CAMRA Members Weekend & AGM 2010

I'm off to the Isle of Man in the morning, so won't be posting for a while. It's the first CAMRA AGM I've been to in over 25 years, and I'm really looking forward to it.

It's also my first trip to the Isle of Man; which again should be good. I'm planning to meet up with some old friends from Maidstone & Mid-Kent CAMRA, and hopefully Tandleman as well. There's five of us attending from West Kent CAMRA, so all in all it should be an excellent long weekend.

Cheshire Chocolate Porter

I've just drunk what has to be one of the strangest beers I've had for a long time. Cheshire Chocolate Porter, brewed by Robinsons for Marks & Spencer, has been sitting downstairs in the kitchen cupboard for a month or two now, so I thought I'd better give it a go.

I had my suspicions when I held the bottle up to the light, and found that the contents did not appear dark at all. (The bottle is a standard brown glass job, but I could see straight through the beer inside). Pouring the beer revealed a bog-standard, brown-coloured beer, which did not even remotely resemble what a porter is supposed to look like. Still, one shouldn't drink with one's eyes so on tasting the beer I have to say that it was not at all unpleasant, and reminded me, more or less straight away, of Youngs Double Chocolate Stout.

I noted from the ingredients listing on the bottle, that Natural Chocolate Flavouring is used in the recipe, which the label claims is an original, dating back to 1899. However, the label also states that the beer was created with the collaboration of renowned chocolatier, Simon Dunn - whoever he might be? (Just had a look at his web-site, and I have to say his chocolates do look absolutely divine!). The label also states that this beer is 6% abv; it doesn't drink its strength, but all in all I am well impressed. I might not rush out tomorrow and immediately buy another bottle, but next time I am in M&S I will definitely pick one up!

The morale of the story then is don't drink with your eyes (something an old drinking buddy told me a long time ago). The other important thing to remember is, never judge a book by its cover or, in this case, a beer by its appearance!

Ticking All The Right Boxes?

I know it's sad, but over the Easter weekend I finally found time to update my Good Beer Guide 2010. By update I mean I went through the breweries section at the rear, and marked off all the beers I've sampled with a high-lighter pen. I didn't do this from memory, instead I laboriously copied the entries over from the 2009 edition. I go through this ritual every year, but not normally quite as late as this. I don't really like doing it which is why I had been putting it off, but having done so for the past 35 years it would be a shame to stop now!

Before we go any further, I must state that I am NOT a ticker, well certainly not in the established sense of the word. By this I mean that I do not go all out to tick off as many beers as I can find. Instead I just continue to record those beers I have sampled over the course of nearly 40 years drinking. Obviously more beers get added to the list each year; but beers are also dropped from the list when breweries close, or certain brews are discontinued. If I was a serious ticker I would maintain a list that is separate to the current GBG, but I can't be arsed to do this. Neither can I be bothered to count up how many cask beers I have sampled. I doubt that the figure would even approach 500*, yet I know several serious and dedicated tickers that have knocked off 5,000 beers, and one who claims to have sampled over 10,000!

Why am I telling you this? Do I wish to leave myself open to ridicule? and are my attempts to deny a penchant for ticking to be believed? The answer to these questions is a point that several CAMRA members have asked in the past, namely is it now time for the Campaign to publish a guide to the Breweries of Britain that is completely separate from the Good Beer Guide?

I think there is a compelling case for this to happen. The current GBG contains nearly 900 pages, of which almost 200 are given over to the Breweries Section. In order for the guide to remain at a reasonable thickness (and weight), the paper used is so thin and light-weight as to be almost transparent. CAMRA claims, with justification, that when choosing pubs for the Guide "It's the beer quality that counts." That is obviously true, and it is why the Campaign insists it is essential to include the Breweries Section at the back of the Guide. However, a glance through many of the pub entries will not always tell you much about the beers on sale at these outlets. "Guest Beers", is a common entry, leaving the reader none the wiser as to what might be on offer. (See sample entry above.) Even when one refers to the section at the rear, more often than not one is instructed to check the brewery's website for details of seasonal, or special beers.

Splitting the Breweries Section off into a separate publication would allow more space to be devoted to breweries, and would allow a much more detailed listing of each company's products than at present. Both the Good Beer Guide and the Guide to the Breweries of Britain could then be printed on thicker, higher quality paper, giving a much more appealing product than the current "telephone directory" style publication. I don't even think that separating the pub and brewery sections in this manner would dilute sales, as there are two completely different markets here.

The Good Beer Guide appeals, in the main, to people who travel around the country, for business or pleasure, and often a combination of both, whereas the Breweries Guide would have a particular appeal to CAMRA members, independent of whether they are dedicated tickers or not! Purchase of the Guide in its current format, by the general public, as opposed to CAMRA members, already makes up the bulk of the sales, and I am fairly confident most of these people buy the Guide for its pub listings, rather than the Breweries Section at the rear.

There is in my view a golden opportunity for CAMRA to break with tradition, do something a bit different and come up with two separate guides that will appeal to related, but still different audiences, and which by heading off down a new path will enhance, rather than detract from a format that has grown increasingly tired and repetitive over the years. I wonder whether the Campaign will be bold enough to grasp the nettle?

* 586 to be precise!

The Good Friday Ramble

The turnout on this year's Good Friday Ramble was down on previous years; probably due in no small part to the weather. However, those of us brave enough to attend enjoyed a stroll that was largely rain-free, through some very pleasant Kent countryside, although it has to be said it was very wet underfoot. My boots leaked like a sieve, so I'll be surprised if I don't end up with trench foot after walking in what felt like two sponges!

Despite the forecast we were extremely lucky with the weather. The rain started just as we reached our lunchtime stop - the Bell & Jorrocks at Frittenden, and although peering out from the pub window showed that it was absolutely tipping down, by the time we left the pub the rain had virtually given over. Of course, the going was even wetter underfoot on the way back, but that wasn't going to spoil what had been an excellent day out.

The Good Friday Ramble is organised by Maidstone & Mid-Kent CAMRA. Now in its 34th year, this annual event has become something of a tradition. Keen rambler, Dick Wilkinson has organised and led all but one of these walks, and whilst they are perhaps now slightly shorter and gentler than they were in the past, they are still very enjoyable. It is especially good to catch up with old friends, some of who we only see once a year.

When we meet up, we remark that we're all getting a little older, and that our children are now grown up, and some even have children of their own, but this doesn't deter us from enjoying the walks which have been held all over the county. We invariably start from a convenient station, and then walk three or four miles to an accommodating country pub, where we stop for a pub-lunch plus a few pints! After the lunchtime halt, we return to the meeting point, via a different, but similar length, route

This year's stop was the aforementioned Bell & Jorrocks Inn, situated in the small village of Frittenden. This unusual name dates back to the closure in the late 1960's of Frittenden's other pub, the John Jorrocks Inn. It's name was incorporated in that of the Bell. I had not been to the pub before, as this is not a part of Kent that I normally have cause to visit. I have to say that I was very impressed with what we found; a thriving village pub with a good choice of beers that included Black Sheep, Harveys and Loddon. The home-cooked food was also very good, and the steak and ale pud, accompanied by mash and vegetables was just the thing to both soak up the beer and also warm me up.

As I said earlier, the walk back to Headcorn station was largely in the dry, apart from the conditions underfoot. When we arrived back at Headcorn, a number of stalwarts disappeared into the George & Dragon. I wanted to get home though, if only to change out of my wet boots and enjoy a welcoming soak in the bath. Hopefully, things will be a little drier underfoot next year, but by then I should also have treated myself to a new (and waterproof) pair of boots!

On the Waggon!

I did something last week that I haven't done in years; in fact I can't remember the last time I went for six days on the trot without a drop of beer passing my lips!

The previous Saturday I had been on a pub crawl of Maidstone organised by my local CAMRA branch. You can read all about it by clicking on the link here, but suffice to say it was a good day out, and we visited some cracking pubs. In the general scheme of things I didn't have that much to drink; certainly no more than I was drinking on a daily basis on my visit to Prague at the end of last year. I also expect to be drinking a similar amount on my forthcoming visit to the Isle of Man, but although I had a self-imposed break from the sauce on the Sunday I still felt peculiarly jaded the following day. Come the evening and I just didn't fancy my usual glass of beer. I continued with this self-imposed abstinence for the next couple of days, and then decided to go the rest of the week without a beer. I must confess that I didn't feel any different (healthier or otherwise) for this lack of drink, but I knew that come the weekend I would certainly appreciate my beer all the more.

And so it proved. My son and I, together with a couple of friends, made the trek down to the unspoilt and CAMRA National Inventory-listed Red Lion at Snargate. I certainly enjoyed the beers on sale there, together with the beers we sampled later that day in the First In Last Out (FILO) brew-pub in Hastings Old Town.

I remember coming back from Munich last year with my palate feeling similarly jaded, so perhaps it does do one good from time to time to have a short break from the beer we all know and love.

A Collection of Old Bottles

I am well aware that many fellow beer bloggers are a lot more adept at tracking down and describing interesting and, sometimes esoteric, beers than I am. With this in mind I have written this post primarily for the benefit of my more local readers.

I've been cracking open a few bottles recently; bottles I've collected over recent weeks. Last night I enjoyed a bottle of Lees Moonraker, a fine, rich, dark strong ale, and a former winner of CAMRA's Champion Winter Beer of Britain. At 7.5% abv, the beer doesn't take to many prisoners, but it was a good one to finish up on. The 5% Winter Beer brewed for Marks & Spencers by Adnams, could perhaps have done with being a shade darker, but was still an enjoyable example of this style of beer.

Putting winter behind us, and moving on to spring, allows one the chance to enjoy the Co-Op's Organic Ale, a well-hopped, 5% abv golden ale brewed for the Co-Op by Freeminer Brewery, who are based in the Forest of Dean. As the beer contains a portion of Free-Trade sugar, it is currently on promotion in the company's stores, and at just £1.00 a bottle, is an absolute bargain.

I also recently enjoyed a couple of very diverse bottles from Greenwich's Meantime Brewery. The first, a 4.7% Pilsner has also been on promotion recently; this time in Sainsbury's, and at £1.00 a bottle I wish I'd bought a few more. The other Meantime beer was the London Porter, specially brewed for Marks & Spencer. Again this was a particularly fine beer and, according to the brewery " No fewer than seven malts go into our Porter, helping us recreate a recipe of 1750, specially chosen to bring you the flavours so loved by Londoners that demand for Porter made London the brewing capital of the world." The beer is also available in large 750ml? bottles from Sainsbury's.

Brew Dog's Punk IPA is a further beer that has recently been on promotion in Sainsbury's. This is extreme beer; 6% abv and aggressively hopped interpretation of an IPA. As the brewery states on the bottle: "Brew Dog is about breaking rules, taking risks, upsettimg trends and unsettling institutions (wonder who they could be talking about here?), but first and foremost great tasting beer." I'll certainly drink to that, and at £1.00 a bottle, who says supermarkets only discount cheap tasteless lout?

Bernard Cerne Pivo is a Dark Lager from the Czech Republic and, to my mind, is one of the finest examples of this style of beer available anywhere. On my recent trip to Prague, I enjoyed quite a few glasses of this excellent beer, so it was good to be able to pick p a couple of bottles at a branch of Tesco's on a recent visit to Norfolk. Packaged in a distinctive swing-topped bottle, this 5.1% abv dark lager is micro-filtered, rather than pasteurised, resulting in a fresh tasting, intensely malty beer. Just sitting here, enjoying a bottle, has transported me back to Kyvadlo in Prague, where I first encountered this beer.

I've still got a couple of bottles of Rochefort Trappist beer to enjoy (8 Degree and 10 Degree), that have been kicking around since the autumn. Those plus the bottle of Lowenbrau Triumphator, brought back by my son's friend from a recent visit to Munich should make for an interesting sampling session; but preferably not all on the same night!

You can't beat an old friend!

Harvey's Sussex Best has always been one of my favourite beers. I can't remember where and when I first sampled it, but it was a long time ago. To me it has that perfect balance between sweet juicy malt, and an earthy, peppery hop bitterness. At 4.0% abv, it's just the right strength for a good session's drinking, being full-bodied but not too strong in alcohol to make one fall over after four or five pints.

I'm lucky living in an area of Kent that borders onto Sussex. Harvey's won't supply pubs that are much outside a fifty mile radius of their home town of Lewes, preferring to keep things on a local scale as much as possible. Although there aren't any Harvey's tied houses in Tonbridge, the majority of the town's pubs sell the company's Best Bitter. They have to, as such is the beer's popularity amongst local drinkers, that trade would suffer in a pub that was foolish enough not to sell it.

Harvey's wasn't always the drink of choice of local drinkers; not because there used to be something wrong with it, but simply because it just wasn't available to landlords tied to the old pub empires of Charrington, Courage and Whitbread. Now that these companies no longer dominate the local trade, Harvey's have moved in, selling their beer through the likes of Enterprise and Punch. The situation has almost now reached a stage where familiarity breeds contempt so that when I enter a local pub and see the Harvey's pump, I am often tempted to try something else, purely by way of a change.

Last week I attended a CAMRA social held at a Harvey's tied pub; the Two Brewers in Hadlow. After nearly freezing to death at a cold and draughty bus stop, waiting for a bus that was at least 15 minutes late, my companions and I were glad of the welcoming warmth that greeted us when we finally stepped inside the pub. There were three ales on offer that night: Dark Mild, Hadlow Bitter and Sussex Best. Now I've never been a huge fan of mild, and although the Harvey's version is not bad when on form, I gave this beer a miss - almost without thinking. (I was glad I did, as those of our group that did try it, found it to be past it's best).

The second beer - Hadlow Bitter, is just the former PA re-badged; something that was ironically enough carried out when Harvey's first acquired the former Fiddling Monkey in Hadlow, and renamed it the Two Brewers, in honour of the substantial brewery (Kenward & Court - taken over and closed by Charringtons during the late 1940's), that once stood in this pleasant Kent village. According to Harvey's, PA was first introduced during the Second World War when, owing to brewing ingredients being rationed, it was necessary to brew a lower strength beer. At 3.5% abv, it is a good lunchtime pint, but on a freezing cold early March night I wanted something with a bit more oomph in it!

Harvey's Sussex Best therefore fitted the bill perfectly. Furthermore the beer was in absolute tip-top condition. It was so good that I stuck to it for the rest of the evening, even remaining on it when we got back to Tonbridge and popped into Mojo's (close to the station for those who had trains to catch), for a couple of final pints. As the title of this post says "you can't beat an old friend", and sometimes it is good to return to an old favourite. This was certainly the case the other night, and proved to me just what I had been missing.