Festival of Brewers Focus – Meanwood Brewery

Nestled between Headingley and Chapel Allerton, Meanwood was for a while just the space in-between its livelier, trendier neighbours. Unless you lived there, you were mainly just passing through on the route to have fun elsewhere. However, over the last ten years there has been a slow trickle of openings and expansions that have resulted in Meanwood being a destination in itself. There’s certainly a range of good beer bars and pubs, and latterly this is looking even healthier due to the creation of the Meanwood Brewery and their subsequent plans.

Meanwood Brewery is the result of brotherly love, with Graeme and his brother Baz deciding to take their homebrewing hobby to the next level. With a 1hl kit being upgraded soon to a 3hl beast, the brothers are certainly moving apace – the ultimate aim is to open ‘Terminus’, a microbrewpub in the old tram terminus. With beers in Cask, Keg and rather slinky Bottles, their range stretches from ‘Pilgrim’, a NEIPA, to ‘Trickster’, a strong Saison, to ‘Exile’ a Blackberry Crumble Berliner Weisse, all of which will be on their Bar at Festival of Brewers, along with casks of ‘Totem’, a 6.2% American Brown Ale, ‘Arecibo Message’, a 5.7% American Pale Ale, and ‘Heroic’, a 5% English IPA.

If you can’t attend the Festival of Brewers for some unimaginable reason, you’ll find their bottles at the usual places – Alfred, Beer Ritz, Raynville Superstore, Growlers, Caspar’s Bottle Shop and George and Joseph, as well as at Alley Cats and Corner Cafe, in Pop up events at Tandem and the occasional keg in Wapentake. Baz is excited about ‘getting to work alongside so many great breweries from the area and trying some of their beers with the public’ and if you haven’t already snapped up a ticket, his advice is simple. ‘Get one. You definitely don’t want to miss out on this one’.

About the Festival of Brewers

The first ever Festival of Brewers event takes place on 29^th and 30^thJune 2018, with New Craven Hall hosting, which can be found just one-mile South of Leeds City Train Station.

All too often, independent beer festivals choose to focus their attention on the same, larger, popular UK craft breweries. This makes it difficult for the hundreds of smaller breweries across the UK to share the spotlight. Festival of Brewers aims to address that by only showcasing the small and independent breweries.

You can find out all the information, including participating breweries and street food vendors, tickets and how to find the venue on the website www.festivalofbrewers.co.uk.

Festival of Brewers Focus – Eyes Brewing

Starting up a brewery seems hard. Especially to an outsider, like me, who hasn’t and will probably never try. So kudos from me to anyone who gives it a go, especially when it’s a unique concept such as that of EYES Brewing. EYES have started up the UK’s one and only Wheat-focused brewery, and they also think that it is the first of its kind anywhere in the world since the Second World War.

As well as having an original concept for their brewery, Dan, Chris and Tom also have a pretty eventful back story, as explained by Dan. ‘After my little girl was born I stepped away from a career in stand up comedy and back in to teaching.  After going on a day of brewing with Andy and Steve from Learn to Brew, now Crooked Brewing, Tom and I started to get into the theory and make up of beer. As I was building an extension on my house, my wife suggested we build a little bit on the back to put a small brew house in. I paid for the room, Chris and Tom paid for the brewery, and then EYES home brewing was born.’

From banding together over a 100L kit, things progressed when Chris  had the opportunity to become an assistant brewer under master brewer Al (now at Brass Castle) at Ainsty Ales in York, learning how to brew on scale. However, things weren’t running as smoothly for Dan in this period. ‘I was struggling with depression and ended up in hospital. The school I was working for were incredibly supportive until they saw a photo of me at York CAMRA Beer festival’. Disappointingly, the school then changed tack and pressured Dan to quit his job, resulting in a legal battle which ended with him being awarded compensation for his unfair treatment.

Eventually, alongside a small business loan EYES finally had enough money to buy a van, a fleet of casks and ingredients for the first few brews. In December 2016 they started to sell their first beer, cuckoo brewed at Ainsty Ales, an arrangement which has worked well leading to them brewing at various places in and around Yorkshire. The EYES team is now a quartet of Dan, Chris, Nev and Tom.

EYES are looking to stand out with their range of Wheaty treats, in particular one from the darker end of the scale. ‘Dark Harvest will be a stand out for people as it is one of the world’s first ever Black Hopfenweisses. When we started brewing we started to make German style Hefeweizens as this is what we loved to drink. We then decided to see if we could create more British and American styles of beer but continue to keep over 50% wheat in the grist. Our first ever sale was in Whitelocks which we found incredible, and we will be bringing some exciting cask beer as well as cans’.

The EYES crew are looking forward to attending Festival of Brewers, and are relishing the thought of being a part of a small, independent event. ‘This is like an underground gig for bands to look out for. Leeds has an incredible history when it comes to brewing and this is the future. I think people should get a ticket to see some of the innovation and up and coming stars of this great City of Beer. Though we are pretty much a festival of relative unknowns in the beer world we have a lot of variety amongst us. This is what I am looking forward to. There will be so many different beer styles to get. You won’t get sick of the same beers again and again like you may at other festivals’

About the Festival of Brewers

The first ever Festival of Brewers event takes place on 29^th and 30^thJune 2018, with New Craven Hall hosting, which can be found just one-mile South of Leeds City Train Station.

All too often, independent beer festivals choose to focus their attention on the same, larger, popular UK craft breweries. This makes it difficult for the hundreds of smaller breweries across the UK to share the spotlight. Festival of Brewers aims to address that by only showcasing the small and independent breweries.

You can find out all the information, including participating breweries and street food vendors, tickets and how to find the venue on the website www.festivalofbrewers.co.uk.

Remember when…

Remember when you could get a pint for less than three quid? Remember when pubs used to smell interesting? Remember when you could order a drink without being stuck behind people waiting for Gin cocktails? Remember when everywhere shut at 11pm? Remember when pubs closed in the afternoons? Remember when this place was heaving every lunchtime? Remember when I could drink six pints without needing a piss? Remember when she used to be in here with me every night? Remember when the police were called? Remember when this place got shut down?

No?

Just me then?

I’ll have a lucky dip for tonight too….and some green Rizla.

Ta mate.

The Session #133 Announcement – Hometown Glories

For this month’s edition of the Session, the proposed subject is ‘Hometown Glories’. Take this and run with it how you wish, but when thinking about possible subjects I had in mind an imminent visit to the place I spent my formative years and blogging about it’s highlights and wider beer scene. Possible starting points could be –

•  Describing the types of bars/pubs you have in your home town, how popular are they? Has craft beer culture made much of a splash?
• Are there any well-known breweries? Is there a particular beer or style that is synonymous with your home town
• History of the town and how that can be reflected in its drinking culture
• Tales of your youth, early drinking stories
• Ruminations on what once was and what is now? Have you moved away and been pleasantly surprised or disappointed on return visits?

My visit over the next week is going to hopefully inspire me, and it’s a great excuse to visit a few old haunts and new venues. If you’re less enamoured with your hometown, or even if you left and never returned, feel free to respond anyway – maybe you’re an adopted native of somewhere better. My home town is no longer my home, so if you’d like to write about the place you feel most at home in relation to beer, that would be welcomed too.

I’m hoping this will spark a wide range of topics within the wider theme, and I look forward to reading your responses. Tag me in on Twitter – @barrelagedleeds – or comment below with a link if you prefer, by or on Friday the 2nd March.

Happy blogging!

Try, Try and Try again

As I’m sure you’re all tired of hearing, I, along with many other volunteers participated in the Tryanuary campaign this year, trying to organise events and generally encourage people to visit pubs and try something new. Judging by the levels of engagement on social media and attendance at various events it looks to have been a successful month, and I thought I’d put down a few notes on the campaign, how it was received, and where I think it could go in the future.

From a personal perspective, the Tryanuary efforts this year were a positive thing – not just because of the aim of the campaign, but also because it isn’t designed to aggressively critique the choice of people who have sworn off booze for the month. Its a tricky balance to strike, but publicising events, breweries etc was done in a non-judgemental way, and I didn’t see anyone who was speaking on behalf of the campaign adopting an overly anti-dryanuary stance, which isn’t to say no-one did.

In response to both campaigns, there were also a fair number of ‘Why?’ comments. Aside from the predictable ‘why do we need a campaign for something I do anyway? -missing the point that we’re not aiming our efforts at regular pub goers – there were others which actually raised a number of useful points, for example ‘Why are we seemingly focusing almost exclusively on ‘craft’ breweries and pubs – shouldn’t the campaign encourage patronage across the industry as a whole?’ Which, I kind of agree with – after all, with the high rate of pub closure across the UK, more effort needs to be made to encourage visiting local pubs. If your response to this is, ‘why? My local serves crap beer/has no atmosphere/the staff are unwelcoming’, then without your presence, mentioning what you’d like to see,  talking to the management, then nothing will change. It might not change even if you did go more, but its worth trying at least isn’t it?

Through the events that we and others helped organise this month, the best part for me has been meeting other drinkers, brewers and industry staff and chatting about future ideas and plans in great pubs/bars. I would like to see a renewed focus on venues for next year’s campaign as whilst we all want to celebrate our favourite beers and breweries, in order for this to continue to flourish the on-trade needs to recover from a pretty dismal 10-20 years. One common question I saw from pubs and bars was ‘how do we get noticed?’. Given the all pervading nature of Social Media, it almost seems alien to some that the vast majority of premises don’t know how to, or prefer not to, utilise these tools to publicise themselves. I’m not an expert either, but perhaps if you are, then providing informal support and advice in this regard to businesses in your area would be welcomed.

Going forward, I will undoubtedly continue supporting the bars and pubs that I enjoy visiting the most, but my aim this year is to diversify the types of places I drink in, and to encourage people who don’t often bother visiting pubs to come along. Why not start a work pub club, for example? Undoubtedly, some pubs are and will remain, rubbish, but at least get out there and see what’s on offer.  All year round!

 

 

The Session #132 – Home Brewing Conversations

 

For this month’s collective beer blogging session, Jon at The Brewsite has proposed the topic of Home brewing as a jumping off point for us to explore.

My only experience of home brewing so far was definitely a lesson, possibly even a disaster. My generous other half purchased an all-grain kit from Brooklyn Brewshop for me as a christmas present, following on from a crash course I had taken the year before at Learn to Brew. Whilst I enjoyed learning about the process, my initial excitement was slightly tempered by the investment of time and money it takes to create a decent beer at home, so at least with the kit everything I needed had been provided for me, and with clear instructions. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, nothing, at first at least. I mashed in on the gas burners in a large stockpot. Keeping the mash temperature constant was difficult, but with with a decent food thermometer I managed to keep it within a reasonable range. Transfer proved a much bigger challenge, especially as I didn’t have a spare second pot, but again I muddled through. With the wort hopped, cooled (in ice water in the kitchen sink), and transferred to the carboy, so far so good.

My downfall was in the bottling stage. Whilst my mash had been far less efficient than I wanted it to be (according to the gravity readings) the fermented product looked and smelt good. According to the instructions, I was now to dissolve one cup of honey with one cup of water, and pour the beer in, then siphon from here into the bottles. Judging by the auto-drainpour of my self-emptying bottles two weeks later, with hindsight I wished I had taken more care at this stage….The gush was forceful, not quite ceiling height, but definitely akin to 12 mini-geysers.

So, would I have another crack at it? Yes, mainly because my partner has bought me another kit (she is much more persistent and determined than I), but also because for any beer enthusiast, home brewing seems like something you *have* to try, and by try I mean have a sustained attempt at creating something half decent. It has a certain cache that shows you can grasp beer on a deeper sense, and also, I imagine, gives you a certain sense of satisfaction at having handiwork worth sharing.

Luckily for me, this next kit has a packet of proper priming sugar…

 

 

 

 

 

Golden Pints 2017

 

Whilst generally this year has been a good year for beer, looking through my untappd check-ins it doesn’t appear to have been a vintage one personally. Casting aside bottleshare sips of aged, one off and extremely rare or unusual beers, it took me quite a while of scrolling through the list to find a nominee for every category that I rated highly, and that I returned to. Maybe I’m a bit jaded, or maybe my standards have risen. Certainly, for me, while I haven’t found anything to overly dislike this year a lot of beers have seemed indistinct, with the same flavours and textures – particularly at the hoppier end of the spectrum. A lot of my choices are old favourites, existing Breweries that have raised their game, or venues that I cherish.

Picking winners for each category is always difficult, but more so this year when I’ve been drinking pretty much exclusively UK beer and also not making many ventures to pastures new – its been a year of, well, not exactly sticking to what I know, but perhaps reining back on the extremes of looking for the ‘new’.

Best UK Cask Beer – Tough choices here, but in what is fast becoming a yearly tradition  I am voting for Magic Rock High Wire again…why vote for anything else other than repeated perfection?

Best UK Keg Beer – Marble Beers’ Gale’s Prize Old Ale (Bourbon Barrel Aged) was an utter delight at Dark City – so good I almost immediately went back for more. To be fair, this would probably also win best bottled beer, if I wasn’t saving the bottles I have in the cupboard. Verdant’s Maybe one more PSI was also a memorable glass amongst the tide of Murk, as was Magic Rock Brewing’s Psychokinesis – Sorachi goes well with the new breed of IPA – why aren’t we seeing more of this?

Best UK Bottled Beer – Kernel never let me down, and their Biere De Saison Perle Simcoe was one of the most memorable beers of the year. Lost and Grounded’s Keller Pils was also a fridge staple.

Best UK Canned Beer – Summer Wine take the nod for this category. It was great to see them back on the shelves, and Pico Diego was a low-abv revelation. Also,  Cloudwater Brewing get all the headlines for their DIPAs, and I’m sure they won’t be short of nominations in this category for those, but I enjoyed their range of IPLs even more – especially the Autumn + Winter IPL El Dorado Mosaic which filled my fridge in February

Best Overseas Draught – I haven’t been dipping my toe in these waters much, but all the Other Half Brewing beers I’ve tried at Hop City/elsewhere on occasion have been great. Double Mosaic Dream in particular. I also usually enjoy Dugges Bryggeri when I see it – Big Idjit did it for me.

Best Overseas Bottled Beer – Not a new beer, but Brouwerij De Ranke’s XX Bitter always keeps me going with its unrelenting bitterness. In a similar vein – De Dolle Arabier was also something I drank quite a few of.

Best Overseas Canned Beer – I rarely buy these, so I’d have to go with a nostalgic hooray for the return to these shores of Odell St. Lupulin – I still love it.

Best Collaboration Brew – Fuller’s combining with Marble Beers for Gale’s Prize Old Ale, but also a gracious nomination for the Fuller’s and Friends collabs with Marble and Moor. Cloudwater and The Veil also made a can of peach juice called Chubbles that was pretty delicious as well.

Best Overall Beer – Third mention for Marble Beers for Gale’s Prize Old Ale. I’ve praised it twice already, so enough said. Champion.

Best Branding – Leeds’ own Eyes Brewing have lots of designs that catch the eye. Abstract and unique.

Best Pump Clip – Erm…the new Harvey’s clips are a nice shade of Turquoise….

Best Bottle/Can Label – Northern Monk’s Patrons Project cans deserve to take this award for the sheer amount of effort that goes into every one, the Ingleborough Session Porter is just one outstanding example amongst many. Also, I very much admire the shiny cans from Burnt Mill – contents were pretty decent too.

Best UK Brewery – Always tough, and I usually stay within the Yorkshire boundaries, but this year I’m going for Marble – Gale’s Prize old Ale series, White Wine Pugin, Your Betrayal,

Best Overseas Brewery – Dugges for the beers I’ve tried this year, but overall I still drink more beers from Belgium than any other country outside the UK, so De Ranke.

Best Pub/Bar of the Year – I don’t like picking a best for this category, as mine changes visit by visit, but I’ve really enjoyed my end of the night visits to The Turk’s Head. Cosy and calm, with great beer and service.

Best New Pub/Bar of the Year – It is great to see The Cardigan Arms reopened and revived by Kirkstall Brewery – as lovely as it should be, and with enough of the touches that beer geeks like, but also keeping accessible and friendly to all.

Beer Festival of the Year – Leeds International Beer Festival obviously, but Hop/Dark City were also great this year, and will go from strength to strength.

Supermarket of the Year – Morrisons for keeping their range fresh for a few fridge fillers.

Independent Retailer of the Year – I’m not going to pick a winner, as we are so utterly spolit in Leeds that I rotate my visits between 4/5 shops, but Little Leeds Beer House is somewhere I always visit when I’m in town, and Raynville Superstore is expanding ever more. Both excellent places to stand, chat and choose.

Online Retailer of the Year – I only ordered beer online once this year, and was left a little disappointed. So meh.

Best Beer Book or Magazine – Boak and Bailey’s 20^th Century Pub – it’s about so much more than beer, and an essential read for anyone trying to understand the history of UK drinking culture.

Best Beer Blog or Website – Again, Boak and Bailey – I don’t think there is anywhere that is producing such a variety of great articles that isn’t a full time, paid operation. Good Beer Hunting always come up with interesting perspectives, and there’s plenty of full time and amateur bloggers out there whose sites I regularly read – they know who they are. Shout out to Hopinions as well for filling my bus journeys with an hour (or more) of beery content every week.

Simon Johnson award for Best Beer Twitterer – I’m not going to pick a favourite here, but shouts go to @6TownsMart – travels through Europe and the UK, with plenty of excellent beer tips, @thebeernut – fully formed Beer reviews, with a side of pithy humour and @RowettBrew – pisstaking, homebrewing and general LOLage.

 

Tryanuary Leeds/West Yorkshire 2018

As we are fast approaching Christmas, we thought that we should update you with the events that are currently planned for Tryanuary. There should be more as we progress towards the end of the year, so keep checking back! If you are a bar/brewery/bottleshop and would like to organise something, please get in touch via Twitter or Facebook.

All month – Head of Steam Tryanuary Sale

20% off Selected Bottles at all Head of Steam bars

3^rd Jan – Books and Beer at the Triangle, Shipley

Drink fine beer and talk Literature with likeminded folks.

https://m.facebook.com/shipleytriangle/?locale2=en_GB

6^th January – Tryanuary Bradford – Leeds Crawl.

Join us as we venture from Bradford to Leeds, hitting beer hotspots as we go. Most of the Leeds section will be determined by a series of twitter polls, so don’t forget to cast your votes. More information at https://whoseroundisitanyway.wordpress.com/2017/12/04/tryanuary-pub-crawl/

10th January – Roosters/Magic Rock Collab launch/Tap Takeover, North Bar, Leeds

As part of their 25th anniversary celebrations Roosters have collaborated with Magic Rock and the result will be launched at North Bar, with a joint tap takeover to boot.

12th January – Basqueland Brewing Project Tap Takeover, North Bar, Leeds

Basqueland Brewing Project are in town for a collaboration with North Brewing Co, and the hosts are putting a bar full of their guests’ beers on at North Bar. Come along for beer chat and slurps.

12-14th January – Brewdenell Beer Festival, Brudenell Social Club, Hyde Park, Leeds

Brewdenell once again returns for another year of great beer from the UK and beyond in the now-expanded Brudenell Social Club – a must visit!

https://twitter.com/brewdenell?lang=en

14th January – CAMRA pub of the month presentation, Oscars Bar, Morley

Join Leeds CAMRA in Morley for the first presentation of an award to a Morley pub in some time. Oscar’s is a welcoming brew pub with a range of their own excellent beer and guests.

http://www.leeds-camra.com/whats-on/4589011400

17th January – Gluten and be Free, Bundobust, Leeds

To celebrate the release of Fantasma as part of their core range, Magic Rock Brewing are teaming up with Bundobust for a launch party. Expect freebies, gluten free dishes and good beer.

18^th January – Wapentake Multiple Tap Takeover, Wapentake, Kirkgate, Leeds

On Thursday the 18^th Wapentake will be serving up treats from Nomadic Beers, Crooked Brewing and Eyes Brewing – three of Leeds’ newer breweries, all of whom are already making waves across Yorkshire. Come on down and chat with the brewers, and sample some treats from Cask and Keg.

http://www.wapentakeleeds.co.uk/

18th January – Verdant/Deya Tap Takeover, Northern Monk Refectory, Leeds

To celebrate the brewing of the Hop City 2018 beer, Northern Monk will be sharing their bar space with the other collaborating breweries.

18th January – Magic Rock Brewing Meet the Brewer/Tap Takeover – Idle Beerhouse

The mighty Magic Rock Brew Co bring 6 Casks and 4 Kegs of their finest for a sup and chat at Idle Beerhouse (formerly Symposium).

http://www.beerhouses.co.uk/pub/idle-beerhouse/

19th January – Black and Brew Tap Takeover at North Bar Social, Otley

The taps will be pouring beers from Nottingham’s Black Iris Brewery and BrewYork all night – check the event page for updates

https://m.facebook.com/NorthBarSocial/?locale2=en_GB

19-20th January – Staff Tap Takeover, Cap and Collar, Saltaire

Come try a list of Keg and Cask beers handpicked by the staff from their personal favourite beers in this friendly micropub – no doubt there will be some excellent offerings!

20^th January – Bottleshare at the Triangle, Shipley

Bring along a sharing bottle or two smaller bottles of your favourite/rarest/most interesting beer to share with others, simple as that really! Expect the weird, wonderful and downright excellent

https://t.co/fLFu0oxsMD

21st January – Crafty Babies, Head of Steam Headingley – 12-2pm

If you’ve struggled to get a babysitter or out in the evenings for the other #tryanuary events, here is an opportunity for craft beer loving parents (and their children) to get together and have a beer or two. There will be a play mat and toys to keep the kids occupied as well.

https://www.facebook.com/events/534023376971587/

25^th January – Leeds Night Market, Kirkgate Market, Leeds

Come along for an evening of independent food and drink from some of the regions finest producers. There’ll be good beer, entertainment and a great atmosphere.

25th January – Pilot Beer Tap Takeover + Guided Beer Tasting at Head of Steam Leeds, 7.30pm.

As a Burns’ Night treat, the Head of Steam are hosting the irrepressible Pilot Brewery from Edinburgh. Expect wit, Scottish-themed nibbles and excellent beer.

https://www.facebook.com/events/534023376971587/

26th January – Denmark to England by Bicycle, The Triangle, Shipley

Join Ed from Hebtroco as he arrives in Shipley from a European Bike Tour – there will be an auction of Hebtroco Apparel and a rare Mikkeller Beer in aid of the Hjerne Barnet/Candlelighters Charities

https://hebtro.co/2017/12/18/ride-bikes-wear-clothes-drink-beer/

27^th January – Wishbone Brewery Tap, Keighley

Wishbone will be opening their Brewery Tap between 12-7 with the theme ‘New Year, New Beer’. Cask or Keg, there will be delights for sipping, as well as on site food. http://www.wishbonebrewery.co.uk

27th January – CAMRA Leeds joint Social with Calderdale and Scarborough Branch, Meet at 1pm Brewery Tap, Station Approach, LS1 5DL

A chance to show off some of the best pubs in Leeds, new and old, big and small to visiting pilgrims from other branches. Pub crawl to comprise approximately (F – food served):

1pm: Brewery Tap (F). The Grove, Adelphi (F), Lamb and Flag (plus Calls Landing) (F), Duck and Drake (also Wapentake (F)), Whitelocks (F), Foleys Tap House, Tapped (F) (plus Head of Steam and Waiting Room)

Want to get in touch? Contact @barrelagedleeds, @leedsbeerwolf or @viewsfromthebar on Twitter

https://en-gb.facebook.com/tryanuary/

The Session #121 – Bock

This month’s Session is hosted by Jon Abernathy of The Brew Site who has nominated Bock as the topic of discussion;

‘The month of March heralds the start of spring, and March 20 is even National Bock Beer Day. So Bockbiers seemed like a natural fit for the month!

Don’t feel constrained to simply write a review of a Bock beer, though I’m certainly interested to read any reviews that come it. Some other ideas to consider:

• Dig into into the history of the style—their ties to Einbeck, the differences in the development of Bocks and Doppelbocks, and so on.
• Do any of your local breweries brew a Bock-styled beer? Seek it out and write about it.
• Alternatively, interview your local brewer who brewed that beer; get their take on the style and why/how they brewed it the way they did.
• Have you ever attended Bockfest in Cincinnati, Ohio? It just so happens to take place the first weekend of March—write a review for The Session!
• There are already the styles of traditional Bock, Doppelbock, Maibock, Eisbock, Weizenbock (and Helles Bock and Dunkles Bock in the BJCP) guidelines. Just for fun, invent a new style of Bock and describe it.
• Have you homebrewed a Bock or similar style? Tell us about it, and anything you learned brewing this lager style at home.
• Bock puns!’

To be honest, i’m finding it hard to resist the final suggestion, but my pun gun has long been retired and i’ve tried to commit myself to writing something other than a straightforward review for this month’s post. Here goes, can’t bock out of it now….dammit.

My first thought when I saw the topic for this month was about as far removed from ‘craft’ beer as it is possible to get. My mind wandered back to 2005, when I was definitely not ‘into’ beer – pretty much every purchase I made would have been at the supermarket, and one such trudge through the aisles turned up something new, and to me at the time, exciting – Artois Bock.

In 2005, Stella Artois was ubiquitous in the UK, far from being ‘reassuringly expensive’ it was seemingly in every pub, bar and chain swill house in the country. The attempts at marketing itself as a luxury, heritage brand had given way to the image of smashed Brits consuming it by the bucket load. As Pete Brown, who had played a large part in ensuring the success of original campaign to position Stella Artois as a quality, premium product in a sea of 4%-ish pale lager, wrote in 2008, Artois Bock had a far more authentic claim to the storied history that was being written for Stella, but the powers that be failed to recognise this and rested on their laurels, delaying the launch by 6 years.

By the time of its eventual release in 2005, the Stella brand had been tainted and recycled into a byword for Saturday night thuggery. It seemed like whenever an incident of drunken disorder was reported, the suggestion was made that it was fuelled by this particular ‘strong’ lager, even though there were plenty of other similar products on the market. Concern from alcohol bodies and the press about binge drinking was a familiar theme, and even at launch InBev were fighting off accusations that the introduction of a 6.2% ABV beer into the UK market was irresponsible.

Looking back at the concern and debate around Stella as a whole, and the launch of Artois Bock in particular, it seems odd, if not laughable when compared to what is readily available in many beer bars up and down the country in 2017. However, there is a peculiarly British obsession with ABV, and Stella’s original strength of 5.2% would have seen it fall firmly into the category of ‘loopy juice’. To launch a new style at this time, at a higher strength, from such a mainstream brand, with a reputation like Stella’s was going to overshadow any marketing, no matter how good the product. Even if it was a bold move by InBev, and actually one that tried to introduce new ideas to their existing market, it seemed a last roll of the dice in trying to position the overall brand as worthy. 

Unfortunately for InBev, it seems from the available apocryphal evidence that the product was also a bit crappy. My own memories of the beer are almost useless – i didn’t really know what it was, I preferred the Peeterman Artois (a wheat-based lager with coriander that was quickly dumbed down even further), and of course, it was 6.2%! I couldn’t have drunk more than a few bottles of that! Loopy juice isnt it?

12 years on, and while I still look in on the Bock family from time to time (Paulaner Salvator currently being sipped), it’s never really taken a place on the podium of styles I really savour. I certainly cannot argue that the stalled curate’s egg of a large macro trying to introduce a minority style into the mass market put me off persisting with Bocks – i just think I prefer my bread in solid rather than liquid form.

 

The Session 120: Brown Beer

For this month’s Session topic, Joe Tindall who writes at The Fatal Glass of Beer has nominated a tricky subject to blog about. I say tricky, because in the discourse of modern beer ‘Brown’ has become a inexplicably maligned descriptor, and brown ale as a style is often overlooked or derided.

Brown is what your parents drank. Brown is dull and lifeless. Brown is  unfashionable, and comes in clear bottles, from brands that no longer exist as independent entities, so passé that they’ve become a joke even amongst the communities that they sprouted from. However, Brown ales are also flavourful, rich, moreish, and despite the negatives, are still one of the most satisfying styles around, even more so when brewed with care and creativity.

My original intention for this post was to find a couple of the classics, and drink them side by side with some newer examples. I quickly realised that it would be a pointless task, mainly because the likes of Newcastle Brown and Mann’s have been reduced to pointlessness by a indifferent beer market and the financial pressures of supermarket discounting.

Also, as most contemporary brown ales available are jazzed up and trend-driven, a comparison would be uneven. So instead of digging up the time capsule and finding nothing but a mouldy newspaper and a badly spelled letter, I picked up two bottles that I thought would be at distant ends of the modern Brown ale scale.

Blackjack Brewery are one of Manchester’s new wave of railway arch Brewers, nestled up in the Green Quarter on the edge of the city centre. The River is a Farmhouse Brown that is billed as ‘far from ‘brown’ as it gets’. There is certainly a extreme funk in the air as I pop the cap, and a small gush of foam – the yeast in the bottle has certainly been working away – but the liveliness still sprays out a nutty aroma that screams brown ale.

To taste, I’m getting a lot of banana esters and also a sweet toasty cocoa. The yeasty, brett-like funk gives it an edge that seems a little strange, almost distracting at first, but as a counterpoint it works. I would have liked a bit more spice, perhaps, but it’s a good concept and pretty well executed too.

Odyssey Brew Co are a new, but increasingly lauded brewery hidden away in deep countryside between Hereford and Worcester. They’ve attracted a lot of attention for their range of aggressively flavoursome beer, and this imperial oatmeal stout fits in with that ethos.

My bottle is full of vanilla, coffee and chocolate, and is thick, with a sharp boozy finish – almost akin to a bourbon aged stout. However there is also that characteristic brownness underneath, with lots of sticky caramel and a gentle bitterness. My only criticism would be that on the finish the vanilla slightly overpowers the other flavours.

To be honest, my previous Odyssey experiences didn’t leave me reeling with excitement, but this beer shows why they’ve got a lot of praise. A real hefty pudding of a beer.

With these two beers, and others I’ve tried recently – North Brewing Co’s Bulkhead and Magic Rock’s The Stooge, both excellent from cask – there is clearly life in the style amongst UK brewers, even if the parameters of the style are being ever more stretched.