1001 Beers ......

1001 Beers You Must Try Before You Die is the latest collection of beers, photos and tasting notes to make you thirsty and keen to travel. This one is a bloody monster, with 960 pages, weighing over four pounds and includes (obviously) over a thousand beers.

Leading beer writer, Adrian Tierney Jones has put together this collection and is credited as "general editor" but the point of difference for this book is that he has cajoled over 40 of the World's best beer writers to do a lot of the legwork and write many of the reviews. This has the benefit that each page you turn to is written by someone different and this makes it more readable and enjoyable to dip in and out of.

It brings back memories of beers that we have enjoyed and increases the ambition to try others of the world's greatest beers many of which are becoming more available in this country but many others that will require a journey.

The illustration is strong with hundreds of colour photos, mostly of beer, bottles and glasses, but many also of labels, breweries and old adverts. The typeface is easy to read for such a large tome with a maximum of two beers per page.

With 1001 beers an index is essential and the book has two for that reason. At the front we can find a list of beers by country and at the rear a list by brewery. There is no real need for an index by beer style as the book itself is separated into five chapters, Amber, Blond, White, Dark and Specialty.

Although most of the beer reviews include the story of the beer or brewery as well as the tasting notes this book majors on the beers themselves - there are no chapters on beer and food, no maps, no travel notes, no chapter on how beer is made - it showcases beer and beer alone, cramming in 1001 and for that reason it is an absolute winner and another necessary volume for any collection.

Cover price is £20 but mine came from Amazon at a very reasonable £13.50 - for such a heavy book, the postage was probably that much alone.

London Ale Taster

Gizza job - I can do that

If there is one job I have to apply for this year it is the volunteer position of The London Ale Taster. London's historic Old Spitalfields Market has announced that it's going to resurrect this ancient role that disappeared from London some two hundred years ago.

The full details are at www.londonaletaster.co.uk should you want to join me in applying or, indeed, just going along to the event on the 9th June for what looks like a fun beery day out.

Right, back to that application.

Part-time Beer Blogger

Bloody Hell ! I bet you thought I had run off to join the loonies. If half of the visitors here disappeared over the Christmas break, I guess the other half have now left following my holiday.

I have just been away for two trips. The first was a Beer and Battlefields 5 day tour in Belgium with Podge's Tours . More on this later but, suffice to say, if you have not yet come across Podge's Tours, they now have wholehearted Beer Justice approval.

Having left Mrs W at home for close to a week, she was insistent that she also get a break away. I tried to convince her that a short break to Ghent or Antwerp was best, I even had my eye on The Football Pub in Rome and was close to convincing her but something a little more upmarket was required and a Mediterranean cruise was booked at the last minute. Again, more about this anon but boy, if you want to eat 24-7, this is the holiday for you. San Miguel for a week is less recommended though - far too gassy for my tender tummy.

Anyhow, for those who showed concern, I am back in circulation and have plenty in the diary so I will hopefully now be bringing more of the same sort of stuff that has grown the readership to double figures over the last couple of years.

Cheers for now ....

By the way, get well soon to a loyal visitor to this blog, BryanB, who was on the receiving end of a Viking's axe a short while ago.

Monster Raving Loonies

I have no real desire to comment on the election, but I did come across the Monster Raving Loonies manifesto which includes the following :

Identity Cards

ID cards will be issued in form of a small compact mirror with the following instructions.

1.If asked to identify yourself .....look in mirror to check that its you. If you cannot identify yourself....

2.Ask someone else to look in the mirror to see if its you....If you still cannot identify yourself....

3.Try again later when sober.

My own suggestion for their manifesto is as follows :

Reduce the drinking age in pubs to 16 and increase the drinking age in off-licenses and supermarkets to 21. Thus removing street and home binge drinking among under 21s into the controlled, supervised and safe environment of the pub. We all started drinking beer sensibly in pubs aged 16 and 17, why not our children and grandchildren ?

Willoughby Arms - St George's Day

As we approach St George's Day, I am again pleased to give a shout-out to my friends at one of my favourite pubs, The Willoughby Arms in Kingston.

Their traditional St George's Day beer festival starts at noon on Thursday and ends on Saturday offering the usual 30 odd beers.

The beer list is on their website - www.thewilloughbyarms.com

Highlights from the beer list are the two beers, Wandle and Junction, from Sambrook's Brewery which seem hard to find in my patch, together with Spring Ale and Honeydance from Twickenham Fine Ales . I guess Honeydance is a special Sundance brewed with honey. There is also the legendary Downton Chocolate Orange Delight and, although I have been going on about it for two years, I challenge anyone not to love that beer. Dark Star are also represented with their Saison, Festival and IPA beers. To finish there is another rare cask of Fullers Golden Pride. Something for everyone.

If you dig deep on the Willoughby Arms web-site you will also find a copy of this video that I took at the event last year. Come along on Friday at six and you can see them in the flesh so to speak.

Just because I wear a hoodie, it doesn't make me a bad person.

I gotta share this pic which goes a long way to describing how much I am enjoying the current Wetherspoons Beer Festival. This was taken at the JDW in Aberystwyth over the Easter weekend where I was on a family trip and by good fortune found some early festival beers.

First up was the Maui Coconut Porter (5%), brewed by Garrett Marrero from Maui Brewery, Hawaii who travelled to Bank's at Wolverhampton to brew a cask version of his beer. Look out for this, it is delicious - a classic stout with roast flavours mellowed by the smooth silky coconut with chocolate and coffee notes. Not to most of my family's taste but perfection for me.

After a couple of those next up was the Herold Black Chalice (4.8%) another stout imported this time from Czech Republic. Another winner.

I am not a particularly regular visitor to Wetherspoons, preferring a more traditional pub, but I really do enjoy the beer festivals - 50 odd beers over three weeks with some spectacular efforts brewed by visiting brewers (I am still looking for Honkers by Goose Island, Chicago) and some really good British beers brewed specially for the event - check out Sharp's Gentle Jane if you see it, a fruity and spicy 4.8% pale beer brewed using Belgian yeast.

Wetherspoon's beer festival goes on to the 25th April.

We Love Hops / Hops A-Z

This is a bit of a lazy Sunday type of blog post - as indeed was the last one on Friday - but there are a couple of web-sites that may have passed you by that deserve a wider audience.

If you are anything like me, you will have noticed over the last couple of years the increasing importance of hops in beer. As the golden style of beer has become more popular, so has the more adventurous use of hops, both British and International, in those beers giving more distinct aromas and flavours and high, sometimes huge, bitterness.

Much of brewing remains a dark art to an enthusiastic consumer such as I and there is little by way of sophisticated information to educate one in the science of the hop. A couple of blogs though have recently provided a worthy public service about hop types and I commend them to your attention :

At the Thornbridge Brewer's Blog, Kelly Ryan elaborates upon the wide range of hops that are currently available from their hop merchants Charles Faram here.

and Simon Johnson aka Reluctant Scooper has spent the last month or two researching the hop and most of his blog postings recently have been in the series : Hops A-Z. Check it out here.

I know I like hoppy beers, perhaps now I am on my way to knowing more about why I like them so much.

Beer Festival Diary

The latest London Drinker magazine has just been printed. An electronic version can be read here. I list below those imminent festivals that have chosen to advertise in the magazine.

April
8th-10th Bexley CAMRA, Sidcup Sports Club www.camrabexleybranch.org.uk
9th-10th Hook, Surbiton www.hookbeerfest.org.uk
15th-18th Waltham Forest Council S&SC Walthamstow
22nd-25th Red Cow, Richmond
23rd-24th Willoughby Arms, Kingston www.thewilloughbyarms.com
30th-3rd Harefield Harefield Village
30th-3rd White Horse (LocAle) Parson's Green www.whitehorsesw6.com

May 6th-9th Aldborough Hall Farm, North Weald www.aldboroughrealale.co.uk
8th Five Bells www.thefivebells-chelsfieldvillage.co.uk
20th-23rd Hope (Mild), Carshalton www.hopecarshaltonpub.co.uk 28th-31st Red Lion (Champions) Isleworth www.red-lion.info

June 8th-12th Thurrock CAMRA, Grays
17th-20th Hope (Summer LocAle), Carshalton www.hopecarshaltonpub.co.uk
25th-26th Kingston CAMRA, Workmen's Club and Institute

July 2nd-4th Princess of Wales Morden Rd, S Wimbledon www.powmerton.co.uk

500 Beers

My latest raid on Amazon included the newly published beer book, 500 Beers by Zak Avery the latest in the current vogue of beer collections - at least with this volume you are not expected to die trying to taste all 500.

It is clear from the tasting notes that Zak has tasted all 500 of these beers and for that alone he must be acclaimed - a great effort even if he did share them with his Beer-Ritz colleagues.

The book is an unusual format, more short and stubby, but quite fat at 288 pages. Not sure I even understand that but perhaps you get my drift if I say it is a size more appropriate for the smallest room rather than the coffee table.

The bulk of the book is taken up with the beer - as you might expect - 500 beers - not the best or rarest or strongest though all of those are included. It is a users guide to the world of beer. The beers are split into styles starting with different styles of lager and drinking through the whole range of English, German, American and Belgian styles ending with American esoterica and very strong beer.

Each beer is described in about 50 words and if you think there are only so many ways you can describe hop or malt character (I prefer "hoppy" and "malty") then Zak has nailed it with his tasting and retailing experience, his mature palate and his vast lexicon of beer. It is another of those books that makes you want a beer just by reading about it. Each entry either brings back a memory of a previous tasting or increases the desire to hunt down certain beers.

The book is lavishly illustrated with many full colour pictures of the beer world and has a good quality look and feel to it - perhaps it is too good for the smallest room and should be promoted to your smallest coffee table.

Cover price is £9.99 but it is well worth the £6.01 I paid through Amazon.

If there is one criticism of the book it is that there are too many photographs of German beers and gratuitous use of buxom Bavarian beer babes. (Did I really write that ?)

Finally am I the only person who delights in finding mistakes in this sort of book ? With so many beers to catalogue slight errors are bound to creep in. In Roger Protz's 300 Beers it offended our Welsh friends that Brains Dark was described in the index as from England. I assume that Zak has already spotted his deliberate mistake where Dark Star Saison is shown with a Belgian flag - a good pass at a Belgian beer style but, of course, brewed in Sussex.

You can find Zak's blog here.

Cask Ale Week

There is a regular criticism of those who write blogs about beer that they only write about bottled beer - sitting at home, cracking open esoteric bottles in their own company, pasting up photos and telling everyone what a great sensation it is.


I find it easy to drift into that category but I also feel I am a champion of the pub. Get out more ? - I always try to. Real ale is my favourite type of beer and it is only available in the pub. The pub is where I am most at home.

This week is the second Cask Ale Week when the beer and pub industry is encouraging more people to try a drop of Britain's National drink.

For me, and I guess most people who read here, every week is Cask Ale Week but if you have dropped in by accident, I ask you to put down your mouse, turn off the computer, get off to the pub and raise a glass of real ale to toast everything that's brilliant about beer. Cheers !