Out at Christmas, from under the Covers

I’ve mentioned before that being a beer lover connoisseur, means that at Christmas time, I sometimes receive the odd beer or two, as a present from well-meaning relatives, or even the occasional work colleague. I published a post about this, three years ago, emphasising the fact that just because I appreciate a decent drop of ale, does not necessarily mean I’m going to be eternally grateful, if you happen to slip a bottle of some quirky sounding beer into my Christmas stocking.

“Paul likes his ales,” is a remark I’ve heard, and in the past, this has often 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. Regrettably, this often means the likes of heavily promoted Premium Bottled Ales (PBA’s) from brewers such as Badger, Greene King and Marston’s, rather than something far less mainstream, and far more drinkable.

As I said in that article from 2020, these are the types of beers that are unfortunately perceived by the general public as “real ale,” and the ones likely to appeal to a beer lover like myself. If I do find myself on the receiving end of such “delights” I try very carefully to appear pleased and grateful, as after all it is the thought that counts. I also work on the premise that sampling some of these mainstream brands, reminds oneself just how boring many of them are.

Occasionally though, and it is becoming slightly more common, I receive a beer which both surprises and delights. This occurred completely out of the blue, this Christmas, when I was the recipient of an unusual promotional pack of beer, courtesy of the eldest of my wife’s two nieces. To spare embarrassment, I won’t reveal the lady’s name, but she works as a sales representative for a local builder’s merchants.

Not many people will have heard of Covers, where the “o” is pronounced as in "Dover," but the company is a family-owned Builder & Timber Merchants with 15 depots, spread across southern England. Covers works with the building trade and is also open to the public, and last year the company celebrated their 175^th anniversary. To commemorate this significant anniversary, Covers commissioned Powder Monkey Brewing of Gosport, Hants to produce a special brew, and it was a three-can, promotional pack of these beers that I received as a present, on Boxing Day.

The beers are packaged in appropriate 440 ml cans, designed with a typical “tradesmen” look, so as to appeal to builders, carpenters, plumbers and other tradespeople who make up the bulk of Covers’ customers. The beer itself is a “Tropical Pale Ale” with an abv of 4.6%.  Tasting notes on the rear of the can, describe the contents as “A soft and tropical beer with pillowy mouthfeel from oats in the malt body. There are dry hop additions of Galaxy and Idaho hops, which combine to create passion-fruit aromas, with notes of pineapple and peach.”

The beer was certainly heavily focussed on the aforementioned fruits, but my main gripe was its hazy appearance. It is obviously intended to be that way, as the bottom strap-line invites consumers to “Store Cold. Drink fresh. Naturally hazy.” An unfortunate statement, as I am becoming increasingly averse to beers that are designed to be hazy – naturally or otherwise! In addition, I can’t imagine your average bricklayer, chippy, roofer, or sparks, being over-enamoured at receiving a glass of murk. This is a shame, as the beer itself is very good – especially when first poured, and before the sediment has entered one's glass.

So, what about the brewery behind the beer? Powder Monkey Brewing started up, in 2019, and based themselves in an old Naval Gunpowder Store in Priddy's Hard, Gosport. The name Powder Monkey relates to the boys and girls who carried the gunpowder to the guns on board ships. The company produce a wide range of beers across a multitude of styles, although I can find no reference of the commemorative Covers beer on their website, nor indeed on Untappd. It was a good idea, and a nice thought too, from Eileen’s niece, although I will be interested to learn what her customers thought of the beer.

 

A quiet Monday night in Dundee

Even though the programme and the arrangements for my recent business trip to Dundee were virtually the same as the one my colleague and I made three years ago, this time around there was a major improvement, and it was all down to the choice and location of the hotel we stayed at. On the previous occasion we followed the organiser’s recommendation of the Double Tree by Hilton Hotel on the edge of the city. This meant we experienced very little of Dundee itself, so this time around, my colleague booked us rooms at the Hampton by Hilton, an excellent hotel, located in the city centre, and just 15 minutes’ walk from Dundee’s riverfront.

We travelled to Dundee to give a presentation to the sales team of our largest UK customer, who are based in the city. This formed part of what our customer termed, their “January Kick-Off Meeting,” and was an all-day event. Lunch and refreshments were provided, and the event was then followed by an evening meal and entertainment at the Invercarse Hotel, overlooking the Firth of Tay. There was a fancy-dress theme for the evening, but more about that later – perhaps!

Following the same pattern as three years ago, we travelled up the day before the meeting, taking an Easy Jet flight from Gatwick to Edinburgh and then collecting a hire car for the 90 minute drive to Dundee. We returned home, the day after the meeting, which meant three days in total, away from the office. I don’t need to go into more details than that, especially as I don’t wish to repeat myself, but if you really want to know more, you can read about that 2020 trip here

On the morning of our departure, I had a couple of hours spare, so I took a stroll down to the Dundee’s waterfront, overlooking the Firth of Tay. As well as wishing to get some exercise I also wanted to take a few photos during daylight hours, of the pub and the restaurant, we’d visited on our first night in the city. There was a strong, and rather cold, westerly wind blowing, and it wasn’t long before I regretted leaving my woolly hat in the hotel room. I carried on, even though a sensible person would have returned to retrieve it, and manged to get some decent shots of Tony Macaroni – the Italian restaurant we dined at, plus a couple of pubs.

The first of these was Dynamo, a craft beer bar that is part of the Six Degree North chain. The pub had been recommended by a member of the hotel staff, so it was disappointing to find it closed. It was a Monday evening, so perhaps trade is slack at the start of the working week, but despite it not selling any cask, it does gets a mention on CAMRA’s National Inventory, due to having an interior with some regional importance. Fortunately, the Trades House Bar, at the other end of Union Street, was open and impressed by its stained-glass windows, we stepped inside for a closer look.

We were greeted by an interior of high ceilings, supported by pillars, and a bar area divided up into a series of different drinking areas by carefully crafted, carved wooden partitions. There was some interesting cut glass, behind the bar counter, which combined with the woodwork, gave the impression of a solid and characterful, late 19^th Century pub. Belhaven Brewery was the pub’s owner, which effectively meant Greene King, and given the age and feel of the place, it was disappointing not to find any traditional cask ale on sale. Instead, there were a few offerings with a craft feel to them from the GK stable. I chose a 4% session IPA called Level Head, which was hoppy, with a touch of citrus fruitiness, and perfectly drinkable.

We sat at the bar like a couple of Americans, not exactly putting the world to rights, although we came up with a few suggestions for improving things at work. We only stayed for the one beer at the Trades House because we were keen to get something to eat. I noticed that the pub was serving food and mentioned this to my colleague, but his response was the menu was likely to be the standard Greene King fayre. He emphasised he would rather go somewhere that was independently owned, that served food that wasn’t just popped in the microwave and reheated, but instead bore the mark of the chef who created it.

I didn't argue, especially as he was the one with the expense account and the person holding the purse strings. Whilst we’d been sitting at the bar, he’d been looking at his phone and discovered there was an Italian restaurant on the next block. I was happy that we should give this place a try, especially as it was ages since I last dined out on Italian food. We left the Trades House, and walked the short distance to Tony Macaroni, not the most original name for an Italian restaurant but, as we discovered, still rather a good one.

Looking in through the large external windows, Tony’s eatery looked quite busy, and after stepping inside, we noticed that it was spacious and well laid out. After returning home, I discovered that Tony Macaroni operate a small chain of Italian restaurants right across central Scotland, with the odd outlier further north (Aberdeen), and also across the water in Northern Ireland. The group specialises in Italian cuisine, under the motto “Real Italian Food, Always Freshly Prepared.”

They certainly delivered on that last promise, as after being shown to our table, and ordering a couple of beers – Birrificio Angelo Poretti, in keeping with the Italian theme, we were soon tucking into our starters. I went for a bowl of minestrone soup, whilst my colleague opted for some fried chicken. I then had a main course of chicken risotto, whilst my companion had a pizza that was so large it overhung the rim of the plate. There was a nice ambience about the place, and as Dundee has a large student population, young people constituted the majority of the diners, but there were families too, as well as older people like ourselves.

Feeling too stuffed for a dessert, we rounded off the meal with an Irish Coffee each – not especially Italian, but a nice way to end the evening. We had an early start ahead of us, the following morning, so we skipped on the idea of a nightcap back at the hotel and retired instead to our respective rooms.

Dundee again - will history repeat itself?

I’m off on a business trip tomorrow morning, it’s not the most exciting of locations, so it’s probably just as well that there will be very little free time, but the timing of the trip itself, hasn’t exactly come at the most convenient moment. More about that later, but to put you in the picture, the trip is a repeat of the one I made with our Sales Manager, three years ago which, if you’ve been paying attention, was around the time when Covid-19, and its connection with the Chinese city of Wuhan first began making the headlines, and just a couple of months before the start of the UK going into its first lock-down.?

So, as long as history doesn’t repeat itself, my colleague and I will be flying from Gatwick, to Edinburgh, tomorrow lunchtime, picking up a hire car, and then driving on to Dundee. There we will be giving a presentation to sales representatives, from our largest UK customer. The latter is a company based in Dundee, and seeing as our 2020 pitch was well received, we have been asked to repeat it, three years down the line. The presentation will take place on Tuesday, in the same hotel overlooking the River Tay, as last time, and will conclude with an evening dinner, with a fancy dress theme. The latter isn’t really my scene, but it went well last time, with both the food and the company of a high standard, so what’s not to like?

Nothing really, but with us flying back home on Wednesday, that’s my entire working week taken up. As I said earlier, the timing could have been better, as I’ve a busy and quite schedule of work ahead of me. I shall probably have to go in today (Sunday), primarily to sort out paperwork and permits, for some contractors who are due on site tomorrow, although the alternative plan would be to go in first thing Monday, before traveling to Gatwick. In many respects I would prefer to be at home for Mrs PBT’s, due to the recent and unexpected loss of someone close to her. I won’t go into details now, as unfortunately, these things are part of life, especially as one get older, but this recent passing occurred two years to the day that my father passed away, so it has brought back a few painful memories for me as well.

The return flight to Edinburgh, will represent my first time on an aircraft since before the pandemic, and in fact that previous occasion was the same return Easy Jet flights to the Scottish capital. If I was geeky enough to look them up, they’ve probably got the same flight numbers, but I’m not that sad, yet! Will we get to see much of Dundee, I hear you ask? Possibly slightly more than last time, as the hotel we are staying at on Monday and Tuesday, (not the one where the presentation is taking place), is right in the centre of Dundee.

I’ve carried out a spot of research, and there is a bar listed on CAMRA’s inventory of pubs with an historic interior of national importance, and whilst it’s only 16 minutes’ walk from our hotel, I’m not sure how my colleague will feel about me dragging him to a bar at the bottom of a four-story tenement block. I will try my best to convince him that his life will be forever incomplete, if he doesn’t set foot in the Speedwell Bar, in Perth Road, described by What Pub as “One of the finest examples of an Edwardian pub interior, in the country.”

I’m presuming they mean Scotland, rather than the UK as a whole, but the Speedwell certainly looks interesting. Lunchtime meals only – do toasties count as a meal? but if I can persuade my colleague, it might be the case of a quick pint, and then somewhere nearer the hotel for our evening meal, but that will be my only chance for a decent pint, unless we call in, like last time, at the Brew Dog Bar, at Edinburgh airport, for a cheeky, pre-flight drink. (Full report if I make it to the Speedwell.)