FLAVOUR . DISCOVERY . CHOICE

Beer on t' telly

2010-12-21T06:14:00.000-08:00

I'm sure I'm not alone in bemoaning the woefully hackneyed and stereotypical image of beer presented on our TV's. That's if it ever appears at all. When it so rarely does, its all-too-often some library footage of a pint of handpull ale being pulled in a country inn juxtaposed with a story about underage binge drinking. Don't get me started on that one!

One Thursday in late October, as I was tucking into a well-earned lunch following judging 'duties' at SIBA's Great North Beer Festival in Manchester, Hawkshead brewery's Alex Brodie tapped me on the shoulder and asked if he could "borrow me for a minute". "Could you help me out" he explained

"the BBC are filming here tomorrow with Oz (Clarke) & Hugh (Dennis) and they asked if there was a flavour expert they could use, Tom (Wold Top), Andy (York Brewery) and I thought 'Alex!'"

I was introduced to Vicky, the production assistant and was asked to come back the following day to help Hugh "pose a challenge" for Oz. I prepared 3 different challenges which would test the shows star and hopefully inform and educate the audience a bit about beer. Come the day it quickly became clear that the name of the game was letting Oz do his thing, spout forth his beer knowledge, but ensure that the prank challenge would see him forfeit by drinking a yard of ale.

I did my bit, selecting and lining up 10 fine beers: blonde, amber and dark with the challenge to see if Oz's educated palate could select 3 medal winners from the previous days SIBA judging. I also suggested we set up in front of the beer festival's obligatory sausage stall to add the aroma of fried Bratwurst to Oz's challenge. I'm not giving anything away saying he failed, as everyone hoped he would. Cue the yard of mixed ales, which was thankfully not polished off entirely by Oz. Now, SIBA's first beer festival in the Palace Hotel Manchester's Grand Room was excellent, but will probably occupy no more than 5 minutes of the show. It may even be entertaining, but will it take forward a good message for British beer?

The dearth of current TV shows featuring our national drink in a positive light is appalling and while I don't doubt Oz's love of a pint, will it convert the uninitiated to sampling some of our fine cask ales or act as fodder for the neo-prohibitionists? Either way, I encourage you to watch the shows as they air over the Christmas and New Year period. There is NOTHING that will stimulate TV producers to make more shows about beer like good audience figures.

Oz & Hugh 'Raise the Bar' is on BBC2 on the following dates and times:
- Tuesday 21st December, 9.05PM - features the South of England
- Boxing day, 26th December, 7PM - features Scotland and Ireland
- Monday 27th December, 9PM - features Northern England (including SIBA Manchester)
- Sunday 2nd January, 8PM - features Midlands and Wales

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x334f

Kelly Patrick Ryan: An epitaph

2010-11-08T07:15:00.000-08:00

Kelly & Doug Odell, 'Colorado Red' day, 6th July '10. Never miss a chance to sniff some wort!

To those that knew him, Kelly Ryan will be remembered as an amiable antipodean, with a passion for beer and no knowledge of the word 'razor'.

Kelly's passing will be mourned by the team at Thornbridge Brewery, who can now get on with brewing great beers in peace, customers at the Coach & Horses, Dronfield who will no longer hear his catchphrase "Hey, I brewed that!" and the owners of specialist beer bars across the UK, who can now stock beers that don't contain New Zealand hops without fear of reprisals.

At times such as these I usually prefer to recall the good times and bar bills we shared, rather than dwell on our loss. During a brief respite from drinking free beer (at WBC) in Chicago, we went out for a restful pint and Kelly had everyone seeping with his collection of Korean anecdotes "canines and reptiles I have eaten". Whether judging or generally ranting, his uncanny ability to stick his nose in a beer and describe it's aroma like a rampant horticulturalist on speed is legendary.

He will be sadly missed and to use the vernacular, I'm stoked.
Now his Thornbridge Brewer Visa's expired, to the UK authorities he will remain
Kelly Patrick Ryan R.I.P.
(Remove If Possible)

Anything but old hat

2010-06-07T08:15:00.000-07:00

The 'twisted spire' of St. mary's Clebury Mortimer now shares a namesake beer

So there I was planning my trip to the gastronomic paradise that is
Ludlow, in the heart of rural Shropshire. My mission: to judge the SIBA Wales & West beer awards and to present a range of local beer and food matches at the Ludlow Spring Event. Knowing that I’d inevitably be coming across some of Nick Davis’ great beers, I arranged to make it a certainty, by visiting the brewery beforehand, a great way to earn myself a thirst for the day’s beer-judging duties. So, a flying visit to Hobson’s Brewery was hastily arranged.

After a 3-hour journey filled with the post-election analysis, debate and speculation, I pulled into the yard of Newhouse Farm, perched upon a rural hillside overlooking the scenic town of Cleobury Mortimer. The hectic Westminster shenanigans were juxtaposed with the sedate pace at Hobsons. Constant calls from customers wanting to make sure they have enough beer to see them through the weekend were dealt with in a friendly, unhurried manner. With his festival duties, my visit, a brewery to run and a well-earned weekend away in the Lake District on the cards MD Nick Davis has every right to be manic but the whole operation has the air of a swan, gliding effortlessly across the water.

Stacked boxes and 'Coke' hats

Millinery inspiration

Nick is a self-taught but quietly confident brewer, and is clearly in his element at Hobsons, a brewery that has grown steadily under his stewardship since 1993. Davis has taken local materials and local characters as his inspiration; naming the brewery Hobsons after Henry Hobson the gamekeeper-turned brewer whose chosen headwear was the “Coke”. The bowler-style hard-hat, once favoured by poachers, is the logo that adorns Hobsons smart new livery. Millinery style statements are rare enough today and Hobsons are anything but old hat, as classical styles and values are practiced with contemporary quality and flair.

On Newhouse Farm

The old farm building, home to the brewhouse and fermenters

Typical of that flair and quality is the investment in a 45 Brl brewing plant from Moeschle in Germany. The traditional 2-vessel system is squeezed into the quaint brick-build former farm building. Such is Hobsons ethos and integrity within their Shropshire surroundings, Nick has brokered a deal with local grain farmers, merchants, and family maltsters, Fawcett’s, to plant 160 acres of Maris Otter barley in the fields adjoining the brewery. With the majority of the Fuggles, Goldings and Challenger hops used within the main Hobsons brands grown in the county too, Hobson’s are the epitome of the local brewer.

Moeschle mash tun and wort cooler beneath the old oak beams

A freshly-cropped fermenter of Best Bitter

Staying local extends to cask beer deliveries, which extend to a radius of only 50 miles. Those of us living farther afield can satisfy a thirst with their bottle-conditioned beers. The local, sustainable attitude is taken further by recycling spent grain, which feeds local cattle, hops used as fertilizer and the brewery’s own wind turbine which provides up to 11 kW of electricity, reducing Hobsons call on the national grid by one third. Four boreholes provide a constant temperature water supply, used to help cool the cask store and heat the secondary fermentation room via a ground source heat pump.

Find their flavours

Hobsons seven regular beers span an ABV range from 3.2 to 5.2%. Many of them are CAMRA and SIBA award-winners, including a Champion Beer of Britain and all of which have tasting notes and food matches available on allbeerfinder.com.

Hobsons Mild: a 3.2% smooth dark mild

Twisted Spire: a 3.6% vibrant blond beer

Hobsons Best Bitter: the original 3.8% bitter

Manor Ale: a 4.2% rich amber bitter

Town Crier: a 4.5% crisp golden ale

Postman’s Knock: a luxurious 4.8% ruby porter and

Old Henry: a 5.2% a rich auburn ale.

Unfortunately Hobsons excellent Best Bitter and Mild are not available in bottle, though all the darker beers are bottle-conditioned on their great little SMB bottle line. Manned by a team of 2 it’s capable of 1100 bottles per hour. The new blond ale, Twisted Spire, named after Cleobury Mortimer’s church spire, which rotates in much the same way as Chesterfield’s more famous steeple, is packaged bright in a clear flint bottle to lure lager drinkers.

Line feed and case-filling by hand; filling, crowning, labelling & capping are 'automatic'.

The elegant and efficient lightweight bottles are dressed with self-adhesive labels of a smart new design, now consistent with upgraded pump-clips and a colour-coded shrink-fit cap to a finish that creates an entirely modern look for some classic English styles. Typical of Hobsons approach, they are first filtered to ensure clarity and stability, then re-seeding with Hobsons yeast. The yeast, a classic top-fermenting ale strain, was originally sourced from Midlands family brewer Holden’s but now imparts a distinctive character to all Hobsons beers. It's a great range with both the Bitter and Mild punching well above their weights in the flavour stakes and racking up Regional and National Awards to boot, though all the beers are well worth seeking out.

Search them out on hand-pump in the West Midlands, or via www.allbeerfinder.com.

Style definition, cream rising and a new World order

2010-04-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

Wednesday
The form by now was familiar, a hearty breakfast was required as judging begins immediately after. My choice was guided by my bodies needs: fresh fruit for vitamins and refreshment, cereals and bread for sustaining energy and to soak up the beer, an omelette with bacon & ham for vigour.

A glance at my judging schedule told me I was in the Arkansas room for one round of Brown Porter followed by Classic English Pale Ales. After lunch would be Wood and Barrel aged beers (up to 6.75% ABV) and American-style Stouts. There would be both second round and finals for the Pale Ales and Stouts meaning the beer count for the day was up around 90!

Style definition
The biggest difference between judging World Beer Cup (and, I'm told, the Great American Beer Festival, WBC's little sister) and the UK-based competitions is the support given to the judges by way of style definition. On balance this is a great benefit and one that I recommend we adopt, if UK-based competitions are to remain credible. Sure, when you have 90 categories - some with up to 4 sub-categories you HAVE to provide clear definitions to distinguish between styles, and help brewers determine which category they are to enter their beers into. With a competition on of well over 3000 entries, you have to chunk it down somehow. For me the 90 categories may take it a little too far - we were forced to rule out some very nice, flavourful and distinctive beers that I'd be happy to pay my own money for on technical style infringements.

The style definitions take the form of a title, verbal description and analytical ranges for Original and Final Gravity (expressed both in degrees and Plato), Alcohol (by weight and volume), Bitterness and Colour. Judges are expected to be able to distinguish by their senses and experience whether beers are out of style for aromatic, flavour and analytical parameters. So here's the rub - to be able to do that you MUST have a good level of experience, both in the World of brewing and beer judging. Contrast this with some of the more notable beer awards I've regularly judged - for CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale), SIBA (Society of Independent Brewers) and Tesco (ubiquitous monolith of the supermarket scene). In each case, when you roll up as a judge you get, at most, a cursory pre-brief and a given a category. No guidelines. SIBA and CAMRA are all but completely focused on Ales and sub-divide to around 6 categories, Tesco's have a single category for Lager (any colour or strength), one for fruit beers, experimentals and a handful for Ales. I like to think I know my beer styles and can discuss distinguishing flavour characteristics until late into the night with anyone that cares to. However many judges invited to preside over the UK competitions are not beer industry professionals. I've judged with retail buyers (who don't buy beer), equipment suppliers (who have never brewed beer), MP's (who like beer) and a wide variety of other professions unrelated to beer. I have no issue with this at all IF they are given a good brief on styles, judging techniques etc. beforehand, but in my experience, that is not the case. So, SIBA, CAMRA, Tesco etc. take heed, the standing of your Awards and competitions is at risk if they do not become more professional. After all, the financial success, credibility and standing of beers, brewers and breweries can be made or lost based upon such results.

Cream rising
To the results. Last nights Gala Awards dinner was an amazing spectacle, the World's biggest beer dinner, seating 1800 people to a gourmet delight put together by Executive Chef Sean Z. Paxton and Beer Writer Randy Mosher. 5 courses that blew you away with their inventiveness, including a total of 90 lbs of hops to aromatise honey, flavour salt, form pesto's and vinaigrette's. All the matched beers were former WBC award winners and all paired well with the menu selections. In a beer awards run by the American Craft brewing organisation (the Brewers Association) and held in America you might expect plenty of American entries and plenty of American winners, and so there were. No surprises there, particularly when many categories were reflective of the recent inventiveness and resourcefulness of the American craft brewers, pushing the creative envelope on traditional Old World beer styles. However, as the ceremony unfolded two emerging trends surprised me. Firstly, the rising cream of brewers challenging the established craft beer royalty - rewards were thin on the ground for Anchor, Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams. At the same time the like of Firestone Walker, a brewer largely specialising in pale ales and based in the largely unknown wine-growing area of Paso Robles, 2 Hrs North of LA, cleaned up with 5 Awards. Owned by Brit David Walker and Adam of the Firestone Car tyre dynasty, they run a beautiful brewery in which Matt Brynildsen and his team craft excellent beers. I had the pivelege to visit in the summer (cue another blog post) and could not be more happy for them.

A new World order
The second surprise for me was the number of times a small American micro, in many cases, ones I'd never heard of, won Gold in a category where one might have thought the winner could only be a traditional domestic brewer of the style: Classic British Pale Ales, Bohemian (Czech) Pilsner; Bavarian Hefe Weissen; Belgian Style ales all saw long-established domestic brewers losing out to new American craft brewers. Welcome to the new World order. The re-carting of the beer style map may raise a few eyebrows and furrow a few brows though it should not. I was judging the first three of the style categories mentioned above. After all, they are source of some of my favourite beers. In each case I my fellow judges included Nationals of the style in question, Britain, Czech Republic and Germany. These guys know their stuff, they know good beer, and in each case we gave the Gold medal to an American brewer.

I'll finish with two appeals.
1. An appeal to award organisers: learn from the World Beer Cup and it's professionally-run format. I'm happily discuss...
2. An appeal to World brewers: this is a great competition, if you think your beers are worthy World Cup winners - you will only find out by submitting them.

Finally, finally. Congratulations to the deserving brewers from the British Isles who DID submit their beers and DID win at the World Beer Cup 2010:
Brewdog - getting Gold in Imperial IPA's with Hardcore IPA
Porterhouse - getting Bronze in Classic Irish Dry Stouts with 'Porterhouse Plain Porter'
Roosters - doing the double with Gold AND Silver in the English Style Summer Ales with 'Leghorn' and 'Y.P.A. ' respectively.
Shepheard Neame - getting Bronze Special or Best Bitters with 'Spitfire' and
Thornbridge - getting Silver in speciality Honey beer with 'Bracia'.
Well done guys.

The onslaught begins

2010-04-06T16:07:00.000-07:00

4 days into my inaugural World Beer Cup Experience and I'm just coming up for a breath of air... the pace is frenetic and my personal stats log is totting up at an incredible rate.

1 run along the Chicago river to Lake Michigan.
3 early morning head-clearing swims in the hotel pool
3 breweries visited, plus Goose Island tonight
Too many monster-size American meals
Around 140 beers tasted, mostly for the first time!

Like much of America when seen through British eyes the scale of everything here is just awesome, whether that's the buildings, the food portions travelling around and the WBC/ CBC itself.

Sunday
After a bit of a run to get my bearings and keep me from crashing out immediately I went for a few beers in one of Rock Bottom's 34 brewpubs. Loved their 'Hophead' (yes, another one) IPA, which was perfect with a medium rare Laredo Burger, topped with Chipotle mayo and guacamole one of the best burgers I've ever had. Melissa & Dan opted for a range of starters - Buffalo wings with a kick like a Mule, Giant Toothpicks of deepfried Tortilla and Onion Rings the size of Horses hooves - I kid you not, just see above!

Monday
An opportunity for World Beer Cup judges to get to know each other on a coach tour around 2 'local' breweries, 3 Floyds at Munster and 2 Brothers at Warrenville (more about them later) . At 5PM we had a judges orientation and tricky little taste test of 3 American Pale Ales to benchmark our standards and see if we could identify any 'out of style' characteristics. The 7 people who identified the wrong beers, were flayed in front of their peers (or probably felt like they had been!). Once that was over, more social work at, you've guessed it, Rock Bottom. This time it was a feast of Chicken wings & Pork ribs, Corn bread and cheese to mop up the special Barrel-aged stout and Rye IPA the brewing team had prepared for us.

Tuesday
Straight after a hearty breakfast of beer-soaking superfuel we're into the first round of judging.
First beer passes my lips at 9.16 AM and carries on with unremitting regularity until the briefest of lunch breaks. Starting with 10 Saisons & Biere de Gard, my fellow judges and I then rattled through 11 Czech Pilsners and 10 Barley Wines before re-fueling! The 15 minute stop was followed by a figurative stop-off in Bavaria, to taste 11 Hefe Weissen and 11 Dunkel Weissen.
In many ways it's frustrating not knowing what you are drinking, in many cases, except for the winners we never will, though it's the only fair way.
Tuesday night I hooked up with Alex from Little Creatures, brewer of the almost Godly Little Creatures Pale Ale, Thornbridge Kel., Patrick a lager-brewer from Belgium and Engel, a beer-loving Forensic Pathologist (I kid you not) from Holland. We headed up-town to a recommended Taco bar called Big Star for a few rounds of Lagunitas' excellent Pilsner and various mixed plates. A short walk round the corner was Piece Pizzahouse & Brewpub. Pizza's looked amazing, though the 'Franco-Belgian' Ale was entirely forgettable. Final stop for the night was to be at Smoke Daddy, a bar as cool as it sounds, with a Bluesy 2-piece playing background to my last beer of the day - Dogfish head's Aprihop. This IPA, matured on Apricot was a dark and delicious fusion masterpiece, loaded with hops but cunningly selected to enhance rather than mask the Apricots. Beautiful, and a fitting end to the day.

Have tasting glass, will travel

2010-04-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

It seems to have taken forever but I finally got round to creating the ALL BEER Blog:
FLAVOUR . DISCOVERY . CHOICE blog. Welcome to one and all.

Expect plenty of posts from now on, some completely original and some that hark back to brewery visits I've made and brewers I've talked to over the last year or so. They will include, in no particular order: Harveys of Lewes, Sierra Nevada, Guinness, Stone, Dark Star, Anchor, Russian River and Lagunitas. If that sounds good, watch this space... they will include pictures and Head Brewer interviews too, if I can work out how to post them!

My main incentive in setting the blog up now was to cover my upcoming trip to Chicago. I know I'll never live it down, but I'm leaving the family during the Easter hiolidays to attend next weeks American Craft Brewers Conference and to judge the World Beer Cup. As a frequent judge at UK beer awards such as SIBA and CAMRA I'm well used to the way we do it over here, but am genuinely excited to be invited over to judge at WBC. It's a mega-event with statistics that demonstrate its scale:

3500 beers entered
from 60 countries
90 judging categories
137 judges
from 29 nations

As if that's not enough I've arranged to visit 2 breweries before I start and am looking forward to visiting Goose Island for a beer and food event too. I'll be doing my best to post as I go along. I welcome your feedback, comments and ideas too. Cheers!