Happy Hoppy New Beer!

Happy Hoppy New Year!

Hoppy Christmas!

Wishing you a Hoppy Christmas, and Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All, obviously!

Back to Rye!

I returned to Rye yesterday and re-visited the Rye Waterworks, my first 'micro' pub (older blog giving history etc). Why did I return so soon, following our walk there from Hastings last week (Steve on Hastings blog)? Frankly, we'd walked for 4 hours to get here last week, nearly missing the rain, at a fair old pace too, and couldn't get into the Waterworks because it was packed, so I had to return at the first opportunity, just to wish them a Merry Christmas and have a few beers, of course...

The photograph above is from last week, before the rain came, and as we 'marched' alongside the Royal Military Canal from Pett Level, but yesterday, certainly lazier as I caught the train to Rye and back. Anyway, I reached the Rye Waterworks this time just before it opened, so I was the first customer, hurray! Sadly, I didn't see David, the proprietor, this time, but did see his wife Ulla and excellent son Eddie, as he opened up the bar a wee bit early, not for me, but for a tradesman; never mind, I was still happy. 😉

Anyway, to the beers (above, all at £3.70 a pint) and ciders, which I didn't try any of; and the gap above left was filled by Hastings brewed FILO Cardinal (4.6%), a fine dark ale that the brewer calls Sussex Porter, though a wee debate with fellow customer Paul found we didn't agree it is a porter, so I shall be writing a blog very soon about porters, stouts and other dark ales. 

So what did I drink? I drank 3 of the paler ales, including Battle Brewery (website) One Hop Wonder (4%), brewed using just Chinook hops; a golden bitter, less citrus aroma and flavour than I thought it would have, but a very easy ale to drink. Then I tried the stronger Romney Marsh Brewery (website) American Pale (5%), brewed using a variety of different American hops, so every brew is subtly different; a more fruity pale golden ale, a bit sweeter and with more body, as you'd expect...

But my favourite ale of the day was the Old Dairy Brewery (website) Uber Brew (3.8%), brewed with 3 hops, Chinook again, Citra and Equinox, and I started with a pint and finished with another pint of this; a fair amount of body for such a session ale, and much more citrus in the taste, pale and golden, with a nice dry bitter finish, pretty damn good, cheers!

Oh yes, and a friend I hadn't seen for quite a while, Harrison, caught the same train as me coming home, good discourse made for a good journey, cheers again!

Excellent Beers Conditioned in the Bottle.

I was stimulated to write this blog after reading Roger Protz's column in the most recent copy of What's Brewing, December 2018, the newspaper of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), and a letter in the same issue written by Peter Murray. Roger writes about 2 legendary Bottle-conditioned ales, including Fuller's Vintage Ale (8.5%), which I just so happened to have sampled their 1998 Vintage a few years ago, a bottle of which had been left behind by a previous owner of the Dolphin Inn, Rock-a-Nore Road, Hastings TN34 3DW (2018 South East Sussex CAMRA Community Pub of the Year - blog). Mark, the landlord for the last 14 years, agreed we should sample this after me hounding him for ages that he should take it home before someone else decided to remove it from the premises, thus negating his chance to sample it...

The Vintage Ale is brewed using different malts and hops each year; in 1998 Alexis Pale and Crystal malts were used, and hops used were Challenger, Denall, Fuggles, Goldings, Northdown, Organic First Gold and Target. Mark allowed me the honour of opening the bottle, thank you very much, and pouring the deep reddish-amber nectar that it contained, very carefully of course, to avoid disturbing the lees at the bottom, and it came out in perfect condition, beautifully clear and with a perfect head! So what was it like after 17 years in the bottle? Here's what I wrote in my notes: "Rich, slight malty aroma... Creamy, fruity (notably damson with a hint of orange), slightly sweet but dries out in the finish... Gorgeous!" I do need to start buying a bottle or two every year...

The second bottle-conditioned ale Roger talks about in his column is Thomas Hardy's Ale, originally brewed by Eldridge Pope (no longer exists, sadly) at 11.7% in 1968 to celebrate the life of the author, 40 years after his death. Following the demise of Eldridge Pope at the beginning of the millennium, there have been years without and years where this has been brewed elsewhere, but the brand is now owned by brothers Sandro and Michele Vecciato, who have it brewed at Meantime Brewing in London at 13%. I saw the bottle in the photograph in the Jolly Fisherman in Hastings, East Beach Street, Hastings TN34 3AR (blog). Sadly, they won't let me share it, neither will another friend, Rod, who has told me he has bottles from May 1978 and 1986...

Oh well, I am jealous of the others and, as I haven't tasted any since the 1980s, my ability to describe it has diminished considerably, I just remember liking it immensely... So, Mr Protz, what do you think? Roger reports that Maris Otter malted barley and Crystal malts are used, with Fuggles and Goldings hops, and the beer isn't released until just over a year after it was brewed, allowing for maturation, including 9 months in the bottle. This year is the 50th anniversary of the first brew, and he describes "figs, dates, fresh tobacco (worrying!) and chocolate on the aroma and palate, backed by peppery and spicy hops." There you are...

The beer that Peter Murray mentions is Worthington's White Shield (5.6%), originally developed from Worthington's early 19th century East India Pale Ale, and which has moved around in more recent years, now brewed at Coors brewery in Burton, was Bass etc etc. Another I haven't been drinking recently, and I notice many online reviews aren't too favourable, but I always remember enjoying drinking White Shield, so here goes a couple of anecdotes...

First, after recently moving to Tavistock in 1992, I entered the Tavistock Inn, 19 Brook Street PL19 0HD, and saw that they had White Shield behind the bar, but the landlord said it was past date, so we came to an agreement that I'd finish off nearly a crate of White Shield for £1 a bottle, we were both happy with the arrangement, I was sad when they ran out! The second anecdote includes my attending the Great British Beer Festival in 2011 having been at a football match previously, and they had virtually run out of beer... There were still beers here and there, of course, but I found that they had cask-conditioned White Shield, gravity fed, served straight from a tap in the cask, and it seemed pretty gorgeous to me, it was all I drank!

Finally, for this blog, I do need to mention my favourite Belgian beer, bottle conditioned too, like many Belgian beers, the 'Trappist' Westmalle Tripel (9.5% - website); and not to forget the recently available British 'Trappist' ale brewed in Leicestershire, the also excellent bottle-conditioned, though very different, Tynt Meadow (7.4% - blog). Oh yes, the Westmalle Tripel, is a golden beer, subtly fruity, quite dry and bitter finish, quite frankly, excellent! There are a number of bars in Brussels where I would always drink this, the waiting staff in the magnificent Le Cirio in Brussels, by la Bourse, always taking care not to disturb the sediment, but leaving the bottle for people to add the sediment if they so wished. Indeed, the owner of the bar closest to where my brother used to live always called me "Monsieur Westmalle", sadly no longer open...

Cheers for letting me reminisce!