Monday evening might seem a strange night to be holding a
summer party, especially when it’s an event celebrating beer and those who
write about it. But for those in the know, there is a good reason for the
British Guild of Beer Writers (BGBW), to be holding their annual summer on what
is generally regarded as a
“school night.”
Monday is chosen because it is the evening before the grand
opening of CAMRA’s Great British Beer Festival, an annual event that is one of
the highlights in any beer drinker’s calendar. It used to be a highlight on
mine too, but after not really enjoying the final GBBF I attended (the last
festival before the disruption cause by the pandemic), I vowed 2019’s event
would be my last.
The grand opening is actually a trade event, at least until
5pm when the general public are finally allowed in. CAMRA’S definition of “trade”
is actually very loose, and the invite basically extends to anyone with even
the most tenuous of links to the worlds of pubs, beer, and brewing. Pubs that featured in the Good Beer Guide
would usually receive a wadge of tickets, in order to arrange a “jolly” to the
festival for the licensee and pub customers, and the same applied to breweries
and their staff.
In the days when a group of us would attend the
trade day, gaining
entrance to the event was relatively easy, as there would usually be a
landlord, or small brewery owner, with a ticket or two to spare.
BGBW could
also apply to
CAMRA’s Publicity Office for tickets, and this is the method I
used for several years. I would like to think that
CAMRA benefited from my
attendance, as I would always write a blog post about my visit, and I’m sure
many other writers and publicists did the same.
What I am getting at, in this round about fashion, is to say
that the trade day at
GBBF is a hugely important day for anyone with more than
a passing interest in beer. The
Guild’s Summer Party, the evening before, is
therefore the perfect occasion for those planning to attend the festival, to
discover more about the event, find out what to expect, and perhaps arrange
places to meet up for a beer or two. As these people will be in town anyway,
the
pre-GBBF party makes perfect sense.
Looking back, I discovered that I have attended four
previous
BGBW parties, starting with the
2015 event, and culminating in the
2019 bash, which was the final event, prior to lockdown. I missed the
2018
party, and the festival itself, as I was in the
United States, attending the
even more beery
Beer Writers Conference, but a pattern does seem to have
emerged with the
Guild parties, in so much they are becoming larger, and better
attended with each passing year.
This year’s party continued the trend, and the chosen venue
of the
Sambrook’s Brewery, in
Wandsworth, south-west
London, was a most appropriate
one.
Sambrook’s were founded in
2008 by
Duncan Sambrook, and from humble beginnings in their original
Battersea home,
have gone on to become a major success story. Producing a thoughtful and
well-regarded beers range of beers, covering much of the brewing spectrum.
In
2020, Sambrook’s moved onto a new site, occupying part of
the site of the old
Young’s Ram Brewery, in
Wandsworth, where they installed a
state-of-the-art brewery, with its own tap room, housed in a spectacular grade
II listed building in an area of the complex, known as the
Ram Quarter. It was
to here, that I made my way from
Wandsworth Town station, last
Monday evening,
slightly delayed by a series of minor delays on the rail system.
Sambrook’s Tap Room took a bit of finding, but only because
I entered the
Ram Quarter from the top end, instead of continuing further along
Ram Street. I remember the old
Ram Brewery, and its days under
Young’s, and
had even been on a couple of brewery tours. I was also familiar with the site from the
outside, but before the area was redeveloped, it was hard to gauge just how
large the site was. Seeing it laid bare, and in the latter stages of
redevelopment, made me realise just how massive the site is, and how in terms
of land value, it must have been worth an absolute fortune.
Much as it pains me to say so, it’s little wonder that following the retirement of their colourful chairman,
John Young, the company decided to sell the place off. Had they been a little
savvier, the company could have built a new brewery on the site, whilst selling
off the remainder, but perhaps the pound note signs in front of their eyes,
proved too much! Still,
Young’s loss is
Sambrook’s gain, and the new company
have demonstrated just what can be achieved with the right vision and the right
investment.
The party was in full swing when I arrived, 30-40 minutes
later than intended, and the same time interval since the event had officially
opened. A number of the guests were sat at tables, situated on the outdoor
patio area, but most were inside, crammed around the bar and seating area on the
ground floor. I noticed a bank of hand-pumps offering some of Sambrook’s cask
range, whilst further long the bar, an array of keg taps was offering a much
more extensive series of beers.
I opted for the latter, having made the decision to stick
with halves, in order to sample as many as was wise, given the fact I was due
in at the following morning. I didn’t quite “complete the card,” as some of my
drinking friends would say, but I did get to enjoy some excellent beers. Six
halves, equating to three pints, was just the right amount, but I still arrived
home later than intended, due to an incident, said to have occurred elsewhere
on the rail network. That’s another story though, and one which doesn’t
contribute anything to this narrative.
Having grabbed myself a beer, I discovered that pizza was
being served in the upstairs function room. I had already noticed the
wood-fired pizza oven, occupying the opposite corner of the downstairs bar, and
the boxes of freshly baked pizza being transported upstairs, so I made my way
up to the first floor, but not before first ordering another beer. The pizza
was excellent and, for a while at least, seemed to just on, keep on coming.
The beers too were first class and the stand out ones were
Block Party – a mid-strength,
American IPA, Meltdown – a slightly hazy,
Double
New England IPA, and
Oatmeal Stout – a smooth, velvety dark stout. This beer
was so new that it hadn’t yet listed on
Untappd; an anomaly soon rectified by
BryanB the
Beer Viking.
Sambrook’s Pagoda Pilsner was also good, as was the
final beer of the evening, the
10.4% Russian Imperial Stout – spoiler alert, I
only had a
⅓
pint of the latter!
From a social point of view, it was good to catch up with a
few familiar faces, including the aforementioned BryanB and Rochdale &
Oldham CAMRA legend, Tandleman, who was down for his usual stint working the
foreign beer bar at GBBF, known as Biers sans Frontiers. There were quite a
few other faces I recognised but, as Tandleman remarked to me, there were
plenty of unfamiliar faces as well. We concluded that many must have been
corporate members of the BGBW, important for the Guild to attract, and
important for them too.
We both had a chat with one such person, but I won’t
embarrassing him by revealing which brewery he currently works for. He was the
individual I mentioned in my previous post about Greenwich, as he revealed what
he thought were his reasons for the sad decline of Meantime Brewery – a company
that seems to have lost its way in the corporate world of Asahi Brewing. I
shall say no more, apart from observing that Meantime beers have become
increasingly rare in both bars, and on supermarket shelves – although they
still seem to contract brew for M&S.
I left at around
9.15pm and took a slow saunter back to
catch my train. Customers from the cafés and bars that overlook the pedestrianised
road leading to the station, were sat out at pavement tables, enjoying some café
culture. The
Alma pub, directly opposite the station entrance, looked particularly
attractive, with its original tiled frontage, although the photo shown here was
taken when I arrived in
Wandsworth, some three hours or so earlier.
It was an enjoyable evening, with some excellent beers and
some equally fine pizza. The most important aspect though, was the chance to
catch up with fellow Guild members, many of whom I hadn’t seen since the summer
party, at London Fields Brewery, three years previously.
