Ladies Choice!

Having attended a number of Christmas Fayre's in the run up to the festive period, it's apparent how often beer is bought as a gift, especially by ladies for their fathers, husbands, brothers and uncles, or as that annoyingly difficult "Secret Santa" offering!

Beer does make a great gift. Speaking from experience I am thrilled when I receive beer as a gift because its very likely the beer chosen would not be something I would normally buy myself, hence I'm forced to try something new, or indeed something old - I recently received a bottle of Newcastle Brown, not a beer I'd remotely think of buying so to receive this iconic beer as a gift was very welcome. As a beer drinker receiving beer gifts is often the inroad to a new regular beer purchase of the future, so brewers and retailers should not overlook this once a year opportunity to get people to sample brands.

Choosing a beer gift can be hard as brewers and retailers tend to offer limited clues as to what the contents of a bottle might contain. Also, where a beer style is stated, if you don't understand its meaning it does little to help. For many ladies this is where the problems begin, so as a Beer Sommelier working at the point of purchase can really help. I normally ask where the gift recipient lives, their rough age, perhaps their interests and then if they do have any idea on what beer brands/styles the person currently drinks. I then try to match a beer to suit.

There are many ladies now who are very knowledgeable about beer, but for many who buy beer as gifts at these events that's not the case. So a little guidance is often much appreciated and can lead to them buying the chosen beer as part of their regular shop in the future. Remember, most shopping is done by the lady of the house and if a beer name sticks in her mind that her husband liked at Christmas, then its likely that beer will become part of the regular shop.

But back to Christmas. Another issue is that brewers tend to come at gifts from a very corporate viewpoint. The gift is a brewers box and rarely do you see gift boxes related to an occasion or season. That's not the case with other luxury items as Christmas gift boxes in the world of Chocolate are common place so there is some learning there from other product categories.

Hopefully all the gift boxes sold by myself and colleagues over the festive period will be well received by the recipients and Santa has them safely loaded onto his sleigh for delivery on the big day!

Beer Tastings

Programme of event Cornwall Food Festival

Two recent beer tastings reminded me just how much interest there is from the general public when you give them a little bit of guidance, knowledge and above all make the event entertaining.

A recent beer tasting at Cornwall Food Festival in Truro began slowly but quickly started to flow as people took notice of what was happening. Having done a number of tastings I've learned that first and foremost don't talk too much, people get bored and switch off, they are there to taste beer but some interaction between the audience and myself makes it more interesting. Having a beer and food match element helps to achieve this as its easy for people to take part and there is no right or wrong.

At Food Festivals I think its really important to select food from other suppliers at the event. I selected delicious caramel chocolate from Kernow Chocolate, rich mature creamy Cheddar cheese from Davidstow, the famous Cornish Blue cheese and finally some succulent Cornish sausages from Tamblyns of Saltash. The point is that as well as show casing some great beers, its also an opportunity to promote the excellent produce from fellow exhibitors. Ideally we want people to be impressed with both the beer and the food match, enough to buy both so everyone wins.

On with the tasting. I always start with Proper Job or an equivalent big IPA, the flavours are easy to recognise and describe. This is followed by a robust malt driven beer, normally HSD. These are two very opposite beers but they demonstrate the two main sources of flavour in beer (hops and malt) admirably. I don't go too deep into how a beer is brewed, its more about how it tastes and a little bit of history or reason for being about the beer. Add a few comical quips and interaction with the audience and this normally makes for a fast paced and interesting tasting. We tasted eight different beers ending with the quirky Belgium style Kriek beer, Tamar Creek. A wholly distinctive and challenging sour cherry beer, but matched with a rich Pate the tartness is rebuffed by the oily meat for a truly wonderful balanced taste experience.

A second tasting took place at the Rashleigh Arms in Charlestown for Cornwall CAMRA, again based on beer and food. A similar format to the previous tasting I added a beer related quiz to get people talking at the start of the event. We had around 60 people, many of them new to a CAMRA meeting so well done to the our friends at CAMRA who promoted the event to attract new people and were rewarded with an excellent turnout.

CAMRA members are quite knowledgeable about beer and love to discuss their favourite brews, but we struck a happy balance tasting the St Austell range of beers together and matching them with some excellent food choices supplied by the pub. A great evening was had and we enjoyed a few guest beers as well including Westmalle Dubbel and Flensburger Pilsner.

All told at both tastings it is likely we had over 100 people combined for these events. I'm convinced the format of focusing on beer and food rather than the technical brewing process is more engaging and entertaining for members of the public. As a Beer Sommelier my role is to be an ambassador for beer and I think I was successful in both talks here.

Reflections on Plymouth Beer Festival 2015, Cracks, Cooling and Chris Farlowe!

Saturday Night entertainment at Plymouth

A well established Beer Festival, Plymouth was once again a bastion of cask ale for the folk of South Devon. However, for all the PR, positive talk, fine beer and good fun that was had, there was perhaps the odd crack starting to appear in one of the South West's premier beer events.

Regretfully, some old stalwarts of the organising team have either sadly passed away or are unable to continue for other reasons. However, fresh willing people have picked up the mantle and although they don't yet have the knowledge that comes from years of running such an event, new blood brings new ideas so is not a bad thing. Hopefully it will be good in the long run as the new organisers get their teeth into the event and start to bring their own ideas to fruition. The latter is what Plymouth really needs so good luck to them for next year.

 So, here are my thoughts on the 2015 event.

Firstly, held at Plymouth Pavilions, this is a superb venue but it is a large cavernous area that can lack atmosphere and soul. It needs a bit of window dressing to make it look good for a beer festival and in 2015 this was a little thin on the ground. The Pavilions has a lot going for it as a venue, not least because it is in central Plymouth and easy to get to for most, so I'd like to see the event continue here. It just needs a large splash of beer related colour and paraphernalia to help it along the way!

Secondly, and I'm sorry to repeat an old bug bear, the beer quality here could be improved with some proper cooling equipment. CAMRA rely on overnight air conditioning to bring down the temperature, but come Saturday afternoon many of the beers are at less than perfect temperature and certainly not show-cased at their best. It's easy to lay the blame for this at CAMRA's door but I think the responsibility lies as much with the brewers and wholesalers who sell CAMRA the beer.

In my view they should ensure their beers are always served at their optimum temperature and supply the correct equipment to do this. This is potentially a huge investment but some of the larger brewers could do this. Not supplying cooling is a short term saving, BUT, potentially much longer term pain is being done as consumers try the beer, have a disappointing experience and then don't choose cask ale in a pub. The long term losers are the brewers, pub operators and wholesalers, not CAMRA or Plymouth Beer Festival!

Thirdly, more pre-event advertising needs to take place for the festival. CAMRA need to whet the appetite of the Plymouth public. I'm not sure how much that really happened for 2015 and as a result numbers were down on the previous year. Its easy to say this and we should remember CAMRA is a voluntary organisation and their members try their level best, but they don't always have the time or the skills to make this happen, so it's a difficult challenge to overcome.

Finally, and perhaps this is most contentious, apart from the quiet session the event would really benefit from some more entertainment/music. Perhaps its a good opportunity to let some fresh untried local bands to have a go. So long as their sound is controlled and they are not too loud, they could attract a whole new audience to the event.

To finish it would not be complete without commenting on how good the music choice on Saturday night was. Some old stagers of the 1960's, the music was foot tapping, good quality and some great old favourites. Not least the star of the show was Chris Farlowe, he of Handbags and Gladrags fame. Still a wonderful voice sir, you were a highlight of an entertaining evening.

Reflections on GBBF 2015 - its not just about the Beer!

St Austell Brewery bar team

It would be remiss of me not to write about the hugely popular GBBF (Great British Beer Festival) in London. I've attended the event for the last three years now as part of the St Austell Brewery bar team and 2015 was equally as good as previous years.

It never ceases to amaze me of the organisation that goes into producing any large beer festival but GBBF is something different. It's not perfect, it has its flaws, but its run by an enthusiastic group of volunteers who without fail manage to put on a festival to be proud of and one that showcases some of the best beers available. Congratulations CAMRA and all its willing volunteers for making this happen.

However, it's also true that Beer Festivals should be fun as well as giving people the chance to try some great beers. Working on my bar it was clearly apparent, that fuelled by some fine Cornish ales and equally great mix of music, customers where having fun.

The "m" word (music) is one that other beer festivals often over look. Music and beer go hand in hand as much as beer and football, so I think its only right that more festival organisers should take their entertainment offering as well as the beer a bit more seriously. On the St Austell bar we had a resident DJ who played a mix of tracks appropriate for the time of day and customer age groups - that's really important as who wants to hear heavy rock early on a Wednesday!

At other regional beer festivals CAMRA tend to book bands to play in the evening sessions and the remaining times are quiet. Although I respect the need for a quiet session I think its time CAMRA started to add to the atmosphere of their events with more background or regular music slots. It does not need to be a band blasting your ear drums, a DJ mix of 60's, 70's or 80's classic tracks are great for raising the atmosphere and getting the feet tapping . Also, one thing that CAMRA and real ale needs to do is to appeal to younger people so the introduction of more music would surely help with this.

Dare I add there might also be a place for a sports screen at some festivals. If there is a good match on the TV then why not employ a large screen for this to be shown. If this attracts more people, or keeps people at the event, costs permitting its worth considering.

So for me, although GBBF 2015 was a very enjoyable and successful event, the popularity of the St Austell bar with its music made me aware that's "its not just about the beer"!

When Craft Beers Attack!

I get to try lots of different beers, most of which are wonderful, taste good, look good and have a nice aroma. However I've also experienced a number of poor beers recently and sad to say they seem to have a couple of things in common. They masquerade under the "craft" name and disappointingly they are often produced by small micro brewers.

Recently I tasted an IPA that definitely had a strong rasping hop bitterness, but sadly it was overpowered by an immense diacetyl off flavour, the sort that the first sip tastes good but you know the second will be a sip too much. Another lager was full of phenolic flavours (that's most unpleasant), whilst an IPA was infected with acetaldehyde. The branding on these beers looked great and very appealing but sadly the beer just did not live up to that resulting in an attack on the taste buds of an unwanted kind!

What is a little concerning is that it seems possible to hide behind the word craft and produce beers that are less than great. To some it's perhaps the charm that there is a bit of funkiness going on, but actually I really want to taste the malt, hops and fermentation enhanced flavours that the beer should have, I'm not so keen on flavours that should not be there!

If you read the descriptions on these bottles they make no mention of the off flavours experienced above so they should not really be present and are unwelcome guests. Regretfully, the layman cannot easily identify some of the promised flavours that should be there let alone off flavours, so they become the norm and acceptable. Also many are packaged in the smaller 330ml bottle and this too might be a smokescreen to indifferent quality, as most people are used to drinking the larger 500ml so expect the smaller bottle and the word craft to offer a different experience.

So where do I stand on this. I am all for encouraging choice and innovation from the brewers but it should not come at the cost of quality. The word craft has invigorated the beer category, recruited new younger drinkers and forced many established brewers to innovate. However, I think too much can go into trying to make a beer standout with unusual or higher than normal levels of ingredients, rather than working on balance, quality and above all making sure the beer that's offered for sale is consistently good and drinkable. To this effect perhaps some of the smaller brewers should take a leaf out of the larger brewers quest for quality and consistency, add that to their armoury and an attack of craft beers brewed by the small brewer would always be welcome!

Once Great Ale Brands

Courage Best Bitter

I grew up with Courage Best Bitter (CBB) in the villages and towns of Oxfordshire and Berkshire, where every other pub was a Courage pub so it was quite ubiquitous. The good thing about CBB is that for a young man, the flavour was never that challenging and far more accessible than the other locally brewed beer, Morland Original. The latter was a proper bitter beer, the sort the younger palate struggles with, whereas CBB, well that was easy. Having said that, CBB was not a great beer, but it was a great brand.

As I grew to enjoy real ale more and more I quickly realised that the insipid and sometimes wishy washy CBB was an average beer with limited flavour. It was also inconsistent as the cellar practices of some Courage tenants left a bit to be desired and the beer not robust enough to take any malpractices. However what made CBB a great brand was that is was so easy to drink making it accessible to most; its critical mass where every other pub stocked it and finally the marketing investment to encourage drinking it.

The real demise of CBB came as a result of its various ownerships over the years (including Imperial Tobacco, Fosters Brewing, S & N and latterly Wells & Youngs); the growth of standard lager in the 1990's with its huge marketing investment and finally the demise of a tied estate where sales of pubs and permitted guest beers eroded sales as a result of the 1988 Monopolies and Mergers Act.

Marketing for Courage tended to feature around its London, Thames Valley and West Country heartlands and who can forget "Take Courage"strap line that ran for years or the Cockerel logo. The Courage brand also featured heavily as a sponsor of sport including rugby union and Reading FC. However, the trends in the 1990's saw a rapid growth in standard lagers, where the likes of Carlsberg and Fosters attracted all the new drinkers to the market. Slowly the CBB drinkers began to die out and the beer found it hard to attract new drinkers. Sadly for CBB, its not part of the recent interest in craft beers and has been over taken by the equally bland Doom Bar as the ubiquitous beer for the South of England.

Current owners Charles Wells Brewing have done a good job to arrest the decline but the future for CBB looks bleak, its not interesting, it has limited marketing support and no real tied pub estate. How much longer will we see this beer, I suspect sadly it will be a very minor brand in 10 years time, appealing to the Reading and Bristol areas and may not even be brewed at all.

Wadworth 6X
Unlike CBB, 6X is a great beer and was also a brilliant brand, so just what has gone wrong here. It was once revered by many in the 1970's, quickly becoming a very fashionable beer and attracted many younger drinkers to the sector.

The beer is actually a fine beer. A nice fruitiness matched with a nutty malt flavour, it does not lack for taste. Perhaps that malt driven flavour has fallen out of favour a little where the search for hop bitterness by the craft beer fraternity has taken preference, but that still does not explain the fall from grace for such a great beer.

In my view I think you have to look closer to home with some regrettable decision making by Wadworth . This included selling the marketing rights to the brand to Whitbread in the 1990's where a sudden growth was then followed by a loss of love for it as this multi-national company moved onto other objectives. 6x reached a peak but from then on it was on the decline and received no focus. Wadworth took the ownership back and spent big marketing bucks to try and arrest the slump with an advertising campaign around sex. It was high risk and an attempt to appeal to the younger market. Sadly it failed and at the same time turned off many existing drinkers.

Wadworth then decided to focus more on their pub estate and then sold off much of their distribution, making sales into the freetrade harder. Beer sales continued to decline and Wadworth have recently undergone redundancies.

Today, 6X is still a great beer, it has the support of a pub estate which helps, but receives only limited marketing spend. It has been overtaken by the likes of St Austell Tribute in sales and its difficult to see things changing much. The future of the beer is entwined with the future of Wadworth and their pubs. They might one day decide to get out of brewing? I hope not as this is a classic beer and one which all beer lovers want to see survive and thrive.

Craft Beer Rising 2015

An amazing event in many ways, Craft Beer Rising did not fail as being its usual annual eye opener for the established brewer.

A trip to London and in particular Shoreditch is always interesting. We visited a few pubs in the area and one thing that struct me was the lack of established ale brands on show and the increase in beers and brewers I'd not seen before. Also it was clear that the 300ml bottle is an ever popular pack size, many full of funky beers with wonderful names I'd not heard of. So all very exciting that there are lots smart young brewers out there producing great new beers and stretching the boundaries of style and flavours, or so it would seem........

Because, in some ways Craft Beer Rising also showed that every small brewer seems to be doing the hopped beer and the IPA style in particular to the extreme. The IPA category is still blossoming and its certainly the most well known ale catagory (apart from Stout) that consumers seem to recognise. However I could not help wondering what comes next, where does it go from here? Even more hops, new varieties perhaps? Maybe there will come a point where the strongly hopped beer or beer with the latest hop variety ceases to be fashionable!

Every brewer at the event had an IPA style beer, most had a Pale Ale, lots had Ryle Ales as well as the obligatory dark ale or Stout. There was some innovation, on our bar, the St Austell Brewery bar we had a superb German Gose style beer that was brilliant and caused much interest. However for me there was one classic beer style missing?

Missing or over looked by most was the traditional English Golden ale. A very drinkable and commercial beer, the hops used provide balance and a touch of savoury refreshment rather than dominate a beer. Perhaps these beers have grown out of fashion over the past few years - their flavours don't grab you by the throat but instead gently tip-toes across the taste buds, whetting the appetite rather than overpowering it ready for the next delicious slurp. Sadly they just don't stand out in a crowd and there lies the problem. In a market that is constantly looking for the next most hopped beer, the golden ale will always get overlooked.

A common question on our bar was "What have you got that does not contain lots of hops? The consumer is still looking for the lighter colour beer but one with less bite, so the real challenge might be less hops to brew a beer that consumers really want to drink rather than more?

There are lots of fine golden beers out there, many brewed by the established brewers. Maybe their labels and pump clips have become too familiar or old fashioned but don't overlook them, they have a lot to offer and you'll find them a very pleasant and enjoyable drink.

Cheers!