A non prejudiced Vagabond

I was at a meeting last night about the Whitehaven beer festival. Did I tell you about the festival? I did? So are you going.....??

Anyway, the meeting was at the Vagabond in Whitehaven. This is a fine real ale pub. I've never seen more than three hand pulls running but the beer has always been good when I've been in. It has a special interest for me as we bought The Woolpack Inn of the current owner.

On approaching the bar I was of course disappointed to see the predictable Jennings Bitter. I'm never going to pretend that I think this is a very exciting beer. Popular with the locals, but predictable.

On either side of this though,was Ennerdale Blond and Ennerdale Autumn. Great, it's the first time I've had the chance to try these two on the same night. Having reported previously that I was less than totally keen on the Autumn I was pleased to be able to give it second chance.

I started with the blonde. As you can see from the picture there is a good tight head and it's a nice light golden colour, although here the colour is distorted a bit by the dark background. This beer has a very distinct caramel flavour. I questioned butterscotch in my own mind, which would suggest diacetyl, but I'm not sure. Clearly I need some more practice at identifying these flavours. I do not find this beer unpleasant although the creamy, chewy, caramel flavour confuses me because, in my mind, it should be in a darker beer. I'm guessing there is quite a lot of light crystal malt in this beer and a high mash temperature combined with light hopping makes it sweeter than I'd like.

By contrast the Autumn is quite light in texture. A much dryer beer, actually quite bitter but seemingly un-complex. I would wonder if there is only a small amount of heavily roasted malt, or maybe even some plain roasted barley, but a very small proportion of the grain bill made up of adjuncts. My detection of acetic seems not to be here on this occasion. Perhaps last time having Theakstons between times spoilt things or perhaps it was because the cheese and onion sandwiches had run out by the time I got onto my second pint.

Ted in a recent piece that I very much liked talks about prejudice against black beer with a reference to some president elect. I'm beginning to wonder if my prejudice against the Autumn, and Jennings bitter for that matter, is based on it being quite dark relatively boring ale. This does not make them "wrong", just not for me.

I still prefer the Blonde over the Autumn. I think there is an apparent improvement in the beers from Whitehaven brewery as time goes on and with the interest that seems to be there with cask ale, this very recently started brewery can only go from strength to strength as the brewers gain experience and trial new brews.

Thank you Vagabond and Whitehaven brewery for giving me the chance to try them both together. The beer experience was much better than my last visit to Whitehaven.

Ail and humble pie

I was starting to think that my blogs didn't get read much. Last night I posted how I felt about the ales I tried whilst out for the evening and made some less than completely nice comments about Whitehaven brewery's Ennerdale Autumn. Maybe I shouldn't have been quite so rude. Maybe I should save my posts until morning. If I wasn't fit to drive then maybe I'm not fit to be in charge of a blog either.

This morning Shelagh Ferguson's name was on my incoming mail from Blogger about comments to be moderated. "Oh bugger, now I'm in trouble" I thought. But Shelagh's comments were far more restrained than I might have been had anybody said anything bad about my ale. You can see the comments on yesterdays post.

Later in the day I was watching some stuff about an election that has just happened in some far away land. A Rottweiler wearing lipstick was actually being fairly cautious about telling the press that they should not make statements that later turn out to be economic with the truth without being prepared to own up and say they were wrong. I thought she was being too cautious, "go for it" I thought.

My barman, Alan, came to work after being off for a few days. He knows ale well and should be bestowed with an award for the efforts he puts in on his free time to support the pub industry. I respect his jugement on ale, he's normally right about beer (He knows sod all about anything else mind - now I'm going to find out if he reads my blogs) It seems he was drinking Ennerdale Autumn on Sunday, had three pints in fact, and said it was the best that Whitehaven brewery had produced to date.

And then, AND THEN!! Ted puts his 2 penneth in. "acetic?". That would suggest the ale was off. Weeeellll, no. Actually I didn't really mean that. It was just a faint hint I detected while trying to really determine why it didn't work for me.

So what was I thinking of?? I don't know. I suppose I'm trying to take this beer blogging thing seriously. If I'm going to comment on beers then I should say what I really feel about them. That's what I did. I've also complained in the past about people saying nasty things about other peoples' "babies". Microbrewing doesn't make many people a whole lot of money - they do it because they care about what they are doing. If Shelagh is selling all she can brew then she's doing something right.

Having thought all day about it I've decided I'm going to carry on making comments about ales I try. If I don't like them then I'll say so. If somebody thinks I'm wrong, comment on my blog. I'm not going to be accused of not showing the other side of the story. I've made it my policy to only reject comments that are offensive in nature. Don't use bad languge or be personal, (Alan, you can be personal, 'cause I'll get my own back) and they'll get through.

Have I smoothed things over? Or should I stop digging now? Well why don't you, my blog readers, go and search out some Ennerdale Autumn and then tell me I'm talking through the top of my head?

In the search of good beer

My friend at Brewers Union 180 posed an interesting question, "is there such a think as bad beer?". Well for me, it is now the time of year I get out a little more. Tonight was the local branch CAMRA meeting and a chance to test the theory.

Oh, before I forget, it's the Whitehaven beer festival in a couple of weeks. 21-22 November. See West Cumbria Branch and Whitehaven Beer Festival sites. Tony Messado chose most of the beers, so it's worth going because there is bound to be a tick or two you haven't got. I'm also working on a plan to get Jamie Reed there, our M.P. so we can ask him to push for action on the Community Pub Inquiry recommendations as well.

Anyway, where was I .... oh yeh, looking for a nice pint. Tonight we were in the Sunny Hill in Whitehaven. Three pulls - Cumberland Ale, Theakstons Best Bitter and a new Ennerdale Autumn. What I have found is that when I am confronted with less than total exciting beers I fail to be able to describe the flavours with eloquence. But I am able to give enjoyment ratings.

I started with the Ennerdale - after all Shelagh is working hard to get this new brewery out there. I'm afraid that along with the Ennerdale Bitter it's just not quite getting there with me. The Ennerdale Blond is a better beer in my view, a bit more exciting. The Autumn and the Bitter are just more of the same "classic" bitters.

It strikes me that a bad beer is one that makes me wish I was in another pub. Ennerdale Autumn does just that for me. Sorry Shelagh, I would suggest a few more hops in the late drop would be a route forward.

Theakstons best. Well certainly better, cleaner somehow. A bit more zing, like a twist of lemon or lime or something. Third pint and back to the Ennerdale and yes, a hint of something not quite right - acetic I'd swear, rather than citric.

I know Cumberland Ale, I've said before. Tandleman, you might be right, it's just the same as always and better then either of the other two choices. Dry hopping, I must have a go at that.

So we had to end the night with something better. We called in to see my friend Rod at the Gosforth Hall on the way back. As always 3 handpulls running with something that starts at the "OK" end of the scale and then others that are better. Langdale Moonshine - Cumbria Legendary Ales. I've had that at my pub so skip that. (It's nice BTW) one that I forget - that memorable eh, probably his "OK" for the night, and Yates Fever Pitch.

I stopped buying Yates beers for my pub a little while ago, for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with beer quality, silly really. It is probably the beer I choose when not in my pub because ALL of Yates beers are really, really good. Fever Pitch has everything you really want. Good aroma, zingy sherbet mouthfeel flavour and fully satisfying. Yates have never done a dark beer, at least not that I'm aware of. I bet if they did it would be fantastic.

Anyway - don't forget the Whitehaven Beer Festival: 13 Cumbrain Beers are included in the list. 4 of which are new ticks for Tony - so they're bound to be for you too.