Seasonal Tipples

As I said in an earlier post I went for quality rather than quantity in my selection of beers for drinking at home over Christmas and the New Year. I didn’t actually have any beers with Christmas in the name, but I still managed to pick beers a fine and well-varied selection. The odd one or two didn’t live up to expectations, but most were enjoyable, some were excellent, and one or two were spectacular. Here’s what I drank, along with my random tasting notes/thoughts on the individual beers and, in some instances, the types of food I enjoyed them with.

 Robinsons Old Tom 8.5% - More bitter, and with a slight lactic taste than I was expecting, but this was a bottle left over from last Christmas (Best Before May 2014). Still an excellent beer, I will buy another and taste it fresh.

Pilsner Urquell 4.4% - Chilled and refreshing, with good hop bitterness from the Saaz hops. This classic, original pilsner made the perfect accompaniment to our Christmas Eve finger buffet of smoked salmon, prawns, cheese straws, spring rolls and savoury rice.

Fuller’s London Porter 5.4% - Rich, dark and flavoursome. Packed full of roast and chocolate notes from the crystal, brown and chocolate malts used in the grist, and perfectly balanced with spicy, earthy Fuggles hops, London Porter proved the ideal nightcap on Christmas Eve.

Meantime Raspberry Wheat Beer 5.0% - A light wheat beer with raspberry juice added at the maturation stage. Fruity with a refreshingly sharp kick, the beer turned out to be the ideal aperitif, prior to Christmas dinner.

Fuller’s 1845 6.4% - Big, full-flavoured, and the perfect accompaniment to a traditional turkey dinner. Hit all the right notes, with lots of juicy malt flavours balanced by equal amounts of earthy, peppery hops.

Brakspear’s Bitter 3.4% - I can’t think of another beer which packs in so much flavour at such a modest strength. The beer formed the perfect late afternoon pick-me-up, after a large Christmas dinner and a surfeit of Christmas pudding and mince pies.

Back in November Lidl were selling this excellent beer at just 99p a bottle. I stocked up for Christmas by buying two cases.

Sharp’s Quadrapel Ale 10% - No.1 in the brewery’s “Connoisseurs Choice” range, this bottle was from the 2011 vintage, and was left over from last year’s Christmas stash. The extended maturation hadn’t harmed the beer, so far as I could tell. It poured clear and well-conditioned, with a deep ruby colour, an alcoholic fruity aroma and a full, rich bitter-sweet taste. This was definitely a beer to savour, and I enjoyed it with some strong, well-matured cheddar, plus a bit of Stilton. Full marks to head brewer, Stuart Howe for coming up with this one.

Meantime India Pale Ale 7.4% - I left this one chilling too long on the back doorstep, so it developed a slight chill haze. It’s still an excellent beer though, full-bodied with lots of chewy malt, expertly balanced with oodles of Fuggles and Golding hops. What’s more it doesn’t come in pints; it comes in 750ml champagne-style bottles!

Westmalle Dubbel 7.0% - A nice beer to follow the Christmas pudding. Dark, reddish-brown in colour, formed a very thick, but quite loose head when poured. Lots of sweet caramel from the malts and the candy sugar used in the beer, but still well-balanced and eminently drinkable. Not too strong for a Belgian beer at 7.0%.

Shoreditch Blonde 4.5% - A bottle-conditioned beer from Redchurch Brewery, which unfortunately failed to deliver. Pale in colour, but a bit thin and lacking in body. Quite bitter, but overall rather disappointing, although might be more appropriate for summer drinking.

Adnams Southold Winter IPA 6.7% - Brewed exclusively for M&S. A bit too drinkable, given its strength. Lots of juicy malt, balanced by plenty of hops. A complete contrast to the previous beer.

Bernard Svetly Lezak 4.7% - A lovely, clean tasting and refreshing, un-pasteurised pale lager, from one of the Czech Republic’s best brewers. Nice juicy malt, balanced by background bitterness from the Saaz hops. Very drinkable and most enjoyable.

St Bernardus Abt 12 Abbey Ale 10.0% - Classic, dark, Belgian Abbey Ale, rumoured to be brewed to the same recipe as the world renowned, and very rare, Westveleteren 12. Dark reddish-brown in colour, with tremendous depth of flavour, definitely a beer for sipping, rather than supping.  Best Before July 2018 – how’s that for an extended shelf-life?

Crabbies’s Spiced Orange Alcoholic Ginger Beer 4.0% - OK, not really a beer, but one I’d seen a while back, which caught my attention. Certainly refreshing, with a lovely orange aroma, but not quite enough ginger as far as I’m concerned. (I do like a bit of ginger, especially in a woman!). This drink is also rather on the sweet side, and I'd be concerned about ingesting too much sugar if I were to drink this product on a regular basis. However, on the whole it is a pleasant and refreshing alternative to the juice of the barley.

Batemans Mocha 6.0% - According to the label, this rich, dark creamy beer contains real Arabica coffee and Belgian chocolate. You can certainly taste both the coffee and the chocolate. Nice and smooth, and a past winner of the Sainsbury’s Great British Beer Hunt. However, whilst not unpleasant this is not a beer I could drink a lot of. This would be one of the few beers which would go well with chocolate.

Rocky Head Pale Ale 6.5% - A complete contrast to the previous beer; amber in colour with oodles of New World hops evident in both the aroma and taste. A real stunner of a beer, and the brewery’s inaugural brew. Definitely a “desert island” beer.

Bernard Jantarovy Lezak 4.7% - This is Bernard’s Amber lager, which although very drinkable, wasn’t quite as good as was expecting. Dark amber in colour, with a caramel base and a very slight lactic taste present in the background. Nicely presented in an attractive swing-top bottle, it would be interesting to try it on draught.

Asahi Original Black 5.0% - Unlike Ashahi’s pale lager, which is brewed here under licence by Shepherd Neame,  Asahi black is imported direct from Japan. A deep reddish-black in colour, with a nice contrasting white foamy head, I remember drinking this beer by the Maß in Japan, last May. According to the label, it is brewed with the finest hops, roasted barley malt, rice and maize for a rich and smooth taste. I wouldn't disagree with that!

De Koninck Anno 1833 5.2% - Antwerp’s favourite home-grown beer. A top-fermented, dark amber coloured ale, with a pleasing hop-bitterness to counter the sweet juicy malt base. Good to taste this Belgian classic again.

Innis & Gunn Bourbon Stout 7.4% - A rich red stout, matured slowly over bourbon-infused oak. So says the label on the bottle, and this stout certainly has plenty of flavour, in particular some mellow vanilla notes from the oak. The red colour comes from the rye crystal malt used in the grist, whilst Whitbread Golding Variety hops provide the bitterness lurking in the background.

Pardubicky Porter - 19° Originalni Tmave Pivo 8% - A real winner from the Czech Republic in the form of this excellent, strong, dark porter, and a good one to finish up with on New Year’s Day. Rich, dark and full-bodied, with a well-balanced bitter-sweet taste. Dispenses once and for all with the myth that only Pilsners and lagers come out of the Czech lands.
 

I’ve still got quite a few beers left over, including six from the M&S range, plus five Cotleigh beers. Both of these selections were presents from work colleagues, and I intend to work my way through them slowly during the rest of January.  There are also several Meantime and Fuller’s beers remaining, along with a case of Brakspear’s Bitter. In addition, here are a few Belgian ales remaining as well, so I won’t run short of the strong stuff either.

So which were the outstanding beers, I hear you ask? By category, the following beers stood out:

Pilsner - Bernard Svetly Lezak 4.7%, followed by Pilsner Urquell 4.4%. I probably drank more of the latter than anything else, being fairly low in strength, but big on taste. It also complemented many of the foodstuffs I enjoyed over Christmas. In addition, several supermarkets were selling bottles at three for £5, which was too good a bargain to miss. The Bernard Svetly Lezak was, if anything, more enjoyable, being unpasteurised; it’s just a shame I only brought one bottle back with me from Prague.

Pale Ale - Fuller’s 1845 6.4% and Meantime India Pale Ale 7.4%. Both “big”  beers and both equally good in their own way. Excellent partners with the Christmas dinner, plus the cold meats and pickles on Boxing Day.

Porter - Fuller’s London Porter 5.4%, tops for all round enjoyment. Pardubicky Porter - 19° Originalni Tmave Pivo 8%, more of a treat for that special occasion, or the perfect nightcap. Fortunately, I’ve still got a bottle left.

Dark Ale - Asahi Original Black 5.0% and Westmalle Dubbel 7.0%. Like with the pale ales, both good in their own way, but with the Westmalle having the edge.

Strong Ale - St Bernardus Abt 12 Abbey Ale 10.0% and Sharp’s Quadrapel Ale 10%. Both at 10% abv, and both world class strong ales. As a special, limited edition though the Sharp’s Quadrapel was first past the post, but only by half a length.

All in all, some excellent beers which helped make Christmas that extra bit special.

Clouding the Issue

This article is intended as a follow up to a couple of previous posts; one published by Ghost Drinker, back in May last year. The other published a few days ago by Tandleman. Both were about the vexed subject of cloudy beer, and both made the point, very eloquently, about the confusion arising from the actions of a small, but increasing number of brewers who see beer that is intentionally cloudy, as the way forward. I want to continue exploring the issues raised by the actions of these brewers, and look further at whether cloudy beer in general is good or bad for the brewing industry and the drinking public.

As a long standing CAMRA member I’m more than a little concerned over the issue of the cloudy pint and recent moves to present it as something we should all welcome and indeed embrace. This is especially true when the cloudiness relates to cask-conditioned beer. With the experience of over 40 years spent drinking the stuff I know what I like, and also what I dislike, and whilst I’m always willing to give new beers and new concepts in brewing a try, I’m more than a little sceptical about some of the motives behind recent developments.

Let me kick off by saying I don’t have a problem with cloudy beer, if it’s supposed to be cloudy, as with un-filtered Zwickelbier/Naturtrüb/Kellerbier in Germany and Nefiltrovaný in the Czech Republic – as these beers are advertised as being naturally cloudy, I do have a problem when as a customer I am not told, or otherwise informed that the beer is meant to be cloudy.

I experienced this for myself one Saturday evening, last spring, at a pub in Tunbridge Wells. The place was packed, as there was a mini-beer festival taking place. There was also a live band playing, so it wasn't particularly easy to make oneself heard, or hear what was being said. I was standing with a friend at the bar; he ordered one beer, whilst I ordered a pint of Notting Hill Amber Ale from Moncada Brewery. It came up cloudy, not soup-like but still cloudy. It didn't look like a chill haze, but given the situation I’ve just described I was going to give it a try first and see what it tasted like, before deciding to ask for it to be changed.

My friend had other ideas, and after managing to attract the barmaid's attention, pointed out my cloudy pint. She queried it with the landlady, who after muttering under her breath that there was nothing wrong with the beer, and that it was supposed to look like that, changed my pint for something else. She also turned the pump-clip round, (full marks for that).

I didn't think much more about the incident until the following day, when I looked on Mocada's website and saw that their beers are purposely un-fined. There was quite a lengthy explanation about the benefits of not using finings. Now I can accept this, and the next time I come across one of their beers I know what to expect. However, I didn't know this at the time, but I assume the landlady might have done. Given how busy the pub was I can forgive her for not being able to explain the beer was un-fined. I can also understand that not many punters would even know what finings are, or what they do. What I cannot forgive is there being no warning or indication from the brewery, preferably at point of sale, informing me, and other drinkers, that the beer was un-fined and would therefore look hazy.

The situation could have ended up far worse than it did, all because of a lack of information. If breweries want to sell un-fined beer and I respect both their right and reasoning for doing so, for heaven's sake please tell us at point of sale! Don't expect us to have to find this out by looking on the company website after returning what was probably a perfectly acceptable pint. This is bad for the brewery, bad for the publican, bad for the customer and bad for the image of cask beer.

Of course a cloudy or hazy looking glass of beer is not something which is unique to Britain. Our visit to Prague at the beginning of last month, revealed that unfiltered lager was definitely the “in thing”, with some of the big names in Czech brewing, such as Gambrinus, and Staropramen getting in on the act. Like most people I drink with my eyes, as for me the visual aesthetic appeal of a beer is an important one. I do find the sight of a cloudy glass of beer slightly off-putting. I accept this may be down to years of conditioning which tells me there is something not quite right about a hazy looking glass of beer, but whilst in the Czech capital I was able to carry out a side by side tasting between the unfiltered and filtered Staropramen. The restaurant attached to our hotel, sold both types. I was drinking the unfiltered version, whilst my son opted for the filtered. The former was definitely superior in taste, but in terms of appearance, the normal filtered version won hands down. I know this was drinking with one’s eyes, but the visual appeal of a glass of beer are important, otherwise one might just as well swig the stuff straight out of a bottle!

Unfiltered lagers are also increasingly common in Germany, with Zwickelbier or Naturtrüb available in many pubs and bars. Both types of beer are naturally hazy, and whilst they taste good they do not look particularly attractive when served up in a standard glass. The slightly off-putting visual aspect of a cloudy beer is not a problem in places like Franconia, where the local unfiltered Kellerbier is invariably served in a ceramic, earthenware mug. This of course, masks any cloudiness within the beer, but completely loses any visual appeal it might have, especially with regard to what colour it might be.

There are now several breweries in the UK that purposely plump for murky un-fined beer, as they feel it not only will be fresher, but will also appeal to the vegetarian/vegan market. They pose the question “do you really want dissolved fish-guts in your beer?” This, I feel is a somewhat disingenuous question, as whilst isinglass finings are indeed derived from the swim-bladders of certain fish, they are not exactly fish-guts. Isinglass is a form of collagen and the swim-bladders from which it is derived undergoes a lengthy process of being slowly dissolved in acid before it is in a form that is capable of clearing beer. Finings work by flocculating the live yeast in the beer into a jelly-like mass, which settles to the bottom of the cask. Left undisturbed, beer will clear naturally; the use of isinglass finings just accelerates the process. This is particularly important these days as most publicans expect a quick turn around on beers and will be disappointed if the beer hasn’t dropped bright within a day or so.

Finings though are not normally drunk, although if one is given a pint which hasn’t cleared properly there is the possibility of consuming a small amount of isinglass. Even so, this is not going to hurt anyone, and to say that people are drinking “dissolved fish-guts” in their beer is rather misleading to say the least.

The increasing availability of un-fined, or otherwise deliberately cloudy beer, is causing a major headache for consumer champion, CAMRA. Having spent the past four decades campaigning not only for the increasing availability of cask-conditioned beer, but for higher standards of cellarmanship and presentation of the finished product, the campaign is not best pleased by the appearance of these beers which, if you’ll forgive the pun, cloud and increasingly complicate the issue of what constitutes a good pint.

Up until now, when a customer is handed a pint of hazy or murky looking beer, unless it is the end of a cask and the bar person simply hasn’t noticed, it is normally the sign of a lazy or incompetent licensee; someone who can’t be bothered to take that extra bit of time and trouble to look after the beer properly. Upon questioning a hazy pint in such an establishment, the stock response will inevitably be, “Well it’s real ale, it’s supposed to be cloudy.” No it isn’t meant to be cloudy. The brewer who brewed this beer put a lot of time and effort into coming up with a beer which looks visually stunning. That’s why it’s served in a brilliantly clear, and clean, glass and not in a pewter tankard or a ceramic mug. The reason the beer is cloudy is because the licensee is an incompetent, lazy and often ignorant, arse!

Now, with the advent of un-fined or deliberately hazy-looking beers, our ignoramus behind the bar can say, in certain cases at least, “It’s supposed to look like that.” In situations like this when beer enthusiasts, like myself, are presented with a cloudy pint, there is often no way of knowing whether the person behind the bar is telling the truth or not, especially without prior knowledge of the beer, or some form of indication at point of sale that it is supposed to be hazy. If we don't know then what hope is there that the average person in the street will know either? An unscrupulous publican could pass off virtually any cloudy, hazy or otherwise unfit for sale pint of “real ale” using the old chestnut of “Well it’s supposed to be cloudy”, thereby un-doing decades of hard work by CAMRA and others. No wonder the campaign is extremely concerned about this.

I've bought too many pints from new breweries, over the past couple of years, where I don't know if it's yeast, hops, protein or wheat in my beer making it opaque. I am a beer enthusiast; most beer drinkers are not, so breweries it's up to you at the end of the day how you want to play this. If you want people to think your carefully crafted, über-hopped, Belgian IPA is at the end of the barrel, rather than supposed to look naturally hazy, then for pity’s sake do something about it and tell people! It really is up to you and NOT organisations such as CAMRA to do this, and it needs doing soon! Otherwise not only will you be undoing all the good work, unwittingly or otherwise, which said organisations have done over the years, but you will also be doing a grave disservice to all decent, honest and hardworking licensees, beer lovers and the world of brewing in general. The ball is in your court!

Happy 2014

So another year dawns, and it’s in with the new and out with the old. To coincide with the start of the New Year, I’ve decided to go for a new look to the blog, giving it a more modern and contemporary feel. I’ve also decided to re-examine my blog list, (the blogs I follow). Quite a few of these blogs had become moribund, with nothing posted for months at a time. There were others where the writers had given up on their blogs altogether.

Blogs in both categories have had to go. Over the past month or so I have been trolling round other bloggers’ lists to try and get a taste of what else is out there in the world of beer, brewing and pubs; and my researches have thrown up a surprising number of interesting, well-written, witty and occasionally totally zany blogs which have been added to my list.

So without further ado welcome to Paul’s new-look beer blog and oh yes, a Happy, Prosperous, Creative, Fulfilling and above all Healthy New Year to one and all!

Refugees From The Flood

Our local Wetherspoons in Tonbridge, the Humphrey Bean, has been closed since early evening on Christmas Eve. I reported a couple of posts ago about how Tonbridge had been affected by flooding; well it now appears that having escaped river water in the pub itself, the Bean has been badly affected due to water in the basement.

At its peak there was around six feet of water in the cellar, and this had a disastrous effect on the pub’s power supply and electrical systems. When I walked past on Boxing Day morning, there were four vans belonging to UK Power Networks parked outside, and a group of workers peering down a hole dug in the pavement. A post on the Bean’s Facebook site stated the pub is likely to be closed until at least the New Year. For management and staff this will not have been a good Christmas, with their busiest period of trading completely wiped out.

No doubt Wetherspoons will be doing everything in their power to get the pub up and running again as soon as possible, but in the meantime how have the Bean’s regulars been coping? The short answer is I don’t know, and whilst I obviously feel sorry for the pensioners and other customers on low incomes who enjoy a drink there, the small but vociferous contingent who spend the entire day in there, courtesy of the tax payer, will get no sympathy from me.

Local ale enthusiasts will also have suffered, and so will those like myself, who like to pop in for a mid-morning coffee, when not at work, or by way of an occasional treat like to grab a breakfast. Last night my son Matthew indicated that he fancied a Wetherspoon’s breakfast, seeing as he had the day off work today, so as the weather was once again foul, we decided to jump in the car and drive over to Tunbridge Wells to indulge ourselves with a full English in the opulent surroundings of the Opera House; the town’s imposing JDW outlet.

For those unfamiliar with the area, the Opera House is exactly that, a theatre where operas were once performed on a regular basis. The Tunbridge Wells Opera House was completed in 1902 to designs by architect John Briggs, and when opened had a capacity of 1,100.  The worthy citizens of Royal Tunbridge Wells didn’t turn out to be quite as highbrow as one might imagine, because in 1931 the building was purchased by Union Cinemas and turned into a cinema!

After bomb damage during the Second World War, which set fire to the inside of the Opera House, the building underwent extensive renovation before re-opening in 1949. It was later turned into a bingo hall in the 1960s, after threats to demolish it, and in 1966, the building was granted Grade II listed status. In 1996, the Opera House was purchased by J D Wetherspoon and was turned into one of their most prestigious outlets. Since then, the pub has occasionally hosted proper staged opera performances, and a sign inside the pub informs visitors that these are now held on an annual basis. It is therefore nice to see the building being used for its original purpose from time to time.

Matthew and I arrived at the Opera House shortly before 10.30am. The place was fairly busy, but there were still quite a few empty tables, especially up on the former “stage area”. We grabbed one down in what would have been the stalls and then went and ordered our breakfasts. We didn’t have long to wait before they were brought over to us, but in the meantime I had time to admire the opulent surroundings of the place and observe just how much of the original fittings are still in place. For example, the circle, dress circle and the various boxes are intact, although off limits to customers for obvious health and safety reasons. That such a fine old Edwardian building should have survived is a testament to both the original builders and today’s custodians in the form of JDW. I have included a few photos of the interior, but the camera on my phone doesn’t really do justice to the building.

Beer-wise, the Opera House had three Dark Star beers alongside British Bulldog from Westerham. Of particular interest was the Opera House Porter; a beer brewed exclusively for the pub by Turner’s Brewery, who are based down at Ringmer in Sussex. There were a few other beers on at the far end of the bar, although I didn’t manage to see what they were. It was too early to start drinking and besides, I was driving anyway.

All in all our visit made a pleasant change, and was probably a good way of passing the time, given the awful weather outside. Nice though it was, I will still be thankful when the Humphrey Bean in Tonbridge re-opens, as I really don’t  want to travel to the next town just to get a breakfast, a coffee or a pint of something a bit different!

No Longer Welcome

Over Christmas I was reminded of one of the very first blog posts I wrote. The post was written back in 2008, and was on the subject of dogs in pubs. The catalyst which jogged my memory was us looking after a chocolate Labrador, belonging to Eileen’s niece, for a few days between Christmas and New Year.  On a couple of occasions, when the weather was fine, I took said Labrador, whose name is Ellie by the way, for a walk.

We live on the edge of town and once you get beyond the busy mini-bypass there are some nice walks. Sunday was a particularly fine and bright day, (a welcome change after all the wind and rain we’ve had), so I walked Ellie right up to Somerhill; a large Victorian pile that was formerly the manor house for the area of south Tonbridge where we live, but is now a fee-paying school. As is often the case with such grandiose houses, Somerhill is surrounded by parkland and is set high up on a ridge, overlooking an ornamental lake. It is quite a climb up to the house, and despite the cool temperatures, both me and Ellie were quite warm by the time we reached the top.

The views from just below the house are quite spectacular, sweeping right across the town and away to the Greensand ridge in the distance. I kept thinking the spot would be an ideal place for a watering hole, in fact had this been somewhere like Bavaria, then I’m pretty certain some enterprising soul would have opened a bar-cum-restaurant. Not in England though, especially where there is a school in the vicinity, but on the way back I couldn’t get the thought of a thirst quenching pint of bitter, and a nice cosy pub, out of my mind.

There is what used to be a fine old pub back down the hill, on the edge of the estate; in fact I believe at one time it was something to do with the “big house”. Nowadays the Vauxhall Inn is run by Chef & Brewer, and being much more of an eatery than the old alehouse it once was, dogs are not allowed inside. A great pity as it would have been the perfect way to end our walk. Instead, Ellie and I had to walk forlornly past and make do with a cup of tea at home instead.

Of course, the Vauxhall is not alone in banning dogs. In the mistaken name of hygiene and ‘elf ‘n safety, we have denied admittance to man’s best friend from hundreds, if not thousands, of pubs up and down the country.The whole episode got me thinking about just what a crazy country we now live in, where all sorts of absurd rules and regulations govern our every day lives.

A dozen or so years ago we had a dog of our own, and probably six or more years prior to her passing I used to take her into the Vauxhall. Back then it was traditional old pub and, as it had several separate bars, potential conflicts between diners and those just wanting a convivial drink, (with or without a canine companion), just weren’t an issue. Oh that this were the case today – separate bars catering for the different needs of disparate groups of people.

 We certainly have lost a lot in the rush to create a homogenised society, and when one combines all this with all the rules and regulations we have to put up with today it really makes me yearn for the past. Things were a lot simpler back then and people just got on with their lives without interference from petty bureaucrats and the all pervading influence of the “nanny state”. At least I am old enough to remember such times, which is more than can said of today’s generation.

Golden Pints 2013

This is my first crack at Golden Pints. In the past I have tended to shy away from such list making, but this year after sitting down and thinking about which beers I could place in the individual categories, and sketching out a few ideas, I got carried away and actually quite enjoyed the whole thing in the end. So for what it’s worth, here are my Golden Pints:

Best UK Cask Beer – No arguments here; without question the winner is Harvey’s Sussex Best Bitter. Forget extreme, hophead type beers for a moment and focus instead on this superb marriage of malt and hops which really ticks all the right boxes, and is a “must stock” brand for pubs throughout East Sussex and West Kent. Sensibly proportioned at 4.0%, the juicy malt flavours from the Maris-Otter barley, are nicely off-set by an earthy-peppery bitterness from locally grown traditional hop varieties. In my opinion, you would have to travel far to find a more satisfying and enjoyable local beer.

If I’m permitted to include an award for runner up, this would have to go to the superb American Pale Ale, from Dark Star; a beer which made alfresco drinking so enjoyable last summer, but which also is becoming a much more common sight in pubs in this part of the country.

Best UK Keg Beer – Nothing really springs to mind here, as I seldom drink keg. Not that I’m averse to a drop or two of “craft”; it’s just I can count on one hand the number of outlets that stock it locally. Also, on the odd occasion I’m in London, I tend to stick to cask; such is the choice there.

If I had to nominate a beer it would be the Alpha State Orange Zest IPA, which I sampled a week or so before Christmas at Fuggles, Tunbridge Wells. (See below). I don’t know much about the beer apart from it being a stunning, zesty IPA, brewed with Belgian yeast. This imparted a distinctive taste which reminded me of a “Saison-style” beer from the Foundry Brewery, which I enjoyed at the Green Hop Festival, held in the Canterbury, back in September. (That particular beer was also brewed using Belgian yeast).

Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer – For overall availability, my award goes to Fuller’s 1845; a stunningly complex, full-bodied ale, which not only shows off the brewer’s skill to maximum effect, but also proves that when they put their minds to it, large breweries can produce some truly top-quality beers.

For runner up, I would nominate Meantime Greenwich Smoked Bock Beer. An excellent beer, brewed by Alistair Hook and his team exclusively for M&S, which shows that UK brewers, can successfully produce Rauchbier to rival that of Bamberg.

Best Overseas Draught Beer – Forschungs – St. Jacobus Blonder Bock 7.5%. It’s well worth taking the S-Bahn from Munich city centre, out to the suburb of Perlach in order to enjoy this superb, malt-packed bock beer, brewed in the functional-looking brewery, attached to the equally Unitarian pub. A beer which manages to cram in an incredible amount of flavour from both barley and hops and which, despite its high strength, is still dangerously drinkable.

Best Collaboration Brew – No award, as I’m not aware of having sampled any collaboration brews, although I may have done so unwittingly.

Best Overall Beer – There can never be any one best overall beer, because choosing and enjoying a beer is very much something which varies according to location, occasion, availability, time of year and a whole host of other factors, all of which make the appreciation of good beer so enjoyable.

Best Branding, or Label - Ramsgate Brewery. Distinctive, modern, stylish and eye-catching, especially the bottle labels and the brewery publicity material. (See below, for further details on the brewery.)

Best UK Brewery- Ramsgate Brewery. Established in 2002 by Eddie Gadd, who is still at the helm as both proprietor and head-brewer. Ramsgate turn out a variety of stunning beers, in both cask and bottle. Most are brewed in a typically Kentish style, but with a modern and up to date twist. We don’t get to see them that often here in the west of the county, but when they do make an appearance, they don’t hang around for long!

The runners up place must go to Harvey’s, who not only produce some superb all year round beers, but also turn out a stunning range of seasonal beers including personal favourites like Tom Paine, Southdown Harvest Ale, Star of Eastbourne, Bonfire Boy and  the superlative Christmas Ale.

Best Overseas Brewery – A tricky one, especially as there are just so many excellent foreign breweries to choose from, but after a lot of thought I am going to award joint first place to two Bavarian breweries; one from the south of the state (Ayinger-bräu), and the other from the north, in the area known as Franconia, (Mahrs Bräu).

Ayinger-bräu are based in the village of Aying, to the south east of Munich. The brewery produce an extensive range of truly excellent beers, and no visit to Munich is complete without making the short train journey out to Aying to sample the beers “at source”, in the brewery tap.

When most people think of Bamberg, they think of Rauchbier and Schlenkerla, the city’s most distinctive and best known producer of “smoke beer”. Mahrs Bräu, do not have a Rauchbier in their portfolio, but what they do instead is brew a stunning range of wonderful, flavoursome beers, the best known of which is their Ungespundet, a 5.2% unfiltered Kellerbier.

Best New Brewery Opening 2013 – Burning Sky, set up by former Dark Star brewer, Mark Tranter. I’ve only tried a couple of their beers so far, but each one has been absolutely stunning, and a real reflection on the skill of the brewer.

Best Pub/Bar of the Year – Bedford, Tunbridge Wells. Up to 10 cask beers on tap, the vast majority from local Kent and Sussex independents, served in stylish surroundings and now also offering food. What not to like about Tunbridge Wells’ premier alehouse.

Runner up would be the Windmill, at Sevenoaks Weald. Six immaculately kept and served local cask ales, Kentish cider, craft lager and excellent food. All served in a lovingly restored village local where  dogs are still welcome and there is a lovely warming log fire in winter.

Best Pub/Bar Opening 2013 – Fuggles Beer Café, Tunbridge Wells. A really welcome addition to the local drinking scene, and somewhere which has brought the “craft beer” experience to Tunbridge Wells. For both cask and craft beer enthusiasts there are four casks and ten craft kegs (with an emphasis on Belgian beers) on tap, in a pleasant, functional and somewhat minimalist setting.

Best Beer Festival of the Year – Without a shadow of doubt Annafest, held each July just outside the small Franconian town of Forchheim, wins this award hands down. Think Oktoberfest, but without all the hype, high costs and tourist parties. Annafest combines some serious drinking with fun events such as fairground attractions and live music, all in an attractive woodland setting. Also think strong (5.7% abv), well-hopped Franconian beer, full of taste and character, and served in litre measures only. Not for the faint hearted, but a fantastic atmosphere which every serious beer lover should experience at least once in a lifetime.

The runner up is the Canterbury Food & Drink Festival, which took place over the last weekend in September in the city’s Dane John Gardens. The festival featured “Green-Hopped” beers from all the brewers who participated in the Kent Green Hop Beer Fortnight, and sitting out in Dane John Gardens, soaking up the late September sunshine along with more than a few Green Hop beers, whilst listening to some of the live bands playing there, reminded me that life doesn’t get much better than this!

Next year I’m aiming to do some of the more esoteric home-grown-beer festivals, in particular the London Craft Beer Festival, which I unfortunately missed earlier this year. I’m also reliably informed that the Egham and Chappel festivals are well worth attending. Finally, there’s a possibility of a visit to the grand-daddy of all beer festivals – Munich’s Oktoberfest, so watch this space!

Best Supermarket of the Year – Waitrose. An excellent range, encompassing the best of the beers produced by the established family and larger brewers’, alongside more local examples. Mixed in with this are some quality foreign beers, including several well-known classics. Good promotions too, make Waitrose the runaway winner in this category, so far as I am concerned.

Best Independent Retailer of the Year – Definitely the Bottle Shop, housed in the Goods Shed, just along from Canterbury West station. Offering the largest number of British bottled beers in the South East, alongside an expanding range of foreign beers, both to take away and to enjoy on the premises. The only trouble is Canterbury is at the opposite end of the county from where I live, so a visit to the Bottle Shop isn’t exactly a spur of the moment event.

Best On-Line Retailer of the Year – I haven’t used any. The trouble with buying beer on-line is the high costs associated with shipping heavy objects, like bottled beer, around the country. There is also the risk of damage in transit.

Best Beer Magazine – Since the sad demise of Beers of the World several years ago, the vacuum has been ably filled by CAMRA’s BEER Magazine. Published quarterly, after a slightly shaky start, the magazine has gone from strength to strength. Sent out to all CAMRA members as part of their membership fee.  I believe the magazine is also available to the general public, on a subscription basis.

Best Beer Book – Craft Beer World, by Mark Dredge. I have just received a copy for Christmas, and have had trouble putting it down. As one might expect, the information and layout is presented in an attractive and up to date style, with text and illustrations imposed on top of colour-washed and water-marked pages, but what really comes across is Mark’s passion for these beers, and you just know he has tasted and enjoyed every one of them. There are quite a few I recognise and none I would disagree with, although I obviously have a long way to go before sampling them all. A most welcome addition to my collection of beer books.

Best Beer Blog – There are several  blogs I always click on, including Boak & Bailey, Pub Curmudgeon, Pete Brown and, of course, Tandleman, but my award for the best beer blog, this year, is shared jointly by Ron Patterson’s Shut up about Barclay Perkins and Adrian Tierney-Jones’ Called to the Bar.

Best Beer App. - OK, not exactly an App, although one can access it on a Smartphone, but CAMRA’s Whatpub website is rapidly becoming the site of choice for finding a decent boozer. Constantly being refreshed, Whatpub is undoubtedly the most up to date pub data-base in the country.

The most annoying App has to be Untappd, first because it can be very addictive and time consuming. (At the end of the day it’s just a glorified electronic “ticking device”). Secondly because it not only needs an internet connection, but also a GPS signal and then relies on another App called Four Square in order to function correctly. It is also an American based App, so understandably it has a strong North American bias.

Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer – Well I don’t “Tweet” and thereby am certainly not a “Twat”! Nothing to add here then,  apart from saying how sorry I was to learn of Simon’s untimely passing, earlier this year. I always enjoyed logging on to his “Reluctant Scooper” blog and reading about his various drinking experiences. A sad loss indeed.

Best Brewery Website – There are too many really excellent and professional brewery websites for me to single out any one specific site for this award.

Best Food & Beer Pairing of the Year – If Garrett Oliver can write a 360 page book on the subject of pairing beer with food (see The Brewmaster’s Table), then it’s rather a tall order to come up with a single food/beer match. However, if I had to choose one combination it would be sausages and mash with onion gravy, accompanied by a pint of a fairly full-bodied, English bitter. Harvey’s Best springs to mind, butt he obvious proviso is the sausages should be good quality, preferably from a local butcher.

A proper steak and ale, or steak and kidney pie also goes well with a decent bitter. Again the pie should be a proper one, made with short-crust pastry, which must enclose the meat and the rest of the filling. A meat stew, served in an earthenware dish with a puff-pastry lid on top is NOT a proper pie so far as I am concerned!

Finally, special mention should be made of the goulash with bread dumplings I enjoyed at U Fleku in Prague, earlier this month. The rich, dark, malt-led house lager was the perfect accompaniment to this classic Central European dish, proving there are many excellent beer and food pairings to be found all over the world.

A Kentish Christmas

I went for quality this Christmas rather than quantity; a conscious decision prompted by stocking up a month or two in advance with a variety of different bottles, as opposed to picking up a polypin from one of our many local breweries. My Christmas stash has been added to with various Christmas gifts from friends and family, (how well people seem to know me), so there’s no danger of running out of beer until well into the New Year.

Christmas Eve was quite subdued with just the one Pilsner Urquell, followed by a bottle of London Porter from Fullers. I didn’t start on the beer until fairly late in the day, as I was half expecting to have to drive to Sevenoaks to collect No. 1 son from work. Like the rest of the South East we’ve had some appalling weather in the run up to Christmas with storm force winds and torrential rain in the early hours of Christmas Eve morning. Fortunately there were no tiles missing off the roof the next morning and the fence panels all seemed intact as well, but I still ended up having to drive Matthew over to Sevenoaks as there were no trains running (a landslip, I believe).

Weaving my way around a number of fallen trees, I deposited him close to his workplace in Sevenoaks and then set off to drive into work myself. The roads were barely passable in places, with several inches of water running off across the carriage-way from the adjacent fields. In nearly eight years of working out at Chiddingstone Causeway I have never witnessed such bad conditions on the roads, or so much water!

Fortunately we finished at midday, so giving the offer of drinks at the local pub a miss, I set off for home. Luckily some of the waters had subsided, but driving conditions were still quite tricky and I was glad to reach home in one piece. It was then I received a phone call from my wife who had gone down to our local Sainsbury’s for some last minute shopping, only to find the waters starting to rise and flood the car park. I drove down and found her cursing at having ruined a pair of boots, but apart from that there was no real harm done.

Which is more than I can say for central Tonbridge, as throughout the afternoon and evening of Christmas Eve the waters in the Medway kept rising until the river burst its banks. Quite a few shops and businesses were flooded, including the Humphrey Bean, our local Wetherspoons. It could have been a lot worse, had it not been for the Flood Barrier an extensive earth embankment and set of sluice gates, downstream at Leigh, which is designed to hold back thousands of gallons of floodwater and then release it at a controlled rate. We live on a hill, so were unaffected, but my heart goes out to all those poor souls whose Christmas was ruined by the worst storm in over a decade.

The above events meant a fairly subdued Christmas Eve, but none of us minded as we were all quite tired, and  glad of the opportunity to take it easy and put our feet up. Christmas day was different of course, but even so it wasn’t until sitting down to Christmas dinner, just after 2pm, that I cracked open my first beer. Meantime Raspberry Wheat Beer, 5.0%, did what it said on the bottle and acted as the perfect aperitif, the slight tartness from the raspberries, and the wheat, serving to stimulate the palate, if that all doesn’t sound too pretentious.

Fuller’s 1845 was the perfect accompaniment to our roast turkey dinner, the combination of full-bodied malt and peppery, earthy hops complimented the meat and vegetables perfectly, as this 6.3% abv beer has done in previous years. When you know something works as well as this, why change it?  There may well be beers which will equally compliment the Christmas pudding, mince pies and brandy sauce that followed, but if there are I am not aware of them. Some decent coffee did the trick instead, and that was it for a while as we decided to leave the cheese and biscuits until later.

I wanted a palate cleanser after that little lot, and whilst a Pilsner Urquell would have fitted the bill, I wanted to keep a bottle or two back of this beer. Instead I opted for Brakspear’s Bitter 3.4%.  I can’t think of another beer which packs in so much flavour at such a modest strength. The beer formed the perfect late afternoon pick-me-up, after a large Christmas dinner and a surfeit of Christmas pudding and mince pies.

When we eventually felt like tackling the cheeses, much later in the evening, I again found the perfect beer to go with them in the form of Sharp’s Quadrapel Ale 10%.  This bottle from the brewery’s “Connoisseurs Choice” range was a 2011 vintage, being left over from last year’s Christmas stash. The extended maturation hadn’t harmed the beer, and it poured clear and well-conditioned, with a deep ruby colour, an alcoholic fruity aroma and a full, rich bitter-sweet taste. It was definitely a beer to savour, and it went really well with some strong, well-matured cheddar, plus a bit of Stilton. Full marks to head brewer, Stuart Howe for coming up with this one.

Boxing Day dawned clear and bright, so after breakfast I decided to don my coat and hat and head down into Tonbridge to see how the town had coped with the effects of the flooding. After a day and a half indoors, it was nice to get out in the fresh air. It was doubly nice to see the sun and to feel its welcoming warmth which, even at this time of year, was still discernible. The town hadn’t fared as badly as I thought, although certain car parks were still under water, and there were plenty of people about. Like me, I suspect they were taking the opportunity of walking off a little of the previous day’s excesses and just generally blowing a few cobwebs away.

Later in the day, around mid-afternoon, we sat down to some cold meats (turkey and ham), bubble and squeak plus a selection of pickles. I wasn’t quite sure which beer to choose to go with the food, so I plumped again for a bottle of 1845. Like on the previous day, this proved to be a wise choice; the strength and body of the beer standing up well against some extremely hot pickled onions and some pretty strong piccalilli.

I only had one further beer on Boxing Day, but it was large one and a strong one too. Meantime India Pale Ale 7.4% in a 750ml champagne-style bottle was just right for an evening’s leisurely drinking, being full-bodied with lots of chewy malt, expertly balanced with oodles of Fuggles and Golding hops. A tremendous beer which, despite its high strength, doesn’t taste at all cloying or too sweet.

So that’s the first three days of Christmas over, but I don’t return to work until the 2^nd January, which means that, including today, there are still six more days to go. I do need to get out of the house though, apart from just going shopping (like we did today); otherwise I’ll end up suffering from “cabin fever”! I did have some plans for the garden, but in view of the weather, and the absolutely saturated nature of the ground, they will have to be put on hold. The extreme damp conditions underfoot also rule out a walk to a nice country pub, although a trip by bus could be on the cards. It would be good to check up on some of our local pubs to find out what sort of Christmas they’ve been having, and what, if any, interesting beers they’ve got on.

Whatever the weather though, may I take this opportunity of saying that I hope everyone reading this has had a good Christmas, and to wish people all the best for the coming year.