Great Pale Bitters Recently Imbibed!

Since I last posted about good pale hoppy bitters, I've tasted quite a few more, and pretty excellent ones too, including this 'American Pale Ale' from Beat Ales of Bristol (website). Rockabilly is a 5.3% pale golden ale, as you'd expect from the label, with plenty of body and plenty of fruit in the aroma. It has a bitter dry finish, quite strong and I noted "pretty damn good!" which says it all really, much enjoyed by me.

Next, from Welsh brewers Bragdy Conwy (website) is their 4.4% California, a 'Citrus Blonde', a pale golden bitter, slightly sweet start with a fruity flavour and hints of grapefruit in the aroma and taste. Another ale with a dry bitter finish, a quality long-term readers will appreciate I value, though not to everyone's taste. Me? I loved it, why else write about it!

OK, Kent Brewery (website), you can guess where they're based, supplied a more refreshing ale than I expected from the writing on the pump clip, the 4.5% Simcoe. This is a single hopped ale, simcoe being the hop used, this really does say it all on the label! Although I didn't get 'earthy', and would never have guessed 'pine' from a blind taste, but I did get grapefruit in the aroma and taste, and a nice dry bitter finish, nice one. I'll have to write about a greater variety of ales next time, but this blog is about my personal favourites, there you go!

I've had two great ales from more local to me, East Sussex brewer Franklins (website), both of which I've written about before, hence just the one photograph. First, their 4.4% Resurrection is my favourite of the two, probably helped by the hops, amarillo, galaxy, centennial and citra all used! Grapefruit in the aroma and taste, a very pale golden colour, and very nice, thank you! 

The second is their stronger 5.5% pale amber bitter, North Shore IPA, which has a hint of caramel in the taste, plenty of body as you'd expect from the strength. The New Zealand hop rakau is used and delivers a fruity aroma and taste, hint of peach and a slight sweetness which dries out at the finish becoming a bitter aftertaste, another goody.

And from Derbyshire (I'm traversing the country here!) Shiny Brewing (website) came up with another stunner, the 5.3% Disco Balls, even the pump clip is very 70s! Obviously plenty of hops used for this golden bitter, which has a nice fruity aroma, fruity taste, mango and peach, with a hint of citrus, slightly sweet at first and dries out, but not overly bitter, and very more-ish!

From Scotland now, and please excuse the image, I have no idea how it went wrong, probably shook when I took it! Fallen Brewing (website) and their quiet excellent 5.4% Grapevine (subtitled New World Pale). Hops galore used in this: magnum, citra, wai-iti, hallertau blanc and ekuanot, from the 'new world' obviously, so plenty of everything really! A  golden amber colour with a big fruity aroma and good body. Citrus, mango, lychee and peach detected in the taste, very bitter and very dry, you'd either love it or hate it, me? Quote: "gorgeous!"

Finally, for today, from Sheffield brewer Kelham Island (website), where I worked part-time whilst undertaking my PhD research, their 4.3% Easy Rider, which just seems to get better and better! Pale golden bitter, hints of citrus, so very refreshing, an excellent quaffing bitter, cheers!

Women and Beer: 2. Brewsters and Witchcraft?

I have been investigating which pub is the oldest pub in Hastings, following the closure of the King's Head, the previously well-acknowledged oldest pub. I have my own thoughts on this; more of this in blogs at www.steveonhastings.blogspot.co.uk - However, when looking into the history of the Stag Inn in All Saints Street, I discovered some very interesting information concerning brewsters, and allegations of witchcraft!

The building of the Stag Inn is 17th century, when the practice of walling up a cat, with the animal often still alive, is known to have been a medieval precaution against evil spirits. The tradition survived into later centuries in remote areas such as the high Pennines. Marion Gibson, Professor of Literature at Exeter University, whose 'research investigates the relationships between writings about magic and the supernatural and those about identity, spanning the period c.1500-present', says that "Cats were often put into walls as some kind of good luck charm. It seems to have been quite a widespread practice across the European continent.” 

During the medieval era, as we know, hundreds of women were falsely accused of witchcraft (one presumes falsely) and executed. Many of those women were actually brewers or 'brewsters' as well as midwives etc. Indeed, the visual motifs we associate with female witches date from this time. The extraordinary thing is that all of them, the 'familiar' or cat, the bubbling cauldron, the broom, the pointed hat, are also symbols associated with brewing beer.  

Cats would be kept to keep vermin at bay that would otherwise eat the malted barley; the bubbling cauldron, or 'kettle', is the vessel in which the ingredients are boiled. Then, when the brew cools down, yeast is added and ferments the sugars, creating a dramatic froth. The broom was used for sweeping up but, also by law, anyone selling beer was required to display an 'ale stake' above their door as a sign that beer was on sale. An ale stake was a wooden pole with a bunch of twigs tied on the end, and doubled up as a broom. Hanging foliage above the door to proclaim that alcohol was available for purchase dates back to Roman Britain, and, in a society where most people were illiterate, visual signs rather than written signs were used. The pointy hat was also a practical way of being seen in a crowd. Women with surplus beer would go to the marketplace to sell it, or a middle woman known as a 'huckster' would act as an agent and sell the beer. They too wore pointed hats to make themselves prominent at market!

The Shepherd Neame website says "The Stag... dates from 1547... The front is in Georgian style, added by the Victorians... There are two bars. The front is the most commonly used and features the famous "mummified" cats... they were found in a chimney on the first floor during the 1940s... There is no historical evidence, but it is popularly believed they belonged to Hannah Clarke, a witch, who is said to have occupied the Stag in the earlier part of its existence. 

Whatever, intolerance of single women in particular has certainly seen many executed as witches over the centuries, notably in the 17th century, but we don't think like that nowadays, do we? Though ales from Brewster's Brewery certainly are pretty magical (website), cheers! 

Women and Beer: 1. The Beer Goddess

I am going to blog two, perhaps controversial, pieces about women and beers/brewing/pubs, and I got the idea of writing this first blog a few years ago, from reading Travels with Barley, written by the American journalist Ken Wells, within which he discusses the idea of the "Beer Goddess"; a book, incidentally, sent to me by a friend of my youth, Anne, who now lives in Florida. And I immediately thought of the Sumerian Goddess of Beer, Ninkasi, as one does...

But, no, Mr Wells was really looking at the influence of women on men drinking beer in the contemporary U.S. of A., we could be talking about poor lagers, of course, but we are also talking about the craft beer 'revolution' that has been going on over there for quite a few years now. Craft brewers in the USA have, in recent years, been instrumental in, not just the development of new strains of hops, but also the use of hops aplenty in the brewing process, most of their beers aren't 'real' ales as us Brits expect, but they can certainly pack a punch with flavour, and strength! Notably, hops from over the Pond are regularly used in ales here now too, particularly the new-ish style (fad?) of American Pale Ales (eg Dark Star APA).

Women have had an enormous influence on brewing over the years, indeed, over many many years! As far as the history books show, women have dominated brewing from the first beers brewed in Sumeria 4,000 years ago, and for most of the centuries since, and there are quite a good number of women brewing (brewsters) for micro breweries now (eg Brewsters!), thank the goddess of brewing!

But, Mr Wells also was referring to female bar tenders or bar stewards, what some people in the UK call "barmaids", which apparently, is too sexist a term for the Americans and their pressure groups, so, to him, a barmaid is a "beer goddess." However, although the Bavarian barmaid can carry many glasses of foaming beer without spills, as this photograph attests to, and which may show a propensity towards superhuman strength, they are well oversized glasses, so nowhere near full. Us ale swilling British males, not always the most beautiful aesthetically, do enjoy the company of barmaids, though, let alone goddesses. However, I have to admit I've only ever had one relationship with a barmaid in my life, when I was in my early 20s, though my ex-wife runs a pub in Sheffield with her new husband (a lucky, and lovely, couple!); maybe many barmaids are goddesses, whatever, they've certainly avoided lowly me...

More seriously though, in recent years in Britain the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has used the female image to help its cause too, eg with this more up to date image of the goddess, Ninkasi, which I imagine was partly a way to encourage more women to drink real ale, although I'd imagine it has encouraged many men to drink even more real ale! 

A few years ago, Jennifer Ellison was used as part of CAMRA's successful campaign to stop the Government's beer tax escalator; she may well be a caricature of how barmaids are supposed to look, maybe a 'beer goddess' even. However, barmaids and barmen (I can attest to this having been a bar steward in many hostelries in the past) are usually much like the rest of us, ordinary people, not gods or goddesses, carrying out a wonderful role serving up quality ales to us, and may they continue to do so, many thanks.

Mr Wells also mentions a beer writer in the USA who calls herself "The Beer Goddess", Lisa Morrison, whom I follow on Twitter and Facebook, and I do like reading her articles, but, whatever, more next time...

Hail Ninkasi, indeed, cheers!