What's Up With Taylor's Landlord?

Timothy Taylors Landlord has always been one of my favourite beers, ever since I first tried it back in the mid 1970's in its Yorkshire home. I don't know whether this was a bit of a myth, but I do remember at the time, Landlord was primarily a bottled beer, and that allegedly only one of the company's pubs sold it on draught. It seems unlikely that the brewery would go to the bother of casking a beer for just one pub, and the only explanation I can offer as to how this story came about, is that there was a comment published to this effect in the 1975 CAMRA Good Beer Guide. Whatever the truth of this tale though, I do distinctly remember visiting the Hare & Hounds, at Lane Ends- high in the Pennines above the town of Hebden Bridge, the pub that was said to be the sole outlet for Landlord in draught form.

I was studying at Salford University at the time, and a group of us had borrowed the Student Union van for the evening. We had persuaded a non-beer drinking fellow student to be our driver for the evening, and armed with a map, set off for the Hare & Hounds. It was quite a long drive across the Pennines from Greater Manchester, but as it was a June evening we managed to arrive whilst it was still light. The beer was good, although at the time it didn't strike me as the best I'd ever tasted. The unspoilt, stone-built pub though, together with its rural location and striking scenery, were something different, and to a country boy like myself, stuck amongst the grime of urban Manchester, were heaven sent . What's more, the licensee didn't seem that bothered about closing time and it was very late, and we were all a little bit the worse for drink by the time we left!

I don't think I got the chance to taste Timothy Taylor's beers again until the early 1980's. The occasion this time was CAMRA's national AGM, held in Bradford. Even there it was necessary to travel out to Taylor's home town of Keighley in order to sample the beers. However, the fame of the company's beers was obviously spreading, helped in no small part by their winning several awards, including Champion Beer of Britain.

Slowly, Timothy Taylor's beers found their way down to the South East, and for a while it seemed that just about every free-house locally could boast a pump selling Landlord. This was good news, and a most welcome addition to the local beer scene. By this time I could definitely count Landlord amongst my all time favourite beers. When I had my real-ale off-licence, Landlord made regular appearances on the bar, and was a firm favourite with customers. It was always a very lively beer, and it was necessary to stand well back when spiling a cask of it.

Recently, (the last couple of years), Landlord seems to have been knocked off its Number One spot on the bar by an interloper in the shape of Sharps Doom Bar. This isn't a bad beer; in fact it's rather good, but it does seem to be everywhere at the moment. A friend who is a regular visitor to the West Country has remarked that Doom Bar is virtually unobtainable in Cornwall, as most of it is shipped up here!

Fast forward to yesterday. My son and I called in at the Punch & Judy, still the best bet in south Tonbridge for a decent pint. We had arranged to meet a friend there, catch up on the gossip and watch a bit of the Wales v Scotland rugby game. The pub was surprisingly quiet for a Saturday afternoon, due in no small part to the freezing cold weather outside. Alongside regular beer Harvey's Best, was a pump advertising Taylor's Landlord. I ordered a couple of pints and we sat down to enjoy the beer.

I have to say I was slightly disappointed. There was nothing wrong with the beer; it was in good condition and well-kept. It just seemed to be lacking that certain something. Landlord was always a complex, multi-layered beer, with a delightful hop bitterness present throughout. The beer we sampled yesterday was very one-dimensional, and was definitely lacking the complexity I had always associated with Landlord. I was left wondering as to whether this is the price of fame? It has happened many times before, as once classic beers end up becoming victims of their own success. I hope that this is just a temporary blip, but I will be keeping a close eye on what, for the moment at least, is still one of my favourite beers.

Brains Dark

Brains Dark, 4.1% abv, and only £1.36 a bottle in Waitrose at the moment. Just the job for a cold winter's night at home in front of the telly.

Get down to Waitrose and grab some before it's all gone!

Good Night in Spoons Yesterday

We held our bi-monthly CAMRA committee meeting in the Sevenoaks Wetherspoons last night. We braved arctic winds walking up the hill from the station, but it was worth it as the Sennockian had some excellent beers on tap.

My favourite of the evening was Ammonite from Dorset Brewing Company, a well-hopped, pale 4.5% bitter, in which the flavour of the American Chinook hops were well to the fore. Also on tap was Churchyard Bob, a darkish, 4.9% bitter from The Warwickshire Beer Company. Although good, I preferred the Ammonite. Rounding off the trio of guest ales was Hog's Back Winter Ale. This fine example of a dark old ale was just the thing to round the evening off with. It made the walk back to the station just that little bit less cold!

The meeting itself went ok, but was perhaps a shade too long. However, we had a considerable amount of business to get through, so this was hardly surprising. The staff of the Sennockian had laid on some nibbles for us (sausage rolls, party eggs, cheese straws, plus some very tasty cubes of mature cheddar). This was a most welcome, yet totally unexpected gesture on their part, and combined with the excellent beer made the proceedings pass just that little bit quicker.

When is an Old Ale not an Old Ale?

Question: When is an old ale not an old ale? Answer: When it's a sickly, yucky reddish- brown ale, rather than a rich, dark, full-bodied warming ale.

I had the unfortunate experience of enduring some yucky reddish- brown ale earlier today. I popped in to our local Wetherspoons, but only had time for just the one pint. Lined up on the bar I noticed Marstons Old Empire, a fine re-creation of an authentic IPA. I was sorely tempted, but next to it I spied a clip for Welton's Old Harry, abv. 5.2%. Being a fan of dark ales I went for the later - big mistake! The alarm bells were already ringing when the barmaid handed over a pint of auburn coloured liquid, devoid of even the slight semblance of a head. I handed over my money, silently cursing myself for not having asked whether this was a dark beer or not, (the young barmaid probably wouldn't have know, but she could have pulled a bit off to see first), before slinking off to a vacant table to consume said liquid.

My worst suspicions were confirmed on tasting the beer. Cloyingly sweet, totally devoid of balance and with an unpleasant, harsh bitter aftertaste. Unfortunately I've had beers like this before AND I HATE THEM! High gravity beers need plenty of good quality hops to counter the sweetness from the malt. Beers like Adnams Broadside, Batemans XXXB, Fullers ESB and even Greene King Abbot suceed in this respect. Likewise the reddish-brown hue of a beer needn't signify disaster; local brewer Larkins produce an excellent 4.4% Best Bitter, brewed from a grist that includes a high proportion of crystal malt (10%), but balanced out with just the right amount of hop bitterness to create the classic pint of Kentish bitter.

Welton's Old Harry has none of these virtues. As I sat there drinking this pint under protest, I kept thinking of the pale, hoppy, high-gravity Old Empire that I could have been enjoying. I was going to ask for brewers to stop prefixing beers with the word "Old" when they clearly aren't brewed in the style of an old ale, but the mention of Old Empire in the previous sentence defeats that argument. Perhaps it would just be better to ask that they stop producing sickly-sweet, under-hopped, reddish-brown ales, or where they do, could they please label them in such a way that I don't have the misfortune of drinking them!

More Dark Ales

After months of what seemed to be an absolute dearth of dark beers, today's foray across the border into Sussex certainly yielded some results.

Our local branch Good Beer Guide 2011 selection meeting took place earlier today at the Brecknock Arms, just over the Kent-Sussex border. This excellent Harvey's pub is easy to get to by train and. for guide selection purposes, is on neutral territory. Although our numbers were swelled later on, six of us caught the earlier train in order to partake of the Brecknock's Sunday lunch menu. Most of us opted for the roast pork, which was just the right sort of fare on a bright, but freezing cold January day. On arrival at the pub we were pleased to see three dark ales on offer, namely Harvey's Mild, XXXX Old Ale plus, much to our surprise, Fullers London Porter. The latter was totally unexpected, as I didn't think Harvey's allowed guest ales in their pubs, but whatever the brewery policy, I have to say this beer was absolutely superb. The Old Ale was also in tip-top condition, and I ended up having a couple of pints of each. I should perhaps have tried the mild as well, but a friend who did, pointed out that whilst it was in good condition, it was a bit on the thin side.

The selection meeting went remarkably smoothly, with consensus being reached on the majority of the entries. This is not to say that there wasn't the odd moment of lively, and occasionally heated debate, but on the whole the meeting passed off without controversy.

After the meeting ended, a group of us moved on back to Tunbridge Wells. We made our way to the Grove Tavern, a perennial Good Beer Guide entry, where we were pleased to see a further dark ale on sale. This time it was Hogs Back Winter Ale, a well-balanced and tasty, 4.4% dark seasonal ale.

It's probably just as well I don't live in Tunbridge Wells, otherwise I would be in the spending a lot of my spare time in the Grove! Suffice to say, the pub was pleasantly full without being overcrowded. The Hogs' Back Winter Ale was just the right beer to end up on, following an excellent afternoon of sampling the dark stuff.

Tonbridge Crawl

A couple of weeks ago we had one of the best turnouts for a mid-week CAMRA social that most of us can remember. The event was a tour of a few selected Tonbridge pubs; pubs we perhaps might not normally go to. We kicked off at the Ivy House at the top end of the High Street. This 350 year old inn re-opened earlier last year after an extensive refurbishment. It is now somewhat of a foodie’s pub, with links to Michelin Star Chef, John Burton-Race. It certainly wasn’t packed out with diners on a damp Wednesday evening, and only had Harvey's Best on sale. The barman though, must have been pleasantly surprised at the amount of beer he sold in a short space of time. Seventeen of us amounted to over two gallons of ale! I must say that the Harvey's was in good condition, although a tad expensive at £3.20 a pint!

We then moved on to the Wharf, in Lyons Crescent. This converted former wharf building has been through several changes since it first opened as a Beefeater Restaurant back in the mid-1980’s. I have fond memories of its time as a Hogshead Alehouse, when it offered a wide range of real ales direct from casks kept behind the bar. In more recent times it had stopped selling cask beer, changed its name to the Wharf and become something of a young persons haunt. Now it is good to see the Wharf back in the real-ale camp.

That night, there were two cask ales on offer; Adnams Old and London Pride. There was some doubt that the former was Old Ale, as it certainly wasn’t the dark colour this style of beer should have been. The London Pride was quite drinkable though, and just before we left the bar staff put on a third ale – Black Sheep Best. The pub didn’t seem to have changed all that much since its Hogshead days and is definitely a place worth keeping an eye on.

Our third port of call was Mojo’s, at the back of the station. Again this is a pub that has a couple of name changes. For many years it was called the South Eastern, but in more recent times it was known as the Station House and unfortunately acquired a bit of a bad reputation. Now a recent refurbishment and change of name has given the pub a new lease of life. Decorated in a modern, minimalist style, Mojo’s was selling Harvey’s Best alongside Sharp’s Doom Bar on the night of our visit.

Time was getting on so we moved on to the last pub of the evening, the Punch & Judy in St Stephen’s Street. This is yet another pub that has seen several changes of name, being formerly known as the Gardener’s Arms. The Punch hit the headlines just over a year ago, when the then landlord, Mr Colm Powell, went on hunger strike in protest at the high rent being charged by the owning pub-company. He was pictured in several national newspapers lying in a coffin, symbolising the "Death of the English Pub". Since Colm's departure there has been a succession of landlords. When we called in, Young’s Bitter and the ubiquitous Doom Bar were the ales on offer, but unfortunately the former was way past its best and had to be returned. It was replaced, without question by mine host, and several of us got stuck into the Doom Bar whilst a fresh cask of Young’s was brought into service.

So ended a most enjoyable and highly successful tour of Tonbridge, during which we were pleasantly surprised by what these four pubs had to offer.

CAMRA Good Beer Guide 2011

I’ve been somewhat tied up this past couple of days. We’ve got our branch Good Beer Guide selection meeting coming up this weekend, and I’ve been kept busy filling out a load of boring Survey Forms. The joke of it is that these forms haven’t changed much since the early days of CAMRA, and were primarily designed for old-fashioned typesetters.

We all know that the world of printing has moved on since then, but these antiquated forms are laid out in a series of blocks. Entries for each section have to be made within the relevant squares using BLOCK CAPITALS. One is not supposed to break words at the end of a line – very frustrating when you have a word that is just one letter too long to fit at the end of a line! In short, the forms are a proverbial pain in the butt!

The even bigger joke though is that these forms are not now the final format in which the data is submitted to the guide editors. Instead some poor sod (our Branch Chairman and his wife) will have to sit down at a keyboard and input all this data onto the National Online GBG Submissions System. In short local branch members are doing the bulk of the Good Beer Guide editors work for them. So what exactly is Herr Protz being paid for?

Why also have I wasted the last couple of evenings writing out pub descriptions and beer lists in BLOCK CAPITALS, a form of writing I haven’t used since primary school? Come on CAMRA get a grip, stop taking the piiss and stop taking your hard-working members for granted!