To God's Own Country and back

The family and I enjoyed a nice and relaxing visit to Yorkshire in order to attend the funeral of Eileen’s aunt. As mentioned previously, Aunt Kathleen was just two months short of her 100th birthday, and her funeral took place last Wednesday. We drove up the day before, with the 250-mile route showing on Google, as taking 4.5 hours. It took considerably longer due to a combination of heavy traffic on the M62 (surely the M25 of the north?), plus arriving in Bradford during the school run rush. This was despite avoiding the city centre and following a ring road of sorts around the periphery. So, plenty of stop starts, and not that much moving forward.

Some people do these sort of trips on a regular basis, but a few times a year is more than sufficient for me and if I had my way, I would let the train take the strain. It was a pretty seamless route that we followed though, and with improved section of the A14 northwest of Huntingdon it didn't take long for us to reach the A1. We stopped for lunch at an American-themed roadside restaurant called the OK Diner. This was just to the north of Stamford, a town I would like to visit, but on a more leisurely and less hurried occasion. On the way back we stopped at another OK Diner on the opposite carriageway of the A1. This was a nicer, and much more substantial building, constructed from brick, than its counterpart on the road heading north.

We gave Bradford and the M62 a miss on the way home, and instead headed north-east towards the attractive North Yorkshire market town of Knaresborough. This enabled us to pick up the A1, a short distance to the east of the town. Although I had a route outlined in my head, I trusted myself to allow Eileen’s sat nav to guide us. The route chosen avoided Skipton, a town we’d visited on the previous day, before bringing onto the A59 close to Bolton Bridge. We passed through some very pleasant countryside, and after joining the A59, the road began a long and steady climb right back onto the top of the Pennine Moors which looked stunning in the early summer sunshine, but I imagine that particular stretch of road will seem very bleak during winter, and possibly even impassable.

We were making good progress, until we reached Ferrybridge, close to the junction with the M62, and here road works, plus associated lane closures, delayed us by at least half an hour. After that we continued southwards, stopping at the full mentioned OK Diner for a well-deserved break plus a very nice burger and fries, before continuing the journey home. Despite hitting the M25 during peak rush hour, the traffic was moving and not too congested, and after crossing the Queen Elizabeth Bridge, we were back in Kent.

It's not the sort of return journey I’d want to do on a regular basis, but with good weather and roads which weren't too crowded it wasn't too bad a drive either. All the same I was glad when we pulled onto the drive of Bailey Towers, and I was able to relax for the rest of the evening. I didn't do much in the way of unpacking, although it was considerably more than my good lady wife. I also cracked open a well-deserved, chilled bottle of St Austell Proper Job.

It's also worth noting that I bought a selection of eight different bottled beers, all from local Yorkshire breweries. These were purchased from two different ASDA mega-stores, one in Shipley and the other in Keighley. The latter outlet was massive, and as well as offering the same 4 for the price of 3 deal on bottled beers, also had a decent selection of men’s clothing. So, a couple of “T” shirts, plus beers from the likes of Daleside, Ilkley, Ossett, Wharfdale, Salt, York, and Wold Top (Lincolnshire rather than Yorkshire?), I’ve a few new additions to my wardrobe.

The bottled beers will make up, in part, for not visiting as many pubs as I would have liked, but with relative to visit and spend time with, plus the funeral itself, there wasn’t a huge amount of time for pubbing. We stayed at a Premier Inn, Mrs PBT’s hotel chain of choice, and their Bingley outlet certainly delivered in terms of comfort and service. I’m more adventurous, but as this trip was mainly about catching up with members from the Yorkshire branch of her family, I left the arrangements to her. My duties were those of chauffeur and travel guide, and on the latter front, we certainly managed to experience some of Yorkshire’s finest and most picturesque locations.

Despite the weather forecast warning of an impending heatwave, Saturday's temperatures caught us both by surprise. We didn't surface until after 9:00 AM, and by the time we’d showered, and grabbed some toast for breakfast it was already roasting out on the patio. However, being the stereotypical Englishman who goes out in the midday sun, I stuck it out and enjoyed my toast, marmalade, and coffee. I did take the precaution of wearing a sun hat and smothering myself in sunblock, and this seems to do the trick.

I perhaps should then have taken the time to catch up on the blog, but there was food shopping to be done, followed by several tasks to complete outside. I still haven’t finished these, but I probably broke the back of them, including restringing the frame for my runner beans. This morning, I was back in the garden, planting out my runner bean plants that I’d nurtured in the greenhouse.  Oh, the joys gardening, but the idea is we’ll have a nice crop of beans to enjoy in the month or so's time, and there’s also some sweet corn seedlings to plant out, once they grow a bit larger.

 

Other Irish stouts are available

M&S House-magazine

I write those words after enjoying an excellent bottle of M&S Irish Stout, brewed by Carlow Brewing of County Carlow, Ireland. It was definitely the best dry Irish stout I've had in a long time, with a perfect balance of bitter can roasted flavours but at the same time smooth and without the harshness often associated with heavily roasted malts.

I would say that this particular Irish stout is it a different league to many of the others I have tried over the years which brings me on to Guinness, one of the best-known beer brands in the world and the runaway market leader when it comes to producing dry Irish stout. Guinness is regarded as the yardstick by which other stouts are measured, but despite the worldwide fame of the beer I've never been a huge fan, and certainly not of the draught version. I find it rather thin, and the roasted barley used in its production imparts a harsh taste, which I am not over keen on.

Leaving Draught Guinness to one side, back in the early days of CAMRA, I went through a phase of drinking bottled Guinness. At the time Guinness Extra Stout in bottled form, was naturally conditioned, having a thin layer of sedimentary yeast at the bottom of the bottle. CAMRA described the beer as “Real Ale in a bottle,” due to the fact that the yeast allowed the beer to condition and mature, naturally in the bottle. I was a lot more serious in those days about following CAMRA guidelines, and whilst bottled Guinness was an acceptable, and satisfying beer, it only came in half pint, 275 millilitre bottles. This was a real disadvantage, volume wise, compared to those drinking draught beer, even if it was keg, as when drinking in rounds, I always finished my beer, way before my companions. I was the one left with an empty glass, waiting for others to finish, and get a new round in.

As well as still containing live yeast, another strange hangover from the past was that Guinness allowed small regional breweries to bottle their Extra Stout on their behalf. The beer was delivered in bulk, by tanker, for the breweries to package, and then sell throughout their various tied estates. I'm not quite sure when this practise died out, or when Guinness Extra Stout ceased to be bottle conditioned, but it may have occurred when the company closed their large brewery at Park Royal, to the West of London, and concentrated all production at their main St James’s Gate Brewery in Dublin.

Heineken ad - do they now own both brands?

Prior to this, Park Royal had supplied the southern half of the United Kingdom, whilst the north received its Guinness from Dublin. The perception at the time was the Dublin product was superior to that brewed in London, although I'm sure this was all hearsay. It was possibly even a bit of one upmanship on behalf of the parent company, as I very much doubt anyone could have told the two versions apart.

Towards the end of the 1970s two other brands of Irish stout began appearing on the nation's bars. These were produced by a couple of Cork based brewers – Beamish and Murphy’s. The Beamish & Crawford brewery, situated in the heart of Cork city, was founded in 1792, by two local merchants, Richard Beamish & Richard Crawford. Beamish has a rich roasted flavour with coffee and dark chocolate undertones, making it a genuine Irish stout. To this day Beamish stout is being enjoyed in bars and homes throughout Ireland, but not it would seem, in the United Kingdom.

Murphy’s was founded in 1856, and is now owned by Dutch multi-national brewer, Heineken, although during the period I am referring to, Whitbread acted as distributor for the brand, in the UK. Upon seeing these brands on sale, I had to try them, despite both being keg products. Out of the two, I much preferred the Beamish offering, as it was smoother, and creamier than the Murphy's product, which had quite a harsh taste to it. Like the Guinness I was complaining about earlier, this was probably related to the amount of roast malt used in the grist.

By the start of the 80’s, there was no real need for me to continue with bottled Guinness, as cask-conditioned ale was in plentiful supply and widely available, in pubs up and down the land. However, my years of drinking Dublin’s most famous product left me with more than an occasional yearning, for a glass of dark, dry, Irish stout. This yearning was satisfied, in part, by the appearance of the Porterhouse brewpubs which set up shop in 2000, in London’s Covent Garden, four years after the original venue came into being, in Dublin. Both branches offer a range of house-brewed beers, including several dark ones, with Porter and “Plain” complementing the Irish stout.

I’m not 100% certain that the London outlet still brews, but I know that the Dublin Porterhouse does. I experienced the pub for myself in 2014, when I visited Dublin for the first, and so far, only time. I was in the Irish capital in order to attend that year's European Beer Writer’s Conference. My visit gave me chance to experience some of Dublin’s amazing pubs and bars, along with the city’s legendary nightlife, as well as trying Draught Guinness on its home turf. It might sound like sacrilege, but I was not terribly impressed with the beer, and it certainly wasn’t a patch on some of the other interesting locally brewed Irish stouts we got to try, that weekend

As part of the overall conference weekend, our group visited the Guinness Storehouse, an interesting experience which, once one looks beyond the marketing hype associated with the Guinness name, demonstrated the fascinating history behind the company.  Included in the tour, was a look at the brand-new brewery that Guinness had erected on the extensive St Jame's Gate site. It was still being commissioned, but a fully automated brewing plant, packed full of gleaming stainless-steel vessels and tanks, isn’t the most exciting thing to look at, so for many of us, the new Guinness Brewery wasn’t exactly the highlight of the trip.

If you’ve read this far, then I’m sure you’ll be aware that Guinness produce a strong, “export” stout for distribution overseas. Foreign Extra Stout (FES) first appeared in 1801, and has proved a firm favourite with drinkers, particularly those in parts of Africa and the Caribbean. Brewed to an abv of 7.5%, FES is much more heavily hopped than the Guinness Draught and Extra Stout brewed for home consumption. The extra hops were originally intended to act as a natural preservative for the long sea voyage to the sub-Saharan Africa and the West Indies.

Today sales of FES are said to account for almost half of Guinness sales, worldwide. It’s definitely a beer worth seeking out, and fortunately it’s a lot easier to come by these days. I have seen it on sale at Sainsbury’s at £2 a bottle, and I’m sure that other supermarkets will be stocking the beer as well. Without a shadow of doubt, Foreign Extra Stout is the best beer that Guinness produce, so it’s a good one on which to end this brief look at Irish Stout.

White Rose Country

Four days into June and still no sign of a blog post, although there's a couple of drafts in various stages of preparation. There seems to have been an absence of anything worthy to write about, although that could change next week, when the Bailey clan head off to the land of the Tykes, otherwise known as “God’s own country.”

We’re actually setting foot in the north country for a family funeral, the deceased being Mrs PBT’s Aunty Kathleen. She was a lovely, quietly-spoken lady who passed peacefully away a couple of weeks ago; just two months shy of her 100^th birthday. There must be something in the air up in “them thar hills,” as she always looked hale and hearty, so in an attempt to find that secret of eternal youth, we’ll be spending a few days in the area between Bingley and Keighley.

It’s been five years since we were last up that way, and despite the sadness that surrounds a funeral, it will be good to catch up with the northern branch of Eileen’s family. I’ve drawn the short straw with the driving again, despite Matthew having acquired a new car. I don’t tend to do that many long-distance road trips these days, the last one having been a short holiday to Barry Island, last September. Instead, I much prefer travelling by train, but that’s not really practical for a stay that will necessitate having the flexibility that only a privately-owned car can bring.

As far as beer and pubs are concerned, I shall just play things by ear, and go with the flow. I am aware we’ve been invited for a family meal on the evening after the funeral, and the venue will be the Airedale Heifer, an extensive roadside alehouse, with its own brewery (Bridgehouse), situated in a building behind the pub. We enjoyed a meal there, with Eileen’s Yorkshire relations, on our last visit, so we know both the food and the beer are of a high standard. There is the issue of driving there, as even though it’s only a 10-minute walk from the Premier Inn we’re staying at, Mrs PBT’s does have a few mobility issues these days. I shall probably order a taxi for her, and walk there myself, as that way, I can sample a few of the Heifer’s house-brewed ales.

I mentioned earlier that there wasn’t much to write about, but on reflection that isn’t quite true, as there’s been a couple of “good news” stories that have broken recently. The first story has an appropriate Tyke connection, as it relates to the embattled Black Sheep Brewery of Masham, North Yorkshire. After calling in administrators at the start of last month, Black Sheep has been acquired by London-based investment firm Breal Capital and will continue to trade under the same name. Breal has a proven track record of successfully transforming and growing the businesses it acquires, so fingers crossed they can turn Black Sheep’s fortunes around.

A spokesperson for the brewery said: "This marks the next chapter in the history of Black Sheep as we look to grow the business in a sustainable way. Our team will continue to produce great beers from our landmark brewery in Masham, North Yorkshire and we also look forward to welcoming customers and tourists to all our retail sites.”

The other good news story concerns major brewer and pub owner, Greene King, as this summer the company will be the first major cask brewer to offer its beers in 4.5-gallon casks, or pins. With the pub sector still feeling the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, and consumers making fewer visits to their local pub, GK believe that the introduction of pins will have a tangible effect on the cask ale market. Containing just 36 pints, half the size of the industry standard 9-gallon casks, pins will ensure a faster turnover of each cask, thereby enabling licensees to deliver a range of fresh cask beer to customers, whilst at the same time minimising wastage.

 

As proof of their commitment to this scheme, Greene King are making a seven-figure investment in order to bring it to fruition. CAMRA have been advocating this type of initiative for many years, so it will be interesting to see how it pans out, but on that note, I shall call it a day, as the work I’ve been performing outside needs my attention. 

It involves sorting out both our shed and our summerhouse, and is one of those long-overdue, “must-do” tasks. Fortunately, it’s nearing completion, but it did involve a bit of time-consuming, construction and repair work. That, gentle reader is the main reason why posts haven’t been as frequent as they might otherwise have been, but there is something virtuous in ticking this particular task off from my extensive list of jobs.