Golden Pints 2015

Another first for me, been a few of these this year!

Golden Pints awards seems to cover every conceivable category (although nothing for those lovely beery people that podcast), so, a bit of thinking required.

 

Right, here goes......

 

Best UK Cask Beer:

Fullers Chiswick @ 3.6% is a go to beer for me whenever I visit a Fullers establishment, although I do wonder why so few of them offer this very sessionable English bitter.

Oakham Citra and Timothy Taylors Landlord also remain high up on my cask beer list.

Best UK Keg Beer:

Adnams Jack Brand Dry Hopped Lager @ 4.2% is a flavoursome sessionable lager, not too gassy. Adnams for me are one of the few traditional brewers in the UK that have also nailed the "craft" side of things. Lucky to have some very good Adnams pubs locally.

Brewdog Punk IPA - can't go wrong really with this, in fact, my last visit to a Brewdog I shunned the beer menu and headed straight for the Punk.

Best UK Bottled Beer:

M & S Oakham Citra @ 4.9%, a pint size bottle that has often accompanied me on the train home.

Best UK Canned Beer:

Magic Rock Highwire Grapefruit @ 5.5%, an American Pale Ale with grapefruit added. Tasted this for the first time on American Independence Day (thanks Steve @ BeerOClockShow).

Love it.

Cannonball, also from Magic Rock is right up there, as is anything from Four Pure and Beavertown.

 

Best Overseas Draught:

Lagunitas IPA @ 6.2%. I don't have many overseas beers regularly on draught,

(Although I have to confess that the beer I have checked in the most is Stella Artois)

Best Overseas Bottled Beer:

Rosé de Gambrinus (2013) by Brasserie Cantillon @ 5%. The first bottle I took along to the @SXBottleShare, set myself a high standard. Loads of sour raspberry flavours, but, doesn't make you pucker up too much. 

Best Overseas Canned Beer:

This next beer blew me away (Tom gets the credit for this - another @SXBottleShare offering) - 4Beans by Sixpoint. A 10% Imperial Porter/Stout that is bloody wonderful. Liquid chocolate coffee out of a can, bitter finish leaves you wanting more.

Best collaboration brew:

Something Local by Against the Grain & Smokehouse, a 6.6% American IPA. Quite sharp at first, but, mellows out. Everything you would hope and expect from the style. This was sampled at the rather wonderful Indy Man Beer Con.

Best Overall Beer:

Big question this one, deserves a big beer - Imperial Stout Limited Edition from Fullers. A 10.7% beauty, bags of dark chocolate, but, finishes with a hint of Turkish Delight thanks to the addition of dried rose buds. Well known Beer Sommelier, Melissa Cole had a hand in this.

Best Branding:

Anything from Beavertown. Their can shaped beer mats - brilliant!

Best Pump Clip:

I love Great Heck pump clips, immediately recognisable. 

Best Bottle Label:

The Kernel - simple and distinctive. Perhaps could even be considered a design classic already.

Best UK Brewery:

For me, I am going to go for Adnams from the lovely seaside town that is Southwold.
As previously stated I believe they offer both traditional and craft beers, usually very drinkable and not too heavy on the abv. 

Broadside in the bottle is simply a fantastic beer. Also, the range they supply to M & S is rather good too.

 

Best Overseas Brewery:

Stone Brewing Company from Escondido, CA United States. Always a good beer from this lot and provided some of the inspiration for Brewdog. 

Best New Brewery Opening 2015:

I don't think i tried enough beers from new breweries this year - must do better in 2016!

Pub/Bar of the Year:

The Victoria Inn, Colchester. 20 mins walk. Serves cask, keg, bottles and ciders. Hosts awesome Meet The Brewer nights, beers festivals, including one dedicated to home brewers. Colchester pub of the year multiple times and East Anglian pub of year recently.

A 'proper pub'.

Honourable mention to The Ale House in Chelmsford, home of the SXBottleShare.

Best New Pub/Bar Opening 2015:

Howling Hops Tank Bar, just outside the Olympic Park. I simply love the place. The tanks of beer are an art form as far as i am concerned. The atmosphere is relaxed, the clientele ecelctic and best of all - some decent beers to boot.

 

Beer Festival of the Year:

Indy Man Beer Con. One 5 hour session on the Saturday afternoon was enough to convince me that, in the words of The Terminator, "i will be back".

 

Supermarket of the Year:

Easy - M & S. Head and shoulders above the competition. Even the shops in train stations hold a respectable selection. And, as a Greater Anglia commuter, beer is often needed!

Independent Retailer of the Year:

Hop Burns and Black in Peckham. Nowhere near where I live, or where I usually socialise, but, I have been there twice now and no doubt I will return. Love the set up. Well worth a visit if in the area.

Online Retailer of the Year:

Ales by Mail. I use them both for my personal online orders, but, also for the beer festivals I hold at work. Easy to work with, reliable, good value and choice. Also, the website has improved over the last couple of years.

Best Beer Book or Magazine:

Original Gravity. 

Words - about beer. 

Pictures - about beer. 

Ticks the boxes.

Best Beer Blog or Website:

Beer O'Clock Show podcast. I realise it is neither a blog or a website, but, very worthy of a mention in the end of year awards. Some might say "it has been the highlight of their week".

 

Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer:

Justin Mason (@1970sBOY / BeersInEssex), he keeps me very well informed about my home county of Essex.

Best Brewery Website/Social media:

Buxton. They corrected me about one of my Untappd check-ins from the London Craft Beer Festival earlier this year. Impressed i was.

And, that concludes the voting from the Colchester panel (of one)........until next year!

November Beery Highlights

While i have been off work ill, feeling rather sorry for myself, I started thinking about the month just gone.
What were my November beery highlights?
Turns out there were a few, as a quick look at my diary testifies.

The SXBottleShare on the 3rd, kicked off the month in style, this was followed up by a successful beer tasting at work on the 4th. A couple of days later on the 6th, prior to a meal in Billericay, I decided to pop into the Billericay Brewing Company tap room, which had recently been done up, enjoyed some nice beers in a very comfortable venue, @HalfPintGent joined me, nice to see you fella.

Next up was the Home Brew festival at the Victoria Inn on the 7th (Read all about it here - Anglia Craft Brewers Festival).
On Sunday 8th, a visit to the two tap rooms in Maldon, both of them are different, but, both are well worth a visit.

A few days off was called for. Time for a break.
On the 12th Nov, Hop Burns & Black was the venue for the Beer O'clock Show Live Lock-In, an All Black special, showcasing dark beers from Kiwi land, and what great beers they were. A good night had by all, only slightly marred by a surly London bus driver who ignored the bus stop I wanted to get off at.
13th to 16th Nov - Weekend away with the "boys" (we are all in our 40s.....) to Butlins in Bognor. Butlins and Bognor are beer deserts, only a visit to Wetherspoons and a few choice beers packed in my suitcase broke up the holy trinity of Doom, Fosters and Stella.
Another couple of days off preceded my first ever trip to the Rochford Beer Festival, held in the Freight House (17th Nov). A lovely building right beside the mainline train station, great selection of beers and bars. I will be back!

Last, but, not least was The London Brewers Market in Spitalfields on 28th Nov.
An event organised by Five Points and quickly becoming a fixture in my beer calendar, usually held twice a year - summer and winter.

Naturally, there were some very good beers sampled, here's a snapshot of some of them:
Ypres - 2010 Double Barrel Aged Fob by De Struise Brouwers a Flanders Oud Bruin. Think of Rodenbach Grand Cru and you'd be in the right ball park.
Defacer by Weird Beard, a Triple IPA weighing in at 11%, but, not as boozy as you might expect, but, smooth and delicious.
Born To Die 27.11.2015 by Brewdog, a Double IPA, that is brewed to be drunk not cellared. Well worth the hype.
iStout by 8 Wired Brewing Co., a Russian Imperial Stout
Pompelmocello by Siren, an American IPA. Like having a breakfast grapefruit juice (thanks @Clayfish for the ideal description).
Jaipur by Thornbridge, an English IPA (first time on cask for me) and one of my all time favourite cask beers, Landlord by Timothy Taylor, English Pale Ale. I had both of these at the Rochford beer festival and if these had been the only two beers on, i would have been a happy man.
Ola Dubh 18 Year Special Reserve by Harviestoun, an Imperial Porter, according to Untappd. A glorious rich dark beer according to me, savoured while watching Strictly Come Dancing (who knew?).
Heavy Water (Sour Cherry And Sea Salt) by Beavertown, Imperial Double Stout.
You get the smell of salt on the nose, and on the palate, then a gentle hit of the sour cherries. Very refreshing for a 9% beer, quite a light mouthfeel despite the name. The stout needs a bit more time to develop, in my opinion, so, this will be my first ageing of a canned beer, I wonder how it will turn out?

But, my top two (sorry can't separate them), are Born To Die and Heavy Water. Two fabulous beers where the hype delivered. Thank you Brewdog and Beavertown.

Well, that was the month that was, and, while I still don't feel 100%, here's to December, cheers!
(Now what beers shall I choose for my 12 beers of Xmas..???)

Anglia Craft Brewers Real Ale Festival

The 4th annual showcase was held at The Victoria Inn, Colchester on the 7th November, billed as a festival of future champions, I don't think I am in a position to disagree with this statement.

There were 15 beers presented, covering a range of styles dispensed straight from both the cask and keg.

Entry to the festival was by ticket only, purchased in advance and limited to 100. 12 x 1/3 tasters plus some food was excellent value for £12.

In addition to the above there were 3 tutored tasting sessions, which one of my friends (Justin Mason @1970sBOY*) very kindly signed me up for prior to my arrival. Sessions 2 and 3 were well attended, and allowed me to sample all of the beers available, unfortunately session 1 took place before I got there.

The festival introduced me to a style of beer that I was originally completely unaware of - Braggot**, which hails from Cornwall. There were two versions of this beer on show, and both may have been true to style, but, they were not for me. Notes of honey, mead, medicine, as well as some apple sour flavours, simply confuse me, not sure I will revisit any time soon. Although with predictions of a hop shortage in the near future perhaps this style of beer might be brewed by more people.

There were a couple of hop bombs that stood out for me - HopHopHop @ 7.2% by Jon Wood and Something Hoppy @ 4.8% by Colin Miller. Still amazes me how these guys do this, perhaps the use of magic and ancient rituals?
HopHopHop was a rather wonderful India Pale Ale, using Summit, Cascade and Centennial hops (reading from official programme notes now) with great lingering bitterness. I managed to have this twice. My own notes "Hops! Big, chewy and balanced".
Something Hoppy is described as a stronger session golden ale, made with the birthday boy of malt - Marris Otter and hopped with German Brewers Gold. My notes - "Does what it says on the tin".

There were also two standout dark beers - Cherry Porter @ 5.5% by Colin Miller and Salamander @ 6% by Claire Barrett. Qudos to both of these brewers, Colin for being very consistent (I also enjoyed his offering last year, another dark beer) and Claire for sharing her first brew with all of us.
Cherry Porter was based on an old 1850 recipe, utilising real cherries as well as El Dorado hops. I definitely got cherry on the nose, lovely mouthfeel, with a bitter lingering finish.
Salamander is a chocolate chilli stout, using Marris Otter and Chocolate Malt mash, using Northern Brewer hops and home grown chilli's. The chilli chocolate is prevalent on both nose and palate with a lovely warming mouth feel finish.

All of the beers, whether to my tastes or not were well presented/made, and all were worth a try.
I have been to the last two home brew festivals hosted by the rather wonderful Victoria Inn (@victoriainncol) and will hopefully be at the next one.

Until next time, that's all folks! (Apart from the bits below).

*Justin, I am sure, will be sharing his thoughts on both the beers and brewers in the near future (some of whom he accosted sorry - interviewed), so, keep your eyes peeled for that blog.

**Braggot is a form of mead made with both honey and barley malt. It typically uses 1/3 or more malt and may have as much as 50% malt.
An ancient drink popular in medievial Europe, traditionally without hops. Chaucer and others wrote about the merits of Braggot, though its origins are much earlier as both mead and malt based drinks date back to ancient times.

Untappd and me

In one of my recent blogs I let it be known that I had become an Untappd supporter, effectively I now subscribe by paying a small fee per month. The only other one I currently pay for is Endomondo, a fitness app that I use to track my running.
Now, you may ask why I have done this, what's the point? What do I get for my money?

Good questions, and I shall endeavour to answer them.

 

I love lists and stats, hence an app such as Untappd appeals to this side of me, it is also very orderly and very neat, another plus for me (it is possible I have a touch of OCD). My access to lists and stats has now increased thanks to being a supporter.
 

It serves as a diary of the beers I have tried, many a time I have forgotten I have had a beer, then I see that star in the top right hand corner and realise that at some point, somewhere, I have tried it. At this point I often look to see what I had rated it previously, and the comments I noted in the past, perhaps I have changed or the beer has, if so, comment and rating might both be updated.
While attending a local home brew festival recently, a friend of mine was chatting to one of the brewers, his dark beer had gone down a treat and i asked him if he had brewed and presented a beer at the same showcase in 2014, he confirmed he had. I searched, found him, and upon checking discovered that i thoroughly enjoyed his offering from last year too.

 

I like the fact that your check-in and comments can be shared via your social media vehicle of choice, sometimes it can open a real discussion point. On other occassions, it can be commiserations, something that happened to me the day before I went to Indy Man Beer Con, when I went to a friend's wedding. My choices on the day ranged from the bad, the ugly and the OMG what were you thinking?!?!

Badges! I love 'em. For me it is all part of the fun, especially true during bottle shares and beer festivals. The badges certainly came into their own in September when a number of people donated to MacMillan (#bigbeerynight) based on how many badges were collected over an agreed period. In fact, one person, who shall remain nameless (@MylesLambert) got a six bagger for one beer check-in. Needless to say, abuse soon followed!

 

I am part of a community and by paying a relatively small sum of money each month i feel that i am contributing to that community. I have a number of friends on Untappd, some of them i know personally, some i have met and some i will probably never come into contact with, but, i do like seeing what others are drinking and the comments/ratings that come with the check-in.

There are some who have fallen out of love with Untappd, and, that is ok, not all relationships are meant to last. For me, Untappd adds to the beery experience, and for the foreseeable future i intend to remain a fan.

My beers of the month - October 2015

Saturday 31st October, I became an Untappd Supporter, this allowed me to access some new statistics (I do love a good stat). Turns out October was a busy month, so, allow me to share a few beery highlights with you, in no particular order.

Last Saturday, the 24th, my girlfriend and I paid a visit to the Howling Hops Tank Bar, a short walk through the Olympic Park (your choice whether you go round or through Westfield Shopping Centre - I went round) at Stratford. This was my second visit, and, it will not be my last.
The first tank bar in the UK, with the beer being brewed and stored but yards away from the bar.
There are many things to love about this place, but, for me it is the beer. Apart from a few cans/bottles in the fridges, they sell only their beer, and, with beer this good, this fresh, why would you sell anything else?

My beer of the month, perhaps unsurprisingly, comes from the aforementioned Howling Hops, their Rye Wit Pale Ale, which comes in at 5.2%. Personally, it is the best wheat beer I have had. Dry, bitter, with a hoppy hit and hint of the wheat on the nose, but, without those coriander and banana aromas/flavours that can sometimes be a bit too much.

Honourable mentions go to:
Astaroth, a very nice citrusy golden ale from the ever reliable Oakham Ales, I had this at The Hydrant, a new Fullers venture in the heart of The City of London, well worth a visit if you are in the area.
Enlightenment Boom! 8.5%, an imperial or double IPA with bags of hops in it, by Renaissance Brewing Company. I had this at the rather wonderful Indy Man Beer Con, in Manchester. A celebration of beer in a most fantastic location.
(There are many blogs out there which eloquently describe the Indy Man Beer Con experience, go look them up, you won't be disappointed, although you might be a little envious)

As a BeerBods subscriber, I thought I would try and choose a beer of the month, however, I couldn't split these two:
Cobbles & Clouds - Wiper and True 6.6%
A farmhouse saison. It was subtle, with a hint of lemon, but was easy on the Belgian funk.
(A BeerBods exclusive beer)
Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale 8.5% - Boulevard Brewing Co.
They nailed the farmhouse saison style without overdoing it. Great job by Boulevard, and a well done to BeerBods for putting it in the boxes.

The above are but brief highlights of my month of beer during October, roll on November!

Cheers,

Martin

If you want to know more about anything in this blog, feel free to leave a comment or contact me on Twitter @mjpo007

How I started up the office beer tasting club

It started with a thought, that turned into an idea.....an idea that I thought would never get approved or take root, but, I thought why not, i've got nothing to lose after all.
So, where did this thought come from you might ask, well, it came from attending the wine tasting events held in the office (the office being a financial institution in The City). These are aimed solely at staff, as a way to connect with colleagues in a more relaxed atmosphere, taste some nice wines with some very interesting facts and information being absorbed along the way. I also wanted to spread the word, the world of beer was getting bigger and better, it was time to share the love.

 

 

Why not copy the wine tasting model and apply it to beer tasting?
But, where to start?
So, I spoke to the guy who held the Sports and Social purse strings to see what could be done. He was receptive to my idea:
An in-house event, a selection of beers, a beer writer/speaker to come in, plus throw in some food.
Proposal accepted, the caveat being that all attendees had to contribute 50% of the cost, with the bank providing the other 50% (in line with how all the other clubs were run).

Now, the real work began……..
When to hold it?
Where to hold it?
How much to charge?
How many people?
What food to serve?
Who was going to be my beer expert?
Where to buy the beer?
How to pitch it to the rest of the office?
So many questions, and, initially very few answers!

Wednesday 9th March 2011 was chosen, a midweek date in between Feb half term and the Easter break, hoping to max out the numbers of attendees.
Venue choice was the easiest decision, as we are lucky to have a floor available for meetings and presentations – room booked!
Pricing was a tricky one initially, but, I did a few sums and came up with a number, which meant I came in under the usual cost charged by the wine tasting club (an important consideration for me)

The wine tastings usually attracted between 40 & 50 people, so I went for a max of 40 people as that was a number I could work with, organise, control (well, you know what bankers are like).
I had previously sampled the in house finger buffet, so, that was ordered – very little thinking on this one, plus the cost per head was reasonable, and, I like the informality of a buffet as it gets people up and moving, hopefully engaging with other people on different tables.

A beer expert was needed – where do I find one of those?? As fate would have it, I had been bought a beer related book for Christmas 2010, by Jeff Evans. I contacted Jeff, and, with very little fuss we arranged a fee, and a working programme for the evening. Best of all Jeff said he would source the beers and bring them with him – only one question left to answer, how do I sell this to my colleagues?
 

 

So, I started a campaign to raise awareness for the event – using word of mouth, emails, the Classifieds on the intranet plus a few posters, slowly but surely I got to the magic number - 40 people had signed up.

Monies had to be collected and paid to Finance, not as simple as it sounds due to multiple people on multiple floors with varying degrees of access, due to virtual and physical Chinese walls between different parts of the business, but, i got there in the end.

The 9th March arrived, with the event planned to kick off at 6pm, I (along with Clayton, fellow beer geek) was upstairs helping the 5th Floor set up the room, and the reception area, where attendees could mingle prior to the event formally starting. One lesson i had learnt from an external beer tasting i had gone to was that there was nothing worse than listening to someone introducing themselves, starting a talk about beer, when you have no beer in hand! This would not be happening at any event of mine (and to date that has been achieved).

Jeff and the beers arrived in good time, the room was set up, tables, snacks, water, glasses (we use straight half pint glasses, although I would love to get some better glassware) even spittoons were available if required.
The plan was for Jeff to introduce himself and guide us through 6 beers of varying styles and strengths, giving us a little bit of background on each of them. He also brought a few of his books for people to buy and was more than happy to answer questions before, during and after the event.

The beers we sampled were:
Triple from Brakspear 6.7%
Dark Lager from Budweiser Budvar 4.7%
Pilsner Urquell by Plzensky Prazdroj 4.4%

Hefe Weissbier from Weihenstephaner 5.4%
Admiral’s Ale from St Austell 5%
Jaipur by Thornbridge 5.9% (I will be forever eternally grateful to Jeff for choosing this one – what an eye opener, and, recently revisited)

 

The evening, was, by common consent a success!
The ING London Beer Tasting Club was born, and, since then we have held many events both internal and external.

 

Jeff returned to do a Beers of the World tasting, Des De Moor hosted two tastings – London and Belgian inspired and earlier this year, Melissa Cole presented a beer and cheese pairing evening.
 
All of these have been well attended by my colleagues in London, and we have served our colleagues over 120 different beers in that time. 

We (Clayton works in the Presentation Unit and is now my permanent partner in crime for this venture) also host two beer festivals a year, usually with a loose theme of some kind, the next one being on the 4th November – a low alcohol festival, no beer on offer will be 4% or above, but, every beer will be flavoursome.

 

External events have included tutored tastings at The Craft Beer Co in Clerkenwell, a visit to the London Craft Beer Festival in Bethnal Green, the City of London Music Foundation beerfestival held for one day in the Guildhall Yard and a visit to London’s most central brewery, a short distance away from Temple station.

We have a community page on the The Bank’s social media site – Buzz, where we advertise our events, and, add other beer related facts, events and links to my blog. We often receive feedback from colleagues in the Benelux (i suspect they are looking on in envy – well, that’s how I see it) and if asked i’d happily take the club global! 

Naturally, over the 4 ½ years, we have learnt a few lessons along the way – what works, what doesn’t, what to do and what not to do, but, the aim has always been the same, to show that the world of beer is complex, fun, different, surprising and above all – bloody tasty! Long live beer!

SX BottleShare 6th Oct 2015

Well well, 35 days since the last bottle share at The Ale House, doesn't time fly?
The Sep one was 24 hours after my summer holiday had finished and now i find myself thinking about the last two bottle shares before 2015 disappears!
The regulars were all present bar one (Shaun, you were missed), as well as a few returnees, including two from Wales (our reach is far and wide) and a potential newbie, at one point there were 10 of us and yes as you can see below, we had 11 beers. The Hospital Porter by Signature Brew was a bit of a "Brucie bonus" - thanks Matt.

Below are the beers we tried, along with my Untappd comments (unaltered, apart from the Jakehead IPA, which i didn't comment on initially as i had sampled it very recently):

Er Boqueron 4.8% by Premium Beers From Spain - Salty nose/taste. Soft mouth feel. Bit "wheaty"?

Maldon Oyster Stout 5% by Farmer's Ales - Maldon Brewing Co. - Dry/Bitter finish. Roasted flavours (burnt toast). Hint of chocolate

Waterloo Triple Blond 8% by Waterloo Brewery Mont-St-Jean at The Ale House – “Belguimy”. A very subtle 8%. Could drink a few.  

The Three Threads 6.4% by Anspach & Hobday at The Ale House - Some dark flavours....bit watery/thin.

Jakehead IPA 6.3% by Wylam - Had this very recently, not sure it lasts long/keeps fresh, but, still a wonderful beer.

Hospital Porter 7% by Signature Brew - Bit too carbonated. But, apart from that, brilliant.

Konrad's Stout 10.4% by Lervig Aktiebryggeri - Soft/Easy. Bitter. Lovely.

NZ Hopfen Weisse 6.5% by Cloudwater Brew Co. - Banana, wheat, no herbs....enjoyable.

Storm & Averij 10.2% by Brouwerij De Molen - Not for me.

Sriracha Stout 5.7% by Rogue Ales - Subtle and spicy...but, not for me.

Gouden Carolus Noël 10.5% by Brouwerij Het Anker - A bit like Morcambe and Wise, all the right notes, but, not in the right order.

 

Not sure there was a universal stand out beer last night, but, the Maldon Oyster Stout was well received (even if it was a last minute decision by Dan), and, we all agreed more of these types of beer would be most welcome going forward - Speckled Hen anyone?
Maybe we should feature at least one Essex beer every time we meet, if only we knew an expert on Essex beers........?!?!?!

Another one that we all agreed was good was the Konrad Stout.

 

The Three Threads divided opinion as far as i remember, as did the Er Boqueron.

 

As ever, there were hits and misses, as well as opposing views, but, above all it was fun for all concerned, and i am already looking forward to the November one.