It's the little things that cause the most frustration

It’s been a rather frustrating week since completing my walk along the final section of the North Downs Way. My elation at completing this long-distance footpath, was tempered somewhat, by an issue with our recently upgraded central heating system – teething issues, with any luck, plus a recent internet outage at home. The heating engineer is due a return visit today, and as far as the internet issue is concerned, BT Openreach, or whatever they call themselves these days, are due to upgrade our connection, and router, to full-fibre broadband next Thursday.

The latter, sounds like a breakfast cereal, but the new system broadband connection should offer faster speeds and more reliability. To be fair, we haven’t suffered too much with connectivity issues, and as none of us are avid film buffs, we do very little in the way of streaming, so we shall see how the upgrade affects us, but whilst on the subject of upgrades and boosters, Mrs PBT’s and I had our second Covid booster (4^th vaccine dose) last Saturday, along with the latest flu vaccine.

It was literally a shot in each arm, and whilst we both felt OK on the day, Sunday ended up as a total washout, as far as doing anything constructive was concerned. I’m not sure which of the vaccines produced the headaches, aching limbs and associated cold and flu symptoms, but I suspect it was a combination of the two, but fortunately I at least felt alright to return to work, as usual, on Monday morning. Still, no gain without the pain, as the saying goes, but I don’t like having to waste a day, as what happened that Sunday.

I did manage to complete that lengthy article on Oktoberfest for the blog, and there are another few articles still in my head that I need to write up, but it’s amazing how relatively minor technology problems can have such a disruptive effect on everyday activities. First world problems, of course, so what’s coming up next in the world of beer and travel?

Thursday evening (tonight) should see a group of us meeting up at the Nelson Arms in Tonbridge, for an informal sampling of the Green Hop Ales that are on sale at the pub. There will also be the opportunity to sample a green hop ale, brewed by a local CAMRA member who is a keen and very prolific home-brewer. The beer will be brewed using hops freshly harvested, from another member’s garden. The latter has a very healthy-looking hop-bine growing up the side of the house, and having seen the photos, it was laden with plenty of attractive looking hops cones. To my shame, I have yet to sample any of this year’s crop of green hop ales, so am looking forward to getting stuck into a few on Thursday evening, including the home-grown and home-brewed example!

On the walking/hiking front, I’ve still to complete the two short sections of the North Downs Way – the ones I described in some detail, in the previous article. As explained, for reasons of expediency, I deviated slightly from the official trail with these sections, and took a slightly different, and less strenuous route. Today, Matthew and I were due to complete the stretch of downland above Folkestone – the one with the delightful view overlooking the Channel Tunnel Terminal, but with rain forecast, and the heating engineer expected, that’s had to be postponed.

There’s no rush of course, to complete such things, although it would be nice to have then out of the way by the end of the year. This leads on to what waking trail should I complete next? I’m tempted to stay local and give the Tunbridge Wells Circular Walk a try. On my visit to Cranbrook back in February, I picked up a guide from Larkin’s Alehouse to this 27.5-mile trail which, as its name suggests, is a route around the rural periphery of Tunbridge Wells.

The route passes through the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and allows walkers to enjoy the undulating countryside of the High Weald, a landscape of patchwork fields, broad-leaved woodland, and parkland. On its way, it takes in the villages of Southborough, Pembury, Frant, Groombridge and Speldhurst. Although I seem to have mislaid it, the book I purchased, describes four shorter circular walks, using fully waymarked link routes. These walks are stand alone, but they do intersect with the main route at certain points along the way. Each walk starts in the centre of Tunbridge Wells within easy reach of the railway station and local bus services, and for those who are familiar with the area, they are the Southborough Circular, the Pembury Circular, the Sussex Circular and the Speldhurst Circular, each highlighting distinctive areas of the attractive Wealden countryside.

I haven’t looked at any of these walks in detail (I need to find the book first), but I know from past experience that I have already walked several sections of the main route. Coupled with the aforementioned “bolt-ons” there should be plenty of opportunity for heading out into the countryside, during the winter months, without straying too far from home. I am also sure there will be ample opportunities for pub visits, along the way!

The other walking project is more suited to spring or summer, especially as it involves quite a bit of planning. It is also much further away, in the Cotswold Hills of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. “The Donnington Way” is a series of walks between all 15 inns belonging to the Donnington Brewery, covering a total distance of 62 miles. I have legendary pub man, Stafford Paul to thank, for alerting me to this one, as Paul undertook the walk several years ago, and recorded his enjoyment of it, in the form of comments on several blogs. I duly sent off for the book which acts as a guide to both the 15 pubs, and how to get from one to another, all on foot. The book was written, researched, and photographed by Colin Handy, with maps and illustrations by Peter T Reardon. The first edition was published in 1991, but with a 4^th edition appearing in 2012, the guide has been re-walked and fully revised.

The book lists 15 pubs, although the Donnington website states that there are 19, so presumably under its current owners, Peter and James Arkell, the brewery must have expanded. Peter and James inherited the brewery, following the death of their cousin Claude Arkell, in 2007. The company passed to them, as Claude Arkell had no children, and I’m pretty certain he had no spouse either. Peter and James of course have their own family-owned brewery, Arkells Ltd of Swindon, a reasonably sized concern owning around 100 pubs.

So far as practicalities are concerned, several of the pubs are quite close together, but then there are others where the distances between them are far greater. The planning for even attempting this trail hasn’t even approached the serious stage yet, but the sensible approach would be to incorporate any overnight stops at those pubs which offer accommodation. As might be expected, the pubs offering B&B don’t always tie in nicely with some of those at the end of the next stretch, and when that happens to be a lengthy one, then that particular option falls to pieces.

There are others of course, but they will probably involve pitching up at a non-Donnington owned establishment that does offer a bed for the night. So not an insurmountable problem, but one that still needs careful thought and proper investigation. Regardless of what happens, walking the “Donnington Way,” would not be my first attempt to visit every Donnington owned and run pub. In June 1983, I embarked on a cycling holiday in the Cotswolds. The idea was to cycle around visiting all the pubs belonging to Donnington brewery, and there were 17 of them at the time.

You can read about my adventures by clicking on to my now virtually defunct blog page, Paul’s Beer Travels. This is not the same site as the website I set up nearly 30 months ago, and the one I eventually allowed to lapse. Without giving too much away, the cycling and camping trip was undertaken by myself and the previous Mrs Bailey, and despite our best endeavours, we only managed 8 out of the 17 pubs.

This was over a five-and-a-half-day period, and was before the days of all day opening, and the internet. We had trouble locating suitable campsites, relying in the end on word of mouth – often, the most reliable. Despite visiting in June, the weather was at times, quite cold and miserable. Strong headwinds often made cycling difficult, so with that in mind, and the fact that 40 years have elapsed since then, I’m more than content to complete the task on foot.

I shall of course, start from scratch, rather than carrying on from where I finished before. The experience is more complete that way, and besides it will be interesting to see whether re-visiting those 8 pubs from 1983, will bring back a few memories, or will some have been altered out of all recognition?

Footnote: Unfortunately, there are few photos from that 1983 cycling trip. I probably have some old prints, or transparencies, tucked away somewhere, but even if I do lay my hands on them, they will require scanning in order to convert then to a digital format. Instead, I’m afraid, you will either have to use your imagination, or take a look on the Donnington website.

Unfortunately, my heating is still playing up, despite two call-outs that were supposed to have fixed the problem, - hence the title of this post!

 

Oktoberfest - ain't nothing like the real thing

Last weekend, Munich’s world-famous Oktoberfest came to an end. This was after the event returned to the Bavarian capital following a two-year hiatus, due to Covid and the ensuing global pandemic. I haven’t read the full reports, but the consensus was that whilst everyone welcomed the return of Oktoberfest, attendance figured were down on previous years.

Many put this down to the unseasonably cold and damp weather experienced, which was in sharp, contrast to the mainly settled and sunny conditions we’d enjoyed here in the UK. However, early on in the annals of Oktoberfest the local climatic conditions did play a pivotal role in shifting the timing of the event which, as its name suggests, ought to take place in October. Since that early shift the bulk of the celebrations, are now held in September.

Without going into too much detail, the event was moved backward in the calendar in order to take advantage of the warmer weather normally experienced during September, along with the slightly longer hours of daylight. Despite the shift in its timing, last day of Oktoberfest the festival always occurs on the first Sunday of October, and hence the name of the event remained the same.

Over the years, the popularity of the event has mushroomed, and today Oktoberfest attracts millions of visitors, not just from Germany, but from all over the world. The festival has also spawned a huge array of imitators, and it is some of these that I want to talk about here. These “copy-cat” events are a relatively new phenomenon, as I don’t recall any taking place whilst I was growing up.

Everyone has their own general ideas about German beer festivals, and Oktoberfest in particular. Picture thirsty drinkers, knocking back large, foaming mugs of beer, oompah bands, roast pork knuckles, with a crusty crackling coating and revellers dancing on the tables. Some of these stereotypes are true, but the most widely held ones, are not. For example, the correct name for the large, 1 litre, handled beer glasses is a “Maß Krug,” rather than the commonly used name (not by those in the know), of “Steins.”  The latter implies, they are made from ceramic stoneware rather than glass, as “Stein” is the German word for stone.

The other misconception involves dancing on the tables, but for obvious
safety reasons, this is not allowed, and those that do attempt this are swiftly ejected from the tent. Three years ago, at Tonbridge’s own imitation Oktoberfest, Eileen’s boss tried this trick. He was rather the worse for drink, so it should have come as no surprise that the security staff were soon on to him. Unfortunately, as they attempted to catch him, he slipped over and damaged his back, which goes to show why this practice is frowned on, both here as well as in Bavaria. Incidentally, whilst climbing up on the tables is strictly Verboten at Oktoberfest, customers are permitted to stand on the benches, although given their narrow width, you can’t exactly dance on them! 

Jumping up on the tables is just one of the misconceptions associated with Oktoberfest, but the main one is that the event itself is a beer festival. Oktoberfest is more of a celebration of Bavarian culture, often centering on the kitsch aspect of this. There are also attractions such as high-octane fairground rides, shooting galleries, and all the goings on normally associated with a typical British funfair. The event is also very family oriented, especially in the morning and early afternoon. It is only later that the serious drinking and revelry takes place.

The family and I discovered this for ourselves when we stopped by at Oktoberfest, for a quick visit in 2017. We had flown into Munich the previous evening, with the aim of travelling on to our main holiday destination of Regensburg, but our itinerary allowed a few hours to experience the event, at first hand. The family aspect was very much to the fore, with parents and their young children in abundance, and before finding ourselves a seat in one of the tents, we visited a hall selling coffee and cake. It has to be said though, that Bodo’s Bar wasn’t exactly teeming with punters.

Which does now bring me onto the beer, which is a strong Festbier of around 6.0% abv. This type of beer has now replaced the more traditional, hoppy and dark-copper coloured Märzen Bier that was originally drank at the event. The beer isn’t cheap though, with the price of beer at Oktoberfest 2022 ranging from €12.60 to €13.80 per litre, which is an average of 15.8 percent more than in 2019.

The other point which will disappoint drinkers used to UK CAMRA-run beer festivals, is there isn’t a huge amount of choice, as only the six large, Munich-based brewers are allowed to sell their wares. These breweries are Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu, Löwenbräu, Paulaner, and Spaten. Several of these are either merged, or owned by foreign multi-national brewers, leaving just Augustiner and Hofbräu as independent concerns, but even the latter is owned by Bavarian state. Most of the “tents” too, (they are semi-permanent structures, rather than tents in the accepted sense of the word), are controlled by the same groups of people, with the rights and licenses to operate them passed down from one generation to the next.

In another twist, Munich’s six large brewers, operate as a cartel, excluding all outside competition. Several decades ago, Crown Prince Luitpold, attempted to sell beer from the brewery attached to his Kaltenberg Castle home, but was thwarted by the cartel. This was particularly galling given that the prince is a direct descendant of the Wittelsbachs, the family which had ruled the Kingdom of Bavaria between 1805 and 1918, and which had governed other German territories from as far back as 1180.

As an aside, older drinkers might remember the heavy promotion given to Kaltenburg Pils, by Whitbread, back in the 1980’s, but even Prince Luitpold’s pedigree and royal credentials, were insufficient to break the stranglehold that Munich’s six large brewers, have over Oktoberfest. Although going slightly off topic, it is worth taking a brief look at the latest attempt to break the cartel.

Founded in 2006, Giesinger Bräu are a relatively newcomer on the Munich beer scene, but from humble beginnings in a garage in the Giesing area of the city, the company have expanded by opening a €20m (£16.8m) brewery on the northern fringes of Munich. More importantly, they have sank their own well, plunging 152 metres into the ground, from where it extracts pure Munich water. This will enable Giesinger to produce "Münchener Bier," a term protected under EU Law since 1998, and a beer that requires real Munich water, as opposed to the local tap water.

Given this development, founder and current owner, Steffen Marx believes he is now in a position to challenge Munich’s big-six and start selling his company’s beers at Oktoberfest. Watch this space but Giesinger Bräu seem to be on a mission, and I am pleased to record a making a visit to their original garage brewery in 2014, where I picked up a few bottles, followed by, three years later, enjoying the hospitality of the tap room and restaurant, attached to their new brewery.

Returning now, to the UK  where the number of copy-cat events seems to grow each year. These range from the local pub hanging out a string of Bavarian flags and serving up a few sausages to go with the one or two big-brand German pilsners (not really Oktoberfest style), to those pubs and breweries that really make the effort to get things right. This might include, importing a few kegs of genuine Festbier from Munich, or going all out to brew their own version Märzen.

Jonny Garrett’s excellent book, “A Year in Beer,” which I reviewed a couple of months ago, lists Bristol’s Lost & Grounded Brewery as putting on one of the best homegrown Oktoberfest events, but with an English twist. There are others, of course, and Braybrooke, Utopian and German Kraft spring to mind, but this then leaves us with the also rans, one of which was the aforementioned Tonbridge Oktoberfest.

Held, back in October 2019, and housed in a couple of large marquees adjacent to the clubhouse of Tonbridge Angels FC. Eileen's boss obtained the tickets for us (see above), and the beer at least was a genuine brew from Bavaria, in the form of a Helles, from the revamped Hofmeister Brewery. So far, so good, but now comes the bad bit, the beer was only served in rather tacky, plastic beer mugs, which customers had to buy. I deliberately left mine behind, when we left, as I absolutely detest plastic drinking vessels. I also dislike music played at a volume that makes conversation all but impossible, so a big thumbs down to that particular event.

Too many UK Oktoberfest events get it horribly wrong, with some unashamedly hankering after the stag-do, rugby club, lads’ piss-up type of audience, and selling any old German beer they can pass off on an unsuspecting public. Many are ruined by overloud music, as referenced above, with some just paying lip-service to the real thing. Worse still are those which charge for admission or require pre-booked tickets.

This just doesn't happen at the actual Oktoberfest in Munich, where there is no charge for entry, and no charge even for those wishing to reserve a table. Admittedly, the beer isn’t cheap, as already mentioned, but the quality is good and the table service, where the beer and the good solid Bavarian food is brought to your table, by a Dirndl-clad waitress, is exemplary. Oktoberfest is so much more than an excuse for excessive drinking, and anyone who loves good beer, good food and a great atmosphere in traditional Bavarian surroundings, should make at least one pilgrimage to Munich for Oktoberfest, during their life time.