Category Archives: What’s Brewing – Agony Column

What’s Brewing, December 2014 – Agony Column

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I do my best to help the troubled letter writers to What’s Brewing. No doubt suffused with a warm glow from ordinary bitters repackaged as ‘Christmas Ales’ the editors have picked an uncontroversial bunch of letters this month.

Instead, in preparation we have a discussion of the ‘Drinking beer is the healthy option’ headline. Since when did headlines have to be factually true? They got you to read the article. PB of Stockport and SD of Liverpool, you have been suckered in to wasting your ink.

Short measures, price of pints and children (apparently it’s up to the parents) are all mentioned but it is a tired collection of letters. I need more material!

What’s Brewing, November 2014 – Agony Column

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Whats Brewing Nov14I do my best to help the troubled letter writers to What’s Brewing. After last months letter from MH of Axminster (Pubs being turned into crèches), it’s official, Children are the new battleground!

On which side is CAMRA going to come down?

JG of Glasgow believes that MH infers that children should be banned from all public places! On the other hand perhaps she would like to see beer served in crèches – now there’s an idea!

PS of Nottingham applauds the zero tolerance approach of some landlords. He is right in blaming the parents though.

PJS of Wandsworth tackles the Berliner Weisse questions raised by Roger Protz and suggests a small Berlin brewery. Of course there are numerous good British Berliner Weisses nowadays but they are not ‘real ale’, it’s ok to drink the Berlin brewed ones because…?

DS of Chelmsford is back, happy to be perceived as a ‘dead horse flogger’ in this nation of animal lovers! 1970’s style beer is hard to find, of brands that are still available the keg beers have generally improved, whereas some of the cask beers have in some cases got worse (viz. Young’s Special and many more) – think on.

What’s Brewing, October 2014 – Agony Column

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October1I do my best to help the troubled writers to What’s Brewing. But first, let’s be serious for a moment.

To quote from Pete Brown on the front page, “…a growing understanding of real ale as a crafted product…” – so we are only a short step away from saying that real ale is craft beer. Then CAMRA can say that craft beer is a good thing taken with a pickled curate’s egg of course? The sensible side of CAMRA is slowly finding it’s voice. Perhaps it realises that embracing some the beers that currently don’t conform it will gain more new converts than it will lose old diehards.

Now, the letters,

BY of Rochester doesn’t own a computer and blames the fact that he is of an elder age group. Sorry. No. You have had 20 years to come to terms with computers. Being of pensionable age means you get free courses and there is always the public library. For all but an impoverished few not using computer technology is a lifestyle choice. Lower processing costs make discounts for online ordering a sensible choice.

SB of Radlett is horrified that the Cyclops scheme is supporting lagers. It is clearly discredited and “will only cause confusion about what CAMRA stands for”. Heaven forbid that CAMRA stands for good beer or lager for that matter.

GB of Milford is disappointed that microbreweries keep changing their offering. So that’s an all year saison, a heavy with the barbie and a golden ale on a freezing winters day then. I guess he buys his asparagus from Peru all year round too.

And finally, a really excellent star letter, from MH of Axminster complaining about pubs being converted into crèches, now that’s a campaign I can support.

What’s Brewing, September 2014 – Agony Column

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Whats Brewing AugustI do my best to help the troubled writers to What’s Brewing. (Despite the pic, this is September).

Maybe they don’t receive many letters but once we start getting responses to responses, GH of Bolton that’s you,  it suggests a lack of good content (mmm, I’d better get writing).

TJ of Hornchurch suggests we put excise duty and tax on coffee, ‘where people are happy to pay more than £2.50 a cup’. £2.50, yes, but only if it is an Imperial Russian Double Cappucino.

Of course, the great music and beer debate rumbles on. Apparently some people like it and some don’t. End of.

“Craft” demise! The headline must have caused a flutter of heady anticipation amongst many readers. The supermarket shelves have more beers labelled as craft, thank you Greene King. Meanwhile ‘good’ beer is still on the increase led by small microbrewers often producing keg beer.

RH of Cheltenham now wants the address of the brewer on the pumpclips too. His intimate knowledge of chemistry, fluoride adding water companies and the effects on beer make him want to decide accordingly. My advice, drink Budweiser, the sophisticated water treatment plant strips out all ions to produce probably the purest base water for any beer in the UK.

What’s Brewing, August 2014 – Agony Column

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Whats Brewing AugustMy helpful advice to the troubled writers to What’s Brewing.

Two magnificent letters entitled “‘Craft’ Threat” this month. KW of Walsall generously says ‘…if micros can improve the quality then that is a good thing but it must never, never [sic] be placed in status alongside cask beer.’ So there we have it Greene King IPA on cask, say, will always have a higher status than, say, a Kernel IPA on keg. That’s a relief.

GR of Tooting, wonders that ‘most customers…will not really care how it is served as long as it tastes good to them’. Heaven forbid we let taste decide!

It’s easy to mock these letters and I haven’t fully explained my position, that’s something for another post. But in brief, I started drinking real ale roundabout the start of CAMRA because of taste. In those days there was no good keg beer, nor good bottled beer (with a couple of notable exceptions), the handpump was the best guarantee of a decent pint. How it was made was always of interest to me but taste was the driver. Three things drive my choice of ‘regular’ beers – taste, locality and I prefer to support smaller companies. I believe CAMRA supported this at the outset and the real ale term was a convenient way to weed out the bad stuff, that’s no longer the case.

 

London Drinker – June/July

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London Drinker JuneJNow I like the London Drinker, it’s very CAMRA, low production values and basic artwork but it is a good read with interesting content, and as we all know, content is king. Nevertheless, it does provide a few giggles.

TH writes that young people are asking for dimpled mugs and that these are common in Antic pubs. He then goes on ‘If young people are drinking beer…’, well yes they are TH but you never see them because they are drinking modern beer made in ways that CAMRA does not recognise as real ale.

We learn that GT ‘reacts badly’ to Cascade hops, yet professes to like hoppy beers, though it sounds as though this does not include dry hopping.

The price of a pint rears it’s ugly head when RC visits Tap East (makers of the brilliant Coffee in the Morning) and has to pay £6.80 for a pint of porter. Although he recalls it saying four pint something on the tablet I can only see their Smokestack Porter at 6.5%. Well that’s why they tell you the price before pouring it, and RC declined. Products sell on quality or price or a combination. Without trying it or understanding the ingredients and brewing process it went through I can’t see how he could possibly comment on the price. Pssst RC, don’t go to The Rake! Isn’t it amazing how all these pubs selling expensive, modern, innovative beer are doing so well and the ones selling the same old best bitters at crucial price points are struggling?

BL went to Colombia and discovered the Bogotá Beer Company whose beers ‘were certainly better than the normal ones available in Colombia but they were not a patch on real ale’. That’s a relief then.

On microbreweries you just have to read the whole BO letter and RP rebuttal, this why people turn away from CAMRA (or love it).

MC is confused. ‘I have no interest in going to pubs which only sell beers from microbreweries and having to drink beers I’ve never heard of and no idea what they are like even if they are LocAles. This also applies to some CAMRA beer festivals. In short I want choice’. OK, so that’s a choice of beers that you know what they taste like from large breweries that you have heard of, simples. I’m sure he didn’t mean to imply that the bar staff were unable to tell him what the beer tasted like or too mean to give him a sample.