European Beer Bloggers Conference 2014 - Overview

Introduction to Irish Craft Beers

I returned late last night, after four excellent days in Dublin; two of which were spent attending the 2014 European Beer Bloggers Conference. It was my first such event, and also my first time in both Ireland and its capital. I had a great time, both at the conference, and in exploring Dublin itself; visiting some of the city’s many unspoilt pubs, and doing the cultural bit as well. There is much I want to write about; so where to start?

Well an overview of the conference itself is as good a place as any, so what exactly went on over the two day period? Fellow blogger, Tandleman, who has been to one of these events before, made the following comment on my pre-conference post: “You will be pissed from dawn till dusk. Or have the opportunity to be. Trust me on that one.”

Lunchtime in the courtyard

He was right of course, with the proviso of “the opportunity to be”, such was the amount, and variety of beer available that, had I chosen to, I really would have been legless from sunrise to sunset. However, sensible fellow that I am (or so I like to think), I did try and pace myself, putting variety and quality above quantity. That was the theory, but as both choice and high standards were present in equally large amounts, it was very difficult to restrict one’s sampling to a sensible and moderate level.

So far as the business agenda of the conference was concerned, there were around 70 delegates in attendance. We were a mix of what the organisers have termed “Citizen Bloggers”, media representatives, people from within the brewing industry and various conference sponsors. Also there were Allan Wright, President of  Zephyr Adventures, and his colleague, Cindy Molchany.  Zephyr are the American based organisers of the event, and they  have arranged all the previous conferences. For the past four years, the Beers Bloggers Conferences have taken place annually in both the United States, and in Britain. The Dublin one was therefore the first European event to have been held outside of the UK.

"The Church"

"The Church"

The venue chosen could not have been better for both its central location, plus the facilities it had to offer. “The Church” is, as its name might suggest, a converted and beautifully restored, former 18^th Century church. Today it functions as a café, bar, restaurant and nightclub, as well as a place which can hosts meetings and small conferences, such as the EBBC 2014. 

It is billed as one of Dublin’s top tourist attractions, and it is easy to see why. The staff that looked after us during our say, operated to the highest standards of professionalism, and ensured that the whole event ran without a hitch. Special mention should be made of Head Chef, Simon and his team who cooked and served up an excellent barbecue lunch on the Saturday, and then prepared an equally sumptuous four-course meal the same evening for the end of conference dinner. The latter was held in conjunction with Franciscan Well Brewery, of Cork, who provided five individual craft beers to accompany the meal; a different one for each course.

Un-filtered Pilsner Urquell -from the wood

Franciscan Well were just one of a dozen or so sponsors, without who’s help the conference could not have gone ahead. Premier amongst the event sponsors, were Molson Coors, Pilsner Urquell, Guinness, Carlow Brewing Company (O’Hara’s), Beer Ireland (an organisation formed to represent the interests of the growing number of independent craft brewers in the country), Fǎite Ireland (the National Tourism Development Authority), Vanguard Beer Collective, and the company which hosts many a blog worldwide, Word Press.com.

A little light lunch

Over the course of the next few posts I hope to convey something of what went on at the conference, on both the business and social side of things, and also to mention some of the many individual Bloggers, and characters I met during my time at EBBC 2014.

To Dublin for EBBC 2014

Like around 60 or so other Beer Bloggers, I’m off to Dublin tomorrow for the 2014 European Beer Bloggers Conference. It’s my first such event, and also my first trip across the Irish Sea; (OK, I’ve been halfway across to the Isle of Man, but that doesn’t really count!).

The conference takes place on the 27^th and 28^th of June and, whilst this is the fourth such event, the 2014 EBBC will be the first to be held outside the UK. Ireland is in the beginning of a craft beer boom with new breweries popping up every year, so this is an exciting time to be visiting the country.

The Beer Bloggers Conference will be a good opportunity to put faces to some of the many names and characters that inhabit the “blogosphere” and to spend some time with them in an unfamiliar town, enjoying a few beers together in a great pub or two,  exchanging information and generally getting to know them better.

Needless to say I’m really looking forward to what promises to be a festival of great beer, good food, and some unspoilt pubs, plus the chance to make useful contacts and new friends. 

There will a full report when I get back.

Off the Beaten Track

I’ve been quite active recently, with two hikes through the Kent countryside having been undertaken on consecutive weekends. The fact that these walks also involved stopping off at some of our best countryside pubs made the physical exertion involved all the more better.

I’ve gone down on record, on several past occasions, stating how lucky we are to have such lovely scenery, along with such attractive pubs in this part of the country, and whilst the second of the two walks re-visited three of the pubs I have written about before, the first explored some relatively new territory, and took in pubs I last visited during my late 20’s.

The most recent walk was a joint CAMRA social arranged between ourselves (West Kent), and our neighbours from Maidstone & Mid-Kent branch. We met in the excellent, National-Inventory listed, Old House at Ightham Common, where there was a good choice of well-kept beers on offer. Betty Stoggs Brazilian, from Skinners plus Old Father Thames from West Berkshire were both particularly good.

This timeless old 17^th Century rural inn is bang up to date so far as modern communications go though, which was especially useful for me seeing as our home phone-line (and hence Broadband connection), was out of action at the time. The Old House’s free Wi-Fi connection therefore proved extremely valuable in allowing me to pick up the emails and other messages which form such a part of 21^st Century life. There are few other concessions to modernity at the pub, and certainly no food is available, apart from nuts and crisps, but landlord Nick, was quite happy for us to eat our sandwiches out in the small, tree-shaded garden at the side of the pub.

We left at around 2.20pm to walk to the next unspoilt rural idyll on our list; the Golding Hop, at Sheet Hill, just outside Plaxtol. Our route was mainly along quiet country lanes, but there was a stretch which led us through some orchards. The Golding Hop is another classic country pub. Not as old as the Old House, but nevertheless an isolated white-painted building, possibly dating from the early 19^th Century, and set in its own secluded valley.

The front of the pub is a real sun-trap, and I have spent many a happy hour sitting out on the small terrace, over-looking the garden, enjoying a pint or three! On this occasion we walked over to the garden, on the other side of the lane, commenting on the sawn-up remains of a huge tree which, until recently, had stood guarding the entrance to the car park. Landlord, Eddie, told us it had come crashing down during last winter’s storms, but fortunately had caused little damage. There will certainly now be an ample stock of fire-wood  for the pub’s open fires in the coming winters!

Adnams Lighthouse was my beer of choice here served, like at the previous pub, on gravity from a room behind the bar. Other members of the group sampled the Whitstable Native, plus Wadworth 6X; the latter being a beer we don’t see that often in this part of Kent anymore.

Onwards and upwards, and definitely the latter, we ascended the lane leading up Sheet Hill (Steep Hill would be a more accurate name!), and into the picturesque village of Plaxtol. Passing the long-closed Rorty Crankle pub (an outpost for Bateman’s beers back in the 1980’s), we traversed the village before turning off in a south-easterly direction, across the fields, to our final port of call, the Kentish Rifleman in the hamlet of Dunk’s Green. This part of Kent is known as the Bourne Valley; named after the stream which flows through its midst, and was formerly a centre for paper-making, on a pre-industrial scale. One of these former hives of activity, Roughway, Mill is close by, and a pub in the centre of Plaxtol commemorates this industry in its name; the Papermaker’s Arms.

The Kentish Rifleman is another attractive old building, which has been well-restored following a disastrous fire back in 2007 which almost completely destroyed the roof, and caused extensive damage to the rest of the building. Apart from the photo’s hanging in the public bar, showing the fire at its height, you wouldn’t know that such a catastrophe had befallen the pub.

We sat out in the secluded garden behind the pub, but there were quite a few locals, and their dogs, sitting out at the front of the building watching the world go by (OK, there’s probably not a lot going by in such a quiet rural retreat, but being nearer to the bar, they seemed to like where they were sitting.) There was a good choice, beer-wise, with Tonbridge Rustic, Whitstable Native (again) and Tolly Cobbold English Ale complementing local favourite, Harvey’s Best. The Tolly English Ale appears to be a regular beer at the Rifleman, as I have drunk it here on several past occasions. For a 2.8% beer it certainly packs in plenty of flavour, and makes perfect sense as a “must stock” beer in such an isolated pub, where the car is often the only means of getting there, particularly in the evenings when the bus ceases running.

No problems for us with the bus, or there wouldn’t normally have been, but road repairs had meant a diversion from the normal route. We were well aware of this, as the driver had pointed it out on the outward journey. A short walk, back along the lanes took us to a point where we could pick up the last bus back to Tonbridge, and with 16 or so of us boarding the bus was much fuller than it normally is.

Our Maidstone colleagues left us in Tonbridge to catch a bus back to Maidstone, although a few joined some of us for a final pint in the Humphrey Bean, our local JDW outlet). I wimped out though, resisting the lure of the Thornbridge Jaipur, and sensibly opting for a large coffee instead. My clear head the following morning and general feeling of well-being told me I made the right decision!

Old Family Brewers of Britain. Part Five - Young & Co of Wandsworth

As most beer enthusiasts will recall, Young & Co. of Wandsworth were a staunchly traditional company which stood virtually alone, during the late 1960's and early 1970's, against the keg tide which threatened to engulf the capital’s pubs. Young’s houses stood out as bastions of good beer and traditional values, when all around them other brewers were busy tearing the heart and soul out of their pubs, and replacing cask ales with fizzy and insipid keg versions.

Young’s persistence with traditional values paid off though, and drinkers began to actively seek out their pubs and their beers. They were eventually forced into the enviable position of having to re-build their brewery in order to meet the increased demand for their beers. So in mid 2006, why on earth did the company announced the closure of their historic brewery in Wandsworth, and the formation of a joint venture with Bedford brewers, Charles Wells; a move which, incidentally, left industry analysts and ordinary drinkers somewhat dumbfounded.

Young’s claimed the closure move was forced on them by plans announced by Wandsworth Council to redevelop the town centre, but their decision to act so swiftly, and throw their lot in with Charles Wells  did not tie in with what the company had been saying just a few months prior to the closure announcement. Their position back then was that they had entered into talks with Wandsworth Council, but were at pains to point that there were no immediate plans to relocate the brewery, and that a feasibility study was in place that may take years to complete. This suggests that the council were in no hurry to eject Young’s from their historic Ram Brewery site, and were certainly not about to issue a compulsory purchase order!

Young’s claimed that the Wandsworth site was too small to allow the expansion they required, and that no suitable alternative site was available in the London area. This was complete and utter nonsense as, from what I remember of the brewery site, there was plenty of room for growth. The tie up with Young’s may have made sense for Charles Wells, as their Bedford brewery was reported to be running only at 50% capacity. However, there was little in the deal for Young’s, unless they valued the development potential of the brewery site, right in the centre of Wandsworth, above that of a heritage which stretched back for several centuries.

Up until the deal was announced, Young’s seemed to be doing perfectly well. They were retaining a healthy respect for their roots without being afraid to move with the times. This was evidenced by a wide-ranging portfolio of beers which included two lagers of their own, an Oatmeal Stout, a Wheat Beer, available for the summer months, plus the introduction of their rather splendid Young’s Double Chocolate Stout. As its name suggests, the beer contained a high percentage of chocolate malt, and was also rumoured to contain some actual chocolate as well. It tasted superb, and was available in both draught and bottled form  Their range of cask beers had also been expanded, with the appearance of Ram Rod, which was formerly a high strength bottled, pale ale, in cask form, along with a number of seasonal specials as well.

I’m not going to try and explain what made the company abandon their heritage, and sell the family silver, but I wouldn’t mind betting money played a major role in their decision. I do wonder though whether they had lost their passion for brewing, even before the closure was announced, as to my mind at least, both their Ordinary and Special Bitters seemed to have lost quite a bit of character. Certainly they weren’t the distinctive beers they once were. What I want to do instead is describe my introduction to Young’s, and my experiences of drinking their beers during the mid to late 1970’s when, I feel, they were at their peak.

My acquaintance with the brewery, and its products, goes back to my late sixth form days. This was when I first sampled Young’s beers at the now sadly closed, Three Horseshoes pub at Lower Hardres, near Canterbury. I had been taken there by a school friend, who knew a lot more about beer than I did. When he first mentioned Young’s, I assumed that he was referring to Younger’s - the Scottish brewers well known at the time for their Tartan keg bitter. Myself, plus a group of other friends, thought that the latter was the beer to drink, but my friend Roy obviously knew better.

Another friend who owned a car, (or rather a Reliant Robin to be precise!), was persuaded to drive us the fifteen or so miles to Lower Hardres. I am not quite sure how Roy got to hear about the Three Horseshoes, but on arrival we found an unspoilt country inn, boasting a traditional public bar, plus a comfortable saloon. However, it was the beer that was the main reason for our visit, and I was soon initiated into the delights of Young’s.

Roy’s family came originally from south London, which was why he was so familiar with Young's ales. I had never heard of them myself, but soon got stuck into the delectable Ordinary (PA as it was called in those days), plus the equally delightful, but stronger Special. Both beers were served direct from wooden casks, kept behind the bar, by a landlord who was very proud of his beers. He even had some membership leaflets on display for an organisation called CAMRA! My friend joined on the spot, but I was slightly more sceptical about handing over 50p for something I had never heard of before. After all, 50p represented the price of nearly four pints of beer back in 1973!

It was to be a couple of years later that I got the chance to sup Young’s beers on a regular basis. This was when I started dating a girl whom I met at university. She hailed from the Wandsworth area, so visits to her parents’ house, during vacation time, gave me ample opportunity to sample Young’s Ales on their home patch. It also afforded the chance to enjoy the beers in some excellent and unspoilt pubs. The Leather Bottle, in Garratt Lane, Earlsfield was a particularly fine pub, and a favourite spot for a Sunday lunchtime drink, but I also have fond memories of the Crane and the Grapes; both in Wandsworth itself.

During these visits I sampled the company's Winter Warmer, (a beer with a truly apt name) for the first time, but on most occasions I was drinking either Young’s Ordinary or their Special Bitter. It was often difficult to decide which of these two beers to go for, as it tended to vary according to my mood, the time and also the place. I found that the Ordinary Bitter was a fine refreshing drink at lunchtime or in a pub garden on a hot summer's evening; whereas the Special was a beer to be enjoyed on other occasions, or to round off a session on the Ordinary. The latter occasion, of course, also applied to the Winter Warmer (when in season). This full bodied, dark ale was not so strong that it made you fall over; instead it was a fine, mellow beer, just right for supping as the autumnal gales heralded the approach of winter. It was also equally welcome as the cold March winds continued to blow, and one was beginning to feel that spring is never going to come.

Now, of course, all that is gone. Young’s beers are brewed by Charles Wells, at their Bedford plant, and are all the poorer for it. On the odd occasion I try a pint I am invariably left feeling disappointed, so unless there’s no other choice then I leave the company’s beers well alone. Probably the only good thing to come out of the brewery closure is that Young’s have invested much of the money they got from the sale of the Wandsworth site into improving their pubs, and to acquiring new ones.  Many of their London pubs now have a vibrant and contemporary feel to them, and are very pleasant places in which to drink. Fortunately, for the beer lover, quite a few of them now offer a beer from Sambrook’s; a Wandsworth based micro that have taken up Young’s mantle and run with it. Their beers are well seeking out, being full of both flavour and character, and are living proof that something good and well worth drinking, is still coming out of Wandsworth!

Normal Service Resumed

After five days without either phone or Internet at home, normal service has now been resumed. According to British Telecom there was a fault somewhere between the exchange and our house, but as from today we are now back on line.

I have to say that being without a land line and Broadband connection, was only a minor nuisance, and something which served to remind us that we all coped perfectly well back in the days before the world-wide web and social media ruled our lives. I actually found the whole experience quite refreshing and managed to get lots of things done in both house and garden that I perhaps wouldn't have done otherwise.

Anyway, now we're back on line there are a couple of posts follow this one, to make up for being away!

Trouble on the Line

Apologies for the lack of posting at the moment, and for the lack of commenting on other people's blogs; (at least one person I can think of might welcome that!). This is due to our dear friends at British Telecom. Apparently there is a network fault affecting quite a few phone lines in the local area, and their engineers are working hard to trace the fault, in order to fix it. They can't give a time-frame at present, but they hope to have it sorted by 25th June; which is next Wednesday! The lack of a phone line means no Broadband connection, (infuriating as we've just paid out or a "Super-fast", fibre optic connection), and hence no access to the internet.

It's especially annoying as I've lots of things written at the moment, plus there are hotels and flights I want to book for a forthcoming trip. Fortunately, I've access during my lunchtimes at work, so hence this short post.

Hopefully, normal service will be resumed sooner, rather than later!

The Keg is Cloudier Than the Cask!

I wouldn’t say I’m an expert on cask-conditioned ale, but having run a successful real ale off-licence for nearly six years, I’ve looked after, and served, a fair few pints of the stuff. My cellar skills have been further augmented over the years, by looking after cask ales at various beer festivals, and also at parties and other get-togethers. On top of this I was, for many years, an accomplished home-brewer, producing a wide variety of different full-mash beers, and  knowing when to rack the beers off to allow a strong secondary fermentation, alongside being able to bring them into peak condition prior to drinking them, is another set of skills I have acquired over the years.

When it comes to keg beer though, I’m something of an amateur, and where “craft keg” is concerned, then I’m a complete novice. My recent crawl along the famous “Bermondsey Beer Mile” brought his latter point home to me in a number of ways; not that I was in any way involved with the brewing or the serving of these beers. However, I was quite heavily involved in the drinking and appreciation of these beers and when, at two of the breweries, my son Matthew was served a glass of a very “milky” looking beer, questions were beginning to form in my mind, along with a number of quite serious doubts.

My understanding of the whole “craft” scene is that the beers are stored in, and served from containers known as “KeyKegs”. I would imagine this type of container is covered by at least one patent, and that the name is trade-marked, although I may be wrong on these points. I saw quite a few “KeyKegs” stacked up in several of the breweries, and at one at least (Brew by Numbers), I saw beer being dispensed from one, alongside a couple of empty ones. (For the record, beer was being stored in a chilled room, behind a makeshift bar at the aforementioned brewery, and I could see what was going on through the partially opened door).

I’m kicking myself for not having taken a few photos of these “KeyKegs”, or having examined them at close quarters, as there was ample opportunity to have done so. Instead I am relying on memory, plus information I’ve been able to glean on-line. The “KeyKegs” I saw at several breweries were probably a similar size to a standard British steel keg, but were made of rigid plastic with a cardboard outer. Not entirely of these materials though, as the main part of the keg, and the part in which the beer is kept, is basically a collapsible plastic liner, contained inside the robust outer skin. I thought the outers were octagonal in shape, but looking at examples on various websites, I see they are twelve-sided; a do-decahedron?

Obviously the plastic and cardboard outer provides strength and keeps the whole thing rigid, whilst the collapsible plastic liner allows the beer to be dispensed without coming into contact wit the air. Rather like a polypin, or a glorified "wine-box" if you like. Now comes the clever bit; the beer within the inner liner not only never comes into contact with the air, but it also is never touched by the propellant gas. Basically the gas pressure is applied between the inside of the rigid outer container wall and the outside of the inner bag which contains the beer. As the latter is flexible, it collapses as the beer is forced out of the bag by the pressure of applied gas. As the gas does not come into contact with the beer, there is no risk of it becoming too gassy, as with a traditional keg. In addition, low-cost compressed air can be used as the propellant, instead of the much more expensive CO2.

All very clever, and ideal for breweries not wishing to invest in large numbers of traditional, but expensive, steel kegs. However, “KeyKegs” are “one-trip” containers, and whilst the manufacturers are keen to extol their green credentials by boasting that all components are recyclable, they still cost money, and this cost has to be passed on to someone. That someone is usually the consumer, and the popularity of  “KeyKegs” amongst “craft beer” brewers, may explain the inflated price of the final product at the taps.

I mentioned earlier my concerns about the milky-looking beer my son was served with, and whilst this is not a fault of the “KeyKeg” system per se, brewers using these containers to store and dispense their product need to pay a lot more attention to what they are doing, and what they are trying to achieve. As everyone knows, cask-conditioned beer contains a certain amount of live yeast, which allows the beer to undergo a secondary fermentation in the cask. This gives the beer condition and that all important "sparkle", but it also allows undesirable volatile components to be purged from the beer. Finings are added to the beer prior to it leaving the brewery, and these substances cause the yeast cells in the beer to clump together and fall out of suspension, eventually settling at the bottom of the cask. The resultant beer is clear and well-conditioned, and when looked after correctly can represent the very peak of the brewer’s art.

Unfortunately careless handling or poor cellar skills can lead to a pint which is cloudy, flat or both, plus of course, slow turnover will lead to prolonged exposure of the beer to oxygen in the air. This causes oxidation of the beer, making it taste stale and, if this process continues for any length of time, acidification occurs, with that all too familiar vinegar smell and flavour which is indicative of an “off-pint”.

Oxidation is not a problem with “KeyKegs”, but careless handling is, and so is poor formulation or insufficient maturation of the beer in the first place. Now I fully accept that the “craft fraternity” like their beer to be fresh and as natural as possible. This often means the beer is unfiltered and therefore still contains a certain amount of suspended yeast. I don’t have a problem if this suspended yeast is present at sufficient levels to cause a slight haze. I’ve drunk many unfiltered beers over the years, both at home and abroad and have generally enjoyed their fresh taste and slight yeasty background.

What I do have a problem with is beer which contains so much suspended yeast that it looks more like a "banana milk-shake" than a glass of beer, and unfortunately, whether by accident or design, this is what Matthew ended up with in his glass last Saturday afternoon! I didn’t say anything to him, as I didn’t want to cloud his judgement, if you’ll excuse the pun, or to prejudice him against hazy beer in the way that a whole generation of older drinkers has been conditioned to think. A good friend, who is ten years older than me, will often send back a pint which is just slightly hazy; sometimes without even tasting the beer first. This is in the mistaken belief that hazy, or cloudy beer gives people the “sh*ts”, or an unsettled stomach the following morning.

This is an old chestnut and, of course, not true. Matthew certainly suffered no ill-effects from drinking this yeast-laden beer, any more than I have in the past from drinking hazy, unfiltered beers. However, when the beer is as cloudy as described above then should we the customers speak out? 

I suspect I would have got short shrift from the busy bar staff last Saturday, by returning Matthew’s “banana milkshake”, although if it had been my beer which was looking like that then I would perhaps have been bolder. Surely beer isn’t supposed to be excessively yeast-laden like that? Now I suspect one of either two things were occurring. My son was either unlucky enough to be served the dregs from the bottom of the “KeyKeg” OR the yeast count of the beer, prior to racking, was way too high.

The answer could also be that a combination of both factors caused the problem, which opens up a whole can of worms regarding the formulation, maturation, storage and dispensing of “craft keg”, to say nothing of the sometimes eccentric or indeed maverick personalities of the people behind some of these outfits.

Summary 

“KeyKegs” are a good, innovative idea, and I can see why they are really catching on amongst “craft” brewers. They are a God-send for breweries, who are just starting up, as they save having to buy expensive steel kegs, or casks, and as their use increases I’m sure that costs will come down. The fact they allow beer to be stored away from the harmful effects of oxygen in the air, and then enable it to be served without absorbing any of the propellant gas can only help the cause of beer and people’s appreciation of it as the drink of choice.

The problems I have outlined above are not an inherent fault with these containers, but instead are problems of some “craft” brewers making. Great play is made at the moment about drinking the “freshest beer possible”. Unfortunately, fresh often means “immature”; something known in the trade as “green beer”. Green beer can sometimes taste harsh, and it's flavour can also be affected by compounds which would normally disappear as the beer matures.

Racking beer into “KeyKegs” straight from the fermenting vessel is not a good idea. It is an especially bad one if the beer is still heavily-laden with yeast. Whilst I admire the enthusiasm of many of these new wave of brewers, I feel they need to take a few steps back at times, to pause and reflect on exactly what they are doing. With a little more forethought and a little less haste, they could be turning out some absolutely stunning beers, instead of serving up pints of sludge. The choice is therefore yours gentleman (and ladies!).

I’ve rabbited on long enough for now on this perplexing subject, but would be especially interested in hearing other peoples’ thoughts on the matter. I am not knocking innovation or even out and out experimentation in brewing, but I am concerned about being served a glass of beer which contains more yeast than it does malt and hops!