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.

Tap Takeover - Weird Beard

Sat 26th Sep had been marked in the diary for a while, a boys day out (i use the term "boys" very loosely) - which for me usually means beer, football, beer, football, you get the idea.
Saturday's plan required a bit of tweaking due to the England v Wales rugby match (don't want to talk about it) and a tap takeover at Colchester's favourite little boozer - The Victoria Inn.
The taps were taken over by those lovely people from Weird Beard, purveyors of hop forward, yet deliciously well balanced beers. Not only did they have their beers on cask and keg, owner and head brewer Bryan Spooner (and native of these parts) was present telling us a bit about the beers, followed by a short Q & A with my fellow punters.

I made a point of trying all three of the cask beers as I have never got hold of their beers on cask before and one of the keg choices:

Mariana Trench 5.3% - American and New Zealand hops fused together to provide a nicely balanced very drinkable hoppy American Pale Ale (Cask).

Hit The Lights 5.8% - An English IPA using English and European hops, nice fruity citrusy hit on the nose and the palate (Cask).

Five o'Clock Shadow 7% - A no nonsense American IPA. Big, bold, hoppy and bloody delicious (Keg). This one was my favourite, but, at 7% decided to only have the one!

Black Perle 3.8% - I don't like coffee, i don't drink coffee, i do drink this though. Slightly sweet and bitter on the palate with coffee notes on the nose (Cask).

They also had Faceless Spreadsheet Ninja, a 5.5% pilsner on keg, in honour of all those people who use excel reguarly to balance the books, but as i had tried it recently i let my mate have that one - i am pleased to inform you that he enjoyed it.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit on Saturday, well done to all concerned.

For those of who live in Colchester or are visiting, pop into the Victoria Inn, you won't be disappointed and if you want more information, please read this, an excellent blog by my friend Justin.
http://masonjust.blogspot.nl/2015/03/beer-in-essex-victoria-inn-colchester.html
 

My Beery Week

I have three events I would like to share with you this week.

 

The first one was a rather intimate affair on Wednesday at an Off Licence called Liquorice, based in Shenfield, Essex. I have rather an affection for the humble Off Licence, having lived above an Unwins for 12 years so it is good to see an independent one thriving in this day and age. An excellent selection of wines can be found, as well a fantastic selection of gins and other spirits, however, it is the beer range that pleases me the most - both real ale and craft beer sit side by side in bottles and cans (I now have Ebony & Ivory in my head).

It was the craft beers that 7 of us got to try in their tasting room at the back of the shop, along with some curry and naan breads from the local Indian restaurant:

 

Pils by Lagunitas Brewing Company

Quelle Saison 2015 by Beavertown

Table Beer by The Kernel Brewery

Jack of Clubs by Wild Card Brewery

Negra Modelo by Grupo Modelo

Faceless Spreadsheet Ninja by Weird Beard

Smog Rocket by Beavertown

Timmermans Framboise Lambic by John Martin

 

A few of the beers were new to me - Jack of Clubs and Faceless Spreadsheet Ninja, which is always pleasing, as was hearing the comments of my fellow beer drinkers.

All of the beers could all be purchased in store, and I thoroughly recommend a visit if you are in the area.

 

 

On to Thursday, and a visit to a Welsh Beer & Cider Festival in Lewis Cubitt Square Kings Cross. This was presented by Green Man and was the first time they had set up a festival at this venue.

Now, some of you may remember Kings Cross of old (I do, I worked on the Euston Road in the 90s), well, many parts of the area have had a facelift and Lewis Cubitt Square has certainly benefitted from what can only be described as urban regeneration.

 

There were 109 beers and 41 ciders on offer, you could purchase 1/3, 2/3 and full pints (although one guy behind the bar was convinced you could only buy 1/3 pints or pints, however, everyone else behind the bar was ok when I ordered 2/3 pints), the beers were numbered in the programme and on blackboards above the bars which made it easy to order/serve. These could be paid for in cash or by tokens (1 token = 1/3 pint) purchased online in advance, in fact there was a choice of packages, and, entry to the festival itself was free. Music, workshops, and food were all on offer and the programme that accompanied the 4 day festival was nicely laid out. Plenty of seating was available and there were a number of portaloos too.

There has been a lot of talk recently about beer festivals, and the price point of said festivals - this one I would say got it just about right, I paid a fair price for what I drank.

Incidentally, my beer of the festival was Silures by Celt Experience, a very nice American Pale Ale which didn't stray into IPA territory.

Well done to all those involved, I hope this becomes a regular event in the calendar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next and final stop was my annual visit to the 29th Chappel Beer Festival at The East Anglian Railway Museum, on Saturday. This is most definitely one of the highlights of my beer calendar, I have only missed one Saturday in the last 10 years. The setting as you can see is rather nice, and, it is also an event I share with my son, in fact on the Saturday a number of families can be seen which makes for a very friendly atmosphere, especially if you get nice weather (British summer, so, can be a bit hit and miss). There was also a lot of fancy dress this year - Star Wars characters being especially popular.
There is a small entrance fee, however, if you are a CAMRA member, entry is free.
A festival glass is £3 (refundable, however, I always keep mine), then you buy a beer card which makes the process when getting your beer cashless and simple.
This event runs for 5 days with the Friday night being a ticket in advance only affair. A word of warning, by the Saturday, stocks are running low, although you will be pleased to know that I managed to get by during the 5 hours I spent there, leaving only to waste my time watching my football team.
Beer highlights were Jarl by Fyne Ales, a single hopped ale using the ubiquitous Citra hop. This beer packs loads if flavour and character into it's 3.8% abv. In contrast to Jarl, the Audit Ale at 8% by Lacons was a delicious slightly sweet (think marmalade), but, not cloying Barley Wine, well worth a try.
To be honest, I didn't have a bad beer, and, all were in good cask condition, so, well done to all the volunteers - I'll be back!