The return of historic porter

Multi-national corporations may well spread misery around the world but they don't half have good marketing budgets. So I was delighted to get an invitation to the launch of Goose Island's (ABInBev) Obadiah Poundage porter, named after the writer of a famous 1760 letter on porter, though the beer was brewed to an 1840 Truman's recipe.

The evening kicked off appropriately enough at a pub with Truman's branding, though I passed on the chance to drink a revived Truman's beer: there was Landlord on! I always think it's a result when I spot Landlord in a pub so I was delighted with such a promising start.

An awful lot of beery people turned up, though people from the Brewery History Society were amongst the earliest arrivals. I sure this was entirely due to our thirst for knowledge. After a couple of pints of networking we went on a tour of the site of Truman's brewery led by Derek Prentice, a former Truman's brewer. 

It was big. And there are brewery tunnels running under Brick Lane. I doubt they'll beat the Bamberg tunnels though.

Then it was on to the main event at Goose Island's brewpub.

I was a bit disappointed when I saw two handpumps without pump clips on the bar. I feared a re-run of the horrors of Hampstead. But salvation lay at the far end of the bar where they had a Truman's mild and bitter on draught. The cask mild in particular was flying out, clearly showing there's a vast untapped demand for it.

There were even more beery people in the pub and I reached GBBF levels of bumping into people I know. This time there was no power point presentation for us to see, instead Mike Siegel of Goose Island, Derek Prentice and Ron Pattinson were interviewed about the beer by Beer Writer of the Year Emma Inch. It worked really well, except for when it came to getting those in depth technical details I know you all love.

Mike

Ron

Derek

The beer was made with heritage barley, old English hop varieties and historic malting techniques. Though probably not that much brown malt, unlike when I had a go at making historic porter. A portion was aged in oak vats where it underwent a secondary fermentation with Bretanomyces clausenii (probably my old friend WLP645). This was then blended with a freshly made version as the porter brewers did back in its heyday at a ratio of 1:2. If you haven't seen it there's a video about the making of the beer here.

The beer had an off white head, a Bretty smell, a slight smokiness with a roasted astringency and some background sweetness. God I hate writing tasting notes. I really enjoyed the beer though.

There was more networking after the presentation, and on the way back home I popped into The Pride for a swift half of ESB.

I'm sure you'll be as pleased as I was to see that the special feature is still in place:

The first stock pale ale in 70 years, again.

Obsessive beer nerd that I am I wouldn't normally go to the same lecture twice. But when I was invited to hear Ron Pattinson talk about stock ales in London I couldn't say no, despite having already heard him give that talk in Amsterdam. It just combined too many of my interests: history, Brettanomyces, and free beer.

I had high hopes about the last one. This event was being run by Goose Island (ABInBev), and their marketing budget easily covers providing enough free beer to make me regret it in the morning. In fact the budget clearly stretches considerable further than that, as they'd flown over a brewer from Chicago again, and Ron got to go over there himself, as well as visit London.

There's definitely something to be said for big breweries with big budgets. It's amazing to see the amount of effort that went into making this beer, and no way are they going to get their costs back from the amount of beer they have to sell.

I'm not going to go into more detail about the beer, as I did that back in July, and anyway, Bryan and Martyn have already written up the night. I will say I had a cracking time though. Long may breweries with big budgets put great efforts into re-creating historic beers, and giving me free samples!

Carnivale Brettanomyces 2016

I was last at the Carnivale Brettanomyces in Amsterdam three years ago. I was spurred to return this year by one of the organisers tracking me down to my current job and emailing me to ask if I'd be interested in doing a talk for them."Why not?" I though, it's good to be wanted and I was sure I'd enjoy myself. As luck would have it it also coincided with the EU vote so I thought I could get away from all the ruling class faction fighting. How little did I know...

I arrived in Amsterdam in time for the opening event at Oedipus Brewery. You have to take a short ferry ride from the Central Station to get there, but the ferry's free and frequent so it wasn't a problem. In many ways the Dutch are very civilised.

The Kropotkin look proved popular amongst attendees

The festival kicked off with a question and answer session with Chad Yakobson, of Crooked Stave and author of The Brettanomyces Project; Yvan De Baets, of Brasserie De La Senne, and Jean Van Roy of Cantillon. It was hosted by American beer importer Dan Shelton.

Jean Van Roy talked of the remarkable turnaround that sour beer has had in the course of his brewing career. When he started Cantillon were brewing less than 500hl a year and he had to fight to sell any beer, now people are fighting to buy it! Since taking over as head brewer he has changed the production process slightly, in that barrels are now topped up so less beer is exposed to air and less acid is produced. He also talked about how they try to make the brewery as green as possible. As they can only brew when weather is too hot global warming has cut their brewing season by nearly two months a year since he started brewing. 

Chad Yakobson brews a range of beer using Brettanomyces, some sour and some not. The Brettanomyces Project came from work he did on the Masters degree course at Heriot-Watt. He's built up the cultures he brews with commercially over time and currently has two mixed cultures on the go. He also brews some 'clean' beers with Saccharomyces. 

Yvan De Baets brewed at Cantillon at one point, but when he started his own brewery only 5km didn't see the point of making sour beer himself. He has now started to use Brettanomyces, but adding complexity this way takes time. He mentioned that back in 1921 a Belgian brewing journal reported that cultured yeasts have simplified beer, and thinks that in the future people will look for local yeasts to add complexity. He's isolated a local strain of Brett. that he uses in a saison beer. 

All three of the speakers agreed that brewing combines science and art, each informing the other. 

My own talk on The Brewing Science of Brettanomyces was the next day, which I'll get round to writing up shortly. Though probably not before my next climbing trip. If anyone wants the slides drop me a line.

The next speaker I saw was Pierre Tilquin, who founded his own Gueuze blending company Gueuzerie Tilquin. It's not a cheap things to do, as it cost €500,00 and production is currently 800hl a year. He buys in wort from Boon, Cantillon, Lindemans, and Giardin. He makes his gueuze by blending 50% one year old beer with 30% two year old and 20% three year old. He found some lambics age better than others; and some will attenuate to 100% apparent attenuation, whereas others will conk out at 75%. It was also interesting to hear that some lambic wort comes in at pH5 whereas others are at pH4. It confirms a point about lactic acid if you ask me, but Pierre was too diplomatic to say so.

There were no more talks for me that day, as I'd met up with Geoff from Popes Yard brewery and was off sampling his excellent wares at In De Wilderman. I also got to touch Colin from Buxton brewery there. A slightly odd innovation for the Carnivale Brettanomyces was moving on from the common or garden 'meet the brewer' to 'touch the brewer'.  Maybe it's an Amsterdam thing.

Anyway, he didn't take offence when a stranger walked up and gratuitously touched him.

The next morning Chad Yakobson was giving a talk which I couldn't miss.

He talked about The Brettanomyces Project, Brettanomyces in general and Crooked Stave brewery. It was a comprehensive talk and I managed to add a few more fascinating facts to my Brettanomyces collection. Some of the alpha-glucosidase Brett. produces is extra-cellular, which explains the rise in glucose he found in some of his fermentations for The Brettanomyces Project. As he makes sour mixed culture, Brettanomyces, and 'clean' beers he has three separate colour coded sets of hoses, valves, pipes, packaging equipment and fermenters.

After Chad's talk I hot footed it back to De Prael to see Ron on Stock Ales.

His latest collaboration brew is a stock ale made with Goose Island, and there was a short introduction from their Innovation brewer. Ron followed by talking about the historic difference between mild ales and stock ales. They basically had the same recipe but stock ales had 50% more hops and were aged. Bass used to age their beer in barrels for a year, where they'd reach over 90% attenuation whereas many beers at the time had 75% or less.

The Goose Island stock ale called 'Brewery Yard' was pitched with B.claussenii after primary fermentation and aged in barrels for 11 months. It had an OG of 1067 and an ABV of 7.3%. The IBUs were 95 before ageing and 62 after. We did get to try some, and it was reminiscent of McCrorie IPA.

Then there was a home brewers event and I'd brought along a few bottles of various bretty beers I'd made, admittedly not all at home, to share out and Geoff was kind enough to share some of his Keeping Porter. 

After that I went to De Bierkoning to get some more of Eddie Gadd's gorgeous bretted IPA. I also blagged a T-shirt off one of the organisers, which was only fair said the judge. Then it was back to the wildeman where my higher functions slowly closed down over the course of the evening until it was time for my spinal cord to take me back to the hotel.

That was it for me with the Brett. fest, though my flight wasn't till half one so I had time to take in some of the sights of Amsterdam before heading home.

Goose Island event

I get a slow trickle of invites to events through the blog. Many are at inconvenient times, like normal working hours; or inconvenient places, like another continent. But one recently looked altogether more appealing.

It was an invitation to a Goose Island event. I've long been a fan of their beers, right back to when I used to get bottles of Goose Island IPA from Safeways. To this day it remains a benchmark beer for me. I was also mightily impressed when I once found Bourbon County Stout on draught, so the fact some of that was on offer added to my interest. As did the fact I'd already booked the day off. Admittedly I was supposed to be in the Lake District by that point but sometimes a bit of flexibility is called for. 

The event was at the old Trumans brewery in London's East End, tying in with the 'Craft Beer Rising' festival. It's a big place so I was relieved when I spotted a handy banner saying 'pop up bar'. This must be it I thought, but it wasn't. It was for Pilsner Urquell (SAB Miller). The bar next door was for Guinness (Diageo), and the next one I found was for Sharps (Molson Coors). Truly craft beer is a multi-national, I mean global, phenomenon.

I was on my second circuit of the place when my slavation came in an unexpected form: from The Tandleman himself. Is there anyone else you'd rather spot when lost and looking for a beer?* Sure enough, he'd soon got hold of the Goose Island (ABInBev) PR woman and we were being lead to the ligging.

I started on the 312 Wheat Beer, though as was pointed out to me it's not made with a phenolic flavour producing yeast so is more a golden ale. It was pleasant enough, but no IPA so I was on to that next.

It had been a while since I'd had a bottle as I don't buy much bottled beer nowadays. I was a little concerned as apparently it's changed since Goose Island's takeover and this is generally considered a bad thing. I believe it's now brewed in one of ABInBev's larger breweries and they had to make adjustments to brew it on the bigger kit. Of course if Goose Island were still independent and had contracted out the brewing this would be fine. In my unscientific tasting I thought it wasn't quite what it used to be, there seemed less hop zing. That didn't stop me drinking too much of the stuff mind.

Food was laid on and we were meant to be doing that food and beer pairing thing but in my usual haste to shovel food into my gob I forgot all about it, so if you want to know what beers go with what foods you'll have to ask someone who cares.There were short talks from various Goose Island bods, but I can't really remember what they said. I seem to be having a bit of a beer nerd failure here.

I do remember the place had a barrel theme going on though. ABInBev are now distributing Goose Island beers in Britain directly and Bourbon County Stout will be coming our way.

Towards the end of the night we got ushered into a darkened room for an audience with the Goose Island Innovation Brewer. I think this was part of the cult of personality thing that craft breweries like to build around their brewers. Still, he seemed a nice chap, and we got given more beer and some posh chocolates, as well as some goodies to take away.

The Bourbon Country Stout is great stuff, though the general feeling was the normal version is better than the rarer aged in old barrels version as that had too much of a whiskey taste.





Disclaimer: I didn't  pay to go to this event and the vast quantities of free beer and food, along with the goodies I got to take away (t-shirts, hat, posh box of booze) will in no way have influenced my views. No, no, no, not one bit ;-)

Mine! All mine!

* The Tandleman has gained legendary status amongst beer bloggers. I'm not entirely certain why but I'm not going to let that stop me joining in. 

More beers in Borough

After all the foot slogging of our last research trip we went for a more concentrated effort this time, focusing of Borough. 

Our first stop was The Wheatsheaf, a cellar bar. I spied Titanic Steerage amongst the handpumps, and fresh from enjoying their Lifeboat at the GBBF I had no hesitation in ordering a pint. Sadly it wasn't in good nick, unlike the lovely Lisa's Ufford's Golden Drop which was on top form. 

It seemed a nice enough bar but I was getting a bit twitchy as I wanted to get to Utobeer before it shut so we hurried on.

I'd checked out the Utobeer website again before we set off, but as ever the promise on the holding page that a 'New website is coming soon' had not been fulfilled. Not having any advance information of what beers are on offer does make it difficult to plan your shopping, and the annoying (and quite possibly illegal) lack of prices on display doesn't help when you get there. Though they have started putting price tags on the really pricey beer, which no doubt saves the person on the till a lot of aggro from shocked customers. 

As it was I nearly didn't spot one of the beers I was very keen to get as they were in a different section from the other British beers. Fortunately on my way to the till I spied them: Hardknott Dave's beers. These were pricey enough to qualify for price tags but we had to have one, so we forked out for a bottle of Infra red before heading on to the Market Porter.  

We always seem to end up in the same spot in this pub, and whilst the view through the window (picture above) might look like an ordinary street seen it is in fact a form of entrapment. If you look closely you'll see the guy giving away free cheese samples which draws us into the shop every time. So one swift cheese  purchase later we were ready for our next stop: Brew Wharf. 

There won't be much change coming back from that £20 note

The last time we were here they didn't have any of their own beers on which is a bit crap for a brew pub, but I'd heard they'd improved so we gave it another go. They did actually have one of their own beers on this time, but they don't half crank the prices up here. It must be a Borough market thing. Their abc was a weak (3% ABV) beer that tasted of hops and nothing else. Really quite pleasant but at £3.90 a pint I should hope so too. 

Never having been to the Rake, a bar connected to Utobeer and renowned for its beer range we thought we really ought to. Of course the Utobeer holding page doesn't do anything useful like give an address, if it did we might have made it there sooner. 

The bar is tiny but they did have a lot of beers. On hand pump were two beers from Otley brewery, who are normally good and Goose Island Bourbon County Stout from the States. Excellent I thought and I asked for a pint of each. "I can only give you a half or third of the Stout" said the bar maid "It's 13%". Whilst we were conferring about whether this was really the sort of thing we should be buying the bar maid pulled us a half so I guess it was. The round came to £12.50 which I think is a record for two and a half pints. The Bourbon County Stout was good though. As flat as a pancake and syrupy in texture but very, very tasty. I've been meaning to brew a strong stout for a while but it might have to have be aged on spirit soaked oak chips now.  

Our news pub was a much more normal boozer, The Shipwrights Arms, and I had a much more normal beer, Timmy Taylor's Landlord. It's a favourite of mine and I was glad to see it was runner up in this years Champion Beer of Britain competition. 

Things must have been catching up with me at this point as we somehow ended up getting a taxi to a Mexican restaurant where we drank margaritas. 

I didn't feel well the next day. 

We have it in our power to build the world anew

As it's the forth of July I put on my Tom Paine T Shirt and raised at toast to him. Sadly I didn't have any Harvey's Tom Paine to drink but a bottle of Goose Island IPA was a good consolation.  

I spent a very enjoyable afternoon drinking in the sun with the lovely Lisa and our friend Dan. The trouble is with afternoon drinking what do you do in the evening? Though not ideal for a Sunday there was no escaping the obvious answer: drink some more. Just a small nightcap though, there's beer to be made tomorrow. 

IPA challenge bout three: Goose Island IPA Vs Marston's Old Empire

The third bout in the IPA challenge is between two middle weights: Goose Island IPA and Marston's Old Empire.

There's a slight weight advantage to the American (5.9% ABV Vs 5.7%), but the Brit has more stamina (500 ml Vs 355). Goose Island is starting the favourite, popular with the British crowd and with a good reputation amongst beer nerds everywhere, but the Old Empire is no mean beer and looks unfazed as it enters the ring in a clear glass bottle, with the Goose Island is in brown.    

The caps are off and the bout is on. Only a faint smell from the Old Empire, a rich aroma from goose island of elderflower and grapefruit.

On to the first taste and a good start for the beer from Burton, strong but drinkable, using an orthodox stance. Goose Island counters with its modern American style, the probing aroma, and strong flavour but looking a little clumsy on first taste. 

Back to the Old Empire and the strength of the American has taken it's toll, the Brit is still drinking beautifully but the flavour's seeming weak in comparison and is having little effect. The contender from the windy city is getting more settled as the round progresses. Unfortunately we're not as the constant swapping of beers seems to have upped our usual sedate drinking rate giving us bloated stomaches and making us a bit windy ourselves.

Old Empire bravely battles on and never looses its composure but the heavy hands of the American land more telling blows. Though it was more closely fought than many expected there can't be many surprised when the judges find in the American's favour.

A win for Goose Island IPA by 10-9   

American style IPA night

Can you guess which one is the homebrew? 

Having brewed a beer inspired by Goose Island IPA I decided the time had come to compare it to the original. I also had the Dogfish head 60 minute IPA my mum had kindly brought me from Delaware and to make an evening of it I threw in a bottle of Scotlands very own American IPA Brewdog Punk IPA. 

First up was my homebrew, my first attempt at an American IPA. The grist was all pale malt and the hops a combination of Styrian goldings, centennial and cascade. I'm normally a terrible reductionist when it comes to homebrewing, only altering one thing at a time so I can see what changes it makes. This means I usually only have one type of hop, using it for bittering and aroma. As I'd gone for three types here I decided to mix them all up at all stages to see if I could pick out the different hop types or if they would merge into a new flavour. As it turned out I could detect the fresh flavour of the Styrians and the grapefruit of the cascade. I'd never used centennial  though it's meant to be very similar to cascade so I guess it added to the grapefruit flavour. To be more like the Goose Island IPA which inspired this brew I should probably have added the Styrians early in the boil and focussed on cascade later and for dry hopping. 

This became more apparent when I started on the next brew: Goose Island IPA. There was a much stronger grapefuit aroma and flavour than in my homebrewed beer. I've already discussed the hops but there was also more body to this beer than mine. Attenuation is quite hard to control when homebrewing as I can't just cool the fermenting vessel down when I want the fermentation to finish. This meant there were very little residual sugars in my beer making it very easy drinking but lacking in body. I'll probably add a touch of crystal or cara malt next time I make and American IPA as my current one goes down far too easily for the strength it is (6.5% ABV).

Then I got on to Dogfish head 60 minute IPA, a beer I'd been looking forward to for weeks. Sadly this was a real disapointment. I don't know if I'd got a dodgy bottle or it was a bad batch but the smell of the beer reminded me more of corned beef than anything else. I've no idea what causes this in beer but it's not a desirable characteristic. I did drink the rest of the beer but it certainly wasn't the clean tasting hop overdose I was expecting. Oh well, maybe the other bottles will be better. 

I didn't get as far as the Punk IPA as I was feeling a bit mellow by now and I'd already had few good sessions that week. It's still sitting in the cupboard though so its time will come soon ...