Return to the fold

I can think of few better places for me to have emerged from my enforced exile and back into the world of pubs and beer, than the Brecknock Arms at Bells Yew Green. 

On Sunday the pub was the venue for West Kent CAMRA's Good Beer Guide 2019, selection meeting, and whilst my interest in the Guide these days is rather limited, the meeting seemed the perfect occasion for me to turn up and re-commence my involvement in branch activities.

The Brecknock has hosted West Kent branch selection meetings for several years now, the main reason being the pub lies in neutral territory, just across the county border in East Sussex. It is also easily accessible by train (Frant station); an important consideration given the high quality of the Harvey's beer stocked there, and its obvious appeal to branch members. If this were not enough, the landlord allows us the use of the former saloon bar area, once the dining trade has petered off.

Frant station - just three stops from Tonbridge

Yesterday though, there was no food trade as the chef had called in sick. This was bad news for those branch members who had arrived early, in order to grab a spot of Sunday lunch prior to the meeting. I was unaffected because I would be eating at home, later that evening. Even so, I picked up a roll plus a coffee from Greggs, before boarding the slightly delayed 13:08 train.

I arrived at the pub shortly after 1.30pm, pleased to see a CAMRA contingent already present. This was the first time since before Christmas that I'd seen any of my drinking buddies, and rather ironically that last get together was our CAMRA branch Christmas meal, which also took place at the Brecknock. It was therefore good to catch up with all the gossip, over a few pints of Harvey's Old.

The main purpose of the meeting, of course was to select the branch allocation of 22 pubs for the 2019 Good Beer Guide. Eleven members were present, plus a couple of apologies, along with recommendations in absentia. The proceedings were presided over by branch chairman Craig, who did well in keeping the discussions focussed, and not too bogged down in the detail.

In order to speed up the selection process and cut down on possible areas for dissent, the branch committee had set out firm criteria for selection, in line with CAMRA's Policy Document on Good Beer Guide entries. The number of visits to each pub, as obtained from Whatpub, along with NBSS scores submitted, were all taken into account, along with general branch knowledge of each particular pub plus feedback from the surveyors. It was here that input from the meeting was especially useful, and was where I was able to voice my opinions.

In just under two and a half hours 22 firm entries had been finalised along with three reserves. The latter being ranked 1 - 3, depending on final allocation. This was from a total of 50 pubs nominated and surveyed. Some pubs (just under half ) were obvious candidates, and were selected without dissent, whilst others required re-visiting (metaphorically speaking), involving further discussion.

Without blowing our own trumpets too much, we all felt satisfied that we had approached the task as logically as possible, and had been as objective as we could. Obviously personal preferences can and do come into play, but we were all conscious not to let our feelings have too great an influence on the overall decisions being taken.

Being blessed with an abundance of excellent pubs in West Kent, we had the opposite problem to branches who struggle to fill their allocation; but this meant we were able to approach the task from a position of strength. Despite my limited interest in the Good Beer Guide, I went away feeling pleased with the final selection, and content that the pubs chosen would appeal to both regular and occasional users of the Guide.

Finally, a quick word about the Harvey’s beer at the Brecknock, which was in excellent form. The XXXX Old Ale was especially good and I scored it as 4.0 NBSS. I rated the Best at 3.0, having been spoiled somewhat when compared against the quality of the Old.

There was a small crowd of locals in the bar that afternoon, but the absence of the chef obviously decimated the Sunday lunchtime food trade. Our presence therefore, must have provided a welcome boost to wet sales, so I’m certain that Dave the landlord must have been glad we were there.

I too was pleased I’d gone along, and was equally glad I’d limited myself to just three pints. After nearly six weeks of limited or very moderate consumption, that was just the right amount to ease myself back into the world of pubs and beer.

A brief taste of Romania

A short while ago I wrote about the beers I received as gifts for Christmas, and how some of them were “big-name” brands, purchased by well-meaning friends or family with little or no knowledge about beer.

Well there were a couple of rather unexpected beers I received after Christmas, from a work colleague, which turned out to be  interesting as well as unusual. My colleague originates from Romania, and travelled back to her homeland over the Christmas and New Year period to spend time with her family.

She hails from Cluj, which is in the north-western part of  Romania and is the fourth most populous city in the country. Cluj-Napoca, to give the city its full title, is considered the unofficial capital of the historical province of Transylvania, and unashamedly trades a little off the image of Vlad the Impaler. However, the  city is much more than vampires and bloodthirsty goings on, as it is one of the most important academic, cultural, industrial and business centres in Romania. It also boasts the country's largest university.

On her return, and knowing my fondness for beer, she brought me a couple of cans from her home-country; a gesture which was totally unexpected, but much appreciated. Given the events of the past five weeks, I have only just got round to drinking them.

Romania has never struck me as much of a beer  drinking country, so I was surprised to learn that the country has a long and proud history of brewing beer, going back to the early 18th Century. Even during the lean years of communism there were as many as 120 breweries in the country; a number which began to fall only after the revolution of 1989, dipping to as low as just 20 or so in 2012.

Since then there has been a slow, but steady rise in the number of small breweries, and there is now a burgeoning craft beer scene. The biggest problem these newcomers have had to face is Romanian law makes no differentiation between small-scale, craft breweries and those producing beer on an industrial scale. Costs which are marginal for the multi-nationals, can be crippling for smaller breweries, so their  success is testament to the passion of the brewers concerned.

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The beers my colleague brought back for me are two of Romania’s most popular brews; namely Ursus and Timișoreana. The former is one of the country’s best-selling and most loved beers. The latter is amongst the leaders in the premium beer sector, so before detailing what they actually taste like, it’s worth taking a closer look at the breweries themselves.

Ursus Breweries, is a subsidiary of Asahi Breweries Europe Ltd,  and is the market leader in Romania. The company is based in Bucharest and owns breweries in Timișoara, Buzău and Brașov as well as a craft brewery in Cluj-Napoca. It employs around 1,400 people.

Ursus is Latin for "Bear", and was founded in Cluj in 1878, and uses a bear as its emblem. In July 2011,  a craft-style  brewery opened on the site of the old plant. The  new brewery is named “Fabrica de Bere Ursus”, and drinkers can watch the beer being brewed.

Timișoreana (named after the city of Timişoara) is the capital city of Timiș Province, and the main social, economic and cultural centre in western Romania, and the third most populous city in the country. The Timisoara Brewery was established in 1718, at time when this part of Romania was ruled by Austria, and served an important need. The city’s water supply was often unfit to drink, so constructing a brewery  to supply the citizens with beer to drink instead, was a popular and profitable initiative.

So what about the beers themselves?

Ursus Premium 5.0% is, according to the can, a 100% malt beer, brewed in the lager style. It certainly has plenty of malt character, but it is rather lacking in hops for my liking. Still, I can imagine its appeal on a hot summer’s day, so it's easy to understand why it has become the most popular brand in Romania.

Timișoreana Nepasteurizata 5.0%, is an un-pasteurised beer; even I can understand that much Romanian. (Romanian is a Romance language, and has much in common with languages such as French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, so it’s relatively easy to recognise quite a bit of vocabulary).

The beer, whilst similar in style to Ursus, has a lot more character, with some earthy-peppery notes coming through from the hops. The fact the beer is un-pasteurised, imparts a freshness, which was missing from the other beer.  

It is packaged in an ornate can, which carries an old print of the brewery, plus some suitably attired 19^th Century brewery workers. As with the other beer, the can is incredibly thin-walled; although this is only noticeable after opening.

I trust you have enjoyed this brief insight into the Romanian brewing scene. I certainly enjoyed drinking the beers, as well as discovering a little more about the breweries responsible, and the country in general. I have also abandoned my pre-conception that Romania is predominantly a wine-drinking country; even though my work colleague prefers the juice of the grape to that of the barley!

Wake up and smell the coffee

By David Edgar - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4858312

Despite the furore and controversy surrounding the somewhat radical proposals put forward by CAMRA's much vaunted "Revitalisation Project", one important issue seems to have been glossed over.

It's actually more than important it's vital to the very survival of CAMRA as a campaigning organisation; certainly in the medium to long term. The issue is being glossed over, swept under the carpet if you like, and yet it really is the "elephant in the room".

Before I reveal all, I want to mention that I wrote about this subject last year, in a post entitled "It's more than just a numbers game", but at a time when CAMRA under its current CEO, Tim Page remain obsessed with chasing ever increasing membership figures, they remain oblivious to the fact that the vast majority of new recruits are just armchair members.

These are folk content to pay their subscriptions, enjoy free or reduced entry to CAMRA beer festivals (which is probably where most of them joined anyway) and take full advantage of the Wetherspoon's vouchers - almost certainly the reason why many of them signed up in the first place.

Beer festivals don't just run themselves, but take one hell of a lot of organising. Finding sufficient members willing to volunteer and offer their services to allow festivals to happen has been a problem for many years, but more recently has been exacerbated by an increasingly ageing active membership pool, and the problem here is the numbers in this pool is in free-fall as people either become incapacitated, or shuffle off this mortal coil altogether.

When I, and many of my contemporaries first signed up, CAMRA was very much a young person's organisation, with much of the membership either in their twenties or early thirties. Nowadays you will be lucky to find any active members under 50, and in many branches the age is more likely to be 60!

If this ageing issue was just affecting CAMRA-run beer festivals it wouldn't be too much of a problem, but far more seriously if the affect it will have on another main activity of CAMRA's. and that is collecting and collating information for the group's best selling publication, the annual Good Beer Guide.

I somewhat doubt as to whether regular users of the Guide, let alone casual users, appreciate the amount of legwork put in by ordinary branch members in ensuring the publication not only appears each year, but is as accurate and as up to date as a publication of this kind can be; especially when you consider the groundwork is carried out solely by volunteers.

Getting feedback from people out in the field is difficult enough; a good case in point being the exchange of comments between myself and a member from neighbouring North East Sussex branch, which pointed out I was the only person to have submitted beer scores for the Bull at Ticehurst, in over a year.

Performing this action is the easy part, and is something that less active members could easily do, if they could be bothered. What happens next is where the real work begins, and if anything it becomes harder as the process progresses.

Based on information received from NBSS scores, feedback from members, observations and findings from branch pub-crawls or rural outings, plus of course the previous year's entries, branches will draw up a short list of likely candidates for the following year's Guide. Volunteers will then be sought to go out and survey the pubs on the shortlist (in West Kent branch, we ask that members who recommend a specific pub, actually take the time to go back and revisit the establishment in question and fill out a proper survey form).

Anyone who has filled one out of these wretched forms will know just what a pain they can be. At one time the Guide was typeset directly from these forms, so they were supposed to be "machine readable". Filling in each square on the form in BLOCK CAPITALS was one of the most tiresome tasks known to man; I should know as I've still got the scars to prove it!

For some strange reason CAMRA still insists on these rather antiquated forms, even though entries are now made electronically onto the GBG database, by each branch. But here lies another problem; much of the information on the survey forms is incomplete inaccurate, or sometimes both.

The individuals tasked with inputting the information often have to recheck; a frustrating and time-consuming process. Even worse are the pub descriptions; often  written by people lacking a basic knowledge of English grammar, or indeed English itself. A friend who has been carrying out this thankless, and unpaid task for several years, showed me an example, written totally without punctuation of any description. As all the text was written in block capitals, my friend spent a frustrating afternoon trying to decipher this garbage and in the end had to re-write the piece himself.

Such occurrences are not uncommon, but I wonder whether CAMRA realise, let alone appreciate the effort put in by a small, but dedicated group of individuals in order to get their flagship publication ready for the printers.

The number of volunteers willing to give up their evenings or weekends, to act as unpaid typesetters, is already in short supply, and in my own branch one of them is now saying, quite understandably, that due to work commitments, he can no longer spare the time needed for this task.

So returning for a while to CAMRA's proposals to transform itself into an all-embracing organisation for anyone who appreciates good beer, regardless of the methods of processing and dispense. If these ideas are adopted by the Campaign as a whole, can we expect to see a surge in new members all willing to get off their backsides and get out there doing some legwork?

I think we all know the answer, but rather like our current government in relation to an impending major constitutional change, CAMRA's current leadership have their heads buried firmly in the sand. I would like to use the same analogy between those running the country, and the top people within the Campaign for Real Ale, and say to them "Be very careful what you wish for", as lurking somewhere in the background, and often hiding just beneath the surface, will be the Law of Unintended Consequences, known in more general parlance, as the "Law of Sod"!

To end, the Good Beer Guide won’t disappear overnight of course, but it will slowly become less and less relevant. Without up to date, and accurate information, which only local CAMRA branches can really provide, the Guide will lose its cutting edge and its unique selling point will become increasingly diluted.

CAMRA cannot ignore this truth for much longer, even though it likes to pretend everything’s fine and the sun won’t be setting on their flagship publication any time soon. I can only speak for my own branch, where I know we are having difficulty in keeping tabs on all of our pubs, but I’m certain there are other branches in a similar, or possibly worse position.

So stop chasing membership numbers and recognise there is a real problem within the Campaign, otherwise no amount of tinkering with aims and objectives will save the organisation from a slow and lingering decline.

Looking forward to the cakes and ale

Last Wednesday evening, exactly five weeks to the day from when she was rushed to hospital by ambulance, I turned up to collect my good lady wife from Hawkhurst Community Hospital, and brought her back home.

It’s been a lengthy and at times, very draining experience; obviously far more so for her than for me, but the effects of nightly hospital visits, combined with work and running the household, have all added up leaving me needing to recharge my batteries as well.

I therefore took Thursday and Friday off from work, partially to recuperate, but more importantly to help Mrs PBT’s readjust to life at home and get her used to being away from the hospital routine.

She didn’t need much encouragement with regard to the latter, and she is coping well with getting around again; although there’ll be no long walks in the country for a wee while. I’ve also taken this opportunity to get my car looked at, as it was knocking up an additional 200 miles a week! The bathroom project is also being dusted off, although it will be several weeks before either of us are ready to face the upheaval which goes with a major renovation.

I also want to reconnect with the world outside of immediate family and work, and get back out visiting a few pubs and attending the odd CAMRA meeting. It’s been eight weeks since I last attended a CAMRA function, and that was our Christmas meal at the Brecknock Arms, so I’m itching to get back into the swing of things again.

This weekend our local rugby club, Tonbridge Juddians held their annual Winter Beer Festival. With Eileen only a couple of days out of hospital, it would have been both inappropriate and rather uncaring for me to have gone charging off to the TJ’s clubhouse for an afternoon, but to be honest a crowded festival, with people jostling for space, and nowhere to sit down, is not the sort of re-introduction to the world of beer I am looking for at the moment.

Instead, a few quiet pints, in an equally quiet pub, with a couple of close friends is much  more in line with what I’m looking for at the moment, so I will try and arrange something along these lines for next week. In the meantime it’s just good to have the family unit back together again under the same roof.

A couple of unexpected surprises

One of the advantages, but occasionally one of the drawbacks, of being a beer lover is that friends and family are never at a loss at what to buy for you at Christmas, and the last festivities were no exception. Whilst not quite enough to float the proverbial battleship, there was still beer a plenty in the Bailey household.

I’ve only just got round to drinking some of it which, considering the events of he past five weeks is hardly surprising, but  whilst I remain truly grateful for all of the beery presents bought for me, some of the choices do show the power of mass-advertising, and the dominance of big brands.

This is especially the case when the selection has been made by a non-beer drinking friend or relative. Somewhat predictably there is a bottle of Doom Bar amongst the selection, along with one of Poacher’s Choice (oh the power of rustic-sounding names!), but as stated earlier I remain grateful for these gifts, and will even enjoy drinking them; just so I can remind myself what some of these “big-brand” beers are like.

One or two though have left me pleasantly surprised and have acted as a reminder to never pre-judge something, but instead approach it with an open mind. One such beer was Fuller’s London Pride; a beer I used to be very partial to on draught, but which I rarely get the chance to drink these days.

What I found particularly interesting is the fact that like several so called Premium Bottled Ales (PBA’s), the bottled version is stronger than its draught counterpart, so bottled Pride weighs in at 4.7% ABV, whilst the cask version is a more modest 4.2%.

Not a huge difference you might think, but it is still a half of one percent alcohol by volume, and it makes a surprising difference to the taste. The bottled London Pride had a fuller flavour, if you’ll excuse the pun. This allowed the rich “marmalade” notes, normally a feature of ESB to shine through and come to the fore; the result a much rounder beer, which I really enjoyed.

The beer which was a real surprise though, and a pleasant one at that was “Old Crafty Hen”; a Morland’s brand from Greene King. This 6.5% ABV beer is described as “Oak-Aged Vintage”, having been matured in the oak vats, used for the GK classic Old 5X.

Although initially sceptical, I found this beer rather good and definitely full of character. Given its high gravity, it could have been cloyingly sweet, but it wasn’t. Instead it was a well-balanced beer, with the fruitiness of the malt, off-set by some interesting vanilla notes, no doubt derived from the oak vats in which it was aged. The only slight grouse I have is the beer being packaged in clear glass.

Full marks then to Greene King’s “Master Brewer”, who gets a mention on the bottle, even though his/her name is not revealed. And a lesson as well to be learned about approaching a beer with an open mind, and not allowing any preconceptions you may have to cloud your judgment.

A rural gem with that near perfect pint

The Bull Inn at Three Leg Cross, on the outskirts of  the village of Ticehurst, is one of those pubs I’ve wanted to visited for as long as I remember, but somehow never got round to.  I can remember people enthusing about the place years ago; possibly even before I moved from Maidstone to Tonbridge over thirty years ago, but for some reason the pub completely slipped off my radar.

This is crazy as it's less than half hour’s drive from my home. However, the area around Lamberhurst, Ticehurst and Wadhurst isn't somewhere I frequent regularly; at least not since I worked in Lamberhurst, but last Sunday evening I finally made the effort to visit the Bull, and boy am I glad I did.

Ticehurst itself is a large village; large enough  to support three other pubs, in addition to the Bull. The village lies in the upper reaches of the Bewl stream before it enters the man-made reservoir of Bewl Water, and close to the upper reaches of the River Rother which flows to the south-east.

There are several shops (general store and post office, greengrocer, plus the inevitable antique dealer), a café, a car showroom and the 14th-century parish church of St Mary the Virgin. Despite these attractions I believe I've only once ever been to Ticehurst, and that was just driving through!

There are lots of places in this part of the world with the suffix “hurst” after their name. We were taught at school that the word derived from an Old English (Anglo Saxon) name for a clearing in a wood, smaller than a field or meadow and generally alongside a body of water, like a river or lake.

Three Leg Cross lies a mile or so to the north of Ticehurst, and seems to be little more than a small collection of houses, the odd farm plus, of course the Bull. According to Whatpub, the pub is set in four acres of ground with gardens to front and rear, but it was dusk when I arrived, so I didn't see any of this.

Instead this attractive old  tile-hung building was lit up by a number of spotlights. There are two other adjoining buildings, one on either side, which may account for there being several different levels inside. The main part of the pub though is believed to date from 1385 and has been licensed since the nineteenth century.

I climbed the steps from the car-park and followed the worn brick path across the lawn. There are two bars, plus what appears to be a dining area housed in the building on the  far left. I chose the left hand bar, which I imagine is the equivalent of a Saloon or Best Bar. I was greeted by a number of dogs scurrying around my feet and I also noticed a log fire, smouldering away in the substantial stone-built fireplace.

Much of the pub appears to be constructed from large ragged lumps of sandstone, tinged with traces of iron. This is a common building material in this part of the Weald, the rust-coloured staining being evidence of the iron ore, which was mined and worked in this area during the centuries before the industrial revolution. Up until Napoleonic times, the Weald was the centre of the iron industry in Britain; the trees of the Wealden Forest providing plentiful supplies of charcoal  for smelting the iron.

It was a step down to the serving area, where a "T"-bar set of founts, mounted on the counter greeted me. I could see across to the right hand bar, which is at a higher level, and there I spotted a bank of hand-pulls. Although I was looking at them from the rear, I spotted the Harvey's Best pump-clip and ordered myself a pint.

As hinted at in the previous post, the beer presented to me was one of the finest pints ever to cross my lips. Cool, but not chilled, and with just the right amount of condition, this pint of Sussex Best had the perfect balance between sweet-juicy malt and peppery, earthy hops. Without question it scored 4.5 NBSS, and were it not for the fact that I have never scored any beer as a perfect 5, I would have done so this time. Looking back, I wish I had now, as the chances of coming across such a sublimely delicious pint any time soon are probably few and far between.

I went and sat down, close to the door with my back to the window, so I could observe the goings on. There was a lady sat warming herself, in front of the fire, who was later joined by a male companion. Just across from me were a couple of jobbing-builders, sat pouring over their estimates and accounts.  Instead of drinking the delicious Harvey's they were drinking Kronenbourg, but each to their own.

The dining area was empty, so I imagine Sunday lunch is the time for diners at the Bull. After the builders had departed, I took a few photos. I'm always a little wary of pointing the camera in the direction of people, even when it's not directly focussed on them.

After taking several shots my curiosity got the better of me, so I grabbed my glass and walked through the small lobby and up the step into the other bar. This was "L"-shaped, with a quarry-tile floor and walls of exposed stonework. There was a group sitting on benches at either side of a long table, plus a smaller number of people stood in front of the substantial log fire. This was blazing away much fiercer than the fire in the other bar.

I nodded a greeting to the assembled company, and before sitting down at an empty table, made a point of telling the barman how fine his beer was. In contrast to the other room, this basic and down to earth bar was only dimly lit. With its low beamed ceiling and the shadows cast by the fire, I could have been looking at a scene from a couple of centuries ago, were it not for the TV in the corner which was showing the post match discussion of the Six Nations rugby game which had just finished.

As if guessing my thoughts, the barman asked the assembled company if they'd seen enough TV, and when they answered "Yes" he brought out a suitably-sized mirror from behind the bar, ingeniously designed to hook over the TV screen. Noticing my smile of approval he smiled back and said, "No-one would ever know we'd just been watching tele".

Much as I would have liked another pint of that 4.5 NBSS Harvey's, I had a 25 minute drive home ahead of me, so reluctantly I drank up, returned my glass to the bar and departed. A customer standing nearby bade me a  friendly "goodnight"; a nice touch which further endeared me to the pub.

At work the next morning I discussed my find with a couple of  colleagues, one of whom appeared to know the Bull quite well. Apparently it is close to one of the courses where he plays golf, and he said it is always a good place to finish at.

As for me, I will definitely be making a return visit, but not now following hospital visiting, as I am very pleased to report that Mrs PBT's has  been discharged from residential care and is recuperating well at home. Instead I will combine my next visit with a walk around nearby Bewl Water. 

Alternatively, it may be possible to walk to Three Leg Cross walk from Stonegate railway station,  removing the need to drive there, and thereby allowing the consumption of several pints of that superb Harvey's.

On the right track

Well there’s now another corner of the county for me to explore, as I combine visiting my wife, who’s convalescing at a Cottage Hospital in the Kentish Weald, with stopping off for a cheeky pint on the way home.

Although Eileen has now been medically discharged, she is undergoing some rigorous physiotherapy to get her fully mobile – without needing support, and able to go up and down stairs once again. It’s surprising how much out muscles waste away when they are not being used; I know this from my experience of a broken leg, nearly 40 years ago.

It’s equally surprising though at just how quickly the human body can recover, given the right treatment, and how rapidly full physical fitness can be obtained. You have to hand it to the NHS, as they've done a first class job in restoring Mrs PBT's to full health., and at this rate she'll be running marathons before we know it!

With this in mind, my plans to explore a few of the pubs on the Kent-Sussex border may come to an end, sooner, rather than later. In the meantime Eileen can enjoy being pampered slightly, as where she is staying she has her own room, with en suite and TV. It’s also nice and peaceful which, after the somewhat frantic activity associated with a stay in a normal hospital ward, is very welcome.

I’ve only managed one pub visit so far, but it’s a real cracker and somewhat of a rarity in so much that it’s a real rural pub, used by real country folk, rather than the “Green Wellington”, “Escape to the Country” brigade. What’s more it’s a pub where beer and the drinking of it come first, with food of secondary importance. If that wasn’t enough, I scored the beer at 4.5 NBSS, and came extremely close to awarding a 5!

Keep an eye out for the post, where I reveal the name and location, and describe the delights of this  “proper” country pub.