College Beer Club from Meantime

This week I am going to share some ideas for Christmas presents for the beer drinker. First up is probably the most extravagant gift of the season, an annual membership of the College Beer Club launched in time for Christmas by Meantime of Greenwich.

An annual membership brings two 750ml corked and wired champagne bottles of specially brewed and aged beers couriered each month to your door. The first beer hopefully delivered in time for Christmas will be a 13.5% imperial Russian stout, aged for ten months in whisky casks and described as liquid Christmas pudding. This will be followed by monthly deliveries of wood aged beers, historic beer styles from previous centuries, recreations of lost recipes plus innovative new brews all created by the fair hand of the Meantime brewmeister, Alastair Hook.

I am not going to deny that £350 for twelve deliveries of two bottles is not a large amount of money, each bottle working out at just under £15 a bottle. However, with membership limited to 500 these beers are going to be scarce. Once they're gone, they're gone and compared to some of the special imports from USA and Scandinavia they represent some value.

I have spent my expenses as London Ale Taster on my membership which I think is a rather neat virtuous beer circle.

I am also rationalising spending that much money by comparing it to the investment made last year in Brewdog. Some of us sent Brewdog money last year when they went through a fundraising to grow the business. There was no beer involved, just an investment, a chance to share in the future growth of the company and a feeling of being involved with one of the country's most innovative outfits.

I see much in common with the College Beer Club. A chance to support Meantime's move to modern new brewery in Greenwich, a feeling of kinship and brotherhood, a chance to feel involved. Instead of a share of future growth, there is the chance to try some great beers over the course of a year.

This College Beer Club "investment" is only for one year and I may be proved wrong but I am guessing that it will be more rewarding and more enjoyable than the future of my Brewdog investment.

So there you have it. An extravagant Christmas present for the beer lover in your life though something with instant payback and enjoyment and a gift that will keep giving throughout the coming year. I look forward to seeing some of you at the launch party in January.

Brewdog or Marble ? or Both ?

Busy week this week sees a Brewdog tasting at the Rake on Tuesday at 8pm followed by a meet the Marble brewer at the Cask, Pimlico on Wednesday.

Sometimes you can't get to every event that hits your mailbox and personally I am less enthusiastic about a thimbleful of stupid percent beer poured from a stuffed animal than I am for a bar stacked with ten beers from one of the country's finest breweries.


I have always been well impressed with beers from the Marble Brewery in Manchester and I was blown away with this one last week - found in the Southampton Arms, Gospel Oak (more about this pub later).

Marble 57, so named because it is 5.7%, (or is it the brewer's fifty seventh brew ?) gave me a real Jaipur moment. Hopefully it will be available on Wednesday at the Cask.

Like hops ? Don't miss this.

Brewdog IPO

Although my CV says that I am a Chartered Accountant, I am neither authorised nor trained to provide investment advice to others. As such anything I may say to others about investing in Brewdog or indeed any other brewery shares is my own personal opinion and in most cases anecdotal.

I think it is a brave move to go to the beer geek community and ask for £2.3 million in return for a c10% stake in the business. They have already taken on board some "Dragon" investors who took a 12.5% stake for c£600k in June.

This latest round of fund raising values the business (effectively the Brewdog brand) at close to a staggering £25 million.

Personally speaking, I really hope they pull it off. This is an exciting time for them and to ask their loyal customers to climb aboard is innovative. The business currently relies on the founders who must be in it for the long haul; hopefully the dragons from USA feel the same. They all feel they are building a brand that has enormous potential.

If last night's drinks party to celebrate the share issue is anything to go by, the target investor is young, affluent, upwardly mobile and loves beer.

Me ? Only the latter, but I am on board with one share at £230. I am keen to go along for the ride but have only invested the minimum with money I can afford to lose. I like the beer and the people and feel it is worthy of support. I have a similar holding in Hop Back and Twickenham for the same reason but I lost £500 or so by investing in Cains just before it went into prepack administration.

News from Brewdog

In their words ......

This will be the single most exciting, audacious and revolutionary thing BrewDog has ever done.

Be very, very excited people.....

More info here.

Radio Four

If you have twenty minutes or so spare over the next week, I can recommend the Radio Four, Food Programme from last Sunday which covered the English hop renaissance :

English hops are enjoying a renaissance thanks to new varieties, greater demand for 'hoppy' ales and the incredible growth in micro breweries.
Sheila Dillon enjoys some of the heady aromas and samples some new ales. She visits Shepherd Neame, a brewery in Faversham, Kent and talks to head brewer, David Holmes, She visits farm owner Tony Redsell, whose family has been growing hops for over 50 years, and meets hop driers Derek Elvey and Peter Shead. Sheila also talks to Dr Peter Darby about The National Hop Collection at Queen Court Farm, near Faversham.
In the studio, she is joined in the studio by Roger Protz, beer writer and editor of The Good Beer Guide, and Martin Dickie, brewer and co-owner of Brewdog Brewery, Fraserburgh.
Available to listen on the Radio Four website over the next 4 days:

Nanny State

Don't you just love these guys ? Can't wait to try this one.

Zeitgeist

Which brewery would launch their new beer in a tiny bar cum art gallery in Bethnal Green Road where the bottles of beer are served via a bin of ice from a dimly lit patio and then drunk in a small basement surrounded by freaky pictures of sheep/human clones ?

It could only be those friendly punks from Brewdog - Aberdeenshire's mega microbrewery who formally launched their dark lager, Zeitgeist, last night.

The beer is packaged in 330ml bottles, 30l disposable kegs or 9g plastic firkins.

The bottle labels are simple and concise allowing the artwork to be the main feature. The sheep/human clones feature prominently with the tagline "we do not merely aspire to the proclaimed heady heights of conformity through neutrality and blandness".

This is all good, edgy, fresh, modern stuff but what about the beer ? It is a 4.9% dark lager in the style of some of the greatest dark Czech beers. Light and easy drinking, it has a mellow roasted flavour with chocolate and coffee notes. The pleasant surprise is the fruity twist on the finish which comes from using Cascade hops rather than the more traditional Saaz.

The first couple of beers were chilled to death having been "in the bucket" all day but were necked down easily and were most enjoyable. This is the quaffing beer for the yoof. Once the frozen stuff was exhausted the next beers were served at cellar (well, garden) temperature and were just as nice with the roast flavours and the hop character more prominent. Opinions among the very eclectic crowd were mixed as to preferences between the chilled and slightly warmer styles but one view was common - beer is good.

The beer was interesting enough to seek out again. I would be particularly interested in the cask version as it has the potential to be excellent. A comparison between cask and keg of the same beer would also be a worthy afternoon.

On my way out, I slipped a bottle into my inside pocket to bring to the video blog. Somehow, I think those friendly punks would approve. I think Zeitgeist is actually the German word for stolen beer.