Isle of Man - CAMRA Members Weekend

I got back early on Monday evening after spending a brilliant four days on the Isle of Man. This was my first visit to the island, and I was very impressed by what I saw and experienced. The almost wall to wall sunshine certainly helped, but from the moment I stepped off the ferry in Douglas, shortly after 10pm last Wednesday evening, and walked along the brightly-lit promenade to the guest house, I knew I was going to like the place.

I spent the first two days in the company of my West Kent CAMRA colleagues, Iain and Carole, together with Kent Regional Director Kae Mendham. We travelled to Laxey, courtesy of the wonderfully eccentric Manx Electric Railway, where we spent some time admiring the impressive Laxey Wheel. We then journeyed onto Ramsey, for lunch, before returning via Old Laxey, and the atmospheric Shore Hotel - home of the island's only brew-pub, and its malty Bosun's Bitter.

The following day we joined with colleagues from Maidstone and Mid-Kent for a tour right round the island, traveling by steam train as far as Port Erin, and then on to Peel, via Castletown, by bus. The multi-roomed White House Hotel was an excellent find, although I'm told that Peel's other GBG entry, the Creek Inn is also very good. The bus journey continued with a halt at the Raven at Ballough Bridge, before continuing onto Ramsey. After a pint or two in the Trafalgar we caught the tram (Manx Electric Railway) back to Laxey for some excellent Bushy's in the Queen's Hotel before catching a bus back to Douglas.

Saturday and most of Sunday were spent at the CAMRA AGM, held in the impressive, and recently restored Villa Marina complex in Douglas. Although the last such event I attended was the 1984 AGM in Edinburgh, I found the debates and speeches far more interesting than I'd expected to. I was particularly impressed with the presentation given by the Campaign's Chief Executive, Mike Benner.

We spent both Saturday and Sunday lunchtimes at the Beer Exhibition. where there was a good selection of beers to enjoy, as well as friends and colleagues to meet up with. The highlight of the weekend though was our Gateway to Kent Guide winning the award for best local CAMRA guide for 2009! This achievement was a fitting reward for all the hard work that went in to producing the guide, copies of which can still be obtained via the West Kent CAMRA website.

So all in all then a really good break, with the added bonus of good company, nice surroundings, busy and unspoilt pubs and beer at up to £1 a pint cheaper than it is here in Kent!

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!