European Beer Bloggers Conference 2012

There had to come a time when I dipped my toe back into the blogosphere and escape from a self imposed winter hibernation to start posting here more regularly.

The eagle eyed among readers (assuming anyone is still dropping by after a three month hiatus) will have noticed that I have recently included a participant badge for the European Beer Bloggers Conference 2012.

The 2011 conference held in London really was one of the stand-out beer events of the year. Re-read some of the details that I wrote at the time here, here, here, and here . Fantastic !

The 2012 event will be held in Leeds from 18 - 20 May (That is Yorkshire, aka God's Own - though I am trying to leave my prejudices in London. Remember, it is I who thinks that the "North" starts at Hammersmith Bridge !)

The conference fee is paid (£100 or so, which can be recoverable under the Molson Coors Scholarship )

Hotel is booked. Internet rate is about £50 a night at the Met Hotel, Leeds where the conference is being held. Delegate rate at same hotel is slightly higher but includes breakfast and is cancellable. Other hotels nearby range from about £35 per night upwards.

Cheap train tickets are coming on line. I booked London to Leeds for about a tenner and am waiting for the return advance fares to be released.

If this event reaches anywhere near the heights of last year's conference, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Whether you blog in 140 characters or 1,000 words and pictures daily, this is for you. Everyone is welcome !

To my mind the three days and nights are mainly social; if we learn anything about blogging or bloggers that will be a bonus.

I look forward to seeing old friends and new in the frozen North - Oops :)

London Beer - A Tipping Point

The London beer scene reached a tipping point last night as pretty much every award at the British Guild of Beer Writers dinner was scooped by a London based journalist or beer writer.

After a marvellous beer matched dinner the evening started its nod towards the Capital when it was announced that Evin O'Riordain from Kernel Brewery was named the Beer Writers, Brewer of the Year. Evin launched his brewery in the railway arches of Bermondsey about two years ago and has never looked back, picking up award after award. His bottled IPAs, stouts and porters are unbeatable and the recognition is well deserved.

A few moments later, as Des de Moor picked up the next award for his London's Best Beer, Pubs and Bars Guide, it was becoming clear that it was going to be a night for London and I was on my feet leading a chorus of "maybe it's because I'm a Londoner !"
Those around me might say I was not leading a chorus, merely shouting incoherently like a drunk on the tube. I couldn't comment. Suffice to say my delight was becoming boisterous

There quickly followed prizes for Mark Dredge for his work on beer and food, the corporate communications award went to honorary cockney, Pete Brown, Mark Charlwood (sp ?) won silver in the on-line category for his beerbirrabier blog and the gold was scooped by Martyn Cornell, London's eminent beer historian. Glynn Davis won an award for trade press and the Beer Writer of the Year was once again, Ben McFarland.

A clean sweep for London !

(Not quite true as Marverine Cole took a gong for regional work and Adrian Tierney Jones took a prize for his work on national newspaper reviews. I hope they will both allow me to gloss over their achievements as I relish the fact that London is back.)

Only a couple of years ago, the London beer scene was on its knees. Our breweries were closing, flats were replacing pubs and cities like Derby and Sheffield were leading the vanguard of the microbrewery and craft beer scene. Beer lovers in London were forlorn and the rest of the nation was puzzled as we took comfort in championing each new micro that opened. Every one was a winner, Sambrook's, Redemption, Kernel, Camden Town et al. Every one well received.

A few pubs started changing, Cask, Craft, Rake, Southampton, Butcher. I don't have to name them all. Each and every one becoming a destination boozer.

My latest list of London brewpubs, micros, craft and family brewers now numbers 28 operating or coming very soon.

The London beer scene is back and vibrant and I am chuffed as punch !

(Apologies if I have any of the names or awards incorrect, or if I have missed anybody. My delight for London was only matched by my love for the great beers provided by the sponsors, Molson Coors, Fullers, Adnams, Brains, Thwaites, Shepherd Neame and Budweiser. My recollection and random notes are not 100% clear)

Thanks also to Black Sheep Brewery who invited me to the event as their guest and for their warming Black Sheep Imperial Russian Stout which was supposed to be taken home but never got beyond the coffee - delicious.

Christmas Star Award - Ales by Mail

I have been asked by the senior elf at Ales by Mail to give a shout out for their latest imaginative way to put something back in at this busiest time of the year :

Nominate your Christmas Star

As 2011 will soon be drawing to a close, Ales By Mail would like to take this opportunity to recognise that a lot of people have had a hard year - be it from unemployment, financial problems, sickness and so on.

Despite this however, the people of the UK shine through, volunteering for charities, working hard to support their families well, or maybe just being there for a friend in need.

We'd like to hear your stories about people who've done something this year that deserves a special treat (it will be ale, naturally, so no under 18's please!

Visit www.alesbymail.com/stars and fill in the form with details of your nominee.

You can nominate anyone you like (except yourself!), a friend, relative, co-worker, or anyone you think deserves a surprise, and would appreciate real ale of course.

If your nominee is chosen, we'll get in touch with you for delivery details of your nominee, and a surprise package will make its way direct to them in time for Christmas!

Nominate your Christmas Star now! www.alesbymail.com/stars

Foraging with a Badger

When you're a delinquent blogger who hasn't posted for weeks there is always something nagging your conscience to make sure the blog is not consigned to history -be it a great day out, a memorable beer or a new book to tell people about.

As long ago as the middle of September I was invited for a day of foraging with the lovely folk at Hall and Woodhouse Brewery. I was unsure what relevance this had to beer and as it turned out very little but a good time was had by all.

Here are some of the things I learnt on that day :

The day began at Weymouth, Chesil Beach with a glass of Forager's Nip and a chocolate brownie made with Badger, Poacher's Choice beer. A heady start to a the day.

{Forager's Nip : fill a jar with blackberries, top up to half way with sugar, fill with whisky, shake once a day for a week, store in a dark place for a year. Simples !}

Armed with a pair of scissors and a tub of salt you can gather a feast by the seashore.

It pays to be with an expert and we were accompanied by John Wright who is the country's leading authority on wild food.

Check out his book, Edible Seashore, which is part of the River Cottage Handbook series - a practical guide to foraging for the rich pickings to be found on Britain's seashore.




After a morning gathering Marsh Samphire, Wild Thyme, Sea Beet and Wormwood it was time for lunch.

On the strength this quick lunch the food at the Crab House Cafe now has my hearty approval and a mental note is made to revisit sometime.


Badger England's Own with its white grape and elderflower flavors was a delicious accompaniment to the meal - going especially well with a fresh raw oyster farmed on-site.









Included for aesthetic purposes only. You can take the boy out of West London .....














To forage for razor clams visit the tidal waters as the tide is coming in, look for two small holes in the sand, pour in some table salt and the clam will poke his head up.

Grab the head, hold and he will release himself from the sand.

Put him in your pot for your feast later.














If you rely on your foraging efforts for sustenance you are going to be hungry.

Even the lone crab found in the pots that John had previously set in the waters did not really make a meal for eight though it was great fun getting the stove out and cooking it all up on the beach. No beer to go with it unfortunately (#PRfail)

This proved to be a good starter before the delicious meal that had been laid on at our hotel The Bull in Bridport - again this place has my recommendation and I hope to revisit sometime.

Copious amounts of Badger beers in the splendid company of Mark Woodhouse and his brewing team made a perfect end to the day.


Now, here's some of the really important stuff I discovered on the day :

Hall & Woodhouse have just invested almost £5 million in a new brewery, largely funded by the sale of some land to the side of a pub in Horsham. The brewery is just about finished and will be brewing the range of badger beers imminently. A significant once-in-a-lifetime investment and demonstrable proof of a family's continued commitment to the UK brewing industry.

I am often confused by the range of Badger beers so now I have an aide-memoir. Here is yours :

First Gold (best bitter, malty, orange and spicy)
Tanglefoot (stronger with hints of melon and pear character)
Fursty Ferret (tawny, amber ale with delicate hop)
England's Own (white grape and elderflower)
Golden Glory (peach and melon)
Golden Champion (hint of elderflower)
Hopping Hare (refreshing, hoppy and well balanced)
Blandford Flyer (ginger)
Poacher's Choice (dark with licorice and damson)

Thanks to James Peat for the photography.

Thanks to all at Badger for their hospitality.

London Beers come to Egham

I received a polite bollocking recently from Bob (the Binman) Inman, one of the organisers of the Egham United Services Club Beer Festival because I had failed to give a shout-out for their last beer festival in the Summer.

The truth was that I generally don't publicise an event if I am not planning to attend. Apart from a jam packed diary that week, personally I had also found the beer list a little too focused on new breweries and pandering to the beer ticker community who love finding beers from new breweries.

Now I have nothing against the beer ticker, honestly some of my best friends tick beers, it's just that I find, with a handful of notable exceptions, that new breweries take a while to bed-in and I generally prefer beers from the tried and tested.

Fresh out of their Brewlab courses and after the stresses and strains of actually getting the brewery commissioned, it takes a few recipes, a lot of customer and pub feedback, practice with the equipment, and choices of ingredients before the beer really hits the spot. Some of the brewed-on-a-farm-in-a-bucket brigade never get there but most new brewers will quickly be brewing some good tasty distinctive beers.

I have just taken a look at the list for this week's event and confirm that I am on the case and am keen to recommend a visit to others. Two of my favourite breweries appear again. There are Five beers from Ascot Ales including two from their 8% Last of the Blue Devils range - a cassis and an aniseed. Two special beers appear from Windsor & Eton, a version of the Conqueror dark IPA, this one with added Whiskey plus the very last cask of the special 7.5% version of the same beer. I am not going to miss these.

However, the main reason for attending, and notwithstanding my comments above, is to try again the range of beers from many of London's newest breweries.

Research, research, research !

The bars will have the very newest London beers, from The Botanist brewpub on Kew Green (7 beers), By the Horns Brewery in Wimbledon (3), Camden Town's latest offerings (2), beer from East London Brewing (1), London Fields Brewery (2), Moncada Brewery (3) and Redchurch (1). All this plus the London Brewers Alliance collaboration IPA the brewing of which I was lucky enough to take part in.


Finally, and probably the most important reason to attend any event, Bob has reminded me with this photo record that I have a great time every time I visit Egham Club beer festivals.

A warm welcome, fantastic hospitality and great beers. What more do you want on an unseasonably warm November eve.

The festival happens from 3rd to 6th from 11am daily. More info here.

See you there !

Fuller's Vintage Ale - Vertical Tasting

There is plenty that I should be blogging about from recent beer drinking ahead of last night's event but I have to get this written down while it is fresh in my memory.

A memorable evening spent in the company of the great and the good of the beer world, hosted by Fuller's senior executives in their Hock Cellar at the brewery, tasting all fifteen of the Vintage Ales from 1997 to the newly released 2011.

This will be the last time that all Vintages are tasted in one sitting, partly because 15 beers (of 8.5%) in one evening is a stretch for most people but also some of the older Vintages are becoming really scarce. There are only forty bottles left of the 1998. It does not appear in my collection so if you have a bottle left you have a real collectors item.

My beer cupboard : I know what I like ! (Missing 1998, 2001 and 2002)
The scarce 1998 now has a savoury character with notes of chocolate and liqueur. it is very smooth with hint of calvados. This was the 14th beer we tasted and my notes are less coherent => "still really good" says it all for me.

My favourite was the 2008 : less oxidised notes, a hint of cherry aroma, slightly more carbonated, still some fresh orange character and a really lovely smooth mouthful.

It was a hard evening. Everyone seemed to have a different favourite but the consensus is that this is a beer that ages very well, from six months to fifteen years there is a a full range of flavour profiles and different ageing characteristics.

Across the piece, each beer was identifiable as a Fuller's Vintage, largely due to the Fuller's yeast bringing its orange marmalade flavours to each beer. The ageing process brought something special to each beer. It is clear that ageing is not a linear process, peaking and then deteriorating; ageing changes the beers in a variable cycle over time. A beer that perhaps is a bit dull after say seven of eight years, can smooth out over the next two or three bringing back a sweetness and fruitiness that is part of the chemical change brought on by time alone. It was interesting to note that each beer still has a viable yeast count and a spritzy carbonation dispelling the myth that the yeast quickly dies in a bottle conditioned beer.

It was enlightening to hear beer discussed in the same serious way that is evident at a vertical vintage wine tasting. This is one of the world's greatest beers and deserves its place at the top table being honoured and revered by beer lovers worldwide.

Fuller's Vintage is brewed each year using the finest ingredients from that vintage. It is based on the recipe for Golden Pride but is bottle conditioned in a numbered limited edition. Once in the bottle the flavours continue to develop over time. Many vintages are always available at the Fuller's Brewery shop and the current edition is usually on the shelf at Waitrose at around £3.50 a bottle. (Approx 50% is sold during each year and the remaining 50% bought in future year by collectors and enthusiasts).

I must give a big thank you to Fuller's for their hospitality. The philosophy, standards and values of the company were at their most evident last night and fully deserve to be shouted about.

Finally in the interest of open disclosure, I am now CAMRA's Brewery Liaison Officer for Fuller's Brewery. It is no secret that I am a fan of Fuller's beers, being the nearest brewery to my home. Don't therefore be surprised to read more about them here in future.

New beer videos - Carlsberg & CAMRA

I came across two new beer videos this week. Both are really good and worthy of your attention.

Firstly a new take on the "angry Hitler" video, this one is "angry CAMRA". First saw this on Reluctant Scooper blog so the link is to Simon Johnson's site : www.reluctantscooper.co.uk

The only thing missing here is "and they only joined because we gave them Wetherspoon vouchers !"

Secondly this new Carlsberg advert has had over 2.5 million views in 5 days. It is viral marketing at its very, very best :

Art By Offenders - Koestler Trust

Spoiler Alert : Not beer related

Earlier in the summer, I was chosen as one of the JP volunteer curators of this year's Koestler Trust annual exhibition showcasing Art by Offenders.


Each year the Koestler Trust hosts an awards competition of visual arts, film, music and writing by prisoners and others in secure settings.

This year the competition attracted entries from UK prisons, secure hospitals, immigration detention centres, youth offending services, probation and British prisoners serving overseas. The total entry was over 7,000 pieces.

My part in the process was to spend three weeks selecting about 150 pieces worthy of display from a total entry of visual arts of about 5,000. It was a real test of group decision making and selection by committee but I am really proud of the end result which is now available for all to see.

The exhibition opens today at 1pm (21 September) in the basement space (Spirit Level) of the Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank, SE1 8XX. It is free to get in and runs until 20 November. Opening hours are 10am to 10pm. More details at www.KoestlerTrust.org.uk

Please drop in for a few minutes if you are passing through Central London or make a special visit. I know I am a bit biased but I guarantee you will be glad that you did.

If anyone would like me to join their visit to give a curator's perspective, let me know. I would be glad to come if my diary is free - daytime or evenings.

Finally, I can't resist putting a beer spin on this : Meantime bottles are available at the Royal Festival Hall bars and the Harp, CAMRA's national pub of the year is about a fifteen minute walk across the river. There is also a pretty good pub walk to be done nowadays along the Strand.

National Honey Show - Beer Category - Call for Entries

The National Honey Show will again be held at St George's College, Weybridge on 27th-29th October. There are over two hundred judging categories in the show from Jars of Honey (2) to Beeswax Candles (3) to Mead (Dry) and Honey Fruit Cake.

For the last two years I have been one of the judges in the Honey Beer category and my reason for this post is to invite more brewers (and now home brewers) to consider entering the competition. Each year the competition has attracted between six and eight entries, so there is an excellent chance of scooping the Leslie Thorne Trophy.

The only criteria for entry to the beer category (class 41) is that the beer shall be commercially available and honey must be an ingredient. The entry is 3 bottles or cans and the fee is £20.

This year there is a new class for home and non-commercial brewers (class 42), Honey beer, any style, 2 bottles, minimum 330ml, not commercially available. Honey must be an ingredient. Entry fee is 50p.

The committee at the National Honey show are all lovely people, as passionate about beekeeping as we are about beer. They would be delighted to increase the number of entries to further justify their inclusion of a (honey) beer category.

My fellow judges, John Porter (left) and Tim Hampson (right) will also be delighted if the number of beers to taste increases !

Melissa Cole is the fourth judge which is rather apt as Mel is the latin word for honey.

For further details, entry forms and details of logistics of entering the competition, please contact John Hendrie, the entries secretary at http://www.honeyshow.co.uk/contact_entries_secretary.shtml

Red Lion, Barnes - Beer Dinner

This evening looks like it will be a lot of fun with our favourite beer-world double act.

The Red Lion is a traditional Fullers pub in Barnes, SW13 with a great reputation for both beer and food.

I can't miss this and my tickets are already secured.

There is likely to be strong demand, so I suggest you reserve tickets soon if you wish to come along.

The Red Lion is on the bus route between Barnes and Hammersmith so both those stations are easily accessible. I'm going to walk !


From the press release :

Two local beer experts will be going head to head at The Red Lion in Barnes to persuade foodie customers who is the best beer matcher of them all.

Leading beer writer Melissa Cole and Chiswick brewery Fuller’s Head Brewer John Keeling have been challenged by The Red Lion’s managers Angus Mckean & Claire Morgan to match beers to a specially created menu. Both choices will then be served on the night with customers voting on their favourite match. Neither John nor Melissa will be aware of the other’s choices.

The ‘Battle of the Sexes’ event, designed provocatively to ‘find out who has the most taste – men or women’ will take place on Friday October 14th.

Angus said: “I know Melissa and John often have heated discussions about beer – how to describe the flavours, what tastes best with what – so I decided it was time to really put them to the test. I have no doubt our customers will get to try some amazing beer and food combinations – and they can watch the fireworks while they eat!”

Angus and Melissa have put together a mouth-watering (and belt-busting) six course menu including oysters steeped in Belgian lambic beer (made with wild yeasts), sweet potato and yam baskets with slow roast pork belly in plum sauce and pear tarte tatin with homemade Fuller’s Past Masters Double Stout ice cream. You’ll have to buy a ticket to find out the beer matches suggested by John and Melissa.

Head Brewer John Keeling said: “Beer is often overlooked as a match with food, but actually it often works better with many dishes than wine. And with finely crafted beers available from both the UK and abroad, now is the time to experiment. Forget about malbecs and muscadets, and try some porter and pale ales!”

Tickets to the event on October 14th are available from The Red Lion Barnes at £25 per head. Please call Angus on 020 8748 2984 or email redlionbarnes@fullers.co.uk