if you can get your hands on some Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, do yourself a very, very big favour - buy everything you can see!

More to follow shortly and sorry for lack of posts (if anyone cares!) I've been happily busy recently.

Help Stop Over the Top Portman Group

Mr Protz has hit the nail on the head with his recent, and excellently crafted, tirade against the utterly humourless Portman Group and it's prompted me to start this petition, please sign up to it.

I'm seeing an escalation of the Portman Group's weird attitude to beer names, I've been horrified with the Portman Group's recent attack on Brew Dog and its stance on Orkney's Skullsplitter (named after an Earl of Orkney) just seems to be a continuation of this.

In my opinion names like Skullsplitter and Liquor Mortis should be actively bloody encouraged!

Why?

Because they tell me straight up front that they are strong.

These kind of names say, quite clearly, mess with me at your peril - if you want to wake up feeling like a Norse invader has cleaved your head in two then go ahead big boy! Try drinking four pints!

Interestingly, and not so long ago, a very senior figure in the spirits industry suggested to me that the Portman Group's days were numbered because, in his opinion, they'd basically stamped out all the ridiculous products - clearly aimed at a very young market - coming from his sector.

It would appear, however, that the Portman Group recognised this too and are now busy justifying their existence by attacking the brewing industry.

If we don't all make a stand now, this could get very, very ugly.

NEW ADDITION: In the spirit of accurate journalism, I really should have checked out whether or not the Portman Group was planning action against Orkney, instead I listened to the grapevine, they aren't apparently but my points about Brew Dog and the concerns I have over Portman's new stance stand - but fair is fair!

March On

This Saturday I'm honoured to be supporting the Help for Heroes march from Portsmouth to the Tower of London by providing beers for the guys & gals of the army at the end!

Whatever you may feel about the political rights or wrongs of our actions in Iraq or Afghanistan, you have to admire and support the men & women of the Forces who are fighting out there, and it's even more important to support them if they return injured.

Help for Heroes raises funds for Headley Court Military Hospital, which is specialised in the treatment of orthopaedic and sports injuries, spinal injuries, neurological rehabilitation and rheumatic disease. The rehabilitation staff of around 200 include specialist medical officers, nurses, remedial instructors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, a cognitive therapist, social workers, engineers, and administration support staff.

As you can imagine, this requires quite a lot of support and H4H is instrumental in the hospital's funding and has already raised £8m to make the lives of those injured as whole as possible again - as you can see from the picture.

And, it's also worth bearing in mind, that the developments and breakthroughs in all of the above medical disciplines are then used in the wider medical community and could therefore one day benefit you or a loved one.

My small display of support wouldn't have been possible without the kindness of many different breweries - Shepherd Neame gets a big thanks for its support by sending nearly 500 bottles of beer, also thanks to all those brewers who agreed that any left over beer from our pre-GBBF bash could go to this worthy cause, thanks also to Moorhouse's, Coors, R&R, Stiegel, Purity and a gang of Welsh brewers who are also sending some stuff through, I'll name-check you when I know what's coming in guys!

Also, last but not least, thanks to my boys at Utobeer who are warehousing and delivering all the beer for me - lads, couldn't do it without you - kisses!

GBBF is No Good for Feet

Well, the tours seem to be going well, I've met a lot of lovely people and managed to enthuse (I think) even the most hardened beer rejector who came along.

My feet are killing me and I'm absolutely shattered but it's been great fun. It's been an unfeasibly busy time with the media as well as the beer, and there's been some great coverage/article opportunities - not least being one of the four most read articles on the Times Online yesterday! I'm a bit chuffed with that!

Find of the festival that I would really like to see more widely available is Caledonian's Deuchars XPA - it's like the IPA on steroids!

With more floral and tropical fruit aromas on the nose, and ever so slightly more creamy in the mouth it's an absolute stunner!

Other beers that I've loved have been Cribyn from Breconshire Brewery (not to mention the Ysbrid y Draig in Bowmore casks that Buster kept back for me, I love that man!), Otley's OG which won a gold medal in the strong category and Whitstable's Raspberry Wheat, which is even nicer in cask than bottle.

Other highlights have been Bateman's Salem Porter, which is in awesome nick, Moorhouse's Premier and Cairngorn Trade Winds.

Still not sure what I think of the new Canterbury Jack from Shepherd Neame, it's coming off a bit bland at the moment BUT when you're at something like the GBBF it's very easy to dismiss lower gravity beers that aren't trying to shout at you, but whisper gentle drinkability.

I'll revisit when my tastebuds haven't been partying for three days straight!

Free GBBF Guided Walks for Women

There are still places left on my guided tours around the Great British Beer Festival in the evenings next week - visit here to sign up!

http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=280895

There's Always One

Well done Luminar Leisure; you've just opened the door for the pub & nightclub trade to be fully regulated by the Government - bravo!

Offering drinks for 80p each is not only the height of irresponsibility it is just the most short-sighted, idiotic move I've seen since Gerald Ratner's statement about his products being 'crap'.

I can only imagine the chimps tea party masquerading as a meeting that managed to come up with this strategy; it's beyond ridiculous and I can't see how it stacks up financially.

I presume the staff are going to be extremely careful to not serve anyone who's inebriated? Because I estimate that you can't realistically drink any more than five drinks of an evening without becoming drunk so, if the entry fee is also 80p, £4.80 is what they SHOULD be earning off each person.

If you work this back it means that they have to, if you take off the VAT, buy in each unit at about 68p - and whilst I can see that happening with some very low-quality spirits I can't see it working with every product and just not by enough to make it in the least bit profitable.

And whilst I understand that bodies in clubs is what it takes; as Steve Thomas from Luminar points out: "No one likes an empty nightclub"; but perhaps it would be better to question why your club is half-empty than entice people in with ridiculously cheap offers.

Because all this boils down to is that Luminar, and any of you out there running pubs & clubs and think discounting is the way forward, are not thinking about the long-term future of the whole sector.

Quite simply if you don't stop this kind of discounting then you are going to cause the on trade to become so legislatively evolved that knuckle-dragger mentalities like this will be left far behind.

Surprise Capitulation by A-B

Well, well, well. Who would have thought after all the legal posturing over the last couple of weeks that Anheuser-Busch would accept InBev's bid?

It did seem that A-B was adopting the classic 'attack is the best form of defence' strategy when they filed the famous 'liar, liar pants on fire' law suit in Missouri.

Basically, last week (amongst other allegations) A-B said InBev had hatched an 'illegal plan and scheme' to 'acquire control of Anheuser-Busch at a bargain price' - something all big American companies would always think twice about of course!

And also that the Belgian company had 'launched a campaign of acquisition rumors' - which I, for one, don't believe ever happens during take-overs at all! And insider trading is just a conspiracy theory too!!!

Anyway, the most interesting thing that they claimed was that InBev's financing was, shall we say, a little bit on the shaky side - which begs the question of how it was dodgy last week and now suddenly all fine this week?

Regardless of all the above my major fear, which has just been realised, is that there is going to be a big beer behemoth owning a very large percentage of the American beer market and - even more terrifyingly - big corporate brewers will own 80% of the beer volume.

This will undoubtedly not only have an enormous impact on the US market but is guaranteed to have an impact on our shores soon too.

I do hope that the Parliamentary PubCo inquiry takes a long-term view on this as a potential future issue for tied pubs.

Why? Well, if any of the big companies decide to get into bed with Anheuser-Busch InBev then choice will be so drastically reduced for so many licensees - not to mention consumers - that it could set back the progress of local, regional and speciality beers in a big (and in some cases possibly fatal) way.

Worrying, it really is...

p.s. I really hope they didn't pay a flashy branding company to come up with that name, which is inevitably going to be shortened to ABIB - best joke around that wins a prize! Don't know what yet but it will inevitably involve beer!

InBev Bids for A-B

There's a bit of me that says the InBev plan to take over Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch is a bit like when a wasp lands on a nettle - someone's going to get stung and you don't really mind who!

However, joking aside, since I first heard this rumour six weeks ago it has raised some serious concerns for me about the global domination of the beer market by one company.

Although I have a lot of respect for InBev UK's, often successful, attempts to galvanise the speciality market - despite having the increasingly heavy weight of Stella around their neck - there have been some poor decisions at an international level which, in my mind, raise questions about InBev's genuine commitment to quality over quantity.

The attempts to close the Hoegaarden brewery last year and the brand cuts in its speciality brand portfolio in the UK - not to mention brewing whatever it is they think is Bass - are bad enough but just as A-B is really starting to take its more craft brew brands seriously (I am informed by sources Stateside) it would be a real shame if they were to be swallowed by a company which doesn't seem to get ale.

Anyway, off the heavy stuff for two reasons, firstly I'm not sure InBev will pull it off and secondly because I could go on forever about this sort of takeover, but - just in case InBev manages it - I'd like to hear suggestions on what the new name could be (keep it relatively clean please!). BudBev, InBud, A-Bev?

What's your suggestion?

Hero to Zero

Previously I've praised the Portman Group for having a sensible attitude about spurious complaints, like those made against Dorothy Goodbody's - but they have completely lost the plot over their criticism of Brew Dog's labelling.

Apparently - according to the same organisation that doesn't have enough teeth to stop the massive discounting of commodity beers in supermarkets - this fantastically funny and witty bunch of independent brewers are in breach of various areas of the code with various beer descriptors.

I'm not saying that brewers should be free to make claims that a person drinking their beer will become Superman, Don Juan and Stephen Hawking - from one sip - but using the phrase 'twisted, merciless stout' should surely be allowable?!

Frankly, if you are so stupid that you think the phrases ‘nourishing foodstuff’ and ‘magic is still there to be extracted from this drink’ implies that 'it could enhance mental or physical capabilities' you damn well deserve to have your life terminated by jumping off some very high scaffolding with your pants over your trousers, screaming 'I Believe I Can Fly' - because at least it would take you out of the gene pool or, if the injuries weren't fatal, it should at least stop you even paddling in the shallow end!

Beer Geek's Breakfast

Well, this beer geek's breakfast was judging the Sainsbury's Beer Competition yesterday and the final 15 were a jolly impressive round-up of good to great beers - full list below.

My personal favourite of the bunch was Holden's Golden Glow - do you know why? Because it is a just a really good, easy drinking, well balanced beer - and you just don't get enough of those these days.

It is a British ale, just 4.4%, and it's made with Maris Otter and Fuggles - and all those simple things somehow combined to make beery nectar of the highest order.

What really struck me about this beer was it did everything just right - the mouthfeel was silky without being sickly, the biscuit of the malt wasn't too sweet and the hops were just bitter enough to make me want to take another sip, and another, and another!

So well done Holden's - for me you were head and shoulders above everyone else in the craft of balanced brewing.

I also had a good chat with the beer buyer - and Sainsbury's seems pretty committed to stocking good beer and supporting the brewers who make it, which is nice to see.

I'm not advocating abandoning local beer purveyors if you use them, but if you are going to shop in a supermarket for your beer then choose one that gives brewers a fair deal.

Anyway, on to the reason for the title of this post. Having finished in Holborn I had to head to Borough to do some work on my new joint venture http://www.lovebeeratborough.ning.com/ and I got caught, as so often happens, having a couple in the Rake.

Whereupon I met Phil Lowry from Cave Direct , who may need to redeem himself after saying something along the lines of 'you look nothing like your facebook picture' and then following it up later with the comment 'it's a sexy picture'!!!! My fragile ego has naturally been shattered by these comments...

Anyway, he's currently still, just about, making the Christmas card list because he introduced me to the Beer Geek's Breakfast, a coffee stout from Mikkeller.

These former home-brew enthusiasts were voted fifth best Danish brewer in 2006 and on the strength of this beer I can see why.

Although I will honestly say it's a little sweet for my taste, coffee lovers will adore it - it's made with a pretty complex mix of malts, hops, molasses and coffee - pale, oat, smoked, caramunich, brown, pale chocolate and chocolate, roasted barley, flaked oats, Palisade, Centennial and Cascade.

And I love their unashamed assertion that you should actually drink this to start the day: "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, many say, and if you are a beer geek there is no better way to start the day than with a powerful, complex morning stout. The unique mix of oats and coffee gives this beer large body and power, while the coffee, at the same time, creates a nice balance."

Couldn't have said it better myself!

Sainsbury's Beer Competition Winners
Williams Bros Brewing Co Good Times
Holden's Brewery Ltd Golden Glow
Hampshire Brewery Pendragon
Highgate Brewery Ltd Highgate Old Ale
St Peter's Brewery St Peter's Amarillo Ale
Sharps Brewery Honey Spice Wheat Beer
Okell & Son Ltd Dr Okells IPA
Copper Dragon Scotts 1816
Frederic Robinson Ltd Ginger Tom
Redrat Craft Brewery Crazy Dog Stout
Bath Ales Barnstormer
Ridgeway Brewing Beer of the Gods
Greene King Greene King Sun Dance
Arundel Brewery Prizefighter
Williams Bros Brewing Co Harvest Son
Cairngorm Brewery Company Trade Winds

I'm Now a Hairy Biker 'Chick'

It's a rare thing that I meet people so totally genuine and lovely that they get an honourable mention on the blog but Dave Myers and Si King, also known as the Hairy Bikers, you've utterly stolen my heart!

I met the lads when I was filming a slot for Market Kitchen about Belgian beers and, due to the nature of TV things, I spent a lot of time hanging about waiting to appear but Si & Dave (along with Matt Tebbutt, Tom Parker-Bowles, Patrick Gwynn Jones and the whole of the crew) made time simply fly by.

The Bikers' bonhomie, passion for food and incredible love for Belgian beer permeated the whole studio and made the whole experience an absolute hoot.

For those of you who haven't experienced these guys' unique brand of food programming you've missed a real treat but can make up for it by catching them on UKTV Food (Sky channel 259) with a repeat of their tour of India from Monday April 14.

And I can honestly say to those of you who have seen and loved them, I promise you, what you see is most definitely what you get - isn't that fantastic?

This post promotes a television appearance I made.