Land of the Rising Sun

I'm off to Japan early tomorrow morning, so won't be blogging for a while. It's a business trip and together with a colleague, I will be visiting our parent company's head office and manufacturing facility in Kyoto.

For both of us, this will be our first time in Japan, and we're really looking forward to it. We've a busy schedule ahead of us, with lots of meetings, tours and demonstrations to fully occupy our time there. Several of our evenings are also marked out for us, with many of our Japanese colleagues keen to wine, dine and entertain us. We do, however, have some free time for sight-seeing, shopping etc., next weekend, before flying back on the Bank Holiday Monday.

I don't expect there will be much opportunity for beer-hunting, although I've managed to do a bit of forward research on-line. There are several breweries in Kyoto, including a couple of brew pubs. The on-line guide I saw advises that bottles from most of these breweries are available in major department stores, so if I don't manage to track down any of these breweries, at least I should be able to pick up some bottles to bring back with me.

I'll be reporting back in about 10 days time.

Last Night in Tunbridge Wells

 As promised, here's a resume of last night's outing to Tunbridge Wells

I met up with Eric at Tonbridge station where we were also joined by Jon. We made the short train journey to TunbridgeWells and then had a leisurely walk, up the hill, to the Royal Oak. We found the pub packed, and although we could have found a seat, it was rather warm inside so, feeling a little flushed after our walk up from the station, decided to sit out on the terrace in front of the pub - after ordering our drinks of course!

 As I probably mentioned in my precious post, the Royal Oak was holding a beer festival, and we soon discovered that the theme was London breweries. It was a "rolling festival", which meant not all the beers were available at any one time. Instead, fresh beers were put on sale as soon as the current ones sold out. This of course had the advantage of most of the beers being "cellar cool", although there were a couple served direct from casks perched up on the bar. These were protected by insulated jackets, which ensured that they too were kept at the correct temperature.

All the beers, and indeed some of the breweries, were new to me, but the knowledgeable staff were able to issue guidelines as to the style, taste and appearance of each beer - other outlets, please take note! We all started with Mayor of Garratt, a 4.3% Best Bitter from By the Horns Brewery. We all agreed that this was an excellent example of a proper London Best Bitter, and for me this beer was the best of the evening. Two of us then moved on to Orchid, a 3.6% dark mild from East London Brewery. The barmaid was quite right when she advised it had liquorice and vanilla notes, and it certainly was another excellent beer. For our third, and final beer at the Oak, my colleagues chose Diamond Geezer, a 4.9% strong bitter, again from .By the Horns Brewery. I opted for Notting Hill Ruby Rye from Moncada Brewery, brewed as its name suggests with a portion of rye. Normally I steer clear of "red ales", but I have to say this one was certainly very pleasant, and didn't taste as strong as its 5.2% strength might have suggested.

We made this our final pint last at the Royal Oak. It was getting chilly outside, and the pub was becoming more and more crowded inside. The band had started up, and whilst all three of us appreciate live music, we really wanted to chat. Besides, we were hoping to meet up with our friends Iain and Carole. We assumed they would be in the Grove Tavern, so we made our way through the back streets to the Little Mount Sion area of Tunbridge Wells.

They weren't in the pub, but no matter, there was Harvey's Best and Olympia, plus Taylor's Landlod to tempt us to stay. We all went for the Landlord, which was in fine form, in fact I would sat the beer seems to have returned to something approaching its old best. There was talk of moving on to the Compasses, over the road, but we were comfortable where we were, and it wasn't that long before we would need to depart anyway to catch the last train home. A second, and final pint of Landlord was duly called for before we strolled back down the hill to the station, in plenty of time for our train.

Once again another good night over at the Wells; it's just a pity we don't have pubs of this calibre in Tonbridge.

Not Going Out - Part 3

The flip side of course about “Not Going Out”, is “Staying In”. So how does someone who really likes a glass or two of decent beer equate this with not venturing down to the local pub?

Easy, just pick up a selection of decent bottles from whichever supermarket or off-licence is offering the best deals. Then, drink and enjoy! The first thing I want to get straight is that whilst I’ve been a member of CAMRA for nearly 40 years, apart from my early days with the campaign, I’ve never really gone along with this Real Ale in a Bottle (RAIB) nonsense. I’ve gone on record before to say that whilst RAIBs can sometimes be excellent, more often than not they are pretty dire (primarily due to poor bottling techniques, inadequate hygiene measures etc at many small breweries), and I don’t see any advantages in them whatsoever. CAMRA needs to alter its position on this, but somehow I can’t see that happening anytime soon.

Moving on, all the major supermarkets now offer a goods selection of bottles beers, sourced both from her in the UK as well as some of the better known examples from abroad. Obviously they wont carry as wide or diverse a selection as a specialist off-licence, but generally speaking, the larger the store, the greater the selection.  Waitrose, in my opinion,  are the best of the major supermarkets, and my local branch makes a point of stocking beers from some of our better known local breweries, such as Westerham, Whitstable and Hog’s  Back, alongside some of the more usual suspects. They also carry a reasonable range of foreign beers, both ales and lagers, alongside “own brand” lagers, ales and wheat beers from the Czech Republic, Germany and Belgium.

Our local Sainsbury isn’t too bad either, also stocking Westerham beers alongside a number from the rarely seen (in this neck of the woods) Hopdaemon Brewery. For budget stuff, “cooking bitter”, Lidl’s step up to the mark with bargain basement offers, from time to time, on beers from Marstons or Shepherd Neame. I usually avoid the latter, I really dislike Shep’s, but recently we’ve seen Oyster Stout from Marstons, alongside Jennings Cocker-Hoop for just £1.19 a bottle!

Both Sainsbury’s and Waitrose run promotions along the lines of three bottles for five pounds or, less often, three for the price of two, and I normally take advantage of these offers to stock up on beers I am partial too. Prior to Christmas, I built up quite a stock of both London Porter and 1845 from Fullers, as well as Budvar Dark and Goose Island IPA. Incidentally, the latter is currently on promotion at Waitrose at two bottles for three pounds – an absolute bargain!  I’ve also been enjoying the Duchy Originals India Pale Ale, brewed at Wychwood Breweruy and bittered with English Sovereign hops. Nice beer, and nice price at three bottles for a fiver!  Morrisons and Tesco also run similar promotions to their rivals, but for me both stores involve a trip to either Tunbridge Wells or Sevenoaks respectively.

If I am feeling a bit more flushed I will pop into M&S and take advantage of their six bottles for the price of five offers which allows customers to “mix and match”. They also do a half decent Czech lager, from Regent Brewery I believe, at just over £1.50 a bottle.

Other sources of good bottled beer include our local farmers’ market, where Hepworths usually have a stall, or visits to certain breweries. Harvey’s have a wonderfully stocked shop, adjacent to their brewery in Lewes, but it is also possible to pick up bottles from Westerham when they hold their brewery open days. Since my wife and I sold our own off-licence, the Cask and Glass, six years ago, and following the recent closure of the similarly-styled Bitter End in Tunbridge Wells, there aren’t any specialist beer shops locally that I can think of, although Noble Wines in Tunbridge Wells does carry a small selection from Harvey’s, Nelson and Old Dairy from time to time.

Well that’s enough about sourcing the stuff; what about drinking it? First, I don’t drink anything like as much at home as I would in a pub. I normally find a single 500ml bottle quite sufficient, although sometimes I will follow it with say a 330ml bottle of something a bit more unusual, or that little bit stronger. Occasionally, mainly at weekends, I will stretch to a couple of 500ml bottles, but this doesn’t happen that often. Contrast this to when I go to the pub where three of four pints would be quite normal, mainly because I will be drinking with a group of friends, and somehow on these occasions the beer just seems to slide down so much easier!

So what do I do with the time that I might otherwise be spending down the pub? Well, I write this blog for a start, that keeps me out of mischief. This time of year and indeed right through from early spring to late autumn, I spend a lot of time outdoors. I won’t go so far to say I am a keen gardener, but I do like to keep our back yard looking neat and tidy, and just recently I’ve started growing a few vegetables. During the winter months there are usually plenty of DIY projects to keep me busy.

All in all, staying in, enjoying the odd beer or two, spending time with the family, blogging, gardening etc does make me appreciate far more those times when I do venture out. I’m off over Tunbridge Wells tonight, meeting up with a good friend whom I haven’t seen in ages. We’re heading to the Royal Oak, who are holding a rolling beer festival in the pub. It’ll be good to have a nattier over a few pints of something out of the ordinary. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Not Going Out - Part Two

In my previous post I argued that many professional people had been priced out of pubs by the high cost of beer, (and other drinks). An unfortunate side effect of this is that licensees have tried to make up the shortfall by appealing to those who can still afford several nights a week in their local boozer. Two or three decades ago this group would have comprised well-paid industrial workers, coal miners and people involved in activities such as steel making or heavy engineering. However, with the decline in these industries,  pubs had to look elsewhere for the bulk of their trade. For a while, during the construction boom at the end of the last century and beginning of this one, there were large numbers of skilled tradesmen, bricklayers, plumbers and electricians, all with plenty of spare cash in their pockets and looking for somewhere to unwind after a hard day’s graft. The pub provided the opportunity for them to relax and enjoy a few drinks with their mates, or fellow tradesmen.

All this changed, of course, with the financial crisis of 2008, followed by the loss of confidence, and collapse in demand for new housing and other property developments. The effect on the construction industry was devastating, and many skilled tradesmen found themselves out of work. Once again, a lot of pubs ended up bereft of a large proportion of their regular trade, but this time there was no obvious group to replace them. In desperation, many landlords decided that what their customers wanted was a regular diet of Sky Sports, so they subsequently invested heavily in this area, in the hope it would pull in the punters.

In a way it did, but lager-swilling louts wearing football shirts aren’t really the sort of customers conducive to a friendly relaxed atmosphere, and the end result has been that a large number of pubs now resemble American bars. Step inside and there is no escape from the all pervasive TV screens, or the foul language of some of these so-called football supporters.

The fact that so many formerly unspoilt locals have ended up like this is sufficient to deter people like me from ever setting foot in them again, but this situation would not have arisen if back in the 1970’s the brewers, who were the main pub owners at the time, hadn’t embarked on a program of knocking down internal walls and removing the age old distinctions between public and saloon bars. At least in those days if one didn’t like the crowd in the public bar, one could escape to the saloon and vice versa. Now, with so many pubs resembling nothing more than soulless, single room "drinking barns", there is no escape. On top of this comes the more or less universal assault on ones ear-drums from juke boxes, piped muzak or the all pervasive television. Why do landlords and bar staff think that everyone shares their dubious taste in music?  Why do they think we want to watch horse racing, golf, snooker or any number of other sporting pursuits?

Some licensees have tried, with some degree of success, activities such as quiz nights, to help to bring the punters in, but things such as karaoke nights or poker evenings are nothing but a major turn off so far as I am concerned, and smack of desperation. As for the effect of the smoking ban, well pubs were in decline for a long time prior to the introduction of that ill thought out piece of legislation.

Some pubs have moved in the opposite direction and now function as little more than high class restaurants. On the whole, food is a development that ought to be welcomed in pubs, so long as they continue to provider a reasonable amount of space for people who just want to drink. 

So what’s to be done to encourage people like me, and others, to return to the pub? Well, although it would be nice, it would be naive in the extreme to expect a return to two, or even multi-bar pubs, but I can’t help thinking that the rush to do away with what were considered as “outdated symbols of class division” was the start of the slippery slope in the pub’s long decline.

What I do see though from my admittedly infrequent forays into pub land, is that pubs which offer a good range of well-kept cask beers, together with decent continental lagers, and possibly the odd craft beer as well thrown into the mix, are thriving. So are those pubs where convivial conversation and friendly pub banter still rule the roost. There are several pubs in both Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks that fall into these categories, but I can’t really think of any that fit the bill in my home town of Tonbridge, although one or two perhaps come close.

If I was to win the lottery I would be tempted to buy a pub and put some of my ideas into practice, but until that unlikely day happens I’ll continue to do most of my drinking at home, whilst making the occasional foray into pub land.

I don't want to come across as a snob here. Back in my youth I was equally at home in both public and saloon bars; my choice being dictated by the situation and the company I was with. For example, a night out with my mates would normally be spent in the public bar,  enjoying a game of darts or cribbage. Music would be provided by the juke box, where we, the punters, chose what was played rather than the bar staff. If one was entertaining a member of the opposite sex, then the saloon was the bar of choice. More refined, quieter (the music from the juke box in the adjoining bar, didn't normally carry through), and  more comfortable surroundings. Things were much more civilised back then.

Not Going Out - Part One

I have written before about how I changed from a regular pub-goer to a rather infrequent one and, following a recent post by Curmudgeon, I’m prompted to write again. Curmudgeon suggests that going to the pub for a drink has become much less socially acceptable over the years. I disagree, as to claim that pub going it is becoming more sociably unacceptable is to suggest that it is an activity that is frowned upon, or is even something which society as a whole does not approve of.

Whilst the latter point may well be the case amongst a small minority of rabid teetotallers I think it is less true than it was 40 years ago when I first started drinking. It was not, for example, an activity which my mother approved, and I would say it is something she still doesn’t much approve of today. Back in my schooldays, I can even remember one teacher, a Methodist lay-preacher no less, describing public houses as “dens of iniquity and inebriation”. Marvellous stuff, and like a throw-back to the height of the Temperance movement in Victorian times!

However, leaving questions of maternal and scholarly approval to one side, I would argue that people have stopped visiting pubs as frequently as they once did, not because it’s socially unacceptable, BUT because it’s either too expensive, or they have other, more important or interesting things to do with their time and their money.

Taking the financial argument, I am convinced that the price of a pint represents a far larger proportion of average take home pay than it did say 20 or 30 years ago. For example, back in the early 1980’s,  I always seemed to have money for a pint whenever I felt like one, whereas now, despite my wages having probably quadrupled, an evening in the pub is an occasional treat rather than an everyday occurrence. Incredible, really; I earn far more than I’ve ever done before and yet I can’t afford to go to the pub with anything like the frequency I once used to. Something is definitely wrong somewhere!

Of course there are other factors to take into consideration.  For a start my mortgage is considerably larger than it was 30 years ago, and there have been other large, inflation-busting increases in things like council tax, gas, water and electricity bills I run a car now, instead of relying on public transport to get around. I am also fortunate to be able to take more holidays, and these of course have to be paid for. All these factors add up to there being less money available for going to the pub.

It seems that whilst living standards have generally risen the price of a pint has risen much higher, and is now proportionally far higher than it has ever been. This is the MAIN reason why so many people, myself included, have stopped going to the pub on a regular basis. In short, WE JUST CAN’T AFFORD IT!

Support British Hops!

"Support British Hops!" So said the leaflet handed out to those drinkers in the Bedford, Tunbridge Wells  last Saturday who were willing to try and comment on the intriguingly titled "Enigma Ale". This 4.8% beer had been specially brewed by Canterbury Brewers, who are based at the Foundry Brew-Pub in the cathedral city.using an unknown variety of hop. The man behind the beer  is world-renowned hop expert, Dr Peter Derby of the National Hop Collection, and the idea is to provide feedback to assist both growers and brewers to choose what could potentially be a new variety of British hop. As the leaflet says: 

 
"The beer in front of you has been brewed with a unique hop, grown in Britain, that may have never been tasted before. We have been asked by Dr. Peter Derby of the National Hop Collection to brew with an unknown hop variety. This could be a historical variety not brewed with for a hundred years or a brand new variety never tasted anywhere in the world before. We’ve brewed the beer, now we’re asking for your help to give the growers some feedback on the flavours. We have used the hops throughout the brewing process to show all of the flavours possible.  Your feedback will be taken seriously and by giving us an honest appraisal you will be helping to sustain one of the proudest features of our local landscape."

Anyone ordering a glass of Enigma was given a form, complete with a flavour wheel, and ask to score the beer according to eight different flavour groups, (Citrussy; Fruity; Floral; Herbal; Spicy; Resinous; Sugar-like; Miscellaneous), and using the following guidelines.

"Everyone’s palate is different and there are no wrong answers in taste, in order to help with clear flavour definitions we have provided a flavour wheel for your use. Any of the flavours in the segments (eg. orange, mandarin) are part of the flavour group heading (eg. Citrusy), if you detect these flavours then give a rating from 0-7 in the box provided. Please give an intensity rating for all eight flavour groups."

Of course, the correct balance of malt flavours also plays an important role in the overall taste and balance of the finished beer, and I think the people behind the project were right in choosing an innovative company, like Canterbury Brewers, whose portfolio includes a wide range of different beers and styles, to produce the beer for them.

Presenting the beer in such a fashion, with an intriguing name, an eye-catching pump-clip and, most importantly as a totally blind tasting, seems an excellent way of  dispelling preconceptions and providing some completely unbiased feedback. It certainly worked last Saturday, as most of us present in the pub gave the beer a try. So what did it actually taste like?  Well, I found it quite citrussy. especially on the nose, but there were also spicy and resinous components present as well. It was certainly a beer with character, and one I would be quite happy to drink on a regular basis.

I shall be keeping an eye om Canterbury Brewers website to find out what hop variety was actually used and whether it is an old or a brand new one. Whatever the answer, if it helps give a much needed boost to the British hop industry, then it gets my vote.