Bloggers Meet Up

On Saturday I met up with fellow Beer Blogger and all round nice-guy, Paul Garrard. I feel as though I owe a debt of gratitude to Paul, as he was the person responsible for getting me interested in bogging in the first place. Paul has hosted the excellent Real Ale Blog for a number of years, and it was in response to a request on his site for guest writers to contribute articles that led me to become involved. I had been writing articles on beer and pubs, for a number of years, with the aim of eventually getting them published. I e-mailed one of these articles to Paul, and a day or two later, was delighted to see it posted on the Real Ale Blog.

I followed this original post with a couple of other articles, one of which was freshly written on a topical subject. I hadn't at the time, intended to start my own blog, but after looking into it and discovering how easy it was to open a Google account, I took the plunge and set up a blog of my own. The rest, as they say, is history.

Although it's been less than two years since this process was initiated, I feel that I've got to know several fellow bloggers quite well - purely from reading their blogs, posting comments and receiving replies. This is, of course, a reciprocal arrangement and I've had some interesting comments and responses to some of the things I've blogged about. I discovered, quite early on, that I had quite a bit in common with Paul. For instance, he lives in Norfolk, a county I know well as my parents retired there, a decade and a half ago. I also learnt that Paul and his partner ran their own Beer Shop, in Bury St Edmunds. This is something I have particular experience of, as for nearly six years my wife and I ran our own successful Real Ale Off-Licence in Tonbridge. Paul had suggested meeting up a number of times previously, but somehow there always seemed to be a clash of events or prior engagements.

This time though was different. Paul informed me, via Facebook that him and his partner were planning a visit to Maidstone on 5th June, and would I be able to meet up for a drink? Maidstone is only 15 miles or so away from here, and is readily accessible by public transport, so after thumbing through the local pub guide, we decided upon a pub to meet up in. Both of us wanted somewhere that would do food, but not at the expense of the beer, so the Rifle Volunteers, one of only two pubs belonging to the local Goachers Brewery seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

My son Matt and I travelled to Maidstone by train, and as we arrived early we had time for a bit of shopping, before walking up to the the Rifle Volunteers. Paul was waiting for us in the bar, and after introductions we settled down to enjoy a few pints of the excellent Goachers beers on sale in the pub. I used to live in Maidstone, and know the Rifle Volunteers quite well. The pub used to belong to Shepherd Neame, but was sold to Goachers quite a few years ago. It is still run by the same landlord, and apart from the change of brewery ownership, has hardly altered at all over the last 30 years.

We spent an interesting few hours chatting to Paul, mainly about beer, CAMRA, running a beer shop and, of course, blogging. The Goachers Fine Light was especially good, and at £2.70 a pint was excellent value. We parted company shortly before the Rifle Volunteers shut for the afternoon. Paul went off to meet up with his good lady; Matt and I for a further look round the shops. It had been really good to meet up with Paul, and we hope to have a return match in Norwich in the not too distant future.

BBC Wrong Yet Again!

One of the items raised at CAMRA's recent Isle of Man AGM was the concern of members, and the Campaign as a whole, over the use of news clips showing a pint of traditional ale being pulled every time there was a news story about so-called "binge drinking". It was claimed that using "library pictures" in this fashion was not only lazy journalism, but also highly mis-leading. To illustrate a news article about a small minority of highly irresponsible people using images of a product that, in the main is consumed by more mature (in both meanings of the word) and responsible adults sends out the wrong message all together.

Those present were urged to complain to the media every time footage of hand-pumps and real ale are depicted in such a misleading fashion, so following Tuesday's 6 o'clock BBC News, when the very same images were used to illustrate the story about possible plans to introduce minimum pricing for alcohol, here is my complaint to the BBC. (Actually, I was shamed into writing it after reading Eddie Gadd's post here. For those of you not in the know, Eddie is the proprietor, and brewer of the excellent Ramsgate Brewery.)

"On Tuesday's 6 o'clock News, there was an item relating to plans to introduce minimum pricing for alcoholic drinks, in an effort to curb so-called "binge drinking". Yet again the news item featured a clip showing a pint of "real ale" being pulled from a hand-pump. To depict a product which in the main is consumed by more mature, and responsible drinkers in relation to a story relating to cut-price alcohol being sold as a "loss-leader" by supermarkets, is not only mis-leading but is also an example of lazy journalism.
The people we see fighting and falling over outside trendy bars and nightclubs on Friday and Saturday nights, are not real ale drinkers, but are mainly young people fuelled up on a cocktail of cheap spirits and alco-pops. Properly managed pubs, serving traditional ale, are NOT the cause of the problem, so why depict them in this fashion?"

Not perhaps the most erudite piece I have written, but hopefully it will help put the message across. I would urge others to follow Eddie's example. BBC Complaints Form.

Two Presentations and a Ramble

After a week of fine weather, Saturday's forecast looked certain to spoil things. The first day of the Spring Bank Holiday weekend was billed as a double event for West Kent CAMRA, in so much that we had two pubs to visit and different certificates to present to both.

The Hopbine, in the tiny hamlet of Petteridge, is a former King & Barnes pub, which is now owned by Hall & Woodhouse. As such it offers the rare opportunity of sampling this Dorset brewers excellent ales, but good though the Badger beers are in the Hopbine, the purpose of our visit on Saturday was to present landlord Mike Winser, and his wife "B" with a certificate to celebrate 25 consecutive years in the Good Beer Guide. This is a rare achievement, and there are no other pubs in the branch area that can boast such a prestigious long-running appearance. In fact I would be hard pushed to name any other pub in Kent that can claim such a thing.

The award was a few months late in being presented, as we were originally due to visit the Hopbine back in January. Some of the heaviest snow-fall in years though scuppered that plan, and with a crowded branch calender it meant that May was the earliest date we were able to re-schedule the event.

Half of those attending made the journey to Petteridge by bus, whilst the rest of us, myself included, walked. For me this was the first opportunity I'd had to try out my new hiking boots, and I must say they performed very well. Whilst not quite top of the range, I had spent a considerable sum (for me!) on them, and so would have not been best pleased had they failed to live up to expectations. My companions and I set off from Paddock Wood station to walk the three and a half miles or so the the Hopbine; it's a well-tried and well-trodden route and we were lucky that, apart from a few spots of rain, the threatened deluge didn't materialise.

The Badger First Gold on sale at the pub slipped down a treat. I don't know whether it was the thirst I had built up from the walk or not, but this beer had just the right combination of hop bite and sweet juicy malt to be the perfect post-walk pint. Landlord Mike was delighted with his certificate, and it joins several others, including Branch Pub of the Year, on his wall. Photographs were taken, hopefully for publication in the local papers, but shortly afterwards the promised rain started to come down.

I would have liked to have lingered longer in the Hopbine; it really is the perfect country pub, with a warming log fire in winter, tables and benches outside for summer, and a loyal band of regulars who, together with Mike and his wife, always provide a warm welcome for visitors. We had another pub to visit that day though; one that is a perennial branch favourite, and which this year won the Branch Pub of the Year award. On top of that the Halfway House at Brenchley was hosting its annual Whitsun Bank Holiday Beer Festival!

We got soaked walking the short, cross-country route between the two pubs, but arriving at the Halfway House we found that host Richard Allen was well prepared for the vagaries of the English climate. There were 60 beers on sale, all competitively priced at £2.80 a pint. Normally the pub has up to 10 ales on, all served by gravity direct from the cask. The bulk of the festival beers though were on sale outside, from a booth-like tented gazebo structure which provided sufficient shelter for the people serving the beers, plus those queuing up to drink them.

After selecting our beers, most of us ended up inside the pub, which was heaving. We still managed to find a table or two, as one of many delights about the Halfway House is that it is a maze of small, inter-connecting rooms on different levels, all exhibiting a degree of antiquity and cosiness that is the hall-mark of this pub. After enjoying a large beefburger, cooked outside on a covered barbecue from meat supplied by the village butcher, I started to get stuck into the beers. In the main I stayed with the pale and golden bitters, of which there were more than a few! Despite the damp weather they seemed the right thing to be drinking on this late Spring Bank Holiday weekend, and I certainly enjoyed a fair number of them. Amongst those that really stuck out were Coastal Hop Monster, Phoenix Hopsack, Hawkshead Lakeland Gold, Prospect Gold Rush and Fyne Ales Avalanche. Non golden beers I enjoyed included Lymestone Stone Faced, Wold Top Falling Stone (excellent) and Champion Winter Beer of Britain - Elland 1872 Porter.

Mid way through the afternoon the rain eased off and Iain, our branch chairman, managed to grab hold of Richard long enough to present him with his certificate outside the pub, and also to get some photographs taken. Those travelling by bus departed shortly after half four, but those of us on foot stayed until about seven o'clock.

I don't remember much about the walk back to the station , apart from crossing an abandoned golf course, that is slowly reverting back to nature, and the fact that it was quite wet underfoot. Still my new boots performed well and kept my feet bone dry, and arriving in Paddock Wood we had sufficient time to call into the local chippy for a much needed portion of chips to help soak up the excess beer!

Price Hike at Oktoberfest.

This clip from Wednesday's Telegraph is not good news for anyone thinking of attending this year's Oktoberfest! I've never been to the event myself, although I've been to Munich several times. It's one of my favourite cities and on past visits I have enjoyed sampling the wares of it's big six breweries (Augustiner, Hofbrau, Hacker-Pschorr, Lowenbrau, Paulaner and Spaten), especially in the relaxed setting of Munich's numerous beer gardens. (Incidentally the aforementioned are the only breweries allowed to participate in this two-week festival of beer-swilling and general over-indulgence.) They all brew a special Festbier for the event, and at a strength of 6% abv, perhaps the price doesn't seem quite so steep, but swilling beer of this strength by the Mass (litre), in the infectious, carnival-like atmosphere of the Wies'n may not be quite such a good idea, especially the following morning!

Having said that, I still wouldn't mind going, but as the Oktoberfest is an event that is definitely best enjoyed in the company of friends, I would need to persuade some like-minded companions to accompany me, and plenty of readies to spend on the beer! I'm not going to regurgitate all the statistics about how sausages, roasted chickens, pork knuckles and of course litres of beer that are consumed at the event, or how many million visitors attend, but for the sheer scale of the festival, it would be something to see.

I've already sorted out my holiday arrangements for this year, but if any hardy souls fancy going along in 2011, please get in touch.

Brecknock Arms

We had a good night in the Brecknock on Saturday, but then it's hard not to have a good night in such an excellent pub. We caught the 18:58 train from Tonbridge, alighting at Frant station, and then walked the short distnce up to the pub. On the way we called in to the newly opened village shop; it's always good to see a shop opening in a village (or indeed anywhere), as it's normally the other way round. Suitably laden with purchases to nibble on the way home (Kettle Chips and the like), we wandered up to the pub ready for some serious enjoyment of Harveys.

The pub was busy; the village cricket team had just finished their game and the place was full of thirsty cricketers keen to quench their thirst on some of Lewes's finest. Most of the team though were outside, taking advantage of the unusually hot May weather, so we had no trouble in finding a table. The latter was important, because we wanted somewhere to spread our maps and guide-books out; the main objective of the evening being to sort out the route, and stages for our latest long-distance walk. After succesfully completing the South Downs Way last year, my friend Eric and I are planning to walk the Wealdway. This is a slightly shorter footpath that runs from Gravesend, on the Thames Estuary, to Eastbourne on the south coast.

By the end of the evening we had sorted out the itinerary and accommodation stops for the first four days of the walk. This will take us through Kent and well into Sussex following a southwards course, initially across the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge before crossing the main part of Ashdown Forest, in the centre of the Weald. In between studying maps and guide-book, we kept ourselves well lubricated with some of the excellent Harveys Best, which landlord Joe always keeps in absolute tip-top condition.

For those not in the know, the Brecknock Arms is a Harveys tied pub in the middle of Bells Yew Green, a small village a few miles south east of Tunbridge Wells. It is easily reached by train from the latter, and also from Tonbridge, where I live. Confusingly, the nearby station is called Frant, even though Frant village is about a mile and a half away. The pub underwent a bit of a refit just over a year ago, which resulted in moving the bar back, and providing a connection between the two former separate bars. The Brecknock is a real community local, and being on the national rail network also attracts its fair share of visitors from further afield, of which I am happy to include myself.

Joe and his partner Charlotte, have been at the pub for a couple of years now, having taken over from the previous, long-serving tenants. They serve good quality food, from a varied menu, and also usually feature one of Harveys seasonal ales. On Saturday, Knots of May Light Mild was on sale alongside the Best Bitter, but this 3.0% beer is a bit on the weak side for my taste and even though we sank quite a few pints that night, the Best Bitter was just perfect.

Much earlier in the year we held our Good Beer Guide Selection Meeting at the pub, and seeing as the meeting took place on a Sunday lunchtime, many of us went for the option of Sunday lunch first. It was a freezing cold January day, and the Harveys Old Ale we enjoyed that day, alongside the Fullers London Porter, which was on as a guest ale, were just the ticket. All of this proves that whatever the season, the Brecknock is definitely a pub that is well worth seeking out.

Blogger Update

I haven't really done a lot beer-wise since my visit to Whitstable last weekend. (You can read all about the trip by clicking here). I went on the waggon last week, for five days, primarily as an attempt to shake off the persistent cold and hacking cough that's been dogging me ever since my return from the Isle of Man, and which left me feeling very lethargic. Hopefully the cold is now on its way out, but it's doubtful that my abstinence from drink played much of a part in this, and on Friday evening I broke my self-imposed drink ban and joined a work colleague and his wife for a few beers.

My colleague lives in Sevenoaks, and his nearest pub is the Rifleman, a thriving back-street, corner local. I don't recall having visited the Rifleman before, and on entering I was pleased to note that the pub still has two separate bars. I was rather less pleased to see that the pub is tied to Greene King, and after an evening spent supping the company's beers, my dislike of them was only enhanced. After five day's abstinence I would much have preferred something else, but nights at the pub are often about more than just the beer and Matt and I spent an enjoyable evening chatting to Andrew and his wife Emma, plus their Belgian friend John, who was visiting for the weekend.

Yesterday evening I enjoyed a couple of bottles of Brakspears; Bitter plus Oxford Gold, and it will be some Czech Lager tonight, courtesy of our local Co-Op. I've been looking at summerhouses over the past week or so, and having finally decided on the one I want I'm now in a position to go ahead and place my order. The summerhouse will house my home-brewery - the kit's sadly been bereft of a home since our garage was pulled down six years ago and re-built as living accommodation. Looking forward to starting up brewing again, probably in the autumn - if all goes according to plan.

Back to work tomorrow. Not anticipating much action on the beer front until the weekend after next, when the Halfway House, Brenchley holds its Spring Beer Festival, although we may try a trip to the Brecknock Arms next Saturday.

Moodleys Update

Following my recent posting about Moodleys Brewery, owner and brewer, Yudhistra has picked up on my blog and has kindly provided me with some updates regarding the brewery. These primarily came about as a response to the feedback he received at last month's tasting evening at the Anchor in Sevenoaks.

Yudhistra writes: "I took on board your comments on the night and I have made two changes to my process which should help the beer to drop bright fairly quickly.

Firstly, I now use vegetarian finings and secondly, I have improved the process by chilling the wort immediately after the boil. As a result, there is an immediate difference in the clarity of the beer in the fermenter, which was quite exciting to see. So far, there have been two brews which have employed the new methods and I am yet to bottle these. Hopefully, you will get to taste the results.

Toad Rock Bitter will have Admiral hops in the boil from next week. These as you know have a much higher Alpha acid content than Bramling Cross. Thanks once again for the comments and would you be able to mention the above changes in your blog please?"

No problem Yudhistra, glad to be of assistance, and I look forward to sampling the beers in their new form.

ps. I believe that Timothy Taylors use vegetarian finings, so Moodleys should be in good company!

Royal Tunbridge Wells Brewery

Breweries in West Kent are like buses; you wait ages for one to appear and then three come along all at once!

After attending a sampling of Moodleys new beers the other week, last night I was one of a number of people invited to a tasting of beers brewed by the new Royal Tunbridge Wells Brewery. The tasting was held at the Sussex Arms, in the Pantiles area of Tunbridge Wells. Those of us of a certain age remember with fond memories the old Sussex Arms, when it was run by Dennis and Barbara Lane. The pub was something of an institution in the town, and could rightly be described as a pub of character that was full of characters!

All that changed 20 years or do ago, when much of the Pantiles was "gentrified" (re-developed for the worse). Dennis and Barbara retired. The Sussex was gutted and given a complete re-fit, and after being taken over by Greene King, became something of a young persons pub. I must say that the stark re-fit it received has mellowed over the years, and I was surprised to find myself quite liking the place..............but I digress!

To return to the RTWB and its beers. Roughly 30 years ago, there was a company operating just outside the town, under the Royal Tunbridge Wells name. I remember visiting the brewery and buying a polypin of their Best Bitter one Christmas, but after several changes of ownership the company ceased trading. The brewing plant was bought by Bob Dockerty, when he set up Larkins Brewery, and ironically I saw it in action earlier today, when I called round for a chat with Bob, in my capacity as Larkins BLO.

The new RTWB is the brainchild of drinks consultant, Simon Lewis. He also has on board with him Ian Dorman, who was one of the partners in the original brewery, and Ian was present last night, along with some artifacts from the original brewery. When I arrived at the Sussex there were three casks stillaged on the bar, with their taps facing the customers' side. Simon told us to take a glass, together with a poling card. plus tasting notes, and help ourselves. The poling card was appropriate, given that we were just one day away from the general election, and to help us make our choice, the casks were marked Yellow, Red and Blue.

The Yellow cask contained a 3.6% Blonde beer, which many of us thought needed a bit more refinement, but no such allegations could be laid against the Red and Blue offerings. The former was a 3.8% Ordinary Bitter, whilst the latter was a 4.1% Best Bitter, said to be based on the beer of the same name brewed by the original RTWB. Both beers were well-hopped, and well-balanced, but unfortunately having written my comments on the tasting notes and then popped them into the ballot box, I neglected to pick up an additional copy for my personal information. I therefore am unable to give as much information about the beers as I would have liked, apart from saying that the Red and the Blue will both go down well in local pubs. I am certain too that, given time and a bit more development, the Yellow will also be a welcome summer seasonal beer.

The general election "theme", combined with the comments we made on our tasting notes, will provide Simon and Ian with valuable feedback on the beers, and we were also shown examples of potential artwork for pump clips and other brewery advertising material. The whole event therefore, was a clever and well-thought out means of gauging public opinion from both local landlords and drinkers alike. From the pictures I've seen of the brewing kit on the company's Facebook page, this looks like a well set up, and well thought out operation, and like many fellow drinkers in the area I look forward to sampling the brewery's wares, in local pubs, within the not too distant future.

CAMRA Magazines

Whilst at the recent CAMRA AGM in the Isle of Man I picked up a handful of magazines produced by various local CAMRA branches. I always make a point of picking up these publications whenever I get the chance (GBBF is normally a good place for this), as not only are they a good read, but more importantly they show what is happening on the beer and pub scene in different parts of the country.

This latest haul included such titles as Mersey Ale, Potters Bar, ShakesBeer, Beer on Tap, Pints West, Derby Drinker and of course that perennial favourite London Drinker. It's good to see what pubs are like in these different areas, what local drinkers and CAMRA members are up to and what is happening at local breweries in these places.

The overall impression that comes across from these magazines, is despite the tough trading times that many pubs find themselves in, those that are genuinely offering what their customers want are thriving. Local craft brewers are also reporting an increase in sales, and there are numerous reports of micro-breweries installing extra fermenters, or even new plant to cope with this extra demand.

The other good thing about these magazines is that they are self-funding, which is good news in itself but, more importantly, shows that breweries, pubs and clubs hold them in high esteem - otherwise they wouldn't be prepared to advertise in them. Many are full-colour publications and are produced to a very high standard. Things have obviously come a long way from the days when I was involved in producing a branch newsletter. Back then all we had at our disposal was an electric typewriter, plus Letraset for the headings. Artwork was literally "cut and paste", with scissors and Cow Gum being the order of the day.

Nowadays, with most people having access to a computer and the very professional desk-top publishing programmes that are on offer, life is a lot easier, although editors and copy-writers still have to work hard to come up with interesting and informative articles. I therefore raise my glass to all these hard-working activists up and down the land. Long may their efforts continue to publicise the often unseen work that CAMRA does at grass roots level.

Moodleys Brewery

The local brewing scene in West Kent has been transformed in recent months with the formation of three new craft-breweries. The two most recent, Tonbridge and Royal Tunbridge Wells have still to bring their products to market, although the former is due to launch this coming weekend. But the third - Moodleys, has been in production for a couple of months now, and last week local CAMRA members were party to a talk by the company's founder, plus a tasting of the brewery's beers. The venue for this event was the Anchor in Sevenoaks where the irrepressible landlord Barry Dennis had also laid on a free buffet for us.

Moodleys Brewery is owned and run by Yudhistra Moodley from farm premises, close to his home village of Rusthall, just outside Tunbridge Wells. Yudhistra has concentrated on bottled beers to start with, and the three he currently produces are all bottle-conditioned. We began our sampling with a tasting of Toad Rock Bitter which I found rather unbalanced and was my least favourite of the trio. This may be down to Yudhistra's unusual choice of hops for bittering this beer. Bramling Cross is a hop variety that is not commonly used in brewing these days, and I can fully understand why.

After the bitter, we moved on to Poundage Porter, which was a big improvement and had a really appealing aroma. Unfortunately, at only 4% abv, it didn't quite have the fullness in taste of a true porter and was lacking somewhat in body. The final beer though really hit the spot. The 4.2% Original Mild was dark, sweet and luscious, just as a strong dark mild should be. I would encourage Yudhistra to develop this beer further, as it has the potential to be a real winner.

As we tasted the various beers Yudhistra explained the philosophy behind the brewery. He is committed to using only natural ingredients and traditional brewing processes, and whilst this is to be applauded many of us felt that he has taken this a bit too far by refusing to use finings to clarify his beers. I can understand his wanting to appeal to the vegetarian/vegan market, but the latter particularly is a tiny one and vegetable derived alternatives to isinglass are readily available. The absence of finings meant that all the beers sampled that night suffered from varying amounts of yeast haze which had a detrimental effect on their taste. It is fair to say that whilst naturally cloudy beers, such as wheat beers are more widely available they are still very much a niche market. Several of us made this point to Yudhistra and stated that if he wishes to start offering his beers in cask form, it is essential that he adds finings to his beers. If he doesn't he is likely to find few landlords willing to take a beer that will take weeks to clear naturally. Rightly or wrongly, most people drink with their eyes and will send back a hazy pint, even if it tastes perfectly ok. I feel it is vital that he grasps this fact, particularly if he wants to appeal to a wider, and more mainstream audience.

That said, it was a good evening and although I feel there is still room for improvement, Yudhistra has taken his first tentative steps toward becoming a full-time brewer. He is planning to install a much larger plant (he is currently using a 10 gallon home-brew kit), and this upgrade should lead to a far more consistent product. I wish him well; not many of us are prepared to follow our passion for beer by actually branching out into brewing it full-time. I just hope he takes our comments about the finings on board!

ps. Watch this space for news about the other two breweries about to start production. It's certainly all happening here in West Kent!

Isle of Man - CAMRA Members Weekend

I got back early on Monday evening after spending a brilliant four days on the Isle of Man. This was my first visit to the island, and I was very impressed by what I saw and experienced. The almost wall to wall sunshine certainly helped, but from the moment I stepped off the ferry in Douglas, shortly after 10pm last Wednesday evening, and walked along the brightly-lit promenade to the guest house, I knew I was going to like the place.

I spent the first two days in the company of my West Kent CAMRA colleagues, Iain and Carole, together with Kent Regional Director Kae Mendham. We travelled to Laxey, courtesy of the wonderfully eccentric Manx Electric Railway, where we spent some time admiring the impressive Laxey Wheel. We then journeyed onto Ramsey, for lunch, before returning via Old Laxey, and the atmospheric Shore Hotel - home of the island's only brew-pub, and its malty Bosun's Bitter.

The following day we joined with colleagues from Maidstone and Mid-Kent for a tour right round the island, traveling by steam train as far as Port Erin, and then on to Peel, via Castletown, by bus. The multi-roomed White House Hotel was an excellent find, although I'm told that Peel's other GBG entry, the Creek Inn is also very good. The bus journey continued with a halt at the Raven at Ballough Bridge, before continuing onto Ramsey. After a pint or two in the Trafalgar we caught the tram (Manx Electric Railway) back to Laxey for some excellent Bushy's in the Queen's Hotel before catching a bus back to Douglas.

Saturday and most of Sunday were spent at the CAMRA AGM, held in the impressive, and recently restored Villa Marina complex in Douglas. Although the last such event I attended was the 1984 AGM in Edinburgh, I found the debates and speeches far more interesting than I'd expected to. I was particularly impressed with the presentation given by the Campaign's Chief Executive, Mike Benner.

We spent both Saturday and Sunday lunchtimes at the Beer Exhibition. where there was a good selection of beers to enjoy, as well as friends and colleagues to meet up with. The highlight of the weekend though was our Gateway to Kent Guide winning the award for best local CAMRA guide for 2009! This achievement was a fitting reward for all the hard work that went in to producing the guide, copies of which can still be obtained via the West Kent CAMRA website.

So all in all then a really good break, with the added bonus of good company, nice surroundings, busy and unspoilt pubs and beer at up to £1 a pint cheaper than it is here in Kent!

CAMRA Members Weekend & AGM 2010

I'm off to the Isle of Man in the morning, so won't be posting for a while. It's the first CAMRA AGM I've been to in over 25 years, and I'm really looking forward to it.

It's also my first trip to the Isle of Man; which again should be good. I'm planning to meet up with some old friends from Maidstone & Mid-Kent CAMRA, and hopefully Tandleman as well. There's five of us attending from West Kent CAMRA, so all in all it should be an excellent long weekend.

Cheshire Chocolate Porter

I've just drunk what has to be one of the strangest beers I've had for a long time. Cheshire Chocolate Porter, brewed by Robinsons for Marks & Spencer, has been sitting downstairs in the kitchen cupboard for a month or two now, so I thought I'd better give it a go.

I had my suspicions when I held the bottle up to the light, and found that the contents did not appear dark at all. (The bottle is a standard brown glass job, but I could see straight through the beer inside). Pouring the beer revealed a bog-standard, brown-coloured beer, which did not even remotely resemble what a porter is supposed to look like. Still, one shouldn't drink with one's eyes so on tasting the beer I have to say that it was not at all unpleasant, and reminded me, more or less straight away, of Youngs Double Chocolate Stout.

I noted from the ingredients listing on the bottle, that Natural Chocolate Flavouring is used in the recipe, which the label claims is an original, dating back to 1899. However, the label also states that the beer was created with the collaboration of renowned chocolatier, Simon Dunn - whoever he might be? (Just had a look at his web-site, and I have to say his chocolates do look absolutely divine!). The label also states that this beer is 6% abv; it doesn't drink its strength, but all in all I am well impressed. I might not rush out tomorrow and immediately buy another bottle, but next time I am in M&S I will definitely pick one up!

The morale of the story then is don't drink with your eyes (something an old drinking buddy told me a long time ago). The other important thing to remember is, never judge a book by its cover or, in this case, a beer by its appearance!

Ticking All The Right Boxes?

I know it's sad, but over the Easter weekend I finally found time to update my Good Beer Guide 2010. By update I mean I went through the breweries section at the rear, and marked off all the beers I've sampled with a high-lighter pen. I didn't do this from memory, instead I laboriously copied the entries over from the 2009 edition. I go through this ritual every year, but not normally quite as late as this. I don't really like doing it which is why I had been putting it off, but having done so for the past 35 years it would be a shame to stop now!

Before we go any further, I must state that I am NOT a ticker, well certainly not in the established sense of the word. By this I mean that I do not go all out to tick off as many beers as I can find. Instead I just continue to record those beers I have sampled over the course of nearly 40 years drinking. Obviously more beers get added to the list each year; but beers are also dropped from the list when breweries close, or certain brews are discontinued. If I was a serious ticker I would maintain a list that is separate to the current GBG, but I can't be arsed to do this. Neither can I be bothered to count up how many cask beers I have sampled. I doubt that the figure would even approach 500*, yet I know several serious and dedicated tickers that have knocked off 5,000 beers, and one who claims to have sampled over 10,000!

Why am I telling you this? Do I wish to leave myself open to ridicule? and are my attempts to deny a penchant for ticking to be believed? The answer to these questions is a point that several CAMRA members have asked in the past, namely is it now time for the Campaign to publish a guide to the Breweries of Britain that is completely separate from the Good Beer Guide?

I think there is a compelling case for this to happen. The current GBG contains nearly 900 pages, of which almost 200 are given over to the Breweries Section. In order for the guide to remain at a reasonable thickness (and weight), the paper used is so thin and light-weight as to be almost transparent. CAMRA claims, with justification, that when choosing pubs for the Guide "It's the beer quality that counts." That is obviously true, and it is why the Campaign insists it is essential to include the Breweries Section at the back of the Guide. However, a glance through many of the pub entries will not always tell you much about the beers on sale at these outlets. "Guest Beers", is a common entry, leaving the reader none the wiser as to what might be on offer. (See sample entry above.) Even when one refers to the section at the rear, more often than not one is instructed to check the brewery's website for details of seasonal, or special beers.

Splitting the Breweries Section off into a separate publication would allow more space to be devoted to breweries, and would allow a much more detailed listing of each company's products than at present. Both the Good Beer Guide and the Guide to the Breweries of Britain could then be printed on thicker, higher quality paper, giving a much more appealing product than the current "telephone directory" style publication. I don't even think that separating the pub and brewery sections in this manner would dilute sales, as there are two completely different markets here.

The Good Beer Guide appeals, in the main, to people who travel around the country, for business or pleasure, and often a combination of both, whereas the Breweries Guide would have a particular appeal to CAMRA members, independent of whether they are dedicated tickers or not! Purchase of the Guide in its current format, by the general public, as opposed to CAMRA members, already makes up the bulk of the sales, and I am fairly confident most of these people buy the Guide for its pub listings, rather than the Breweries Section at the rear.

There is in my view a golden opportunity for CAMRA to break with tradition, do something a bit different and come up with two separate guides that will appeal to related, but still different audiences, and which by heading off down a new path will enhance, rather than detract from a format that has grown increasingly tired and repetitive over the years. I wonder whether the Campaign will be bold enough to grasp the nettle?

* 586 to be precise!

The Good Friday Ramble

The turnout on this year's Good Friday Ramble was down on previous years; probably due in no small part to the weather. However, those of us brave enough to attend enjoyed a stroll that was largely rain-free, through some very pleasant Kent countryside, although it has to be said it was very wet underfoot. My boots leaked like a sieve, so I'll be surprised if I don't end up with trench foot after walking in what felt like two sponges!

Despite the forecast we were extremely lucky with the weather. The rain started just as we reached our lunchtime stop - the Bell & Jorrocks at Frittenden, and although peering out from the pub window showed that it was absolutely tipping down, by the time we left the pub the rain had virtually given over. Of course, the going was even wetter underfoot on the way back, but that wasn't going to spoil what had been an excellent day out.

The Good Friday Ramble is organised by Maidstone & Mid-Kent CAMRA. Now in its 34th year, this annual event has become something of a tradition. Keen rambler, Dick Wilkinson has organised and led all but one of these walks, and whilst they are perhaps now slightly shorter and gentler than they were in the past, they are still very enjoyable. It is especially good to catch up with old friends, some of who we only see once a year.

When we meet up, we remark that we're all getting a little older, and that our children are now grown up, and some even have children of their own, but this doesn't deter us from enjoying the walks which have been held all over the county. We invariably start from a convenient station, and then walk three or four miles to an accommodating country pub, where we stop for a pub-lunch plus a few pints! After the lunchtime halt, we return to the meeting point, via a different, but similar length, route

This year's stop was the aforementioned Bell & Jorrocks Inn, situated in the small village of Frittenden. This unusual name dates back to the closure in the late 1960's of Frittenden's other pub, the John Jorrocks Inn. It's name was incorporated in that of the Bell. I had not been to the pub before, as this is not a part of Kent that I normally have cause to visit. I have to say that I was very impressed with what we found; a thriving village pub with a good choice of beers that included Black Sheep, Harveys and Loddon. The home-cooked food was also very good, and the steak and ale pud, accompanied by mash and vegetables was just the thing to both soak up the beer and also warm me up.

As I said earlier, the walk back to Headcorn station was largely in the dry, apart from the conditions underfoot. When we arrived back at Headcorn, a number of stalwarts disappeared into the George & Dragon. I wanted to get home though, if only to change out of my wet boots and enjoy a welcoming soak in the bath. Hopefully, things will be a little drier underfoot next year, but by then I should also have treated myself to a new (and waterproof) pair of boots!

On the Waggon!

I did something last week that I haven't done in years; in fact I can't remember the last time I went for six days on the trot without a drop of beer passing my lips!

The previous Saturday I had been on a pub crawl of Maidstone organised by my local CAMRA branch. You can read all about it by clicking on the link here, but suffice to say it was a good day out, and we visited some cracking pubs. In the general scheme of things I didn't have that much to drink; certainly no more than I was drinking on a daily basis on my visit to Prague at the end of last year. I also expect to be drinking a similar amount on my forthcoming visit to the Isle of Man, but although I had a self-imposed break from the sauce on the Sunday I still felt peculiarly jaded the following day. Come the evening and I just didn't fancy my usual glass of beer. I continued with this self-imposed abstinence for the next couple of days, and then decided to go the rest of the week without a beer. I must confess that I didn't feel any different (healthier or otherwise) for this lack of drink, but I knew that come the weekend I would certainly appreciate my beer all the more.

And so it proved. My son and I, together with a couple of friends, made the trek down to the unspoilt and CAMRA National Inventory-listed Red Lion at Snargate. I certainly enjoyed the beers on sale there, together with the beers we sampled later that day in the First In Last Out (FILO) brew-pub in Hastings Old Town.

I remember coming back from Munich last year with my palate feeling similarly jaded, so perhaps it does do one good from time to time to have a short break from the beer we all know and love.

A Collection of Old Bottles

I am well aware that many fellow beer bloggers are a lot more adept at tracking down and describing interesting and, sometimes esoteric, beers than I am. With this in mind I have written this post primarily for the benefit of my more local readers.

I've been cracking open a few bottles recently; bottles I've collected over recent weeks. Last night I enjoyed a bottle of Lees Moonraker, a fine, rich, dark strong ale, and a former winner of CAMRA's Champion Winter Beer of Britain. At 7.5% abv, the beer doesn't take to many prisoners, but it was a good one to finish up on. The 5% Winter Beer brewed for Marks & Spencers by Adnams, could perhaps have done with being a shade darker, but was still an enjoyable example of this style of beer.

Putting winter behind us, and moving on to spring, allows one the chance to enjoy the Co-Op's Organic Ale, a well-hopped, 5% abv golden ale brewed for the Co-Op by Freeminer Brewery, who are based in the Forest of Dean. As the beer contains a portion of Free-Trade sugar, it is currently on promotion in the company's stores, and at just £1.00 a bottle, is an absolute bargain.

I also recently enjoyed a couple of very diverse bottles from Greenwich's Meantime Brewery. The first, a 4.7% Pilsner has also been on promotion recently; this time in Sainsbury's, and at £1.00 a bottle I wish I'd bought a few more. The other Meantime beer was the London Porter, specially brewed for Marks & Spencer. Again this was a particularly fine beer and, according to the brewery " No fewer than seven malts go into our Porter, helping us recreate a recipe of 1750, specially chosen to bring you the flavours so loved by Londoners that demand for Porter made London the brewing capital of the world." The beer is also available in large 750ml? bottles from Sainsbury's.

Brew Dog's Punk IPA is a further beer that has recently been on promotion in Sainsbury's. This is extreme beer; 6% abv and aggressively hopped interpretation of an IPA. As the brewery states on the bottle: "Brew Dog is about breaking rules, taking risks, upsettimg trends and unsettling institutions (wonder who they could be talking about here?), but first and foremost great tasting beer." I'll certainly drink to that, and at £1.00 a bottle, who says supermarkets only discount cheap tasteless lout?

Bernard Cerne Pivo is a Dark Lager from the Czech Republic and, to my mind, is one of the finest examples of this style of beer available anywhere. On my recent trip to Prague, I enjoyed quite a few glasses of this excellent beer, so it was good to be able to pick p a couple of bottles at a branch of Tesco's on a recent visit to Norfolk. Packaged in a distinctive swing-topped bottle, this 5.1% abv dark lager is micro-filtered, rather than pasteurised, resulting in a fresh tasting, intensely malty beer. Just sitting here, enjoying a bottle, has transported me back to Kyvadlo in Prague, where I first encountered this beer.

I've still got a couple of bottles of Rochefort Trappist beer to enjoy (8 Degree and 10 Degree), that have been kicking around since the autumn. Those plus the bottle of Lowenbrau Triumphator, brought back by my son's friend from a recent visit to Munich should make for an interesting sampling session; but preferably not all on the same night!

You can't beat an old friend!

Harvey's Sussex Best has always been one of my favourite beers. I can't remember where and when I first sampled it, but it was a long time ago. To me it has that perfect balance between sweet juicy malt, and an earthy, peppery hop bitterness. At 4.0% abv, it's just the right strength for a good session's drinking, being full-bodied but not too strong in alcohol to make one fall over after four or five pints.

I'm lucky living in an area of Kent that borders onto Sussex. Harvey's won't supply pubs that are much outside a fifty mile radius of their home town of Lewes, preferring to keep things on a local scale as much as possible. Although there aren't any Harvey's tied houses in Tonbridge, the majority of the town's pubs sell the company's Best Bitter. They have to, as such is the beer's popularity amongst local drinkers, that trade would suffer in a pub that was foolish enough not to sell it.

Harvey's wasn't always the drink of choice of local drinkers; not because there used to be something wrong with it, but simply because it just wasn't available to landlords tied to the old pub empires of Charrington, Courage and Whitbread. Now that these companies no longer dominate the local trade, Harvey's have moved in, selling their beer through the likes of Enterprise and Punch. The situation has almost now reached a stage where familiarity breeds contempt so that when I enter a local pub and see the Harvey's pump, I am often tempted to try something else, purely by way of a change.

Last week I attended a CAMRA social held at a Harvey's tied pub; the Two Brewers in Hadlow. After nearly freezing to death at a cold and draughty bus stop, waiting for a bus that was at least 15 minutes late, my companions and I were glad of the welcoming warmth that greeted us when we finally stepped inside the pub. There were three ales on offer that night: Dark Mild, Hadlow Bitter and Sussex Best. Now I've never been a huge fan of mild, and although the Harvey's version is not bad when on form, I gave this beer a miss - almost without thinking. (I was glad I did, as those of our group that did try it, found it to be past it's best).

The second beer - Hadlow Bitter, is just the former PA re-badged; something that was ironically enough carried out when Harvey's first acquired the former Fiddling Monkey in Hadlow, and renamed it the Two Brewers, in honour of the substantial brewery (Kenward & Court - taken over and closed by Charringtons during the late 1940's), that once stood in this pleasant Kent village. According to Harvey's, PA was first introduced during the Second World War when, owing to brewing ingredients being rationed, it was necessary to brew a lower strength beer. At 3.5% abv, it is a good lunchtime pint, but on a freezing cold early March night I wanted something with a bit more oomph in it!

Harvey's Sussex Best therefore fitted the bill perfectly. Furthermore the beer was in absolute tip-top condition. It was so good that I stuck to it for the rest of the evening, even remaining on it when we got back to Tonbridge and popped into Mojo's (close to the station for those who had trains to catch), for a couple of final pints. As the title of this post says "you can't beat an old friend", and sometimes it is good to return to an old favourite. This was certainly the case the other night, and proved to me just what I had been missing.

Bottle-Conditioned Beers

In my previous post I mentioned some of the bottled beers currently available in Marks & Spencers. The four I picked up included an IPA, two porters and a Winter Beer, all brewed by some of the country's best-known brewers. I haven't had a chance to sample any of them yet, but when I was in M&S I noticed that they also offer a small range of bottle-conditioned beers. However, I was not tempted by these slightly higher-priced ales as, unlike CAMRA, I see little benefit, and lots of potential pitfalls, with bottle-conditioning.

BCA's, as they are known in the trade, fall into two categories. The first involves bottles that are filled straight from the cask at the brewery, before the yeast has had a chance to settle out of suspension. This is a very hit and miss affair, as unless the brewery has the right equipment to count yeast cells, it is impossible to gauge the amount of yeast in the beer, resulting either in bottles that are too lively, and which fob everywhere as soon as the cap is cracked off, or a beer that is as flat as the proverbial "witches tit"! The other danger with this process is that it is often carried out in a less than ideal environment. I have seen bottles being filled in conditions that are far from perfect, and this is often reflected in the taste of the finished product. I am not saying that bottling needs to be done in a completely sterile, clean-room environment, but the cleaner the conditions then the lower the risk of off-flavours or even infected beer.

The second method involves removing all of the yeast used for primary fermentation, usually by centrifuging the beer, and then re-seeding it with a different strain of yeast that is both bottom-fermenting and which will also cling to the bottom of the bottle. This is the approach favoured by the bigger players in the game, notably Fullers, Coors (with White Shield), and a number of others. Whilst this results in a far more consistent product, to my mind it is "window dressing" that borders on cheating. Sure you get a beer that doesn't foam all over the place, and nor do you get a glass of cloudy beer, but I do wonder just how much secondary fermentation actually takes place in the bottle given the minuscule amount of yeast present?

Back in the early days of CAMRA there were just five bottle-conditioned beers available in the entire country. I remember that three of them were Guinness Extra Stout, Worthington White Shield and Gales Prize Old Ale; the latter coming in antique Victorian bottles that were sealed with a cork. CAMRA rightly championed these survivors from a bygone age, but eschewed all other bottled beers. This patronage of BCA's has developed into something of an obsession within the campaign, and because CAMRA claims that these beers are "real ale in a bottle", it has boxed itself into a corner over this issue. Nowadays there are dozens of excellent bottled beers available which, whilst not meeting official CAMRA approval, knock the spots off many BCA's.

Logic would dictate that a BCA should be fresher than its filtered and pasteurised, brewery-conditioned counterpart, but for the reasons outlined above this is not always the case. Furthermore, advances in technology have improved brewery-conditioned beers out of all recognition. These advances include flash pasteurisation, in which the beer is heated to a higher temperature than traditional tunnel pasteurisation (filled bottles of beer are passed through a chamber, or tunnel, where hot water is sprayed on them for a period of up to 20 minutes), but is only held at this temperature for a very short period, before being rapidly cooled. This prevents much of the "cooked taste", normally associated with traditional pasteurisation techniques, from developing and spoiling the finished beer.

Even more exciting is the technique of sterile filtration, whereby the beer is passed through a filter that is small enough to remove spoilage organisms, as well as any residual yeast cells. This process has now been sufficiently refined to deal with unpasteurised beer, conferring a stability on it that just would not be possible otherwise. The result is a product with all the freshness and taste of unpasteurised beer, but with a shelf-life equal to that of the pasteurised version.

No discussion of BCA's is complete without mentioning Belgian beers. In Belgium bottle-conditioning appears to be the norm; certainly BCA's are far more prevalent there than here in the UK. I don't know whether it is the higher strength of most Belgian BCA's, or just the fact that the Belgians have had years of practice in which to perfect the art, but I can safely say I have rarely, if ever, come across a bad one. Unlike many of their UK counterparts, they rarely fob and whilst one does occasionally end up with a cloudy beer I don't ever recall having one that tasted off. Perhaps we just need a few more years of practice in this country, but until that time arrives, and particularly with today's modern bottling techniques, there is no need for CAMRA to be turning its back on a beer just because it hasn't been conditioned in the bottle.

This isn't just Beer, this is M&S Beer.

Tonbridge is a pleasant enough market town. It's got a bit of history attached to it, and even has its own 12th Century castle, with a largely intact gatehouse, even though the Parliamentarians did manage to demolish the rest of it! So far as shops go though Tonbridge is a bit of a "one horse town", with few really "big name" retail outlets.

That doesn't bother me, as like most blokes I don't care for what the fairer sex (and certainly the lady of this house), refers to as "retail therapy". Occasionally though I do need to venture further afield in order to purchase things that are unavailable in this town, so this afternoon I headed over to nearby Tunbridge Wells, my mission being to acquire a new pair of walking boots. Unfortunately, despite visiting four "outdoor-leisure pursuit" shops I was unable to find boots that fitted the criteria I was looking for, or if they did, were either not available in my size or, at a price I could afford.

The trip was not entirely wasted though, as I popped into Marks & Spencer and, after perusing their food hall, was pleasantly surprised to see the beers they had on offer. What's more, many were available on a "four for the price of three" basis. Consequently I purchased a Chocolate Porter from Robinsons, a London Porter from Meantime Brewery, a Southwold Winter Beer from Adnams, plus a Staffordshire IPA produced by Marstons. All the beers are brewed exclusively for M&S, and I look forward to trying them in due course.

Earlier in the day I also picked up several bottles of Co-Op Organic Ale; a 5.0% beer, brewed using a percentage of Fairtrade sugar by Freeminer Brewery. Many retailers are promoting Fairtrade products this week, and the Co-Op were selling this beer at just £1.00 a bottle. I'm planning to crack one open tonight, and given Freeminer's excellent brewing credentials, I'm optimistic that it will be a good beer.