Wychwood Ginger Beard

During GBBF week, I arrived home to find a small parcel sent by the kind people at Marston's. It included a bottle of their latest beer, Wychwood Ginger Beard, a bar of chocolate and a pack of stilton with apricots, all boxed in a wicker basket. A nice gift and perfect choices to match with the beer.

Unfortunately, as soon as the pack was opened the chocolate was gone. I am a bit of a chocoholic and had enjoyed the 100g M&S Dark Peruvian Chocolate before I could even get the cap off the bottle of beer.

(Memo to PR teams, if you send me chocolate with beer, send extra chocolate).

Feeling a bit guilty about this, I thought I should try to do the cheese more justice. It was a shame that the cheese had been spoiled slightly by the warm weather (and the fact that I didn't open the pack until overnight after a long GBBF session) so I dug out Sue Nowak's Beer Cook Book to chase down a suitable recipe. Portered Stilton leapt from the index, a slant on Potted Stilton where leftover cheese is traditionally mixed with leftover port to spice up an apres-repas (is that a word ?)


Here's a precis of the recipe :

8oz mature blue stilton
1oz tiny chestnut mushrooms, sliced thinly
1oz walnuts, chopped
2oz butter (unsalted)
2 tablespoons of porter

Roughly grate stilton into a bowl, add the walnuts. Saute the mushrooms with half the butter, add to the bowl. Slowly add the beer and stir until softened. Pack firmly in a heavy pot, seal with the remaining melted butter and refrigerate.

OK, so I used stilton with apricots instead of blue; chopped the cheese and used normal mushrooms; used pecans instead of walnuts, marg instead of butter and vitally Wychwood Ginger Beard instead of Porter - but it was still a culinary victory for someone like me who doesn't pick up a pan from one month to the next.

Having only used a little of the beer in the recipe, I was able to serve the rest of the bottle at the table in small glasses to accompany the cheese dish.

The beer, as you might guess, is infused with fiery root ginger which perfectly complimented the cheesy paste. The spicy finish livening up the creamy, fruity and earthy flavours of the apricot stilton and the mushroom. The theatre of presenting the beer to accompany the dish gave me much kudos among our guests.

The beer itself is a 4.2% amber coloured, ginger'd beer rather than an alcoholic soft drink. It is clean tasting, fresh and refreshing. It is packed with ginger taste. This is not a subtle beer; if you love ginger, you'll love it.

I can't say that this would ever be my favourite beer but it has brought me back to the kitchen and given me enthusiasm to do more cooking with beer, so that's no bad thing.

It has not given me any desire to grow a ginger beard !

Brewery History Society - Michael Jackson

As I failed to publicise the Brewery History Society's recent conference held in Burton, it is right that I make amends to give a shout out for something slightly nearer home.

The latest edition of the Society's Journal is a special edition to celebrate the life and work of Michael Jackson. The editor, Tim Holt, invited leading beer writer, Pete Brown, to edit it and they gathered a well respected and experienced list of contributors.

The result will be launched at the Rake in Borough Market at 6pm on Sunday 27th March.


Hopefully there will be a good turnout to further mark the contribution that Michael Jackson made to beer writing.


If you are in any doubt of his influence, the picture used to illustrate this piece shows the banner above the bookstore at the Great American Beer Festival in 2008, perhaps demonstrating that it is the USA where he was/is most recognised.


For more details of the Journal see the BHS web site .


Pete Brown has also provided more information on his blog here.


The cover price is £4.50 but, naturally posted free to all members, included in the subscription of the Brewery History Society. The annual membership is £18 which continues to represent remarkable value given the continued quality of its Journal again demonstrated by this special edition.

London's Riverside Pubs

A glimpse of sun and a few hours more daylight and I feel inclined to re-join the beer blogging world.

This was supposed to be a bog-standard review of the latest beer book to land on the doormat, London's Riverside Pubs by Tim Hampson but its arrival and subsequent thumb-through has stirred a rousing of passion from within and a desire to reflect on my life in London and my memories of riverside pubs.

(My fiftieth birthday approaches on the eve of GBBF and it is causing many such reflections.)

Reflecting on fifty years in London, it is fair to say that the River Thames has been ever-present without being particularly influential. I have spent time in plenty of riverside pubs without ever really realising their significance.

I spent my early years in Mortlake. Indeed, my father's family ran a dairy on Mortlake High Street before I was even born and my grandfather's local in '40s and '50s was the Old George which was demolished in '60s making way for a wider road and the modern Charlie Butler (both Youngs pubs) both very close to the Mortlake (Watneys / Budweiser Brewery and the river bank.

As a child I lived in East Sheen, a short walk from the river, and this is where I still call home today.

I never went to university but everyone locally takes either the side of dark blue or light on Boat Race day - which happens to be this Saturday. A fight to the bar among the crowds in the Ship at Mortlake watching the finishing line is always a blast. Excellent London Pride here too.

As a teenager, I got to know the riverside pubs pretty well from Kingston, where the Bishop Out of Residence was Young's brand new trendy pub in 1979, meeting friends in Teddington and Twickenham where the Barmy Arms was a favourite place for teenage misbehaviour and the Turks Head (Young's again), the scene of some river naked skinny dipping the evening when I finished my A levels at the local college.

Happily I did eventually show some maturity which brings me to Richmond's pubs where I met and wooed my wife. Young's, White Cross and Watermans Arms being close to the river together with the Old Ship - more centrally townside, the upstairs crows' nest being a particular favourite spot.

I started married life in Barnes, where estate agent poetic license described our flat as having "top-window" riverside views. Not really a total misrepresentation but you did have to stand on the loo to see the boat race crews whizz by in an instant.

I remember celebrating my qualification as an accountant with a fine dinner in the restaurant attached to the Bulls Head, Barnes, the famous riverside jazz pub (Young's yet again) and spent many splendid afternoons in and out of pubs along this stretch.

In my working life, I was never far from the river spending seven years in Southwark Bridge Road and a short walk to London Bridge where you now find the excellent Rake, Market Porter and Barrowboy & Banker. Then fifteen years in the Adelphi Building on the north bank at Embankment. My office was at the back of the building (as the beancounter, I was non fee earning staff !) though I could see the river if I stretched and gazed out of the side window and I did plenty of that.

Not too many actual riverside pubs in this stretch of river but if you count The Strand and Fleet Street it was fair to say it was not all work and no play. Indeed the Strand now has a rather good pub crawl now if you include the Harp at one end, the two Nicholson's pubs, Coal Hole and Wellington, together with the historic Nell Gwynn and Sam Smith's Lyceum. If you have the stamina, Fleet Street provides the second half of a monster pub walk if you so choose.

My CAMRA and beer blogging efforts always keeps me close to the Thames. I have enjoyed many visits to Fullers Griffin Brewery and generally walk there from home, about forty minutes if I don't stop at the White Hart or Bulls Head in Barnes always arriving in time for a sharpener in the Mawson's Arms alongside the brewery and a spit away from the river.

Following the Fuller's agm in July each year, I always lead a walk along the riverbank to Hammersmith dropping in on the Black Lion, The Old Ship, The Dove (Fuller's) where we cram into the world's smallest public bar thinking it's funny and has never been done before, onto the Rutland Arms and the Blue Anchor just before Hammersmith Bridge. A fine refreshing walk before reaching the excellent transport links that Hammersmith has (but Chiswick does not really).

So there you are, not really a book review but a stirring of memories of pubs along the river that I know so well. The book also gives me the will to visit pubs and parts of the river that I know less well such as the north bank at Chiswick, historic Greenwich and the Meantime, Old Brewery and some of the famous waterside inns of East London.

If you really want to know, the book is a paperback, 208 pages, with full colour on every glossy page. It includes 100 of the capital's best waterside pubs and the maps are clear and easy to follow. You are even given a clue of what beers you might find in each pub. Cover price is £14.99 but as usual our on-line friends generally offer it cheaper.

It is a perfect guide whether you know London or not, whether you live here or are a visitor, whether you are interested in the pubs, the river or just rambling along its bank.

Most people who have ever dropped by on this blog will know that I love London, its pubs, its beers and its breweries. This book gives a flavour of why proud Londoner's love their City so much.

Thanks to publishers, New Holland, who were kind enough to provide me with my copy of London's Riverside Pubs by Tim Hampson.

Home Brew

An affordable gift this Christmas is the latest book on home brewing that was recently sent to me by the publishers.

Home Brew is a smart hardback book with 208 pages packed with good ideas for making drinks at home. It includes sections on beer, cider and fruit wines and describes recipes, techniques and other essential information to get you started.

This would be a good starter book for anyone who is keen on home produce and would be perfect to use to start making drinks from your allotment harvest or garden seasonal fruits.

I prefer to drink the stuff rather than make it and I prefer my beer to be professionally brewed rather than prepared in a bucket. Hence I have already passed the book onto someone who will make more use of it than me. Someone who is already keen on self-sufficiency, a keen apple juice, cider and beer maker and someone who I know will take advantage of the recipes and instructions for fruit wines or perhaps even mead in the book.

If you have anyone similar in the family, this book would make a good present. £20 cover price but the usual Amazon discount brings it to you for £11.10

World's Best Beers

One of my failings as a beer blogger is that I sometimes enjoy someone else's hospitality and then fail to tell them or tell the wider blog world how much I enjoyed it. It then nags and nags my conscience like a stone in my shoe. I am about to remove one of those stones.

Ages and ages ago I took my fill of beer at the launch of World's Best Beers by Ben McFarland. I then gratefully received a review copy of the book some weeks later. I am embarrassed to say that this was over a year ago.

I haven't been totally remiss though. About three months ago I wrote a long piece praising this book, edited and tweaked the copy, then with a click of the mouse it was gone - into the ether never to reappear. Fat finger syndrome that also is the curse of my Twitter account !

It is my honest opinion that this remains the best book of this style published recently. Although it is another compilation of 1,000 of the world's best beers populated with colour photographs and tasting notes, it is very much more than that.

The opening pages include a comprehensive guide to ingredients including an excellent section on hops (hip hops ?). The next section on beer styles strays away from the boring tried and tested and includes styles such as Vintage Ales, seeking to explain the recent trend in aged and collectible beers.

The beers are the main course and are split by country, from Britain and Ireland, through Europe to America(s), Australasia, Africa and the Middle East.

Breaking up the 1,000 beer tasting notes and descriptions there are other sections telling the stories of breweries such as Fullers, Thornbridge, Cantillon, Mikkeller etc, all written in an entertaining style that makes the book an enjoyable read rather than a reference or coffee table volume.

(Watch out for the story of coffee beans passed through the digestive tract of an Indonesian weasel before being used in the brew of the legendary Beer Geek Breakfast).

Finally it is the final section on Beer and Food that made this a prize winner at last years Guild of Beer Writers awards. The section includes a concise guide to beer and food matching and then goes onto suggest beers that work well with seafood, meat, chicken, cheese, desserts and spicy food and includes guest appearances from Rick Stein and Garrett Oliver, a genius who has achieved most in the realm of beer and food matching.

So there you have it, not a particularly lucid book review but an honest one and at least part of my conscience is satisfied.

It is my honest opinion that this is one of the best, most readable, beer books published in recent years and I give it my hearty recommendation.

Cover price is £25 but you should find it on Amazon for less than £15.

Good Beer Guide 2011

CAMRA books have been busy again this summer. The most recent offering is the latest edition of the Good Beer Guide, for so long the CAMRA members' bible.

This year's book (or should that be NEXT year's book ?)is another monster. 888 pages, 4,500 pub entries and almost 800 breweries including 88 opened in the last year.

This year's book also finds space to include the sixteen regional pubs of the year and also includes the details of each of the CAMRA branch pubs of the year. There are also the names of all of the finalists in this years Champion Beer of Britain competition.

This is the 38th edition and I buy a copy each year to maintain my collection. I think it is by admission out-of-date the day it is published given the fast moving pub scene - new ones open and sometimes even good pubs close. However, I trust the selection process and its coverage nationwide is complete. It cannot include every good pub but I think it is the best guide available to give you a pointer to good pubs across the country.

The cover price is £15.99, but my copy through the CAMRA direct debit scheme was £10

I was also lucky enough to receive a review copy from my friends at CAMRA HQ though that copy is already falling apart at the seams - a slight problem with the binding.

If it is in danger of being left behind by electronic guides and social media sites it is doing its best to keep up with Sat-Nav and mobile phone versions for an extra fiver - very useful for finding pubs in country lanes.

The spine has a quote from the Independent : "indispensable" - for all of it's misgivings I still tend to agree.

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.

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.

A dead parrot ?

Given that this blog has been fairly well received in the eighteen months that I have been working on it, and continues to attract an increasing readership, I thought it worth spreading my quill a little farther afield and see if I have the capability of some more formal writing projects.

I had a few ideas, one of which I have worked on in more detail in the last couple of weeks. I shared it with someone I trust and we agreed that it was worthy of further research and work.

I am fast learning the ups and downs of the publishing world. My proposal has been tweaked at least four times so far and the pitch is now ready for a wider audience.

I am not going to elaborate further at this stage as the project is still very much a work-in-progress. One thing is for sure, I will give it my best shot to see if I have the confidence and the ability to become a "real" beer writer.

CAMRA's Peak District Pub Walks

Open Letter to Bob Steel,
author of CAMRA's Peak District Pub Walks

Dear Bob

I am writing to thank you for the part you played in a short break that my wife and I spent out of town recently.

It was on the strength of your previous work, CAMRA's London Pub Walks, that I purchased your later effort on the Peak District.

The London book is without doubt the best book of pub walks in London that has ever been published and is an essential buy for anyone with an interest in London's pubs and their history.

Walking in Derbyshire is more of a stretch than a trot around three or four pubs in the Capital but my appetite was whetted when I saw that the British Guild of Beer Writers were hosting a seminar on Barley Wine at Thornbridge Hall, right in the middle of the Peak. Using your book as a guide we planned our visit.

Your book led us to our first stopover at the Old Poets' Corner in Ashover, a real find and surely one of the best real ale destination pubs in the country. One night here was not really enough but I was on a barley wine mission.

From here we drove into the heart of the National Park to our next stop The Monsal Head Hotel, which lies a mile or two from Thornbridge Hall. You describe the walk in this area as the best one in the book. We were not disappointed; riverside paths, a railway viaduct, open views and natural and industrial history; a ten mile walk pausing halfway at the Red Lion, a lovely pub on the village green, and finishing back at the hotel bar, a converted stables, which provides 5 real ales including local offerings from the brilliant Thornbridge Brewery. The hotel has slipped from the 2010 Good Beer Guide but I can vouch for the choice, service and beer quality - all excellent. The food served in the bar is the same menu as that offered in the hotel restaurant and proved to be first class. The hotel itself cannot be beaten for location and sits high on the hill overlooking the disused railway viaduct over the picturesque River Wye. Another real find that we will return to.

Bob, we had an absolutely excellent few days which would not have been nearly as good without your steer towards the best pubs and walks in the area. I will definitely be recommending CAMRA's Peak District Pub Walks to others. Thanks again.

By the way, I was hoping to attach the photo that should appear on page 66, the one in the book being use of "creative licence" but all the same a "red herring". Unfortunately, my camera was lost on a recent beer trip so that photo is also lost.

Best regards

Steve

Haunted London Pubs

As we approach the witching hour it is timely to revisit the stories of ghostly goings on in licensed premises.

Earlier in the summer, I wrote a post on the curiosity that is the number of supposedly haunted pubs around the country. A few days later I received a copy of a new book on Haunted London Pubs published by The History Press.

The book brings me no closer to understanding why so many pubs seem to have a ghostly presence and I remain firmly of the opinion that it is all made up to drum up trade over the years. However, this book does focus on London and covers in some detail almost a hundred of our pubs and their spooky past.

The ghostly connection is covered for each pub from the old favourites such as the guardsman at The Grenadier in Belgravia and highwaymen at the Spaniards Inn, Hampstead to less well known visiting spectres at the Roebuck, Richmond Hill and The Market Porter in Borough.

All-in-all a rattling if slightly un-nerving read and an addition to my knowledge of London's fine pubs.

It is always good to find a book on pubs that is written from a historian's perspective rather than the usual beer and pub experts. A slightly different view to our favourite hobby is always welcome.

The book is well illustrated with black and white photos and although (as seems common these days) the cover price of £9.99 seems a bit steep for such a thin volume, the book is available at Amazon for a more reasonable £6.49.

The Non-Beardy Beer Book

This book has taken me an age to get enthusiastic enough to write a few words in its favour. It was published a year or so ago and has been maturing in my "work in progress" pile of books since then having been picked up and put down a number of times.

It is described as an alternative to beardy and boring real-ale guides and features a hundred irreverent reviews of the UK's bestselling brands. It is the king of beer guides that refreshes the parts other books cannot reach. All lovingly put together by a panel of independent (possibly inebriated) reviewers.

It is a paperback format with a cover price of £7.99 and is, as you might guess, a little over 100 pages in length.

The publishers have just launched a web-site which gives some of the reviews and saves me going into too much detail here.

All of the best known beers and ciders are covered in a mixture of humour combined with geeky beer knowledge and some less well known information - some of which is undoubtedly invented - surely Harry Houdini was never submerged in a sealed cask of Tetley's Original. (Oops - yes that is true)

The reviews are funny in parts but the book is poorly illustrated and as a formal read it is a bit of a stretch. It is definitely a book to keep in the smallest room to dip into from time to time during those more contemplative moments.

Brew Like a Monk

I have at last finished the series of three books about Belgian beer published by The Brewers Association.
The set is sub titled "Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition" and the third in the series is called "Brew Like a Monk" written by Stan Hieronymus, one of America's leading beer writers.

Although the books are directed at the home and craft brewer there is much within for the general beer enthusiast and all three are recommended reading if you are keen to broaden your knowledge of Belgian beer styles.

The first two were called Wild Brews and Farmhouse Ales .
The third as you might guess from the title is a delve into the Trappist and Abbey beer styles that are among the most well known of Belgian beers.

The book covers in some detail the history, philosophy, beers and brewing of all of the Trappist and Abbey beers. It includes interviews, recipes and a general trawl through history bringing us right up to date with the monastic traditions of brewing. It also celebrates "The American Way" showing that many American craft brewers are now copying and imitating different Belgian beer styles. The book is written in an approachable, engaging style and, even if the parts on recipes are a bit geeky for the non-brewer, is a very entertaining and informative read.

Haunted Pubs

Last week, I went to Tea at Three at my local library. A short talk by a guest speaker with a cup of tea with the wrinklies of the parish.

This month's talk, was Pubs in the South East by local author, Donald Stuart. Donald retired as a journalist some years ago and has since visited, photographed and researched some 2,000+ pubs and has published a number of books - notably London's Historic Inns and Taverns.

The talk was about an hour long and was made up of a slide show of various pubs in the South East illustrated with some personal anecdotes from the author. It was an entertaining if fairly pedestrian pub crawl.

One comment that did interest me greatly though was the fact that so many pubs in Britain seem to have a ghostly connection. There are over 500 pubs in the country that are rumoured to have a resident ghost.

Given that no-one (?) has actually seen a ghost, I wonder why so many pubs seem to make this claim. To an old sceptic like me, I guess it was an old Victorian marketing ploy. Every visitor loves a local story about ghoulish goings-on and every traveller loves a local pub. Put them together and you have a unique selling point for your inn.

Donald Stuart has also written a book about pubs with such supernatural phenomena called Haunted Taverns. An A-Z of over 250 haunted pubs.

Hops and Glory

A couple of weeks ago saw the publication of the most eagerly anticipated beer book for some years. Yes, looked forward to even more than the Protz memoirs or the latest Belgium Good Beer Guide.

Hops and Glory by Pete Brown is sub-titled One Man's Search For The Beer That Built The British Empire and describes Pete's journey to India with a cask of IPA - India Pale Ale.

Pete recently won the Guild of British Beer Writers travel bursary and decided it would make a great story to re-enact the historic journey that IPA used to take from Burton-on-Trent, via London and the Cape of Good Hope, to refresh the Brits living in colonial India. The fact that he probably spent ten times the bursary on the cost of his journey is not the only reason the book deserves to do well.

It is a ripping read, a mix between a history lesson and a travel Odyssey. I hesitate to say it is un-put-down-able but once you join Pete on the narrow boat in Burton, you really empathise with his ups and downs along the way and are cheering him onto his final destination in Delhi some three months later.

The descriptions of the history of the Raj that break up the story of his journey are very informative and interesting but are slightly less thrilling. However, you are soon taken back to the cruise liner, the tall ship and the container ship enjoying the ride.

All beer writers are performing a public service to the beer world by bringing the world of beer to a wider audience. Pete has nailed this on the head with his latest book by making this as much a travel adventure as it is a book about beer.

One small omission from the book is the lack of a brief colour photo section. Usually I would not be interested in photos but such are the vivid descriptions of each mode of transport I felt myself wanting to see more tangible evidence.

However, there are plenty of photos on the Hops and Glory Facebook page which are well worth looking at to enhance enjoyment of the book.

It is also a great shame that a TV crew did not accompany Pete. Now perhaps if Michael Palin had come up with the idea those tie-ins would be more obvious.

Buy it, read it. Cheer him on and actually believe you can taste that strong, hoppy, IPA in those final pages.

The cover price is £14.99 but it is is still available at half price on Amazon here.

Pete also recently described his trip on Radio 4, Excess Baggage. You can listen to it here

What the Nose Knows

Nobody can deny that the choice of title of this book is a delight. Its subtitle, The Science of Scent in Everyday Life, is almost as good and gives further flavour (or scent) to what lies within its pages.

I was encouraged to read this book by Gary Spedding, founder of Brewing & Distilling Analytical Services in USA, when I had the good fortune to meet him at GABF last year.

It was with some trepidation that I opened at the first page. A science book, recommended by a scientist was a daunting prospect. However, Gary had told me that the book was written in an easy to read, laid back style and he was not wrong.

What the Nose Knows is an entertaining and enlightening journey through the world of aroma. It is written in an engaging style and the author offers his keen observations on the science of smell in a witty, good-humoured way. It is a really enjoyable read.

So, if you want to find out how many smells there are, whether blind people have enhanced sense of smell, whether the human nose is as sensitive as a dog's and whether a cocaine addict's olfactory ability lasts longer than his septum, then this is the book for you.

The book's description of the author, Avery Gilbert, suggests he is a smell scientist who has helped design commercial scents for everything from perfume to cat litter. The book is a fine way for him to share his love of his work with a wider audience.

Finally, thanks to modern scientific advances this blog is the first to offer the latest scratch and sniff innovation. Just scratch your screen and you will get a wonderful whiff of beer blogger.

The Beer Cook Book

For some time now I have been seeking an addition to my bookshelf in the form of a beer cook book. Not just any beer cook book. but The Beer Cook Book by Susan Nowak that was published in 1999.

It has been out of print for some time and whenever I have looked on Ebay or Amazon, the search has proved fruitless. (admittedly it was only an occasional search). Last week, I looked on Amazon and there are now plenty of second hand copies available through their merchants scheme. I paid 24p plus £2.75 postage but I notice there is now even a copy available for 11p. It is a 300 page paperback with an original cover price of £9.99.

Many books on beer and food published more recently are more lavishly illustrated but often do not hit the mark for me - though I admit The Brewmaster's Table by Garrett Oliver is an excellent read, it is not really what you might call a cook book. Personally, I am not really one to intellectualise on beer, preferring simply to enjoy drinking the stuff. However, I am interested more in beer used as an ingredient rather than beer and food matching.

Susan Nowak's book is not particularly well illustrated but it is clearly written by an enthusiastic beer lover. It is not just a collection of over 150 recipes including beer. It covers all parts of the menu from soups to desserts, vegetarian, baking and pickling. It also includes every style of beer that you can think of. Her passion for beer comes across in her writing making it a good read as well as a reference volume.

Some of the beer choices do seem a little dated (remember King & Barnes Festive ?) some 10 years later but that is just the passage of time. It does not detract from the enjoyment of this book and will not prevent me coming up with my own suggestions when trying out some of the recipes.

Bon Appetit and Cheers !

Farmhouse Beers

It could be that Farmhouse beers are the latest beer style to get a push. You will have read of the Lost Abbey, Biere de Garde that I enjoyed on my last post. Tomme Arthur, the brewmaster at Lost Abbey, USA is a master at brewing beers in Belgian style and his two bieres de garde style beers that I have tried are both delicious.

There is also a two page piece in the latest issue of Beers of the World magazine on Saisons and Bieres de Garde written by Roger Protz. I have only subscribed to this magazine over the last year or so but I think it is much improved and now very readable.

The latest book I am reading is the second in the series on Belgian Beers published by the Brewers Association (USA). Farmhouse Ales, written by Phil Markowski, brewer at Southampton Brew House, New York, covers the Saison and Biere de Garde styles in some detail. Like the one on Wild Brews, it does get a bit wordy and geeky at times though the books are aimed primarily at home brewers. It is an absolute must for your bookshelf if you have a more that passing interest in Belgian (and French) beers styles and want more than Michael Jackson has previously offered.

Finally the latest offering from Dark Star brewery is a Saison. A 4.5% brew, intentionally cloudy, with a classic sweet malty flavour and a characteristic spicy finish. I guess it won't be around for long, so catch it while you can.

Like buses all coming together, I feel that my whole knowledge of Farmhouse Beers has come in the last two weeks. Not necessarily the most characteristic or even well known beer styles but enjoyable all the same.

Around Bruges in 80 Beers

The best travel writing is a book or article that makes you get off your backside and actually visit the place. Last week I took myself off to Bruges for the day. I didn't actually go to Belgium, you understand. Let's say, it was more of a virtual trip.

A quiet day started well by reading from cover to cover a new book : Around Bruges in 80 Beers by Chris "Podge" Pollard and Siobhan McGinn. This is an updated, second edition and covers that famous Belgian city with a full colour page on each bar, restaurant or shop coupled with a beer to drink there. As in the London edition of the same series, all of the favourite bars and beers are covered plus many others that may not be so well known. It gives an excellent flavour to a great city. Do not travel without this essential volume if visiting. You can buy it here where you can also find out more about the beer tours of Belgium that Podge leads.

I enjoyed the book so much that I really wanted more. So I nipped down to Waitrose to buy some mussels, steamed them in some wheat beer and settled down to watch the movie "In Bruges" that I had sky plussed the week before. A crap film but set in a wonderful location bringing back good memories of the beers and bars of the city.

The nearest I could get to a local beer without a special trip to the bottle shop was a Biere de Garde from Lost Abbey - California (being near enough to Belgium for me) and a bottle of Bracia from Thornbridge Brewery.

The Biere de Garde was a traditional farmhouse brew with a lovely malty sweetness and a spicy finish. 7.5% bottle conditioned in a wire corked 75cl bottle - a real mouthful.

The Bracia is a dark bitter 9% beer infused with Italian chestnut honey. It has a rich flavoursome mouth feel with coffee, chocolate and licorice flavours and a warming, alcoholic aftertaste. If you see it, buy it - you won't be disappointed.

Even if you are not planning a trip to Belgium, with a cover price of £7.99, Around Bruges is the cheapest weekend away you will ever have.

Wild Brews

On my recent trip to USA, I picked up a collection of books published by the Brewers Association. The set of three books is sub titled "Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition". Although the books are directed at the home and craft Brewer there is much within for the general beer enthusiast.

My first read is Wild Brews - Beer Beyond the Influence of Brewers Yeast by Jeff Sparrow. Although I have always enjoyed drinking the sour beers of Lambic, Gueuze and Flemish Red and Brown, I knew very little about them apart from a basic knowledge of wild yeasts imparting a sour characteristic.

My enjoyment of the beers is much improved now that I have a more detailed knowledge of the micro bacterial influences on the different beers. Although the book does get a bit technical in parts for the enthusiastic consumer, I generally found it an easy and most informative read.

If you are interested by these beer styles which are really out on the fringe of mainstream beer drinking then I can recommend this book absolutely. It gives everything one would want to know about the brewing methods and fermentation procedures as well as information on barrel aging, the use of fruit and a general history of the beer styles.

I have never seen a book on Belgian brewing that is so detailed but I am now on the hunt for Lambikland by Tim Webb, Chris Pollard and Jorys Pattyn which is not already on my bookshelf and which I hope will also bring more knowledge and enjoyment.

The other two books, making up this collection are Brew Like a Monk by Stan Hieronymus and Farmhouse Ales by Phil Markowski which I have yet to read. All three are available in this country through Amazon.