This isn't just any BCA - This is M&S BCA

I have written on several occasions in the past, about my wariness when it comes to bottle-conditioned ales, (BCA’s). To me they seem very hit and miss, and whilst at their best they can be up there amongst the very finest of bottled beers, all too often they are over-lively, so they fob everywhere making it impossible to pour the beer in one movement (as recommended, to prevent disturbing the sediment), or they’re flat, cloudy – due to non-flocculent yeast, and taste like someone’s very bad home-brew. There are even times when they are un-drinkably bad and end up being poured down the sink, an expensive way of buying drain-cleaner!

It was therefore like a breath of fresh air when I cracked open a bottle of Cornish IPA, from the M&S range, which was given to me by a work colleague this Christmas, as part of a selection from Marks and Sparks. Brewed by St Austell, to an abv of 5.0%, this BCA not only poured nice and bright, with just the right amount of head, but also ticked all the right boxes.

Amber in colour, with a biscuit-malt base, and loads of aromatic hops, this beer really was a pleasure to drink. Maybe I just struck lucky, but I suspect not. St Austell are a well-respected brewery who know what they are doing. M&S are also well-known for their high standards, and I am certain they would not tolerate a product which fell short on the quality front. I also think that bottle-conditioning is a process which is best left to the bigger players in this game. Fuller’s, of course, are the other brewery whose name springs to mind with respect to BCA’s, and the large number of bottles of 1845 I drank over the Christmas period, all of which were excellent, stand testament to this.

I will now give some of the other BCA’s in the M&S range a try; but in the meantime, especially when it comes to some of the smaller or newer participants in the bottle-conditioned market, I believe it remains very much a case of “buyer beware”!

Getting The Taste

On the Sunday before Christmas, my wife and I were at one of the neighbours’ houses. We’d been invited round, along with quite a few other people who live in our road, for mince pies and mulled wine, and whilst heated-up red wine, with a load of sugar and spices thrown in, is not on my list of “Desert Island” drinks, I am partial to mince pies. More importantly, it was a nice gesture, and a good chance to catch up with neighbours whom we rarely see during the rest of the year.

Not long before we left, I happened to mention to the host, that our local West Kent CAMRA branch were holding a tutored beer tasting event on the second weekend in January. Nick is a member of the branch, but due to work and family commitments is not able to come along that often. Even so, as I thought this event may appeal to him, it seemed a good idea to mention it. For some reason, the mention of "beer tasting" provoked some quite cynical responses, especially from several of the women present in the room.  The girl who lives across the road from us, and who was talking to my wife at the time, found the whole thing highly amusing and came out with the somewhat predictable remark that she’d heard many excuses for a piss-up in her time, but this one took the biscuit!

Although predictable, I found this response disappointing in so much that a group of people, who have organised a serious event to try and elevate the status of our national drink in the minds of the public, are ridiculed for their efforts. However, I’m not that much of a stick-in-the-mud that I can’t laugh at myself.  So what of the event?

First, a bit of background information.  As many people are aware, the Breweries Section  at  the rear of CAMRA’s Good Beer, gives details of all the real ale brewers in Britain. It no longer lists all the beers each brewery produces, due to space constraints and also because of the very fluid situation with some breweries, whereby they produce what are often an ever changing series of seasonal or “one off” brews. This aside, wherever possible the Guide gives tasting notes for most of the regular beers listed. These are either supplied by the brewery concerned, or by “Tasting Panels” set up by CAMRA.

The tasting panels consist of members who have received some basic instructions in how to taste beer.  Despite what our neighbour at the pre-Christmas get together suggested, there is  a lot more to tasting beer than just taking a swig and letting the stuff pour down one's throat. Like tasting wine, or tea, there are certain criteria to look for, including appearance and aroma before one has even taken so much as a sip. I won't go into all the details here, because I want to cover the actual tasting, and the processes involved, in a separate post. Suffice to say though, those of us who attended really enjoyed the session and all felt that we'd gained a lot out of it, despite some initial scepticism from one or two members to begin with.

The idea was to taste two of the beers produced by Black Cat Brewery, and thereby provide tasting notes for the GBG.  Black Cat are based in the village of  Groombridge on the Kent-Sussex border, and are one of five breweries now operating within our branch area. The brewery operates on a part-time basis, because owner/brewer Marcus Howes has a full-time job as a pilot for Monarch Airlines. Nevertheless his beers are well regarded and very much in demand. The Crown at Groombridge, a 16th Century in overlooking the village green, is one of the few outlets which manages to stock Black Cat ales on a regular basis, and the pub offered to host the event by giving us use of their snug bar, which is separate from the rest of the inn.

The actual "tutoring" was conducted by West Kent CAMRA chairman, Iain Dalgleish who, as one of several branch members who attended a similar event last year, was qualified to do this. At last year's event, the attendees were guided through the process by an experienced "taster" from one of the other Kent branches.  Unfortunately, due to other commitments, I was  unable to make this, as were quite a few other members. The idea to hold another such event was therefore met with considerable enthusiasm,  and it is interesting, especially in view of the comments made earlier, that it was a female member of  the branch who was particularly keen on getting involved with this latest event and pushed to get it off the ground. (Not really just an excuse for a piss-up then!).

Fourteen members turned up for the tasting on Saturday, with most of us travelling to Groombridge by bus from Tunbridge Wells. The bus stops right opposite the Crown, which is situated towards the bottom of Groombridge hill. After all the wind and rain of recent weeks we blessed with a beautiful sunny day, and we found  that as the pub faces south the rooms at the front, and especially the snug where the tasting took place, are a real sun trap.

The tasting session took just over an hour, and I have to say that was the longest time it has ever taken me to drink two half pints of beer! Like the rest of my companions, I had a king-sized thirst by the end of the tutorial, and after being "teased" by the tasting samples I made short work of my first pint, but still made sure I tasted it good and proper. I stuck with the two Black Cat beers as not only are they both excellent but, as I mentioned earlier, they are in rather limited supply. The Crown  also stocks a couple of other cask beers; which at the time of our visit were Harvey's Sussex Best and Larkins Traditional.

It was nice and relaxing in the timeless atmosphere of this lovely old inn. With its bare-brick floors, low-beamed ceilings and substantial open fireplaces it seemed for a while that it really was a place where time has stood still. However, like most country pubs these days, the Crown has moved with the times, and as well as providing bed-and-breakfast accommodation in four period-style rooms, has a separate restaurant/dining area offering good home-cooked food. Most of us took advantage of this by sampling the delights of the pub's kitchen. My steak and ale pie was especially good and went well with both the Black Cat Original and the Black Cat - Old Ale.

There was a good crowd in both the bars and the restaurant, and it was good to see the pub so popular. The Crown has new owners, in the form of Steve and Louise, who have certainly breathed new life into this lovely old inn. Do make a point of visiting if you are in the area. We caught the 16.09 bus back to Tunbridge Wells, although there are later departures than this. Most of us ended up at Fuggles where there was an excellent range of eclectic cask and craft-kegs beers on sale. I did my supping slowly in view of the high abv of some of them, coupled with the amount of Black Cat beers I had consumed earlier. A full stomach from my excellent meal also served to slow down the drinking rate, but that perhaps wasn't too bad a thing!

Our thanks to Steve and Louise at the Crown for hosting the event, and to Iain, our chairman for talking us through the session and teaching us all how to taste beer properly.

Look out for the follow-up post about how the tasting process works, and what to look for when tasting beer.

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.