My Little Bro

My brother is right into his photography and this post is nothing more than a shameless plug for him. Do yourself (and him) a favour and go check out his flickr sets here.

If you don't then I may be forced to track you down and feed you to the snake below. This is one of his many amazing photos, but I wonder how close he actually got to this beasty?

Authenticity that Money Can Buy

I walk past this fake blue plaque every morning on the way to work. It is situated outside "The King of Diamonds", a pub that I have previously described as rubbish. Seeing this bold attempt to claim authenticity makes me want to vomit. I regard this pub as being below the scuzziest of all the JDW venues - "The Sir John Oldcastle". Quite frankly, I would rather buy a can of Stella from an off licence and drink in a red phone box than drink in such a shit pub. The phone booth would probably smell nicer (most have been used as a dunny at some stage) and there are lots of ladies to catch your eye - or chat too if you are so inclined. Much better than the sausage 'fest that is any JDW pub.

Blue Plaques are supposed to celebrate great figures of the past and the buildings that they inhabited. They are not to be used in vein by shithouse boozers trying to look authentic.

About Blue Plaques

The jury is still out to as what is London's worst pub. I feel it could be a tie between The King of Diamonds and The London Pub - what do you think?

Feel the Schwarz

Last night after work I met up with a mate of mine Rodney whom has just moved to London from Sydney. Rodney is one of those mates who even if you only see him once every couple of years, it feels like you were only chatting to him yesterday. Anyhow, Rodney likes a bit of a schizzle over a few beers so I dragged him along to the media launch of BrewDog's new black lager - Zeitgeist. I won't harp on too much about the event as basically just about every other blogger has posted about it. The beer is pretty damn good though, and I was excited about drinking out of a bottle - a taboo issue in the UK, but common practice in the Antipodes. Chatting to James, BrewDog's head honcho bossman I had the hop and grain bill guessed after the first couple of ice cold sips. I like my beer cold, and it's the way a good lager should be. James was sporting a rather cool BrewDog tattoo on his arm. I was telling everyone that it was real, so I was a little embarrassed later on when he revealed that it was a stick on. I still thought it was cool, but cooler still he gave me one. I'm going to put it on my neck at the next CAMRA sanctioned event I go to.

Speaking of CAMRA, I was rather taken back by the reaction of several CAMRA members to the beer. Do they realize that this beer is not 'real' ale, actually not ale at all? It certainly is well outside their remit. Even old Protzy was getting in on the action. My guess is that they (CAMRA types) attended because the beer was free and they could escape a JDW boozer for an evening. I am also proud of the BrewDog guys for giving something away for free - They are Scottish aren't they? There was plenty of tickers making notes, intellectualizing and the like, but I just got on it and appreciated the beer for what it is. A good solid sessionable lager - hopefully a glimpse into the future of keg beer in the UK.

Anyhow after leaving the BrewDog event, Rodney and I smashed down roast beef bagel's from one of the fine establishments on Brick Lane and headed home. Whilst in my inebriated state, I ran into a friend from my university days and spent my whole tube ride across London waffling my special brand of verbal diarrhea. Yes my friends, Zeitgeist bestows the gift of eloquence, much the same as the Blarney Stone. Magical stuff.

Spring is near

Whilst walking to the tube station this morning, I noticed that the bulb flowers have started to bloom and all the trees have new buds starting to form. The tree outside my office window which I watched die back only a few months ago is now covered with the white buds of the new bloom. I am not a green thumb by any means, but for some strange reason I get excited (and no not sexually) by all this. I think there are a number of reasons. The first being that I like that things get bigger and better over time. Spring brings a feeling of renewal which leads to anticipation of good times and warmer weather. Of course this is an illusion as come mid-September everything dies and it gets cold and miserable again. One type of plant interests me more than others. This is the hop plant, the all important grass which seasons and preserves beer. I can visualize it now, thousands of rhizomes awakening all over Kent, Europe and North America with their buds preparing to break the ground an reach for the sun. Will this year see the end of the 'world wide hop shortage'? Will there be a new variety discovered that will transform brewing forever....... You can see why I get off on this stuff.

On a sadder note though, 11000 miles away in New South Wales my own modest hop garden is reaching maturity and the bines are starting to die back. I have tasked my Dad to pick this years harvest, dry them and place them in the freezer so I can use them upon my return - whenever that may be. My hop garden currently consists of 18 bines, but this will most likely be doubled next year. As our family farm is in the Monaro region of NSW it is far from ideal/commercial growing conditions, but perfectly acceptable for my requirements. The picture above was taken by my Dad on New Years day last year and these particular cones are from a Columbus bine.

Whilst it is not ideal for hop growing, It is a very good apple growing area though, and I plan to commercially grow cider apples in the future, but that's another story. Plus, I don't really like cider!

Tonight I am off to the launch of BrewDog's new black lager - Zeitgeist. I have not had a beer since Sunday, so I am frothing for a pint. I hope it's all it is cracked up to be.

Strong Ales

I think most people know that I like session beers. For me a critical factor of how good a beer is can be determined by how many pints I can drink of any one beer before I pass out, get in a fight, or be sick. Obviously the higher the number, the better for various sociological reasons. Due to seasonal availability, I have been drinking a lot of rather strong beers lately. These are beers that would make any US based drinker proud, often with an ABV above 6.5%.

Two of these beers which I have come across in recent weeks are neither new, glamorous or exciting, but they do happen to taste rather similar. One is Bottle conditioned and brewed by London's leading regional brewer, the other is filtered, pasteurized and mass produced by a Dutch owned Scottish brewery - but production differences aside they are remarkably similar, well to my tastes anyway.

The beers in question are Fuller's 1845 (6.3% abv) and McEwan's Champion (7.3% abv) - both are strong ales which have a distinct burnt/roast sugar taste and are not particularly well balanced.

Saying that, I am going to be positive today and not slag them off too much. One man's trash is another man's treasure. I'll let you guys decide.

.

St Germain and the 'JT'

We have been having a series of all day departmental meetings at work recently. To celebrate the conclusion of these we let off some steam at St Germain pseudo French restaurant near Farringdon Station. Now these sorts of venues are the ones I aim to avoid - usually at all costs. As it was an all expenses paid affair, it would have been rude not to attend.

The beer list included the usual Belgian suspects - no surprises there. An inclusion that I had not seen before however was Vedett (5.2%abv). This beer is brewed by the masters that also produce Duvel and it comes in a similar style bottle. This is where the similarities to Duvel end. The beer is thin and dry and really, really bland in the Dortmunder export style. It tastes exactly the same as Carlton Cold - hardly a complement. Best avoided.

To refresh my taste buds and actually deliver something worthy, I scanned the beer menu. CAMRA activists would be most disappointed at the lager dominated selection with Chimey, Duvel and Hoegaarden rounding out a token ale selection.

I made a bold decision and ordered Brooklyn Lager (5.2% abv) for my team members. This beer is a nice Vienna style lager that I could easily spend a long time raving and waffling on about, so I won't. I will recommend that everyone tries this beer, even if you are a CAMRA activist. Once upon a time you could source it in Tesco, but those days are gone and you need to refine your search a little now, but it's still out there.

The food was ok, but hardly worth raving about, I also had some wine which I found rather one dimensional. I won't rant about that too much either.

After dinner a few of us went around the corner for a few more pints at The Jerusalem Tavern. In general this is a nice little pub, but I am continually finding it more and more over-rated and the beer going progressively downhill. I had two pints of the St Peter's: Organic Best Bitter and Ruby Red Ale. Both were rather uninspiring and not well kept. The Organic Best Bitter was a fresh cask and it was flat as a tack and about 15 degrees - way too warm. What happened to cellar temperature?

I am not going to head back to the 'JT' any more, there seem to be better options in the area and I can afford to be fussy. Also, I question how they get their beer up from the cellar? Do they have an electric pump moving it? I am obviously amused by thinking about these simple things.

At least I had some people to drink with though, much more exciting than my previous Friday night!

http://www.vedett.com/

http://www.brooklynbrewery.com/

The Great Irish Birthday Continues

Just another quick post to thank our friends at Splendid Communications and Guinness for giving me gifts for their 250th birthday. This time I arrived home to find a T-shirt, 5 pens and 5 badges waiting for me. As I like all beer and not just beer that is cask conditioned, I think I am a good advocate for beer in general - Good, Bad, Real, Mass Produced, Whatever. It pays to be open minded, and I happen to enjoy the odd pint of Guinness on occasion.

If anybody London based is interested in a pen and/or badge then drop me an email and I'll hook you up.

Dodgy Local's

Dodgy pubs far outweigh decent ones in London, and leafy Brook Green is no exception. The closest pub to my place, "The Richmond" also falls into the category of scary local. I have only patronized "The Richmond" once, and this was with my mate Rich after a massive Friday afternoon session at the Ealing beer festival in 2007. Needless to say I never found any reason to go back, even though the nitro-keg pint of London Pride I had actually tasted passable. It's the scary clientèle that make you think twice and the fact that I was asked why I had dressed up for the occasion (I was wearing a rugby jersey and jeans) really shows the class of the venue.

Sometime last year, I was reading the free magazine "Shortlist" on the tube and noticed an article by Guardian journalist "Sam Delaney". It turns out that he was living in the same house as me and shared similar feelings about this particular pub. For those who I have not bored to death already, I have linked to a reprint of the said article below. Enjoy.

Dupont Saison

I have not got much time today due to an all day departmental meeting, but I thought it was worth pointing out that I think Dupont Saison is highly overrated. After hearing so many people rave over this style, I bought a bottle whilst in Brugge in January.

Anyhow, I didn't think it was much chop. I think I would get a similar result if I mixed half a pint of Hoegaarden with a half of Leffe blonde.

Over-rated.

Quick Reference Guide to Terrorists and Real Ale Freaks

Look at the picture above. Confusing isn't it? That is why I have prepared this quick post to help you identify your real ale/CAMRA/Ticker stereotype from your average Taliban fighter or terrorist leader.

Appearance: Both beardy wierdy and fundamentalist insurgent will appear similar at first. Both will be bearded and emit an odor that will evacuate a room. This is why many beer festivals are held in tents, and why the Taliban live in the desert. In general fundamentalists will be wearing a tea towelesque head piece. Real Ale types may be observed in the optional flat cap.

Religious beliefs: Real ale types believe in CAMRA whilst terrorists generally believe in Islam. Both will spit out similar mantra that they have been brainwashed with.

Employment: Whilst most Taliban members have a moral objection to beer, they think it is OK to cultivate opiates and heroin for a living. I suspect that real ale die hards are unemployed and live at home with their parents and several hundred cats.

Accessories: Real ale types will often be observed wearing many badges of honour, a plastic bag and a pewter mug attached to their belt. Taliban insurgents can generally be observed carrying an RPG or AK47.

As you can see there are some subtle differences between these two unusual stereotypes and with a little practice you will be able to identify each variant. These people do exist, so please excersize caution and do not approach by any means.

Battle of the IPA's: AUS vs USA. The results are in....

Over the weekend there was a showdown. Little Creatures Pale Ale (LCPA) from Australia in the green and gold corner, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (SNPA) from the USA in the red, white and blue corner. Allies in Afghanistan and Iraq meet to slog it out over the neutral ground of my flat in Brook Green, London. I should not big this up as a competition as really both these beers are awesome, but there is national pride at stake here. While they are extremely similar beers and probably made with almost the same grain bill and hopping regime, the experiences of the two beers are completely different.
I won't intellectualize each beer individually but concentrate on their differences.

Colour: They are both amber, but the LCPA seems to be slightly lighter in colour.
Carbonation: The LCPA has only very mild carbonation, although this could be a consistency issue. Bottles I have had in the past have been more carbonated. The SNPA was strongly carbonated at a level similar to US mega lager.
Aroma: Both had a similar citrus aroma, however the LCPA's was stronger and contained a pineapple/passionfruit note which was absent from the SNPA. I think LC uses chinook hops as well as cascade.
Body/mouthfeel/taste: I am lumping all these together. Overall they taste different. SNPA is very malty and has a chalk like bite. I think they use water that is a lot harder than the water used in LCPA. SNPA tastes a lot more bitter (perceived bitterness) because of this as well, but I bet these beers have very similar IBU levels. The LCPA tastes thinner, but more refreshing. You could drink more of it.

Which beer is better? Well they are both awesome beers, but different animals in the glass. If I was only having one beer and sipping on it, I would choose the SNPA. If I was drinking all day long in the Australian sun, then I would choose LCPA.

I should also note that I have deliberately called these beers IPA's rather than APA's. Although both of these beers appear to use American hops and would fall within the style guidelines for an APA - they are basically IPA's. Style guidelines are stupid - keep it simple.

Friday night booziness

My Friday nights usually involve a beer with the lads after work and then quickly home to take the Missus out for dinner. Last Friday night was supposed to be no different, but it saw me getting pretty smashed at home by myself before going to dinner. A sad thing I know, but I dealt with it.
The story starts with me salivating at my desk at 4.30pm hanging to get down to the pub for some more of the Tetley's Dark Mild which I had sampled over lunch time. I had a slight problem though - the office had cleared out and I would have to drink alone. Usually not a problem as I know several regulars at a few of the pubs around the office, but since having a borderline argument with one such twat over my lunchtime pint I retreated home collecting a few bottles from Waitrose on the way. Once home, I contacted the Missus to see how long she will be whilst I poured myself a pint of St Peter's IPA.
"I am playing winglady for Tracy*" was the reply from the other end of my mobile, "she has met a really hot guy and I'm facilitating. I am having one more drink."
Fair enough I thought, Tracy is a nice enough 30 something spinster who deserves to be happy too. So I booted up my PC and happily watched episode 6 of "Oz and James" on BBC iPlayer. I had to pause my viewing twice; once to visit the dunny, the second time to get another beer. It seemed as good a time as any to crack the bottle of Cooper's Vintage Ale 2007 reserve that I picked up in Whole Foods a couple of weeks ago. This beer was good. Actually very good, and it was nice to taste a beer brewed with Australian water. It's the terroir I tell myself while absorbing Oz Clark's attempts to intellectualize beer while James May tries to pass whitty criticisms. The iplayer viewing ends and it is time for another beer. They were going down rather easy. First the 5.5% IPA followed by the 7.5% Australian strong ale - a Fuller's ESB was exactly what I needed. There was nothing interesting on the TV so I watched the second episode of "Ross Kemp: Return to Afghanistan." I check my watch, still no sign of the missus. It's pushing 8.30 now so I give her a call - she is on the tube will be home in 20 minutes. Great I scheme, rubbing my hands together like an evil villain - plenty of time to drink that bottle of Budvar dark I have stashed in the vegetable crisper.
By the time the missus arrived home I was starting to feel a little tipsy, and she was not in much better condition. I decided a curry would be the cure, so we trotted out to my favourite London restaurant: "The Raj of India" - home of the best Kingfisher this side of Favisham. By the time we left the restaurant I was pretty pissed, but boy did I have fun even if I was drinking alone for most of the evening. I'll let you know if Tracy ended up pulling when more info comes to hand - it is probably more interesting than my Friday night was, but I thought I would share anyway.

* Name changed to protect the innocent!

Australian Beer Etiquette

Most countries with beer cultures have unwritten rules about how to act and behave in the pub. To many who travel to Australia from the USA or Europe (UK excluded), the culture and behavior of drinkers may be, somewhat in lack of a better word, "foreign". Australian readers will be familiar with these rules, but for everyone else they are as follows;

1. Always keep your beer in your hand, touching your plate or as close to the edge of the table as possible. Don't leave it in the middle of the table as this can become confusing when many people are drinking at the table.
2. Free beer should always be consumed at a pace greater than that of a beer which had been bought by you or someone in your shouting party.
3. Never accept a beer if you do not intend to shout on that evening. Shouting "next time" is not acceptable no matter how much interest is involved. This leaves the rest of your drinking party agitated and they will say bad things about you after you leave, or if they've had a few this may lead to violence.
4. Even worse than the previous rule is accepting beers from the drinking party and then just buying one for yourself when it is your turn. If you make it home without at least one broken bone you should consider yourself lucky!
5. If you are falling behind in the rounds, complaining that you ate too much is not a legitimate excuse. You should have foreseen the night of drinking ahead and not filled your beer stomach with food. The beer stomach must be kept separate from the food stomach at all times.
6. If the beer is served in a stubbie, pouring it into a glass to drink is simply not acceptable.
7. It is a well understood obligation that slower drinkers in a shout must attempt to keep pace with the faster members of a shout, so as to avoid bad feelings and cries of "Hurry up," "Beer Queer," etc.
8. Changing drinks on people during a shout is considered poor form. I.e., shouting everyone VBs then asking for a Crownie or other "boutique" beer on the return leg.
9. Guinness is to be served in an appropriate receptacle, i.e. a pint glass. Anything else is simply unacceptable.
10. When drinking, it is bad manners to talk up your drinking ability when you are not going to perform. This includes the oft observed phrase, "I may not be able to drink much beer, but I'd kill you on Vodka / Bourbon / Scotch," etc.
11. NEVER, EVER drink so slow as to allow a beer to warm up.
12. Beer from a tap must be drunk in the largest available beer glass of the establishment at all times, e.g. middie to be superseded by a schooner, pint to be superseded by a stein.
13. Toohey's or any brand of American beer should never be attempted to passed off as actual beer, unless obvious insult to the recipient/recipients is intended.
14. One's perceived beer drinking ability should not be in any way overshadowed by the frequency with which one visits the lavatory for urinary purposes. The idea is beer consumption, not beer retention.
15. Stubbies must always be bought over cans unless there is storage or transport issues.
    Knocking over someone else's beer will only be tolerated if there is a full replacement on the table in an acceptable amount of time.
16. Ambient temperature has no bearing whatsoever on the desire to consume beer. The day being "too cold" is never an excuse to get out of beer drinking.
17. No matter how much money is earned by each of the party members the same shouting rules apply, unless one of the more "well-off" members insists on re-shouting. However, this in no way implies a future obligation to repeat the form.

When in Australia, if you follow these simple rules and you will be OK.
Moving from Australian beer to UK beer. I have to commend Jeff on the delicious pint of Tetley's Dark Mild (3.2% abv) I had during my lunch hour today. A rare beer to see in London and a beer that is actually improved by the use of a sparkler. I also had some draught Sierra Nevada Pale Ale last night at Bodean's BBQ. For those who have not heard of this restaurant chain, they serve mediocre Kansas City, MO style BBQ and SNPA on draught. Pity it cost me £5.95 per pint though!

Beercasting

I tried to listen to a few different beer podcasts a few months ago but could not really find anything that was really entertaining. The best one, and the only one I still listen to is Craftbrewer Radio hosted by my fellow countrymen Graham Sanders and Ian the Cellerman. Quite frankly the show sucks and Sander's ego is bigger than... well bigger than any witty noun I think of right now! Why do I still listen? Well I do like that it has an Australian perspective, and tells the story as it is. For far to long the Australian beer related internet community has become a hot bed of myths and bullshit. A quick browse over at Australia's largest community, aussiehomebrewer.com yields a whole lot of rubbish posts and stuff that is basically untrue. At least Graham and Ian are outspoken enough to cut through the bullshit and get to the truth - a feat which often leaves them high and dry with the established community.

One thing that Craftbrewer Radio does that really annoys me though, is Graham's insistence on mispronouncing just about every brewing related term.

Graham, if you are reading this wort is pronounced wert. Say these words: world, word, worth. Now say wort? It is not that difficult, and it is logical. Other words he regularly butchers are Hefe as in the German word for yeast. He thinks it's heff, rather than huffa. He also has problems with Schwarz, claiming it is swash rather than schvartz. Anyhow the main one I wanted to identify before moving on is rauch. Graham thinks it is roush, sad isn't it. Next time you wish to say this word, you should think of the German word reich, and substitute the 'ei' for 'au'. Makes sense now doesn't it Graham??

Speaking of which, I picked up a bottle of Schlenkerla rauchbier (6.5% abv) from Whole Foods last weekend. I had never had a Bamburg smoked lager before and after my olfactory senses became familiar with the bacon aroma, I really enjoyed this. I think it would be the perfect beer to drink at Christmas in Australia when we tend to favour cold cuts of smoked meat rather than the traditional roast. It would be an ideal match. I pray to St Arnou that one day Sander's will sort out his words, but until then, I will just shut up and drink another beer.

http://www.schlenkerla.de/

Golden Glory

My wife picked up this bottle of Golden Glory (4.5% abv) whilst at Tesco a couple of weeks ago. I originally had no intention of posting about it until I was looking it up on the Hall and Woodhouse website today. The beer itself is quite dry with a definite wheat beer like taste, but what intrigued me was the intense fruit aroma that this beer emits. I originally interpreted the aroma to be of passionfruit and thought that it must be hopped with some new whizz bang New Zealand based hop. I was wrong, this beer is actually fortified with peach extract - thats right peach extract. Now why would anybody want to do this, I don't know? I suspect that the original beer was too shit to sell so they have jazzed it up with some fruit extract to make it palatable. When the warmer months roll in I'll consider looking this beer up again but for now I'll maintain my position that fruit extracts have no place in beer.
For those interested the beer was pretty uninspiring, but I guess most of you know that already...

Australia vs the USA

I am pretty busy this week and do not have time to write long witty posts about controversial issues. What I will do though is give a teaser into an upcoming post. At Whole Foods, Kensington on Saturday I bought a couple of bottles of an old favourite of mine - Little Creatures pale ale. I have been told by many people that Little Creatures pale ale (LCPA) is almost identical to Sierra Nevada pale ale (SNPA). I disagree and although similar, I think they are totally different beasts. I plan to pick up a bottle of SNPA from Tesco during my weekly shop this evening so I can reveal the truth. That's right, a side by side comparison of the two beers. Stay tuned.

Bière de Garde

Does anybody know where I can get my hands on some Trois Monts in London? Since reading about French farmhouse ales in Garrett Oliver's "Brewmaster's Table", I have been on a mission to seek it out to no avail. I have some Saison Dupont to take care of my Belgian farmhouse needs, but have had no luck on the French side. In my search I did luck across a whole stack of other gems at Whole Foods, Kensington - I will elaborate further upon these in the future. For now I have my sights on 3 Monts.

An Irish Birthday

This year is the 250th birthday of Guinness. Normally when it's your birthday people buy you lots of gifts. Guinness being Irish (and hence 'slightly' backwards) are giving lots of gifts away. Last night a courier dropped off the pictured 4 pack of the black stuff. Apparently he had been chasing me between my flat and the office for three days trying to make the delivery. Surely the delivery must have cost more than the beer! Anyhow, I plan to enjoy these cans whilst watching Ireland destroy France in the Rugby tomorrow evening.

Go raimh maith agat,

Sláinte

Pickled Partridge

I seem to have a new favourite pint glass. It's a Badger branded Pickled Partridge pint, and it is a cross between a traditional pint and an oversized wine glass. A happy medium! This particular glass was gifted to me over 12 months ago by Tom and Maura who used to manage The Andover Arms, along with a couple of Fuller's Rugby jerseys and my coveted ESB stemmed glass.

My wife noticed that I had been using the glass (which had been sitting in a box collecting dust) and picked up a bottle of Pickled Partridge (4.5% abv) from Tesco. Overall I like the beer. It's malty and as a special bitter should be and it maintains a cask like taste even though it has been bottled. A decent beer. Website

I should also note that this glass is a 'pint to line' glass, which actually makes the glass slightly larger than a pint. Currently there is plenty of debate over such glasses here and here.

Ross Kemp's tears cure cancer. It's a pity he does not cry.

Some of you may be aware that I like Ross Kemp. Not in a perverted sexual way, but his choice of work closely matches my interests in entertainment. For those of you who do not know much about Ross Kemp, you should start by visiting his Wiki-page. Putting aside the fact that he is a classically trained actor who is as well suited to playing roles penned by Shakespeare as he is at playing SAS hero's, Kemp is a seriously cool dude. In my little world, he ranks as tougher than Chuck Norris, Mr T and Vin Diesel all put together. From his early days advertising Fruit 'n Fibre for Kellogg's to his acting in Eastenders, and Ultimate Force: Kemp has never failed to impress. To reaffirm his tough stance he even goes and hangs out with Gang's and spends his holidays with squaddies in Afghanistan.
I am currently reading his bestseller 'Gangs' which accompanies his BAFTA winning documentary series "Ross Kemp on Gangs", hence my compulsion to scribe this post.
Why am I writing this in a beer blog you may ask? Well basically Kemp also likes to sip a few a few beers down. His local used to be the Tower Arms in South Weald, Essex, but as he now lives in Battersea I assume he no longer drinks there. I am also proud to announce that Kemp has volunteered to be the standover man and enforcer of CAMEL. Beardy Weirdies should be very afraid!
You can find Kemp's official website here. I am also willing to overlook the fact hat he was beaten up by his wife, Sun editor Rebekah Wade. She must be a hard lady.

Also for those of you who may be interested, the Bangers and Mash I had for lunch was excellent and maybe on par with my steak and ale pie. The Thwaites Nutty Black was alright as well.

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Get in the kitchen and cook me some pie!

Late last year I bought some Caffreys with the intention of making some steak and ale pie. Well I finally got off my ass and put the pictured concoction together. For those culinary nerds, I used Tesco Finest Rump steak and slow cooked it for several hours with some secret herbs and spices. Ok not so secret, they included some flour, onion gravy mix, vegetable stock cubes, onions and mushrooms. I also wanted to take a slightly different approach so I used dumplings instead of puff pastry to fulfill my carbohydrate delights. Not traditional I know, but damn tasty none the less. I am going to visit Jeff for lunch today at his pub. Will his chef's culinary skills stand up to mine?

I also watched the 'Celebrity come dine with me' omnibus whilst preparing and eating my creation. I was backing Abi Titmuss to win. Sadly she did not, but it was entertaining. She is surprisingly bright as well as being attractive. The fact that she swings both ways is a bonus. A top bird.

An 'Outsiders' view to CAMRA and the Good Beer Guide

I have been on the verge of joining CAMRA for some time, but I have finally decided that I'm not going to bother. While CAMRA has brought real ale back from the depth of despair, it seems that their mission is complete and now they campaign for marginal issues which basically alienate the industry that supports the products that they are so passionate about; The Pubs. For instance, the 'Take it to the top' petition is a trivial campaign that insinuates that one in four pub landlords are deliberately ripping off drinkers. The linked article states that the statistics were generated by a CAMRA survey, hardly what I would call an independent study. Campaigns such as this clearly end up alienating pub landlords who in turn may think twice before deciding to stock real ale. The reality of the situation is that real ale costs more to keep, prepare and serve than lager or nitrokegged bitter and also has a smaller profit margin. Obviously most landlords are passionate about real ale, otherwise from a purely economic and business viewpoint combined with an active campaign branding them cheats, why would they bother?

Secondly the reserved use of the term 'beer' by CAMRA. This is something that has been a minor annoyance to me over the last few days. The blogosphere is currently awash with reports about how the CAMRA publication 'The Good Beer Guide' is produced. I find this process fascinating and appreciate that fellow bloggers such as Tandleman and Maeib have documented the process and how it works with their local CAMRA branches. My issues here is in regards to a discussion raised by Boak and Bailey. The post itself is civil and informative and reflects my own fascination with the process, but when I questioned the inclusion of real ale only in the 'Good Beer Guide' it opened up the true closed minded, elitist nature of the CAMRA commenter's on that particular post.

The official website of The Good Beer Guide states "The best place to find good pubs and good beer" where I interpret beer to mean both ale and lager. I understand that CAMRA stands for campaign for real ale, and that is the interest of the consumer group but surely the word 'beer' implies both ale and lager. This is pure ignorance on the part of CAMRA and in reality the guide should be called the 'Good Ale Guide'. Another issue is the indecision of what the guide actually is. Is it a guide to real ale, or a guide to pubs? Different commenter's on the post in question seem confused. I had a skim through at my local WHS at lunch and basically it features pubs and mentions the real ales served. I see that The Jerusalem Tavern who stock the amazing Moravka lager is listed, but there is no mention of the British produced lager in the guide.

Back over at Boak and Bailey, one commenter Tyson makes the following point;

"CAMRA is an organisation dedicated to promoting real ale. The GBG is a by product of that-it was started and its purpose still is to help find real ale pubs. It is not close minded for an organisation to fulfill its remit-it is normal. The Catholic Church does not print a directory of Anglican churches, nor does the AA print the Good Train Guide"

Interesting enough, but neither The Catholic Church or AA publish a guide which is published under a blanket title such as 'Guide to Christianity' or 'Definitive transport in the UK', which is akin to the the CAMRA title 'Good Beer Guide'.

Finally Tandleman pipes up with;

"As Tyson says it is interesting to hear an outside view, albeit one that seems to miss the point".

Sadly it seems that the CAMRA folk commentating have missed the point. I understand the issue fully, but as an 'outsider' the issue is obviously too complicated for me. Really sometimes I feel like I am shouting at people with hands over their ears!.

I could keep on ranting, but I really couldn't be bothered. I'll speak with my wallet and not join CAMRA. Besides the benefit of not being stereotyped as a plastic bag carrying, bearded freak, I'd rather not let my money go towards pointless campaigns like 'Take it to the top', which inadvertently accuses the industry I like blogging about. I think I'll stick with CAMEL.

Photo atrribution to 46137 @ Flickr

Rubbish pubs

Last Friday night I went out for a beer with a few colleagues. In terms of pubs, we are spoiled for choice in Clerkenwell but sometimes even a sure thing like finding a decent pub gets royally screwed up. I should have realised as soon as someone said we would be joining members of the Sales team. I say this as they (Sales types) usually frequent a rather unattractive dive near my office called "The King of Diamonds". This place (pictured left) is more of a drinking factory than a pub and ranks well down my list of options. But anyhow, my excitement was renewed when I learned we were going to a different pub, one called The Blue Anchor off Chancery Lane. Upon arrival the place was packed and way too many people for the tiny bar to cope with. I looked around and to my disappointment realised that it was basically the King of Diamonds in a different location - a real let down. I think I understand the situation. The sales team are mainly single girls in their late 20's, and the Chancery Lane area is teeming with young up and coming solicitors fired up after a day in the law courts. These girls are out looking for a rich bloke (preferably one that wears a wig to work) and will drink in shithouse venues to find him. Sad really.

I did manage to get one pint of Pride in before beating a hasty retreat home where I smashed a bottle of Shepherds Neame Christmas Ale and a Leffe Bruin. Then I went for some Thai at the Parr's Head where I had some more London Pride. I felt suitably redeemed after this, but I will not be venturing out drinking with the sales team again.

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In other news, the snow has eased and I am back at work. Here is a snowman that is currently residing on Brook Green. He is strategically positioned between the Brook Green Hotel and The Queens Head. It is a pity he can't walk to either!

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How Queenslanders make XXXX?

Snowed In

It's absolutely puking snow down here today and I have been trapped inside. It's actually a shame as the few colleagues of mine that actually made it into the office today have ended up drinking pints at The Gunmakers and the pictures are even up to prove it! Yes the bottom photo is of my colleagues (I work with Peter) drinking it up, why I slave away at MS Excel spreadsheets and various MS Word documents at home. I'm tempted to venture out to my W14 local, but the constant stream of emails flooding my inbox is preventing me. At least it's snowing, cold and miserable and not just cold and miserable.

To all those people in Australia complaining about the heat wave I have four words - Harden the f@%k up......