Going for a Burton

I’m off tomorrow (Friday), to enjoy a Proper Day Out with the Real Pub Men of the Beer & Pubs Forum. The Staffordshire town of Burton-on-Trent is our destination for the day, and our visit will afford the opportunity to sample a number of traditional (“proper”) pubs.

Burton is known the world over for its pale ales; a style that was originally developed in the town.  At its height, during the second half of the 19^th Century, one quarter of all beer sold in Britain was produced in the town and today, despite takeovers and mergers, Burton is still a major centre of brewing within the UK. 

The most famous of the numerous breweries that developed in the town, is that of Bass & Co, founded by William Bass in 1777. The company’s main brand, Bass Pale Ale, was once the highest-selling beer in Britain, and by 1877, exactly 100 years after its foundation, Bass had become the largest brewery in the world, with an annual output of one million barrels. Bass Pale Ale was exported throughout the British Empire, and the company's distinctive red triangle became the UK's first registered trade mark.

During the 20^th Century, a convoluted series of mergers and takeovers saw Bass emerge as the UK’s largest brewing company, only to eventually sell off its brewing arm to Interbrew of Belgium, and move into the hotel business. This followed the purchase of the Holiday Inn hotel chain.

Today, Draught Bass, which is the traditional cask-conditioned version of Bass Pale Ale, is brewed by at the Marston's Brewery in Burton. It is described as "a classic ale with a malty, fruity, nutty aroma and a complex, satisfying flavour," and it is this beer that our group will be particularly keen on sampling this Friday.

My first job in quality control, following graduation, was with the wine and spirits division of Bass, and during my time there I was fortunate to visit the company headquarters, in Burton, and enjoy a tour round the brewery, followed a sampling of its most famous product afterwards.

Draught Bass, served direct from the cask, in the sampling room, was definitely the highlight of that trip, although the now sadly-defunct "Union Room", where the beer was fermented and conditioned, came a close second. The Union Room has long since been razed to the ground, along with the historic Victorian No. 2 Brewery, but Marston’s have made a pretty good job of the beer, since they took over the brewing – see above.

Since that brief tour in the late 1970’s, I have made two further trips to Burton, but with the most recent of these a trip to the Bass Brewery Museum during the mid 1990’s, a return to the town itself is long overdue.

First day of spring

The first Sunday in March proved rather different to those in the preceding month, in so much that the south east wasn’t battered by yet another named storm, or drowned by a deluge of rain!

Instead the day dawned bright and sunny, much to my surprise when I finally surfaced following a rare lie-in. After a substantial cooked breakfast, which doubled up as lunch, and the completion of a few domestic chores, I decided to venture outside and attempt a much needed tidy up of our garden.

We’d lost a couple of fence panels in one of the first of the winter storms, followed by our garden arbour seat. The latter had vanished through the gap in the fence, and ended up in the next door garden. The lad and I had dragged it back a couple of weeks previously, but after another battering from Storm Dennis, the structure was looking rather sorry for itself.

Mrs PBT’s was of the opinion that it was beyond repair, and until I’d looked at it more closely I was inclined to believe her, but after shifting what was left to a less expose position, it does look salvageable.

I’d sweated buckets over that arbour seat, after it was gifted to me by my parents. They’d bought the thing on a whim, but with old age and infirmity rapidly catching up with them, had left it as a collection of different sections and connecting parts, rather than erecting it.

It must have been six or seven years ago when, on a regular visit to their Norfolk bungalow, my mother had pressed me to take it back to Kent with me. I reluctantly agreed, only just managing to fit the various pieces into the back of my car. I then had the fun part of working out how it all fitted together – my parents having lost the instructions.

Once assembled and painted it looked pretty good, particularly after I’d relocated it to fit between a gap in the hedge, overlooking the patio, and there it stayed until the beginning of November, when the first of the winter’s storms struck. So having invested a considerable amount of time and effort in this structure, you can perhaps  understand why I am so keen to save it.

It was rather pleasant being outdoors and with the sun shining and the wind having dropped, it was quite warm in the garden. It was certainly warmer than it had been for a long time, but still far to wet to do much in the way of serious gardening. The lawn was very soft underfoot, and walking across it you could hear, and feel, the squelch of the ground underneath.

So after tidying up the remains of my arbour, re-potting a few plants ad sweeping the patio, I decided to take a walk down into Tonbridge – “Sunny Tunny,” as it’s sometimes referred to, for a look round and to pick up a few items ahead of this Friday’s trip to Burton.

It was a while since I’d last had a wander around Tonbridge, and as with many towns up and down the UK, things aren’t looking too good on the High Street. The saddest news is the loss of Beales, our only department store, which is due to close at the end of the month. A combination of high rents, even higher business rates and changing consumer tastes and demands, has forced the parent company into receivership.

Beales share a site with Sainsbury’s, and the rumour is that the supermarket will expand into at least part of  the soon to be vacated site, but once the store finally closes, there will be nowhere left in Tonbridge for us gents to buy our clothes. The ladies, of course, are still catered for, although one independently-owned  fashion emporium will soon also be shutting, but I will miss Beales next time I want to buy a winter coat, a new fleece or a light-weight jacket for summer.

To make matters worse, our local branch of Millets is also due to close, its demise probably hastened by the opening a couple of years ago of a branch of Go Outdoors, on a newly created retail park on the edge of town. Fortunately, son Matthew’s shop is still open and trading well, so I was able to buy the “C-type” charging cable I was after.

No venture into Tonbridge should be undertaken without calling in somewhere for a pint. I decided to head towards Fuggles, diverting along the perimeter of the "Sports Ground."  Parts of the latter are still impassable, due to floodwater, so I made my way back towards the High Street and eventually arrived at Fuggles.

This laid back café-bar was fairly full, but fortunately there were still a few seats and tables going spare. It was sometime since my last visit, but there was still that pleasant buzz about the place that comes from discerning people, chatting and socialising, whilst enjoying a choice of beers that is the widest in Tonbridge.

I made my way to the bar, and was presented with the difficult choice of Burning Sky Plateau or Thornbridge Jaipur.  Although tempted by the latter, I decided to go with something slightly more sensible, and opted for the Plateau. I was glad I did, as that as the beer was pale, hoppy and crystal clear with just the right amount of condition. It was worthy of a 3.5 NBSS.

I was tempted to stay for a second beer and possibly go for the Jaipur, but I received a text from Matthew, offering me a lift home. He had just finished his shift, so with the prospect of a nice pot-roast in waiting in the oven at home, I took him up on his offer. I walked back down towards where he was parked, and we headed off for home.

Tonbridge didn't seem to have changed much, and despite the aforementioned closures, there are encouraging signs of a few independent shops springing up amongst the  hairdressers, charity shops and estate agents that seem to dominate the town. The latter are a sign that the town is still desirable place to live, and with some decent places to drink in at last, and a new one due to open at Easter,  Tonbridge continues on its upward journey as a very desirable place to live.

Supping with the devil?

CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale has landed itself in a real pickle after rejecting a motion put forward for debate at its forthcoming Annual General Meeting in York. The motion, proposed by Scarborough Branch, would have prevented CAMRA providing or promoting discount schemes, such as the sixty vouchers, sent each year, to all CAMRA members, for use at a selection of large pub and bar chains.

The chains include JD Wetherspoon – the original sponsors of the voucher scheme, Stonegate Inns, Brains, Castle Rock plus Amber Taverns managed pubs.  A total of 1,550 pubs are included in the scheme, and with each voucher worth 50p off a pint of real ale, cider or perry, this amounts to an annual benefit of £30.

Scarborough Branch member Phil Saltonstall, who owns Brass Castle Brewery in Malton, proposed the motion, and is critical of CAMRA’s refusal to debate the issue, but all motions put forward at the Campaign’s AGM  have to be vetted by the Conference Procedures Committee.

So rather than allow this important motion to be scrutinised and debated by the membership, CAMRA have removed it from the order paper.  An appeal has been lodged, but will not be heard until the night before the AGM, a move which many will view as an attempt to stifle debate.

Unfortunately for CAMRA, the issue is not going away, and the Procedures Committee's heavy-handed action has only inflamed passions over what is already an emotive subject. 110 breweries, from all over the UK, have now signed an open letter in support of the motion, and are calling on CAMRA to end its use of discount vouchers and tacit support of large pub chains.  

They say CAMRA’s current policy undermines real ale and pushes drinkers towards corporate chains, to the detriment of smaller pubs and independent free-houses. The brewers argue that the practice sets unrealistic expectations among new real ale drinkers, damages small breweries who cannot produce to the scales the big chains require, and disrespects the craft that goes into producing real ale.

The signatories are from a wide and diverse range of  respected independent breweries, and include many brewers of CAMRA-judged award-winning beers. Several of these companies are past winners of CAMRA’s prestigious National Champion Beer of Britain. More breweries are coming forward in support, making the Campaign’s attempt to shut down the debate on this important issue, before it even started, look all the more foolish.

In the letter, they say: “…it is dangerously inconsistent for CAMRA to promote real ale as the pinnacle of the brewer’s art while simultaneously making it the cheapest beer on the bar. Inevitably, new drinkers will be led to have little regard for the quality of real ale. The policy also undermines CAMRA’s public image, as it promotes that which it was established to overhaul: a limited range of beers from large breweries, served-up cheaply by pub chains.”

The brewers go on to say: “CAMRA will win more support from the wider brewing and pub industries when it stops driving people to chain pubs for cheap beer, and when it instead respects real ale, respect the pubs that showcase it, and respects the brewers who produce it.”

There is much in the motion, and the support letter that I agree with, and I have argued in the past for CAMRA to distance itself from such discount schemes. The predictable response was that Spoons vouchers help people on low incomes, pensioners or the unemployed, but CAMRA should be something more than an organisation that facilitates cheap beer for its members.

Writing on the Brass Castle Brewery website, motion proposer, Phil Saltonstall said, “I know not everyone will agree with our motion, but many do and there was an excellent opportunity to have the debate in April at the AGM. It is infuriating that CAMRA has sought to stifle this debate, and in doing so it shows a blindness to the huge impact this has on real ale, breweries and publicans, and CAMRA’s public image.” 

“CAMRA itself cannot be both the champion of good-quality, great tasting cask beer and the promoter of bargain-basement cheap pints; as to accommodate price discounting, some pub companies insist that brewers provide real ale at a crazily low price.”

You can read Phil’s statement in full here, along with the open letter and the current list of signatories, but in the meantime, what are the odds of CAMRA backing down and at lease allowing the issue to be debated in an open and honest manner? The group haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory over this matter, and their incoherent policy on discounting undermines its credibility in virtually all other campaigning areas.

CAMRA may fear that, if the motion was approved, they would see a reduction in membership levels, but the organisation cannot exist solely to boost its own numbers, while the fate of real ale is left to its own devices. All indicators suggest that cask is in serious decline, so now more than ever the genre needs a self-respecting and energetic Campaign for Real Ale. 

An organisation that jumps into bed with groups such as Wetherspoon’s and Stonegate cannot claim to be acting in an impartial and independent manner, and lays itself open to the criticism already put forward.

We're lost in lager

Like most people I can’t resist a bargain, especially when it’s a genuine one. It’s even better when the bargain involves beer and decent beer at that, so what better than to stumble upon a slab of tinnies on sale at Tesco, at a knockdown price.

I chanced upon this bargain last Saturday, at Tesco’s Leybourne superstore, just off the M20 at Junction 4, when I discovered a 12 can pack of Brew Dog Lost Lager, retailing at just £5.85. The pack had been reduced from £9.00, because two cans were missing.

There was no clue as to why the cans weren’t there, but presumably the pack had taken a tumble rendering a couple of cans as unfit for sale. Tesco must have then seen fit to reduce the pack,  just to get it off their shelves.

The strange thing is the slab was already marked at a reduced price, as Brew Dog’s website shows this 12 can pack retailing at £16. Ten cans for just under six quid, certainly was a real bargain.

“Lost Lager” was launched with all the publicity and fanfare we have come to expect from Brew Dog over the years. But putting the hype to one side for a moment, the beer itself is rather good and very drinkable, so much so that I find myself agreeing with the company’s claim that “Lager is one hell of a beer if you make it right.”

Brew Dog’s description of the beer as a dry-hopped Pilsner made with classic German Saphir hops, is spot on; as is the claim that “This is lager like it was, like it should be, like it will be.” They’ve certainly gone to town on the authenticity as, in addition to the Saphir hops, Lost Lager is brewed using a Bavarian yeast, giving the beer a crisp clean taste, balanced against distinctive citrus notes.

So for now, after a rather challenging week at work, I’m going to chill-out, put my feet up and crack open a can or two of this rather good, and amazingly cheap lager.

Tailor Made

Tonbridge’s bid to be the food and drink capital of West Kent has taken another leap forward recently, with the addition of a combined delicatessen and wine merchants. This follows the re-branding of independent off-licence, Tailor Made Wine Library, in Tonbridge High Street, opposite the historic Chequers pub. 

The Wine Library has been around in various guises for the past decade or so, but until quite recently was a fairly standard off-licence. The emphasis had been on wines, spirits and cigars, which reflected the slightly upmarket image the owners wanted to promote. The shop also sold cigarettes, as Mrs PBT’s knew only too well.

Several years ago, when she worked in an office around the corner, the Wine Library was the source of her nicotine fix, whenever she ran out of cheap cigarettes, brought back from trips to Europe by family and friends. That’s all history now; Eileen is a reformed smoker, and  works out of town in a rural location. As for the shop, well I’m not even sure that it still sells cigarettes.

Since then I’d  hardly given the Wine Library a thought, until a fellow CAMRA member put a post up on the local CAMRA WhatsApp Beer Socials Group, to the effect that, along with other exotic beers, the shop was now selling Alt Schlenkerla Rauchbier from Bamberg. He also described the shop as a delicatessen, which threw me a bit at first.

Undaunted, I popped in a couple of weekends ago to take a look for myself. There had certainly been some substantial changes since I was last in the shop, and yes there were bottles of Bamberg’s finest Rauchbier on sale (both Märzen and Weizen versions), along with a perfectly respectable selection of bottles Belgian beers. These included Rochefort, Delirium and La Chouffe. Also stocked were canned beers from the likes of Northern Monk, Beavertown, Tiny Rebel and Siren.

As well as the beers, the Wine Library sells freshly baked bread, pastries, cheeses, olives plus a range of produce with a Greco-Turkish theme. Smokers are still catered for, but only high-end tobacco addicts, as Cuban cigars are a speciality. In short, the business has undergone a total transformation, and judging by the number of customers, seems to be doing alright.

I bought their two remaining bottles of Alt Schlenkerla; the girl behind the counter promising to get some more in. I don’t mind paying £3.79 for this quality product, especially as it is difficult to find in the UK.

For a rather more detailed write-up of Tailor Made Wine Library, check out this article from September last year, posted by local food blogger Eat Around Tonbridge.

Footnote: No link yet for the Wine Library, as the website is still under construction.

Steppin' Out

I’m sure I mentioned in an earlier post that I acquired a Sports Watch for Christmas, which synchronises to my new phone. Now I know that the word “sports” and me don’t exactly go together, but the plan is that it will help with increasing my fitness levels  over the coming months. The watch has proved particularly useful for tracking my lunchtime walks, and also as a means of counting the number of steps I undertake each day.

As with the majority of fitness devices the software, which links it to my phone, recommends walking 10,000 steps a day. Over the last few years, this amount of steps has become embedded in people’s minds as a means of not only increasing general fitness levels, but also as a way to prevent weight gain, or even lead to weight loss.

The latter two objectives have proved to be incorrect, but a daily goal of 10,000-steps does offer other significant benefits, not least of which is getting people out of a sedentary lifestyle. In addition, 10,000 steps for most people, adds up to about five miles each day, which goes a long way to meet recommendations of at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week.

Now comes the hard bit; 10,000 steps isn’t that easy to achieve - certainly not in the course of a normal working day! I am quite lucky as I can get up, leave my desk and quite legitimately go for a wander. My desk is located on the first floor of an open-plan office, but the QC laboratory that I am responsible for, and which I quite often do a spot of testing in myself, is on the ground floor, so there is a walk, and some stairs, between the two work places.

In addition, I often have to go into the factory to conduct inspections, take samples or just deliver some paperwork, so with the site consisting of three inter-linked units, there can be a reasonable amount of walking over the course of a normal day. Even so, I estimate only clocking up around 2,500 steps whilst going about my daily business, although fortunately I am able to escape at lunchtime and get out into the fresh air.

I am extremely lucky to work in a rural location, so there are some nice walks to be undertaken, especially now we’re heading out of winter and the first signs of spring are starting to appear. My usual circuit, which takes me across the old Penshurst airfield, is around a mile and a quarter, and takes me roughly 35 minutes (I am not the fastest of walkers).

For those still counting, this equates to around 2,250 steps so, as you can see, it still doesn’t approach the magic 10,000 figure, even when added to those clocked up whilst at work. Now I don’t want to come across as too much of an obsessive here, as for me this is just a bit of fun, but what I am attempting to convey is the difficulty of hitting that total, even when you’ve a job like mine which doesn’t tie you to a desk all day.

If you are still determined to achieve those 10,000 steps, it may be necessary to make a few lifestyle changes. On Monday and Tuesday last week, I took the train into work. A combination of flooded roads, and grid-locked local streets, meant it was far easier to let the train take the strain, and guess what, I hit that 10K total with ease.

A twenty minute walk to and from the station in Tonbridge, plus one of seven minutes each way at Chiddingstone Causeway, proved more than sufficient to take me over the 10K barrier, but apart from on the odd occasion,  I am not prepared to swap my car for the train.

As my journey to work, takes place during peak times, cheap day returns are not available. In addition, my Senior Railcard cannot be used until after 9.30am. So, at £4.30 each way, the train is far more expensive than my car. That £43 a week would buy me sufficient diesel for three week’s worth of car journeys, and that’s including using it at weekends and evenings.

The other downside is, at present, trains only run at hourly intervals on the Tonbridge – Redhill line; although that frequency may increase once the collapsed embankment at Godstone is reinstated. I therefore won’t be ditching my car, anytime soon; and certainly not in order just to clock up a few more steps walking!

Before finishing, it’s time to dispel the myth behind the 10,000 steps a day recommendation, by revealing that it started off as a a marketing gimmick for a Japanese pedometer maker. In 1965, the company concerned released an early type of pedometer, which it called the "10,000 steps meter." Over the years, the theory that walking 10,000 steps a day became popularised as the key to health and weight loss. 

Surprisingly, there were never any scientific studies caried out to  back up that theory; not until recently (see above). What’s more, when people asked why that 10K number became standard, the answer was, "It's an easy number to remember!"

Regardless of this, it’s still worth remembering that the benefits of a 30-minute daily stroll are many and varied, from slowing mental decline and lowering blood pressure, to improving sleep and relieving depression. You will definitely meet health guidelines by walking 10,000 steps a day – and it's not bad advice for younger people or those who have more experience with a fitness regimen, but for older people and those who are less fit, the so-called magic number can be demoralizing.

So if you fall into the latter categories, try setting a reasonable goal, such as walking 2,000 more steps than you usually walk every day; especially if you're inactive and your goal is to become more active.

He likes his "ales"

This article is about pigeon-holing people; stereotyping them if you like. This specific example looks at beer drinkers who, like people from so many other walks of life, are not immune from society's compelling need to categorise them. I want to be a little more specific though and concentrate on beer lovers, connoisseurs, aficionados or even beer geeks, even though I distinctly dislike that last term.

I do not want to come across as a “beer snob” either, even though I’m sure there are people out there who might label me as such, so without further ado, let’s get stuck into the article.

I’ve a glut of beer at home, with quite a stash of numerous bottles and cans waiting to be drunk. I’m partially to blame as I stocked up on various cut-price offers in the run up to Christmas, so I’ve got tins of Pilsner Urquell and Vocation Life & Death coming out my ears. I’ve also got umpteen bottles of Fuller’s excellent London Porter – another beer that was on offer, prior to Christmas.

 

Now I don’t drink anything near the amount of beer at home than I might in a pub, so you could say I’ve been greedy, and that my eyes are bigger than my belly. You’d be right, although given the reasonably long shelf lives assigned to these beers, they won’t be going off any time soon. But there’s another issue that has exacerbated the situation, as I’m about to relate.

People who know me appreciate that I’m a beer lover, but that’s as far as it goes for most of them. The reason being that once they’ve “pigeon-holed” me as such, that’s me ticked, but if they took the trouble to know me on a slightly deeper level they would realise that being a beer lover, means so much more than major brands, stocked by every supermarket, or gracing the bars of pubs up and down the country. 

Before going any further, my company’s QC department has a tradition of buying Christmas gifts for each other. I’m not sure when tithes  started, but it was in place when I took over as department head and I saw no reason to discontinue it. We don’t go overboard with the spending, but the presents are usually quite carefully targeted to appeal to the person receiving them. This isn’t hard when one is probably spending more time with work colleagues than with members of ones own family.

“Paul is a beer lover, so let’s get him a few special beers for Christmas.” Fair enough, but what exactly is meant by the term “special beers?” “Paul likes his ales,” is another remark I’ve heard, and in the past this has sometimes been misinterpreted. To many people the word “ales” signifies a beer that is a cut above the rest;  the rest of course being mass-marketed international brands of industrial lager.

Consequently I have ended up receiving a motley collection of so-called Premium Bottled Ales (PBA’s), as my Christmas present. It’s the thought that counts and I don’t want to take anything away from the well-meaning, but misguided intentions of colleagues or family members, but my heart has sunk on seeing the likes of Old Speckled Hen, Bombardier, Greene King IPA or even Doom Bar appearing under the Christmas tree.

I completely understand that in the eyes of non-beer drinkers, or even main stream lager lovers, PBA’s are something different, perhaps even mysterious, and therefore special. So with the assurance that Paul will really enjoy these types of beers, that’s me well and truly “pigeon-holed.” 

To be fair, most my departmental colleagues, as well as the majority of family members now know I appreciate something far less main-stream, and with a lot more character and provenance than a few tinnies of Fosters or Carling, but I have had to be very careful so to not appear as ungrateful, or to come across as patronising. Certainly the last thing I want is to come across is as an arrogant beer snob.

What I have tried to do instead, is to drop subtle hints that I really would prefer something a little more out of the ordinary and something rather more off-piste. This has started to pay off, especially at work, as I have been given selections of some quite rare Christmas Ales, some equally interesting bottles from Harvey’s, (including gems such as Bonfire Boy, Porter and Lewes Castle Brown Ale.) Last Christmas I even received an excellent selection of craft cans from Beer Hawk.

So what about those heavily-promoted, ideal for Christmas, bottled selection packs from Badger, Greene King and Marston’s that I received back in December?  Well as it’s the thought that counts, I of course accept these gifts with gratitude and good grace. And although I end up with a stash of beers I will slowly have to drink my way through, it’s not all bad.

Being given beers which I wouldn’t normally buy does allow the opportunity of sampling some of these mainstream brands,  and reminding oneself just how boring many of them are. Occasionally though, I end up eating my words as some of them are surprisingly good.

One example is Badger Tanglefoot; this 5.0% bottled beer not only turning out much better than I thought it would be, but was also superior to the slightly weaker cask version. The same brewery’s Fursty Ferret, also turned out much better than anticipated.

There are other examples as well, but to sum up, a big thank-you to everyone who has ever bought me beer for Christmas, birthday or both. I really appreciate you doing this regardless of the type, brand or provenance of the beer; it is all welcome.

If  I come across as a grumpy, moaning and ungrateful git, this is not deliberate, it’s just that I do have high expectations of what I am looking for in a beer. Despite this streak of elitism though, your bottle of Tanglefoot or London Pride is no less welcome than that special, barrel-aged, smoked, imperial porter, and probably a lot more drinkable, so thank-you once more.

However, if you ever come to visit,  and your not a beer connoisseur, don’t be surprised if I offer you a Doom Bar, an Old Speckled Hen or a Spitfire!