Christmas Markets

Craft Bottle Beers at Royal William Yard

Having attended a number of markets and Christmas Fare's with Craft Bottle Beers it is interesting to see stall holders different approaches to selling their wares. Our latest market was at Plymouth's Royal William Yard, a popular and growth area of the city it was an interesting venue.  The one thing we have learned and was reinforced at this market is that is you have the give customers a reason to buy and its not sufficient just to make something and then try to sell it.

We were selling a selection of 25 + local South West craft bottled beers from 8 different brewers. All were fantastic beers, a little quirky, a little different but all very tasty beers. Other brewers were also at the same events selling equally fine beers. Indeed, all of the stall holders sell excellent items from pastries, honey, juices to arts and crafts. There is no doubting the quality of their wares.

The one thing we noticed is that it helps hugely if you can give customers a reason to buy. At this time of year people are looking for Christmas gifts. We packaged a 3 bottle pack with simple but clean"Happy Christmas" branding so it looks like a gift. In addition a jute bag 6 pack with a general Craft Beer message had a wide appeal and the customer also gets to select from a range of oddly named beers with interesting labels that suit different interests. Other brewers focused on gift boxes with their own branding, great for brand awareness but not so good for giving customers a reason to buy.

At this time of year the gift pack is a sure fire best seller. However after Christmas the challenge will be to come up with another reason to buy. Clearly with beer birthdays and Fathers Day spring to mind but I'm sure there are other reasons to be found. Its really about thinking from the customers perspective rather than that of the producer.

You also need to make it easy for people to buy with sensible pricing. Remember people only have so much cash on them. We invested in a card reader that worked through the phone. It turned out an excellent purchase with a significant value of our total sales being through this.

Thinking about what customers want rather than what you perhaps want to make or sell is quite a different way of looking at things, but if you can apply this principle to your business it will potentially reap huge benefits.

Christmas Gifts

Bellingers Sleigh Fuel 5.2% abv

What a great opportunity Christmas offers to introduce friends and family to the charms of real ale and craft beers. Beer makes an excellent gift and there are so many different styles and tastes to choose from that for sure you can find something to suit.

The local supermarkets offer a full and interesting choice of bottled beers but often you are faced with the same familiar brands to choose from. What is more fun is to seek out your local brewer and see what they have to offer. Or, find a beer that has a name that suits the person in mind in terms of their interests or character. You might even find a Christmas gift pack or Christmas themed beer.  More brewers are brewing seasonal beers and at this time of year you can expect to find some wonderful full, malty, fruity and spirituous beers, liquid Christmas pudding in a bottle!

Now-a-days, every town, even village seems to have a small but industrious craft brewer, producing beers with passion, pride, often using local ingredients and with names that reflect their geographical locality. You can make this even more appropriate by introducing some local foods - cheese is a great fit for beer. A local beer with locally produced cheese is very tasty and offers something out of the ordinary, plus of course it supports local business!

If you are stuck for a present for a loved one, then you could do worse than find an appropriate beer. Go on line to find a local brewer, you can often buy through the Internet. If you are lucky, some of the larger towns have a their own specialist beer shops which are also worth a visit. You wont necessarily find cheap beer here, but you will find quality beers and often an informed assistant who can help guide you through the morass of labels to ensure you select a suitable beer.

Beer as a gift is great, but its meant to be drunk. To enjoy bottled beer in particular at its best, you need to drink it sooner rather then later. Don't stick bottled beer gifts in the cupboard and forget them - beer ages for the worse unless its designed by the brewer to improve with age, so make sure you drink any beers you receive within a reasonable time frame.

Finally, above all else, beer is meant to be fun, so relax and take your time both choosing and drinking beer at Christmas.

Swindon Beer Festival

 

What a great event Swindon Beer Festival was in 2013. Set in the fabulous Steam Railway Centre, which is the most splendid venue for such an event. The main room where the festival is held can hold over 700 people comfortably in the one session, creating a superb friendly atmosphere.

The big regional beer festivals such as Swindon do a tremendous job in promoting cask ales and their importance should not be under estimated. They offer consumers huge choice and spark real interest and debate, all of which is very healthy, plus of course they are great fun events and there is never any semblance of trouble. In a way they make real ale down to earth and accessible, helping to take away some of the fear of trying new beers. It is a chance to experiment with different tastes and styles and no one minds if you don't like a certain beer.

Swindon CAMRA had done a great job in selecting a fine beer list with beers from all over the UK, including CAMRA GBBF winner Elland 1872 Porter. Three South West brewers had separate bars. St Austell Brewery, as I was there with my day job show casing our beers. I'm really very lucky to get to do that as there is no better selection of ales to represent. The other two brewers were Ramsbury and I've written previously about what great beers they brew and Box Steam, the Wiltshire brewer who also have a fine selection.

Both of the aforementioned brewers have won Champion Beer at Swindon before. Ramsbury with their excellent Silver Pigs Stout and Box Steam with Derail Ale. The latter is a big tasty IPA, full of hops and plenty of citrus, its a very popular style at the moment and Derail is one of the best examples you can get.

However, back to the festival. for me one slight disappointment was not to see local Swindon Regional Brewer Arkells with a brewers bar. They have a new young brewer now in Alex Arkell who I believe is brewing some interesting and different beers and it would have been great to try some of these. Hopefully next year they will attend again. I've known Arkell's beers for many years having grown up around the Swindon area. They would not be favourite beers but I do have a certain fondness for them so hope to enjoy them next year.

Finally, congratulations to Swindon CAMRA for organising another excellent beer festival and also to the venue for hosting such an event.

Weymouth Octoberfest



CAMRA organisers Dave, Russell & Rich.

A recent visit to Weymouth Pavilions for the CAMRA organised Beer Festival (or Octoberfest as its called) turned out to be a excellent couple of days. The pavilion is no longer council run and was due to be demolished, but a community group has now taken over the venue and although the building is run down, its good to see this great facility looks likely to be saved.

The Beer Festival on the other hand has gone from strength to strength. A very well run event by West Dorset CAMRA, it attracts people who are both local and those from further afield. This year the beer list focused on brews from the South West and what a great selection of beers it was too.  Across the UK many smaller craft brewers are brewing some good and interesting beers and its great to see the South West has a fine selection.

However, it was not just great beer that made the festival. Friday evening featured a quiet session, but it was actually a really sociable night with lots of people wanting to talk about the beer selection available. This is the opportunity for people who are genuinely interested in beer to meet and discuss all things beer. I was doing my day job show-casing St Austell ales and there is no better selection of beers to represent and be proud of. Needless to say the St Austell beers were very popular, so much so that Big Job was runner up in the champion beer competition.

Festival goers enjoy the music

The Saturday evening featured two great bands, selected by a local licensee who new their music and they turned out to be great choices. Beer and music go together so well. This year the bands played at the right volume so chatting was still possible. I was able to enjoy the music as the St Austell bar had been drunk dry by 9pm on the Saturday leaving time to sample some delicious beers from competitors!

All told this was a great event and over 4750 pints were consumed. I'd certainly recommend a weekend in Weymouth in early October if you want to enjoy some great beers at a well run festival in a town that's really very welcoming. Congratulations to West Dorset CAMRA and we look forward to 2014.

A Favourite Glass

Used in pubs but still a goody!

The first piece of advise I often give when doing a beer talk is to get yourself a glass you enjoy drinking from. A favourite glass can add hugely to ones enjoyment of drinking at home and rather like a favourite beer, the favourite glass becomes a welcome friend and is a signal to the brain that its time to relax.

When choosing a glass there are a few tips to consider but it's still a very personal thing. Some people help themselves to pub glassware and although the branding can look great, they are not always a pleasure to drink from. Pub glassware is designed to withstand the rigours of the glass washer and they are often made from toughened glass. This can make them a little clunky when placed to the mouth and also the toughening limits the shapes available to choose from.

A visit to the local engraving shop will offer far more interesting shapes to choose from and the glass is much finer allowing the tongue to do its work much easier. However for real choose in glassware you need to look at what happens in Europe. Here there is huge choice, where the limitations of toughened glass seems not to apply. Each beer has its own branded glass and they are sometimes bespoke to the beer - you wont find the same shape for another beer. Many of these glasses are stemmed glasses and that would be my personal choice for a beer glass.

My current glass

I like the stemmed glass that narrows to the top concentrating the aromas allowing them to blossom within the nose. Glasses with wider heads allow all of those delicate smells to dissipate quickly into the atmosphere and one of the main enjoyments of drinking a fine beer can be lost. The draw back with the former style of glass is that those beers that are well conditioned such as some German and Belgium beers, can pour with too larger head, so one needs to be careful of this.

I would also tend to avoid the pint glass. I like to drink my beer in smaller amounts, savouring the flavours and treating the drink like a bottle of fine wine, pouring smaller amounts at a time. The advantage here is that the beer stays fresher with more condition for longer.

Whatever glass you settle on make it part of your enjoyment of drinking a beer. After all, most of us have a favourite coffee or tea mug so why not do the same with your beer glass. Cheers!

Great British Beer Festival London

Devon & Dorset bar at GBBF

I have just returned from a week in London at the Great British Beer Festival in Olympia and what a wonderful event this is. The word "Great" in the title is very appropriate indeed. It's the biggest beer festival in the UK, lasting for five days, attracting over 50,000 visitors with over 800 real ales and ciders, plus a huge range of bottled craft beers on offer.

The beer festival is manned by an army of volunteers from CAMRA. These are people who have day jobs so they are not experts in event organisation but one has to say they do a tremendous job. Also, serving this many beers at cellar temperature in a venue such as Olympia with its greenhouse effect natural lighting is no mean feat. 

The nice thing about the GBBF as its become known is the great spirit and atmosphere with which customers attend. It attracts a wide variety of people. From the tickers who rate beers, groups of friends on a night out, office workers looking for a beer after work to stag and hen parties that come on the Saturday. There is also a good proportion of ladies that attend and this is great to see.

GBBF is a real show case for cask conditioned beer. The first day features a trade session where licensees, brewers, buyers and others connected to the trade muster for a few hours of drinking and networking. The remaining days are for the general public to enjoy and they certainly do that, but then beer festivals are about more than just tasting delicious beers, they are a chance to socialise and meet new people, beer is just the common interest that brings them together.

GBBF is an event that CAMRA should feel very proud of and one that is going from strength to strength. If you get a chance to visit the festival in future years then do so, or try a local festival near you. it wont be on the grand scale of the London festival but you will enjoy yourself for sure. Well done CAMRA for the Great British Beer Festival and here's to the event in 2014.

Champion Beer of Britain

What a wonderful title and how proud the brewers are to win the coveted CAMRA Champion Beer of Britain which is awarded annually at the CAMRA Great British Beer Festival. However are CAMRA really making the most of this accolade? As a CAMRA member I love real ale and thoroughly enjoy trying different brews, but I'd certainly challenge them on their choice of winners in recent years.

I have no axe to grind over the winners themselves, they are all wonderful beers and very worthy of the title. However I do have a concern that CAMRA have chosen winners that are not very accessible to the general public.  Recently they tend to come from small micro's who just don't have the capacity or marketing knowhow to exploit the win. Arguably this is a loss for the general public and to CAMRA.

Last years winner was Coniston Brewery No9 Barley Wine. I did not have the pleasure of trying this beer and have never seen it at any of the regional beer festivals I've attended. What chance then do the general public have to try this wonderful brew. I think the point I'm making is that it would be great to see a commercially available beer chosen as the winner for once. This probably means it would be one of the established Regional Brewers ale brands who have the marketing muscle to maximise the win. The last beer of this type was possibly Castle Rock Harvest Pale Ale in 2010 or looking further back, more likely Caladonian Deuchars IPA.

Just imagine if a London Pride, Wadworth 6X or even dare I say it, a Greene King Abbot Ale from an established Regional were to win.  Or, perhaps  a beer from the more recent powerful micros/regionals such as Thornbridge or Butcombe. These brewers are all capable of getting a winning beer into the market place quickly and on a wide scale, where it can enjoyed by the mass market of real ale drinkers.

I believe in an ideal scenario CAMRA would want their flagship champion beer for the year to be available for as many people as possible to try. CAMRA's objective is to promote the sales of real ale, so what better way than to have their best beer on show. If the champion beer is on a bar I think more drinkers are likely to try it, switching from their regular drinks, which could recruit new drinkers to the real ale category.

 In conclusion I think it's quite marvellous that we now have so many more smaller brewers all brewing great beers and in many cases these are at least the equal of those produced by their larger established competitors. So I'm not sure what CAMRA do to resolve this as the competition is based on a blind tasting. I'm just hoping that for 2013 we see a beer win that more people will have the chance to enjoy. A contentious blog post perhaps, but I really do enjoy the GBBF and most of all want real ale to prosper and grow.

Plymouth Beer Festival

Happy Beer Festival folk

Always a highlight of the South West beer scene, Plymouth Beer Festival took place at Plymouth Pavilions last weekend. Normally this event is full to the brim of thirsty drinkers, but this year's event corresponded with a heat wave and although the Pavilions is air-conditioned, the lure of the beach and the BBQ was probably too great for some and numbers were a little down this year.

Beer Festivals are really important show cases for brewers and their brands, a chance for new brewers and beers to make a name for themselves or old favourites to confirm their status. They are also good fun and we must not forget that above all else, drinking beer should always be a social and enjoyable business.

At Plymouth the entertainment was Dr Feelgood, a fine band from the 1970's who I'm delighted to say were really rather good on the night. As for the beers, then I was there with my day job promoting and show casing St Austell Brewery brands. I've learnt over the years that at these events you need both your established brands, but also some new kids on the block to spark some interest. Luckily St Austell have a vibrant new product development programme and this year we took 1913 Stout on draught and a special treat, Proper Job's big brother - BIG JOB!

The heat wave meant stout was always going to be a tough sell, but the Big Job double IPA, even at 8.5% abv got lots of interest, although we did limit servings to a maximum of half a pint. Big Job is a wonderful craft beer in the American IPA style, full of lashings of citrus hops. The flavour is full and zingy but the balance is quite good and its not a real bitter beer.

There were lots of new local beers I'd not tasted before and it was good to see Tavy Ales, of which their Ideal Pale Ale is a very good beer, had three beers on show. Other local brewers included Plymouth Beer Co and also a brewer from Lee Mill called Garage whose beers I did not get to try.

St Austell Brewery Tribute bar

As a marketing man and one that is justly proud of the success of St Austell Tribute, the one thing that was reinforced yet again at this festival was the power of brands. The first beer on our bar to sell it's first barrel was Tribute. Customers love to try new innovative or more likely oddly named beers, but they always come back for a beer they know and love. Many people who go to these events are also bamboozled by a range of beers they have never heard of and often they don't understand the difference in beers styles. So they go back to or stick with the brands they know, enjoy, trust or simply have just heard of before. So I was very pleased to say that Tribute was one of the most popular beers at the event.

Another really pleasing factor was that Tribute came through the beer judging as winner of it's category and will now be short listed for the GBBF 2014. The judging process was interesting. I sat on one panel and was head of my table. Other judges included local radio host, Gordon Sparks, who has a keen interest in real ale; a couple of licensee's and a host of local councillors. An interesting choice but to their credit Plymouth CAMRA had done their homework and used the process as a chance to highlight the plight of local pub closures to their local government representatives.

All told, even thought the wonderful sunny weather had an impact, the festival was a popular local success so well done to CAMRA for organising this once again.

 

Beer, Sausages, Cheese and Chocolate!

Rashleigh Arms Beer & Food night

A real mixture of food and drink and one which you would think could make the average person quite unwell, but this featured in a recent night I ran at the Rashleigh Arms (pictured) in Charlestown.

Beer and food is probably second only to craft beer as being  the buzz words in the beer industry at the moment. Every brewer, small or large is trying to associate their brand with a food dish. In truth, the brewers have not really cracked the association as yet with consumers. There is a lot of talk of thinking beer rather then wine when dining, but in practice very few people think like this. So there is a lot of work still to do!

However, you have to start somewhere and I like a number of other Beer Sommeliers are running beer and food nights of varying types. My night at  the Rashleigh turned out to be a huge success. It helped tremendously that licensee Rob, really wanted to do the night and was also very organised.

We started with matching the sausages first. The Cornish Bratwurst was matched with Korev, a fine crisp, clean Cornish Lager.  If you think of German sausages and beer/lager and how well they go together, it was hardly surprising that this worked well. This was followed by a sausage flavoured with 1913 Stout, which of course was matched with the beer of the same name, followed by a cracked black pepper sausage that matched Admiral's Ale. A spicy sausage matching a spicy beer, it worked well.

Next onto the cheese. This is perhaps the best food match of all as the acidity in the beer cuts through the creaminess of the cheese. Cornish Yarg went down well with Smugglers Vintage, the rich toffee vanilla of the ale balancing the fullness of a powerful cheese. A real surprise was how well smoked cheese matched Clouded Yellow with the natural banana, clove and coriander of the beer, scrubbing the tongue clean of the smoked cheese ready for the next mouthful. A real match of contrasts but they worked very well together.

Finally onto the chocolate and what we really needed here was a fruit beer, but St Austell don't have one in the range at the moment (watch this space!). However using Proper Black, a black IPA, full of citrus hops and expresso coffee flavours, then this was a fine match with a coffee flavoured chocolate.

In total we had over 50 people for the evening, all of which had been introduced of the concept of matching beer and food when dining. In my view there are no rights or wrongs with this concept, but some combinations do work better than others. Luckily everyone is different so try some experiments of your own.

Ramsbury Brewery

A recent visit to Wiltshire included a stop over in the Bell at Ramsbury, a fine pub in it's own right but made even better as its the showcase for the Ramsbury Brewery brands.

The pub itself is full of character and the food all that you would expect from a small rural town business at the heart of its community. Quite distinctive but wholesome. We also loved the honesty bar for those staying, at the top of the stairs and adjacent to the rooms. A great idea!

My first Ramsbury was the Flint Knapper, a good beer but it this was quickly followed but the Ramsbury 506 and what a great beer this is. A 5% IPA style brew, it was well balanced citrus, bitter and a touch of malt. I really like Hopback Summer Lightning but the 506 is certainly up there with it.

An unusual name, 506 is named after the American Parachute Regiment that was based in Ramsbury during the Second World War and the beer is a fitting tribute.

Ramsbury Brewery itself forms part of Ramsbury Estates, a large long established farming business on the outskirts of Ramsbury. The farm grows barley for brewing including the sought after Maris Otter variety and forms part of the stunning Kennet Valley. Living in Cornwall it's difficult to imagine countryside that will match the far South West but this certainly comes close.

The 506 was the start, but there are other beers worth a mention. Ramsbury Gold is the breweries best seller and you can see why. A golden easy drinking beer, it is a fine balance of malt and hops and the superb colour makes it very attractive to drinkers.

The next are probably two marmite beers. I'm not a great fan on honey beers, being too sweet and I prefer a hop bitterness. The Honeybee is a good honey beer and will have its fans but its not for me.


The final beer is a real marmite of a beast at 6.1% abv, quite literally! Named after the specialist breed of cattle farmed on the estate, the beer is quite a challenge. I found it a real meaty beer, quite smokey bacon, a bit spirituous and on the sweet side. However some people loved this beer and having used it at beer tastings and as part of the Craft Bottle Beer range we offer, I can appreciate it's finer points.

Good luck to Ramsbury Brewery, they are about to invest in a new brewery and they brew some great beers. Do try them if you see them.

Craft Bottle Beers

So Craft Bottle Beers finally got underway at Saltash Regatta last weekend. It has taken a lot of planning and hard work, a few false starts, not to mention costly mistakes, but at last we have begun to sell a few bottles of beer.

Our plan is to sell a selection of beers from local craft beers at events throughout the South West - its a hobby mainly but it does at least give me a chance to indulge my passion for beer and in particular bottled beer to enjoy at home.

Craft Bottle Beer Stand

Saltash Regatta is a two day event with local stall holders and producers all vying to sell their wares. Sadly the weather was not great but I'm delighted to say our stall was very popular. In fact the event rivalled some larger food and drink festivals for popularity and we were certainly pleased with how well we did.

Our stand could have been better and some things we planned to do in terms of branding did not work as hoped. However we were at least the equal if not better than many of the other stall holders.

Our first sale was a bottle of Cheddar Ales Potholer. a very tasty golden beer and one that

Golden/IPA's

proved to be a popular seller throughout the day. We had a range of 17 different beers and split them into beer styles to make it easier for customers to follow. The most popular style was the Golden/IPA range of which we had seven great beers. Of these special mention of the Ramsbury 506 as the first IPA to sell out. This is a wonderful beer and drinks very well in bottle - a fine balance of citrus hop that is not overly bitter.

Penpont Shipwreck Coast also sold well from this style as did the Piston Broke from Box Steam Brewery. Of the Pale ales,  Box Steam Tunnel Vision was the most popular with many local Cornish folk likening it to Doombar, although I'm not sure if that's good or bad!

We probably had too many Stouts on sale and although I personally love this style of beer and it is on the comeback, there are still many people who still find the roasty, toasty liquorish flavours challenging.

The final style we called Strong/Vintage ales. I was surprised how well these beers sold. Ramsbury Horny Highlander a 6.1% real meaty beer tasting of smokey bacon and slightly spirituous sold very well. I struggled with the flavour a little myself but lots of people liked this beer. Another lovely beer in this style was the Bellingers Moonlight, a fine dark malty beer erring on the side of a Porter but not quite.

So off soon to source more beer for our next confirmed event which is at Mount Edgcumbe Classic Car show on Sunday 4th August, although we still hope to find something suitable for late July as well. Lisa and I both loved the days, talking about beer and helping to guide people as to what flavours and styles will suit them best. As a Beer Sommelier this is a really satisfying part of what we are doing and it was great to impart a bit of knowledge to people who were genuinely interested.

Wish us luck for the next one.......

Beer and Cars Combined

There can be fewer unexpected locations to find a brewery than with Bellingers of Wantage. Traditionally brewing is closely associated with the farming industry and so many small breweries start life here, in fact farmers were once brewers as in the case of the Saison style of beer. Nowadays many start up breweries can be found on industrial sites and although this does not carry the mysterious charm that craft drinkers seek, it is very practical and commercially viable.

Front of the tin brewhouse

Bellingers however is fronted with a very modern car dealership for Vauxhall and Chevrolet cars. It's quite an impressive business and building and you would never know a brewery existed but for some signage on the forecourt. The car dealership boasts all that you would expect from a cutting edge sales business, with vehicles displayed to look their very best. The brewery on the other hand is situated in a shiny tin covered building that is hidden away at the rear with the dealership's service dept.

Bellingers are a 4th generation company and the brewery uses an image of Les Bellinger who flew with the RAF in the Second World War and then went on the lead and grow the company in the years thereafter. The company is now a major landmark as you approach Grove and Wantage from Oxford.

Being an ex resident of Wantage and certainly proud of my Oxfordshire roots I am delighted to find  this brewery and recommend their beers.

Two beers I purchased were the IPA and the Moonlight. The branding on the former is not great and does not reflect the beer, which certainly is a refreshing IPA, however the colour ways suggest a darker beer. The branding on the Moonlight I liked a lot better, reflected Bellingers heritage and the label colours and balance just seemed to imply a quality beer.






Bellingers IPA & Moonlight
 



The IPA had a hint of chocolate combined with citrus on the aroma - chocolate orange like! The palate was more hop, pineapple, herbal like, but there was a hint of fruity esters as well. The finish was bitter and touch astringent which actually I quite liked. Overall a beer in the English IPA style and very drinkable.

The Moonlight was the more interesting of the two beers. Chocolate and fruity esters on the aroma, there was a lot going on here. The palate was fruit cake, spice, roast and a bit nutty. The mouth feel was nice and full, with good conditioning bringing the beer to life. I liked this beer better and it is a good example of a Strong pale ale.

I' m looking forward to my next visit home when I will make another trip to this craft brewery to try some of their excellent brews.

Yeovil Ales

Passing through Yeovil recently was a good opportunity to call into the brewery of the same name to buy some of their excellent beers. The brewery is located on an industrial estate as is quite common now for smaller breweries. The signage around the brewery is not great and it is easily missed.

Three beers from Yeovil ales

Having spent a lifetime working for Regional brewers, it is quite sobering to realise how few people keep the mash tuns churning of smaller breweries such as this. However their beers are none-the-less still very good.

Star Gazer flavour wheel

I purchased three examples of their beers. The first thing that struck me was the branding on the bottles. All are clearly part of a quite distinctive family style. The labels are clear and offer good standout, in fact they are right up their with some of the better labels I've seen and very good for a smaller brewer.

Star Gazer is a really easy drinking 4% bitter. A good beer in this style is one that is not too challenging but has enough flavour to keep you interested. Star Gazer has a degree of floral hop balanced with roast malt, but the key is balance, its easy to drink.

The flavour is a toasty roasted bitter beer with floral hop. Also interesting for a relatively low abv beer such as this is that its a bottled conditioned beer.



Lynx Wildcat flavour wheel

Lynx Wildcat is a 4.3% brewery conditioned beer. The aroma is grassy and touch herbal, but overwhelming hop. The taste is biscuit malt but an overriding tropical pineapple hop is the dominent flavour. I really liked this beer. It is in the English IPA style, drinks well and is on a par with other classic English brewed beers of the same style.

The name commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Yeovil built Lynx Helicopter.

Stout Hearted flavour wheel

The final beer I tried was the Stout Hearted, as the name suggests a fine 4.3% dark stout, plenty of roasted malt and hint of chocolate on the aroma, but one unusual thing about this stout is the higher than normal level of hop you might get in a beer of this style. Not quite a black IPA, but certainly there is a hint of this in the taste of this beer. 

 

All told I really like the Yeovil Ales. They were good quality and very drinkable. The label designs were excellent and easily as good as many of the larger brewers produce. I'd certainly recommend beers from this brewer.

 

 

Stouts & Porters

Without doubt the most popular beer style at the moment is IPA. These heavily hopped golden beers have really caught the imagination, fuelled by the interest in craft beers and use of American and Australian hops. However one other beer style that is also making something of a comeback is the good old fashioned stout or porter!

Now, most brewers bottled beer range is not complete without a beer of this style and its great to see. They are really very different to IPA's and Pale Ale's and have also moved forward from the harsh roast flavour that some stouts have had in the past. It's now common in these beers for chocolate and coffee to be dominant flavours making them sweeter and fuller.

Hook Norton Double Stout is a fine example of this style, a good balance of chocolate and roast and not as sweet as some of the more modern stouts can be. St Austell Brewery's recent addition of 1913 Cornish Stout is step back in time as the name suggests. Well balanced again, it has that touch of liquorish and roast typical of an oatmeal stout that make this a bit more of a savoury drink. Fullers London Porter is a quite superb beer and in my view one of the best beers of this style on the market. Finally, just like a dessert, Meantime Chocolate Porter is the perfect beer to finish the night on.

There was a time when the mere mention of the words stout and porter would be a firm indicator not to buy! However the next time you visit the local supermarket, sidestep the IPA's for once and give one these great beers a try. Don't spend the whole night drinking them, you won't enjoy it, but they do make a superb contrast to your normal beer choice so slipping one of these into your repertoire of an evening will enhance your overall enjoyment of drinking beer.

And to finish, if you did not already know, the difference between a stout and a porter is historically strength (abv%). Porter was traditionally the standard fayre that the London Porters drank and stout was a word used to describe the strongest beers - in fact historically there were even pale stouts brewed, but then that's another story.....

  

Importance of Beer Festivals!

One thing I've enjoyed reading over the weekend are the tweets emanating from people attending Reading Beer Festival. This along with conversations I've had this week with the organisers of Plymouth Beer Festival, has reminded me of the vital role these festivals play in showcasing and promoting sales of cask ale.

However, there are problems...beer quality at these events can at best be described as variable. Most regional CAMRA groups - the most common of beer festival organisers don't have the finance or equipment to provide cooling on their beers. Thus although different methods are used to try and keep the beer cool, much is often served at room temperature, particularly as the festival progresses in time.

The more popular the event, the more people and the hotter the room gets and the more beer in each barrel  that is drunk, increasing the serving beer temperature a lot quicker. Not great when most brewers and many pubs are stringent in ensuring their beers are served at perfect cellar temperature. So more often than not, the beer festival that is designed to promote the sales of cask ale, ends up serving beer that is too warm, indifferent quality, not that palatable and certainly not what consumers are used to experiencing in pubs.

Financially beer festivals are a risk - beer is expensive and a lot of money has to be invested up front to buy stock. It's easy to get wrong. Have too much and you can lose a lot of money. Have too little and you end up with a lot of unhappy paying customers.

Barrels at Bristol Beer Festival

So why do this and why are beer festivals still so popular? For one it's down to passion. The people that organise these events are passionate about beer. They are real ambassadors for the category and live and breath cask ales, working tirelessly to ensure beer festivals are a success.

Another reason is that many consumers see cask ales as British. They want to be patriotic and see a home grown product succeed over and above the larger mass produced lagers, kegs and a certain Irish stout. Many consumers are willing to overlook a slightly warm and unpalatable pint, in-fact it's almost expected and part of the experience - unpleasant as some warm beers can be.

Beer Festivals are also great social occasions where friends can meet, enjoy a drink and swap stories. Beer is a great ice breaker for strangers to converse, the one thing they have in common is a taste for beer so instantly there is something to talk about. Music has also become a key part of some festivals so the event is more of a party.

From the brewers perspective festivals provide a vehicle to show case their brands, launch new beers and reward beers and brewers for excellence. Every brewer wants to win an award at these events, no matter how small the festival or beer category. They are important from this respect giving the smaller brewers in particular a level playing field to compete against the larger more establish regional brewers.

I have spent many a long day at beer festival's, both socialising but mostly working and believe their importance is huge. Every person that goes to a beer festival is a potential ambassador for beer. Brewers should be trying hard to reach these people and interact with festival organisers, who themselves are important opinion formers. Some brewers spend a great of money on marketing and overlook this grass roots form of reaching customers. Perhaps that's to the benefit of the smaller brewers whose only marketing option is to look at events like this - interesting then that the surge and interest in cask and craft beers has come with the growth of smaller brewers!

Good luck to all Beer Festival organisers. I for one am looking forward to my next event at Plymouth.

Beer & BBQ's!

So at last the sun has arrived and suddenly everyone starts thinking about al-fresco dining and the good old English BBQ. Growing up in the 70's and 80's, BBQ's were something only the local pub did as a treat but now every back garden has one.

Instantly BBQ's are associated with a can of Fosters for refreshment, but just like the food we cook has moved on to become more adventurous, our choice of refreshment needs to change as well.

That's not to say there is anything wrong with a refreshing lager on a hot summers evening, but don't limit yourself to that when it comes to the choice of beer. So what beer's go best with a BBQ? Lighter golden beers seem to be the most appropriate as naturally we drink with our eyes so here are a few suggestions of great beers to enjoy. Somehow the heavier stouts and strong ales don't lend themselves to this, great beers that they are though!



Old Empire & Summer Lightning

Marston's Old Empire is packaged in a clear bottle and looks attractive. Be careful of light strike but this beer is a good old fashioned English IPA. A clean refreshing bitterness with good but not over powering hop. It also has a good alcohol punch at 5.7% abv so a beer to respect. You don't often see it on draught but in bottle it's a gem.

Hopback Summer Lightning is a real favourite of mine. A classic beer and one of the first golden ales. It is a CAMRA prize winner and has managed to become an all year round beer rather than just a beer for the summer. The aroma is a grassy hop and hint of lemon. The taste is hop citrus, grassy and dry refreshing savoury finish, but not at all harsh. Hoppy yes, but not for hopheads.

St Austell Proper Job is a wonderful beer, packed full of citrus hop, lemon and pineapple, the Chinook hop gives a pine resinous character while the cascade compliments with a touch of spice. One of the first real hoppy English beers in the American style, its been overtaken by many imitators now in terms of hoppiness, however the bottle in particular is really well balanced drink. Plenty of bitterness without being completely unbalanced.

All three of these beers are great with the BBQ, far more interesting than a lager but just as satisfying. Do look for other IPA's though. If you like hops then go for the American style ones but for a real balanced beer that will not overpower your dinner, the English IPA's work best.

Vale of the White Horse

These three beers all arrived for my birthday and excellent choices they were too. White Horse Brewery and West Berks Brewery are long established and robust micro brewers. Bellingers on the other hand are more recent and brew in the back of the family garage business of the same name.

West Berks Brewery are famous for Maggs Magnificent Mild, but this bottle of Goldstar was a super beer with old fashioned roast malt & burnt toffee with hints of honey and good bitterness, a fine beer indeed. Shame about the branding on the bottle, I certainly needed my glasses to appreciate that!

The White Horse Bitter at 5.1% had all the hall marks of a fine beer, with the branding on the bottle very striking and implied a confident and robust beer. It delivered in this respect being roast and malty with a hint of toffee, but perhaps the flavours were not as big as the Goldstar. None-the-less a good beer.

Goldstar left, White Horse centre, Bellingers right

The Bellingers Moonlight had more chocolate and nuttiness about it, as well as some roast malt offset by a little acidity. Of the three beers my favourite would be the Goldstar, but all were good examples of fine English Pale Ales.

My reason for featuring these is that some beers are instantly recognised as good and interesting because of the geographical area of origination. For example beers from Yorkshire and Cornwall are instantly thought of as good beers because of their county of origin. However the area of the country that cuts across Berkshire and Oxfordshire, which is known as the Vale of the White Horse, also has some fine brewers and their beers compare well with any from the fore-mentioned counties. Do try them if you get a chance.

Cider & Ginger Beer

Everything seems to come full circle in the brewing and brands world. Categories grow and then proliferate into other categories as brand owners look for growth options. One example is cider.

Cider has enjoyed a tremendous last few years with the Magners fuelled growth creating consumer interest and opportunities for other cider makers. A number of quality ciders have emerged to the fore as well as other ciders that are targeted at the 18 to 25 age category.  The latter have taken sales from Premium Packaged Spirit (PPS) brands such as Bacardi Breezer and WKD.

However, as more brands enter the market the traditional cider has begun to take on the uniform of the PPS.  Now, fruit ciders are all the rage and this is where the growth is coming from. Flavour wise these are very close to the fruity PPS brands we became so familiar with. It is basically that sweet fruity flavour that younger people find quite accessible. 

Another example is the ginger beer category. Perhaps initially closer to a PPS in flavour anyway, the market leader here, Crabbies is about to launch a Strawberry version. Consumers will doubtless show interest in this with the power of the Crabbies brand behind it and we’ll soon see the traditional PPS, fighting for the same crowded market place with a fruit cider and a fruit beer!

So, although the PPS brand is in decline, it has been replaced with a version of cider and possibly beer that is not too dissimilar in flavour to its PPS counterpart. I wonder what’s next - perhaps the interest in craft beer is the next category to find its way to the younger drinker?

In praise of the Regional Brewer

Love them or not, Regional Brewers have become beacons of hope for cask ale drinkers over recent years. However they are not always popular with consumers being associated with local monopolies, accused by some of having a stranglehold over choice and price. Also the recent interest in craft beers has led to Regionals being over shadowed for more fashionable, younger and exciting brewers who are new to the market.

But let’s be positive, cask ale drinkers have a lot to thank Regional Brewers for! They have done a great job in maintaining and growing the cask ale market as multi-national companies and national brewers have moved away from cask into lager and cider. Often much maligned, Greene King have continually invested in their cask brands and recently announced a £4 million investment in Old Speckled Hen and Greene King IPA. Marston’s too have supported the sector with their sponsorship of the England cricket team with Pedigree. In London, Fullers with London Pride have done TV advertising with James May, whilst Wells & Young’s have invested hugely for Bombardier.

What is often overlooked is that as the bigger regionals invest in marketing their brands, they also help to sustain and grow the whole cask sector. Fo example If someone is encouraged by the advertising to switch from lager to Greene King IPA, they are converted into a cask ale drinker which in turn may lead them to try many other beers.

Regional Brewers have also been very active in the campaign against the hated Beer duty Escalator. The news this week that this is to be removed, plus and a further 1p drop in beer duty, is a great credit to their sustained efforts over the past few years.

Finally, let’s not forget that Regional Brewers brew some fantastic beers, all of which are produced to a consistently high standard. The word consistency is something Regionals brands have become synonymous for. Micro’s and Craft Breweries (and I don’t know the difference) brew some very tasty beers as well, but they are perhaps less consistent. One week it’s wonderful but the following week it can be less so. However the Regional brewer has the systems and equipment in place to brew consistently good quality beer every week.

So in conclusion, do be positive if you have a local Regional Brewer and support their beers and pubs.  

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Craft Beer Rising?

Craft Beer Rising?

It most certainly is. I attended the Craft Beer Rising Beer Festival in Shorditch, London recently. A great little beer festival with live music, it was very different to the usual CAMRA run event.

First of all there was no mass row upon row of cask beers or huge beer list with silly names for that matter. Brewers were invited to attend and each given the same size stand, so no matter if you were a super regional such as Greene King, or a small up and coming micro brewer such as Rebel Brewing Co, brewers were pitched equally alongside each other.

The next most noticable thing was the age group of the general public. I've attended my share of CAMRA events in the past and they tend to attract people like me.....older, experienced ale drinkers and mostly males. CBR was totally different, fresh younger faces were there of both genders, all eager to try the new craft beers and some of the old favourites on offer.

For attracting younger people CBR should be applauded. Yes, the organisation could be improved and I'm sure a few things will change next year, but for me the most important thing was that for once, new drinkers were being attracted to the category.

So what was the catalyst for this? As good as the beer festival was with the music it played, I believe it's the "C" word that attracts younger people - Craft beer is cutting edge, its fashionable for younger people, just as the term "Real Ale" was fashionable when I was younger. The definition of craft beer is not yet clearly defined and perhaps one day the brewing industry will set about this, but for the moment, if craft beer means beer for younger people then I'm all for it.