Beer Passion

Beer is like no other product. It raises emotions and opinions in just the same way as politics and religion. People who drink beer regularly almost always have a view on the subject. Sometimes it's the price of a pint, sometimes it's the brand of beer, sometimes it's the temperature or the fullness of the glass or the use or otherwise of extraneous CO₂.

Pubs are like no other business. Perhaps it's as a direct result of them still being, for the now at least, where the majority of beer is consumed. Regular and irregular pub customers almost always have a view on this diverse industry. No one style of pub is going to suit everybody. For some, the basic traditional pub doesn't provide the level of comfort or sophistication that they desire, perhaps these people are snobs. Others find too much ponciness results in an "up their own arse" impression that doesn't belong in a pub, and perhaps this set of customers lack the appreciation required.

For me, like many other publicans, my pub is my livelihood, my home and pretty much my life. I know that I get oversensitive when comments are made about the industry. I know that many publicans are putting in hours well in excess of the working hours directive, many are working for less than the minimum wage. Some, like me, do it for reasons that are hard to define but for sure have very little to do with money. It is, basically, our passion.

More than this, the niche sectors of the beer market, real ale and extreme beers, are promoted well by unpaid people. Be it CAMRA or beer bloggers or tickers or beer geeks they all, we all, contribute towards promoting and encouraging the more unusual small time brewers and the pubs that are bringing these beers to market.

I am part of that niche industry and therefore I care about what these groups of people say. If there is something that we don't do and feel we are unable to do, but there is comment that it should generally be done, I feel bad. I think that I care too much because it drives me to distraction, far too often, from the general good running of the business.

So why do people do this unpaid promotion? There always has to be an exchange. For paid work there is the exchange of money in return for hours attended. Without the money, most of us wouldn't do it. Conversely, when we do something for the fun of it, when the pay is negligible or none existent, like running a pub, blogging or being a CAMRA activist, there has to be an alternative payback, a discretionary exchange. Much of these activities are well meaning and truly intend to help the industry that is providing the goods and services that the impassioned desire.

The payback for many, of course, is the feeling that they are a little bit more in control of what they care about; pubs and beer. A feeling of being able to shape the things they are passionate about. For me, part of running my place is to do something I care about. To be able to create a pub that does things the way I see that they should be done. As I say, perhaps I care too much. When the things that the promoters say are at odds with what I feel I can or should do, or are impossible to attain because of our location or where the layout of the building prevents it, these comments cut deeper than anybody might ever believe.

In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders of every glove
that laid him down or cut him
till he cried out in his anger and his shame
I am leaving, I am leaving, but the fighter still remains

Simon and Garfunkel

Cooking Lager

Yesterday I "tucked" something up in the fermenter that I think might beat anything I've ever made before. Either that or it will be a complete waste of 90kg of malt and 3kg of hops due to the complex flavours not working - which, of course, is possible. It's a beer that does venture a little into the "extreme" world at an O.G. of 1054. I am, for now, avoiding using anything too unorthodox when maturing the beer, possibly just a little dry hopping. I'll leave the Feta matured beer to somebody else for now.

All this thought about niche beers is interesting. It's what I like; But for it to be niche there has to be a much larger body of "normal" beer drinking. The masses are not going to like extreme beers, or artisan drinks or for that matter anything that is out of the ordinary. If they did it would become mainstream.

I got a comment the other day on a previous post of mine, the one about lager. I followed the commenter's link through to his own blog, Cooking Lager. The authors views are largely in opposition to my own thoughts, but it's an interesting 180^o view on the beer world. I suspect that there might be a large proportion of the population would share Cooking Lager's views

Although the majority of his blog I found amusing, I was mildly irritated in one post about his assertion that it's good to steal branded glassware from pubs. I'm afraid in my view pubs are small businesses run by individuals and although the glasses might well be provided by large multinational conglomerates, the pubs depend on this glassware as part of their image. Stealing glasses from pubs is no different to shop lifting. It is criminal activity.

Bottled in Cumbria

It really pleases me the amount of good beer news that there is in Cumbria. Despite the economic doom and gloom there seems to be no end to the up-beat mood of all involved with the Cumbrian Craft Brewery industry that is alive and very well.

I needed bottles to continue with my experimental bottling runs. I can't justify buying a whole palate of the things just yet so I thought I'd go and see the nice guys at Cumbria Contract Bottling today. They were very obliging and sold me 196 bottles at a very reasonable price.

My first bottling run was put through their plant about 2 years ago and was only the 4th run they had done at the time. I remember the day well and I mention in this post, how emotional I was about getting my beer bottled. It was only 600 bottles, but they meant a lot to me. The thing was, the plant was, at that time, quiet, clearly they needed more work. Mine was the only run that day and I suspect they were only doing maybe a couple of runs a week.

Today could not have been more different. It was a hive of activity and as I arrived the team was busy cleaning down after one run so they could quickly get set to do the next. It was barely coffee time and they had bottled more beer already than they did the first day I was there two years ago.

The demand for their service is so great that they have had to stop taking new customers. The existing ones are more than filling the capacity of the plant. From the two founders working part time two years ago they had 5 people working today.

So you see, contrary to what some people think, it's not all doom and gloom, and certainly not in Cumbria.

Dog Shed Scandals

I've come to a conclusion that balance in beer is a most important thing for me. Many brewers get carried away with defining their beer as being either hop driven or malt driven. It's as if the two things are somehow mutually exclusive. As if somehow hops will spoil the malt or the other way round. It's not that I don't like a light hoppy beer as such, they are just improved by the addition of a little coloured malt, it doesn't have to be much. Equally, I don't mind a nice malty mild or porter, providing it actually has plenty of chocolate or caramel flavours, but this would be better with some hoppy stuff as well. OK, I know it might then fail to be in either category, but it would be a more balanced beer, in my view.

Of course this goes against the very popular light hoppy beers that are fashionable today. Many breweries do extremely well selling almost nothing but pale, flowery, hoppy ales. They do indeed show off the nuances of the various hop varieties well. There might be the odd porter thrown in, just for good measure, but if that has got much hop bittering that would be it; very little in the way of aroma hops. This does make me wonder if this is partly why so many people "don't like darker ales" because you need a little of both; a good hop profile and malty backbone. It might then come down to personal preference as to the proportions of each.

There is no such scandalous imbalance in Barngates Red Bull Terrier 4.8%. If I leave out my own beers, which if I didn't I'd be quite rightly accused of bias, this beer has to be my favourate Cumbrian beer. I am sure this is because it has just the right amount of hop bitterness, aromas and malty body for it all to work together.

I've been missing this beer; we've not had it for a while. Alan reminded me that we were short of dark beers. I phoned John at Barngates and he said I can't have any this week, but wait until next week and I can. I can wait for such a nice brew.

It was also good to hear from John that trade is brisk. They expanded the brewery last year, so it's good to know the investment seems to be paying off. Nearly every brewer I've talked to in Cumbria reports good business this year. Some having the problem of being unable to keep up with demand.

He also said he has read my blog. There, aren't you glad you're brewing my Red Bull Terrier now John? Yes, your right, say nice things about my blog and I'll be nice back. I really am that easily pleased.

Bottle it up

I had a little bit of excitement last night. No, not the bedroom type, well, maybe that as well, but that would be telling and anyway, that bit of my life will stay in the bedroom. No, I became excited as the result of voyeurism over the procreation of some tiny micro organisms that go by the name saccharomyces cerevisiae. These little wonders are better known, of course, as ale yeast. I'm a little cautious of posting here about this excitement, not least because I suspect many of my readers, if they have home brewed, will wonder why a professional brewer is getting at all excited about such a thing.

I still wonder at the magic of "Godisgood" whenever these marvelous fungi turn large amounts of a sugary liquid into beer. The yeast's waste products being alcohol and carbon dioxide, both of which are essential for good beer. The first time I made beer for commercial consumption was something of a life milestone. Made possible by many factors and quite a bit of help from various sources. Later, I sent some to be bottled at a local bottling plant. I went to witness this historic moment; my own beer being commercially bottled. I'll be honest, I did feel slightly emotional driving away from the bottling plant with the first case of beer sat beside me. Again, another life milestone.

I mention here about the relative economies of bottling beer by hand over sending it for contract bottling. I've come to the conclusion that we are better off hand bottling in very small limited edition versions. One cask out of a single brew. That way we can sell the stuff here and have the draft version on sale for customers to try before committing to the bottle.

A week ago I bottled some of my beer here. The plan was to condition in the bottle the good old fashioned way. No chill filtering¹, no carbonation with CO₂ that lacks provenance, just good old fashioned secondary fermentation. But I was worried that the priming would be wrong, or that there was not enough yeast. Would I get some condition into the beer?

Well, after waiting a week I cracked open a bottle last night. "Bubbles!" I exclaimed "It's got condition!" I suspect everybody in the bar thought I was barmy². But my first bottle conditioned beer worked. I've sold some today³. Another life milestone. It's nice to feel things firming up, the plan, that is.

Now, before you all get carried away and start asking me to send you some, it's not for sale outside my little pub. Mainly because I suspect you lack the sophistication......oh, no, that wasn't it. No, it's because the beer isn't good enough yet...no, that's not the reason either. Oh, yes, I remember, it's because I need a day off and if I have to brew more to satisfy a wider market I'll not get one, sorry. You'll just have to come and see me here. Perhaps, if I make something exceptional, I'll consider selling some during the winter at a ridiculously inflated price that is worthy of the handcrafted nature of the product.

¹I am considering reseeding with a different yeast. There are some advantages in doing that. That might result in me filtering the base beer after primary fermentation. I would still consider that to be real.

²OK, everybody who was in the bar at the time knows I'm barmy. It was just a little more evidence for them.

³No, that's a lie, Tom did. He's our newest barman. He's doing OK and is showing all the signs of a good salesman.

Taking things to extremes

I've got a problem. "What, only one?" you ask. Well, good point, I've got plenty and most of them I'm not going to share with the reader. However, there is one that is really bothering me. It is my drink problem. It's not that I can't go a day without a drink, really, I can if I want to, I just don't want to most days. Besides, I run a pub, I don't need to go without, so that's not a problem. It's just that I'm getting to find there are more and more really nice beers to try. The more I try the more exciting ones that I find. You're not really understanding how this is a problem, are you?

It's all my own fault of course. I went to Belgium. After that, very shortly afterwards, I went to Oregon. Despite the belief that many American high streets are full of nothing more than homogeneous outlets, I was lead, kicking and screaming of course, to many quality beer retailing businesses. In these places I consumed a healthy amount of various beers, some more tasty than perhaps I wished, but others quite delicious and, to contribute to the word's overuse, complex. Most, of course, were 6% or 7% or 8% or possibly even more.

My problem, then, is that I find regular session ales a little watery, which is fine if I'm thirsty. When it's hot, as it has been, a nice cool 3.8% golden ale with a nice level of hopping is a joy to consume. I am however finding these beers bland and uninteresting after 2 or 3 pints and a chaser of something more complex floats my boat much higher in the water.

This train of thought is provoked by a post written by our favourite Mr Tandleman. He claims to not like extreme beers. Although I do agree that a feta cask matured beer might just be taking things too far. However, the thought that beer cannot be drunk in half pints, because it is stronger, does confuse me.

In the comments, James from BrewDog unfortunately scores home goals through a gallant attempt to make some very valid points. Driving the ball very firmly into the back of his own net by saying that a pint glass is a "terrible and unflattering way to serve any beer" I do wish he had made the word "any" into "stronger". I'd have agreed with him if he'd done that. Good quality session ale at 3.6% is flattered to hell in a pint pot, especially if it has a pint line on it, with room for a head above that line, of course. A stronger beer at say 7% is much better enjoyed in a smaller stemmed glass, much like a wine glass. In this case the complexities, sorry, using that word again, of the aromas, can fully develop.

The reactions though, in general, confuse me. Why can we not drink a beer in a glass that is not a pint? The comments seemed a little along the lines of too much objection from drinkers stuck in a rut. These seem to me to be discerning beer connoisseurs who have yet to be open minded enough to drink less than a pint in a pub.

There is one view that perhaps answers all of this. Tandleman does not drink at home. He likes to drink in the pub and from the sounds of it does it with respectable regularity. Drinking beer is a social thing. How much, really, do we want to be spending our time considering the complexity of the beer we have in the glass sat on our beer mat? How much time would we prefer to be spending sorting out the worlds many other troubles, with the aid of suitable brain annealing fluid? Of course, this would be with the considerable benefit of our peers thoughtful consideration, just to straighten out the irregularities in our world view, or possibly theirs.

Those of us that want to enjoy a beer for it's complexity can sit in a dark corner, wax lyrical to ourselves, or any other sad beer geeks close by, and leave the proper pint drinking to the big boys. Better still, hide away at home, like the sad people we are, where we are hurting nobody.

I'm lucky, I live in a pub, I can do all of these things. Often I enjoy session beer in it's unflattering pint glass, to the line and served with a sparkler, of course. Sometimes I like something stronger, but then, I am in my own home, really.

Well that should have just about upset everybody. Now, I've got some 6.6% complex beer on the handpulls I think.....oh and some stemmed half pint glasses.

Don't Like Lager

Having been shooting from the hip on such subjects as extreme beers and the tie when commenting on other blogs, I feel I should just calm down a bit and stop upsetting people. Perhaps somethings just won't change. Certainly glib and ill thought out commenting is likely only to entrench opinion. Both of these subjects are of great interest to me but need careful thought before writing further.

Last night we managed to get out for a couple of hours. Prior to leaving I had caught sight of Jeff's post about lager. Readers might have noticed that it's been really warm of late. Ideal weather for lager drinking one would think. Go on then I thought, Jeff is always going on about how much lager is demonized in some quarters, I can't proclaim to be a broad minded beer drinker if I don't give it a go. I think Ann just about fell off her bar stool when I ordered it.

What I do think is important when serving a drink is appropriate glassware. Some might ask what difference it makes. Well I think it's an insult to Budvar to put it in a Carling glass. OK, the nucleating glass did give attractive swelling bubbles rising in the glass and maintained the head for the whole time I drank the beer, but putting the wrong beer in the wrong glass gives the impression of couldn't care less from the bar staff.

But, glassware aside, did I enjoy the beer? Well, yes, maybe a little. As with all beer drinking, it was at least enjoyable because of the good company around the bar. Budvar has got better flavour than the beer that the glass belonged to. But it still doesn't quite do it for me. After that I had a pint of a Brakspear cask beer. Now that was really nice.

So, what's wrong with me? Many of the beer connoisseurs I know are arguing that there are some very fine lagers. To be truly broad minded about beer, and I want to be, I should accept good lager as a quality drink.

I have come to the conclusion that it's conditioning. No, I don't mean carbonation levels but the deep instilled opinions that become rooted in ones subconscious. From a very early time in my drinking career lager drinking was synonymous with getting into trouble. I drank bitter or stout or wine or single malts. Perhaps I might try sherry or port or rum. I did so because I believed that's what nice people did. Part of my upbringing I guess.

It makes me think, perhaps our views on the tie, or the strength of or the correct dispense volume of beer and many other manner of opinion are rooted deep in our subconscious.