What is Lager?

I did it, my fizzed up ale works.

Today I was asked for a pint of lager, not that Lindeboom pilsner, but it had to be lager. I gave the gentleman a taster of my fizzed up ale. It's actually a light mild, at least that's what the local CAMRA tasting panel said, so that's what it must be. It's called Saazy Lamm and is 4.3% ABV. I think it's bland and actually tastes better chilled and fizzed than it does cask conditioned. It is made with lager malt and Saaz hops but then fermented with Nottingham ale yeast. It was cleared in a cask and then decanted into a keg.

The customer decided that it was just the type of lager he wanted and proceeded to order a whole pint. I also gave him a taster of the Lindeboom just for good measure. No, that was no good at all apparently. He only likes lager, not pilsner.

So, there you go.

Floors and ceilings

Floors and ceilings need space between them. If not we'd have nowhere to walk around within buildings. If we raise a floor so that it is less than 6'6" from the ceiling some people would bump their head and the ceiling would have to be raised.

I used to think that there might be something we could do to stop the problem of cheap booze in supermarkets. I used to be in support of a minimum pricing policy to stop the increasing differential between pub and shop prices. Price of beer in the supermarket increasing to the same as 'Spoons would result in the price going up there as well and so ripple through to the price ceilings. I do believe there is a reason why the differential exists, it's market forces.

As a licensee it might be nice for the government to tell the industry that we have to charge more for alcohol. There is indeed part of me that thinks that perhaps drink is too cheap, but I would think that, I am very successfully making very little money out of the stuff.

I just don't feel comfortable with the government producing minimum price legislation. Knowing how it went with the smoking ban it will probably end up being illegal for me to provide a free taster for the wary customer. Or perhaps I might like to run a promotion that permits me to give away a bottle of wine with a meal. Where do you draw the line? Knowing this government the line will be at zero tolerance. Most of all though I agree with the growing feeling that this is just another prohibitionist style attack on the whole drinks industry.

I know I'm only repeating what many other bloggers have already said but I don't think it can be said too often.

There is an interesting piece by a GP on the issue. Thankfully prohibitionism isn't supported by many GP's either.

Cumbrian Beer

A discussion on Tandlemans blog saw my brewery accused of being no threat to the likes of Marstons. Of course, I was a little bit miffed at what appears to be a very truthful comment. The truth can be quite hurtful sometimes. It's true though that my brewery probably produces the second smallest output in Cumbria beaten only by Abraham Thompson in the insignificance stakes. But then you see I'm not trying to compete with Marstons and their unexciting variation-on-a-theme seasonals, despite them being well produced.

It is my belief though that the combined output of Cumbrian breweries, leaving out Jennings, is big enough to worry even Marstons. I thought I might have a guesstimate of the total brewing capacity of Cumbria, just to illustrate the point. The figures here would no doubt fail the detailed scrutiny of Ron, but I'm not as patient with detail as he clearly is. His tables are more colourful as well. The figures are based on quick research from the GBG, Internet and my own knowledge. I believe it to be a fair estimate, but would need more time to be accurate.

It is also worth noting that this is an estimate of maximum capacity per week, not achieved output. My output for instance, as an average over the year, is about a quarter of maximum.

Jennings at Cockermouth have a brew length of around 160 barrels. The total brew capacity of all the other Cumbrian breweries are significant compared to the Marstons breweries.

It's nice to be a small brewer in Cumbria. There is a level of cooperation between some of the breweries that is nice. I'd like to see a greater level of cooperation but it would seem that coordinating such cooperation is akin to herding cats. I believe individual breweries may not be a threat but combined and coordinated the total is greater than the sum of the parts.

If any brewery would like to confirm their true capacity then I am only too happy to update here. I understand that such information might be considered commercially sensitive, but perhaps this sort of information might help dispel the "Cupboard Brewing" myth.

Mature beer

Last night I had the pleasure of Jeff Pickthall's company. He brought some rather nice samples from his secret stash of aged beers. We sat in my bar, drank beer that was 2 years or more past it's best before date and behaved like the two beer nerds that we are. We of course also mulled over various issues that surround beer including the tie, cask breathers, fizzy beer, class and beer, the price of beer and even sparklers.

Despite all of that we managed to completely avoid physical violence, even when we talked about sparklers. This is even more strange when you consider we were drinking beers with strengths like 5.5% and more. We all know that strong beers are responsible for alcohol fuelled disorder. Don't we?

Perhaps we didn't fight over these things because Jeff has been in the trade, and like so many others in the trade our disagreements on these matters are small. This seems to be in contrast to those who don't rely on licenced retail of alcohol to earn a living. Perhaps the difference between the likes of us and others in the trade is that Jeff and I don't know when to keep our mouths shut.

Yesterday evening I got a lesson in beer tasting. I know what I like, which is a large range of beer. I also know what I think is bland and unexciting. I have been frustrated by being unable to describe as eloquently as others the flavours I am getting. Last night helped towards filling in that gap.

The beers, for anyone interested, were:

Anchor Brewing Co

Our Special 5.5% 2004

Immediate nose of Christmas pudding

Cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves all there and well balanced

Underlying flavours of port wine and burnt currants

Alaskan Brewing Co

Smoked Porter 6.0% 2003

Best Before Jan 06

Nose of single malt, Islay maybe

Flavours of plums

Slight oxidisation - damp cardboard. This was the first time I positively identified oxidisation.

However for me the oxidisation was inconsequential compared to the lovely full flavour. I might have to find more of this one.

Sierra Nevada

Celebration Ale 6.8%

Best Before Sept 06

Barley Sugar, citrus orange pith, marmalade - surprisingly un-bitter for a west coast USA beer. Jeff suggests that's the aging process.

We did the tasting to this point in order of strength, I personally would have put this first.

Girardin

Gueuze 5% - no date found

Cider, vinegar and lemon flavours.

One of the more tart geuezes that I have tasted.

Finally, with pallets fairly shot, we compared a 12 month Orval with a 6 month old. The year old had nearly no aroma and frankly was poor. The 6 month old was much better. I strongly suspect this is due to batch problems rather than aging as both bottles had best before dates right into 2013.

Of course this morning I felt just a touch rough. It was pleasing to know that Jeff's head was also feeling the effects. We did have several pints of regular ale as well.

Rubbish at any price

I often find myself disagreeing with Roger Protz when he writes, I'm not really sure why but something doesn't seem right when he talks about pubs. He can sure come out with some pearls of wisdom but they are often buried into bigger messages that don't make sense. Although he takes up the cause of the pub I can't help feeling that he is generally out of touch with the real problems facing the thousands of small businesses that form the pub industry. He does try, bless him, and I believe he's a very nice guy.

Last week there was a piece in the Morning Advertiser titled "Careless talk costs pubs" and on the page in the printed version is a big picture of supermarket own brand lager with large star badges proclaiming the 22.5p per can. Although this is a trade paper it does get seen by the man on the street, surely this is the sort of careless talk that does cost pubs. OK, so the picture may not be Rogers fault, I'm guessing he only provided the words.

Why are we, the trade, comparing 2% rubbish lager against the quality service that we provide? We shouldn't. The stuff in the supermarkets is often so rubbish that any price is too much. We need to get out and tell people how wonderful pubs really are. We should be shouting out that people should go to the pub because it's great and a service worth paying for. Lets stop this negative image we are all now projecting.

I firmly believe that we need to point out that pubs charge a little bit more because they are fantastic places to enjoy great products. It's about added value. No self respecting pub would want to sell a lager that is only 2% and tastes like fizzy water. The trade needs to stop talking down the industry and start showing customers how great the trade can be.

It's quiet for us mid week this time of year. We rarely take enough money to cover the overheads, but I'm not complaining. We're getting jobs done that we need to get done, like the new disabled loo and capping the chimneys. More importantly the phone has been red hot this last couple of weeks with people forward booking our rooms for later in the year. I really do think it's going to be the year of the "Staycation" holiday. All we need is a glorious summer.

If people are to stay at home this summer we need to entice them into the pub. If the trade keeps reinforcing the idea that everyone would be better staying in the back garden drinking 2% own brand lager then perhaps that is what they will do.

Pubs are great. Pubs are fantastic. I love going to the pub and always have. I believe many people do love to go to the pub and don't mind paying for quality, comfort and top class service. You can't buy any of that at the supermarket.

Cumbrian Brewery Merger

I am a fan of Cumbrain Legendary Ales, a brewery located in Hawkshead. David has done a great job of producing some excellent beers. In fact I like all his beers and even my least favourite, King Dunmail, is exactly as it sets out to be, a good old fashioned traditional best bitter. For the last couple of years David phoned us every couple of weeks and convinced me to take some beer, often, to Ann's disgust, when we didn't actually need any.

I got the news this morning that CLA had been bought and David was moving on. Oh no! who's taking his place? Is someone being threatened by his success? Is it a buy out by a bigger brewery? I thought I'd phone to check.

I got the familiar "Cumbrian Ales!" greeting on the end of the phone and start talking to David. "What's happening then, where are you going?" I asked "What's this about you giving up brewing" . "It's not David it's Roger Humphreys" came the reply.

Thank goodness, I thought, somebody has bought it who knows what they are doing. Roger, of course, is the owner of The Kirkstile Inn which is a fine place that purveys good food and beer. Matt brews beer with the help of Hayley in their very own Loweswater brewery. I am particularly fond of their Loweswater Pale Ale as I have mentioned here.

Roger is one of those nice brewery owners who doesn't behave like he's hiding some sort of secret art that can't be discussed with other brewers. He's one of those nice guys that deserves the success he's clearly achieved with the Kirkstile and I hope this success continues. I also suspect he's the type of guy that will respond to the links provided here with some sort of reciprocal gesture, seeing as he's already a reader of my blog.

Do you think that was too blatant?

Now Loweswater brewery is about the same size as my brewery. Getting beer from Roger is not normally possible. Like me he only has sufficient for the demand at his own Inn. Roger told me he was planning on moving production of some of his very nice ales to his new acquisition in Hawkshead so we can look out of his wonderful LPA to become more widely available.

Roger told me that Hayley will take over most of the running of the brewery with a bit of help from the talented Matt Webster. So my order, that I put in with David, is going to be delivered by Kirkstile Inn staff next week.

Now, I just wonder if Roger is going to start buying up more pubs and if so at what stage I should object to the tie? Plus, I have still to find out what David is going to do next...........

Natural Carbonation

Suitable for a beer wedding?



Seehttp://forum.camra.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=85 for background
also see http://stonch.blogspot.com/2009/03/really-really-bad-idea.html
Oh and http://hardknott.blogspot.com/2009/02/toeing-line.html which is where it started for me.

Sorry about the video quality. I'll use spot lights next time. It was done in one take as I only had one bottle. I know, you can't see the bubbles, but they are there, honist.

Now make your own mind up.

Oh, I've just tried my kegged micro brewed fizzy rubbish. It's picked up enough un-natural carbonation now. It tastes bland and fizzy, just like I wanted it to, but it's about 10% the price of the Duvel shown here.

Some people think that us in the industry should not talk about dispense methods as it only distracts from more important things like the beer tie. Perhaps they are right, too many people who think they are experts on how beer is best dispensed actually know jack poo. Maybe they should just concetrate on drinking good beer and leave us to make and serve it, even if that does mean blankets of N₂ (That was especially for TheBeerNut, in case he drops by) Good beer speaks for itself.