Bottling ancient and modern

It's amazing how technology moves on. 

Ancient

You could barely recognise that they're doing the same thing.

Modern

You can rest easy in your bed at last

I know that like me you will have been having trouble sleeping for over two and a half years now. It was back in March 2010 when I published my research on Fuller's IPA and Bengal Lancer and asked "Are they the same beer?".

This burning question was the talk of the blogosphere for what literally seemed like days on several (OK, two) sites. But even Zak Avery's cunning plan of phoning the Head Brewer and asking him still left unanswered questions. If the old Fuller's IPA and Bengal Lance were different beers with different ABVs, how come the bottles of IPA we had were 5.3%, just like Bengal Lancer? And what exactly was the Swedish connection?

On meeting a former Managing Director of Fuller's yesterday I seized the opportunity to settle what must surely be the greatest unsolved mystery of beer once and for all. Drawing on his detailed knowledge of every facet of Fuller's my source told me that the two beers I'd had were indeed one and the same beer. The Bengal Lancer that Zak Avery reported being sent to Sweden was labelled as IPA, and it was some of these bottles I'd picked up in the brewery shop shortly before Bengal Lancer was released as Bengal Lancer over here.

My suspicions finally confirmed I can now look forward to the sleep of the just, which is just as well really as I'm bleedin' knackered.

I've been fretting

Well, not me personally but some of my casks have. 

When you add a culture of Brettanomyces yeast to beer that's finished fermenting then a proper secondary fermentation takes place. But more on this later.

As crafty as a fox who's just been appointed Professor of Craftiness at Oxford University

Thanks to Magnus from my local CAMRA branch for the bottle of Versus Goliath, which must be the craftiest craft beer ever:

I don't think the labels and lid leave any room for ambiguity, though it turns out it's contract brewed by one of Germany's largest breweries.

"Craft beer" may once have had some some meaning in The States, but really it seems it's just marketing bollocks now.

Hop growing in the First World War

No doubt you're all familiar with the horrors the First World War inflicted on British beer. If for some reason this fascinating subject is not something you're familiar with then you really need to head over to Ron's blog.

Suitably informed I'm sure you'll soon be pondering "what happened to hop growing during the war then?". Well ponder no more as I've a snippet that answers that question:

"In 1917, owing to wartime conditions, brewing was drastically restricted and the possibility of a large surplus of hops was forseen by hop growers and traders. At their request the Government ordered a reduction in the amount of land under hops to half the 1914 acreage. Later in the same year the Government formulated a scheme of Hop Control which was in force until 1925."

AH Burgess "Hops" pp 13-14

There is more later on in the book, which I may return to if I get a moment.

Dinner with India Pale Ales and Pete Brown

It's my own fault. I saw the IBD were putting on a six course meal, a different beer and wine included for each course, for only a tenner a head. An excellently economical way to give the lovely Lisa a treat I thought. It was an enjoyable evening, but unfortunately it seems to have given Lisa expensive tastes.

I came in from work last week to see her face beaming up at me. "I booked us tickets for Pete Brown's IPA dinner" she said. "Shit, that's going to cost" I thought, "What an excellent idea Darling" I said. Sadly it seems the days when I could take her our for a night down 'Spoons are behind us.

So on Monday we headed up to the Meantime Old Brewery at Greenwich. No boat trip this time as it was bleedin' cold and it's easy to get the train from Waterloo East. The place had the look of a craft beer bar:  wooden floors, bare brick, loads of keg fonts. It was certainly craft beer prices too, but on the plus side I did spot the two hand pumps before I ordered. I had a pint of Darkstar Hophead (3.8% ABV) and the lovely Lisa had half of keg Meantime stout (4.5% ABV). The Hophead was as good as ever, but the keg stout was cold, thin and fizzy. What do people see in craft keg? I suspect to do it right you need to make a totally over the top imbalanced beer and then knock enough flavour out of it by kegging to make it drinkable. Perhaps she should have gone for an Imperial stout.

The entertainment for the evening started with us being seated in rows and handed a small glass of Worthington White Shield. Now it being brewed in a big brewery in Burton I think it's the best it's been in years. Still not as good as it was when I were a lad, but at least the dark days of sweet brown gloopery seem behind it.

There was an introductory talk from Rod of Meantime, not that he introduced himself. Why I don't know but I guess it made sense to him. Then it was Pete Brown to talk about IPA. He knows a thing or two about this subject and has a reassuring Pattersonian view on beer styles. A couple more examples of the wide variation of India Pale Ales were distributed to lubricate the talk, but it was slightly disturbing to peer into a murky glass and see the staff had no idea about pouring bottle conditioned beer.

The food started with a scallop in a shell, which came sealed round the edges with pastry and sat on a pile of rock salt. We were warned not to eat the salt though I was a bit unsure about the pastry sticking the shell together. But as I'd paid for it I picked it off with my fingers and ate it. The scallop itself was perfectly edible, which was a bit of a relief as I'd feared something whelk like could be lurking inside the shell. The IPA to go with it was a grapefruity one from the Meanitme Old Brewery.

Next course was a chicken and mushroom thing with two tiny slivers of truffle on top. Oh yes, me, eating truffles - how posh is that? The beer to match it was La Chouffe Houblon, apparently a Belgian IPA but it tasted like Duvel to me.

Lamb cooked two ways followed, one way made it go pink and one way made it go brown. I preferred the brown to the pink. Though don't take that out of context. Jaipur went with this dish. I was trying to work out if the beers cut, complemented or contrasted with the food but wasn't really getting it.

Then we were on to the pudding course, which we weren't really keen on. Meantime Old Brewery Jasmine IPA was the beer, which the lovely Lisa thought smelled of sick, whereas I only found it unpleasant. When the pudding arrived looking like sick Lisa though this must be that beer and food matching thing, but in fact the weird curry ice cream and Jasmine IPA cancelled each other out and became more bearable together.

Three cheeses followed, with three matching beers, in small glasses varying in size according to the price. The only real pairing I got that night was the Fuller's Vintage and a goats cheese (which was actually the wrong match), as it's a cracking beer and it took away the unpleasant goaty taste of the cheese.

Having now now been to a couple of beer and food pairing events I can say it's mostly bollocks, but still good fun. So I think of it as like going on a foreign holiday and dabbling in a different culture, knowing I'll soon be back home to normality.

Purple Moose seen in the wild

I was delighted to see Purple Moose on the bar when I stopped off at the Ty Gwyn Inn on the way to Llanberis pass. Last time I called in they only had Doom Bar. I went straight for the Dark Side of the Moose (4.6% ABV) and it was a delicious dark delight. So after some rapid guzzling and an even more rapid swap of driving duties I went and got another one.

The pub also had real crisps, none of that fizzy keg crisp rubbish.

 The weekend had started well, and it stayed that way.

It was cold enough to get an easy Winter climb in on Parsley Fern Gully on the Friday, my enjoyment enhanced by my American born climbing partner's attempts at Welsh.

In mountains the Welsh word for valley "cwm" crops up quite a lot. The Welsh pronounce it something like "coom", but my friend pronounced it exactly like "quim". I didn't correct her of course, as it was far too entertaining.

On Saturday we trekked up Banana Gully, over Y Garn and dropped down on the other side to the Vaynol Arms.

I wasn't overly taken with where our journey was due to end. The Vaynol is a Robinson's pub and I'm not fond of their beers. I mentioned this to the barmaid as I peered along the five hand pumps and she replied "yes, a lot of people say that". The pump clips listed the hops used so I plumped for Dizzy Blond (3.8% ABV) as it was made with Amarillo, a great hop. And whilst I wouldn't go as far as saying the beer was great, it was certainly pleasant, which is a real step up for Robinsons as far as I'm concerned.

Having had pints of Purple Moose, and pleasant beer from Robinsons it seems things are looking up in Wales.