Time will tell on new beer deal

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I see from this article in the Scottish Licensed Trade News (SLTN) that Glasgow brewing behemoths, Tennent Caledonian Breweries (TCB) has just secured a deal to become the main beer supplier for Alloa based Maclays Inns who have a portfolio of 26 managed pubs across Scotland.

My local real ale pub, The Three Judges, is a Maclay's pub but what makes the Judges a bit different from other Maclay's pubs is that they are given a bit more latitude and choice to decide what real ales occupy the eight pumps at the Judges given over to guest ales. These are usually sourced from Flyer and Firkin.

This new deal between TCB and Maclays still allows for Maclays to source "certain products outwith the agreement" however, according to the SLTN article, Tennent's believes that it will be able to "cover most of its (Maclays) beer needs". What 'certain products outwith the agreement' are TCB referring to? Well, Greene King, which own the Belhaven range of beers, has said that they are "delighted to continue to supply a selection of brands to Maclay".

My greatest fear is that this deal could restrict the Judges' ability to continue to select from a wide range of breweries and beers that increase drinkers choice and enjoyment. Hopefully this isn't the case and the Judges will still be able to choose and showcase some of the best beers from all across the United Kingdom, rather than being lumbered with a list that contains widely available, generic and lowest common denominator efforts from the likes of Greene King, Belhaven and Tennent's attempt at 'Scottish Craft Beer' (their words, not mine), Caledonia Best.

Time will tell.

Ho Hum....

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I've just caught sight of the pumpclip for a beer made exclusively for Wetherspoons by Bateman's brewery of Lincolnshire to commemorate and 'celebrate' David Cameron's use of the veto in defiance of the European Union. The pumpclip has Cameron at his Churchillian best giving two fingers to Johnny Foreigner.

The beer is called 'Veto Ale' and is made with 100% British ingredients, including Bramling Cross and Challenger hops.

Of the beer, Wetherspoons Chairman Tim Martin, said "Veto Ale is a traditional English bitter and a perfect example of a great beer style that you can drink and feel proud to be British,”

“I believe that David Cameron has taken the right decision on the Euro and that customers in our pubs will salute this with a pint of this excellent beer.”

The beer will be available in all of the Wetherspoons pubs.

I really can't be arsed with the jingoistic, flag waving nature of some brewers and pubs.

I think i'll be giving Wetherspoons a swerve for a while.

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The Session #59 - I Love Coffee

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A new year welcomes in a new The Session Beer Blogging Friday post. This time it's being hosted by Brewed For Thought and is on the topic of what do beer drinkers drink when not drinking beer.

For me it's an easy and obvious, but relatively recent, choice.

When not drinking beer, you will find me with my head in a bag of freshly ground inhaling deeply the gorgeously rich coffee aromas.

I went from and instant drinker to a fully fledged coffee geek quicker than you could say, "Monsoon Malabar". And, I love it.

I love everything about making a freshly prepared cup of real coffee; roasting and grinding the beans, the aroma as it permeates the kitchen and the rest of the flat. I particularly love the garbled gargle sound of the espresso machine, like the noise James Watt's cat makes when trying to clear a pubic hair from the back of it's little kitty throat, as it fires in to action.

I also love the way coffee has also enhanced my enjoyment of darker beers, particularly stouts and porters, as it's helped refine and retune my palete to appreciate further the dark and roasty tastes and flavours of these styles of beer.

I love coffee. It's what I drink when I'm not drinking beer.

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A Year in Beer - Part 2

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Welcome to Part Two of A Year In Beer which looks back and reflects upon the year just past as witnessed from not just my own personal experience but also through the eyes of other beer bloggers. We've already had January to June in Part One, so let's now look at 2001 from July through to December. Hang on to your hats. Here goes.


July

The beer festival season is in full swing by July and not wanting to miss out, I take myself to Staveley in Cumbria for the Hawkshead Summer Beer Festival. Three days of glorious sunshine, over 70 beers and one of the most chilled out and enjoyable beer festivals that I was to attend all year. The cream of British beers and British breweries were on show and I got my first taste, as did many others, of beers by the new kid on the brewery block, The Magic Rock Brewing Company.

They showcased four of their beers at Hawkshead (Human Cannonball, Curious, High Wire and Rature) and were fantastically received by the hot and thirsty scoopers who drank the Magic Rock beers dry by early on the second day of the festival. For Magic Rock, it set the tone for the rest of their year in beer. They have gone from strength to strength since their inception in May of 2011 and have picked up praise and plaudits not only for their excellent beers but also for their use of social media as a vehicle to raise the profile of the brewery and increase the customer base for their beers. Despite the circus themed pumpclips and beer labels, 2011 has shown that Magic Rock Brewing Company are no clowns.


In other news, Molson Coors announce the launch of  their 'female friendly' beer range, Animee.

It's beer that tastes of other things such as crisp rosé and zesty lemon.
According to Molson Coors, Animee is an "exciting opportunity to break down the barriers between women and beer" with a brand plan and product design that are "feminine and sophisticated without being patronising.”

The arrival of Animee results in various bloggers questioning whether women really need their own beer.

Meanwhile, Melissa Cole alerts us to another 'female friendly' beer.

In more beer news, this guy has an IPA every day in July, some students make evolutionary beer, Ghostie fights the IPA wars so we don't have to and BrewDog and Camra fall out.........again.


August

Yay! It's finally arrived. August is a great month to be a British beer drinker; the largest amount of pork scrathings assembled in the world, a tombola, the crack and tinkle of glass and then the cheer as someone drops their pint pot on the concrete floor and some beers to keep you occupied for a few hours can only mean one thing - The Great British Beer Festival at Earl's Court. For me, the foreign bars dominated as I drifted between them lingering longer each time at the Czech beer bar.

It would appear that everyone had a grand old time even if some people weren't happy about a perfectly serviceable and rather nice pint of Mild winning the Champion Beer of Britain.


Elsewhere in the beer world, the popular beat combo, The Elbow brew a beer which makes this man very happy,  a lively debate takes place when one beer drinker visits a new Glasgow pub and doesn't like what he sees and Cookie looks into his crystal balls. And, Dave from Hardknott brewery makes a video.

September
                                                       
Sainsbury's launch their Great British Beer Hunt and many beer bloggers, myself included, swore by and got all hot under their collars over a beer thought up by students and cuckoo brewed at Williams Bros brewery. The beer was Profanity Stout and it was rather nice. It still didn't win, though with that honour going to Ridgeway Bad King John. A Williams Bros beer, Caesar Augustus was second.

In other beer news, some American Evangelist tries to convert me when I pop out to the shops, I ponder the importance of good cellarmanship, Boak and Bailey goes beyond the grave in their search for beer and Ghost Drinker hires an Assassin.


October

October the First sees the introduction of some laws the will see drinkers paying more for their beer. In Scotland, new laws are introduced including minimum pricing per unit of alcohol. Some supermarkets attempt to get round some of the legislation by moving their warehousing operations south of the border where the legislation does not apply. In a move echoing this, BrewDog move their operations south too.

Also introduced, this time by Westminster, is a UK wide increase in the beer duty on beers over 7.5% ABV. This coincides with the decrease of beers which are less than 2.8% ABV.  Naturally, a few bloggers had something to say about these new pieces of legislation. One even went an entire month drinking only beers over 7.5% ABV beers until his liver turned to pate in protest.

In other news, a book about beer was published that some described as a 'dreadful disaster', others as "essential", Maltworms finds stainless steel sexy, The Tap East opens, Ghost Drinker has a threesome and I make history at the Wetherspoons Beer Festival.

November

November means Toon Twissup in Newcastle as over 30 beer bloggers and twitterers turn up at the Tyne for a great days beery fun. A few beers in Bacchus, followed by a tour of Tyne Bank brewery and then on to the excellent Free Trade Inn at Ouseburn. It was a grand day out which got blurrier as things progressed, especially after some of Hardknott's Vitesse Noir.

International Stout Day came and went without me remembering that it was on, but these guys remembered.

In other news, Simon Johnson has a beery confession, Boak and Bailey try to spot a craft brewery and Tandleman goes to Glasgow.

December

December is usually a good month for new arrivals, just ask Mary and Joseph, and this year was no different. December brought the arrival of a new, much anticipated, bar to Glasgow in the shape of Bruadar bar in the West end.

An Aberdeenshire brewery and pub chain expanded further into the tied pub game with the arrival of their new bar in London's Camden which brought out the Capital's beer mafia on opening night to give it the once over and say 'Awesome!'.

In other news, Police and Cats Protection League officers wish to question an Aberdeenshire beer entrepreneur for alleged over affection towards felines. Simon Johnson writes my favourite review of the year, Neil joins the Circus and Dave from Hardknott wishes goodwill to all brewers.

On reflection, I guess it wasn't a bad year to be a beer drinker.

Right. That's me done. Can I go for a nice beer now?

Cheers

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Golden Pints Awards 2011 - The Votes Have Been Counted.

Mr Rick Furzer, over on the Gastroturf blog, has painstakingly collated all the nomination entries for the 2011 Golden Pints Awards. Hats off to Rick, as there were 49 entries in total and it must have been a right pain in the arse to locate, list and link all of them.

Being the curious sort that I am, I thought that I would go through them all and tally up the various nominations in each categories. So that is what I have done. It makes for interesting reading most notably how quickly new breweries and their beers have managed to win recognition, kudos and establish themselves in the collective conscience of beer bloggers and beer drinkers.

The range of entries, in terms of the number of beer styles and breweries nominated indicates that there is a diversity of choice and tastes available not just from UK breweries but also internationally.

When putting this overall summative list together, I counted only those nominations that were listed as first or joint first on people's submissions. I haven't counted the runners up. One person changed their mind from their original Golden Pints Awards blogpost and updated on a later blog. In this instance,  I have included both nominations. If the person (that's you, Tandleman) wishes me to remove one of his entries then I will do that. It makes no difference to the overall result, though. I have left out the random self selected category.

The prefered system of voting was First Past The Post.

Can we now have the votes from the Norwegian Jury, please?

So here goes. The 2011 Golden Pints Awards in full are as follows.

Best UK Draught (Cask/Keg)

Twenty seven different beers were nominated for this category and the top three in terms of votes cast are as follows.

1. Magic Rock High Wire  - 6 Votes
2. Hawkshead Windermere Pale - 3 Votes
3 = Magic Rock Dark Arts, Magic Rock Human Cannonball, Summer Wine Diablo, Grain Redwood - 2 Votes

Best UK Bottle / Canned Beer

Again, almost 30 different beers  were nominated with the Kernel polling strongly with 7 of their beers being nominated in this category. Fullers were next highest with three of their beers present on the final list. The top three were -

1. Kernel Imperial Brown Stout - 6 Votes
2. Buxton Axe Edge - 4 Votes
3. Roosters Baby Faced Assassin - 3 Votes.

Best Overseas Draught Beer

Beers from the U.S. were well represented in the nominations. Out of the 30 seperate beers mentioned, over 60 % were American. Mikkeller held it's own with 3 of their beers nominated. However, only three beers in this category were nominated more than once. These were;

1. Odell IPA - 6 Votes
2. Stone Brewing Arrogant Bastard. De Molen Hot and Spicy - 2 Votes

Best Overseas Bottle/Can

Again, loads of single entries with only three beers being nominated more than once. These were;

1. Orval - 3 Votes
2 = Stone Sublimely Self Righteous, Uinta Detour Double IPA - 2 Votes

Best Overall Beer

Loads of single entries again with Magic Rock, The Kernel and Summer Wine well represented. There was no outright winner in this category as six beers were tied for first place;

1. = Buxton Axe Edge, Kernel IPA 100 Centennial, Magic Rock Human Cannonball, Magic Rock High Wire, Orval, Hawkshead Windermere Pale - 2 Votes each

Best Pumpclip/Label

Sixteen nominations in this category but a clear winner emerged early on and was never going to be caught.

1. Magic Rock - 16 Votes
2. Uinta Crooked Line Detour DIPA - 2 Votes

Best UK Brewery

This was a very close run thing with 3 breweries in the reckoning right down to the wire. Overall, fourteen breweries were nominated but the final five were as follows;

1. The Kernel Brewery - 15 Votes
2 = Magic Rock - 8 Votes
3. Summer Wine - 7 Votes
4. Buxton - 4 Votes
5. = Marble, Hawkshead, Fullers - 2 Votes

Best Overseas Brewery

1. Stone Brewing - 8 Votes
2. De Molen, Mikkeller - 4 Votes
3. = Odell, Orval, 1516 of Vienna - 2 Votes

Pub Of The Year

This was a very close run category with pubs from across the country being represented. In the end it was shared between a Newcastle pub that won many admirers at the Toon Twissup in November and a new addition to London's beer scene that arrived this year and has clearly made a huge impression..

1. = The Free Trade Inn, Newcastle. The Craft Beer Co, London - 6 Votes
2. = The Southampton Arms, London. Mr Foley's, Leeds - 4 Votes
3. Port Street, Manchester, Euston Tap, London - 3 Votes

Beer Festival/Event of the Year

From Alloa to The Great American Beer festival, people were out and about enjoying sone great beery times. The top three events for beer were;

1. Great British Beer Festival - 7 Votes
2. = European Beer Bloggers Conference, Toon Twissup - 2 Votes

Best Supermarket for Beer

1. Waitrose - 10 Votes
2. Booths - 6 Votes
3. =Sainsbury, Marks and Spencer - 4 Votes

Independent Beer Retailer

The Leeds Blogeratti are greatly impressed by their local offie. As are a lot more others. It swept the board, this year, and blew every other beer shop right out of the water.

1. Beer Ritz - 15 Votes
2. Bottle, Canterbury - 4 Votes

Online Beer Retailer

Again, only one winner here;

1. My Brewery Tap - 19 Votes
2. Beermerchants - 4 Votes
3. BrewDog - 3 Votes


Best Beer Book


1. Oxford Companion to Beer - 5Votes
2. Beer Quarterly (Camra) - 4 Votes
3. = Melissa Cole's Let me tell you about beer,  Hopaganda - 3 Votes

Best Beer Blog/Website

1. Ghost Drinker - 10 Votes
2. Boak and Bailey - 6 Votes
3. Pencil and Spoon - 4 Votes
4.  Called To The Bar, The Good Stuff, Reluctant Scooper - 2 Votes

Twitter Beer Person

1. Simon Johnson - 16 Votes
2. Broadford Brewer - 6 Votes
3  Zak Avery - 3 Votes

Online Brewery Presence

Again a fairly close run thing between two new breweries that have used social media to fantastic benefit in raising their profile and getting greater public recognition of their brewery and beers.

1. Magic Rock - 11 Votes
2. Summer Wine - 8 Votes
3. Hardknott, BrewDog - 3 Votes

So, concludes the results of the Norwegian Jury.

Have a good year in beer and hope that 2012 is as good as the year just passed for well made, tasty and refreshing beer.

Cheers.

A Year In Beer - Part 1

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At the dying embers of 2011, it's time to not only look forward to the New Year ahead of us but also to pause and take a few moments to reflect on the year that's coming to a close.

As someone who enjoys beer and writing the odd blogpost about the stuff, 2011 has been a fine vintage that's delivered a feast aplenty of great beer, new breweries and the wider choice and opportunity to experience and enjoy, what I believe is, the world's greatest beverage.

So, on the last day of the year, let me review the year in beer as witnessed from not just my own personal experience but also through the eyes of other beer bloggers.

January

January started the way December had finished; in some pub or other having a beer. This time, I was in The Bon Accord in Glasgow for the cask launch of two BrewDog beers; their Alice Porter and their new 'improved' 5.4% abv Punk IPA. It was the last time that I was to have BrewDog cask. Haven't seen it since, won't see it again as they have announced that it is cask no more from the Fraserburgh brewing upstarts turned 'national treasures'. Which is a shame as they used to make such nice beers.

What ever happened to BrewDog?

Are they still on the go?

In other news, two thirds of a pint beer glasses, known as schooners, become legal for use in British pubs. In a tasteless PR stunt, BrewDog (remember them?) stick a four foot five inch dwarf in safety pinned combats and a mohawk outside the Houses of Parliament and try and claim some, belated, credit for the law change.

Elsewhere, Mr RabidBarfly kept a note of his daily intake of booze during the month of January. It made for excruciatingly painful reading. Here's hoping he doesn't repeat it again in 2012.

February

There's nothing quite like a trip on the train in the pursuit of lovely pints of well made beer to banish the mid winter blues. So when February offered up the opportunity of a trip to York to meet thirty other like minded beery souls for a Twissup, I jumped at the chance. York is a wonderful place for a beer weekend. It's got charm, history and antiquity in equal measure and some fantastic pubs too. Highly recommended.

Elsewhere in the beer world, Molson Coors spend a Sharp £20 million buying some Cornish beer. It seems to have paid off judging by this article. InBev and Stella  attempt to enter the fermented apple market by launching Cidre just as Cider sales take a nose dive. And this blogger has a pop at 'Kevin' from the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) while the debates over Keg versus Cask and the use of the words 'Craft Beer' rolls on and on.......

March

March was Budget time and brewers, landlords and beer drinkers felt a hammer blow as a 7.2% rise in beer duty was announced by the Chancellor. Also introduced was a new additional duty on any beer over 7.5%. The pubs industry were up in arms citing that these increases could lead to 10,000 jobs being lost and would increase the rate of pub closures across the UK. The increase meant that beer duty in the UK is 8 times higher than France and 12 times higher than Germany.

Yet again, the Chancellor chose to see beer drinkers and the price of a pint as easy targets and convenient cash cows. You would have expected brewers, publicans and drinkers to be fundamentally opposed to this increase. They were. With one exception.

BrewDog, "wholeheartedly" backed the Chancellor's proposals saying they were "a blessing for Craft Beer" and that "increases in duty can only help to get more people to drink better quality beer". With beer friends like these, who needs enemies.

April

The month begins with a flurry of April Foolery as spoof beer blogs appear that chuckle and amuse. This hilarity is shortlived when a heavily hyperbolic and passionate blog post fires off a clusterfuck of anti-Camra invective that fanned the flames of a debate that burned bright but not necessarily with much heat.

The Tories in power, record levels of unemployment, recession, angry and disaffected youth on the streets and an increased sense of hopelessness and disillussionment across the country can only mean one thing;

a Royal wedding and an extra day off work. I spent my day off work arranging the tables, sorting out the bunting and making cheese, pineapple and pickled onion hedgehogs for our much anticipated street party.

No. I. Didn't.

I spent it at The Paisley Beer Festival, pulling pints and helping the punters drink the foreign bar dry. Many saw the day off as an excuse for an extra days drinking, away from the deferential sychophancy fest that was the blanket TV coverage on Royal Wedding Friday. Paisley Beer Festival was Camra's Big Society in action and hats off to Alesela for saving the day.

May

It all goes a bit 'radio rental' in May when Camra chairman, Colin Valentine, in a keynote speech at the organisation's AGM, has a pop at the beer 'bloggerati' for having the cheek and temerity of talking up beer and encouraging others to try something new and different.

Unfortunately for Colin, someone records it and posts it on YouTube.

The comments go down like a pork pie buffet at a vegan convention and a few people get all twisty knickered over it.

Remember Beerleaks?? The website set up to expose the dodgy dealings and beer myths of the brewing multinationals and get you drinking more 'craft' beer', only to disappear a couple of days after it launched when it was pointed out that a certain Fraserburgh brewer had previously used clear glass bottles. Half cocked, kneekerk, clueless and ultimately, very embarassing for all involved.

In other parts of the beer world, Reluctant Scooper sings us a song, Pete Brown vents his spleen and Mr RabidBarfly goes to Manchester.

June

With summer just around the corner, my thoughts turn to lovely, golden hoppy beers and June was the month that I first came in to contact with a brewery that makes superbly hoppy and flavour packed beers, The Tempest Brewing Co. My first pint of Tempest was in June at The Scottish Real Ale Festival when I had a pint or two of their Rye PA. I was to later immerse myself in a night of nothing but Tempest at their Tap Takeover event at Edinburgh's Bow Bar.

Finally, to finish off Part One of A Year in Beer, I'll leave you with a nice little parody of 'Craft' brewing.

Part two tomorrow.

One Man's Quest For Beer

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It's the festive season and no doubt your thoughts will turn to maximising your beer intake in order to get you through the holidays. But remember, there comes a time in the evening when you know that you have had enough. Take your inability to walk straight and your inability to talk straight as signs that you have had your last beer of the night.

When this happens, you should say your goodbyes and head home. Failing that, you should locate the bundled heap of guest's jackets in the spare room, crawl under them and go to sleep.

What you should never, ever do is convince yourself, like the guy in the video, of the need for one last six pack of beer from the local kwik-e-mart. It will only end in tears.

Have a wonderful Christmas and go easy on the eggnog.

Cheers.

Following The Beer Star To Bruadar

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And lo, it appeared in the West, a new beer star; it's brightness burning boldly as a beacon of beervana that offered hope to the hopless, salvation to the stoutless, keg to the converted and some free mini burgers if you were lucky enough to get there early.

Walking down Byres Road, towards Partick Cross, it's hard not to be drawn like a beer moth to an incandescent ale flame of a neon sign that proclaims, 'Cold Beer, Warm Heart' and marks the arrival of Bruadar Bar to the West End of Glasgow.

Fuller Thomson, the people that own Holyrood 9a and The Red Squirrel in Edinburgh as well as Drouthy Neebors in Dundee, have travelled west like modern day Wise Men acquiring, as they go, a 5 year lease on the former site of The Millhouse. You'll know where it is but probably didn't go in when it was the Millhouse as it was a fairly unexceptional place serving dull food and generic beer.

Bruadar Bar aims to be different to what's been before. It has beer. Lots of beer but more about that later. It also sells food with burgers making up most of the menu. A choice of twenty meatily thick 'gourmet' burgers served with thin and elegant crispy shoestring fries that are perfect for picking up and dunking into a dollop of ketchup. Most of them for less than eight quid, which is pretty good value in my book.

Not much has changed in terms of interior from it's previous incarnation save for a fresh lick of paint and the arrival of long tables that produce a conviviality among it's customers that is contagious. The tables, like the food, are made for sharing. The biggest change, however, is the removal of the beer fonts and handpulls from the bar and their relocation to a stainless steel panel attached to the bar's back wall similar to what the Euston Tap has. There are 20 taps serving the most diverse range of keg and cask beers currently available in Glasgow.

To the right hand side of the till sit ten taps that offer a mainstream choice of continental (Staropramen, Peroni, Stella) and home grown (Tennent's, Belhaven and West). The left hand side of the till sit the 10 pumps that showcase the 'cool' beer selection that the hip hopsters crave.

As a statement of Bruadar's beery intent to be at the forefront of a resurgent interest in good beer, opening night was notable for the number of beer 'firsts' that took place.

The first time Lovibonds beers available in Scotland


The first pub appearance north of the border for Magic Rock's excellent beers.

The Glasgow premiere of William's Brothers' Profanity Stout


Keg and cask Tempest beers side by side in a Glasgow debut


Black Isle beginning to make it's presence felt on the west coast.

 

These weren't mere beer baubles or tannenbaum trinkets brought out for the opening, to tease, entice and attract as headline grabbers only to disappear once the fuss has died down but a window into Bruadar's beer future. They aim to continue as they have started; by offering Glasgow and west coast drinkers a place where some of the best beers from Britain, Belgium and beyond are regularly available. I've seen what's in the cellar and, in terms of breadth of choice and quality of beers, Bruadar will take a lot of beating.

As you would expect from any opening night, there were a few minor hiccups - temperamental tills and bar staff unsure of some of the prices but these are issues that will resolve themselves with experience and some staff training.

I was taken by Bruadar. I liked the choice that Bruadar offers drinkers that want to try different tastes, flavours and styles of beer.

I liked and appreciate the thought that has gone into this pub, particularly the beer range.

I also liked the fact that Bruadar proves that cask and keg beer can co-exist side by side without the beer world imploding. Who would have thunk it?

The arrival of Bruadar means that the west end's quest for Glasgow beer domination moves a step closer. The corner that Bruadar inhabits is also home to one of the best real ale pubs in Glasgow, the Three Judges. BrewDog and the Bon Accord are not far away, either. That, has the makings of a rather fun mini pub crawl.

I've been in Bruadar a couple of times since the opening and it hasn't let me down. I've had a couple of great pints of Tempest's Into the Light and the Lovibonds 69 IPA has impressed me greatly.

On the showing so far, Bruadar's beer light will continue to burn bright for some time to come.

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