Christmas Eve 2017

Well the last minute shopping is complete, the presents wrapped, and everyone's back safe and warm indoors. I was going to say the fire is lit as well, but the weather's been a little too mild for that, but with tea time fast approaching, it's time to crack open a few bottles.

There was a time when I'd order a polypin and would be broaching it around this sort of time, but with only me to drink it, I found the beer wasn't always quite at its best by the time the contents were exhausted. I also found considerable variation in quality between different beers; and over the years I had a fair few. None were off or even approaching undrinkable, but several were rather lacking in condition, meaning a flat and often uninspiring pint, and when you’ve got 36 pints of beer to get through that you’re not particularly enjoying, then it becomes something of an endurance test.

Bottles therefore, are a much better bet, as not only do they remain fresh until they are opened, but they can provide a lot more variety. And with so much good food and interesting flavours available over the festive season, variety is what's required.

Now I'm not going all puritanical here and insisting on certain beers to accompany certain foods, but there's no getting away from the fact that some beers do provide a better match with certain foods than others. So, as in previous years I've got a fair number of bottles to enjoy; a stash which has built up over the past few months.

This year I've got several bottles of St Austell Proper Job; a beer which in my view is one of the best bottled pale ales around. It's bottle-conditioned as well, but St Austell do this properly - hence the name (only kidding!). Proper Job is well-hopped, but not aggressively so, and there is just the right amount of juicy biscuit-like malt present to counteract the bitterness.

I've also got plenty bottles of Pilsner Urquell to hand. This classic and pioneering “original” pilsner, has just the right amount of aromatic hoppiness, from the lovely Saaz hops, which is set against some chewy toffee malt. For several years now it has become my go-to beer for every day, home-drinking. It's only 4.4% in strength, but still manages to pack in loads of flavour. It's also very reasonably priced; probably too reasonably, as £1.50 a bottle for a beer with this sort of pedigree, is far too cheap and is treating this Czech classic as a commodity, rather than a beer to be revered.

Then there's Fuller's 1845, 6.3% ABV; bottle-conditioned and packed with lots of ripe, juicy fruit and marmalade flavours. It goes really well with a traditional roast turkey dinner and, for as many years as I care to remember, I have always enjoyed a bottle of this excellent ale to accompany my Christmas dinner.

As for the rest, well I've got quite a collection of beers which have accumulated since last Christmas, including some which will need drinking soon. (Gadd's Imperial Stout,  Dark Star Imperial Stout and Old Dairy Snow Top).

As I write, I getting stuck into a bottle of Meantime London Porter, ABV  6.5%. Packaged in a robust 75 cl bottle, complete with a wired-cork closure, this beer really is a splendid recreation of this classic London style. Porter was the beer which made the fortunes of the great London brewers (Truman, Whitbread, Barclays etc), so after completely disappearing during the mid-1970’s, it is good to see it making a deserved comeback.

The style is, once again, a cannon in the portfolio of many respected brewers, not least of which is Fuller’s; the last surviving traditional brewery in the capital. The company’s London Porter, is another personal favourite of mine. It is slightly lighter at 5.2% ABV, but no less enjoyable for that. As might be imagined, I’ve got several bottles of this excellent beer stashed away in my store.

Moving further afield, I’ve got a selection of six different bottles from the St Bernardus Brewery, in Watou, Belgium, to drink my way through. They range in strength from 6% up to 10%  ABV. I wrote about these beers here, and obtained them via a colleague at work, who has a friend living in West Flanders; definitely a handy person to know!

Whilst on the subject of European beers, I’ve still got a few bottles of Aecht Schlenkerla; the classic Rauchbier (smoke beer), from Bamberg. These will need drinking soon, so what better time than over the Christmas period to finish them off? My son and I are off to Bamberg this coming May, in the company of a group of beer enthusiasts from Maidstone CAMRA, so there should be plenty of opportunity to enjoy a few Rauchbiers, whilst we are there.

Finally, I’ve still got a few other “oddities” kicking around, including a wire-corked, 75 cl bottle of Bush de Nuits, from Brasserie Dubuisson, which I acquired over two years ago, whilst in Belgium for the European Beer Bloggers Conference. It’s 13.0%, and aged in oak Burgundy casks, plus it's bottle-conditioned as well, so it’s a beer I will need some assistance in polishing off. I’ve also still got a few Dutch beers; also the result from another EBBC, but this one took place a year later.

Whatever you are drinking this Christmas may you so in the company of friends, family or loved ones. May your glass never run dry and, as the song says, may your days be merry and bright.

Merry Christmas everyone, and a healthy, prosperous and Happy New Year to you all.

“An unashamedly strong winter warmer”

Whilst on my travels I like to pick up the odd bottle or three, especially if I come across something unusual or rare. This applies equally to trips here in the UK, as to those further afield. It’s an extremely rare occurrence for me to return completely empty-handed, as there’s nearly always something which catches my interest.

It’s precisely because I don’t normally come back with something, that I can’t remember where or when I picked up a 2016 Vintage 330 ml bottle of Adnam’s Tally-Ho, barley-wine. It must obviously have been one of my many recent trips to East Anglia, and I’m reasonably certain I bought it at the impressive Beers of Europe warehouse just outside King’s Lynn. 

Wherever I acquired my bottle it’s worth saying that it’s quite rare to come across a bottle. The brewery describe it as “An unashamedly strong winter warmer”, and I think this is pretty apt. It is occasionally available in cask, but normally only in Adnam’s tied houses.

The beer has an ABV of 7.2%, and is bottle-conditioned. It is marketed as a “limited edition”, but this must mean it is brewed in “limited amounts” as this rich dark, seasonal, barley-wine style beer, has been brewed at Adnam’s every year, since 1880.

I cracked open my bottle earlier in the week. It poured with a minimal head, and was a deep ruby red in colour; almost bordering on black. Rich, dark and warming, it drank pretty much as the brewery’s promise, and was an excellent example of a dark barley wine; a style which is not as common as it once was.

ps. Checking back, I did indeed acquire my bottle from Beers of Europe; just over a year ago.

Christmas 2017 at the Greyhound

If going along to the local CAMRA branch Christmas meal is becoming something of a tradition, there is another one which takes place at work on the day we break up for the Christmas recess.

We normally finish work around midday, after spending the morning tidying up, cleaning and getting everything ready for an orderly return in the new-year. We then lock the factory up and adjourn to the local pub, where the company buys the first couple of drinks.

Not everyone comes along to this, as some people take the whole day off, especially if their Christmas plans involve travelling and the need for a quick getaway. Others come into work, but then forgo the pub visit, in favour of dashing off to finish last minute Christmas shopping.

I sort of fit into the second group, although I normally turn up for one drink at the pub, but this year was different. With my wife finishing work on the previous day, and the whole weekend free for any last minute shopping, I had the perfect excuse to spend a couple of hours in the pub, and with the rail option providing a safe and sensible alternative means of getting to and from work I allowed the train take the strain, and took the 07:59 service from Tonbridge to Penshurst.

There was another reason for joining in with the festivities, and that was the choice of pub. Ever since I started with my present company, we have used the nearby Little Brown Jug pub as the venue for our pre-Christmas drink. The LBJ is a nice place, with plenty of room, and has hosted our Christmas party these past six years. It is part of a small chain, which is leased from Greene King and whilst it has become more adventurous recently in its choice of beers, it tends to stick with ones which are tried and tested.

I have written about the LBJ before, and have no hesitation in recommending it to visitors to Chiddingstone Causeway, or to those just passing through. There is however, another pub close by and that is the Greyhound, in the small hamlet of Charcott, just 15 minutes walk from the Jug and Penshurst station.

Regular readers of this blog will be aware of my keen interest in the Greyhound; an interest I have channelled into regular blog updates where I have recounted the changing fortunes of this unassuming Victorian country local.

Over the past 18 months or so, I have reported the closure of the pub, its temporary re-opening under the stewardship of local brewers Larkin’s, its subsequent closure and then its sale to a local couple as a pub, following a successful ACV listing driven by the local community, with backing from CAMRA.

Since reopening back in the summer, the Greyhound has gone from strength to strength under its new owners, Fran and Richard Gilliat-Smith, and has re-established itself at the heart of the small community of Charcott. With this in mind, a couple of members of my team asked our General Manager if we could move this year’s Christmas drinks from the LBJ to the Greyhound.

He was happy to oblige, as the company is keen to help out neighbouring businesses and play its part in the local community. So shortly after midday we locked up and about a dozen of us trooped up to the Greyhound. 

The pub was looking suitably festive when we arrived and was moderately busy. We found an area to the right of the bar, where we could congregate; not too near the fire, as it was rather mild for the time of year. Larkin’s Traditional and Porter were on tap, along with a beer from Bexley Brewery. I started with the Traditional, before switching to the Porter; both were in fine form.

I also grabbed a bite to eat, as the Greyhound’s kitchen is now fully functional following a complete refit. As we sat enjoying our drinks, and our food, the pub began to fill up. It really is good to see people once again using their local pub. My colleagues drifted away in dribs and drabs. They too had errands to run, or partners to get home to.

Eventually I was the only one left, so I finished my Porter and set off to walk back to the station, taking the well-trodden and familiar route which leads across the old Penshurst airfield. There was a stillness in the air as I followed the path across the fields, and a silence too, as there was very little traffic about.

I caught the 14:31 train back to Tonbridge, nodding off with the motion of the train and the warmth of the carriage. I picked up a few bits and pieces on my way home, and once indoors sat down with a cup of coffee and seasonal mince pie, before finishing wrapping the last of the Christmas presents.

Christmas 2017 at the Brecknock

In what is now becoming something of a tradition, the Bailey family joined eleven other West Kent CAMRA members and friends last Sunday, for the annual branch Christmas meal. For the third year running, the venue was, once again, the Brecknock Arms at Bells Yew Green; a small and comfortable Harvey’s pub, just one stop on the train from Tunbridge Wells. The pub provided the perfect location, combining the relaxed informal atmosphere of a village local with good food and equally good drink.

I have known the Brecknock for the past twenty-five years. It is a small and comfortable Harvey’s pub, just one stop down the line from Tunbridge Wells, and just five minutes walk from Frant station. It is everything a village pub should be, and it is great to see this Victorian local thriving again, following the turn-around in its fortunes. This is down to the current licensees, Sally and David Fawcett, who took over the running of the pub back in February 2014.

The Brecknock has been altered a few times over the years, principally to make better use of the available space, and whilst this involved combining the former public and salon bars, the layout is such that there are still a number of distinct drinking areas.

Bells Yew Green itself is a tiny village on the B2169 road which runs between Tunbridge Wells and Lamberhurst. The pub is the focal point of the village and as well as providing a place for the local cricket team to meet, is popular with both villagers and people from further afield. Given its location on the main London - Hastings rail line, Bells Yew Green has become increasingly popular location for commuters, and in recent years a number of new houses have been built, along with a village shop.

Most of our party travelled on the 11.41 train from Tonbridge, which arrived at Frant five minutes before opening time. There were already quite a few customers in the pub, but we were the only group dining that afternoon. There was a good range of Harvey’s beers on the bar, with the Sussex Best and IPA  joined by XXXX Old Ale and draught Christmas Ale. Talk about beer heaven!

It was close to half one by the time we sat down to eat, but this allowed ample time for a few pre-dinner beers. An open log fire added to the atmosphere, and with the Christmas tree and a few other tasteful decorations, the pub was looking suitably festive.

Eileen, Matthew and I went for the traditional roast turkey, which was very good. The Old went well with my main course, and after the dessert I gave the 7.5% ABV seasonal Christmas Ale a try. This year’s vintage, good though it was, seemed to lack some of the hop character I remember from previous brews, and I was wondering whether this had been due to the surprise order which Harvey’s received for 40,000 bottles, from the Systembolaget; Sweden’s government-owned chain of liquor stores.

This entailed brewing an extra batch of Christmas Ale, so perhaps things were a little more rushed than usual. Still, it sounds like some good extra business for Harvey’s, although I wonder how much bottles of Christmas Ale are retailing for in Sweden?

After our dessert, the landlord popped over and asked if we would be staying for Christmas Carols. These would be starting at around 4pm. We of course said yes, as it seemed an excellent idea. Villagers slowly began trickling in, and the main bar went from virtually empty, to standing room only.

Song books were handed out, and an electric organ set up, and as soon as everything was in order, the carol singing commenced; led by the organist. We worked our way through most of the old favourites, our singing helped by the generous amounts of ale we’d imbibed. It was great fun and a terrific atmosphere, and good too for both the pub and the local community.

Once the carols were over, it was the turn of the local children, with the appearance no less of  Father Christmas himself. Fortunately Santa based himself in the far room, but the pub had become very crowded by then. Mrs PBT’s doesn’t do crowds, so we grabbed our coats, said our farewells and made our way to the door.

As we were leaving, to make our way to the station, another group of villagers were standing round the recently erected Christmas tree, on the village green, waiting for the lights to be switched on. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day and really good to have witnessed the true spirit of Christmas.

The Grand Tour - Part Two

In the first part of “The Grand Tour”, we looked at some of the many breweries I have visited, here in the UK. In this second part We take a look at some of the overseas breweries whose doors have welcomed me.

Before going any further, it is worth noting that the brewing process is the same the world over. There may be some variants, particularly as many continental breweries employ a two or three stage mash regime and fermentation times are typically longer; especially for lager-type beers, but the basics still remain much as they do on these shores.

First Foreign Brewery Visit:

There were actually two of these,  which followed each other in quick succession. Both took place in the summer of 1975, when I was travelling around Europe, by train with a friend from university.

We were travelling on an InterRail ticket, journeying in a roughly circular route in a clockwise direction; a route which took in Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Both cities are home to world famous breweries, although today both companies have move out of their inner city homes to green-field sites. Anyway, let’s get started.

Heineken – Amsterdam

The Dutch giant’s original home was right in the centre of Amsterdam, and even 40 years ago was offering brewery tours on a daily basis. The tour cost the princely sum of one Guilder; I haven’t got a clue what that equated to back then, but it was  token amount, and anyway the money was donated to charity.

Unfortunately I remember very little from the tour, apart from the brewery being an impressive brick-built brewery, which was just a short walk from the city centre. The tour, which was conducted in English, ended with at least one complementary beer and possibly two. The brewery closed in 1988, when Heineken opened a much larger complex on the outskirts of Amsterdam.

Carlsberg- Copenhagen

Carlsberg’s original Copenhagen home was a bus ride away from the city centre, in what appeared to be a well-heeled leafy suburb. Like the Heineken tour it’s all rather blurred now, but I do remember the enormous bottling hall, and the famous “Elephant Gate”, with its ornate carvings. The photo below, shows a rather youthful me standing at the gate.

First and only visit behind the Iron Curtain

This trip involved a visit to Pilsner Urquell, in the southern Bohemian city of Plzeň (Pilsen). It took place in 1984, when Czechoslovakia, as the country was then called, was firmly in the Eastern bloc, and controlled by a totalitarian communist government. The trip organised by CAMRA Travel, a short-lived subsidiary of the Campaign.

Our tour took place in the morning, when many of us were already suffering from the previous night’s over-indulgence, and I’m pretty sure we had glasses of beer plonked in front of us before the tour even commenced.

I remember the impressive brew-house with its polished copper kettles, but the highlight was a trip underground to the labyrinth of tunnels beneath the brewery. Here the beer slowly fermented in open wooden vats, before being transferred into massive wooden casks, where it underwent a period of extended maturation. The tunnels maintained an even temperature of 6ºC  all year round.

In 2012, I re-visited Pilsner Urquell, over a quarter of a century later from that original tour. The brew-house looked much the same; although  it has been extended, but most of the fermentation and maturation now takes place on a forest of massive, vertical stainless steel tanks. We were again taken underground, as a small number of the wooden vessels are still in use, for taste comparison purposes, and we were even “treated” to a small sample of the unfiltered beer, straight from one of the wooded casks.

Largest overseas brewery:

This was a visit to the Guinness Brewery in Dublin, whilst I was in the Irish capital for the 2014 European Beer Bloggers Conference. We’d been invited to the brewery for a sneak preview of Guinness’s brand spanking new No. 4 Brew-House which, at the time, was not fully commissioned.

Guinness’s Dublin site was not at all like I expected. It occupies some 64 acres, but it wasn’t until we approached the maze of streets leading to the brewery that I realised just how old parts of it are. On the way to the new brew-house we passed the No.3 Brew-House, constructed in the 1980's. This was still in operation, but was due to be de-commissioned once the new plant came on-stream. With so much land available to them, Guinness simply mothball one plant, before moving on to a new one.

Despite us being sworn to secrecy and forbidden to take any photos, there was precious little to see. I have to say new, hi-tech breweries don’t do much for me; in fact they’re a huge turn-off. Give me a working Victorian brewery any day, complete with levers and pulleys, plus various wheels to turn, rather than a soul-less steel-framed shed, and I’m much more interested. The new brew-house is extremely versatile and is capable of brewing both ales and lagers, but that’s about all there is to say about it.

Most interesting overseas brewery:

Rodenbach was a brewery I had desired to visit for many years; having seen photos and read descriptions of the place in books by the legendary Beer Hunter, Michael Jackson.  Roger Protz also wrote about it. What really inspired me were the photos of row after row of massive oak vats, all containing beer which was quietly maturing away.

Rodenbach is a Flemish Red-Brown Beer. These beers are a blend of young acidified, mature acidified and oak-matured beer, which result from a lengthy maturation in oak casks. This lowers the pH of the beer and gives it a longer shelf-life. The sour beer imparts a complex and agreeably refreshing flavour, thus imparting this blended beer with a distinctive edge, and making it the perfect aperitif.

My visit to the brewery in the town of Roeselare was the final port of call on a whistle-stop tour of West Flanders, which was part of the European Beer Bloggers  post conference tour in 2015. Arriving in the evening gave a very atmospheric feel to our visit, especially whilst walking through the maturation rooms, filled with row after row of massive oak vats, and it’s no exaggeration to say the tour more than exceeded my expectations.

The Old and the New:

The visit to Rodenbach leads nicely on to the next brewery which took place the following day, in the picturesque city of Bruges. After an overnight stay, in a rather swish hotel, we were treated to a trip round De Halve Mann Brewery, which is right in the heart of Bruges.  De Halve Maan brews beers under the names of  Brugse Zot and Straffe Hendrik, and prior to our tour, we were able to try both beers over a very nice lunch.

We were first shown the new brew house, which has been shoe-horned into the rather cramped city-centre site, and now occupies much of the downstairs area. Of more interest was the old brewery, which is constructed on a traditional tower principle.

The old equipment has been left in situ, and gives a fascinating insight into days gone by. It is open to the public as a museum, but we were given special access right to the very top of the tower, and out into the open, from where we had an amazing view over the rooftops of Bruges.

Sumary

I have undertaken several other tours around foreign breweries, including two back in May, as part of the trip I made to Düsseldorf. Our group visited Schumacher, which is one of the oldest and certainly one of the most traditional Altbier breweries in Düsseldorf, and we also visited Brauerei Sünner; a Kölsch brewery in the neighbouring city of Cologne.

Two years previously, with the same group of people, I visited two quite contrasting breweries in the Czech Republic. The first was Bernard, one of the country’s most respected breweries, who brew in the small town of Humpolec. The second  was Chotěboř Brewery in the town of the same name.

Bernard is an old established brewery which has been given a new lease of life, following significant investment; some of which came from overseas. Chotěboř, on the other hand, is a brand new concern, but still no less interesting. You can read more about these trips, here.

This just about sums ups the overseas breweries I have been privileged to visit. They were all good and interesting in their own way proving, as I said earlier, that the brewing process is much the same the world over.

All of these breweries are in Europe, but next year I am planning a trip to the United States, so possibly I may end up touring a brewery or two over there.