As a long-time CAMRA stalwart I appreciate the clarity of the idea of "Real Ale". It's a very specific thing: served from the vessel (usually a cask, but not always) that the beer was matured in, on its own sediment with no added carbonation. It's a realtively simple definition and it's not about taste, quality or size or marketing. It's about production, maturing and dispense method.
All this does is allow you to know when they say "ale" they are not talking about John Smiths Smooth.
It's only a useful definition in a specific way.
I happen not to like Greene King IPA or Doom Bar but I can't deny when served in the way specified they are Real Ales. I walk out of pubs where these things are the only things served, but I absolutely wouldn't deny them their status. Indeed I have friends and relatives who would take Doom Bar over almost anything else.
Craft beer, on the other hand seemed to start as a general indicator of the boom in small new brewing outfits and that it had been taken up by enthusiasts who started to brew almost knowing that it was a thing that wasn't going to make loads of money but something smaller, more niche, that you do for love and fun.
And now?
Craft beer has been hijacked by cynical marketeers who know damned well there's no real definition and that their mass-produced faint echo of a small batch IPA (yeah, you Shipyard and Maltsmiths) is not as cheap to produce as Carlsberg-Fosters-Heineken (or whatever) but it's not that far off and is a lot less price sensitive.
No, no, I know this isn't some new insight...it's been said by many more erudite than me.
I guess, since I drink in a city with an abundance of micro-breweries who produce some of the very best beer you can imagine, I can see a sign on a pub/bar window that says "Craft Beer" which makes me want to give the place a try. When I press my eager little nose to the glass all I can see is mega brand beer. This makes me simultaneously angry and sad.
If a tiny pizza place (mostly takeaway but with about 8 seats to sit and eat) can serve two (count 'em) lovely local keg beers (usually Arbor and Moor) then pretty much anyone could - but they choose not to.
I'd love there to be another definition that would allow me to be confident when I enter an establishment that the thing they have on offer was made with care and (probably) in small volume.
Meanwhile I'll have to redouble my efforts to support smaller producers and independent outlets and champion those that don't fall for the large company "we'll install some lines for you" spiel.
Monday, 17 February 2020
Friday, 14 February 2020
Virtual Pals
After being bereaved in 2007, my instinct - despite my marked introversion - was to strike out and find some distraction in meeting some new people.
Although I was an internet early-adopter, I was social media naive but a pal suggested that sharing photographs on Flickr was an easy way for him to see them.
Little did I realise what a transformative this relatively trivial act would have on me.
Probably the best thing of all was that a local bunch of Flickr users regularly met, and did so in pubs!
I'm still friends with several of the people who used to meet up, and pleasant online acquaintances with others. For someone who prefers the tranquil and small numbers of people around, this is some form of nirvana.
Even better, occasionally you can have accidental meetings with those same people. So last night, me and the Best Beer Buddy had arranged to meet Stuart - another Flickr alumni - who, he reminded me, I first met in person 10 years ago when he visited from his then home in Australia. He's now moved back to the UK, and lives just around the corner from us here. But as we sat and caught up, so Niall and Sarah who used to be stalwarts of the Flickr meetups came over and shared our table. There was a bit of photography geek talk before we headed home.
As we walked home, the boy observed that although we generally like our own company, conversations in pubs (whether that be football chat serendipitously in The Orchard on Wednesday or photography chat with pals in the Barley Mow) are definitely things to be enjoyed and treasured.
So much better when the beer is good.
It doesn't matter how we meet these people, but it's great that we do.
Although I was an internet early-adopter, I was social media naive but a pal suggested that sharing photographs on Flickr was an easy way for him to see them.
Little did I realise what a transformative this relatively trivial act would have on me.
Probably the best thing of all was that a local bunch of Flickr users regularly met, and did so in pubs!
I'm still friends with several of the people who used to meet up, and pleasant online acquaintances with others. For someone who prefers the tranquil and small numbers of people around, this is some form of nirvana.
Even better, occasionally you can have accidental meetings with those same people. So last night, me and the Best Beer Buddy had arranged to meet Stuart - another Flickr alumni - who, he reminded me, I first met in person 10 years ago when he visited from his then home in Australia. He's now moved back to the UK, and lives just around the corner from us here. But as we sat and caught up, so Niall and Sarah who used to be stalwarts of the Flickr meetups came over and shared our table. There was a bit of photography geek talk before we headed home.
As we walked home, the boy observed that although we generally like our own company, conversations in pubs (whether that be football chat serendipitously in The Orchard on Wednesday or photography chat with pals in the Barley Mow) are definitely things to be enjoyed and treasured.
So much better when the beer is good.
It doesn't matter how we meet these people, but it's great that we do.
Thursday, 13 February 2020
Some Things Change, Others Not So Much
I was re-reading some of my first entries on this blog and was struck by changing, and non-changing things.
Things that have not changed?
Mine and the Best Beer Buddy (aka "S") and our continuing love of well made beer.
My delight in a well-kept pint of Timothy Taylor Landlord. To my mind still an excellent example of a traditional bitter (but called a Pale Ale for reasons that still mystify me).
We could name a couple of other beers we've been drinking for many years and would still not turn our noses up: Harvey's Best, Harvey's Old, Fullers HSB, Marstons Owd Roger...and that's about it.
Our love of The Victoria pub in Eastbourne. We don't visit there as much as we used to since we don't have a base of operations in that part of town. However the EU settled status sessions mentioned yesterday are just around the corner from the Vic so it would be rude not to...
My love of Oakham, Bristol Beer Factory, Arbor beers is as bright-shining as ever it was.
So what has changed?
My love of Dark Star beers has been tarnished by the Fullers-then-Asahi takeover. The main brews now taste mass-produced and a pale imitation of what they were (yes, "Hophead" and "APA", I'm looking at you). The stronger, less mainstream brews seem to be largely unaffected...at the moment.
The Evening Star's atmosphere is still good on a Saturday afternoon but the plastic glasses "imposed by licensing regs" is definitely a downward trend.
Our collective dislike of keg beers. Good, small brewery, keg beers are now a staple in our beer diet. We still tend to go for cask first but no longer are irritated by being cornered into drinking keg. The cost is a bit irksome but I think we just have to get our heads around a redressing of beer pricing.
Beers which no longer exist: BBF Sunrise, BBF Acer, Arbor Black IPA.
And in a weird twist of things that were, then weren't and now are again...
We learned that a pub in St Judes - "The Swan with Two Necks" was under new management. I first learned of this pub via a comment in the 1980's that the landlord at the time was a fanatical beer keeper and drinker and that he wasn't a man who suffered fools gladly.
This landlordly legend, one John Lansdall then moved from the Swan to the Hare on the Hill - my first proper Local Pub. Here, I learned that it wasn't so much he didn't suffer fools gladly...more that he didn't suffer them at all. However, despite the gruff exterior he was a great landlord - with a brilliantly dry sense of humour.
Anyhow, the Swan gradually got worse and worse (as I understand it, since I'd never been there).
Now it's run by the same landlord as the Hilgrove Porter Stores (50 yards from the Hare, as it happens) and we visited a couple of days ago. What a brilliant place! It's a proper old pub but serving really good modern beers in a huge variety of styles. 5 cask pumps and 12 keg taps plus a fridge full of bottles and cans (inc low alcohol styles) and a landlord who exuded enthuasiasm and warmth.
So that pub is neither unchanged nor really changed and it won't be long before we're back there!
Things that have not changed?
Mine and the Best Beer Buddy (aka "S") and our continuing love of well made beer.
My delight in a well-kept pint of Timothy Taylor Landlord. To my mind still an excellent example of a traditional bitter (but called a Pale Ale for reasons that still mystify me).
We could name a couple of other beers we've been drinking for many years and would still not turn our noses up: Harvey's Best, Harvey's Old, Fullers HSB, Marstons Owd Roger...and that's about it.
Our love of The Victoria pub in Eastbourne. We don't visit there as much as we used to since we don't have a base of operations in that part of town. However the EU settled status sessions mentioned yesterday are just around the corner from the Vic so it would be rude not to...
My love of Oakham, Bristol Beer Factory, Arbor beers is as bright-shining as ever it was.
So what has changed?
My love of Dark Star beers has been tarnished by the Fullers-then-Asahi takeover. The main brews now taste mass-produced and a pale imitation of what they were (yes, "Hophead" and "APA", I'm looking at you). The stronger, less mainstream brews seem to be largely unaffected...at the moment.
The Evening Star's atmosphere is still good on a Saturday afternoon but the plastic glasses "imposed by licensing regs" is definitely a downward trend.
Our collective dislike of keg beers. Good, small brewery, keg beers are now a staple in our beer diet. We still tend to go for cask first but no longer are irritated by being cornered into drinking keg. The cost is a bit irksome but I think we just have to get our heads around a redressing of beer pricing.
Beers which no longer exist: BBF Sunrise, BBF Acer, Arbor Black IPA.
And in a weird twist of things that were, then weren't and now are again...
We learned that a pub in St Judes - "The Swan with Two Necks" was under new management. I first learned of this pub via a comment in the 1980's that the landlord at the time was a fanatical beer keeper and drinker and that he wasn't a man who suffered fools gladly.
This landlordly legend, one John Lansdall then moved from the Swan to the Hare on the Hill - my first proper Local Pub. Here, I learned that it wasn't so much he didn't suffer fools gladly...more that he didn't suffer them at all. However, despite the gruff exterior he was a great landlord - with a brilliantly dry sense of humour.
Anyhow, the Swan gradually got worse and worse (as I understand it, since I'd never been there).
Now it's run by the same landlord as the Hilgrove Porter Stores (50 yards from the Hare, as it happens) and we visited a couple of days ago. What a brilliant place! It's a proper old pub but serving really good modern beers in a huge variety of styles. 5 cask pumps and 12 keg taps plus a fridge full of bottles and cans (inc low alcohol styles) and a landlord who exuded enthuasiasm and warmth.
So that pub is neither unchanged nor really changed and it won't be long before we're back there!
Wednesday, 12 February 2020
Digital Departure
It's no good, I can no longer not rant at length on line about this...and it's not related to beer at all.
The company I help run helps people of all ages with digital skills: from enthusing kids about coding, electronics and 3D printing (to name but a few) to doing Word and Excel with ladies who are looking to return to the workplace...and everything in between. We also employ young people on a part time basis to deliver our work. Some of these are students, some of them are young people who are unable to find work for whatever reason (sometimes things like mental and physical health problems). We're really proud of the work we do, and the slight quirky way we do it.
Quite a lot of the small bits of work we do could be considered "digital odd jobs": building a PC from old bits to read 3.5" floppy disks and copy the contents onto a USB stick to make sure someone's files could be checked for usefulness...helping an arts organisation plan and deliver a makerspace festival to do some concept testing...setting up some community library PCs with a modicum of security to ensure that library customers didn't lock the staff out of their own PCs...you know...that sort of thing.
We're horribly underfunded (for that, read UNfunded) and most of my time is spent trying to work out who might give us a grant or a contract for doing something useful for the community.
One of our directors recently asked whether it would be feasible for us to take our skills and our kit into the field to help people in one of the most deprived areas in Eastbourne apply for EU settled status.
Thankfully we had secured a small grant to do some outreach work and this project fitted the criteria quite nicely so we were able to start with a minimum of fuss or scrabbling for cash to test the idea.
As far as we can tell the only way to apply for this settled status is to use a smart device with Near Field Communications (NFC) and a camera to scan a biometric passport, take picutres of documents and such like. There are some publicly available, "self-serve" document scanning machines around the country but no one to help you through the process.
In theory this is quite quick and efficient - if you've been working in the UK for five years or more and you have some basic digital skills then you're laughing and the process takes about 20minutes.
Things get more complicated if you don't work or claim benefits because government records about you can't easily be matched to your other personal details. In these cases you have to find other ways to prove you've been resident for 5 years. Women are disproportionately affected by this as they're more likely to have been family care-givers, not external workers, and probably don't have bills in their name.
Now imagine you don't have an NFC device, or your English is sufficient for day to day needs but lacks the subtlty that you need to read government documents, or perhaps you don't have an email address, or a mobile phone at all...each of those things will make the process an order of magnitude harder.
In fact many of those things might be true and each of them adds their own layer of additional difficulty and attendant anxiety.
Now factor in the uncertainty that being apparently unwanted in a country where you've lived an worked for decades brings...
Every time we run one of our sessions to help people we hear of more and more grim stories of people bewildered by a system apparently designed to exclude a large chunk of citizens who ARE LEGALLY ALLOWED TO BE AND STAY HERE. Our colleagues, our staff, our friends, the people who look after us are being sold a message that we don't think they're important to our society.
Digital by Default is a concept that our society is pushing and although for a large part I think it's quite a good idea to be able to do my business and personal work from my computer but I'm feeling that from a position of priviledge. I'm relatively affluent, I've been tinkering with computers since Margaret Thatcher put one in my school when she was education secretary, I'm reasonably clever and I'm articulate. But for significant parts of our communities digital by default excludes, makes things more expensive, makes some things unavailable and generally implies second-class citizen status.
Making things digital by default before ensuring your citizens have proper access to equipment and skills is rather like outlawing privately owned cars without even checking to see which communities do and don't have reasonable quality public transport.
It's almost, almost as if our government really doesn't care one way or another if some of the people who have been affected by this go back to the EU or stay and continue to contribute to our community. Is it a calculated move, or is it the incompetence that comes from being disconnected from the real world, I wonder? Actually I'm not sure which is worse...
On a brighter note, our local authority is now paying us to continue these sessions for the time being to ensure that we can help more of our friends and neighbours apply for the status they are entitled to.
I'll stop ranting now, and I'll return to wittering about beer very soon, I promise.
The company I help run helps people of all ages with digital skills: from enthusing kids about coding, electronics and 3D printing (to name but a few) to doing Word and Excel with ladies who are looking to return to the workplace...and everything in between. We also employ young people on a part time basis to deliver our work. Some of these are students, some of them are young people who are unable to find work for whatever reason (sometimes things like mental and physical health problems). We're really proud of the work we do, and the slight quirky way we do it.
Quite a lot of the small bits of work we do could be considered "digital odd jobs": building a PC from old bits to read 3.5" floppy disks and copy the contents onto a USB stick to make sure someone's files could be checked for usefulness...helping an arts organisation plan and deliver a makerspace festival to do some concept testing...setting up some community library PCs with a modicum of security to ensure that library customers didn't lock the staff out of their own PCs...you know...that sort of thing.
We're horribly underfunded (for that, read UNfunded) and most of my time is spent trying to work out who might give us a grant or a contract for doing something useful for the community.
One of our directors recently asked whether it would be feasible for us to take our skills and our kit into the field to help people in one of the most deprived areas in Eastbourne apply for EU settled status.
Thankfully we had secured a small grant to do some outreach work and this project fitted the criteria quite nicely so we were able to start with a minimum of fuss or scrabbling for cash to test the idea.
As far as we can tell the only way to apply for this settled status is to use a smart device with Near Field Communications (NFC) and a camera to scan a biometric passport, take picutres of documents and such like. There are some publicly available, "self-serve" document scanning machines around the country but no one to help you through the process.
In theory this is quite quick and efficient - if you've been working in the UK for five years or more and you have some basic digital skills then you're laughing and the process takes about 20minutes.
Things get more complicated if you don't work or claim benefits because government records about you can't easily be matched to your other personal details. In these cases you have to find other ways to prove you've been resident for 5 years. Women are disproportionately affected by this as they're more likely to have been family care-givers, not external workers, and probably don't have bills in their name.
Now imagine you don't have an NFC device, or your English is sufficient for day to day needs but lacks the subtlty that you need to read government documents, or perhaps you don't have an email address, or a mobile phone at all...each of those things will make the process an order of magnitude harder.
In fact many of those things might be true and each of them adds their own layer of additional difficulty and attendant anxiety.
Now factor in the uncertainty that being apparently unwanted in a country where you've lived an worked for decades brings...
Every time we run one of our sessions to help people we hear of more and more grim stories of people bewildered by a system apparently designed to exclude a large chunk of citizens who ARE LEGALLY ALLOWED TO BE AND STAY HERE. Our colleagues, our staff, our friends, the people who look after us are being sold a message that we don't think they're important to our society.
Digital by Default is a concept that our society is pushing and although for a large part I think it's quite a good idea to be able to do my business and personal work from my computer but I'm feeling that from a position of priviledge. I'm relatively affluent, I've been tinkering with computers since Margaret Thatcher put one in my school when she was education secretary, I'm reasonably clever and I'm articulate. But for significant parts of our communities digital by default excludes, makes things more expensive, makes some things unavailable and generally implies second-class citizen status.
Making things digital by default before ensuring your citizens have proper access to equipment and skills is rather like outlawing privately owned cars without even checking to see which communities do and don't have reasonable quality public transport.
It's almost, almost as if our government really doesn't care one way or another if some of the people who have been affected by this go back to the EU or stay and continue to contribute to our community. Is it a calculated move, or is it the incompetence that comes from being disconnected from the real world, I wonder? Actually I'm not sure which is worse...
On a brighter note, our local authority is now paying us to continue these sessions for the time being to ensure that we can help more of our friends and neighbours apply for the status they are entitled to.
I'll stop ranting now, and I'll return to wittering about beer very soon, I promise.
Saturday, 8 February 2020
Still Smitten
Back in the West again.
A few disappointing days of beer in Eastbourne made us almost desperate for something more exciting than Harvey's Best.
It being Friday we knew the Barley Mow would be busy so we popped out as soon as we hit town. There was some work to do and the pub is our favourite place to do it.
It was already quite busy but there was a nice little table so all was well. The last couple of trips to this pub had been everso slightly disappointing on the range of beer front. This time, however, WOW!
Two Tiley's beers, Arbor C Bomb, something Good Chemistry ish, Notorious, and a new BBF "Red" beer on cask. Where to start?
Notorious, for me the red one for him. As good a pint of Notorious as I've had although I still think it's not quite as nice as previous incarnations of BBF 3.8% pale beers (Acer, I miss you).
Because we were working, the first pint disappeared in a flash and the boy went to fetch another.
This time I had the C Bomb and he had the Tiley's pale. Oh my word, C Bomb is an awesome cask pint and this was incredibly fresh and vibrant. So good, in fact that I had a second one.
As the pub filled up we were joined at the table by a couple who are clearly working their way around tap rooms and pubs who do good beer. She clearly indulged him in this by enjoying the trips and drinking some beer (by the time they got to us, she was on G&T).
We had several intermittant conversations about tap rooms and beer in general. It was easy and pleasant going, conversation wise.
We decided not to eat in the pub, so we had our traditional strong keg one for the road: him Running with Spectres (a darker, much stronger version of Lost & Grounded's Running with Sceptres...not confusing at all, obviously). It was an awesome porter/black IPA at a hefty 7% or so. I had a Quantock IPA (5%, I think) which was much better than I expected.
All in all, the stand out beer, though was C Bomb...so yeah, still smitten with the pub and with Arbor beers...
I'm at home.
A few disappointing days of beer in Eastbourne made us almost desperate for something more exciting than Harvey's Best.
It being Friday we knew the Barley Mow would be busy so we popped out as soon as we hit town. There was some work to do and the pub is our favourite place to do it.
It was already quite busy but there was a nice little table so all was well. The last couple of trips to this pub had been everso slightly disappointing on the range of beer front. This time, however, WOW!
Two Tiley's beers, Arbor C Bomb, something Good Chemistry ish, Notorious, and a new BBF "Red" beer on cask. Where to start?
Notorious, for me the red one for him. As good a pint of Notorious as I've had although I still think it's not quite as nice as previous incarnations of BBF 3.8% pale beers (Acer, I miss you).
Because we were working, the first pint disappeared in a flash and the boy went to fetch another.
This time I had the C Bomb and he had the Tiley's pale. Oh my word, C Bomb is an awesome cask pint and this was incredibly fresh and vibrant. So good, in fact that I had a second one.
As the pub filled up we were joined at the table by a couple who are clearly working their way around tap rooms and pubs who do good beer. She clearly indulged him in this by enjoying the trips and drinking some beer (by the time they got to us, she was on G&T).
We had several intermittant conversations about tap rooms and beer in general. It was easy and pleasant going, conversation wise.
We decided not to eat in the pub, so we had our traditional strong keg one for the road: him Running with Spectres (a darker, much stronger version of Lost & Grounded's Running with Sceptres...not confusing at all, obviously). It was an awesome porter/black IPA at a hefty 7% or so. I had a Quantock IPA (5%, I think) which was much better than I expected.
All in all, the stand out beer, though was C Bomb...so yeah, still smitten with the pub and with Arbor beers...
I'm at home.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)