Factors affecting foam in beer

Here's a handy table from the IBD magazine on factors affecting foam in beer. I'm delighted to see that protein rests are a foam negative factor. Take that German brewers! Though to be fair under modified malt is foam positive. 

When it's gone it's gone

On a recent visit to Thorne I was delighted to spot what looked suspiciously like an old brewery in the distance. 

The remaining letters on the worn and weathered gate backed up my suspicions:

And the Brewery History Wiki confirmed them. 

Darley's Brewery closed before I'd started drinking, which perhaps explains why I'd never heard of it, though I couldn't help but feel saddened to see such a lovely building boarded up. And it got me thinking of the other tragic losses we have only recently suffered in Britain: the closure of Jennings and Caledonian Breweries. I have been round both of them, Jennings is a wonderful tower brewery and Caledonian had one of the most amazing things you can see in a brewery: open copper coppers! Nowadays pumps are much cheaper than building breweries in a tower and no one is going to build their boiling vessels out of copper, let alone leave them unenclosed. When such things are gone they are never going to return so I mourn every loss. 

Mind you, looking at the amount of pigeons on the roof of Darley's where the cooling tray would have been I was reminded that old fashioned brewing was not without its drawbacks!

Hold The Line!

Satan's minions have once again been launching attacks on the one true living beer, this time by saying cask beer should be saved by pubs ripping out their cask lines or something. But there seems to me a better, more obvious and all together less diabolic solution: pubs should stop selling keg beer. That'll get those that are used to suckling at the devil's drainpipe drinking in the ways of righteousness!

Even in these dark times I know that it is possible for pubs to sell more cask beer. My local is now back up to six (6) hand pumps and the top two (2) best selling beers are cask beers. For their heathen customers they do sell keg beer, with Fosters coming in third. This glorious success has not been achieved by poltroonery or moral turpitude. It has been achieved by caring about cask beer and looking after it. And I've even heard from the landlady that one of the strengths of cask beer is its growing popularity with young people. So let us gird our loins, stiffen our upper lips and continue to drink beer served as god intended.

 Hold the line!

Hold the line!

As we held the line at Horsell

We will hold it everywhere

Hold the line!

Hold the line!

We will hold the line forever

Till there's cask beer everywhere