Mallinson's Calypso delivered to my Door!

I recently wrote a blog about a couple of excellent ales I had delivered to me and enjoyed drinking immensely. Well, I couldn't resist the cask conditioned ale they provided this week either, from another excellent Yorkshire brewery, Mallinson's Brewing Company (website), and their 3.9% single hopped Calypso. Again, I was very pleased yesterday to receive a visit from the same jolly crew from The Jolly Fisherman (website) Alfred, Becky and Oliver, with respectful social distancing maintained at delivery, and it's always a pleasure to see this family; indeed, I'm looking forward to drinking at their micropub in the reasonably near future, fingers crossed...

The Calypso hop is another of my favourite hops bred and grown in the Yakima Valley in the US of A, and Mallinson's Calypso is a pale golden light refreshing ale, and so easy to drink. There is an amazingly complex fruity aroma and taste, with pears, apples, citrus and tropical fruits, and a wonderful dry bitter finish with grapefruit to the taste. It's pretty damn good, cheers!

And I can't get Suzanne Vega's Calypso (YouTube) out of my mind, which is not a bad thing. 👌

And a reminder, if you live in Hastings, or close by, and you want something delivered from The Jolly Fisherman; deliveries are made most afternoons/early evenings, with a new cask ale each week for the Friday delivery, plus they sell keg and bottled beers, ciders, wine, etc etc... Do have a look at their website for more details and to place an order.

If you don't live down here, check in your own locality for suppliers, or I provided ideas in an older blog; the links appear to work still. Good searching and drinking, and cheers! 👍

2 or 3 Steps to Pubs Reopening, or is it 3 or 4?

Well, it's now 2 (or 3) Government Steps to go before pubs will be allowed to serve beer to patrons in pub gardens, ie outside opening only, from no earlier than the 12th of April, and customers will be allowed to sit inside pubs in 3 (or 4) steps time, that is, no earlier than the 17th of May, when it will be pretty much like previously under Tier 1 last year.  That is, you will be able to drink in pubs, but only being served at table, and can only meet up with one other household, with up to a maximum of 6 people from those 2 households; and no food required, yay!

Back to normal? Well that will be Step 4/5 and no earlier than the 21st of June, but then things may all go pear-shaped well before then. My alter-ego goes into the 'Steps' quite nicely, in my opinion, 😉 and also explains the quandary regarding steps quite nicely too (blog).

Fingers crossed folks, and cheers, hopefully soon! 

Cask Conditioned Ales, Many Thanks & Cheers!

During the first 'lockdown' I wrote a blog about ale, cider and perry delivery initiatives in Hastings, and I wrote other blogs about elsewhere too. Well, I couldn't cope with just tins and bottles for what seems a lifetime, so recently I had delivered by the same jolly crew from The Jolly Fisherman (website) Alfred, Becky and Oliver (respectful social distancing maintained at delivery, of course), 4 litres of genuine cask conditioned ale, that is, 2 x 2 litres of two very different styles. 

The first cask ale, you will have gathered from the image immediately above, was a stout from the Bristol-based Arbor Ales (website), their vegan friendly 5.8% Midnight Blue, a rather luxurious delight! Amazingly easy to drink for such a full bodied and fairly strong stout. As you can see, it was very dark, with chocolate and coffee in the aroma and taste, and just a hint of liquorice, finishing off with a dry roasted bitterness. I wrote, "not bad at all!" which means I liked it rather a lot, I just wished I'd bought more than the 2 litres of it. 😉

The second ale, as you can see, was a much paler ale from Newcastle-based Wylam Brewery (website), their 4.2% Hickey the Rake 'Limonata Pale'. This was a very pale beer brewed with 2 of my favourite hops for such ales, Chinook and Mosaic, producing a big fruity aroma and taste. Of course it's citrus fruits, initially grapefruit with a hint of lemon, as I expected from the name and hops used, dry and bitter and very refreshing and so easy to drink; I wrote "very good!" in my notes. So there you go, very good indeed, and again, not enough bought!

If you live local to Hastings, and want something delivered from The Jolly Fisherman; deliveries are made most afternoons, usually with a new cask ale for the Friday delivery, plus they sell keg and bottled beers, ciders, wine, well, look at their website for more details and to place an order.

If you don't live down here, check in your own locality for suppliers, or I provided ideas in another blog; the links appear to work still. Good searching and drinking, and cheers! 👍

5,000 Years Old Brewery Disovered!

I wrote a couple of blogs ages ago about the early influence of the 'Beer Goddess' and women brewers (brewsters) on my favourite tipple. Indeed, in one blog, I suggested that beer was first brewed by the Somerians 4,000 years ago in what is now Southern Iraq, how wrong I appeared to be. Indeed, the site in the photograph above (Guardian), discovered by archaeologists in Abydos, Egypt, may be hundreds of years older! Artefacts consistent with brewing, notably large vessels and pottery basins, have been found there, and, apparently, some British archaeologists a hundred years ago believed a brewery to be in the area, but they couldn't find it...

Well it's been found now, so 5,000 years of brewing history, cheers!

87 MILLION Wasted Pints, it brings tears to my eyes...

Now I've seen the stats I'm even more depressed! The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) tells us that 87 MILLION pints of beer will have been thrown away, gone down the drain, however you want to put it, over the last year due to the COVID-19 Crisis. That's worth about £331 MILLION of lost revenue, which would normally pay for hundreds of thousands of jobs in the trade (website).

An example of how this effects individual pubs is explained by Garry Tennant, landlord of the Red Lion in Chobham, Surrey (website), who employs 16 staff and estimates his total losses "could total £130,000 by the time pubs reopen" (BBC).

The BBPA is calling for further help from the Government, reminding them of the huge amount of tax loss that results from pubs being closed, not just Income Tax and National Insurance for staff members, but Corporation Tax and VAT, and BEER DUTY. Emma McClarkin (BBPA Chief Executive) said that  "£1 in every £3 spent goes to the taxman because of excessively high beer duty. We pay 11 times more beer duty than Germany or Spain" (BBPA). The BBPA is asking the Government to support the industry, and to provide further grants if they force pubs to stay closed after March, and to extend the VAT cut and Business Rates holiday.

I've heard a rumour that pubs may reopen in May, fingers crossed it's no later. 

Good News! At last... and the Carlton Tavern

It is great that I can actually share good news in these COVID-19 Crisis times, and which I first wrote about regarding the Carlton Tavern in Maida Vale NW5 5EU, six years ago, with an update in 2019 (blog), about how developers had demolished the building without planning permission, and had been ordered to rebuild the public house by Westminster Council. Well, I spotted a further update in an article in the CAMRA February 2021 What's Brewing, which is supported by a recent online article on the Hampstead Highgate Express website, and many thanks to them for the image above too (slightly edited).

The good news is that it looks like the Carlton Tavern will be reopening soon, hopefully March/April, lockdown allowing, under the stewardship of Homegrown Pubs and 2 'local lads' (Tom Rees and Ben Martin) who have wide relevant experience in the trade. They're planning to use local sources, eg local breweries for their ales, and applications are in for licences etc. For more information go to the facebook page Rebuild The Carlton Tavern, nice one! ✌

Good luck to all involved, fingers crossed for you, and cheers!