January Pale Bitters

Since the New Year I've had 6 very good pale bitters, 2 newer favourites, 2 older favourites, and 2 completely new (to me) excellent ales! First 'newer favourite' is Cowcatcher (4.8%) from the East London Brewing Company (ELB, website), an "American Pale Ale" (APA) that I continue to call "gorgeous!" I do like it... With a big fruity aroma and citrus fruits and passion fruit in the taste and a dry bitter finish, just as I like my ales... The second 'newer favourite' is another APA, Prohibition (also 4.8%) from Kent Brewery (website), and also a pale golden bitter, with plenty of citrus aroma and taste, another excellent bitter, indeed, both surpass the 'older favourites!"

The two 'older favourites' include Naked Ladies (4.4%) from Twickenham Fine Ales (website), named after statues in York House gardens, Twickenham, another pale bitter with less obvious citrus fruit in the taste provided by Herkules, Celeia and Chinook hops. Indeed, this is more like a straightforward pale bitter than the fruit extravaganzas of the earlier two APAs mentioned. The second is Jeffrey Hudson Bitter (JHB , 3.8%) from Oakham Ales (website), with Challenger and Mount Hood hops offering a light refreshing pale bitter with a more subtle fruit to the taste and a dry finish. OK, these come behind the 'newer favourites' probably because of the strengths, and also because, well, I do love the bigger citrus aromas and flavours!

To the newbies, for me that is... First Eye-Opener (4.5%) from Stonehenge Ales (website), a pale golden bitter with a BIG citrus orange fruit aroma, no hints from the brewers of the hops used, but I'm making an informed guess they're from the USA. Also, citrus in the flavour with a dry bitter finish, I've noted "refreshing and gorgeous" so there you have it, gorgeous!

My second newbie, and last reviewed for today, is Some Might Say (get it? Song title! Oh yes, and 4.4%) from the Manchester Brewing Company (website), subtitled a Session IPA. Plenty of Simcoe hops from the USA used here, consequently plenty of aroma and flavour, with a BIG fruity aroma of peach and exotic fruits and similar in the taste, pale golden colour with a dry bitter finish. Some might say it was pretty gorgeous too, in fact I shall say it, gorgeous, lucky me!

I'll soon be publishing a guest blog from the Isle of Wight, can't wait, cheers!

Full Pints or Froth & Waste?!?

Too much froth!

Trading standards officers have regularly found that pubs take advantage of guidelines that pints of beer can be served containing only 95 per cent liquid, allowing for a 'head.' The Weights and Measures Act 1985, however, stipulated that a pint of beer should be a pint. Indeed, in the 1970s, maybe as much as 50% of real ale was served from metered electric beer pumps into an oversized glass, meaning there was no wastage and a full pint was delivered every time. This was more regular in the Midlands and further North, notably in pubs owned by these breweries: Banks, Greenalls, Boddingtons, Hydes, Robinsons, Wards, Stones, and Gales down South. 

Too much waste!

Sadly, a 1982 court ruling stipulated that a head of froth was "an integral part" of a pint, and that it was fair to serve beer provided the head was "not excessive or unreasonable." In 2000 the Government announced that pubs that sold pints of less than 95 per cent liquid could be prosecuted, facing fines of up to £1,000, and landlords were also given two years to stock up on over-size glasses, but this has never been enforced, and you often see beer wasted as it pours over the top of brim measure glasses into drip trays. Brewers and publicans, consequently, have been allowed to make the customer pay for wasted beer, and/or make extra profit that isn't taxed, for example, by selling more than 72 pints of ale from a 9 gallon firkin, so Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs lose out on tax revenue too, meaning we pay more tax!

Brings a Tear to the Eye!

Why is this so important? Well, apart from the customer, ie you and me, and HMRC being fleeced, beer in licensed premises is the only produce in the country which is allowed to be sold less than is advertised. Imagine the uproar if retailers were allowed to sell any other produce short, eg 18 fags in a pack of 20, 450mls of milk in a pint bottle, 18 litres of petrol and charge for 20 litres, 300g of tomatoes in a tin of 400g etc etc... Indeed, selling pints that are not 100% liquid enables brewers and pubs to boost profits by effectively selling air, especially in the North where a 'big head' is actively encouraged by using tight 'sparklers' and, sadly, this practice is even arriving down South these days, frothy beer rules, it seems... 😕 

I originally wrote this blog regarding finding lined oversized glasses in Hastings, so go to the Steve on Hastings blog if you'd like to know which pubs in Hastings!

Visit to West/South West London

So what were we doing drinking in a Wetherspoons pub? Well, historically, as in the last few years, I've considered the Bricklayers to be my pub of choice in Putney, sadly, they've gradually descended into the abyss, it's freezing out of the summer season, I've been there and they've had no beers at all, recently very few ales available, and on our last visit we were served up a very poor pint from the usually reliable Twickenham Ales, and at £4.40 a pint... I've given up! So, to The Rocket, Putney Wharf Tower, Brewhouse Lane, Putney SW15 2JQ (website), it has a great view of the bridge and down the river (Thames), and is next door but one to St Mary's Church (website), who's 15th century tower is visible, and the church where the Putney Debates were held by the Parliamentarian forces during the English Civil War, proper historic!

Also, as I'm a member of CAMRA I get another 50p off a pint of real ale there with a voucher, and during my recent visit, that was off an already low £2.29 a pint, so just £1.79 each for a few very different decent ales, instead of £4.40 a pint plus for poorly conditioned/dead ale, no competition, and there's not much else in Putney for real ale these days either! My brother Dan, really liked the 4.9% Romsey brewery Flack Manor (website) Hedge  Hop, a traditionally copper coloured bitter, slightly sweet biscuit flavour, with hints of fruit and spice the result of the use of Cascade, Pilot and Challenger hops, not bad and Dan kept returning to it...

But I prefered, from the much more local Wandsworth brewer, Sambrook's (website) Powerhouse Porter (also 4.9%). I have to admit I wasn't too impressed with Sambrook's in their early days, but their ales seem to get better every time I try them, and this one is a gorgeous example of a Porter! Brewed using a variety of malts, and producing a smooth deep dark red ale with plenty of body, and a hint of chocolate in the taste, very nice, cheers!

The next day we walked a circuitous 18 mile route to Richmond and back, via Wimbledon Common, Richmond Park, and the Thames footpath (mostly Middlesex side). In Richmond we visited The Victoria Inn, 78 Hill Rise TW10 6UB, our new 'favourite' pub there, with excellent service from the Cornish 'maid' (oops! My history of living in Devon and Cornwall coming out there, sorry, all women down there are called 'maid' and all men are called 'boy', so 'young boy' or 'old boy' etc!). Anyway, here we both drank the Suffolk brewer Adnams (website) Ghost Ship (4.5%), more expensive, oh well, you can't be paying £1.79 a pint everywhere, sadly... This is a pale sharp refreshing ale, with a slight citrus flavour from the Citra hops used (and other unspecified hops from the USA) and a dry bitter finish, their best ale, I believe.

When we got back to Putney we dropped down in strength at The Rocket, but what a great brewery to find an ale from, Oakham of Peterborough (website), and again at £1.79 for CAMRA members, still great value at £2.29 though for others! Jeffrey Hudson Bitter (JHB, 3.8%) is a wonderful pale golden ale, with citrus in the aroma and flavour provided by the Challenger and Mount Hood hops used, quite sharp and refreshing, with a dry bitter finish and, indeed, one of the best session ales brewed!

I usually prefer to drink at smaller local ale houses, but the manager/cellar manager appears to be keeping their ales in very good condition, and, although quite a busy pub, The Rocket has an appropriate number of staff working to keep the drinks flowing and the till ticking, cheers!

Flowerpower Blonde, yes really!

From the nearly 2 year-old Brighton brewery, Loud Shirt Brewing Co (website), 750mls (a big pint!) of bottle-conditioned beer, so watch out for sediment in the bottle, also says it is 'vegan' friendly on the label, so, presumably, no finings used, though this had cleared quite well anyway, if not exactly 'crystal' clear. A slightly floral aroma, and a taste that was a wee bit too sweet for me, though very easy to drink, certainly came across as a Belgian style blonde or golden beer. Apparently dried flowers of some kind included, but no indication of what hops have been used either on the bottle label, nor on their website, but says sugar added, which no doubt made it sweeter to the taste. The finish had a slightly nutty bitterness, so I'm guessing English hops were used, though nothing stood out hop-wise. I wouldn't go out of my way to buy another bottle, though I'll search it out when I next visit Brighton for a sample of their ales on draught, cheers!

First Real Ales of 2018!

Well, my first trip to a public house in 2018 was on Tuesday to the Tower, 251 London Road TN37 6NB (tel: 01424 721773), which, depending on how you consider your geography, is described as St Leonards on Sea, which is in the borough of Hastings, but the smaller area the pub is in is called Bohemia... Whatever, it is up the hill about 1250 metres from the beach, and I prefer to call it Bohemia, because, well it sounds more bohemian (see Ordnance Survey website). And, by "real ale" I mean cask-conditioned ale, see CAMRA website; though Belgian beers do come a close second to proper British cask-conditioned draught ales, in my opinion...

The Tower is the reigning CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) South East Sussex Pub of the Year 2017, and sells 6 real ales from hand pumps; 2 regular excellent ales from Sussex brewer Dark Star (website), their 3.8% session ale Hophead and the stronger 4.7% American Pale Ale (APA), so-called because of the style and the use of hops from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. There are also 4 regularly changing guest ales (and more often than not from local breweries too), and 6 real ciders and 1 perry (the perry currently from Westons; concerning 'real cider and perry' see CAMRA website).

The 'guest' ales included Hopback Summer Lightning (5%, see website), an excellent pale bitter I've used to help convert lager drinkers to real ale many times over many years! Also, the 3.9% pale session bitter from Red Willow (website), their Stateless, which is brewed with more hops from across the Pond, Cascade, Columbus and Chinook... it does what it says on the label, it's pale with citrus flavours and finishes with a dry bitterness. But...

OK, it's obviously the right time of year to be appreciating darker beers, but I particularly want to express just how good the Porter shown in the photograph was, however, I next drank, from Kent, Whitstable Brewery Christmas Spirit (I noted 4.6%, the website says 4.7%, I could be wrong! Website). Darker, a reddish chestnut colour, and brewed with English hops, Admiral and East Kent Goldings, as one would expect, producing a slightly spicy beer, not too heavy but with more body than the paler ales, and with a hint of chocolate in the aroma and taste too...

To the Aromatic Porter (4.5%) from Brewsters then (website), a brewery I've mentioned before when talking about women, brewing and witchcraft (eg blog and blog)! I didn't really get the 'aromatic' here though, and the chap sitting next to me at the bar, a well-known local CAMRA enthusiast, had been put off by the term 'aromatic', he needn't have been. Of course there was an aroma, but more subtle than the name implies, I tried to work out what it was, and I think I've come up with a dark berry, mostly blackcurrant, to the nose, certainly fruity. A much darker, well-bodied, bitter beer, with a dry finish and a hint of roasted barley in the taste, it was pretty damn excellent, and just £3 a pint, cheers Louisa!

Not to forget, ignoring Wetherspoons, the Tower is the best value real ale pub in Hastings, with the two regulars £2.90 a pint for Hophead and £3 a pint for APA, and on the day, the most expensive ales were £3.20 a pint, eg the Summer Lightning, and all in lined glasses too...

Keep up the good work Lou!

Last and First Beers - 2017/2018

OK, my first beer of 2018 has not been a British ale, but I do like many Belgian beers too! For a Christmas present from friends Mark and Maureen, I was given a presentation case with four bottles of beer and a stone chalice from relatively new Belgian brewery, Brasserie de Waterloo (website), which has been brewing since 2014, indeed, since my last visit to the area which I went to with my brother when he was living in Belgium. The brewery is in a wing of Ferme de Mont-Saint-Jean, a 13th century farm adjacent to the famous battlefield and which was used as a hospital for the Duke of Wellington's troops during the battle.

Adrien Desclee and Anthony Martin, grandson of John Martin, the man who brought Export Guinness to Belgium over 100 years ago, opened the brewery at Waterloo to continue brewing the Triple Blond and Strong Dark that Adrien had already been brewing since 2005. I was given 2 bottles of each of these beers, and will talk about the dubbel style Strong Dark soon, once I have tasted it of course! So, to the Triple Blond...

An 8% tripel style (tripel/triple, depending on the Dutch Flemish/French Wallonian language used), brewed with the usual water, malt, hops and yeast of course, but also with herbs too. This is a top-fermented beer, as are British ales, and has a secondary fermentation in the bottle, thus producing sediment, so to be poured very carefully if you don't like to drink the yeast product with your beer! This a golden beer with a spicy, fruity and slightly citrus aroma, full-bodied, sweet at first, with a similarity to Leffe Blond, but dries out with a more bitter finish. A very decent example of a tripel/triple indeed!

My last two ales of 2017 were imbibed yesterday at the Dolphin Inn, Hastings (website), and were both golden ales too. First, from the Staffordshire based Burton Bridge Brewery (website), their Screwbydoo (4.5%), with the pump clip depicting engineer Joseph Whitworth, who was born on the 21st of December 1803, and who devised a standard for screw threads, the British Standard Whitworth (BSW), still recognised today. 

Anyway, the Screwbydoo is a 4.5% golden bitter with Progress and Pioneer hops used in the brew. There is a slightly fruity aroma and taste, gentle sweetness at first taste, and a wee bit too easy to drink for 4.5%, unless that's what you call a supping strength! I had been warned by another customer that it had seriously influenced him the day before... Not bad, but not bitter enough for a hophead like me though, so, what about:

From West London, and one of my old stomping grounds in my youth, White City, the Portobello Brewing Company (website) and their White City, another 4.5%, slightly darker, golden bitter, indeed, all 3 of the Dolphin's guest ales (6 ales in total) were 4.5% yesterday! Hops used in the brew are Fuggles, East Kent Golding and Cascade, producing hints of pine, and citrus and tropical fruit, in the flavour. A bit more bitter, with a very slight 'sourness' to the taste, apparently not everyone's favourite of the two, but I thought they were at a pretty similar decent level... 

Cheers Mark and Maureen!