That was 2011

It seems such a long time now since we sold our pub. It was March 2010 when we started Hardknott as a stand alone brewery. At that time we had a tiny 2-and-a-bit barrel plant. Pushing no more than 9 firkins from a brew length made sense in a quiet country pub, but as a stand alone brewery is far, far too small. Before the first year was out we had acquired slightly larger brew vessels and could manage around 5 barrels, 7 hectolitres or around 20 firkins from a brew.

It became obvious that we had to grow a little more if we were to be financially viable. Beer, you see, is a little undervalued for very small artisan producers to be capable of making a profit from such small volumes. Additionally, as we had decided to focus on more contemporary styles of beer, dry hopped and style breaking, rather than the usual easy drinking regular traditional session beers. The major market here was always going to be with the city centre buzz rather than the quiet rural idyllic. To make transport into various cities cost-effective we simply had to increase volumes and order sizes.

Upon leaving 2010 we had somehow been demoted to one vehicle, which was a Ka. A very economical run-about, but if I remember rightly, we could only fit one firkin into the boot. Our trusty Pathfinder had been used to discover black ice just prior to the New Year and we were lucky not to have a right off on our hands. Even so, going from a less than ideal vehicle to one that was completely impractical, in that shape of the ridiculously small Ford courtesy car, while the garage took 2 months to execute repairs, forced the purchase of the Hardknott Van.


Jumping from a maximum delivery load of 12 firkins to 24 made a huge difference. Occasionally we would run out of beer, rather than time to deliver. Pushing plant capacity to the absolute limits and putting together all our brew vessels, combining gyles and hop sparging/liqouring back we were easily filling the fermenting vessels to the point of overflowing. Time, perhaps, for some bigger vessels.

Because we like dry hopped beers, and because of the problems of dry hopping in cask, we wanted tanks that could cope with the process. Additionally we wanted to bottom crop yeast and be able to carbonate in tank. Fully enclosed conical bottom tanks are the only way forward. We ordered the tanks in July from Willis European. Very competitive price, if a little long on the lead time; the tanks turned up at the beginning of December, a total of nearly 5 months after ordering. To be fair, we were told it would be a long time.

Other highlights of 2011 was to follow our passion about beer and food matching. I know some think it's a daft nonsense, but it certainly captures the imagination of others. Why not? If it gets more people interested in good beer then it has to be a good thing.

We complained about Saturday Kitchen not including beer. I believe they are now including some mention of beer. We helped at a total of three beer matching dinners this year. The first was at The Masons Arms, which was a success if a little low key. The second at The Kirkstile Inn, where the portions of food were mountainous and the third at Fayre Gardens where the food was exquisite.

Steven, from Ale Talk, bullied me into making Vitesse Noir. We launched it at the last dinner and have found that although the market for such beers might be small, it has been well received within that market. Well enough for the current batch to have been sold. We'll make some more and we hope to do a few more crazy things in 2012 that will top that one.

We joined in with a beer verses wine dinner that was partly catalysed by our Saturday Kitchen complaint. It was great fun and I believe that the whole of the hospitality industry could be given a boost by doing more themed evenings. It certainly drags the punters in at events I've seen.



Hardknott Beer from PiciFilms on Vimeo.

We made a silly film, and hope to do more sometime soon. It was fun and people still remind me of it's silliness. I have a plan to throw some casks into a Cumbrian Lake somewhere and perhaps I'll call the result Mere Beer. Or perhaps I'm kidding. You'll have to watch out for the film when we do it.

2012 looks very exciting, and quite scary too. We've got various export routes opening up and lots of new ideas. Funding it all is the scary bit; borrowing money might be possible, but with our accountant working hard to get all the information in order, we are hopeful we can fund the ideas we have. With the inevitable cash flow lag that appears to occur with growth we may be constrained by limits on bank funding, although you, the beer drinker can help by drinking more of our beers.

If you can't find our beer near you, preferably we'd like you to suggest to your local pub or shop that they stock Hardknott, otherwise, you can order it from our on-line shop, another addition in 2011.

So, I wish all my readers, whoever you are, a very happy and prosperous New Year, I for one believe that determination and imagination can help overturn all the economic gloom, and although it's not easy, keep optimistic, as pessimism only fuels a lack of confidence and further downwards spirals.

Beer lovers scran

I didn't want to be involved from the start. I'd been last year and been quite appalled at how badly the beers had been matched to the food. This year I'd been asked to contribute beer free of charge, two firkins no less. I insisted on the beer I would present being Infra Red at the very least. Of course, I'd have been happier to match something even stronger with the food, but this was a CAMRA dinner and it just HAD to be cask.

The event was the Cumbrian CAMRA branches annual awards and beer lovers dinner. Last year it was very clear that almost universally the beers chosen were session beers, which are rarely very good at matching with food. The one beer that was, if I remember rightly, about 6% gained inappropriate and over-the-top warnings from the jug runner about how strong it was.

Having been persuaded to attend this year, and having received no real benefits from the fact that we had donated beer, not even a free seat, and payment demands for the 4 tickets we had agreed to buy being somewhat less than tactful, I was below optimum mood for the event anyway. Being a person who works, lives and breaths beer nearly every waking hour of the day and being extremely busy with it, a Friday night in front of the TV was then, a week ago, very much overdue. I could still do with scheduling it in right now. A beer dinner like that is work you see, it has to be absolutely splendid to fire me into enthusiasm¹.

I'm not against session beer. I've made the point many times before that I drink a lot of it. However, when it comes to beer and food matching, session beer just does not cut the mustard, or for that matter any other condiment.

The menu was fairly dire. OK, it's hard to cater for 200 people, but what was presented seemed ill thought through and lacked flair, imagination or any substantial quality. The technical complacence of the cooking was fine, but overall it lacked any decent interest.

The first course was a "Cumbrian canapé Breakfast on a plate" Please, what was that? A miniature breakfast essentially. Clever maybe, but the only flavours were salt. black pudding and prune. The only positive thing I could say was that the pale session beer it was matched with helped to quench the thirst that the salt created. It did not go at all well with the dominant flavours of the black pudding and the prune.

The second course was more salt. Ham hock and potato terrine and this was possibly the best of a poor bunch of session beer matches. However, the food was bland other than the salt and overall failed to impress me.

Beef, which was actually the best food, was matched with an otherwise superb and very popular pale session beer. The result was a little bit like trying to get morris dancers to perform to Punk Rock. Never before have I ever tried a food and beverage match that was so clearly influenced by organisational needs over and above flavour.

By the time I got to the dessert, matched with my beer, I was already very unhappy that I had spent £120 of my money on tickets and also donated around £200 worth of beer. I was by this time quite convinced I should have gone with my original gut feelings of having nothing whatsoever to do with the event. The Infra Red would have been a far more suitable match for the beef, and I was expecting complete failure of a match it had been chosen for, which was the dessert.

Damson and almond tart. This would have gone well with Stringers Damson beer, for instance, or perhaps a Kriek. I believe Hawkshead do a damson beer too. But, Infra Red, I was sure, was not the best match. I'll be honest, out of the whole menu it probably was the best beer/food paring, but in my view this only goes to highlight just how bad this beer dinner was.

The beer with the cheeses was OK. Sorry, the beer is one of my favourite Cumbrian Beers after Infra Red and would have gone well with the beef perhaps slightly better than Infra Red. But still, it was only just OK with the cheese.

On top of the matching issues the whole event suffered from the major problem of delivering beer in jugs to tables. Decanting beer into jugs knocks out condition by the double decant. All the beers were flat, completely. I nearly ordered a bottle of wine.

All the very best beer matching events I've been to either use beer in bottles, or where logistics are practical, the beers are dispensed on draught directly into the glass. However, this is a concern I have with beer judging where beer is often dispensed with a double decant to ensure quite rightly that blind tasting is ensured.

Quite apart from the fact that this event effectively cost us over £320 to support, which I regret deeply, I also despair at the entrenched ideas of some beer "lovers" How on earth are we ever going to overcome the preconceived ideas of the like of Saturday Kitchen if the organisers of beer diners like this fail to understand that session beers are for drinking in the pub and beer and food matching needs a different approach? If this is the standard of beer and food presentation we will always fail to overturn the general public's view that wine goes better with food.

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¹I need to point out that many very good beer events do inspire me. We recently organised a beer dinner at Fayrer Gardens for instance. Also, we had an absolutely splendid time at Thatchers Arms with Tim Atkin and Adrian Tierney-Jones where beer and wine went head-to-head and proved that either, when done well, can be equally as good with food. Indeed, it is cooperation between menu design and drinks matching, along with bucking against influences for political reasons that make these events a success.

Terroir

Our activities to raise the profile of food and beer matching have attracted some interesting responses. I am pleased with the way it has gone in general, but there are some underlying issues to resolve. In particular, the question of beer and its "sense of place", as Tim Atkin likes to call it, is a nagging point.

Fine wine is almost exclusively made from grapes grown in a single vineyard, crushed, fermented, matured and possibly even bottles by the same artisan organisation within a particular village. That, we are told, makes fine wine better for food matching than beer ever can.

The best bottle of wine I ever consumed was on my 40th birthday, in a 3 rosette restaurant, in which, a few weeks later, the Queen dined. The wine was really was very good, but at around £45 for 750ml I'm unsure if I could claim it was better than some of the very best beer I have ever drunk. I can think of a few grand beers, of equal complexity and of better value for money than that wine example. Furthermore, I strongly suspect that the wine in question would be much more now; I've tried to buy it since and failed to do so for any less than around £60 a bottle, even at wholesale prices.

Despite knowing that some exceptional quality beers can equal fine wine, how do we counter the accusation that beer has no "sense of place", no terroir? Furthermore, I decided to enter into my "campaign" by citing the fact that British Beer is an indigenous product of our country and that aspect has been undermined a little by various people, not incorrectly of course, pointing out that some of the very best beers do in fact use imported hops. Chris King writes a constructive appraisal of where we are which brings up that question, and is one of a number of articles I need to address before moving forward.

So, what does this treasured terroir mean? Is it really that valuable? How does it make wine better than beer and able to command ridiculous prices? Can beer ever compete?

Let's look first at the meaning of the word:

terroir (tɛrwar)

— n
winemaking

the combination of factors, including soil, climate, and environment, that gives a wine its distinctive character.

-dictionary.com

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A " terroir " is a group of vineyards (or even vines) from the same region, belonging to a specific appellation, and sharing the same type of soil, weather conditions, grapes and wine making savoir-faire, which contribute to give its specific personality to the wine.

-terroir-france.com

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Of course, if we directly try to parallel wine terroir to beer we will fail. The bulk ingredient in beer is water. Many will try to argue that you can tell the difference when a brewery changes its water supply, and I've tried to do so myself in the past. Wine, of course, is entirely grape juice and so all the water in wine has come through the soil and into the vine before being squeezed out of the grape. In beer the science behind liquor treatment almost entirely blows away the idea that water necessarily has to influence the beer production.

The grain is the next bulk ingredient. For a product like a good barley wine the bulk weight input might very well equal the mass of the finished product. Barley, and most of the other grist ingredients, are grown in the UK. They are then normally by a handful of fine and experienced malsters, also in the UK.

Hops, which are an ingredient that arguably most effects the flavour and aroma of some of the very best beers may very well not be grown in this country. Indeed, although I accept this is a matter of opinion and a controversial point, the finest beers are made with heavy doses of New World hops. However, I do not believe this undermines my point that beer is an indigenous UK product.

To counter the accusation of hops being imported it is important to note that the hops represent less than 1% by weight of the finished product. Value wise it is a little more complicated, and seasonally variable, but generally less than 1% of the price you pay for your beer actually contributes to a none UK economy. Hops are a low mass product, shipped by sea and of relatively low value compared to the overall value of the beer.

It is true that the flavour of hops is significantly effected by the climate of area the hops are grown. This does truly inhibit our ability to focus on one single terroir for beer, but in reality many brewers are highlighting the New World influence on beer making the drink much less stuffy and aloof than the pretentious wine parallel. Beer is a product that crosses many boundaries including national frontiers - I think that makes it better than wine. For that reason it can also be argued that beer is a better match for world cuisine. Beer is a much better beverage for the modern, all-embracing, cosmopolitan and democratic people.

Human controlled elements

The definition of terroir can be expanded to include elements that are controlled or influenced by human decisions. This can include the decision of which grape variety to plant, though whether or not that grape variety will produce quality wine is an innate element of terroir that may be beyond human influence. Some grape varieties thrive better in certain areas than they do in others. The winemaking decision of using wild or ambient yeast in fermentation instead of cultured or laboratory produced yeast can be a reflection of terroir. The use of oak is a controversial element since some will advocate that its use is beneficial in bringing out the natural terroir characteristics while others will argue that its use can mask the influences of the terroir.

-wikipeadia.com

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Yeast, of course, has a significant effect on beer. I've recently been trying a few beers crafted by long-standing brewers that I have previously overlooked. There is a quite distinctive flavour that is created by some brewers as a result of careful selection of ingredients but more specifically the cultivation of yeast.

Where beer comes into its own is the human influence, selection of ingredients, cultivation of yeast and a panache for creating complexity, depth of flavour and aroma. Dexterous monitoring and control of the whole process from mash, boil, through fermentation and maturation is critical to a top class beer that has a house feel all of its own. It may very well not be important where the beer is made, and a "sense of place" more vague, but beer from a particular brewery has character and personality very special and often only surpassed by the personalities of the brewers.

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The summer recess for Saturday Kitchen provides a useful time of reflection for our campaign to raise the awareness of food and beer matching. A post to follow concerns the fact that food and beer matching, when done well, would necessarily have to include beers from various countries, further undermining my "beer is the indigenous British drink" angle - this point needs to be addressed for the continuation of the "movement"

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Saturday Kitchen Attack

OK, so it was only twitter; it's not real life and nothing will change if it just ends here. However, bigger things have started with less, and it's hard to believe that at least a few cages haven't been rattled¹.

It all started a week ago when Neil Bowness tweeted² that it was strange that Saturday Kitchen regularly plugs imported wines that can be bought in major supermarkets but regularly fails to mention British Beer. A mutual twitter friend, Vickie Hunter, asked if there was anyone we could complain to. This set me thinking that there probably was. To me, the obvious snub given to the beverage that is indigenous to Britain, seems to be broadcasting bias, so I complained to OfCom.

I also decided to write a press release, which was helpfully edited and distributed by Tim Hampson, the chairman of the Guild of Beer Writers. This generated some further publicity on local radio and papers as well as a sniff from the Independent, although for the latter I expect it will get no further than their blog.

This morning we flooded the Saturday Kitchen hashtag with beer matches and various other beer and food related comments. Although difficult to measure as all the previous records for Saturday Kitchen tweets seem too unimportant for the search tools to find, we can be sure we made a difference. We created over 1500 tweets and I am certain that the production team now know we are here.

There is a Facebook page now dedicated to the cause of raising the profile of good beer in the media, please like it and contribute with comments, or links to blog posts etc. I'm hoping this will not be the end of the matter. It's called Libeeration, which I'm told is a play on words. Libation is the act of partaking in alcoholic beverages, beer is an alcoholic beverage and liberation is the act of freeing from previous constraints. It wasn't my idea, it was the brainchild of The Director of vituperation, @AKA_Franklin.

However, I am concerned that this will just be a flash in the pan. Hopefully we'll do the same next Saturday, but I expect the novelty will wear off and it would take a significantly greater event to get us noticed enough to change the way major media people think about beer. I expect it is going to take a real life publicity stunt. Beer and food picnic outside the studio anyone?

Meanwhile I've been accused of this being a publicity stunt for Hardknott. I would hope that my readers are clever enough to feel that their intelligence is being called into question if I tried to deny that this is part of my motive. However, I hope that this shows our whole publicity ethos is one of playing to the all-inclusive nature of beer. Yes, we will occasionally have a pop at things that are in conflict with what we do, and that includes other sectors of the beer market on occasions, but we do firmly buy into the concept that we must all consider what is good for beer in the long run.

Other perceptions on the morning's events have been chronicled by Beer Beauty, Pub Champion and Thatchers Arms.

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¹The series producer is quite obviously ignoring us on twitter. Several of us have tweeted directly at him. Mind you, I also know that abuse is thrown at the program because a few people don't like some of the presenters. I'm guessing that success is often accompanied by abuse and it might be worth remembering that what we did today could be cited as abuse.

²I'm slightly miffed that searches have failed to find the original tweets.

Beer Dinner at The Kirkstile Inn

There are a number of pubs around Cumbria which I have always held in high esteem. The Kirkstile Inn is one such establishment. They manage to retain a high turnover by delivering quality food and drink with a competent level of service. There are none of the usual distractions of gaming machines, juke boxes or pool tables as an attempt to draw in extra trade. It's true that the location is somewhat idyllic and in contrast to our own experiences of pub ownership, this one is easily accessible from major cosmopolitan¹ conurbations.

At our last beer dinner we had a number of Cumbrian beer industry movers and shakers. One such individual was the modest and highly likeable Roger Humphries, who owns both The Kirkstile Inn and Cumbrian Legendary Ales. He was so impressed at our first dinner that he asked us to do something similar on the first night of his beer festival.

So, under the banner of Cumbrian Beer Appreciation Group we organised our second beer and food matching dinner. This time Roger's remit gave us a little more trouble with the matching as he presented us with a menu and we had to match the food. Last time we chose the beer and told the chef what food we wanted him to produce. The challenge turned out to be a powerful learning experience the result of which was a great beer and food matched menu and a great leap forward in the groups abilities to create such events.

The Menu

BEER TASTERS DINNER

Jeff Pickthall and Roger Humphries

Salmon en croute – salmon fillet wrapped in filo pastry – roasted asparagus – Hollandaise sauce
Bavarian Heffe Weis No3 5% (Mitchell Krause)

This was perfect. The delicate yet highly aromatic effect of this style of beer worked well with the salmon but still had enough punch to hold its own with the hollandaise. The spicy notes harmonise with the asparagus beautifully.

Roasted sweet potato and leek soup – served with hop bread
Loweswater Gold 4.3% (Cumbrian Legendary Ales)

Again, this was a perfect match. The soup was served with a scoop of creme fraich in the centre which matches the slight buttery feel of the beer and of course the food heaven of butter on warm bread. The beer is carefully hopped leaving the grain to do all the talking, the sweet malt of which hits the spot with this delicious soup.


Sautéed button mushrooms stuffed with Crofton goats’ cheese ‘stumpy’ and Woodall’s air-dried ham – coated in herb breadcrumbs – homemade pesto
Jaipur 5.9% (Thornbridge)

If I were honest I'd say this match was the poorest of the lot; the food was delicious and of course we all know Jaipur to be a classic contemporary² IPA well worthy of its status as a superb beer. However, this dish we knew would be tricky to get right. The pesto somehow wasn't quite the right spiciness to stand up to the strong citrus tropical fruits in the beer and somehow the bitterness jarred with the mushrooms. However, I'm probably being hypercritical and I seem to remember finishing my plateful, even though I was starting to worry that I was over half-full but not yet halfway.

Rabbit, pheasant and duck terrine – toasted rye bread – pineapple and orange chutney
Red Bull Terrier 4.8% (Barngates)

Red Bull Terrier is one of my favourite Cumbrian beers. It is perhaps not what most beer geeks would call progressive, but when on good form it's great combination of malt power along with a citrus hop bite gives undertones of chocolate and orange.

The terrine was exceptional and the chef must have put tremendous effort into this dish showing off just how skilled many pub chefs can be. The strong game meats matched well with the robust meaty beer and the orange and pineapple chutney.

Fanned cantaloupe melon – Champagne sorbet – strawberry purée
Organic strawberry fruit beer 5% (Samuel Smiths)

I'll be truthful, Jeff and I had a little bit of an argument about this one during planning. I didn't know the beer and wanted to use a Belgian fruit beer where I felt the acidity of a true lambic would work well. I was overruled, a little to my disgust, but this is a team effort and the majority rules.

I was wrong, this beer was absolutely perfect. Surprisingly tart but with enough sweetness to work with the sweet fruitiness of the food. All in all a brilliant palette cleanser to set us up for the home straight.

Cottage pie – Cumbrian beef slowly braised in Langdale beer and roasted vegetables – topped with creamy mashed potatoes
Special Oatmeal Stout 4.5% (Coniston Brewing Co)

Bearing in mind that this was the 6th course a huge portion of comfort food was perhaps not quite what was required. But it was somewhat delicious. Firstly it is nice that the cottage pie was made with chunks of meat rather than the ubiquitous mince. The superbly executed slow braised beef paired wonderfully with the silky velvet stout and this course would have made a hearty lunch stood alone.

Cumberland Rum Nicky – A traditional 17th Century hot Cumbrian sweet made with dates, orange, ginger and Jefferson Whitehaven rum with a lattice pastry topping – served with rum and raisin ice-cream
Queboid 8% (Hardknott Brewery)

How can I say this match was perfect without seeming to be biased? Queboid, being fermented with a Belgian yeast, has a fruity spicy nose. The desert is something similar to an open mince pie, spices and dark fruit dominating. The very spirity feel, sweet malts and the tart spicy hops produce a golden syrup taste typical of a double IPA and paired very well indeed.

Personally I think this beer goes with many classic British puddings; suet, egg custard and dried fruits all work well.

Local cheeses, Maris Otter malt biscuits and Melbreak chutney
Croglin Vampire 8% (Cumbrian Legendary Ales)

Croglin Vampire is a delicious dopple bock with flavours of nutty apple and a gentle texture that helps hide its strength well. Full bodied but also gentle at the same time.

The fruity nature of what is technically a lager works tremendously well with full flavour cheeses.

Surprise

One of the objectives of the Cumbrian Beer Appreciation Group is to help dismiss preconceptions about beer. We chose beers to match circumstances based on appropriateness. Although we love cask beer, and three of the beers above were served this way. Two of the beers are bottle conditioned and in my view very much better for that. The remaining three, to the best of my knowledge, were served from beers that have been chill filtered and re-carbonated.

I'd have liked Queboid to have been from keg, where I think my version works particularly well, but it just wasn't practical on this occasion.

At least one of our beers would have been much better from cask rather than the bottled version. However, to provide a variety of beers at economic costs some compromises had to be made. But, just because a beer isn't cask, or isn't bottle conditioned, or perhaps is served with extraneous gas does not render the beer unworthy of consideration. Indeed, with packaged beer there is little to suggest that the container has much effect on the beer. Why does good quality packaged beer only come from bottle? Isn't a cask just a great big can? And what about those mini casks many brewers provide? They are just 70's party 9's re-launched after all.

Actually, Punk IPA and cheese works too.

Or, beer and cheese, any beer, just select the right cheese.

We decided to let the guests leave with a little bit of a surprise. Bottles might well provide a nice way to present beer but the overhead of glass adds weight and cost. If you are camping or having a picnic perhaps cans are more appropriate. One notable brewery is now controversially putting Punk IPA into cans. We thought it was a nice little touch to present each diner with a can of said beer.

I got so carried away talking about and eating that I forgot to take pictures of the best courses, sorry.

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¹The term cosmopolitan in the Cumbrian context is somewhat watered down. Compared to the remote Cumbrian valleys, Whitehaven, Workington and Cockermouth have managed to drag themselves out of the 19th century and stand some change of passing the mid point of the 20th century sometime soon.

²Is "contemporary" and "classic" used together an oxymoron? I don't think so in this context.

Cumbrian Beer Geeks

Cumbria has lots of breweries. We've lost count now but we believe it might be up at around 30. It is rumoured that Yorkshire has more, but then there are more people in Yorkshire. Sheffield is in Yorkshire and the city is an excellent beer town. The Sheffield Tap is an excellent beer geek bar that always has some excellent beers.

Cumbria has quite a few very good food places. Some even have rosettes or stars for their food. L'Enclume is one; I've eaten there and it's very poncy and very expensive. I liked it, but there was no beer at all. There is also The Drunken Duck which houses Barngates Brewery. The food and the beer are good, although I've never really known them to do any proper beer and food matching. Generally, the best places for food don't give beer much of a consideration and the best places for beer can be a let down on the food side of things.

Recently there was a very enjoyable CAMRA organised beer dinner in Kendal. A very successful and well attended event. Pete Brown was guest speaker and it brought together 200 or so of the most enthusiastic beer people in the county. The main criterior for the selection of beer was it's LocAle credentials. A brave effort was made to match largely session beers with food, an activity that can only have limited success; I believe that for a good beer and food matching event there is a need for stronger flavours in the beer, this can never be achieved with even the best session beers¹.

There are places in that big place right down south, I believe it is known as London, that really do quite a good job of both. My favourite is The White Horse at Parsons Green. There might be better places, but for now it remains the best place I've found that serves really good food and a wide selection of esoteric beers. Some people think it's overpriced and full of la-di-da-toffs, but it's only the crazy imported stuff that is pricey and you can treat the toffs with the contempt they deserve, unless you've already used up all your contempt on the beer tickers.

When it comes to beer geekery there really is very little in Cumbria to satisfy the more adventurous beer explorer. It is getting better, The Swan for instance in Ulverston is quite good, they even sometimes have Hardknott, BrewDog, Stringers and others, when the PubCo is feeling relaxed about stuff. It was the only place in Cumbria that dared have a go with our Queboid on cask. In the very same town there is The Mill, its cask beer is a little tame, if well kept, but they do have the best bottled beer selection I've yet to find in our sparsely populated expansive county.

A few months ago Ann called on a nice pub out near the tourist honey-pot area of Windermere. She reported back that I'd probably like it - and that she had sold them some of our beer. I was lucky enough to be allowed to go there on one of her delivery trips and I was not to be disappointed. Both the food and beer selection is interesting, varied and of a good standard.

Having been to various beer dinners, some better than others, the idea of getting involved with one was becoming something of an ambition. Also, I have been keen to try and promote some of my stronger beers as good food matches. After all, stuff like Infra Red and Queboid are unlikely to do well as a regular session beers, but I do believe that a market can be generated for them as accompaniments for food. Equally, I'm generally keen to see beer promoted more in various foodie establishments, for far too long wine has been seen as the drink to have with food.

The pub mentioned above, the one that now sells our beer, also sells BrewDog beers and some foreign beers from James Clay, is the Masons Arms at Strawberry Bank. I am assured that this pub has been a strong beer pub for many years. Its food is top notch pub food too having recently won Lake District Dining Pub of the Year for 2010/11 awarded by Lancashire Life. The management team: Alex, Adam and Helen have been thinking about beer events and we seem to have found kindred spirits here.

Last night a few of us Cumbrian Beer Geeks met up there with a view to organising a beer and food matching evening. It seems it might well be the inaugural event for a likely Cumbrian Beer Geek Club. It's all very new and we're hopeful that it will bring some variety to the beer world in Cumbria. You see, we don't have anything quite as good as The Sheffield Tap or The White Horse or even The Rake.

Our first event is to be a Contemporary British Beer and Classic British Food dinner. 7 beers have been picked and we are going to match with 7 taster courses of classic British dishes, possibly with our own twist where we feel it is useful for the food.

At the very least the infamous Jeff Pickthall will be there as will Neil Bowness and of course, yours truly. We will be enthusing about the beers and explaining why we have matched them with the particular foods. I am hoping there will also be a new beer launched at the evening and perhaps other little surprises.

This will all happen on Thursday 10th March. The Masons Arms has rooms, so if you live in the North and can't get yourself as far as the deep south where all these things normally happen, get yourself booked in.

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¹I'd go further and point out that a beer which matches well with food is probably going to be far too much for most drinking sessions. I have got nothing against session beer and most of the beer I drink is of that ilk.

My Christmas Dinner

I'm making a New Years resolution. I don't normally go for this sort of stuff, you know, superhuman promising, mainly because when it involves ridiculous nonsense like giving up chocolate, or even worse, beer or coffee or some other stimulation substance, I know I'll crumble around 6pm on the first of January. Even when I decided to give up smoking, which was a sort of resolution that was made around about the turn of some year or other, it didn't actually happen until about March, well not properly anyway.

Next year I am properly going to write about beer and food. I might turn out to be fairly rubbish at it, but if I am, then at least I've tried. I'm not going to start practising behind closed doors, that sort of thing should be reserved for other activities, so I'll just dive in at the deep end; I'll eat some food, pick some beer that I think might work with it and write about what I thought.

To start the whole thing off I've already tried to make my own match. What better meal to start with than Christmas dinner? Interestingly I seem to disagree with my friend Jeff Pickthall, in his appearance in The Hairy Bikers 12 Days of Christmas he suggests a beer with low hop bitterness as turkey is not the most assertive of meats. He is right about the turkey, but there are reasons why I think the meat is not the most important thing when it comes to matching a beer with this meal. Still, its great to see Jeff's words in the book and fantastic that such well known foodie stars are giving a nod to beer. Moreover, just because I disagree with Jeff doesn't mean he's wrong, I'm realising that there are great disagreements often occur over the subject of beer food food matching.

I would go slightly further than Jeff in his comments about turkey. Frankly, it is virtually tasteless. It is notoriously difficult to cook through thoroughly without it becoming completely dried out. Although turkey and stuffing sandwiches for three weeks might well be the best thing about Christmas for some, but for me it is probably the thing that put me off turkey during December many years ago. Seriously, they are just to big for most families. If I convince the reader of anything else then ditching the turkey has to be my main goal.

I cook a mean roast meal. I like to deal with it completely traditionally, no silly Auntie Bessie and no unnecessary "Aah Bisto". There are plenty of fabulous flavours in the food if it is done right. A bit of seasoning and a few herbs are all that are really needed.

I like goose for Christmas dinner and duck would be a second choice. With a larger family two or three birds could be used. I think one Christmas I cooked a goose, a duck and a guinea fowl, or something similar. The variation of meat is great for a festive feast.

The other day I was in a cosy little village shop and I spied a pheasant. It was perfect for three of us for dinner the next day. A bit of Cumberland Sausage meat stuffing and there we have a tasty, but by no means overpowering white meat. A small onion chopped up and mixed with the sausage meat helps add a natural flavour enhancer and the delicate nutmeg and mace in the sausage mix is perfect for poultry and game birds. No seasoning is needed for the bird as this is already in the stuffing.

As pheasant is a small bird I carefully peeled a cavity under the breast skin to enable more force meat into this area. I also stuffed the rear cavity with the same stuffing. I find breadcrumb based stuffing just goes to a horrible mushy mess inside the bird, so if I provide this with the meal I would cook this separately.

I always roast meat with some root vegetables in the same tray. Carrots washed and split lengthways, an onion or two skinned and quartered and a few peeled garlic cloves. Parsnips, swede or turnip might also be used. It is best not to overload the tray as this will prevent essential caramelisation, which is the key to a good roast meal.

I never cook a roast meal covered with foil. That is mainly because I would never roast such a large joint that requires more than about 2 hours of oven time. A short blast of heat to seal and colour the meat, perhaps 10 minutes at 220^oC for a bird this size¹, then down to 180⁰C for a further 40-50 minutes. A meat thermometer is very useful to check the core temperature. But careful not to over-cook; this is the biggest cause of dry and tacky breast meat. It is essential, to ensure that the roast bird remains moist, that it is removed from the oven just as the core temperature is getting to the correct level and left to rest for 10 - 20 minutes. I cover it with a cloth to help keep the heat in. It will finish cooking to perfection in this final stage, but also frees up the roasting tin for the most important part of the cooking process; the gravy.

The only way to finish a roast dinner is by making gravy from the juices and roasted vegetables in the roasting tin. Largely the remaining fluid will be fat but will also carry caramelised and carbonised sediment that adds colour and flavour to the finished gravy. With our pheasant there was just about the right amount of fat, but sometimes it is necessary to decant some of the fat to prevent greasy gravy.

I used a little plain flour to soak up the fat and make a roux base over a gentle heat on the hob. To this paste, water, beer, wine or stock² is added a little at a time and incorporated into the roux. This is continued until a simmering sauce of the required consistency results. Crucially the roasted vegetables³ are left in the roasting tray while the gravy is made. These add flavours to the gravy that are really important to a good home-made version. They can be sieved out, or blitzed in as desired. In this instance I removed them to leave a smooth rich and delicious accompaniment to the meal. Season to taste and keep warm until required.

I served this with simple roast carrots, parsnip and potatoes. I used a separate tin with reclaimed sausage fat from breakfast, delicious. A few sprouts of course are essential, cooked just el dente - boiled vegetables shouldn't be cooked until the rest of the meal is ready and just about to be served.

That's the food. You saw it in the picture above didn't you? Infra Red. Even with Turkey I'm going to argue that this beer works perfectly. Turkey is so bland and uninteresting that the main flavours in my Christmas dinner are the roast vegetables and the roast garlic in the gravy.

In the wine world it is often thought that white wine goes with fish and white meat and red wine with beef and venison. Although this is a good rule of thumb and can be transferred to beer and food matching; a darker beer with darker meats, lighter beer with white meats, you also have to look at the accompaniments and sauces too.

Sometime ago I recognised the bitter sweet flavours in Infra Red to be similar to those that came from roast vegetables and combine that with the rich strong flavours of my gravy I thought this worked very well indeed. I'd probably incorporate some chestnuts in my Christmas day force meat, this would match well with the sweet nutty features in the beer and the tangy bite in the beer helps cut through the richness in a way that a delicate beer could not.

After the main course we tried a palate cleanser of a glass of Cantillon Gueuze. I have Jeff to thank for this too, not only because he supplied the bottle, but also because he first opened my mind to this fantastic use of this beer. We felt it worked perfectly at helping us to start afresh with desert.

Turkey is one of many things that irritate me about christmas, it, and most of the other things, like the fact that it seems to start immediately after bonfire night, are overshadowed by excessive use of dried fruit. I don't mind the odd mince pie, and Christmas cake is OK in small doses, but by the time I get to the day itself I'm quite fed up of the damn stuff. I like suet pudding however, so for my little experiment I decided to do a pear pudding with mocha creme anglaise.

I hoped that the chocolate and coffee might work with Æther Blæc or Paradox. I'd used a bit of vanilla in the sauce and I have detected this flavour in my cask aged beer. Sadly the creaminess of the sauce and the dumpling like comfort of the pudding fought against the smoky burnt harsh edge of the whisky. I'd suggest it would be perfect with a traditional plum pudding and whisky sauce.

I had racked off a little Queboid which is waiting to be bottled. To our great surprise this worked very well. The strong fruity hop flavours and the Belgian character worked well with the sweet custard and the pears with the malt sweetness matching with the suet steamed sponge.

All in all a success as far as matching beer with food is concerned. One of a number of such experiences I've had, mostly I'll admit organised by other people so far. I am convinced that there is much more could be done to show that beer can work very well in the traditionally wine dominated areas of quality food. I intend to explore this much more.

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¹About 700g plus 500g of force meat.

²Making stock is a whole separate subject. If you want to know how this is done then you'll have to ask me nicely by adding a friendly comment. In this case I just used the water from the potatoes and a splash of Dark Energy. It was quite good enough, although stock helps to make an even better gravy.

³I do hope you have worked out by now that I had already removed our bird.

Beer with food

For those waiting for the second instalment of the barley wine seminar proceedings I'm afraid you'll have to wait till tomorrow. Trying to accurately portray what others have said turns out to be a whole lot more difficult than just spurting out my own incoherent thoughts. Today I need to be in the kitchen for a while so I have to blog quickly.

Food though; we talk about beer with food and beer and food matching. Great idea that is seldom executed very well. I know we're generally rubbish at it here and I'm not sure how we can improve. One of the problems we have is a constantly changing menu and cask selection. Updating the beer blackboard every day and getting to the point of updating the menu is as much as we get to.

I've always been interested in good food. I don't blog about it here very much but have openly admitted to being a food snob. Indeed, I entered the industry primarily interested in food, not beer. That's changed quite a lot these days as beer seems to have taken over my life, but I still have a keen interest in food and would like to see the two working together more. We visited the Restaurant Show at Earls Court for a couple of hours on Tuesday. It's run it's course for us at the moment, it seems to present nothing new, although the economic situation over the last 2 years has dented the new innovation that we go to find. Certainly the size of the exhibition is much smaller than previously.

Every year we have visited the restaurant show. It's given us some great ideas about food and other aspects of running a food led business. Wine and spirits are often being exhibited at tasting sessions as a key part of the selling process. There are interestingly also some of the PubCo's exhibiting and even this year a whole competition for Gastro Pub chefs. As for beer....what beer?

Shepherd Neame have been there, and were this year, but only showing off their brewed under licence beers. As I think one friend of mine has commented "Watch out for BUL", an unfortunate acronym I feel. No sign of Spitfire or Bishops finger and why not? Well I think I know why, and I'll try to explain.

Having tasted some fantastic barley wines with some classic cheese styles the day before what I found further confirmed the main barrier to beer with food. The barley wines matched the cheeses so well, much better than any standard beer might and showing up the key problem with standard British beer and food matching. Standard session pub beer does not go with food. No, don't argue, it jolly well does not.

OK, maybe with your steak and ale pie, gravy and peas, maybe with your curry and rice or possibly with battered cod and chips, which is why we think about these foods in pubs. But when it comes to better quality food these thin, watery and relatively bland beers just fight against the food and destroy the joy of both. At best a regular session bitter acts as a palate cleanser and might, if you are lucky, contrast with good effect, but the best food I have ever enjoyed has always been with wine.

But I'm a beer writer, I can't say these things. Surely fine dining food must be able to match with beer? Yes, I very much believe it can. We need to think in the same way as the sommelier in a great restaurant. We need to think about what is bold enough to stand up to great food, what can match and compliment to provide an integrated experience. Without this approach we are still going to find a great gulf between the beer and restaurant trade.

At the barley wine seminar the beers we tasted with the cheese blended and complimented bringing out the best in both. I'm not sure I would go quite as far as saying that the sum was greater than the parts but at least it was moving in that direction. The reason in my view is the fact that these barley wine beers were generally stronger and matured, and the similarities to a good Vin du Bourgogne, for instance, are not lost on me.

Funnily enough, as I type this I get a comment on twitter from Jeff Pickthall. He ate a very nice meal last night but he had "3 ales all fresh but all very similar. Had pigeon starter and rabbit main + Hawkshead and Ennerdale bitters but craved Belgies". Thanks Jeff, spookily on queue. For me, with this type of food the Belgian beers just win hands down, although I would also settle for a barley wine.

There are several very good beer wholesalers in this country. I have never seen any at the Restaurant Show. Come on beer industry, lets start joining in with the restaurant trade rather than moaning about them taking trade from pubs. Lest start producing more beers that better match food and get them out there into the restaurant trade.

If any beer wholesaler wants a passionate speaker, who also has a little experience with food and understands what might turn on a food operator to the right type of beer, I'd be interested in helping at the next restaurant show.