Ale, Beer, Stout appreciation

Apparently High Density Hop Charge IPA (HDHC IPA) is now a thing. I had to Google it.

It is very hoppy though and I do like Salt Brewery.

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Banana in beer is odd. This isn't bad but they are really pushing it.

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I remember the days when Wells' Banana Bread Beer was a bit weird and outré... According to the internet it was first brewed in 2002, so I must have first encountered it when it was a new beer, but I don't think it was marketed as anything other than a special/guest beer. I always had a soft spot for it on cask, but don't think I've had it in years.

I was back up north last weekend and found it quite pleasant going to pubs with half a dozen decent bitters on and a minimal amount of modern keg beers. Being back in London where most pubs just have a variety of over-priced, over-strengthed and over-hopped IPAs was quite disappointing.

I saw it was cask ale week last week and some craft beer folk online seemed a bit more interested in it than usual I think. I’m expecting a switch in a few years where all the craft places that have been making strong, massively hoppy American style IPAs that have been at the front over the last few years and the bloggers and vloggers who have been chasing these beers will start some push to bring back the ‘traditional British way of beer’. Sambrooks have started brewing in the rams quarter in Wandsworth recently which has a long history of brewing and they’ve just opened up a heritage centre there so maybe it’s slowly on it’s way.

I think trad cask bitter has been making a bit of a comeback among beer nerds the past couple of years; e.g. Five points and a couple of other craft keg breweries have started putting out beers in cask.

However, there are very few other beer cultures that are so closely tied to their method of dispense; the last 18 months have been pretty disastrous for pubs and so also for cask. I do worry that there is a risk of it becoming an ever more niche product, but I guess we'll have to see how the next few years play out.

Just had a pint of 5 points Railway porter in the Hope Carshalton.....such a consistently good pint !

Bitter and Five Points in two posts prompted me to order one of these again but they’re not currently doing them. I really hope they do another batch ahead of Christmas. That was a big part of making my day.

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Maybe I'm just getting older, but a decent cask beer is refreshing to see these days.
After home brewing for 5 years I'm now actually interested in brewing quality traditional beers rather than trying to find the next trend.

Cask beer will always be the best for me but it's getting harder and harder (in London at least) to find anywhere that knows how to run a cellar. The Southampton Arms has been my favourite boozer for years for that reason, haven't been since pre lockdown days though 😔

On a different note, back into my French supermarket haul.

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Wander Beyond Deep Bloom & Maple Dream (at an actual Pub!) as a warmup to Utopian "All British" Harvest Festbier.

All very tasty.

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It’s Friday

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On the cask/keg chat, I went to the Great Northern Railway Tavern last night. They had 20 beers on tap, 2 of which were cask. They used to have a lot more cask in the past and there are a lot of other pubs following the same trend.

I had a pint of London Pride and very much enjoyed it

If you are Lewisham/Greenwich N&R News next to M&S Blackheath Royal Standard has a fantastic range and especially Belgian at great prices.

I fucking love a decent pint of bitter.
Like a proper pint.

I mean Pressure Drop 10% banana milk stout, Abt 12, Rochefort 10 and an issue of Vogue for £20

Other end of the spectrum, Lidl will have a 10% Imperial stout for £2.50 from Thursday in their new beer festival

Lidl beer festivals tend to have a gem or 2, amongst the inevitable average IPA and occasional disaster (I'm looking at you Bubblegum beer)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-58861985

Yo what was the deal about Mikkeller?

There's been a couple of Instagram accounts set up both here, in Denmark and in America to reveal stories from people of harassment and abuse they experienced whilst working at breweries or bars, Mikkeller being one of them (in this case there's some shitty videos). He hasn't taken it seriously and actually yesterday stated that activists are trying to shut down his business. Some breweries have pulled out of his festival, some have decided to still go but formed this sort of white man going to solve all the issues group without actually speaking to the victims (two of these breweries, Wylam and Northern Monk, have also had accusations thrown at them).

You can catch up on the stories here, they are in the highlights bit (little round circles for those not Instagram savvy)
British Instagram account - scroll across to find the start
https://instagram.com/britishbeergirl?utm_medium=copy_link

American https://instagram.com/ratmagnet?utm_medium=copy_link

Danish
https://instagram.com/fanny.wandel?utm_medium=copy_link

If I was any of those brewers, I wouldn’t have gone to support a festival organised by someone who has got this hanging over him (and doesn’t seem to have taken it particularly seriously).

Most of the weekend will be men drinking, hi-fiving and backslapping, which doesn’t really send the right message (even if they are breaking off to have a discussion about how they plan to fix the industry).

11 pints (WAIT, HE DIDN'T EVEN DRINK BOOZE) in 51 pubs over 24 hours.

"I then had to run to the next pub - it was probably the most difficult thing I've done in my life," added Mr Ellis, who largely limited himself to orange juice and diet cola.
"There's only so much drink you can get into your body."

This so-called record is for the taking.

Indeed. Me and a mate did a 12hr pint per hour session back in 95. Given all our years of practice since we discussed that we could put perhaps put this record on a shelf with a bit of inner city route planning...